PreCursive

Chapter 324 - Evolution

Sylvia looked…good, honestly. It was honestly hard for me to take my eyes off of her after our extended absence from each other. After hearing how she had apparently taken up a position as a small unit commander in the Order in the aftermath of the war, I had expected her to be in a uniform or something.

But no. Instead, she was in a dress, something I’m…not sure I’d ever seen the Sculpted woman wearing. Light blue and modest, it contrasted well with the shine of her pure Mithri...

Chapter 323 - On the Eve

AN:

I nearly forgot to finish this one. I've been so absorbed in the Oblivion remaster that I lost track of time. Funny story about that, though. See, I was pretty startled the first time I leveled up and saw the word 'Virtue' in reference to stats. I'm not sure if people thought the way I called them Virtues in Sins was a nod to that game or not, but it really wasn't. I never played Oblivion back in the day.

Just one of those coincidences.

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Chapter 322 - Royal Interrogation

It was odd. I think I was actually glad to see Isolde. The young woman looked hale and hearty after the losses and trauma we both had suffered in Elderwyck, dressed in simple-looking workman’s clothing instead of the finery I would have expected. She actually seemed to have put on some muscle in the intervening months, too. Frankly, out of the entire royal family, she seemed the most trustworthy to me.

Solid and dependable.

Which was odd considering our former positions, but hey...

Interlude 16 - Burdened

Shift on the right food, step forward, and….

Completely bungle the strike he had been aiming at the large, armored knight in front of him. His blow was instead parried off to the side with such strength that his root was broken, and as a result, he stumbled. Never one to miss an opportunity, the knight took advantage of his clumsiness.

In seconds, Oskar, third to bear the name in the Eisenherz dynasty, found himself staring up at the distant ceiling of the private train...

Chapter 321 - Arrival

“So,” I said to Grey, once we were back on the streets of Blutstein. “Thoughts?”

In response, Grey raised one hand and cast a Spell I had seen from him multiple times in the past. A ripple expanded from his open palm, and immediately all the sounds of the city around us cut out. Not only could nobody hear or understand us anymore, but I knew from a previous explanation of Grey’s that nobody could even read our lips anymore. If they tried, all a potential spy would see...

Chapter 320 - Noble Offer

Wenzel led us deeper into the middle layer of Blutstein than I’d yet ventured. Which…wasn’t saying much, considering I just got here yesterday.

But hey, at least it was something new.

Exciting!

This new area of the city was visibly fancier than the business district we’d just been in. It had been guarded and gated from the rest of the city, although the soldiers had swung them wide open a the first sight of Wenzel and his entourage.

It was easy to guess that th...

Chapter 319 - Administrative Ambush

“It can’t be that easy,” I said to Grey as we exited the administration building of the Academy. After waking up early enough that the Green Period was barely ending, Grey had gathered Azarus and me for a trek out onto the campus grounds. Fade had told me he would watch the still-sleeping Aveline for me, while Sena barely did more than crack a disinterested feline eye at us before going back to sleep. Renauld was similarly snoring the morning away in a side room of Draymoor Hall, while ...

Chapter 318 - Trifold Explanation

After dinner, Grey offered the use of his house for everyone to stay the night while we got settled into Blutstein. I don’t think any one of us were intending to permanently stay with the man, as it were. From what I understood, Renauld had his own room in the on-campus dorms that was still reserved for his use. Meanwhile, Liora informed me she should still have a small apartment in the lower level.

Key word there was should. She didn’t know if it was still in her name afte...

Chapter 317 - Reunion

“To our reunion!” Grey said loudly, standing at the head of the stately, circular table in his personal dining room. He raised a glass of the really expensive-looking alcohol he had broken out and poured for everyone gathered in a salute. Azarus, Renauld, Liora, and I copied the man, reaching across the table to clink them together. Even Venix joined in with the toast, who normally refrained considering the sometimes odd effect that alcohol had on Antium.

And with that, we ...

Chapter 316 - Fracas

“Ah, bollocks,” I heard Kargath mutter under his voice, barely audible over the sounds of crumbling brick and the eruption of battle. He sighed. “I just know they’re gonna make me fix that.”

I turned an incredulous eye on the dwarf, still tense with surprise at the unexpected demolition of both an entire face of the ‘main hall’ and the explosive entrance of Honoka. In the distance, I could see that the older woman I hadn’t seen in nearly half a year now had engaged in an...

