Natsuki walked down the steps of the royal palace in which the National Convention put up its headquarters. It was a good position, well-defended due to its location atop the hill, and quite symbolic. It was as if the castle-like building overlooked the whole city, its myriad of blown-out windows looking like spider's eyes, the huge structure sitting atop the cobweb of streets and passages, sensing every vibration in its strings.

Some of the more extreme factions wanted to utterly demolish it, as a symbol of the Old Regime and of cowering under the promise of annihilation by the Dragon, but the majority thankfully held that off. Some opportunities, even if created despite you at first, must be seized, thought Subaru as he finally reached the beginning of the city streets.

The Revolt majorly changed the Capital. Huge red banners covered some of the damaged building, like blood-red waterfalls, the scars of the Rose March still visible on the city's blown up bridges and exploded houses. The streets were much greyer from the soot from the several dozen fires around the city, and while they burnt out days ago, no one was bothered with cleaning the streets, it was still much too early, the commoner too drunk on the sudden freedom given to him to come back to rebuild. Many of the more important and major streets had their sides demolished to give way for more carriage traffic, houses that were inhabited by families for centuries being levelled into the ground. Bit by bit, the city went from Lugnican to Revolutionary in and of itself, even if it was only beginning to show.

Natsuki's boots clicked down the paved streets, as he looked at the damaged buildings and the few civilians that tread the streets in the late evening. It was risky to go outside during such hours if you were not armed, but such things were normal during the social upheaval, Natsuki reassured himself. This isn't going to be like that forever... he hoped.

His thoughts were disturbed by a sudden shrill shriek piercing the air, and as he stopped he noticed someone tumble out of a doorway of an abandoned building, his hand reflexively readying to cast Shamak and while his other tightened its grasp on the dagger under his jacket, his legs turning into springs, ready to turn around and run. He cursed himself, should've taken a couple of Guards along.

"You damn whore!" A man, dressed in what may have been expensive clothing months ago, followed out of the doorway and grabbed the smaller figure by the hair. "Who gave you the right to speak!?" He smashed his fist into the near-unconscious woman's head, as she blubbered something incoherently.

"Oh." Natsuki relaxed, his hand slipping off the blade and taking out the musket, his second hand pulling out the gunpowder pouch.

The man continued to roar at the collapsed figure under him. "What did you say, huh? What did you say to me?!"

"I-I just told Medina the-tha-"

The man smashed his fist into the figure's face again, a low crack coming out from what was probably her nose. "AND WHAT IF MEDINA CALLED THE GUARD HUH? DID YOU NOT THINK ABOUT IT, YOU DUMB WHORE! WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO-"

"Shamak." Came out a calm proclamation and the man's world suddenly became completely dark and silent. He then felt something cold and metallic touch his neck. The darkness collapsed again, the night's noises flooding back in.

"Upon the authority of the National Convention and as the Representative of the Revolutionary Guard I arrest you on suspicions of counter-revolutionary actions." Subaru proclaimed with a practised clarity in his voice, pushing the muzzle further into the scruff of the man's neck to prove his qualifications. "Please proceed with me to the guard post."

The man slowly raised his hands and stood up from the woman whom he just pummeled.

"You too." Subaru directed the beaten woman.

"W-what?" She gave him a disbelieving look.

"We'll need your statement on what happened," Natsuki noted.

There was a second of silence as if the woman was deciding whether or not she could even trust Natsuki, but with a huff, she lifted herself. "Then... let us go." She pronounced with a heavy heart.

Natsuki shrugged, such calmness was unusual from arrestees but not unwelcome, and poked the man with the muzzle, "You heard her. Let's go."

The journey through the capital to the nearest Guard post wasn't long, but Natsuki was sure if this happened in the outskirts of the city, he'd be surprised if they didn't find a guard post within five minutes even there. The journey, strangely enough, was also rowdier than usual as he passed a Guard regiment completely drunk in front of a looted wine shop, and while he had a huge pull to excise his privileges as their commander, the man in front of him looked like he would take any opportunity to disappear in the cityscape, and from the look on the woman's face, it seemed she would not have the heart to shoot if he let her hold the musket.

