Then Rius was…unchanged. Lifeless and unmoving. He tried activating his Sirilion’s Eyes, but it only brought spiking and pulsating pain in his eyes instead.

After recovering from the pain, he turned to the knight. “I think it failed, sir.”

The knight didn’t respond, and just stared at him in obvious confusion. He stood up, taking off some dirt and grass that sticked on his leather pants, before approaching the knight. He crouched to meet him at eye-level.

“I’ll call Amé—my uncle,” he said. “You know us de Silvas; maybe you’ll recognize him, too. He can help you.”

“Your dog…” the knight said.

“Yes, sir. It’s unfortunate, but—” he cleared his throat, as some lump kept on blocking it. “—the dead can’t really return to life.”

“No…” he shook his head slowly. “Have you finished…already?”

“Yes…?” Nero got confused. “It took so long, though. I think half a day even…”

While talking, he looked around him.

He realized that time didn’t really move. It was still morning—not afternoon, and the sun was shining down without respect. Why hadn’t he realized it sooner? But then, what he just experienced—that long, long hours…it wasn’t like that in reality? Why, had his time dilated?

This mystery, however, was set aside when some changes started happening to Rius.

Suddenly, the dog’s body flashed, releasing a dense wave that bent the atmosphere as it travelled all around. Then its burned fur bleached to white color while also growing thicker. Soon, its fur turned too white it started tinging a bluish glow, and too silky it looked like it’s underwater. Then its muscles spasmed, as if it was dreaming. A few while later, it stopped.

Nero immediately approached Rius; the dog, surprisingly, was breathing normally. He patted its head; its fur didn’t just look silky and fluffy but felt like too. Then suddenly, Rius woke up; its eyes, which used to be brown, was now pigmented like a melted metal, blazing and warm to look at. But quickly, its fur and eyes returned to their original looks and colors—short and black, droopy and brown, respectively, like that of typical pet dogs.

It started and got up suddenly. It looked at him, then at the knight, then back to him, then stood and growled at the knight.

Nero couldn’t help himself but hug his revived dog. “How’re you, boy? Were you scared? Where did you go, silly?” It returned his warmth by wagging its tail; though it never took off its gaze upon the injured stranger.

Nero looked at the knight, smiling, to thank him for the second life he gave to Rius. But his attention was caught by a figure—who he recognized as his Uncle Amé despite having poor eyesight—which at that moment had climbed the cliff, approaching them.

“Amé!” Nero greeted, smiling. Rius wagged its tail and approach the inventor. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve detected a large amount of mana influx here…” The stout inventor glanced at the injured knight for a short while; they shared a moment of silent gaze. Then he turned to him again and asked, “What happened here?”

So, Nero told everything that had transpired in details—from the moment he left in the morning, when he bought the aether sand from Laiz, how he healed an unfortunate girl hit by merchant’s manacart (emphasizing that he used mana pearls, and not his own mana-extracting skill), then when he passed through the foothill road Rius went here, then an explosion occurred, and then the dog actually was killed by it, but then there was the injured knight which he tried to heal with all the aether sand he bought (now, mumbling that he did use his mana-extracting skill this time), but he failed, then how this knight gave him an aether crystal (he looked for it, but everything beyond a meter from his eyes was a blur) and how he extracted the mana out of it to revive Rius—and that it worked!

“As you can see!” he ended his narrative in excitement, pointing to his revived dog, who wagged its tail again and dropped its ears, with body slightly wiggling.

But, among all the peculiar things he had told, his uncle chose to ask: “So, you haven’t brought any aether sand?”

“Ah. Yeah…” He was a bit taken aback.

Amé handed him a (somehow) clean white towel, and this time a pouch of pirasos. “Go, and buy me some again. But, clean yourself first.”

He stared at his uncle. He couldn’t fathom what the old man was thinking; passed his green-grey eyes was nothing. His face, although frowning and a bit stern, wasn’t really showing any emotion, not even surprise.

“You know…he knew us—this knight—he knew us de Silvas.”

“Right.”

“So…do you know him? I think… I’ll need a lot of aether sand to save him. Despite his situation, his body’s situation, his mana core’s actually—”

“I know him,” Amé interrupted. “I’ll take care of him. Go, buy me a kilo of aether sand.”

“Oh…you really need some, huh.”

Nero stared at his uncle, trying to see something—anything—but he could find none. Still, there was this foreboding feeling, that if he went now…

“Go, now,” Amé insisted.

“Is everything all right, uncle?” he asked.

“Of course, kid.”

“I can trust your words?”

“Absolutely.”

Absolutely. His uncle never used this word. Ever. As an inventor, this old man had instilled in him the unpredictability of all phenomena, that nothing is absolute. Him going against his own words… This just worried Nero even more. But his uncle was stubborn—his lips were tight. Even if he poked his mouth, he’s sure he wouldn’t tell whatever it was which he was hiding. With a heavy heart, he let go of his aimless worry and decided to just trust his uncle’s words. For now.

Bringing Rius with him, he went back to the market.