At the captain's cabin of The Dawn.
The captain's cabin was orderly. There was a large wooden desk at the center, shelves filled with books and documents along the walls, several sealed boxes, and a chessboard stored on a shelf behind the desk. A wall clock hung nearby, and a map was unfolded at the top of the table.
Bernadette placed the Lightsaber's hilt on top of the table. She then walked around the desk and sat back down in her chair.
Ghislane Dedoldia stood near the door with her arms crossed. Her beast ears were upright, and her tail swayed slowly.
Gehrman Sparrow stood across from the desk.
Bernadette gestured toward the chair in front of her desk.
"Sit."
Gehrman walked forward and sat down. He placed his cane beside the chair.
Bernadette raised her hand. The chessboard and its pieces flew from the shelf behind her and landed on the desk between them, arranged in their starting positions.
"I noticed you glanced at it when you entered," she said. "Do you know how to play?"
"Yes," Gehrman nodded.
She looked at him for a moment. "Where did you learn to play this game?"
"My lord taught me."
Bernadette paused briefly. She then picked up a black chess piece and placed it back down.
"I see," she said.
She looked directly at him. "Then you may take the first move."
Gehrman nodded and opened by pushing his king's pawn forward two squares.
Bernadette responded by advancing her queen's pawn, contesting the center.
Gehrman developed his knight to support the pawn and control the center. Bernadette followed by bringing out her bishop, claiming space along the diagonal.
Gehrman answered calmly. He developed his other knight and castled kingside early, securing his position. His play was clean and restrained, with no sign of rushing the game.
Bernadette reinforced her center and maneuvered her pieces into position. After a brief exchange, the two traded bishops.
Gehrman then placed his rook on an open file.
"You are really good at this," Gehrman said as he completed the move.
"I played this with my father when I was young," Bernadette replied. She pushed a pawn forward, attacking his knight and forcing it to retreat.
"Also, I need to inform you that it will take some time for me to prepare before leaving to search for Father's mausoleum," Bernadette said as she slid her rook onto the same open file, directly opposing his.
"How long will you need?" he asked, advancing a pawn to reinforce his position.
"A week," she replied softly. The offer to bring her to meet her father was really abrupt, so she needed a week to contact her people and make arrangements to ensure nothing went awry during her absence.
When they reached the middlegame, Bernadette suddenly asked a question as she shifted her queen to the flank.
"What information do you have regarding my father's situation?" Bernadette asked as she leaned forward.
Gehrman tilted his head and began to answer.
"Not much. Only what my lord told me about him."
Near the door, Ghislaine's ears perked up. After a brief hesitation, she moved closer and stopped beside Bernadette.
"As I mentioned before, Mr. Roselle discovered a primitive island in the Fog Sea. According to Mr. Fool, that island was connected to the Primordial Moon. Mr. Roselle became corrupted there without realizing it.
"This experience changed his fate and led him to Mr. Door, Bethel Abraham, who told him many secrets and suggested that he go to the moon.
"After 'He' advanced to Sequence 1, Mr. Roselle went to the moon. That journey changed and corrupted 'Him' even further.
"After advancing to Sequence 0, 'He' arranged for the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun and the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery, along with the royals and nobles of the former Intis Kingdom, to assassinate 'Him'. This was done to remove the Paragon and Hermit pathway characteristics from 'Him' and allow 'Him' to revive with only the Black Emperor characteristics, so 'He' would not suffer the adverse effects of switching to a completely unrelated pathway.
"However, Mr. Roselle miscalculated the true power of the Outer Deities. He realized that 'His' resurrection could become an opportunity for an Outer Deity to break through the Astral Barrier and descend upon this world. As a result, 'He' chose to halt 'His' resurrection and seal 'Himself' on the primitive island in the Fog Sea."
Hearing his explanation created conflicting emotions within her. She wanted to hate her father for everything he had done, yet hearing about the struggles he endured made pain rise in her chest for having treated him so coldly.
Her melancholy was broken by Ghislaine's hand resting on her shoulder. Bernadette glanced to the side and met her gaze. Ghislaine met her eyes and gave a small nod, her expression calm and resolute.
