☀️ Arselia and Akonia

After Carneol's raid on the archive, Garret initially thought that he wouldn't have much to read in the near future, as he had never shown such an inclination before. However, it turned out that Erefir and his companions had become seriously interested in this topic and planned to spend hours in the library every day. One morning, after seeing off the group of bookworms, he asked what incredibly important thing they were studying there.

School of Baldur

Baldur? Something vaguely stirred in his memory. Unlike many other names, this didn't seem like something new; rather, it was vaguely familiar, something left far behind in the whirlwind of events and forgotten, like something from a past life. He had heard it somewhere before. Could it be...?
Opening the book, he skimmed through the introduction. Yes, indeed. Serberia, known as the richest and most powerful country in Vusteria. In his hands was a tale about his homeland, which seemed to be thriving just recently, but now, according to experts, lies in ruins.
The dates mentioned in the text led him into even greater confusion. This wasn't just about Vusteria at some arbitrary point in its existence, but specifically about the time of his life, the present, which seemed so immutable and undeniably existing... What looked like a history of distant times was, in fact, a collection of memoirs of his contemporaries.

These heroes... While Garret was engaging in banditry and moral decay on the outskirts, they were following their own path of adventure. The students of Gungnir were distinguished by their special unity; they were extremely close-knit and resembled a large family, where everyone would stand up for everyone else. This was quite different from Garret's bandit gangs, where the only thing they had in common was the desire for profit. While browsing their descriptions, he involuntarily stopped at one of the names, and swirling memories flashed before his eyes.
"Gulveig? Gulveig from Baldur... Yes, that's the name she used."

— I am a representative and commander of the "Dracena" squad, Gulveig from Baldur. My name probably doesn't mean anything to you.

At that time, she didn't seem like anything particularly promising, let alone a great heroine who would later have epic tales written about her. In the eyes of the Lungwort Garret, she was just another "boss," one of those who come and go for various reasons. Just a seemingly ordinary girl who, for some reason, had gathered the courage to assemble a gang of thugs. Nevertheless, even then, he noticed her extraordinary courage and will, and now, looking at her incredible story...
"Well, Gulveig from Baldur, now your name means a lot."

It's quite strange to realize that he once stood face to face and spoke with someone who would later be recorded in the legends of their time, and that he was even her comrade for a short time. It's even stranger to learn about this in such a way, as if a relatively recent past had now turned into an epic saga. Who knows, if he hadn't left "Dracena," perhaps his fate would have turned out differently, and he and his brother wouldn't have ended up in such an inglorious demise. And yet, in his case, this is a kind of symbolism. Because his path is not the path of Gulveig, nor of any of her brothers and sisters. By some unknown cosmic twist of fate, Garret ended up in this place and time to walk a path guided by the shadow of a fading world.

Garret is studying the School of Baldur - Darkness.