Fairyless: The Story Behind the Magic
Little Red Riding Hood
One day, Little Red Riding Hood's mother said to her, "Take this basket of goodies to your grandma's cottage, but don't talk to strangers on the way!" Promising not to, Little Red Riding Hood skipped off. On her way she met the Big Bad Wolf who asked, "Where are you going, little girl?" "To my grandma's, Mr. Wolf!" she answered.
The Big Bad Wolf then ran to her grandmother's cottage much before Little Red Riding Hood, and knocked on the door. When Grandma opened the door, he locked her up in the cupboard. The wicked wolf then wore Grandma's clothes and lay on her bed, waiting for Little Red Riding Hood.
When Little Red Riding Hood reached the cottage, she entered and went to Grandma's bedside. "My! What big eyes you have, Grandma!" she said in surprise. "All the better to see you with, my dear!" replied the wolf. "My! What big ears you have, Grandma!" said Little Red Riding Hood. "All the better to hear you with, my dear!" said the wolf. "What big teeth you have, Grandma!" said Little Red Riding Hood. "All the better to eat you with!" growled the wolf pouncing on her. Little Red Riding Hood screamed and the woodcutters in the forest came running to the cottage. They beat the Big Bad Wolf and rescued Grandma from the cupboard. Grandma hugged Little Red Riding Hood with joy. The Big Bad Wolf ran away never to be seen again. Little Red Riding Hood had learnt her lesson and never spoke to strangers ever again.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Taking a deep, rattling breath, I approached the gilded mahogany doors that lead to the main meeting hall. Pushing open the well-oiled hinges, I burned the image of the cream-colored walls, plush chairs, and ominous ebony table into my mind. After all, it could be the last thing I ever saw.
Velder and Hamel had been at war for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, showing no signs of slowing down at any time. It had all started way back when, after the King of Velder had been poisoned while on vacation in Hamel. Velder blamed Hamel for the death of their King, sparking the worst war Elrios had ever seen, splitting the entire super-continent in half, pitting them against each other. Things became so desperate that the two sides totally expanded their forces into reaches they couldn't begin to comprehend. Velder turned to alchemy, but not any alchemy, no, they turned to the dark alchemists and the light alchemists, fusing both into an ultimate type of alchemy capable of doing almost anything, and alchemy they called 'prism.' Hamel turned to technology, further advancing their skills until they created massive machines of death and terror. Both where evenly matched, unable to gain an advantage over the other. So, they resorted to trying to steal the other's information.
That's where I come in.
Both the Velderian Alliances and the Hamelian Alliances dove deep into the world of espionage, sending out hundreds of spies at a time, all meant to infiltrate high-security bases and intercept, received, and spirit away valuable information in hopes to totally crush the other.
As for me, I am the best of the best. A Hamelian spy that's been on hundreds of thousands of missions, never caught. Ever. I've stolen thousands of documents containing information that's helped us turn the tides of countless battles, not to mention a valuable manuscript containing information on prism alchemy, something that could ultimately end this war once we can integrate it into the Q-PROTO_00 battle Nasods that are currently being produced.
Entering the main meeting hall, I swept a graceful bow. "You called?" The nearest one, a blonde man with fair skin and ocean-blue eyes, Rod Ross, funder of the Hamelian espionage section, sent me a vulpine grin, flashing white teeth.
"Yes. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule, Agent 003." He brushed a stray strand of gold out of his angular face, smiling again, the warmth never reaching his eyes. "We are in need of your skills. Although you may find this mission to be... ah... below someone of your caliber, we are in need of a great deal of womanly charm for this particular assignment."
I raised an eyebrow, folding my arms, boring holes into Rod. "And? What would this assignment be?" A woman beside him with chocolate skin, orange eyes, and silvery hair, Daisy, head secretary and treasurer, sighed, sliding an orange-brown manila envelope across the table.
"Inside this envelope is classified information that contains a way to get back Bethma from Velder."
Ah. Velder had captured Bethma, a small, mineral-rich nation, which had allied itself with Hamel, despite being close to Elder and Feita, which were both allied with Velder. They hoped to cut off the metals and weapons that were being imported to Hamel from Bethma, rendering their opponents semi-helpless.
"However, to get this information to the ones who will be carrying out this plan, we first need to get it across the Velderian defense lines, which are heavily guarded. And that's where you come in."
I scoffed, tossing my long hair over my shoulder, before tucking the envelope into my black cloak. "That's it? So I'm your glorified messenger girl?"
The silver-haired maiden rolled her eyes, muttering in annoyance. "I understand that you immigrated to Hamel from your home town, Agent, so you have no real ties to Hamel. However, you did put your life on the line for Hamel multiple times. So, think of it as a reward to go on this rather simple mission."
Rod nodded, before raising an eyebrow. "Why did you come to Hamel from Ruben, anyways? Ruben is quiet, and relatively unaffected by the war. You could've lead a peaceful life."
I smiled brightly, giggling quietly, something I used to do often before I came to Hamel. "But where's the fun in that~?" Turning on my heel, I glanced at the military leaders once more. "You want me to deliver these? Fine. But I better have some sort of reward."
Daisy flipped through the pages of her leather-bound book, her lavender feather pen twitching eagerly in her hands as she scribbled something down. "Should you succeed in your mission and return alive - which I suspect shall happen - you will earn yourself 1,000,000 ED. Does that sound like a fair trade?"
My eyes widened, before I grinned wolfishly. "These documents must have some pretty top-secret stuff in them, not just battle tactics. A million ED for a simple delivery?" Smirking with delight, I leaned forwards, almost touching noses with Rod Ross. "Or, perhaps Hamel is running low on metallic supplies...?"
