Chesedonia, the center of trade in Auldrant, was a bustling city of merchants tucked away in the north part of Aberria. Despite the fickle desert weather, assorted peddlers vended their wares day and night with the hopes of returning home with an empty cart and a bag full of gald. On another end, bargain hunters flocked to the city in hopes of sealing that one deal or finding that treasure in the veritable haystack of items and people. One could say it was a veritable oasis in the desert, what with the promises it hovered over the denizens of Auldrant.
However, such was not Jade's agenda in the city, though one might argue that he was in the market for something less tangible-information. Chesedonia, as a host to a variety of people, also served as a natural hub for rumors and the like. It was a fact that Jade planned to take advantage of, and served as a reason as to why he chose to visit that city first.
The other reason, though related, was a meeting with someone he had been in correspondence with on and off the past months. Though first, he had to handle the spell over his unwitting companion, who looked like he was overcome by the wide-eyed wonder that struck newcomers to the city. It took a rough shoulder bump from a passing merchant to snap Peony out of his trance, which thankfully saved Jade the effort of having to do it himself.
In an uncharacteristic gesture, Jade took hold of the sheepish Peony's hand and led him to the local pub situated at the center of the city, the merciless afternoon sun beating down their backs. It was easy to get lost in the sea of people, and Jade was planning to take no risks in that regard.
Once inside the bar, Peony took the time to wipe the sweat off his brow, throwing Jade a look of disbelief as he strode towards his quarry, cool and composed as was his usual, breaking no sweat as he stopped by a table tucked in a secluded corner of the place.
"Have a seat." Grinning up at him was a pink-haired woman donning a pirate cap, whose clothing left none of her voluptuous curves to imagination. Returning the grin the best that he could with a suddenly attentive Peony in tow, he took the seat to her right, dumping Peony unceremoniously down the other empty chair.
"It's been a while, Col-"
"Jade, if you would, Noir," he said, frowning. "I can't afford to be recognized here, lest you wish to declare my life forfeit."
"Right, right," she laughed airily and took a sip of her drink, as if she did not just commit a potentially fatal mistake then. "Had a good trip?"
"Bearable enough." The trip to Chesedonia was relatively uneventful, just as Jade wished for it to be. Though the occasional monster did attack them, they quickly fell by Peony's hand, if not one of Jade's artes.
"So I suppose you wish to skip the pleasantries and get to this?" She pulled out a slip of paper from her jacket, along with two leather bound passports and slid it towards Jade, who quickly scanned the contents of the paper after inspecting the passports.
From the corner of his eye, he caught Noir standing up. "My, my, who is this handsome, young man we've got here?" Jade looked up from the piece of paper, and much to his annoyance, found Peony staring unabashedly at Noir's chest as she sashayed towards him. Draping an arm around Peony, she said, "Care to introduce me to your boyfriend, Jade-dearie?"
"Noir, Franz," Jade said, sighing. "Franz, Noir."
"Pleased to meet you, Noir," Peony said, finally tearing his eyes away from her chest to flash her one of his disarming smiles, as if he was not staring pointedly earlier.
Unlatching herself from Peony, Noir smiled with a slight tilt of her head. "No, no, the pleasure is all mine. In any case, don't let me keep you." She started towards the exit, tilting her head back at Jade with a knowing look on her face. "I'm sure that both of you have more interesting matters to take care of. "
"Noir."
"Yes, hon?"
"Do return Franz's wallet before you take your leave."
Noir's smile turned sly as she turned around and ambled back to Jade. "Observant as ever, dearie. Was it you who caught me the last time as well?"
"I believe it was Tear."
"Heh." She extracted a pouch from her jacket and dropped it in Jade's waiting palm. "Be careful." Ghosting a finger along Jade's chin and taking the time to stroke his cheek, she whispered, "The androgynous look suits you, honey. Do take care of yourself."
"Of course." Jade said, smirking. "I can't have all these men falling in love with me, can I? That would be a very unfortunate turn of events."
"Oh? Looks like you have your hands full with lover boy 'Franz' over there." With a wink, she sashayed out of the bar, leaving Jade wishing that he had a better alternative for an information broker.
Though to be fair, he looked passably female, as Peony was not too bad with his hands. During their preparation, Peony took it upon himself to design and alter some clothing for them once he was able to move properly. His clothing was surprisingly modest, going by Peony's usual standards. An old set of Malkuth military uniforms scavenged by the townsfolk was turned into something respectively feminine, yet functional for their trip-a blue, long-sleeved high-collar shirt (if a bit long, almost like a dress) combined with his black tights and boots did change the overall impact of his appearance in addition to his braided hair.
