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Chapter 5
Closure
Grime kept glaring at Anne as the girl silently stared back at him with incredulity.
Infuriatingly enough, she was also unmoving.
"Grab your weapon, Boonchuy," Grime repeated, his tone slightly more aggravated than before. It was barely noticeable, but it was there, and he knew the girl could catch that. "I will not repeat myself."
"A-Are you for real?!" the shrill, grating voice of the young frog boy's voice came suddenly, distracting Grime from his current goal. He titled his head to glance at Sprig for a moment.
"You can't be serious—G-Grime, Anne is not your enemy!" he continued, arms out. "Andrias is the real bad guy!"
"It doesn't matter, boy. Stay the hell out of this," he warned. "The King has nothing to do with this, and so do you."
He regarded Anne again. "Your weapon, Boonchuy!" he commanded, his grip on the sword's hilt tightening. "Pick it up, and face me!"
Anne flinched at the shout. She looked distraught by his words and behaviour, that he had to acknowledge, but that gave him no reason to justify her lack of a reply or even action. She made no attempt to go for the sword that he'd dropped for her to take, and simply kept looking at Grime with a mixture of fear and shock.
He was losing his patience faster and faster by the seconds.
"Captain Grime, please, think over it before acting!" this time it was the elder Plantar who talked. "I-I know you might be... troubled for what happened, frog I am too, but this is not a good way to handle everything!"
Grime didn't even turn around to glance at Hop-Pop. He'd decided he was done listening to the frogs.
"Have you lost your mind, you big fat toad!?"
Not even Polly's insults left a dent. He simply kept his eyes fixed on Anne, the glare made all the more ominous by the physical state they were in after years of battles and service as the commander of Toad Tower.
He'd spent so long fighting in the toad army... he recalled that he had lost people he esteemed during that time, too. Comrades... and even friends.
He'd mourned them, even if he was discreet enough not to show it. Sometimes, losing people was just part of the job. And, with time, he'd learned to distance himself from his peers. By the time he was appointed as Captain, it had stopped being a problem. He no longer felt anything for the losses, or at least he'd convinced himself of that.
This should've been no different.
But it was.
Grime frowned. "Are you even listening, Boonchuy?! Get up, and—"
"N-No."
He grimaced at the reply. "What did you just say...?"
"I-I'm not gonna fight you, Grime," Anne said. She pushed herself up from the floor and massaged her nose, cleaning off some leftover blood from her face. The sword was left on the floor where it was, untouched. "I-I'm not your enemy, and I won't attack you."
Grime's face hardened at that. "Are you turning down my challenge, Boonchuy? You don't realize—"
"There is no challenge, Grime! Not for me!" she cut him off. "T-This is just... this isn't you who's talking, it's your emotions. W-We shouldn't be fighting each other now, not when we're all still in danger. So, I'm not turning down my challenge—I-I will not hurt you!"
Grime found himself faltering. It lasted for just a moment, one where he wondered whether he was in the right or the wrong, whether his thoughts were leading him the right way.
She didn't want to hurt him.
...
She hurt Sasha.
It happened in an instant. All the years of military training and learned self-control vanished, his loyalty to traditional toad challenge rules forgotten.
His mind was overwhelmed by rage, and he lunged forward with a loud cry.
"Gaah!" Anne screamed and ducked, barely avoiding head loss by mere centimetres.
Grime kept his grip on the sword, stopping it dead in its tracks, then swung again, aiming this time for a strike at the body. Anne stepped backwards, once again barely evading the dangerous blade.
"Grime, what are you doing!?" Hop-Pop's shrill voice shouted in dismay. "This is madness, you have to stop this!"
He paid him no mind.
The other Plantars were not as talkative as their grandfather. As it turned out, that was because of their preference to jump into action first—but Grime was too enraged to care.
He raised his sword, ready to attempt a third strike at Anne, but his good eye was blinded by a mud shot.
"Augh!" he growled, angrily clawing at his own face to brush off the filth. Once he partially regained his sight back, he found exactly who he knew to be responsible—a short pink frog and his slingshot.
As if to drive the point home, he stood right between him and his target.
"I won't let you hurt Anne!" Sprig cried out. "If you think I'll let you after all she went through, you got another thing coming!"
Sprig looked ready to jump, as if expecting him to attack without listening, but instead, Grime hesitated for a moment.
"...I mean no to harm you, boy," he growled. "But do not try to cross my path—this is between me and her."
"You and her—a-are you even listening to yourself!?" Sprig couldn't help shouting. "You think this is all about you and yourself only! Do you think you're the only one who's feeling bad right now? Do you think she isn't grieving too?!"
Grime didn't listen, or didn't want to listen. In either case, he knew he didn't have time for this.
