“Release my arm, lizard! If not, I won’t hesitate to cut it off!” 

It was detrimental if this kept happening. Also, Roa wasn’t sure if it was only his left arm Solitaria could take control of. It would be a nightmare if she suddenly took hold of his entire body.

Thankfully, Solitaria lifted that horrifying thought, “You must not, savior! This feeble arm is my humble abode! Also, losing an arm will be incredibly painful, don’t you know?”

 ‘...What? What the hell are you on about!?’ Solitaria’s excuse explained nothing except for the fact that he was dealing with a lunatic. 

What? The Mad Calamity resided in his left arm? ‘That sounded like a child’s delusion! In which world would an excuse like that fly!? He thought.

Although, apparently, this world was one where such an excuse did, as Roa had no time to think of a refute for it. The shade suddenly emitted a massive amount of corrupted mana, and the wound on its neck recovered.

Roa, on the other hand, could no longer fight as his physical limits were already heavily dragging on his feet.

‘Haa… Is there no hope of winning this?’ he lamented. 

“What are you doing? Get out quickly.” Surprisingly, someone had arrived to aid him. Ariene stepped into the arena and forced the shade back with a loud slam, taking the chance to repay the favor. 

—It certainly wasn’t because he called her a friend.

Following that thought, she pushed the back of Roa’s head towards the mana curtain.

“What are you doing!?” Ariene expected Roa to leave the arena cleanly, but instead his face collided with the back of his left hand that wouldn’t go past the wall.

With his cheek pressed against his hand, Roa grumbled, “Alright, little lizard, calm down! If you’re really living in my arm—we can’t pass the mana curtain if you’re using mana. Release your control!”

“Hmph!” Solitaria scoffed at his form of address but complied nonetheless. As soon as she lifted her control, Roa’s left arm finally slipped past the mana curtain, and Ariene quickly followed behind him. 

A disgruntled attack hit the wall that they passed as the shade grew enraged. It smashed against the mana curtain to try and get to Roa, angrily causing numerous ripples to form, but to no avail.

“Why is this ugly fella so fixated on me?” Roa shifted himself side to side, noticing how the shade’s gaze was locked upon his person. Puzzled, he pursed his lips, ‘The shades I know of would loose their aggression towards everybody nearby. This one seems to have eyes only for me…’

The shade dropped its blade and forced its fists against the mana curtain. “Eruind remembers!” it yelled.

Ariene stared in shock, not expecting the shade to speak. Roa squinted, “It’s been saying that.”

He frowned. It was too early to be hearing the name, ‘Eruind.’ At this point in time, the trials of the Spirit Domain were yet to begin, and Eruind’s roots had yet to spread across the continent.

 ‘Solitaria, what’s it going on about?’ Roa asked, nagged by a foreboding suspicion. 

When Solitaria kept her silence, he continued, ‘I guess you don’t want to talk anymore, huh? That’s fine with me.’

Was she so starved from conversation? It was an effective threat, seeing how Solitaria reacted. As if the words were yelled right in his ears, Roa winced as the lady’s outrage thundered in his head. 

‘That’s not fair!  You promised! You promised, savior! That’s why I—I… What did I do again?’ Solitaria paused, giving him slight reprieve, until she eventually resumed voicing her discontent. ‘Anyways, you can’t—you mustn't break a promise!’

‘Alright, alright! I won’t. Stop yelling!’ Roa replied. He had to concede. There was no way to win in an argument where he couldn’t even see the other person. Her answer would have to wait for another time.

He stepped away from the arena, pressing onto the wound inflicted on his side, deep red dripping between his fingers.

“Commoner! Done playing the hero? Look at where that zealous attitude has gotten you!” scolded the boy wearing a lavish coat. However, it was puzzling, as Novis Philitte eyed Roa’s wound and tossed him a clean cloth. “Carry yourself to the infirmary, you look unsightly.”

‘Says the guy with his hair in curls after getting hit by a volt spell,’ Roa quipped in his head. He replied, “Thanks for the concern, but I’m alright, really. It’s not something that requires immediate treatment.”

“Concern? Who?” Novis furrowed his brow and placed one foot in front of him. ”It’s an order from a noble! A weak commoner like you would fall down and die from such a small wound!”

‘Huh? What’s up with this snowflake?’ Roa raised an eyebrow. “It’s just a scratch, it’ll heal on its own.”

Novis glared at him, irritated, but spotting Ariene walking behind Roa, he no longer insisted and turned away.

“Hey, what should we do about that?” Ariene asked, pointing at Roa’s shade wreaking havoc inside the arena.

“Thanks, Ariene,” Roa said, before glancing back at the arena. Seeing the frightening visage of himself grumbling like a mentally unsound beggar—Roa covered his face, ashamed.

“Why aren’t they making it disappear? —Is this a show!? Is it?”

Yuria soon hopped into their circle with a bright smile, “Hey! That was an amazing fight! That thing should be gone in a while, yes?” And continued while her lilac eyes gleamed with bright curiosity, “Roa, why does your look-alike look so not alike and different from the others that did look alike?” 

The image of Roa’s shade was obviously more ‘textured’ than the two that first appeared. It appeared less of an identical image and more of a prediction of his bleak future. This was also the first time that Roa had come across this particular situation, so he only answered to brush off the question. 

“I’ve no idea. Maybe some of the professors would know,” he replied. However, if someone like him, who was knowledgeable of the future, had no idea, then what more of shut-ins who had yet to experience the Spirit Domain?

Maybe Roa could attest the appearance of the shade to his special circumstance, which only himself and maybe Solitaria, were aware of?

‘Eruind remembers…’ Roa thought of what the shade kept mentioning, and turned his gaze towards the arena once more. ‘The small scars visible on its face; its entire drab get-up; the cloak around its missing left arm—could it be…?’’

The moment Roa reached a conclusion, the ground suddenly shook and a loud rumble came from underneath the arena’s platform. In the middle of the arena, something had tunneled up from below and burst out behind Roa’s shade.

It was a large plant of sorts—just a single large trunk with no branches or leaves, and at its tip hung a damaged draumadite box.

“Huh? Is that a tree?” Yuria blurted.

“No, it’s not a tree…” Roa answered knowingly. It wasn’t a tree. He had immediately recognized it as a single large root.