In a Civilized Manner

The evacuation efforts were in full swing at the Signa Gates, the grand arches for mana magnification glowing faintly as they prepared to facilitate the mass teleportation.

With help from the Imperial Army, Ace had taken the lead in gathering all the evacuees, his sharp eyes assessing each person as they passed through the capital doors. Edris had tasked the man with the critical job of identifying those who were most likely to be pulled into the Labyrinths by gauging their mana levels.

It wasn’t a foolproof method, but Ace had a keen sense for these things, and his judgments were rarely wrong.

Once Ace had made his assessments, Edris and the Imperial Army swiftly gathered those identified as high-risk, along with their families. It was an efficient process, one that required the authority and precision that only someone like Evans Moon could provide. The commander’s mere presence amidst the crowd instilled a sense of order, his calm authority a stark contrast to the underlying panic that had gripped the capital.

When Edris had first approached Evans Moon with his plan, the commander had agreed almost immediately. There was no hesitation, no need for persuasion; Evans recognized the urgency of the situation, and his position was a further reason to not refuse.

Originally, Edris had intended for Grace Moon to be the one to travel to Zacriya’s capital to speak with the royal family there, considering her title as the official representative of the Moon family. However, after a brief discussion, both Grace and Evans had decided that her Touch would be far more beneficial if she stayed behind.

And so, the Commander had taken on the role himself.

Now, Evans Moon watched as the traveller weaved through the crowd, giving out instructions with a sense of composed leadership that the commander hadn’t initially expected. When Evans had first met the dark-haired traveller during the dinner, his initial impression towards him had been one of scepticism, especially considering the questionably ostentatious tales that had spread from the Zacriya Kingdom.

But now, seeing Edris in action, Evans found his view of him undergoing a slight shift.

On the latter’s end, Edris had just finished speaking with a group of Imperial soldiers.

"The Crown Prince will be sending his Expedition Army to meet you at the destination," he explained to the Commander. "You can coordinate the details with Regent Trim once you arrive."

Trim, who had been standing nearby, nodded enthusiastically. "I’ll make sure everything is in order once we’re on the other side."

Edris gave a nod of acknowledgment, then turned his full attention to Evans Moon. His gaze was steady, and for a moment, there was a weight in his eyes that spoke of something deeper.

"Commander," Edris began, his tone almost formal, "does this count as using up the favour?"

There was a moment of silence as the question hung in the air.

Evans Moon had promised Edris that the Imperial Army would offer its unconditional support once, regardless of the situation.

It was an invaluable promise, especially coming from the Commander himself.

"…No."

As he said that, the traveller’s shoulders seemed to relax and a genuine look of relief crossed his face.

"I see."

“…”

Should he have said otherwise?

For the first time, Evans Moon was second guessing his decision.

Unaware of complicated thoughts circulating the Commander’s mind, Edris nodded to himself in satisfaction. He was quite content with the man's clear division of public and personal favours.

“Commander Moon!” One of the Awakeneds from the factions rushed up to the two. He gave a quick nod to Edris, who smoothly returned the gesture.

“We’ve just received an update from the Risk Faction. The atmospheric mana detectors are reading an abnormal influx in mana level,” the Awakened said gravely. “We are expecting a new round of pulls soon.”

Exchanging a simple glance with Commander Moon, Edris turned around and gave Ace the signal.

The countdown had begun.

“Let’s get started.”

Without hesitation, Edris reached for the knife strapped to his side and sliced across his palm. Blood welled up, dripping down his hand in a steady stream. He pressed his entire bleeding palm against the Distributor on his ear, and immediately, a surge of light erupted from the device, illuminating the space around them.

Glowing strings traversed upwards, first dozens and then expanding to thousands in a matter of seconds. These strings merged together to form a thick pillar of light, launching itself across the field and merging right into the white-haired man.

Ace closed his eyes, drawing in a deep breath. When he opened them again, his irises had turned pitch black, like a blot of ink on canvas. Simultaneously, a sophisticated web of patterns began to emerge from beneath their feet, lines of energy snaking across the ground, assembling into the thorny designs of a teleportation circle that spanned almost the entire field.

