Chapter 6: Repentance (III)
Part 1
Seated in a carriage adorned with exquisite sculptures, Henrietta opened the curtains to be greeted with cheerful commoners.
"Long live Tristain! Long live Princess Henrietta!"
Those were the cheers that could be heard from the commoners as her carriage moved past the roads paved with pink flowers. It might be her imagination, but today seemed like a particularly happy day for them.
Three days ago, the Royal Messenger of Tristain, and also the one responsible for sending Leivinia Birdway, the princess of Albion, and her familiar the Imagine Breaker to shut down the Death Zone in less than a day, Count Igor Pelletier Mott, was brutally murdered by the Black Bullet. Not only that, his mansion was reduced into rubbles, and most of his soldiers killed.
It was an unusual act from this infamous figure, and the nobles were once again afraid that they would end up in the same fate as Count Mott. Perhaps that was why those commoners seemed to be so happy today. What does it say about the nobles of Tristain if a murderer like the Black Bullet was a hero in the eyes of those commoners?
Henrietta shook her head. Nobles from her grandfather and father's era were true nobles who made it their duty to protect those commoners with their magic, unlike nobles nowadays who abuse their power in many unspeakable manners.
Count Mott was one of those nobles who got away with his atrocities because of his political connections with those higher ranked nobles in court. She was not blind to what those nobles were up to, but she was only a princess learning how to be a ruler under the 'guidance' of Cardinal Mazarin, not Founder Brimir.
Even so, the Black Bullet should not be taking the law into its own hands. It was Academians like the Black Bullet that made it difficult for her to promote goodwill between the nobles and the Academians in Tristain.
The most troubling issue was the reported appearance of the Imagine Breaker and the mysterious blue-haired noble known as Tabitha before Count Mott's death at his mansion by the surviving soldiers.
Speculations were rifle in court regarding their relationship between the Black Bullet. Some say that it was the Imagine Breaker who asked the Black Bullet to kill Count Mott because of some unknown feud between the two. Others were convinced that the Imagine Breaker must have betrayed his master Leivinia Birdway and was working together with the Black Bullet under Reconquista. Killing Count Mott must be some kind of their plan to invade Tristain next. Almost everyone was convinced that their statements were lies despite having no evidence to prove otherwise.
In any case, there goes her chance in improving the relationship between the nobles and the Academians.
Henrietta rubbed her temples, sighing.
"Are you alright?" A gentle voice said.
It was Patricia Birdway, a girl who possessed an alarmingly similar face as her sister Leivinia. The both of them had shoulder-length blonde hair, but Leivinia's hair had more volume than Patricia.
Today was Familiar Day, and Patricia wanted to visit her sister Leivinia studying at the Tristain's Academy Of Magic where the event was held at, so Henrietta decided to offer her a lift there.
Henrietta nodded with a tired smile, "I'm fine. Thank you for your concern."
She could help but admire Patricia. At just only twelve years old, Patricia managed to become one of the best magic researcher in Albion. Currently, she was working in Oriz Magic Academy located here in Tristain together with one of their best researcher Eleonore De La Valliere learning more about Earth magic.
"How has your studies been coming along with Eleonore?"
"Excellent! I really, really enjoyed my lessons with her!"
Patrica took out her wand, and cast a silencing spell around the carriage to prevent anyone from spying on them. Her enthusiatic expression turned serious.
Her voice dropped into a whisper. "Eleonore is crazy. I don't know how her colleagues are still alive, but I'm reaching my limit soon. Save me."
Henrietta broke into laughter, "I've heard many interesting things about her, about how she resembles her mother Duchess Karin in terms of personality, but I'm sure she means well."
"She uses a whip."
"Does she hit you with it?" Henrietta said concernedly.
"No... but that's not the point! A normal person would never even think of using a whip on another person! Eleonore is not normal!"
Henrietta placed her hand on the shoulder of a terrified Patricia to comfort her. "She just uses that whip to scare people. Don't worry about it."
"If only I could be half as courageous as my sister." Patricia sighed. Then again, it was easy for anyone to be courageous if they were a square class mage capable of destroying an entire village. She was just an average Triangle Class Water mage unlike her twin sister Leivinia who was a powerful Square Class mage.
