Needless to say, Lofus had zero intention of saving Faltiana—quite the opposite, really. In his dream, he’d been killed countless times by her and her furious attacks, and so he had a very negative impression of her. Lofus had failed to recognize Fol as Faltiana mainly because the tale in his dreams occurred three years in the future. Fol was still young and lacked womanly qualities, making her seem androgynous. While Lofus didn’t intend to save Faltiana, if his primary goal was to prevent his future death, this outcome was rather favorable for him.
However, there were those in the world that couldn’t accept this result. Lofus was right to fear the future where he was killed countless times by others; there were people who absolutely despised nobles and House Lightless. Faltiana’s soul was one such entity that simply couldn’t accept the fact that Fol risked her own life to save Lofus. The boy was the mortal enemy and traitor of humanity; the boss of the heartless man who trafficked her childhood friend. And so, Fol’s spirit was called out to head to Faltiana’s spirit realm, where the former had to convince the latter to grant mercy toward this noble.
✶✶✶
When Fol opened her eyes, she found herself in a blank space. The entire place was enveloped in white, and in front of her was an unconscious Lofus lying on the ground. A sharp blade was clutched in her hand.
“Kill him,” a voice echoed in her head.
The voice sounded eerily similar to her own, which only upset her further. She tried to cast the knife away, but the hilt was seemingly glued to her hand and refused to leave her grip.
“Why?” Fol asked.
“He’s a noble, the worst of mankind,” the voice replied. “Norn was sold into slavery because of that man.”
Norn was the name of the childhood friend who was kidnapped by Clinton and his soldiers around half a year ago.
“The hell are you on about?” Fol asked. “Clinton’s the one to blame. This kid’s a noble, sure, but he’s got nothing to do with the kidnapping.”
“Wrong,” the voice replied. “He and Clinton are working together. After all, that child’s name is Lofus Ray Lightless, the eldest son of House Lightless.”
“What? Lightless?”
Fol’s mind went black. Lightless was the name of a major noble household that ruled over this entire land. Clinton’s soldiers had often used this name to threaten the people of the village, saying that House Lightless would be infuriated if the villagers so much as dared to raise a hand in defiance. According to them, House Lightless would appear with a massive army and burn the entire village to cinders. House Lightless was the mastermind, so to speak—the employer of the loathsome Clinton, and the source of all evil.
“H-He’s a Lightless?!” Fol gasped. “That can’t be... He saved us! He saved Roguebert!”
“Don’t be fooled,” the voice replied. “His true nature is one of pure evil. He doesn’t care about others. Everything he does is to satisfy his own vile greed, nothing more.”
“He...did mention something like that before we set sail.” Fol recalled Lofus saying that he was acting for the sake of the Lightless fief, and by extension, himself. “I see... This kid’s a Lightless...”
She couldn’t help but tighten the grip around the blade. As she pointed the tip close to Lofus’s neck, she heard the voice in her head scream with excitement.
“Do it!” it urged. “Stab him and kill him! It’s the only way to avenge Norn!”
In the story’s third arc—the Alchemic Empire chapter—Faltia would see Norn again...but their reunion was far from a warm one. Norn had been sold off as a slave and was forced to undergo numerous extreme human experiments within the empire. When the main character and his forces found her, she’d already been transformed into a horror with little left of her former self.
Lofus, the eldest son of House Lightless, had already been killed during the battle against the Elite Four by then, so Faltia had nowhere to turn her anger to. She was overcome with anger and grief.
Needless to say, Fol knew not of this future, and she stopped the blade just shy of Lofus’s throat before forcibly casting her weapon aside.
“Huh?” the voice asked, clearly confused. “Wh-What are you doing?”
Fol shot a glare. “Norn might’ve been taken away, but she ain’t dead yet. Don’t feed me your crap.”
“Huh? No, I’m referring to the future...”
“The future? What the hell are you on about? That sounds like complete bullshit; why should I even believe that this kid is really from Lightless?”
“No! That man is undoubtedly Lofus of House Lightless! He’s a conniving, cowardly boy, and my—no, our enemy!”
“Conniving? Cowardly? Listen, I don’t know who you are, but what do you know about him?”
In Fol’s eyes, Lofus was a man who never turned his back on a monster, no matter how strong, and even sacrificed his left arm to save her. He salvaged her hometown and even her own life. She owed a great deal to her savior, and she wasn’t about to take insults toward him lying down.
“You’ve only known him for a short while!” the voice insisted. “You don’t know his true nature yet.”
Indeed, Fol and Lofus had only known each other for half a day, at most. But that short amount of time was more than enough for Fol to learn of Lofus’s character and his bravery.
“No matter what you say, he saved my life,” Fol said.
“Abel is the man who will save Roguebert and us,” the voice insisted. “Not the boy from House Lightless.”
The voice was clearly filled with frustration, but Fol coldly spurned it.
“Roguebert was saved by this kid, and no one else,” Fol declared. “I’ve never even heard of this ‘Abel.’”
At once, cracks ran through the white space. It crackled and crumbled away, and no longer did her voice fill her head.
Fol slowly opened her eyes. She realized that her hands were wrapped around the slender neck of Lofus within the fur pelt, and she hastily released him from her grasp. When she saw that there weren’t any marks on his neck, she let go of the breath she’d been holding.
“The hell was that?” she muttered. “Some kind of demon sent to give me a nightmare?”
She wasn’t able to recall her dream much, but she knew that it left a bad taste in her mouth. When she realized that Lofus had warmed up somewhat, she breathed a sigh of relief and buried her face in his chest.
“Are you really from House Lightless?” Fol asked. “You’re Lofus, right?”
She peppered her unconscious friend with questions, knowing full well that she wouldn’t receive a response. She continued to mutter to herself. Lofus was usually overbearing, proud, and haughty, but when he lay on the ground unconscious, he looked so terribly frail and small. When he was asleep, he looked like an adorable child fitting for his age, and Fol realized that she’d insulted and mistreated this young child simply for his noble birth. And it was this same, tiny kid who had saved her and her hometown.
“Ugh... What am I doing?” Fol wondered.
Hoping to distract herself from the overwhelming guilt, she drew herself close to Lofus and huddled with him.
✶✶✶
I feel awful, I thought. My body hurts, my head hurts, my left arm’s gone, and I can’t see out of my left eye. I haven’t felt this awful since the nightmare where I was killed countless times.
My consciousness returned, but my body obviously refused to move. I couldn’t even sit up. My eyes darted around my surroundings; I spotted a roaring fire and the rocky wall illuminated by the flickering flame. I heard the sound of waves continuously splashing in the distance. Am I in a cave near the shore or something?
Luckily, it seemed I was still alive. When I’d checked the map before my fight, there weren’t any convenient islands near the Devil’s Sea, so I wasn’t quite sure where I was. Did I drift ashore, only to be saved by a resident of the island? Where’s Fol? Did he wash onto shore with me? A myriad of questions filled my mind, but I decided to first rejoice at the fact that I was still alive. Damn Carlos. I told him to come save me. How dare he not be by my side when I open my eyes? The next time I see him, I’ll give him a harsh scolding.
Just then, I felt a shiver and turned to the edge of the cave. I jolted with astonishment when I saw a pale-blue seahorse floating about. I knew this creature very well.
“Lunamaar?!” I gasped. “Why are you here?!”
This creature with a pale-blue glow was in the shape of a seahorse and floated through the air, but it wasn’t a monster. It was tiny, but it contained an immense amount of mana; Lunamaar was a high-ranking water spirit that ruled over the sea. And within the tale of my dream, wherever Lunamaar was, a certain someone would always be near...