Mid-way, the man decided to speak up, "You don't even know the people I know, pal. You just better let me go so your bosses don't shove a fist up your ass for arresting someone like me."

"Mmmmm? And who would that be?" Subaru questioned with an entertained tone, it must be that the darkness of evening obscured his face too well.

"I am the personal assistant for Convention representative Otto Suwen!" The man pronounced victoriously and paused as if waiting for the gun barrel to be removed from his back and an apology.

The silence persisted, Subaru wanted to keep tensions high. "Y'know what? I think I'll take my chances!" He snorted.

The man's shoulders stiffened. "Who do you think you are!?" He hissed. "If they hear about your conduct, I'll have your neck in the Razor faster than you can apologi-"

UMPH

Subaru slugged the guy in the back of the head with his musket and quickly put the barrel back up to his back. "Well, we can add misuse of status-granted privileges to your list. Enjoy the headache while your head's still on your shoulders." The man growled but kept quiet.

They finally arrived at one of the few whole buildings in this quarter of the capital, a storage facility, most of the transport carriages still standing in the courtyard. The writing over the door read "Liberty and Roses", to which Subaru chuckled to himself. Clearly, the Guard lacked subtlety in political messages. Then again, what can one expect from an army?

He pushed the assistant through the entrance, the beaten woman following closely behind him, to be greeted by several very surprised Infantrymen sitting at a table and playing cards. Upon recognising him, they quickly straightened out, stood up and saluted him, "Sir!"

"At ease, at ease, just take this bastard and get the story out of him, then ask her side. I'll send my account by courier, I have places to be." He put down the musket hammer with a click and put it back into his jacket. "Until my say-so, this guy stays behind bars."

"And the woman?" One of the guards grabbed onto the arrestee, the man recognizing Natsuki in the bright light of the Guard post, his jaw dropping as he was starting to mouth apologies.

"Hm." He looked at the beaten woman and then shrugged. "Follow the protocol. I'm off."

He turned to leave but stopped right in front of the exit. The unmistakable sound of rain tore through the still silence of the building, the weather itself seeming to have turned against the revolutionary.

Subaru sighed and leaned against the wall, watching the raindrop hit the rocks of the loading area courtyard. "Just my luck." He grumbled and fished inside his jacket, taking a small box of powder, quickly applying it to his gums, feeling the mana spike. Shamak, even while utterly basic, abused his gate to no end, the mana not restoring itself after use, making him one of the few people in Lugnica, if not the world, having to rely on the Bocco fruit extract powder. In many ways, it reminded him of how 19th-century doctors prescribed cocaine, but for now, Natsuki held onto the hope that he wasn't addicted.

He chuckled. The rain wasn't the worst that could have happened, his luck tended to be much worse before. Subaru's mind, lulled by the rhythmic beat of the raindrops, slowly began wondering again, beyond the Rose March, beyond the Revolt, beyond the candidates, beyo-

The student listened to Satella's, if that was her real name, feeble attempts to calm the crying child. "Miss, with all due respect, I don't think this is working."

Satella gave him a despairing look as the little girl continued to bawl endlessly. "Subaru, we can't just leave a child."

"Well, we ARE losing the thief with every passing second, but no, a child in the middle of a busy square is clearly the more important task," Subaru responded cynically.

Satella gave him a heavily disguised look of disgust, but whatever was brewing in her mind, she decided to keep to herself and she instead redoubled the efforts of trying to coax the child into talking, though that clearly was backfiring as the wailing turned into a full-on howl.

Subaru rubbed his temples. While having access to a person of clear-cut authority (I mean, just look at the clothes) had a great number of potential benefits, the amount of effort required felt like a waste. He sighed and walked up to Satella.

"Move." He sat down cross-legged in front of the child and opened his book bag.