"Enough!" Grime rushed forward, startling Sprig, but he had only eyes for Anne, who was still registering the fact that Sprig had intervened and had not moved yet. Grime raised his sword, and Sprig leaped out of the way to avoid him, but the toad made no attempt to chase after him or even strike him while he moved.
Instead, he kept rushing forward and let the blade down on Anne.
Anne cried out with a scream of fright and was forced to evade the strike with a roll. He'd missed again.
He was getting closer, though.
"Boonchuy!" Grime shouted. "Fight back—or I will make you!"
There was another mud shot that collided with Grime's head, but this time it missed his eye. He barely budged.
What did make him move though was the mace strike on his back.
"Uuugh!" he groaned and found his legs failing, forced to bend a knee to avoid plummeting to the floor on his stomach. The spiked mace lacked the force to go through his armour, but it still hurt like hell.
He felt something climbing over his back in the mean time, taking advantage of his momentary stun.
"If you won't start making sense, then I'll beat some sense into you!" Polly declared, raising her mace to clobber him down. However, she'd miscalculated Grime's recovery speed as a large hand suddenly grabbed her as if she was a basketball.
She yelped, letting the mace go and struggling to get free, but Grime literally threw her away before she could respond in any meaningful way. Ignoring the yelling tadpole, he stood back up, but another mud ball struck his face, covering his vision again. Some of the mud even got into his mouth.
He coughed, disoriented, and a moment later Sprig was on him. The little boy rammed into him fast enough that despite his small frame Grime still lost his equilibrium as a result of the impact and fell back.
Sprig still latched on his armour like a thirsty leech as he fell.
He felt the frog starting to bash his face with punches practically as soon as he hit the floor. They were laughable at best, but even with his pitiful strength, they still hurt when they struck his eyes.
"I won't let you hurt her!" Sprig shouted, repeating his past words. "I won't let you take her away from me again!"
"Sprig, Sprig!" Hop-Pop's voice came in. "Just let me restrain me while he's down, come on!"
The idea of being captured was alone something that deeply angered him.
Yet, he really didn't particularly care about getting captured again. Just minutes earlier, before Boonchuy reappeared, he thought that sitting in his cell for the rest of his days might've been an acceptable outcome.
That way, he didn't need to think. Or remember.
But here was Boonchuy, and he knew she was out there, watching while the frog boy kept to fruitlessly try to knock him out.
No, now that she was there, he couldn't stop. He needed to do it. He needed to do the only thing he could do after—
There was a flash in his muddied vision. A smiling face with a cheeky grin. Blonde hair.
Grime screamed.
Sprig was catapulted in the air by a kick that sent him flying several metres away. He was winded, enough that he failed to land properly and hit his head, rolling on the floor. He groaned, but did not move afterwards.
Hop-Pop tried to grab Grime's arm and push to keep him down, but the toad stood up and raised his limb as if Hop-Pop wasn't even there. The elder frog found himself basically hovering in the air, lifted off by the same arm he was holding on to.
He needed only to shake once to throw Hop-Pop off, sending him on the floor just like Sprig.
Unlike Sprig, Hop-Pop vocalized the bad landing with an audible cry of pain, but he immediately turned to face Grime while still lying on the floor, raising his hands up to protect himself from retaliation.
Grime did no such thing.
"I have no qualms with you Plantars," he let out, merely glancing at the stunned Hop-Pop for a moment. "and I... I don't want to kill you if I can help it. Not your kids, and not even you, Hopediah. Our past conflicts mean nothing to me now."
Then, he glared at Anne with a mad glare. At the sight, even Hop-Pop even stopped himself from replying.
"But Boonchuy... her!"
Anne's eyes snapped back at Grime when he heard him regard her. She'd been looking at Sprig up until then, and at first she looked angry. He thought he saw something blue on her face for a moment as well.
Perhaps he was finally getting through?
Yet, her demeanour changed back to her pathetic shock when she looked back at him. Maybe it was just fear, maybe it was something else and not just plain fright—Grime didn't know.
He wasn't finished yet.
"She won't get away with what she did, regardless of whatever excuses you Plantars might try to spew out to defend her... not until I have a say in this. And no matter how hard you try to stop me, I will not let you stop me from avenging Sasha!"
He picked up the sword he'd lost during the temporary setback caused by the frogs. "I'm giving you the chance to fight me, Boonchuy. Sword to sword, and with no need to involve your family—just you and me!"
He scowled as he added, "You will not back down from this. You do not have the right to do that, not for me, and if you truly believe you are in the right, then pick your weapon and beat me!"
His words had an effect, though it wasn't what he wanted. Instead of going to take hold of the sword that lied abandoned away from them, Anne simply looked down, avoiding his gaze.
"G-Grime... I... I don't have any r-right to say or do anything..." she whimpered out.
For the first time, Grime lowered his sword. He was... appalled.
