Descendants of Time (Role-Play Act 5: Revolutionary Moment)

After a month now, Claudia and her gang had moved over to New York.

Here, they didn’t have a villa, but a house of their own altogether. Claudia had the novel experience of taking an airplane trip again, and moreover, a chance to experience a life in a different area for longer than usual.

She wasn’t exactly a fan of the neighbors since they’d give her gazes as if she was strange. Not that they were wrong, but she didn’t like the type of unwanted attention she was receiving.

They came over because Natsu was supposedly here, and due to Virgo too, but nothing had happened yet and the Countess had yet to divulge all of her plans. In fact, the Descendant who was known to make the Magic World shake in fear at her wake was away once again for business untold. Perhaps it was best left untold, while one part of Claudia wanted to get involved in all the different things she was up to, Claudia had her own things to do, such as learning to dance.

Claudia was probably the only one who was bored in the house, however. Rose was doing her own thing and she wasn’t an able companion to kill time with. In fact, going to Rose’s room would mean a nightmare of a day apparently. She hated to be intruded upon. Marco was also out due to some investigation missions he had taken upon himself. Ansel was also doing the same as Marco apparently, but he had very different methods of working. She wasn’t sure where George was, even. Perhaps with the Countess as usual.

As Claudia was musing about various things in her room about the recent happenings, the door abruptly opened, and Cosette finally entered, after who knew how long, her slave had returned.

“I have returned, Lady Claudia,” Cosette said, giving a bow. “I apologize for being away for so long.”

“It’s fine. It’s fine,” Claudia said, giving a casual wave. “Are you finding New York okay? The buildings here are amazing. The people? Not so much.”

“Well, it is better than Russia, if anything,” Cosette answered plainly, as if Claudia’s conclusions were not surprising. “The people? You have interacted with them?”

“Overhearing their conversations are interacting enough for me,” Claudia replied, turning toward her window. “So far, Americans are just as I’ve heard; hate and fear-filled fools, the lot of them. They speak of terrorists fairly a lot, don’t they?”

“Just how much do you hear?” Cosette questioned, not sure how to take the opinions of her owner. It seemed over-the-top to her. Wasn’t she too harsh to people she hardly knew? “Surely even supernatural senses of a Representative doesn’t carry that far. Unless you are, of course, going out on a walk and eavesdropping.”


Claudia snorted. “I hear enough, just from a casual walk. Maybe I’m just nosey and can’t resist hearing what others have to say. Haha.”

“You are nosey indeed. That is a lack of manners. You should be respecting private space, Lady Claudia,” Cosette scolded. “How much privacy do you respect among your comrades in the house if you pry so much on pedestrians?”

“Well…” A snide smirk struck Claudia’s looks as she averted her eyes from her servant. “I don’t always do it to you guys. Perhaps when boredom hits, but I have to be a certain amount of stult to want to do that.”

“That is… indeed rude,” Cosette concluded.

Chuckling, Claudia padded with playful steps around her room, throwing in a twirl or two. “I know, it’s a dreadful habit, one of the many I’ve developed this month passed, actually. Am I truly bad for being impulsive like that?”

“Well, you are selfish, I suppose this was a given.” Cosette sighed. “Are we to be deployed soon? Or did I miss the battles already?”

“No battles that I know of yet. It’s safe to assume that if Sagittarius is here, dear Countess might deploy us sometime soon.” Before she knew it, Claudia was absently dancing on the tips of her toes, better than the last time she attempted. “Let’s hope to not repeat last time, yeah? I’d rather not be impeded by her mages again.” She came to a sudden stop midspin to face Cosette with a thought. “By the way, where were you during the fight with Aries?”

Cosette quirked her eyebrows. “So I did miss a fight, is what you are saying, my Lady?”

“That would be the reason why I am asking, yes,” Claudia answered.

“So you say †˜no battles’ and then say †˜yes there were.’ Which one is it? ...Well, anyway, I was sent on an errand by your Lady Countess.”

“And here I was thinking you intended to hang back and watch me get my ass kicked again. Haha.”

“I… what?”

“I don’t think the Countess bought you just so you can play dumb, dear. I know what you did–or rather, didn’t do—in Japan. What I don’t know is why I didn’t address it as soon as I realized. I’m not mad, though. Rather, I would do the same if my master was an ass to me.”

“Well, you are an ass indeed,” Cosette admitted, looking down, and then she bowed. “I apologize for it.”

Claudia sighed, scratching at her scalp. “Well, I guess I deserved that one,” she said. “You shouldn’t apologize for your true feelings, though. Damned if I don’t practice what I preach. I believe the Countess told me something similar when I was on the verge of joining her.”

“No… please accept my apologies. I know it was wrong to leave my master to suffer that way, even if I was indulging my battle.”

“Jeez, you hate me, but you’re sorry for it. Why would that be so? Because you’re obligated? Give me a fuckin’ break.”

“Your Mistress bought me and you own me now. This is the least you deserve for my conduct.”

Taking subtle steps towards her servant, so much that she was able to compare sizes with her, Claudia hummed. “Is that so? Then a simple bow and apology, is it?” She touched foreheads with her and dropped her smile right there. “I don’t take well with facades, Cosette. You see that I’m just getting over mine after—I don’t know—most of my life. I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me; I hate you, Claudia. You are an abrasive piece of shit, Claudia. Say what you want about me, but lying to my face? Saying I deserve respect? Right now, that is something I hate more than the Church, or Mary, or even myself.”

“Are you saying that you do not want me to act like your slave then? Yes, I do hate you, Lady Claudia, and you are really an abrasive piece of shit—according to yourself—but that and my responsibilities are two separate things here.”

“If acting like a passive aggressive bitch is acting like my slave, then by all means; drop the act.” Claudia’s smile returned. “Look at me, developing actual feelings for you. Feeling sorry for you… what a fucking idiot I turned out to be.”

“Are you sure that first comment wasn’t about yourself?”

“We’re done talking about myself. The spotlight is on you, my dear.”

“Well, passive aggressive bitch, I think just hating you doesn’t necessarily make me similar to you.”

“Ohoho, scathing. You’re right about one thing; who’d want to be like me anyways? If I felt like it, if I lost the last morsel of my self-control, my dear, you would be given a really good reason to hate me.”

“How oppressive. As if rape was not a good reason already.”

“Would you like to repeat it?”

“That is not up to me.”

“Maybe I should. That way, I’ll be able to get that pole out of your ass.”

“What is with your silly obsession with the bums of people? It is quite disturbing, and unwell for you in a hygienic sense.”

“Oh, so you’re a comedian now?” Claudia snorted.

“I don’t really consider myself one.”

“Well aren’t you a cheeky bitch? By the by, my obsession with other people’s asses is another one of my impulses. Yours in particular… well, I’d say that started it.”

“...You disgust me.” Despite her reaction, however, Cosette’s face was beet red as she looked away.

“I’m a lot of things. Disgusting is only at the bottom of the list,” Claudia mused, pecking Cosette on the cheek.

She did not react. Rather, it seemed like Cosette was bearing with her light kisses. Albeit it was obvious that she was extremely distressed.

“Hmm? What’s the matter my dear? You don’t want to slap me again?”

She kissed her again, this time on the forehead. “I would think that’s your natural reaction to my behavior, yeah?” She kissed Cosette once more, on the other cheek. At this point, Claudia was trying to provoke the girl.

“A… A maid doesn’t—nghh, stop that!—do such a thing.”

“You did it before, what makes it any different now?” Claudia tilted her head, and went for her so-called maid’s neck, humming. Before she knew it, the girl’s own hands found Cosette’s addicting rear, and she just chuckled. “Funny. I apologized for this exact thing not too long ago… screw it. You’re just so alluring sometimes.” She ended up feverishly peppering kisses on the girl’s collarbone. “Come on, Cosette. You seemed so sure of yourself before. Express that hate in the same manner you’re always so quick to resort to—oh.” Claudia smirked. “I just remembered; that’s why I was so attracted to you, you hateful woman…”

Cosette was visibly cringing.

“Fine, I’ll just play by your game then.”

Shoving Claudia to her bed with a push, all her mistress saw was her palm that displayed great strength. Unlike Claudia, however, she was much rougher in how she held her down, and sunk her fangs under Claudia’s skin on her neck, drinking her blood.

In actual fact, Cosette was no vampire, but a dhampir, but that didn’t mean that she lacked the fangs or the abnormal want for blood. Her desires were just not as strong as the vampires.

Surprised, Claudia let out a shrill yelp. However despite this, she was so pleased, that her smirk remained.

“Oh my, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Just doing my job,” Cosette answered, her lips draped with deep scarlet blood. “I am sure you like these kinds of acts anyway, you sick perverted lady.”

“Well bless your heart,” Claudia said, chuckling at the sight of her own blood, regardless of the sting in her neck. She looked like she was having the time of her life. “Do your worst.” The curve in her smile grew larger with that.

Needless to say, Claudia’s words fell on deaf ears, and Cosette resumed drinking her blood. Cosette’s eyes glimmered crimson and she lost herself in the pleasure of drinking blood.

“My, you’re as gluttonous as I am…” she said, gasping approvingly at the pain. “Fuck—don’t tease, you cheeky bitch. You’re gonna make me lose my mind…”

Every night, the members of the BloodLuSt Organization in the house would gather in the living room. It didn’t matter if anyone was missing, the gathering would take place regardless. In these gatherings Ansel would serve alcohol while the others would simply socialize and converse. Usually, they’d always end up doing something every night, and it was always different. At least it usually was. Sometimes if a request to repeat an event was made, it’d likely happen.

Yesterday was a game of truth and dare. Today was to be a game of battling. One full of bone-crushing regret.

The Countess was the one usually deciding whenever she was around. Otherwise, it’d be Marco or Ansel. Sometimes even Rose, but not Claudia. Someone joked that Claudia would have truly insane proposals, hence why she was expressly barred as a result. Something Claudia didn’t exactly take offense to, but she didn’t enjoy.

Tonight, the Countess had returned from her absence. By the time Claudia came down from the second floor to join the party, her employer had a glass of whiskey and a hookah at the same time. One who knew not the sufferings that could be caused by the indulgence of alcohol or any kind of addictive intake was almost always known to be a Descendant or an abnormal equivalent to the mundanes, and the Blood Countess happened to be one herself.

Naturally, Claudia was accompanied by her maid that was Cosette, who started to dress more casually, but intentionally avoided anything too fashionable.

“Oh, good evening, my dear!” the Countess greeted with enthusiasm after seeing Claudia. At least three weeks had passed since they last saw each other, and it seemed like Catherine was very happy to find her again. “How have you been faring?”

“Good evening, my Countess. I’ve fared surprisingly well these few weeks, though not a second has been worth without your company,” Claudia said with a bow. She glanced back to her maid and smirked. “Well, some of it has been worthwhile.”

“So everything was not boring after all. How was the neighborhood?”

Claudia waved her hand to the side, portraying the city to be so-so. “Not the best place in the world, but I can manage.”

“I suppose we did choose to not stay in the very center where you may see the so-called †˜towers.’ I hope you don’t get many looks from the people,” the Countess said, but she giggled. “But that’s impossible, yes?”

“Haha, I kinda wish that wasn’t so...” Claudia said, self-consciously glimpsing at her own attire, realizing how much allure it granted.

“Would you join me for a toast?” the Countess said, ushering at the bottle of whiskey on the table beside her sofa where she was laying on. “After all, it has been a while.”

Claudia smiled. “Absolutely. A drink or two couldn’t hurt.” She took a prompt seat along the sofa, preparing her own glass. An afterthought told her to care for her servant as well, so she pat the seat next to her and beckoned Cosette over with the bottle of whiskey. “You too, Cosette,” she said with a smile.

“You should have simply taken a seat and let me pour the drinks, my Lady,” Cosette said, coming over to Claudia and sitting beside her.

“Oh come on, I’m not that lethargic.”

“Now, now,” the Countess interfered, giving a wink. “Take it as an expression of goodwill.”

Claudia simply shrugged. “Alright, suit yourself.”

Cosette took the bottle from Claudia’s hand and poured the alcohol for her as she held up a glass. She then placed it on the table.

“Alright then, cheers!” They toasted with a clicking noise of the glasses, then they drank the beverage. “Mn, I missed these nights a little.”

“I missed you guys,” Claudia added, taking a sip of her drink. “So how has everyone been? Any stories to share?”

“A lot of stories. You have no idea. These past days have been eventful, or at least, interesting foreshadowings of events to come,” the Countess said.

“Events to come? I’m curious; what might that be? Or will you save that until the last minute in a similar Countess-like fashion?” Claudia chuckled.

“Have I done so before?” The Countess raised her brows, apparently amused at the remark. “Well, regardless, it seems like Virgo will take action soon.”

“And that means we have to get moving as well, yes?”

“We will likely be shadowing the event and keeping a keen eye on things. We may attack Sagittarius, however,” the Countess replied.

Marco sighed, sitting opposite to the Countess, Claudia, and Cosette. “Another tall order. We have to skulk around a hundred magi or so.”

“Deal with it,” Rose said as she joined him. “This is all that we are good for.”

“Besides, what’s more uplifting than engaging in a few life threatening operations? The excitement is what makes it fun!” Claudia beamed.

“This will be a big operation for us regardless,” the Countess said, letting out a breath full of smoke. “Marco, your objective is to find the enemy Descendants. Rose, you’ll be finding the locations of Virgo and her cronies. Claudia, your objective is to search for the other Descendants but your main mission is to assassinate Mary Shelley… or just enslave her, or whatever.”

Suddenly Claudia’s glass of whiskey shattered in a single hand. It seemed like that extra ditzy disposition made a rather steep one-eighty.

“Say what?”

“You heard me. Your job is to take out Mary. She has been a bit of a thorn in my path for some time now.”

As if the curve in Claudia’s smile couldn’t curl further than it already had. Her shoulders jerked as the incessant crazed laugh grew, trickling up her lungs like a bad omen. Before Claudia realized it, she was laughing, not even caring to mind the blood running down her wrist and hand.

As if she had just heard a bad joke, Claudia had to calm herself down, wiping the tears of joy from her eyes.

“Understood…”

“Did I say something I shouldn’t have?” the Countess questioned, quirking an eyebrow.

Marco and Rose sighed in unison.

“Of course not,” Marco said, smiling.

“Couldn’t have been left to someone more sane,” Rose commented, chuckling.

Claudia coughed nervously, her cheeks flaring red with embarrassment. “Oh–my bad. I… got a little too excited, there.”

“Well, we might try to attack Natsu. My hope is that the Descendants will be taken out by Virgo, or they’ll take out Virgo… which I hope not,” the Countess said.

“Which outcome is better for us?” Claudia asked.

“You already know. In a way I do kind of… like the Descendant from Russia? Ahem. Anyway, Virgo may become an ally in the future, so we wouldn’t want her gone just yet,” the Countess replied.

“Granted she’s capable of getting the attention of other Descendants on strength alone, I don’t think I have any room to complain, frankly.” Claudia scratched at the back of her head, absently thinking of cutting her hair after all this was over. “So in a way of speaking, she’s a liability.” That’s funny, she likes the Descendant of… wait, what?

“A liability, you say?” Marco questioned.

“Is that not how you describe those who you are dependent of? Like an ace in a hole, or something along those lines?”

“In that case we’d become the liabilities to her, yes?” Marco said.

“I see, so we’re the liabilities. Man, I’m losing my grasp on my sophisticated way of speaking more and more… haha…” Wait… what?

“You’d fail at economics, haha,” Marco said. “Not that it matters. I doubt you like mundane schools.”

“What’s the difference between that and the Royal Academy—aside from the fact that you need to be privileged to attend?”

“It’s a big difference, fair Lady. The Royal Academy is one of the Magic Academies so only mages are allowed to study there in general. There are some mundane schools in England, but I doubt you’ve heard of them due to their infamy among the rich and the powerful. Basically, mundanes learn more… normal things. Nothing about magic but perhaps math, chemistry, sociology or the likes.”

“God forbid that I learn any of those things, especially math. Much too confusing to the eyes.”

“Hah. I figured they taught that at the Royal Academy too. It’s an important subject after all.”

“Oh yeah! Let’s hope that none of us overlook the trajectory of our attacks, or miss the square root of ten and hit our enemies in the shoulders when we intended for a headshot! Good Lord, not the trajectory or square roots!” Claudia said, sarcastically.

“Those good with math are good at targeting, though,” Rose stated. “Not that it matters since you play melee all day, but it matters for someone who hits from afar.”

“Does it matter for you? I mean– everything you hit does manage to explode in the end.”

“A precise explosion rips out the heart, or kidneys, or something. See what I mean, my dear?” Rose replied.

“Yeesh. Math’s fuckin’ brutal,” Claudia mused.

“And if you know Human Biology like Rose, you can break tendons or something specifically. So don’t screw around with her. It’s scary, I tell you,” Marco said, chuckling.

“Hush,” Rose scoffed.

Claudia chuckled. “I dunno, I often just skip the other vital areas and go for the throat, or any other vein I can find,” she began. “...On the other hand… making someone bleed out from even the smallest of cuts on something important sounds tantalizing. Haha.”

“I doubt it’s easy to hit them even if you spot them. It takes a lot of work,” Marco said, sighing. “I tried once. Let’s just say that it was something I gave up on ten days later. You have to get used to angling your weapon for every different type of height you come across if you’re melee. Same for long ranged sniping. Actually, sniping is worse. I didn’t try it, but I just know it. It’s good to fight the old-fashioned way.”

“This is why you guys lose so much,” Rose said with a “hmph” as she turned away, while the Countess burst out laughing.

“Hey, hey, hey. Blame a girl for only learning melee as a knight,” Claudia defended, puffing her cheeks.

“You had a good chance in the Royal Academy to learn everything that could help, or are you saying that you weren’t admitted?” Rose stated, smiling. “I studied there too, you know? You just never cared to notice your senior.”

Claudia snorted. “I’m just old-fashioned, and more importantly, lazy. I’m fairly certain everyone knew that I would rather stay up all night reading porn than to study, y’know?”

“Does porn even exist there?” Rose asked Marco.

“Nope. Except really rare and smuggled foreign ones by the dwellers of the Magic World. Maybe that’s how she got a few.”

“I would think most of them were Victorian books regardless.”

“Of course, they were more or less close to that century except like a few ones. If a mundane would seldom come across a book from the future, they’d start to think nonsense to the eyes of the society, after all.”

“On that note, I did play a hand in letting foreign books illegally go to the market,” the Countess said proudly. “Now you know how you got your Fifty Shades of Grey and all, dear.”

“We didn’t know this…” Marco said, sighing.

“Wow, even long before, you had a hand in improving my life,” Claudia beamed, fanning herself with a hand.

“I’m so great, right?” the Countess giggled. Wait, improving? “In all honesty, however, my influence was not so great in that field. I started to focus on growing my roots in England in other industries. That’s when I came across the family that I am affiliated with now.”

“Huh. Go figure,” Claudia said.

“So Claudia dear, how are your dancing lessons? I believe you started taking them some time ago?” Catherine asked.

“Ah, yes. I’ve improved from when I first… attempted. I finally learned how to spin on my toes and flow with the music. And I stopped stepping on my instructor’s toes, too!”

“That’s nice,” Catherine praised. “What are you practicing again? Ballerina?”

Claudia wholeheartedly nodded. “I thought it was fitting for someone as slender as myself.”

“Color me surprised that she didn’t just jump straight into hip-hop or the likes,” Marco remarked with a grin.

“That, my love, is for when I master Ballerina, of course,” Claudia explained. Though, I don’t think I have a big enough ass for what some of the women do in those… music videos. Shit.

“Sounds like a long trip, fair Lady.”

“Yeah, yeah. I think I have a better chance at improving quickly, though. I am a prodigy in most things I do, after all–though I’m too lazy to actually strive like most prodigies...”

Is that so…? Everyone in the room thought and gave Claudia a stare.

“...W-What are you all staring at? Did I get some glass in my face too?” Claudia asked, checking around her face for any stray shards.

The Countess snickered, while Marco and Rose looked away with forced smiles.

“A-Ah, yeah. You’re great, fair Lady,” Marco said.

“Yes, that’s right. I agree with Marco,” Rose somehow mumbled.

Placing her hands on her hips and nodding jubilantly, as if achieving greatness, Claudia hummed. “Damn right.”

However, the Countess burst out laughing.

“Ahh! Mi’lady, you can’t do that now!” Marco said in a hushed tone but it was easily heard by everyone.

Rose palmed her forehead and sighed.

“She beat us. So straightforwardly at that,” Rose admitted.

“I didn’t make a joke, did I?” Claudia asked, completely clueless.

“N-No, certainly not, fair Lady,” Marco reassured, somehow, it helped that Claudia was so dense at situations like these. “The Countess just has other things in mind. Right, Mi’lady?”

“Y...Yes… !” the Countess blurted out while laughing and holding her stomach. “Sorry, sorry, I was thinking of a different joke.”

Claudia reclined into the sofa and huffed. “Well, if you’re done, we can get back to talking about me, and how awesome I am!”

“Are we late?”

The door was opened and Claudia met someone familiar.

Iris Rosenberg and her maid just entered the house, and they seemed awfully late indeed.

“Ah, yes. I did invited you two, didn’t I?” Catherine said as if reminding herself. “Come, feel free to relax here with us.”

“Yo! Iris!” Claudia greeted enthusiastically. Clearly she was on her good side after making Lachesis Fang for her.

“Good evening, Miss Farris.” Iris greeted in return, giving a bow. Iris sat down beside Rose while the maid stood behind the sofa.

“I suppose only Ansel will be missing for tonight,” Marco mused openly.

“Yes, he is still conducting his investigations,” the Countess stated.

“For the next operation, I’m guessing?” Claudia assumed.

“Probably. Our agreement with Virgo is to provide as much as we can about the campaign Victoria is running,” Catherine answered.

Claudia snickered. “How is she still alive after this long? Practically everyone, including us, is at her throat. One would think someone would’ve at least gotten lucky enough by now.”

“You mean Queen Victoria?” Rose asked.

“The one and only.”

“Well… she has a lot more people supporting her,” Marco stated. “Even if she isn’t a Descendant to a lot of people, they have a lot of force concentrated around her.”

“I guess that’s natural for a Queen…” Claudia sighed. “At worst, a Descendant Queen gaining traction like that... I don’t see our odds of living normally being good at all if we manage to kill her.”

“Not like it’d change anything since we’re still terrorists,” Marco said, laughing.

Claudia snorted. “That said, I realized that I’m stacking more titles on top of my head than I could count. From Diabolist, to Vampire. And from Vampire, to terrorist. What’s next? Dictator? Slave driver? The very embodiment of Death herself?”

“Except the last, you got all of them anyway,” Marco remarked.

“Shit, really? I’m not a dictator.” Claudia pouted.

“You aren’t?” Marco said, raising his brows.

“I don’t remember manning an entire army to overthrow Victoria. If anything, that’d be the Countess’ role.”

“I’m sure a victim of your dictatorship is very close to you,” Cosette said from beside Claudia.

An ugly snort came from Claudia, possibly the ugliest sounding one to date as she burst out laughing. “Oh man, I… I completely forgot about you, Cosette,” she said, trying to compose herself. “But no, I say that’s more of my… I’ll say kind carnal acts towards you. Not dictatorship.”

“You can sugarcoat it however you want, but that’s still dictatorship.”

“Except, that’s the least I can do. You haven’t seen me act as a dictator yet, sweetie. In fact...” Claudia paused to crack her neck. “I’ll give you a front row seat for when I catch Mary, yeah?”

“Are you sure you aren’t exaggerating? Even on the conversation about prodigy earlier…” Cosette scoffed. What a disgusting bitch. “Besides, I am not coming for that operation it seems…” her voice was low and she was not heard over the next set of words coming through Claudia’s mouth however.

“I mean—I did say that I was lazy… though, that only counts for things I don’t care about, y’know?” Claudia explained, smirking. Fucking uptight cunt.

“A-Anyway, Miss Farris,” Iris began to shift the conversation from the heavy tension. “Would you mind lending me the Lachesis’ Fang later? I shall do its maintenance for your next battle.”

“Oh, sure. I don’t mind at all.” Claudia nodded.

“Would you like a drink, Miss Rosenberg?” Marco offered.

“No, I do not drink,” Iris declined.

“So… what are we doing tonight?” Rose asked. It seemed like no one had a good idea, including the Countess.

