"Maybe we should take a break here guys."
You know it's serious when Gaius himself asks for a break. They'd made their way out of Trista a couple of hours ago but once the adrenaline of the fighting left their bodies their legs started feeling really heavy. To be fair, even with all the military training and even the field trips, they were not ready for what happened hours ago.
Not while missing Rean and Crow, and someone to generally take them along as Angie did in Roer. Sigh, that feels so far away now. Without Rean they generally coordinated as well as they did back at the station, which normally didn't work out as well as it did. Maybe they got better, but who knows. Rean was there making stuff work, as he generally did.
"You OK there?" Laura tapped Alisa's shoulder, to which she nodded. They'd made their way to a small stream on the side of the road, where they could take a moment to relax their weary feet. Laura lost no time in taking off her boots and putting her feet in the stream, as Jusis, further upstream, washed his face.
Emma just flopped down by a big tree. Gaius found shade on the other side of the tree as he laid against it, Zio perching himself on a tree branch over his head. "What time is it?" It was probably getting late already, which just reminded her that they'd not eaten lunch because of the radio transmission.
Sigh. Yeah, that happened today. She'd forgotten all about it. "Do 10 minutes sound OK for a breather?" Everyone just groaned in response. "That's a yes, then." Alisa held her head with her hands as she tried to process everything they'd done until now.
Chapter 2
An Angel's Respite
Off the side, she saw Jusis come back and stand by Emma on the other side of the tree. "So, when are you going to tell us what's going on?" He crossed his arms and waited until Emma tired of giving half answers. "I mean about Rean. About the divine knight that came out of a book of legends. Celine being able to talk… should I go on?"
Laura and the others had also come around and formed a semi-circle as they sat around Emma. She was not getting out without answering something at least. "Uh, where to start?" She laughed uncomfortably as she wiped her glasses with her skirt.
"Try where's Rean?" She'd also joined in as she sat down next to her. "Or why you know so much about all this. I mean, I understand you can't tell us everything but…"
"No, it's fine Alisa. Uh… Rean, I don't know. Celine is with him and I trust her, so there's that on the plus side. The other question is trickier to answer. I don't really know much about this at all, Celine in fact knows more than I do probably. My grandmother…"
"We don't really know much about your family either now that I think about it" Laura cupped her chin as she frowned, trying to remember. "No, not that I recall."
"It's complicated, really. It's not like I won't ever tell you but doing so might actually make stuff worse now. Basically, I knew that the old schoolhouse was housing a divine knight, which is one of the reasons why I'm here in the first place. The fact that the building was shifting was proof that an awakener was around, and since we were the only ones entering…"
"So that's why you knew that we'd be tested. But it could have been any one of us." Jusis was still looking at her with his arms folded. She shook her head.
"I had multiple discussions with Celine about who it might be at first, but we narrowed it down to Rean and Laura very quickly. We considered Instructor Sara as well for a second, funny enough." Everyone was still trying to wrap their heads around that image as she continued. "Celine actually lured Rean's sister into the schoolhouse much to my dismay to prove it. And it worked."
Laura spoke after a long pause. "Why me, though?"
"Lohengrin Castle and Legram should point you in the right direction to why I thought of that." She sighed while Laura nodded slowly. "I honestly thought we had more time than this…"
"We all did. No one wanted what happened today to happen." Alisa got up and dusted her skirt. "We should start moving, that's enough rest for a few hours. And we can talk while we move."
Everyone nodded and they got back to the business at hand. They'd decided that the most logical choice now that they'd gotten away from Trista was get to Celdic, and figure it out as they went. But since Celdic was a long walk away, they held the strategy meeting on the go, as Millium flew overwatch for the team.
"But there's no real guarantee that the trains will be running from Celdic, is there? For all we know, all the trains stopped working." Gaius said as he looked up to the sky, probably looking for Zio.
"Gaius, the trains are a pivotal part of the Erebonian economy, whoever controls Celdic won't be able to stop the trains for too long. In fact, having them operational is probably the best choice from a political point of view."