"...what?" he croaked.
"I'm not in the right, G-Grime. A-And... I'm not a good person either..."
"What the hell is this—!?"
"You think I don't knowI-I'm a freaking murderer, Grime?!" Anne shouted, cutting him off. "I know what I did, I killed her in cold-blood, I didn't hesitate even for a moment, and I don't care about that horrible blue thing that powered me up—I still did it, and nothing will change that!"
He was shocked as Anne kept going. "Not the fact that she wanted to take over, because when she fought me, she didn't want that any more—I know now. She wanted to warn me, she wanted to tell me about what was going on with the King because she somehow knew that before everything happened, but I didn't listen—a-and... and..."
Her voice cracked as she gritted her teeth. "She d-died because I was an idiot! S-So no, I'm not in the right! Because S-Sasha is dead because of what I did no matter how I l-look at it, and I don't have the right to tell you anything about how y-you should feel about me...!"
Grime was at loss of words. Anne's admission was not exactly what he wanted or expected, but it was different from her earlier behaviour as well.
His anger was still boiling though, and eventually it fuelled him to reply.
"Then fight back. Fight me... kill me if you have to," he replied. "But stand your ground and let our duel decide your fate."
"N-No," Anne shook her head. She was crying, but her voice showed a determination and confidence that were not debatable even in her troubled state of emotions.
"I... I have hurt enough people today, Grime. I have... m-murdered one of my friends... one of my best friends, and I won't do the same with one of her own best friends, too."
Him...
Sasha's best friend.
...
She had gotten him out of his pathetic position as the leader of the Southern Toad Tower. She had helped him get through the difficult times after he had lost everything. She had pushed him into sticking with the idea of the Toad Rebellion, going as far as convincing the other toad captains to join their ranks.
She was his friend, indeed. Perhaps even more, like a family member. A... a daughter he never had?
And now she was gone.
Grime didn't cry out this time. He rushed forward, without any warning, apparently preparing another powerful swing with the sword.
Anne yelled in fright and braced to duck just like earlier, but Grime made no attempt to follow through with the actual swing he looked to be ready to do. Instead, he reached forward with his free arm, targeting her neck.
Anne stepped back as soon as she realized what Grime was doing, avoiding the grapple, but that left her distracted for long enough to let him have the opening he needed.
Without slowing down, he rotated the sword and struck her with the pommel of the hilt, hitting the neck from the uncovered side.
Anne cried out, but all she managed to produced was a gurgled, coughed out sound as she stepped back. Grime didn't stop and proceeded to punch her in the waist, right below the dirty chest plate she was still wearing.
She fell after that, croaking and whimpering in pain on the floor, too much hurting to be able to move or react in any other way.
She was helpless.
Hop-Pop was crying out Anne's name, telling her to stand up and run, but he was unable to move to her aid himself—the new back pain courtesy of Grime making every step an agony.
Sprig and Polly were barely awake, dizzied by Grime's attacks enough that they didn't even realize yet what was going on at first, far away from the girl and the toad.
He concluded quickly that there was nothing left to stop him, even if just for a short while. He glared at the pathetic form that was the human lying before his feet.
It was barely enough time to do the deed, and even so, he couldn't help opening his mouth to speak again.
"You talk of friends... after you took the life of the o-one person who I actually cared about... almost m-more than anyone else?" he growled, though a stutter came through his voice as well.
Anne grunted in pain. He didn't know whether she was listening or not.
He didn't care.
When Anne looked up, all she saw was the blade up over the toad's head, lined up to strike her head. Her neck hurting, she was unable to produce any sound, so her reaction was limited to her eyes going wide with terror.
The blade came down.
Clang!
...he blinked.
There was a sword in the way—the sword that Anne was supposed to take up. But it wasn't Anne who'd blocked his swing.
Another girl held on it, pushing against Grime's own weapon with both hands—one on the hilt of her sword, the other on its blade.
Grime was pushing hard enough that the blades were trembling under the strength of both of them. She was barely able to keep up with him, but she still stood her ground.
He had completely forgotten about Marcy Wu. She had been witnessing to the events in shock up until then, and Grime had fast forgotten about her after stealing her sword and repelling the Plantars. Yet, here she was now, holding on despite the apparent strength difference.
"Out... of my... way...!" Grime growled.
"No...!" Marcy said through her teeth. "I already l-lost a friend, a-and I won't lose another!"
Her words only made him angrier. Grime pushed with a grunt, trying to overpower her, and Marcy was forced to make a step back. Yet, she still held the sword up, and he failed to break her guard.
The hand on the blade had moved in the process, though. Marcy hissed, and her eyes started tearing up—not just because of her emotions. What was at first a simple cut had now become a wound, and there was blood seeping through the glove, down her arm.