“I’m not sure…” Catherine responded lazily while letting out a puff of smoke from her mouth. “Any suggestions?”

Claudia glanced about the the room, smirking as despite her being barred from making any suggestions, she was so tempted to anyway. “How about…” she began. “We fight, Countess? You and I. One on one. For old time’s sake?”

“Oh? You’d wish to reenact that fight where you sorely lost your temper?” Catherine asked in an amused tone despite the harsh words.

“I’ve improved since then! Besides, I’ve fared well against Marco and Rose by myself, and I can mostly hold out against a Descendant on my own. Why not? It’s not like anyone else has any suggestions.”

“I wouldn’t say you held out so well against Aries…” Marco said, scratching his cheek.

“I was doing fine until he split my veins in half, the bastard. I could’ve killed him right there, I tell you!” Claudia defended.

“And you were defeated so sorely that you were unable to move for days…” Rose continued after Marco, shaking her head.

“And that’s something I’ll make sure’ll never happen again,” Claudia replied. “Frankly, I’m just about sick of getting the short end of the stick. And who knows? The Countess—Gods forbid—won’t be around to hold my hand, too. I want to show that I can actually hold out against something.”

“Well, Countess?” Marco asked, his eyes had a pleading look that told her not to cut Claudia to a million pieces.

“Well, indeed,” Rose repeated, her eyes telling Countess to cut Claudia a trillion pieces, for the sake of a laugh.

“Hm… are you sure you want this, my dear?” Catherine finally questioned.

“Right now? More than anything. I want to prove something. Anything. Please, Countess.”

“Alright.” The Countess was done with the hookah and sat up straight and yawned, stretching her body to straighten it up. “What kind of a difficulty would you like? Easy? Normal? Hardy?”

Claudia tilted her head. “What kind of question is that? Just fight me seriously. I won’t get the full experience otherwise.”

“Let’s just say that †˜easy’ is where Blayze was at.”

“...What? Blayze was… w-what?” Claudia was almost regretting this straight off.

“Well? I’m waiting,” Catherine prodded with a grin.

Claudia knew. This devil was perked up a little too much for her to back out now.

...You know what? Fuck it. “Yeah, give me easy. I’ve been out of the game too long to just hesitate to fight.”

“Pfft.”

Claudia heard everyone aside from the Countess and Iris snickering and hiding their faces from her.

“...Somehow, I’m gonna hate myself even more after this.” Claudia furrowed her brows at her own snickering comrades. Assholes…

Cosette wasn’t even laughing, she was openly chuckling, and was likely looking forward to this.

“To the basement, people,” the Countess said. With this, the battle was confirmed to take place and people no longer thought of this as a joke. In truth, Claudia’s comrades—except Cosette—was hoping that the Countess would claim that her acceptance was a joke and she’d suggest something else.

The chosen battlefield was the basement, which was surprisingly more spacious than Claudia thought. It was a long room with rotting corpses on the corners. Some corpses were apparently preserved in some stray coffins.

This was the “storage” of blood for the vampires, and now the Representative of vampires knew where half of the blood from the bottles came from. The vampires always had a reserve when they wouldn’t feel like sinking fangs on a human throat for fresh blood. Sloth was a wonderful thing.

“Well, I suppose you’d have to fight with your scythe as it is, I do not think I can fix it any time soon,” Iris said with an apologetic look to Claudia.

“It’s fine. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Claudia said, waving her off. “This was my choice anyways. I’m uh, kind of insane, as you can tell.” She chuckled, almost letting a worried expression slip her guard.

The Countess casually stepped towards the opposite end of Claudia and stood as if she modelling. There was no sense of seriousness in her opponent whatsoever. The Countess was absolutely cool and collected as usual. It was the same as coming down to party, socialize, or drink as she was doing so earlier. Fighting was a similar activity comparable to habit—that was the vibe she gave away.

“You two ready?” Marco said, standing between the two as a referee, of sorts. Not that he wanted to, he was already dreading the potential results.

Tch, no. “Yes, of course. Let’s go.” Claudia put up a smile as fake as the one when she first met the Countess. Memories were then pouring back into her head.

“Always,” Catherine said, smiling like the little devil she was.

(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytGKRRNrbdo)

“You go first, dear,” the Countess offered.

Claudia said nothing; no smile, no carnal thoughts, nothing. As if knowing she was going to lose was a turnoff for her.

As if on cue, Claudia spun her scythe in a single hand and dashed towards the Countess in the speediest way she could manage, hoping that if she kept moving, she wouldn’t hit her. Once she closed the distance between her and her mistress, Claudia swung the blade over the woman’s head, but was halted at the last minute. The Blood Countess had her guard firm.

The blade was supposed to cull her employer’s head from behind as the scythe was curved specifically to do so, yet there was something thick on her back. As Claudia looked, she noticed a gigantic black-skinned hand that seemed to have grown out of her very back.

The Countess’ countenance was the same as ever, which made Claudia panick instead.

Fuck, Claudia only thought in frustration. She had never went so long without at least smirking, that she actually turned out to be serious for once in her life.

“May the zest of the night visit thee. Forget thy fears and worldly desires—for the door of death grants eternal release.”

An invisible force struck at Claudia continued staring at Countess’ leering scarlet eyes that were more than simply irresistable. It was more than just irresistible, the Commandment that the Countess employed showed not only a pair of Zodiac insignias she could not make out, but also an ancient letter appeared on her pair of eyes.

Looking down to a large gaping cut on her flanks, Claudia pulled herself up.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me…” Claudia growled, feeling the sting of that attack, and so fast, too. She didn’t even realize it to happen.

She could already feel herself begin to buckle. From a single attack, too? “Well, it was bound to happen,” Claudia concluded with a shrug. “These Descendant’s ain’t no joke, I tell you.” Claudia charged in for another attack, this time while attempting to find a way to avoid that hand that protected her mistress so eagerly.

“We were never a joke. Nor should you be one, my dear.” The Countess hummed casually, much like Claudia herself. It was like a friend giving advice to another, or a mother telling her child about something very obvious for education; the countenance and the tone of the Countess was something similar to that, despite the situation.

The scythe that Claudia swung at her employer indeed met its mark instead of the Countess’ hand on the back—a successful strike around the back of her hips—but she was instantly struck on the stomach with her mouth gaping wide and some of her saliva falling out due to the pressure she felt.

Her scythe fell from her hand.

“Oh, and you’re forgetting this.”

The hand from behind her back picked up the Lachesis’ Fang from the floor and tossed it back at Claudia.

When the scythe was stabbed beside Claudia back then, the Countess seemed to have not made a move, but she was wrong. In the instant she countered, she also struck at the other side of her stomach. Claudia had no idea when the Countess even summoned and dismissed her sword. Thus she was in this current predicament.

“Easy mode is similar to Blayze, my ass…” Claudia coughed, scooping her scythe out of the floor. “I had a small window of a chance with him, Countess… you… you’re a snowball’s chance in Hell…”

“Are you sure he wasn’t going super easy on you, then? Unfortunately, I didn’t have the pleasure to be a part of the audience.”

The Countess took a moment to muse, remembering that her so-called daughter was that Claudia was claiming that she could take Blayze down. What a farce. She wished Claudia would be more honest than full of empty boasts. Was the quality she eyed at first lost for good? It was too late to consider. She’d have to bring back the honest Claudia she remembered one of these coming days.

“I could actually get an attack on him. Maybe he was.” As Claudia stood on her own two feet, straightening herself out, she almost stumbled again.

“Did you not get an attack on me? Just now, I mean.”

“Can’t tell, too busy getting my ass kicked… haha…”

“Even after all this time, you still suck, cheeky bitch,” the scythe she held voiced in her mind.

“I’m no lady of superstition, but I think the name †˜feeble woman’ is starting to make sense…” she said with melancholy in her voice. “Fucking parents knew I would turn out this way.”

“No shit, genius. Are you really fine being so full of yourself and then gawking? Get your ass under control.”

Taking that as much pep pep talk as she could get, Claudia stood tall and gave her neck a crack, “Right…” she breathed. “Oh hey, I’m still alive after all that, Countess. Maybe Easy mode is a bit too low for me,” she teased. A puddle of black formed under her feet, and as always, Claudia brought forth her favored bladed creatures. An ephemeral chain was linked to her ankles and she could only accept the outcomes to come in silence.

“Just… go, already.”

With that order, the beasts sped toward the Countess in their usual homing manner, colliding with the Vampire and tearing into her body with ire after reaching her. Claudia wasn’t even pleased, as that much didn’t even matter. She ended up sliding down to the floor with a sigh, completely quit of this whole thing by now. On all the places the Countess was struck, Claudia also felt the same pain and suffered the same injuries. She winced, looking down at a crimson chain linked to her ankle.

“For some reason you do not seem to be having fun, even though you suggested this yourself,” the voice of the person who was once known as Cleopatra echoed across the basement. She was forced pit against the wall with great force by the ethereal creatures, and one of them bit onto her neck like a vampire would, but seemed to be hardly affected. This was originally her own power, after all. Perhaps this is as far as you go for now.

“I thought that I would at first, but… I don’t know. Maybe I’m coming in terms with myself that…” Claudia paused with an afterthought. “...No. Forget I said anything. I’m just a little jumbled is all.”

“I apologize if I am crushing a mighty spirit, but I suppose I must put this to an end… for your sake,” the Countess stated. With her bare hands she caught the neck of one of Claudia’s creature and crushed it with a snapping noise. With a mighty stomp she banquished the one that bit on her slender leg The one on the neck stayed—it didn’t mattered to her at all at this point. It almost felt as though it was nibbling, or something similar along the lines of that. She started to walk towards Claudia casually, as if a mother walking over to an impatient daughter calling her. “I’d like to ask one thing… my dear. Despite what I am—as you see now—do you still like me, or do you hate me now?”

“Why ask that? I still love you for how you are, Countess. Yes, you may have kicked my ass twice, without doing so much as lifting a finger. But I’ve only asked for it, after all.” Claudia sighed, and smiled warmly, despite her wounds. “Why would I hate someone who improved my life?”

“I am glad to know. You wouldn’t mind me wishing you a good night in advance, yes?” The Countess asked, her right hand raised towards the ceiling.

“...I… I don’t mind at all,” Claudia said, closing her eyes.

“Sweet dreams.”

A disc formed surrounding the lifted wrist of the Blood Countess of Hungary. It seemed like a bracelet to Claudia. A reddish black bracelet that seemed like it was burning with malevolent power. A transparent and colorless sphere formed that enveloped both the Countess and Claudia. There was an intense, sizzling and burning noise. Perhaps it was just her nerves, but it was a feeling as though she was being fried literally, but at a much faster rate, as if with electricity.

Claudia felt as though she was being bitten on almost every part of her body by Catherine’s fangs. She could see something like drops of blood forcibly flying out from all over herself and being absorbed by the Countess’ bloody bracelet in what seemed like the speed of electricity. In less than five seconds the shock treatment was over, but Claudia was already more than spent and flatly deported.

“...Wish I could just die already, but… this is good, too.”

She was already gone. Not dead, to her dismay, but a good enough substitute at least.

Claudia woke up at last. Apparently a day had passed and she was already awake. Granted, her regenerative prowess as a Representative was starting to make it more and more apparent to her. Being semi-immortal, Claudia wouldn’t die so easily even if she did wished for it.

“Lady Claudia, are you alright?”

Beside her was Cosette. Her slave and her maid. Whatever the case, she was bought by the Countess and was given to Claudia as per their contract. The Countess hardly ever made her do anything except the recent errand.

Claudia turned away from her slave and sighed to even see the light of day again. “Getting tired of waking up in a bed at this point,” she began glumly. “So no, I’m not all right.”

“ ...I know I said I hate you, but I don’t understand you at all, my Lady.”

“Really? Explain, please.”

“Why’d you want to die?”

Claudia remained silent for a moment.

“It’s… complicated. Something even you shouldn’t trouble yourself to be concerned with.”

“Why don’t you fucking die instead of relying on anyone to do it then?” Cosette shouted. “If you die then what the hell did I go through all of this for?!”

Sitting up in her bed with a whispered, “Oh, come on,” Claudia shook her head. “You mean to tell me that you thought there was a reason that I did all this? I told you before; I care about you—yet I hate you in turn? Maybe I just like to fuck with you. Maybe I’m just reckless like that.”

“It’s because you’re fucking hollow and abuse people to fill it—then boast that you could do worse. I’m sorry for thinking that the Countess picked someone with a head. Commit suicide if you will, but don’t make half-assed statements.” Cosette then got off the chair that was parked beside Claudia’s bed and left the room.

Claudia scoffed to herself. “I would… if I didn’t have people on my list other than myself to kill. Hollow? Right...”

The door then opened again as Marco stepped in. “Wonder what happened to her…” a whisper was heard from him as he entered while looking back. The man then turned to Claudia and his eyes were alight with life as if awoken from drowsiness. “Ah! Fair Lady, I see you woke up!” He came over. “How do you feel now?”

Seeing Claudia like this was a brutal sight every time. Except this was worse. Claudia may not have realized yet, but her entire body was covered with bandages, much like a mummy.

“Not any better than usual,” Claudia replied, attempting to appear happier. “But… I’m alive, if that matters.”

Marco sat down with a big sigh. “Somehow, you always end up on a bed like this.”

“Funny, the whole reason I challenged the Countess was because I was sick of ending up like this everytime I start a fight,” Claudia said. “Guess that fell short, huh?”

“...Against m’lady of all people? Why? I do not understand the logic. It only gets worse if you look for a stronger enemy.” Marco asked, his hands put up in defeat. How could anyone be so foolish? “You knew our mistress isn’t very kind in the battlefield right?”

“Right, haha. It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Claudia said, sighing in shame. “This sucks. I don’t know if I have anymore of these in me.”

“Oh I’ve love to know why you thought fighting the strongest who granted you your power was the great idea?” Marco asked sardonically.

“Because I’m a hollow, cheeky bitch who uses her own pain and the anguish of others to fill her own self-assured void, apparently.”

Marco sighed and looked down, it was as though he was trying to bring some sense of living to a doll, but a doll had no sense to begin with.

“You know what? Have it your way. No one’s worries would ever reach you.” Marco left the room as well.

With a few words, she summoned Lachesis Fang and chucked it for the first thing she got a bead on, having the blade embed itself into the wall. Claudia fell back, slamming her head onto her pillow as hard as she could in frustration.

“What the fuck is wrong with me!?”

Michael sighed, dropping another book. This was perhaps the tenth book he had finished about something extremely dark and gothic, and perhaps even dark humor.

He had spent a month doing all kinds of research on magic, training, practicing his skills with the sword, and much more, but he still had time to spare.

Apparently, the job of an Alchemist wasn’t easy at all. It took a long time to craft, even with magic. Despite all of that, he’d have to test the weapon and if there was a single fault, the Alchemist may have to go back to the atelier, and at worse, start from scratch.

“Alright,” Emilia began. “Perhaps… perhaps this time the gun will be better.” She handed Michael a black gun and a red bullet. “I apologize for taking so long. Would you please test it?”

“Hopefully, we won’t be bothering the neighbors.” Michael loaded the bullet into the magazine as he talked. The bullet didn’t seem to be any different from the standard rounds the gun used, aside from having the red color. Maybe it reaches higher speeds? He slid the magazine into the gun and flicked the safety. “Well, here goes nothing.” He aimed at one of the room’s pillars and squeezed the trigger. There was a fiery reaction from the hole of the barrel… but the bullet itself exploded inside.

As one could imagine, Michael had to toss it out from the heat.

“...Another failure.”

“No matter, after my ears stop ringing I’ll replace the barrel and then see if there’s any other part damaged.” Michael was rubbing his wrist, which started to feel sore after receiving the force of the explosion.

“I really am sorry. I had no idea that guns were so complicated. The sword hardly took me long to finish.”

“No, no, I’m the one who owes you for your help with my equipment.” Michael smiled. “Besides, this is sort of fun; explosions notwithstanding.” He walked to a nearby workbench and sat on a stool. He immediately tinkered with the gun, observing the parts as he dismantled it.

“You think we could make it so that its activation timing will be the same time as it exits the barrel?” He asked with a voice loud enough for Emilia to take notice. Michael spun the stool he was sitting on to face her, holding the gun’s barrel on its ends. The place where the bullet should’ve activated was inflated, roughly the size of a nut.

“Hmm… it may require either making the barrel itself smaller… or longer. Basically, we may be able to customize the timing of the trigger that generates the force by raising or decreasing mana output. Since the mana applied to the bullet is supposed to work with the mechanism when you pull the trigger right now.”

“Hm, I suggest we try the longer barrel first; a shorter one than this will affect my aim by a substantial amount after all.”

Michael tossed the broken barrel in a nearby bucket, where upon landing, it made a loud clink since it was half-filled with broken gun parts. He spun the stool towards the table again to ensure that the rest of the parts were workable, replacing the worn-out looking ones as he started assembling the other parts of the gun again.

“Let’s try that then.”

Emilia walked back to her desk. There were many metal scraps and all kinds of junk as well as gun parts assembled over it. She took up one of the scraps and a barrel she worked up some time ago as a spare.

Michael could see her chanting when a yellow shine took place, and the barrel became longer. In return, the metal scrap piece she took up was gone and infused with the barrel. She then walked back to Michael and gave him the barrel.

Michael wordlessly made a small nod as thanks; his focus was on assembling the gun quickly and without mistakes. He recalled the time when he was still a trainee, the endless repetition of sword stances, the mountains of books they had to read, and the amount of times he had to disassemble a gun just to reassemble it again. While reminiscing in his head, his hands and eyes moved quickly as if by memory, observing each part once more before quickly placing it in its rightful place. After locking in the final piece of the weapon, he twirled it in his finger and spun the stool once more to face Emilia. He caught it by it’s newly fabricated barrel and presented it to her, the grip facing towards her.

“One more try.” He was smiling confidently; the act of tinkering with a gun always calmed him.

“Currently, the spell inscribed for the mana application is probably done for, thanks to that burn,” Emilia began. “So I’ll cast a spell right now, for a one-time shot to experiment… you should pull the trigger after I count down. Ready?”

“Always,” he replied, spinning the gun once more and this time catching it on its grip.

Emilia placed her hand on the gun Michael held. She chanted, “May there be light. May there be fire. Blessings shall be earned, for blessings are the curses for evil.” Emilia then gave Michael a nod. “On my count now… 3, 2, 1—”

Michael once again aimed at the pillar as he squeezed the trigger. He had complete trust in their efforts, even with the amount of failures they had to deal with, and this confidence filled him as he felt the power of the recoil from the gun. His arm was steady as a force surged through it and him like a wave, and unlike the violent explosion from earlier, it snapped back to its proper position. The light from the explosion coming out of the gun’s barrel was different from what he was used to, it flared violently as if it was alive. But what seemed a while to him was just an illusion brought forth by the surge of adrenaline he was experiencing, as it all happened in a flash. The flare travelled towards the pillar at an incredible speed, hitting it with a loud crack and scorching the same area. While the area it impacted didn’t have a bullet hole, what it had instead was a crater, with some areas still smoking and some even with small embers in them.

Michael was wide-eyed as he turned to Emilia with a large grin on his face. “We did it!” he shouted, raising his arm triumphantly. But even before this feeling of euphoria overwhelmed him, he noticed a slight cinch when he saw the gun’s barrel once more. The end where the bullet exited was half-melted and almost split like a banana peel. “We almost did it!” he corrected, his grin still plastered to his mouth.

Emilia only smiled, nodding at his correction. “We should be right about done. All I have to do is make a proper barrel this time, with the modified spell. I think I have an even better balance of mana application in mind for this.”

“I never thought it would be that good. It felt rather pleasant to shoot, and use,” he said, barely containing the excitement in his voice. “You’re quite amazing, Emilia.”

“No… I am still a beginner at this,” Emilia said, shaking her head. “By the way, I also made this.” She then handed Michael a white bullet. “This is of holy affinity, made with Vim aspected mana, unlike the bullet that created that contained Ignem-aspected mana earlier.”

“Interesting, how does it differ from the ones that the Church provide us? I believe those were blessed too beforehand,” he asked, inspecting the white colored bullet in his hand.

“Well… the amount of mana you may charge an object into differs. An ordinary metal bullet cannot be blessed with too much, but one that is specifically modified by alchemy to hold more Vim mana is a different matter altogether.”

“So in theory, this would have substantially more impact to infernal influences compared to what I was using.” He rubbed his chin in contemplation. “In that case, this will be extremely valuable in the upcoming fight if what we predicted about the Countess and her Representative’s purpose here in America was true. I will be testing this in the field, I believe. If anything fails it will still be a high-powered round.”

“A prediction about the Countess?” Emilia asked, her expression changing completely. “I suppose I had heard rumors but I guess she really did come over.”

“Well the general idea was taken from Miss Alicia—bless her soul—but basically the Countess is targeting the Descendants. This was confirmed with the foiled attack on Miss Kazehaya, who was Sagittarius if I recall correctly.” Michael paused to arrange the thoughts in his mind. “Following that, Miss Mary came to me and Lily having intel that the Countess would be here next, and to invite us to join in a skirmish against Virgo. Now if the Countess hasn’t changed her goals, we could infer that there’s a good chance that Virgo would be the center of the storm to come. That is, if our prediction is correct.”

“Hmm… I haven’t heard any of this information before, but I suppose you have no reason to lie to me,” Emilia said, closing her eyes in thought. “It’s a little hard to believe that the Countess is doing what the mages do, though. I cannot fathom her reasoning behind it to go about this roundabout manner.”

“Miss Mary did say that I was a terrible liar. Well, not that I’d consider a career in acting,” Michael offhandedly mentioned. “I think, however, that I would restrain myself from telling you more lest I compromise your own safety. Descendants are quite powerful, even beyond their own powers, after all.”

“Well, I have faced the Countess once before,” Emilia replied, solemn. “And she is everyone’s enemy. More information does help.”

“This was… I obtained this one personally the second time I clashed with her Representative,” Michael narrated. “You see, the Countess’ Representative is quite a talkative fellow. It was when we were crossing swords that she managed to infuriate me with her words, but by God’s grace I somehow got the upper hand and reached the point where I could’ve finished her off for good. It was then that she revealed that their group’s objective was to save the world, which I took as something like a joke; a crazed woman’s cries if you will.” Michael hesitated when he recalled what happened after. “That part was when the Countess herself appeared and rescued her Representative, partly due to my own folly. Skipping a few days, I miraculously survived and it was then that Miss Mary shared her sentiments that what I mistook for a joke actually had some sort of sense. To be honest, I haven’t wrapped my head around it completely but looking at it now, it seems that they sincerely believe what I just told you now.”

“I suppose everyone has their own sense of justice and acts upon it. †˜Tis sad that they chose the wrong path,” Emilia coldly spoke. “I have joined the operation, however. The one to fight Virgo, so perhaps this will be better than I imagined.”

“Best of luck to us, for we will be in dire need of it,” Michael concluded, sighing.

“By the way, if you do find issues with my bullets after testing, let me know and I may try to improve them.”

“Certainly, I look forward to using these in the future.” Michael’s gaze accidentally brought the bucket of broken metal pieces to his attention. “Say, while we’re here… do you think you have time for one more project?”

“Go on, I’m listening.”

“I recalled that dagger you lent me when we faced the White Lotus. Do you think you can fashion another one of those with these?” he asked, hitting the bucket with his foot. “Although, I may have a small tweak in mind.”

“I’m used to making weapons like that so it’d be an easier task.”

“Great. Let us finish up with this gun then?”

“Yes, it shouldn’t take long now that I know how to solve our old problem.”

“Hopefully there will not be any more explosions today, I think I smell like a roast now.”

Michael tinkered with his new gun as Emilia worked with the scraps of metal they had left. He was almost done loading the two new bullet types he had into magazines, and after organizing the mess he made on the workbench, he would be done with his work. It would always end up like this, with Emilia doing most of the important and hard work while Michael cleaning up and generally just being there for support. He had enough idle time that he started reading the books that Emilia had lying around with her permission.

During the course of their builds, Michael picked up a new spell idea after reading one of Emilia’s notes. It was based on one of Emilia’s own spells; while hers dealt with suppressing emotions, his wanted to artificially recreate the phenomenon that would happen when one was in extreme danger. He hoped to recreate the phenomenon wherein the brain altered one’s perception of time so that one would have a larger window to react.

