So now it's time for Kiryll to party with the upper-class! But he still has a duty to fulfill: make sure that the party goes off without a hitch. Will the Vanguard actually attack? Who knows?
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As he entered the large ballroom, he noticed that the inside was beautifully decorated. There were velvet drapes everywhere that he went, creating small rooms at which people were talking and dancing the night away. When he turned a corner, he saw Zelos talking to a few women with a smile on his face.
Seducing girls, huh? Kiryll shrugged and walked away.
He began to look around for any familiar faces. Sure enough, he saw Stahn snacking away at the bar with a few shocked faces around him. His noble outfit didn't look all that bad, though that was based off the small amount that he could see from behind the table. Arche was a few feet away, talking to Marta and Emil about something. Unlike the others, Arche didn't seem to have a fancy outfit at all, looking more like a magical girl. Wonder if the outfit was just as mobile as what Yuri got?
"You are Kiryll Nightroad."
He turned his head around to see a young girl standing behind him. She had short green hair with wrapped bangs and was hold a prong in her hands as if it was a staff. Her outfit consisted of a white robe that passed to her thighs, which was covered with white tights and shoes. Her face was extremely innocent, but looked dead serious.
"That's me." He answered, leaning down to her level. "Is there…something that you need?"
"My name is Ion of the Order of Lorelei." She answered.
"The Order of Lorelei-!" He jumped backward, almost bumping into someone. "You're-"
"I am separate from the Order of the Sacred Pentagram, and therefore, I assure you no harm." She said with a smile. "I came here to tell you that."
"Oh…I see." Kiryll smiled. "Thank you for telling me that, Ion."
"Ion…! There you are!"
He turned his head upward to see a girl running toward them. She had pigtails in her hair and was wearing a simple pink robe, similar to what Ion was wearing. A doll was dangling from her back, somehow able to stay there despite the fact that it didn't seem to be attached to anything.
"I've been looking all over for you!" She sighed. "You have to stop running around like that!"
"I'm fine, Anise." Ion answered with a smile. "I was just talking to him."
"Who? Oh!" She turned to Kiryll. "You're the fabled Wild Card, aren't you?"
"U-uh…" Kiryll backed up.
"Anise, please. You're scaring him." Ion turned to him. "This is Anise Tatlin, my bodyguard. Anise, this is Kiryll Nightroad."
"Oh woooow…you're a lot more handsome than I thought you were!" She had sparkles in her eyes.
"Th-thank you…" Kiryll felt extremely intimidated. "Oh, wait. You're from the Order of Lorelei. That must make you a Fon Master, then."
"Yes, I am." Ion nodded.
"It must be hard to run an entire organization on your own." He grinned.
"I have the support of all of my friends. Running the Order is not hard." Ion smiled. "Thank you for your consideration."
"Ion, you have to meet up with Emperor Peony now." Anise said.
"Of course." She turned to Kiryll. "It was nice talking to you."
"Of course, Fon Master."
He waited as they walked away from him. It was then that a strange thought crossed his mind: Fon Masters had a habit of being male. It was done like that because it was supposed to be a symbol of how Lorelei chose to assume a male form when he descended onto the planet. Why would they suddenly decide that they were going to make the recent one a girl?
Unless…
His face went pale white. Was Ion aware of the fact that he was wearing girl's clothing? He couldn't help but wonder if it was something that Anise was a part of. Then again, remembering what Anise was doing to him just a few seconds ago…
"Kiryll? Are you OK?"
"Wha-?" He turned his head. "Oh…Flynn. I was just talking to Fon Master Ion."
"Ah, I get it." Flynn chuckled. "Don't worry about it. It took me a while to accept the fact that the Fon Master was a boy."
"So, I'm not the only one who made that mistake. That's good to hear…" He looked to Flynn. "You look nice. I thought that you would still be in that armor."
"I thought so too. But apparently they wanted me to wear this instead." Flynn looked down. "I never quite got why either."
Kiryll looked down at his outfit. It consisted of a purple jacket with a strange purple hat on his head. The hat didn't seem to preoccupy the entire head, making him wonder just how in the world the hat is still on his head. Part of him just wanted to push it off.
"Well…it looks comfortable enough." Kiryll found himself saying. "Big enough to hide your sword in."
"True." He flipped his jacket a little, revealing his blade underneath it. "But still, I do prefer my armor to that."
I wonder why that is… Kiryll wondered. "Oh yeah, I talked to Yuri before I got here. He mentioned something about being a royal knight for a while. Is it true?"