Recently, Leivinia had even fought the infamous Black Bullet together with her familiar to save Tristain and succeeded! However, the evil Gandalfr leading the rebel group Reconquista took advantage of her weakened state after the battle and tried to assassinate her. Leivinia survived the attempt, but ended up in a coma.
Her current situation was not positive. The healers there said it was a miracle that they managed to save Leivinia from dying. As she was still unconscious after so many days, she was probably stuck in a permanent coma because the damage to her brain was so great.
The carriage came to a stop.
They were now outside of Tristain's Academy Of Magic.
Patricia uttered a small prayer to God.
Please grant me the power to save my sister.
Part 2
Gathered around a large, rectangular wooden table inside a room were nobles from Albion and Tristain supporting Reconquista.
Seated at one end was Takitsubo Rikou, the representative and secretary of the legendary Gandalfr leading the rebel group in Albion. It did bothered them that Gandalfr was an Academian, but the runes on his left hand and the skills he had demonstrated undeniably proved that he was truly Gandalfr, the legendary familiar who once belonged to Founder Birimir himself.
So why did the legendary familiar fail to kill a single girl?
Duke Clauvres Deighton, a polished man around his forties, glared at Rikou. "We would like an explanation for the Gandflar's failure." He kept his tone even, although one could still sense some anger from the slight variations of his tone.
"Are you saying that the legendary Gandflar who would lead us on a holy crusade to fight the elves could not kill a mere girl? "Count Guillaume Riqueti, a man with a similar aura as Clauvres with a moustache that further accentuated his refinedness said.
"Leivinia is no mere girl. However, I acknowledge that it was unforgivable for the Gandflar to have failed. I will correct the mistake." Rikou said, her voice never strayed away from being soft and calm despite the increasingly intense pressure from the nobles. As being calm was the most optimal emotional state, she was programmed to be only capable of being calm.
General Tomides slammed the table with an open palm. "Well, how are you going to correct the mistake then?!"
Reconquista was on the verge of conquering the whole of Albion after they took down four more county, driving the Albion Royal Family into a corner with just eight county left to defend themselves.
However, the unexpected appearance of that blasphemous existence Kanzaki Kaori together with the incredible firepower support provided by the royal battle airship HMS Vanguard had destroyed their certain victory over Albion. Reconquista could not risk another unexpected appearance who could turn the tides around like Kanzaki Kaori, so they must eliminate Leivinia Birdway.
"Mugino Shizuri." Rikou said.
Tomides fell silent. She was a notorious mercenary from Germania feared by many, including him. Known to be relentless in battle, Shizuri would never stop until her target was dead. Another general from Germania like him once sent his whole troop against Shizuri. He and his entire troop ended up dead with Shizuri still alive. Since then, the name Mugino Shizuri was enough to make any noble pause in fear. Even her mercenary team was reputed to be one of the best in Germania.
"Fine." Tomides grunted.
"I hope we will not be disappointed again." Clauvres said before leaving the room together with a few other nobles.
Why are those nobles so short-sighted and impatient? Rikou thought as she observed more and more frustrated nobles taking their leave. Are they frustrated because of their impatience? There wasn't even a need to kill Leivinia yet, but those impatient nobles insisted that she die as soon as possible. All they can see are the threats to the victory that would bring them glory and power, but never thinking about whether it was a necessary threat to be removed.
However, that was fine.
As long as they remain moving like how she wanted them to move like obedient tools, that was fine.
Part 3
Just the name alone, and the people coming in and out from the Paradise Love Inn located in Almere, a small city nearby the northwest border of Tristain, should be enough to tell how indecent this place was.
Frenda Seivelun, a girl with long blonde hair dressed in a blue, long-sleeved sailor top and white skirt coupled with a matching blue beret, sighed as she took a seat inside the inn.
Girls as young as her dressed in outfits emphasizing their figures in a vulgar manner were running about, serving drinks to customers, chatting and flirting with them. The music from the crude wooden stage in the center was loud and noisy. She never understood the point behind it. It just makes conversation difficult. They should really do away with the music.
