"Teacher, after all these years, you and Lord Aglaya still..."
"Hmph. Neither of us is petty. You know perfectly well what lies at the heart of our disagreement."
With Castorice, a local, to guide him, Anaxa soon found the first person he was looking for.
She was a woman with a gentle expression.
"Hello. Are you...?"
Anaxa looked at her. "Hello. If I remember correctly, you're Calinicus's wife."
"Yes." The woman smiled. "Oh, are you the messenger? No wonder the news took so long. They sent someone new."
Anaxa's expression remained calm.
"Madam, Calinicus died several days ago fighting the Black Tide. He sacrificed himself to protect Tree Court."
"...?" The woman froze.
It took her a while to respond. Her face showed neither joy nor grief. Seeing the seriousness in Anaxa's expression, she asked quietly:
"Then Tree Court... did he save it?"
"Yes. He defended Cthulhu's Core Flame to his last breath," Anaxa replied.
"..."
"I see."
The woman nodded, her heart heavy.
"I'll sort through his belongings and find him a good place to be buried."
Castorice could hardly bear it.
"Madam... if you need any help, please just ask."
The woman merely shook her head. "I'm one of the Xuan Feng people. Death, sacrifice... I can face them both."
"Calinicus... He may have been a scholar, but every time he came home to visit, he asked me to teach him how to fight."
"Funny, isn't it? A Chrysos Heir learning from an ordinary person like me."
Her voice grew heavy with grief.
"I'd prepared myself long ago... In this age, any ordinary goodbye could be the last."
"I'm sorry," Anaxa said quietly.
"There's nothing for you to apologize for." The woman turned toward the distant horizon.
Specks of crimson light still lingered above the faraway clouds.
"I