Charlotte had an unpleasant expression as she walked down the hall, her focus set on events that had transpired the day before. Her hard expression stayed as she approached a door and opened it, entering the meeting room.
"Captain Charlotte, welcome to the meeting." Julius acknowledged her, and the other captains all turned as well.
"We're just waiting on the foreigner then?" Nozel Silva asked, almost in exasperation because it was just natural to have this happen.
"Yami had a job to carry out before this sudden meeting was called." Julius explained. "He should be getting here relatively soon."
"Is he even needed right now?" Asked a captain in a green squad robe. This man was tall and lean, with gold eyes and loose, black hair. On the left side of his face. He has a thin, red scar running from his forehead down to his chin, passing over his left eye and ending at the left side of his mouth. This captain wore a light green shirt that only covers the upper half of his torso, leaving his abs uncovered. He wore form-fitting black pants, with green portions that cover from the halfway point of his shin up to the halfway point of his thigh on both legs, as well as shoes with the same green color as his shirt.
"You don't even know what this meeting is about." Charlotte pointed out as she sat down in a seat at the table.
"The royal screw up of a job that happened at Crete yesterday?" The man responded with a raised eyebrow.
At that statement, Charlotte instantly gained a frown and was about to say something back, but someone else spoke first.
"Hey now." Fuegoleon instantly raised a hand. "What happened was an unexpected escalation that none of us could've foreseen had we been stationed in the area. Don't be hostile over what had been handled as best it could before something bad could've happened."
"Before something bad could've happened?" A tall, obese man in a purple squad's robe scoffed. "Half that town is destroyed! A single beast was able to just walk in, slaughter most of the guardsmen and now more than half the residents of the town are homeless." This man had purple, elegant clothing to match his squad's robe and a mask around his eyes of a matching color.
"From my understanding, that beast had a unique ability that brought issues with any mage who attacked it." William stated. "I doubt half of us could even of stopped it from doing at least a third as much as it did."
"The Minotaur and everything involved with Crete is why this meeting was called." Julius added. "That and the matter of the foreigner."
"What did I do?" A voice asked as the final captain entered the room. He was a tall man with a highly muscular build. He had grey eyes and black hair of medium length that is messily combed backward.
The man had a vastly different style of attire from the other captains, whereas everyone had outfits that for the most part looked to be of a higher class attire, his was very simple. It consisted of a white shirt and black trouser with an extra layer of tan leather that covers his outer thighs and down to his knees, along with black high boots that cover most of his calves. The only things to indicate he was a magic knight or anyone of importance, were the torn black robe of the squad he led, and the belt that held his purple grimoire.
"Ah, Yami." Julius gained a smile at the last captain arriving. "Sorry I meant the other foreigner, Wilhelm."
"Is he that brat who I heard cut a beast in half with one swing of his sword?" Yami asked as he sat down.
"Wait, he was the one who did it?" The pale green robed man asked. "I heard it was Captain Roselei."
Charlotte shook her head. "It was the boy. He used a type of mana I have never seen before and killed it before he just fell over."
"Sounds like this guy's magic." Yami looked at the tall, lean man. "Jack do you have a long lost child?"
"Wait wait wait." The purple masked man held up his hands. "I thought that this kid was mana-less. Now you are saying he has mana?"
"He had mana, but now he doesn't... again." Charlotte replied.
The purple masked man gave a flat look. "You don't just live without mana and suddenly gain it and then just lose it again."
"What Charlotte says is true, Gueldre." The Magic Emperor spoke. "Several witnesses all said the same thing. He had shown use of what everyone described as a dark kind of magic that is no longer present in him."
"Why are we not questioning the kid in how he gained magic then?" Gueldre asked.
"He is still unconscious." Charlotte answered.
"The boy has been unconscious since the attack before dawn yesterday. Marx was able to use multiple accounts of memories that we have a line of events, but for now we have no clear indication of how he got this magic, just when he got it." Julius spoke.
