I Beg Your Pardon? l

In a somewhat large room, lit by the sunlight coming through the window, Lulu was laying on a small bed. She was stirring awake as her face scrunched up.

Ugh — Lulu let out a low grunt as she sat up in the bed and grabbed her head before recoiling feeling the cold metal on her skin.

"Oh right... new arm."

She stared at her arm for a moment before her ears twitched and she turned to the door as it was slowly pushed open.

"Lulu?"

Peeking her head out from behind the door, Karma called out her name — being careful not to speak too loud.

"Yes?"

Tilting her head in confusion, she stared at the cautious redhead.

Seeing Lulu up and wake, Karma quickly made her way to her bedside. Silently plopping down on the wooden chair, she stared Lulu down; almost as if she wanted to bore a hole into her.

"I-Is there, did I do something wrong?"

As she spoke, Lulu raised her hand to the machine on her neck, it seems that while she was sleeping the vials stuck into it were replaced. Which was a relief.

When she was forced to enter the forest earlier she hadn't brought any spare vials with her; she had worried that if she was left alone, not to mention being unable to walk, being unable to talk wouldn't help either.

"Something you did wrong?! You entered that forest by yourself and came back injured and with a missing arm! I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem okay to me."

"..."

Lulu was left in silence as she listened to Karma's outcry; it was clear to her that Karma wasn't angry, instead — she was just incredibly upset and worried.

How would you feel if your closest friend disappeared for a long time in an unknown only to appear out of nowhere with a missing limb, replaced by a machine?

You wouldn't exactly be in your calmest mood, would you now?

That was what it was like for Karma. For hours she sat outside the forest, unable to enter, under constant worry wondering whether Lulu was safe or not.

Meanwhile, the only other person with her, Nizael, was unnaturally calm about the whole matter. She didn't even falter when mentioning the possibility of her death in the forest.

It was unnerving and didn't serve to decrease her anxiety over the matter.

Nizael had told her how she would have to sit by and idly wait for whether or not Lulu would make it back safe, even Norten told her there was nothing she could do.

Yet, now that she was out of the forest, Karma didn't know whether she should be happy or not — she could tell just by looking at her that Lulu didn't have it easy there.

" I... I didn't enter there because I wanted to. I wanted to tell you and bring you along with me... I'm sorry."

Karma stared at Lulu's face. She seemed to be sullen at the scolding of her friend. The expression on her face pained Karma's heart.

"No, no no. You don't need to apologize; look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to blame you for this — don't be upset... I was just worried about you."

Trying to cheer her up, Karma pulled Lulu's head into her arms and embraced her — she didn't come here to upset the blue head.

"Mm."

Nodding at her words, Lulu traced her hand across her face. When she was within that blue and stormy place, she had been cut by the claws of the Spectral Beast in several places — including her face.

She just hoped there were no permanent scars on her face; after all, she didn't want such "badges of honor" as Norten would call them.

She felt the bandages going across her face as the thought of taking them off and heading to a mirror flashed across her face.

But she shook those thoughts out of her head, it wouldn't be the smartest thing to do.

Her eyes glazed over the room as if she was looking for something. Lulu had remembered how her hex plates had all been fried, so she needed her wheelchair to even attempt to get somewhere.

"What are you looking for?"

"...My wheelchair, where is it?"

"Right! Give me a moment I'll go and get it!"

"Thank you."

Karma shot up from her seat, and quickly made her way to the door, before leaving the room Karma turned back to Lulu with a worried expression on her face.

"You're feeling fine now, right?"

"Yes, don't worry about me."

Lulu responded to her while dawning a bright smile, hoping to relieve her of her worries.

Though it seemed her smile had the opposite effect — surprising Karma.

"Ok..."

Lulu's smile caused her to absentmindedly bob her, speaking under her breath as she slipped out of the room.

Click.

Hearing the click of the door upon it shutting, Lulu turned her eyes away from it and set her gaze outside the window.

The smile she had previously placed on her face had been replaced by an indifferent expression as she pondered out of the room.

Ever since she woke her eyes had been blurry and weren't adjusting to the room well so she was having a relatively annoying time trying to look around.

The room she had been laid into was the room she had been staying in since coming here six cycles ago.