Peony, in contrast to his usual look, was quite modest as well-with a plain peasant shirt and his usual brown pants and slippers. Admittedly, his short-haired look unsettled him for a while as did the noticeable lack of accessories, but it was all for the best. The lesser number of people recognized him, the better.
Noir's exit seemed to bring Peony back to the land of the living, for a serious look crossed his face once he turned to Jade, no trace of the flirtiness that characterized is a few minutes ago. "What was that about? Why does she seem to know who you are?"
"Because she does. I've come to know her in my journey in the past year, and she was quite helpful one way or another." Despite being a criminal. "We've been in correspondence for the past few months, and her information has never failed me so far."
He then slipped the paper to Peony, who took in the words with a puzzled look. "Ortion-"
Jade calmly shook his head as he took the slip of paper from Peony, lighting it aflame under the table and letting its ashes fall unceremoniously to the floor.
"In any case, shall we take this opportunity to take something before we explore the sights of Chesedonia?"
As much as Jade wanted to leave for Ortion Cavern at the soonest possible time, he had to acknowledge that the tickets he bought bound for Sheridan would probably depart the next day at the earliest. As such, he booked a room at the inn on what used to be the Malkuth side of Chesedonia. Since they had time to kill, he decided to accompany Peony, who looked like he was dying to explore the city, which he understood. Even though Peony was occasionally tasked to visit other countries and cities, those were purely business trips and rarely left room for sightseeing. If they did, then there was the matter of keeping up appearances. As of the moment, Peony did not have to concern himself with such, and was in fact acting like a kid wandering around the proverbial candy store—if candies were various weaponry and if candy shops were baking ovens that mercilessly subjected its clientele to the same treatment as their wares.
The heat beating down their backs did not seem to bother his companion, who seemed to be enjoying looking through the merchants' wares. Jade simply kept up his affable smile as they moved from store to store, just looking, not buying anything. Though he would have preferred to stay cooped up inside the inn while he thought of a way to acquire transport to Ortion Cavern from Sheridan, it was not like he could keep an eye on Peony if he stayed inside, and he knew how torturous it could get for his companion if one forced him to sit still for an extended period of time. Though he had every right to force Peony to stay in, it was easier to deal with Peony in a good mood over a sulky one. Also, it wasn't like that he could not brainstorm while on the go, so he was effectively killing two birds with one stone anyway.
Murmurs rose as they passed the section of Chesedonia leading towards Kimlascan territory. For a moment, Jade thought that someone had them figured out given the palpable tension in the air. Gritting his teeth and cursing his lack of foresight, he was about to grab Peony's hand and make a run for it when something—no, someone—was thrown at their feet.
It was not their presence that was the concern—enough for Jade to heave a short-lived sigh of relief—not that the alternative was exactly pleasant.
Jade watched as some soldiers shoved their way through the crowd, pulling Peony back on time lest a soldier bowl him over. Afterwards, Jade turned his attention back to the bruised man slumped on the ground, now cowering in fear.
"P-Please! It wasn't me!"
One of the soldiers grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck. "Lies! Witnesses claimed that they saw you running away with the stolen goods!"
"I did no such thing! I don't even have these stolen goods you speak of!"
"Of course, because your accomplice took them away before we caught you!"
"Accomplice? No, I—"
"Silence, Malkuth scum! I don't want to hear any more from the kingdom of murderers!"
Jade felt Peony tense beside him and immediately grabbed his wrist. When Peony threw him a frown, he slowly shook his head. Jumping in to help would be a foolhardy endeavor, as much as he wanted to do so. He understood that Peony wanted to protect his citizens—or what was left of them—the best that he could, but they could not afford the attention the scuffle would draw toward them.
"Emperor Peony would do no such thing!" A voice rose from the crowd.
"Yeah!"
"We're not a kingdom of murderers!"
"You are the murderers!"
"Bring back our emperor!"
Murmurs of assent rose through the crowd, and the Kimlascan soldiers found themselves being pushed back by a row of angry civilians. Jade then took that as an opportunity to tug Peony back into the direction of the inn. As he did, he could have sworn that he saw a familiar pink-haired woman wink at him from a nearby alley, but before he could ascertain the person's identity, the vision disappeared as quickly as it came.
"...So, let me get this straight. I supposedly had Princess Natalia assassinated when she visited Malkuth for a diplomatic mission? All because she refused to marry me?"
"Apparently," Jade said as he leaned against the wall, watching Peony as he kicked off his shoes and lay on the bed, arms folded behind his back.