Nozel raised his hand. "If I may, shouldn't we focus more on the threat of Diamond first and then the foreigner?"
"I am with Nozel." Fuegoleon commented. "What happened with that beast was a breach of our border and a clear attempt at the beginning of an invasion."
"The Minotaur, that's the name of the beast Diamond unleashed, being killed is something that we can assume that the news of is spreading to Diamond right now." The Magic Emperor started. "According to the reports of two Blue Roses, the beast was made there and intended as a weapon to lead an invasion, starting in Crete. Even though the squad of Diamond mages who were involved in these events are dead or missing, they'll definitely be aware of what happened."
"Hell I heard about it halfway across the kingdom." Yami commented.
"Either they will push now while everything is out of flow here, or they will put away any ideas of attacking." Fuegoleon commented. "Their morale may be low too if they are aware that of all people it was Wilhelm who slayed the beast."
"Given how much trust they seemingly put into it to singlehandedly crush Crete I can assume that right now they may wait a moment before trying again." William spoke to voice his thoughts. "If news of the foreigner who was previously mana-less gained mana that was so powerful it dropped the beast in a single strike I doubt they would try again."
"Or they will act out of spite and try to attack that kid because he just broke their prized tool." Jack added.
"Doing that will be an international incident. They'd be attacking a citizen of Clover and that would call for retaliation." Fuegoleon pointed out.
"He already killed and injured some of their people before officially being a Clover citizen." Nozel commented. "If anything, they can justify it as their retaliating against him and that we are harboring an enemy of theirs."
"They also are still after those magic artifacts that are around the area of our borders." Charlotte added. "Diamond is not going to suddenly drop efforts for power now that they lost the Minotaur."
"I agree with that." William nodded. "Their power lost a few notches. Whatever these artifacts are, if they do offer greater power, then Diamond will harden their efforts at trying to find them."
Julius made a humming sound as he thought, and it made the captains stop to look at him. "I am going to station two more squads along the border. One to station in Crete, to guard that area while restoration takes place, and to assist in the rebuilding. And the other will be set farther west in Kassel."
"If I may..." William held up his hand. "Wouldn't moving one-third of our squads leave us exposed in other areas, and make them feel like we ourselves are preparing to invade them?"
"Why don't we?" Jack asked. "They're trying to stab us, let's slice them up first."
"Diamond has no sustainable resources to make this a good move." Gueldre focused on the economics of the scenario.
"We aren't conquerors." Julius answered as well. "We have no necessary reason to step out of our bounds at this moment. Even for reasons like them provoking us, we should not walk into their kingdom at this point. It will leave us as looking violent and give the Spade Kingdom reason to strike us in our side and we may also lose favor with Heart Kingdom, who has always been more peaceful and wouldn't approve of war. Unless they actually march into Clover, we shouldn't go out of our way to march into Diamond."
"With that, mobilizing two more squads may cause a bit of tension as well." Fuegoleon commented.
"Mobilize just the Golden Dawn." The mentioned squad's captain offered. "We are capable enough to split between Kassel and Crete, and even station a few in Kiten if the Blue Roses think they need assistance there."
The Magic Emperor thought for a second. "If you think your squad can handle it, I'll believe you. For reassurance I would like a few mages stationed in Passau, preferably one of them is a spatial mage for quicker communication between the border and here."
"I can move a few members of my squad to Passau." Fuegoleon offered. "My squad has a spatial magic mage."
"So that is what will be done for now to handle Diamond, and hopefully more won't be needed." Julius was fine with the moves made, but would definitely be making a few plans for any surprises.
"I have a question." A woman held her hand up, just to eye level. This woman was of a youthful appearance, looking earlier twenties at most, and had lilac colored hair covered by a large, pink, pointed hat.. For one of a few occurrences she had her eyes open, and everyone could see the unique eyes that started out as lilac like her hair on the outer edges of her irises and closer to the pupils was a bright blue. "Diamond is after artifacts and one of them is believed to be around Kiten correct?" At Julius' nod of confirmation she asked another question. "And this Wilhelm kid said he felt an odd gem being somewhere around Kiten right?"
