The group finally arrives at the mining city of Karan, and wow — it lives up to the hype. The entire place looks like it’s carved into a mountain. But then Sildonia casually drops a history bomb: the city was here first, the mountain came later.
Back when the city was founded, the land was flat. Then someone discovered rich ore veins underground, and the people decided, “Why dig down when we can just shove the earth up with magic?” So they literally pushed the land into the sky and created a mountain around the city. Problem solved, mountain created, mining profits secured.
Before anyone can fully process how ridiculous that is, something flies overhead. The group looks up and spots none other than the Wyvern Knights of the Gargan Empire.
Sildonia is impressed — taming wyverns is no small feat. Kyle, however, is a lot less impressed and a lot more concerned. “Cool dragons and all, but why are they here? Hopefully, not because of us…”
After entering the city and showing their identification, Kyle asks to see the ambassador of Zurgus. While the guards check their credentials, the rest of the group explores the city. Urza seems… twitchy. Turns out elves and dwarves don’t exactly get along. (Centuries of passive-aggressive tree-vs-rock arguments will do that.)
Soon enough, the ambassador arrives. She introduces herself as Miranda — and Kyle practically freezes. He knows her from the previous timeline. The fact that she’s working as an ambassador this early catches him completely off guard.
Leila notices him staring like a lovesick idiot and gives him a sharp snap back to reality. Kyle, flustered, quickly explains they’re here to deliver a message from Queen Mileina.
Miranda invites them inside. After reading the official documents, she confirms everything is legit, though she admits these are the “strangest-looking envoys” she’s ever seen. Still, given the chaos back in Zurgus — especially under Mileina’s rule — she isn’t that surprised.
She also takes a moment to thank Kyle’s group personally. Mileina is one of her close friends, and if they hadn’t saved her life, Miranda would have been devastated.
Then business resumes. They want to meet Governor Bax of the Gargan Empire. Unfortunately, he’s been “sick in bed” for weeks. Even Miranda hasn’t been able to see him. Every time she tries, she’s told he isn’t accepting visitors. Which is suspicious, since as governor, he has to meet envoys from the queen. But now that Kyle’s crew is here, he’ll be forced to show his face.
Still, when Miranda escorts them outside, Kyle notices she’s brought way too many guards for what’s supposed to be a simple diplomatic visit. Definitely not normal.
Meanwhile, Theron, seeing nothing exciting about sitting through political chit-chat, casually announces he’s gonna “do his own thing” and slips away from the group.
Kyle doesn’t mind Theron wandering off, but he tells him to be back before nightfall. The rest of the group heads toward the Gargan Embassy, where Miranda gives a quick warning: once they step onto Gargan soil as representatives of Zurgus, they’ll lose all freedom to interfere. In short — smile, nod, and don’t start any wars.
Right on cue, the Gargan ambassador shows up. The tension between him and Miranda is so thick you could cut it with Theron’s nonexistent new sword. They’re forced to fake smiles while throwing daggers with their eyes, because one wrong word could spark an international incident.
Along with the ambassador appears a rather important figure: Alzard Vine, the second-highest sorcerer of the Gargan Empire. He introduces himself politely, but when he notices Kyle, he looks curious. After hearing Kyle is here as an emissary of Queen Mileina, he quickly puts two and two together.
“You must be the famous hero who saved Mileina,” Alzard says. Turns out, he even knew Kyle’s mother back in the day — they were classmates and magic-research buddies. He extends his hand with a friendly smile.
Kyle, suspicious but not rude, accepts the handshake. Outwardly, Alzard seems charming, but that sly glint in his eyes screams “I definitely have ulterior motives.”
Both groups then head toward the governor’s estate, but just like last time, they’re stopped at the door. Governor Bax refuses visitors. Again.
Miranda loses her cool. For two months, she’s been stonewalled with the same excuse, and her patience has officially run out. The guard, sweating bullets, insists he’s only doing his job but promises to pass the message along.
Miranda gives an ultimatum: if Bax doesn’t shape up within two days, she’ll personally appoint a new governor. For now, she tells Alzard that the meeting isn’t happening. He seems disappointed… a little too disappointed. He backs off surprisingly easily, which makes Miranda even more suspicious.
She’s convinced Alzard already knew about Mileina calling off the engagement. The Empire probably sent him to pressure the governor into siding with them and, at the same time, cozy up to Kyle, the rising hero. So she warns Kyle not to fall for Alzard’s smooth talk.
In fact, Miranda already has a candidate in mind for the new governorship — a former blacksmith guild member, arguably the best blacksmith in all of Karan, and someone who won’t spend his career hiding under the covers.
Meanwhile, Theron is exploring the city, disappointed that none of the swords catch his eye. Worse, the mining town is severely lacking in one of his favorite things: women to flirt with.
Just as he’s about to give up, he hears a scream. He rushes over and sees a “cute girl” being harassed by a group of thugs. Without hesitation, he kicks one in the face and introduces himself like a gallant hero.
