Pardon the over half a year update. I just didn't get it in me to write for some reason and then second semester rolled around and shit happened. And Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Graces f in all of their Japanese glory totally didn't help me either. It was more like…a distraction. All hail the Code Geass (sort of) references in Graces. And a shout out to my new found love to my newest bishi collection: Graces' own Richard. XD He's so fun and Daisuke Namikawa totally made him 500% more awesome. *hearts*
PS: I am beta-less. So hopefully it's not that bad now that Mieu's gone. o_o
Disclaimer: I don't own ToA, there's just so much more I would like to add if I did own it.
Chapter 15: Fire
The large cloud of black smoke had caught our attention and was telling us to increase our pace towards the naval port.
By the time we made it there, my eyes widened at the destruction that was laid before us. Piles of corpses of fallen soldiers laid on top of each other with the occasional dead monster lying right beside (or between) the bodies. The soldiers had a variety of cuts and some body parts were bitten off by ligers or by something with large jaws. The monsters looked like they have been pierced by a sword or axe or even a spear. Speaking of spear, most of the dead ones carried a spear on their backs and their blood stained the ground with a familiar red iron-scented hue. The cries of soldiers in battle followed by the shriek and roars of monsters filled the air and fire was already spreading from one building to the next and the wind was only adding more oil to the fire.
Beside me, Luke faltered, taking one step away from the corpses near the entrance. A hand covered his mouth as he tried his best not to look too disgusted by the mess though his eyes told the entire story. I took a step behind Jade and gripped his arm, terrified. I looked away from the horrible images so that I didn't suddenly throw up at the sight them. The images that continued to haunt my thoughts were not aiding my cause. Nearby I saw Ion narrowing his eyes in sadness at the bodies as he gripped his staff tighter until his knuckles looked like they were about to go white. Anise, too, looked forlorn at the sight and Guy made a face that told me he didn't like the sight of them either. Even Mieu cowered in Ion's arm; he seemed to have hidden his face on Ion's chest, his ears were tucked between his face and Ion's chest with his little paws keeping his ears down. Currently, the baby cheagle was shivering in fear. The remaining three that were with us remained emotionless.
"What…what just happened here?" Luke muttered as Guy walked past him to examine one of the bodies. The blood that seeped from the lifeless body crept its way towards Guy, staining his boots as it formed a puddle around his feet.
"It looks like it was done not too long ago," Guy declared as he returned to the group. He looked back at the bodies. "Though, who could have done this?"
Anise walked over to one of the monsters that was dead and backed away. "This is one of Gloomietta's pets."
"Gloomietta?" Guy repeated, looking quite confused. Anise quickly turned around, staring furiously at Guy. She charged over to him with such speed; it caught him off guard. A strangled 'aah!' escaped from his lips as she stood right in front of him.
"Arietta!" she explained loudly, yanking Guy's vest in the process. It looked like she was trying to pull him down to her height considering the huge height difference between the two. The only thing that was keeping him from being reduced to her height was the proximity of their closeness and, of course, his irrational fear. "The God-General, Arietta the Wild!"
"O-okay, okay! I get it, stop touching me! Please!" Guy begged, backing away from her. But…that was a wrong move on Guy's part. Right behind his feet was a piece of…something. He stepped on it, losing his balance and he, along with Anise, toppled over and onto the ground. Anise, who had no problem adjusting to it, just sat on top of Guy and arms crossed.
Somehow I kinda felt sorry for him at this moment.
"It sounds like there's more fighting in the harbor," Tear spoke up as another roar filled the air. "Let's go."
She darted off towards the harbor with Luke and Celena in hot pursuit. Jade, Ion and I stayed behind, though. Jade turned to Guy with a highly amused look on his face. He adjusted his glasses before saying, "I'm sure you're enjoying yourself, Guy, but we'd best be going."
"G-g-get her away from me…!" Guy pleaded towards the soldier, though he didn't head Guy. Instead, Jade shot him what looked like an amused/sadistic look before leaving him there.
Feeling sorry for him, I sighed, taking a step closer to the two of them. Giving a hand to Anise, I said, "Come on, Anise."
By the time the port came into view, a good handful of soldiers were still trying to take down some monsters. They…looked like they were on the losing side so we lended them a hand, despite an old man's futile protests. I had Ion right behind me because our best soldiers, as well as the ones that was protecting our back, was already ahead Ion and I. Up ahead of us was Van and a few Kimlascan soldiers fending off the monsters. Er...From my point of view, it looked like Van was the only one fending the monsters off. I mean...The soldiers looked like they were trying to protect some engineers that were with them. And if the soldiers were protecting the engineers then that means Van would be the one protecting the soldiers.
And he was doing a pretty good job at that.
"Master Van!" Luke shouted as he drew his sword and charged right into battle. Some monsters noticed the charging Luke and changed their targets. Van started shouting some orders to the soldiers and on his signal, engineers fled to an open area with the soldiers flanking their sides.
"Tear!" Jade spoke up to the fonist beside him. "Take Anh and Ion to the soldiers and engineers and tend to the wounded."
Tear nodded in response. "Understood." She motioned towards Ion and I and the three of us part ways from the main group that was taking the monsters head on.
