Carry OnIntro: In a dark hallway, echoing steps emit from the two people, one a lady, who speaks, "That"s so generous of you, Duego. Be at ease, I"ll take good care of this gift of yours."
And the firm voice of an aged man replies, "Criselia, just promise me one thing. You must not do forbidden things, such as, sacrificing someone"s life." This woman won"t address me in respect.
"Do not worry. You got nothing to fear with me." As they have entered to a s.p.a.cious room, Criselia speaks, "I smell blood here. And there are traces of resistance. What had actually happened?"
"I. I did cooperated to the third"s division. One of the council has been founded guilty of feeding to our own flesh."
"Eww, he"s a cannibal? That"s horrible!"
"It"s a reality that must be purged from our society. This issue hasn"t been made publicity. As for now, the third division made it cla.s.sified. They"re investigating, looking for accomplices a.s.sociating the crime that are maybe still active or in hiding."
"So, what happened with the cannibal guy?"
"He died fighting..."
"Is that so... Alright, I be taking over this mansion. But, I can"t handle everything on my own."
"You can ask me for your a.s.sistance of my choice."
"Duego, thank you. You"re a lifesaver."
—End of intro.
After the Second Exceptional General settled the problems involving his son and restored peace between several clans, a new brighter day has come. Meanwhile, located in the central of Jelfyr northeastern side, outside at the open door of Lightning clan"s private lodging house, a man, the injured Jaino, has been pushed out by the lady Kilie. The missy Ritzel, who"s nearby the outside of door, is confused. She watches at Kilie slams the door, closed.
Worried, Jaino speaks, "Kilie, let me explain."
Kilie yells, "Stupid! Stupid! Jaino! You were too late to pay your visit to me, yesterday! Spouting nonsense promises while hugging me! Then you actually brought two women! One was clinging your shoulder.... confessing, admitting, claiming as your intimacy!—"
In Jaino"s thought, That Criselia...
"—and the other one was your fiance!"
And when did, Jes became my fiance...
"And now, some child is calling you father!" Kilie cries aloud, "Die! You, pervert! Womanizer! Idiot! Jainooo! Go away! And don"t comeback!"
Wanting to cry, Jaino has thought, At least let me explain.
Ritzel mumbles, "He he he. It serves you right."
Into an outdoor restaurant, Jaino and Ritzel have received their orders. The missy, Ritzel drinks her juice. Jaino does to his coffee. "Anything?" has asked by Jaino.
"No. Juice is just enough," has replied by the missy.
"It"s not about your order. What"s you wanted to talk about?"
Being startled, Ritzel speaks, "I had lost against mother, yesterday." Into the table, she puts the gla.s.s. "She went full strength against me."
"That"s to be expected. And what did you get?"
"Sermon... I asked her of why she ordered me to kill someone and lied to me about the task."
"She replied to you, that you already had slain one before carrying out her order?"
Astonished, the missy asks, "How did you know?"
"Ritzel, in that confrontation against Hoven"s group, aside from me, you are the only person that can managed to slay someone thru sword cut."
"Forgive me..." This is the end of me. He will rebuke me. He will retrieve the swords from me. And cut tie with my family, the Clan. Her arms tremble. "I didn"t mean to do that. Forgive me." She cries. "I was just at lost." I even cause harm to Shin"s arm. "I just don"t know what to do."
"Settle down Ritzel," has replied by Jaino, thinking, This is not the place to talk about this. Feeling uneasy by the people peeking at them in the area, Jaino speaks, "You are still lacking the experience while you undergo changes." From being an a.s.sa.s.sin to become a protector. "Be strict to yourself. And always take to account the people around you." He pats the girl"s head.
Feeling the heaviness of her worries lightens, the missy gazes at Jaino, who has stood.
He speaks, "I still have things to do. Cheer up, see yah."
"Father!" has yelled by Ritzel that startled Jaino and the people around.
In Jaino"s thoughts, Don"t call me father yet... Please...
"Thank you and take care."
Back to the Lightning Clan"s Private house, in Kilie"s bedroom, sitting on her bed, thinking, Kilie mumbles, "Wait, there"s no way Jaino could have a child at her age." She lies into the bed. "Ugh, I"m having a head ache."
A sunset comes. In a dim alleyway, alone walking, Jaino has stopped and he gazes at the pale skin beautiful lady with curly hair. Her black gown emits an untrusty atmosphere. She smiles at him. As the sound of wind blowing turns eerily, she then speaks, "You"re Jaino, right? The third exceptional general."