Bernadette nodded back as her eyes turned towards Gherman once more... "My lord once called Mr. Roselle 'chāoxí zhě.'"
"Chāoxí zhě?" Bernadette repeated softly, her brows furrowing as her thoughts were momentarily pulled away from regret and longing.
"I don't know what it means. When I asked Mr. Fool, 'He' only laughed and told me to call Mr. Roselle that if we ever meet." As he spoke, he retreated his knight and slid his queen back into a defensive position. Then he asked in return, "What do you think of 'Him'?"
Silence filled the room for a moment before she looked at him, her voice steady.
"I resented him for what he became. I couldn't understand his choices, and I denied that he was my father for many years. But I never stopped wanting to know the truth about him. If, no, when I meet him again, I still hope there is something left of the man I once knew."
She let out a quiet sigh. "Now that I've spoken about my father, tell me about your lord. What is 'He' like?" She took the chance to ask such a daring question as she slid a rook behind her pawns.
His dull brown eyes lit up ever so slightly. Truthfully, Bernadette found it somewhat cute, but what he said next was not what she expected.
"I'll tell you one of my favorite stories about my lord's actions.
"It was the Second Epoch, when the early Era of Fire had ended and the Dual Era of Dragons and Giants was in full force…
"One time, my lord and his significant other, Miss Morgane…"
---
At the same time, in Tenebrous Heaven.
Amanises sat at the center of Tenebrous Heaven. Her long hair drifted through the void, while moonflower and night vanilla petals swirled gently around her dainty feet. She sat with natural grace, her eyes closed. Even in stillness, she filled the space with a quiet authority that made the darkness itself feel alive.
"Morgane…" she whispered the name aloud. There was a faint trace of puzzlement in her voice.
Why did this name correspond to her? She had never used it as an alias, nor was it associated with her in any way.
As Gehrman continued to explain and praise the exploits of both Mr. Fool and Morgane, Amanises couldn't help but twitch her lips.
'What do you mean Miss Morgane pulled out a pitch-black sword, called it Excalibur, and addressed Mr. Fool as her Prince?'
"Is Zhou Mingrui messing with me?" she muttered softly.
With her authority of concealment fully active, she examined every detail of Gehrman Sparrow's existence.
Amanises's analysis told her that Gehrman was not Zhou Mingrui in disguise. He was another person entirely. Yet his existence was peculiar. He wasn't a living person in the conventional sense, but some kind of dream projection 'grafted' with living characteristics.
It could be considered one of the bizarre revival methods possible through the Mysteries pathways.
'So he truly was someone from Zhou Mingrui's 'past'.
'Was what he said true? Were Zhou Mingrui and the dream version of me in a relationship?'
After a brief moment of thought, Amanises reached a conclusion. It was inevitable. Zhou Mingrui and she had been placed in very similar circumstances. The two of them falling in love was the most logical outcome.
A sigh escaped her lips as she finally understood the strange flash of familiarity she had seen in his eyes when they first met.
---
"…Like this, they dealt with the sealed Outer God."
As Gehrman explained, her spirituality and intuition told her that everything he said was true. Her mind raced as she digested the information.
'Mr. Fool is an Ancient God who was active in the Second Epoch. They were somehow involved in a situation related to the magic wishing lamp. Also The magic wishing lamp seemingly contains the consciousness of a sealed Outer God. Is he lying to me? No. That wouldn't be the case. He probably doesn't know that I currently possess the magic wishing lamp.
'If Mr. Fool was active in the Second Epoch, then what is the connection between 'Him' and my father?'
Suddenly, she remembered what Gehrman had said moments earlier. Her voice barely above a whisper, she repeated the words to herself.
"Chāoxí zhě… gù xiāng… chāoxí zhě…"
She pushed back from the desk abruptly, causing both Gehrman and Ghislaine to glance at her in surprise. Her hands trembled slightly as she hurried to the bookshelf, scanning the spines until she found an old book. She handled it carefully, as if afraid to damage it, and brought it back to her desk.
"Can you ask your lord to translate this word for me?" she asked, placing the book in front of him with a deliberate tap.
