Luke was back inside one of the village houses. Queen Rhiannon was long gone. Evangeline, Jack, and Eleanor had all called him reckless, and they were right. Without Allison there, the queen could easily have killed him, and he wouldn’t even have had the chance to react.

  Now he paced in circles across the room, thoughts colliding in his head as he tried to decide what to do. He wouldn’t abandon Allison. She had become part of his family. He had taken her into his life the same way he had taken in the Baumanns. He would rescue her, just not right now. Not with the strength he currently had.

  First I need a map of the New World. Then I need some way to figure out what level the World Kings are.

  Queen Rhiannon was the strongest in her family, but there were others. If he ever intended to rescue Allison, he’d have to face all the Rhiannons together. He would need to be powerful. Far more powerful than he was now.

  “A map, then a safe place to stay, maybe a way to travel… a flying ship, maybe?” he murmured to himself. “How do I even get one?”

  He kept pacing.

  “Luke snapped. He’s completely gone,” Evangeline said. “He’s been muttering nonsense for minutes while walking back and forth.”

  The door swung open, Mason stepped inside. A knife flew past his face and buried itself in the wooden wall beside him.

  “Hey!” Mason yelped. “I’m not the guy who changes faces! The raven was with me the entire time!”

  “If you were Jonathan, at least he’d think I’d figured him out or something,” Luke muttered, already pacing again.

  “Jerry Two was with Mason the whole time, calm down, Jack,” Evangeline said, watching Jack take a few steps away from Mason.

  “Here, see? My yellow flame,” Mason said, lifting his hand and igniting it to prove he wasn’t Jonathan in disguise.

  Eleanor descended the stairs. “Looks like we’re all ready. Can we leave this place?”

  Mason dropped into an armchair. “I went to the city to look for someone from my family, and when I come back, suddenly there’s a Rhiannon dragon flying across the sky. Things escalated real fast.”

  Eleanor sat in another chair. “Did you manage to talk to anyone from your family?”

  “No. Just their workers. They have a shop in the city, a forge. And we also have property here, all nobles do. I honestly thought I’d see my sister, but no one was there. I left a message with one of the workers, and they nearly fainted seeing me come back from the dead,” Mason explained.

  Evangeline looked at the group. “So… can we go or not?”

  “We can,” Luke said, already heading toward the door.

  Outside, the village was chaotic in the aftermath of the queen’s departure, but things were beginning to settle. Crowds of people streamed toward the road in large groups. No one wanted to wait for carriages anymore. There was only one destination left for all of them now: Earth.

  Behind Luke, his group began moving with him. His mind was a storm, worried for Allison, yet aching with the desire to finally see his family again.

  “Don’t worry,” Eleanor said. “The Rhiannon family may not like her, but like she told you, she spent most of her life locked in a room. She’ll eat, she’ll sleep, she won’t be allowed outside, but at least she’ll be safe. It sounds awful to say, but between living in some torturous dungeon and living in a luxurious noble suite… the second option is the lesser evil.”

  Mason stepped up beside him. “I saw her a few times at mandatory noble events. So she’ll go out once in a while. If I run into her again, I can bring a message from you, or carry one back.”

  Luke’s mind lit up. He stared at Mason, barely breathing. “That’s it…” he murmured.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He had been trying to figure out how the hell he would ever break into a dragon-protected kingdom, infiltrate the safest castle in the region, and rescue her. Mason had just handed him a different route.

  “I just need to kidnap her during one of those events,” Luke said.

  “What?!” Evangeline stared at him. “Dude, that’s sounding like stalker behavior.”

  Sure. He could march into the dragon queen’s territory and kill her personally. That solved every problem at once… except for the little detail that he had no idea how long it would take to get strong enough to face that woman.

  That was the real issue. He didn’t want Allison to spend even a second trapped in that life. But he had to face reality: fighting the queen head on would take too long. Too long for Allison.