Everyone realized where she was going with this, but Fuegoleon was the first to verbally connect the dots. "You think that the magic gem connected to Wilhelm, and the magic artifacts connected to Diamond are the same?"
"How is it that the foreigner is even connected to artifacts on this continent?" Gueldre asked. "Especially ones that supposedly react to him with a lot of mana."
"That's what he wants to find out too." Fuegoleon responded. "Wilhelm says he is seeing what is another life whenever he comes into contact with them."
"Everything about the kid seems far fetched if you ask me." Jack gave his opinion. "He randomly washes up on shore, right on our border with a country causing issues with us, somehow is the only person in recorded history to have no mana whatsoever, and is also connected to a series of gems that react to him with shows of mana. Gems that somehow happen to also be right along that border."
"Are you implying that he isn't someone to trust?" Charlotte gave Jack a look.
"You saw the kid gain enough mana in a split second to kill something that was giving even you trouble. You tell me."
"Wilhelm has given us no reason to have no trust in him." Fuegoleon commented. "He has done the opposite in fact."
"Or everything has been stunts so far to make you believe he is someone to trust." Gueldre countered.
Hearing that, Charlotte impulsively let out a laugh. "You think he has been trying to appear likeable? That boy constantly argues with some of my squad and keeps getting himself into trouble. He may be a troublesome brat, but he is not a spy or anything you are implying."
"If he were a spy, I doubt he would've left the castle at the first moment he could." Nozel pointed out. "That was a easy chance to spy on some of the more influential people in the kingdom and instead he ran off back to the border."
"And he left with one of the Vermillions didn't he? How do you know he didn't manipulate her during that time?" Gueldre kept questioning Wilhelm's character.
"Are you implying one of the royals couldn't handle themselves against a mana-less teen?" Fuegoleon asked with a hard look. He meant no offense to Wilhelm with that question, but worded it that way to establish the power difference between Wilhelm and Mimosa.
"Could a captain defeat the same beast that he did?" The captain of the Purple Orcas countered. "He spontaneously used mana once, in front of people, who's to say he didn't before that?"
"For a shady businessman you sure wanna think everyone else is shady." Yami made a jab at Gueldre, who gained a scowl in Yami's direction while the man gave a cheeky smile.
"Enough." Julius spoke to make everyone else stop before the discussion got more heated. "I know there are questions that surround Wilhelm, I have some as well, but I have met the boy myself and from what I have seen he is just a lost child who was thrown into a different place with a whole new culture from where he is from. I trust that the kid has no ill will towards Clover and isn't in some scheme against us. Is that enough of a vouch for the boy to not outright accuse him of being a spy?" He looked at every captain and studied their expressions, knowing some of them still held distrust for the child. "If and when he wakes up, Marx can use his magic to verify the boy's past, and if need be, and she willing, Dorothy can also study his psychology using her own. Is that okay with everyone?"
Everyone spoke at the same time, all saying the same "yes sir."
After a second of complete silence, Fuegoleon spoke. "What do we do about his connection to the gems, or the gems themselves for that matter?"
Julius thought for a second. "As of now... keep the gems where they are. From what I understand it seems to only happen the first time he comes into contact with them. We may need to confirm that when he wakes up. Also, depending on the results of Marx's magic, I think he should return to Kiten."
"What?" Half the captains asked in confusion.
"Send him back to the border where Diamond has already tried to kill him twice?" Fuegoleon asked with concern.
"If Dorothy's theory is correct, and the gems Wilhelm is connected to are also the same as the artifacts that Diamond is after, then sending him back is the best option." The Magic Emperor replied. "He could actively feel one of the other gems tied to him, from wherever it is, by having made contact with the one in the squad member of the Blue Rose's possession. We have no idea if the sets of artifacts are the same, or how many are in the sets, but if they are one and the same, the boy has revealed two of them to us, and a possible third."