Behind them, Anne hadn't made any attempt to help Marcy or run for it. Her shock might have been due to Grime's hostility and attempts at hurting her at first, but now she was almost completely immobile—eyes wide open and staring at Marcy's bleeding arm. Her mouth struggled to gasp in fast breaths.
Grime did not pay her much attention as his fury shifted more and more towards Marcy.
"Your friend killed Sasha!" he uttered, "She killed her, you human wench! You, or any of the others will not stop me, not until I am still breathing!"
Marcy didn't stand away.
He was in disbelief. He couldn't even believe that this was happening—the Plantars he could somehow understand, they were enemies for most of their time and it was a given they'd try to support the girl no matter what, but Marcy Wu?
She was Sasha's friend, too. She should understand—!
"I-I know!" Marcy replied, stammering between her staggered breath as she desperately tried to keep up with Grime's push.
She looked at him, and this time her eyes filled with tears had more than just physical pain in them.
"But this won't bring her back!"
His good eye widened.
"N-Nothing will bring her back," Marcy continued. "S-She's gone, and killing Anne will do nothing—"
"I don't care! I will not let her death remain meaningless—I-I will avenge her!" Grime cried out, the gruff voice coming out with a crack that surprised even himself.
He ignored it. He ignored everything. He didn't have time for this.
He didn't want to listen to this—
"You won't avenge anyone!" Marcy fired back. "Do you think that only Anne is responsible? D-Do you think that I'm not up t-to blame, too?"
"What does that even mean, human?"
"I-I started the events that led to this, Grime. Y-You want to fight someone to make things right again?"
Grunting, Marcy pushed against Grime's weapon with one final exertion. Grime found himself stumbling back, but not because of the girl's actual strength.
He was, simply enough, staggered by her words.
"Then you should attack me, too—because I'm as guilty as her!"
His desire for blood took a permanent hit as he looked at the tearful girl who, despite how frail she looked, was still able to glare back at him. It was enough to let him forget... for a moment.
"...this isn't about guilt, yours or anyone else's for that matter," Grime spoke slowly. "This is about righting a wrong, one that I can't let go of!"
"We c-can't go back," Marcy said sadly. "I... I know that now. A-And this will not make you feel better... I k-know it won't. The pain... i-it will never go away."
Grime opened his mouth to retort, but his lips were suddenly dry and he found himself unable to reply at first.
The pain will never go away.
The thought terrified him, and he hated himself for it. He knew he'd lost people he considered friends in the past, and he had fought through that pain. He'd learned to either ignore it, or live alongside it.
But this was different. Sasha... was different. Sasha was someone he cared for. She was someone that had helped him bring out something that he didn't even know he had—enough to defy the kingdom itself and the status quo.
And now she was gone, and there was nothing he could do to fix that.
Grime lowered his gaze, as if ashamed of himself. Yet, he still talked.
"I have t-to do this... I-I can't live with this. I must try... or die trying," he said, voice laced with emotion.
Marcy kept herself between him and Anne after hearing his words. She was still holding on to the sword with the uninjured hand—her wounded hand was left hanging on her side, so she was forced to brandish the weapon one-handed.
"If y-you feel like you have to... then I won't blame you. I k-know it's hard... b-but I won't let you do it, either."
"Grime, I d-don't blame you as well," Hop-Pop added. The frog appeared at Marcy's side, brows furrowed as he had limped his way to join through a few metres that felt more like dozens. "I... we. We just ask you to listen to reason, just once. This that you want to do... it's not revenge, it's just plain more killing. And... and I can't watch another life go today. I... I know you want closure. B-But... but even I think you're better than this!"
The frog kids soon came up to join them, too, though they didn't speak. Polly had a black-eye, but she had recovered the mace that had probably created a large bruise on Grime's back, and looked ready to keep up the fight with it.
Sprig stood behind Marcy, his head frequently turning back and forth between Grime and Anne—the latter of whom was still sitting immobile, having yet to react in any way beyond her shock.
He said something about her being in shock and needing help, but Grime didn't listen to him.
They thought that this was just about freeing his thoughts?
It was the truth, but Grime refused to admit that. There was more to it, this duel he wanted was about honour, and not just his one.
It was what he needed to do for her. What he had to do for her.
He tightened the grasp on his sword, causing Marcy, Sprig, Polly and Hop-Pop to hold on to each of their own weapons as well.
"You don't understand. I... I have to fight with the Boonchuy girl, or... or her death won't matter. It... it is what she would've wanted and I-I can't fail her!"
He only needed a couple of seconds before realizing on his own how wrong his words felt, when said out-loud.
He had tried to illude himself about everything, even before Hop-Pop had told him about what happened. Even before he discovered along with her the truth about Andrias' and his loyalties. He thought Sasha had little to no consideration of her so-called friends and their bumpkin companions.