"Good music. Don't you super think so?"
It was her friend Kinuhata Saiai who had a brown bobcut wearing a ragged red top matched with a mini pant exposing most of her slender legs, seated at the opposite end as she closed her eyes momentarily, enjoying the music.
"No. How in the world is this loud noise enjoyable?" Frenda said.
"It kinda makes you super want to have a couple of shots and just dance around all night. Don't you super feel the energy inside that music?"
"I certainly have the energy to drop a bomb to shut those instruments up. In the end, music from instruments played by magic is horrible."
Oh, it was easy enough. All Frenda had to do was to slip into her skirt pocket for a bomb disguised as a doll, but the unwanted attention was probably not worth it.
Saiai snapped her fingers enthusiastically, motioning for a waitress dressed in that indecent dress almost exposing her entire chest and panties.
"Give me a bottle of your best hard liquor!" Saiai said.
"I'd like a few cups of liquor diluted with fruit punch."
The waitress nodded with a smile as she ran off towards the bar at a corner.
After a torturous journey travelling from Germania to Tristain, Frenda wanted a quiet place where she could enjoy her drink in peace. In the end, her opinion never mattered as Saiai simply dragged her inside the nearest inn she could find without being bothered by how indecent it looked.
There was an empty area around the crude wooden stage, probably for people to dance, but a barbaric scene greeted Frenda.
"Isn't Tristain supposed to be more civilized than Germania?" Frenda said, directing Saiai's attention towards the scene.
At that area, a finely dressed noble surrounded by a group of thugs waved his wand to summon water streams, chaining an Academian girl to the ground. Her clothing was not the same as those waitress, so she should be someone unrelated to this place.
The group of thugs started assaulting the defenseless girl chained to the wall. Even the noble joined in the fun as well.
Saiai smiled nonchalantly, pouring herself a cup of hard liquor as soon as the waitress left their orders on the table.
"That's interesting. Nobles acting like barbarians in Tristain? And they say Germania is barbaric!"
Saiai broke into laughter as she watched the scene grew even more brutal. The noble gestured for the thugs to move aside. He fired fist-sized ice boulders at her, leaving gruesome gaping wounds on the girl's bloodied body.
A scene like that happened in Germania so many times that Frenda grew numb to it, but this was not Germania. Why was everyone ignoring such an act like it happened too many times for them to be surprised?
"Speaking of which," Saiai said, turning her attention back to Frenda instead of that amusing play, "Can you super stop with the diluted alcohol? Are you super like five or something? Drink something more appropriate of your age."
Frenda twitched in annoyance, "Stop insulting my preferences every time we come to a place like this! And are we seriously going to just ignore that poor defenseless girl?"
The girl had been abused so badly that her face was almost unrecognizable as a human being. Germania may be a barbaric country, but it did not mean that the people over there were heartless cowards.
"If everybody is super ignoring them, then I super think it's just a culture of Tristain. It would be super rude to not respect that."
A thug grabbed Saiai's shoulder from behind. She turned around, intrigued. It was a thug from that group torturing the girl.
"Why don't you join that Academian girl over there?" The thug grinned, "You look pretty cute as well."
"Is it a culture over here in Tristain for Academians to be beaten up like that?" Saiai said.
"How about we answer those questions one by one as you fucking lay there like that dirty piece of trash over there!"
Saiai grabbed hold of his wrist, and flipped his entire body over with just one hand, slamming him onto the table she was seated at.
All eyes were now on the Academian heretic sporting a brown bobcut wearing a ragged red top matched with a mini pant.
Terrified waitress and patrons who did not wish to get involved stampeded through the open door, leaving only the group of thugs and that finely dressed noble approaching Saiai.
Frenda picked up her beret as she stood up, having being forced to throw herself sideways to dodge the human turned sledgehammer slamming into the table she was seated at.
"What happened to respecting their culture?" Frenda said sarcastically as she adjusted the beret on her head, "That was rather rude of you."
Saiai cracked her knuckles and winked at Frenda. "That's super just cultural exchange."