"They just murdered the chancellor, Alisa. I don't think they care much about politics" Laura shook her head as she said that.
"Yeah, fair point. But the economic aspect is still there. Reinford would grind to a halt without the train system, and S did say that Reinford was working on those Soldats the nobles were using." She clenched her fist reminding herself to make this right somehow.
Millium descended with Airgetlam almost to their level, but not quite low enough for her to walk, as she just glided next to them. "Alisa is right, Reinford made those. And most of their production goes through the railways." Yeah? I just told them this. "Claire told me that it was a very important thing for the empire."
"Wait, Claire." Something clicked. "Isn't she on the RMP? She would have full control of the railways"
Jusis chimed in this time. "I don't think that the RMP has much fight left in it after what we saw in Heimdallr. If we go with the best-case scenario that this entire situation didn't blow up into a full civil war, which I doubt, then the RMP might still hold some railway stations. Considering Celdic is under my father's rule… No, not even in the best-case scenario."
"If we do think it's a civil war, what do we know about it?" Everyone shrugged at her, as Jusis got an Imperial Chronicle out of his back, before recounting the events that had led them to this juncture.
"It says here that the imperial divisions and the provincial armies are mobilized and aiming to invade Crossbell…" he mumbled a bit as he gave some unit dispositions at the Twin Dragons Bridge, and how the invasion was imminent, even after what happened at Garrelia Fortress.
"From what I can tell, everything from Trista to Twin Dragons is under the provincial army then, isn't it?" Gaius looked over Jusis' shoulder looking for a map or something, but no such luck on the Chronicle.
"Basically, that." He closed the Chronicle as he handed it over to Gaius. "I don't really believe that we're wanted or anything, not yet. They should be more worried with actually securing Trista, and considering we've already seen a couple of armored cars roll past us, that's far from being the case."
"Well, if we ever intended to go to Crossbell… Hey is that…?" Emma squinted her eyes through her glasses. A caravan approached, as they'd done the last two times, they took cover behind what bushes the could find, but this time they were extremely close to the road. 'Hold your breath' was the only thing she could think about.
The ground shook as the armored column moved along the road. Not only would they stand no chance at all if they tried fighting them, they'd probably be shot to pieces before they could even try to say hi. She could make out at least 4 or 5 Achtzehn tanks, with armored cars and a few soldats for good measure.
"This is not good. If Trista was in fact holding out…" Alisa and Laura shared the behind of a bush, uncomfortably close, more so when you considered their weapons. "Hey give me some room here." she turned around.
Clang.
Their weapons collided, as Emma looked at them wide eyed. Gaius slowly unsheathed his spear and Jusis took his ARCUS.
"Huh, did you hear anything?"
Oh no, they'd heard that. Both she and Laura froze. Don't. Move.
"What?" The other soldier shouted back at him. "I can't hear you!"
"I SAID, DID YOU HEAR SOMETHING?"
"ARE YOU PULLING MY LEG?"
To be fair, it was extremely noisy with all the vehicles, but a clang could be heard. The soldiers kept walking, not a care in the world. Well if they did have to fight someone they would probably have no problem, not with every weapon this side of Heimdallr on their little column. Her mind flashed to the railway guns. If Erebonia could mobilize this with just a provincial army, the railway guns were not even needed at all.
After what felt like eternity, the column passed and everyone got out of hiding. Some laughs were shared but a small argument erupted in the middle.
"This wouldn't have happened if you'd backed off!"
"You're the one with the bow! What are you doing on the front? What if they'd found you out? Were you going to smack them with it?"
"I don't think we should…"
Jusis stopped Gaius by putting his hand on his shoulder and shaking his head.
"What, does the fact that Fie isn't here to blame for your own mistakes mean I'm the next one in line?"
"Oh? That's rich coming from Miss-I-Slapped-You-For-No-Reason. Thank god it was me and not Rean, you would have slapped him again and not talked to him for a month."
"Girls I really don't think…" Emma tried getting in the middle of her and Laura.
