Title: A Second Chance, A New Beginning
Chapter 6: Preparations
"The desire to write grows in writing."
-Desiderius Eramus
"I live to write, and wrote to live."
-Samuel Rogers
Tension had already risen to it's breaking point it has been already weeks since the world learnt that Saint Roswald, Saint Mjosgard, and including the elusive Saint Nate has began to move, even Saint Jalmack whom rarely goes outside his Mansion suddenly left the confines of his home when ask by his Staff of what seems to be the occasion he just simply smiled at them while merrily whistling a soft tune. The action itself cause them in a catatonic shock, never before have they been subjected in that kind of treatment by the said Tenryuubito, usually he would just outright shouts at them for their incompetence or stupidity and even being reminded that the only reason they still live is because he needed a slave to take care of other mundane things not befitting a person of his stature to do.
Due to that action alone it enforced the rumors circulating all around Mariejois and it even spread outside said Holy City because of merchants going in and out said city in retelling said incident. Whatever cause a Tenryuubito to be extremely happy that he ultimately disregard to injure or harm his servants isn't something good for the common people. That became the instinctual thought of the people and they hope and god forbid that it isn't a diabolical weapon of mass destruction or a new biological weapon that they were trying to construct, or even a extremely dangerous animal which they suddenly caught and turn into one of their pet. Shuddering at what outrageous thing their minds came up with they can only pray that what ever it is that suddenly turn a Tenryuubito into a less hostile person isn't something harmful to their lives.
"Come in" came the short reply of Jalmack as he heard a soft knock outside his private library, over the years he collected various of things from mundane treasures and to exotic and rare animals. Ultimately being a collector of different books, he had adopted this hobby from their deceased Grandfather who values a person not for their pedigree but to his skills and talents.
"I'm sorry to disturb you Saint Jalmack-sama, but we received a letter from your Brother Mjosgard." Answered the servant girl as she offers the letter while bowing.
"You may place it at the table over there." Said Jalmack as he points to the empty table adjacent to his work area.
"Hai"
After placing the letter the servant girl, curtly bowed before leaving said Saint to his devises. Seeing that the servant already left, Jalmack removed his reading glasses and began to lightly massage the bridge of his nose with his forefingers alleviating the head ache he currently has after the meeting that was held in the Main Ancestral Home. Jalmack immediately order his accountant to give him a complete summary report of all his investments. The reason for his head ache was that he was not use to handle this trivial things opting to let his servants do this menial task but alas even Saints like him need to at least check the tons of paperwork neatly stack upon his desk to see any irregularities or mistakes done by his workers.
"I really wish back then that I took those accounting lessons my father grind me about." Jalmack thought, as he reminisce the times in which he vehemently protested to ever learn things like that. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he gingerly return back to his work the sooner he finish this, the sooner he can get his well deserved rest.
North Blue
"Can't this ship go any faster?" Came the whining voice of Saint Mjosgard as he complain about the speed of the ship he currently aboard of.
"I'm sorry Saint Mjosgard-sama, but if we were to increase the speed more there might be a possibility of your cargos being damage." Told by an Ensign officer as he saluted Mjosgard.
"It's already been weeks since my departure in collecting my rare fishmen slaves. I'm already this close from telling the Marine HQ to fire all you lot for your incompetence, I requested a vessel to transport me and my cargo immediately to Mariejois not have this slow battleship from being my escort." Came the enrage shouts of Mjosgard as he berated the Ensign officer already profusely sweating bullets by the given threat.
"You have my permission to hasten this ships speed, If my Slaves can't take this much then they aren't worthy enough to serve a person like I, also regarding my other things If they get dented or broken in the process this means they aren't well made and must have been fraud and mere imitations of the stuff I bought, if ever that happens I want you to track down the person who sold me this and kill him and his family for trying to trick a Tenryuubito." Came the offhand comment of Mjosgard as he regarded the fishmen and other slave he currently has aboard as nothing but mere things that he can easily replace.
