Ulrika saw him in bloody red. The floor, the dead body laying on it and also the young baron that standing in this room now, they're all in bloody red.

Ulrika almost stopped breathing when her eyes met with the scene until Anna's voice broke the silence for her or so for everyone there.

"…Roze, explain yourself!" Anna grasped her katana firmly in hand. The katana would out of sheath anytime to meet the head of the young baron.

"Please don't, Captain Anna!" Before any of them saying or doing anything, Ulrika ran to Roze, opened her arms as if she was shielding him. "Urgh…!" But it hurt here injured shoulder.

Roze saw her covered her shoulder and finally noticing the red liquid around it. He was alarmed.

"What had happened!?"

Instead of answering his question, she only gave him a glare that written a message 'This is your fault!' before returning to Anna and Flay.

"He is not the murderer! He's been frame up!" She let out a trembling sigh. It's difficult to remain calm in front of those glares. "About thirty minutes ago, an imperial soldier came to get him and said the king needed help. Soon after he left, I was attacked."

Anna and Flay exchanged a gaze after hearing that from her. Anna shifted her position, letting go of the hand on katana as a sign for Ulrika to continue.

"And then, two other people came in and said they have made some kind of deal…" Her voice trailed off when she thought the voice that similar with Vayne but quickly shook off the possibility. "I know the two of them…they're a group of assassin. There must be something to do with this!"

Anna dropped her face, turned to Flay. "…What do you think, Flay?"

Flay crossed his arms, shifted his gaze in between Roze and Ulrika finally on Anna.

"…We can't jump into conclusion as we need more information." Hearing that, Ulrika felt the chance to proof Jerktown was still there. She turned to Roze, hoping something from him.

"Hurry up, say something!"

Roze, sighed in defeat. He appreciated her for trying to help him in this however; he wouldn't get away from being suspected this easily, not with Anna especially. He added in his mind. But it wouldn't hurt to voice out.

"When I got into King Chamber, His Majesty was already injured and laying on the floor. He's still alive when I checked on him." His face twisted as if he recalled something ungrateful. "Suddenly someone attacked me from behind. I forced to start a battle with him…the man has long grey hair with a sword, a probably Sword of Light. Then he escaped through the window behind." He moved a little, revealing the broken window with glasses shattering on the floor.

He tried to explain yet it didn't seem to satisfy the captain as Roze saw her dark expression. He should have thanked her for not cutting his head the moment she saw this.

Then, a brief silence settled between all of them. Ulrika looked at the other three, seeing the general and the captain fixed their gaze on Roze like they're trying to figure the possible lie behind his words. A heavy and strange atmosphere filled the air until Lily and Vayne stepped into the room.

"Father!"

"Otosama!"

Their mother, as well as the queen Ernentraud and her two children ran to the dead body of their beloved husband and beloved father. Lily was the first burst into tears when she saw Roze in those bloods. Ernentraud almost fainted after receiving no pulse from the dead king, luckily Vayne braced her.

But Vayne was not better then them. He gritted his teeth; tears filled his eyes as his voice also shaking.

"…Who can tell me what happened?"

Anna winced, dropping her gaze on the floor. Flay let out a light sigh. He stepped forward to Vayne, bowing at the same time.

"…Please forgive our useless for failing to protect His Majesty. His Majesty…was assassinated." His voice was low but firm, declaring the cruel fact. Vayne almost losing balance on his legs with some chocking voice escaped his lips.

Feeling fidget, Anna looked away. Ulrika and Roze looked at each other. He could see worry and regret written in her emerald orbs. For a moment, he too, was feeling regret for not listening to her.

Flicking his finger, Flay had his soldiers arrested Roze. Roze didn't do much protest since he knew this would come. Instead, Ulrika tried to hold them.

"W-Wait! Didn't he say the murderer is a long grey haired man? Why-"

"Even so, he still holds the highest suspicion." Anna came to stop her, shook her head as a sign 'don't do anything'. And then she turned to Roze, narrowing her eyes immediately met his blue orbs. "…I'll cut your head if you dare to lie."

The soldiers took Roze away. Letting out a cry, Lily chased after him, but stopped by Whim.

"No! Roze is not…he's not…!" She afraid to tell the rest of her words as if it would become true once she spoke it. "He's not!"

Leaving the rest to his soldiers, Flay went out of King Chamber with Anna dragging Ulrika along.

"So, what now Flay?" Anna asked. She saw the beautiful ghost slowly approached them from the hallway.

"…This is getting interesting, isn't it?" The general raised a wild grin, and this caused a hint of irritation ran across Anna's face. "Don't give me that look Anna. Now, you'll want to take care of the girl's wound."