When we caught up to the engineers and soldiers, the soldiers were already standing in attention and ready for any battle that might happen. Some engineers had scrapes and bruises, others had broken bones and...missing limbs. Oh, gross. That was just nasty. One engineer's side was torn open and his guts were flowing out of the sides. His hands were bloodied as he tried to prevent the parts from falling out even further. He was breathing heavily and he was panicking, muttering he didn't want to die and all but his companions were encouraging him that he was going to live.
Tear noticed my expression and she followed my line of sight. "That does look really bad."
"We should tend to the injured as soon as possible," Ion suggested as he moved towards the injured. Tear nodded as she moved to heal the injured. Since I was unable to do anything in the area of healing, I helped the Kimlascan soldiers guarding the area.
Well, I was about to until some guy got bit on the arm by a pouncing liger, knocking them both over onto the ground. The other soldiers surrounded the liger, attempting to kill it. However, the weapons bounced off of the fur which reminded me of an incident very similar to that of the liger queen's - it wouldn't get hurt unless it was soaked in water. And unfortunately for us, our only spell caster that used water magic was currently elsewhere.
Which meant we were left to fend for it ourselves.
Not that I was hyped up about doing a suicide mission.
"Stand firm, you idiots!" one man roared, raising his weapon. "There is only one of them and many of us! We can take it down together!"
Yeah…like that was going to work.
"Anh," Tear spoke up as she approached me. Her head tilted upwards and noticed the liger and the screams of agony that were filling the air. "Here's what we'll do. Anh, you head to the liger's right and distract it. I need time to cast."
"Got it," I told Tear, lifting up my rifle. It was easier said than done but it was worth a shot. I ran over to the left of the liger, which was still mauling over that poor solider's arm. The two of them were having a little face-off with each other while the other soldiers were smacking the beast with their weapons. With the rifle loaded and all, I aimed my weapon at the liger. Now I wished the soldiers that were beating the liger would get the hell out of my way.
"Disperse!" someone shouted and the soldiers ran like the devil was behind them.
I didn't waste any time at all. I fired at the liger, barely missing the eye. The bullet ricocheted off of the liger and it turned its head this way. I turned my head over Tear and she had a faint white FOF circle underneath her. Dammit, she wasn't done!
Turning my attention to the liger, it started growling in my direction and… Was pacing itself towards my direction…! Oh god, oh god. Uh, uh…what should I do now? Now that I finally got its attention, what was I suppose to do now?
A man huffed as he stood not too far from me, raising his sword against the liger. "I don't care if you're from Malkuth, girl, but leaving a female to fend off a monster by herself would leave a bad taste in my mouth."
I didn't really know what to say to that. "Uh…thanks?"
"You can thank me later, girl, after we deal with this thing."
Riiight… I unloaded the empty shell in my rifle as I rolled my eyes at him. Quickly changing the topic at hand, I set my eyes on the liger which was currently deciding who to target. The person who was close to charging at it or the defenseless me. I half-expected it to go for the guy but it was a lot smarter than I gave credit for and went straight towards me. I froze on the spot, dropping a bullet in the process. Just as it was about to strike me, my view was completely blocked by something big and metal-like.
"What the hell are you doing?" the person grunted as he parried with the liger. "Move that damned feet of yours!"
I snapped back to my senses and glared at the guy. I averted my eyes away from the two of them, looking for my dropped bullet. I found it, of course, rolling towards the harbour. "Shit!" I ran towards it like no tomorrow. No way in hell was I going to let that one go.
"Wha- Stupid!" that guy shouted at me as the liger knocked him sideways and charged in my direction.
Shit! Shitshitshitshit! For the next few instances, things felt like they were going in slow-mo. I dove for my bullet. From the back of my back, I could feel that the liger was closing in. I successfully grabbed the bullet, landed on my side and loaded rifle. Tear had finished casting her spell. A huge hammer that was frozen appeared above the liger and landed straight on its head. Seconds after, I shot the liger with my rifle and the blast side-effect of the bullet caused me to cover myself.
I was panting hard as the liger before me was shaking its head violently; pawing its face like something was in its eyes. Tear was right at my side casting First Aid while I helped myself up.
"Did we get it?" I asked her, immediately feeling the effect of First Aid.
"It doesn't look like it." She responded, raising her weapon.
And just like she said, the liger wasn't down. It turned its head towards us growling like a mad beast, one eye was closed due to a possible injury. Lightning formed in its mouth.
"Holy shi- It's not down for the count!" I shouted, scrambling up.
Suddenly it closed its mouth and looked up; ears twitching. A growl escaped from its mouth before it retreated. I stared at it, surprised. Uh…did I miss something? "It left. Just like that?"
"I noticed Arietta flying off so, yes, it appears to have left when Arietta left," Tear nodded in agreement. "Though it doesn't look like it would be the last time we'll see it." Luke and the others had already came over to us, blood stained their outfits. "What happened to the ship?"
"Inoperable," Guy answered, sheathing his blade. "According to Van, Arietta took the engineer in charge of repairing the ship. She also demanded that we bring Ion and Luke to Choral Castle. Right now, Van and Celena are tracking her down. Hopefully, they come back with the engineer."
