Break Up

"Now then." Roko sighed as he turned towards the ongoing chaos happening on the lobby of the casino, "What's the situation?"

"Well it looks like the animals are still running all over the place." Helena said as she watched the mercenaries chase the panicking mythical animals, "It might take a while to capture them all."

"We can leave the mercenaries to that." Roko said as he leaned down and scooped up a scurrying Almiraj, "The biggest concern is Gaurav and the questing beast."

"Roko! Over here!"

Kaguya quickly rushed over with Roko's egg in hand, "Here."

"Thanks." Roko said as he traded the almiraj for his egg, "What's the situation like?"

"Everything with Gaurav has already been settled." Kaguya said as she handed the almiraj over to one of the mercenaries, "He and Roland had a pretty even rematch but once Lavellan managed to sneak up on him and bite him, Gaurav got weakened enough for us to knock him out. The bigger problem with the questing beast has also been dealt with. Momo held it off for a bit, distracting it enough for Lavellan to land several bites before it finally was subdued."

"Lavellan's pretty powerful isn't he?" Helena whistled.

"He's worked very hard." Kaguya said as she scratched a sleeping rat in her pocket, "He deserves a break."

"They're going to be fine right?"

"Well, Gaurav should be fine, we know the poison isn't enough to kill humans." Kaguya explained, "I'm not sure on the questing beast. We might need to have it looked at when we get back."

"That's the least Stephen can do for us after what we had to do." Helena yawned, "We still have to come up with a place to house all these animals before we send them back and then there's documenting all the people who showed up for private records. Oh and let's not forget negotiating with the mercenaries for their extra bonus in their help rounding up the animals."

"Just leave all that to me." Kaguya smiled, "You all go get a well earned night's sleep."

"Are you sure?" Helena frowned, "I don't want to leave you with all the work."

"It's fine." Kaguya nodded, "I've spent many a sleepless nights."

"Ummm...okay..." Helena replied, confused, "If you're sure."

"Momo!" Kaguya called, "You can go too!"

"Oh can I?!" Momo said as she held a forlorn looking Akagami under one arm while trying to catching a wild platypus, "Akagami's too energetic for his own good! I really need to properly dress his wounds!"

"It's all good!" Kaguya gave a thumbs up.

"Thanks! I'll go on ahead then!"

Roland looked up with his sea goat in his hands as Momo ran off, "So do I get off too or..."

"Yes, come on." Helena sighed, "We'll make a quick report to Zadkiel and Stephen and turn in for the night."

"Roko!"

"Oh hey, that's a familiar face." Helena said as Anna ran towards them, "She should be pretty happy now that we've busted their ring."

"You bastard, I can't believe I trusted you!" Anna cried as she punched Roko in the arm.

"Ow." Roko frowned, "What did I do?"

"I tallied up all the numbers and the final amount of money in the betting pool is only 17 million!"

"You're complaining about losing out on 3 million gold?!"

"I am when your stupid act in the forest was what deterred so many betters!"

"You're still up 17 million!"

"You promised me 20!"

"Ummm..." Amathea spoke up, "Should I come back later?"

"Oh. Heya Thea." Helena chuckled as she watched Anna punch Roko in the arm over and over again, "Glad to see you're safe. How's Nyinx?"

"She's sleeping safely now." Amathea replied as she cradled a sleeping sphinx in her arms, "I'm sorry about all this."

"You really don't need to apologize for Gaurav's actions." Helena sighed, "Just try to find a better knight next time."

"Actually, I was hoping there was something I could do to help." Amathea said, "This is partly my fault as well so I want to do something to atone for it."

"Well, I can't say you don't have anything to atone for." Helena shrugged, "If you want, just go ask Kaguya for help. She's taking care of clean up."

"Okay!" Amathea nodded, "Oh and Roko?"

"Yeah?" Roko asked as he did his best to block the angry Anna's assault.

"I'm sorry you had to do all this."

"It's nothing personal." Roko replied, "Well maybe a bit with Gaurav but I don't have anything against you. Like Helena said, try to find a better knight next time."

"Right..." Amathea replied quietly.

"Anyway, will you cut that off Anna?! It's not my fault!"

"It's entirely your fault!"

"Anna, Anna." Helena said as she cut in between them, "I'll try to get Zadkiel to cover for the rest so can we do this another day?"

"You better!" Anna huffed, "Don't forget you're in my debt!"

Roko rubbed his arm as the princess stormed off, "How can someone be that angry about 3 million gold?"

"To be fair, 3 million gold is a lot of gold."

"She's still getting over five times that amount for free!" Roko scowled, "First the culture festival now this? How has she made it this far with that attitude?"

