3

Just when things seemed to be winding down another problem was added to his seemingly never-ending list.

It didn't take much time to realize the insignia the girl mentioned was important, the way Reinhard shot off questions about the thief's appearance and the location of the crime cemented that fact really quick, even if Arthur himself could only make out that the thief was a female.

It was almost comical how a single statement broke the calm facade he had kept during their confrontation with each other.

"You know you don't have to come with us, right?" The silver-haired girl reasoned shyly, her voice drifting into his ear from somewhere on his left.

After the girl's admission to losing this insignia, Reinhard wasted no time in offering his help to the girl, which she hesitantly agreed too. Resolutely he had offered his support as well, something that she was adamant to deny, even after he followed them out of the alleyway and down the street they were now on.

"I'm aware," Arthur acknowledged, nothing was forcing him to come with them after all.

"But then why are you attempting to help me?" she inquired, idly fiddling with her hands as Reinhard led them down the street, "I can't let you help me after I attacked you…"

"I'm not helping you," Arthur countered, continuing after noticing her expectant gaze, "I have a bit of a debt with Reinhard you see, I have to pay him back for some minor damage I caused to a wall," he continued dryly, stifling a chuckle after seeing the tips of her pointed ears flare pink. "Might as well start early, right?"

"I suppose…" she conceded, looking anywhere but himself.

Reinhard walked slightly in front of them but easily within earshot, nevertheless, he had not spoken once during the conversation. It was all too clear he was focused entirely on the situation at hand, likely trying to think of a solution to this mess.

It was a problem that he, himself, often suffered from.

Their journey continued without note until they reach their destination, which was apparently a local guard station. Reinhard quickly explained that he was going to check to see if there were any similar incidents in order to hopefully narrow down the thief, leaving the two of them to wait outside.

"So," Arthur spoke, gaining the attention of his accomplice as they sat on a bench across from the guard station, "I never did ask why your first action after locating your apparent thief was to attack them."

"It wasn't," the girl fidgeted in the seat, uncomfortable with the question, "It was actually Puck that suggested it. I had already been chasing her for tens of minutes you see, and we could only hear voices from inside the alley and he said that if the girl ran like she did when she originally stole it from me that this might be our last chance to catch her."

"Puck?"

"My contracted spirit, he's actually the Great Spirit of Fire," the girl admitted proudly as her discomfort fled her, "You met him earlier."

Oh, the cat.

So that cat was a spirit he mused, it would explain how it was able to seemingly disappear as they left the alleyway, leaving the girl with only a goodbye.

Some partner it was.

"Your spirit told you to attack first?" Arthur spoke, receiving a nod from the girl, "Perhaps I should be angry at him instead then." Arthur conceded.

"You don't have to, it's my fault." She muttered, her good mood evaporating as fast as it came.

"You definitely deserve part of the blame," Arthur concurred, "but only part, in the end the situation was resolved peacefully, so why don't we put it behind us." Seeing the girl's hesitant nod he added, "Arthur Pendragon, at your service."

"Emilia, Just Emilia." She breathed.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, each lost in their respective thoughts until a line Emilia spoke earlier surfaced in his mind.

… Ran like she did when she originally stole it from me…

The line nagged at Arthur's mind the more he thought of it, and with nothing else to do it didn't take long for him to give into his curiosity and asked about it.

"She was incredibly fast." Emilia explained, "It was almost as if the wind itself was assisting her. One second she was snatching the insignia from me and the next she was halfway down the street."

Almost like the wind was assisting her, his mind flashed to the event that brought him the alley in the first place… surely it couldn't be… could it?

"Did she by chance have golden hair?" Arthur asked, hoping his question to be brushed aside.

Instead, Emilia was on him in an instant, throwing question and question, "It was! How do you know?! Have you met her before? Do you know where she is!?"

"She nearly ran into me in the street, I was forced to use mana to get out of the way and It had the unfortunate effect of me becoming the unofficial center of attention, I was in the alley to escape that."

Why would she run into an alley when she was so much faster than her pursuers, she easily could have escaped down a main road, finding more targets would have been easier.