Nearby, Yukioe and Celio were regulating orders upon the evacuees. As Yukioe dutifully restated instructions and words of reassurance to each family (professional habits as a Soul Patcher), Celio was busy comforting the owner of Alchemist’s Eatery, who clung to his arm with trembling hands.

"Dear, what is happening?" she asked, her voice filled with apprehension.

The beast tamer offered her a reassuring smile, though his eyes betrayed his own worry.

"Don’t worry, granny,” he said. “Help will be waiting for us on the other side. We’re going to be okay."

“Little Celio!” A familiar voice echoed behind him. As Celio spun around, he saw a middle-aged man running towards him.

“Uncle Orteon?!” He blinked in confusion. “What are you doing here?”

Dominic Orteon, Duke of Orteon, was the leader of Zacriya’s northeast territory. He was also the one who had given Celio and the others a free pass to Odeen by letting them join his textile crew through the Signa Gates.

“Evacuating like the rest.” Duke Orteon wheezed, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

“But… You’re not even an Awakened.” Celio creased his brows in confliction. “Have you or people around you been in the Labyrinth?”

The available spots for teleportation were extremely limited. Even with someone as formidable as Ace, they had to be selective about who to transport and focus on those most at risk for being pulled in by the Labyrinth.

“No, but I have to go back,” Duke Orteon pleaded. “My daughter is still waiting for me in Nolmes. I can’t get pulled into this… this Labyrinth shenanigan right now!”

“But…”

As they spoke, the air around them pulsed, driven by an invisible force of power and sending tremors throughout the field.

Awakeneds turned their heads simultaneously. Even regular citizens stiffened, sensing something was wrong.

Another wave of Labyrinth pulls had begun, carrying with it the first snowfall of the year.

Large snowflakes descended from the sky, their cold touch adding to the tension in the atmosphere. Light from the pattern on the ground shone through the snowflakes, surrounding them in a soft radiance of colours.

Little by little, groups of people around them began to disappear, swallowed by the teleportation circle. Even for high-skilled mages, preparing a teleportation circle on this scale—enough for a thousand people—was a monumental task, let alone for Edris and Ace.

Ives stood a little farther away from the circle, her arms wrapped around herself to resist the cold air. As she stood observing, a black substance slowly crept out from her neck, only to gingerly retreat right back in as the seven-year-old gave it a firm slap. Ives huffed, forcing herself to ignore the burning sensation on her neck.

Ives wasn’t going to run away anymore.

After what had happened yesterday, she was set on teaching the black mana its place. As Edris had taught her, if she couldn’t talk her way through her opponent, shifting tactics to a slightly less civilized manner would suffice as well.

She redirected her attention to the two core figures of the operation. Ace stood at the centre of the teleportation circle, and Edris was stationed on the edge of the pattern behind him.

A trickle of blood ran down from Edris’s nose. The continuous input of mana from him to Ace was no doubt taking a toll on his body.

Was he supposed to be cold right now? Or burning up?

At this point, he couldn’t be sure. But despite his lack of thermoception, the sweat soaking through his shirt was good enough of an indication.

Edris quickly scanned the field. Around half of the people had been successfully teleported. Retracting his gaze, he exhaled a shaky breath before reassessing his own condition.

A bit light-headed, but still endurable.

He then cast his gaze towards the white-haired man situated in the centre of the field. With a palm pressed to the ground, Ace was in a half-kneeling stance, completely enveloped in a white light. A constant supply of mana poured out of the man and onto the webbed circle of patterns beneath his feet.

Despite the bellowing gust surrounding him, the man remained unmoving, to the point where even his breathing had come to a halt, and one could have no problem mistaking him as a statue.

Ace, too, was peering right at Edris, and the two shared a knowing gaze—one that told each other to keep going.

They had no other choice. The link between the portal and the mana supply was one with great fragility, where the slightest blunder on either side would bring a halt to the entire operation.

Edris blew out a puff of air. Once all this was over, he was fully ready to enter another week's worth of sleep.

As the last batch of people disappeared into the circle, all that was left was for their group to follow. Ace slowly pulled him up and wiped the snow that had accumulated on his head, blending in with the colour of his hair. He lowered the scale of the teleportation little by little, stopping when it was just big enough for the rest to go through.