"You've got to give her credit for her good business sense."

"That wasn't good business sense, that was pure stubbornness and petulance. Any good business man knows how to compromise."

"Well, you're not wrong."

When the next day rolled around word had broken out about how there was a massive fight at the casino in Galia and how there was an illegal fighting ring run by students going on in there.

"So much for secrecy." Helena shrugged, "Now everybody knows."

"The only names that are being discussed are Gaurav and Amathea's." Kaguya yawned, "Everybody else has been left discreetly unknown."

"How many hours of sleep did you get?" Helena asked as she stared at Kaguya.

"Oh, I got a full four hours of sleep."

"You need eight hours. Go back to sleep."

"Oh, don't worry, it's pretty late in the day for me already."

"It's 10 A.M right now. When do you usually get up?"

"6."

"Did you work on a farm or something?! Why are you getting up that early?!"

"Anyway." Roko cut in, "How's Amathea taking it?"

"Well she's not getting bullied if that's your concern." Helena smirked, "Royalty aren't quite so insecure as to start bullying one another. Plus, Zadkiel is very strict on her bullying prevention policy."

"Plus, most people already know it's Gaurav's fault." Kaguya added, "Speaking of, he's being held in prison so we don't have to worry about him doing anything on our watch. His questing beast is being held as well. It's a bit sick from the poison we injected into him but should be fine by the end of the week when we have to release it into the woods anyway."

"And once that happens, we can wash our hands of this fighting ring business." Helena grinned.

"Well we were told to stay on standby in case someone else decides to start another fighting ring." Kaguya sighed.

"I don't think anybody will be dumb enough to start another ring." Roko said, "Given the backlash that's been going around I don't think there would be any good reason for them to start another one. That and I'm sure Zadkiel and Stephen are doing their damn best to make sure no one thinks of doing that."

"That's the least they could do." Helena sighed, "Really, we shouldn't even have been responsible for dealing with this to begin with."

"You say that, Helena but I recall you being interested in this fighting ring yourself." Kaguya teased, "If anybody did restart the ring, it could very well be you."

"Don't be ridiculous." Helena looked away innocently, "Nothing could ever convince me to force my dear Aves to fight."

"Ah yes. Of course." Kaguya giggled.

"While we're at it." Roko said, "Where's Corissa?"

"Still taking care of her slime." Kaguya reported, "She's really taken to this motherhood thing. Though I don't think any of us doubted she'd be perfect at it."

"Last I heard, she just learned about how many different kinds of slimes there are and how she can train hers to be a specific one. So yeah, she's really into it now. No idea what she wants to train it into though."

"I assume Stephen's been helping her?"

"Along with Aida." Helena nodded, "Mostly Aida. Stephen's busy with the rest of his students."

"Uh huh. And where's Momo?" Roko asked.

"Yeah I was going to ask you about that." Helena sighed, "She was playing with Akagami but she seemed a bit sad. I was hoping you could cheer her up a bit."

"Why me?"

"Why not you?"

"..."

"She's at the training grounds if you want to check up on her."

Sure enough, Roko found an unusually quiet looking Momo sitting there quietly as she played fetch with Akagami with a stick.

"Something wrong?" Roko asked as he walked up to them.

"Huh?! Roko?!" Momo said as she seemed to snap out of her stupor, "What are you doing here?!"

"I heard you were looking pretty sad so I came to see what's going on."

Akagami barked as he returned to Momo with the stick, standing in front of her proudly with his tail wagging cheerfully. Momo moved to take the stick from Akagami's mouth but the wolf shrugged her off, waving the stick around like a sword again and looking at her expectantly.

"Does this have to do with your dog?" Roko asked.

"...Yeah." Momo pulled Akagami into her arms as she hugged the oblivious wolf, "Did you...did you hear about Akagami's fights?"

"In the ring? I got the gist of it. Seems like he preformed well."

"He did very well." Momo said as she rubbed the top of Akagami's head, "But in the fight with the Gytrash he...was missing sufficient training."

"Well you're only together for a week so you're not going to get far with training him."

"And that's the thing." Momo grimaced, "In the fight with the gytrash, Akagami went pretty...feral. He bit into the gytrash's throat violently, almost eating it."

"I assume you didn't teach him to do that?"

"No..." Momo bit her lip, "I was so excited about teaching him how to fight that I never wondered whenever or not I should. I mean, he's a good student and he learned a lot but he's still a wild animal. Perhaps I shouldn't have taught him how to fight? He's not meant to be held to the standards of a warrior, holding back and fighting in proper manners. He's a wild animal, meant to attack and kill by any means necessary. Fighting like this is unnatural. Maybe by teaching him, even this little, I've already made it more likely for him to die at the hands of much more ruthless wild animals..."