"So use the boy as a bloodhound." Jack summed up the plan.
"Whatever power the gems have, if he can ensure Clover gains them instead of Diamond, Wilhelm will effectively be able to prevent any conflict between the kingdoms from escalating past our control." Julius continued. "I have more on this but that should be said after he awakens, whenever that is. There is also a matter in the southeast of the common realm I'd like to discuss if that is all for the subject of Wilhelm."
"I have a final question on Wilhelm." William spoke up, and continued after Julius waved his hand to indicate the captain had the floor. "The task you are giving him sounds like a mission for a magic knight, but to my knowledge he isn't one. Is this intended as a chance for him to be recruited by one of us, or just a unique situation?"
The Magic Emperor nodded. "If Marx's investigation is in Wilhelm's favor, and he accepts this mission, I think he should be open to recruitment as well, if any of you believe he has displayed enough of what it takes to be a magic knight."
Selena made a exhale as she read the reports again. Written records of events in Crete that all of the Blue Roses there had to write down after the entire situation had ended. She had read copies of everyone's reports multiple times, and each time she kept wanting the words to change. The same words that made her frown every time she read them.
Terrifying, violent, scary, aggressive, monster, all words that were used by the members of the Blue Roses that had been in Crete. All words used to describe Wilhelm. She had not gotten to even get to Crete before everything was over, and only was able to be there after the wounded were taken away. No way to see Wilhelm or know what happened, except for those words used to describe him and his actions in the town.
Reading the reports again, Selena looked at the portion from Sol's where the girl had mentioned Wilhelm first showing up with mana. She didn't know how Wilhelm got mana, but then again no one did, but that mana left her worried for Wilhelm regardless. What caused him to gain mana, why then? Why was it so dark?
"Hey." Selena was pulled from her thoughts as Liv spoke, having gotten next to her at some point. "Still reading those? I heard that things don't really change after reading them thirty times."
"It's just... How did everything get so bad?" The water mage asked her friend.
"I wanna say magic but that sounds cliche." The fire mage tried to joke. "But it's not all bad now. I mean Galgaria is a day from completely normal, Gina is getting treatment in the capital from that guy directly under the Magic Emperor and I heard she is pulling through. Still unconscious but that's alright for a few days I guess."
"What about Crete? Or Wilhelm?" Selena asked. "Forty-seven people and most of the city guards were killed, half the buildings are destroyed and Wilhelm... had whatever happened to him." She didn't want to talk about the mana everyone else called violent or evil, or his critical condition. Talking about it would only make her feel worse, especially since she wasn't there to be able to have helped make everything not escalate as much.
Liv made an awkward expression as she tried to think of what to say. "It's not pretty... but given everything that happened we are lucky it didn't get worse. I'd love it if that Minotaur or whatever Sol said it's name was stayed in a hole somewhere, but Diamond was gonna do this either way. That thing was stupidly strong so honestly we probably got the best outcome."
"Things could've been better..." Selena sighed.
Liv looked at her fellow Blue Rose. "Are you okay? Normally you are the one who tries to be all positive."
Selena thought for a moment before speaking. "I've never had to heal someone who was so close to death before. It's... terrifying. It was taking so much of my magic to just stop her wounds from getting worse and killing her." For a second she remembered how scared she was while trying to heal Gina, and how her magic did nothing but just stall for time until the others showed up and took Gina to the capital. Took her to the capital and to someone who had no issues doing what Selena struggled to even make a millimeter of progress in.
The fire mage gained a worried look. "Gina's okay though. She was able to be moved and set on a path to recover directly because of you."