He messed around with different ways to implement it, and he almost ended up in a coma once when he was trying to test his new spell. However, he believed he worked out the problems he encountered and was about to test it again when Emilia asked him to help her with the gun. Now that it was almost completed, this thought of testing his new spell once again popped up in his head. He turned his head towards Emilia and saw that she was also about done with her work.

“Emilia, any places where we could spar? I mean, if you don’t mind sparing that is.”

“A spar? To test the gun perhaps?”

“Well, I could probably use rubber tips and subsonic rounds but, I have this new spell I want to try.”

“You wouldn’t want to try real bullets then?” Emilia asked, tilting her head. “A new spell?”

“I don’t want any accidents to happen that could be fatal. It’s too high a risk for so little reward,” Michael explained. “Yes, I tried making one of my own based on your notes. I think I’ve worked out the kinks.”

“...You read those notes?” Emilia could be seen frowning visibly. “I didn’t give permission for those.”

“By the time I realized it was your personal notes I was done reading it.” Michael looked like a deer caught in the headlamps.

“Alright, let’s have that spar. I’ll beat you to the ground,” Emilia said. It was rare to see her so upset.

“I already regret this.”

“Well, this is the best place for it,” Emilia stated, looking around. “This atelier can be a spacious fighting place provided we clean up and put most things in the corner. There are taller buildings beside this building so people can see us even if we hit the rooftop just outside here.”

Right now the two were inside Emilia’s atelier, which was a room on the rooftop. According to her, she had made some kind of a deal with the owner of the building to have access to this place.

“I guess we should start cleaning up then?” Michael cracked his knuckles.

“Let’s get to it.”

Emilia was back to her usual self as the two started cleaning up the room. The tables and desks were moved and the metal scraps were collected in what looked like jars and buckets. They made sure to keep the most important things closest to the walls. Now they had about ten meters total if they compared the size length of the surface area.

From under her sleeves came out two golden daggers designed to look like rosaries. They were connected to her with chains.

With a glance, Michael realized that her original spell was in effect as she was completely devoid of any expression before she swung her blades and sent them flying at his way.

Michael started running towards Emilia and her blades as he pumped mana into his sword. It seemed as if he was running towards his demise as he charged, but just before Emilia’s weapons pierced him, a silver light flickered from his body as he somehow managed find a perfect spot to break through between the blades. Due to not having to stop to evade, Michael maintained the momentum of his charge, catching Emilia off-guard as he sliced her. He spun as he followed through with his slash, facing his opponent once more.

“...Fast.” Emilia remarked despite being indifferent. She could barely attempt to block or counter. Michael’s idea was perhaps brilliant, but as he leapt back, her golden rosary daggers connected against him and drew out blood. “But not enough.”

Michael bit his lip as Emilia pulled her daggers back. Even when using his new spell those things were still quick enough that he couldn’t consistently dodge them. Not to mention the fact that he felt off while using the spell, but he’d have to check that out later, for his objective was to test his new spell’s limits.

He decided to continue his assault, charging at Emilia once more. Activating Chrono Phantasma—his new spell—once more, his perception became clearer as everything around him moved at a snail’s pace. He could see her daggers as they approached him as if they were drudging through thick mud. He could hear the sounds of the clattering chains as they stretched out, contrasting with the rhythmic sound of his breathing. He knew where her weapons were going; he knew where he should be when they approached. Like a child practicing how to dance for the first time, he slowly lifted his feet and placed them in their proper position and twisted his body accordingly. It was not the first time he had danced with death, but now he could see; he could see it clearly for the first time.

Back in real time, he swiftly dodged her daggers once more as they came to stop him, leaving Emilia in the open. His sword’s silver glow shone brightly as he made an upwards slash on her.

It seemed like her eyes glowed, then she outstretched a hand. A white orb formed at her palm and shot out a beam of light that struck the priest at close-range.

He tried to cast his spell once more in response, but her attack caught him off-guard so it didn’t go off in time. However, he managed to plant his sword to the ground as he took the full force of her attack. Immediately after her attack faded, he pulled out his blade and used the same force he used to pull the sword with to hit her with the pommel. As he was about to continue with his assault he fell to his knees, dropping his sword, as he vomited out blood. His sword clanged as it hit the ground while its owner continued to face the ground, his face twisted in pain.

“...Are you alright?” Emilia came to him with very casual steps. She couldn’t find it in herself to worry about him due to her spells maximizing her calmness, and she simply massaged his back after kneeling down to him. “We’re stopping this. Your spell is likely very imperfect. I’ll get you some medicine.”

“No, I’m okay.” Michael sat back down, exhausted. “I think I know what’s happening. It seems like my spell causes a bit of a problem with involuntary muscle movements. Sure could use a drink though.”

“Virgo will be coming soon… you want to be in good shape before you face her,” Emilia advised.

“Nothing a good sleep can’t fix, and I guess a bit of healing magic here and there. I could patch up most of the minor wounds, too.” He finally felt good enough to stand up. “Our mana supply though, that’s something else.”

“I have magical potions for both healing and recovering mana capabilities, so I’m telling you to just sit back and take them.” Emilia sighed as she got up. It seemed like her spell expired and her facial expressions returned as she got up and went over to the desk, then down to her drawers to look for the potions.

“You think we can put those potions on the Church’s bill?” he asked as he walked beside her, sitting back down beside her to help her.

“I already paid for my potions from the Church,” Emilia answered. “It’d be weird to do that.”

“Haven’t used much myself. Robert tends to be helpful when it come to healing wounds. A helpful chap, that Robert.”

“Was that an acquaintance back in London?” Emilia asked as she took out some vials of medicine, and handed him one.

“Yeah, he was a friend back in training too,” Michael replied before chugging down the potion. It tasted nothing like what he expected. It had a herbal-y taste which was neither pleasant nor unpleasant. He thought it would probably be tastier if it were cold and had mint in it.

“Is he joining the campaign too?” Emilia gave him another potion as she took back the one he drank from.

“I don’t think so, last I know he was still taking care of Laura,” Michael said in between bottles.

“Laura?”

“Oh! Erm, Commander Laura. She was our Commander, and she got injured by one of the Countess’ cronies.” Michael almost choked while drinking the potion as he back-tracked. “I was supposed to be her guard when it happened.”

“I see… one of the Knights’ Commanders, was it? I suppose she was in charge of the Church you were working under too. My condolences, though. You must feel absolutely useless thanks to that.”

“I suppose. I just pray for her to be healthy once more.” He quaffed the final bottle as he finished speaking. “I desire nothing more beyond that.”

“So is she unwell now thanks to the terrorists?”

“Yes, if not for Miss Mary… she would’ve died.”

“...I see, I apologize for asking.”

“No, it’s alright. It was my fault in the end.” He handed her the potion bottle back. “Thank you for the potions, and the spar.”

“You’re welcome. Your little request is also done, by the way.”

“Just in time, for I am sure it will be useful soon. Much appreciated, Emilia.” Michael smiled at her. “The sword felt really good to wield too, it doesn’t feel like it will break in use. Claudia’s scythe was quite heavy so I was afraid I would lose a weapon when fighting her.”

“Don’t push it too hard though. I wouldn’t be surprised if it breaks against platinum blades.”

“It would be rather foolish of me if I try to defeat her in a contest of strength, anyway. How about you? Have you made your preparations?”

“Yes, there wasn’t much required to be changed in my case, however. You should come to me when you’re low on those custom bullets I gave you, or if you have problems with the gun.”

“Alright, I will do just that then. Thanks again for your help.”

Back to the Hotel Edison that day. Michael now had a new gun and an improved sword with him, along with another weapon. Suffice it to say, he was in a good mood thanks to Emilia’s help. Around the lobby, he spotted Mary, who was busy with a strange device he once saw Duchess Frederica using. It was a device which could create a holographic display, and for someone from England, he could only marvel at the mystery of technology’s advance. Speaking of which, Frederica was sitting beside Mary as well.

“Good morning to you two,” he greeted cheerfully, completely forgetting Mary’s advice on the Duchess.

“Good morning,” Mary greeted, too busy to look his way.

“Good day to you, Mister Kallweit,” Duchess Frederica greeted, completely graceful in her slight bow with her head.

“Great day today for a walk, unless there’s an update with our mission?” He wondered if they were viewing the machine for work or for leisure.

“I have been keeping a check on things,” Mary replied. Michael could see some strange things moving back and forth, he wasn’t sure what Mary was doing with the device. “Aside from movements by the Countess, nothing big happened.”

“It seems like the Blood Countess is laying low now,” Frederica continued after Mary stopped speaking. “We haven’t heard much from Virgo, either, but there are some spiritual energy readings.”

“Like a calm before the storm. If even BloodLuSt is being careful like this, I can’t help but feel something big is coming soon.”

“...Indeed, we have to be ready for anything,” Frederica said, giving a nod. “That said, I suppose this is the second time we’ve met.”

“It is, mind if we continue this conversation over a spot of tea?” Michael offered.

“I shall attend,” Frederica accepted, getting up.

Mary smiled with a face of apology as she got up almost ten seconds later. “I am sorry, I got caught up in the game.”

The three then shifted to the place where food was being served. Even if it wasn’t breakfast time or the the time for lunch, food was still available, as was tea.







“So… why target Virgo?” Michael asked after sipping from his cup.

“Pardon?” Mary asked.

“I figured that the Countess would have been targeted first now that they’ve become more active. Especially since they made a move on the Queen herself. If anything, Virgo just came to their sights when Miss Alicia and Miss Lumiere got attacked.” Michael raised his cup to his lips but didn’t drink yet. “So I am asking why.”

“Well, the Countess was always active as far as I knew,” Mary stated. “Just not always close by for you to find. Sometimes, you’d just lose track of her. At least, I hear the Church is often confused.”

“So basically, you wish to know why Virgo is a prioritized target now?” Frederica asked to confirm.

“Yes. Well, the Church has a different mission and approach to things, Miss Mary. That’s what I think at least.”

“There is not much I may divulge, considering that part of the knowledge I have is classified. What I may tell you is that this was the Queen’s command, and thus all these people here were gathered,” Duchess Frederica answered, then sipped on her tea, and smiled. “I can tell you one thing, though; she is back indeed. I myself saw Mister Aramus almost get cut into half.”

“Where is he anyway? I haven’t seen him lately.” Michael understood; the Queen’s orders to them were like the Church’s to him.

Frederica turned to Mary. “He is not around?”

“Ahh… haha, yes, he isn’t,” Mary said, appearing embarrassed that the Duchess got to know about his absence. “Truth is, he went over to California—”

“What?”

“Well…”

“At a time like this?”

“Yes, for over a month now.”

The Duchess sighed, which was rare of her to do so. “I suppose he has a reason. A good one, I hope.”

“Any idea on when he plans to come back? He is our leader, after all.” Michael sighed along with the Duchess.

“He should be boarding an airplane soon,” Mary answered. “Mister Takeru had been scolding him about it. I hope he did, at least.”

“Who?”

“Our vice-leader?”

“Huh. That other guy?”

“You slept through it, I think. Mister Takeru Mikaido is a senior Magic Magister,” Mary said.

“He is also one of the more popular Magisters,” Frederica supplemented. “He is one of the few young ones from this generation that the Anti-group is proud of from Japan.”

“A reliable guy, then?” He had no idea what the Anti-group was, but it didn’t really matter for him at the moment.

“In short, yes,” Mary said. “He managed to do some damage to Sagittarius in that tragic incident.”

“That’s good to know then. I believe Emilia said she joined up too?”

“In another group, yes,” Frederica answered. “I suppose you know her thanks to being members of the Church?”

“I actually was with her earlier. She offered to do some maintenance on my sword.”

“I see, that is nice,” Frederica said, finishing her tea. “Is she a crafter of some sort?”

“She’s an alchemist. I could show you my sword if you’d like to see her work?” Michael offered.

“Not that I mind… I need a new alchemist to work with. The one I knew went missing back in England.”

“Wait… are you talking about the Rosenberg's alchemist?” Mary brought up.

“Why yes, yes I am.”

“Rosenberg’s alchemist? In any case, I suppose I should introduce her to you then, Duchess?”

“Feel free to,” Duchess Frederica answered. “I am in no rush to have anything done at the moment, but it would be a pleasure to know more such people. Alchemists are rare.”

“So I’ve heard. She would be a great help to us.”

“But yes, Mary, the Rosenberg’s alchemist used to work for me,” Duchess Frederica said. “Her works were almost always finished in a day.”

“So I hear. She seemed to be famous some years ago until she completely vanished,” Mary said, sharing the excitement of the Duchess.

“The most I heard from investigations was that she was indebted to someone, and was to create something dangerous. The result was disastrous and she suffered a coma.”

“ …Eh?” Mary uttered. Something in her heart felt odd for a moment. “Really now?”

“Yes, but it is not quite a confirmed fact, so I am not yet sure.”

“If you could give me a name I could probably scrounge up some information,” Michael offered.

“She always worked under that name: Rosenberg,” Frederica stated. “I cannot say I know anything else. I am not even sure if her name was Rosenberg. I assumed it was always a family name.”

“Isn’t that odd, though?” Mary stated.

“What is?”

“The name Rosenberg is a Bohemian noble family name.”

“Really now? I never quite knew,” the Duchess said, surprised at this little tidbit before she turned to Michael. “I am interested however, how would you know information based on a name, Mister Kallweit.”

“Well we’ve worked with less. My first target was a scarred man. That one did not go well at all.” He scratched the back of his head. “A girl suddenly interfered and caught the bullet for him, which ended up with her in a coma. All of my efforts, wasted.” Michael decided to not mention the various complications that happened with that job. Mostly not to remind himself again of those events.

“Ahh… my condolences, so you knew someone in a coma.”

“There is something to consider, though,” Mary began. “She did not vanish much earlier, do you not think?”

“The reason for the coma is also different,” the Duchess stated. “Then again, my information was really confusing to begin with. It could be a misinterpretation on my part as well.”

“Well, last time I saw Iris she was already awake and is living in a residential area in London,” Michael said. “Say, when did this alchemist of yours disappear? What did she look like?”

“I see her name was Iris. To answer: about three years ago? She had blonde hair, and she was… well, I suppose pretty? One could easily mistake her for a noble.”

“Huh, probably not,” Michael muttered to himself. “In the meantime if Emilia is okay with it, she’d be a good alternative.”

“Is she an apprentice or a full fledged alchemist?”

“An apprentice.”

“I see. I suppose that is still better than nothing. I shall try to commission her.”

“I’ll invite her over for lunch next time I go back to her place. Oh, that reminds me, she did this too,” he said as he let the chain spear dangle from his sleeve.

“It does appear to be of a good quality,” the Duchess said, assessing it in one gaze. “But perhaps it is not the best.”

“Harsh,” Mary remarked. “And you go over to her place?”

“Well, she is an apprentice, and yes, I’ve been frequenting there. She’s been making some improvements with my sword and gun.”

“Were they not finished products, though?” Mary asked.

“Just recently.”

“This would be perfectly scandalous, and would have tainted the name and honor of the Church by now if you were in England.” The Duchess was snickering, covering her mouth with a hand.

“Eh?” Michael tilted his head, confused.

“You have to be very careful about going to a lady’s abode. It’s unheard of for one to live alone, but all the more reason in that case, I suppose,” Mary said. “Of course the gossip-lovers of England would love that.”

“Gossips are like pointless banter but… I guess I’m glad we aren’t in England then. I’ll try to be more careful next time.”

“Alright, with that little sellable tidbit about the priest, I think I shall be off for other business now,” the Duchess joked, getting off the chair. “Take care you two.”

“Take care and God Bless, my Lady,” Michael said, finally remembering that it was a Duchess he was speaking to.

“Take care, Lady Duchess.” Mary gave a bow. “So Mister Kallweit, how have you been holding up? Have your feelings settled down yet?”

“Well, I suppose I owe you this. I haven’t had any problems recently. I did tell you that it’s okay.” Michael smiled at her. “Don’t worry too much, Miss Mary. How about you, no incidents so far?”

“I did mention that I had some bouts with the Countess. It is good to know that you are fine, though. My eye reports that you are indeed doing better.”

“A rolling stone gathers no moss, after all. You clashed with the Countess?”

“Barely, I escaped when it was too risky, of course. It seems like she is helping the Diabolics with their rituals of utter madness.”

“What happened?” He had a worried tone in his voice. “Were you in someplace dangerous?”

“Had to dive a little too deep into the abyss for a bit,” Mary answered. “Anyone would have to in order to find things out, especially regarding the Countess.”

“When did this happen? Did you find what you were looking for?”

“I got some information. If what I hear is true… something shady is indeed in the works. Virgo and the Countess may have a deal running that we are unaware of. Hitherto the tragedy takes place, we can only pray.”

“Two Descendants working together? That is quite troubling indeed.”

“Yes, I do not imagine both of them directly facing us on stage, but you can well imagine them plotting together. If what Claudia said about taking out Descendants is true… you would well think that the Countess hopes for us to take out Virgo.”

“A cunning plan.”

“…And this is just between us,” Mary said, ushering Michael to lean closer. “But the Queen was able to get a Descendant from somewhere to lend us a hand, while Sagittarius also joined out of her own will. Assuming the Countess caught wind of all this—she would conversely want Virgo to get rid of them as well.”

“Huh, that makes our chances better, indeed.” Michael recalled the battle between Alicia and the Countess, at least the parts he could remember and the ones he had heard about. “With at least three of them in play though, the collateral damage will be massive. Seems like we won’t have a minute to spare when the clash finally happens.”

“That is correct. The Descendants will likely look for an opportunity to strike considering that they cannot show off their powers with many mages in sight,” Mary stated. “They will eventually want people privy to the matter supporting them. We can only hope that the government won’t make a big fuss about all this to the Queen, but that is rather unavoidable.”

“If we do succeed, it won’t matter as much for we would be preventing any more tragedies in the future. That said, I do have a favor I want to ask of you Miss Mary.”

“I suppose, but some are worried about the impending damage, like the Duchess, for instance. A favor, though? What would that be?”

“As do I, but we cannot help it when Descendants are involved. I’d be sure to try and save what I can, though,” Michael said. “A favor, yes. It seems that in Japan I acquired a spirit that claims to be the Archangel Uriel. Lily was worried about it and I personally have no means to check at the moment. Considering that this might become a liability in the upcoming battle, I would like to ask you if you can confirm that at the very least it isn’t an infernal being.”

“An… angel? …Archangel Uriel?”

Somehow, this response made it apparent to Michael that something was wrong.

“Erm, what? Is something wrong?”

“No… it is nothing.” Mary shook her head. “I will do it. Not here, of course. Perhaps the rooftop is a good place.”

“Much appreciated. Shall we?”

“I suppose this is a good place as any,” Mary began. “I quelled Svetlana’s demon here too.”

On the rooftop—sometime before the lunch hour—the place was rather vacant. It was a nice place considering there were many greenery and a pool on one side, luxuries they could indulge in England. Thankfully in this hour many wouldn’t be around here, but sometimes one or two would wander up there, and in that case it’d be an unavoidable issue and the two would wait. However, it was currently vacant indeed.

“Okay, so what do I need to do?” Michael noticed Mary had said something about Svetlana and a demon, but it seemed like it was dealt with already.

“Nothing. Just stand there. You might need to prepare mentally. Are you ready?”

“Always.”

“Look into my eye.”

Michael did as asked, and peered into the golden eye. From it, he thought he witnessed a glint.

Five seconds.

Ten seconds.

Nothing was happening, but Mary stood like a statue staring at him with a serious expression. Rather, she seemed afraid of something.

“Archangel Uriel… why him?” Mary asked.

A golden light emanated and surrounded Michael, and he himself was confused.

An ephemeral voice spoke thus, “For I deem him special, Linfield.”

“To keep an eye on me…?”

There was a roaring laughter. “I’d have come to you then—not that you’d allow me to.”

“But he is an ordinary man. As his friend, I request that you leave him be.”

“Oh? A friend you say? Should you be saying that?”

“ ...Huh?!”

Mary held her temples and crouched down to the floor, feeling a strong headache abruptly. A strange sound reverberated inside her head.

“Miss Mary! What happened?!” Michael ran towards her. He kept silent when the two were talking, partly due to surprise. What Mary said was right; aside from his profession, he was fairly ordinary. What had spurred an Archangel to observe him—save him even? He was about to ask something when Mary fell to her knees and all his questions just disappeared.

“I-It was my fault!” Mary shrieked. “I’m… I’m sorry, Charlotte.”

Never had Michael seen Mary so devastated like this before. It was like the time he saw her meeting that mysterious man in the foreign Realm beyond that one Boundary. Mary’s face was stained with tears and she was horrified, holding her head with both her hands.

Michael held Mary by her shoulders and shouted, “Miss Mary! Please Archangel Uriel, stop this! I’ll do what you ask, just stop causing her pain!”

“Do not face away from the truth, o child of the Linfield!” Uriel’s voice echoed. “Michael Kallweit, this is a child even Christ cannot save forever. Do you really think I am causing this pain?”

“Then tell me! What’s happening? Why is she being hurt like this?” He wrapped her in his arms as he shouted towards the skies, “Tell me! What can I do?!”

“That is not for me to decide, but the ruler of the Heaven. The moment of truth is almost at hand… you shall have a glimpse… soon. Decide for yourself then—what must be done.”

The holy light surrounding Michael soon ceased, and the Archangel’s presence was gone, but Mary continued to cry.

Michael patted her back softly, like his mother did to him once. “I’m sorry to cause you this pain, Miss Mary. Please let me know if I can do anything to help.”

Mary wiped her tears and stood up. She forced a smile. “I’m sorry about all that. I’m going to… go back to my room now.”

Michael tried to chase her but he recalled doing the same to her back in Japan. What gave him the right to chase her now? His arm was outstretched towards her but his feet did not move. “It might be hypocritical of me to ask but—what happened?”

“I broke my promise.”

With that, Mary was gone from sight as she walked away.

“Damn it.” Michael was completely frustrated and confused, and found no outlet where he could let it out, so instead he opted to punch a wall. His knuckles bled and he felt a throbbing pain in his hand, but he felt some sort of relief afterwards. “Why me?” He said aloud, asking the Angel once more.

Strolling across the floor, the Magister was racing against time.

In California, Aramus and Elizabeth rushed over to the airport—thinking they were late—only to find that the flight was delayed. To make it worse, Takeru called some time earlier saying that it’d be best to get back to New York as soon as possible. Not to mention Takeru sounded like he was actually angry, for once.

Apparently, the time difference between the Infernal Realm and the human world was immense. Aramus’ stay that lasted about a day in the Infernal Realm amounted to a month in the Human World.

Elizabeth expected this outcome, but not her teacher. She was genuinely surprised when Aramus was genuinely surprised of the result, thinking that Aramus calculated the outcome accordingly.

The two were disappointed with the delay and it was as though their fate was playing tricks on them.

“I even rushed putting on the make-up,” Elizabeth murmured under her breath, but Aramus heard it. “Did anything actually occur yet? With Virgo, I mean.”

“Takeru would have mentioned it in the call if anything had happened,” Aramus said, running a hand down his clothes to smooth out any creases.

“Oh.” Elizabeth placed a hand on her chest, sighing. “I suppose we can still make it in time then.”

“Not fast enough.” Aramus clicked his tongue, looking at the plasma display for departures. “She could make her move while we’re stuck here.”

“We cannot change the outcome anymore at this rate, however. Perhaps we should consider how to synergize our spells while we are waiting?”

Aramus nodded his agreement. He sat down at an open seat and motioned for Ellie to do the same. “Most of my spells are simple enough. They’ve got enough punch but adding in extra Forms would probably increase their power exponentially.”

“Let’s say we combine… yes, your Aurum with my Ignem? At least that sounds scientifically effective,” Elizabeth suggested.

“Sounds explosive to me,” Aramus chuckled. “I could probably mix in a few more flammable components to make it more effective.”

“So you have such spells?”

“I could probably pick †˜em up given a small amount of time. Otherwise, my standard set of spells will have to suffice. Like that tiny orb.” Aramus spun his hand in a lazy loop, whistling.

“The tiny orb? The one you hit Asteria’s face with?”

“Did you really have to put it that way?” He arched an eyebrow at his student, still feeling bad about it. “I didn’t mean for it to fly there.”

“As a Magister I would think that you would have it down by now, teacher.”