No. Perhaps Sasha didn't have much to share with the frogs, yes.
But she loved her friends.
She cared about them enough to be affected when something as simple as a musical contest had caused an argument between them. She cared about them enough that even after cutting them off from herself once the rebellion was kickstarted and she tried to blast Anne back home, she was having second thoughts. She was thinking about whether she was in the right or not, whether Anne was right about what she said, whether this what she wanted.
It might've been more complicated than that. It might have been subject to his own, biased interpretation of her demeanour at the time.
Yet, he knew.
He couldn't bring himself to believe to his own lies.
No, he was not honouring her name by doing this.
He was just feeding his own desperate desire for closure—as Hop-Pop put it. All in a pathetic attempt to stop his own grief.
There was another dull sound as the sword he was holding dropped to the surface of the dungeon. Grime let out a guttural sound and turned around, refusing to face the people who'd stood to prevent him from making a grave mistake.
He didn't pay attention to them as he retreated into his own, troubled thoughts. Wondering how he could keep going after that, how he could face his own actions.
Wondering what Sasha might have thought of him.
He flinched when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He slightly turned his head to see a familiar old frog. How much time had passed already?
"Grime, uh... Captain Grime..." Hop-Pop scratched the back of his head. "Are... are you okay?"
Grime let out a small scoff at the frog's awkward question. He turned fully to face him, taking the moment to brush something that was below his good eye and he pretended to not recognize as a tear.
"I don't... don't need your sympathy," he growled. As if to try and ignore him he glanced beyond Hop-Pop to briefly look at the kids.
The humans were sitting side by side; Polly was applying some torn off cloth around Marcy's wounded hand, with the human girl hissing in pain as Polly did what she could to fix her up. Anne sat beside Marcy, with Sprig embracing her and whispering to her words of comfort, though Anne still looked only partly receptive to them.
"It's not really sympathy, it's just... well, I just want you to know that you're not alone," Hop-Pop specified, getting Grime's attention back. "We... we're all going through a lot right now, Grime, just like you..."
He glanced to the kids himself. "Some more than others."
Following the same direction, Grime looked at Anne. She was slowly getting over her shock, likely due to the sight of live blood from Marcy. He had spent a lot of time in the toad military, so he'd learned to recognize what was happening.
She was still far from being okay. Her breaths were slowly turning back into sobs. He hadn't noticed earlier, but her eyes were bloodshot, too—they likely were so before she even got in the dungeon.
He grimaced at the thought that he hadn't even stopped to consider for a moment what he was putting her through on top of everything else, and how long she had been going like this.
Hop-Pop resumed to speak after a while when Grime didn't say anything back. "Grime, the situation with King Andrias hasn't changed compared to what me and Polly told you. We don't know what he's planning but he can't be doing anything good—"
"I know," Grime interjected. "The tapestry... we... we saw a tapestry that..."
He trailed off. "...never mind, it's no longer important. I... I am aware that he's an enemy of all of us."
"...okay, that's enough. Well... we'd appreciate your help in that ordeal. We're all together in this, and we really could use another pair of fighting hands... that newt king is huge, and so is the energy sword he's got with himself. I know that it's... not kind of me to ask you to do this after what happened, but—"
"I'll do it."
"...huh?" Hop-Pop was incredulous, likely because of how easy it felt for Grime to just immediately accept his request. Grime didn't hesitate with his justification, either.
"If there is fighting to be done, then I'll do it," he elaborated. He glanced at the sword he'd dropped, then went to pick it up—noting how Hop-Pop couldn't help gulping at the action, but without any attempt at offence.
"It... it is everything that's left for me to do here..." he concluded. He didn't wait for the frog to reply as he walked away from him to approach the kids.
They were so caught on in their own troubles that they only noticed him when he dropped the sword again—right in front of Marcy. All of them winced, Sprig and Polly raising their weapons and Anne and Marcy standing back up with their own mixture of fear and disbelief, but Grime did not move, and they soon realized he was weaponless too.
"If you want me to be of any help against the king, I'll need Barrell's Warhammer," he simply said.
"...are you just going to pretend like nothing has happened?!" Polly shouted in dismay.
"Until Andrias is dealt with."
He saw no reason to lie to her.
He briefly glanced at Anne, who was staring at him with doubtful, untrusting eyes. "And once that's done... we'll part ways," he added.
He decided to stop thinking about what might come afterwards... for now, he'd focus on the goal, and on an enemy that needed to be stopped without any kind of emotion messing with his mind and the reasons of his actions.
In the end... it would help him at least take his mind off the grief.
It was only temporary, but he would take it.
"Oh, really? So you actually think we'll just let you tag along after you freaking tried to kill—!?"
