After leaving his room Hiro was led outside the palace and into the palace garden. He was brought more or less to its centre, where he found Aleus relaxed under a gazebo.

  "Aleus."

  "Hiro."

  The two said respectively after Aleus stood up then gestured for Hiro to take a seat at the table. While they did that, Hiro's escort silently bowed towards Aleus then left.

  "Interesting place you have here."

  Hiro expressed after sitting down and doing a quick sweep of the gazebo. It had six marble white pillars, the same was true of its railings and the table at the center. While the roof was made of a pale caramel fabric like but metal rigid material.

  The design itself was average and ancient but up to standard of a royal palace. This being the case Aleus knew Hiro's expression was aimed more at the material than design.

  "Refined elder worm teeth and skin, unwavering against the desert's natural elements. The garden may see less of them but they are far from being scarce, especially now with the sun. But with the runes engraved on it, the garden will remain a lively green throughout the seasons."

  He explained.

  "Isn't an elder worm a bit much."

  "Tell that my ancestor. How the clothes, I see you are wearing them?"

  Hiro examined himself, the clothes were casual and made based on what he informed Akarn's palace. Honestly he would have preferred a similar design to what he was wearing before but the robes texture wasn't suitable for it, it would be suited for a cloak but that wasn't something Hiro needed right now.

  "The design is the simplest thing I could think of and it's been made well. There's nothing to complain about, plus it has a familiar feel to it."

  He replied plainly.

  "So you like them."

  "Neutral but closer to like than dislike."

  "What about the runes, are you sure those are enough and the right kind?"

  Aleus continued to question.

  "I'm not a mage so having offensive runes would just disturb my fighting style."

  Hiro affirmed, he was already having a hard incorporating the abilities of a holy sword, respective holy sword and his own abilities into one combat system.

  The best example was how even against the fragment he didn't use a single blessing. Was this because he was unable to, of course not. It was just that he wasn't familiar with them.

  Having had a Saintess by his side throughout his journey Hiro had ended up like this, a failure of a hero.

  (Maybe I should have a time where I face mild challenges using one of these ability groups. Perhaps then I can get familiar with all of them to make one complete fighting style.)

  The thought immediately flashed in Hiro's mind, he did not think of using these ability groups in plain practice, especially the holy sword ability group. Just the thought of using blessings against thin air made Hiro feel pity for his holy swords.

  (Maybe I should start with the small stuff with the holy sword ability group.)

  "What you thinking about?"

  "Nothing important."

  Hiro replied while Aleus shrugged before picking up a cup of tea alongside a biscuit to go along with it.

  "Care for some tea?"

  He finally asked after having had the first bite.

  "Sure."

  Hiro followed suit, taking the cup of tea before him accompanied by a biscuit.

  (Ever since I arrived at the palace the food has been improving day after day. Now it's not as simple as before.)

  Hiro internally noted as he savoured the taste of both tea and biscuits.

  "The tea lacks suger but this compliments the biscuits' flavor, enhancing it a level or so. However it's not just elevating the biscuits taste, its fragrance and mild herbal taste alone puts it on even ground with the flavor enhanced biscuit."

  Hiro evaluated as he continued to partake in pastries before them, on the table.

  "Then allow me to spoil you, this is just low grade tea. The tea leaves didn't grow to full maturity nor were they aged after drying.

  It was long ago but I had a chance to taste the ideal version, and this is just water with coloring in comparison.

  But enough about tea, you know why I invited you."

  Said Aleus his eyes becoming sharp and focused.

  "Doesn't take much of a guess, a quiet place away from prying eyes and ears. There are two things it could be but you've hinted at one.

  You are not convinced the fragment is dead so you want a detailed confirmation from me."

  Hiro presumed, still relaxed and not sparing the food before him.

  Hiro could deduce Aleus wanting to know how he won wasn't as simple as explaining the process and perspective on the matter. This was further reinforced by the location Aleus chose, a place where they could speak freely without causing any panic even when the worst case scenario is said.

  But Hiro wasn't convinced by Aleus's anxiety over the potential worst case scenario.

