Chapter Text
5 years.
It has been 5 years since that incident happened.
The ‘Day of Despair’ as they called it. Hetaro Pearlbaton thinks it a quite fitting name for the aftermath of the incident.
Lugunica has completely fallen into the cult’s hand thanks to Pandora’s plan whom Hetero himself just knew of her existence on that fateful day along with the whole world.
The way she commands the cult confirms the undeniable truth: She was, and is, the true ringleader of the Witch Cult, not Satella as everyone believed. Hetaro theorized that Pandora and Satella may have cooperated in the past before the sealing, thus Pandora becomes the sole leader of the cult.
Another theory that sounds absurd is that Pandora used Satella as a scapegoat for the Witch Cult’s actions while she manipulated anyone from the shadows.
Hetaro wanted to believe the former as he couldn’t fathom why the witches betrayed each other, don’t they want to destroy the world together?
He’s now currently on the Lifaus Highway, waiting for Ricardo and his remaining siblings to return by preparing the wagon for carrying supplies.
“Hetaro! We’re back!” Mimi Pearlbaton shouted from afar. His sister was cheerful as usual, but Hetero knew it was not the same as before. It sounds a bit forced, as if she tried to lift everyone's spirits up.
“Thank the Od, you guys took so long I thought something bad happened. Where’s Ricardo?” Hetaro asks his siblings.
“Captain Ricardo says that he will follow us after making sure no bandits or cultists follow us back.” Tivey Pearlbaton replied.
Hetaro nodded. Their father figure is still taking care of them after the Iron Fang disbanded. No one wanted to work with them since that day and thus they had to fend for themselves.
Hetaro can only blame the cult for their current predicament, had Gluttony didn't devoured Natsuki Subaru’s name…
Natsuki Subaru.
That man really made himself a well-known figure in this world despite being unremarkable at the time. At first, he didn’t think too much about him, but as time went on, he achieved many feats that many could have dreamed of.
Yet, it was cut short by the cult, who manipulated everyone with their authority and made them execute Subaru on the account of being Pride, and things went downhill from there.
Hetaro decided to focus on the present; they were tasked to gather supplies for everyone back in the Mather mansion, which became a sort of tomb for those who were once close to Natsuki Subaru.
The world itself seems to condemn them for their failure by having their reputation reduced to the equivalent of a cultist: Hated, and being a target to blame for the world's current state. Even though the Iron Fang didn’t present nor had a hand in the incident, by virtue of being associated with Anastasia and Julius, they were painted as complicit in the death of Natsuki Subaru and thus vilify them as well.
Hetaro remembered the face Anastasia made after Julius’s action came to light. She was begging for Julius’s life, her face is akin to a child who is going to lose someone close to them. And when the company went bankrupt, Hetaro never saw a look of despair more profound on her face.
Suddenly, Mimi sees someone coming toward them, “There he is! Ricardo! Ricardo!” Mimi shouted with happiness.
But the happiness cut short when Mimi saw Ricardo’s state: cuts and bruises were prominent on his body, he’s also bleeding so much Mimi was surprised that he didn’t faint on the spot.
“Ricardo!!!!” Mimi yelled in terror, which made Hetaro and Tivey look at the direction Mimi is looking and become horrified as well.
“Mimi! Heal him now!!” Tivey ordered, “You don’t need to tell Mimi!” Mimi retorts before rushing toward Ricardo’s battered and bloody body. “Lie down and rest, Ricardo! Mimi will heal you!”
Mimi then heals Ricardo using water magic, his wounds start to heal themselves at a faster rate, “Thank, Mimi.” Ricardo thanks her before slowly standing up.
“What happened?! Don’t tell me that—” Tivey’s question is cut short when they hear rustlings from the direction of the forest, revealing bandits of many sizes walking out with menacing aura.
‘Damn it…it seems there’s more of them than I thought.’ Ricardo thought to himself, now worried for the triplets' life.
“Well, well. Look what we have here.” A bandit spoke, likely the leader of this group of bandits, “Demi-humans trying to scavenge any morsel to survive another day.” He sneered.
“Boss.” Another one interjected, “Those scums are not just some random demi-humans, they are the Iron Fang commanders that disbanded 5 years ago.”
“Really?” The bandit leader looks at Ricardo and the triplets with disdain. Ricardo snarled, putting himself in front of the triplets.
The bandit leader then smirked, “I guess we’re really lucky then. Heh heh heh…” He laughed, he never thought to be the one who slayed the former Iron Fang commanders.
The bandits then slowly walked toward the former commanders. Ricardo prepares his weapon, though his body is not fully healed which is a problem for him. The triplets now huddle together, preparing spells for the inevitable battle.
Suddenly, a bandit flies toward the group. He’s unconscious with his face beaten up. The leader now looked at the direction the bandit flew from, “Who’s there?! Show yourself!” He yelled.
Then, a figure appeared from the bushes. Revealing a man in his 50s with grey hairs, there an black object covering his eyes, his clothes look weirdly familiar though.
The leader then laughs while the rest follow suit, “Are you lost, old man? Should I escort you to the afterlife?” He subtly threatened the man.
“How about I escort you all instead? Since you are so keen on killing so much.” The man retorted back.
Hetaro doesn't know why, but the man’s voice feels oddly familiar to him as if he heard it somewhere before…
“Well, boys!” The leader barked to his men, “Time to teach this old bastard a lesson he won’t forget!” He then charged toward the man in black along with his men.
