Chapter 27 - Aftermath

"Whoo!! We made it!!" Bursting out from the collapsing ruin, Asta couldn't help but cheer as they had avoided getting burried alive.

"We're alive... We're actually alive!!" Claus screamed to the heavens and kissed the earth once they landed down at a clearing. This whole dungeon exploration ordeal had actually been way more stressful than he had initally estimated. He was honestly just happy to be outside where no rocks were falling on him.

"Not a bad adventure." Grim chuckled and looked at the destroyed ruin laying in the distance.

"Easy for you to say." Noelle came and stood next to him.

"You think?"

"Yeah, at least you didn't nearly die."

"True... Your clothes are ripped by the way."

"EHHH!!!"

"Guys!!" Jumping on them from behind with a goofy smile on his face, Asta wrapped his arms around their shoulders. "We made it."

Infected by his enthusiastic energy, Grim smiled back and nodded. "Yeah, we made it."

Watching the three of them from behind, both Yuno and Mimosa couldn't help but smile as their friends finally found people that cared about them and saw them for who they were.

"...So isn't anyone gonna talk about how Grim defeated that Diamond guy?" Luck asked seeing as how no one had brought it up.

---

-Back at the ruins-

"Those kids really are something." Sitting on his smoke cart with the treasures laying on the back, Lotus talked to the recently awakened Mars.

"Lotus..." He sat up.

Hearing him, Lotus smiled. "I'm glad you're okay kid."

Looking at the vast landscape laying before him, all the hatred Mars had previously held inside of him seemed to vanish as he took in the breathtaking sight. "Lotus... Thank you."

Hearing the sincerity in his voice, Lotus smiled lightly and had the smoke cart turn towards their kingdom. "Lets go home."

---

"So... Who are you guys anyway?"

"I'm Yuno."

"I'm Klaus Lunettes of house Lunettes."

"I'm Mimosa Vermillion of house Vermillion."

Introducing themselves to Luck and Grim, the squad of Golden Dawn members thanked them for their help in dealing with Mars.

"Hey! I'm Luck Voltia!" Rushing up to Yuno, he invaded his personal space until the two of them were only centimeters apart. "You seem strong! Wanna fight?"

"Maybe later." Yuno brushed him off and looked towards Grim.

"Well I guess this is the first time we're officially meeting." He said to Yuno remembering him from the magic knight's exam.

"Anyway, I'm Grim of the Black Bulls."

"Huh?" Klaus made a weird noise. "What about your family name?"

"Dunno." He shrugged. "I've got amnesia."

"You do!" Noelle suddenly joined the conversation.

"What's amnesia?" Asta asked.

"Its where you have no memories."

"Oh... I already knew about that."

"Huh!" Noelle suddenly grabbed his shoulders. "When did you find out?!"

"He told Magna back in Sosshi village."

"WHAT!! Why am I the last one to find out!"

"I didn't know either." Luck chimed in.

"How horrible." Mimosa said trying to comfort Grim

"To not remember a part of your own life... How pitiful." Klaus also tried to comfort him but ended up sounding more condescending than anything else.

Yuno on the other hand just said "You have my pity."

"I don't really need it though..."

Seeing the downcast looks on everyone's faces... Well besides Luck's, he was still smiling. Grim tried to lighten the mood but ended up making it worse.

"Relax guys, I remember everything that's happened in the last 5 years, there's really no reason to feel sorry for me."

"Oh you poor thing. You're so brave, I wish I knew how to help but the only thing I can offer you is this pouch of money." Saying that, Noelle actually handed him a small pouch filled with money.

'...What the hell happened to her?'

Not seeing any reason to deny the money, Grim graciously took it and headed back to the captial with the rest.

"So we're really not gonna talk about how Grim defeated that Diamond Kingdom guy?"

"Later Luck, later."

---

"So this is your second anti magic sword?"

While on their way back to the capital, the group got to learn about the others's gain from the treasure room. For Yuno it was the weird new words inside his grimoire that he couldn't read, for Asta it was his new anti-magic sword. And for Grim it was his pocket filled with a handful of gold coins that he had randomly picked up.

'I should have picked up a relic or something instead...'

Holding onto Asta's new sword, Grim realized that unlike Asta's other sword stopped him from using magic when held it, this one was actually his magic and draining him.

"Cool isn't it! Its so much lighter than this one." Saying that, he brought out the blunt sword and stabbed it into the ground.

"Yeah... Much lighter... So what's so special about this one?"

"Dunno." He shrugged. "Want to help me find out?"

"Well I don't have anything better to do in the upcoming week so sure."

"Can I join?!" Luck popped up from nowhere and asked.

"Of course!" He agreed before turning to look at his old friend. "What about Yuno? Wanna join?"

"I'll have to decline, I'm going to focus on trying to decipher the words I got from that scroll."

"Boring!"

Smiling at his friend's childish attitude, Yuno focused his attention back on his Grimoire.

"What about you Grim? What was that spell you used against that Diamond guy?"

"You mean Unknowing Fire?"

"Yeah." Luck nodded. "For a second there you were pretty fast."

"Not faster than you though." He smiled.

"No... But you were much faster there than any other time we sparred."

"I guess..." Thinking back on the spell now, Grim felt like he needed to train it as something felt wrong with the way he used it. He couldn't pin point the exact issue he had with it, but he felt like it was unrefined. But what concerned even more than that was the uncomfortable feeling he felt when he saw Noelle laying in a pool of her own blood. The two of them definitely weren't close enough for him to be affected in the way that he was. He could only guess that he was carrying a regret over from a past life where he was unable to save a companion of his. And seeing Noelle in such a position must have been some sort of trigger that allowed him to recall the feeling he had felt back in one of his past lives. It was similar to the time he played cards against Yami and the others, while he may not have any memories of the events in his past lives, he was still able to recall certain experiences and feelings.