Chapter 315 - Shut Gate

In the first place, calling this a mere ‘campus’ was a bit of an understatement. In reality, the grounds that belonged to the Academy of Mystic Arts seemed more like a town. An enclosed city within a city, with its own separate wall that completely sectioned off a portion of the middle layer. It stretched all the way from the wall in the distance that separated off the great bulk of Kyronkar looming overhead, and the small homey towers of the lower district. The particular wall that enclo...

Chapter 314 - Tiered

“Nobody really believes Kyron was interred in the Zenith Crystal, you know,” Renauld said to me as our entire group threaded our way through the outer layer of Blutstein. “It’s common knowledge what it actually is.”

It hadn’t taken long for us to register the Astray with the port authority of Blutstein. Primarily because as soon as the official we’d spoken to had heard my name, his eyes had lit up and he’d informed me that I was expected. To my...

Chapter 313 - City of Spires

It began as nothing more than a dot on the horizon. Something that stretched up over the curve of the world to introduce itself in a gradual reveal that took hours.

Three points in the distance. Two of them appeared to be natural to my eyes, the peaks of long distant mountains with pure white crowns at the crest. They appeared first and didn’t really catch my attention all that much, considering the sheer number of mountains I’d seen in my time on Vereden. They were a remarkable siz...

Chapter 312 - Catching Up

It was…probably the booze that contributed to my foul mood, frankly.

But that didn’t change the fact that I was getting damn tired of all the slaving that seemed to both happen in Veredens past, as well as its present. It felt like every time I turned around there was another atrocity looming in my view, evidence of the inherent hierarchies born from raw strength.

I had noticed this about Veredenese societies. Though it was in the nature of mortals, as Taran ...

Chapter 311 - Navigating Bonds

Several hours later, we had not only returned to Tŵr Gronn but to my ship as well. I’d invited everyone who had ventured with us to Taran’s home back to the galley of the Astray to catch up, so to speak. I’d also invited the terse elder Nyxwing who went by the name Umbric with us, as thanks for assisting with Azarus and Sena’s Familiar binding. The overgrown Mystical magpie had rolled his eye at me but politely declined before winging off into the trees to nest with his bret...

Chapter 310 - Familiarity

After his somewhat ominous words, Taran had Fade and I sit and kneel respectively on the remarkably flat stone facing each other, next to the ‘Silent Eye’. Almost conspiratorially, he directed Aveline over to a nearby tree where a large group of Nyxwings were nesting, their shining silver forms perched on dozens of branches. At some unseen signal, they fluttered down to play with the little girl, alternatively appearing to almost groom her with their thin little beaks and sing fo...

Chapter 309 - Moonlit Realm

It wasn’t often that I got to exert myself in this manner, as I raced across the wide-open, rolling green hills that surrounded Tŵr Gronn. Every one of us, from Azarus to Sena with a wildly laughing Aveline upon her back, to Tarus, and most importantly, Fade and I…

Were sprinting full out, pumping our legs as hard as we could. I couldn’t help but laugh in joy myself, from the sheer speed all of us were running at. It was easy to forget, sometimes, just how much a Status ...

Chapter 308 - Furry Reunion

Amusingly enough, because Aveline had exactly zero context for how odd this situation was, she had an entirely different reaction to the sight of Fade.

“Puppy!” She exclaimed, her face lighting up in a way I had never seen before. Before any of us gathered could react, she scurried over towards the startled adolescent Spirit Wolf and…

Began to pet him.

He tried to resist, I could tell, the not-so-little anymore trooper. But for as much as he seemed to have grown while ...

Chapter 307 - Stone Prayer

Our little group of five didn’t bother lingering in town for much longer. The only thing we did before venturing towards the back gate that I knew led to the standing stones of Tŵr Gronn was to stop by a local cobbler. The shoes I’d bought Aveline back in Kawamara weren’t exactly unsuited for tromping through the damp, overgrown Herztalian countryside. We found something that fit her fairly quick, and thanks to the near supernatural skill of Professions, they were soon fit to her small...

TABLE OF CONTENTS III

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SINS OF THE FOREFATHERS

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Chapter 306 - Tarannon

Azarus told me that he wrangled a promise from Captain Bronzle to secretly inform his superiors that the Astray was off limits as it traveled down the coast. After all, it generally wasn’t a good idea for an officer to get in the way of the nobility if they wanted to keep advancing their career.

