The Chase Begins: Part 2 – The Last Resort
Ch.1. – The Warriors Are Gathered
"Hah. Late."
Elesis muttered as she looked at the grandfather clock in the Serdin Castle Hall.
"What is taking them so long?"
She leaned back against the white-coloured wall behind her, measuring her sword with her eyes.
"Cheh, 'Be there ten minutes before the promised time' was what father had always said."
Bored, she sat down on a nearby chair, and started clicking her tongues, as she did whenever she had nothing else to do. Elesis started playing with her sword, trying to make use of her extra time.
"Hullo! I'm here!"
Elesis was trying to balance her sword on her fingertips, when the light-hearted voice came out of nowhere. The voice startled Elesis, the balance of the sword breaking and the sword crashed down on her forehead.
"Ow ow ow….."
"Are you okay?"
Rubbing her forehead, she turned toward the voice. There, she could see a blonde girl of her own age– an elfin blonde girl, actually. Still in pain, Elesis replied to the good-willed question, almost rudely.
"Do I look okay?"
The elf girl grinned a little, and replied back.
"You sure do. Am I wrong?"
Elesis bent down from her chair to pick up her sword, her good humor returning.
"Well, what do you know? Looks like I'm cured."
She said, grinning at the elf.
The elf smiled back, and offered her hand.
"My name is Lire Eruyell and I am here to take the position as the archer in your group. Even though we elves are normally peaceful, I am one of those who think that measures should be taken towards the doings of Kaze'aze. I look forward to working with you in the future."
An elf, huh? Elesis thought. Nice.
Then, Elesis started introducing herself in return, as it was the only normal thing to do.
"Well, I am-"
"I already know. You are the current captain of the Red Knights, no? I heard that you possess tremendous skills with your sword. Please take good care of me."
Even though cutting somebody off when the person is talking is usually taken as a rude act, the elfin girl did it so gracefully and politely that Elesis felt the need to bow down and thank her. Resisting the urge to do so, Elesis was just about to thank Lire for her compliments when a purple-haired girl stepped in.
The new girl did not make any kind of greetings at first. She just slowly eyed Elesis and Lire while standing beside the hallway door, her face expressionless.
Then, she sat down on a chair nearby, and the room fell into an awkward silence.
Thinking that she should do something to make the awkwardness go away, Elesis tried talking to the new girl.
"Uh…..Hello."
The purple-haired girl responded with a greeting of her own, but no further.
"Hello."
At that point, Elesis was running out of her patience, and she didn't have much of it anyways. Therefore, she decided that she would take the initiative and ask the girl what her purpose was at Serdin castle.
"Um….. Could you state your purpose for being in the Serdin castle?"
The purple girl glared at Elesis, and said in return:
"Why would you want to know?"
Elesis suddenly got angry.
"Are you here to join the new 'group' or what?"
"I said, you don't need to know."
The purple girl responded without even blinking. That got Elesis even more angry.
"I need to know because I am joining too, purple-head, and if you don't wann-"
Elesis was knocked to the ground headfirst by an invisible gust of wind.
"Do. Not. Call. Me. By. That. Name."
The violet-haired girl said the seven words separately, emphasizing them. Elesis got up, her red eyes flashing with rage, she grabbed her sword.
"You bast-"
At that point, Lire, the smart girl of the group, decided to intervene.
"Um, let's stop fighting, please?"
Smiling nervously, Lire repeated Elesis' question, but with more politeness in it.
"I am Lire, and I will be taking the archer position in this new 'group', and Miss Elesis will be taking the melee combat position. We need to know who you are, since we are one person short, and I am quiet sure that you are….."
Her voice trailed off, but one could clearly see what she meant.
The purple-haired girl eyed Lire's pointed ears curiously, and introduced herself.
"My name is Arme Florence…..Violet."
At the mention of the name 'Violet' Elesis wrinkled her nose in disbelief. The violet girl did not notice, and continued.
"I will be the mage in the group. I will be in charge of support…..But I prefer smashing monsters in my own ways."
At the word 'smashing', Arme looked towards Elesis meaningfully.
Elesis still didn't like the new girl. In fact, she could feel hate getting close.
"Violet? Is that really your last name?"
"What of it?"
Elesis scoffed.
" That name was lost hundreds of years ago. How can you be a Violet?"
Arme replied with utmost certainty.
"Because I have the mark of the Violets."
"It is on my back. I would show the elf over there, but not you."
Elesis didn't like this girl, at all.
"Fine, whatever you say."
Grumbling, she turned away from Arme, but did not stop talking.
"We have to go to the main hall now, since we're all here. Don't tell me you're gonna knock me away this time too?"