"Polly, leave that for later... if we ever need it," Sprig said, interrupting his sister's rant before it could go any further. "Let's just... let him do his thing, for now, okay? I... I think we really need all the help we can get. W-We'll keep an eye on him."
Polly was astounded by how her brother was so quick to accept Grime's sudden change of heart, but she wasn't given the time to argue back.
Anne spoke up again.
"W-We're not enemies here, Polly," she managed to say. "There's only one bad guy here, and it's King Andrias. We s-should spend our energy fighting him... not e-each other."
Polly wasn't able to find a reply to that—coming from Anne of all people—so she simply grumbled something nasty under directed at Grime under her breath.
He ignored that and simply nodded at Anne.
"We don't know where the warhammer is..." Marcy took the initiative, finally answering his initial query. "I... I think it was just some newts from the City Guard who brought you down here. They could've put it anywhere around the castle, it wasn't the armoury we checked before coming here and—"
"It's in this dungeon as well," Hop-Pop intervened, much to the surprise of everyone else. "Yunan mentioned that off-handedly after she brought us here. I think... she pretended to question the robot things about it when we were around. I thought you listened to her as well, Grime?"
"I did, but they also know the warhammer is powerful, and that means the weapon will be under heavy security," he said. "So, the catch is that I'll need your help to retrieve it."
"Can't you just, like... do whatever with some sword or anything like that?" Polly protested. "We don't exactly have the time to satisfy your noble demands..."
"But Barrel's Warhammer is powerful, and Andrias... he is a big one," Marcy countered. "We could probably use someone with a heavy weapon like that one."
"And, well... we already made a lot of ruckus, me and Anne... and then Marcy. I... I guess it doesn't matter if we make a little bit more—as long as we're fast about it." Sprig made a small shrug.
"We'll help you," Anne concluded, looking at Grime again. "And once we have that hammer for you, we'll go take down the King, retrieve the box and put an end to this madness."
He looked at her, and somehow, Grime knew that both of them had left unsaid something else.
They would put an end to King Andrias' rule, or try to do so. That was obvious.
Yet, he knew that the pain wasn't going to go away.
"Fine... lead the way, Boonchuy."
"M-My King, you can't be serious... this is insane...!"
"I am more than serious. And... what's with that language from you? I hope you are still aware and mindful of who you're talking to right now. Your King."
She gulped as his eyes narrowed, glaring with suspicion at her. "And you are still my subject in this kingdom, even with the title of Lady you carry... are you not? I can count on you, right?"
...
"...y-yes, my liege."
"Good."
Lady Olivia hated this. She hated literally everything about this, from the very moment a group of robots had barged into Marcy's room, fetching both the girl and her and dragging them out and away from each other.
Oh frog, she hadn't even asked the King about Marcy yet...!
She wasn't in a good state of mind, she needed someone, some support, she didn't need to be pushed around like a prisoner.
Olivia was worried. She was afraid of what could happen to her, of what Andrias might have done or even what she herself could have done.
And even so, she was way too much overwhelmed by the information the King had bombarded her with to be able to say anything beyond pitiless exclamations of disbelief.
After summoning her back into the throne room—as in pushed by more of those accursed red-eyed machines—Andrias hadn't wasted any time, quickly going into a brief but complete explanation of his plans. He sounded so sure and apparently proud as he talked about bringing the kingdom of Amphibia back to its former glory via a new age of conquests—Earth being the next target on the list.
He wanted her to play her role in it, too, as he needed someone with good knowledge of the land to lead the start of the mining operations in Amphibia and seek the materials needed to fabricate a new army.
It was way too much to digest in one go... and even then, all of it was bad, all of it went against Olivia's own principles.
She had wanted to make Andrias reason, she wanted to find an alternative to still satisfy the King, or at the very least continue to question him to understand his reasons and perhaps seek why he acted the way he did.
Yet, despite her grievances, when the King questioned her loyalty, Olivia couldn't bring herself to disobey him.
She was still Lady Olivia, the last of a long lineage of newts who were loyal to Amphibia—and in turn, to the Kings that ruled over it, for hundreds of years. Her mother had served under Andrias, and her own mother before her. They all were loyal to him, and so she'd been for the entirety of her life—until now.
But now she had to choose between open treason or betrayal of what her entire family stood for.
And in the heat of the moment, she just couldn't go with the former.
"I'm honestly happy about that," Andrias resumed. "You are in fact one of the few who hasn't turned your back on me, Lady Olivia."
As he spoke, Andrias walked away from her, sitting back on his throne. "It's something I value... allies are scarce to come by these days, after all."
His words weren't just for show.
The throne room was empty save for Olivia and Andrias. The robots had escorted her to the King after keeping her locked away in a spare room, but afterwards they had left—disappearing behind the portal. There was no sign of other frobots nearby besides the remains that were littered on the floor of the chamber.
