Chapter 115: What are you doing here?
Yves looked at Mia for a moment before nodding.
"Yes."
Mia simply stared at him as everything slowly began to make sense.
His ridiculous strength despite being around the same age as her. The way he had effortlessly fought a Greater Beast that had wiped out her entire party. Even the katana hanging at his side.
Someone that strong at his age was either incredibly lucky or came from powerful blood.
And in Yves’s case, it was definitely the latter.
The Laurents were one of the four strongest ducal families in the Kingdom of Arkens. They were famous for producing some of the finest swordmasters in the Kingdom and were especially known for their unusual preference for the katana. While most swordsmen used longswords, greatswords, or other traditional weapons, the Laurent family almost exclusively trained with katanas.
Their founder was also said to have been one of the first humans to reach the Celestial Rank, which only added to the reputation surrounding their name.
But despite all those achievements, there was one thing that made a Laurent incredibly easy to recognize.
Their hair.
Every member of the family, whether male or female, was born with the same snow-white hair. You didn’t need to memorize their faces or know their names. Their hair announced their bloodline before they even introduced themselves.
Mia suddenly remembered how casually she had spoken to Yves earlier.
Her face immediately went pale.
"I-I’m sorry if I was rude!" She quickly bowed her head. "I didn’t know you were a noble."
"Ah, no. Raise your head." Yves sounded slightly embarrassed by her sudden change in behavior. "You don’t have to bow to me. I’m not some kind of God, and you weren’t rude."
"Oh... okay. Sorry—"
"There’s nothing to apologize for."
Mia slowly raised her head again.
As a commoner, she had heard plenty of stories about the Laurent family.
And she had definitely heard about Yves.
The unwanted child of the Laurent household.
The boy who had failed to Awaken while the rest of his generation was filled with geniuses.
There had been countless rumors about him throughout the Kingdom. Some called him useless, others said he was an embarrassment to the Laurent name, and there were even rumors that his own family wanted nothing to do with him.
Mia had never particularly liked nobles, but she remembered feeling somewhat sorry for him when she first heard those stories.
Now, however, the person sitting in front of her was completely different from the image those rumors had painted.
She hesitated for a moment.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah, sure."
Mia played with the edge of the oversized jacket before finally speaking.
"You said you’re Yves, but... from what I’ve heard, you weren’t supposed to be Awakened." She glanced at him cautiously. "And you definitely weren’t supposed to be somewhere like the Lands of Horror. Didn’t you fail your Awakening?"
She paused.
"I hope that didn’t sound rude."
"Nope. You’re fine."
Yves had never really planned on hiding that fact anyway. His snow-white hair made concealing his identity difficult enough, which was one of the reasons he had avoided interacting with too many people during his time in the Lands of Horror.
Besides, the news of his failed Awakening had spread throughout the Kingdom, especially among younger nobles and Awakeners.
It would’ve been more surprising if Mia hadn’t heard about it.
"Yes, I failed my Awakening," Yves replied. "Which was obviously a pretty big problem for someone my age. If you don’t Awaken, you’re basically just a normal mundane person. And if you happen to be born into a noble family like mine, people consider you even more useless."
He brushed a strand of white hair away from his forehead.
"But somehow, two months ago, I managed to Awaken."
Mia stared at him.
That shouldn’t have been possible.
Children normally had their first chance to Awaken at thirteen. If they failed, they would have another opportunity at fourteen.
After that...
Nothing.
Once someone passed those two chances, they were generally considered incapable of Awakening for the rest of their life. That was one of the reasons mundane people greatly outnumbered Awakeners.
And Yves had failed both times.
At thirteen.
Then again at fourteen.
Everyone had believed his future was already decided. He would live the life of an ordinary noble, removed from most of the responsibilities and positions that required strength.
Yet somehow, at fifteen years old, he had Awakened.
Two months ago.
Mia couldn’t understand how that was possible.
There was only one word she could think of.
A miracle.
Something only the God of Stories could’ve caused.
"Okay..." Mia looked at him more carefully. "But how are you already this strong? It’s only been two months since you Awakened."
That was the part she found even more unbelievable.
Yves wasn’t simply strong for someone who had Awakened two months ago.
He was strong even compared to people who had Awakened years before him.
There were people who had become Awakeners at thirteen and trained constantly for two years who still wouldn’t have been able to fight the Spider Queen the way Yves had.
He smiled.
"Well, I got pretty lucky with my Main Story. But even then, that alone wouldn’t have been enough to close the gap between me and everyone else." Yves glanced toward the darkness beyond the campfire. "That’s why I came here after I Awakened."
Mia’s eyes widened.
"You’ve been hunting monsters here to increase your strength?"
"Correct."
She stared at him for several seconds.
"No offense, but you’re insane."
"None taken."
From what Yves had just told her, he had spent almost two months inside the Lands of Horror hunting monsters and beasts just so he could become stronger.