“It will be the next time…” Aramus answered, looking a little concerned. “I hope.”

“Really?” Elizabeth asked. “Really… ?”

“We can only try our best in the fight to come, no matter the odds.”

“You don’t sound too confident, but I suppose that is true.”

“Hey, you guys, what’s up?”

Aramus and Elizabeth turned and found the Director of the MVA, Christopher Bradley, waving to them as he walked up to the two with a big smile. Despite the fact that he was an Archmage and unknown to the mundanes, he seemed to attract more attention than his prized student scholar that was Elizabeth Cavendish Bentinck, a young noble lady to boot.

It didn’t help these mages that Elizabeth got up and curtsy for her uncle. Regardless of time and place, Elizabeth was a paragon of excellent etiquette.

“Good day to you, Uncle,” Elizabeth greeted, while Christopher waved his hand dismissively to avoid the stares from the mundanes. It wasn’t even morning, but he didn’t wanted to voice the thought.

“Good to see you again,” Aramus said, rising to meet the Director. “I really appreciate the help both you and your brother have provided. If there’s anything I can do to return the favor… Like some of that curry for example.”

“Good to see you again Aramus, and… curry? Wanna head over right now then?”

Fired up from the mention of curry, Christopher Bradley immediately made a suggestion that made Elizabeth look down as if she expected something like this. Her uncle was always very gung ho about Indian cuisine.

“I think we have a short amount of time for that. Our flight got delayed, though Ellie and I were in the middle of a discussion. We should probably continue that over some food. Piping hot food,” Aramus said, nodding his head at Christopher’s suggestion.

“Let’s get out of this public waiting area because it’s rather suffocating here, and not something that befits someone like Lady Elizabeth here, or those stares,” Christopher joked with his booming voice, but apparently Elizabeth was concerned about it and he took notice some time ago after all.







The three went to the other side of the airport where they found a luxurious waiting room. There were furnitures that seemed incomparable to the seats they left back at the terminal. Some were lined up for a buffet too. Not many people, however, were present as many wouldn’t want to pay for such a waiting room. This luxurious lounge was thus a good place to hold the discussion about magic.

Christopher walked up to the recipient and simply handed her his credit card before he came back to the pair.

“We’re good to go,” Christopher informed with a big smile. “These guys have some of the Indian goodness. Just what we need.”

Thankfully, Aramus had been exposed to copious amounts of luxury during his trip back in England. It was thanks to this that he wasn’t exactly surprised anymore, taking it all within his commoner stride as best as he could.

“Right, Indian goodness.”

Before long, the three sat down around a table. Aramus and Christopher with their Indian food and Elizabeth with her Chinese food.

“So, what was the discussion about?” Christopher asked while chewing on the food. His voice, was of course muffled and barely comprehensible. Unlike his relatives, he wasn’t exactly big on etiquette and was rather casual most of the time.

“Spell synergy,” Aramus replied, his voice just as muffled. As the saying goes, it takes one to know one. “Just wondering if our current repertoire of spells is enough for Virgo, but I doubt it. It’s never enough.”

“Not that I don’t agree with you, but who knows. Your spell could penetrate their barriers,” the Archmage replied, as if from experience.

“We were indeed discussing synergy, and I suggested a combination of Ignem and Aurum together, Uncle,” Elizabeth added.

“Well, my dear Elizabeth, that’s an easy one,” the Archmage said, a plate of food already finished. “For an Aurum user that is. Wind can find ways to get around your flames but you have to be mindful of your choices. Your Ignem spell sets the direction.”

“So, Uncle, you are saying my Ignem spells in this case have to be something like a frontal attack?”

“I suppose I am. A wall of flame, for instance, may make it bigger but it certainly won’t be hitting the enemy directly now, will it?”

“I suppose you have a point…” Elizabeth gave a nod in agreement.

“So I’ll provide the fuel for whatever spell she fires off. I trust in her judgement for that; it’s often better than my own,” Aramus said.

“Mine? Better than yours, teacher?” Elizabeth looked at Aramus for a moment, pausing on eating. A Magister was telling her that her choices were better than his. As a humble person, she couldn’t tell how to accept these words. She’d be more content with Aramus giving her directions, as the leader of the entire team they were a part of.

“Well, you are sorta a prodigy, so I can see why.” Christopher laughed. “This topic reminds me that I technically know an ancient batch of spells that combines Aurum and Ignem here and there.”

“Ancient spells? Supreme spells by any chance?” Aramus questioned. “Since Her Majesty has lifted the ban on them against Descendants, I suppose using them now could make the fight that little bit easier.”

“For starters, we didn’t really have a ban for some time now. Which is kind of tragic, after what Margaret Alicia faced when her Supreme spells were discovered. Since she was accepted as an Archmage some time after the exile,” Christopher stated. “Archmages can use Supreme Spells on just about anyone as long as it doesn’t break one of the main vows.”

“Comes with being an Archmage I guess. It’s not as though just about anyone can learn Supreme Spells right now anyway. There should still be proper procedure for it. Would any of those that you know be useful in the fight against Virgo?”

“I don’t know much of who are going, though. Chances are, they are, or maybe they aren’t. If they're the ones picked by the Queen, then those people are probably legitly good casters.” He finished his third plate of curry as he was elaborating further, “Like say… Duchess Frederica of Edinburgh. She is a world-class mage already. There’s also little Elizabeth’s dad, who is the renowned mage for Aurum spells concocting ridiculous lightning.”

“I could… learn a thing or two from him,” Aramus said over a piece of naan. “They will be coming so I feel a little more secure, but when I look at my own set of spells… The only thing that saved me was Thor’s Supreme Spell.”

“You got Thor’s Supreme Spell? Lucky you,” Christopher remarked, but he didn’t appear as excited as any ordinary mage would be. “But yeah, the ancient arts I learned took a long time to master, and they were totally worth my training with this one monk I met a long time ago.”

Now that Aramus thought about it, Nicholas Bradley, Christopher’s twin brother, was not very excited when he saw it either. In fact, he didn’t even comment on it. Perhaps to the Archmages, the Supreme spells weren’t so big a deal after all. Aramus shrugged it off and listened to Christopher’s story.

“He talked some gibberish about manipulating chakra to not only create friction inside your own body, but also use it deliver some powerful strikes. That sounded crazy to me. It sounded like you’d get insane heat on yourself and it’d likely destroy your little healthy balance,” Christopher said, continuing his story. “And it was just as I thought. The dude was insane, and he made me insane too, I guess.”

“But you mastered it right?” Aramus said, leaning forward as more was told. “Is it Ignem? Vim? Something that combusts the natural magical power within you?”

“It’s Aurum basically, but it mixes quite a lot of other Forms into it, and a bit of other Techniques. Have you ever heard of the ancient Lost Forms? It’s one of them. I didn’t know at first, but I figured it later. The Forms it mixes more actively are Ignem and Terram. It’s Kung Fu but with spells. Pretty cool if you ask me.”

“Aurum,” Aramus mumbled with a finger on his chin. “Interesting. I haven’t heard of the Lost Forms before. Would you mind telling me in detail? As a practitioner and Magister, this intrigues me to no end. Martial arts... with such flexibility to incorporate other techniques, really intriguing.”

“It does sound pretty interesting, I would love to listen too,” Elizabeth said, leaning in closer like Aramus.

“Ahahaha, alright, alright. LIsten closely, Lost Forms are basically Forms of the ancient times. They aren’t the mainstream anymore because whatever was the Royal Council equivalent back then decided that they needed to be sealed, well most of them anyway. That’s just a result of my personal research, though. Things might’ve been different in reality.”

“I… see, so we had different Forms in the past centuries. I wonder what the others were…” Elizabeth said.

“There are more Forms than we know. If the Director was able to learn one, perhaps there are still practitioners of other Lost Forms that roam the globe. Director, you said it took you a long time to master the Lost Form. How long exactly?”

“About like a year. Well, maybe a bit more,” the Director answered. “There are a few practitioners, but Lost Forms are different. They’re an entire school of spells—not too much, but tedious to learn—and you need to know all of them to use them effectively. They can’t be mixed between other Lost Forms, and nor can you easily tinker with them either. Needless to say, the modern Forms are more flexible. We technically can account for the Lost Forms with our current Forms, but it’ll look really difficult due to the amount of Forms and Techniques you have to learn.”

“So once you learn one, you’re locked out from the others.” Aramus leaned back into his chair as he thought, tapping his foot lazily against the ground. “Basically, specializing in one Lost Form gives you more power but takes away the versatility granted to us by the modern school. It’s not restricted to learn any of these?”

“That’s assuming you go into the Lost Form’s stance spell—that’s a name we practitioners of Lost Forms gave it, by the way—since otherwise you can still cast whatever. Lost Forms works at their best with the stance spell, though. You’re right about one thing—it’s more power. There’s like sixteen spells in the one I learned… and all the spells under the Lost Forms are Supreme Spells, so…”

“...A lot of Supreme Spells we’re talking about here,” Elizabeth was intrigued as she spoke in disbelief. “I would be branded a criminal if it was some time ago had I learned these things.”

“Circumstances change,” Aramus said as he speared another tandoori chicken and placed it on his plate. “But yes, sixteen Supreme spells is a lot for one particular Form. What do you call it?”

“The Ancient Dragon. The monk called it the Ancient Dragon Lost Form but it’s a long name, right? Anyway, it has a long story and has a complete lore of its own like the big lore branches with a few Forms we have today,” Christopher replied, biting down on a drumstick.

“The Ancient Dragon… Director, this might be a bit out of line but would you be willing to impart the knowledge of the Lost Forms to me?” Aramus asked after he had set his fork down, having finished his chicken. “I know this is an unreasonable request after you have aided me so much as it is but I would do anything to stop Virgo.”

“What?! Am I too old to have an apprentice already?” Christopher roared, but most of it was muffled due to his chicken.

“Yes, yes you are, Uncle.” Elizabeth chuckled. “I would be quite interested to learn too, but I think I shall refrain. Aurum is not what I specialize in.”

“Perhaps the Starlight Lost Form is in order then… I have no idea who knows it, though.” Christopher put down the bone of the drumstick and gave Aramus a serious look. Somehow, he felt a kindred spirit of an Aurum fan in the young Magister, and seeing his relation to Elizabeth reinforced his thought. “I don’t mind teaching you, lad, but you definitely won’t be able to put it to use any time soon, much less against Virgo.”

Aramus had been a little startled when the Archmage had raised his voice but quickly realized it was in jest. “No time like the present. Even if I would not be able to wield it so soon, as a Magister I would be loathe to give up the chance to learn a Lost Form, let alone one of Aurum. I will be your disciple if you will have me, Director.”

“If that’s what you want then that’s what you’ll get. I have no problem having an apprentice, in all seriousness. Just don’t blame me if your peers kill you out of envy.” Christopher laughed again. “Oh, but since I’m busy for some time I won’t be able to start your training immediately. It might have to wait till Virgo is done, and my investigation on Aries too. That runt keeps escaping our gaze.”

“As if they weren’t out for blood before,” Aramus smiled wryly before lowering his head to the man across from him. “Thank you, Director.”

“I won’t go easy on you, though. I’ll make you work like a dead man or something.” Christopher’s face seemed rather scary for once.

“ …That would just kill teacher, Uncle,” Elizabeth said, almost in protest.

“No pain, no gain. Especially when I have this jewel of a Form before my very eyes. What kind of mage would I be to turn it down?” Aramus said with an equally crazed grin, his eyes lighting up in excitement.

“A lazy kind? Not that I mind, I get to laze in that case. Haha!” Christopher drank a cup of coke. “That said, you kind of end up developing a Dragon Soul inside yourself as you progress in your training, which is interesting.”

“Wait,” Aramus blurted, his eye twitching. “A Dragon Soul? What?”

“Yeah, a Dragon Soul. You end up having an entity inside yourself. For life, that is.”

As Christopher said unbelievable things, Aramus and Elizabeth both had widened eyes.

“A living entity inside oneself… similar to what theories we hear about Descendants?” Elizabeth inquired.

“Yep, just like those theories actually,” Christopher answered.

“So you’ve got one inside you. What’s it like?” Aramus said, back into his scholarly mode. “Is it able to manifest outside of your body on its own power?”

“Not really. Not completely, anyway,” Christopher replied. “It sometimes makes me grow wings or something and can really change how I look. Not very handsome when that happens, unfortunately.” This idea of his handsomeness dropping made Christopher visibly sad. “You get crazy strong, though. Sometimes, that rage can go out of control and you blurt out crap like you’re heavily drunk. The circumstances might change based on people, according to the monk I met. Also, it talks. Rarely, but it does.”

“So it talks… interesting,” Elizabeth stated.

“Wow. So I’ll get one of those…” Aramus said, actually pausing in his eating for once. “I wonder what it’ll be like...”

“Who knows. Mine likes to do nothing, but when something terrible happens, it always demands me to let it rumble. You’d have to take a lot of time developing yours, too.”

“Sounds like an interesting task. I’ll look forward to it. I just hope it doesn’t turn out strange or nothing goes wrong raising it…”

“Then you’ll suffer for life,” Christopher said. “Well, it’ll be up to you completely.”

Aramus shivered at the thought of a dragon nagging at him for life or even worse, complaining about his life choices and unhealthy diet. He didn’t need any more people doing that. As these thoughts came to him, there was a sudden message, and he learned that it was time for the plane to depart.

“Ah, teacher, we should get going now,” Elizabeth said, standing up from the table.

“Well, it was nice talking to y’all,” Christopher said, still munching. “Perhaps we’ll meet again if I can make it to the scene.”

Elizabeth gave a graceful bow to her Uncle. “Please take care, Uncle.”

“Same to you, and send my regards to your parents.” Christopher waved at the two, getting up from the chair if only for a bit before he’d resume eating.

“Or if we don’t get blasted into tiny pieces,” Aramus said with a sigh. “Be seeing you, teacher.”

“It’s a little too early for that!”

Weiss finally tracked down the Duke. The plane was delayed by an hour and it made it considerably easy to find. Needless to say, Weiss rushed out when she heard the news so she didn’t hear the full details from Virgo. Hence, Judgement Reaper was sent to help, in more ways than one.

By the time the aircraft took off, it was already dusk and the sun had set. Weiss’ blood was starting to boil despite the cold weather.

After all these years of serving a certain employer, she never had the time to search for her husband’s killer. Whenever she tried, she always had something to do, someone to kill.

The first few decades were tough since she had to get used to seeing the blood and insides of people through her husband’s rifle’s scope and the dagger. It was probably because of her job as a nurse before that she could better get accustomed to it all. Everytime she pulled the trigger, she always imagined how cool her late husband had been, to be able to stay calm and collected while doing the job.

She knew that her husband’s killer was inside one of the cabins of the plane. She was filled with determination, ready to kill the so-called Duke as swiftly as she could.

When she was on her way to the cockpit in the hallway, the wind shifted abnormally and she went under alert, but she only found a comrade forming behind her mystically, as if he was simply invisible.

“You found that Duke yet?” the boy wearing the black jacket with a hood asked.

“No I have not. I was going to announce my presence to him in order to flush him out.”

“You might attract unwanted attention. Go to the room I marked. The black eye mark.”

“I see. Thank you.”

“You need help, or are you doing this alone?”

“I’m doing this alone, it’s a rather personal.”

“Got it, just wanted to ask to be sure. I’ll try to keep any insects from getting in the way.”

Just as instructed by his so-called mother that was the Steel Princess, the boy offered to help, using his powerful tool that was his memories. The Memory Record Ability that was unique to him allowed to know even things he would never place much attention on.

“That would be appreciated. Thank you.”







She walked into the marked cabin. A black strange eye was marked on its door, making it look cryptic, however no mundanes could see it. A mark only for the members of the Magic World. It was like any other room inside, with two seats, a bed, and some other luxuries. She was surprised to see that her target was inside, just like the Reaper had told her. She pulled her rifle out and aimed right at his face and said, “Agent John, or should I say Powlett? You killed my husband. Prepare to die.”

The Agent was seated on a seat with his safety belt locked tight. He turned, his blonde hair of a similar length as she remembered. He was dressed in a black long coat that covered him entirely down to his ankles.

Weiss felt as though she just saw him yesterday; that was how vividly etched the memory of her husband’s death was.

The Duke who supposedly had double identities deftly undid his safety belt and got up to face Weiss with a smile that immediately alerted the Descendant somehow. There was bloodlust in his eyes despite his polite attitude.

“Oh, and what nonsensical drivel are you spouting here? Are you sure you are not drunk, Lady?”

“Two hundred years ago in a certain train which you cleaved in half, you killed a man right in front of my two eyes. You broke me. Now I’m going to take your life with the very same weapon that my husband used!” Weiss pulled the trigger of her rifle.

The Duke was visibly shot and hurt. It was a bingo as far as Weiss knew, but after a second, her expression didn’t change, but a realization dawned upon her.

This man was not ordinary.

The bullet fell from the coat, having hardly penetrated it.

“You know, Japan makes the finest of outfits these days . You should think of getting one,” the Duke said with a bigger smirk.

Ignoring the man, Weiss dashed in with great speed and kicked him multiple times on his chest. White hot steam was visibly leaking from her legs. With one last kick she burst opened her fully charged Blaster Heel on Powlett’s face.

The force from this strike was so strong that it was good enough to break the wall behind Powlett as he was pushed away into the air.

Since the pressure was so strong, the vacuum also pulled Weiss out. WIth her steam from the boots, however, she deftly maneuvered herself and managed to land on the roof of the airplane.

Three meters away beside her landed the Duke. He didn’t seem to be too affected just yet.

“Is that all you got?”

“It’s just the beginning!”

“Hmm, Uncle mentioned the Starlight Lost Form. I wonder what that is about…” Elizabeth mumbled on her own.

The teacher and student were now aboard the airplane on their way to New York. It was a luxury room, and of course the plane was high class thanks to a bit of help from the MVA. Apparently, the mages from the Royal Council were allowed some bit of bonus, even if they were ex-members. That was the excuse, anyway.

The room was ordinary like in any apartment with even a bathroom with it, and a bed, but the seats were like any other in a plane.

“Remind me to thank your Uncle again when we meet him, this cabin is amazing,” Aramus said as he sat on the bed, enjoying it so much more than his own back at the Academy.

“You should remember to do that much at least, teacher,” Elizabeth said, apparently disappointed at her teacher. “It’s an adult’s job to thank the appropriate person.” She also sat beside her teacher on the bed.

”Just a joke. I’m marvelling at how they manage to fit all this into an airplane!” Flopping back on the bed this time, Aramus hardly felt like they were in a steel coffin flying thousands of feet in the air.

“Really now? Somehow I’m not sure if you are just lacing it into a joke.” Elizabeth gave a rare smirk.

“I’ll leave that up to your imagination then, oh favorite student.” With a roll, Aramus was now laying on his stomach. The plush bed was easing all the tension in his muscles that had accumulated over the last day, or month in regular time and Aramus let loose a contented sigh.

“I’ll have you know that girls prefer more honest men.”

”You should’ve just said so from the start,” Aramus said, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. “Not going to enjoy yourself while it lasts? Watch a movie maybe? I’m pretty sure they have some pretty interesting films in the in-flight entertainment system.” Aramus reached for the entertainment pamphlet, beginning to leaf through it as he lay on the bed.

“Enjoy what, though? I cannot say that I am privy to the extent of the luxury here, having only traveled sparsely,” Elizabeth responded.

“Look for yourself.” Aramus handed the pamphlet to Elizabeth, having gone through the majority of it. Some of the films had piqued his interest, short hums of approval having punctuated his leafing. “You might find something you like or fitting for your age, romance or something.”

“I would rather watch action, thank you,” Elizabeth replied, somehow not pleased that she was generalized along with the other girls her age who’d likely be into romance. “Besides, watching romance with you be, teacher…”

Aramus noted that her cheeks flushed red for some reason.

“Why, are you bothered by watching it together with me? If it’s a good movie, I don’t really mind.” Aramus reached over and flipped the pamphlet she was holding to a particular romance movie. “Like this one here, it’s got pretty good reviews. Or maybe this movie here.” In doing so, he had gotten a bit closer to Elizabeth.

“N...No, I really do want to watch action themed movies, teacher…” Elizabeth meekly uttered, looking away.

“Oh, that’s fine too.” Aramus didn’t move from his position, merely flipping to the action movies page. “How about this? Hollywood’s latest blockbuster, bound to get your heart thumping and blood running. Sound good?”

“Yes, good enou—”

Suddenly, the room—no, the plane itself shook and there was a loud noise as though it collided against something. Due to the plane apparently cranking to a side before balancing again, Elizabeth was forcefully latched onto the bed, while Aramus… hit his head hard against the wall beside the bed.

“Good enough action… They forgot to include a line about pounding headache,” Aramus said as he got up, clutching the spot where he had smashed into the wall. “What the hell was that all about?”

“I do not know…” Elizabeth said, getting off the bed. She walked up to the window and looked. “We seem to be flying just fine for the moment.”

“For now,” Aramus scowled, reaching into the mini-bar for some ice. There was a bump beginning to form on his head. “I’m going to just rest for now till this thing gets better then I’ll head to the front to see what happened.”

“I am going to go out and check while you rest, teacher. Perhaps this isn’t something a Magister needs to move about to check,” Elizabeth said, opening the door.

“Be with you in a moment.” Aramus moaned, rubbing the ice against a particularly sore spot.

Closing the cabin door, Aramus basically stepped out into what looked like a still from the action movie that was in the pamphlet. Glasses crunched and tinkered beneath his boots and beyond the corridor leading to the cabin, he could see more signs of devastation. Moving forward in the plane, he kept an eye out for Elizabeth as he reached the bar.

Once lavious, the bar was now a shade of its former-self. Vintage liquor of all kinds, never to be drunk again as much of their contents and containers were now laid everywhere. A bar stool was even ripped out and had moved along with the plane’s motions, rolling whenever the aircraft shifted. Aramus had to cover his nose with a sleeve as the scent of alcohol wafted from practically everywhere as he continued to look for Elizabeth.

“Whatever caused that shaking earlier might have caused this as well, maybe Elizabeth is with the captain,” Aramus murmured.

Before he could enter another corridor and be on his way to the front of the airplane, a terrible breeze took place and he fell over. The plane also cranked at the same time and the same loud noise from earlier repeated.

He lifted up his upper torso to look, but found a ball of fire coming his way and quickly laid his head back down to let it pass. This was undoubtedly the Ignus Sphere spell. A basic and effective Ignem spell, usually.

“Teacher!” Elizabeth came running as the fire left. “There is an intruder!” She was holding her relic sword and was following whoever that was the enemy and passed by the Magister in a rush.

“Here we go again.” Aramus shook his head and pushed himself to his feet, mindful of the glass. He then turned behind to the bar to find Elizabeth facing a man holding a scythe.

The man wore a jet black jacket with a hood covering most of his head, only a bit of black hair could be seen from under it, and half of his face coupled with his height only made it apparent that he was a teenager.

“You must be… Magister Aramus, and that would be… Cavendish Bentinck.” The voice of the boy was heard. It was as though he was somehow finding out their names rather than knowing through memory. Ordinary memory. “Hey, do either of you know where… that Agent John is? The Duke Powlett guy I mean.”

“And you are?” Aramus said, bringing out Paimon’s fan with a burst of wind.

“I suppose there is no problem with answering.” A smile could be seen under the hood. “I am Judgement Reaper. One of the messengers of judgement of Lady Steel Princess. Ah, my bad, I suppose that’s Virgo to you,” he said, repositioning his scythe.

“Right, now that the introductions are over… Powlett’s on the plane?” Aramus said, lightly tapping the fan against his palm.

“You didn’t know? Useless,” the boy scoffed. “I guess that’s that. Bye.” He started to casually walk away.

“Says the one sent to kill him,” Aramus said, scowling at the teenager. “Some form of judgement you’re bringing if you can’t even find him.”

By the time Aramus was done speaking, however, the kid was long gone as the wind burst around him.

“Teacher…” Elizabeth looked with disappointment. “This is why we should cut on speaking more.”

“Let’s go after him. I want to see what business he has with Powlett, perhaps maybe even lend him a hand,” Aramus said, stalking after the teen.

“Teacher…” Elizabeth repeated. “I’ll have you reported if you do that. The Duke is one of the best assets the Queen has.”

“I know that. The guy gets on my nerves far too much but if he has any connections with them, it would be best to find out now.”