Anise pouted, crossing her arms. She, at the very least, wasn't covered in blood like the rest of them. "That Gloomietta, she's always asking for trouble. Now we're going to be delayed big time thanks to this."
"Van said that there's a training ship on its way back here," Guy continued, his hand held out. "That would take a few days though. I'd say it's best if we wait for the two to return to give us a confirmation. Aside from that, there's nothing we can do now but to put out the fire and tend to the wounded."
Again, Tear nodded. "Sounds like it's the best course we can take for now."
"So, we can leave Jade to douse out the fire," Guy said, pointing to the flames. "He's the only one who can put out the fire with the minimal effort. Luke and I can look for a building that wasn't badly damaged by the fire so we can put the wounded in. Everybody else can tend the wounded."
Jade sighed, shrugging lightly. "So much work to attend to, you youngsters are working me to the bone." He tucked his hands in his pockets, nonchalantly, and walked over to the flames as if he had an entire day to get rid of them.
"As if his work is the hardest thing he has ever done..." Luke mumbled. Guy chuckled before patting Luke on the shoulder and directing him to another area.
"Let's get to work," Tear spoke up. Anise and I nodded as they all went over to Ion who was chatting with the engineers there. Just before I followed them, a shadow stopped beside me. I looked to the side to see that they guy that helped Tear and I with the liger looking down at me. Our eyes were locked before he broke it and head towards his soldiers. I scoffed.
What's his problem?
The casualty rate was higher than I expected. Luckily, Guy and Luke had found a somewhat decent building to send the wounded guys in. There were a number of injuries from scrapes to broken bones and ribs to...things even Tear's healing artes couldn't heal. With his part of the work done, Jade was helping Anise prepare a meal for the entire crew. Ion and I were bandaging the ones that wasn't hurt that bad. Most of the time, Ion was talking about cheerful topics to the engineers and they seemed to be having a really good time.
"You're going to be fine," I assured an engineer after I tightened the bandage around his wrist. I lightly pat his wrist before I walked off to the entrance and laid my head against the cold metal. My eyes stared aimlessly at the setting sun that looked so beautiful despite the ugliness that had happened earlier. I heard Ion walked over to where I was, gazing at the sun. I cracked a small smile at him. "How's it going at your side, Ion?"
"I'm just as tired as you are," Ion answered as he moved out of the way as Guy half -ragged/carried a dead body out of the building. Luke, who was supposed to be with Guy, was nowhere in sight. Ion shook his head sadly. "That would make the third one today."
I watch him carry the body and dumped it on a pile of carcass we all planned to burn later. "How many more people do we have to watch die before our eyes before this ends?"
Ion shook his head, sadly. "I don't know, Anh. I don't know."
I sighed. War. If this was what war felt like, I surely wouldn't want to volunteer to such a thing. Too much bad things comes out of it.
"I knew I recognize you somewhere," a voice spoke up, breaking the silence between Ion and I. A fist flew out of nowhere, smacking right into my shoulder and knocking me forward. I cursed, rubbing my shoulder that was starting to feel sore. Turning around, I saw that it was the guy from earlier. "It's the weak girl."
"It's the guy that got his ass kicked by a liger." I countered, jabbing a finger in his direction. He wasn't wearing his ridiculously heavy looking armour and he was wearing a cast on his left arm that was in a sling. His cheek had a band-aid on it and a longer bandage wrapped around his forehead.
The guy feigned hurt, looking more interested than hurt. "Hey, I have a name, you know."
"Well, so do I."
"Then give out your name, girly."
"You stop calling me that first!"
"What? Do you prefer weakling then?"
"Uh…" Ion spoke up. "May I interrupt for a second here?"
The guy turned his head towards Ion and a grin spread across his face. He held out a hand towards Ion as he said, "Fon Master! I thank you for your help. I'm Captain Lawrence Alcrosse."
Hey.
"Oh, no, I did what I can," Ion told him, shaking his hand. "I'm just glad that I can be of assistance."
"What are you talking about?" the Lawrence guy laughed. "It's because you're here talking to those guys, they are a lot more cheerful because of you and not because of this useless gal here." His thumb jabbed towards my direction.
Ion casted a look in my direction and smiled. I was probably making a pissed off look or something. Ion then spoke up, "Anh's doing her best here, too."
He gawked at Ion. "Really? I'd say she's more useful as liger bait than anything else."
Oh, that did it!
I was just about to punch him until someone spoke up.
"Fon Master Ion, Anh. Anise is currently working me to the bone hence the reason I am here is to tell you both that the preparations of dinner is done." Jade popped up behind me as he said that. I jumped away from him as if he was a leper. Jade raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "And, may I ask, just what are you doing, Anh?"
I held my hands up in the air. "Huh? N-nothing!"
"Yeah, right," Lawrence scoffed. "Looks like the gal was about to punch me."
"I was so not!"
"Oh, really?" he asked me, a hand on top of my head. "So, what are you planning to do then? Cheer like a fool? Stretch? Yawn?"
"My, you two seem awfully familiar with each other," Jade commented, an evil grin spread across his face as he pushed his glasses up. "Since when did you became friends with him, Anh?"
