Way of the Knights

---

'Of course it would be him. How could I forget? I'm so stupid.'

Luna thought to herself as tears fell from her eyes. She traced the message carved by her beloved using her delicate fingers, feeling the rough ridges and the intent behind the message. 

He was in a hurry when he left this message, but each stroke was filled with longing and love. 

Luna had no idea why he didn't show himself. Why would he leave in a hurry? How did he know that they were coming? Why can't he just rest and be with them - with her, even just for a brief moment? 

She knew that he's doing this for her parents, and that made her feel even more guilty since she's powerless to help. But she also felt like this was unfair. Raven didn't even allow her to see him. It was as if he was avoiding her. 

Luna didn't understand, but she believed that he has his own reasons for not doing so. Even still…

'Unfair…' She could only repeat this word on her head, praying that at least he would show up and catch up with her, even just for a day. 

It has been years since he left, and if she's being completely honest, he's gone longer than the times they were officially together. She missed everything about him, she wanted to be with him but can't and can only pray for his safety. 

Sometimes, she would found herself wondering if he'll ever come back. 

But at least he left a message - a prove that he's still alive and well. 

This isn't enough to mend the empty feeling on her heart, but it's enough to keep her moving forward. 

"Girl? What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Anne along with Ellen approached the crying Luna. 

The two were of course worried but more bothered with how she's been acting ever since getting here. Her mood shifts every now and then, which doesn't happen normally. They've been friends for a long time and known each other very well. Of course they can tell that's something's bothering her but since she didn't want to talk about it, they can't really force her to tell. 

She was annoyed earlier, confused the next moment, listless just a few moment ago and now she's crying. How can they not worry about her? 

"Wait what's wrong? Eh? Why are you crying Luna?" Paul saw the girls grouped up so he went towards them, to his shock he saw the current state of Luna. 

"What's going on?" Mark arrived after sensing the commotion as well. 

"We don't know, she just suddenly started crying her heart out." Ellen replied as she ran her hand on Luna's back, trying to comfort her. 

The girls then felt Luna moved. She held their hands and nodded towards them. She spent some time wiping her tears and stopping herself from crying. 

"I'm okay." She said. 

"No you're not." Ellen replied in a deadpan voice, "You're not fooling anyone here. Spit it out, what's wrong?"

Luna bit her lips and fought back the tears. She took a deep breath and pointed at the message that Raven left for her. 

Everyone followed where she was pointing, and when they saw the message, everything became clear to them.

"Oh." Ellen reacted in a bit of an unsure tone, "Okay, I get it now."

"Damn, what an ass." Paul clicked his tongue in annoyance, but in the end he could only sigh since there's nothing he could do anyway. 

"Can't he at least show himself?" Anne groaned as she read the message, feeling a bit sad and disappointed at Raven for doing this. "He should know that Luna misses him badly right?"

"Honey, it's not like he doesn't want to. It's more like he can't." Mark replied, "In fact, he's probably dying to see her and talk to her again, but like I said, he can't."

"But why though?" Ellen asked, "Did something happen to him? Why is it that he can't at least spend a bit of time with her? I don't understand."

Paul held her hand and said: "He's fine, Babe. From what we have seen here, he's gotten stronger. So much to the point that he eradicated a whole camp of the Black Curtain Guild by himself. If he could hold himself out against this many people, then he's safety is the last thing that we should worry about."

He unknowingly tightened his grip on Ellen's hand and continued: "He didn't show up, not because he didn't want to. He didn't show up since if did now, he would not be able to continue his journey by himself anymore."

"That's right." Mark added, "His resolve to venture the dangers of the Red Zone would falter. There's a reason why he can't bring us with him. And showing up now would make it impossible for him to not take us, or at least Luna with him. He doesn't want to endanger her so he figured that it's best to leave unseen."

The team went silent after Paul and Mark's statement. These two known Raven's resolve and admired it ever since. He never looked back nor stopped moving forward no matter what kind of setbacks he experienced. They know what going on in his mind that spurred this decision of him because they would've probably do the same if they were on his shoes. 

The girls were contemplating about what they said. Luna tried her best to not cry anymore but is somehow failing at it. It took her a great amount of resolve to finally dry her tears away and look forward. 

"Let's leave." She said with great resolve on her voice, "There's nothing to see here anymore."

The rest nodded at her words, Ellen then asked: "But what about the report?"

"Easy." Paul replied, "Let's just say that Raven happened. They'll understand the rest."

"That works." Anne chuckled, "He pulled off bigger things compared to this, so it shouldn't be hard for them to imagine what happened here." 

"Honestly, that guy���" Mark similarly chuckled, "The way he works is still as messy as I can remember. How did he do all of this?"

"Beats me." Paul replied as they started walking out of the cave. "Probably with his weird techniques again. He has many of those and he probably got more from his travels."

"Anyway, the camp is gone. So we might as well assume that their headquarters will be informed about this." Anne stated. 

"It's safe to assume that there's a great chance of them turning aggressive on us." Luna added, "It's not beyond our expectations, it will depend on what kind of move they will pull off."

"We're plenty strong." Paul chimed in, "With the amount of Knights we have, we can safely defend against a giant beast horde."

"I think that we could even endure more, after all we have more Golden Knights compared before." Ellen added. 

"We are more or less going to be fine. But what really bothers me is that Vit'hum." Mark said, making the atmosphere drop for a bit. 

"Raven said that it had fallen into a ten year slumber right?" Paul asked.

"Yes, he did say that." Mark replied, "But he also said that we can't be so sure. It might have some ways to shorten that duration."

"With the King's current predicament, none of us can stand against that thing." Ellen stated with an annoyed expression. 

"In the end, we could only hope that it's slumber will really last that long." Anne said with a distressed expression. 

"Let's instead prepare for the worst outcome." Luna chimed in, her face bearing great resolve. "We can't rely on Avi all the time. If that Vit'hum really wakes up and decided to attack while he's away, we will be left with no other choice than to fight anyway."

"Avi left us many things, and we haven't touched at least half of them. I'm thinking that we should work harder from now on. Lest the distance between us and him becomes even wider."

Hearing her speak like this made the rest of team relieved. Luna's back to her old self and she's more determined than ever. Her mood inspired the rest of them to work harder as well. They had no idea just how strong Raven had gotten but he remained the strongest amongst them. 

What he did to this camp is a clear message that if they were slacking off, he will really leave them to eat his dust. And as his own teammates, how can they allow him hog all of the action? 

This why once they return home, they will resign from their Instructor post and focus on their training. They will even ask Elmar the Kind Ent and Myrna the Moonlight Butterfly for pointers on how to get stronger. 

Once they got out of the cave, they summoned their mounts and left without looking back. 

Hidden through a folded space, Raven watched and heard everything. 

His tears had dried and his face wore relief, it took him a great deal of effort to not jump out of the Spatial Abode and envelope Luna in a very tight hug. In the end, he even ordered Venus to restrict his movements in order to prevent himself from doing just that. 

As he watched them fly without turning back, Raven's gaze lingered on Luna's back. He smiled to himself and said:

"That's it, Love.. Keep going, I'll be with you soon."