Chapter 95: The Return of Sarah Azureveil

"Where is the Young Master?" Sarah asked gently, her eyes searching the stone corridor once more.

Before Elena could answer, Amelia chimed in from right beside her mother, puffing her chest out dramatically. "Brother is not here! He went with Uncle to fight the monsters!"

"My Lady?" Sarah turned to Elena, a look of confusion crossing her face.

"Marcus took him to Northwatch," Elena explained calmly, sensing the girl’s bewilderment. "You have traveled a long distance, Sarah—freshen up for now and come down to the dining room. I will explain everything to you after dinner."

"Yes, My Lady," Sarah bowed respectfully and turned down the corridor, only to notice Amelia stealthily trying to follow beside her.

"Amelia, come with me," Elena said, her sharp gaze instantly locking onto her daughter’s subtle attempt to escape.

"Mom, I just want to go look at the gifts!" Amelia smiled sheepishly, her eyes widening as Elena stepped forward and pinched her ear with practiced ease. "I can tell Sister Sarah about Brother too!"

"If you keep trying to sneak off, I am going to tell your instructors to double your daily lessons," Elena warned softly.

"No! They aren’t even letting me play properly as it is!" Amelia shot back, raising her hands with a pleading look in her eyes. "If you tell them that, I won’t get to do anything fun!"

Seeing her daughter acting so dramatically, a quiet sigh escaped Elena’s lips. "Fine. But only if you listen to me and behave."

"Okay..." Amelia’s shoulders drooped dramatically as she gave up on accompanying Sarah, though a small sigh of relief escaped her at dodging extra lessons.

Sarah made her way back to her private quarters. The room remained exactly as she had left it months ago, thoroughly cleaned, without a single speck of dust resting on the furniture, despite how long she had been away. Closing the door behind her, she walked into the attached bathroom and began preparing a hot bath. Stripping away her traveling attire, she sank into the steaming water, letting the lavender-scented soap cleanse away the grime and physical exhaustion of the long road.

As the heat soaked into her muscles, her thoughts naturally drifted to Ethan.

A soft, unconscious smile touched her lips as she remembered how he always managed to make her laugh without even trying. She closed her eyes, letting the quiet moments they had shared echo in her mind, lingering on his gentle presence as the fatigue of her journey slowly faded away.

A short while later, Sarah entered the private dining hall.

The grand table was lined with dozens of exquisite dishes—crispy golden chicken, roasted wings from a rare northern magical beast known for its buttery flavor, steaming beef stew paired with fresh-baked crusty bread, and over a dozen other delicacies.

Elena was already seated at the head of the table, making final adjustments to the spread, while Amelia sat beside her, her eyes fixed on the food as she practically drooled.

"Woah, it smells so good!" Amelia chimed, dabbing her mouth with a cloth napkin.

Sarah approached with light, graceful steps, taking in the sheer quantity of dishes, nearly all of which were her personal favorites. Elena looked up with a warm expression, and Sarah returned the smile, taking her seat across from Amelia.

"Let us eat," Elena gestured as the personal servants stepped forward to serve them.

Sarah ate calmly and quietly, while Amelia hummed happily around every bite, repeatedly murmuring, "It’s so good..."

"It seems you missed him," Elena said gently, noticing how unusually quiet Sarah had become.

Sarah blushed faintly, her amber eyes snapping up in mild surprise. "No, My Lady... it’s just been a very long time since I last saw the Young Master."

"Don’t worry," Elena smiled softly. "He will be fine."

Amelia nodded eagerly, swallowing her food in a hurry. "Yes! Brother is super strong! He even killed the bad guys who tried to kill me!"

Clatter!

The porcelain plate slipped from Sarah’s fingers, clattering loudly against the wooden table before shattering on the floor below.

The dining hall fell dead silent.

"My Lady..." Sarah’s voice trembled, her heart suddenly pounding against her ribs like a war drum. "What does that mean?"

Amelia, realizing she had let slip something she wasn’t supposed to say, immediately shrank back into her chair, looking up with wide, guilty eyes. "...I’m sorry."

"It’s alright, dear," Elena said gently, reaching over to rest a hand on Amelia’s hair, smoothing it down softly.

Turning back to Sarah, Elena’s expression softened with a trace of lingering guilt. "I wanted to tell you later tonight, Sarah. I didn’t want you worrying the moment you stepped through the gates."

Sarah stood up slightly from her chair, her gaze unwavering. "Please, My Lady. Tell me now."

Once the meal had come to its abrupt end, Elena led Sarah straight into the private study, sealing the heavy oak doors behind them.

There, Elena began to explain-recounting the assassination attempt Ethan had uncovered and stopped right within the estate, how he had miraculously reached the Knight realm at only ten years old, and how Marcus had since taken him to Northwatch to train him further.

Seeing the sheer shock and mounting worry written across Sarah’s face, Elena walked over to her desk, pulled a thick folder of sealed parchments from a velvet-lined drawer, and handed it directly to Sarah.

