Sword of Dawnbreaker

”What else?” Asharena gave a small laugh. ”I ran away in secret in the first place, but I couldn’t keep running in secret for a lifetime. When news came that my father was gravely ill, I had no choice but to ’say goodbye’ to you in that way. Sorry, Byron... Leader, I was very young at the time too.”

”To be honest, if it hadn’t been twenty years, I’d probably be coming to blows with you,” Byron gave the Dragonborn a look. ”The ’joke’ you pulled was a bit too big.”

”...What are our old companions doing now?” After a brief silence, Asharena swirled the wine in her glass, watching the ripples spread across the liquid in the crystal container, and asked in a seemingly casual tone, ”You’ve actually become an Imperial General, so the others... should be doing pretty well too, right?”

”...They’re all gone. Just a few years after you left... they were all gone.”

Silence suddenly fell between the two old acquaintances.

The span of twenty years had sent everyone down different paths, and an unexpected reunion after twenty years could not bring any miraculous twist of fate—it only brought coincidences that made one marvel, and gave those involved a chance to look back on the old days. After the reminiscing, all that remained was a faint sigh on each side.

Asharena raised her glass and drained the remaining liquid in one go, sighing softly. ”The wine in the human world is still this bland, but this taste I haven’t had for twenty years... now that I try it again, it actually feels pretty good.”

Byron chuckled. ”Don’t get sentimental over an illusion. We were so poor twenty years ago—how could we possibly have drunk wine this good?”

”That’s true,” Asharena also laughed. ”I just never expected that my travels in the human world back then would one day make me a member of a diplomatic mission, and the one receiving us would turn out to be the ’Leader’ from more than twenty years ago... Maybe that’s actually a good start.”

She lifted her eyelids and looked at the middle‑aged Knight standing in front of her, dressed in a crisp officer’s ceremonial uniform, Ribbons and medals hanging from his chest.

The human world had really changed fast. The aristocratic lords from twenty years ago... did not dress like this.

”Tell me about now,” she said with a smile. ”How have you been these past few years?”

Pea’s face surfaced in Byron’s mind, and the Knight, now nearing fifty, couldn’t help showing a smile tinged with joy and reassurance. He nodded. ”My daughter already knows how to call me ’Dad’...”

...

”Achoo—”

Pea, sitting in the chair, suddenly let out a huge sneeze, startling Pittman and Kamel, who were adjusting the equipment nearby.

”Caught a cold?” Pittman instinctively reached out and felt Pea’s forehead. ”Doesn’t seem like you have a fever...”

”I’m fine, my nose just suddenly got itchy,” Pea shook her head from side to side, and a synthesized voice came from the speech device. ”I wonder if Dad has met the envoys from the Sacred Dragon Kingdom yet. If I do the math, the time should be about right... I hope at least when he’s in a formal setting he can be serious, and not always look so unreliable... Ugh, though High Chancellor Victoria is there too... Ah, right, Grandpa Pittman, don’t you have a Magic Web Terminal here that can connect directly to the northern parts of the Dark Mountain Range? In a bit...”

”Stop, stop, stop—” Pittman’s head was already starting to ache before Pea finished, and he hurriedly waved his hand to cut off the girl who’d grown increasingly fond of rambling lately. ”Don’t get so wound up. The Duke of the North will definitely handle everything properly. As for you, you’d better stay focused for now.”

”Oh.” Pea pouted, then sat obediently back in the chair, letting the technicians fiddle with the metal device connected to the back of her neck. Only when it felt really itchy did she involuntarily move her head a little.

”Things look good,” Kamel watched the operation of the Neural Thorn nearby, a relaxed, cheerful pale blue glow flowing over his body. ”This is the final check. Pea, congratulations—you can use this thing with confidence from now on. Of course, since it’s still a new technology, you need to keep an eye on its condition in daily life. If anything abnormal happens, come to us right away.”