"So you're with that heretic over there?" The noble smiled threateningly at Frenda.
Frenda shrugged her shoulders, "Unfortunately yes. Basically, we're travellers from Germania and this is our first time here."
The noble took out his wand, "I only want that Academian heretic dead, so get out of the way if you don't want to be killed as well."
"Saiai, did you offend this guy or something?" Frenda said.
"Hmm..." Saiai frowned, "I don't know this guy, and why is he super calling me a heretic? Is that a Tristain thing?"
"Beats me. I'm as equally confused as you."
"Enough! Stop playing dumb!" The noble growled, waving his wand around to fire multiple water spears. He no longer had the patience to listen to their nonsense.
Both Frenda and Saiai weaved through the spears, moving away from each other in an inverted V-like pattern.
The thugs were just like the barbarians in Germania. Amateur fighters who rely on brute strength and a few simple combat techniques.
Frenda ducked a overhead fist before hurling a blade concealed inside her skirt towards the first thug. The blade plunged into his neck, and he fell to the ground choking in pain.
She swung her foot upwards, firing a blade concealed in her shoe, piercing through the second thug's face. Flicking her wrist upwards, a blade shot out from her sleeve and pierced through the third thug's neck. Frenda yanked that blade out and hurled it to her left, piercing through the fourth thug's neck.
A water spear grazed through her face, and she dodged a few more incoming spears.
That noble should be somewhere at Triangle class if his water spears were strong enough to knock down Saiai. While the impact from being knocked down did not bother Saiai, his magic was making it difficult for her to move in for the kill.
Frenda took out another blade hidden inside her sailor top, and flung it towards the noble waving his wand about. A water spear knocked her blade away, and she cursed her luck. The trajectory of the spears were too unpredictable.
A water jet sent Saiai crashing towards the staircase behind the noble.
The noble chuckled like a madman as he continued firing water spears around him, "You Academian heretics think you're strong?! All of you are demons sent by the Devil! It's my duty as the Chosen One by our Founder Birimir to vanquish you from Halkegenia!"
What dumb luck to encounter a lunatic mage. Frenda thought. What the fuck is an Academian heretic anyway?
He was the only one still standing with his group of thugs either dead or unconscious from Frenda's blade or from Saiai's fists.
The doll bomb inside Frenda's pocket was her last chance against this lunatic mage.
Saiai looked at Frenda knowingly, and a plan appeared in Frenda's mind.
Saiai charged straight at the mage, dodging and deflecting the water spears with her fists. As deflecting the spears forced Saiai backwards, she attempted to dodge as much as possible. It was still as difficult to get closer to him, but she managed to divert all of his attention towards herself.
Frenda hurled the doll bomb into the air towards the noble, and took cover behind a toppled table.
The bomb landed with a loud thud.
An explosion shook the area, engulfing it with flames.
Wasting no time, Saiai leaped towards the noble who had protected himself against the explosion with a water barrier.
As mages can only use one spell at a time, he could not both protect himself with a water barrier and fire water spears at the same time.
The noble dropped his barrier to fire a few water spears towards Saiai.
Frenda hurled her blade at the same time.
The blade stabbed into the mage's temples, and he howled in pain.
Taking advantage of the delay, Saiai closed in for the kill as she landed her fist across his face, knocking him unconscious.
Saiai stretched her sore arms, taking a deep, satisfied breath before choking on the smoke. "Th-That was super tough."
"Basically, can we just get out of here first?!" Frenda urged Saiai, covering her face with a hand to protect herself from breathing in too much smoke.
"I think we're super trapped... see, the only way out is super blocked by burning pieces of tables and chairs."
The only way out was the way that they entered this inn.
There might be a back door somewhere, but that no longer mattered.
The burning pieces of tables and chairs blocking the exit were blown apart, and two armoured knight appeared, pointing their sword-wands at Saiai.
"Heretic, you're officially under arrest! Surrender, or we'll be forced to kill you on the spot."
Frenda could only hope that they haven't attracted too much attention to the point where it would interfere with their mission.
Their leader Mugino Shizuri was not someone they wished to anger.