The bed she was laying on was right next to the only window in the room, which was the only light source at the moment.

Looking around the room it was covered with many different pieces of art and art supplies, canvases and framed art pieces lined the walls.

There were splotches of dried paint littered across the floor of the room while she had a couple of easels placed here and there.

The room seemed more like storage for artwork rather than it being a room; but if you were to remove them from the room, you wouldn't be able to tell there was someone that lived there.

Besides her bed, the only other pieces of furniture in the room were the desk next to her, a strange lamp placed on it, and the chair that Karma had previously sat on.

There was a closet at the end of her bed where her family symbol hung up, but besides those things, there was nothing else representing her existence.

That was what Lulu was in the full sense of things. She placed little value on material items and the only injects in her room were made in her attempt to escape.

She might have been kept busy by her grandmother, Norten, and the others that would teach and train her — always outside in the blistering cold, working to improve her stamina and physical prowess.

Honestly, if someone told her that she would have to constantly work to improve herself before reincarnating; she would have looked at them as if they were crazy.

The only time she ever worked to improve herself before this was with her art, it was practically one of the only things she was proud of.

As her indifferent gaze remained out the window, she watched as the snow sprinkled down on the already white grounds — it was a common sight here.

Up in the North, it was entirely different for both Lulu and Karma. The capital city which was in the center had relatively warm days with cold nights.

Meanwhile, Karma's home, down in the south, was the complete opposite when compared to the North; while the North had biting colds, the South had searing heat.

The difference between the three places made the two girls relatively uncomfortable when they first arrived here.

It was a comforting memory of the past for Lulu. Remembering their silly reactions back then with fondness as she shifted her eye to her desk.

The desk next to her bedside was usually cleared as it was where she would draw in her sketchbook there.

Other than her sketchbook and pencils, on her desk were the key and metal disk that Tyvetta had given to her.

Grabbing the key and disk with her metal arm, Lulu started fiddling with it as she thought about its purpose.

The key would be used to further assist her in the "request" that was given for her to retrieve the Rings and return "Order".

The entire matter was ridiculous to her honestly, what was even the purpose in bringing order? It's not like that so-called order would last long, the two main powers fighting over these Rings were only two of the major powers in the vast universe.

From the books she's read even though the Detrid people are quite hostile to the Kritol, the Kritol Empire, they are for the most part — neutral.

Several major powers are spread across the universe, and a majority of them are multiple times larger than the Detrids, who limit themselves to a singular planet.

The order brought from taking the Rings would never last with so many different factions with varying beliefs and conflicting ideals.

... If they find out that a singular person is in control of the two most powerful weapons in the universe, what would they do?

Certainly, they would either make attempts on the person, Lulu's, life, or they would attempt to subterfuge her — it was something that she would have to think about before even attempting to try to do it.

While she was thinking about the far future, the door was opened once more, as Nizael stepped in.

Following her were Norten, who had to squeeze through the door frame to get in, and Karma who pushed Lulu's wheelchair in front of her.

"Grandma..."

Lulu blankly stared at the elderly woman standing next to her bedside. Honestly, even though she had been training and teaching her, she had gone off somewhere — so they hadn't seen each other in a while.

She was informed, a while before training with Norten, that Nizael was supposed to return later in the day — during second daylight.

Seeing her here made her want to question how long she had been gone, and how long she's been out of it.

"How long have I been out of it?"

"For quite a while. Counting your time in the forest, it's been around an entire day since then."

Answering her, Nizael sat on the chair next to the bed, leaving Norten standing while Karma sat herself down on Lulu's wheelchair.

"Mm."

Nodding her head, Lulu turned her gaze over to her dearest friend.

She was grinning ear to ear at Lulu as she did so — seeing the look on her face Lulu grinned back at her. Karma sat on Lulu's wheelchair; both while she wasn't using it and while she was.

Karma was getting comfy in the chair, meanwhile, Norten stood next to Nizael with his arms crossed.

He had been told when the three came here cycles ago what to expect.

Nizael had told him what she wanted for Lulu — she wanted him to make the most out of the girl's frail, yet nimble body; that's what he did.

He trained her in the way he thought best and there were some fruits for his efforts, though the majority weren't ripe. It was... acceptable.