"Yes, Sir" came the courteous reply of the Ensign not wanting to be the one to take the full anger of the Tenryuubito as he bolted and run towards the control tower about to inform the ships captain about the Tenryuubito's orders.
"This things should be packed immediately and loaded on the ship before I get back, Is that clear?" Ordered by Roswald to his servants as they scurried and hurriedly complied with the rest of Roswald wishes. They are already accustomed to Saint Roswald that whenever his orders aren't completed he usually trigger the explosive collar upon said servant to deal with him or her.
"This Statues are fragile and are worth more than your lives combined, I want them to be handle with extreme care. When loading upon the Ship place them beside my collection of ancient treasures."
Left and right Saint Roswald all his servants different task to handle and complete within the from packing his pristine clothes, expensive jewelries, and placing different statues made by renowned artist throughout the world in crates of different sizes to accommodate the sculptures size. Nodding to himself how organize his servants work with and thus not need further supervision and instruction from him he walking outside of the busy room going to inspect one by one the orders he told his servants in the morning if they were really completed not trusting a word of a lousy commoner.
Seeing huge crates of different sizes all stack up and meticulously place neatly together with the rest of his stuff he gave a nod of approval on seeing regardless that he was not there to oversee the work of his servants they still completed their task exceptionally well and to the letter. Finding nothing irregular here he went next room to see how the other things were done.
*CRASH*
He stop mid-step upon hearing the noise, trying to pin point the source till his eyes lain in the door where he supposed to go next, slowly opening the door to not make any sound he search for the reason of the crashing sound what he saw clearly shock him to the core, there lain completely broken and in pieces was one of his prize collection of sculpture.
The sculpture was created by the renowned Sculptor Weed whose name is well known in the Versailles Continent. Fury and anger were the two things upon seeing the destruction of said statue, he was supposed to give this as a token of appreciation/peace offering to Nate after him being trusted to take care of his son.
Trying to locate the culprit of this heinous crime, he began to search for the person responsible for this, what he saw in the corner was an auburn head girl in her teenage years, clearly ghostly pale white and wide eyed looking at the segmented parts of the statue that lay in the middle of the room.
Looking around for any other person aside from her he found no one, quickly deducing that the person in front of him was the culprit he began to stalk towards her in a slow yet steady face.
"What the hell were you thinking!?" Came the outrage questioned of Saint Roswald as began to move closer and closer towards the lying teen.
Upon seeing the enrage face of the Tenryuubito being focused upon her, she can't help but cower in fear, the movement of Saint Roswald at the moment can be describe and compared to that of a large predator going in for the kill to the injured small animal upon imagining this the girl quickly began to hyperventilate and began to profusely apologize incoherently.
"I...I didn't mean...It was an accident Saint Roswald,...I didn't want the sculpture to be broken...It just fell on it's own...Please forgive me." Apologize frantically by the Girl who began to visibly tremble and shake when Saint Roswald's form loom in front of her the mere act alone made Tenryuubito more scary up close due to his reddening face and somewhat disgusted expression he wore.
"You stupid, incompetent, insolent girl! Do you think i will believe the lies a commoner would spout of, I gave you a home to live in, food to eat, and clothes to wear and this is how you repay me, Intolerable! This statue you've just broken was supposed to be a gift to my brother Nate, now it's completely ruin!" Roswald said in a booming voice still angered by the audicity of the girl to lie in his face.
Didn't mean to, accident, hah as if he would believe such lies, she must have been jealous of it's beauty hence the reason why she broke it in the first place. He can already imagine her wicked smile as she topple the sculpture and broke it into pieces out of spite.
Such were the actions of a commoner like her being completely jealous towards said Statue's beauty.
"Guards! Guards!" Called out by Roswald. Immediately a dozen of armed soldiers rush inside the room upon hearing the call of Saint Roswald each guard wears the same plated armor with the symbol of the world government mark on the right shoulder and carries a steel sword.
"Take this wretch woman, and lock her up in the dungeons. I'll deal her with myself." Came the crisp order of Roswald while looking towards the captain of his guards.
Saluting the Tenryuubito, they began to forcefully drag the woman not minding her sudden thrashing and wails of apology.