"Nothing but the truth." Flynn chuckled. "He was actually stronger than me. The only problem is that he never had the patience of a knight."
"Oh yeah, he mentioned something about that." Kiryll blinked. "Somewhere along the lines of that he joined the knights only to help to lower class, and realizing that he wasn't doing anything."
"He doesn't get it, and I can't blame him. He's the type of person who expects immediate change through the small problems that come up." Flynn turned to Kiryll. "That method does work from time to time. But if he really wants things to change, he has to do things from the inside out. Take care of the bigger problems first. The smaller ones will go away."
"But sometimes the small problems take care of the bigger ones." Kiryll stated. "Have you ever considered that?"
"Yes, I have. It's rare, and it's only when Yuri's involved." Flynn grinned. "That's why I leave that to him."
"Out of all of the people in the royal knights, I might have to say that you're the only person that trusts him." Kiryll laughed. "Well, I guess Estelle counts too."
"Lady Estellise owes a lot to Yuri." Flynn turned to see Yuri and Estelle talking a few feet away. "It was through meeting him that she desired the want to travel the world. Up until then, she didn't mind that she was stuck inside of the castle."
"Wow." Kiryll smiled. "They both seem to like each other a lot."
"I believe that's true on Estellise's account, but I'm not so sure on Yuri." Flynn laughed. "In fact, I'm surprised that he can tell the difference between a man and a woman!"
Oh, is that it? Kiryll held back a chuckle.
Suddenly, a loud shattering noise caught everyone's attention. Turning their heads, they saw what looked like Vanguard soldiers rushing into the room. Fortunately, the nobles were being properly escorted out by the others as they fought them off. Kiryll grabbed his scythe and mowed down an entire row of fighters.
"Wow…so that's the power of the cross." Flynn gawked.
"That's not even the most of it." Kiryll stood. "I haven't even figured it out yet."
As quickly as the fighting started, it stopped. Everyone backed up as a man slowly walked into the room. He was bald and extremely tall with a large scarlet robe and a staff in his hands. Next to him were Alice and Decus, evil smiles plastered on all of their faces.
"So…Wild Card. You really are here." The man grinned.
"The leader of the Vanguard…Brute!" Stahn flipped out his blade. "Finally reared over his ugly head!"
"Don't speak to the leader like that!" Alice sneered, a smile still on her face.
"But…I don't get it." Flynn looked confused. "I thought you were going for the liberation of Sylvarant. We're giving Sylvarant back to the people!"
"You of all creations have no right to tell me anything!" Brute lifted his staff. "You have no idea what my true goals are!"
The staff began to emit a strange, low frequency, pounding everyone to their knees. Kiryll felt himself being drained of all energy, barely being able to stand. He turned toward Flynn and gasped: he was holding his ears as if it was high pitched, and what was worse was that it looked like his body was breaking down into fonons. He darted his head to Veigue a few feet away, and realized that the same thing was happening to him as well.
"Flynn?" Yuri looked up.
"Filthy replica, you don't hold a clue about anything!" Brute walked up to Flynn, who was still holding his ears. "Sylvarant held the most powerful monarchy in the world, until Tethe'alla burned it to the ground. I don't want liberation, I WANT SYLVARANT!"
"You…want…the throne…" Flynn muttered underneath his pain.
"Correct. I want to restore Sylvarant's powerful monarchy and unite Auldrant under my name." Brute grinned. "This is the perfect place to begin!"
It was then that Kiryll found the power to throw his scythe at Brute. He quickly dodged out of the way, stopping the attack. Flynn and Veigue collapsed onto the ground, their bodies still breaking down. But at least all of them were able to get to their feet.
"You are just insane!" Arche flew over their heads. "There is no way that anyone would bow down to you!"
"Why do you think that I have the Vanguard?" Brute laughed. "All of them will be more than happy to watch me obtain the crown!"
"W-w-well…y-y-you're going to have a problem with that, you know!" Kyle stammered out, his blade shaking. "Cause…we got a…uh…person that could…uh…beat you down! Yeah, that's right! We have someone that is much more suited to becoming king of Sylvarant!"
"Really?" Decus grinned. "Who is it?"
"Well…uh…t-th-that's a good question! You see...this person can kick all of your behinds! Just the mention of their name can make you cry!" Kyle obviously had no idea what he was saying.
"Then tell me his name. Let's see if we'll cry." Alice grinned.