Rod scowled, his forehead creasing. "You are dismissed. Return once you've completed your mission." Smirking coldly, I opened the gilded doors to leave, but was stopped almost instantly. "Before I forget, a change of uniform is needed. Velder is very patriotic, you see, and won't let you in if you're wearing that cloak of yours." His eyes flicked over the cloak once more. "It is rather flashy, and the feathered shoulder pads... It is a common style in Hamel. So, as an exchange, we got you this." With a deft flick of his wrist, a red piece of fabric was tossed at me. Catching it, I examined the cloak. It was simple, flowing down to around the middle of my back, two red strings at the front hanging down, obviously meant to tie the top together. A fur-lined hood rested gently on the top. Snorting, I shook the red cape at Rod.
"You call red less flashy than my current uniform?" Rod sighed.
"Red is one of the main colors of Velder. They'll be much less suspicious of you this way." Snorting, I saluted him mockingly, before exiting the room.
Removing my cloak, I carefully unpicked the seams of the fur-lined hood, removing the papers from the envelope. Noting the elaborate design scrawled on one, I smirked. "Well, Velder won't know what hit them." Folding up the papers as small as possible, I carefully slid them into the hood, re-stitching the seams quickly. Picking up my cloak and the red cloak, I walked down the small, gray hallways that made up most of the underground spy camp, before reaching a plain brown door. Opening it, I opened one of the drawers, quickly changing into a nice gray dress with a white apron, tying my new red cloak on. Looking at myself in the mirror, I scoffed. "Well hello there, little miss red hood."
Hitching a ride on a wagon, I made it to the Alterian border. Halfway through the war, Altera had undergone a civil war, and was split into two sides, East Altera, and West Altera. West Altera, which contained over 90% of the Nasod industries and population, stayed with its traditional ally, Hamel. West Altera, however, sided with Velder, but was mostly made up of small human and Ponggo settlements. Slipping in with a group of Velderians Hamel had forced out of West Altera specifically for this purpose, I felt a shiver of excitement run down my spine. We were crossing the border in one of the few safe havens for both Velderian and Hamelian, a place for refugees to come if they absolutely needed help. After all, neither Velder nor Hamel was that cruel. I handed the Velderian soldier my false Velderian passport, putting on my best smile as I prattled on about 'how terrible it was escaping from Hamel but I was safe now because I was in the hands of the very capable Velder army now.' The soldier did his best to smile back, before handing back my passport. "Welcome home, Miss Seris."
Now is when the mission really begins.
Velder was going to fall this time.
Me: So! Guessing time, peoples!
Elsword: Rosa dropped super major hints this time, so there is almost no way you can have any doubts what the pairing is this time around.
Aisha: Please don't be dense and read the story carefully!
Ara: Just a reminder, the person to guess correctly will get to choose the pairing for the next story arc!
Me: Yup~! So guess away!
Raven: The goal this time around is to bring at least one person to tears and throw in the most epic plot twist of all times.
Chung: Just remember, no magic at all! When Rosa says alchemy, she doesn't mean magic, she means brewing potions and the like and creating bombs and stuff like that.
Me: If you're wondering how technology doesn't gain an immediate advantage over alchemy, my reasoning is that Velder created potions that mess with electrical signals, and if you dump a vial of acid over a piece of machinery...
Rena: Bye bye machine~!
Me: AND NOW ON TO REVIEWER REPLIES!
AishaElementalMaster - Now now, it's his job. Plus I had to ruin such an innocent character XD
Sakuraaaah - Don't be expecting many happy endings here XD Thank you very much, and as for one couple dying... No story will be left without at least one person dying... Akazukin isn't exactly a murderer, but that was a funny coincidence with Zenya XD It just so happened that she mentioned it after I got all the details down for what the next arc would be XD
Great (Guest) - Nope, Karis is still alive, awake, alert, enthusiastic (About taking over the kingdom). Hmm... I might make epilogues after the arcs are all finished depending on what I feel like doing... Lol, Karis will die no matter what XD
Sugarlatte - I'm glad that you like it! O_O You showed this story to your mom? I would never be able to do something like that... Well, now you have something to check, so... GUESS AWAY!
Yami - Eh he he he... It's more fun this way XD At least they had their happy moments together. You just can't hate the wittle Pikachung, no matter what he does XD
Ephema - Yes, behind a wall. You can thank Edgar Allen Poe for that lovely piece of inspiration XD THE ROYAL FAMILY HAD TO DIE. I COULDN'T LEAVE 'EM ALIVE. /shot
EVERYONE SHALL DIE. Except for the bad guys. OAO Don't kill Aren! That's my job! Cross-dressing Chung is legit. Like, when I saw his genderbent portrait for the first time I thought it looked pretty similar to the regular IP :P Actually, the worst death would be death by the bronze bull. Or perhaps asphyxiation by puncturing the lungs. Or drinking a poison that makes you cough up your esophagus. Or have your innards pulled out through a small slit on your side. Or my personal favorite, having rats chew through your stomach! :D (Please don't ask why I know these...) I really can't stand the 'RAINBOWS AND BUTTERFLIES AND UNICORNS AND NON-DEPRESSING CRAP' type of endings sometimes XD You think you're sick? Please see above where I am listing various ways to kill. And yes, behind a wall XD
Me: Well then...
Raven: You don't have anything to say, do you?
Me: KUROKO NO BASKET!
Eve: What on Elrios are you prattling on about?
Me: Kuroko no basket? Basketball anime/manga? Characters have last names with the same color as their hair? Like Aomine and Kise?
Elgang: ...
Me: ...Anyways, get your guesses in now! You have until next chapter!
Rena: Don't forget to R&R!
Chung: If you haven't already followed/favorited, please do!
Aisha: See you all next chapter!
Me: Love y'all! Chu~