Unless she wasn't going to rob anyone else.

Arthur rose to his feet as the thought occurred to him before pointing in the opposite direction the girl was heading, "Correct me if I'm wrong Emilia, but would I be correct in guessing the palace resided somewhere over there?"

"More or less," Emilia answered, "I was there earlier today but I only arrived in the capital early today, so I couldn't tell you exactly where it's at."

At the capital earlier today? Arthur pondered; Reinhard did address her as 'Lady Emilia' but she didn't strike me as a noble…

"And I take it the nobility live closer to the castle as well?"

"mhmm," she nodded.

Well then, Arthur thought with finality, It can't be a stretch to say the reverse is true.

"Well then let's be off," Arthur requested, motioning for her to stand up and follow him.

"What do you mean!?" she questioned, after flying out of her seat as Arthur started to leisurely stroll down the street.

"The fastest path to your insignia lies with me." Arthur alluded as he walked, not bothering to stop.

The soft pitter-patter of footsteps echoing off of the stone road was his only hint at Emilia's response.

It took her less time than he expected for her to catch up to him, despite the fact that the two had to weave through crowds, in fact it almost seemed as if the people on the street seemed to try and actively avoid her.

How odd, I wonder who exactly I've stumbled upon.

"What do you mean you're the fastest path to my insignia? And what about Reinhard." The girl asked throwing a glance behind her to the guard post that could barely be seen through the crowds of people.

"You gave me all the information I needed to know to guess where your insignia might be," Arthur hinted, not bothering to give her a definitive answer, "And I wouldn't worry about Reinhard, I'm sure he will understand that time was of the essence."

He wasn't lying when he said this, Reinhard's kindness seemed to be on a whole different level from anyone else he had met, honestly who casually goes around insisting on paying others' property destruction bills? There was, however, another reason for leaving the knight behind that Arthur didn't mention.

He had to have been able to sense me, Arthur mused as he and his companion made their way farther down the street. His timing was too perfect, finding me in a lone alley, right after I used the smallest hint of mana, was just screaming foul play.

His reasoning was simple, he had been using a small amount of mana to constantly reinforce his body even since they left the alley, if Reinhard somehow met up with them again, it would only be possible if he was able to follow his mana trail, coincidences don't happen twice.

He'd be lying if he said he didn't feel bad using Reinhard as a glorified guanine pig, but information like this would prove invaluable for him to understand this world as a whole.

Market stands adorned the street for a bit, before slowly disappearing leaving only the crowds of people vying for passage up or down the street.

As the two made their way farther down the street, heading in the opposite direction from the palace, the building slowly started to morph into simpler and simpler forms until they crossed into a district where the buildings seemed to cling onto their last stage of life.

Even the water under the bridge that they crossed over seemed to lose its luster as it flowed into the district.

"I'm almost sad that my guess was correct," Arthur whispered, as they passed a collapsed building.

"Your guess?" Emilia asked beside him, her attire contrasting sharply against the area around them, despite the scuffs it got in her confrontation with him.

"It's a common theme where I am from that the unfortunate live on the edges of towns, typically far away from the fortunate," Arthur explained, as they stopped next to a tree, as a few curious locals hid their stares at the two obvious outsiders. "Nobles typically don't want to look out their window and see the slums."

"So, we left Reinhard at the guard post based on a hunch," Emilia asked, her tone neither accusing or friendly, rather it was a simple observation of a fact.

"My hunches are rarely wrong."

Trusting your instincts was one of the most important skills to learn as a Knight, one that had been drilled into him before he could even think to pick up a blade.

"Isn't that irresponsible, to leave someone that could help us behind simply because you have a hunch of where it is?" Emilia admonished, causing Arthur to look around them.

"That can only be decided on whether my hunch produces results or not." Arthur lectured, as he suppressed a shutter of unease from raking through his body. It seemed the bleak and decrepit scene was starting to get to him. "Wait there, I'm going to ask around to see if I can find this thief."