Except… plot twist. The “girl” is actually Gou, a boy.
The moment Theron realizes his mistake, he collapses to the ground in melodramatic despair. “Rookie mistake… how could I!?” His interest plummets instantly — so much so that he starts to walk away, declaring he’s not about to waste energy saving a guy.
Gou, shocked, calls after him: “You’re seriously just leaving me here because I’m a dude!?”
Theron, dead serious, says: “Correct.”
But after a few steps, he pauses and turns back. “Wait… do you have a sister who looks as cute as you?”
Gou admits he does. Suddenly, Theron’s heroic spirit reignites like wildfire. With renewed motivation (and the thought of a date in the future), he proceeds to pummel every thug into unconsciousness.
Gou is impressed. He had fully planned to bolt while Theron distracted the thugs, but he didn’t expect him to knock out every last one of them. Either way, he thanks Theron and introduces himself as a local artificer.
Theron is surprised someone as young as Gou can make magical items, but he brushes it aside and asks why the thugs were after him. Sheepishly, Gou admits they were debt collectors.
At first, Theron assumes it’s the classic “gambling-addicted parents” situation. Nope. The debt is all Gou’s fault. He was commissioned to make a special artifact, took the payment upfront, and then casually informed the client it would take ten years to finish. Unsurprisingly, the client wasn’t thrilled.
Theron figures Gou might’ve deserved a beating for that one, but morality isn’t really his department. He’s only here because of the promise of a date with Gou’s sister. Unfortunately, Gou breaks the news: his sister is already married.
Upon hearing this, Theron falls to his knees in despair, wailing like a man betrayed by fate. “Why didn’t you say that earlier?!” he cries. Gou admits he withheld the truth because he feared Theron wouldn’t help otherwise (which is fair, because he wouldn’t have). Furious at being tricked, Theron smacks Gou on the head.
Meanwhile, Miranda meets with the master blacksmith Gazas, trying to convince him to become the new governor. He immediately refuses. His passion is blacksmithing, and he has no intention of trading his hammer for politics. Miranda insists the city desperately needs leadership, but Gazas shakes his head. “Not my problem.”
While Miranda argues with him, Kyle and the others wait in the corridor. That’s when Theron and Gou show up. To Kyle’s surprise, Gou turns out to be Gazas’s son — and a talented craftsman in his own right. If all goes well, maybe they can rope him into forging a new sword for Theron.
Gou invites everyone for tea. The place is a mess, and he apologizes — apparently, his sister used to handle the chores, but ever since she got married and moved out a year ago, housekeeping has been a lost art.
While waiting, Kyle spots schematics on the table. Curious, he examines them — and nearly drops them in shock. Gou explains the drawings are for the artifact he’s working on, but Kyle recognizes it immediately: a golem design. In his past timeline, such a construct had been a game-changing weapon on the battlefield. And now, he realizes Gou was the one who built it.
This is no ordinary trinket. The technology to create autonomous magic items like golems was thought lost with ancient Sarl. Toward the end of the great invasion, the Gargan Empire had fielded a prototype golem that outperformed entire squads of soldiers.
Kyle calls Sildonia over to inspect the design. She’s impressed. Based on titan constructs from the old Sarlis Kingdom, the design is flawless — and Gou even improved it for modern production. When Kyle asks if it could work, Sildonia says the odds are high.
Excited, Kyle insists Gou finish it as soon as possible. Gou says it’ll take ten years. Kyle demands one. He’s willing to throw as much money at the project as needed.
Gou is thrilled but hesitant — he already has investors. Kyle shrugs and tells him to just refund their money and declare the project a failure. Problem solved.
Once business with Gou is settled, Kyle checks back on Miranda and Gazas. No luck. Gazas refuses to budge on becoming governor. After Miranda leaves, Kyle approaches him with a different request: a sword for Theron.
Gazas immediately recognizes Theron’s current weapon as the work of Addios, and he scoffs at the idea it’s “not good enough.” Then Kyle shows him his own sword. Gazas goes pale. Even among all the ancient Sarlis blades he’s studied, only one could compare, and even that was inferior.
Reluctantly, he admits he’s not capable of forging something at that level. For now, he sends them away. Theron leaves disappointed, but Kyle notes that Gazas did mention seeing something like Sildonia before. They plan to return tomorrow.
The next morning, Kyle gets an unexpected visitor: Alzard Vine. Not on official business, but for a “friendly chat.” He even offers Kyle a ride on one of the Empire’s wyverns — a shocking offer, since the technique is supposed to be a tightly guarded secret. But apparently, it was Kyle’s mother who originally developed it, and Alzard admits he always admired her talent.
Later that day, Kyle and Miranda accept Alzard’s lunch invitation at the Gargan Embassy. But as they approach the meeting room, Kyle suddenly feels a chill crawl down his spine.
He opens the door… and finds Alzard’s severed head on a plate.
Standing over it is a demon.
