📍 The Garden — Elfior Mansion | Morning
The morning after the firefly night, neither of them mentioned it.
They walked to the garden side by side with the particular focused silence of two people who have decided, by mutual unspoken agreement, that whatever happened last night was filed under not yet and would remain there until further notice. The morning was cool. The trees were loud with birds. Everything was fine.
Lord Garion was already waiting.
He stood at the centre of the garden pavilion in the early light — still, unhurried, the kind of man who arrived before others as a matter of habit rather than effort. His wife sat nearby. Two knights at the edges. The space had the quiet weight of a room where serious things were said.
"Kiyoshi and Sakura," he said. Not a question.
"Yes, my Lord."
He was quiet for a moment, looking at them in the particular way he had — reading, finding the relevant line.
"You came to deliver a letter," he said. "That is true. But that is not all of why you are here."
Kiyoshi waited.
"What I am about to tell you should not leave this garden." Garion's voice had no threat in it. It didn't need one. "Do you understand?"
"Yes, my Lord."
He clasped his hands behind his back. "As history tells it — though not common history, not written history — the goddess of the forest granted certain races a power. Beast mode. The ability to call on the nature of an animal that matches your soul, and inhabit it partially during battle." He paused. "Elves are not the only ones who carry this. There are other races, other families. But it is rare, and it is secret, and it is ours to protect."
Kiyoshi said nothing. He was listening the way he listened to things that mattered.
"Our royals can access this power after one hundred years of life," Garion continued. "There is a flame — the Elf's Flame. We believe it was passed down directly from the goddess. It heals any wound. It never dies. When a member of the royal family reaches one hundred years, we perform a ritual. They step into the flame. It does not burn them. After some time, a plant grows within that flame and bears fruit. The fruit, when eaten, grants the beast power — the one most suited to that person's nature."
He stopped.
"For several years now, the fruit has been bitter." His voice didn't change but something around his eyes did — something that had been sitting on him for a while. "The power it grants is weakened. We believe the goddess's blessing on the flame is fading. Galfi's role — the witch's role — has been to carry a fragment of that blessing herself, and renew it periodically. She has done this for generations."
"And Galfi is dying," Kiyoshi said.
"She is old. She may die at any time." Garion looked at him directly. "Which means the time has come to find someone who carries the same blessing."
The garden was very quiet.
"You have the blessing of the forest goddess."
Kiyoshi heard it. Let it settle. He had suspected something — the prayer in the ritual chamber, the way the goddess had responded, the things Galfi herself had said in ways that pointed sideways at something she wasn't saying directly. But hearing it stated plainly by a lord who could see it was different.
"My Lord," he said carefully, "I don't know how to use it. I don't know what it is. I said a prayer and something answered. That's the full extent of what I understand about this."
Garion looked at him for a moment. "That's all anyone ever does," he said. "Ask. The goddess either answers or she doesn't."
Sakura turned to Kiyoshi. "You have the blessing of the forest goddess?"
"Apparently," Kiyoshi said.
"Since when?"
"Since the meadow, probably. Maybe before. I didn't know until just now."
Garion clasped his hands again. "This is between us. Not the household. Not anyone outside this garden." A pause. "Will you accept this quest?"
Kiyoshi bowed his head. "Yes, my Lord. It would be my honour."
📍 The Training Ground — Elfior Mansion | Later That Morning
Nanime arrived to training in the same way she did everything — precisely on time, completely prepared, slightly amused by the gap between her own capability and everyone else's.
"Sakura," she said, drawing one circular blade. "You first."
What followed was not a duel in any sense Sakura had experienced before.
Nanime moved with the unhurried efficiency of someone who had long since stopped needing to try hard at this level. Her blades traced arcs through the air on their strings — controlled, economical, each one aimed at an opening the moment it appeared. She wasn't attacking so much as pointing out. Every time Sakura moved, Nanime's blade was already at the place Sakura was moving toward. Not blocking. Waiting.
Sakura tried speed. Nanime redirected it.
She tried angles. Nanime had already closed them.
She tried feinting twice and attacking on the third. Nanime caught the pattern on the second repetition and was already in position for the third.
She's teaching, Sakura understood, somewhere around the fifteenth exchange. She's not fighting me. She's showing me everything I do wrong.
On the far side of the training ground, Kiyoshi was having a different problem.