Between the Lines 1
Touma looked over at the street of a city in modern Tokyo around 15 stories below the rooftop he stood at.
In front of him was a mob of angry adults cornering him towards the ledge. All of them believing that his death would put an end to all their misery.
His recent 'victim' was a man who he bumped into while escaping another ambush laid by another mob a couple of days ago. That man died of a mysterious fatal illness which took his life in hours yesterday. Touma knew because the newspapers made sure to publish it as a tragedy caused by his misfortune.
"Jump! Jump! Jump!"
The mob chanted as they continued to corner him towards the ledge.
Touma clenched his fists as he reluctantly moved backwards.
They were armed with knives, baseball bats, shattered glass bottles, and some even had burning torches to burn him alive. Fortunately, firearms were banned in Japan, so that was probably why Touma still found himself alive. No matter how fast his reaction speed was, no human could ever dodge a bullet.
One man from the mob took out a gun.
"That's impossible..." Touma uttered in complete shock. "That's just a fake gun!"
The man fired at the ledge, and a loud sound of the bullet ricocheting off the ledge could be heard.
Firearms were banned in Japan, but staring at his face now was a real gun that could take his life before he could even finish blinking.
If this was the end of him, then Touma would have died a long time ago.
There were shorter buildings surrounding this building.
He leaped over the ledge, and felt the impact threatening to snap his legs into two as he landed on a rooftop of a shorter building.
Touma ran towards the stairs leading to the ground floor of that building. With each step he took, his legs kept protesting in pain, but he was already used to it.
More and more people inside the building gave chase after him after realizing that he was the 'Plague' or 'Jinx' that brought misfortune wherever he went.
Touma cursed his misfortune when he had to cross a passageway to continue down to the ground floor.
He dodged a downward strike from a man's wooden stick, gave a swift kick to his groin area, and took his wooden stick which he dropped in pain.
Like a professional javelin thrower, Touma flung the wooden stick with the blunt end landing right at another man's face, before tripping over a fat woman who probably never exercised a single day of her life.
Thankfully, that was all as Touma made it through the passageway, but the newly gathered mob behind him only increased as he continued downwards.
When he exited the building, a mob twice as large now followed behind him.
The only thing keeping him alive was the law. Although people were convinced that his misfortune was responsible for all the bad things that happened to them, but no one could prove it.
The mob should disperse soon for fear of getting into trouble with the authorities, and it would be another day where Touma managed to survive despite the odds.
He felt a banana slip underneath his feet, and his body lost all sense of balance, forcing him to fall flat down on his face.
Touma heard gunfire shots and a burning, stinging sensation lingered around his back.
He looked down to see his chest stained with blood as he continued running.
This time, it was no longer just his legs protesting in pain. Touma felt his vision flickering between pitch black and a blurry view of his surroundings and his body grew more sluggish by the seconds.
He reached his limit when he no longer could stop his body from collapsing.
Touma saw a blurry image of a man pressing the gun at his forehead.
"Stop it!"
It was a voice of a young girl. He could not see clearly how the girl looked like, but he could tell that she had blonde hair and was about the height about a preschool student struggling to pull the man aside.
"This is a monster responsible for all the tragedies in the news you see everyday! If we kill him, all of this will end!" The man said.
"So what?! All I see is a man trying to kill a innocent boy with a gun!"
"But he's a monster! Are you going to ask me stop even though he's a monster who brings misfortune to everybody?"
"My parents taught me to be kind. That's why even if he's a monster, I'll stop you!"
The man shook the blonde-haired girl aside, and the threat of imminent death now became clear.
He was going to die now.
A strange power forced Touma to spring up like a clockwork mechanism at full power before twisting the man's wrist with both hands, releasing his grip on the gun.
The mob gasped in horror.
"Yo-You monster! You took five shots to the back and you're still standing?!"
Most humans would have already died, but not Touma. He did not know how far his inability to die easily could go, but today he learned that he could survive up to five shots to his body without dying.
The mob scattered away as the police arrived.
