I turned my head from side to side and the reflection copied my movements.

“Lucas, what’s wrong? Is something hurting? Let me have a look,” my father's rushed voice and touch greeted me awake from the trance.

‘How long has it been since I’ve seen my father’s warm expressions? I was simply awaiting my death after Raven left me yet here I am surrounded by my family,’

“Is Raven here too? If this is heaven she would be here too right? Where is she, mother? I want to see Raven. I have to apologise… for everything” I looked down, I anticipated meeting her again.

“Lucas, what are you talking about? Did you have a nightmare? Who’s Raven?” my father asked while holding me in his arms and scanning my facial expressions.

“Raven, you don’t know Raven? Raven… She… she’s Raven”

“Mage, please take a look at Lucas one more time. Are you sure he’s alright now?” My father stood up and made way for the mage to use mana to detect if there were any parts of my body that were malfunctioning

“As I have already stated, the young master is simply confused due to his mana awakening.”

“I’ve been through an awakening but I did not go through this and why does he think this is heaven?”

“Young master's awakening was not normal, he has a strangely large amount of pure mana. In fact, all his mana is pure. I've never seen mana this pure. As for the master thinking this is heaven… I’m not sure, I believe it’s best to ask him about it after he’s mentally recovered from the awakening.”

“Darling, you heard the Mage, let's get some more sleep, okay? I think it’s best that you sleep a little more.” As I was about to refute I saw the worry in their faces and couldn’t bring myself to argue with them. 

‘I’m not sure what’s going on but I think I should rest for now…’

- - -

I dropped my spoon alongside a sudden pang in my heart. ‘My body feels weird, what’s happening?’ 

“Vee? What’s wrong?” asked Reuben.

“I don’t know I can’t see clearly and… and…” Before I could finish my sentence I was embraced by darkness.

In the face of vast darkness, even the scariest of monsters can seem so small. In this state as if instinctively I lowered myself into a foetal position.

‘I can’t move my body… I can’t even use my magic to protect myself in this state…’ The beating of my own heart rang through my ears and shook me in my own skin, as if that wasn’t enough an eerily familiar voice echoed through the darkness.

“Raven?! Raven! Where are you? Don’t leave me… please don’t leave me…” 

‘Raven? Only one person has ever called me that… I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to hear that name… Stop calling out for her…’ whatever power had me locked down at my feet had released its grip around me, I stood up swiftly and started walking in the opposite direction from where the voice was calling out to me.

A barricade of sorts blocked my path and a series of mirages flashed past at an insane speed, zooming past my past as if it were nothing more than singular flashes of light.

“What is your name?” Why does it seem as though you always have your sword aimed towards me… As if this was our fate from the very beginning. ‘His guard is down, he was always a cocky asshole...’

I smirked slightly as the me in the mirage reached for her back, where my hidden weapon belt used to be, and pulled out a dagger, grinding it against his sword while flinging it off to the side in an awkward angle that made him drop his sword and lose his balance.

“Don’t most gentlemen usually introduce themselves before they shove their sword against a lady’s throat?” I asked while the dagger slightly grazed against his neck drawing fresh red blood. I flinched a little at the sudden sight of blood.

“Most ladies don’t wield a dagger as well as you do, nor do they have it pointed towards a gentleman.” I scoffed at his reply and retorted.

“What nonsense, most breathing things will fight back if it’s driven into a corner like when you decided to unsheath your sword I was deciding whether to slit your throat or just overlook it as a stupid mistake on your part.” I pressed a little harder onto his wounds and he held up his hands.

“My lady… as you can see I am a helpless silly man, please do overlook my silly mistake.” I looked between his hands and face. ‘How handsome…’ I thought, ‘Yes, how very handsome.’ 

I let go of him and backed away. “If I see you around here again, I will plunge this into your neck, heart and wherever else I can reach.” I jumped up onto the rooftop of the building in front.

“Does that mean if we meet outside of this alley you’ll welcome me with open arms?” My brows scrunched up as I turned around to face him once more.

“What kind of bullshit is that? No, I will not.” Just as I was about to run away back towards a place I called home, a gust of wind rushed towards my face and whipped the hood of my cloak off of my head and my hair rushed away from my face.

“My name is Lu… I hope when we meet again you’ll tell me your name, my lady…” I scrunched up my face once again while pulling my hood back up and turned around not knowing what fate lay ahead of me.

“That won’t ever happen, even if it did we would be standing in front of each other as enemies dear knight.”

The mirage in front of me faded and a new mirage formed behind me. 

“Raven! What are you doing here? You must get out of here before the other knights of the search party arrive.” He shook me who was sitting on the floor, unable to muster up tears and simply staring soullessly at the countless bodies on the floor.