“It’s as clear as day that they are assassins looking to cut down our numbers.

The two were now running across the corridor. There was no one.

“Now my headache is back. Let’s get that kid off our flight so we can rest, maybe even have a nice civilized pot of tea with Powlett,” Aramus grumbled as he continued running.

Elizabeth found it ironic that he was wanting to get rid of Powlett but he was now wanting to have tea with the man who supposedly gets on his nerves? Regardless, with another bursting wind taking place, her train of thought was broken, but the plane didn’t arch to the side this time.

“It came from straight ahead! The cockpit perhaps?”

There were people peeking out from their cabin doors with fear as Aramus and Elizabeth passed by. When they opened the door to the cockpit a strong breeze hit against their bodies. The windows were broken and the men were all lying on the floor, some with blood leaking out and soaking the floor.

Additional blasts of wind were absorbed into Paimon’s fan as Aramus sprinted forward, trying to mitigate the collateral damage dealt.

Elizabeth shook the bodies of the fallen men and checked their pulses before she reported, “This one here is alive… barely.”

“Shit, I don’t have any spells for healing,” Aramus said as he looked over the man's injuries. “Will you be able to handle him? I’ll go on ahead if you can.”

“I cannot quite heal him either but someone has to take care of this mess. Go on ahead, teacher.”

Aramus nodded and continued forward, leaving the man in Ellie’s care.

(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlKI6Qa_ogg

“Assault mode!” Weiss shouted at her rifle. It quickly folded the long barrel and popped a muzzle out of the base of it. Weiss hastily pulled the trigger. The aim wasn’t exactly the best.

The Duke started to dash at her as she shot thrice. Perhaps the heavy air was messing with the trajectory. Whatever the case, the Duke evaded them with ease before coming at her with a large broadsword the color of silver with certain black things sticking out of it. On a closer inspection, she realized that they were the very gears that etched the fear of metallic sounds down to her very soul. Perhaps out of fear, she desperately avoided the edge of the blade as Powlett swung at her mercilessly a few times. Finally, some steam ejected from her heels, and she backed away from the Duke while shooting at him with the rifle.

“Oh, don’t be cold now, woman. You’re the one who sent the invitation.”

Some of the bullets were blocked with his sword, but two of them struck against him. Weiss wasn’t sure if they penetrated his coat, but he no doubt felt some pain. Since bullets were bullets, they’d hurt upon impact if anything.

Weiss heard the grinding noises of the gears, and he struck at her cleanly. The slash was vertical from her chest to navel, but it hardly drew much blood. Most of what came out from Weiss were parts of machinery.

“An android, huh?” Powlett noted.

“And it’s your fault that I’m in this state!” Weiss attached her rifle to her back and pulled out her knife. She dashed in and tried to stab Powlett in the chest, which he swiftly shielded himself from with his sword. “But I thank you for this!” Weiss put her other hand on the hilt and pushed him in an attempt to overpower him with her weight.

The Duke calmly blocked with the back of his left forearm at first. The pain made him wince before he slashed at her. Eventually, their weapons collided with a flaring spark. A dagger against a greatsword. When the gears of Powlett’s weapon started rotating at a great speed, the dagger was shredded.

By the time Powlett’s swing came to its end, the dagger was cut in two.

“You’re welcome.”

Tch, my knife. She took several steps back and pulled her rifle from her back, aimed at Powlett.

“O Asteria, I beseech you to guide my will. Let my fury be known. Let my fury be brought down from the depths of the heavens.” Powlett’s visage glowed with an aura of red as he chanted the incantations of a spell.

“Oh no you don’t!” She tried to interrupt him by shooting at him, hitting him several times. Even though he was shielded by his coat. Powlett smirked in return as the bullets fell straight off the coat. From the sky, an orange light could be seen.

Weiss looked up, squinting her eyes at the sight. It was coming straight at her. She thought of running, but it was too late for it was extremely fast. Something like a pebble hit her chest momentarily. It was a meteorite that was burnt out by the atmosphere, but it was still good enough to damage her. If she was a mundane human and not a Descendant, she’d likely have died from the spell.

“Little boy throwing rocks now?” she yelled even though it did hurt her. Just as her visions returned, she saw a lightning bolt shoot out from the front side of the plane. Reaper? Is he fighting someone here too? Time to finish this right now. She attached her rifle again and ran to Powlett at high speed. She jumped at him feet-first and yelled, “Eat another fully charged blast, Powlett!”

As the huge blast hit him, he also swung his sword that rang out the grinding noise, and thus they hit each other. More of Weiss’ mechanical parts were shattered and she was brushed away, while Powlett felt a strong force that pushed him so far that he was he longer above the plane.

The last of Powlett that Weiss saw was a face full of mirth with a big smirk. He wasn’t dying from a hit like that. A world-class mage wouldn’t die from a fall like that, either.

In the end, they were both pushed off the plane.

Weiss’ fear of sounds finally caught up to her. Due to the panic she felt, she couldn’t regain her balance after she took the hit from Powlett, and the wind swept her away.

When she was falling, a golden cloud flew down to her and she was caught by Judgement Reaper, who seemed to be riding it.

“I think that’s enough for tonight?”

Weiss didn’t answer. She only hugged herself and curled up like a scared kitten. She knew that she couldn’t hold back her fear of loud gears grinding anymore. She only nodded at the Judgement Reaper.

“You need repairs anyway… I guess that’s the best thing to do for now. He isn’t dying from that, but you’ll get him again.”

“A n-new knife too,” she said faintly.

“A knife of all things…”

“Or a w-w-weapon upgrade,” she said before shutting her eyes to sleep.

“Uh huh…”

“And a meal,” she talked in her sleep.

“Will you doze off already?”

She playfully giggled before going into a deep sleep.

As Aramus leapt out from the broken window panels, he could feel a bit of air hitting against him. Paimon wasn’t taking all of the wind into itself apparently. Granted, there was too much wind up here. He jumped and spun off to the top of the plane’s head, and it was very cold, with the clouds surrounding the wings of the plane. Taking some steps, he came to note that there were some flashes of steel happening every so often far ahead him—towards the back end of the plane.

Still, it was hard to balance and adapt to this state, even with most of the pressure being held off by Paimon, it was certainly a challenge for the Magister. It was a good idea to leave Elizabeth behind.

“Oh?” You’re here.”

Despite all this wind, he could hear the voice of the boy he met earlier. Aramus then realized that the suction of the wind was being interrupted somehow.

“Really hoped you could have kept the damage to a minimum but that was hoping for too much.” Aramus squinted at the boy, wondering how and why the wind was behaving so strangely.

“I have no reason to give concern for humans. After all, my duty is to put them to the door of death.”

“Then our conversation ends here I guess,” Aramus said, brandishing his fan once more.

“I was hoping it’d come to this.” The boy smiled again, the hint of amusement apparent. “It was getting boring since she refused to let me help.”

“Let you help…?” Aramus’s eyes widened once he realized what was going on. “I’ll need you off this plane then. Unruly passengers are not allowed on this airline.”

“We’ll see about that.” The child’s eyes widened in excitement and the winds vibrated harder than usual.

(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlKI6Qa_ogg)

Without anymore preamble, Aramus thrust his right hand forward and then upwards, sending the teenager hurtling away from the plane. His left hand followed up with a Galeforce—his new spell—but it sputtered out of energy as it left his palm, the orb dissipating in the winds. Aramus clicked his tongue in annoyance as the spell failed, turning his eyes back to the speck that was the Reaper.

“I knew it would fail.”

High up in the sky was the child claiming to be a Representative of Virgo. The air was strong and the clouds were cold. However, the once prodigy of the Form of Aurum didn’t care about the harsh conditions of the atmosphere, and nor did it perturb him. He could play along with the Magister just fine.

“I invoke the charm of Swastika. Thor—pray grant me the protection of the hammer of lightning. Holy Wrath—Vengeance.”

A thunder rumbled intensely in the sky above Aramus as Thor’s name was invoked by the Representative. There was hardly a storm, but even then he could feel something extremely powerful coming. Perhaps it was something he could sense thanks to Paimon’s Fan, but even his relic couldn’t shield him against the coming force of the Supreme spell. The speed of the lightning was too fast for him to evade as it crashed directly onto him.

Futilely raising his arms to shield himself, Aramus screamed as the lightning surged through his body. He could feel the armor apparently once used by his Queen—gifted by Hades unto him—reacting to the magic, dissipating some of its power upon impact. Even that was not enough and he felt like he had been cooked alive; his nerves screamed in pain even though the bolt lasted for only a moment. He dropped to a knee, his fingers twitching from residual electricity.

“Brat,” he hissed, clenching his fist.

He rose unsteadily back to his feet, a shaky arm outstretched towards the Reaper. The Reaper in the distance was surrounded by thin streaks of electricity, freezing his body in place as his limbs were pulled by magnetic energy. Opening his palm, he locked the signature of the field in the distance with the magic gathering in his hand and let fly a bolt of lightning. He snickered slightly in satisfaction as the bolt flew, tracing his magic signature to its bound target.

“Is that really all you got?” the voice of the child reached Aramus’ ears despite the distance.

For some reason, he could easily send his voice afar.

It felt as though the Reaper smirked. Aramus squinted to see what the little figure was doing, his eyes widening as he realized what was about to happen. He invoked Hermes's Wings. Tiny wings of wind sprouting around his ankle, and attempted to fly away, but the sudden action caused his legs to seize up, possibly an aftereffect of the previous spell. Now grounded, the Magister cursed his bad luck by pounding a fist into the fuselage of the plane.

“In the name of the Conqueror—I curse the heavens and earth both—let the Gates of the Fay be opened. The world shall thus be defiled, starting from its sky—down to the very earth.”

Aramus heard the Reaper chant the verses, and the sky’s clouds soon underwent a change. The sky held a hue of lemon color as a result. He noted a kind of terrible scent and instantly covered his mouth and nose, but his body was starting to burn as if being swathed with acid. His coat from Harrods was once again tarnished, and with it his skin was scorching hot too. He knew he couldn’t stay here for long. In fact, even Elizabeth could fall into danger.

He tried to get Paimon to absorb the winds, but it didn’t seem like it could. Then again, it could also damage his relic fan. Invoking the spell bestowed upon him by the Queen, a sphere of wind formed around him and began to brace for anything else the Reaper might have. Aramus took a deep breath as his Parma Magic took form.

“Kids these days getting full of themselves,” he wheezed once his breathing was back under his control.

Aramus then heard an explosion, and a black figure fell off the roof of the plane. He could just barely tell from the shape that it was likely Powlett. At the same time, whoever was fighting him also seemed to have taken a hit and fell.

In response, the Reaper moved at great speed to catch his apparent comrade, riding something Aramus couldn’t see due to the color of the sky.

“We’ll meet again, Magister.”

“Brush your teeth next time, your breath stinks,” Aramus said as he ran as best he could to the spot Powlett fell from. A part of him was elated, but the Magister quashed it and ran back to Ellie, seeing that there was nothing he could do about the Duke.







Returning through the hole in the cockpit, he noted that the plane was beginning to tear itself apart. Their ride wouldn’t last much longer.

Ellie was there and he quickly hurried over to her as best as his legs could manage.

“I lost Powlett,” Aramus wheezed. “He went off the plane courtesy of our teenager’s companion. Did you managed to save that man?”

“ …I could not do anything about it, teacher,” Elizabeth answered, shaking her head, glum. “It’s bad enough that we lost one of our Dukes the Queen sent, but the pilots have also passed away. I cannot find any notable wounds, but their hearts beats not. The blood seems to be a result of vomiting.”

“And the plane is going to pieces,” Aramus said as he massaged a thigh. “I’m going to try and bring it down safely, do you have any ideas?”

“Perhaps try something with the fan? I remember that you are proficient with Aurum, teacher. There’s also the people to think about… I imagine someone will try to check here. I can only imagine what kind of danger there is beyond a closed door.”

“That’s the plan. At the rate we’re going, this plane will be torn apart due to the weaknesses in the fuselage. I will try and land it as best I can but chances are, it won’t happen. Can I entrust you to handle the passengers?”

“Using the comms I should be able to tell them to lock their seatbelts. I am not sure if there is a better solution than that.”

“Ok, tell everyone to strap in. There should be some oxygen masks to aid them in the depressurization if they haven’t already put them on.” Aramus got up and started looking at the instrument panel, his eyes searching for a particular toggle.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth took up the device to relay the message to the passengers that she found some time ago while checking out the controls. By the time she put it down, she sighed and looked to her teacher.

“I hope this works out. How is it looking on your side, teacher?”

“Uh… I think I pressed the right button,” Aramus said, looking very confused by the sheer number of buttons and flashing lights on the control panel. “Right, I’ll try and get this plane under control then.”

“Good luck,” Elizabeth said. “Unfortunately, there is not much I may do in a situation like this.”

“Alright, then strap in.” Aramus motioned to one of the pilot seats before standing in the center of the cockpit himself. Elizabeth simply gave a nod and strapped the belt over herself after she sat down.

Taking a deep breath, Aramus slowed his breathing and raised Paimon’s fan. The relic weapon shuddered in his hands, feathers spread as Aramus willed it to control the winds surrounding the airplane. He could feel the currents, the path of the airplane as it screamed down to earth. The wind within the cabins were his to command as well. He could sense the fear in the passengers breaths, some crying in despair and fear, others offering prayers to Gods they had never met as they said their last rites.

All this was carried on the wind and in that moment, he was one with it. Levelling the plane out was his first action, pulling it up from its steep dive. Aramus used the oncoming air like a palm to even out the airplane, a pocket of air rising from below to lift its nose up as best he could. The fuselage shuddered under the force as it began to slow until eventually, Aramus could steer it without forcibly directing too much of the wind.

It continued this way as he brought the plane lower through the atmosphere, the speed of the wind slowing down until they dropped, encountering some turbulence. The fan was a relic, but it was all Aramus could do to control so large an aircraft. Flying through the pockets of air, the cockpit turned dark for a moment before the alarm started blaring, indicating a fire somewhere on the plane. Probably a rupture somewhere, and it needed to be dealt with, otherwise they might end up as a fireball. Even he couldn’t save them then.

“Ellie, could you be a dear and locate the source of that problem? Shut it down by any means necessary!” he hollered over the wind.

“I shall be on it!” Elizabeth undid her belt and rushed out. Despite the situation, it helped that the air in the aircraft was under control and relaxed thanks to her teacher. Aramus saw her dashing through the air with the Flashstep spell after she opened the door behind him.

Some minutes had passed by the time his student was back, holding her relic sword as she entered. She was sweaty. She immediately ran up to the control panel and took up the communications device and reported to the passengers—literally shouting at them—that the plane was going to soon land and that everyone should brace themselves. After she was done, she looked up to Aramus.

“I had to cut the wings off, teacher!” she explained with a grimace. “They were burning and I believe we are better off without them at this point!”

Aramus gave her a look of abject horror before concentrating on the task at hand. “Then you better hope that those seatbelts keep you strapped in real good because we’re not exactly flying anymore!”

“Unfortunately, I doubt there was any other way!” Elizabeth responded. “It was hard enough to swing a sword in that situation. You’ll have to work overtime with those winds!”

“Easy for you to say, you try making a pencil fly. Now strap in before it gets worse!” Aramus yelled as the wind began to pick up.

They were dropping at an increasing rate due to losing air resistance and it was all he could do to keep the plane level. “We’re all going to die. This pencil is going to slam into the ground nose first.”

Elizabeth scowled but she did as asked. Easy for her to say? Then perhaps he should’ve dealt with the fire too.

“Calm down teacher! It only becomes true if you say it like that! Have some hope!” the scholar shouted back, still optimistic.

“Hope!?” Aramus yelled back, his voice cracking. “I can feel the wind. It’s not giving me any good vibes. No matter what I do, we’re still picking up speed.”

Before Elizabeth could shout back, the plane finally crashed into the ground. Not strapped in like Elizabeth was, Aramus was flung around like a rag doll within the cockpit and lost consciousness. Some moments passed before Elizabeth finally opened her eyes. They barely made it, but they did made it. It felt like the belt might’ve broken off had the landing been a bit worse, but it was simply more loose than normal now. At least that’s what she thought when she unlocked it and walked out from the broken window panels. She swore that she heard her teacher screaming as he flew about.

She then looked behind and his body was one of those among the pilots. She was relieved that he wasn’t someone who had flown out of the windows. Elizabeth then looked outwards again and found out that they had landed on a field of wheat. This was indeed the State of Oregon. The lights of the city barely illuminated it. She heaved a heavy sigh before she walked back to the teacher and gave him a jerk.

“Teacher, are you alright?!”

Aramus was bleeding from a gash on his forehead and opened his eyes slowly, blearily blinking at her. “Unnn?”

“We’re alive, teacher! We made it!” Elizabeth said, practically still shouting even though the intense airs were gone.

“We’re not dead,” Aramus muttered in disbelief. “We’re not dead!” he then yelled, grabbing his student in a hug.

Elizabeth’s cheeks were tinted as pink as cherry but she smiled. A man should be allowed to do this much after all the trouble. “Mn,” she agreed. “We’re alive, and this is definitely not our afterlife.”

“That is good. Good indeed,” Aramus said, still dazed from being thrown around. “We can give ourselves a good pat on the back…” He trailed off as his mind registered what he was doing and more importantly, the very warm and soft body in his arms. He released her with speed befitting of a Magister, his own cheeks slightly pink. He coughed, saying his next words with an unsteady voice. “We should check up on the passengers for injuries.”

“Y-Yes… a-actually, we should likely refrain from doing so…” Elizabeth blurted out, barely getting up and placing the unsettling feelings aside.

“Refrain?” Aramus said, giving his student a questioning gaze.

“We should leave now while we can, teacher. We would not want them reporting anything regarding us. It is bad enough that the voice of a mage was heard from the announcements to the passengers. Let the authorities handle the rest of this matter.”

“Very well,” Aramus said unwillingly, cricking his neck to clear the kinks. “I assume you’re fit to use magic?”

“Of course.”

The two then stepped out through the broken window panels and used their mobility spells to leap off and make an escape. They could hear something like a crowd and panicking people in the distance as many people had likely started to head for the site of the crash. The locals and the authorities were indeed better off with this burden. It’d be troublesome to return to New York if they involved themselves further with this chaos.

In a lounge inside the Wellington Hotel was someone who stole the attention of any passersby. Almost every staff member or resident would find themselves turning to her. The Princess of the distant country of England, however, cared not about the attention she received. Unlike her mother, she wouldn’t smile at anyone her eyes meet with.

A truly icy princess, or so it seemed.

On the other hand, there was her supposed bodyguard who sat opposite to her. Who followed her all the way from England to America. The world was very different to him after he came here. He was unfortunately ignorant to the fact that he completely mistook the words of the Queen, but it was still going as planned. He just didn’t know.

“So,” the princess broke the silence in the air. “How long will you keep this up?”

“For as long as milady requires my service, may it not come too soon,” he replied dutifully, knowing better than to seem too familiar in public.

“Even if I have not commissioned for your service?”

“While you are the client, the contractor, or employer, need not be the client themselves. I apologize for any inconvenience, but one does not decline the Queen.”

“I suppose you have a point,” the Royal Princess Louise replied with a dry tone. It seemed as though she agreed, but the way she gazed at him for some seconds seemed as though she considered “other means” to get rid of him. “Say, how capable are you?”

“I wouldn’t want to sound boastful, but I’d say my studies have been coming along well. While I’m sure there are stronger people in this world, I should at the least be able to provide a distraction while you escape,” he joked with a slight lift to his voice that broke the serious tone he’d previously maintained. “I’ve a knack for swordplay rarely seen in one my age, and an understanding of the technical workings of magic that allow me to perform it with few flaws or complications, as well as a diverse understanding of the different schools of magic, though my specialty lies in Creo Ignem.”

“So, probably not as good as a Magic Magister, at least,” Louise murmured, and soon hummed, not very impressed with the statement. It was obvious that she didn’t care about being polite with the bodyguard. His tone was not appropriate to some extent, not only now, but before when she first met him too. He was too casual, and it made her ponder regarding his education and upbringing back in England, if only slightly. “I suppose it would be wise to use you for a distraction indeed.”

“Thank you for your wisdom and benevolence, milady.”

“I do not remember giving any special advice…”

Apparently, the Princess’ sarcasm was hard to catch due to her indifferent tone.

“All the same, it warms the cockles of my heart to hear you agree that a thought of mine is good.” Alek smiled just a little, betraying that he had told the truth about the †˜cockles of his heart.’

“...You are welcome.”

“Would you like some more tea, milady?”

“Very well. Make sure that it is not sweet in taste.”

“At once.” He stood and moved to the nearest staff. “Excuse me, sir. I need one pot of boiling water with all haste. The Princess demands tea.”

The staff member looked at him for a moment like he was perplexed, the request sounding rather odd to him. A modern citizen of America would refer to it as “giving the strange look,” but Aleksander simply found it awkward.

“Please wait a moment,” was all the staff member said, before taking a minute to hand Aleksander the cup of tea along with some sugar and a spoon.

“My word, I asked for a pot of boiling water, not a cup of tea. Now run along and fetch the water please, lest I have a word with your boss on proper etiquette.” He was clearly upset with the man for assuming to prepare the Princess’ tea himself, but not so much to break his childhood etiquette training.

“...Sorry, sir? You did mention that the †˜Princess’ there demands tea. We have tea prepared so…”

“I don’t know if you quite realize what a Princess is, so I’ll explain it for you. Princess Louise requires tea, I have bags of her favorite tea here, and am more than willing to steep it myself, now fetch a pot of water.” He tactfully left out his concerns over poison and such.

Just as he finished, Princess Louise took the tea with her own hands from the staff member, whose tea Aleksander didn’t accept. The Princess was more worried about the attitude he displayed as a foreigner. She was doubtful if her bodyguard himself understood what he meant about a Princess.

“I thank you for preparing this cup of tea,” Louise said. Her smile had surely won over the heart of the staff member in that instance, but Aleksander saw a deathly gaze as the Princess turned to him.

Or was it his imagination? Louise walked back to her place as soon as she gave the glance.

Aleksander bowed slightly to the attendant.

“Thank you for your help, sir. I apologize for any inconvenience I might have caused you.”

He promptly walked back towards Louise having scrunched his eyebrows at not getting to make her tea himself. He’d been practicing for hours the night before, and had been looking forward to trying to impress her.

“I find the hotel’s tea to be more delicious, after all,” the Princess blatantly stated. Perhaps that was the final nail in the coffin, but that was her exact aim. “To add, you should never create a commotion in public. Are you trying to embarrass me?”

“I’m sorry, I will endeavour to do better, and to be less of an embarrassment to you…” He looked down in what might have seemed like solemnity, but in actuality he leaked a single tear that he promptly sucked back into his tear duct. “I just wanted to show you how much my tea-making has improved. I practiced for hours trying to find just the right amount of time to steep it…” The tear had actually smudged a small amount of the foundation he’d applied to cover the bags under his eyes.

“...Very well, perhaps when you come to my room after some time. I shall evaluate the results of your practice.” Even if she said so, Louise’s expression didn’t change from the usual, but there was something about pity that the bodyguard could pick up from her tone.

“I shall look forward to it, then.” And then he sat still, keeping his eyes, ears, and nose open to try and intercept any imminent danger that might come knocking.

(GM Comment: Uh, yeah. New player's first scene, can't say it was meant to go well for this fellow.)

“May I have you remind me why we’re sharing a single room again…?” Princess Louise questioned.

In the high class suite that was prepared, the Royal Council didn’t really assume that there was a bodyguard. By the time they knew, it was too late. All they could do was put Aleksander along with her. Suffice it to say, perhaps Louise pretended to forget this fact, or truly forgot about it. Regardless, they were stuck together like this for the times to come.

“I’m sure that it was unintentional on the part of the Council, and I’ve already assured you that I’m a complete gentleman, which I thought was reinforced when I slept on the couch these past few nights… Besides, the silver lining on this particular cloud is that you aren’t mobbed by hormonal teenagers asking you to date them, since they’re too scared of me…” He smiled slightly.

“Really though,” Alexsander continued, “I’m here as a last line of defense, in case an assassin comes for you in the middle of the night. I can stop them before they even get close. Not something I could do from another room…”

Louise shrugged. “You would be erased from existence if you try anything, anyway. Also, in the event that I may actually prefer to socialize once in awhile— do not scare the people in my vicinity.”