"Who became friends with who?" I shouted at him, turning towards him.
"She's right," I heard Jake agree with me. "Who wants to be friends with someone like her? First of all, we're on opposite ends here. Second, no offense to Malkuth or anything, but, for a Malkuth soldier, she's absolutely useless in battle."
I turned around, ready to beat the crap out of him. "You-"
A hand held me in place before I was able to take one step closer to Lawrence.
"My apologies," Jade spoke up. He raised an open palm towards Lawrence. "Colonel Jade Curtiss. Third Division, Malkuth Imperial Forces."
Lawrence shook it with a wry smile. "I've heard of your name. Everybody on Auldrant knows the Necromancer's name very well. You mentioned dinner earlier, right? I'll let the guys that can move their arms know."
"I'll help feed those that couldn't." Ion took a step towards Lawrence with determination. Though the older man held a hand up.
"No, you can rest. Some of these guys are itching to move something anyway." Lawrence walked off before Ion could protest. Jade sighed, shrugging.
"I would take up on his offer, Ion," he suggested.
I rolled my eyes. "It's something you would always do when given the chance…"
Loreleiday, Sylph Decan 6, ND 2018.
The total number of soldiers and engineers that died in the Kaitzur port battle and was set on fire the night before was 27. About 46 of the Kaitzur port residents had sustained non-fatal injuries. 15 lost limbs and were permanently handicapped. The number of deaths is decreasing day by day and Master Van has been gone for a few days now. Still no sign of a ship returning to the port.
"-'Man, I want to go home now'." I read before Luke slammed his diary shut. He tucked the diary in his jacket and madly whipped around giving me a perturbed expression.
"What the- Don't you know how to knock?"
I straightened myself up and sighed. "Jade said not to cause you would say 'Go away, I'm busy' for the entire day. For a guy that keeps his records on the casualties, you sure know how to waste your day. I'm glad that the doors don't have locks otherwise someone's going to have to break it down to get to you."
"It's not like I got anything better to do!" Luke huffed, turning away.
"Better to help us than wait til a certain thirty-five year old man complain about a certain seventeen year old lack of motivation," I told him. "Besides, it's just the little things you need to do like help Guy carry some dead bodies or even talking to them."
"Well, what are you doing?" A sneer spread across his face.
"I'm supposed to help Anise in the kitchen but I stopped by here cause Jade asked me to. Better me than him, trust me."
Luke looked down at the ground before lifting his head up slightly. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"
I titled my head to the side curiously. What could he be asking me about now? "Yeah?"
"You were helping the wounded soldiers on the side, right?"
"Yeah…" When I wasn't helping Anise in the kitchen; rather, when neither of us had any cooking to do, she and I would be with Ion and Tear bandaging some soldiers, having light conversations with them and would often notice Luke walking by them with an indescribable expression on his face as he looked at our direction. The said redhead would then turn his head away quickly when one of us were to look in his general direction. "What about it?"
"How was it like when someone died right before your eyes? When it's-" he paused to take a deep breath. "-it's not someone you killed."
The faces of many of those that died came into my mind. Some of them were people I had talked to had mentioned having a wife or husband and a few kids here and there. Others would mention a companion or a lover, wishing they would have seen them one last time before this tragic event. I helplessly watched them drew their last breath before falling into a deep slumber. Then I would watch their bodies be burned during that evening as tears would fall from my eyes just as they were falling from my face now.
My vision became blurred as tears fell helplessly from my face. The only thing that was clear was the images of those that had died.
Luke recoiled in his seat. "Why are you crying? Was it something I said?"
"Obviously," I sobbed, wiping the tears from my face. They continued falling, dampening my sleeves. "Why did you mention such a thing? Do you realize how many times I have to relive that for the past few days?"
"Jeez, for a soldier, you sure tear easily."
"It's because I'm crying for them!" My head snapped up furiously. "For those people that died begging to live a few days longer to see their families. For those people that died with a smile and not with a single tear down their face. For those people that knew that they were dying and fearing for their end that was just around the corner. A jerk like you wouldn't understand because he'd rather walk around with nothing to do than make their final moments easier to bear!" I lowered my head, onto my sleeve, allowing the tears to soak the fabric while my other hand was wiping whatever was falling.
"Fine. Fine! You hear me! I said fine!" Luke cried out in defeat. "Tell me what to do or whatever. Just…stop crying."
I sniffled a bit. Well, that did made me stop crying. Tears weren't falling out like mad like they were before. "You promise to help out?"
I saw an upset expression but he huffed, "Fine."
"Help Guy carry out the dead bodies if someone died?"
"Only if their blood doesn't go all over me."
"Talk to some of the soldiers to make them feel better?"
"If it's a few minutes, I don't care."
"Give this old man a shoulder massage when he asks you to?" a new voice added.
"Who said I should do that?"
A hand grabbed my shoulder and I immediately knew that it was Jade. The Malkuth soldier shrugged lightly as the expression of Luke turned sour. "Tsk tsk, Luke, making a girl cry."
"It wasn't my fault!" Luke jabbed a finger towards the door. "And who said it was okay to barge into my room?"
