Omake Week 2019, Day 5: Omake Week greets a new entrant this year, with Nights of Azure's first appearance in the lists. Meaning that Phantasy Star no longer has to be the least popular included fandom (GrimGrimoire must be feeling positively viral by comparison!). But I really love NoA's story, world, characters, music, and canon yuri relationships. So while I continue quietly hammering away at the two novel-length fics featuring my choice for Best Game Character of 2017, Camilla Alucard, instead we get Arnice and Lilysse and a happy couple omake!
~X X X~
"Well," Simon asked, "what do you think, Miss Arnice?"
"Hmmmm…"
The two of them stood next to one another on the arched landing above and behind the main desk of the Hotel Ende. The wall in front of them was blank and, Arnice had to agree, more than a little boring. The problem was, she didn't really see what she could do about it.
"I don't really understand a lot about these things, you know?" She scratched her head. "I mean, agents of the Curia don't exactly get formal training in art appreciation or something."
"I'm only asking for your opinion, Miss Arnice. There's no need to treat it as if it were a quest you could fail."
Usually, Simon was pretty good at putting his guests at ease, Arnice thought, but this time his efforts weren't quite taking. Probably it was because the handsome hotel manager in his immaculate, crisply-pressed dark suit and white gloves, presented such an impression of elegance, of the kind of service that nobles, ministers, and captains of industry expected as a matter of course, that she just felt out of her depth next to him.
"I guess some sort of landscape might be good?" she ventured hesitantly. "It might be kind of relaxing, you know? Green forest and grass, blue sky and water, it'd lighten up all the dark paneling around here…maybe?"
Simon nodded.
"I'll see to it at once, Miss Arnice. Thank you for all of your assistance."
He gave a little bow, then swiftly retreated to his office, doubtless to make the necessary order. Arnice let out a heavy sigh, letting her shoulders sag forward. Was that some kind of test? she wondered. And if so, did I pass?
After all that, she decided that she needed a pick-me-up, so she descended the stairs and crossed the hotel lobby to the bar and café, her boot-heels clicking off the polished floor. Moments after she dropped heavily into a chair, a maid approached, bearing a steaming cup of hot chocolate. It was a mark of excellent service, but this wasn't really a case of a five-star hotel anticipating its customer's needs. Rather, it was entirely personal.
"Thanks, Lilysse," Arnice said, smiling up at the girl who meant more to her than anything in the world.
"You looked like you could use that."
"That's the truth." She picked up the cup and saucer and let the sweet flavor trickle over her tongue with the first sip. Chocolate helped to take the edge off the vampiric urges that plagued her as a half-demon, but the plain fact was that she'd have consumed just as much of the stuff on account of its taste alone.
"What's the matter, then, Arnice? Did Simon have some bad news from the Curia?"
"What? Oh, oh no, it's nothing like that."
Lilysse let out a sigh.
"That's a relief, at least. They really ask too much of you as an agent."
Arnice clenched her fist on the table.
"Compared to what they're demanding from you, anything they want me to do is meaningless."
"Arnice…"
"I know, you don't want me to keep talking about it, but it's so absurd. Why should you—"
"Arnice," Lilysse cut her off firmly. "Do you really think I could live with myself if I sent you, or Simon, or anyone to be sacrificed in my place?"
"I know." She reached out and squeezed Lilysse's hand. "It's part of what makes you who you are, why I have to find a way to save you, even if it means defeating the Nightlord with my own hands."
Lilysse gave a heavy sigh.
"I don't want to talk about this right now. Besides, you never said what it was that Simon wanted from you."
"Oh, yeah, I guess I didn't. You see that bare spot on the wall over where we were talking?"
"Yes, I do."
"Well, Simon wants to put a painting there, to fill up the space."
"Oh, that's a good idea. It does look kind of bland and empty, and it's not like the arena downstairs that has to be kept bare on account of collateral damage."
"Right, but get this: Simon wanted my opinion as to what to put there! I mean, what do I know about art?" Frankly, Lilysse in her low-cut maid's outfit was the epitome of what Arnice considered aesthetic beauty. "Do you remember back at the academy?"
Lilysse nodded.
"You never were very good in our art classes."
"And Simon's this super-elegant guy, too. I mean, he knows all that stuff, what wine goes with what meat, what's fashionable before or after which holiday, how to address Lady Amelia Leconbury and why that's different from Amelia, Lady Leconbury, which fork to use with the soup, all that stuff."
"Hmm." Lilysse looked up, pressing her finger to her full lower lip in a "thinking" pose Arnice found ridiculously cute. "That's true, but…last week when I was looking for a mop to clean up after a batch of cupcakes that nearly got aw—I mean, when I was cleaning the kitchen—I opened what I thought was a utility closet and instead found a storage room. There were a whole stack of paintings there, wrapped up. Only, the strange thing is, they were all painted on black velvet, and every one of them was of a group of dogs sitting around a table playing cards."
~X X X~
A/N: I've always wondered what the point of those little sidequests was, besides personalizing the décor. The curious might be interested to know, too, that neither black velvet paintings nor "Dogs Playing Poker" are anachronistic, either!