"I did not want to believe it when I first heard it from the council, but—" Jade could only sigh as Peony let out a string of curse words that would have made Yulia blush. True, that was the most absurd of stories, and Jade was surprised that King Ingobert would believe something along those lines. Opening the lines of communication would have cleared up the whole mess instead of having to deal with a war, as with what happened during the war Mohs tried to start using the replicas disguised as soldiers of the opposing countries. Besides, given all that they went through the previous year, he would have thought that Kimlasca and Malkuth were finally at peace with one another.
Alas, that was too much to hope for. On another end, he supposed he should not have been surprised when war broke out if news leaked regarding Natalia's supposed death. After all, King Ingobert was not getting any younger, and the next in line for the throne, Suzanne fon Fabre, was of frail health. And Luke... thinking about Luke gave him a headache.
"And Daath... It just stood by while Malkuth was being attacked?" A look of disbelief crossed Peony's face.
Jade faked a cough. "Need I remind you that I've had a direct hand in decimating most of their forces as well as their top generals while trying to save the world?"
"Right..."
He was not surprised that Daath did not step in to assist Malkuth during its unprovoked invasion. With Score readings abolished, the Oracle Knights had no leverage when dealing with Kimlasca, on top of the chaotic reformation in progress going on in their ranks. Still, to what purpose did the kingdom of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear wish for the destruction of Malkuth? As far as Jade had established, King Ingobert had no desire for war. Though of course, that played little bearing if his council decided in favor of it.
A sigh from Peony broke through his thoughts. Jade turned to the other man, who began studying the ceiling. It must have been frustrating for Peony, unable to help one of his citizens earlier, as well as getting a confirmation of what seemed to be the cause of his kingdom's fall.
Peony tore his eyes off the ceiling and glanced at Jade. "...You knew this?"
"I've heard rumors of it being the case, and the incident earlier more or less confirms it."
"I see. So this is a journey to find out the truth?"
"Yes," Jade said, pushing up his glasses as a strange glint fell over them.
"And you believe that you will find it in that place?"
"Indeed."
"How do you plan on getting there?"
"We board a ship to Sheridan. And from there, I have considered two options."
"Oh?" Peony pulled himself to a sitting position, suddenly attentive.
"If Ginji and Noelle are well, I would like to enlist the help of one of them in this mission. However, there are a lot of variables to consider when asking them, and it is very much possible that they no longer apply at this point in time. I am working with the assumption that they are still pilots of the Albiore and are free to take it as they please. Another is that they would be willing to cooperate with someone who has ties to an empire of murderers, so to speak."
"But we did not do anything!"
Jade raised a brow at Peony "...Do they know that, though? You've seen how the Kimlascans outside have been acting. As such, we will have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that they will be hostile."
"It's like Akzeriuth all over again! Damn it..." Peony gritted his teeth, punching the headboard as he did so. "So, anyway, what's the other option?"
"We could attempt to hijack a vessel, but I do not wish to draw attention to ourselves for the moment, so I'm not too keen on this. But if worse comes to worst, I am willing to take this risk."
Noting the other's silence, Jade said, "You are free to return to Tataroo Valley. It's not yet too late to back out. I realize this is a risky proposition, and I prefer not to involve you in this."
"What did that have to do with anything?" Peony scowled at him. "No, and besides, I said I wanted to see the situation for myself. I'm tired of having to get all this information secondhand, and if there's something I could possibly do to help, I will do it—and no, that isn't by sitting around idly while you put yourself in danger again!"
"My, my, I didn't know you were that concerned over my well-being, Your Majesty. I'm used to it, in any case. Laying my life on the line in the name of the empire is part and package of being a soldier. Your duty is to live and serve as a ray of hope to those who are still fighting for your kingdom, in a manner of speaking."
"I didn't know you were that nationalistic, Jade. And it's 'Franz', remember?"
"I try." Jade shrugged. "Though I can't help it if I'm terrible with names."
"You know that I'm still coming with you no matter what you say, right?"
Jade sighed. "As I am unfortunately aware. I had to try, though." Peony's insistence on coming along did not surprise him, and in fact, he made allowances in his schedule to accommodate the other. After all, Peony was an emperor first and foremost despite the lack of a kingdom to call his own. His concern about the state of affairs in Auldrant and where his countrymen stood was an understandable one. However, it was a truth that Jade would rather have taken this journey on his own, and as such tried to discourage Peony when he could, but to no avail.
"Then that's settled." Peony drew his legs back onto the bed and averted his gaze from Jade.
"I'll be taking my leave, then."
Peony merely nodded as Jade exited the room. Jade took a deep breath as he closed the door behind him, leaving the other to his thoughts. Long days were ahead of them, and he supposed that he might as well take advantage of any rest he could get. Not that he was going to get much in the way, but one had to try.