| 2 | Flower?

Morg became wide-eyed and immediately lost his composure. Becoming flustered, he exclaimed, "Krom?! I knew I recognized your voice from somewhere!"

Krom laughed in response, "It's certainly been a while."

Morg shook his head and sighed, "How did I not recognize you? My age must be getting to me."

"I doubt it. Anyways, what have you been up to?" Asked Krom.

Morg smiled, "Oh, nothing much. What about you?"

Krom laughed wryly with an awkward smile, "Hahaha...You are better off not knowing."

Morg nodded in understanding, "If you don't want to say, then I won't push it... However..."

In the blink of an eye, a silver rapier appeared in Morg's hand and thrust it towards Krom, "That doesn't justify you vanishing without a word 20 years ago!"

Bang!

A blast echoed like a cannon had fired, and the estate shook.

Only a little away from Krom's neck was the rapier. However, it had been stopped and caught between two fingers by Krom.

Krom laughed, "Hahaha! I see you're still as extreme as ever, Morg!"

Morg's eye twitched, "And I see you're still a nuisance."

"Are you two friends?" Asked Lenna.

They immediately responded simultaneously, "Yes––!" "No––!"

Krom jumped up from his seat, quickly protesting, "What do you mean 'no'! We've known each other for years!"

Morg pinched the bridge of his nose, "Yeah, and for the years before you vanished, you constantly tested new techniques on me!"

Krom muttered, "Well, it helped you become stronger, didn't it?"

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Krom averted his gaze to an 'interesting' spot on the wall.

Rolling his eyes, Morg sarcastically said, "Well, anyway, It's nice to see you didn't die in a ditch. Although, I've debated doing it myself ever since I met you while assigned on Fragentoth."

Typically, a few B-rank contractors and one A-rank, at minimum, were assigned to each island to protect it from monsters known as 'Elementals' who would appear when a manic element decayed. Upon decaying, it would rapidly draw in the surrounding mana, decaying it in the process before taking shape into an elemental.

More than 50 years ago, Fragentoth, a lesser island, was having significant problems due to a new type of elemental, which used a slow-acting poison that caused whoever got it into their systems to hallucinate and become very aggressive. It was a major problem because anyone afflicted by it would essentially attack anything, be it animate or inanimate.

At the time, Morg was one of the B-ranks assigned to Fragentoth. Upon recognizing the main problem as the poison, he immediately requested for someone qualified to create an antidote.

By chance, that person happened to be Krom.

Sipping on his tea, Krom said, "From the letter, you probably already know that it is my job to help you."

The guild master had actually called in a favor from Krom because he had initially refused. If the guild master, who rarely asks for anything, was willing to call in a favor, it showed the assigned task's gravity. After all, if the guild master, known to have the power to see and control fate, was this desperate, then he certainly had a good reason.

The guild master wanted Krom to bring Lenna to headquarters, but, being in person, there was quite a substantial problem.

Krom placed the teacup down, "Your disease. How far has it progressed?"

Lenna had a slightly shocked expression but quickly responded, "The floe corruption hasn't progressed too far, so I don't mind, but how did you know about it?"

Smiling mysteriously, he said, "Because I'm an Asura."

Lenna nodded in understanding, thinking that he wanted to hide how, after all, everyone has their own secrets. But technically, Krom was telling the truth.

Asuras have high sensitivity to energy. They can even sense energies that other species or races wouldn't be able to through their horns. It was what allowed the Asura race to prosper, but alas, that was in the past.

Lenna lifted the sleeve of her sweater and, around the middle of her left forearm, icy-blue veins webbed out as if it were a creeping frost. The icy-blue veins seemed to pulse and glow faintly. The frosty crystalline patterns made it seem like a fractured statue that was about to fall apart.

Krom suddenly flashed forward, moving fast enough to escape their vision for a moment, before appearing up close to Lenna and, in the process, startling her. Upon observing her arm up close, he clicked his tongue, "Tsk. As I thought, the floe corruption is Myth-grade."

Floe corruption was an elemental disease that would start at the extremities before spreading across the host's body through the mana pathways along the veins and ravaging the host's mana pool in the heart. The only thing that followed was death, specifically by being frozen from the inside out.

Lenna tilted her head to the side, "What's a 'Myth-rank' disease?"

Placing a hand to his chin, he asked, "You know how most things are ranked as F-rank through A-rank? And you know how S-rank is a rank even higher and rarer than A-rank? Well, Myth-rank is in a whole different league than S-rank."

"But how does this affect my disease?" Asked Lenna.

Krom held up four fingers, "I'll be blunt, and I can't say too much due to certain circumstances, but you have less than four years to live before you die a frosty death."