"The door was opened so I let myself in," Jade answered with a hint of humour in his tone. "And might I add, this is also Guy's room as well. Setting that topic aside, Anh was taking an awfully long time so I decided to check up on her."
I rolled my eyes. With Anise's persuasion, probably.
"How kind of you Luke to suddenly give us a helping hand," he continued. "As a witness, I shall surely make sure you keep your end of the bargain."
"Bargain? What bargain?"
"For Anh to stop crying, you shall help out," Jade clarified. "Clearly you knew that was a bargain, did you not?"
It took a few minutes before Luke realized it. "I really hate you, old man."
"As long as you work, this old man doesn't mind what you say to him." Jade adjusted his glasses with a sly smile on his face. "Now, come along. Guy must have a few things here and there for you to stay busy for the rest of the day. If not, I have some heavy-lifting for a youngster like yourself."
Luke mumbled something under his breath the moment Jade's figure was no longer in sight. He soon marched out in a stiff manner, leaving me to myself. I slapped my cheeks with both hands inhaling as much air as I could. The tears weren't falling out so I take it as a somewhat good sign.
Now, I should wash my face before heading off to the kitchen.
"Anh, what happened to you?" Anise gasped the minute she saw my face when I first stepped into the kitchen. My face twisted into a look that hopefully told her that I didn't want to say anything. She didn't seem to pay any mind to it. "Did Master Luke say something to make you cry?"
I waved a hand at the subject. "It's nothing, really." When she gave me an unconvinced face, I gave her a weak smile. "No really. It was nothing."
"Good Lorelei, you have such a big heart," she sighed, returning to her cooking. Anise's small height was dwarfed by the height of the stove combined with the large metal pot she was cooking in. To adjust to the height difference, she stood on top of a wooden chair she had taken from a table set. The evident chair that was missing from the table within the room said it all. Wearing a frilly pink apron and stirring the stew with a metal ladle, Anise reminded me of a housewife had it not been for her Oracle Knight's uniform or Tokunaga clinging onto her shoulders like that. "Crying for others, that's not how a soldier should act. But," she turned around and waved a wooden spoon in the air, "it's more like you to care than not to."
"Is that supposed to be a comment?" I asked her, moving towards the table. A bag and a bunch of coins laid scattered on the table. A sheet of paper and pen laid beside the coins with writing on them from my counting them before Jade had interrupted sometime earlier.
"I'm just saying it's a quality of yours that I like." Anise shrugged before turning around again. I sat myself on an empty chair and returned to the counting. I had already finished counting our remaining Gald but I didn't get the time to total things up. After this, I had to, much to my dismay, count them once again. When it comes down to money, Anise was a force to be reckoned with.
Though I was supposed to be helping Anise with the cooking, the best to my ability in that particular field were the small-fry stuff like mixing, frying, or baking. Most of the time, Anise would ask me to watch the cooking as she went off to gather some food supplies to add more flavour to the current batch. Other times she would have me stir or cut. I got better and faster with the latter but it still needed some work. Most of the time, I was just sitting in the kitchen counting our Gald. Being one of the only active groups in the port town, our group was a target. Money-wise.
Which was why I was here counting Gald. Be it morning, afternoon or evening, whenever Anise started cooking, I would be there. Counting.
I was already used to the size and colour of Gald and my sorting and math skills were put into effect. Math. How I missed you. I missed the limits and derivatives of functions or even complicated integrals and- Oh wait. Wrong math. This was simply arithmetic and not calculus. Halfway through the counting, I noticed something was a little off.
"That's weird." I mumbled, setting my pen down after making the final calculations.
"What's weird?" Anise asked, not taking her eyes off of the stew.
"We're missing thirty Gald," I told her. I started counting once again just to make sure and I was right. We were down by thirty Gald.
"Did you count again?"
"Yeah, I did."
"And you're absolutely sure."
"One hundred percent."
"One hundred percent confident?"
"Definitely."
There was a long pause coming from Anise. An abnormally long pause.
…Wait for it.
The sound of wood clashing against the counter as if it was thrown down really hard was heard. Next thing I knew, Anise was already standing on an empty chair near the table. Her face was engrossed on counting the coins, she had totally forgotten about the food. I slipped out of my chair, leaving Anise to triple check for me, to turn off the stove. Since I couldn't lift the heavy pot full of stew, I shifted it off to the side before returning back to the table.
Anise's brow was furrowed. She glared at the Gald on the table as if she was waiting for the missing thirty Gald to reappear and apologize to her like a child would to its mother. Seeing as nothing happened by glaring, she heaved a heavy sigh and rubbed her forehead. "No way. How could we lose thirty Gald just like that?"
I shrugged. "Maybe someone wanted to buy something but was short by thirty Gald and 'borrowed' from us."
"Then it wouldn't make any sense for them to just take thirty Gald and leave a much larger amount left on the table." Anise said, raising a point.
"Maybe they thought we wouldn't notice the missing thirty Gald." I suggested.
Anise crossed her arms and huffed. "If I were that thief, I would have taken our entire cash and run off with it."
Yeah…if that were you, Anise.
I shrugged once more. "Let's just overlook it, Anise. It's just thirty Gald. It doesn't make much of a difference."
