Prota was sound asleep not an hour after the meal. John wasn't surprised. The battle with Hart must've been intense. He himself had no such fatigue, and so he was sitting outside on a bench, looking up at the stars. They were different from those on Earth, but that didn't matter. He wasn't an astrologist; he just enjoyed the beautiful scene.

He closed his eyes and leaned back, taking in a deep breath of the night spring air. It was cool, pleasantly so, the smell of budding flowers and freshly growing grass filling his senses. It felt as if the weight of the meal was being pushed out of his body. The swishing of branches and the occasional call of a bird broke the silent scenery. A gentle breeze floated across John as he let his mind go blank.

"Hey. So, what's next?"

John's eyes snapped open. "This would've been a lot nicer without your dumbass showing up. You trying to choose the worst possible time for us to talk?"

"Yeah, well, you should start thinking," Zero said. "Prota's birthday. Did you have something in mind?"

John hesitantly pulled out Prota's old cloak and staff. "Well, I was thinking of getting her something better than this rag and stick. They're nice, but if we go to Scholaris, she probably needs better gear, right?"

"I mean… speaking of gear, have you looked at yourself?"

"The gun counts as being overgeared. Besides, what's the point in good equipment for me? It's wasted on my dumbass."

John stared at the cloak. He wasn't sure why he was lingering on it for so long. He already knew what he wanted. He would get her something good. Something nice. A set of gear better than something he'd just happened to have on hand.

He closed his eyes and thought back to that rainy day so long ago. What a joke. Her first meal had been jerky and water, her first bit of clothing, this shitty cloak. It offered very little. It was a wonder it'd survived this long.

"You know, one man's trash is another man's treasure."

"...what?" John frowned as Zero snapped him out of his thoughts.

"That cloak. Are you sure you're gonna throw it out?"

"I mean, look at how patched up it is. Surely she'd want something better, no?"

Zero just stared. John frowned. He vaguely remembered how long it'd taken her to give it back to him. What, did she want it or something? He tried to look at it from a wider perspective. Her first bit of clothing, something he'd given her-

"John. It might not be a lot, but you gave it to her. It's not the item that matters. It's what it means to her. Surely you understand that much, right?"

"I- oh, yeah. I guess I see it. Haah. I'm a little slow, sorry."

"Well, yeah. That was obvious."

"Shut up. I don't need to hear it from you."

Zero smiled. "Still, I'm glad you understand."

John closed his eyes as his brain went into overdrive, trying to figure something out. It was just so hard to think right now. Work was such a hassle. He was pleasantly stuffed, tired, and the night was so calm…

"Ah, so you were out here."

John slowly opened his eyes to see Haze standing over him with a neutral expression on her face. It was different from Prota's. While Prota seemed blank, sometimes even sleepy, Haze's face was a mask, a filter to hide her thoughts and emotions. A rigid, stiff expression that hid her intentions. While Prota's looks were born of circumstance, this look was one born of training.

John flashed an awkward smile. "Ah. The meal was really good. You wouldn't have a recipe for that stew, by any chance…?"

"That is a family secret," Haze said, a small smile escaping through her lips. "I'm afraid not."

"Damn. Unlucky."

She sat on the other end of the bench, smoothing out her black dress. John looked at her, bored. Objectively, she was very beautiful. Despite likely being middle-aged, she looked youthful, likely a trait of an elf. Her figure was well-kept, likely a side effect of her profession, but there was a certain grace and elegance to her that amplified her beauty as well.

Despite all that, John couldn't see her in the way others would have. There wasn't a single hint of lust in his gaze. After all, this wasn't a "woman" in his eyes.

She was a [Character].

John had long since lost the ability to find someone attractive in a romantic sense. He could judge something like looks based on qualitative traits, but it was simply impossible for him to be attracted to it. There had been proof of this when interacting with Kit. Personal preferences when it came to women, or men, for that matter, were nonexistent.

"Strange," Haze said suddenly. "I've had many suitors over the years, even after I married, and yet no man has ever looked at me the way you do."

John flinched. "Uh… my bad?"

"No. It is simply interesting," Haze said, shaking her head. "It is almost as if you are judging me as if I were an object rather than as a person."

"Yeah. Uh… sorry? Also, the way you word that is a little…"

His speech tapered off, unsure of how to word his thoughts.

Haze laughed quietly. "You would not pursue me?"

"You're married," John frowned. "That's kinda fucked up."

"It hasn't stopped others."

"Yeah, well, other people are fucked up," John shrugged. "Also, you're Destiny's mom. That's a little, uh, weird, no?"

"You are an adult, are you not? Besides, you seem like the type to go for what you want. Uncomfortable circumstances wouldn't stop you if you truly desired to pursue me."

