Leaving the palace was almost insultingly easy.
Renji walked in front with the fairy close behind him, Aya bringing up the rear. They used the same service corridors they had entered through the night before. Most of the extra patrols were still concentrated around the main halls and the eastern gate, busy looking for a mysterious entity that could erase knights and monsters. No one expected three people—one of them carrying a small cloth-wrapped bundle of food and spare clothes—to simply walk out the kitchen-side exit like they were heading for an early stroll.
Aya kept her hood up. The fairy’s wings were carefully folded and hidden under a borrowed cloak that was slightly too big for her slim frame. Renji looked exactly as unremarkable as always: average face, lazy posture, the perfect picture of an F-rank who had been told to fetch something and was in no hurry about it.
They passed two half-asleep guards near the outer wall. One of them glanced at the group, saw nothing interesting, and went back to leaning on his spear. Renji didn’t even slow down.
{Castle full of people hunting for the guy who can delete concepts, and we just stroll out the side door. Peak efficiency.}
Once they cleared the final gate and the open fields stretched in front of them, Aya finally let out a long breath.
“I still can’t believe no one stopped us.”
“They were looking for something dramatic,” Renji said. “We’re the opposite of dramatic.”
The fairy walked between them, silent, blue eyes wide as she took in the open sky and the distant rooftops of the capital. Her wings twitched once under the cloak, then settled again. She stayed close enough that her shoulder occasionally brushed Renji’s arm, like she was still confirming he was real.
They followed the main road only long enough to put the palace walls behind them, then cut onto a narrower dirt path that curved toward the outer edge of the city. The further they walked, the fewer people they saw. By late afternoon the houses had thinned into scattered farmsteads and then into open countryside broken by small stands of trees.
They stopped near a low ridge that overlooked the last of the city’s outer buildings. A shallow depression between two hills offered enough cover for a night without being completely exposed. Renji dropped the small bundle of supplies and sat on a flat rock like the entire escape had been mild exercise.
“We stay here tonight,” he said. “Tomorrow we keep moving. Direction doesn’t matter much yet. Away is enough.”
Aya nodded. She still moved a little carefully, the lingering effects of the previous night showing in the way she sat down and the faint marks still visible on her neck when the hood shifted. She looked at the fairy, then at Renji, then at the darkening sky.
“I’ll go get proper traveling supplies before the shops close,” she said. “Food that’ll last. Water skins. A couple of blankets if I can find them. Maybe a better cloak for her.” She glanced at the fairy again. “Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.”
Renji met her eyes with perfect calm.
“Define stupid.”
Aya held his gaze for two full seconds, clearly remembering exactly how the last negotiation had gone, then exhaled through her nose and stood.
“I’ll be back before full dark.”
She turned and headed back toward the outer edge of the city at a steady pace, hips swaying under the cloak, leaving the two of them alone in the shallow depression as the sun dropped lower.
The fairy sat on the grass a short distance away, knees drawn up, cloak wrapped around herself. She watched Aya’s figure grow smaller, then looked at Renji with the same open, unguarded expression she had worn all day.
“She is… very important to you,” she said softly.
“Yeah.”
“And I am also… important now?”
Renji leaned back on his hands and studied her. Slim body still mostly hidden under the oversized cloak. Long blonde hair slightly tangled from travel. Transparent wings shifting restlessly whenever she breathed. Completely innocent face. Completely unaware of what the next hour was probably going to contain.
{Aya’s out gathering supplies. Fairy’s sitting there looking pure enough to purify water. Timing is perfect.}
He pushed himself up from the rock and walked over.
The fairy tilted her head up at him, blue eyes wide and trusting.
Renji stopped directly in front of her, looked down, and spoke in the same calm tone he used for everything important.
“Time to make it official.”
The fairy blinked.
“Official…?”
He reached down, took the edge of her cloak, and slowly pulled it open.