Anna looked down to Ulrika's wound. Though the blood had stopping oozing, it still needed some proper treatment. Cursing lightly, Anna decided to take Ulrika to infirmary first, knowing Flay would let her know when he had figured something.

"…I'll make myself clear first. If Roze truly is the murderer, I won't forgive him. I'll kill him with my katana!"

Ulrika gulped. Anna was not kidding. The seriousness was way too strong and heavy inside. But she knew Roze was not the murderer. From the way Roze tried to save the king, she knew there's no way that Jerktown was the one who killed the king.

After the girls gone, Pamela replaced Anna by standing…or floating in front of Flay.

"I heard that Flay. What are you going to do?" Her violet orbs hidden with a hint of sadness.

"…Heh, let's just go with what the girl told us. It's been a long time for thing like this!" He snorted, sounded excited yet furious mixed in his tone.

Great now…he is serious. Pamela thought.

"…As your soldiers were getting Anna, I was about to sneak out to see what happened in the castle. And I saw a man getting out. It's too fast…I couldn't catch up with him." She shrugged. "I don't think anyone will be faster than Anna in this way. That man must be the one Roze mentioned."

Hearing that, another wild grin formed on the bold general's face.

"Assassin, huh?" Flay crossed his arms. "Looks like we have question for that girl now."


After taking his mother back to her chamber, Vayne leaving Lily to Whim to look after her while he went back to his own chamber.

He almost used up all his energy to brace himself to not to collapse from current situation, but he had actually collapsed deep down in his heart. He couldn't bear to look at his father's dead body…but as a doctor, he still figured out what caused him died.

Judging from the wound his father received, it's caused by a sword, probably as big as Roze's, and it's one hit kill on the throat.

Feeling weak in recalling the fact, Vayne leaned against the wall and took a deep breathe before resuming his walk to the chamber.

Opening the door, he was greeted by a black cat. He smiled.

"Meow… (Are you alright?)"

"I'm fine Sulpher. Don't worry."

"…Meow. (I'm not worrying.)"

Vayne chuckled as he lay on the bed. "…Hey Sulpher, why father…he has to die?"

"…"

"I mean he done nothing wrong. He is a good king and good father for all of us. Why he has to…?" Clenching his fist tightly, his eyes filled with hatred and darkness.

"…!"

He wouldn't know how actually he looked like now. Sulpher winced a bit, letting out a light squeak.

"Sulpher?" Vayne rose up, wondered what's got into his pet. "Oh yeah…you said you feel sick few days ago…are you feeling better now?"

"…Meow. (…Don't worry about me. Consider your own.)"

"Yeah…you're right." Feeling his eyes were about to closed up, he let his mind drifted off into the darkness.

"…Meow… (…I don't have much time left now Vayne. Stay strong…)"


Three days after the murdered of Bernard, the whole city sank into deep sadness. Almost all the citizens cried for the lost of their beloved king. That aside, the biggest trouble they came to face now was the inheritance of the future king.

Vayne was supposed to be the next king however, the noble couldn't agree with that because Vayne never really getting in touch in political. Vayne could have Roze to brace him up and he believed with Roze's help, he could get better trust from the nobles. But Roze was under the suspicion of murdered the king, so this was impossible option. Even Flay and Anna stood by him, he still lack of supporting from the noble's side.

On the other hand, after a few meeting held between the general Flay and the noble, Roze was condemned death penalty as those noble claimed people needed an explanation for the king's death. At the end, the noble won the vote.

Due to this, Anna, Pamela and Ulrika were gathered at the lounge in Anna's house. Flay was the last one got in along with another blonde.

"Rene?"

"Hai." The blonde Rene waved her hand to the girls.

Anna being the first broke into question the moment Flay sat down.

"So what have you figured out?"

"First, there's none of my soldiers came to inform Roze about the king because we hadn't know the king was under danger that time." It's such a shame in his life! Flay showed pissed. "And the girl said she's being attacked soon after Roze left...that's made the picture."

Anna digested his analysis. Something just made sense now. "…That's mean someone is trying to frame him up? But who?"

Flay looked at Ulrika this time, wild grin formed on his face. "I think we should ask the girl."

Ulrika blinked when all the eyes focused on her. Winking a few times, she started to get stammer.

"Eh? Huh?"

"Ulrika, you said you know the assassin…what do you know and who are they?" Anna asked.

Ulrika shifted her gaze, uncertain where to drop. Finally she aware she had to tell them the whole things if she needed their help. She was relying on them now.

"…They're actually after me. They tried to kill me but failed back in my village. I think they got this request from someone when they arrived here. And you can see, I'm here to seek for help. Someone told me Jerktown will do, so I stick with him now." Thinking that Jerktown might face death penalty, she furrowed her brows. She didn't like this idea at all. "Does he…must die?"