"My intuition tells me the words chāoxí zhě and gù xiāng come from the same script," Bernadette said, carefully opening the page and sliding it toward Gehrman for him to see.
He took the paper from her hand gingerly, turning it so the light caught the two characters: 故乡. He tilted his head as he studied them. "Hmm… interesting. I know this word."
Bernadette's eyes widened, and she leaned closer. "You can read this too!?"
"Not much, but yes. Mr. Fool taught me some of the words. This was one of them," he replied, tilting his head as if asking what the big deal was... which made her want to strangle him.
She swallowed, forcing herself to focus and ask, "Wh-what does it mean?"
"Oh," Gehrman said softly, his gaze flicking up to meet hers. "It means 'home.'"
"…Home," she repeated, letting the word roll over her tongue.
Gehrman nodded. "Ahem. If this word means a lot to you, Mr. Fool also told me what the language is called."
Bernadette's throat tightened, and she audibly swallowed.
"The language is called 'Chinese.' And my lord once mentioned that it originates from inside the Western Continent's Fog Barrier."
Her eyes narrowed as her mind shifted into overdrive, rapidly theorizing the implications of the revelation. She brushed a strand of hair from her face, her hand trembling slightly from the excitement and the weight of the discovery.
That day, their game of chess was entirely forgotten.
---
In Empress Borough stood the opulent villa of Earl Hall.
The sumptuous dinner gleamed beneath the candlelight, giving off an inviting warmth.
Unlike the image often painted by newspapers and magazines, a grand aristocratic family dinner was neither solemn nor silent.
This was a rare chance for the family to gather. As they ate, they casually discussed light topics, using the meal to communicate and strengthen their bonds.
Audrey waited as the maid cut the food produced from her own ranch. She glanced at her mother, Caitlyn Hall, and asked without hiding her curiosity, "Mother, did something happen recently. Where is Father?"
Her mother, Caitlyn Hall, a beautiful and graceful woman with blonde hair and green eyes, paused before replying, "Your father was summoned to the cabinet earlier this morning."
Audrey tilted her head slightly, urging her to continue.
"Last night, there was an attack on a tycoon's villa. It turned out to be a human trafficking ring."
"What is the problem then. Isn't that good news."
Caitlyn smiled as she nodded. "It is good news. That is also why your father had to leave. The one who rescued the girls released files containing the names of collaborators to all the major newspapers and to the Churches of the kingdom. Those files included the names of members of the House of Lords."
Her expression turned grim. "Your father has been trying to bring those who colluded with human traffickers to court. How could they commit such horrible acts within our kingdom."
She continued, "The newspapers also revealed some details. There were two attackers. Both of their identities were concealed because of the night's fog. According to the reports, one was a woman and the other a man. After entering Capim's villa, they not only stole all the valuables in the safe, but also killed Capim and his vicious henchmen. They rescued the girls imprisoned in the underground dungeon and scattered tarot cards over Capim's corpse. The most eye catching were the two cards covering his face. One was 'Judgment', and the other was 'The Emperor'."
'Tarot cards..."Judgment" card and "The Emperor" card...' Audrey's eyes suddenly lit up.
From the description of the figures hidden in fog, she was almost certain that this had been the work of Mr. Fool's Blessed.
A strong sense of immersion, participation, and pride welled up inside her.
'That was a human trafficker whose hands were soaked in blood and evil. The Judgment card represented justice carried out in his name. Was the sentence hanging, beheading, or burning at the stake. The Emperor and Judgment card likely symbolized their identity.' Audrey let her imagination wander briefly.
She wanted to ask for more details, but judging from her mother's expression, tone, and emotional state, it was clear that Caitlyn knew little beyond what she had already said. Audrey suppressed her curiosity and decided to seek out her good friend from MI9, Kance Leerhsen.
Directly questioning Kance would fit her usual behavior, but it would feel too abrupt and clash with her noble image. She decided to have Annie prepare several invitations for an afternoon tea party and send them separately to Glaint, Kance, Murray, Christine, Jane, and the others. Most of them were interested in mysticism, so they would naturally be curious about the two mysterious figures. With her guidance, they could ask many questions that she herself could not conveniently raise.