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“Hey, Ricardo! Do you know who that was?” Tivey asks.
“No.” It’s a simple answer that Ricardo can provide now, “But what I know now is that he needs our help! Let’s go!”
The triplet didn’t need to ask twice before preparing their magic before rushing toward the fight. The stranger is currently punching one bandit that is attacking him with a knife in the face before redirecting that hand into stabbing the bandit’s own abdomen. They saw that 5 of them had been taken down.
Another bandit tried to sneak up on the stranger, but Ricardo managed to strike him down before that could happen.
“Don’t forget about us!” Ricardo shouted with enthusiasm, “Time for payback!” Ricardo yelled with Tivey shooting fireballs at the scattered bandits while Mimi cast earth shields around them to block incoming attack and Hetaro cast healing magic to the stranger and Ricardo.
The stranger seems to not mind their assistance and continues his assault on incoming bandits. He adjusted his stance which caused his aura to become blue. One of them tries to attack him which he grabs him into a chokehold, another swings his weapon which he kicks the bandit away. The third one saw his chance and tried his luck which got him hitting his friend instead. The downed bandit gets up and tries again which nets him a quick punch to his face. The last one then took the chance to strike which got his arms caught and thrown into the ground, knocking him unconscious.
Another group of bandits try their chance at the stranger, one of them attacks first but it gets him hit at the right abdomen and gets caught by the arm. Another tried to attack only to get kicked in the face. The stranger then threw the bandit into the ground hard. The last one got a two-hits combo to his face before getting kicked down to the ground.
Ricardo parries the bandit and strikes them down. Now only five of them remained, but it seems their morale is very low as four of them are running away, throwing their weapon to the ground in the process.
“Oi! What are you doing!?” The leader shouted, his own subordinate abandoned him to a fight he can’t win. Who the hell is this man!?
Enraged, the leader decided to use fire magic to cast Goa and hurled toward them, “Take this!” but Mimi managed to rush in and conjure a barrier, blocking it in time.
However, the bandit leader uses this chance to strike Mimi whose shield is weakened.
“MIMI!” Ricardo, Hetaro and Tivey shouted, fearing for Mimi’s life. Suddenly, a blue rope shot toward Mimi and grabbed her, pulling her into the stranger’s arm.
“Are you okay?” The stranger asked, his voice showing a hint of concern.
“I-I’m fine! How do you do that? Mimi wants to learn it!” Mimi answers cheerfully despite almost getting killed seconds ago.
“It’s a secret, but before that…” He then let Mimi go, which she ran to Ricardo and her siblings. Once he looks up, he sees that the leader tries to run away, “Not so fast!” He then shot the blue rope again from his wrist, the rope traveled fast enough to capture the leader, leaving to struggle in the binding.
He then turns toward the demi-humans, “Well, Ricardo-san. What are you going to do with him?” The group then looks at the bandit leader, His face, once full of false bravado, is now full of fear.
“We will take care of him later.” Ricardo dismissed the bandit, “Anyway, who are you? Your clothes look strange, and the last person that fit those criteria was—”
“Mimi knew! It was that weird guy, Subaru! But…” Mimi’s voice faltered, “He’s gone, and I don’t think he has ever talked about his family at all.”
Everyone went silent for a while. Then Hetaro scrutinizes the man in black. He noticed that the object on his face obscured his eyes, "Excuse me, sir. Can you remove the object on your face?” He asked.
“Pardon?” The man asks.
“He said that you should remove that thing on your face, my guy.” Ricardo answered, “Though, I won’t object if you refuse to do so. It’s not my place to know your secret.”
The man contemplated for a second before he answered, “I’m afraid I cannot do that for personal reasons, Hetaro-san.”
Hetero seemed to relent, but Tivey voiced his own question instead, “Can I ask about the aura instead?”
“You mean Heat?” The man replied.
“Yes, if that’s what you called it. Is it some kind of DP? I have never seen something like that before.” Tivey asked. As a bookworm, he read a lot of stuff but a DP like this is something that is completely new for him.
“To be honest? I’m not really sure myself.” He replied casually, “I just got it a week ago. I’m not even sure it can be classified as one.”
“Huh?!” Everyone exclaimed in shock, “B-But DP should be with you even since you were born! Are you some kind of an exception? It must be…” Tivey started to mumbles to himself, he may have just made a discovery in this forsaken world.
Mimi took this chance to asks, “Hey, can Mimi ask you—”
“Subaru? Are you done yet?” Satella speaks in his mind via telepathy, “We need to move now.”
“Sorry, everyone. I need to go now.” He tells everyone, “My friends are waiting for me.”
The man then walked away quickly, leaving the former Iron Fang mercenary commanders in their place.
“Well…he was quite an interesting fellow.” Hetaro summarized, “His clothing, fighting stance, ‘DP’. At least he was helping us fight those bandits.”
“True.” Ricardo agreed, “But I have a feeling that we will see him again. I just knew it.” He may not have seen the stranger’s eyes, but he somehow knew that it’s familiar to him.
“Alright, let’s take these supplies back to the mansion. Lil' Ana will be worrying about us.” Ricardo tells the triplet.
They then load all of the supplies, taking the captured bandit leader with them to throw him to the nearest jail, and go back to the mansion.
Remembrance of the Dragon: The Rusted Fang - END
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