I honestly don’t know what sort of triumphant grandeur I was expecting. We were in a room, and outside of it was a hallway. Truly, the feeling of inner resolution could be far too misleading.

Yukiko noticed my expression and stifled a chuckle.

“We’re in an inn, what were you expecting?”

“I don’t even know myself…”

“You looked like you were really hyping yourself up to open that door-”

Her body buckled as she could no longer contain her laughter.

“So much for embracing the moment”

I rolled my eyes at her.

“Sorry- It’s just kinda… I dunno, ‘funny’?- The way you’re not fully used to the world outside your village”

“Well, how am I supposed to recognize the interior of an inn I’ve never been in before?!”

We both laughed. To still be able to meaninglessly bicker was in some ways a relief.

“Now, if you two are done, mind getting a move on? We don’t have all day”

The unexpected voice caused me to jump back with a start. I swiveled my head to the right, realizing that Seika had been standing there with her back to the wall, waiting beside the door.

“How long have you been there..?”

“Mmm… since that loud crash, I think”

“Oh”

“Anyways, since I’m assuming that you’re both ready, let’s head down”

As we followed the hall, I kept my eyes on the walls and floor. 

The furnishing style was different from what I was used to, consisting of a greater amount of purely ornamental decorations. Among these were small desks that seemed to have never been used to hold anything and framed pictures of unfamiliar faces.

The staircase leading down from the second floor was lined with a large variety of photos, the majority of which were more weathered and faded than the previous.

None of these were of much interest to me- except for one. It occupied the largest frame, hung near the bottom of the steps where nobody could miss it. Yet, it wasn’t its size that caught my eye, but the people in that captured moment.

In the back row was a duo standing side by side, their appearances bearing a striking resemblance to the two I had just recently met: Setsuya and Seika. They both wore a smile and rested a hand on the shoulders of the person in the front row.

Standing before them was a young girl who I presumed to be Yukiko- No, it wasn’t really a guess, for the girl standing there in that picture was definitely the same one I’d seen in her memories. As if this picture’s timing perfectly lined up with that scene I witnessed, this Yukiko had red, swollen eyes.

I hadn’t realized it, but I had stopped walking at this time.

Yukiko gently tapped on my shoulder from behind with a light push.

“If you’re really that curious, I’ll tell you about it later”

“Oh, right. Sorry-”

***

The lobby of the inn seemed to be a sort of combination between a bar and a waiting room. By the time we arrived, Setsuya was already waiting alone at a square table for four, his arms crossed and his head slightly tilted. The closer I drew to him, the stiffer the air became.

Yukiko and Seika sat down in the seats at his left and right respectively, leaving the seat directly opposite him for myself.

He looked me up and down with a cold gaze, his eyebrows slightly angled. In fact, they were all looking at me. I suddenly felt as if the table had become elongated, the other three ever so distant on the other side.

Without uttering a word, Setsuya reached to his left and inched Yukiko’s seat closer to himself. 

She gave him a defiant look in response and scooted her chair back to its original spot at the middle of her side.

“Well- let’s start with introductions, shall we?” Seika chimed with a forced, awkward laugh.

The air was growing ever more oppressive. Still, nobody tried to make conversation.

Seika cupped a hand over her mouth before whispering to Setsuya, “That means you should go first- you’re the Guildmaster and all”

He gave a sigh in response before locking eyes with me. His glare reminded me of when I first made eye contact with the King of Wyverns.

“My name is Setsuya. I’m the Guildmaster of Synoria’s Snow Guild”

He nodded towards Yukiko.

“That’s my younger sister, Yukiko”

“And I’m Seika. I don’t really have any fancy title, so feel free to just call me by my name”

I hesitantly nodded.

“Thank you for… inviting me here. I’m Kaito, and I come from Hanakawa Village-”

Setsuya suddenly cut me off in a monotone voice.

“Never heard of it”

The awkward silence quickly returned, the four of us flicking our eyes from one to the next like some four way standoff.

Suddenly, Yukiko stood up, banging both hands on the tabletop. 

“Ugh! What the hell is wrong with this atmosphere! Just what do you have against him?!”

“I’m sorry if it’s rude, but I have to ask as well. We’ve only just met, so why do you hold so much hostility towards me?”