"Oh, yes it does." Anise raised a finger. "What happens if we couldn't pay for one of us at an inn because we happen to be short on thirty Gald just like we were now? What would you do, Anh? Sleep outside like we always do?"
"In a hypothetical situation, probably," I answered. "We've camped out so many times, what's the harm with one more day?"
Anise's cheeks puffed out. "Okay, well what happens if we used up our last Life Bottle, was in dire need of one and we couldn't afford one just because we were lacking thirty Gald? Or, if we're out of food supplies and our only way to survive the day was to buy one Apple Gel but we couldn't buy something so cheap because we don't have thirty Gald."
I raised my hands, giving in to Anise. Even if I were to find a way to counter what she had, she would probably just come up with more irrational ideas revolving around the words: 'thirty Gald'. Better to give in than anything. "Okay, okay. I get it. I get it. So, what do we do?" It was obvious that Anise wanted to retrieve that small amount with whatever means necessary.
"We find him, and make him pay us back, double, no, ten thousand times the amount!"
Leave it to Anise to turn something this small into a very big problem. Anise's love for money was truly fearsome.
I need to change her attention to something else.
Gesturing to the stew, I simply said, "Anise, the food."
A couple things went through here. Anise's face nonchalantly stared at the pot then the expression on her face lit up; in a very evil way. "Food! Perfect. Food." She walked over to the pot muttering about food and I believe she had mentioned Jade somewhere along the lines.
If my eye could twitch automatically, it would be doing that right now. That result…wasn't my intention at all.
"Nooo, Anise! Don't mess with the food!" I cried, turning around.
I sighed, setting down a bucket full of murky water down.
"That's quite a sigh, Anh," Ion said as he, too, set down a bucket with murky water in it. "Did something happen?"
"Anise…" I muttered. Ion laughed lightly when I said that. I didn't even need to say more than what I had to. With the exception of Luke, everybody in the port knew I was putting most of my time pulling Anise away from the pot of stew while Guy carried it outside and Tear was serving it to the soldiers. Luckily Tokunaga was disarmed; otherwise I would have been tossed towards the other end of the port. But holy geez! She struggled like a madman; I couldn't even hold her back with my current strength and Jade was unwilling to spare a small amount of energy just to help me out. Guy's condition was the only reason why he couldn't help, Tear was serving so I couldn't bother her and Luke was nowhere in sight. Luckily Ion stepped in and, somewhat, calmed her down. I didn't even need to mention whose name was brought up to calm her down.
As of right now, Luke was keeping Anise busy. Though the former didn't know why he was doing something like that, but with Ion's suggestion and Jade's quick thinking they got him to do it anyway.
"Well, it's not every day that we lose some money to see Anise in such a state."
"Hopefully, this is the last time something like this happens." I shuddered at the thought of another incident sometime in the future. Ion simply smiled but I think the two of us knew that this wasn't going to be the last time we lose Gald. Seeing Ion lifting the bucket up and carrying it away, I spoke up. "Ion, it's okay. I can do it myself. You don't have to go that far just to empty it."
Ion smiled once more. "Please, don't give me special treatment just because I'm the Fon Master. I want to help out just as much as everyone. That means I have to pull more effort into doing things."
Yeah but…we wouldn't want the Fon Master to collapse on us just cause he worked too hard.
"Ion, wait up." I called to him, grabbing my bucket and running up to him. "I'll come with you. If the bucket gets too heavy, let me know; I'll carry it for you."
Ion nodded. "Likewise, Anh."
As tempting as his offer was, I was pretty sure that Anise would murder me if I let him carry my bucket.
We reached a sewer to dump our water in. Once dumped, the two of us washed our buckets and cloths before refilling it with clean water again. All of that, while saying nothing. I noticed that Ion was working a bit harder while helping people or doing simple tasks. I mean, for someone who was cooped up in a big cathedral doing nothing but paperwork, I'd expect him to know little to nothing about cleaning, washing, rinsing and other stuff like that.
But Ion totally blew that impression away when he watched me rinse my bucket and did something very similar. He learn things very quickly, I'll give him credit for that. It was probably because he was the Fon Master that he had to adapt to situations quickly.
"Say, Ion, when did you become the Fon Master?" I asked him, curiously.
Ion looked forward thoughtfully. "Let's see. My predecessor, Fon Master Evenos, passed away on Shadow Redecan ND2011 so I succeeded him that same month. This coming Shadow Redecan would be my seventh year as Fon Master."
Seventh… I paused to think for a bit. Abyss seems to love revolving around the number seven a lot. I mean…Seven different Fonons, seven fonstones, Luke was kidnapped seven years ago; Ion became Fon Master seven years ago on the seventh month if I recall the calendar correctly…Wait.
"So you became Fon Master before or after Luke's kidnapping?" I asked him.
Ion's face turned into a slight frown. "That I'm not too sure of that. You would have to ask Luke when he was kidnapped."
I titled my head to the side. True, I guess Ion wouldn't know something about that. Back to the topic of Ion… "And so, how old were you at the time you became Fon Master?"
"My birthday was before my succession so I was eight at the time."