  "Can you blame me. Didn't it come back from obliterating itself, how is it any different from what you did?"

  Aleus asked with a panicked look. The fragment's life force was still out there in space unguarded and from his knowledge there was nothing stopping it from reforming itself.

  Sure some of it was devoured by the black hole but most of its life force remained.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  To make an equivalence the fragment was like a zombie with a single weakness, the head. But unlike the average zombie it could regenerate the rest of its body anytime at an observable rate.

  However after its decrystalisation it was nothing short of the zombie blowing it's body, head and all. Only to reform from the scattered flesh fragments, meaning it no longer had a certain death weakness to target.

  What made this terrifying for the fragment was life force was life force, the life force making the core and the life force permeating the rest of the body was one and the same, meaning they could substitute for one another at will without consequence. As such it was irrelevant if the life force making the core was completely destroyed without even a trace remaining.

  And this was where Aleus's anxiety came from, regardless of what caused the fragment to be in that state by its design and Hiro destroying the core, the effect was the same.

  "The situation is exactly as you see it, but you are too focused on the fragment's life force."

  "What do you mean?"

  Aleus asked with knitted brows only to be met with Hiro's faint laughter.

  "Don't tell me your people really don't have a basic grasp on wills, not talking about using their power of course. Regardless, remember what I told you about its origin which led to you also referring to it as fragment instead of dragon."

  "So it's more of a will factored victory than life force."

  A look of realisation flashed across his face as he remembered one factor he wasn't considering due to his and Hiro's lack of awareness against.

  "That is on point, the rest of its life force can substitute for the destruction of life force of the core, not to mention regeneration through World assimilation. But the same can't be said of the will, it only had one will, which was completely forming a part of the core.

  We may not be able to distinguish which part of the core was the will but the core's complete destruction makes this fact irrelevant.

  The rest is an everyday occurrence, the life force left behind is the same as the life force residing in this rock you live on, something moved by the natural forces.

  Eventually the fragment's life force will fall on your world which is a blessing, can't say for sure what it will cause though but nothing unpleasant."

  (Honestly even I had no way of knowing whether the will was only in the core. Otherwise even after seeing its current state I would continue to destroy its life force until nothing was left.)

  Hiro thought, thankful for B One's timely information at the time and the fragment's ignorance of retaining a core when it didn't have to.

  Because without this, his fight against the fragment would be worse than fighting against smoke, not that he couldn't harm it but that it would be time consuming.

  This was the headache of fighting spirit bodies, no weakness to speak of thus have to be destroyed to the last shred of their being. Otherwise they bounce back if they can heal or flee from being weakened.

  "Mhm, I was worrying myself over nothing but now I can sleep like a baby."

  "You do realise babies aren't the best sleepers or rather..."

  "Hiro, it is an idiom."

  "I know."

  "Huh, you do?"

  Aleus muttered pleasantly surprised.

  "It shouldn't be that surprising, from what I've seen our knowledge isn't that far off from one another. But I can see you know next to nothing about the will, while we know at least as much as your average rune expert about life force.

  So as you teach me about life force I'll teach you about the will.

  On that note, there's one thing I've seen that could potentially revolutionise your view and idea of runes. The most probable reason why your life expulsion rune didn't work on the fragment's main body or rather core."

  Aleus leaned in like what Hiro was about to say would miss him if he wasn't even an inch closer, fully intrigued.

  All along they had been avoiding the subject of why the life expulsion rune didn't work on the fragment despite it lacking a soul, something that shouldn't have been possible according to their understanding.

  "Your explanation on why it doesn't work or works on an entity is based on the soul. But the fragment had no soul, of course you had no way of knowing for a fact. Perhaps why no one even had a chance to discovere this possibility until I came along.

  And the likelihood is whether the life expulsion rune works on a target or not isn't determined by whether it has a soul or not but a will or not. An honest mistake really, if something has life force and a soul, then it definitely has a will. And more often than not the will clings to the soul.

  Another point for failing to see this possibility is your knowledge of the soul is abysmal as well."

  Hiro paused, letting Aleus digest the information and see if he could come up with an example of his own regarding other runes.