"Well…then…uh…" Kyle was panicking right now. "You see…uh…"
"He's talking about the heir to the throne."
Everyone darted their heads up to see Yuri standing there with a blank look on his face. Kiryll wondered what he was planning on doing with Kyle's lie. But whatever he was talking about, it was obviously catching Brute's attention. His eyes were wide.
"Haven't any of you guys considered the fact that the royal bloodline was still out there despite the fact that the kingdom was down?" He answered. "There will be rebels out there when you take the throne, and most importantly they'll look to the heir for support. I would suggest that you look for him first before you think about the throne."
"The heir…the one who holds the secrets to the past…" Brute grinned. "You must know of the need of the kingdom to tell us something of this magnitude, hm?"
"Maybe." Yuri grinned. "Or maybe not. The race is on, I guess."
The Vanguard looked at each other before they all ran out of the building, much to everyone's confusion. Trying to wipe out that factor of confusion, they turned toward Yuri, who still had that grin on his face.
"That was a lie…right?" Kyle asked.
"Of course." Yuri laughed. "It's the only way to get them out of the room…"
He completely ignored that statement and ran toward Flynn, who was still unconscious and fading away fast. Kiryll looked up and saw Veigue rising up to his feet, the bright light fading away from his frame and slowly returning to normal. He walked toward the group.
"The fonons that create his body are dissipating." Veigue looked at Flynn. "He's dying."
"We have to do something!" Arche panicked. "Does anyone have any knowledge of what to do in this situation?"
"Veigue, you're a replica, right?" Yuri looked up. "What did you do?"
"I focused my mind and was able to keep my body from fading. However, Flynn is unconscious right now. Focusing for him is impossible."
"Don't tell me that there's nothing we can do…!" Stahn panicked. "Maybe if we can get someone to focus for him-!"
"That's going to be hard for any of you." Veigue stated. "In order for any of you to do that, you would need his original to do so."
"What, like hunt the guy down?" Arche panicked again. "You do realize that this guy could be ANYWHERE, right?"
"Let me try it!"
Everyone turned their heads to see Guy standing just a few feet away from them. They backed up as Guy ran up and touched the back of Flynn's head, closing his eyes. After a few long, tense minutes, the glow faded. A few more minutes passed before Flynn opened his eyes.
"He's alive!" Arche jumped to her feet, her hands in the air. "HE'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!"
"Unh…wh-what just…?" Flynn sat up. "Is the Vanguard…?"
"They're not here! We threw them on a wild goose chase!" Stahn grinned. "There aren't any casualties!"
"Is…is that so…?" Flynn looked down.
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After the party, all the nobles came together for another conference concerning what had just happened. Naturally, everyone had to come and play the role of bodyguard. Odd enough, Kiryll couldn't find Flynn anywhere, so he jumped out to look for him. He found him standing in the middle of the main square staring at the moon.
"There you are." Kiryll chuckled. "We were worried about you."
"Kiryll…" Flynn looked down. "I-I'll be there. Don't worry about me."
"It's concerning what Brute said, isn't it?" He said. "About you being a replica."
"…you know, I met up with Guy while we were on patrol duty. I thought it was strange that we looked so alike." Flynn sighed. "I didn't know that it would be something like this."
"You don't have to worry about being one." Kiryll smiled. "From what I heard, it's no different from being an ordinary human. In fact, you didn't see a difference either!"
"Kiryll?"
"Don't take my word for it. Veigue's a replica as well." Kiryll explained. "If you want any answers, you can try talking to him. But you should remember that you're still a living being that deserves to live."
"Do you think…that Guy would accept me?"
"Replicas and originals can live in peace, Flynn. Prince Garr and Veigue are living, breathing examples."
"…thank you, Kiryll…" His eyes widened. "Of course! The nobles! We have to be there!"
Flynn immediately dashed out of the square towards the castle, much to Kiryll's amusement. He was about to follow him when his body began to glow. A card shot out of his chest, revealing the image of a sun with a smiling human face on it.
"I AM THOU…AND THOU ART I." It was Flynn's voice…only deeper. "I, THE SUN THAT ILLUMINATES THE DARKESS, WILL OBEY YOUR EVERY COMMAND."
The card sank back into his body, and Kiryll felt himself getting stronger from the boost. He's yet to understand what that meant. Looking up, he saw Flynn waving him down. Panicked, he quickly ran to the castle, hoping that he isn't needed.
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Just so you know, Flynn's costume in the party was his Fredric Chopin costume.