"Eight years old," I breathed. That was a lot of work to burden an eight year old child with but considering that Auldrant's calendar was less than twice of Earth's so he would have been sixteen if Auldrant followed the 365 days a year instead of 765 days. I guess it would make sense, but that's a little harsh for someone who was still eight at the time. It was like chucking a poor eight year old kid high school homework. "So that means you didn't have a lot of fun."
"Not true," Ion said with a sweet smile. "Whenever I have time, I would read a book or finish some work assigned by my instructors."
"…And that's fun to you?"
"Of course!"
The words 'bookworm' and 'nerd' immediately popped up in my head when he happily said that reading a book and doing homework was 'fun'. "What about other things like games or some out-uh- indoor activities?" I nearly forgot that Ion wouldn't be able to find 'fun' outside of the cathedral with all the guards and such.
"No, but I take it that is what you do for fun?" he asked me innocently.
Oh, Ion, you poor thing. "…You know what, when we have a lot of free time, I'll rally up the guys and we'll play a fun game together."
"I'll look forward to it." Ion's face lit up so brightly, I got the feeling I shouldn't be disappointing him at all. That was kind of hard. Seeing Ion playing something like Red Rover or Hide-and-go-seek or even Tag would be...funny.
"Oh, Ion, Anh, fancy running into you two here," a female voice spoke up, diverting our attention towards the source. Luke appeared really irritated, half-dragging an Anise who was clinging onto his arm. Giddily, I might add.
"Can someone please get her off of me?" Luke snarled at the two of us. "It's a pain dragging her to every street and corner in this blasted place. It felt like I walked on every piece of flat land thanks to her."
Anise giggled. "Oh, Luke, we just went to a few of the best areas of the Kaitzur port~"
"Yeah, the broken ends of it."
"Did you enjoy you're date?" I teased Luke.
Though it was Anise who answered my question. "Oh yes, we had a lovely time. Master Luke said he was getting tired so I thought it was best to take him back and cook him a nice comforting meal."
Somehow I could see Luke saying it a lot of times before Anise even agreed to go back.
Anise tightened her grip on Luke's arm. "But isn't it romantic~? Walking around in this light fog?"
"Anise, I don't think that's fog we're seeing…" Ion said out loud as he looked around.
Now that the two of them had mentioned it, I looked around and saw that our surroundings had a faint greyish colour to it. Looking past Luke and Anise, the background had the fog or rather smoke-like effect going around. That definitely said that it wasn't a fog. Especially when the sky was blue with a few clouds.
Luke sniffed the air. "Did someone forget to turn off the stove or something? Something smells like it's burning."
I blinked twice at what Luke said. I casted a glance at Ion then to Anise who had released Luke's arm. Both of their eyes were wide and mine certainly widened. Then someone shouted to confirm it all.
"FIRE!"
Without a second thought, Ion and I dropped out buckets and ran right behind Luke and Anise who went ahead of us. As the smoke got thicker and darker, the shouting became louder and the air became hotter. Soon enough, a building was engulfed in flames came into view and many soldiers and engineers were either resting or sitting outside of the building, coughing. Tear was healing those that had some burns on them, Jade was dousing out the flames with just a flick of his hand but he was only able to keep the fire from spreading. Guy was nowhere in sight as that Lawrence guy was shouting orders.
"Those that are capable move those that aren't away from the smoke! Keep the civilians as far from here as possible. Others give that servant a hand and help carry out people! We also need to douse that flame before it spreads any further! Move!"
"Guy's still inside…" Luke murmured. Horror dripped from his tone, and even he was shaking in horror. He suddenly started to move towards the burning building before Tear stopped him.
"Stop, Luke!"
"Get out of my way, Tear. Guy's still inside that building!"
"You'll get burned if you go in there! Securing your safety comes first!"
"Then do something!" He turned to Anise. "Anise, can't you go in there and help him with doll thing of yours?"
Anise shook her head. "The door's too small for Tokunaga to just walk in. I have to break it down to get in, and that this rate the building could collapse if I do that."
Luke then turned to Jade who was still casting Splash. "Well, what about Jade? Couldn't he just pour water all over that building to stop it from burning any further?"
"With the fon slot still on him, the Colonel said that it was his best water spell." Tear told him calmly. Luke looked like he was gritting his teeth in anger when she told him that.
"Anise," Ion spoke up. "Let's help Jade. There's some buckets and water being passed around." Without saying another word, he ran off to join some of the people that were carrying from pails to buckets to large containers full of water and putting out the fire.
"Ah, Ion!" Anise ran after Ion while shouting that.
"Wait, I'm coming, too!" I shouted, running after them. Anise only paused for a small bit of time to turn Tokunaga big, afterwards she and Tokunaga sped past me. Using Tokunaga, she was able to use it to lift and carry a larger amount of water. Wow, that was pretty efficient.
The number of times Anise ran, gathered water and dumped it onto the burning building was four and counting while Ion and I managed to barely do half combined. I noticed that Ion was working a little bit slower than usual but it was understandable since he had ran pretty hard to get here.
One by one, soldiers were carrying other soldiers and engineers out of the building. Guy was occasionally appearing back and forth, passing every person he was carrying to someone with a free hand before running back in. After a few more running, gathering and dumping from our side, Guy came out with a soldier. This time, he carried the person to where the others were and he laid him down where Tear could heal him, he called over to Jade. "Jade, that's the last of them!"