He didn't know what she was being trained for, and neither did he care, but to see the child he knew would take his beatings and scolding every day in this state — it was a jarring feeling.

He knew of her burns and the many scars that had built up on her body, therefore he knew she didn't have it easy. But that wasn't important; right now they needed to know her situation.

"What happened to your arm, Lulu? If I'm recalling correctly, you had a normal arm the last time we saw each other."

Nizael was inquisitive toward her new arm. She was certainly the one most knowledgeable about what Lulu was doing in the Spectral Forest, yet the arm was still a surprise for her.

She didn't know what to think about it, she had an entire limb replaced; it was unimaginable how much pain she had to deal with.

Grabbing her metal hand, Nizael traced her fingers across it. She didn't show much of her feelings on her face but her voice gave it all away.

Even if it was hard to tell — there was a slight quiver in her voice.

"...How painful was this?"

"..."

Lulu stared Nizael in the eyes. She didn't know, nor did she understand why her grandmother was so conflicted.

"Uh, well I wasn't originally planning to get this arm. When I was in the forest a Spectral Beast nearly bit my arm off and we had decided it would be best to get the entire thing taken off."

As she spoke, Lulu grabbed at her head, scrunching up first.

"I was told to fight the beast to prove myself, I think that's what she said? I don't know, whatever. Anyways, while I was fighting it managed to get its maw on my arm.

Skipping all the unnecessary details, I nearly lost my arm, had to push my Flauna pumpers into overdrive, then fried my hex plates."

Sighing to herself, she clenched her hands so tightly that she was leaving nail marks on her palms.

"Overall, the reason this happened was that I was too weak and couldn't even protect myself, so useless."

Thinking about the entire situation was frustrating, sure she gained an amazing ability that could be a game changer, but she felt like it was the only thing that changed.

Her body was still weaker than her peers and the rest of her people, and it was so weak that a single bite nearly ended her life.

She thought that if someone else was in the same position as her, they would have left with fewer injuries than her.

They wouldn't have to completely rely on some overpowered ability that would have severe aftereffects, especially when it would destroy the objects on her that she needed to live efficiently.

The only reason the injuries given to her didn't take her life was that Tyvetta prevented them from doing so.

She stopped the blood from spilling into a pool, she stopped it from falling completely off; her interference was the only reason Lulu was alive at the moment.

"Don't say that Lulu. You're not useless, look you made it out of there alive, if you were—"

"Please, grandmother, stop. You, me, and everyone in this room know whether that is fact or fiction. Don't try to tell me I'm wrong!"

Nizael who tried to correct the blue head's thoughts was interrupted by Lulu as she surprisingly raised her voice.

"Lulu! That's not true at all! I for one am a firm believer that you aren't useless, neither are you weak."

Not expecting Lulu to raise her voice, Karma quickly inserted herself into the conversation; she hopped off of the wheelchair and sat on her bed — taking hold of both of her hands.

"Listen here, Lulu, you, who has been fighting for your survival ever since you were a child. The girl that is sitting in front of me at this very moment, alive and bearing the scars of your past while not giving up.

If you were weak, if you were useless, you wouldn't be here to this day. Don't ever say something like that in front of me again."

The two girls squeezed each other's hands; Lulu couldn't bring herself to look Karma in the eyes so she continued to divert her eyes around Karma's gaze.

"Then I'll be sure to say it when you're not around me."

"Lulu!!"

"Alright, alright. I won't say it anymore, I'm sorry and... thank you."

Hearing her grandmother and Karma exclaim her name, Lulu chuckled to herself.

Nizael sighed at this.

"How come you're always doing my job, you little brat."

"Oh sorry, I just wanted her to quickly stop thinking like that. Your fault for being so slow on the uptake."

Cackling, Karma kept a grasp on Lulu's hands as they were interrupted by Norten clearing his throat.

Seeing how the three were done with their quibbling Norten decided to speak up.

"Now that you three are done, Lulia, I want you to answer questions."

"What is it?"

"You mentioned "we" earlier, along with "prove myself". Who is "we", and why did you need to prove yourself?"

Hearing the large man's questions, Lulu nodded her head; they were fairly simple questions with simple answers.

"Well, "we" is me and Tyvetta — and I needed to prove myself worthy to be her successor."

"...What?"