“I’ve seen how some of these †˜people’ ogle you. The only intentions they have for you are…” He trailed off, becoming visibly flustered.

“Oh?” Louise quirked an eyebrow. “And are you implying that you do not do the same?”

“I did not say that I don’t understand why they do it, since a certain appreciation for beauty is hardwired into most men, just that I don’t intend to let anything happen to you if I can avoid it.”

Perhaps for the first time, Princess Louise chuckled. “Honesty is a great thing in men,” she remarked.

He realized what he said out loud and had simply hung his head in shame, already wondering what form his punishment would take.

“Well, it is expected for onlookers to seek pleasing sights, much like gazing at a beautiful rose. Would you not agree?”

While Aleksander was suffering from shame, it seemed like Louise was equally amused, speaking with a proud tone.

“Yes I would, but it has always been my aim to be better than any other, to reach my full potential, as it were. I want to be strong enough to stand by your side without shame, and know that I’m more help than hindrance… and how can I do that properly when I find myself falling prey to the disarming charms of a pretty face? Should I let my sword hesitate in the act of striking down evil simply because it wears the guise of an attractive lady?”

“Hm, that would likely be your test of resolution. Indeed, it is easier to fall prey to hesitation that way.” For once, Louise agreed. “That said, I hear our enemy is indeed a beautiful woman.”

“Then perhaps being your bodyguard is a truer method of training than any I’ve tried before…” he mused. “Though it will do no good if I’m simply distracted by you rather than by the enemy before us…”

“That would prove that you are useless indeed,” Louise scoffed. “I do hope you understand my agenda behind my visit, however?”

“Indeed, I cannot say that I’m privy to the nature of our visit, no.”

“First, let us have your hours of practice tested. Get the tea prepared.”

He began with a simple collapsible pot that he pulled out of a rucksack he brought. He filled it with pure alpine water from a bottle that was also in the rucksack, and pouring it in, he used his Ignem magic on the pot with the hopes of heating the water, and then maintained the flame until the water was boiling just right. Once the water was ready, he added in a teabag of his own special blend that he had based on tea blends that he’d heard her say she enjoyed, and proceeded to let it steep for some good 4 and a half minutes or so.

By the time Aleksander was ready with his cup of tea, Louise was well into an article in a random magazine she had picked up some time ago. Despite her pink and black long and exquisite dress, she sat with a leg pulled resting above the other and was fairly engrossed when the tea was offered. She didn’t liked to be disturbed, but since it was her order, she obliged and placed the magazine on the table.

Aleksander noted that it was a magazine about women’s fashion.

“...Not bad, I suppose. Perhaps it was worth practicing all those hours,” she praised.

“Thank you very much, I shall continue to try to improve.” His heart felt like it grew three sizes when he heard even that light bit of praise, feeling entirely vindicated of his lost sleep. “If you don’t mind, how do you find the time to stay on top of fashion? More importantly, why do you? You’re a Princess, so if you wore a dress made of newspapers there’d be hundred more news agencies selling newspapers by the end of the day.”

The Princess wondered why it was any of his business about what she did at all. “Clearly, I do not lead the trend in this world,” Louise stated, feeling confusion as a result of his inquiry. “As you would know, the modern world and the nineteenth-century England are very different places. I do not think the current fashion trend is bad. In fact, I am tempted to indulge it…”

“I…” He quickly realized that she had a point. “Yes, I see. Being in such a different place for the first time is certainly… taking some getting used to. I apologize for speaking out of place. For what it’s worth, it is my belief that clothes merely enhance or detract from one’s natural beauty, and that they cannot create that which is not already there in at least some measure. I do not know how to feel about this new style of clothing, but I believe that you can, as they say here, †˜pull it off.’”

“It is my belief that the dress makes the lady,” Louise responded. “Even someone fairly average can look like a gem nowadays. Though… your example with the newspaper rather irks me, but of course, we shall see whether I may †˜pull it off’ or not.”

“I read in a paper just yesterday that a famous musician here wore a dress made of meat.”

“Sounds rather unique. I think that is a bit off the trend, though.”

“I do suppose you have a point. It seems a tad far-fetched even for such a strange society. What is the fashion here like, anyways?”

“Take a look for yourself.”

Aleksander picked up the magazine, flipping it open to a random page and began to read it while Louise sipped the tea.

“Anyway, back to the topic about my agenda. We’re here to hunt for Virgo, the enemy of our country, as you may have noticed,” Louise began. “Or rather, the enemy of the world. When she does turn up, we shall move out.”

“Understood, I’ll remain ready to go at a moment’s notice of course.” He nodded. “Do you really think that just you and I can take on a Descendant all by ourselves?”

“Perhaps. We will have to see,” Louise answered nonchalantly. “We shall wait some time for her to deal with our numbers. She may be weakened from dealing with too many mages.”

“Wouldn’t that be quite a pyrrhic victory at best? Losing that many powerful mages would be quite a blow to the strength of our country…”

“I would agree, except that most of these mages were not truly a part of our forces originally, but gathered from around the world under the banner of a campaign run by my mother, the Queen. At least half of them joined as †˜volunteers’ and are being paid a sum if they come back alive. Regardless, a victory is a victory all the same. I care more about the results than the methods employed.”

“Well, as long as it isn’t going to weaken us in front of the other countries… I wouldn’t want England to be the bloody chicken that gets pecked to death by the others…” he agreed. “If they wish to throw away their most talented youngsters, then I say we should let them.”

“Well, it is not as though there are many countries that use mages as their military force to begin with,” Louise stated. “Most mages hail from various tribes and Magic Organizations. Needless to say, I suppose it does not change the point. Let us hope that much of England’s assets are not lost to this affair.”

“Even if our standing military is fine, the loss of ideas and of knowledge would be more than I care to think of…” he said with much seriousness. “How can we develop our art without bright young minds to push the boundaries of what’s possible?”

“Are you saying that sacrifices are not necessary against a Descendant who claims that she will destroy the human race?”

“Err… not quite, milady. Simply that when they are avoidable, I see no reason for unnecessarily throwing away the lives of potentially useful pawns.” He didn’t seem to notice his use of the phrase †˜potentially useful pawns’ instead of simply humans.

“But in this situation, said pawns are disposable. What good would they do to exist other than to fight problematic Descendants and the wars with Japan?”

“An excellent question, but every actor has their part to play, no matter how big or small. Mine happens to be to watch over you, in the hopes that my life might be enough to buy yours, should it come to that. Do you see me as simply an expendable pawn meant for your protection? Are you willing to disregard all of the things that make me me? Or are you even aware of anything regarding me other than that your mother, the Queen, assigned me to guard you? Surely she must have had a reason for picking me rather than some other random stranger…”

Louise gave a bewildered look before she shrugged. “So, their part is dying for the sake of mankind, and if my memory serves correctly: yours is to be a suitable distraction while I make my escape, yes?” she asked. “That was what you claimed, after all. So, to answer, yes, I do find you expendable, I suppose?” Louise smiled. She was truly having fun putting him down like this. She could find no reason to care, whereas Aleksander apparently desired for her to care about him. She honestly wondered what reason her mother picked such a person. I pray that your act changes soon. Having being taught that staying with a man like this in the same space—despite the claim of a so-called gentleman—who was not even officially a noble was offsetting enough, but he seemed to have issues that the Princess wasn’t entirely sure about just yet.

“And if I wanted to be more than a mere distraction?” he asked, purposefully not specifying to whom he meant.

“What more would you want to be? Is it not enough that you have get to enjoy my company? Men are so greedy.”

“Perhaps I am greedy, but there is a reason I chose to be a Dark Knight and serve one such as you, than to be a holy knight and serve the church. Partly for personal gain, and partly to restore the honor of the Fane name.”

“Well, being a Dark Knight gives away that much, but I do not know if serving me will restore honor. Struggle if you will, for life is still a battle for you to defeat.”

“I am not in such a hurry to bring that particular conflict to its resolution, for it isn’t one that man is known to win very often, and certainly never for long… but if you must insist on throwing me away like a cheap toy, then I suppose that is what you’ll do, regardless of how I feel about it,” he mused aloud.

“That is correct. I would do that, regardless of your feelings. Anything else you would love to complain about?”

Louise finally finished Aleksander’s tea. Now that he thought about it, she was drinking it much more slowly than usual.

Aleksander picked up a slight note of danger to the way she asked that question. “No, really just thinking aloud. I’d almost tricked myself into thinking you cared, or even noticed that I existed when I wasn’t speaking. More importantly, what didn’t you like about the tea that I could improve on for next time?”

What is this nobody getting so emotional over? “Unfortunately, that is true. There are many things I cannot bring myself to care about,” Louise admitted, closing her eyes before picking up the magazine again. “…Perhaps it is your blend, I am not very certain of it yet.” In truth, she had hardly examined the depth of the taste due to the conversation they were engaged in. This was often a flaw in Louise where she could easily lose concentration due to the distractions, not that her bodyguard knew.

Aleksander knew better than to say anything else after she resumed reading, and instead reflected on how that was the most he’d heard her open up to anyone yet. I’m making progress… he thought with an inward grin and a slight swoon of his heart.

“Say… Louise? Sorry to interrupt you again and all, but do you want to like, go to a concert with me or something? I figured since we’re in such a different place it might be nice to take in some of their culture, and these concerts seem somewhat similar in theory to an opera, so it might not be a bad place to start..” He crossed his fingers and prayed to any god that might choose to listen.

Louise did not twitch visibly, but definitely on the inside due to the casual manner in which she was addressed, but instead she hummed in thought, not looking up from an article. It was unbecoming to be honest to a man like this. At the same time, she didn’t quite hated the suggestion, and found herself interested, entirely missing his aim for asking her out. “The types of music heard in the New World has a rather broad range if I remember correctly. What type of a concert would you suggest?”

“Hmm…. I must confess that quite a few options sound good to me, mind if I hear what piques your interest first, and we can see if we’re both interested in the same thing?”

“I had been reading much about… gothic tastes in people, and particularly †˜rock’ bands. I cannot fathom… what people like about such groups, but it does pique my curiosity.” For once, Louise was speaking with quite a lot of intrigue, coming out of her shell a little. “It is also a wonder that they have electronic means to use their musical instruments.”

“Ah, the electric guitar as I’ve heard it called, that does sound quite fascinating… what would the recommended mode of dress be for such an occasion I wonder?” he asked with a renewed sense of hope that she actually seemed interested in going.

“Something †˜casual’ as a New Worlder would put it? I shall look that one up myself.”

“I think I have a good outfit in mind, but only time will tell if it’s appropriate or not, and I want it to be a surprise nonetheless… I shall ask around and see when one of these concerts might be happening, if milady wishes to go to one.”

“You mean an outfit for yourself?”

He blushed slightly. “Y-Yes of course, I’m sure that whatever you choose will be absolutely dazzling!”

“Probably. I do not want to stand out, so I will likely try not to pick something flashy.”

“I’m sure that a dress made of the finest rhinestones couldn’t hold a candle to the sparkle in your eye and the lustrous shine of your silken locks…” He inexplicably waxed poetic for just a second, betraying but a fraction of the adoration he held for his mysterious client.

Louise didn’t betray his expectations, however, for she was already back to ignoring his existence altogether.

(GM Comment: We were supposed to finish this scene here but…)

Aleksander began to daydream idly about stuff and things, a ridiculously cheesy grin on his face the entire time as the pot of tea he was working on began to boil over the side.

It started burning his hand where the sizzling droplets of water hit the bare flesh, causing him to drop the spoon into the pot and start hissing in pain as he clutched at the sensitive burn he was now sporting.

“Why are you making such a fuss?” Louise finally inquired after some moments of his whimpers passed.

The pot had tipped over due to a jarring it received from the rapid departure of his hand, and indeed the water was rapidly flowing towards Louise, wherein Aleksander watched it almost in slow-motion.

In a display of above-average acrobatics, Aleksander propelled himself forward faster than the rushing water, which was really more of a trickle, shouting, “Princess! Look out!” He dived in front of the water and promptly switched to a tone of pure agony at the scorching heat of the overheated water, and rolled away from the water and up to Louise’s feet, as he tried to curl his body enough to deflect the flowing water around her like a boat hull.

“Useless monkey,” the Princess murmured, and her bodyguard almost thought that he misheard. What seemed like a wind with a darker shade of violet was generated, and a mysterious wave was formed as Louise’s eyes turned black momentarily.

By the time Aleksander realized what had happened, his back had already been glued to the wall due to the strong force he was struck with, and it hurt even more due to this particular crash He could see the hot water splattered against the wall on the opposite side of the room. His whimpers had become something altogether more sinister, and his cheeks flushed redder than his burned hand after the pain had suddenly become an intense soothing pleasure. He struggled to move himself from the wall with every ounce of his not inconsiderable strength, and fell down to the floor.

“Looooooouuuuuuuiiiiiiiiissssseeee,” he let out a long, high pitched moan of “pain?” and continued to struggle. “Wwwwwhhhhhaaaaattttt did you just dooooo…?” he barely wheezed out from the floor, his cheek now flat against it.

“None of your business… rather, should you be making inquiries of the Princess of Britain rather than begging for your life for this pathetic mistake?”

“The only reason I’m not scared for my life right now, is that I already know that I’m a pathetic worm that is barely fit to wriggle beneath your boot, let alone be subjected to your magnificent arcane prowess?”

“So you do not feel apologetic?”

“I simply assumed that my sorrow did not go unnoticed by one so incredibly observant and wise as yourself!” He had actually begun to cry at how strongly he felt over the pain and shame, and yet he was oddly excited. Sort of like a puppy that knew he was in deep dookie but was still happy to be noticed by its owner.

“Do answer then, why do you seem so strangely pleased, or is that my mistake in noticing?”

“I’m ashamed of the circumstances, but glad that senpai noticed me… it was either this or burning the magazine, and if I did that, I’d for sure be dead now…”

(GM Comment: >so-called British gent saying senpai.)

“Huh? The magazine is burned? And what is a †˜senpai?’” In actual fact it was fine, and Louise’s control over her spell was, after all, top-notch, but she could well imagine anyone assuming that the furniture and any small items were blown away—they weren’t.

“I’ve gotten into reading these… these books in my free time. Look in my bag if you want to see what I mean…” Aleksander glanced at a rucksack with the corner of a book poking out. “Please, for the love of God, you crush my heart and soul every time you ignore me…” he mumbled, somehow knowing that she would ignore the fact that he said that last bit, or that if she did pay attention, she only did so because he was mumbling.

“Why should you deserve my attention, however? You haven’t bowed down and begged for it. Really, you call yourself an ex-noble out to regain his rank…” The Princess was only appalled as far as her words could give away, and it had hardly been so long since they came to the United States, when did he even find time to read foreign books with such a strange language?

“That’s not what I want to hear from the girl who stuck me to the wall like a fly in a museum…” He grumbled. “And you know as well as I do that while my blood was noble in the past, it is no longer.”

“You deserve it for your insolence,” Louise did not grimace at all, but her tone was clue enough that this was beyond disappointing. How could her mother have made the mistake of choosing such a man? “And if you are saying that you are no longer a noble—get out. You clearly do not know your place, I am sick of your rudeness, and I would prefer to be called a lady rather than a †˜girl.’”

“I meant only that I’m technically not a noble, and I am sorry for assuming familiarity… If you wish me to be more formal when we’re in private then I will do my best… my lady…”

“Good.” Not really. “Now, the door is over there.” For someone who wasn’t groveling yet, Louise felt rather merciless to let him off like this.

Aleksander got up at last, and dusted himself off with a serene look. “Yes of course... Regardless, let me take care of that for you.” He had moved to take the tea cup from her noting that she had finished it some minutes ago. “Is there anything you’d like me to do for you?” he asked, intending to read a bit if she said no.

“I have told you to leave already,” Louise answered. She sank back to her sofa with her magazine.

“I’m sorry, milady. Much as I wouldn’t dare to disobey you under normal circumstances, I’ve been directed to not let you leave my sight by your mother, and the contract holder for this job. It’d be a breach of my personal ethics to not comply with her wishes.” He bowed and moved towards the bed to read a comic, not yet knowing that it was intended to be marketed towards young girls.

Not even addressing my mother properly, the gall of this man… “Oh? Is that so? How far would you go to keep an eye on me, Sir Knight?” She was no longer trying to hide the sarcastic tone.

“Within reasonable bounds. I can assure you that I am not †˜peeking’ when you bathe or any such nonsense, milady. I am however keeping a close eye on all entrances to watch for intruders who would steal your chastity.”

Somehow, the mention of “chastity” seemed very much unneeded, but she didn’t comment on it. “However, I am very unreasonable for a person.” Louise smiled. Clearly, the knight knew that it wasn’t going to get better. “Tell you what. If you can find me in a game of… yes, a game of hide and seek—I shall allow you to remain.”

“And the rules for our little †˜game’ would be?” Alek asked, smiling as he had begun to anticipate the thrill of the hunt.

“You will be allotted an hour to search and find me. If you fail, you shall leave me alone for good. If you win, you shall be allowed to continue your promise with my mother.”

“Awfully high stakes for just your forgiveness… Might I suggest an additional boon in the case of my own victory, as well as another rule on how the game is to be played?”

“Are you saying my forgiveness has no value to you?”

“Not at all. It’s a fine boon, and a worthy objective to work towards milady. I simply am concerned over cheapening my own sense of integrity and betraying the trust of the ruler of my country of birth, as well as the place I call home.”

“Very well, I shall listen to you suggestion.”

“I would like to request that no magic be used during the game for the purpose of hiding or finding, but it would be allowable in case of personal danger, as well as that you only ignore me sometimes, instead of ignoring me unless I’m asking a direct question or you want something.”

“Casting of magic shall be banned after our little game starts, unless in case of emergency, then. Is that good enough?”

“Not really, but I sense that it’s the best concession you’ll allow me, so it will suffice,” he assented. “When and where will the game take place?”

“We begin shortly.” Louise raised her hand and for some moments, she stood silently with her eyes closed. Perhaps she was chanting. “I command the world to bow to my whims and offer passage to the domain of the Void.”

What seemed like black sparks formed and an oval portal opened. Beyond this portal was mostly darkness as far as the bodyguard could see. He remembered seeing this portal before. When Louise came to the United States of America, she used this very portal. However, back then he could see the city just beyond it. Now it was simply darkness.

“We begin.”

Louise casually walked into the portal of darkness as if she had no sense of fear whatsoever and was gone before he knew it.

With a rapid fire spellcast using nearly perfect technique, Aleksander performed one of the few utility spells he possessed and turned into a raven, crossing through the portal in the same moment as Louise, though moving at a somewhat faster velocity, as the energy of the jump propelled his now much smaller frame faster than it would if he had still been in the form of a human.

Inside the portal now, Aleksander found himself in a completely different world. However, it wasn’t completely dark as it seemed from the outside. There was a hue of blue that illuminated the place to an extent. He couldn’t really find the source of this light, but it was indeed there.

More importantly, Louise was nowhere to be seen in the immediate vicinity, and he couldn’t tell if it was magic that she used to disappear so fast, or perhaps this was just how this peculiar Realm worked. From what he could survey of his surroundings, the space was simply empty and it extended infinitely.

“Well Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…” he tried to say, but it came in a series of chirps due to his changed physiology. Instead of further attempts at speaking, he flew into the air and attempted to use his improved low-light vision to spot anything that would give Louise away.

The Rave’s Coat spell conferred the form of a black raven, what Aleksander didn’t seemed to notice, however, that he couldn’t keep his own words. To him, it was fair enough as the Princess had casted her spell, despite the specific way she worded it. Technically, he was played by the cunning Princess, but he refused to let it go that way. Many nobles would not enjoy this particular display of behavior.

While flying in search of the Princess for about roughly twenty minutes, he came across a figure some distance away. For a moment, he was happy, but as he got closer, however, it became more and more apparent that it was someone else; not the Princess he was in search of. The attire looked heavy and it was what seemed like a cloak that the person wore. He held a staff in hand and was presumably a man.

Aleksander tried to fly closer to the man, hovering at about fifteen feet in the air, and tried to say hello, despite his bird voice.

“Hello there, good sir. I don’t suppose you’ve seen a young lady out and about in these parts recently? She looks about like this.”

The bird described Louise, while the stranger seemed to be surprised to find a bird here of all places. Despite the mask that Aleksander noted, that was how he felt, anyway.

“About… what?” The stranger was indeed confused. “I suppose you are not an Astral Venturer?”

“I’m not really sure what that is… but I’m a bodyguard for this young lady that I am pursuing, and I promised someone very important that I would look after her… I’m on a bit of a time crunch to find her within this hour, going by the time of the plane I came from, but I’m not sure how that relates to the time that we are experiencing here…”

“The time here flows differently. I’d think your lady is likely following it. You should be careful if it is your time, Mister Raven. A careless venturer often gets lost in the Void Realm,” the mage responded. “I haven’t seen anyone, but I’d wager that there are few places to go to… like that one bar.”

“I don’t suppose that you’d be willing to help me search for her would you?”

“I must be on my way, unfortunately. Having a bit of a pilgrimage here. I wish you luck, though.”

“Do you mind if I see your face, so that in case I meet you on my home plane I might recognize you, and be able to repay your kindness in helping me?”

“Oh no, no need to thank me.” The mage’s tone sounded merry, and the bodyguard felt that he was smiling. “I do not think you’d want to see my face, however.” He then began to walk. “Now, I must say goodbye. I am in a bit of a hurry.”

“Wait just a second… what did you say your name was again? Mine is Alek, if that helps…”

“Bjornaer, Mister Alek.” The mage seemed a little perplexed to be forced to stop again.

“Thank you for being so kind. Now I believe that it’s in my best interest to go as well. I hope that if we meet again the circumstances are equally pleasant.” Aleksander flew off and attempted to spot anything out of the ordinary as he traveled, making sure to remember which direction he was flying.

After about fifteen minutes, Aleksander seemed to have spotted something in the middle of nowhere. He descended rapidly and approached what seemed like a sign post. There were two signs on it, and one pointed to the right with words he couldn’t read. It was written in a language he had never seen before. The other sign pointed to the left, saying “Bar” only.

“Well since I can’t read the one, I guess I should head to the bar, since Bjornaer mentioned it, and he seemed nice enough. But then again, it could be a trap… he did mention that the Void would try to mislead me, and that could be exactly what he’s doing. I’ll pick option B and head to whatever the heck the other place is then…”

And he did just that, winging towards the unknown location that was the other side of the sign, having decided that the mage’s refusal to show his face combined with his oddly cheerful tone of voice were a tad bit suspicious…

As Aleksander went farther and farther away from the sign post, there was more and more darkness up ahead in the mysterious path that he was venturing into. The blue light was soon fading away and his instincts were telling him that now would be a good time to think again. Aleksander thus took note of the nagging feeling of bad in the back of his mind and slowed down to fly more cautiously but continued on ahead, willing to risk it to get the biscuit.

Eventually he flew so far into the darkness, that he hit the darkness itself.

Hit?

Aleksander was confused for some time as he looked back, and he finally realized that he was facing something like a black entity. There were tendrils of blackness lurking behind him and covering the only exit—the passage through which he came to this part of the Realm.

“Excuse me kind, Gentlebeing, could you direct me to a young lady that I’m currently looking for?” Alek described Louise once again. “I’m under a time constraint, and I need to find her before the time limit expires, lest I be stuck here forever.”

There was a noise as if something was writhing inside this black entity. Something like squishy flesh of sorts, but nothing human. He could not comprehend this response. If Louise was here, however, one would assume that this mysterious creature would’ve attacked regardless.

“Time to test my mettle then! I’m coming Louise!” He morphed out of the raven form and griped his heirloom relic sword Colada tightly, preparing to fight the beast as he slashed out at it. Yet despite his attack, he felt nothing, as if the sword had sliced only the air and the empty space. Time continued to tick regardless and the only exit was almost gone.

Deciding that if his best weapon couldn’t hurt it, and he was unwilling to waste energy on potentially useless magic, perhaps it was time to get out, and so he high-tailed it out of there at a dead sprint recasting Raven’s Coat as he went.

Some tendrils extended from the blackness and caught Aleksander’s wings and pulled him back inside. He soon heard the roar of the creature, the same mysterious sound he could make no sense of. Perhaps it was simply hungry.