Her question brought a brief silence to the lounge. Pamela let out a giggle; Anna relaxed against the chair behind like they had something in their mind.

"Flay, you got idea right?" Pamela smiled.

"…I should have known. You won't hold this meeting for nothing." Anna's voice mixed with annoyance.

"We know Roze is probably being frame up. We're gonna save him of course!" His eyes shined with evil. Ulrika shivered seeing those sparkling eyes. "You agree, Anna?"

Knowing the captain must showed irritation toward his words, the general asked. Raising her brows, Anna showed a hint of annoyance, nodded however.

"…Every suspect should have chance to proof their innocent before judging, but that doesn't mean I believe in him. After all, he was there all the time with those bloods!" Her sense of justice didn't allow her to judge blindly, yet it couldn't erase his suspicion. That's what they called 'suspect' right?

"Well, that's enough." Flay turned to Rene while she returning her gaze. "With the help of Tony and Rene, I've come up with a plan to rescue our baron on tomorrow openly execution."

"What? Tony agrees to help you!?" Pamela and Anna said in unison.

Rene chuckled at their reaction. Well, that's understandable. Who didn't know how bad these two guys were when they got in touch with each other? Now they're talking about cooperative? Hell no!

"Well, our general agrees to have a match with Tony after all this over." Rene explained, shaking her head at the same time.

"You guys are just so childish…" Pamela sighed.

"…Pamela, I don't think you have any right to say that." Anna felt amusing.

"Agree!" Ulrika nodded.

"Hey, I resent that!" The ghost protested.

After that, Flay explained the detail on how and what they should do on tomorrow. He had all this planned earlier. Well, he was a general after all, and Anna bet he always wanted to try such thing, only he didn't get the chance.

Ulrika sweat dropped by staring at the evil smile Flay hanged on his face on the whole explanation. The plan sounded easy enough for her as she didn't have to do anything, only Anna had to do all the things. She just had to wait at the escape route Tony and Rene prepared for them.

"—as for me, I'll remain in Land of Renaissance to gather information!" That's concluded the explanation. "Any question?"

"…I have to rescue Roze by myself? And you think I can do it alone?" Anna twisted her brows. "I might end up kill him there." She snorted.

"Don't worry; we got another person to help you out. You should know him. Yun is his name."

"The mercenary?" Anna remembered the dark skinned man. "I thought he's out for job."

"He just comes back yesterday. He visited me after knowing the news, and said he's willing to lend his help."

"…Fine, I'll do." Did she have any choice now?

"Then, this is decided!" Flay stood up, ready to get back to his duty. "After all this, it's up to you guys to figure things out."

"Flay." Anna called him, stopping him from leaving. "Watch over Vayne."

She hoped she could stay with him in the time like this. She knew all this was too tough for him to stand against it alone however, finding the murderer was in priority. Vayne must too, was hoping to get the murderer as well.

If so, she would do it for him. Besides, she had a bad feeling…

"Leave it to me!" Then, Flay left.

Pamela suddenly grabbed Ulrika on hand, caused the blonde taken aback.

"Ulrika, let's grab something useful from Jess's belonging!"

"Eh? But…"

"Jess has a bunch of awesome bombs! We can use them on tomorrow!"

"Bomb…? Waaaahhh!" Ignoring her protest, the ghost dragging the blonde out.

Seeing they vanished at the door, Anna sighed. She had to ready for tomorrow as well.


Today was the day Roze being openly executed as the 'murderer' assassinated Bernard the king of Land of Renaissance. All the citizens gathered at the square hall to witness the moment of revengeful for their beloved king. Some of them broke into tears, uttering something with their family; some were cursing him and many other bad things from the people.

Roze ignored all of this. He couldn't show a bit of fear or desperation in front of them, and so for his and his grandfather's pride and name. He didn't kill the king. Even he had to die here; he had to show his pride and honor, knowing his name would be clear one day.

Suddenly, that chick's face came into his mind. Oh yeah, he completely forgot about her. What would happen to her if he died? He did promise to protect her…she must be madly angry at him for leaving her alone.

He chuckled, imagining her madly expression. Strange…he wanted to see her. After his grandfather passed away, he had never strongly felt he wanted to see someone. At least…at least let him knew if she was alright…

The next thing he heard was the noises coming form the crowd. Lifting his head, he saw a nimble figure waving her katana in front of him, blocking the soldiers from coming for her. Roze didn't waste any time to recognize who the person was, he just couldn't believe it.

And then, someone untied the rope on his hands. Turning around, he saw another surprise. The dark skinned man with sharp flaming red hair just smirked at him, shouted at the captain.

"I get him!"

"Alright, let's go!"

