It's been too long since my last update. I should have a couple updates this week at least! Enjoy
His footsteps echoed down the arid hallway, feeling his chest tighten with every step. He felt at the brink, like something taught in his chest was threatening to break him. His wits end wasn't a strong enough expression for the hell he had been through the past five years. He reached the end of the corridor, his shoes making a scraping noise on the marble floors as he stopped. He slowly opened the double doors to a room luxuriously decorated. The curtains were pulled in to drown out the sun and he struggled to gaze around before entering. This was the largest bedroom in the manor and it's expanse loomed around him. He finally made out a dark form hunched on the bed to his right.
He approached the bed slowly, the sound of shallow crying reaching his ears. As he arrived at the distraught side of the frail woman, he slowly wrapped his arms around her. She was in the middle of a tumultuous fit.
"My lord…" she gasped, attempting to regain her composure.
"My dear. Please don't cry."
"But darling," She gasped before continuing.
"We are ruined. You know it's true. There's nothing we can do. We've lost everything. No help will come from Westlande. Every noble family in the region is out for blood. We have no recourse."
She wailed and turned in his arms, burning her face in his chest.
"No." he shook his head.
"I refuse to give up. The whole province is at our mercy and if we do, and it's their lives on the line as well as ours."
"But what could we do? Who can we even turn to?"
"We cannot rely on our own kingdom. So I will go to Eastal and plead with the Duke."
She stifled a shocked cry and looked at him in horror.
"You can't! We will be regarded as traitors. And our plea to the Duke will surely fall on deaf ears! He will think us spies or worse!"
He reached a hand up brushed a tear from his once lovely wife's cheek. Her face was gaunt and pale from the years of stress and worry. He wanted nothing more than to alleviate her pain and bring back her smile.
"Then I will first plead with the princess in Akiba. My sources say if I can secure an audience with her then I can ask for an audience with the Duke. She is favored by him, you heard how he appointed her as Ambassador. Evelyn, it's our only hope."
She let out a long sigh and nodded.
"Okay. Then as the Lady of the House of Kode, I will accompany you to Akiba and plead on our behalf."
"N-no, my dear you must stay here and rest! You have not been well…"
His words were cut off and she abruptly brushed him off of her and stood. She smoothed the wrinkles from her skirt and wiped her eyes. Then she moved forward and flung open the curtains, flooding the room with bright light. His hands flew up to cover his eyes, the penetrating vividness of the sun overtaking his senses. After a moment his sight adjusted and he slowly relaxed seeing her standing before him with a determined expression. Her cheeks slowly flushed with color and her hands were on her hips.
"Truvenzine Kode, you know just as well as I do that you are hopeless without me. You cannot hope to sway the Princess if I stay behind."
Very briefly he was taken aback, partly by her words but mostly by the fire in her tone. The moment of shock passed and he smiled.
"Oh yes. I suppose, if that's your decision then there will be no changing your mind."
She nodded and rang a bell. Servants immediately entered and began to follow Evelyn's instructions to pack and ready a carriage. Within a few hours, preparations were made and they were already on the road. Their steward would cover everything in their absence, an absence which was to be kept top secret until their return. They needed aid and the consequences of failing or of their departure being discovered, would be dire.
Rudy trudged along next to Touya, listening absentmindedly to the teen talk. It was late afternoon and they were currently leisurely making their way back to the guild house.
Rudy could feel something was up. Touya had put off their coming home for way longer than was necessary. He could also feel his companion on edge. It was very strange. The previous evening had been quite nice. The inn they stayed at boasted a hot spring and a wonderful dinner menu. They had spent the time in luxury, every need or want taken care of with precision. It really was a great birthday present, although unexpected. Rudy now had to assume that there must be some sort of guild dinner planned for tonight, as was tradition for guild member's birthdays. However, Touya's strange behavior had him questioning this.
"Rudy-ni? Yo Rudy-ni?"
"Huh?" Rudy blinked lamely, realized Touya had been calling his name.
"You spaced out. What are you thinking about?"
Rudy looked up ahead, seeing they were almost home. A little smile came to his face.
"I was just trying to figure out what you are really up to."
"What me?" Touya responded in an exaggerated tone.
"Yes you."
"I'm not up to anything at all."
"Yes you are. The resort was surely nice, but it was also quite strange. Also, I did try and call Miss Isuzu earlier and she ignored me. I do realize she has been busy, but surely this being the last day of the festival she would have some spare time? Not to mention how late we left, I had plenty of things to do today and-"
Rudy paused his rant, realizing Touya wasn't even listening. Instead, he was on a call with someone.