Gaius and Millium both stepped in as well. "Let's all calm down here, we're all a bit tense."
She turned around while Laura mumbled off. "Let's keep walking".
A really tense silence dominated the next few hours of walking. No more columns of the provincial army went past them so they'd assumed that Trista had already fallen. They were actually walking on two columns themselves, one at each side of the road, after what happened earlier. Alisa, Gaius and Millium while Jusis and the other two girls took the right side.
Celdic was still a long walk away, and it was starting to get dark. This took way longer than anyone expected. The field study took them on train, which muddied their sense of distance. It was more than enough time for Alisa to mull over her argument with Laura, thinking of clever comebacks.
'Oh? So, you need someone like Rean to keep you in check, huh? The way of the sword and all that stuff?' 'Do you have a crush on him or something?' 'Take it out with Sara who has the hots for your dad, not me'
Sigh. This was petty even for her. And what's with Rean popping up here?!
"What's with the long face, Alisa? It's not good for wrinkes. Unless you like them in which case keep on doing that" Millium was facing her as she glided backwards, a big obnoxious smile on her face. She repelled the urge to chop her in the head, but laughed in the process. "Haha! Made you laugh. See, that's much better"
"Yeah, I guess it is" She glanced over and caught Laura looking at her before they both looked away flustered.
"Oh, for the love of…" Jusis walked to the middle of the road and stopped. "Just get it over with." As he pointed to both Alisa and Laura. Well thanks for the spotlight.
Laura walked up first, scratching the back of her head. "Uh. I didn't mean what I said. At least not in the way I said it."
"No, let me go first. It was my fault, I moved more than I should, and you're right, I shouldn't be on the frontline anyways. Shake hands?"
"Yeah." They were all taking a small break on the middle of the road after watching the quick make up. "But thanks to this we just realized something, I believe."
"Indeed, we have" Jusis looked at everyone. "There's too many of us. By now I assume that the provincial army knows that we're missing, and they'll be looking for a group of our number. At least that's what I assume they will do. Considering that they mobilized a huge number of soldiers to Trista, It's safe to assume that they geared up for war, and it's likely happening."
"So, what do we do?"
"We split up. Laura and I shouldn't have much problem walking through Bareahard or Legram once we get there, and Celdic is in my father's duchy. Emma herself can tag along if she wants." She nodded at them "And maybe even Millium? Although I'd much rather you took her with you."
"Hey, that's not very nice of you Mister Albarea, one would think you don't like my presence at your side!"
"That's exactly it."
She jumped at him, while Jusis just stopped her with his hand on her head. She kept running as everyone was reminded that she was just a kid.
"So that's the plan I guess. We split up? I guess we can make our way over to Roer but I don't really like my chances walking all the way over there."
Millium reacted by calling Airgetlam out. "Hey! He can carry us, probably."
"I'm sure the wind would feel really nice." Gaius wasn't half as opposed to the idea as he should be. Millium switched targets and went to Gaius, Jusis thanked him.
"See! Gaius gets it."
There was however a big problem with that. "We would be seen easily, I don't think we should stand out, not until we get to Roer at least. Or even once we get there."
The fork in the road that was just up ahead was the way that led them to Roer, if they were actually going with this plan they'd have to decide now. Well, the plan was already decided, it was more of a question of how they would go about it. They made their way as a team to the crossroads and quick goodbyes were said, vowing to meet again later down the line, once things calmed down.
"Well, I guess that's that…" Gaius waved at them one last time before he joined her as they walked. To be honest, her feet were starting to hurt. Even by their military training standards, they'd been walking a lot today.
Millium came flying back. She'd been hounding Jusis some more even after they'd split up, able to come back flying in an instant. "Guys! There's a truck coming!"
"A what?"
"A truck! It's coming this way from Celdic!"
"Is it the army?"
"No! It's a Reinford truck!"
It didn't take too much to convince the truck driver to actually give them a lift to Roer, as having people to talk to actually helped him not to fall asleep at the wheel. Or so he said. Not the most dedicated worker that the RF group had, not by a long shot. But hey, better than walking right?