Haze closed her eyes and smiled. John frowned. He wasn't necessarily confused, but he wasn't fond of having to go through with this. It wasn't that he disliked this kind of [Character]. Rather, he quite enjoyed them.

He just didn't like having to deal with them himself.

Haze broke the awkward silence she'd caused. "I see. How interesting."

"...what, were you testing me? If I wanted to fuck you, were you gonna kill me or something?"

John flinched momentarily as Haze let out a sharp killing aura.

"Essentially, yes. But this is much more than you might think. I believe myself to be quite a good judge of character. It comes with my profession. Much can be determined by a singular glance. Your glance says a lot, young man."

"Thanks. Do you, uh, normally go about seeing if people are attracted to you? That's kinda-"

"No. It was simply that you were unique in your gaze," Haze said, her smile widening a bit.

She stood up and extended a hand to John, who hesitantly took it.

"Come with me."

"...what?"

Without another word, she dragged John along. Her grip was quite firm, so John didn't really have a choice, and he was eventually led to a dim, open field. He was already starting to understand what was going on here.

"Hey. Hey, did Destiny not tell you that I can't fight?"

"That is not true," Haze said, excitement growing in her eyes.

Her face remained neutral, but it was clear that she was looking forward to what was coming next.

"I told you. I can tell. You're a fighter, aren't you? One much more experienced than my son."

John raised his hands in protest. "I don't have mana! What do you want me to do?"

The calm evening was quickly turning into a stressful one. Now that John thought about it, she seemed familiar, as if he'd met her somewhere else. But where? This aura… Oh. Oh, fuck. The king's room. She'd seen through him already, right? He'd displayed way more skill than he'd meant to. She wouldn't back off. Not after knowing what he was capable of.

"Hm… then, how about this? One favour. I will grant one request of yours if you can land one hit on me. Additionally, I will restrict my usage of mana. Is this fair?"

"...one hit? And one request?"

"That is correct. Do not get ahead of yourself," Haze warned. "No matter how experienced you are, I am your elder. You cannot possibly have been in more fights than me, even if you have been fighting your whole life, which would be difficult given your circumstances."

John slowly began to smile. He'd been worried about Prota's present, but wasn't this a perfect opportunity? He couldn't repair the cloak himself, but there was someone who definitely could. John wasn't sure if there was a magic tailor or something, but—no, scratch the blacksmith. Surely there was someone in the kingdom who could help him, right?

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Wait. This was a lot more dangerous than he'd initially thought. She could find something suspicious with John. She was a lot more insightful than anyone he'd met was. Was he really considering something like Prota's gift now?

…yeah, why not?

"Alright. Let's do it," John said, a grin beginning to form on his face.

"Very good."

He nodded, ready to fight, but then paused and raised his hand like "Um, about the whole request thing. Do you guys have contacts with, like, some kind of magic clothing maker? Something like a blacksmith for cloaks and staves and stuff?"

"Of course. We have some of the best magical engineers in the kingdom."

"Great. That's all I needed to know."

John shook his wrists as he stared at the woman before him. She stood in a calm, relaxed posture, the wind causing her dress to sway from side to side in a hypnotic pattern. Despite her quiet demeanour, John could tell she was ready to fight.

Her combat level was a cut above anything he'd experienced since coming to this world. Well, maybe Albert… come to think of it, he had yet to see Albert fight. Oh, well. Even compared to the rest of the people he'd seen, he could tell.

Destiny's mother was at a different level of skill.

John shook his arms and settled into a relaxed posture. It seemed like poor technique, and it was, but it was what he was used to. His style was an amalgamation of everything he'd learned over billions of deaths. There was no need to think too deeply about it. He just needed to act.

The problem was, there was no act to be had.

It was hard to decide how he wanted to start the fight. Haze's dress made it hard to see how her muscles were moving, which was often helpful in a fight. If John made a move, he wouldn't be able to see how she'd react. That slight indicator of which direction Haze would move was disguised by what seemed to be a poor outfit for fighting.

"I was right. You are experienced. Scarily so. Where did you learn to read someone's form the way you do?" she called out, a look of amusement passing by her face

"...don't do that," John said, shuddering. She'd read him that easily? "That's creepy."

He cursed to himself. As much as he'd been analyzing her, she'd also been analyzing him. The people he'd run into so far were strong, but Haze was a very different kind of strong. Her skill wasn't in powerful magic, large spells or cheating mechanics. It was a result of hard, arduous training. Blood, sweat and tears were how she'd gotten to where she was now.

He started walking forward calmly, taking strides as if walking down the street. Soon, he was almost an arm's reach from Haze. He stopped and stared, standing a head above the elvish woman. Without warning, he struck first, his right foot rising from the ground, but Haze was faster. She caught his leg and did something, leaving John's feet in the air and head in the dust.