Nanime's assistant was B rank — capable, experienced, serious. Not overwhelming. Under normal circumstances, Kiyoshi should have been able to hold against her comfortably. He had the sword training, the footwork, the instincts his father had built into him over years.
But his body wasn't cooperating.
He blocked. His arm absorbed the impact wrong — too heavy, like something in the translation between decision and movement was delayed. He tried to activate Back Sword and felt the skill stutter against something. Not fail. Stutter. Like a door that opened but then caught on something before it could swing fully.
Why, he thought, not for the first time, does it always feel like this.
He pushed through. He stayed standing. He gave the assistant enough trouble that she stopped holding back, which he counted as a partial victory.
Both of them ended up on the ground anyway.
Nanime walked over. She looked at Sakura first.
"Too many openings," she said. "You fight like someone who expects to be healed." She wasn't unkind about it. Just accurate. "An intelligent opponent — not a monster, an intelligent one — will study you for exactly long enough to find the pattern, and then it ends." She glanced at Kiyoshi. "Don't rely on him being there. Not because he won't be. Because relying on it changes how you fight, and that change will kill you against something that moves faster than healing."
Sakura was still catching her breath on the ground. "Yes, my lady."
"And you." She looked at Kiyoshi. "Healing magic has limits that most healers don't explain to their partners because it's inconvenient. It accelerates natural recovery. It does not replace what is lost. Blood, flesh, cells — these have their own healing mechanisms, and yours override them. Use it too frequently and her body forgets how to do the work itself." She paused. "Heal halfway. Let the rest close on its own. This is not optional."
Kiyoshi filed it. He had suspected something like this — Nanime's warning named what had been sitting at the back of his mind since Sakura's injury in the Lifo forest.
"From tomorrow," Nanime said, and walked back to the centre of the training ground without looking back, "we do this again."
Kiyoshi lay on the ground and looked up at the Elfior sky through the canopy — green and gold, the light moving.
His arm still felt wrong.
Why, he thought again, without an answer. What is it that you're doing to me.
The system didn't respond. It never did when he asked that.
✦ CODEX — Chapter Fourteen ✦
World Archive: Entries Relevant to Chapter Fourteen
ENTRY 056 — THE ELF'S FLAME AND THE BEAST RITUAL
The Elf's Flame is a divine artifact held within the Elfior noble family's private chambers. It is believed to have been passed directly from the goddess Fiyo to Jojikan Elfior at the founding of the elf people. The flame heals any wound and has not been extinguished in recorded history.
When a member of the Elfior royal family reaches one hundred years of age, they undergo the Beast Ritual — stepping into the flame, which does not burn them. A plant grows within the flame and bears fruit. Eating the fruit awakens the beast power latent in that individual — a partial transformation tied to the animal that matches their nature.
For several years, the ritual fruit has been producing weakened results. The family's conclusion: the goddess's blessing on the flame is fading.
Galfi the witch has historically carried a fragment of the blessing and renewed it periodically. Her approaching death necessitates a replacement.
ENTRY 057 — ON THE FOREST GODDESS'S BLESSING
The blessing of the goddess Fiyo is not a skill, not a rank, and not something the system classifies. Lord Garion can see it as a visible quality — a mark, though he did not describe its appearance.
Kiyoshi carries it. He did not know this before this morning. The origin of the blessing — when it was given, why he was chosen, what it requires of him — remains undisclosed.
Galfi carried a fragment of the same blessing. The two are connected in some way that has not yet been explained.
ENTRY 058 — ON THE LIMITS OF HEALING MAGIC
Healing magic accelerates the body's natural recovery process. It does not regenerate. Blood lost stays lost until the body produces more. Flesh destroyed must regrow through normal cellular processes — healing magic only speeds that process.
Consequence of overuse: the body's autonomous healing mechanisms weaken. Cells that are repeatedly overridden by external healing lose their own capacity to function. Long-term dependency on healing magic can permanently reduce a person's natural recovery rate.
Nanime's instruction: heal halfway, allow the body to finish the rest. This is not a preference. It is medical necessity.
ENTRY 059 — ON KIYOSHI'S LEVELLING PROBLEM
Every rank advancement causes Kiyoshi physical distress — heavier, slower, more pain, reduced stamina during the transition period. His offensive skills stutter on activation. The sensation is of something blocking the connection between decision and action.
This is not normal. No other adventurer at his rank experiences this.
The system has not flagged it. No one in the world has identified it. Kiyoshi has not told anyone.
The cause is unknown.
End of Chapter Fourteen Codex.