  Kidnapping her was… the fastest option?

  He considered it seriously, but even that had a fatal flaw: kidnapping meant nothing if he couldn’t keep her safe afterward.

  The multiverse is vast. There has to be somewhere else like Earth out there…

  He forced himself to shelve those thoughts as they walked. Artemis remained unusually quiet, respectful. Even the usually chatty soul voice didn’t bother him. Angie was calmer now that the queen was gone, he could feel it through their bond.

  “Try to think positive,” Jack said as they made their way down the road. “At least we’re going back to our families.”

  “I haven’t walked the streets of New York in nine years,” Evangeline said. “It’s going to feel weird. New York is chaotic on a normal day. Imagine how it’ll feel after all this? At least I’ll probably end up with an apartment in some luxury high rise.”

  They followed the crowd leaving the village, a loose procession of exhausted survivors finally heading home. More people approached them. If Jonathan had been among them, Luke would’ve killed the bastard on sight, no questions asked. He wasn’t in the mood for trouble. Instead, Eugene, Miriam, and the rest of Haven drew near.

  “So now you’re heading to Allison’s kingdom,” Evangeline said.

  Eugene nodded with a faint smile.

  “But first we’ll return to the modern world,” Miriam added. “I have a few things to settle there, and so do the others.”

  “As for me,” Eugene said, “when I accepted the system, it was because I didn’t see much of a future in a normal life. Working a job, riding the subway, buying a car, upgrading my phone… that wasn’t it for me. My goal was always to come to the New World. So I’ll stay in the city until everyone’s ready for the journey.”

  They kept talking, but Luke’s mind was elsewhere. Someone even asked if he wanted to join them on their trip, but he had no interest in serving anyone’s army. Though… it would have been a way to stay close to Allison.

  “Sir Luke,” Thiara called. Ever since he’d been cleared of Angelica’s death, she had slowly begun approaching him again. “You should be happier. You’re going home.”

  “I am happy. This is just my usual stoic face,” he answered.

  Was he going to let that feeling of loss gnaw at him? No. Of course not. It was fuel now, another objective added to the long road ahead. He wanted power to protect his family, and Allison was family too, so nothing had changed.

  He looked down at his right hand, at the black ring resting there. His witch’s “wand.”

  At least now I’ll have more ways to gain power.

  And he would need power, as much as he could possibly obtain.

  Luke stopped walking. “Go ahead. I need to check if Allison left anything in her room. I’ll catch up.”

  He jogged back through the village toward the house. Inside, he shut the door and went upstairs. He checked Allison’s room first, just in case. That wasn’t his actual goal. Nothing had been left behind. No letter, no hidden item. Nothing.

  He went to his own room next and checked the windows, closed. He drew the curtains shut and sat on the bed. In front of him, Angie and Charlie materialized. He’d come inside specifically so he could talk to both. Charlie appeared looking down at her own hands, then lifted her gaze to him.

  She suddenly wrapped her arms around him, catching him completely off guard. And Luke understood. From her perspective, the last thing Charlie remembered was that moment when they had killed the Midnight King.

  “We made it, Charlie. We got out of the tutorial,” he murmured, returning the hug against her black steel armor.

  He was going to have a lot to explain, so much had happened since then.

  But when Charlie pulled back, she focused on Angie… the Stone Angel who looked exactly like Angelica, standing there completely naked.

  “Hello, Charlie,” Angie said softly.

  Charlie’s gaze snapped back to Luke.

  He’d meant to introduce them, but judging by the emotions pulsing from his bond with Charlie, and the look she was giving him, he realized he would have to start explaining from the very beginning. Because for some reason Charlie was now…

  Holding her sword.

  And her other hand was clenched in a fist wreathed in flames.

  “Oh, you seem to be in trouble, Luke. Your girl caught you in a bedroom with a naked woman,” Artemis muttered through laughter, making everything infinitely worse.

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