Audrey withdrew her attention and took small bites of her breakfast.
She believed that Mr. Fool's Blessed had dealt with Capim solely to punish evil, as that did align with his identity or status. She hoped that Kance could provide useful information.
"When will Father return?" Audrey asked.
Caitlyn shook her head slightly as she gave her a small smile. "I am not sure. The cabinet meeting may last the entire day."
Audrey nodded. She lowered her gaze and focused on her plate.
After breakfast ended, she returned to her room and rang the bell for Annie.
"I want you to prepare invitations for an afternoon tea," Audrey said calmly. "Send them to Glaint, Kance Leerhsen, Murray, Christine, Jane, and the others."
---
The Dawn was anchored near a small island in the Sonia Sea.
Bernadette finally left her room after a while. After learning that Gehrman knew some letters and their meanings, she extracted all the knowledge he had about this 'Chinese' language and spent her nights attempting to decipher her father's scripts.
She had also sent a messenger to Cattleya, ordering her to come to the Element Dawn headquarters. Now, all that remained was to wait for her crewmates to return from the Sonia Island expedition.
As she stepped onto the deck, her gaze fell on a woman standing at the forecastle, facing the island. The woman had long, wavy crimson pink hair, blue eyes, and a scar running across her face. She wore a brown choker collar close to her neck, a dark pink captain's vest that revealed her chest, white pants, and long dark brown boots.
[Image]
Bernadette walked over.
"Francis. When did you return?"
Francis Drake was the ship's gunner. She was a Sequence 4 Alchemist of the Paragon Pathway.
Francis was not her original name. After leaving the Church of Steam and Machinery, she had asked Bernadette to give her one. Bernadette took inspiration from Roselle's stories and chose the name Francis Drake, after the famous explorer.
A mischievous smile spread across Francis's face as she said in a teasing tone, "Well, you were having private time with your new boyfriend, so I didn't want to disturb you."
"What!?"
"What do you expect me to think? A man shows up on our ship and the two of you stay alone in a room together."
'Ah. It really did look like that. No, she is messing with me.' Bernadette felt a brief wave of irritation and then a reluctant embarrassment. She exhaled slowly, realizing Francis was enjoying this far too much.
Francis leaned closer and sniffed exaggeratedly. "Our captain is finally growing up. She's going to get married and have children."
"Y-you shut up!" Bernadette snapped, her face heating up despite herself.
Francis laughed openly, clearly satisfied. After a moment, the teasing died down and the air between them settled.
The two women stood side by side on the forecastle, their gazes naturally turning toward the small island ahead.
Bernadette let out a quiet breath and spoke again, her tone back to normal.
"How did she convince him to fight her?"
Francis sighed and chuckled. "After I returned, I found out she kept pestering him for hours. She didn't let up at all."
---
"You're strong," Ghislane said loudly, pointing her unique sword straight at his nose.
"We beastfolk don't believe in strength that comes from Sequence advancement. True strength lies in technique. You carry the demeanor of both a warrior and a killer. Fight me."
---
"He tried to ignore her for a few hours," Francis continued, "but you know how she gets when she wants something."
Bernadette's lips twitched.
Both of them turned their gaze toward the two figures on the island. At the center of the small island, Ghislane and Gehrman stood facing each other. Ghislane wore the widest smile possible on her face.
Gehrman calmly adjusted his shirt cuffs before unsheathing his cane. He straightened the handle, extending the hilt and revealing its transformed shape.
Ghislane, on the other hand, gripped her sword tightly. The smile on her face faded as she began to take the situation seriously.
Her sword, Hiramune, was a katana with a dark colored back and intricate patterns along its reddish edged side. Its golden crossguard also served as a blade collar, extending longer toward the back and flowing toward the edge. The dark hilt was slightly curved and ended with a golden pommel.
She reached up and removed the eyepatch from her right eye, unsealing her Eye of Demon Hunting. In the next moment, Gehrman's nature, condition, and weaknesses unfolded clearly before her vision.
"Are both of you ready?" Francis's voice came from a distance.
"Yes!" Ghislaine replied loudly, and Gehrman nodded.