"..."

"We're supposed to return him to the woods in three more days." Momo continued, "Maybe there was no point in teaching him anything?"

"..." Roko sat down next to Momo and took the stick from Akagami's mouth, "Let's start with this. What do you think the purpose of this lesson was?"

"Huh?"

"Akagami isn't the only one under the care of other humans. Everybody is responsible for their own wild creature as well. Meaning each of these animals are being taught by humans as well. Are they any weaker than they would be without us?"

"N-No but it's not the same. Other people aren't teaching them to fight in a certain way. They won't be teaching them to not rip out their opponent's throat for...what, decorum?!"

"Didn't you learn swordplay from Rokusho? Do you regret learning how to fight?"

"No! Of course not!"

"And what if one day everything Rokusho taught you leads to your death?" Roko asked as he threw the stick.

"I'll die the way I was taught!" Momo cried as Akagami climbed out of her grip to chase the stick, "It doesn't matter how I die, it's how I lived that matters!"

"And why would you do that?"

"Huh?"

"Why would you stick to your teachings so closely?"

"Because...it's the right thing to do?"

"...Can I tell you what I think?"

"Please do."

"Do you like Rokusho?"

"Well yeah."

"Do you like what he taught you?"

"Yeah."

"Do you look back on your training fondly?"

"Yeah!"

"It's for those reasons. To betray what you were taught would be to betray the parts of your life you spent discipline and effort into mastering. You don't want to die by these codes because it's the objectively right thing to do. You don't want to look back on those times with anything other than the happiness and fondness that you do now. Because the moment that changes is the moment you become a different person that you may not recognize. Am I wrong?"

"..."

"And to bring it all back around, what about Akagami? Why would any of this not apply to him?"

"A-Akagami?"

"Do you think the day that he dies because he wasn't able to bite off an enemy's throat will be the day he curses your name and every day he spent with you?"

"..."

"You're too anxious to say the answer but you know very well what the answer would be. So let me ask you, what are you afraid of? Forget about what may happen to him in the wild. Think about why you're together and what you want to leave him. And look at him. Does it look like he dislikes anything you've taught him?"

Momo watched as Akagami trotted back up to her with the stick in his mouth, tail waving energetically and looking at her proudly and expectantly.

"You only have a week together with each other." Roko said as he got up, "Spend it making good memories with each other. That's why you're together."

Tears welled up a bit in Momo's eyes that she wiped away as she took the stick back from Akagami, "Thanks Roko."

"Don't thank me, I'm not the one taking care of a wolf." Roko sighed.

"Yeah, it's really almost a shame that your egg still hasn't hatched yet." Momo said as she rubbed Akagami's cheeks, "You would make a great parent."

"Right..." Roko said as he took the egg hanging from his belt into his hands, "I wonder...will I actually be able to bond with you?"

In short time, the three remaining days passed and the day came to return the animals they've been keeping back into the Paramnesia Wildwoods. People were gathered at the school's courtyard, looking quite sad with equally somber pets. Helena, Momo and Kaguya were all there along with their knights, all of them ready to say goodbye to their partners that they have spent a short but meaningful week with. Corissa was still missing along with her knight. Roko hadn't seen her since their initial excursion out into the forest. Perhaps she was already in the forest or already released her slime. Either way, it was now their turn to return to the forest and that was why Roko was there as well. Along with his egg.

"Wow, I can't believe it hasn't hatched after all this time." Momo rubbed the head of Roko's egg, "Have you asked Stephen about it?"

"A bit. I'm supposed to just make a nest and leave it there now." Roko explained.

"Man, I was really looking forward to see what comes out of your egg." Helena sighed, "It would have been super cool."

"It would have been much more mundane than you thought." Roko said.

"That's right, you know what's inside the egg don't you?" Kaguya raised an eyebrow, "Did you tell Stephen?"

"No."

"Why not?" Momo asked, "What's in the egg?"

Roko sighed, "Well we're going to be leaving them in the forest soon so I guess there's no point in hiding it anymore. It's-"

Before Roko could finish, a giant explosion echoed out over the distance.

"What was that?" Roko frowned.

"That's in the direction of where the questing beast was being held right?" Kaguya noted, "Probably just an accident in handling it. It can be pretty temperamental."

"Hm. Makes sense."

Another explosion broke out in a completely different place.

"And where's that one?" Roko asked.

"That..." Kaguya frowned, "That's in the direction of where Gaurav is being held isn't it?"

"...Oh no..."

All of a sudden, Stephen burst into the courtyard with a panicked look on his face, "Princess Amathea's been kidnapped!"

"Oh come on!" Roko cried.