"Are you still okay?!" The blonde-haired girl stood close to Touma, but unwilling to touch him, afraid that she would worsen his injuries by doing so.
Touma coughed out blood, glaring at the girl who must be mentally ill. "You're going to regret this."
She was not the first stranger who wanted to protect him.
"I might be an exception."
The first few strangers who wanted to protect him ended up dead due to unnatural causes. That girl will not be an exception.
"And besides," The blonde-haired girl said, "I only saved you because I wanted to save you, that's all."
However, she was the first stranger that made an enormous impact to his lonely and miserable life.
Part 4
After spending five days in the village of Tarbes with Siesta and Tabitha, Touma could finally head back to the academy with them after receiving news that the Black Bullet had murdered Count Mott.
But as the three were sighted at his mansion before his death, it took another day of interrogation by the Royal Court before they could all return to the academy.
As agreed between them beforehand if they were to be interrogated, Siesta was just a maid that got dragged along by the Imagine Breaker and Tabitha as they fought and escaped a crazed Count Mott.
Meanwhile, Touma was riding a dragon with Tabitha at night when they saw soldiers outside Count Mott's mansion fighting against each other. Concerned, Tabitha flew over to try and stop the fighting, but failed. Thus, she knocked all of the soldiers unconscious with her Air Hammer spell.
The windows later shattered for no reason, and they both entered the mansion to see Count Mott and the remaining soldiers acting crazy and hostile so they were forced to retaliate and took the maid Siesta along and escaped as she was the only lucid person around.
All potential charges against them were dropped and they returned to the academy safe and sound.
Touma smiled to a maid walking past him as he stood outside Leivinia's room.
She smiled back in return.
If it was six days ago, that maid would have just ignored him with a scowl on her face.
While those maid could not openly celebrate his heroic act with a feast because in the eyes of the Royal Court he only happened to take Siesta away by chance, all of them knew in their heart that he was the hero who saved Siesta, so they no longer had any reason to hate him anymore.
Siesta opened the door, beckoning Touma to enter. She was done cleaning Leivinia up.
The healers said if she did not wake up within three days, she would most probably stay in a coma forever.
Is that it? Would Leivinia really stay in a coma forever since it has been six days already?
"Is there really nothing we could do?" Touma sighed, hoping for a response from Leivinia as he stroked her hair again.
Their time together might have been short, and she was not the most pleasant person to be around with, but she was kind enough to give him a place to stay in. It frustrated Touma that there was nothing he could do to change the situation.
Siesta placed a hand on his shoulder and shot him a reassuring smile. "Miss Birdway is a good person who treated us maids fairly. I'm sure everything will work out in the end."
"Perhaps."
Seeing how depressed he seemed to be as he sat beside Leivinia deep in thoughts, Siesta decided that she should do something to make him feel better.
And there was one thing that would always make a man feel better according to all the novels she had read. Surely there must be some truth in it if it was written in so many novels.
Siesta briefly pressed her lips on his soft cheeks.
Her face flushed red, and she pursed her lips in embarrassment as he looked at her confused.
"I ju-just wanted to cheer you up!" Siesta said.
He smiled.
I don't need a reason to save someone.
That was what he said to her friend Alayna with a smile. The true reason behind why he decided to save her together with Tabitha even if she had been cruel by hurling a pot of boiling porridge at him.
Even if those nobles are corrupted and cruel people, I can't just abandon and leave them to die.
It was not a lousy excuse after all.
He was a true hero who would save anyone, evil or not.
And for that hero, Siesta was willing to do anything for him.
Author's Note:
As always, thanks for reading and reviewing this story :)
If you're wondering, Alayna is the name of the crying maid that Touma stumbled upon in Chapter 4.
Just a setup chapter, so I guess its kinda short (and also why Leivinia is still not awake yet, unfortunately), although I hope you found the chapter interesting enough, especially the fight scenes.
Do leave a review if you liked it, or if you're kind enough to offer ideas or advice to me so that I can improve this chapter and also not struggle as much writing the next chapter.
slaiser: Thanks :)
zed: Well, cutting Touma's arm is something I'd like to reserve for later, so just keep reading I guess? :D