"Damn," John moaned.

"Will you give up?"

"Fuck, no," he grunted, spitting out dirt. "I need that favour."

John pushed himself back up, eyeing Haze a bit more suspiciously this time. He tried a feint, but there was nothing. No reaction. A larger feint, one on the verge of attacking, but again, no reaction.

"Attack. Do not play games," she said, mildly irritated.

"Sorry, sorry."

John took a deep breath and raised his fists, getting into a stance. He threw a jab that was easily blocked, but that was expected. It was followed up by a sharper, heavier blow that was dodged, but he used the momentum to continue forward, stepping heavily with his right foot and bouncing back, spinning in the air to deliver a kick. This was dodged with a simple duck, and John was once again on the floor.

"No fair," John complained. "Your physique is just way better than mine."

"And the fault of that belongs to whom? I am not using mana. If you have not trained your body, that is no fault of mine."

John grumbled and got back up. He tried again. And again. And again. But no matter what he did, the result was the same. He kept getting knocked down. John was starting to rethink his attitude toward formal training.

"...you are good. But untrained. Unprofessional. And you are limited by your physique," Haze mused. "Hm… to think we were worried about you. Perhaps you are not as much of a threat as we thought."

"A threat? Me?"

"Well, if you cannot win against me, then what could you possibly hope to accomplish?"

"Aw, shut up," John muttered as he got up again.

He was bruised all over, but his newly found levels of [Determination] were doing good work. The power-up he'd gotten was coming in handy, at least for this. Otherwise, he'd be lying on the floor, dying from his injuries.

Well, if he was going to use [Determination], he might as well use the power that came with it. It was time to cheat a little.

"Power: x10."

The power multiplier provided by [Infinity] was not literal. A multiplier of ten didn't mean that he was ten times as strong. But he was still stronger than he was before. Now that he could use some of his abilities without the annoying penalty, this was perfect. All he had to do was make sure that his powers wouldn't be noticed.

"Are you sure about this? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. I've heard you weren't all sane, but this is pushing it just a little."

"Destiny said that about me?" John said, surprised.

"Did you expect otherwise?"

"...yeah, I'm crazy. They locked me in a room. What about it?"

John rushed in carelessly, but Haze's eyes widened as she stepped back. Something felt different. He was a little faster. A little stronger. And a little more reckless.

"Were you holding back? Come, that cannot be wise? Why do such a thing?" Haze said disapprovingly.

"Hold back? Why would I hold back?"

"You tell me."

John's fist reached its target, but instead of blocking as she usually did, Haze dodged. A multiplier of ten was simply not enough to overpower her. She was merely being cautious. Well, that was wise. If John was displaying slightly more power than before, she now knew he had strength to spare. Given that unknown factor, it was far wiser to play it safe. But John had never planned on winning with brute force.

He was about to pull something off. Something he hadn't done in a while.

Any physical body obeys the laws of physics. Within those laws is something called inertia. If something is in motion, it will continue to be in motion until opposed. In the case of something like a punch, if someone throws a powerful blow, the action of slowing down, changing trajectory or stopping it altogether is near impossible without using large amounts of strength and control, something that is not easily hidden.

For ever action, there is an equal an opposite reaction. And if the initial action was powerful, the opposite reaction would need to be equally powerful.

Because of this, "tells" exist. Indicators that allow people to dodge and block. People train themselves to throw feints, read the fight, and direct it in the way they want, but all of these things rely on bodies following a specific set of rules.

The rules of physics.

However, [Infinity] is not an ability that amplifies physical strength. It is a [Deus Ex Machina] ability, something that defies the laws of everything. An ability that bypasses logic and steps into the realm of imagination. John does not need to obey the laws of physics.

He does not need to obey any laws at all.

While [Infinity] is an ability John often describes as stupid, being overly powerful with few drawbacks and room for creativity, this was one of the only uses he found acceptable. It wasn't strictly logical, yes. It was hard to define how it worked. But it was one of the only forms of using [Infinity] that required an insane amount of training and time.

He'd lost count of how many times he'd died trying to perfect this technique. It wouldn't help him win. Not here.

But it was enough to let him land one hit.

"You've improved. You are stronger, but that isn't enough to-" Haze started but then stopped.

Something felt off.

She'd just dodged a blow and was bringing her head back to counterattack, but somehow, she'd mistimed John's blow. No. Impossible. John's body showed no signs of pulling back or slowing down. Besides that, the timing was only slightly off. It was as if there'd been some kind of lag, almost like reality itself had been glitched out for a second.

How had she mistimed it? Someone like her, someone as skilled as her, making a mistake like this? She couldn't tell what had happened, but she knew that she'd lost. John's fist made contact with her face, and while it wasn't painful, it hurt in a different kind of way.

