Sorry for the extra delay, I finally have some free time to write now but the delay could be extra longer if I wait for the net to come back on. Anyways, here's the next chapter!

Wishes, Dreams, and Memories

Chapter 32 – Bad News, Good News

It was already late at night, but the actual prince of Selphia was still sitting on his desk, holding an unrolled scroll in his hands. The letter was short, but the content it held made the blond prince fix his glasses a few times to make sure that he was reading it correctly. A knock on the door prompted him to put the scroll down and turned his attention to the green-haired Earthmate coming into his office.

"Sorry for the intrusion, Lord… I mean, Arthur…" Frey gave him a slight bow as she walked towards Arthur's desk, noticing the symbol of the Sechs on the scroll, "I see you've got the news already. This should save me some time to explain a few things."

"I have the feeling you would say that," Arthur rose from his seat, "You can take all the time you need to explain while we have some tea."

"I can't say everything just yet," Frey added, "I need to confirm a few things and I believe Kiel might have looked up on it before. And I need to tell something to Lest too, because all of this has something to do with our family."

"That's quite unfortunate," Arthur looked at Frey with a frown, "I might be able to call Lest here, but I doubt I can get Kiel at this hour. Forte has been keeping him from staying up too late after he almost collapsed trying to help us previously."

"I… see…" Frey lowered her head in disappointment, "But… I think I'll let you know a little about my assumptions. I think it's the only thing I can do for now."

"Very well," Arthur nodded as he and Frey approached the chairs, "Please have a seat."

It was early in the morning and Lest got his wake up call from the slight shaking on his bed. There was an empty spot beside him where his wife had slept and a barely-awake Pico at the other side of the bed. Judging from how the spot beside him was still warm and the fact that the bedroom door was slightly open, he could tell that Dolce was still nearby and had to go somewhere in a hurry.

"Hey, Pico?" a big yawn was the only answer he got, "Uh… are you okay?"

"I was woken up a few hours ago…" Pico replied with another tired yawn, "Milady had been going in and out of the bathroom for a while… More often than yesterday morning, I think…"

The door creaked open to reveal the woman in question still in her night gown with a pale face, "Dolly, are you doing okay? You don't look so good…"

"Sweetie, I'm…" Dolce quickly covered her mouth as the nausea came back and quickly ran out the door once more.

Pico let out a sigh, "I don't think milady is fine with her going back and forth to and out of the bathroom, but I can't persuade her to see Jones…"

"Don't worry, I'll try and talk to her," Lest turned to Pico, "It was weird enough that yesterday she wanted to eat all kinds of vegetable dishes… salads included…"

The young couple was watching the two medics in the clinic as they did their thing once they had examined Dolce. The female Guardian was looking a bit better after Jones had given her some liquid medicine to drink and was sitting on the examination bed while holding Lest's hand. The time Jones and Nancy took to discuss the result was long enough for Lest to start worrying over his wife's condition, which got worse once he saw the seriousness on Jones' face.

"Listen carefully, you two," Jones spoke up in a serious tone. Lest and Dolce looked at the doctor nervously until a smile formed on his lips, "Congratulations, parents-to-be!"

"Congratulations, Dolly!" it was Nancy's turn to smile as she ran over to Dolce, giving her a hug.

"S-So you're saying…" Lest slowly caught on.

"I… We… are going to have a child…?" Dolce finished Lest's sentence as Nancy nodded.

"While I'm certain that the two of you are happy with an additional member to your family, I think Nancy is the most excited when we found out after the examination," Jones added with a smile.

"Of course I am!" Nancy replied excitedly, "Dolly is about to become a mother!" the smile on Nancy's face turned into a stern look as she looked at Lest, "Being a mother is going to be tough, so I expect you to take a better care of her, okay?"

Lest nodded confidently, "You can count on me!"

"While it might be best for you to take it easy before the baby is born, do you still want to help out here?" Jones asked as Lest helped Dolce off the examination bed.

"Don't worry, I can still handle it," Dolce replied with a smile as she put a hand on her stomach, "I can take my day off whenever they needed me to rest."

"Just let me know if you need to learn anything about being a mother, okay?" Nancy said with a smile, getting a nod from Dolce.

The older couple watched as Lest and Dolce left the clinic before Nancy turned to Jones, "Shouldn't we tell them about that possibility too?"

"Oh, you mean about the child possibly being twins?" Jones turned his gaze away from Nancy and towards the door, "I would, but I don't want to give them false hope. Even if Lest and Frey are twins, that isn't a factor to increase the chance for them to have twins."

"Oh well, but don't you think it's nice to have a mini Dolly and a mini Lest running around in Selphia?" Nancy asked with a smile.

"Er… maybe yes…"

"So our child will have a ghost for an aunt…" Dolce commented as she stared at Pico on the bed after sharing the news with her, "I guess that should be fine…"

"Don't worry about it, Dolly! I'll be a great aunt and take good care of them," Pico responded with a smile, prompting Dolce to do so, though for a different reason.

"Maybe we should keep them away from you until they're used to your presence. Isn't that right, Sweetie?" Dolce turned to where she thought Lest was, only to see that he wasn't there, "Sweetie… Oh!" A pair of arms was wrapped around her waist, catching her off guard, "W-What are you doing?"

"I'm saying my thanks," Lest replied softly, "Is this okay with you?"

"W-Well…" a slight blush appeared on her face, "Just… don't leave me alone, okay? I want to raise our child together with you…"

"Don't worry, I won't leave you," Lest slightly tightened his embrace while putting his hand over Dolce's, which was on her stomach, "This child will grow up with both of their parents right on their side. I promise you, Dolly."

