"Haa…"

I took a long breath, staring at the world outside. The scorching white sun still hung over the grey sky, while the subtle yet familiar heat radiated from above.

I looked around me. Towards the broken buildings and the soldiers that appeared around.

I looked at their gleaming silver armours, their polished plates reflecting the glaring white sun as they stood under the heat with their backs straight.

Everything felt so familiar and yet so strange.

I stared at my own hands, squeezing them a couple of times.

There was no lag in my movements, and I could feel that I was now the only soul inside this body.

'I'm glad I didn't lose my memories after using the blood again.'

It had been one of my greatest worries when doing all of this, but it was also true that I had prepared for it as I turned my head to face the right. A certain figure had appeared beside me before I knew it.

"..."

He stood in silence, his clothes quietly fluttering under the hot breeze of the Mirror Dimension.

His grey eyes focused towards the distance for a short while until he turned his attention back towards me.

The moment he did, it almost felt as though the surroundings paused.

I stared back at him, and a few words slipped past my mouth before I knew it, "You look exhausted."

He truly did.

Not only did he have glaring dark circles beneath his eyes, but his face was unusually pale.

He seemed to have gone through a lot while I was gone.

"…I am."

Leon answered after a moment's pause, his grey eyes turning slightly hazy as he turned his attention towards the distance once more.

"I'm really tired…" He mumbles, causing my heart to squeeze. I knew that I was partially responsible for his tiredness.

'No, I'm very much the reason why he's so tired.'

I really owed him quite a lot.

I didn't need to read his thoughts to know he was beyond tired.

I wanted to rest too, but I couldn't afford to do that. There were a lot of things that I needed to do.

"Are you… really going to leave so soon?" Leon asked, as if understanding my thoughts. His voice was soft, but the tiredness was even more clear than before.

I nodded, pressing my hand over his shoulder and using my emotive magic to calm his mind.

I could at least do this much.

"Yes, I'll probably leave soon. Based on what you've told me, three years have passed since I disappeared. That's a lot of time. There's so much that I need to do in the meantime."

A lot of things had changed, and the world almost felt foreign to me.

No, not just the world…

My body too.

'I don't know what to think about the current state of my body.'

I could tell that I had reached the Eighth Tier and that Julien had managed to shatter one of the domains and agglomerate it with the real world.

However, I could also feel my emotive domain.

It was still present, and I had a feeling that I could also integrate it with the real world.

To some extent, it felt as though I was half a step into the eighth tier.

I could officially be recognised as an Eight-Tier mage, but at the same time, I had no real control over the agglomerated domain. At least, not as much as my emotive domain.

'…I feel like I will have a large boost in my power if I manage to increase and agglomerate my own domain.'

I wasn't quite sure about my age, but if my estimates were correct, I was most likely around 24 to 25 years old.

My current pace of progress was in line with Delilah's.

However, it would still take years before I caught up to her.

'Right. For now, let's just focus on agglomerating my current domain.'

Everything else was secondary.

I had already come up with a concept for it in the past, but with everything that had happened, I'd have to start again from scratch.

It was originally supposed to be something that I did with my combined domains, but things were now a little bit more difficult.

'This is really troublesome.'

It was still doable, but just a lot more annoying.

I hated annoying things.

Shifting my thoughts back to Leon, who had remained quiet since I had last spoken, I opened my mouth to speak.

"What about you? Are you going to remain here or go back to your Empire? I heard that the situation there wasn't good. It might be—"

"They can take care of themselves without any problem." Leon cut me off, his voice almost a whisper. He looked a little bit better than before as he turned his attention towards the ground beneath him. "In fact, you can even say that my presence might make things more difficult for them."

"Oh…"

I didn't really understand what he meant by this, but I pretended to understand.

"The main reason why the Empire is in such turmoil is because of my presence. There have been several assassins coming for me lately, so I've only made things more difficult for my family. Staying low and quiet is the best thing I can do while I wait for Amell to accumulate his power and seize the throne."

"Oh…"

I had been thinking about this for a while, but Leon really had no thirst for power. Despite the perfect opportunity presenting itself to him, he didn't think for one second about battling it for the throne.

