As I held Lydia in my arms, she adjusted herself, fitting into me perfectly.

Her uniform, still the same one she’d worn since leaving the valley, didn’t have much fabric on it. It was meant for stealth and speed, not for protection against the breaking winter winds. Especially not here in the north. Well... north-east to be specific.

Her body was cold at first, almost startlingly so. But slowly, gradually, it turned warm as we held each other. I could feel the heat building between us, her frame relaxing against mine.

"Ahem."

Merin made a fake cough.

Lydia jolted and immediately backed away from me, her face flushing slightly even in the dim light.

I looked at Merin, annoyed. "What is it?"

My eyes immediately went to her hands, specifically, to the fact that she wasn’t holding the box I’d ordered her to bring.

"There isn’t any box like you mentioned inside the storehouse," Merin declared. Her body was shivering slightly from the cold, her thin prisoner’s dress doing absolutely nothing to protect her.

But my brain didn’t register any of that. All I could focus on were her words.

[Strange...] Nexar wrote beside me in his blue window.

"Have you checked it properly?" I asked, a hint of anxiety curling up in my heart.

After all, that item... that ingot was what I’d used to forge my astral spine in my past life. It was crucial.

"I did," Merin replied, lifting her arms in a casual motion. "The door was tough to open, but it did budge once I used my aura. But there isn’t any box with a runic symbol inside."

My chest tightened.

"What’s wrong?" Lydia asked immediately, catching my troubled expression. Her own voice filled with worry. "Rune?"

"...It’s strange," I said slowly, bringing my hand to my chin as I thought. "It was there in my past life."

Did something change? Or did I misremember its location?

"In your past life...?" Merin asked, her expression confused. She was still shivering from the cold, her thin fabric dress doing nothing to shield her from the biting chill.

"You don’t have to know," I said curtly, cutting her off with a stern look.

[Rune, a fabric is pulled,] Nexar wrote beside me suddenly.

"...What do you mean?" I asked mentally.

[Go8*&? Fab%$# un!@E^^]

"No. I can’t read anything," I muttered, squinting at the garbled text. "Must be about the future."

Damn! The words this time are more messedup than the previous times.

[Yeah... Damn... drifting off is hurting my non-existent head.]

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. "Let’s go. I’ll check it myself."

Merin rolled her eyes, like she was thinking ’seriously?’ but she couldn’t do anything about it. Her body had already started moving against her will, her frame vanishing into the dark night as my collar’s command took hold.

I turned to Lydia.

She was watching me with worried eyes. She couldn’t understand anything that was happening, and that must have been frustrating, especially when she clearly wanted to help.

But I couldn’t explain about the ingot. About how it could be used as an astral spine. Not without showing a live demonstration, and that would need me to find the item first.

"Lydia, sorry to keep you awake," I said gently. "You can go sleep. I’ll search for my missing item."

I turned to head toward the storage room.

"Wait. I’m coming with you."

Lydia’s voice came from behind me as she followed me into the dark.

"You sure? You might not sleep tonight," I replied as we walked at a quick pace through the darkness toward the storage room.

The cold bit at my face, and I could hear Lydia’s footsteps crunching softly behind me.

"Yeah, I’m curious about what’s happening," Lydia said, her voice steady despite the chill. "I won’t be able to sleep anyway."

Not just you, Lydia.

I’m curious about what’s happening myself.

What had changed? Why wasn’t the ingot where it should be? And what did Nexar mean about a fabric being pulled?

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

And I had a sinking feeling things were only going to get more complicated from here.

**************

The horses’ hooves thundered against the ground as Kael and Ilya rode through the cold night. Their breaths came out in visible puffs, and the wind whipped at their faces mercilessly.

Kael sat tall in her saddle, her knee-length military skirt designed for mobility without sacrificing protection. The two scissor weapons strapped to her back glinted occasionally in the moonlight. Crossed blades that could separate into twin weapons at a moment’s notice. Her expression was focused, determined.

Beside her, Ilya rode with practiced ease despite her tight secretary skirt and glasses that she had to constantly adjust against the wind.

Her posture was perfect, refined, every inch the Duchess’s right hand.

