Late into the night, the guards brought the prisoners back into their cells. Only a few windows showed off the starless night, a cold breeze flowing through the stony halls. When everyone was able to go to sleep at last, Alice kept mining all alone, a guard watching her.

“Phew,” she brushed the sweat off her forehead, “One sack left.”

She looked back at the guard, dozed off on a small stool.

“Hm,” she slowly put the pickaxe on the ground , it didn’t wake him up, “Good.”

She sat down, slowly moving her chains.

Finally, a break. Man, this took hours, I hope Mister Miroslav is alright. Some guards took him somewhere. I hope they didn’t do anything…but will hope change anything? What even caused him to act like that earlier? He was looking for something, but what? Hm, maybe I could.

Carefully holding the chains in her hands, she looked around the ground looking for anything unusual, the guard didn’t even flinch. He slept soundly like a baby, but lacking any and all charms of one.

Hm, let’s see. Rocks, rocks, pickaxe, rocks, ugh a cigarette, of course Rocks, rocks, rocks, great not a rock, a pebble. Yup, this surely won’t take a while

“Whoa,” she didn’t notice the ax on the ground and almost tripped and fell. “Phew, that was close-”

But she dropped the chains, making a loud noise causing the guard to wake up from his beauty  sleep.

“Ugh-what?!”

“Shoot,” she bit her lip.

“You,” the guard stomped his way to her, sword in his hand, “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Don’t tell me you were trying to escape?”

“Oh me? As if. I was trying to…look for rocks on the ground to fill the sack with, that’s all. They’re small, but could still be practical for…whatever it is that people use this for.

“...Really?”

“Yes, see,” she picked several rocks from the ground, in different sizes, “These will fill up the sack in seconds.”

“...Fine,” he went back to sit on the stool, this time fully awake, watching her every single step.

“Go on,” he hit the ground with his sword, “Work.”

Clenching her fists, she forced a smile on her face, “Of course, oh most hardworking of guards.”

These damn things.

She looked back at the chains around her legs as she worked, her expression cold, filled with rage. She almost let out a large flame but she concealed them, like every other time this happened.

Every night, I go to sleep, I have this dream. It starts with those shadowy figures, their empty white eyes staring at me. They call me names, threaten me, and I’d try to run away, but no matter how much I’d try to run, they’d pull my hair and body, always capturing me in the end. I’d try to use my flames to fly away, but then, the chains. They’d suddenly appear around my legs, and a shock was spread throughout my body. It wouldn’t stop, I couldn’t move, all I could do was scream. Then I’d wake up, in that cold small cell. When I first woke up from that dream, I cried, I cried and cried for hours. It’s been so long since the last time I cried…I need to keep looking.

“Tch, hurry it up, I don’t have time for this. I need to prepare for his arrival. Spirits, just thinking about the boss complaining about it is annoying.

“Alright, I got it-”

“He is coming next month!? And he is acting like he’s coming in 10 minutes. He’s an imperial vassal and what not, but so what-”

Yeah, I’m not going to listen anymore.

The guard’s incessant complaining did fast up the mining process in one way or the other.

Who the heck is he even talking about? Imperial vassal? You know what? I don’t care, I need to finish this-huh?

Among the same black rocks covering the same muddy ground, she saw a small shine. It was different from how the rocks shined, it was small and silver,you could mistake it for a small star that fell from the sky.

Could that be it?

She carefully went closer to it, without the guard taking notice.

A necklace?

Crouching down, she found a small necklace with an old and rusty locket attached to it.

I think this was where he fell earlier today, so this must be it! I wonder what’s inside.

Opening it up, she saw two small black and white pictures. On the right, was a young woman, wearing a beautiful gown, and on the left two kids, a young boy, looking embarrassed to take a new picture, and a small girl next to him picking a booger off her nose.

Huh. Who are these people? Are they his family? I haven’t seen these types of pictures before, but they seem quite old. I know Mister Miroslav was here before me, but for how long exactly? Years? Decades? How long has it been since he has last seen them? 

The more she thought about it, the more it ached her.

“The hell you're doing over there,” the guard yelled.