“You see all those that lie here… they are my colleagues… you asked me why I hated nobles right? This, this is why…” I spat out with barely enough strength left in me.

“Raven, I’ll listen to you later but right now you must get away from here… if you don’t hurry they…”

“WHY?! Why do WE have to run away?! I didn’t do anything wrong, I simply did what they asked me to do. I retrieved that shitty piece of paper as they had asked… So why is everyone lying here like THIS!?” at my sudden shouts he lowered his upper body towards me.

“I know, I know this hurts but for now, you have to leave… you’re the only one alive here, they’ll take you in as a suspect, please you must leave.” I looked back down towards the bodies again.

“Exactly, that is the foundation of a noble, always looking for a person to blame whether I am innocent, guilty, a victim or perpetrator. It doesn't matter… to you people I am just another tool.” As my shoulders slumped even further into the floor, footsteps could be heard from outside the building. Just as Lu was about to pick me up and jump out the window someone else appeared.

“Master! Get away from my master.” 

‘Carl? He was so young then… such a young child… Why didn’t I treat him better? What made me think I was any better than those I persecuted…’ My mirage grabbed onto Carl's hands and pulled at them.

“Let’s go Carl… if we stay here they’ll arrest us.” before we could disappear Lu grabbed my shoulders.

“I swear to you Raven, I’ll find out who did this and make sure they are punished for it.” to that I simply closed my eyes and turned away and Carl let his mana flow out while drawing out the warp stone.

The scene in the mirage faded out into that of my old office… my first office where I had also received and carried out the last mission of the Raven guild as its guild leader.

“I’m sorry Raven… I’m so sorry, I really wanted to find who did that to you and punish them but…” My mirage looked up towards him from the desk with hollow eyes. 

“What’s there to be sorry about? I already knew the outcome, I’m a bit busy go away.”

“I… I’ll speak to my superiors about this and see to it that it is investigated again.” I looked back down towards my desk and started filling out documents.

“And how will that help me? If anything you’ll face scrutiny at work for no reason, I don’t need you to take my revenge for me. I will simply find the fucker and kill him myself, now please leave.” 

‘This was the last time we met as just a knight and mercenary, after this day I was a treacherous murdering machine and he was a pitiful noble trying to put an end to it all.’

“I… Raven… sometimes I wonder if you ever even loved me, can’t you look at me just once, just once and…”

“And what? If you want to be babied that much go find someone else, love? I do not know such pathetic emotions.” I scoffed while saying the word love.

“I… I just” I placed down the quill pen I was holding, rubbed my eyes trying to wipe away the fatigue and looked him right in his eyes.

“I am a monster incapable of such emotions, a monster not even able to cry at the sight of her dead friends and most definitely unable to love. Plus you lied to me so this relationship is also over.”

“I… I did no such thing. I would never lie to you, ever. No, it’s I…” It would be a lie to say I never held any affection for Lu, at one point he meant the world to me I'm sure but our fate has always been twisted from our first meeting to our last… I glared at him and my red eyes looked as though fresh blood was trying to plunge into his flesh and carve out his heart.

“If you open that mouth of yours and tell me you've never lied to me one more time, I'll make sure you can never speak again.” I pulled out a piece of paper with a portrait and a single line that read ‘this man is a noble of high status and he is tricking you’

The flicker of reaction in his eyes told me everything I needed to know. 

“I can explain, I know it was wrong of me to lie but I swear I can explain.”

“Explain? I don’t want to know nor do I care, just the fact that I have been letting a noble in and out of my office makes me sick to my very bones.” He huffed and looked down distraught. I gestured towards my door and Carl came in…

“Our guest is leaving, he is to be blacklisted from our guild starting today. If you ever let him in again, know that your punishment won’t be light either.”

“Yes, master” Lu had a faint look of hurt but the me in the mirage didn’t seem to notice or was it that I could care less? In the end, he didn’t try to put up a fight nor did he say anything and simply left to never return.

‘I didn’t know you could make such expressions too… Did you really love me? It seems like there are a lot of things that I didn’t know, I wish I could ask you why you never came to see me again… Why was it that you only came to me to kill me?’

So many more familiar flickers of memories rushed past my eyes, and the familiar voice from before was searching for me once again.

“Raven! Raven?! Please answer me if you can hear me, Raven!” I couldn’t stand hearing his voice echo around me anymore and ran… I ran as fast and far as I could searching for any source of light other than the mirages.

Just then I felt a shake like someone was shaking me awake and I kept running until my eyes burst open and I sat up straight.

“Vee? Are you okay?” I blinked a few times trying to get used to how light the room was, I looked up at both Rein and Reuben looking down at me with worry.

“Yh… I’m fine.” I replied like it was the only thing I knew how to say.

[Second fragment fusion complete]

‘Huh?’