"I wish we had Selka’s space attribute right now," Kael muttered, pulling her coat tighter against the biting chill. "We could be at the village in a flash instead of freezing our asses off out here."

Ilya let out a small laugh, her breath fogging in the air. "Don’t we all? But space attribute being transcendental... it’s not something just anyone can master."

"True," Kael agreed, guiding her horse around a particularly rough patch of road. "Selka’s a fifth-circle mage and she’s already sixty years old. Though she looks like she’s in her early thirties, one of the perks of high mana cultivation, I suppose."

"She’s worked her entire life to reach that level," Ilya added thoughtfully. "And even then, she holds the same position as you, general, just of the scout unit instead of the main unit."

Kael nodded. "The difference in what units we command brought the difference in our hierarchy. Scout unit versus main unit. Makes her position a bit lower than mine, even though her individual power might actually be higher."

"Politics," Ilya said with a slight grimace. "Even in the military."

There was always an unspoken competition of dominance between Kael and Ilya, but surprisingly, they work best when they are together. A paradox even the duchess herself couldn’t solve.

They rode in silence for a moment, the only sounds being the rhythmic pounding of hooves and the whistle of wind through bare trees.

"So," Ilya finally said, breaking the quiet. "This ingot they found in the boy’s belongings. You’re certain about what it means?"

Ilya adjusted her glasses with one gloved hand, her other maintaining a firm grip on the reins.

"As certain as our records allow us to be. Ingots are something beings from the Netherworld are born with. It’s essentially their identity."

"And the symbols on the ingot?" Ilya prompted.

"The ingots contain cipher codes. Encrypted information that holds all and every piece of data about the owner. Their lineage, their power, their history. Everything." Kael’s voice took on a more serious tone. "The only way an ingot breaks is when the owner dies."

Kael faught the forces from Netherworld along side Cass even before Cass became the duchess. In the entire Sinclair duchy Cass and her knew about the beings from netherworld the best.

Ilya whistled low. "And they have a class system, right? Based on color?"

"Exactly," Kael confirmed, steering her horse around a fallen branch. "The ingots range from silver to black. Silver and gold represent the common classes, poor to rich, based on the intensity of their color. The brighter the silver or gold, the wealthier the family."

"And red and black?"

"Red and black represent nobility of the Netherworld," Kael said, her voice dropping slightly. "Those are the upper echelons. The ruling class."

Ilya was quiet for a moment, processing. "The one they found in Rune’s belongings..."

"Pitch black," Kael said flatly. "The darkest shade possible."

"...Meaning?"

"Meaning the owner belonged to the highest form of nobility in the Netherworld. Could even be of royal blood."

Ilya’s hands tightened on her reins. "A Netherworld royal? In a human orphanage in Larkshade Village?"

"That’s what we need to find out," Kael replied. "The Duchess wants answers. And she wants that boy brought to her, safely."

"You think he knows whom the Ingot eblongs to?"

Kael shook her head slowly. "I don’t know. But someone clearly knew enough to hide that ingot among his belongings. The question is... who? And why?"

They crested a hill, and in the distance, the lights of Larkshade Village finally came into view. Small, flickering, warm against the cold darkness.

They had been travelling since the afternoon, non-stop.

"Almost there," Kael muttered. "Finally."

"Do you think he’ll come willingly?" Ilya asked.

Kael snorted. "Does it matter? The Duchess summoned him. Whether he wants to or not, he’s coming."

"Try to be diplomatic about it," Ilya said dryly. "We’re not trying to start a war. We’re trying to get answers."

"I’m always diplomatic," Kael replied with a slight smirk.

"You broke a man’s arm last week for talking back to you."

"He was being undiplomatic first."

Ilya sighed but couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at her lips.

As they drew closer to the village, the outline of the orphanage became visible, a modest building, slightly separate from the main village cluster.

"There," Ilya said, pointing. "That’s the orphanage."

Kael nodded, her expression hardening into professional focus. "Let’s get this done. The sooner we bring him to the Duchess, the sooner we get answers about that ingot."

They urged their horses forward, bringing them to the orphanage gates.