"But she almost wasn't!" Selena yelled, for one of the very rare times in her life. "I took too long to beat someone I should've earlier than I did! I could've gotten to Gina earlier and prevented her even taking that attack! I could've gotten back to Crete to prevent any of the deaths or stop Wilhelm from also being on the verge of death!" By that point her eyes were beginning to turn red. "What point is all my talent you guys tell me I have if I am not there to use it?!"
Liv didn't say anything, instead silently shocked at the normally happy and cheerful Selena being like this. She dropped to sit in a seat near Selena and responded. "You did use it, don't try to focus on the negative." She paused to think, trying to find what to properly say. "Gina would've been helpless if not for you. You got to her in time to use the best recovery magic in the area at that point. Plus you managed to defeat that assassin girl who tried to kill Wilhelm and Galgaria twice on separate occasions."
"She got away though." Selena pointed out.
"I mean... she didn't get to harm anyone else and given the wounds you gave her, if she didn't immediately get help she definitely bled out. From what I saw in all our reports, it was just the other two Diamond mages who were killed that were involved in the whole mess."
The Water Mage didn't respond for a moment. "Thank you."
"We gotta look out for each other." Liv replied.
Someone else got close and began to speak. "Do you guys know what birds eat?" It was Sol, who had Nero with her ever since the incident the day before. The bird had its wing healed the day prior but couldn't return to its human, so Nero just stuck around the first Blue Rose it saw which was Sol.
"I wanna say birdseed." Liv answered.
"Haha." The Earth Mage replied dryly. "Do they eat fruit and stuff?"
"Nero probably knows what to do for food." The Fire mage shrugged. "The bird was adopted like a month ago right? Probably not really too domesticated to not know how to fend for itself."
"I'm not having this thing fly on its just healed wing and hurt it again. Rather not have him have a reason to be mad when he takes the bird back."
"I don't think he'd..." Liv trailed off as she realized she wasn't exactly sure how Wilhelm would react. The guy did have a short temper and what happened in Crete made it seem even shorter.
Selena spoke, standing up. "I can take care of Nero."
"Are you sure the bir-" Sol stopped as the bird hopped off of her and flew the small distance to Selena, landing on her shoulder. Sol gained a flat expression and looked at the bird. "Traitor."
"To be fair Selena is nicer to its owner than you are." Liv commented.
"First off, shut up." Sol walked away while Liv laughed.
Mariella jolted up, a shock being sent through her body. Breathing heavily she tried to figure out what just happened and where she was.
"Good, that woke you up. You were beginning to be asleep too long." She turned to see someone she didn't recognize sitting in a chair near her. They were both in a brick room and she saw bars at the door to the room she was in. It looked almost like a cell before she realized her wrists were actually tied together.
"Where am I?!" She looked at the guy who was too calm for her liking.
"Don't worry, Mariella, you're back in Diamond." He gave a reassuring smile that she felt was fake. "It's just... some of the higher ups are pretty upset about how badly you, George and James screwed up."
"So I am being detained and getting punished?"
"By me? Oh no I don't care about that at all. I'm actually thrilled at how things went in Crete. The Minotaur being killed was probably a blessing for that thing after Morris experimented on it."
The Ice Mage's expression changed to shock. "The Minotaur was defeated?!"
The guy grinned. "Yes it was, and I got to see who did it. I need you to tell me everything you know about the mana-less foreigner."
Instead of responding properly, Mariella's eyes got wide. Wilhelm killed it? That guy who had no magic was able to slay the beast who Diamond believed to be stronger than the captains of that Kingdom?! "Wilhelm defeated the Minotaur?"
The guy raised an eyebrow. "So his name is Wilhelm? Glad to know my rival's name. What about his sword? I saw it cutting throw the shield more effectively than anything anyone between the two kingdoms could do."
Once again, instead of answering she paused and looked at the man. He called Wilhelm a rival, so he knows the guy? "Who are you?"
"My name is Cain" He made mana appear on his fingers and cut open Mariella's restraints, freeing her. "You'll be coming with me instead if serving any punishment, since you have information on Wilhelm."
