“You’re back!”

“Bro!!!”

A group of children came bolting towards Scarlett and the others, jumping at Fynn like a gaggle of monkeys. Scarlett watched as he tried to hold them back, placing the unconscious Shin down at the hallway’s entrance.

They’d just arrived at Fynn’s old home in the village of Dimfrost.

“Calm down, we’ve got guests,” the young man in question said, picking up a boy—who couldn’t have been over eight—around the neck. The boy waved his arms around fruitlessly in the air, pouting as he was placed down on the floorboards a short distance away.

“Who are they?” A girl now hanging around Fynn’s elbow stared at Scarlett and the others waiting by the entrance. The girl sniffed the air, then grimaced. “They’re dirty.”

Scarlett’s eye twitched, but she held herself back from saying anything. She was just a kid. Ten at most. Besides, they’d literally just climbed up and down a mountain. Some sweat was to be expected. Though she personally thought she’d sweated relatively little with how cold it had been.

“They’re my companions,” Fynn said, then gestured towards Scarlett. “And she’s my employer. You can’t say that she smells. It’s rude.”

The girl gave him a confused look. “What? Why?”

Fynn’s forehead knitted together, as if he actually had to think about it.

Inwardly bemoaning her choice of companions, Scarlett decided to save him the trouble.

“Will you introduce us to your siblings?” she asked, taking a step forward.

His focused expression quickly disappeared, and he pointed to the group of kids around him in order. “These are Velryrth, Themyar, Inayra, and Kelnorin.”

The first among them was a long-haired girl somewhere in her middle teens. Second was a boy, maybe a couple of years younger, sharing a lot of resemblance with Fynn. Third was the girl who’d already spoken, who had her hair cropped short above her ears. Lastly was the young boy Fynn had picked up earlier—with a bed of hair that looked like it’d been through a storm, sticking in all directions—who was now hanging off Fynn’s other elbow.

All the kids shared the same white hair and yellow eyes as Fynn, and were dressed in simple white nightclothes.

Fynn looked to his siblings, then pointed to Scarlett and the others. “She’s Baroness Hartford. Those two are Allyssa and Shin. The brown-haired one is Rosa, and the old—” He paused, peeking at Garside. “That one is a butler. He works for the Baroness.”

“The brown-haired one, eh?” Rosa’s mumbling was heard from the side.

Personally, Scarlett was surprised Fynn had introduced her with her noble title.

Maybe he could learn these things after all.

“Hello,” Allyssa greeted the kids with a cheery voice, waving her hand. She earned a couple of waves back by Velryrth, the oldest of the sisters, and Themyar, the middle brother.

“What’s a baroness?” the youngest boy—Kelnorin—asked, ignoring their greetings completely.

“It’s one of the empire’s rulers,” Inayra answered, holding her head high.

The young boy went wide-eyed, and he stared at Scarlett. “She’s their queen?!”

Scarlett lowered her gaze to him. “I am not. The empire has no queen, nor would I have been one if we did.”

“…I like your hair,” the boy said.

Scarlett blinked. “I apprecia—”

“You smell weird though. It’s not good to lie.” He turned away from her and pulled at Fynn’s arm. “Come! I want to show you the statue I made!”

Her eyes stayed on the boy as he tried to drag his older brother away, not quite sure what to say to that.

Could it be that she did actually smell? Even so, hadn’t Fynn just said it was rude to speak like that?

A dark-haired woman came walking out from a back room, rubbing her eyes as she exited into the hallway. There were traces of grey in her hair, and like the kids, she also wore nightclothes.

“Fyntrarth?” she asked, pausing as she looked at Fynn. “You’re back? Who are these people?”

“Franka! Bro has a queen!” Kelnorin yelled, the boy’s arm pulling taut behind him as he failed towing Fynn with him.

“She’s not a queen!” Inayra cried out.

Velryrth put her arms around the excited boy’s shoulders and drew him back, holding the lump of energy in place as she looked towards the dark-haired woman. “Fyntrarth said they’re his companions. And his employer.”

“Employer?” The older lady’s eyes turned to them. “You mentioned it in your letter,” she muttered, then her eyes stopped on Scarlett. “T-Then are you the Baroness? W-What is someone like you doing here?”

“I am indeed the baroness,” Scarlett said. “And as Fynn had matters to deal with in this area, I chose to accompany him and lend my aid."

Franka’s attention turned to Fynn. “I-I see. Then you’re not staying for long?”

“What? You’re leaving again?” Themyar, the middle brother, stared at Fynn.

Fynn glanced back at Scarlett.

She met his gaze, then looked to the rest. “We will only stay as long as is required in order to secure a means of return.”