Be careful master, has said by his spirit of dark. Jaino replies, I can"t feel her emotion. She seems like... empty. "Yes, I am Jaino. What do you want?"
"Let me follow and observe you, whenever I please."
"Huh?" That"s kind of blunt. "Of course not! I have important things to do."
"I have the authority to do whatever it may please me, forcefully and terrifyingly." She dashes and clinches her fist. Her thrown punch frightens Jaino as he evades. Closely, they stares at each other in the eyes.
She"s right handed, has thought by Jaino. Pushing her right upper arm with his left hand, he then blocks her other lower arm with his right hand. After blocking her leg by his own leg, Jaino distances himself backwards. He notices the lady has rolled once. At him, she quickly dashes forward. Her left palm lands on his thorax. Jaino"s back has slammed heavily into the wall. He coughs of blood. Feeling her hand heaving on his thorax, he listens to her who speaks near his ear,
"Allow me to peek everything you do in this dire time. The kingdom"s security has been tauten. It"s impossible for you to know nothing."
Sounds of running footsteps are echoing. Two guards appear to where they are. One of them asks, "Oi, oi, what are you two doing?"
Jaino replies, "We"re just having a love quarrel." He smiles at them.
The lady clinches her two fingers on his skin and twists them. She whispers, "You don"t own me."
Ouch, ooouch... The h.e.l.l with this lady. I"m trying to lie here. "If you may please. It"s embarra.s.sing," has spoken by Jaino as he grimaces at the guards. The lady has let go her fingers and she smiles at the guards.
"Is that so? Then try not to overdo it, alright?" has replied by one of the guards. After Jaino has nodded his head, those guards have left. With the knife, the lady cuts her palm. And to Jaino, she speaks, "Here, drink it."
"Huh?" has reacted by Jaino, confused. "And why must I do it?" Unable to resist her forceful action, he complains, "What are you woman! Making me drink of your blood... wait... something is amiss. My wounds are healing. How comes? What are you? Your palm... is healing too..."
She sighs. "I ask again. Allow me to follow and observe you whenever I may please... You must accept it. You must obey."
This... this person. This kind of person. Right... I feel I"ve met it somewhere before. A forceful person that won"t allow denials. Empty of emotion. And only follow their own obsession. Dangerous. Right. She"s like... She"s like him. "What are you to me?"
"I"m the second daughter of Yaume Rosarok, princess Vilyarin. Nice to meet you, Jaino Lightning."
Into a quarter, Maritis reports, "Master, in the tower, four n.o.bles have their whereabouts currently unknown, including three servants. It"s the third day since they were missing. Their relatives are pestering the castle guards. Zahamara"s division reports no confirmation about their whereabouts."
"How"s the tournament going?" has asked by Sai Mea.
"It"s going on its peace. With our Queen and Marshal present in the area, there"s nothing to worry about."
"And what about the result of your meeting with the third exceptional general"s secretary."
She"s so serious now. Master... "He demanded us to fully secure the tower with the Royal Squads and have all the Area Squads as spy all over the kingdom, quickly as possible."
She smiles. "That sounds reasonable."
"However, if we do, we will be force to joint forces on Zahamara"s division."
"Be it. We must keep the prince safety at all cost."
In Jelfyr kingdom"s southwestern gate, inside the headquarters, the nonindulgence veteran man, Zahamara, speaks to his guests, "We managed to at least make Sai Mea cooperate."
"You better give your thanks to your son," has followed up by the man Salvan Untalban.
"Now, now, the main issue is when and where our opponents will strike," has spoken by a fat old man, the fifth exceptional general.
Zahamara replies, "It"s the reason we asked your help."
"That"s surely a suicide task that I can"t bother to let my subordinate bite their tongue in the underworld. I"d lost much numbers of people already. The only thing that I can share to you is the possible ident.i.ty of people who we might be facing off. We were just figuring their ident.i.ty by their alias and physical details. We don"t have the concrete and factual information."
With his confident smiles, Salvan Untalban has stolen both persons attention. "There will be a huge clash tomorrow. And it seems that third would like to offer a blunt proposal." Affirming that both persons consent to listen, he continues, "He would like the both of you to operate the shadow army"s area squads."
Going out to his balcony from his quarter, the young prince Raume gazes at the black sky twinkled by tiny lights. It feels amazing being here. However, I"m still worried to what happen to those victims after the disaster. I can"t imagine if their situation would fall to me. But I know they could survive. And I have to support them with all I can.
