Chapter 39: Reunion
Armored Dragon Calendar Year 417 – Rudeus, Age 10
[Rudeus POV]
The dog's tongue was wet and insistent against my face.
I groaned and tried to push it away. My arms felt like they were made of wet sand.
My entire body ached. My mana reserves were gone.
Even breathing seemed to require more energy than I possessed.
"He's awake!" Eris's voice pierced through the fog in my head.
"Ruijerd, he's finally awake!"
I forced my eyes open. Morning light filtered through the tent walls.
The dog, some kind of beast-tribe creature with intelligent eyes, continued its assault on my cheek.
"Stop..." I managed.
"I'm up. I'm up."
The dog backed away but didn't leave. It sat beside my makeshift bed, watching me with an expression that seemed almost concerned.
"Rudeus." Ruijerd appeared at the tent entrance. His face was as stoic as ever.
But there was relief in his eyes.
"How do you feel?"
"Like someone used me as a practice dummy for advanced magic."
I tried to sit up. Failed.
Tried again. Managed to prop myself on my elbows.
"What happened?"
"You exhausted your mana fighting the slavers. The beast-tribe healers have been watching over you."
The memories came back in fragments. The attack on the village.
Children being dragged toward carts. Fighting.
Casting spell after spell until my reserves ran dry.
And then...
"Claude." The name escaped my lips before I could stop it.
"Was that real? Did I see Claude?"
Ruijerd nodded slowly.
"He is here. He killed the slaver leader and helped save the village."
I stared at him. Then at Eris, who had knelt beside me with her usual lack of patience.
"He yelled at you," she said bluntly.
"A lot. You were half-unconscious, so you probably don't remember most of it."
I remembered. I wished I didn't, but I remembered.
His face. The cold fury in his eyes.
What he had said.
You never once wondered what happened to everyone else?
"Where is he now?" I asked.
"Outside. Somewhere." Eris shrugged.
"He's been avoiding the tent since last night."
I finally managed to sit up properly. The effort left me dizzy, but I forced myself to stay upright.
"Help me up."
"You need to rest—"
"Help. Me."
"Up."
Eris sighed and grabbed my arm. Between her support and Ruijerd's steadying hand, I managed to get my feet under me.
The village was in chaos.
Everywhere I looked, people were rebuilding. Burned structures were being torn down.
Wounded were being tended. Children who had been rescued from the carts clustered together in small groups, their eyes haunted.
I found Claude sitting at the edge of the village, staring at the forest.
He looked different. Older than I remembered.
His body had filled out with muscle. Scars marked his arms and neck, wounds that spoke of battles I couldn't imagine.
The boy I had known in Buena Village was gone. In his place sat someone harder.
More dangerous.
"You should be resting," he said without turning around.
"We need to talk."
"Do we?"
I lowered myself to the ground beside him. My legs were shaking.
My head was pounding. But I stayed upright through sheer stubbornness.
"I knew something big happened," I said.
"The light. The displacement."
But I didn't know the full scope. I thought maybe it was localized.
"Maybe just the Boreas estate."
"And you never thought to find out?" His voice was flat.
"We were just trying to survive—"
He finally turned to look at me. His eyes were tired.
Red-rimmed, like he hadn't slept.
"Seven months. Seven months on the Demon Continent, and you never once asked a merchant, or a traveler, about news from Fittoa?"
"Never tried to send a message? Never wondered if maybe, just maybe, the disaster was bigger than you thought?"
"The Demon Continent doesn't have reliable communication with—"
"Excuses." He cut me off.
"I was trapped in a dungeon for nine months. No sunlight, no information. Just monsters and darkness. And the first thing I did when I got out was ask questions. Gather information. Try to understand what happened."
The accusation stung. Mostly because it was true.
"I was focused on getting back," I said quietly.
"I thought once we reached the Central Continent, we'd find everyone."
"And if they needed help NOW? If they were dying while you were playing adventurer?"
I didn't have an answer.
Gustav, the village patriarch, summoned us that afternoon.
He was an imposing figure. Old but powerful.
His eyes carried the weight of someone who had seen too much and survived it anyway.
"The human boy who killed Garus," he said, studying Claude.