"Yeah, almost. Uh-huh. Yeah. For sure. "
Touya hung up and saw the gob-smacked look on Rudy's face.
"What was that a-"
"Don't worry about it!" Touya said quickly, waving a hand in the air much too aggressively.
Rudy had a sour look on his face, not buying it at all. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Touya interrupted again.
"Look, we're home." He pointed, distracting Rudy from asking too many questions.
Rudy turned, taking the bait and seeing that the guild building was indeed up ahead. It loomed above them in all its glory, the few visible parts of the tree swaying lightly in the breeze. However, what Rudy couldn't quite understand was the large crowd gathering before the building's entrance. The closer the duo got, the more baffled he was.
"What is going on, Touya?"
"Hmmm?" Touya asked, shooting him a glance. His expression was in a tight line as if physically reining in his face.
They had arrived in front of a sizable crowd and had to push their way to the front door. Before the entrance stood two huge Adventurers. Their status screens stood out as members of the D3 alliance. They had menacing looks on their faces as they dealt with the huge lineup of people. Rudy watched as they argued briefly with a trio of Adventures, denying them entry until they finally scurried away in defeat.
"Stop."
Rudy and Touya stopped in front of them, physically blocked from accessing the door.
"If you ain't on the list you ain't getting in."
"We're Log Horizon, guys." Touya stated simply, giving them time to analyze their status screens.
They exchanged a quick glance and then nodded to one another, before stepping aside. A multitude of shocked cries and shouts rang out around them as they gained entry.
Touya lead the way into the building, a thoroughly confused Rudy trailing behind.
"Is Guildmaster Shiroe holding some sort of Round Table meeting here?"
Touya merely glanced in his direction, electing not to answer. Rudy was beginning to feel perturbed.
"Alright, whatever. In any case, I will be in my room for a while." He moved toward the side staircase, only for Touya to jump in front of him.
"Oh no you don't!" Touya shouted, grabbing his older friend by the arm and pulling him to the middle staircase.
"To the roof!"
Rudy didn't even have time to protest as he was all but dragged up the stairs. It was a very…Isuzu-like gesture. It didn't take them long to reach the very top, where they finally came to an abrupt stop. They stood just before the door leading to the outside roof. Touya let go of Rudy's arm, clapping him on the back.
"After you."
Rudy gave him a hard look, crossing his arms across his chest. Touya gestured to the door once again and smiled. Something was absolutely up, but it seemed like the answers Rudy sought were behind this door.
After one last very confused glance, he stepped forward and pushed the door wide open. He stepped out onto the roof, surprisingly much more brightly lit than usual. Before his eyes could adjust, a chorus of "SURPRISE!" echoed in his ears.
He gazed around in a daze, the loud shouts causing him to momentarily flinch. All around him were people, tons of people! Tables and chairs set up all over. Was that a band? There were decorations strung up high and bright lights in brilliant colors. People began to rush forward, choruses of "congratulations" and "happy birthday" filling his ears. Slowly he began to recognize the faces surrounding him. It dawned on him that he knew these people; everyone in the massive crowd was familiar. His face lit up, responding in kind to the swarm of friends that were gathered about him.
This was a party. A….birthday party?
"I…wow this is so…everyone is here for me?" He asked in a daze.
A couple people around him chuckled.
"Yep this all for you Rudy-ni! Happy Birthday!"
Rudy spun around to look at Touya, a grateful expression on his face.
"Thank you. This is really something. A true surprise."
The smile on his face was wide and Touya was really happy he was so pleased. Even so, Touya put his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
"Don't thank me. This was 100% Isuzu-neechan."
Rudy's eyes went wide, but before he could inquire any more about it, Minori, Naotsugu, Akatsuki, and Tetora pushed through the crowd to join them. The conversation quickly moved on as he was flooded with more well wishes and inquiries about his level of surprise. Within moments the band began to play and he was hastily pulled onto the dance floor.
It took Rudy far too long to locate Isuzu. Mid turn with his current dance partner, he finally spotted her across the way. She had a clip board and was giving orders to some people who were setting up a buffet table. He nearly stepped on his friend's foot and she let out a yelp when he stopped so abruptly.
Rudy watched as Isuzu made a couple notes on her clip board, then scurried away into the crowd. He wanted desperately to call out to her, but she was much too far and no longer in sight.
"Rudy-san, are you alright?"
He snapped back to where he was, which was mid step with his friend Taren. His face went five shades of red and he nodded.
