Chapter 939: Discovery

Shouts broke out around the training grounds. Ludwig held still, then turned his eyes toward Joanna, who stood beside him with a thoroughly satisfied expression.

"What did you do?" he asked. "I couldn’t see you, and I couldn’t sense you moving."

"Presence distortion," she said, withdrawing the blade. "You’ve become very good at reading an opponent, but that gives me something else to work with."

Ludwig looked toward the place she had occupied. "You were standing directly in front of me. I was already watching you."

"And you were expecting certain signals to continue." Joanna rested the tip of her sword against the stone. "Breathing, intent, Mana, aura, even the way someone puts their weight against the ground. A fighter learns to recognize those things without consciously separating them. Remove enough at the right moment, and the mind briefly loses track."

"You hid an entire approach inside that gap." Ludwig touched his neck. "How long did it last?"

"Less than a second. Usually, that is all I need."

Her attention settled on his collar, and the satisfaction in her face gave way to curiosity.

Black metal had spread beneath his shirt. A thin plate covered the exact place where her sword had rested, its upper edge visible above the fabric.

Ludwig ran his fingers across it.

"Your armor wasn’t there when we started," Joanna said. "Did you summon it as I reached you?"

"I didn’t summon anything." He tapped the smooth surface, considering it. "It reacted on its own."

"You lost track of me completely, but your armor still knew where to protect you." Joanna stared for a moment before laughing. "You’ve collected some very interesting toys, Ludwig."

"I keep hearing that," he said as the plate receded beneath his clothing. "Though I would have preferred to notice you before I needed it."

"Well, it rather interferes with the lesson when I reach your throat and discover something else has already covered it."

"The lesson still worked. I didn’t know you were there, and I had no answer when you reached me." Ludwig lowered his hand. "If you had used something that could bypass the armor, I would have been in trouble."

Joanna’s smile returned. "That was the answer I wanted. I was beginning to wonder whether you had become too impressive to admit you could still miss something."

"You could have asked instead of putting a sword against my neck."

"I was your teacher. You should remember which method worked better." She lifted the greatsword and pointed it toward him. "We can continue if you need another example."

Ludwig glanced across the arena. Aura cuts crossed several platforms, and a damaged section near the warding line had begun to smoke.

"I think the repair bill has learned enough for one afternoon."

Joanna laughed and dismissed the aura around her weapon.

Neither of them moved to resume the spar. Joanna would have to escalate further to challenge him through conventional exchanges, while Ludwig could not answer seriously without creating a different problem. They had already learned what a training bout could safely show them.

The woman he once remembered as impossibly skilled was someone he could now follow and withstand. She could still catch him unprepared, however, and Ludwig found that reassuring in a way he had not expected.

The students remained gathered around the arena until Joanna turned toward them.

"Surely some of you have classes," she said. "The rest can return to the training you abandoned. Watching someone else swing a sword will only teach you so much."

A bell rang elsewhere in the academy, helping her argument. The crowd began to disperse, though several students continued looking over their shoulders. One young swordsman nearly walked into a pillar before catching himself and hurrying away.

Ludwig watched him go. "I don’t remember people caring this much when I studied here. Being overlooked was considerably more convenient."

"You complained whenever someone underestimated you," Joanna said. "Now they know better, and you’ve found a reason to complain about that as well."

"They were usually being annoying when they underestimated me."

Joanna gave him a look, and Ludwig returned Durandal to his inventory.

They walked toward the edge of the training ground as academy workers approached to examine the damage. One stopped beside a particularly deep cut, looked along its length, then raised his head toward Joanna.

She pretended not to notice.

"That one was your aura," Ludwig said. "You should probably explain what happened before he decides I’m responsible."

"You redirected it into the floor. I’m quite prepared to explain that part."

"You swung it at me," Ludwig replied. "I thought returning here meant I could stop being blamed for things other people broke."

"You’re famous now. They’ll be much more interested in putting your name on the damage."

He sighed as they reached one of the old stone galleries. The training grounds remained visible beyond its railing, but the passing students were far enough away to give them some privacy.

Joanna leaned against the stone and watched the workers for a moment.

"You never told me much about what happened after Sloth captured us," she said. "I remember you finding us, but there are gaps around almost everything else."

Ludwig’s amusement faded. He rested his forearms on the railing and gave her the account he could: the White Citadel, the canyon, and the creatures formed from those impossible white blocks. He described the pressure surrounding Sloth and how little ordinary resistance mattered once the Authority took hold.