"I won, then, right?" John panted, sweat pouring down his face as he collapsed.

He felt good. Really good. It didn't matter that he'd cheated.

He'd won.

The "cheat" wasn't much, but it'd been important. If [Infinity] ignored the laws of physics, what would happen if John were to change multipliers mid-fight? There would be no "tell," no indicator that he'd changed pace. But even if he threw a punch with all his might, the speed of said punch could be altered while the fist was still travelling through the air.

Fights typically have a of tempo to them, a rhythm that allows a fight to be called a dance of sorts. Especially at higher levels of skill, there is a sort of pattern that fighters settle into, a speed that they familiarize themselves with.

John bypassed all of this. He could change his [Infinity] multiplier with ease. He could fight at a completely erratic pattern that would throw any experienced fighter off. An untrained person who fought without considering any form of timing would be unaffected. However, someone like Haze, who subconsciously relied on such timings, would be thrown off.

He'd never expected to use this technique, especially not in a world like this, but it was all he had. The opponents from here on out would only be more powerful. More skilled. And the element of surprise wouldn't be enough. If the [Author] was giving him some breathing space when it came to using [Infinity], that meant the [Author] expected him to fight.

If that were the case, John would need every bit of power he could get.

He leaned over, resting his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. Sweat poured down his face as his body pushed itself to keep up, but he'd done it. Haze looked at him with an expression of both disgust and surprise.

"I don't know how you did it, but… very well. A deal is a deal."

Haze turned around, completely uninjured, and walked off as if she'd never fought. Well, that was to be expected. She was, and always would be, the better fighter. If they went for a round two, she'd be prepared. She might not get used to it immediately, but John was moving so slowly that it was something she could easily adapt to.

He'd gotten lucky. If his trick hadn't worked the first time, it might've never worked again. But that didn't matter.

He'd landed one singular hit. And that meant he'd won the deal.

Haze stopped mid-pace and turned around once more.

"Tomorrow, come find me. And, if I may ask. What do you desire from this?"

"Um. Just need a cloak fixed, you know?" John said, embarrassed. "It's just a little something, but I'm not a craftsmith or anything so…"

Haze turned away, hiding a smile. She had finalized her assessment of the person before her. She'd initially been conflicted, unsure of what to make of him, but now, she knew.

Her son was safe with this man.

"Oh, hey. By the way."

Haze stopped as John called out. What did he want?

"Haze, right? I'm gonna call you that. Haze. How much do you love Destiny?"

"...what do you mean by that?" she said, her voice dangerously low.

John had touched a sore spot, but he didn't care. In fact, he'd been trying to do so.

"Your son. I'm not too familiar with how your family works, being bodyguards and all that, but is your son your son? Or is he a tool?"

"Why do you care?" Haze turned around, a murderous look in her eyes, but John wasn't backing down.

"Put it this way. If he'd failed the Windwalker test, what would you have done?"

"I have no comment on the matter."

John sighed, letting a smile slip through. "That's good to hear."

"...what, do you think yourself powerful enough to be testing me?"

"No, no. I just wanted to be sure."

John stood up, dusting himself off again.

"There might be more to Destiny than you might know. I just wanted to make sure that no matter what, he was your son before anything else."

"You- what are you saying?" Haze exclaimed. "You need to watch your mouth carefully, lest you-"

"Haze Windwalker." John's voice was very sober. "I hope, for your entire family's sake, that your son will always be your son, no matter what. I want you to remember that, no matter what, he is someone you love, no matter what he tells you. And you need to remember that no matter who he turns out to be, he still loves you. Do you understand?"

Something about John's tone made Haze stop in her tracks. He was being dead serious, more so than when she'd seen him in the king's chambers. Something she'd said while talking to the king came back to mind.

"Neither version of that boy felt genuine. If I may be honest… that boy is incredibly skilled at getting what he wants. Neither version of himself might have been the real him. In fact, a maskless version of him may not even exist."

What he'd said just now… this felt like the real him, somehow.

"When you're not playing the fool, you can be quite wise."

"Even a broken clock is right twice a day," John shrugged. "Don't take me too seriously. Just… think about it, you know?"

His sudden flippant attitude was almost a relief for the king's bodyguard. She quickly regained her composure.

"Very well. The maids or butlers will know where I am. I'll take you to our magical engineer. Ah, and as thanks…"

She stopped and looked back, a small but sly grin on her face.

"I will pay for this one. I heard you can be quite stingy with money."

"What- hey, who told you that?"

Haze walked off without another word, leaving John speechless.

"...seriously? Hey, who'd you hear that from? Destiny?! Hey, hey!"

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