Watching at him from the shadow, the member of the royal squad, Shaira Megus, thinks, He hasn"t able to realize the sudden changes on his surroundings. My prince... You"re still thinking of what happen in the five villages. Be strong my prince. And all I... we can do is to protect you.
At the backdoor of a building, guided by a man wearing long brown coat, both Jaino and Vilyarin have went inside. In a living room, a veteran aged man, sitting in the sofa, offers them to sit. The veteran aged man speaks, "Jaino, she"s?"
"She will inquire and monitor us, everything that we will do from now on."
"Seriously, have you gone insane?"
"Let her be. And don"t dig any information about her, such as knowing her name, her history. This is for her safety."
"And what about us? What now? Destroying our trust and digging our own coffins? Give me an explanation about this?"
"She has her own circ.u.mstances. And it will benefit the kingdom. Besides, she shall work alone. I take full responsibility about this. Besides, if we would fail an operation with plan actually revealed, then we are incompetent."
"I get it. I get it. What a troublesome person, aren"t you, Jaino?" And to the girl, he asks, "And you"re?"
Before she could speak, Jaino replies, "Call her, Vil." At him the lady stares at. He notices the man clenches his fist. "And what about Amono? Any reply to my request."
"Sigh. We still can"t confirm his whereabouts. His clan even forbidding us from setting foot inside their area. Not until when the kingdom will settled down."
"In Aklaba Village? In Deep Forest? I told you he"d been accompanying some children, right?"
"Jaino, Deep Forest alone is hard to fully scan. Different things happen there in time to time. In Aklaba, rumors said that there was a lone pa.s.serby child accompanied by a Rengazardo, a reptile the same on Amono. That reptile was carrying two giant rolled leaves on each side. And for some reason the child was crying. The villagers thought, the child might have been left behind in the forest on purpose. The villagers also thought the child was a carrier of goods. Some arrogant persons approached the child and kicked him. Then those persons approached the goods. But another person beat them before they could."
"It was Amono, right?"
"I don"t think he fits the description. You said there were two children right? The information I got has only one child. I have other reason on why he didn"t fit the description. It was the child and the man both introduced to each other after that man cheesed off the arrogant men. After that, both the child and the man walked out to other exit of the village. No one had claimed to see Amono there."
"Where could Amono went off…"
After Vilyarin has received much information of the guild"s confidential activities, Jaino accompanies Vilyarin going home. The pale beauty with curly hair asks, "How important is this Amono to you?"
Jaino smirks. "Curious, are you?"
"I do think, it"s not wrong to ask."
"Well, Amono and I had been buddy since we were young. And there times we fought each other. We fought together. And we happened to have an agreement. You see, this agreement had made me fight limitless. But, even if he won"t appear tomorrow. I still won"t hold back no matter what. I have to survive fighting alone." Noticing that Vilyarin has stopped walking. "Is there something wrong?"
"We have reached my place. Temporary, I may say. There"s something I don"t understand. What"s with him that made you fight limitless?"
"Ah, I could say that, he"s my limiter."
"Limiter..."
Jaino gazes at the second floor of the two storey building. "You should better get going now. Someone is probably anxiously waiting for you."
"How did you know?"
"You will know when you reach that person."
The lady smiles. "You"re an interesting person."
After the lady Vilyarin has closed the door in the room, the injured fat man in the bed speaks, "My highness, I have been worried. Where have you been to?"
"I just have some business to take care off. How"s your wound?"
"I can"t still manage to stand well. But the owner here is a generous person. He helped me do things when I was alone, so no need for your concern. But I just hope you be careful in your way..."
"Don"t fret over my safety—"
In the fat man"s thought, I"m worried about the people that you would encounter.
"—Don"t worry about the people that I may encounter. I will hold back as possible." My task... the safety of my big bro and big sis. "Hasten your recovery, I have a lot of work for you."
"Yes my highness."
A man cloak in black, named Ramon, reports into Altra.s.s" quarter, "Sire, other race denied our request."
"So only six tribes are the possible that we can offer, huh?"
"Yes sire."
"Something"s bothering you?"
"It may not in my place to question them, but Shiruldoun tribe will present a child as their partic.i.p.ant. I"m worried and doubtful that the child can"t bear the task."
"Leave your worry and let us perform what we are permitted to do. The child might be a prodigy and have power surpa.s.sing us. We have to witness everything in our eyes. Before then, we must best prepare ourselves."
It was hailed from our origin.
We strive to live for a new day.
For a new day, a man stands firm.