Lance

Cold, why in the world was I cold?

The flaming fireball that had appeared in front of my eyes earlier was snuffed out of existence as quickly as it appeared. In place of the fireball was a wall of ice, what the hell. Where did it come from, was it magic. Just let me rest.

I am tired.

Where there was once a fiery determination, now stood a cold apathy. I truly did not care if I died. I was beyond that feeling of fear. I was awoken from my tired stupor as I felt a massive weight press on my shoulders that prevented me from breathing. A cold voice shook me to my core, I knew that this was who the pressure came from.

"Adrian"

How do they know my name from my previous life? Was this god?

"Wykes,"

I certainly wasn't a Wykes in this life and that wasn't my name in my previous life either. Whatever, who cares.

"you are being executed on orders of the King of Sapin for the murder of Adonis Flamesworth."

The King? Adonis Flamesworth?

"No… please no. It wasn't me, this is a framing! I have enemies! They must be behind this, my cousin is of the Flamesworth family! I would never kill one of them!"

That was him.

He was the man who made my life hell, the one who tortured me on my first day in this world and brought me through hell today. He would die, and I would live. The thought of outliving that bastard brought light to my hollow eyes. A burning flame that wished to exact my vengeance was shining brightly in my very soul.

"I am under orders from the king, and even if I wasn't I have no reason to believe a man who would torture a child."

Heh, serves the bastard right to die because of what he'd done. Clearly I wasn't his only victim, and I definitely wasn't the most important one. This strong mage came and was going to kill him for his actions against that other person, Adonis was it? I only wish I could have killed the bastard, Adrian Wykes, with my own hands.

I heard the sound of sword cutting flesh and felt a sense of satisfaction. I could rest easy knowing he was dead, I closed my eyes and succumbed to exhaustion.

"Ugh."

This was the second time today I had been awoken by a slap and this time I barely even had a chance to sleep. The hand was much smaller than the thick thumbed hand of the Wykes man. A woman? Or a dainty man? Perhaps another child like me? Based on the voice I heard earlier, a woman was likely.

I opened my eyes and saw something that awoke me from my stupor. She was straight from the pages of the novel, especially her resting bitch face. White, snowlike, long hair down to her back and piercing gray eyes and despite the apathetic look on her face, it was clear she was a beauty. That thought made me cringe for some odd reason. For some reason, she looked at me for a solid ten seconds, and then seemed to have a flash of recognition in her eyes.

This does not corroborate with my knowledge from the novel. Why is she acting so odd?

"You. What is your name?"

"Juno."

"No last name?"

"Do I look like I would have a last name to you?"

"Can you stand?"

"No."

She sighed and picked me up in what I could only describe as a princess carry. What the hell was happening? Why was I getting carried exactly?

"I'll bring you to an emitter."

"I can't afford that."

"I'll pay."

I decided to stop trying to argue with her, based on the novel she was very stubborn about, well, everything. There was nothing I could gain arguing with a Lance, or future Lance I suppose. Varay Aurae walked casually through the bloody building that I had been tortured in. There was no corpse to be seen, where had the body gone?

"Where is the corpse of that ba- of Adrian Wykes?"

She didn't respond and simply raised a ring in front of my eyes. Oh, it's in the ring, I see. Now why the hell couldn't she just say that? Why was she being so damned awkward? She was aloof in the novel yet definitely did not lack conversation skills. She exited the building and wandered through the streets of Xinia until we wound up in front of a place that I dreaded to think of.

The adventurers guild.

This was the place where those crazy bastards who were always out to kill me lived. In fact, one of the crazy bastards still likely worked there. I wanted to say something but didn't know how to bring such a thing up. So, the future Lance walked into the building that I wanted to be as far from as possible.

I saw him, the man who had captured me. We linked eyes for a moment and I felt a sense of terror run through my body. It seemed he felt the same way by the way he looked at me, he certainly didn't expect to see me again to say the least. I pointed at him, catching Varay Aurae's attention.

"He was the one who caught me."

Without so much as a second, I saw ice encase his head and shatter.

He was dead.

Just like that.

She didn't wave a hand, speak or even outwardly react to having done that. Yet, everyone in the room knew it had been her.

"Is anyone here an emitter? This boy needs to be healed."

A girl raised her hand, slightly scared and began walking towards us. She looked at me for a second and then with widened eyes rushed me into another room and put me onto a bed. She worked her magic for an hour before she was satisfied. She seemed confused about how I got these wounds and her face morphed into terror when I explained how I got them.

Varay Aurae had tried to pay the girl but she refused, citing the fact that I had gone through so much and deserved to get healed for free. Although Varae attempted to argue, it seemed that this random girl was even more stubborn than her.

We exited the adventurers guild in silence and she looked at me, seemingly thinking for a while.

"My name is Varae Aurae, I am certain we will meet again in the future."

"You already know my name, Miss Aurae, and I'm sadly not so certain about that. I'm a simple peasant after all. I promise that if we do meet again, I will repay your actions in full."

"You needn't repay anything to me, I owe you this much."

Hm? Why would she owe me anything? Well, she probably just felt bad for arriving too late to save my fingers.

"Alright Miss Aurae, I need to rest and I believe someone who works for the king has better places to be than here. So, goodbye."

She seemed to think yet again about something before coming to a conclusion in her mind.

"Goodbye, Juno"

[AN: Honestly, this chapter felt pretty mid, the dialogue just wasn't really clicking. I have faith, however, that the next few chapters should be good. This arc is almost wrapped up after all.]