Arme ignored that, and started walking towards the other side of the hallway.
Elesis blinked.
"Hey, uh, Arme."
"What?"
"You're going the wrong way."
Startled, Arme looked around and saw the huge sign that said 'Main Hall, THIS WAY."
Her face red, she quickly fixed her direction, and started walking towards the direction Elesis pointed at.
Lire was looking troubled, but Elesis' face distorted into something that looked like a huge grin.
Maybe it won't be so bad after all. The red girl thought as she saw the yet-again confused Arme trying to decide which one of the doors led to the Great Hall.
"Well, we're here."
Elesis said as the team stopped in front of a door that had a Gryphon drawn in the middle of it. Arme's face was perfectly red. Twice she wondered into rooms made for monsters, and she even managed to fall into a hole, who knew where it came from.
"Why is it so far away?"
Arme asked Elesis, trying to hide her red face.
"It would've taken only five minutes, but….."
Arme's face got so red that it looked blue.
Lire tried to comfort Arme.
"Well, it's not Arme's fault that she is a klutz – "
Arme looked as if she was about to faint from embarrassment, and Lire quickly covered her mouth.
"Yeah, and it's not her fault that it took thirty minutes to get here, right?" Elesis said, smirking.
"…..Shut up….." Arme muttered under her breath.
Elesis pretended she didn't hear that, and opened the door.
The main hall of the castle was, basically, a large room, decorated with only the finest jewelries. However, the current queen had a special use for the jewelries. Whenever the country was financially in need, she used some of the precious decorations to provide for whatever was needed.
And now, the queen of Serdin stood before the three girls.
Elesis kneeled automatically. Since Elesis was the captain of the Red Knights, she lived in the castle. Therefore, she was familiar with the castle's customs.
"Your highness." Elesis said, with politeness that couldn't have been hers.
Arme and Lire were still standing, confused by the sudden turnout of events.
"Kneel!" Elesis hissed, cursing the stupidity of the two girls.
Only then did the other two girls finally realize that they were in the presence of Her Highness, the queen of Serdin.
"Yo, you, your h-highness."
Stammering, Arme kneeled down awkwardly, her face bright red yet again.
Lire did her part a bit better.
"My queen."
The only flaw was that she kneeled with her left leg in front, which was not a proper form of kneeling down in Serdin. Realizing her mistake, she quickly switched the order of her legs, and Elesis sighed.
"It is fine." The queen said, smiling. "I noticed that a lot of people do that the first time they see me." Elesis sighed again in relief.
The queen continued. "The reason I have called you three here today is to, as you may have heard, form a group to defeat the darkness spread by the Dark Lady, Kaze'aze."
The three girls tensed.
"Therefore, I have called you three, who were the best at your own areas."
At the word best, the queen nodded to each one of the girls.
The queen still continued.
"Today, I have called the knight master-"
A female knight dressed in red and yellow emerged out of nowhere, and everybody except Elesis, even the queen, was startled.
"-I wish you'd stop doing that, Kris-" The knight master chuckled. "-Anyways, I have called the knight master here to test you three girls if you're worthy."
Arme was furious.
"What? Have I not proven my worth enough? I don't know about the muscle-head there –" She pointed at Elesis, who clenched her teeth as well as clenching her fists. "But I certainly have proven my worth!"
"You have not proven your worth until I say so."
The knight master said calmly, frowning. She stepped forward.
"But-"
"I said, you have not proven your worth until I say so."
Arme then noticed the flames in the knight master's eyes, and realized that she was being extremely rude. She sat back down quickly, and apologized just as fast.
"I'm sorry."
"It is fine, child. As long as you do not make the same mistake again." The knight master replied, the malice in her voice gone. She stepped back a few pace until she was beside the queen again.
"Please continue, your highness."
The queen coughed several times, obviously displeased by the turn of the events.
"As I was saying, I called Kris here to test your worth, to see if you are strong enough to chase away the queen of darkness."
"The team will be called Grand Chase – oh, only if you three pass the test, that is." She quickly added, noticing the knight master looking meaningfully at her.
"Well, if you please, Kris." She said, motioning her hand to the knight master.
"Your Majesty."
The knight master bowed, and walked over to the three girls.
"You may rise."
Elesis was the first one to react, and Lire followed. Arme had to stretch before getting up, since her legs were too stiff.
"Follow me." The knight master said to the three girls. Behind them, the queen could be seen mouthing the words 'good luck!' and waving her hands.
The knight master sighed, as if she knew what the queen was doing even without looking.
Behind the knight master, Elesis chuckled silently.