Fynn nodded at her words. “What she said. They’ll be staying here tonight at least.” He stepped forward and lifted his youngest brother up with both arms. “You should be sleeping, though. The rest of you as well.”

“Kelnorin woke up when he smelled your scent.” Velryrth smiled. “We couldn’t calm him down.”

“Scent…?” Allyssa studied the family of white-haired children. “Ehm, Fynn… Are all of your siblings…like you?”

Fynn looked at her for a moment, then glanced towards Scarlett.

Scarlett arched an eyebrow at him. “I believe we are well past trying to conceal your background.”

He turned back to Allyssa. “Yes. We are of the Grehaldrael.”

Allyssa gave him a confused look. “I…don’t recognize that name.”

“Nor do I,” Garside said.

Rosa grinned. “A secret tribe of wolves then, is it? How romantic.”

Fynn looked at the woman. “You know of us?”

“No.” Rosa gesticulated to herself. “But I do have these things called eyes.”

Fynn furrowed his brows. “What?”

“Let us save these conversations for another time,” Scarlett cut in before things derailed any further. “I would prefer if we could have our rest before the night has passed.”

Fynn, still holding his younger brother up in the air, turned around. “Franka, can you help prepare a place for them to sleep?”

The woman still looked a bit overwhelmed by the whole situation, but at Fynn’s words, she seemed to regain some of her focus. She fiercely nodded her head. “We don’t have anything fitting a noblewoman, but I’ll find the best that we have.”

She disappeared into one of the rooms, and Fynn started pushing his siblings down the hallway, as the rest of them followed.

The next day, Scarlett was sitting on a wide porch at the back of the house, reading a thick leather-bound book.

She had tried to find a few books on linguistics, the history of how Modern Imperial developed, and how the language of the old Zuver tied into it, but the general knowledge on the subject appeared pretty scant from what she could tell. There might be more to find if you knew where to look, but unfortunately, she did not at the moment.

Instead, she had been reading up on the general history of the Zuver people—or at least what was known about them—and what some of the current theories were about what led up to The Severance — the event that caused the annihilation of the Zuverian civilization.

Because this was a fantasy world and there always had to have been some sort of major catastrophic event in the past.

While she was familiar with the subject because of her game knowledge, she was lacking when it came to minor details and what the people here actually knew. As she was often dealing with Zuverian artifacts and ruins—and would undoubtedly garner even more attention related to it in the future—she’d thought it wise to educate herself further on the subject.

This particular book also happened to have been written by the same author that Princess Regina had once mentioned to her when they spoke. Myerscough appeared to be one of the most prolific authors on the subject.

A loud cry rang out from in front of Scarlett, and she glanced up from her pages to see Fynn’s youngest brother flying through the air. The young boy landed on the back of a ‘statue’ composed of a pile of stones, vaguely arranged in the shape of a wolf. A few meters away stood Fynn with his arms raised.

Scarlett could only shake her head at the sight. If there was anything she’d learned lately, it was that Fynn’s people were on another level when it came to some of their games.

The house they’d stayed in for the night was near one of the edges of the valley that Dimfrost was in, with a porch facing the rocky cliffside. The area between that created a backyard of sorts, where Fynn had spent much of the morning catching up with his siblings, romping about, and telling stories of his “adventures” in the lands outside. Scarlett had overheard him sharing the fact that he’d had his first awakening and gone through with the trial, which had earned quite the intense reaction from the youngest of the siblings who apparently wanted to come with. She hadn’t bothered paying attention to the ensuing scrap after that, though.

Right now, Fynn was playing with only the three youngest of his siblings. Rosa sat on the sidelines, chiming in with small tidbits of songs at times. The bard seemed to enjoy the exaggerated reactions from the youngest siblings.

The older of the siblings, Velryrth, had been sitting at the corner of the house along with Allyssa for a while now, apparently quite fascinated by whatever they were speaking about.

Shin had woken up for a brief time, earlier in the morning, but he was still recuperating from all the healing, so he was resting inside right now.

Garside was the only one who wasn’t around at the moment. He had been out for a few hours now, busy at work as usual.

Fynn had informed them that there was usually a small ship that passed by the village with wares once a week or so, but according to Franka, it’d been here three days prior. The chances of it coming again soon were low, so Garside was currently going around the village, trying to arrange another way for them to get back to Freybrook. It wasn’t as if going north through the Blasted Lands was an alternative, so the Three Streams river was their only option.

Scarlett had considered joining him on his mission, but this was a relatively isolated village. There wasn’t much point in scaring all its villagers with a sudden visit from a noblewoman.