Grimacing at having to give up one of his guilty pleasures, Alek used a talon to chuck a snickers bar at the hungry void tentacle monster, and attempted once more to dart out through the hole, hoping the candy bar would at least distract the monster.

(GM Comment: So he had a snickers bar in the form of a raven for some reason.)

Of course, this attempt also failed him, and he was still inside the blackness thanks to the unnatural strength of the creature.

He heard a roar again. A different one, one coming from a real creature now. Two large hands pierced into the darkness from outside and forced it open. Aleksander barely saw a large tree thanks to the blue hue barely illuminating the space he was confined under. It had two red leering eyes and a wide mouth. The tree’s arm then outstretched to catch the bodyguard from the darkness and pulled him out.

“Go!” the tree shouted with a loud voice. By the time he was tossed out from the black entity, Aleksander was already free from the tendrils.

Too pragmatic to let his pride get in the way of living, he flapped his wings as hard as he could and flew back towards the signpost, resolving to give Louise a verbal thrashing for dropping him in the middle of such a crazy, twisted nightmare landscape with no direction on just what was going on.

He could see the same cloaked person walk toward him from the place he just escaped.

“Well, that was a bit harder than I thought,” the mysterious person remarked. “Are you alright, Mister Raven? Ah, right, Mister Alek, was it?”

“What the hell was that thing?!” The crow snapped its beak in irritation. “I barely saw it before I was in its belly, and I couldn’t even hurt the damn thing until it had me surrounded!”

“That’s a Void Monster for you. They’re very tricky and hard to fight. Only the Lost Forms and the Supreme spells seem to affect them,” the man named Bjornaer replied. “I don’t know who wrote these signposts but this language is so old that even I can’t read it… but you should assume something like this is beyond every unreadable post.”

“Noted… so were you coming here to fight this thing, or…?”

“No, I just noticed that a certain newbie would likely make the mistake of going this way.” The mage then laughed from under his mask. “Come, let us go to the bar. I’d love to drink something about now. I wouldn’t be surprised if your lady isn’t drinking there already.”

“That… sounds nice. I think I’ll be sticking quite close as long as we’re going the same way…” he said as the adrenaline wore off. He suddenly began to feel tired as his nervous system slowed back down to a manageable pace.

“Well, you should be safe now that you’re back here.”

The two then journeyed for about another ten minutes after going left from the signpost. It seemed like there was no sign of a bar as they progressed for some time and Alek was starting to feel rather impatient. It was mysterious how an entire house formed right before his eyes the next moment when he was about to voice his irritation.

This house was floating in the empty space. Now that he thought about it, it was already strange that a man could even walk in this world with how no floor was visible.

Bjornaer opened the door and entered, gesturing Alek to follow.

Inside, he found a very ordinary yet an old-fashioned bar. The wooden place seemed like it was a very old place. The bartender could be seen serving a glass of what appeared to be whiskey to a certain blonde haired lady…

“Is that your lady?” Bjornaer questioned.

“It is, now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go take the piss out of her.” He slipped into the coarser slang he had picked up on the streets in his youth as he morphed back into a human and walked towards the bar.

Bjornaer tried to stop him but it was too late.

“Real nice vacation home you have here, milady. The bouncer is just such a charmer.” His voice was chock full of sarcasm.

“True,” Louise agreed, despite noting his sarcasm as she drank some of the alcohol. “A shame that an hour had not elapsed. I suppose I shall name you the victor of the game.”

“No need to sound so glum about it… Have I at least proven my dedication to you?” he asked, just too damn tired to really care any more as he signaled the bartender for a drink.

The bartender started to pour a drink for Aleksander while Louise answered, “Of course, for that was our agreement.”

“Well I’m glad. If you don’t mind, I need to spend the remainder of my hour drinking, in the hopes of forgetting what I just saw not a dozen minutes ago, because I sure as hell don’t understand anything that I’ve seen so far…”

“One with common sense would not tread into the unknown when they cannot read the signpost. Are you saying you were one of those unfortunate individuals?”

“I thought that you might be down that path, and I’m sworn to follow you to the end of the earth. Doesn’t leave a lot of room for thoughts of self-preservation in an †˜oh bollocks, I don’t know where she is’ situation. I had a dude that bailed me out, real bro. He’s probably the nicest guy I’ve met in a long time…”

“And you thought I’d go to such a place then.” Louise casually drank more of the whiskey. “Bjornaer, is it? He has been here for a hundred years now. No surprise he could find your location easily.”

“I have no idea what this place is. About as much as I knew going into this was that you were in here somewhere, and I needed to find you in a hurry. It was my mistake not to trust the stranger I met at first… More importantly, where are we? What did I see? Why do you know how to get here? If you can summon magic portals to another dimension… perhaps letting you out of my sight at all is an awful idea… And don’t think that I’ve forgotten how readily you broke the rule against using magic to hide either,” he said in a chiding tone. “I can only protect you if I’m nearby. What if you ran into what I did? You think you could take on one of those things by yourself?” The chiding tone disappeared, revealing actual concern for her well-being.

“Of course I can,” Louise said with confidence. “Besides, never had I agreed to not using magic before the game began. Did you really think I would play hide and seek in a hotel? Clearly, that is boring. You used a spell yourself, did you not? I would claim that it is rather fair in that regard.”

“When I saw you casting a mystery spell, the first thought was that you were a cheating, manipulative young lady, which surprised me just a little bit, since I actually thought you’d play fair for some reason… The second thought was that there was no way you were going to leave me behind. I’ve come too far to lose that easily, so I did what came naturally. I dove for the portal. The spell was just an extension of that instinctual thought… Do you not want me to protect you for some reason? Is my presence really that onerous that you’d go to such lengths as potentially getting me killed by dropping me into such a hostile place with no forewarning?”

“First, allow me to confirm that I am indeed unfair and manipulative, but it is not your place to judge me, commoner scum. I had no reason to be fair at all when I was forced to deal with your petty kind. I particularly do not enjoy your attitude, and you still dare speak in that tone? Second, I never claimed that I required your measly protection. My mother has nothing to do with this; I myself had not expressly wished for it. So, yes, your presence is more than an annoyance now. You say that you have obligations, but are you sure you heard the right request from my mother?”

“I apologize for the inconvenience. I only want to help you be safe, and happy. I’m more than happy to do anything you request of me except for leave your side… I don’t even particularly mind that you’re abusive in nature, since abuse is something that I’m well used to in my life thus far. I am ninety-nine percent sure that I know what your mother asked me for, and I’m here to do exactly that. It is my own personal desire to be of help to you that leads me to be so persistent. I’m sorry if you don’t appreciate it, but I have no intention of stopping. I would’ve loved to have somebody care about me enough to lend a helping hand, and nobody did, so to see you acting as you are now leads me to believe that you’re fitting the stereotype of a spoiled rich girl perfectly!

“There’s nothing wrong with accepting help once in a while, even if you don’t think there’s much I can do for you... All I want is to be there to help support you, to feel like I’m making a difference.” He was actually almost on the verge of tears, so he slammed back the shot of tequila he was by now holding, almost having to choke back a laugh as the sting of it dried his tear ducts right up.

“Why yes, I am a spoiled rich person. So? I am not going to become your ideal lady. I have also confirmed with my mother some time ago that you misunderstand your duty. Talk about being dedicated.” Louise spoke the last part very sardonically, a little angered by his comment. Almost everything he had said so far was taken in stride, and she’d responded in her usual indifference, but there was some emotion from the Princess for once now.

“Might be I’m not a very good Dark Knight then, if I’m mis-performing my duties. Now if you don’t mind, I can’t drink and talk at the same time…” He called for another shot. “I’m tired of apologizing all the time, so I won’t. If you dislike my company that much, then you’re more than welcome to try to kill me, because I’ve no intention of giving up on you just because you spit a little bit of venom at me…” He’d taken the significantly larger glass the bartender slid him, also full of tequila, and guzzled it in just a few large swallows as he felt an intense warmth course through his veins from the stiff drink.

“You do not apologize as much as you say you do,” Louise claimed, finishing the drink. “And having reasons to apologize all the time shows how incompetent you are.”

“Oh, well aren’t you just the cheekiest lady I’ve ever met. How original to make fun of my competence. If anything, I think it takes a certain level of competence to make the decisions I’ve made so far... Some of them were pretty shitty, but I got here in the end. I’d be dead if it weren't for Bjornaer, but because I was nice to him instead of being a jackass, he helped me out in my time of need. There’s a powerful lesson there, and one that you might do well to heed. Catch more flies with honey than vinegar and all that shit. Besides, you’ve no room to complain about my competence after I won your little game despite your bending the rules, so I suggest you lay off before I actually get tired of the charm of your little verbally abusive games…”

“Why do you act like I care about your little issues? Did you even look without seeking help? Well, whatever.”

“Pfft, whatever.” He scoffed, discarding whatever she said out of hand, assuming it to be more meaningless drivel meant to demean and belittle him. He looked around the bar, wondering what kind of person would frequent such an out-of-the-way place.

When he later turned towards Louise she was already gone. Bjornaer joined him in her place the next moment.

“Are you sure you should be acting that way with her?” he began. “Best to maintain a good relation if you plan to stay with her, I’d advise.”

The bartender handed Bjornaer a drink even without being signalled. The mysterious person was likely a regular here.

“I don’t even know, I just… I see a younger me in her at times, and I want to try to reach out and help, but everytime I try it just… ugh. If I could go back and slap myself across the face and sit down for even a few minutes with old me, I’ve got so many things I’d say. I thought this would be an opportunity to do something similar, but she cares not one whit about what I think. I actually truly dislike this stuff.” He looked at his glass in disgust. “But I’m suddenly understanding why some folks drink it.”

“Well, she is the Royal Princess, and is also one of the legendary mages of the human world. You will have to show more respect than that,” Bjornaer said, drinking what seemed like red wine. “I suppose you weren’t very sociable if you were like her in the past… then again, Princess Louise does not seem to mind conversing with the wealthy and powerful individuals.”

“Nobody wants to talk to the would-be scion of a house full of traitors. But I digress, I’ll try to be more reasonable in how I approach our little †˜conversations,’ but it does get mightily annoying when she just ignores you until you irritate her in some fashion. Titles are all well and good, but being a Princess or a Baron or whatever the hell doesn’t put bread in an empty stomach…”

“I’m pretty sure it does in England, though. Nobles are lavishly flooded with riches and gifts based on their birth privileges, are they not? Surely, those who lose their title and power may have other opinions, but I think Princess Louise gets more than just bread for being one. That’s just me, though.”

“You are correct. They are, and it does. I have, however, seen how quickly it can all fall apart even though everything seems fine. Anyways, I’m sure you don’t want to argue about how being a noble is the greatest job in the world. What would you recommend that I do differently? It’s clear that trying to be realistic and stand my ground is getting me nowhere other than the wrong end of her temper, so am I to just roll over and happily allow her to kick me while I pretend like it doesn’t hurt?”

“Yes, that’s likely the best way to go about it,” Bjornaer said harshly as he finished his drink. “No offense to you, sir, but no Princess would find herself an equal in you. If you have fallen from grace as one of those unlucky nobles, then it is all the more true. I do not think a Princess’ life would fall apart just like that, but even if it does, I do not think she’ll fare as badly as most, considering her talents. Sometimes, life is simply unfair, and some of us aren’t as gifted as we want to be.”

“Someday… I’m going to be the hero, or villain depending on which side you’re on, and maybe that’s just a bit delusional, but it’s the only reason I stand here today, is because I’ve relentlessly pushed myself harder and farther than I need to. I suppose that if I must play the fool for now and bide my time while I grow in strength, than it’s as good a strategy as any other. I thank you for your counsel, and will take it to heart. If you don’t mind me asking just one more question of you, what was that that she mentioned about a †˜Lost Form’?”

“Before I answer that, do tell me what you would even do if you grow in strength? Eventually, you’d be leaving her when your job ends, wouldn’t you? I doubt anyone would subject you to be her guard forever, especially after how you treated her, I cannot see this relationship last for long. You could simply live a more relaxing life later, or perhaps go somewhere that isn’t as troublesome.”

“I don’t know… I suppose a worthy cause would be to champion the weak and downtrodden. To try and protect those who may not be able to do it themselves… I’m just tired of being helpless in the face of the slightest setback… Is that a bad thing? To want to be strong enough to stand up for yourself, I mean?”

“It wouldn’t make a difference with the Princess, though, am I right? That’s what I meant. Anyway, regarding your question, the Lost Forms are very ancient Forms. As you know, the modern Forms and Techniques makes up the Arts, but in the ancient times they were much more powerful and deadly forces. Hence, they were sealed. Nowadays, only a few wields these powers. Examples would include your Princess and me. The spells of the Lost Forms are all Supreme Spells, and they were only recently unbanned for the individuals with proper titles I hear… so in a way I suppose they are considered very destructive spells.”

“That might have been what she used on me earlier then… interesting. It does, however, sound like the only way I could make reasonable headway on learning these lost Arts is to get her to teach me directly, which seems unlikely at this juncture. Is it strange that I almost want somebody to try and attack me or her, just so that I can vent some of this frustration?”

“Maybe, or maybe not. You could just be a spiteful person, not that I mean to offend you. Ah, but Lost Form users always have a duty to adopt an apprentice, so maybe one day she will feel obligated to teach it to someone. It’s a bit of a tradition.”

“Something tells me that I’m not very high on her list of candidates, to say the least. I suppose it’d be better to keep my head down and my mouth shut from here on out. As much as it’s not great to admit, I doubt that I could have accomplished what I did without you here to help me, and coming back because I irritated her isn’t very high on my list of priorities.”

“Well, each of us strong ones out there took a long time to get to where we are. One day you’ll perhaps reach that level and be able to save someone too. Don’t look so glum, young one. If Princess Louise has truly mastered her Lost Form, then she spent quite a lot of time and effort, and that’s the true foundation of her confidence. Likewise, each of us out there are proud of our own feats. One day you’ll have more than your past struggles to boast of. Suffice it to say, there is no demand to get stronger any time soon. It will come to you eventually if you’re gradually making pace.”

“Thank you for your guidance, I appreciate all that you’ve done for me up to this point, and thank you for listening to me. I came here hoping to find a challenge that I could handle, and show part of my worth, but I think that finding you and hearing you out is equally valuable, if not more-so than improving my standing in my charge’s eyes.” Aleksander bowed to the masked stranger, appreciating that he’d taken the time to impart some wisdom.

“You’re welcome. I’m just a ghost of the past now, so I do not mind a conversation or two. That said, I believe your mistress was more lenient than you thought. She could easily hide in the darkest depths instead of a rundown bar like this. Maybe she calculated that you’d have found me and I’d lead you here.”

“I’d been suspecting as much, but now I feel a bit less silly for thinking it… I guess that at least says she doesn’t hate my guts yet, I hope.”

“Complicated people have complicated ways of displaying their kindness.”

“She mentioned that you’d been here for hundreds of years… If you don’t mind me asking, why?”

“You don’t age much here, so you don’t die here easily. Which is perfect, since I have to look for something. That’s all I can say about that.”

“I suppose everyone has their secrets. I should probably go find Louise, since I’m a hundred percent sure that she’d leave me here with no qualms by simply forgetting I exist since I’m not in eyeshot.” He stood to try and go find her.

“She probably went back to the Human World. If she is considerate… she’d have kept that portal open for you. Otherwise, I wish you luck.”

“You probably can’t port me back to where I came from, can you?” He sighed before adjusting †˜his’ top hat having taken it off of a rack near the door without thinking and summoned his sword again before stepping out into the darkness to try and find his way back on foot, unwilling to waste mana on Raven’s Cloak again.

“I cannot, no. I do not know where exactly you are from, after all. If you do get stuck here, perhaps you can just wait it out here. Helpful people do visit this bar often.”

“Thank you, I will remember this place, and should I find myself in the neighborhood I’ll be back…” He nearly forgot to pay and walked back inside smiling sheepishly as he handed the bartender some money.

The bartender said not a word, but smiled and accepted the money.

On his way out, however, Alek widened his eyes as he saw a new customer casually pass by him. Their gazes met only for a moment and the person even smiled at him.

That was the Royal Queen of Britain.

His heart nearly stopped as he considered the implications of seeing the Queen here, combined with the fact that she saw and recognized him, probably smelled the booze on his breath, and knew that he wasn’t with her daughter. He nodded slightly in passing, smiling back even, if nervously as he walked past. Unable to bring himself to say anything to her, he just kept heading towards the portal back, hoping it was still there.

After he walked out and traveled for some time, he carefully navigated his surroundings this time and avoided anything that seemed like an entity of darkness. He followed the path as best as he could remember, and eventually found the portal that Louise opened about an hour ago.

When he stepped into it and found himself inside the high-class suite of the hotel, the portal behind closed.

Louise was apparently now reading a different magazine, and some of the mess that was left earlier was somehow cleaned up.

Alek bowed deeply to Louise before simply sitting in the seiza position in front of her to wait quietly.

It seemed like Louise turned an eye for half a second before turning to the portrayed images. “What else do you have to say?”

“I am sorry for being so foolish earlier. I have reflected, and now realize that I was in error to be so critical of you. Thank you for being so lenient and forgiving me.”

“As agreed, you are forgiven.”

He nodded, and continued to sit, waiting for something to happen that would require him to take action in some fashion.

When Aramus and Elizabeth finally made it to New York, they were dead tired. Entering Hotel Edison, they were too tired to go back to their rooms, so they decided to rest on the lobby’s sofas for the time being.

Aramus wheezed in exhaustion as even breathing hurt for him. After saving a hurtling plane and then travelling long distance via magic, he needed a short breather. The sofa didn’t seem to want to let him go either.

“I informed them that we would arrive around this time…” Elizabeth huffed. “Duchess Frederica will come to check up… even though it is so late. I wonder if something happened.” For someone who had vis, it was indeed true that Elizabeth was not as tired as Aramus. To add, she wasn’t the one who handled an entire aircraft.

Aramus nodded, his head rolling back onto the headrest. “They could be tied up with something else.”

“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Breadratio—oh.” Michael walked in, holding two pieces of bread wiggling them around with in his hands.

Aramus didn’t move an inch… or at least his body didn’t. His eyes immediately locked onto the loaves, burning with the intensity of suns.

“Good evening, it seems that you two have arrived safe.”

“Barely,” Elizabeth commented. “I am somehow starting to sympathize with my teacher, seeing that bread now.” She chuckled.

“Why not have a bite now? If you don’t, I can’t guarantee you’ll get any once I start,” Aramus said with a tired laugh.

“Well now, you two can have this in the meantime,” Michael said, offering the bread he was holding. “I do seem to recall food being served in aeroplanes.”

“I shall refrain,” Elizabeth said, waving a hand dismissively. “I was only speaking in jest. I shall have some food ordered later.”

“Well then, I shall partake!” Rising off the sofa, Aramus practically pranced over to Michael, eager to receive his bread as it was. Yes, his bread. His. “Did we miss anything in the meantime? The plane trip was extremely eventful. I’m afraid you guys might have missed out on some great fun.”

“Deathly fun,” Elizabeth corrected.

“A few happenings here and there. I think it would be a good after-dinner conversation.” Michael beamed.

Around this time, the television in the corner of the lobby was displaying a wheat field where a plane was shown to have crashed. Its wings were cut off, and it looked bizarre to say the least.

Aramus and Elizabeth both sighed at the sight.

“See what I meant, teacher? You wouldn’t want to show up in the news like that.”

“Poor saps, I’d rather ride a ship on the way back. I don’t trust those ridiculous flying things at all. May their souls rest in peace,” Michael commented, chewing on his bread.

“I think I’m with you on this one,” Aramus said, pointing to the burning pencil of a plane. “That very nearly didn’t make it and when you’re in tune with the air surrounding one as it’s about to crash…” He shuddered before biting into his loaf.

“I’d rather not journey with a ship, though,” Elizabeth for one disagreed. “Imagine if a similar crisis takes place. None of us could manipulate water to keep us afloat. We die the moment it sunks in.”

“Well Miss, while I do know I can swim,” Michael tossed the last bit of bread in his mouth, “I’m pretty sure I cannot fly.”

“Both are bad. I’ll just stay put on solid ground. Not like I have enough money to travel anyway,” Aramus said sadly.

“Well, you needed to. I doubt you will have that luxury to be safe,” Elizabeth said. They would need to go back to Japan. A country surrounded by water.

“A pleasant sight as ever indeed, welcome back, you two,” a voice from behind said. Aramus barely turned, but he knew it was Duchess Frederica.

“You two seem to be in quite the shape tonight,” Mary said very frankly from beside the Duchess. She tossed some potions at the two returnees. “Drink up.”

“We got roughed up, I suppose,” Elizabeth said, beaming at Mary, who also smiled at her old friend.

“Glad to see you safe,” Mary responded.

Even if they met due to the campaign after the Queen’s Meeting, they surprisingly couldn’t come clean about the situations of each other, despite having been old friends. Mary could see some of the worries of Elizabeth through her Commandment—the Golden Eye—but her identity was a secret to her and thus she couldn’t offer any counsel.

Aramus caught the potions and downed one in one go, looking slightly happier at the sight of the two. “If you’ve caught the news, yeah. Anything happen?”

“We’re going to be in trouble really soon. You two should rest up while you can—well, I suppose you are already,” Frederica said, noting them glued to the sofas. “Mary reported that Virgo will likely strike either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.”

“How sure are we with this information?” Michael asked, sneaking a glance at Mary and deciding to ask her about what happened earlier on their personal time.

“…I find it a little hard to believe. I suppose we will have to be reliant on these potions,” Elizabeth stated. She popped a potion open herself and started drinking.

“No time to lose then.” Aramus sighed before finishing off the loaf of bread.

“No time to lose indeed, which is why we should continue this over dinner,” Michael reminded them. “I’m sure these two chaps are famished as much as I am. Care to join us Lady Duchess, Miss Mary?”

Aramus visibly brightened up at the word dinner. Elizabeth smiled, while the Duchess and Mary looked at each other before both of them nodded.

“I suppose I do not mind. Let us move over,” the Duchess accepted.

“I was out investigating so I am famished as well,” Mary said.







The people moved over to the dinner halls after the suggestion was accepted. Takeru and the rest of the team were invited but it turned out that Takeru and Lily made it, while Svetlana seemed to be asleep in her room. Granted, it was late, and Lily hadn’t wanted to break her sleep.

Once the group was seated, Aramus was the first to peer at the menu as expected and began listing off items for everyone.

“Right, the buffet timing is over. Apart from that, if you’d like some ala carte items…” He flipped to another page, listing what they had for order. “Shrimp Fra Diavolo, a spicy Italian dish of olive oil, garlic, tomato, red pepper flakes, mussels and shrimp served over your choice of pasta. Alternatively, you could have the BBQ strip steak. New York Strip Steak accented with a Jack Daniel’s BBQ sauce and crispy onion straws. Served with a baked potato and fresh steamed broccoli. Both items come with soup and salad! There are also other items for order though.” He set the menu down, looking at the others.

After everyone had decided on what they wanted, Aramus placed the orders. Minutes passed before the food came. Frederica’s was the first to arrive, a simple dessert set consisting of one honey scone, a slice of American cheesecake and café latte due to a lack of tea leaves. After that, the entrees for everyone.

Michael’s order was fish and chips, lightly beer battered cod with a side of skin on chips. They were cut slightly thicker than the English variant, the Americans seemingly preferring to have more bite with their chips. Why did the Americans call them French fries anyway? Aramus had always been slightly confused by that.

Next, steaming portions of pasta were served. One plate each of the Shrimp Fra Diavolo for Elizabeth and Mary. A relatively simple dish of seafood and pasta, it nonetheless looked scrumptious. A light sheen of olive oil could be seen coating the pasta, the red color of the spices and vegetables contrasting against the bed of pasta. More importantly, the aroma from it was delectable, they smelled the spices and the mediterranean ocean with its freshness with much anticipation.

Finally, the steak for Aramus, Takeru and surprisingly, Lily. Twelve ounces of all American beef, grain fed and grilled to meaty perfection. Aramus couldn’t help a smile from forming as he sliced into it, juices running down his knife as it parted the meat almost effortlessly. It was still steaming from being freshly cooked, a small trickle of blood flowing from his rare steak. The BBQ sauce was slathered over a portion of it, the other half free of the sauce. Onion straws were new to him as well, used to onion rings as he was.