"I can-"

"It's not needed," Arthur interjected with a raise of his hand, "It's going to be hard enough to get any information out of people with me dressed as a Knight, besides we don't want to risk the thief seeing you, right?"

"Right, but I feel bad for making you do all the work…"

"Don't worry about it" he waved her off, "I'm the one who offered anyhow."

He walked off, turning down a random street, if such an overgrown dirt path could be called such, leaving Emilia to wait beside the tree alone.

Well maybe not alone, perhaps the cat will return now that I'm not around, I think it would be fair to say he truly doesn't like me, The concept of the cat liking him being so outlandish that he had to stop a chuckle.

It didn't take long for him to stumble across a group of people, children to be specific, who seemed to be playing some sort of game in the street.

"Hello," Arthur called, gaining their attention, "I was wondering if you could maybe answer a question or two."

It took a moment of worried glances for one of them to muster the courage to respond.

They must be warry seeing someone dressed like a knight in front of them, I highly doubt the kingdom regularly sends them down here, my presence screams 'red flag'

One of the older children, based on his height, stepped forward, his brown hair ragged and unkept, "What…. What do you want?" The child stuttered. His voice barely audible as the rest of the children returned to their game.

"Do you by chance know where I can find a short blond-haired girl around here" Arthur crouched down in front of the boy while thinking of his short meeting with the supposed thief, "She might have also had bright red eyes." He added after looking back at the incident.

The effect was instantaneous as the boy stiffened immediately at the girl's description.

Bingo, now just for the finisher

"I've never heard of someone around here with blond hair and red eyes." The boy squeaked; his gaze fixated solely on the ground at his feet, not seeing the faint streams of smoke streaming upwards through Arthur's armor.

"I see" Arthur exhaled, rising to his feet before making a show of running his fingers throughout his hair, "I was hoping to find her before that knight did."

"That knight?" The boy asked, unable to keep the curiosity out of his voice.

"She stole something from a woman who enlisted the help of a Knight named Reinhard to help find it." Arthur explained

The boy glanced at the other kids behind him, who seemingly hadn't been paying much attention to the conversation, before inching closer to Arthur, who hadn't expected such an extreme reaction. "Rein- Reinhard… like the Sword Saint?" The boy mouthed.

He did mention being the Sword Saint didn't he? He didn't truly know what being the 'Sword Saint' entailed but it must be important if even children in the slums knew his name.

"Yeah, it won't be long before he shows up," Arthur admitted, if his hunch was correct the mana that he just released would essentially be a giant beacon for Reinhard, "I was hoping to have the situation solved before he showed up, but it seems it can't be helped…" he finished, letting his sentence trail off.

It only took the boy a second to make his choice.

"You're looking for Felt, aren't you, short, skinny, with blond hair and red eyes?" the boy asked lowly, careful to keep this fact away from the rest of the playing children.

"That sounds about right," Arthur looked down at the boy, doing his best to ignore another spike of unease, similar to the one that he had experienced at the tree with Emilia but slightly more intense. "Could you-" he stopped, as the hairs on his neck shot upwards

He wasn't even halfway done pivoting by the time a deafening crash was heard, quickly followed by a sickening crunch of shattering wood.

There was no visible damage to any of the various houses behind him, at there was no new damage.

Where did that come from… Did something potentially happen to Emilia…? I need to get back to her.

He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he walked her to her death.

"Felt…" the whisper from the boy prevented him from putting his thoughts into action, instead taking in the myriad of emotions that resided on the boy's face. "A deal must have gone bad at the loot house, it's at the end of the street, Felt's there, please help her!"

He didn't bother responding on the boy as a storm of mana started to envelop his body, in a mere moment he shot forward, tearing apart the earth at his feet, and rocketed down the street at a breakneck pace. Each step was more akin to a massive leap forward than a normal step as muffled screams echoed again sounded from the building, further pushing Arthur forward.

It only took him a few seconds to reach the building, and an instant after that his shoulder met the door sending it flying off its hinges and crashing into the opposing wall.