“Don’t play dumb. You know exactly why I have no reason to trust your kind”

“My kind..? I’m not playing dumb. I genuinely don’t understand-”

“Oh, you don’t know, do you? Well then, let me spell it out for you. You’re marked. That’s why”

Yukiko turned back to face me, her eyes unknowingly hesitant. In just a few words that I couldn’t grasp, her perception of me seemed to have been flipped upside-down.

“Kaito..?”

She pondered the situation for a moment before addressing her brother again.

“No, that wouldn’t make sense. He’s been-”

“I still don’t-”

“Enough with the act! You’re marked and that’s all I need to know! Now listen to me and listen real close. You’re going to stay away from my family, and you for sure are going to stay far away from my territory, got it?”

I didn’t know how to respond. I was being accused of something I couldn’t even comprehend.

This time, Seika stood up, holding her hand in front of me as if she were protecting me.

“You don’t have direct evidence. Please, let’s just talk this out in a more civil manner. You’re starting to attract unwanted attention for someone of your status”

Seika was right. In this brief span of time, others in the lobby had begun steadily watching us with concerned eyes.

“Don’t pretend like you didn’t see it too. You of all people should know exactly what I’m referring to”

“But what if there’s a reason you haven’t considered-”

“I don’t need some sob story about why he’s marked!”

He stopped addressing Seika and looked back at me. With a slight tremble, he put his head down in his hands and took a deep breath.

“Just… get out”

Why was he now acting as if he were the troubled one?

After being forced to watch an argument about my standing in which I had no say- in which he deemed me an enemy for whatever reason- shouldn’t I be the one who’s allowed to be upset?

I got up and walked out the door without saying goodbyes. It was clear that I had no place at their table. Even so, the faint glistening in Yukiko’s eyes as I turned away ingrained a seed of remorseful guilt in me- guilt for something I was certain I wasn’t guilty of.

- Elsewhere

When I opened my eyes in this world, one thing instinctually became apparent to me: I was no longer to be an ally to this humanity. ‘The corruption’, or so the humans called it, was what I belonged to. A tainted classification of various beasts and beings forged from unstable, unnatural energy.

Yet, even among this group, I stood unparalleled. Alone.

I was one of the beings who towered at the pinnacle of all corruption, the fourth member that completed the ‘Omens’ that served under the progenitor of all corruption.

Those were all matters of the past.

Now, clutching onto memories of power, I crawl in the shadow of my old self. I couldn’t survive alone. I needed a vessel.

Truly, fate was a fickle thing, for my vessel was ‘that’ individual.

I wanted to see him suffer, and I did, at my hands at that.

Despite almost perfect compatibility, this vessel was still incomparably weak when held against mere fragments of my prime. I still had to grow stronger.

By hijacking the order maintained by Seraphim within that barrier zone, I had made myself an enemy of the corruption. It was a strange truth to acknowledge, for I myself was still a corrupted being. I needed to grow stronger.

I took his powers and made him into one of my servants. Matters such as those were still within my capabilities. Harvesting the strength of corrupted beings alone wasn’t enough. I needed to take hold of the shards.

***

“And that has led me to you… old Calamity of the Third Calamity Event”

The withered being that now faced me was nothing more than another shell of his former self, forever scarred by the allied forces of Greater Magius. Even as we spoke, his core was slowly consuming itself just to stay alive.

“Tell me, just how did you find me?”

“My means are beyond your concerns. Where have you hidden the shards in your possession?”

“Hahah… those are no longer with me. I have used them as far as I intend to and everything is already set in place”

“In other words, you don’t mean to tell me”

“Precisely, young boy”

A single drop of water fell from a stalactite into a growing puddle, echoing into the darkness beyond.

“Tch. Then give me your power”

“Quite greedy… I’m not willing to part with my core just yet”

“I wasn’t asking for a favor”

Placing a heavy hand on his knee, his body stood up, shaking off pebbles and dust like an old trophy that’s been sitting on a shelf for years. Even in this state, his height towered over mine.

“You really do seem quite… human. Yes, that’s how I’d put it”

He scratched at his chin, poking at a crack just beneath one of his chipped tusks.

“Before your core is inevitably extinguished, may I know the name of my opponent?”

“Koharu”

“Oho, a very interesting name for a being as yourself. I am-”

“Ezirok. The strongest ogre-type corrupted being to have walked on mortal grounds”

“I see you’re quite knowledgeable… Ahaha, very good. Now, let’s get this over with”

Lay the fruits of war’s Harvest… Sow