After some small talk, however, that well ran dry. Thank god they were moving fast enough that they'd done like three hours of walking in just 30 minutes.
Millium had decided to follow them around discreetly, as she put it, from the sky. Alisa wasn't opposed to the idea because it allowed them to actually get inside the truck without the driver feeling threatened or anything by the number of people that he had to take around.
Her stomach growled loudly, much to her embarrassment and to Gaius and the driver's amusement. Blushed she turned to the window, feigning composure.
"We're about half an hour away of my favorite truck stop, an inn halfway to Roer. I normally go for dinner there, so maybe you guys can join me?"
The longest half an hour of her life went by as she tracked the shade of the trees get longer and longer as the sun set. Her thoughts occasionally drifted to the other groups, but she really couldn't do much for them anymore. She probably couldn't do much either way if they were here with her.
She wasn't a natural leader like Rean was, Jusis was much more of a leader than her. Nor was she as smart as Emma, or as strong as Laura and Gaius. She was just a really rich commoner, and it wasn't even her mira in the first place. Then what can I actually do for them?
"We're here" The truck stopped next to a bunch of normal orbal cars, to a small laid-back inn. She actually never even heard of this place, but then again, Erebonia was huge. The two met up with Millium as the driver went inside.
"No, I haven't been able to contact anyone. I suspect the entire orbal network is down. Maybe it's a problem from Crossbell, or something local. Can't be sure." She closed her ARCUS. "I also checked out Heimdallr from the distance and I still see smoke rising from there."
"Wait, you went to Heimdallr?"
"Sure did! Lammy is really fast!"
Gaius and Alisa shared a moment of exasperation.
"We thought you were watching us from above."
"Oh, I was! I got bored halfway through though. I went forward and saw an Inn and figured it was where you guys would stop in like 2 hours."
Alisa shook her head. "Did you check on Trista? Or did you see Rean or someone?"
"Trista is secure for what I've seen. It's probably already been taken entirely by the provincial army. Heimdallr, I only got to the outskirts, just to be sure I wouldn't be spotted, but it looked bad"
"Yeah… I imagine it did." They walked into the inn as they spoke, to find a bewildered driver.
"I'm sure I only talked to two of you."
"Oh no, we actually always were three!" She elbowed Gaius who tried to laugh.
"I need to stop drinking."
"Yup, would be a good call! It's not good for your long-term memory either!" Millium with the random medical trivia made the driver doubt for a few seconds while he stared at his pint of beer. He looked a Millium and then at the beer a couple of times before going back to drinking.
"It's not like I want to remember anything anyways." he said as he shrugged, after downing the entire thing in one big gulp. "You guys should order food, it takes forever here."
They took his advice and they moved up to the bar as a group. A really small girl that reminded her of the daughter of the shop owner at Trista was on the other side, probably not old enough to drink.
"What are you looking at? You probably can't even drink either."
Well, she had a point there.
"Oh, you look to be my age! Have you seen my sister around?"
"Your sister?"
"Long white hair, speaks as though she just woke up."
"No. Now are you going to order something?"
Aidios, the little girl was really not in a good mood today. They ordered whatever was fastest to make and went back to their seats, to wait on their food. In the meantime, the Reinford employee had gotten his food, so he was munching away gleefully.
Some hushing was heard as people congregated on an orbal radio at the far end of the inn.
"It's starting!" someone called out.
She slowly made her way over to the crowd, kind of curious about what was going on. All of a sudden, the room became quiet as a really low voice came through the radio.
"… here in sight of the Valflame Palace, the triumphant march of the noble alliance and their provincial armies, complete with their new 'soldats' units…"
Oh. Yeah, I guess Heimdallr is lost.
"… After the chancellor was shot, the invasion that was spearheaded by Duke Cayenne, succeeded in less than a day to secure the capital and proclaim that the noble alliance was to restore order to the nation."