The scene he came upon was horrifying to say the least, the interior of the building was destroyed with chairs and tables reduced to rubble and streaks of blood littered the ground before ending at the mangled corpse of a giant man that had a very familiar thief muttering in hysterics to it.

"Old man Rom… please don't leave me, you wouldn't do that… You said you'd be there…"

It seems I was too late… I'm sorry…

The hysteric girl didn't hold his attention for long, as he turned his gaze to the third and final person in the room.

"Oh my, I was hoping to have this job completed before we got anymore guests." The women spoke in a cheerful voice, completely detached from the devastation around them, "It seems I'll have more guests to entertain!"

"Entertain… am I to take it that you're responsible for all of this?" Arthur asked, watching the women for the faintest indication of movement.

The woman appearance was similar to a doll, almost to the point that it was unnerving, her black hair hanged easily to the middle of her back and her dress barely covered any of her body, leaving little to the imagination, the only detractions from her appearance were the dagger clenched in her hand and a thin black cape that wrapped around her back that didn't quite seem to match her attire.

"And if I am will you continue to play knight? It would be a shame to end this game now wouldn't you think?"

"Personally, I'd love to end it with you going to jail, but I don't think that's going to happen, is it?" His tone was sarcastic before becoming serious, "But that wouldn't be fair to that man that you killed just now."

"How wonderful, I hope your bowels are a nice color!"

He didn't get a chance to unpackage her last sentence as she shot forward, sending her blade streaking toward his abdomen.

The strike was fast, faster than he was expecting but he still comfortably managed to dodge to the side before sending a haymaker into the side of the woman, who hadn't been expecting him to dodge, punting her across the room.

"Well, well, I wasn't expecting that," the murderer sang before shooting towards Arthur again, swiping her blade at Arthur's face who deflected it with the metal of his gauntlet.

Instead of retreating the woman used the force of the impact to send herself shooting towards the rafters of the roof before shooting back down towards Arthur who had to roll out of the way.

The girl landed splinting the wood of the floor, "You know it's rude to underestimate someone, right?" A sickening smile present on her face.

"Perhaps it is, but isn't it also rude to kill someone?" Arthur shot back; his fists raised in a typical boxer stance.

"Touché, but for a Knight of Lugunica to be unarmed it surely must mean you have something else up your sleeve."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you but I am not a Knight of Lugunica, and I simply lack a weapon currently."

"Truly?" The girl flipped her dagger, a sigh present in her voice, "And you rushed in her like a hero from a storybook, what an idiot, do you have a Deathwish?"

"Having a Deathwish would mean that I had a chance to die in this battle." His response was swift,

"Your confident for your position… we'll have to fix that, won't we?"

Again, the girl rushed towards him, swinging her blade with extreme force at Arthur's chest, who moved to counter it, her strike however, stopped suddenly as she pivoted on a foot before sending a kick straight into his chest, sending him skidding across the floor.

He didn't get a chance to recover as a glint of light shimmered above him, forcing him on the defensive as an innumerable number of attacks descended upon him.

The only thing that could be heard was the sharp sound of metal meeting metal as sparks started to fly in the air, the pressure from the blows sending dust flying off the walls and Arthur's blue surcoat to aggressively flutter.

Despite all the attacks blocked using them, the armored gauntlets remained immaculate, not a single scratching adoring its polished surface.

"Tch," The woman clicked her tongue before disengaging and retreating a few paces.

The two remained still, observing the other, each waiting for the other to break the stalemate that they found themselves in.

She's fast, and quite strong.

Arthur moved first, grabbing a mostly intact chair nearby and throwing it at his opponent, who easily dodged the makeshift projectile, but was subsequently unable to dodge the blow that burrowed deep into her chest, easily drawing blood, before sending her flying as the unmistakable sounds of shattering bones filled the room.

The woman hit the wall with a resounding thud before sliding to the floor, where she lay unmoving.

But that doesn't make her anything special, Arthur finished, the blue of his right sleeve stained red with the woman's blood.

