Time Holders: The World of Balance

”...Follow me,” Alice said, her face growing grim.

Aldrus didn’t say a word; he simply stood up and carefully followed behind her.

As he approached the exit of the cave, the sudden blinding sun rays made his eyes burn, long unaccustomed to their light.

The fresh morning felt as though it belonged to summertime; the freezing cold he’d been fighting for the past few days now gave way to a very pleasant breeze, and soon, they reached the outside.

A-Ah!

Aldrus simply gasped. How to describe the feeling he was struck with?

Before his eyes, the endless landscape stretching to the horizon was the closest thing he’d ever been to heaven. A sky so blue it looked like a painting; a sea of green that seemed to sparkle; the smell of joy and clouds; the song of deer and swaying grass.

It was the most beautiful place he’d ever seen. It was surreal, almost like a dream, yet so vivid and immediate it made him feel alive for the very first time.

It was a paradise.

...And that was why he wanted to cry. A paradise in a world of balance; it meant a single thing.

Danger.

*Thud*

A dull sound was shortly heard before the wind took it away. Aldrus fell to his knees. He grew so feeble his legs had given up before he could fully grasp the situation.

A-Ahhh... N-No...

The black-haired boy was speechless; the implications of such a sight were far more terrible than anything that could’ve happened to them back at the cell, to the point that, for a fleeting moment, he truly wished he hadn’t escaped.

Alice soon knelt by his side; she didn’t say a single thing. The girl had told him once: she wasn’t fond of empty words. It was true. Nothing she could say would ever cheer him up; not if it was a lie.

So she did what she could. What she’d always done. Just staying by his side.

***

A few hours later, Aldrus was lying on top of an improvised leather mat Alice had made with the skin leftovers of their game.

He had tried to force himself to sleep some more, but his body was tired of it. Instead, he painfully rolled over his back in silence countless times. He thought maybe that would help drive his thoughts away.

Before long, two pairs of footsteps reverberated into the cave. Cedric and Aiden had come back.

”!!!”

”Aldrus!”

Both boys suddenly let go of their grip, dropping a huge dead beast onto the ground.

”You’re awake! I thought you were going to die!” Cedric said.

”H-Hey! He w-wasn’t going to... Was he?” Aiden replied, somehow uncertain of a truth that ended up not happening.

”...Hey. I’m glad you two are okay as well. You know... Sorry for being a hindrance, and thank you. For taking care of me,” Aldrus said, looking away.

”Tch! A hindrance, you say? You sure were! Imagine my surprise when you passed out right in front of me. Man, I thought we were screwed!” The blond boy joked. ”...But seriously, you scared us, Aldrus. Please talk about it if you’re ever injured again, got it? What if you really died?”

Aldrus smiled softly and closed his eyes. ”Yeah... You’re right.”

”Come on, now. D-Don’t tease him so much...” Aiden said.

Cedric glanced at him through the corner of his eyes and huffed. ”Alright, alright. I got it. Let’s get up to date, instead. Aldrus... do you feel like chatting?”

Not really... But I guess it could help.

”Sure.”

After both hunters were done storing the food, they filled four rustic wooden jars up with clean water and sat in front of Alice and Aldrus.

”So... You showed him, Alice?” Cedric asked.

”I did.”

The blond boy grimaced. ”And...? Aldrus, what do you think?”

Aldrus lifted his gaze above his mug and hesitated. ”I... I don’t know...”

The four went silent for a moment, feeling the exact same way. A second later, Aldrus spoke again.

”But I’d rather not talk about it right now. We all need a good rest, and before doing anything we should take our time to think the matter through as much as possible... and prepare.”

The others nodded.

”I-I agree...” Aiden joined. ”T-Then, could I ask you something?”

”Go ahead.”

The silver-haired boy scratched his head. ”Well... Y-You know, I was barely conscious back then. H-How is it that... uh, you know. How did you win?”

Aldrus listened patiently, then smiled faintly at Alice. ”You haven’t told them?”

The blonde girl looked away, twirled her hair and said, ”Uh, no... S-Sorry, Aiden. You see, Aldrus is, uh... strange? I-I mean, a bit of an odd case!”

Aiden tilted his head, confused. However, before he could ask, Cedric spoke first.

”That’s right. He beat my ass, which still doesn’t make any sense to me. No offense, Aldrus, but your fighting style is lacking.”

Aldrus nodded. ”I know. And I apologize for not telling you two. Even you, Alice.”

The blonde girl widened her eyes; she looked surprised at those words. As far as she knew, Aldrus hadn’t kept more of his abilities a secret.

The milky-eyed boy continued. ”I didn’t have the time back at the cell, but during the first two days of the training camp, I learned something useful. I think it’s important that I tell you guys about it now, given the situation... Maybe it’ll come in handy soon enough.”

Everyone agreed at his reasoning, not only because it was true, but because, above all things, they were curious.

”Well, then. Um... There was this guy in my team named Sornel—”

***

About an hour later, Aldrus was finished telling them everything. From his team to its members, from his abilities to their plan—all the way up to the exact approach he’d taken to win against the jailer.

As for the trio, Aiden’s soul left his body at the mention of his sister; Cedric’s jaw dropped at the details of the [Motion] usage Aldrus had come up with, and Alice seemed to be just as surprised as Sornel when she heard about the [Freeze] method to achieve [Visione].

The girl definitely knew of it, of course; she was a noble. And although the others were too, Aiden was too busy shivering in fear and Cedric only seemed to have heard about the fight part.

These guys...

”Hey! Snap out of it, will you?” Aldrus said. ”Don’t you have anything important to share, too?”

Upon those words, the blond boy’s lips parted in a clumsy gasp, as if he’d suddenly remembered something.

”Oh, that’s right!” he rummaged through his dirty pockets and took out a shining little cube.

”Look! I... I brought it with me... You know, just in case. I didn’t know what to do, but I just felt like leaving it in their hands wasn’t a good idea.”

!!! That’s!

The third-rank artifact.