Oh shit, I forgot about him

After the sparring and healing Kretea, Astur spent the next couple of days doing nothing. Even if she knew in her head that she needs to keep sparring with others for her Race Advancement Quest, she couldn't muster the energy to do so. It's not like she is lacking in energy, she just couldn't be bothered to get up. At most, she'd leave her room.

In her listlessness, Astur had forgotten about a certain visitor who was scheduled to arrive soon, only remembering when she feels her phone vibrate, receiving a message that reads: "Entering the atmosphere."

"... Oh shit, I forgot about him."

Seeing that Astur is about to leave the house, Kretea who was with Ystur in the living room mentions, "You finally decided to leave the house."

"Something came up. Or rather, I just remembered something that I should have done a few days ago."

"What's going on?" Ystur puts her game controller down and turns towards Astur.

"I was going to create a large landing field but I forgot about it."

"A landing field? Do you mean for aircrafts?" Kretea asks.

"Yes, but actually no. This field I was intending to make is meant for something else. But alas, I forgot and I've run out of time. I'll have to improvise."

Walking over to Astur with Kretea, Ystur asks, "Improvise? Why the sudden need for an airfield? Are you expecting someone?"

Astur holds a troubled expression on her face, "Yes, unfortunately."

As the three of them are leaving the island, Elizabeth catches them as they arrive on the mainland.

"Finally, I was worried you were going to stay a recluse for several months again," Elizabeth says.

"As tempting as that sounds, there is still the matter with the bank in a couple of weeks. But after that is fair game," Astur says.

"Why do I stay here again?" Elizabeth sighs.

"Because your my friend and I need you here for things to function properly… and you'll probably have to start living a life on the run from the church again if you leave my sphere of influence. Not to mention that you'll be weakened without regular intake of my blood," Astur says.

"You know, it would have sounded a lot better if you left out everything beyond the first part. Regardless, I've known you for a while now and you won't leave the house for no reason, so what's up?"

"Just some stuff I need to do. For now, we need to clear out the training grounds," Astur says.

Elizabeth isn't sure why, but she can't help but feel like she's going to have a headache soon.

Astur soon arrives at the training grounds, followed by Elizabeth, Kretea, and Ystur. As usual, the training ground is full with the members of the Warband and many of the Oulvgar training under Asterion. There are also several players mixed in as well, having accepted his Quests in the form of training.

The arrival of Astur's group draws some attention, especially after what happened a few days prior. As they are walking to Asterion, the onlookers can't help but wonder what's going to happen. After spending a decent amount of time here, like Elizabeth, most of the people in Aeternum, players included, have figured out that whenever Astur leaves her house, something is going to happen.

"So long story short, we need to clear out the training ground for a bit," Astur explains the situation to Asterion.

"Apparently she's expecting a plane or something," Ystur adds, seeing how Astur didn't give much reasoning.

"Understood," Asterion nods, giving the order to pack up the training gear.

Overhearing the brief exchange, a handful of the players have a knowing look on their faces. Astur was too lazy to bother and Ystur was too busy causing a headache for Elizabeth, neither of them had checked the official forums recently. Had they looked, they would have understood the look on the players' faces.

Going back a few days prior when Astur made Blaze drink poison, a post was made on the forums. Its content was about how the NPC Zrathno hasn't been seen for a few weeks then. A few bold players were curious and had infiltrated Zrathno's factory. After several dozens of deaths, this group of players eventually made their way to the core and found that most of the equipment and machinery was gone, only a few stray nuts and bolts left in the hanger. This group of players published their findings and quickly lost interest as there was nothing of value for them to loot, saddened over losing so much EXP for nothing. But a loremaster type player was curious and picked up where they left off.

This player dug around and found that there were sightings of an unknown vehicle seen flying straight into the sky near Zrathno's factory, its sighting was a little before the players noticed that he was missing. After a bit more digging around, this player found one of the NPCs that previously worked under Zrathno. According to this source, Zrathno had claimed to hit the limit of his development on this planet and sought out new materials and technology. At the time this NPC and the others that worked with him thought that the young genius went mad, but unbeknownst to all of them, he had actually managed to construct a spacecraft in a hidden facility beneath the hanger. Zrathno's final words before leaving were that he was going to pay a visit to someone who can enhance his materials.

Shortly after the initial post detailing this event was uploaded to the forums, a clip from Blaze's stream was uploaded as well. Although its main purpose was to laugh at the young lady, the uploader of the previous post regarding Zrathno focused on something different, the conversation Blaze had with Astur about an uninvited guest.

Despite there being few details about the matter, this lore loving player pieced together a theory. His theory is that Zrathno is coming to see Astur. A while back it was previously known that all the NPCs with the surname Kojuuin knew of each other, but to what degree was uncertain. As for why Zrathno is coming to Astur, it's because of his goal, to create better mechs, and Astur being an Alchemist has the ability to enhance Zrathno's materials, thus a reason is established. Them knowing each other would also give an explanation as to why Zrathno would know where Astur is.

However, not everyone believed this theory. To start with, a quick look into a previous forum post can easily resolve the mystery of to what degree Astur is familiar with Zrathno and the other Kojuuin NPCs, and the answer is vaguely aware of all but one. And in Blaze's clip, Astur clearly had an annoyed and exhausted expression when looking at her phone, so why would she let someone who she doesn't really know, or seemingly like, know about her location. Moreover, how can such a simple-looking phone be used to contact someone travelling through space?

Of the people who read the post, about 40% didn't believe in the theory, 30% did believe, while the rest didn't even care to vote. While the first two holes in the theory can be waived, the third point sticks out the most to the nonbelievers. Although the split is close to even, the majority don't believe it. Most of the comments on the theory post was a bit of banter while the OP was advertising his blog that goes into theories like this, one of his haters began to flame called him out. Even going so far to say he would continuously challenge Zrathno to a fight until he lost several levels worth of EXP if he is the person Astur was expecting.

Unfortunately for the hater, he can see a ship descending from the sky towards the training grounds in Aeternum.