Typically, his next action would be to checkup on Felt, who was still muttering to herself over the corpse of the Old man, seemingly called Rom. However, despite the injuries he just dealt to the women, injuries that would permanently cripple a few lucky people and outright kill the rest, something was telling him that this fight wasn't over.

Indeed, only a few seconds later the body of the woman started to move again, rising to its feet, the murderous violet eyes of the women meeting the calm green of Arthur's as the injury to her chest slowly started to disappear.

"Maybe, it was I who underestimated you," the woman muttered, wiping blood off of her face, but it was still loud enough for Arthur to hear it.

"Then I recommend you surrender," Arthur advised, his stance not relaxing in the slightest, as his mind started to work overtime.

Does she have some type of pseudo-immortality, she should have died from that strike…

"Now where's the fun in that?" The woman drawled, before whipping her arm, sending the dagger in her hand streaking towards Arthur, who lazily deflected with a whip of his own arm, unknowingly playing right into the women's trap.

The minute that Arthur's hand crossed his face to block the incoming dagger, the woman had swiftly leaped towards him, drawing another blade from her cloak, and was mere feet away from Arthur before he realized his mistake.

He had become predictable, using the same gauntlet to deflect the women's strikes, a weakness she exploited by throwing her dagger in a way that would force him to temporarily block his own vision while deflecting the blade.

He no longer had enough time to dodge, and any counteract would come too late. It was checkmate.

At least it would have been, for a normal human.

Smoke secreted from his armor, as his mana surged throughout his body reinforcing it to the point that it became harder than the armor he was wearing.

The knife impacted Arthur's neck, the force of the impact sending debris sailing around the room, the minute the blade of the knife met the reinforced skin of Arthur's neck it shattered, sending glistening metal shards through the air, but succeeding in knocking Arthur several feet away into a wall headfirst.

"Dammit, that hurts!" Arthur shouted clenched holding his head in his hands.

"I would imagine it did, getting struck in the side of the head with the pommel of a Sword isn't met to be enjoyable." Responded a soft, almost angelic like voice, at least, only if you could look past the obvious smugness in it.

"I knew you'd enjoy this… Are you secretly a sadist or something?" Arthur murmured, finally raising his head, regretting accepting the offer to train with her.

"Are you insisting that I enjoy hurting my sweet little Arthur." The women pouted in a tone like one would talk to a dog, her ethereal white hair, that perfectly matched her billowing robes, gently flowed in the wind.

"Don't talk to me like I'm a dog Merlin, it's only making my head pound harder."

Up until this point it had been a routine day, he had woken up, attended to his court, and attempted to solve the newest problems that plagued his domain, it all derailed when, shortly after lunch, he was whisked away from his duties by his eccentric court mage, who swiftly banished his hurried denials by convincing him that she would be teaching him something new.

"Well, mayyybe if someone hadn't gotten their only weapon taken from them you wouldn't have this headache in the first place, I mean, I didn't have a sword in the first place soooo…." She cheekily responded, drawing out a few words.

"Yeah, yeah, I get the message, 'don't let your opponent disarm you' but was it really necessary to hit me with my own sword?" Arthur complained, still furiously massaging the side of his head.

"Completely," She countered, her smile never fading, "You should not have allowed me to possess it, so it's your fault."

"What-," Arthur sputtered incredulously, his dumbfounded look becoming one that Merlin would never forget, "I tried! But I couldn't get close enough to you without using my mana to increase my speed, something you expressly banned might I remind you!"

"So? You should have summoned it out of my hand, unless…" Her voice trailed off, while the biggest shit-eating grin erupted on her face, almost like she had stumbled across one of the world's biggest secrets. "That's it isn't it, you secretly just love being beaten with your own sword, you couldn't get enough of it could you!" Her lavender eye's sparkled with mirth.

"Summon it out of your hand what-," His question getting cut off by the pommel of Excalibur once again slamming into the side of his head.

"Who am I to deny such passion." Merlin sang, as she repeatedly slammed the pommel of the legendary blade against his skull.

"What- Merlin- Don't- Keep- Stop-," Arthur attempted to interject only to get continuously interrupted, muddling his request into a stream of intelligible mess.