I was almost certain that Amell would even give it to Leon if he wanted it.

'I guess he really doesn't care much about power.'

This…

It really did fit Leon's character a lot.

"Then are you going to stay here to help Aoife and the others to take control—"

"No."

Leon cut me off again, his attention shifting back to me as the corner of his lips pulled into a thin smile.

"I'll be coming with you."

"….."

There were a lot of things that I expected Leon to say, and this wasn't one of them. He wants to come with me…? After everything he had gone through? I almost thought of him as a fool, but then again, thinking about how Leon was, this made sense.

He really was a fool.

And somehow…

I couldn't help but smile upon hearing his words.

"I take it that you're still not tired of being my knight."

"No, I am."

The smile quickly wiped off my face.

"I'm really tired. I think I deserve a raise. Give me a raise."

This guy…

"Absolutely not."

"Trash bastard. Give me my damn raise."

"Tras—what? What did you just say? That's not how you should talk to your employer. You're fired."

"You've long stopped paying me."

"Huh? Really…?"

"Yes."

I blinked my eyes slowly. Thinking about it, that might really be the case. I hadn't been present for three years. I used to pay his salary. Well… Noel did.

It looked like Linus never paid him.

Wait…

"There's a lot of back pay."

I started to shiver, taking a step back while looking at Leon. My eyes unconsciously narrowed.

"How much are we talking about…?"

I somehow didn't want to hear the number.

"Taking into consideration how the pay is based on the strength of the knight, alongside the things that I did for you over the past three years, I'd say—"

"Let me stop you right there."

Somehow, I didn't want to hear the number. It felt as though I'd get a heart attack if I did.

"Fifty mil—"

"It's a good day today, isn't it?"

"….The sky is grey."

"Yeah, a good day for the Mirror Dimension."

"….."

Leon's eyes narrowed, his expression seemingly about to say, 'You changed the topic to avoid hearing how much you owe me, right?'

I averted my gaze away from him.

This delusional fucker.

I'd never do something like that.

I was a good and honest—

"Here."

Leon casually tossed me a certain item as I caught it. Turning my attention towards it, I stopped before looking back at Leon.

"I've kept it well. You can have it back."

"Right…"

I looked at the small tube in my hand and clenched it tightly. Within it was my blood.

It was an amount that I had extracted in the past and had given to Leon to keep.

This was also the main reason why I had been able to keep my memories despite using Noel's blood to restore my body.

While there still was a lot of my old blood inside this body, the amount was a lot lower due to me extracting a bit in the past.

Opening the cork, I chugged the blood into my body as the veins inside my body started to throb and churn.

I closed my eyes and relished in the sensation before opening my eyes again.

There was no clear change after drinking the blood, but I felt a lot clearer-headed than before.

I also felt a small sting coming from my right forearm.

'Not bad. With this, I should be in top shape.'

I felt very good.

Looking back at Leon, I was just about to speak when a certain voice cut me off.

"Tha—"

"Are you two done talking?"

I turned my attention towards the source of the voice, spotting Aoife, Kiera, and Evelyn walking in my direction, each of them looking more refreshed as they wore brand-new armours.

Looking at them, it almost felt as though they were getting ready to go on a long trip.

'…I wonder where they're going.'

I was curious, but I didn't ask much.

"We're more or less done."

"Yeah."

Leon nodded, pressing his forehead and squinting his eyes.

"I'm feeling a little tired, but it should be enough to move."

"You want to move now?"

I looked at Leon in surprise. I was fine with going now, but Leon looked like he'd stumble over at any second.

This didn't feel like a great idea…

"Now? Well, that works well too, I guess." Overhearing Aoife's mutter, I turned my head in her direction. What did she just say…?

I suddenly had a bad premonition.

"I'm also feeling pretty good. I'm good to go."

"Yeah…"

Licking my lips, I alternated my gaze between the three of them.

"Haha." A nervous laugh escaped my lips at the same time.

"Where are the three of you going?"

"Hm?"

All three girls stopped while looking at them.

Then, staring at me with an expression that seemed to say, 'Isn't it obvious…?', I felt my heart sink.

"With you, no?"

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