This was a place famous for killing experienced adventurers.
And this idiot had willingly entered it shortly after Awakening.
Well, probably not completely alone considering the corpse-looking man sitting beside him, but still.
Mia had always thought insanity came with age and poor life decisions.
Apparently, there was no age requirement.
Even she wouldn’t have done something like this, and Mia had taken plenty of dangerous missions with her now-deceased party simply because she liked money.
Yet Yves had deliberately remained here for months.
That wasn’t just recklessness.
It showed how badly he wanted to become stronger.
Unlike her.
Mia lowered her gaze slightly before asking another question.
"Were you never scared?"
Yves looked at her.
"Scared of what?"
"Dying."
He didn’t immediately answer.
Instead, he picked up a piece of wood beside him and threw it into the fire. Sparks rose into the air as the flames grew slightly larger.
Then he spoke.
"No."
Mia looked at him.
"My fear of staying average and useless is much greater than my fear of dying to some monster."
His voice was calm when he said it.
"If I died out here, then I guess that would’ve meant my journey was supposed to end there. But I didn’t." He looked into the fire. "So that means my path hasn’t reached its end yet."
Mia remained quiet.
"The same goes for you."
Her eyes widened slightly.
Yves looked toward her.
"I won’t pretend that I understand exactly what you’re feeling. I’ve never lost people as close to me as the friends you just lost, so it would be stupid for me to act like I know your pain."
Mia’s fingers tightened around the jacket.
"But you shouldn’t think this is the end of your world either," he continued. "People die every day. That’s just the kind of world we live in. And I know that’s probably not comforting to hear right now, but blaming yourself for everything that happened won’t bring them back."
Her eyes began watering again.
"You survived. That doesn’t mean you betrayed them, and it doesn’t mean their deaths were your fault."
Yves paused before continuing.
"If your friends were still here, I doubt they’d want you spending the rest of your life wishing you had died with them."
Mia’s lips trembled.
"It might take you a long time to accept what happened, and that’s fine. There’s no need to rush yourself." Yves gave her a small smile. "Just keep moving forward. Not only for them, but for yourself too."
Mia stared at him with wide eyes.
Tears had already begun gathering in them again, but this time she wasn’t crying purely from grief.
She had always disliked nobles.
In her experience, many of them were arrogant people who acted as though being born into a powerful family somehow made them better than everyone else. She had seen nobles treat commoners like dirt simply because they could.
Because of that, Mia had assumed Yves would be the same.
Especially after hearing the rumors surrounding him.
She had expected someone bitter.
Cold.
Maybe even arrogant despite his failed Awakening.
Instead, the boy sitting in front of her smiled often, joked around with the corpse-looking man, and had never once used his status to place himself above her.
He just seemed like a normal person.
And strangely, his words made something inside her chest feel a little lighter.
They didn’t erase her grief.
Nothing could do that.
But for the first time since the Spider Queen attacked, Mia felt like perhaps there would eventually be better days.
She lowered her head slightly.
"Thank you for saying that."
Yves smiled.
"You’re welcome."
Mia raised her head again after a moment.
"Do you... have my friends’ bodies?"
Yves’s expression became more serious.
He looked toward Ezio.
Ezio nodded.
The shadow beneath them began to stir.
Mia instinctively moved back slightly as several shapes slowly emerged from the darkness. One after another, the bodies of her friends appeared, each carefully wrapped in blankets.
Her eyes widened.
"Ah..."
She looked toward Ezio.
"You’re a Shadow Guardian."
So that explained it.
It now made even more sense how Yves had survived inside the Lands of Horror for so long. He had someone powerful protecting him from the shadows.
It also explained why Mia couldn’t sense Ezio’s strength.
He was simply too far above her.
Mia slowly stood and walked toward the bodies.
Yves and Ezio remained silent.
She stopped beside them before lowering herself onto her knees.
"Take your time," Yves said softly.
Mia glanced back.
Yves and Ezio had already begun walking away from the campfire to give her some privacy.
"Thank you."
She turned back toward the bodies.
Her hands trembled as she reached toward one of the blankets and slowly pulled it away from the face.
Angela.
Her face was pale and completely still.
The tears Mia had been holding back immediately began falling again.
"I’m sorry..."
She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Angela’s body.
That night, Mia cried until she had nothing left.
The following morning, they continued their journey.
Days passed as the three traveled toward the border, and eventually, the massive gates separating the safer regions from the Lands of Horror came into view.
Mia felt relief upon seeing them.
Yves did too.
After spending months away from home, he was finally returning to the Laurent Duchy.
Unfortunately, there was one small problem waiting for him at the gates.
A tall woman stood directly in their path.
She had short snow-white hair.
And judging by the way she was glaring at Yves, she wasn’t particularly happy to see him.
"What are you doing here, Yves?"
Yves froze.
His smile disappeared.
’Ah, shit.’
’Curse my damn luck.’