  Several moments passed and Hiro could see that aside from coming to terms and thinking of what this means, Aleus hadn't thought of anything new to immediately put on the table.

  "Look at the runes on the elder worm's skin and teeth."

  Hiro threw a hint. Aleus the genius that he was immediately arrived at an answer.

  "You don't mean..."

  Aleus exclaimed with honest shock, his eyes widened while they darted between Hiro and the gazebo's engraved areas.

  The runes on the gazebo were nothing of note but now that they were speaking about the factor of wills in rune craft something became abundantly clear to him.

  "You have said it before, your power comes from your will. Only we don't know how much of what you show is your will so we can't assess your true physical strength without willpower or life power and soul power.

  And yet it is without a doubt leagues above a normal person, however is it something beyond even a creature like an elder worm? If not then its quality can't be the reason why even rune master rank runes fail on you while they can be successfully engraved on elder beasts.

  To explain its failure we have to introduce the other three. Life force we've assessed it to be roughly above an average elder beast but not a quality higher. As for the soul, this is only my guess but I think it's no different from a normal person. Which leaves your will, and has shown itself to be something far above our mastery.

  I'm right, aren't I?"

  He asked, confident Hiro would support his conjecture.

  "Although you are asking it doesn't look like you need me to confirm anything."

  Aleus burst into unrestrained laughter while Hiro remained silent but with a faint smile.

  "Knowledge foreign to our world is already proving to pave the path of rune craft more than anything we've done in the last decades or so. Choosing to accompany you isn't wrong."

  "Isn't it too early to get excited."

  Hiro warned seeing Aleus's increasing euphoria, the man was barely keeping himself seated.

  Also Hiro didn't want him to get the wrong idea, this could very well be a one time thing.

  "You are right, even this revelation is only knowledge not understanding. It would be unwise to rush ahead with just knowledge, only through understanding can true progress be made.

  Anyway, the fragment wasn't the only reason I invited you here.

  For some the battle has ended and only a victory celebration remains while for people like me another frontier has opened up. The battle for dominance of the coming age, so I wanted to know when we will be leaving then I use my remaining time sparingly."

  "When indeed, right now I'm thinking after a week although we can leave at anytime."

  Said Hiro, after going through various reasons he had chosen to remain for another week in this World. This would give him time to recover and improve some areas in his fighting style, perhaps he might even make another breakthrough in swordsmanship.

  "That's good to hear I suppose, now I can help around in the palace with a clear vision of how much to do and where to put my efforts. Knowing one's priorities without knowing the time to spend on them isn't useful.

  The palace is simply that busy, with various preparations. There's the victory banquet set for tomorrow, then the continent wide public declaration of the battle against the fragment later today, and finally what has been going on for some time, Akarn's restoration.

  Sigh, these are big enough projects on their own and we are swamped not to mention everyday palace work."

  Aleus began to complain.

  "You have it rough."

  Hiro said with indifference. Aleus was just too much of a selfish person, there was no sympathy from Hiro more so when he was going to escape all this activity soon.

  "Tell me about it, people always see the bright side of being royalty but never this cruel reality, that it is actually a job rather than state.

  This is also why I asked for you this early, in the next couple of days don't expect to see me free, tomorrow's banquet might just be the last break I have till we leave.

  Before I forget, you're also invited to the banquet. Don't worry about clothes, we'll send you a set to wear for the occasion.

  Right now I really envy your freedom but I can't just lie around while the family is working itself to the bone."

  "Working just as hard if not harder, a guilty conscience?"

  "As if, my intent to help is honest nonetheless my feelings to leave are also honest."

  Hiro gave a simple nod, he had thought as much already, why else would Aleus have remained here if he truly felt trapped with a need to escape. It couldn't have been as simple as he didn't have a destination, desire or thought of roaming his world, searching for ruins and such.

  In fact he had more or less said so making this all the more clear.

  "So you want to be unemployed that much."

  Hiro noted in an amused tone while placing his tea cup onto the table, having drank the last drop of tea.

  "That's a deceptive way of putting, I prefer to say it's focusing on myself. Or you could say I'm pursuing the way of the vagabond."