“Oh,” she hid the necklace in her pocket, “Nothing, was just about to mine the rocks here. Heh”

“...Well, as I was saying, he-”

—

After an hour or so of mining, collecting and having to bear more complaining, she finally finished and left the mines, the guard pointing a sword at her back

“Why the hell should we clean up the food storage, he is going on a pilgrimage for crying out loud and they think he’d check on our bread?! Why type of…”

Just a few more minutes Alice, a few more minutes.

She carefully walked around the mines, holding the chains and watching for the things on the ground. Her guard wasn’t as careful as he tripped, the sword almost hitting him, but it landed next to him instead.

“Oh, too bad,” she walked off leaving him lying down on the ground.

Finally, free from that guy. Now I can find Mister Miroslav and give this to…him

When she left the mines, she entered a large room, filled with loong wooden tables and a small cafeteria on the side. But those weren’t noticeable by all the guards tossing and moving across the place, the prisoner barely catching up to them. They all carried various things, saying things that barely made any sense.

“What…is going on?”

“You brat, what the hell do you think you’re doing…what is going on?”

“Graham,” a guard carrying large paper scrolls said, “Thank the spirits you’re here, leave this girl and help-”

“Whoa, wait, what is going on?”

“Didn’t anyone tell you? The plan’s changed. He’s not going to come next month, it’s next week!”

“...Next week. Next week? Next week the Knight of Miracles is going to come!?”

“Oh, don’t complain to me.”

“Son of a-brat,” he pushed Alice away, “Pick up a broom or whatever, I really don’t have time for this…”

“Uh, fine oh so daring knight,” she picked up a cloth and bucket and began cleaning up the floor along with several other prisoners.

“Tch, what’s the big deal anyway,” she overheard two prisoners gossiping, “Who even is this Knight of Mightiness or whatever.”

“It’s the Knight of Miracles, actually, he’s the newest member of the imperial ambassadors and apparently the most powerful and loved one?”

“Oh really? Do tell.”

“Nobody knows who he is or where he came from, but around two years ago, he appeared in front of the emperor himself and became his most respected soldier since that day. Heck, he was chosen to fulfill the ancient summoning!”

“The-the ancient summoning?! Him? Damn! What did he do to get all that? Quell thousands of beasts or something?”

“Even better, he discovered a completely new type of magi for the first time in 

“Oi, who’s talking over there?!”

The two prisoners immediately shut their mouths and scrubbed the floor faster.

Yeah, I don’t really care about the Unian government for all of this.

“The people could spell trouble,” a hand touched her shoulder, “I suggest you distance yourself from them

She happily turned around “Mister! You’re alright!”

“Heh, for now. How was it? I must apologize for causing you to work so hard for so long.”

“Eh, could have been worse, that guy over there either complained or slept through his shift, so I was able to relax a bit.

“I see,” he had a tired look to his smile, “Still, you need to be more careful not to upset them any further, you know what they’re like, who knows how differently yesterday could have gone.”

“Yeah-oh, about yesterday,” she looked around to see the guards not paying attention to them, “While I was in the mines I looked around and found this.”

“Found what-”

“Ta-da, a necklace!,”

While she joyfully showed him it, his reaction was the exact opposite of any sort of joy

“I found it near some rocks and it was hard to notice at first. It’s really old and also charming, and the pictures inside are nice too. That woman was beautiful and that one boy had a funny look on his face. Are they your family-”

“Give it back!”

He grabbed it off her hands, startling her and everyone else when he screamed. She looked up to see a horrified look to his face. He looked at her with anger and fear, holding the necklace to his beating chest. He then straightened his back seeing what he had done.

“Mister-”

“Oh, what’s going on this time!”

The guards took quick notice of his weird behavior, “You  two again? How many time do we have to tell you people this, you either work, or you die.”

“But,” before she was able to say anything, Miroslav let out his arm, stopping her from taking another step.

“Please, don’t blame her, it was all on me, We’ll get back to work this second.”

“Tch you better, and that counts for everyone here, get back to work!”

When the guard left, Alice tried reaching out to Miroslav, but he walked away, quietly muttering under his breath, “I’m sorry, and thank you.”

—

Hallo everyone! Chapter 3 part 2 is here! Tried going more introspective this time around so I hope I did it well! Always happy to see your thoughts in the comments so be sure to share them! Thanks for reading and goodbye!