"When I shoot my gun in the air, both of you can commence the battle."
Ghislaine tightened her grip on her sword and crouched slightly, lowering her stance to a beast-like posture.
Bang!
In a flash, her katana sliced through the air, testing Gehrman's reactions. He met her strikes with his ever-present impassive expression as his cane-sword clashed against hers, each blow sending vibrations up her arms.
They clashed one final time and both took a few steps back.
Ghislaine lowered her stance again and rushed toward him, holding her sword to her right. As they were about to clash, she twisted her blade with precise timing, and the wrist of the hand holding the cane was cleanly severed. This was one of the intermediate techniques taught to Sword God Style practitioners.
Sword God Style was a fighting style passed down through generations of the Beastmen lineage before their extinction. She only learned it after Bernadette found a training manual during one of their expeditions.
Gehrman's other hand immediately caught the cane, stopping her katana from piercing his chest as he took a couple of steps back.
"Don't tell me that is all it will take to stop you, pretty boy!" Ghislaine said with a massive grin spreading across her face.
Gehrman raised one of his eyebrow at her words. The severed hand writhed, transformed into maggots, and in an instant vanished into the Spirit World.
The next moment, Gehrman's arm writhed as the Worms of Stars teleported into the flesh where his hand had been, merging together as a new hand regenerated in a matter of moments.
Then, Gehrman vanished in a flash of bluish light. Her spiritual intuition flared violently.
'An attack from behind.' She reacted by twisting her body and raising her sword just in time as his strike was blocked at the last instant. The force traveled through her arms. Before she could counter, his figure vanished again.
He reappeared to her left, then above, then behind her once more. His cane sword struck from unpredictable angles, which forced her to react purely on instinct. She pivoted, parried, and deflected, her feet digging into the ground as she adjusted her stance again and again.
He continued to blink without pause, attacking from every direction in rapid succession. Little by little, she adapted as her Eye of Demon Hunting and the knowledge she had gained as a Demon Hunter about hunting began to predict his movements.
'There it is.' Each blink became clearer to her, each attack arriving a fraction of a moment slower in her perception, until his teleportation no longer felt overwhelming and started to lose its effectiveness.
When Gehrman noticed that his blinking was no longer having much effect on her, he stopped and appeared at a distance.
Suddenly, he brandished the cane to the side with force, and in the next moment, the thin long blade separated into several small blades. Her eyes narrowed. The weapon lashed toward her like a whip at high speed. Gehrman's battle technique had changed completely.
Instead of using standard sword techniques, he focused on evasion and controlled the segmented blades like a whip. Several small cuts appeared on her body as the sudden shift in fighting style caught her off guard.
She could not help but smile wider. The shallow wounds healed within moments. As a Giant pathway Beyonder, her regenerative ability was terrifying.
The next instant, Gherman suddenly tapped the cane with the ground with force and the whip returned to its sword form, and Gehrman bent his knees slightly and took a grounded stance, holding the cane sword sheathed at his side. Her instincts screamed.
As she took a step back, her spiritual intuition warned her. She jumped to the side to dodge, and in the next instant, the space where she had been standing twisted.
Judgement Cut!
The air warped into a cone of distortion that glowed with dark purple and black blue light. Curved slashing traces appeared within it. She could not see the blades, but she felt them. They were invisible blades slicing directly through space itself.
This was a technique derived from Space Tearing of the Door pathway.
One after another, this effect appeared where she had just been standing. She began to run around him in circles on all fours. To stop him from using this technique repeatedly, she uprooted a remaining tree from the ground and hurled it toward him at high speed.
Gehrman blinked to the side to dodge, but it was enough for her to close the distance, attack once again, and clash blades with him.
After a moment of swords clashing with each other, both of them pushed against each other with force, and then they suddenly stopped and put some distance between themselves, as if silently agreeing to take a brief breather. Ghislaine narrowed her eyes, though her smile remained, in contrast to Gehrman's expressionless face. Yet she could see that his eyes no longer carried their dull tone.
Ghislaine smirked, extended one of her arms, and gave a "bring it on" gesture. Then, in an instant, the calm shattered, and the battlefield erupted into chaos.