Mariella rubbed her wrists and only got more curious. "What is your interest in him?"
"In all honesty?" Cain asked as he began to leave the cell. "Because I believe Wilhelm is my long lost brother."
Two days later
The young girl opened her eyes slowly and felt annoyance at how bright the light hitting her face was. Squinting, she tried to discern where she was and got no real answer from observation, especially because of how blurry everything was without her glasses.
Trying to sit up, she felt immediate pain and yelped, before dropping back down to the bed.
Someone in the room made their own yelp of surprise and looked at her. "GINA! You're awake?!"
She tried to speak and immediately noticed how dry her mouth was. "Awake and thirsty."
"I'll get some water!" The girl had left the room and Gina then realized who that was, it was Puli.
Not sure what really to do since trying to just attempt to sit up would cause her pain, the girl just lied there and looked at the ceiling in all its blurry glory. A moment later she heard probably Puli and two other people enter the room from the sound of it.
"Gina you're awake!" She definitely just heard Galgaria speak.
"Ayo. I'm awake and in pain." The girl joked.
"I'm not surprised, well I am by you waking up this early, I figured you had another few days before that." A man's voice spoke that she didn't recognize.
"Is that why pain is the only emotion I know right now?" Gina asked.
"Pain isn't- Yes your injuries aren't yet completely healed, but I have been able to restore most of what you had erased." The man explained.
"So doing things that require moving my chest are gonna hurt?" She asked another question.
"For the most part, yes, the same with your side as well. Using recovery magic to regrow flesh that had been simply cut off is difficult enough. Restoring your flesh that was erased by spatial magic was a whole other task."
"You did good doc, I can barely see the damage."
"The damage was mostly internal..." He looked confused.
"Gina's making a joke about how she doesn't have her glasses on." Puli sighed.
"It's not funny when you explain it." Gina gave her own sigh.
The doctor gave a laugh. "At least I can tell you are in good spirits. That's needed after everything that happened in Crete."
Gina thought for a second before exclaiming, and impulsively sitting up before helping in pain from moving her injuries. "What about -OW- What about Selena, Galgaria and Wilhelm?!"
"I'm right here..." Galgaria reminded Gina of her presence.
"Gina lie down!" Puli and the doctor both ordered the girl at the same time, Puli being the only one to say her name.
The Spatial mage ignored their concerns and focused on the third person there. "Oh yea! Galgaria are you okay?"
"I'm fine, but you should lie back down Gina." Galgaria replied.
"So you don't still have a hole in your stomach?"
"I don't think I'd be standing if I still did. Anyways you and Wilhelm had it worse than me so don't focus on me." Galgaria waved off concern.
Gina looked at the blurry shapes of her fellow Blue Roses. "What's that supposed to mean? What happened to Wilhelm?!"
Puli made an uneasy expression. "It's kinda complicated..."
"Tell me everything please." The Spatial mage pleaded.
The Vice-Captain made a sigh as she gathered her thoughts to explain. "Okay so-" and she explained everything, from Wilhelm's somehow gaining mana to the moment he collapsed. Puli told Gina the little information she could about what has happened to him since the event in Crete half a week earlier. At some point mid explanation, the recovery mage had left to handle other business since Gina was okay. While listening, Gina found her glasses near her and put them on, and silently listened.
After it was all said, she didn't know how to properly respond. Gina spoke after a few seconds of silence. "So... no one knows where he is?"
"Only the captains do at this point." Galgaria answered. "I tried asking Captain Charlotte but she says that his location is kept private because of his condition and what happened with the mana. We don't even know if he is awake yet."
Before anyone can say anything else, Selena had come into the room and looked at her bedridden teammate. On Selena's shoulder was Nero, who had its usual bored expression. "Gina!"
"Hey-o." Gina gave a small enough wave to not hurt her muscles.