Merlin stopped for a moment, holding the sword outstretched in her right hand, giving Arthur a momentary sense of peace, before cocking her head to the side and hovering a single figure from her right hand in front of her mouth that would have been oddly cute if it wasn't for her next words, "Don't stop…" she muttered sending a resurgence of dread through Arthur, "Well if you insist," she beamed before Arthur could stop her, resuming her strikes.

With a roar, Arthur's anger burst forth as he forcefully grabbed her arm with a burst of mana, "I said stop!"

Merlin's lip started to tremble after hearing Arthur's' furious roar, "I'm sorry," she apologized, her voice high pitched, and her eyes started to water.

Arthur's anger dissipated as soon as the first tears started to leak from her eyes, and he was unable to find it in him to look her at her, even if his head was still throbbing, she didn't deserve to-

Splitting pain erupted again as the same feeling of getting hit with the pommel of his sword overtook him, causing him to instinctively meet Merlin's unobstructed lavender eyes.

"I do believe that's my point." Merlin giggled, as if she hadn't been crying earlier.

It took Arthur a few moments to realize that he'd been had.

"You used illusion magic to fake that didn't you." He breathed; his emerald eyes locked on Merlin.

"And you deserved it, you really could have made a pretty maiden like me cry, tch, that's unacceptable you know." Merlin lectured, as if the matter was of great importance, "How are you ever going to snag a queen if you act like that?"

"My dating life aside," Arthur deflected, trying to stay as far away from that topic as possible, "You mentioned earlier that I should have 'summoned the sword out of your hands' how do you expect me to do that?"

Thankfully She decided to answer his question instead of pushing the attack, "Summon it out of my hands, it's pretty simple, I don't think I need to elaborate on that. But if it helps think of it as if you are reaching to grab it out of the air in front of you"

"But that's impossible, especially for me, I'm hopeless with magic, remember?" Arthur begged, he was ready for today to end, not for him to showcase his hopelessness with typical magic.

"So, you'd quit before even attempting it?" Merlin questioned her eyes seemingly staring into Arthur's very soul.

"If it wasn't impossible I wouldn't-,"

"But it isn't," Merlin interrupted, the handle of Excalibur now clenched tightly in her grip, "From the minute that you hand touched this blade it became one with you, it's position matters not, its distance matters not, no matter how far away you are, so long as you still draw breath you can summon this blade to your side. Now, summon your blade out of my grip and fight!"

In that moment Arthur's hand flexed, he didn't worry about the woman that was currently charging at him, he didn't hear the steady sound of frantic footsteps coming from outside the building, and he didn't worry about the fact that he was in a world completely different from his own, his mind was too occupied in realizing Merlin's word's that such trivial things seemed to pale in significance to the task at hand.

His arm reached out in front of him, his palm still facing the ground, before it gripped the air, like he was gripping a blade before drawing it towards him.

"Arthur! What's going on- ," Emilia called having finally arrived, only to see Arthur's hand gripping the air before drawing his hand back and acting like he was swinging a sword at the women.

Chaos' erupted in the loot house as the woman's arm that held her dagger was suddenly cut off near the elbow, the women narrowly dodged a second blow aimed for her other arm before she retreated to the opposite end of the room.

"Will you surrender now?" Arthur questioned, ignoring Emilia for now, his gaze fixated on the women, as blood dripped from the invisible blade that he was wielding.

Although he didn't look it, he was incredibly surprised he managed to summon Excalibur, it was something that he had never achieved despite Merlin's training, let alone doing it in a separate world, the only thing he could do previously was let the sword fade into the wind, allowing him to draw it freely whenever he wanted.

"I'm afraid I-,"

"I'd highly recommend you accept his offer." Another voice rang out, as a certain red-haired knight entered from the ruined doorway stopping only after he passed Emilia, his gaze stopping momentarily on Felt and the mutilated corpse of the man, before finishing in a monotone voice, "After what you did to this man, his offer is extremely lenient."