A bunch of cheers came from the crowd. Someone was hugging the guy next to him while another one was crying tears of joy.
"… with this the coverage of the Battle of Heimdallr is over. It has been my pleasure to work for the Imperial Chronicle as a guest, but as of now I resign to my position as journalist…" The radio cut off as the one closest to it shut it off.
"Beers on me!" that same guy proclaimed, as everyone cheered. "To better times! To the death of the chancellor!"
Alisa recoiled, and made her way back to the table. Gaius was equal parts appalled and surprised at how Erebonians handled their political affairs. Granted he probably didn't know much about how politics are run anyways, but she made a mental note to remind him that this isn't normal at all.
Millium was just anxiously waiting for her food, not really minding all the talk, not even the chancellor's mention. She wasn't going to bring it up if Millium wasn't going to.
After what felt like eternity, their food came, along with the extra beers that were on the guy who shut down the radio. Clearly this establishment didn't really care much for the law either way. Figures this crowd would gather.
She wolfed down her food and opted to take a walk outside for fresh air, as the place was getting kind of loud for her liking, and she was used to factories.
Compared to the inside, the outside was cold and breezy, but it reminded her that this was actually not a dream, which was partially what she wanted to confirm as well.
"More like a nightmare, and I can't wake up."
She slapped herself twice, and after making sure that she still had her bow, just in case, she walked back in. Or at least she tried, as the door opened and slammed her to the side. Without even noticing, a couple of drunks had come out singing something about better times and how Cayenne was saving Erebonia once and for all.
No sense shouting at them, although her sore arm disagreed. She just nursed it a bit as she walked inside again. Everyone was pretty much done with their food by now, so all that remained was just paying and getting as far away from here as possible. Her opinion of the driver went up exponentially after he also shared his disgust for the situation and how bad it all was.
"People don't really realize what war is about. I don't know if you guys know what war is like but I can assure you, I once met this girl who graduated from Thors and went on to join the provincial army…" He went on and on about how war was bad and how they wouldn't understand because they were young.
'Of course, we know nothing about it!' Was what they were all muttering to themselves. Alisa was glaring at Millium every time she opened her mouth, trying to goad her out of revealing some state secret or something to the poor driver.
After driving for another couple of hours, Roer came into view. It was close to midnight already, which just made them all the more thankful when they finally parted with the driver, who let them off on the lower level of Roer. Getting inside the city wasn't as hard as they'd expected, partially because they were in a RF truck, was her guess, but that would probably change soon.
"Now's the real problem, what in Aidios' name do we do?"
Both Gaius and Millium looked at her, puzzled. "I thought you were the local?"
"Yeah, which is exactly why I can't show up to any of the places I know, it's the first place they would look for me."
"Let's just walk, we'll figure it out."
And so they did. They walked to the moving stairs and admired the night city, as Alisa herself did a bunch of times, from the RF building. It also creeped into view as they got to the upper floor.
"My mother is probably there, figuring out how to make more weapons to supply the Rogner army. Wait, maybe Angie can help us?"
"I don't think that she's going to be allowed out of her house, not after what happened in the mines. Not for a while either."
"Yeah, you're probably right…"
They kept exchanging ideas back and forth until they found themselves staring at the Roer Cathedral.
"Hey, Alisa? Isn't the church meant to help people in need?"
"Sure, I'd say so."
Gaius pointed at the church. "Then, what are we waiting for?"
"Oooh! I always wanted to sleep in a church!"
"Millium it's not something to be excited about!" she paused. "We have to leave tomorrow in the morning however, we can't risk staying here for too long, not with the RF building here."
"What about Nord? I'm sure my family would be more than welcoming."
"That's… not a bad idea. How, though?"
"The trains may run tomorrow? We better hope for that otherwise we might have to catch another Reinford truck to Nord.
"Oh goddess, not another one of those…" She rolled her eyes. "Fine, church, then Nord. I really have nothing else."
They all nodded as they made their way inside only to be greeted by a sister who was almost getting ready to close the building for the night.