In half a second Selena was across the room and hugged the Spatial mage. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Ah! PDA!" Gina responded to the other girl's actions.
"How long are you out with the injuries?" The Water Mage asked.
"Mister Doctor left before I could ask that. I can ask him when he comes around again." The Spatial mage replied.
"He said that you should stay in bed for a few days." Puli had gotten the information a while back, when Gina had first woken up.
"Dang, so I can't go get some dumplings." Gina snapped her fingers.
Puli ended laughing, which caused the others to look at her in confusion. After she laughed for a bit she looked at them and explained. "After everything that happened, plus Gina's having to kill a guy, I was worried she'd be different. It's just nice to see she hasn't changed."
"You can't change perfection." The Spatial mage commented.
"I can go get some dumplings." Galgaria offered. "There's a stand a few streets over from here that are really good.
"Yes!" Gina showed too much enthusiasm, and hurt her chest a bit. "Ow... Yes I would like some."
"Galgaria no." Puli put her hand on the other's shoulder. "You were also injured. You stay here and I can go get some. I can tell Captain Charlotte that Gina is up and in her usual spirits while I am at it." With that said, and a wave of her hand, Puli left the room.
Selena looked at Gina. "Don't be reckless like that again please."
"What? Letting the shot of magic hit me to throw back? I honestly had no time to dodge or anything. Kinda had to be reckless just to live." Gina defended herself. "And yell at Galgaria! She let herself get stabbed to steal a communication tool!"
"That saved my life also." Galgaria gave a nervous chuckle.
Selena sighed. "Why is half of everyone reckless?"
"It's in our blood?" Gina gave a joke answer.
That made Selena remember something. "Oh Gina! After you were hospitalized I told your parents tha-"
"What? Why?" Gina cut her off, and her smile was gone.
"Gina I thought that-"
"They don't care. They-"
"Gina they're your-"
"STOP!" Gina shouted, and hurt her chest in the process, clutching it and breathing before speaking again. "Selena they don't care about me at all, don't waste their time or get my hopes up." By that point her voice got quiet. "Please, just don't try to be Selena on this one thing." She knew her friend meant no harm and was only trying to help, but Gina gave up on hoping that anything good could come out of that situation.
Selena dropped her hands to her side, and felt a wave of guilt go through her head. "I'm sorry."
"I know. I don't think you can actively intend to hurt any of us if you tried." Gina replied, now feeling guilty for yelling at Selena. She looked at her teammate and then noticed what was on her shoulder. "Wait why do you have Nero?"
"Nero was hurt and Sol helped patch them up, and now Nero is just with me until they can be given back to Wilhelm."
"Whenever he decides to show up."
Two days later
In a small room, with only a bed and a nightstand in it, lied a teen. For close to a week the teen had been asleep, not moving an inch during the stress induced slumber he had brought upon himself.
On the fifth day of his sleep, just as the day had crossed noon, he drew a sudden sharp breath and opened his blue eyes.
A/N: Shorter chapter, kinda has to be since I wanted to end it with Wilhelm waking up. Had some stuff to do with other people in the story, like another scene with Charlotte and another to show more of Cain, but I opted to save those for later.
Cain is the same guy from last chapter, and from chapter five. Waited to name drop him only because I couldn't think of a name off the bat, and opted for Cain because of a line he said. He says Wilhelm is a brother, and their relationship will hit some notes of Cain and Abel, hence his name. Is Cain Wilhelm's legit brother? I couldn't tell you, you'd have to read to find out.
I really have nothing else to say, except to tell wellingtonlucas282 that he was correct in what happened with Wilhelm last chapter, and to my surprise no one last one other person actually got it without poking from me.
The story is now in Phase 2 of Part One, and this is only the beginning of what I think will be the best phase of the story, but I may just be hyping myself up over it tbh.
As I say at the bottom of every chapter, I have a discord server with the link in my Bio.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know how it was and have a good day!