Jade nodded. "Anise! Tear!"
The two of them turned to look at Jade then at the building and finally to each other. Jade had already begun casting with a yellow fonic glyph below him; Tear who had already caught on to what Jade was up to, started casting something of her own. Anise, on the other hand, dumped the container she was carrying and charged at the building. Pillars of rock appeared from the ground not too far from Anise, leaving a faint white fonic circle behind, the damage the rocks had left on the building made a dent that caused the building to lean forward. About a few seconds later, the white fonic circle changed to a yellowish-brown FOF circle and Anise stepped right into it.
"Let's finish this with a punch!" Anise shouted as Tokunaga's fist started glowing. "Stone Dragon Ascent!" Tokunaga jumped into the air, right at the building and…
Broke right through it…?
Was that how Stone Dragon Ascent was supposed to be? I thought it was supposed to go up and stay up before coming back down. Doesn't the word 'Ascent' makes people think it goes...oh, I don't know, up? One thing I knew for sure was that Anise ripped a hole in the burning building and it was falling. Down.
"Everybody, down!" I heard Lawrence shouted and everybody ducked for cover.
The building toppled down like unsteady pile of Lego stacked on top of each other. Dust, dirt, soot, and small debris shot up in the air the moment the building crashed down. I had already curled myself into a ball, face facing the ground and arms around my head, by the time that happened and remained curled. The sound of debris and other stuff fell and hit my back lightly, and my ears were ringing from the sound of the building crashing. Once everything settled, I managed to hear coughing and muttering.
"Is everybody okay?" a voice spoke up. The person received a good number of responses, each varying from loud to soft.
I looked up from my curled position and the first thing I did was rubbed my face with my hands. It wasn't a smart decision since my hands were covered with small particles and stuff, and that just made my face feel really irritating. So instead I removed whatever was on my hand by dusting them off of my vest. And then I tried to clean my face. From what I saw, many were giving each other encouraging comments and Tear resumed healing - healing Guy to be more exact while Luke was angrily dusting off his jacket. Jade had removed his glasses and absentmindedly cleaned his glasses and Ion was sitting talking to some of the people near him.
As for Anise…
"Now that's what I call teamwork!" she shouted happily. Anise stood exactly where the FOF circle was and she was standing there proudly with her hands on her hips and head up high. I noticed that Tokunaga was nowhere in sight. Many soldiers just gapped at her while others whispered. I caught bits and pieces of some comments.
"Holy…"
"Did you see that? It just ripped right through the building."
"Amazing."
"And how old is that girl?"
I smiled. That's Anise for you.
The cause of the fire remained unknown, though Lawrence and Jade dismissed it as an accident. After cleaning ourselves up and taking the soldiers to a different area, we all had dinner silently. Although it was broken when Mieu suddenly popped out of nowhere and pissed Luke off again. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen the cheagle all day. Mieu wouldn't have… Nah. He wouldn't.
Tired, I dragged myself to bed, quickly changed to my pj and practically drifted off to sleep the minute my head hit the pillow.
I woke up to loud banging at the door. Slowly opening an eye at the door, I peeked at the other two beds in the room. They were both empty so that meant that Anise and Tear were up and left without making a sound so that I slept without being bugged by them. The banging continued and I chose to ignore it. I lifted my pillow from underneath my head and then switched places with the pillow. The pillow muffled a bit of the banging but it persisted.
I was just going to pretend like I wasn't here in the first place so whoever was doing that can give up halfway.
Eventually the banging subsided. How long, I didn't know. Nor did I care. I just wanted my sleep.
"How long are you planning to stay there?" an irritated voice asked me.
I groaned tiredly. With the pillow still being held by my hands at the back of my head, I lifted my head, stared at what looked like Luke and then laid my head back down on the bed. "Wake me up when its lunchtime."
"You have to get up now." He said sternly.
"No, don't wanna." I mumbled. My voice sounded quite muffled with my head being sandwiched between the mattress and the pillow.
I faintly heard Luke tapped his foot against the floor impatiently. "That's it! Get up! You're making everyone wait!"
I lifted my head with the pillow once more. "How can I make everyone wait? Did something happened that we decided to suddenly call a group meeting?"
Luke gave me his 'duh' face. "Yeah, Master Van's back."
I sucked my breath when I heard that. That…wasn't a good thing.
That meant not too long after, we were packing our bags and off to Choral Castle.
So…about the missing 30 Gald. It`s an inside joke between me and a friend. XD But if you really want to know… Go here:
http : / van-anh. deviantart. com /#/ d3hpfg8 (No spaces of course. XD) It`s the second last comment made by Loy142. And then go here:
http : / www. fanfiction. net /s/ 4772320 /48/ New_Reality
And if you go to the link she posted is the same one I just posted above. And so, that`s how I lost the bet. Lovely ain't it. XD
Anyway, no guarantees when is the next chapter coming up. I mean…It took me this long to get this one. It might take a shorter time or longer. But here's a sneak preview just to show you guys that I'm not dead!
"Hey, Guy. You're afraid of women, right?"
"…Yeah?"