Aiko Hatayama let out a sigh from exhaustion as she made her way back to the room she was a.s.signed in the castle shortly before sunset. She had already returned to the Heiligh kingdom to find that not just Kaori, but even Shizuku had joined Hajime and Alex in their travels, which stunned her at first since Shizuku wasn"t the type to make such rash decisions. It was starting to feel like a.s.sociating with Alex was bringing her endless worries and headaches due to his actions, first he proclaimed her to be Gabriel"s prophet which boosted her to a new level of respect and reverence in the eyes of Ul towns residents, to the point that there were even newfound followers of Gabriel in Furhen that made the trip to Ul in order to make a giant statue of Gabriel herself along with Alex and Aiko bowing before her as her champion and prophet. Then she returned to find two more of her students took off with him and Hajime immediately after they saved their groups lives in Orcus, and finally and the most troubling for her at the moment was that she was having to meet with the higher ups of the kingdom and the church regarding the incidents in Ul. She was then informed that they were also involved with sparking the rise of belief in Gabriel in the desert city of Ankaji which led to the destruction of the church there, resulting in the two of them along with any traveling with them having been declared heretics and were to either be captured or eliminated upon meeting them, a feat Aiko secretly admitted would be impossible for anyone to accomplish."Sigh..." Aiko sighed once more as she entered her room and laid down on her bed, feeling fatigued mentally and physically even though her head was filled with too many thoughts and worries. She was now glad she placed a gag order of the students that accompanied her to Ul about the details of what took place regarding the truth about Gabriel until she could get an idea of what was going on, since it seemed the church and kingdom where acting with prejudice towards this newfound holy figure. Unknown to Aiko her fatigue caught up to her and even as she was trying to think of what to do, her eyelids started closing and soon she was snoring.
When Aiko awoke she did so in a panic as it was now the middle of the night with the sun having gone down and her candles having been long extinguished, but the part that panicked her was that there was a strong and calloused hand pressing down on her mouth to keep her from making any noise. As she started trying to fight back against the invader he then used his other hand to hold down her arms and made a "shhhhhh" sound to tell her to keep quiet. Aiko stopped fighting since it was obviously futile with her childish figure and limbs, but when her fear seemed to peak a cloud moved and the room was bathed in the light from the full moon to reveal that the intruder was none other than commander Meld. With Aiko visibly calming down Meld said in a voice so low it might as well have been inaudible,
"We need to leave, NOW!" Aiko was filled with confusion and once he removed his hand asked in an equally, if not lower voice,
"Why?" Meld just shook his head and replied,
"Later, just grab what you need." He then left her to prepare while he opened her window and started tying sheets and curtains together. Aiko was dazed for a second, but then remembered that he told her to grab what she needed she quickly collected her coat and other immediate necessities. As she approached Meld when he threw the sheets out the window however, he shook his head and pointed towards a shadowed corner, where Aiko could now barely see part of the wall opened to create a secret pa.s.sage. Though she was confused she still followed him to find princess Liliana waiting for them inside, and Meld explained in a still quiet voice as he closed the pa.s.sage,
"The window is to distract them, we"ll escape this way and explain once we get some distance." He then started leading the way down the dark pa.s.sage, and though Aiko was hesitant to follow him and leave her students behind, she decided that they may be waiting for them or they"ll join them on the way and followed him along with the princess.
What she didn"t see was that around an hour after she escaped her room the door was suddenly kicked inward and an entire troop of Knights barged in, followed by the king himself when they confirmed no one was present. He glanced around and saw the sheet hanging out the window, never believing that Aiko might have gone into the secret pa.s.sage known only to the royal family. He then turned towards the gathered Knights and decreed,
"Search the grounds quickly! Even if she escaped she can"t have gotten far already." The Knights saluted and quickly turned to execute their kings order. Obviously the noise drew the attention of the students and the hero stepped forward before demanding,
"What is this?! What are you doing to our teacher?!" The King didn"t seem to mind Kouki"s disrespect while answering,
"Aiko Hatayama has been confirmed to have been brainwashed by the self proclaimed champion of this "G.o.ddess Gabriel", most likely along the members of your cla.s.s who are traveling with him. The fact that she fled the castle before we could try to contain and help cure her is evidence of this." At his words the king pointed into the room where the students saw the tied up sheets and curtains dangling to the ground. While many of them were dumbfounded that "Ai-chan" would desert them like this, Kouki clinched his fists and gritted his teeth before spitting out,
"I knew we shouldn"t have trusted them!" Before turning around and leaving.