"Yes, I am fine. That was clumsy of me. Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine. Why don't we take a break? I see the others over there." Taren pointed near the base of the tree where other members of the Mages' committee were standing near a table.
Rudy nodded and released her, pushing through the crowd to clear a path to the table. Ahead of him stood Isaias, Clara, Arden, and Edmund. They, along with Taren and himself, made up the Mages' Committee of the Round Table or M.C.R.T for short. They were a small group of People of the Land born with magical capabilities and could thus use sorcery. This was a rare ability for Landers to have and had become a point of bonding for the six of them over the past two years. Eventually the group was officially founded by Rudy through funds from the new round table government. Not only did M.C.R.T. help the government with public projects, they aided private citizens as well.
"Rudy-kun! Taren-chan!"
Rudy waved at Isaias who noticed them approaching.
"Hello everyone!" He responded enthusiastically.
They arrived and were immediately brought into the conversation.
"You look like you're having fun! We were just talking about how great this party is!" Isaias smiled and clapped Rudy on the back.
Rudy coughed and nodded his head, chuckling lightly at his friend's rough treatment.
"Yes, loads of fun. This was such a surprise."
"Yeah, you're telling me! The ninja woman in your guild just showed up out of nowhere the other day!" Arden informed him.
"What? Miss Akatsuki ninja did?"
"Yes seriously cool! Then she handed over an invite to this party!" Arden continued, nodding.
"Rudy-san, we didn't know it was your birthday, you should have said something!" Clara responded, covering away her worried expression with a hand.
"Come now, it really is not a big deal. I had merely intended to have a quiet night." Rudy waved it off.
"Well this is certainly not a quiet night!" Edmund observed, gesturing around them.
They all laughed in agreement.
"My neighbor was sooo jealous I got invited! Seriously, this party really blew up! We're so lucky!"
Rudy pivoted to look at Taren, confusion lacing his features.
"Why?" He asked her, tilting his head to the side.
"Why? I mean, this party is super exclusive and there are so many people in town for the festival right now. Word spread pretty quickly. I heard the party organizer had a hard time with all the invitation requests." Taren shrugged.
"Invitation requests?" Rudy echoed.
"Yeah, you saw those two huge looking men at the front door, right?" Isaias added.
"Yes, there was quite a crowd outside trying to get in. I was very confused." Rudy chuckled.
"All those people wanted in to the party. They were hoping they could just show up and get admitted. The band playing right now is pretty famous too, so that was a huge factor."
Rudy glanced up past the dance floor to the band. It was a group he had gotten to know somewhat well through Isuzu's musical circuit throughout the city.
"Plus, you know, a lot of people in your guild are famous." Edmund pointed out.
"Your Guildmaster is an Archmage and helps run the government. The ninja woman Akatsuki-san is highly regarded by the Princess Raynessia. And then there's the musician, Isuzu-chan, the fifteen string Goddess. "
"Oh that's right! Her concerts sell out right away, I can never get tickets. I was hoping she would play tonight too…" Clara sighed in disappointment, looking up toward the band.
"I don't think I've seen her at all tonight." Isaias mentioned, peering around at the surrounding crowd.
"It doesn't seem like you'll get your wish Clara. Also, I've been able to pay my respects to the other members of your guild, but she wasn't with them." Isaias tilted his head toward the opposite end of the dancing area, where most of the members of Log Horizon stood chatting together.
"Wasn't she the party organizer though?" Arden asked.
They all stopped and the conversation got quiet at the inquiry. They turned to Rudy with wide eyes, looking to him to answer the question. He blanched for a moment, but then nodded.
"Yes, she was."
The mages around him were a chorus of disbelief and awe.
"Wow! How lucky!"
"Right? How does it feel to have someone like that do this for you?"
"Man, I'm so jealous. I wish I had a celebrity friend."
Rudy placatingly nodded and brushed aside their comments, steering the conversation to a new topic. He was so grateful to her and he did feel lucky. But not for the reasons his friends thought. Putting Isuzu on a pedestal due to her fame was not something she would be comfortable with. Plus she wasn't the flawless, supreme being they were treating her as. Isuzu was dependable, compassionate, and selfless. She was also unpredictable and sometimes a little childish and irrational. Fiercely loyal, wonderfully accepting, loving, kind hearted...
Rudy was no longer paying attention to the conversation around him. He needed to find her. He needed to tell her how grateful he was. His friend who cried for him and told him he deserved the entire world. It was the other way around, she was the one who deserved the world and every happiness that entailed.