He seemed to keep his promise, too.

Over the next two days of travel through Velancian waters, we sighted no less than three more Venier patrol ships in the distance. T...

Chapter 305 - Encounter on the Drink

While I hadn’t exactly expected us to be able to slip through Velancian territorial waters without an issue…

I hadn’t expected a Dwarven patrol ship to come upon us nearly as soon as the continental shore came into view.

They had made their demands very clear, from the gathered crossbowmen ranks gathered on the opposing ship’s stout warship. That wasn’t even considering the shouted demands that had sounded like they were being broadcast from a megaphone, no doub...

Chapter 304 - Green Voyage [Vol. 7 Start]

An endless blue horizon stretched out before me, beautiful and breathtaking. Perfect, fluffy white clouds akin to enormous balls of cotton lazily drifted overhead while the light of Vereden’s star shone down through them. The calls of hungry, hunting sea birds resounded in the air, accompanied by the crashing of waves and the soft, whispering sound of sails slicing through the sea air.

The combination of everything reached me, and I felt a soul-deep contentment settled upon my shoulde...

Interlude 15 - Star Astray [Vol. 6 End]

The highest point in the entire capital city of Hinaga, jewel of the Kawamaran Isles, was atop the peak of the Imperial Palace itself. It soared into the sky at perhaps one hundred and fifty feet, composed of multiple different floors, almost as if it were a large, extravagant cake. Though it paled in comparison to the height of her own home back upon the island, so far it had sufficed for her purposes.

Shurenga, daughter of Tarus, sat upon the roof of the mortal Lord currently playing ...

Chapter 303 - Imperial

I have to admit…

This was blowing my mind a little.

“I…” I started and then stopped, staring blankly up into the kindly face of who I thought had been ‘Elder Jinshin’. The man looked both similar and wildly different from I had known him to be. He still had a long, wispy white beard stretching down the length of his chest and equally long hair of a similar shade. His eyes were still closed, too, and yet I didn’t doubt he could see me just fine.

Chapter 302 - Wise Elder

For the next several hours, I had to wait in that lavish waiting room as, one by one, everyone I’d come to the palace with was drawn away by Masayuki to be questioned by the Emperor. Not only that, but I soon discovered that none of them were being led back here. Despite Shacklock’s objections to the entire process, we didn’t have to wait long to discover this either. After about thirty minutes, Masayuki returned to the room, this time with only the General in tow.

In a p...

Chapter 301 - Reversal, Now

I joined the rest of my party that was going to be venturing into the heart of the Imperial party up on the deck after exiting the forecastle. All of us, myself included, were dressed in our full combat kits. Armor, weapons, and gear were fully visible across each of our bodies, and we looked like we were dressed for war, not a meeting with the supreme ruler of this land.

I mean, we weren’t going to do anything, but it was about presenting an image.

For one, even if I w...

Chapter 300 - Twinning, Near

AN:

The big three double zero. What a long, strange ride it's been.

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A mingled sense of vertigo and paranoia overtook me then as Traver’s words hit me like a truck. I hunched over with widened eyes as I felt my heartbeat in my ears as loud as a thundering drum.

He’d what?!

The…the sum total of…

Even though I was nearly overwhelmed by the implications of what the departed Lich was saying, I...

Chapter 299 - Gleaming, Distant

Despite my…personal little drama, General Hisakane was eager to get everyone heading back to Hinaga underway. Only two ships were planned to sail to the capital, while the rest of the fleet would remain at Goryuen to keep watch over the Solstice Flame naval forces keeping close to the shore. Shacklock, Kazuma, Shurenga, Sena, and a number of other Order officers would be aboard the Kawamaran’s flagship, while the rest of us would be aboard the Kaminari Maru. Including Venix, whic...

Chapter 298 - Fleeting

AN:

I was very close to making the previous chapter the last one in this book. The revelation at the end of it felt suitably dramatic to have as an end point. This chapter was even intended to be the customary ending Interlude.

But, I eventually realized that there was still a few things to wrap up in Kawamara before we move back to the mainland. It would’ve felt awkward to end at that particular point. Not to mention all the rushing I'd have to do.

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