"Saint Roswald...please, you have to believe me it was really an accident." Cried the servant as she was man handle by two guards while being escorted by the rest.
"Stop" came the abrupt command of Saint Roswald. Hearing the command they let go of their captive letting her fall in the ground scraping her knees in the process.
"Thank you...Thank you" said the servant.
"Girl, what is your name?" Ask by Roswald as he looks at the disheveled form of the girl still kneeling in front of him while continuing babbling thank you.
"Sala, Saint Roswald" answered by the servant now known as Sala.
"Hmm... So Sala it is then, very well I'm sure you'll have more productive time inside the dungeons while waiting for your punishment." Came the scatting remark of Roswald as he gave a sneer towards Sala. "Take her away"
"Wha...no please...believe me..." pleaded by Sala as she was towed away towards the dungeons.
"Captain, I want you to make sure to locate that girl's parents and kill them. Seeing that a person like her did this crime against me who knows what her parents would most likely do given a chance." Ordered by Roswald as he gave a one overlook towards the captain of his guards.
"Eto...Saint Roswald-sama, might I ask why do we need to kill the girls parents?" Questioned the captain.
"When the fruit is rotten, It indicates that the cause of it must have been the tree is also rotten that's why it bear those kind of fruit." Came the logical explanation of Roswald to the captain's inquiry.
Sweat dropping at the explanation given by the saint he can only give out a "Hai" as a response saluting and then the captain left Saint Roswald in the room intent to carry out the command that was given.
Upon being left alone in the room along with the pile of rubble of said statue. Roswald can't help but heaved up a long sigh
"To think my gift that cost me millions would be reduce to this state." Roswald said to himself. Seeing no further use to the broken statue he existed the room while shaking ones head as he left not noticing a small boy huddle behind the large crates stack up together in the far side of the room.
"Hmm... What can i give to Nate as a present and also a gift to his son." Muse by Roswald as he scan different antique collections he have collected over the past years. Having a hard time deciding which would be a preferable gift to his brother, he contacted his brother Mjosgard through the den-den mushi.
North Blue
ETA in Mariejois 5 hours
Mjosgard Envoy Ship
*Biri...Biri...Biri Biri* came the ringing sound of a purple den den mushi located at Mjosgard cabin.
"ZzzZzzzZzzz, huh...wha..?" Came the startled voice of Mjosgard as he was abruptly awoken in his sleep by the constant ringing.
Grumbling for the disturbance he snatch the den den mushi's speaker.
"What!?" Came his grumpy reply to the person on the other line who dares disturb his sleep.
"It's me Roswald" introduce by his brother.
Propping himself in a sitting position and wearily rubbing his eyes with his other free hand, he wearily answered Roswald with a yawn. "My brother, Is there something you need?" He lightly inquired not use to being called by Roswald but not really bothered bu it, usually it was the other way around.
"One of my incompetent slaves broke the gift I was supposed to gift to Nate, and I can't get a hold of the sculptor that made it." Grumbled by Roswald clearly still irk by the events that transpired a few hours ago. His first plan was to contact the same maker of the Statue and hire him to create another replica of the broken piece suffice to say after a dozen of tries contacting said Sculptor and haven't had any luck in successfully contacting Weed. He merely gave up the notion and went to the next best thing which is to seek Jalmack's help in assisting him but like Weed who is currently unavailable his brother can't also be reached. Frustrated at the stroke of bad luck he has experience today he has no other choice but to contact Mjosgard and hope that he would gave him a solution to his current ordeals.
"Is that so? Why don't you just give a gift that they might use? A pristine clothes made of silk for baby Luke and another helper to make them more at ease adjusting with a baby now" commented lightly by Mjosgard on the den den mushi.
"A helper? Hmm... I think your right, and I think I just have the perfect one to fit that role." Said by Roswald
"Susususu, I'm happy to have help you, my brother." Answered by Mjosgard as he disconnected the line.
Author's Note: So how do you think, good, bad, worse? Leave out a review to let me know... Okay?