Inwardly, he added, 'Assuming it doesn't get accelerated...'

Lenna smiled, but Krom could tell it was just a mask. Krom could feel many emotions underneath the facade, but disappointment and anger were the most prominent. He could only guess as to what they were towards.

"I see..." Said Lenna.

Despite the unfortunate news, a smile crept up on Krom's face.

"However, you're lucky to have me. Across the entire Aquerima, you can count the number of people who have a chance to save you on just one hand, and fortunately, I'm one of them!" Krom stated.

Hearing this, Lenna perked up, "Really?!"

Krom closed his eyes in thought before responding, "Yes, but it won't be easy. You will need strength, determination, and a hell of a lot of luck." With his expression becoming serious, he asked, "Lenna, do you think you are up for the task? We will probably need to travel across the entire Aquerima, and even then, I can't guarantee to save you. You could just spend your remaining time here on Aston."

Clenching her fist, she said, "I still have something I need to do, so better to die trying, right?"

Dark emotions swept through her mind, 'I can't die until HE does...'

Krom stood up as he listened to her and began to walk over. He smiled warmly, "Good. In that case, I'll start planning out where we need to go. Be ready to leave by tomorrow morning!" lightly laughing, he continued, "We'll meet at the 'Cat's Tail' for breakfast, then head directly for Aston's east port."

After waving a quick goodbye, Krom vanished into thin air, leaving a small gust of wind behind.

Morg sighed while watching where Krom departed and grumbled to himself, "Just how strong did he get?"

Morg returned to Lenna's side and saw that she was sitting rigidly like a statue with a shadow cast over her eyes. He gently patted her on the shoulder before saying, "It's okay. I'm sure that you will be fine. Krom is a little strange..." Morg paused for a moment, "But he's reliable. If he thinks that he has a chance, then he probably does."

Morg walked towards the room's exit. He stopped at the doorway for a moment and looked back, "I'll tell the chefs to start preparing dinner."

Lenna spoke softly, "Thanks..."

After giving a concerned glance, Morg left the room while closing the door behind him.

Once the door was closed, Lenna sighed, "Four years, huh? ... That's not a whole lot of time..."

She let her eyes wander the room while in thought, at least until something caught her attention. Her eyes regained a little sparkle as they settled on the teacup Krom had used, or more specifically, on what was poking out from underneath. It was a small folded-up piece of paper.

"Did Krom leave this?" Questioned Lenna.

Sliding it out from underneath, she unfolded it and found a short note. She turned it around until it was right-side up.

After reading the note, she was a little perplexed.

'Why does he want me to bring a flower for tomorrow's meeting?'

Although confused, Lenna shrugged it off, 'Morg did say that he was a little strange. Maybe he likes to collect flowers or something?'

Before long, the day had already started to darken.

A soft glow illuminated the surroundings of the manor as various lamps began to light up the inside.

The clatter of silverware could be heard as Lenna, Morg, and the other servants were eating.

Standard upper society etiquette demanded that the staff eat separately, but Lenna didn't really care. It was incredibly awkward and lonely to be eating by yourself while others watched. Plus, she liked to interact with her staff, which made the manor's whole environment more friendly.

She wasn't in upper-class society initially anyways.

The chefs had prepared a dish that consisted of a meaty base with mashed potato and cheese covering it. The dish originated from one of the greater islands and quickly spread due to its nutritional value and exploding flavors.

While the other staff enjoyed the dish, Lenna turned to face Morg.

"Morg, you seem to know Krom pretty well. Can you tell me a little about him?" Asked Lenna.

After finishing the bite in his mouth, Morg leaned back in his chair slightly, taking a moment to think. While stroking his chin, he said, "I can tell you about him, but until today, I hadn't talked to him for around twenty years." Continuing, he said, "Twenty years ago, before he disappeared, he was a C-rank, like you. But even for a C-rank, he was unnaturally strong."

Intrigued, Lenna questioned, "How so?"

A wry smile began to form on Morg's face, "Even as I am now, the him from back then probably would have been able to fight me to a standstill."

Lenna was certainly impressed.

The mana difference and physical difference between ranks was no small thing to overcome, so the fact that Krom would have been able to stand on equal ground as a C-rank against the B-rank Morg proves he has the strength to back himself up.

"What is his personality like?" Lenna figured that if they were going to be traveling together for a while, she might as well get to know Krom a little.

Answering her question, Morg said, "Krom is very calculative, but he always tries to take on burdens alone. He did it back on Fragentoth when trying to make the antidote, and he'll do it again because I doubt he's changed."