"Come on, Roze." Yun pushed him forward. Though Roze was still confusing, he already had a hint.

"…You better explain it later." He then received a dagger from Yun. Activating the ring, the dagger turned to Sword of Light.

Smirking, three of them started to retreat. As they're about to go, Flay suddenly came out and attacked Roze. All of them shocked.

"What are you doing Flay!?" Anna yelled. This was out of the plan!

"Now Roze, I'm the general here. There's no way I'll let you go right?" He smirked. "Show me your strength!"

Roze cursed. He should knew things wouldn't be this easy. He grasped firm on his sword, prepared for the fight.

Flay charged up with his Raiden Charge, filling his body with extra energy. He let out a smug smirk, charged straight to the young baron.

Blocking it, Roze flicked his sword toward Flay, leaped before Flay regained his position. Charging back, Roze also activated his skill Falling Blades to distracted Flay's attention. This skill would buy some times for them to retreat. He looked at Anna ans Yun, they're busy in fighting with the soldiers that kept coming around. Fortunately, they seemed managed them well enough.

"Come on, we're going!" Roze shouted.

"Not this easy!" Flay fought through the falling blades, struck toward him. Lifting his sword, he blocked it but the momentum sent him back.

"...Is this what you're planning all the times Flay?" Anna asked, furious ran across her face. Flay didn't answer. He replied her a smirk, enough to tell her what was he thinking. "Tch!...I should have known."

Roze got up, before he regained his posture, Flay used his skill Hyper Screw. Deep shocking, Roze tried to block his attack yet it was way too strong for him.

Is this what we call the general...? He gritted his teeth.

The spinning blade was too much for Roze. Anna helped him and attacked Flay from behind. The general gave her a glance. The captain shifted her katana, released Dancing Blade Chaos skill, her most powerful skill for now. Ten hits directly fell on Flay's body yet the bold general only let out a slight groan. It shocked Anna inwardly. Narrowing her eyes, she wondered how strong this man was.

Taking the chance Anna created for him, Roze activated Divine Calibur, a five powerful hits he learned from his grandfather. Flay let out an evil smirk. Roze regained his position quickly and dragged Anna along.

"Now run! Yun!"

"Got it!" Kicking the soldiers away, Yun quickly caught up with the two.

Flay only saw the three of them got out from the square hall toward the direction they planned earlier.

"Heh...not bad at all."

Despite Flay gave them a 'surprise', they managed to get through the crowd and the soldiers on they way. Roze run behind Anna and Yun guarded behind him. Basically those imperial soldiers couldn't stop them without Flay distracted them.

Anna leaded straight to the underground tunnel at the northwest of the city. That part was mainly for draining water system. There's a tunnel for maintenance and repair use. Tony and Rene suggested using that as escape route since the guard in that place was so loose.

As they're there, Roze finally saw the face he came to see so much a moment ago. Ulrika felt her fear was eased, seeing he was all alright. Smiling, their gaze met. Joyous and relieve filled their face.

"Do you guys remember the route in the tunnel?" Tony did the last check on them.

"Yes! Don't worry. I'm here after all!" Shoving some of the bombs she got from Jess to Ulrika, Pamela answered.

"If you say so. Then we'll go separate here." Rene said, letting out a smile. "Farewell."

Then, the two left the place. The paths in the underground tunnel were difficult to recognize the first time there. People easily got lost because of the similar structure of the paths inside. But that shouldn't be a problem for Pamela here.

"They're coming, Ulrika! Throw all this bombs to them!" Seeing the soldiers figured them and getting closer, Pamela tossed the bombs and laughed.

"Eh? All of them?" They will definitely die…Ulrika looked down to the bombs on hand.

"Go, Ulrika!" Ignoring what might happen to the soldiers, Pamela continued throwing until the bombs on hand gone.

Gulping, Ulrika closed her eyes. "Fine…whatever…don't blame me!" After throwing the bombs, the two of them turned back to catch up with the others. Leaving the painful scream and coughing sound behind, Pamela still laughing while Ulrika pretended she heard nothing.

With the guide of Pamela, they saw the exit within an hour in that tunnel. Clearing the monsters on the way, they fought through to the exit not far from them.

Smiling, Roze felt excited. He never felt the life was so real. Meeting Ulrika's smile, he felt himself melting within it. Grabbing her hand, they ran straight to the exit.


A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Preparing the festival was killing my time. So enjoy it? Tell me if you have question.

See you in next chapter then!

PS: This one i had edited some fighting scene on the execution scene. Axel-san told me there's just too easy to get away. So i came up with this, as well as telling the evil plan Flay had in his mind when he planned this. Feedback always inspired me with more idea! Thanks Axel-san. I hope you like it!