Accepting Freyya's Cake again

Prella Vanteri is sitting in a carriage, and she's holding looking dutifully out the window to avoid eye contact with the other person with her in the carriage.

There, sitting across from her, is Haalfrin.

"Tell me, Prella... Why'd you agree to take me to the capitol? I thought you didn't like me."

Prella looks back at him and smiles, "Oh, the Duke and I both agreed that in order to show the emperor our sincerity, one of us would need to come personally. The Duke is awfully busy with preplanned meetings, and you left him very little time to change his schedule. That left me."

"Oh? So you didn't have a choice then," Haalfrin clarifies.

"...I could've said no," Prella corrects him. "However, I think you're misunderstanding a few things. I don't HATE you. I'm just scared of you."

"You're holding up rather well," Haalfrin nods at her with approval. "You don't LOOK that scared. You sound pretty normal, too."

"That's all thanks to Eli," Prella smiles. "Dear girl. My niece has been using her spirit magic to repair some of the parts of my spirit that you bruised with your Death Aura."

"Those injuries still haven't gone away?" Haalfrin raises an eyebrow."

"You know as well as eye," Prella sighs. "Injuries to the spirit usually take time to manifest properly, and they don't completely heal if left alone. They just learn to hide themselves."

"True..."

The carriage descends into an awkward silence. Neither of them has much else to talk with each other about.

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Maybe it's because they're riding in a carriage with the Vanteri logo on it, but as far as Haalfrin can tell, they're not attacked by any wild bandits at all, despite going through some rather lawless countryside.

Well, that would be the case, but one day....

"Sir... ma'am," comes the carriage driver's voice from outside. "There's a log blocking the road."

"It's an ambush," Haalfrin huffs while crossing his arms. He could already feel their auras with his Spirit magic, but he didn't say anything before, since he was expecting them to let this carriage pass. "Who'd be stupid enough to attack a duke's carriage?"

"They're probably not normal bandits," Prella assures him. "Assassinations in the countryside usually are posed as bandit attacks. Well, I was expecting this much at least when I left the house so brazenly."

"Ugh. Stay inside. I'll take care of it," Haalfrin says as he steps out of the carriage itself.

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When Haalfrin goes out to confront the "bandits," he quickly learns that Prella's guess is correct. The bandits immediately loose their arrows on the carriage while ignoring him - not even bother trying to extort money from them first.

If these were normal bandits, they'd want to get rid of the big guy with a weapon first, instead of trying to kill the people in the carriage.

Prella is still a 4th gate mage, so she's more than strong enough to make a barrier around the carriage against simple arrows.

Once the first volley of arrows is over with, several mages launch lightning strikes at the carriage. It's as if the arrow volley was just to test to make sure that Prella was really inside there.

Still, only one of the mages gets to launch his attack spell before Haalfrin tugs on their Spirit Threads and rips them from their bodies - killing all of the "bandits" in a single second.

Once the forest is quiet once again, Haalfrin goes off the road and sits on a rock. He then closes his eyes and waits patiently.

"Ma'am?" the carriage driver asks the acting Duchess, "Why isn't Sir Haalfrin coming in the carriage? Shouldn't we get going before more assassins show up?"

"Just wait," Prella Vanteri commands the servant. "He's waiting for someone."

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A few minutes later, Haalfrin sees black aura condense in the forest, and he knows that Freyya has descended to this world again.

Sensing that she's here, he stands up and walks into the forest to find her.

"Freyya!" Haalfrin calls out, "I see you're busy."

"Yeah... I'm busy," Freyya says as she's stuffing yet another unwilling soul into her black lantern. "I have time to talk, though. What's up?"

"Oh, I just wanted to say hi."

"Where're you going, anyway?" Freyya asks while eyeing the carriage in the distance.

"I'm going through the world gate," Haalfrin tells her.

"Oh?" Freyya raises an eyebrow. "You know how dangerous that world is. You sure you want to go?"

"I wouldn't be going if I wasn't sure," Haalfrin softly chuckles. "Anyway, how's work been?"

"The same. All these souls always act the same when they die!" Freyya sighs in frustration as she wags her lantern in Haalfrin's face. "They always whine about how they don't want to go."

"So... about the Threshold," Freyya asks, "Are you going to be a soldier there?"

"No," Haalfrin says firmly. "I'm just passing through."

"Why not be a soldier?" Freyya suggests. "It would suit you quite well."

"I said no," he insists. "I'm not fond of Brancotte, and I don't feel like being anyone's lapdog."

"What about me?" Freyya asks meaningfully. "I sense several of your Spirit Threads for me that feel different. What've you been up to? What does it have to do with me?"

Without skipping a beat, Haalfrin says, "I want to give my Reh Name to you."

Freyya closes her eyes and breathes in. "Before that, there's something I need to confess to you."

"What is it?"

"Haalfrin... I told you that I know about your future quite a bit, right...?" She breathes in deeply and carefully organizes her thoughts.

"I...," she continues, "I've known for a long time that as long as you go to the Otherworld, you'll most likely end up becoming my Contracted partner. You'll grow up to become a Death god at my side."

She looks down and coughs uncomfortably.

"Since long before I met you, I'd been looking forward to that day I found my Contracted Partner. When we exchanged Yiir Names so long ago, I knew my Contractor was going to be you..."

She shuffles her feet. "I've known for a long time how my Contract was supposed to come about. However, out of respect for keeping the timeline straight and untampered with, I tried my best to keep it to myself and not deviate my actions from Fate's designs."

She sighs. "When I confessed my desire to make a Reh Contract with you, that was out of line. That wasn't when I was supposed to do it."

"Why'd you do it, then?" Haalfrin asks meaningfully.

"I got impatient. I'd lived by myself in that tree stump for so long, and I was tired of it." She shakes her head. "No. Now's not the time to exchange Reh Names. I won't try to tamper with Fate again."

Haalfrin furrows an eyebrow. "But... Are you sure? It would be so easy to get it over with."

"Your heart isn't quite ready yet. Plus... Well... You'll understand when the time comes why you need to give me your Reh Name later."

She then gestures with her head towards the carriage. "I have to go. And..." She hands him a small box. "Take this." Immediately, she winks out of this world - leaving only a small remnant of dissipating Death Aura behind her.

Haalfrin opens the small box and finds a slice of chocolate cake nestled inside.