"Um…" a voice coming from the other side of the door was heard, "Are you still there, Lest?"

"Is… is that you, Frey?" Lest released Dolce from his arms before he went to open the door, "Didn't you say that you were going back last night?"

"I was going to, but something came up," Frey looked at her twin with a serious look, "I need to talk to you, but…" Frey looked over his shoulder and at Dolce in worry, "I think it's best that she doesn't know about this for now."

"O-Okay. Let's head down and talk there instead," Frey nodded at Lest's suggestion.

"I'll go and get Arthur and Kiel too. They had figured something out for us," Frey left ahead as Lest excused himself out of the room.

"So… what is this all about?" Lest looked around at Frey, Kiel, and Arthur, who looked anxiously at him while sitting around the dining table.

"This letter," Arthur unrolled a scroll in front of Lest, "was delivered to me last night. For some reason, Emperor Halwell went missing shortly after Kane went back to the empire."

"W-Wait…" Lest read the letter in disbelief, "I thought that he was still unconscious!"

"He was," Frey replied shortly, getting Lest's attention, "He had never actually been conscious for a while, to be exact. Well, for almost a year I think."

"A year…?" Lest leaned back on his seat, "A year ago… that's… that's around the time I fought Ethelberd!"

"Sadly, that's not the end of it," Kiel added as he opened a book he had, "I found something disturbing in this book… and what happened that time might be exactly what's written in this book."

Lest took the book as Kiel gave him, looking at the opened pages, "Living runes… A soul from the Forest of Beginnings which had fused with the runes…"

"A corrupt soul actually, if it's actually Ethelberd," Frey added before she flipped a few pages ahead and pointed a passage on one of the pages, "Here, it says that living runes can only occur because of a few factors and can take over a weak-willed person's consciousness."

"I… I thought he was already gone back then but…" Lest was speechless with all the facts given to him, "But what about the factors? Is there a clue somewhere in the book about what might cause Ethelberd's soul to fuse with the runes?"

"I've tried reading it through to the end, but there's no mention about the factors there," Kiel replied with a frown, "The book only tells us about what happened with the souls and the runes, but not the reasons for the living runes' occurrence…"

"I can assume it's most likely to be greed for power or the fact that he had used the rune spheres himself," Frey added, "They're the most possible reasons and I think I might be able to give a solution for this," Frey pointed at Lest, "You, Lest, and your charm…"

"My… charm…?" Lest looked at Frey in surprise until he remembered that Frey had given him a charm when they first met, "Is it that charm that you gave me before?"

"That was just a replica… and that was actually mine," Frey pulled the charm she was wearing around her neck, "This one is the real one, which holds the key to solving this once and for all."

"Frey, are you sure about this?" Arthur asked Frey with a stern look, "If it is as you told me last night, then…"

Frey paused for a moment as her face softened, "To be honest, I don't know…" Frey looked at Lest once more, "This charm responds to me, but it will respond better to you. It's the very reason why you're the one who have to do it, despite how risky it is."

"You… never told me there was more about those charms…" Lest slowly spoke up as he took the original charm from Frey, "You hardly say anything about our family is supposed to do now, even after Venti is saved."

"I… I'm sorry," Frey lowered her head in guilt as her reply came with shaky voice, "We're twins, yet we're born with great difference in strength and abilities… We had different roles in our family and I… I don't want to lose another family…"

"I… I still don't get it…" Lest turned to Arthur, pleading for more answers.

"I may have heard about your family a long time ago," Arthur responded, "There was a special family of Earthmates with the power to purify evil. Unfortunately, only a select few could actually purify an evil soul with a big cost."

"Yes…" Frey added in a whisper, "One can purify a soul, at the cost of that person's life…"

"H-Huh? Does that mean…?" Kiel came to realization.

"You need me to purify Ethelberd's soul, at the cost of mine. Is that what you're saying?" Lest looked at Frey in a serious look, getting a nod from Frey.

"That's why… I don't know what to do anymore…" Frey added with a frown, "Especially after what I heard from Nancy a while ago…"

"Is this the only way to save Halwell?" Lest turned to Kiel and Arthur.

"Unfortunately, this is the only solution we found," Arthur replied sadly, "I shall offer you my deepest apology."

"Any other books and ancient scrolls I read led me to this point too," Kiel replied with a frown, "Sorry I can't be much of help…"

"Lest," Frey spoke calmly, "I can try and do what I can to help you purify him, but I'm not sure how much I can take your burden for the purification."

Lest looked around at the people on the table once more before taking a deep breath, "I want to help, to be honest. I don't know much about the new emperor and I don't even remember my family's mission. But I fought Ethelberd once before, so I think I should go and finish the job. It's… my responsibility."

"What about Dolce?" Arthur asked, "I hardly know about marriage, but I am quite aware that the wound from a broken bond cannot heal easily."

"Don't tell her," Lest shortly replied, "There should still be a chance of survival, as small as it is, so I don't want her to worry about the future which might not even come true."

Arthur paused for a moment before nodding, "Very well, if that is your wish."

"I won't tell either," Kiel added, "I'll do my best to keep a secret."

"Thanks you two," Lest gave them a small smile, knowing that his secret would probably be safe.

Little did he know that there weren't just four people present in the main room as two other figures had listened in to their whole conversation. Dolce and Pico had been standing around the stairs near the main room, but the distance was close enough for them to hear everything. The female Guardian froze in her place, with her ghost friend worrying over the shock from the sudden news.

"Dolly…? Are you… going to be fine…?"

Well, so much for keeping secrets now, right?

Anyways, until my net is up again I'll be postponing the update on Tumblr (assuming I can still put it there after the new policy) and I'll only update the story here and on AO3. Later guys!