He gestured a pass to the group, and Celio stepped into the circle first, followed by Ives. The seven-year-old stepped onto the patterns cautiously, eyeing herself for any suspicious movements from the black mana every other second. Once everything was clear, she glanced up at the dark-haired man, who gave her a nod of approval.

“Master, let’s go back!” Celio waved for him to head over. “His Highness is probably waiting for us in Nolmes!”

Strictly speaking, it’d been only a month since they left Zacriya’s capital for Odeen, but it felt like much longer had passed.

Edris was about to join them when he stiffened on the spot.

While most present in this operation were evacuees, there were also some who’d voluntarily stayed to help out with the capital. Many of them were Awakeneds of the Imperial Army, who had stationed around them in a barrier-like formation, ensuring the area was secure from any unexpected dangers during the stages of evacuation.

Amidst the soldiers, a flash of green hair disappeared into the crowd.

Edris froze in his tracks, his mind blank.

...A hallucination?

It had to be. He was convinced that the stress of the situation was playing tricks on him.

Yet, he found himself unable to ignore it.

Before he knew it, he had turned away from the teleportation circle and redirected his strides towards the crowd, his feet moving of their own accord.

"Mister Edris?" The seven-year-old’s voice sounded behind him, but he didn’t respond, only glimpsed behind his shoulder before continuing on.

Ives stood there, dazed. The look on Edris’s face—so vivid, so raw—imprinted in her eyes; she had never seen him wear that kind of expression before.

Edris continued moving, pushing against the tide of people evacuating the area. He could hear the others shouting his name; Yukioe, Celio—even Ace. The white-haired man’s voice, usually deep and stoic, had carried a note of alarm as he called out to him, not comprehending his series of actions.

But Edris couldn’t stop. He couldn’t.

He wouldn’t.

…This isn’t fair.

Edris was hit by a sudden sense of exasperation, an irrational thought that the entire world had done him some sort of unredeemable injustice. He couldn’t help it. If it weren’t for the dreams, he could have left the capital instantly instead of taking up the strenuous role of evacuating over a thousand people; if it weren’t for the dreams, he wouldn’t have left everything behind to head to the Zacriya Kingdom.

If it weren’t for the dreams, he could have freed himself from this world long ago.

Yet, every time he came close to stepping out from that box, fragments of her would come back to haunt him in all types of shapes and forms. They clung onto him like infants, steering him onto arduous paths, shoving him towards reality.

Edris wasn’t a good person, but she forced him to be one.

An anchor, she said?

He scoffed under his breath.

More like a curse.

Without turning back, Edris poured the entirety of his mana channel into the Distributor, ensuring its sufficiency to support the final round of teleportation. He was sure that Ace had received his input, so the rest he would leave the man to handle.

Flurries of snow swirled around him, the coldness biting against his skin. The large, thin snowflakes landed on his lashes, and with every breath, vapour puffed from his mouth, mingling with the frigid air. Edris kept moving forward, past the soldiers and citizens, his eyes scanning the crowd desperately.

Without warning, he was hit by a surge of energy; it blossomed from his chest, coursing through his limbs and extending to the very core of his existence.

He knew it was a pull attempt from the Labyrinth.

The world around him blurred as the familiar sensation washed over him, threatening to drag him into its depths. But even as the ground disappeared beneath his feet, the man somehow kept walking, his eyes stubbornly searching for any traces of her existence, the one person who had sculpted his past and, perhaps, his future.

It was at that moment.

Although only for a brief second, Edris saw her again—the woman from his dreams.

She was there, just as she had been in his memories, her presence both familiar and elusive. She stood right there in silence, awaiting him to take the step onto the path, like he had always done.

Except this time, it wasn’t a dream.

Before he could even focus his vision, the woman had disappeared in a flurry, leaving as quickly as she came.

She wasn’t the only one about to disappear.

The snow continued to fall, covering the ground around him in a pristine white blanket as Edris stood in stillness. He should be feeling annoyance, frustration, even resentment towards this entire situation. Yet, during that short moment of eye contact, the dark-haired man knew instantly that all attempts at rationalising were futile.

Edris breathed out, a rare emotion filling his voice. It was one he hadn’t felt in a long time:

Longing.

"Teacher…"

A gust swept the ground, and then he was gone.

[END OF PART TWO]