Still, she was hoping he would find a way. It might have just been best to pay a few thousand extra solars to have those men that originally brought them here return with their ship. It was exorbitantly expensive, yes, but that was growing to be less and less of a problem for her. And she had to be back in Freybrook in a couple of days, when she was expecting Gaven Ripley to have returned.

If she hadn’t been so caught up in getting here and how to deal with Fynn’s awakening situation, she might have spent more time thinking about the trip back. She hadn’t even booked a trip through the Kilnstone to Freybrook.

Well, sometimes even the most basic of things didn’t become obvious until in hindsight. It’d definitely be annoying if they didn’t make it back in time, but it wasn’t life-threatening. Her intentions regarding Gaven didn’t have any strict deadline. There was even a part of her that was hoping they wouldn’t make it back in time, so she would have to delay going through with some of her plans.

Wanting to sigh just thinking about it all, she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind for now and returned her attention to the book in her hands.

After some time, footsteps prompted her to look up again, and she saw Fynn sit down in a chair next to her. Rosa was entertaining the children by herself now.

Scarlett studied the young man for a moment. “You appear unusually fatigued,” she said, noting the drops of sweat on his forehead.

“Mm. It’s because of the trial. Still haven’t recovered completely.”

“Is that so?” She didn’t know it was something he would have to recover from. “And what did you learn?”

Fynn gave her a curious look. “You don’t know?”

“I do not,” she said.

His eyes lingered on her. “I thought you would.”

“I am not omniscient. Despite what some might say.”

He scratched the side of his head. “…I don’t think I can tell you.”

Scarlett closed the book in her hands. “Understandable. However, I presume what you received was at least worth the effort?”

“Yeah. The ancestors told me a lot,” he said. “I’ll have to return later, though.”

She nodded her head. “That is within expectations. If you so wish, I will aid you then as well.”

Fynn looked at her for a moment, and it seemed like he wanted to ask something. Eventually, though, he turned away.

Scarlett held back a smirk. He was curious about her reasons probably, but still didn’t ask. He could be surprisingly good at holding himself back, sometimes. Though maybe not quite enough to make up for all those other times.

“I had been meaning to bring it up,” she said, deciding to change the subject. “There were several artifacts found after clearing the trial. I have several thoughts of what to do with them, but I was curious whether you held any interest in them first.”

“Artifacts?”

“Yes. Were you not aware of them?”

They had looted them while he was still in a trance.

“No. But I don’t really care. You can take them.”

He might have cared if she told him what the artifacts were worth. But she reckoned it was okay, as long as she continued providing for him, and ensured he could continue to grow. Some might call it exploitation, but she was doing it for his own good. Honest.

Besides, she had risked a lot in this venture. This much seemed reasonable.

“Very well. I will ensure they are put to good use.”

They lapsed into silence.

Fynn’s gaze was focused on his siblings.

“I wanted to thank you,” he said after a while. “Before…I didn’t really understand it. But I wouldn’t have been able to beat the trial without you. I think I would’ve died.”

“There is no need for gratitude,” she said. “My intentions were far from altruistic. You are a valuable asset. It would have been a waste to allow you to be squandered in a futile endeavour.”

Fynn cocked his head to the side as he looked at her, wrinkling his forehead as if he was having a hard time judging the truthfulness of her words. Surprising, considering who he was.

Eventually, he seemed to give up and returned his gaze to the space in front of them. Rosa was now teaching Inayra how to play the klert.

“I don’t know what would happen to them if I died,” he said.

Scarlett’s eyes stayed on the children for a moment. “You seem to care about them deeply.”

“Of course. We’re family. Isn’t that natural?”

She slowly looked back at him. “…I suppose it is.”

He turned to her. “Aren’t you the same?”

“The relationship between my sister and me is complicated,” she said.

“Is that why you yelled at each other in Elystead?”

“That was in due because of it, yes.”

Fynn peered at her. “Why are you two like that? She’s your sister.”

Scarlett met his eyes for a moment, then shifted her gaze to Fynn’s youngest sister turning the crank of Rosa’s instrument with a wide grin.

“…You have never felt anger at your siblings?” she asked. “Frustration over them holding you back, restraining your freedom, completely ignorant of the demanding position they put you in?”

“No,” he answered without any hesitation.

She let out a low laugh. “I suppose you would not. That is laudable in its own right.”

For a short while, she stayed quiet.

“I will not claim to be a good sister,” she eventually said. “Nor will I claim to have suffered through the same grief as you. But our circumstances do bear some resemblances.”

She ran her hand over the book in her lap, trailing her fingertips over the cover. “When our parents passed away, I was barely an adult, with no other family to rely upon. However, I still strove to uphold my responsibilities as the older sibling, despite the hardships it entailed.