"So, little lady, have you ever heard of the Louvre Collection?" He took out a thick colourful tome.

The child looked at him with a surprised look, shaking her head, the crying seizing but sniffling still there.

"Well, little lady, the Louvre is a King's picture show, all of the colour and beauty in one place." He opened up the book to the paintings' section. "And I was a good enough friend with the late King for him to allow me to make some copies. Have a look." He turned the tome around for the girl to look at.

The child crept up to the book and picked it up, first looking with confusion, then her eyes beginning to dazzle. She flipped through one page, then another, then another, clearly ignoring the unfamiliar text, instead focusing on the myriad of multi-coloured pictures. "Wow! How did you get all this colour on the pages!" The tears seemed to have disappeared as quickly as they have arrived. "Mister! Is this a metia!?"

"Uh... yeah... sure, it is... you got me." Subaru tried his hardest to look knowledgeable, but the facade was starting to fail. "Anyways, this beautiful lady will look at the pictures with you, I'll go look for your parents." The child seemed to have already lost herself in the illustrations of the works of Da Vinci and Caravaggio, or more specifically, the colourfulness of these pictures.

He stood up, only to be met by a doubtful look from Satella. "S-Subaru... I'm not su-"

"She's a child, just point at the pictures, smile and nod at what she says. It's not that difficult." He said in a tired tone. "I'm not even going to go far away anyways."

"Wait, then how are you going to-"

Natsuki took a few steps forward and took a deep breath.

PHWEEEEEEEEEEEEE-PHWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

The whistle that came out of his mouth was ear-splitting, Satella quickly covering the girl's ears, while the child herself didn't seem to notice too much, her amazed look still completely on the book.

The surrounding crowds have also gone silent, their questioning and annoyed gazes circling around Subaru like a pack of wolves.

"Has anyone! LOST! A CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILD!?" Subaru shouted out as hard as he could, his vocal cords straining to rise to their maximum volume.

The passers-by exchanged glances and murmurs, looking around for someone to step forward, but aside from the people outside the small crowd that gathered around Subaru, no one seemed to give out a sound.

Natsuki grumbled as his confidence in the plan began to deflate. "Uh... P-pistachio hair? Pink dress? Blue eyes? Anyone?!" As his confidence faltered, so did the size of the crowd.

"Whoever let HIM out of his madhouse?"
"They should really outlaw drinking for men already."
"Now, if you don't listen to what I tell you, you'll grow up just like that man."

"Shit shit shit." He whispered to himself, squeezing his fists tight and hopelessly darting his eyes around the crowd, trying to find the unlucky parent. "Shit, come on. This gotta work..."

"Plum!"

The girl dropped the book and stood up, looking into the crowd. "Mum!?"

"Plum!"

"Mummy!" The girl rushed into the crowd towards a dark-haired woman, hugging her waist.

Subaru sighed. "Well, that worked out rather well." He turned around to be met by a bizarre stare from Satella.

"What?" Subaru picked up the book bag and the museum guide he had with him, stuffing it back inside. "Did I do something wrong?" He straightened out and put his hands in his pockets, waiting for Satella to get up.

"No, it's just..." Satella stood up and brushed the dust off of her garb, still observing Subaru as if he was a rare and exotic breed of animal. "Why would you just shout into a crowd? Were you... not nervous?"

Subaru gave her a confused look. "About what? Honestly, my main worry was that they'd stop paying attention and dissipate. I was pretty sure that if I started a commotion, the parent would check what was going on, and if maybe their missing child was the source of the crowd."

He shrugged. "And I got it right. The girl is back with her mother."

Satella frowned thoughtfully. "Well... I guess I still have something to learn." She gave a small smile.

"Sure... Otherwise, you're still missing your insignia, we should get back on track." Subaru wasn't listening to his companion too well, his mind already returning to their original target. "You said it's important yourself, so come on." He took off in the same general direction as the thief, or at least the best approximation he had.

"R-right." Satella, responded bashfully, following Subaru's lead.