“So according to what I found out. It turns out that the Countess and Virgo have some secret agreements in place,” Mary began, finally breaking the silence that was full of noises made from the greasy foods, spoons, forks, and knives.

“We found out that Virgo has been busy laying some kind of traps across this city. Unfortunately, we won’t know till they pop,” the Duchess supplemented, who seemed to have discussed the matter with Mary beforehand.

“The issue is that I can’t find out who or what they are,” Mary added. “But I was told an estimation of the operation’s beginning from an agent I have in BloodLuSt, and you guys were told that already.”

“What kind of traps?” Michael asked. He was staring curiously at Aramus who was staring at the food when they came in.

“I’m also concerned as to how it will affect the civilians. Virgo wants to wipe us all out, so I wouldn’t be surprised if those traps were placed in the most populated areas.” Aramus’ concern was overshadowed by the fact he was staring at his steak almost lustfully, pupils dilated.

“Exactly. Barring any sort of advanced technological devices, I could probably do something about them, or at least find them,” Michael added.

“That would be difficult if Mary couldn’t find them. We could ask Takeru to aid in the search if we are indeed looking for them. He has that certain set of skills we might need if there are any traces of magic leftover,” Aramus pointed out.

“Except that Virgo didn’t plant bombs. She planted live Representatives,” Mary stated. “We’re going to be forced to split our forces to intercept them. Needless to say, it’s a simple yet effective idea on our enemy’s part.”

“Ugh, like that Judgement Reaper brat we faced on the plane. Those would be even worse than bombs. Indiscriminate slaughter would be another aim of theirs.”

“I should probably contact Emilia so she can tell her peers here to watch out, too. Hopefully they won’t involve the other Infernals here too while they’re at it,” Michael stated.

“I would still attempt to look for the Reps if possible. If we can even locate one or two of them, it would help us greatly. That is, if we have the time to spare,” Aramus said with an onion straw in his hand, shoving it in right after.

“Wait, Judgement Reaper you say?” Mary asked.

“Yeah, some brat with a scythe. He was asking about Duke Powlett, but I saw him fall off the plane with someone else. The kid took off at the same time they fell,” Aramus said, this time cutting a slice of meat.

“Duke Powlett did return earlier and he seemed absolutely unscathed,” Duchess Frederica informed. “He said he was going to the party or something when I last saw him…”

“Fancy that,” Aramus said with a shrug. “As expected of a Duke.”

“More importantly, that was one of those Representatives,” Mary said. “I’m surprised you met one… but I suppose they were after the Duke.”

“Just my bad luck at work again,” Aramus said sourly.

“I think we should be focusing on the trap situation at hand,” Michael butted in.

“If the traps are the Representatives then at least we know what one of them… dresses up like?” Elizabeth said. “We couldn’t see his face thanks to his hood, but he was a teenager from how he sounded, and his height too.”

“Clothes are easily replaced, Miss. But you’re correct. We know his build and how he sounds; that’s useful. What does his weapon look like?” Michael asked.

“It’s a black scythe. He can literally move like the wind and seems to be able to transform into the wind as well. Teacher fought him directly so he should know more,” Elizabeth answered.

“Well, Aramus, we’re waiting on you,” Takeru said, who had been listening attentively.

“Kid had a pretty nasty Representative move or something similar. Turns the air rancid and then it starts to eat away at whatever material there is. Metal, clothes, skin, you get the idea. Don’t stay in it too long and you’ll be fine, but the effect persisted for some time.” Aramus scrunched his face up at the memory of that. “Also, he has a another spell, probably Supreme. It was very similar to one of my own. A bolt of lightning that came down so fast, even I didn’t have much time to react. I was saved by my Relic armor but for those who don’t have any form of protection, it could be life threatening.”

“Hm, so he is one of those Representatives that knows Supreme spells and has a Commandment. This won’t be so easy. If he can do all that with the winds, it means he is extremely good with mobility,” Takeru assessed.

“I did managed to lock him down for a moment with magnetism but we will need to take him down during that short window,” Aramus added.

“Assuming we face him,” Mary said. “There are about six others or so…”

“Have to prepare for the worst. There’s no counting on what they might do. It’s not like all of us can fight each Representative head to head and come out on top,” Aramus replied.

“Even if we have hundreds of mages, it will still mean pulling them apart. Not just that, mages cannot easily throw their arsenal around with civilians present, either,” the Duchess stated. “This place is just not the best battlefield, but I suppose that is exactly the enemy’s intention.”

“Honestly speaking, I do not think the city will survive this battle,” Aramus said.

“Can’t we do anything to at least get some people out beforehand?” Michael finally started eating.

“The government believes us not.” The Duchess shrugged.

“Unfortunately finding out is hard enough… I could not procure any conclusive proof,” Mary said, shaking her head.

“We can only deal with it,” Lily finally said. “It is what we decided to do to begin with.”

“That’s right,” Takeru agreed. “If we take the whole world into account. We’ll have to face this sacrifice with some courage.”

“I see,” Michael said. He set down his silverware as he remembered that night he first encountered the Countess: “So what if I have to kill a few people to achieve it? All the killing will be fruitless if I don’t do the things I do.”

Aramus pushed his plate away now that he was done eating, steepling his fingers. “We cannot save everyone, but we must do what we can.”

“I’m not saying that we should let them die,” Takeru said. “But you can’t be a child saying that no one should die, or be hopeful of it either. The better you are at acknowledging the chance of it, the better prepared we can be to face the results. In the end, you can’t expect all of those hundreds of mages to carry your sentiments. Everyone is out for their own hides.”

“I believe I know my job,” Michael said. “Mister—I forgot I haven’t got your name yet.”

“I’m sure I introduced myself before,” Takeru replied, frowning. “Besides, you don’t know a teammate after an entire month… ?” He was sorely disappointed, but now was really not the time. “Takeru Mikaido, a Magic Magister.”

“I was indisposed. Michael Kallweit, Executor of the Holy Catholic Church. I will be depending on your help in this battle.”

“I tried to get him up…” Lily muttered. “Well, Lady Duchess, how will this be handled exactly?”

“I shall provide that answer soon. After dinner, specifically,” the Duchess tersely responded.

“Any reason for it to not be now…?” Elizabeth asked, but the Duchess simply hinted secrecy.

“Well, you said you had an agent in BloodLuSt, is it possible for us to question him or her?” Takeru asked Mary.

Mary looked away. “Unfortunately, I cannot share her contact or identity. It was our agreement.”

“I suppose we cannot do anything about that. Information on BloodLuSt sounds valuable enough,” Lily said, looking down. She heard of this mysterious informant too, and wondered just who Mary was.

So many rumors surround this mysterious scholar ever since she heard the name back in the training days of the Church. It was rather unbelievable when they said that Mary was the one keeping some powerful factions in balance. After hearing these rumors for so many years, she still had questions like: how could a lady her age do so much, or how young was she when her life became so drastically complicated?

“This might be inconsiderate of me, Miss Mary, and quite a bit of a side-topic, but about what happened earlier—what we both witnessed, what happened?” Michael suddenly asked. “Will it compromise our operation?”

“About… what? I realize now that there are quite a lot times we have witnessed things together, do you not think?”

“Earlier today. Or should I not have asked about it?” Michael grew more worried that Mary seemed like she was evading the topic.

“It is fine. I doubt we will get another chance to discuss it,” Mary replied, appearing a little pained to confirm that Michael was knocking on the topic of the Archangel. She finally answered after a moment of silence, “Who knows. You seem to have gained an Archangel’s interest, and I cannot say that it may not going to compromise at all. These types of beings are beyond calculation. There is a limit to the predictability of my clairvoyance. If you would want me to tell then I would have to be with you at all times.”

“When he first appeared he called you Mary Linfield, and did it again. He criticized my failure of letting the Countess’ Representative go, and talked of the Watchers—specifically one called Ananiel. I know not about any of these, but he acted as if I should. And that worries me.” Michael completely forgot he was dining with people aside from Mary now, for his focus was solely on her and her alone.

“Linfield… wait, isn’t that one of the family names of the scholars in our Academy?” Takeru interrupted. “We have a student around Miss Mary Shelley’s age with the same surname. Aramus, she was in your class.”

“I’ll take note once we head back to Academy. She hasn’t particularly stood out or anything though,” Aramus said with a nod.

“Wait, so that thing was really Archangel Uriel with you, Michael?” Lily asked.

“According to Miss Mary, yes.”

“It’s rare, but it’s not unheard of,” Takeru said. “I heard it from someone who specialized in the Dominion Lore once, that certain angels take to looking over individuals they find special. When we say †˜special’ here, it definitely doesn’t concern status or wealth or the likes.”

“I wouldn’t have minded as much if it weren’t for the things he was saying, or are those part of this too?” Michael did feel glad that an Archangel deemed him special for something, but he did not enjoy being kept in the dark if important matters were involved. Specially if those involved people he cared about.

“Well, I wouldn’t know for sure…” Takeru said.

“That student you mentioned; is she called Charlotte?” Michael pursued.

“Charlotte? No, her name is Aozora Linfield,” Takeru answered.

Michael noted that Mary looked away at the same time Charlotte was mentioned, and a hand reached her chest, likely without thought.

“I… see.” Michael realized how uncomfortable the topic was becoming for Mary so he decided to inquire more later in private. “Well, then. If it won’t be any trouble in our work, I suppose I can bear with it. I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable Miss Mary, and to you guys for straying off-topic.”

“No… it is fine,” Mary said, looking down.

“If you really want to know, Mister Kallweit… shall I suggest a method?” the Duchess asked.

“It would be most helpful, my Lady.”

The Duchess gave Mary a glance, but she looked away. She noted this declination and continued, “Come with me after the discussions are over.”

“I will. Thank you.” Michael also noticed Mary’s reaction, but knew he had asked too much of her already. His curiosity about the Archangel’s plots was getting the better of him.

“Now, let us return to the topic, shall we?” the Duchess said.

“Alright, Mister Mikaido,” Lily began, but Takeru didn’t let her finish.

“Wait, can I please establish for you guys to not be so formal in the same team? It’s a little too much. I mean, how many halves of seconds would you waste being so rigid in the battlefield? Unless you truly respect me, you don’t have to go out of your way to remember my surname,” Takeru said. This was something he wanted to say so long ago, but their leader Aramus never really seemed to have thought about it.

“Um, alright, Mister Takeru, now that we know about BloodLuSt being involved… wouldn’t this mean that our team will be further broken down in the battlefield?”

“It is possible,” Mary said, slightly recovered from the discomfort from earlier. “Seeing as they were helping Virgo lay the foundations… I would not be surprised if they send some forces too.”

“Hmm, that would mean that this could become even more troublesome for everyone,” the Duchess stated. “I suppose every team will have to decide on how to split up in desperate situations,” she concluded, eyeing the members of the team she was with. She already started using her device to send out messages to the other teams, but she still found this to be one of the most reliable, especially because Mary was a part of it.

“Will we have ways to communicate with each other? That would mitigate the issues we’d face if separated,” Michael asked

“…Assuming you have phones…” Mary said in a nervous manner, showing a cheap model she got from somewhere. To Michael, it looked similar to a steam phone from back in England—something expensive he could never get—but the difference was readily apparent with a screen that the steam phones lacked.

“Haven’t even touched one my whole life,” Michael bluntly stated.

Some laughed nervously, some didn’t and gave Michael a curious stare.

“So, Aramus,” Takeru began. “How should we break down our team in case of a crisis?”

“Right, you’ll lead the other team and we’ll split the roles evenly. Takeru, Michael and Svetlana on one… Ellie and Lily will be with me. Mary…” Aramus said, giving the scholar a strange look.

“Totally an ordinary scholar here,” Mary said, but not laughing like usual due to the conversation earlier. “I’ll be with the other group,” she added, ushering towards Takeru.

“Alright then it’s settled, these will be the groups. Any objections?” Aramus said, looking around the table at his members.

“But I cannot say that I completely agree with the idea,” Takeru objected. “Miss Svetlana and I are teachers. Michael there is a specially trained Executioner from the Church. On the other hand, there is one Magister on your side, Aramus. I only see a student and a knight. I’d trust a knight more but… perhaps clairvoyance would be better on that side.”

“Our leader hath spoken! Mary, what say you?”

“M…Me, leader? Huh?” Takeru said, all confused.

“It makes sense. I am an ordinary scholar after all. I can see the idea of balance,” Mary agreed.

“Then these will be your teams,” Aramus said with finality. “Are you sure you don’t want to be leader though, Takeru?”

“You made this, have some sense of responsibility, would you?” Takeru replied.

“Aww. I really think you’d make a better leader though.”

“I really think you’d make a great leader too, Aramus,” Takeru said in return.

Michael cleared his throat as he accidentally swallowed a larger chunk than he could swallow. “Technically, you’d both be leaders if we’re splitting the team in two.”

“It is still an emergency measure if we do get more enemies than we can all handle at the same time,” Lily stated. “We would still merge back at some point…?”

The Duchess silently took note of a message in her terminal device and looked up. “Well, seeing as we’re done eating, shall we move into a lobby? There’s someone Mary and I have to report in details, and that’s when the leaders will know everything they have to.”

“Alright, everyone should start getting ready for the battle as well.”

“As for you, Mister Kallweit, you shall be joining us. Otherwise I may forget about my own invitation,” the Duchess said with a hearty laugh.

“As you wish,” Michael felt bad he couldn’t completely finish his food, nor carry it home for he had no container with him. Surely, he would dream about this wasted food later.

“May I suggest that Miss Svetlana joins that part? I’ll need Lily here to get her up,” Takeru suggested. “She’s been sleeping enough. She has to be filled in with the situation too.”

“I will wake her up,” Lily said, giving a nod.

“We will be waiting at the big lobby. You know which one I assume,” the Duchess stated, and the knight left subsequently. “And for those not ready enough, just get some sleep. You will need all the rest you can get.”

With the Duchess and the two teachers behind her, the group entered the lobby. Michael remained slightly behind with Svetlana, who seemed rather sleepy even now. Mary entered after the priest and the short teacher, but she didn’t enter alone. A stunningly beautiful figure followed her, along with someone who seemed like her bodyguard.

Somehow, Aramus could feel a striking resemblance to someone he’d met before with the beautiful young lady. Even if she was around the age of Mary, the difference was far too large, and he could see almost everyone else paling in comparison in terms of grace and elegance. The lady wore a long pink and black dress and her blonde hair reached down to her hips. Her emerald eyes were cold and piercing.

Michael raised his eyebrows at the sight, taking note of the gap between the girl and her guard. Her having a guard was not completely out of the ordinary, but it wasn’t exactly the norm either. The Duchess herself walked around with no escort, at least as far as he knew, but this lady had one.

The taller man who seemed to be her attendant wore a black suit, and had a pair of blue eyes. A handsome man, but somehow it felt like the person he came with disregarded his existence altogether.

“This here is the Royal Princess of Britain, Louise Caroline Alberta,” the Duchess introduced the Princess to the people. “And her… guard here is Aleksander Fane.”

Alek noticed Aramus’ intent of studying Louise and began his own examination of the young man but was broken off from it at his own introduction where he nodded his head slightly.

“Thank you for the introduction, but I don’t believe I warrant one when in the company of someone of your standing, Duchess.” He favored her with a smile before resuming his inspection of the others present, weighing their demeanors and likelihood of becoming hostile.

Upon hearing Frederica’s introduction of their guests, in particular the young lady, Aramus immediately fell to a knee, head bowed. “Your Royal Highness, it is an honor.”

“Your Highness.” Michael bowed his head, but didn’t bend his knee. He didn’t need to do it at the Church, and he wasn’t going to start bending knees now.

Louise gave a very slight nod at the priest and Magister. “You may rise,” Louise stated to Aramus, but spoke no further.

Aramus gave his thanks at her words, standing up and at attention. He lightly bowed towards Aleksander, a soft greeting leaving his lips.

Alek had his own problems with the Church and reasons for disliking how they always thought to be better than the aristocracy, and as far as he was concerned, this was only one more black mark against the religious organization in his book, but he knew better than to let it show or to say anything. At most, he might’ve twitched an eye in slight irritation at his refusal to kneel but acknowledged that he’d do the same in his situation. Alek nodded and slightly released the tension in his shoulders, realizing if they were with the Duchess, they were probably alright. “It would seem you have me at a disadvantage sir…?” he prompted, speaking softly as well to avoid interrupting the conversation between the higher ranking members of their group.

“Magic Magister Aramus Valmark, Sir Fane. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Aramus offered with a small smile.

“Ah, I’m familiar with the name, but I don’t believe that I’ve had the chance to meet you yet. It’s pleasant to make your acquaintance as well, Sir Valmark. My name is Aleksander Fane, and I guard Her Royal Highness from ruffians and scoundrels who would do her ill.” He smiled slightly, overselling himself somewhat.

What an unnecessarily long remark, the Princess thought.

Turning to the young girl who followed them in towards the back of the group, he smiled disarmingly, “Hello there Miss, it’s okay to come on in, we won’t bite. Why don’t you introduce yourself?”

“Hi, I’m Svetlana,” Svetlana simply said, and then looked away.

“I do believe you’re what my books would describe as †˜kawaii.’ For a young lady such as yourself, you must be something special to be here for the same reason the rest of us are though…” he wondered aloud before smiling with a hint of shame. “Sorry, sometimes my mouth runs away on me.” He mangled the pronunciation horribly, only having read the word before, never having heard it.

“It’s †˜kawaii,’ and you should try your luck somewhere else.”

Alek just shrugged, deciding that if she wanted to be all prickly then he could just go back to standing silently. Waiting to be addressed, he promptly did just that.

Louise looked down with disappointment. Somehow, despite being uncaring, she felt pity for the ears of everyone in the room.

Aramus just barely managed to prevent himself from cringing at both of them. At Svetlana for the way she addressed the Princess, and at Alek for how he pronounced Japanese. Only a twitch in his brow indicated any signs of discomfort he had.

Michael tilted his head, wondering what the guard was talking about. What did an American colony have to do with Svetlana?

“Did my mother relay any words?” Princess Louise asked the Duchess.

“In her own words it was: †˜I shall leave it to you, dear daughter,’” the Duchess answered, but was confused that Louise wasn’t really happy about it.

“I see. Make your reports,” Louise said tersely.

Mary then explained the situation alongside the Duchess.

The terrorist Organization BloodLuSt and Virgo were said to be working together to an extent, but were not completely in alliance. The Countess was witnessed several times across the city along with some of her vampires. Mary also confirmed that Virgo would soon send her Representatives to certain locations where they’d start their attacks, likely involving indiscriminate slaughter of the civilians and whatever mages that tries to stop them. The worst part of the news was that no one knew where exactly in New York Virgo would appear.

“Anyway, based on information so far, I can confirm planned attacks in Brooklyn, Jersey City, and somewhere close around… the Statue of Liberty.” Mary finally ended the explanation. “We’ll have to cover these areas somehow at least. Other locations to be attacked, which unfortunately, remains unknown to us.”

“So?” Louise looked down at Aramus. “Where would you go with the fabled Mary Shelley?”

Alek felt a sudden onset of adult jealousy, a rare condition known only to a select few of the world’s intellectual elite.

Aramus stood up straighter at being addressed by Louise. “My team will be heading to the Statue of Liberty. As it is the centre point between the two other locations, we will be in a position to provide aid if they do require it.”

“Should we choose to split?” Takeru began. “How would you want to send the smaller teams?”

“Your team will head to Brooklyn and mine will cover Jersey City,” Aramus added for his fellow Magister.

“Noted,” Takeru said, giving a nod.

“Duchess,” Louise said. “We shall have you cover Brooklyn with the Duke of Cavendish Bentinck. Send Duke Powlett to Jersey City. Keep the Last Resort where he is for now. I shall go the Statue of Liberty as well.”

Aramus couldn’t help but twitch at the mention of Duke Powlett. Ugh, not him again. My luck is terrible, having to meet him no matter where I go.

“P-Princess, I beg your pardon but you should remain here,” the Duchess insisted. “It is dangerous out there.”

Alek got a dangerous gleam to his eye but said nothing as he prepared to internally laugh at how hard the Duchess was about to get told off.

“I suppose I know the answer before I even ask, Princess… but you don’t mind if I accompany you, do you?” Alek asked. “I wish to do my part in helping us succeed, but I feel you’ll be where it’s thickest…”

“That is obvious. After all, Brooklyn and Jersey City are decoys,” Louise claimed. “I am rather surprised that it is hard for people to note.”

“I suspected as much. I shall do my best to keep pace with you for as long as I can.”

Let’s hope you drown yourself somehow. Louise then turned back to the Duchess. “So with that said, I am going to be heading out. Please excuse me.”

Aleksander stopped for a moment to politely wave goodbye to everyone, even including Svetlana so she didn’t feel left out despite having nothing to say for the whole meeting, before hurrying to catch up.

The Duchess sighed. It was one of those rare sighs. “Why Her Majesty allow her daughter to run into this chaos is beyond me…”

“You and me both, Duchess, you and me both,” Aramus said, his mouth a thin line as he watched the duo.

“That means we can’t just split up and leave the Princess behind unsafe there, can we?” Takeru questioned with a wry smile.

“Agreed. Now that the Princess herself has said the others are decoys, they will be secondaries until we are done with the Statue of Liberty and protection of the Royal Princess,” Aramus said as he deflated, some of the tension leaving his body. “Alek seems overeager about her, so I suppose that’s one good thing for us.”

“If we do need to split up and the deduction of the Princess turns out to not be correct, though… I will stay behind to protect her, I suppose,” Mary said. “I am not sure why she says with confidence that they are decoys. We are speaking of the lives of the people here.”

“Probably something that comes with the title,” Michael said. He’d managed to keep his mouth shut for the meeting, knowing it was better to keep his silence if he wasn’t going to contribute fruitfully.

“Indeed, I want to try and save as many lives as I can. Brooklyn is the more populous of the two targets, hence my decision to send the larger team there.”

“Much appreciated, Leader.” Michael smiled at Aramus. The Magister in question sighed at being called that.

“Well, leader, I’d think if we do split up we’ll have to time it right,” Takeru said sardonically, but didn’t reply to Michael as he directed his hatred to the real leader.

“And as for that timing… well, just decide when the time comes,” the Duchess said. “At this point I would rather finish my work with Brooklyn and rush over to the Statue of Liberty. I do not know what sources she has or what sharp senses she possesses, but they better be trustworthy.”

“If we do want to head to other locations then we’d better get the job done quick. I don’t think the Princess would take too kindly to us changing our plans after already informing her of them,” Aramus said quietly. “As Duchess Frederica has said, we will have to use our judgement at that time.”

“Alright. I am calling this meeting off now. Either get rest or prepare. The next day will be a really busy one… at least I hope it is the next day and not the next minute. We are likely going to send some more forces to the Statue just in case for the Princess immediately… let us hope Virgo herself does not pop up there.”

Aleksander thought… and thought… and thought some more before finally opening his mouth. “They didn’t seem to really believe you when you mentioned that you were sure the statue is the primary target.”

“It does not surprise me,” Louise replied. “They do not have all the information.”

“What do you think they will do, if not stick to the plan?”

“They have their own plans, so I do not quite care. We know what to do regardless.”

“Understood, I just hope that they are more of a help than a hindrance, whatever they decide as their course of action.” He nodded. “I doubt they’ll try to betray us, at the very least.”

“They have some with ranks, at least. We shall be fine, more or less. If what I predict is true… Duchess Frederica will concentrate some forces on my side for safety purposes.”

“Hmmph. Do you think we’ll be able to trust the people she assigns? I didn’t know anybody at that meeting apart from you and her… and if that priest so much as looks at you funny… well, accidents happen on the field of battle,” he said, letting some of his distrust slip into his voice.

“You are not supposed to know. People volunteered for this, and we decided to pay them regardless, and please do not think unnecessary things. The priest was fine.”

“Sorry, I just didn’t like the way he was so silent during the meeting, on top of how he kept looking at you and didn’t kneel… it just rankled my nerves for some reason… That Aramus guy seemed pretty reasonable though.”

“Will you drop it? You didn’t as much as kneel after you almost scalded me for an apology,” Louise said, a little irritated in tone. “Now you complain about a priest who merely gazed at me?”

“I… yes. You have a point,” he conceded. “In truth, I grow slightly nervous. This will be the most difficult fight I’ve been a part of, and one of the first that I’ve had to the death. It’s a rather unsettling thing to think upon.”

So it is his first time…