"And the human mage who helped defend our children." His gaze shifted to me.
"You have our gratitude."
"I didn't do much," I admitted.
"Claude did the hard work."
"You did enough." Gustav gestured for us to sit. Ruijerd and Eris joined us, forming a semicircle around the patriarch's low table.
"I have information that you need to hear. Both of you."
Claude leaned forward slightly. Attentive.
"The light that transported you to the Demon Continent," Gustav began.
"You know it affected more than just the Boreas estate."
I nodded slowly. Part of me had suspected.
"The full scope is worse than you imagined." Gustav's voice was grave.
"The entire Fittoa Region of the Central Continent. Every human, every beast, every living creature within the affected area.
"They call it the Mass Teleportation Incident. Hundreds of thousands of people were scattered across the world in an instant."
Hundreds of thousands.
The number hit me like a physical blow. I had assumed dozens.
Maybe hundreds. A localized disaster that had caught us in its wake.
Not... this.
"Buena Village?" My voice came out hoarse.
"My family?"
"The entire region," Gustav repeated.
"Your village. Every village."
"Every town. Every city within the affected zone."
I thought of Paul and Zenith and Lilia. Of little Norn and Aisha.
Of Sylphy, waiting for me to come home.
All of them. Scattered across the world.
And I hadn't even known.
"Some survived," Gustav continued.
"We have received reports of refugees appearing in various locations. But many did not."
The teleportation was imprecise. Some materialized inside solid objects.
Others appeared in the ocean. The death toll is..." He paused. "Significant."
The tent was silent. I couldn't breathe.
Beside me, Eris had gone pale. Her parents.
Her grandfather. Everyone she had known in Roa.
"This is why," Claude said quietly.
"This is why I was angry."
I turned to look at him.
"I knew this would happen," he continued.
"Not the exact details, but the possibility. I spent years preparing."
"Building an organization. Creating tracking devices. Training people to survive disasters."
"You knew?"
"I suspected. The knowledge I carry..." He touched his temple.
"It includes fragments. Possibilities."
"Things that might happen. I did everything I could to prepare."
"And it wasn't enough," Ruijerd said.
"No." Claude's voice was heavy.
"It wasn't enough."
That night, I sat alone on the village platform, staring at the stars.
The same stars that hung over Buena. Over wherever my family had been scattered.
Over a world that had become suddenly, terrifyingly vast.
I had been playing hero, adventuring across the Demon Continent.
And all the while, my family had been lost. Maybe dying.
Because I hadn't asked. Hadn't wondered.
Hadn't cared enough to find out.
"You're not as stupid as I made you sound."
Claude's voice came from behind me. I hadn't heard him approach.
"I feel pretty stupid right now."
He sat down beside me. For a long moment, neither of us spoke.
"I was harsh," he said finally.
"You couldn't have known what I knew. You couldn't have prepared the way I prepared."
"That doesn't make what you said wrong."
"No. But it makes it unfair." He sighed.
"I've been carrying this... knowledge... for years. It's made me paranoid."
"Obsessive. I expect everyone to think like I do and worry like I do."
"You were right, though. I should have asked questions."
"Should have gathered information."
"Yes. You should have." He looked at me.
"But you can start now."
I turned to meet his eyes.
"We have a lot of work to do," he said.
"Finding survivors. Rebuilding what was lost. Your family is out there somewhere. My family is out there somewhere. And I can't do this alone."
"You want my help?"
"I need your help." The admission seemed to cost him.
"You're stronger than me in magic. Smarter in some ways. And you have connections I don't. Ruijerd, Eris, people who trust you."
I thought about it. About the months spent wandering while my family was scattered and waiting.
"Okay," I said.
"I'm in."
Claude nodded. Something in his posture relaxed.
Just slightly.
"Then we start tomorrow. There's a lot to discuss."
"Plans to make. People to find."
"And tonight?"
He looked up at the stars.
"Tonight, we rest. Both of us."
I followed his gaze upward. The stars were bright.
Indifferent. They had watched civilizations rise and fall.
They would watch us succeed or fail.
But at least now, we would face whatever came together.
That had to count for something.
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