While the graduation ceremony was taking place at the Ranoa Magic Academy, the Greyrat family mansion was quieter.
In the courtyard, under the sunny sky, a blonde woman dressed in tight clothes and leather armor sat on a trunk cut at the base.
In her hands, a small short knife worked carving wooden shafts — she was making her own arrows.
That girl was Sara.
She preferred to stay outside at that moment for a reason. Sara still felt a little out of place inside the residence, especially now, with Roxy's daughter's birth.
Sylphy already had a daughter with Rudeus named Lucy, and now Roxy had Lara.
She didn't know anything about babies, nor about how to help around the house.
All her father had taught her was hunting, and that was what she was good at. Helping with childcare? No, that definitely wasn't for her.
Even so, she didn't stray too far.
She stayed close enough to hear the sound of voices inside the house and the light cry of the newborn, but far enough away so as not to feel like a nuisance.
Sara was an Adventurer. And not just any — she was an S-Rank archer, a rare feat on the Central Continent.
Archery was an art limited compared to swordsmanship or Magic.
Touki could not be channeled through an arrow, and sheer physical power alone was rarely enough to break the defenses of the most powerful monsters.
Still, Sara could overcome that disadvantage purely with talent.
She also enhanced her body with Touki, but her goal was different from the usual swordsman.
She strengthened her upper muscles to draw bows of enormous resistance.
And she also honed her body as a whole to become more agile and faster, enough to move even more versatilely than a standard elven archer.
Her vision was exceptional — she could see the movement of the entire battlefield at once in detail.
Her arrows always struck exactly where she wanted without fail. It was almost sorcery, and many had already said there must surely be a trick behind it.
Her talent was undeniable, but archery did not have a great high-level master to guide her to become stronger.
Sara needed to find ways to improve on her own. And that was what had been frustrating her lately.
She could hit a Red Dragon's eye from hundreds of meters away, could strike a monster's magic core if she knew where it was, and against humans… a single well-placed shot to a vital point was enough to decide the fight.
But even with all that, she knew her arrows could do little against one of the Seven World Powers.
And it was precisely that kind of enemy that Rudeus wanted to kill.
Sara did not know in detail what was happening.
Her relationship with the Greyrat family was close, and everyone treated her as part of the household, but she had not yet officially married Rudeus.
And, in truth, neither Sylphy nor Roxy seemed to know for sure what he was planning. From their point of view, everything had changed strangely and suddenly.
Several months before, on an apparently ordinary day, Rudeus came home with a pale face and asked everyone to leave the mansion immediately.
Sara remembered well the worry in his eyes.
Shortly after, he completely froze the house's basement. And then, without explaining anything, Rudeus went down to the bottom.
Inside the frozen basement, he had found a small dead mouse, with teeth that looked like purple crystals.
Rudeus went to sleep very worried that day, and after waking up, he was no longer the same.
He became more reserved and quiet.
He was training constantly, building that Magic Armor with an almost sick obsession and always seemed to have his thoughts wandering.
Despite the oddities, the most surprising thing was undoubtedly the Armor.
Rudeus had always been, above all, a mage.
Although he had learned the North God Style up to the Intermediate level to defend himself in close combat, he was never a true swordsman.
Even Sylphy surpassed him in that aspect, having reached the Advanced level with the Superd spear technique — not to mention both of their use of the Demon Eyes.
In any case, when it came to direct combat with Magic, especially with Fire, Earth and Lightning, Rudeus was practically unbeatable.
As long as he kept an appropriate distance from the enemy at the start of the fight, he could defeat almost any opponent.
He had even defeated his own father, Paul Greyrat, a North King.
But with the Magic Armor, as he called it, even the physical limitation disappeared.
The armor was a magical tool created from the combination of engineering, magic circles and large-scale magical power.
Even Sándor himself, a North God, found it difficult to destroy the armor when Rudeus reinforced it with his mana.
In a training fight between the two, Rudeus came out victorious — something no one would have believed a few years earlier.
From what Elinalise told Sara about that battle, Sándor was completely dominated by Magic.
Rudeus had installed in the armor a device he called the Stone Cannon Gatling Gun, a magical tool capable of firing a continuous sequence of Stone Cannons with enormous destructive power.
During the fight, Sándor tried to approach several times, but was met by gatling guns, storms of lightning and flaming explosions conjured in sequence.
Even with his superhuman resilience, the North God was forced to admit defeat before reaching Rudeus a second time.
The scale of the battle, as described by Elinalise, left Sara speechless.
She only knew how to use the bow. Her arrows were certain, but, faced with something like that armor, what could she do?
That doubt had been corroding her spirit in recent days. Rudeus was going so far, and she… was still standing in the same place. How could she help him?
As she thought about that, she heard footsteps approaching.
She looked up and saw a familiar woman walking through the mansion gate — curly brown hair tied in a bun, a kind and firm expression.
"Hey, Sara!" called the familiar voice. "What are you doing out here alone?"
Sara raised her eyes, surprised. As soon as she recognized the woman, a slight smile appeared on her lips.
"Suzanne!" she replied with a smile. "Nothing much… just passing the time. And you? What are you doing here?"
Suzanne — her former companion from the Counter-Arrow group — seemed more mature, but still had the same air of confidence she always had.
Sara remembered that she had married and left the adventuring life, after having a son.
"Heheh!" Suzanne laughed, animated. "I was hired by the Greyrat family! Now I'm going to be a nanny! Sylphiette's mother can't be overwhelmed taking care of everything alone, right?"
Sara nodded, understanding immediately.