Joanna listened without interrupting. When he finished, she pressed one hand against the railing and looked down at it.

"I remember walking for a while," she said. "Then I wanted to stop. Sitting down seemed more important than anything we had been trying to do, though eventually even that stopped mattering."

Ludwig knew what she meant, though Sloth’s Authority had never taken hold of him as it did the living. He had watched it strip the will from enough people to understand what she was describing.

"How did you and Celine end up there?" he asked. "Nobody ever gave me the full story."

"You were rather occupied when the opportunity came." Joanna folded her arms. "Cain sent us to explore the Dark Continent. We were supposed to keep to the outskirts, test ourselves against some of the creatures associated with Sloth’s territory, and identify routes."

Ludwig turned his head toward her. "He sent you to investigate Sloth’s territory as a training exercise?"

"We were not supposed to encounter Sloth himself. The instructions were to retreat if we found anything unusual." Her mouth tightened. "Then the army found us."

"How many were there? I saw what those white constructs could do, but you and Celine should have been able to break through a smaller force."

"Some were constructs. There were others, and they came from enough directions that counting them stopped being useful." Joanna’s gaze returned to the training grounds, though Ludwig doubted she was paying attention to them. "We could have fought through the first groups. We tried."

He waited as her fingers tightened against her arm.

"We had escape crystals and emergency equipment. We had magic, and people capable of cutting an opening through the first line. There were things we could have done." She looked at him. "That is what I keep remembering."

"Until his Authority reached you," Ludwig said. "Then using any of it stopped seeming worth the effort."

Joanna nodded.

"I could still hold my sword. I knew where the crystal was, and I understood that staying there was dangerous. But every reason to act became less convincing than the thought of resting." Her voice lowered. "Why swing again when I had already been fighting? Why spend Mana? Why reach for the crystal when I could sit down first?"

Ludwig remembered the people around Sloth and the helplessness that had settled over them. They had not needed to be frightened into surrendering. The desire to resist had simply worn away until they could no longer find a reason to make the effort.

"By the time I understood what was happening, I didn’t care enough to stop it," Joanna said. "I can remember knowing that something was wrong. It still wasn’t enough."

Ludwig said nothing. There was little comfort he could offer that would make the memory easier to bear.

"Celine lasted longer," Joanna continued. A faint smile touched her mouth. "She was furious with us. She kept shouting for everyone to move, trying to get us to do something before we were completely surrounded."

"That sounds like her," Ludwig said. "I imagine she made herself difficult to ignore."

"She did, for a while." Joanna’s smile disappeared. "Eventually, she stopped shouting."

Ludwig looked away from the training grounds.

For a time, neither spoke. The distant sound of practice weapons striking one another carried across the gallery.

"The next clear thing I remember is waking up in the canyon," Joanna said. "You were there. Everything between those moments comes back in pieces, if it comes back at all."

"For what it’s worth, Cain’s plan was terrible," Ludwig said. "You can tell him I said so."

Joanna let out a quiet laugh. "He’ll say we were warned to retreat and that none of it was his fault."

"He’ll probably make that argument before you finish explaining what happened. Then he’ll blame you."

"Me in particular?" She raised an eyebrow. "Celine was there as well."

"Which is why he’ll blame you. Arguing with Celine about whose fault her captivity was sounds dangerous."

Joanna considered that, then shook her head with a reluctant smile.

A soft chime sounded from Ludwig’s belongings before she could answer. He frowned as it repeated and took out his communication crystal.

"Someone important?" Joanna asked. "You don’t look pleased to hear from them."

"Usually, when this thing rings, something has gone wrong." Ludwig activated the crystal. "I’m trying to manage my expectations."

Light gathered above it, resolving into Kaiser’s face.

Ludwig stared at the lich. "What happened this time?"

"That is a miserable way to greet someone," Kaiser replied. His attention moved past Ludwig. "Were you training?"

"We just finished," Ludwig said. "Are you calling because you need me back in the tower?"

Kaiser’s expression changed, becoming interested in a way Ludwig had learned to distrust. Alarm at least made the problem clear. Interest could mean almost anything.

"You should come back," the lich said.

Ludwig straightened from the railing and glanced at Joanna before returning his attention to the crystal.

"What happened, Kaiser?"

The lich smiled. "We discovered something interesting."