Olivia hadn't failed to notice how one of the carcasses did not share the soot-like, dark colour of the red-eyed machines, and rather was much closer to the frobot that had accompanied the Plantars and had helped out when fighting off the toad insurgents.
She decided not to think about it further, and what events had transpired in that throne room before her arrival here.
Andrias had talked about 'allies' being scarce. So...
"What about the Plantars and Anne Boonchuy?" Olivia finally asked. She took in a small breath before adding with a trembling voice, "And M-Master Marcy?"
"Aah, Marcy is okay... for now. I got her to do her own part in everything, just like you, and unless she fails, she'll be just fine. You don't have to worry about her, Lady Olivia," Andrias talked with his usual jovial tone. He was even smiling.
Though Olivia still felt how wrong that smile appeared, now that the King had showed his true colours.
The fact that he even talked freely about Marcy made Olivia momentarily forget about the Plantars. She played with her thumbs for a moment before actually asking a follow-up question to him.
"D-Don't you think it was a bit too harsh to involve her? Andri—King Andrias, Marcy was terribly affected by what happened to her friends, and she still was by the time... we were separated. She lost one friend dear to her, and in tragic circumstances that involved the other. I... I don't think she is in a good mind-state to take part in... uh, Amphibia's new age, yet."
"Maybe... or maybe not," Andrias replied with just a hint of boredom at her observation. "What I do know is that she had a role to play as well in our... my design, and one that could help things go immensely more smoothly for all of us. These are hard times for everyone, Lady Olivia, and suffice to say, it's hard to spare any kindness right now."
He frowned. "Most importantly, when traitors like the Plantars are at large."
She honestly wasn't surprised to hear that, though it still made her wince to hear the word 'traitor' applied to the Plantar frog family. They were a chaotic group of farmers who Olivia may have found annoying, sure, but she never expected to see them become an enemy.
Yet, it was definitely predictable how they would not hesitate to defy Andrias and fight back.
Unlike her...
Olivia swallowed down her guilt. "The Plantars betrayed, uh... us?"
"They refused to 'let things happen', to put it simply," the King relayed, resting his chin on a hand tiredly, as if this was a mere annoyance. "They decided on their own accord to make an even bigger mess of what the situation was, and I couldn't afford to let these... annoyances delay our plans."
Olivia blanched. "D-Do you mean—"
Andrias shook his head. "No, if that is what concerns you... they are all still alive. The young Plantar boy is still on the run and wanted, but we managed to put under custody the other two frogs. Hopefully, that will lure the boy back to us."
Olivia almost let out a sigh of relief, but she stopped herself in time, blocking her mouth with a hand. He felt the King's glare on herself as she did so.
"In any case, I reckon that will be relatively easy to deal with. Anne Boonchuy, on the other hand, is a bigger problem."
"The Boonchuy girl..."
Olivia had seen along with every one else what had happened to Anne—namely concerning the ominous blue power that was likely triggered by the fate of her friend.
Olivia knew little about that power, but it was easy to assume that it wasn't one easy to be contained... and that Andrias didn't wanted that to happen in the first place.
"S-She wasn't found yet, my Lord?" Yunan questioned.
"No, but I believe that the same decoy that will push the Plantar boy back into our grasp will also lead her back to us. Perhaps both of them. Once they're here, doing away with her should be relatively easy."
Olivia couldn't help gasping, and the King merely chuckled at her reaction.
"Do not act all that surprised, Lady Olivia. Do you think I'd even consider letting her go around as if she owned the place with those powers of hers? She's not just an enemy to our kingdom and a hurdle to our righteous quest to restore our legacy. Those powers of her belong to the Calamity Box, and the more time we let pass with her still connected to the box, the more likely we are to see... unforeseen consequences coming from the box itself."
"B-But, my king... she's just a young girl!" Olivia couldn't help protesting. "You are suggesting to kill a child...!"
"A girl who found herself on the wrong side at the wrong time, sadly."
Andrias seemed to take a breath for a moment. "However, I at least understand why you feel that way. And that's where Marcy comes in."
Olivia listened with apprehension as Andrias continued his speech. "Her job is simple enough: find the Boonchuy girl and convince her to... give up and surrender. If that works, then we'll able to put an end to the chaos and see things get back to the path they are supposed to stick to without resorting to more violence. In that scenario, all should work itself out without further hiccups."
The King was smiling, but Olivia did not return his expression. "And... you have a way to handle Boonchuy and her powers without hurting her?"
The King thought to himself for a moment, then shrugged. "I'll try with one, at the very least... but I can't make promises. Again... kindness is not something we can spend right now, Lady Olivia. And, you know... we are here to serve our Kingdom, not necessarily to save people. Let alone people who are not from this kingdom in the first place."