“At first, I would like to think that I fulfilled my role befittingly. I have never been an emotional person, so I had no issue overlooking the grief I felt in order to care for my sister, who was still at a very vulnerable age when what must have been almost her whole world fell apart. But as the responsibilities on me grew, so did the distance between us.”

She looked down at the book cover, eyes passing over the words in the title.

“Eventually, my sister grew more rebellious, and began associating herself with people I did not approve of. I am still uncertain whether I overreacted at the time, but she had already started listening less to my words. As the stress mounted, I took it out on her occasionally. Not physically, but arguments were common, and I often wondered what it was all for. In my eyes, it seemed as if my sister had no appreciation for what I did for her, nor cared whether her actions helped or made matters worse.”

A rueful smile grew on Scarlett’s face. “I am ashamed to say that not once did I try to see it from her point of view. If I had done so earlier, perhaps we could have talked about it. Come to understand each other. By the point I started having such thoughts, however, the time had long since passed for that to be an option.”

“…What happened?” Fynn asked.

She looked up at him. “Not much. Things continued as they were for years, until she reached an age where she could take care of herself.”

He frowned. “And you regret it?”

Scarlett slowly shook her head. “Things are what they are. I regret the way I dealt with things, not realizing how many of my words and actions were smothering her and aggravating the situation. But I do not regret the woman she grew up to be. She was always more capable than I, and there are many things I am proud of as her elder sister.”

Not that she’d often told her that. After her sister had left for college their relationship had improved a lot compared to before, but they still rarely spoke. Despite their rocky relationship though, Scarlett still missed her. She hoped that whatever happened to her body back in her old world wasn’t something horrible. While she had never been able to empathize with her sister’s grief in the same way, she still didn’t want to put her through any more of it.

Perhaps the relationship between the original Scarlett and Evelyne had been similar. The original most definitely had a worse personality than herself, but their circumstances were at least similar, with the previous Lord Hartford having died when Scarlett was close to Fynn’s age.

In fact, wasn’t it odd that their situations were so alike?

She frowned. Was that just another coincidence? Or was it another clue as to why she’d been put into Scarlett’s body specifically?

“I don’t really get it,” Fynn said after a moment. “But I do think I understand.”

He looked at her. “You want what’s best for Miss Evelyne, don’t you?”

Scarlett blinked. Both because he referred to Evelyne as ‘miss’, and because that wasn’t who she’d really been talking about. “…In a sense, perhaps,” she said. “But it would be a lie to say that I would prioritize Evelyne’s needs before mine, in our current circumstances.”

Fynn’s furrow deepened. “Why?”

“There are many reasons. The simplest is that doing so could very well lead to both my demise and the demise of an untold number of others.”

She still didn’t know what her purpose in this world was, but she did know that some force wanted her to be involved in its happenings. And not involving herself risked causing disaster, depending on how you interpreted the vague terms used in the main quest.

“I’ll stop it then,” Fynn said.

Scarlett stared at him. “…What?”

The young man had a determined look on his face. “I’ll stop whatever you’re afraid of. I owe you a debt, so I’ll help you.”

She kept her eyes on him for several seconds. If it weren’t for the traits holding her back, she was pretty sure she would have broken into laughter right here and now. He had no idea what he was promising her, yet he still resolved to do it. Words held a lot of meaning to his people too, so it wasn’t as if this was something easy to back out of later.

She smiled. “Are you aware of the consequences your words might have?”

He shook his head. “No. But I’ll help you.”

Just how trusting could you be?

“What if that involves committing wicked acts?” she asked.

“I don’t think it will. You’re not bad.”

“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow. “You are not the first to say something of the sort to me. I presume you are unaware of my reputation amongst certain groups?”

“I don’t trust rumors.”

“What is said about me is not always completely unwarranted, however.” She tapped her finger against the book’s cover. “But I suppose it does not matter. Much of it is with regard to a person of the past. I am not bound by such things.” She fixed her eyes on his. “That is not to say I will not do what I believe necessary to achieve my goals.”

He held her gaze, staying silent.

Eventually, she tore her eyes away from his and opened her book again. “I hope you do not forget your words today. If there is one thing I have learned about myself these last few months, it is that I am a greedy woman. It might be that I come to rely on you more than you expect.”

“Alright,” Fynn said. “If that’s what you need.”

She gently shook her head. Really, there should be a limit to how thoughtless one could be.

Still…maybe she should reward him some extra from now on. She needed him as strong as possible.

And if that improved his impression of her in the process…

Then that was nice as well.

Besides, he had a family to take care of.