"Where are you going?" Kouki"s friend Ryutarou shouted after him, to which Kouki replied,
"I"m going to train so that when I see him next I can save our comrades!" Leaving those words behind he immediately headed toward the training grounds even though it was the middle of the night, shortly followed by Ryutarou. Seeing them go and the castle Knights starting to mobilize, the rest of the students didn"t know what to do; but when one of Aiko"s bodyguards, Taeko Sugawara, tried to ask for more information she was stopped by a look from her close friend Yuuka Son.o.be. Yuuka then stepped forward and said to the king,
"Hearing all of this is distressing, please allow us to return to our rooms to rest for the night." The king nodded his head dismissively before returning to his own chambers, where he found a beautiful woman with silver hair and blue eyes waiting for him. Meanwhile the remaining students started making their way back to their rooms, except for Aiko"s bodyguards who gathered in Yuuka"s room.
"What"s wrong Yuuka, why did you keep Taeko from talking then?" Asked Atsushi Tamai who was too nervous to realize he was in a girls room for the first time. The other four members of Aiko"s bodyguards nodded as they looked to Yuuka for answers, when she said,
"Remember what Ai-chan said before we returned, she wanted to keep what we know about Gabriel a secret. This excuse that she"s been brainwashed just seems too out there, while Ai-chan did seem different after meeting Hajime and Alex it was more like there was a lot more than usual on her mind, not that she was brainwashed. Plus was it just me or did the king seem kinda, different?" The other five nodded at Yuuka"s explanation since they got a similar feeling, and decided to do as Aiko asked and continue keeping quiet about what they knew until further notice.
***
Meanwhile Aiko was still following Meld and Liliana quietly, but was still getting anxious about her students since she still didn"t know what was happening. After a while she finally decided to get some answered and demanded while still whispering,
"What"s going on Meld, and where are my students?" Though Meld wanted to hurry, he could tell that Aiko needed answers before moving, and he didn"t want to do something as harsh as simply knocking her out and slinging her over his shoulder. Before he could say anything however, Princess Lilliana spoke up and said,
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"They"re planning to get rid of you, locking you up to control Kouki and the rest or simply executing you in secret, it doesn"t matter which to them." Aiko was stunned at Lilliana"s answer, as she never expected they were saving her from imprisonment or execution. Even though she could deduce the answer on her own, she couldn"t help but utter,
"Why?" Meld sighed when he saw her and explained,
"The momentum behind G.o.ddess Gabriel is growing too much too quickly, it"s already almost escalating to the point of a crusade. The deeds Alex and the rest are doing are increasing the amount of people who want to believe in such a kind G.o.ddess, meanwhile the church is moving to suppress these heretics except it"s backfiring on them since their methods are now being seen as too harsh. The more they retaliate against the people who are starting to believe in Gabriel, the more people are starting to think we need a G.o.ddess like her. As someone who has been declared to be her prophet they seem to think you may be useable as a hostage against Alex and Hajime, and even if that doesn"t work then they could use the threat of your life to force Kouki and the others to fight them instead." Aiko was dumbfounded at Melds words, and was trying to figure things out in her head when Lilliana continued,
"Somethings wrong with my father and the other higher ups in the kingdoms, they"re all different now. I was worried about them and spied on the meeting, which allowed me to hear of them planning to capture you after you left. I fled from my hiding place and was thinking of trying to find this Alex and Hajime to help when I ran into Meld, he demanded to know what was wrong and since he didn"t seem like the others I told him. That was when he told me to get ready since we needed to escape with you." With Liliana finishing her explanation Meld continued while holding up a couple items,
"When I met Alex after he saved us in Orcus he gave me some items and told me that soon I would need to flee the castle with both the princess and you. First was a necklace that prevent my mind from being influenced by others, and a small stack of papers that supposedly lets me contact Alex anytime. Once we travel well away from the kingdom I"ll use one and contact Alex, we"ll plan from there." As they turned to start moving again Aiko asked once more,
"But what about my students?! Don"t tell me we"re leaving them behind?" Meld sighed once more and turned back towards Aiko before saying,
"It"s sad, but I need to prioritize the two of you. Your students can to an extent take care of themselves in a fight, and as long as they don"t do anything to extreme the church and the kingdom has no reason to hurt them. If you truly want to help them as soon as possible, then we need to escape and make contact with Alex and Hajime. Now let"s move before they catch on and find us!" When he finished talking Meld and Liliana then turned around and kept moving down the pa.s.sage, while Aiko had no choice but to follow them once more. She was grateful the pa.s.sage was dark since neither could see her tears falling at the thought of how she abandoned her precious students.