It was a less than satisfactory answer—the exact opposite in fact. Yet, the lack of reassurance came second when Olivia realized how this was linked to the way Andrias might have gotten Marcy to follow his plan.
"Y-You lied to Marcy," she said, matter-of-factly. "You told her you'd make sure to keep Anne safe if she led her to you without resorting to more violence."
King Andrias let out an almost comedic 'woops'. "Guess I didn't expect you to realize that so soon. Yes, that was indeed the case. But hey, it wasn't a lie... not entirely. I will see what I can do."
He leaned back as he added off-handedly, "It just that, you know... in case there are no options left, we'll have to resort to the old solution. No hard feelings."
Olivia shook her head, turning away for a moment from him.
"King Andrias, I-I... I understand why you are doing this, b-but there is a limit to what our duties let us do, to what is right and what is wrong as people who hold power in this world. And deceiving Marcy just to... to get her to give her friend to you and doing whatever you want... how can you feel you are in the right after doing that?"
"Things are not as simple as being in the right or in the wrong... but I ask you, what if I indeed feel like I am in the right?" Andrias grew serious again.
"This isn't just a game of lies played with some children who don't know any better, Lady Olivia. It's a test, to see if Marcy is indeed worth of the new age of Amphibia that starts today, the age that she has helped starting in the first place by bringing the box back to us. In fact, this is probably my greatest gift to her and even her friend—a chance to pick the correct side and become part of history!"
Andrias frowned as he concluded his answer with a final, solemn sentence. "Yet, whether she'll understand that she'll have to let go... is all up to her."
...
No, no, no!
She couldn't accept this.
Marcy had done so much for Newtopia, so much for her—she couldn't just stand and watch as the King did whatever he wanted with her and her friends, as if she was a frog pawn in his personal flipwart board.
But before she could protest again, Andrias briefly let out a, "Wait a moment, Lady Olivia..."
Bringing his hands together, Andrias shut his eyes and remained in deep thought for some long seconds without opening his mouoth. Olivia didn't know what was going on.
She saw something alight on his crown. It disappeared as soon as she noticed it, and she couldn't catch the details, but... there was something there. Something lit up.
She felt a shudder running down her spine.
As if something other than the King was watching her.
Andrias opened his eyes and he let out a low grunt. Leaning back on the throne, he didn't try to hide his disappointment.
"Alas... sometimes, sometimes chances are let go to waste, despite your best efforts in giving other people a try. Marcy has betrayed us."
"W-What?" Olivia's confusion made her forget about her previous conclusion. "H-How do you—!?"
"So now," the King stood up, ignoring Olivia's request for clarification. He glanced around the throne room for a moment, as if to check something that wasn't there, then regarded Yunan again. "There is one question left. Are you going to betray me too, Lady Olivia? Or will you remain loyal to your kingdom, and your king, just like your ancestors always did, no matter what? Will you make me doubt you, just like your dear General friend did?"
"Y-Yunan? She betrayed you—uh, I mean, us, too?"
"Not yet," King Andrias kept glaring at her, slowly walking around a circle with her at the centre. "But her actions have given me reason to... second-guess her allegiance. And the reports I've received of her from the frobots working in the city give me no reason to change ideas, either. Yunan is untrustworthy at this point."
He stopped moving. "You, on the other hand, are quite the conundrum, Lady Olivia. Are you untrustworthy as her, too?"
"W-Well, of course I am, I already told you!"
"You are... for now," Andrias countered. "But will you stick to my side on the long run? That's what I'm asking you."
Olivia found her throat dry and could only evade Andrias' piercing gaze. She felt conflicted, once again caught between two opposing armies, forced to pick one before she was caught in the cross-fire of both.
At a point, the grip of fear started to take hold of her. What if Andrias knew she was having second thoughts, that she was considering treason? What was he going to do to her, to everyone?!
Perhaps she should try to stick with him on the long run as well. She could still help Marcy through her peril, she could make sure Yunan didn't do something reckless, and she could try anything that could make Andrias listen to reason once again.
She... she just needed time, and to pull up an act.
"I..." she started, stammering on the words as she forced herself to lie to the King. "I... I a-am..."
The portal to the throne room was slammed open, the noise of the doors hitting the walls echoing through the chamber. Olivia whipped herself around, expecting a group of frobots coming to receive the King's orders or even to fetch her now that the King was almost done with her.
Instead she saw a familiar group consisting of a family of frog people, two humans, and a toad. All brandishing weapons of varying types, and marching into the room with their guard up.
"Andrias!" Anne Boonchuy cried out.
Olivia couldn't help glancing at King Andrias.
The King was smiling.
"We'll finish this conversation later, Lady Olivia, if you don't mind. We wouldn't want to make them wait, after they went all the way up here to pay me a visit, after all."