Hundreds of invisible hands tore hundreds of trees from the ground and hurled them toward Ghislaine, forcing her to dodge and creating an opening for attack.
Her hunting instincts told her that Gehrman would now blink toward any of the trees and use them as cover to strike from obscurity. To prevent that, she surged forward at extreme speed, whipping the air into hurricane-force winds. She leaped upward, using the flying trees as stepping platforms, pushing off them one after another.
This time, she used the openings created by the trees to unleash her ultimate technique of her Sword God Style.
She took a pouncing stance, holding the hilt of her sword at her hip while her other hand rested lightly on one of the trees suspended in the air.
She closed her eyes and let her supernatural instincts rise to the next level. To her senses, she could feel Gehrman blinking behind one of the trees and-
Longsword of Twilight!
Ghislaine swung her blade, and as she moved, dusk seemed to fall around her. The light in the area softened into a warm orange hue. This was the Longsword of Twilight, one of the ultimate techniques of the Sword God Style. By perfectly synchronizing movement, muscle, and intent, she delivered a slash that exceeded normal physical limits, approaching or even surpassing the speed of light.
Gehrman's eyes widened as a wide cut appeared across his chest in an instant.
The trees visibly withered as if they had reached their "Twilight," and dirt erupted around her from the force of her landing. A frown appeared on her face as the Gehrman she struck crumpled like a paper figurine and burst into flames.
"Tsk!"
He used the obscurity to substitute himself with a paper figurine, taking advantage of the moment.
She had not yet reached the skill level required to use Longsword of Twilight consecutively. She returned to the basic Sword God Style and steadied her breathing. When the flying trees finally crashed back to the ground, she saw Gehrman standing at a distance. There was a strange glint in his eyes that she could not decipher. Her thoughts came to a halt when Gehrman took a pouncing stance, one hand resting on the hilt of his cane sword.
Just like her!
Her eyes widened as Spiritual Intuition sounded a sharp warning. She dropped to one knee and planted her katana in front of her. Dawn-like light surged outward and formed indestructible invisible wall around her in a dome.
He vanished in his usual blinking effect, but this time,
Judgement Cut End!
Color drained from the surroundings. The world turned black and white as the effects of Space Tearing took hold. Thin lines of blue light began to appear, flickering into existence across the space around her. One after another, then dozens, then hundreds. Each line marked a cut that had already been made.
All the slashes detonated at once, tearing through the frozen world. Space shattered like glass, breaking into countless fragments.
After a moment, the scene revealed Ghislaine kneeling on the ground, her body covered in blood. Her Protection effect as a Demon Hunter should have been able to stop any influence from the Spirit World from penetrating the walls created by her ability. However, as a Sequence 3 of the Door pathway, Gehrman no longer needed to pass through the Spirit World. He could do the same through the Astral World as well.
What shocked her most was that he had used the ultimate attack of the Sword God Style after seeing it only once and could execute it consecutively.
"Hahahaha… you… you used the technique better than I did... My instincts were not wrong..." As she was about to say something more, her eyes closed, and she collapsed toward the ground. Gehrman blinked and caught her. In the next moment, he blinked again, still holding her in his arms, and appeared on the deck of the ship in front of Francis and Bernadette. Both of them wore very different expressions on their faces.
---
AN: This chapter fought me. I had to rewrite it a couple of times before I was even slightly satisfied.
PS:Chāoxí zhě means "plagiarizer" or "someone who plagiarizes" while gù xiāng means "Home."
PPS: Anyway, did Gherman just rizz Bernadette by showing his knowledgeable side while also helping his lord and savior, Mr. Fool, in rizzing the Evernight Goddess? Of course he did. He is the perfect example of what a follower of a God should be.
PPPS: For those who haven't read Slug of Time by IkiruMist— it is where Klein and the Evernight Goddess get into a relationship. After becoming a Sequence 1 Knight of Misfortune, she uses the name Morgane as an alias. In this fanfic, that name also corresponds to the Evernight Goddess. Hmm... I wonder why.
Too-many-PS: Also, If you enjoyed give it a review.