"It contains the official reports sent back from Northwatch," Elena said gently.

Sarah’s hands trembled slightly as she took the papers and broke the seal. Her amber eyes scanned the meticulous records, her heart racing faster with each new revelation, reading in silent horror about the rogue bandit camps, the dismantling of a hidden Eclipse Conclave operation, the brutal fight against the Chimera, and the uncharted dungeon Ethan had cleared alongside Rune.

Sarah absorbed every word without interrupting, her heart pounding with each report and every new revelation of the dangers Ethan had already faced. Beneath the fear, however, ran a quiet thread of pride at how strong he had become in only a matter of months. Her eyes finally settled on the closing note, an official speculation that Ethan might possess a rare True Physique.

"My Lady... is it true?" she asked finally, her voice barely above a whisper as she slowly closed the report.

"We’re almost certain," Elena said, sensing the storm of emotion still settling behind Sarah’s eyes.

Sarah exhaled slowly, a strange, complicated mixture of relief and heavy determination loosening the tight knot in her shoulders. "It seems... I have missed far too much in the short time I was away."

"Yes," Elena said gently, stepping forward to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Now tell me-what happened during your journey?" Elena asked, sensing something heavy still weighing on Sarah’s mind.

Sarah sighed quietly. "Yes, My Lady."

She recounted the ordeal at the Ocean Tower—how the Tower Master had gone into seclusion just prior to her arrival, how she had waited three full months before finally securing an audience with the Vice-Tower Master, Meredith, only for the woman to insult the Northern Frontier outright and flatly refuse their proposal to establish an Ocean Tower branch in the North.

"It seems she still hasn’t changed," Elena muttered, her usual calm giving way to a sudden, biting coldness.

"Don’t worry about it," Elena added, waving the matter aside for the moment. "We can discuss it properly once you’ve rested."

"Yes, My Lady. Though... perhaps we should consider approaching the other Magic Towers instead."

"I was thinking the same. Rest first. We’ll go over the details later."

"Ah-yes." Sarah rose, her earlier exhaustion tempered now by a quiet, hardening resolve.

If Ethan kept growing stronger at this terrifying rate, she would no longer be able to stand by his side as a guardian, or even as his equal, in a few short years. And the thought of becoming someone he had to leave behind frightened her more than she wanted to admit. Her fists clenched faintly at her sides.

Suddenly, a distant memory rose without warning.

Sarah had been roughly ten years old the day she first arrived at Ravenhold, her clothes stiff with dried blood and road dirt, her hands trembling uncontrollably even after the estate physicians had finished tending to her physical wounds. Everyone around her had been overly kind, treading on eggshells, terrified that even the smallest gesture or gentle question might break her fragile, shattered heart.

It was Ethan who hadn’t treated her like something breakable.

Barely four years old at the time, he had simply wandered over to where she sat shivering alone in the garden, plopped himself down beside her on the grass without asking permission, and stayed. He hadn’t asked what had happened to her family. He hadn’t offered the same soft, careful reassurances the adults kept repeating. He had just talked, about nothing in particular, about the shapes of the passing clouds, about a strange beetle he’d found that morning, filling the heavy silence with a child’s unhurried, undemanding presence until, days later, she found herself actually looking forward to his company.

"I’ll protect you from all the bad guys," he used to tell her with absolute gravity whenever she woke up screaming from nightmares, sitting stubbornly beside her bed.

She had laughed at him then-the very first real laugh she had managed since arriving at the estate. He had looked so dead serious about it, so utterly certain, that the sheer absurdity of a four-year-old making such a grand promise had cracked open the icy wall around her heart.

In the months that followed, Ravenhold stopped feeling like a place of refuge and became the place where she truly belonged.

Sarah exhaled slowly, blinking the vivid memory away.

And now... he’s the one walking straight into danger.

She shook her head, pushing her doubts aside, and made her way toward Amelia’s room, her arms laden with the small parcels she had carried the entire journey home.

Amelia’s eyes lit up the instant Sarah pushed the door open. "Are those-"

"For you," Sarah smiled, setting the bundle down on the bed.

Amelia tore into the wrapping with wild enthusiasm, pulling free a delicate silver hairpin shaped like a winter snowflake, a small carved wooden fox with articulated joints that shifted in her palm, and a jar of candied southern fruit unlike anything sold in the North, along with a stack of rare adventurer chronicle books she adored.

"I love it! All of it!" Amelia threw her arms around Sarah’s waist, nearly toppling them both onto the mattress. "You always bring the best gifts!"

Sarah laughed softly, smoothing a hand over Amelia’s hair.

"Now tell me everything," Amelia said, climbing onto the bed and patting the space beside her insistently. "Every single thing that happened on your trip. Don’t leave anything out!"

Sarah hesitated for only a second before settling down beside her. The heavy burden of the day eased, if only slightly, in the face of Amelia’s bright, unyielding warmth.

"Alright," Sarah said softly, a genuine smile returning to her face. "Where should I even begin..."