The women's gaze fluctuated between Reinhard and Arthur before it ultimately settled on Arthur, "You got lucky this time boy, save your guts for me." She snarled, before throwing herself through a window behind her.

Arthur made a motion to chase her, but an arm stopped him before he could follow.

"If we chase her now, we will be endangering everyone in the capital, It's better to let her leave." Reinhard advised; his face expressionless.

"I suppose," Arthur sighed, letting his arms fall to his sides while releasing his grip on Excalibur, allowing it to fade into the air. "We did accomplish our goal at least."

"What happened?" Emilia blurted, "You never came back to the tree and then Puck started to detect extreme amounts of mana, eventually we left to track it down and found you here."

"I…" Arthur started, before remembering the sight that greeted him when busted through the door, "I'll tell you in a bit, I've got to check on someone first."

Leaving Reinhard and Emilia to talk between themselves, Arthur slowly approached Felt, who was now quietly sitting next to the man's corpse, softly crying into her hands.

She stirred at his approach before raising her head after he kneeled in front of her, "I'm sorry." Arthur began, knowing that if he would have been faster, he could have saved the man's life.

"So am I," the girl admitted, her voice high pitched, "I'm sorry that he gave up his life in order to save mine. Why would he do that."

"Because he loved you," Arthur answered, It was clear that the two of them had shared a bond, her reaction to his death cemented that fact, "He staked his death on giving you a chance to live, a chance that succeeded, all you have to do now is live, that's all he could ever want for you."

His words seemingly reached her as she leapt forward, wrapping her arms around him before softly crying into his shoulder, it definitely wasn't the reaction he was expecting, but anything was better than the hysterics she was in earlier, while he wasn't comfortable with hugging someone, he'd gladly force himself this once, he owed it to the girl after all.

The two stayed like that for a time under Emilia and Reinhard, who had momentarily left to inform the guard before quickly returning, eventually Felt's breathing slowly evened out and she slumped completely against him.

"She's out cold," Arthur informed the other's as he started to move before he was distracted by something falling to the ground.

The object in question was easily identifiable, even if he had never seen it before, It was a small badge that had a red gem in the center, honestly, it looked kind of bland considering all of the trouble he'd gone through to help her recover it.

He nimbly grabbed it before laying Felt on the floor, making sure she was out of eyesight of the corpse.

"I've got what we were looking for," Arthur announced as he made his way towards the other two, "It didn't go as smoothly as I hoped but, we recovered it nevertheless." Arthur extended the shining Insignia out to Emilia who gingerly took it out of her hand, almost like she was afraid of it walking off, before stowing it away inside her dress.

"Arthur," Reinhard spoke, his gaze lingering on his outstretched hand, "Could you come with me back to my estate, I'd like to discuss something with you…"

His words caused Emilia to visibly deflate, who had planned on giving him the same offer.

"This is about repaying you for the wall, isn't it?" Arthur questioned before shaking his head, "Not matter, but could I request one thing?" He asked before continuing after receiving a nod, "Can we bring Felt along?"

He would have asked the question regardless, as the thought of leaving the girl was one he never considered, however, something more than knightly duty was compelling him to ask.

He felt an odd amount of kinship with the girl, her entire life had been flipped upside down in a single instant, something he was intimately familiar with, and despite knowing he couldn't have known about the assassin, something was causing his chest to beat harder than it ever had before, like it knew a monumental opportunity was invisibly fading in front of him.

It was not dissimilar to a moment in battle, where a choice could save a dying comrade in front of you, yet Felt was not dying, and he was incapable of reviving the dead.

His vision wandered to the corpse of the giant for a moment, soaking in the visage of the dead man before looking away for the final time, offering a silent prayer to the wind.

I'm sorry I couldn't save you.

The burning sensation in his chest faded like a dying ember as it met his resolve, but even then, his chest remained hollow, his soul seeming to rage at him that he hadn't done the impossible, that he hadn't clawed the man's soul back into the waking world.

"That doesn't sound like a problem to me," Reinhard answered, a soft smile present on his face.