It made sense. Roxy, Sylphy and Rudeus themselves were always busy with other matters, and Liena, Sylphy's mother, could eventually become overwhelmed as the family grew.
It was natural that they would need someone trusted to help with the children.
As the two continued talking, a new voice came from the mansion door.
"Ah, you're out here."
Roxy appeared, her blue hair loose.
She looked much more rested than she had been that morning, right after the delivery. Healing Magic really worked wonders.
She looked at the two with a small smile and asked:
"Sara, Suzanne, do you want to meet Lara?"
"I'm coming!" Sara answered immediately, getting up from the trunk.
Then she looked at Suzanne and added:
"Come too. You'll have to take care of the children later anyway. It's better to meet them now."
Suzanne gave a little chuckle and nodded.
The two followed Roxy into the Greyrat mansion. The air inside the house had a welcoming warmth.
Walking through the mansion, the three soon arrived at the room where little Lara was resting.
As they approached the door, they saw Rudeus inside, watching his daughter silently.
Even with all his compulsion to strengthen himself and finish the Magic Armor, it was impossible for him not to be present at his daughter's birth.
He was there, still, his eyes fixed on the blue-haired baby who now slept peacefully in the crib.
Sara and Roxy also stepped closer, walking up to the crib, while Suzanne stood at the door, watching the scene with a small smile.
Rudeus noticed their presence, but only averted his gaze for a moment before returning his attention to Lara.
Roxy was the first to speak:
"Rudy, we have to talk to Suzanne about the schedule and the payment later."
Rudeus only nodded, without taking his eyes off his daughter.
After a while, he murmured: "Roxy… I need a favor."
She raised her eyes, curious. "Hm? What is it?"
"I'm going to need help with a complicated Magical Tool in a few days… can you help?"
Roxy smiled faintly. "Of course, Rudy. I'd love to."
As soon as she answered, Rudeus stood up, his expression returning to the seriousness that had accompanied him in recent months. "Sara, could you come with me for a moment?"
Sara blinked, surprised. "Ah! Yes, I can."
He did not wait long and left the room, greeting Suzanne with a brief wave.
Before leaving, Sara waved to the two women who remained. "See you later!"
She ran a few steps to catch up with him.
Sara watched him from the side as they walked through the mansion corridors.
To outsiders, he was generally a bit serious and inaccessible. But at home, he used to be kind, smiling, even a little silly at times.
That contrast made Sara uncomfortable — she could not get used to the new Rudeus, so focused and serious.
The two walked in silence through the streets of Sharia, until they arrived at the Ranoa Magic Academy. From there, they entered one of the research laboratories reserved for Rudeus.
The place was filled with papers, diagrams and metal parts scattered everywhere. In the center, there were several disassembled parts of the Magic Armor, and in one corner, a long, robust weapon — something between a cannon and a rifle — rested on a table.
The structure was entirely made of magic, reinforced metals, magical crystals and engraved circles. And, on top, a precision sight.
Sara frowned. "What is this...?"
Rudeus did not answer immediately. He walked to the weapon, ran his hand over its cold surface and spoke, bluntly:
"Sara... I'm going to fight the Dragon God."
She widened her eyes. Before she could react, Rudeus continued:
"And this is one of the weapons I prepared to fight Orsted. It will be my final card. If I lose the fight, I intend to lure him into the line of fire… and then fire this."
He looked at the trigger. "Believe it or not, it can cast a spell capable of killing the Dragon God."
Sara fell silent. She looked at the weapon again — it seemed so harmless at first glance. It was hard to believe that something like that could even harm the Dragon God.
Rudeus went on:
"The mana cost is enormous even for me. But I have already filled practically all the essential magic circles with mana. The only one missing is the firing Magic Circle."
He then began to show Sara the diagrams — drawings of the interior, mana flow schemes, notes with complex calculations and formulas.
The explanation was too technical, but she tried to follow, until she understood the general idea.
When Rudeus finished, he paused for a long time, and then said in a low tone:
"The weapon is not stable. Not by a long shot. The shot will destroy it completely."
Then he looked directly into Sara's eyes.
"That's why the shot cannot miss."
Sara began to understand Rudeus's purpose in calling her here. "It… can't miss?"
"That's right." Rudeus took a deep breath. "Sara, I know it's an enormous risk and I don't want to pressure you into doing it if you don't want to. But… I want you to come with me."
The following words hit Sara like a truck.
"If I lose, I want you to ensure Orsted's death."
Sara stood motionless for a few seconds. And only then did she really begin to understand what Rudeus was asking.
Rudeus had had this idea inspired by the ambush he had set against the Beast God when he was a child.
He already had the model for making the gatling, so it wasn't difficult to turn it into a Cannon. The most complicated part was converting the mana cost in such a way that it could be carried for another person to fire.
Unlike before, he did not have Larax's Clairvoyant Eye to hit a distant target.
However, now he had Sara.
He had never seen her miss a single shot, and he had full confidence that, even with a magical cannon, she would be able to hit.
For Rudeus, she was the best option.
Even if he lost the fight, if Sara managed to kill Orsted with that shot, everything would have been worth it.
Gradually, Sara began to understand the weight of her mission, and her eyes shone with excitement.
She lifted her chin and answered firmly: "I'll go with you, Rudeus."
Rudeus let out a long sigh of relief upon hearing that, he didn't know who else would be capable of using such a weapon besides Sara.
Only seven days remained.
Nanahoshi had already established contact with Orsted and he was probably on his way.
In a week, the time of truth would arrive.
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