Corneus rested on the cold hard floor, feeling quite strange, and both exhausted, tired, dizzy and even drowsy like the time he first used this spell.
He was back to his 10 year old form, having been de-aged after being transported back to this timeline.
And the dizziness was merely one of the side effects of that thing.
Anyway... He did bring two people from a now alternate history, right?
The two of them were beside him, and they were quite confused and dumbfounded at what had happened to them.
"Corneus, where are we?" Olivier was the first to ask this question, before she began to notice that he had become smaller and younger than he was supposed to be.
"Hm, I guess we're in an alternate future 1000 or more years after you three had slain Diabolos. Surprising that timeline where I took you might have Freya slay Diabolos herself." Corneus replied with a bit of nonchalance.
Yet Olivier really couldn't wrap her head around what he said, it sounded like those people in white coats from their supposed home would always say.
Because of the complexity of his words, she almost deflected it. Yet it was her interest to learn something other than just randomly fighting simulations.
Even Lili (003) didn't even listen on his words, just trying to look around and take several sniffs on the foreign area.
"I'm very confused, how and why did you become younger?" This question was asked.
"Oh, that's simple. Had I been in this younger body, I might have been defeated by the three of you with some difficulty. And my time spent to recover you would be wasted, anyway." He clarified, and soon enough he was asked a multitude of questions by the two of the Three Heroes.
Some of the questions allowed Olivier to realize that something called the Cult of Diabolos had been manipulating the whole world under the shadows.
When she thought that the cult supposedly worshipped Diabolos and wanted him to be reborn to take over the world once again, that thought was shattered with a mere clarification.
The cult actually was very connected with the people who made several experiments and harshly trained her, other than that, their descendants of this timeline were given a powerful curse from the cult itself.
And those who were afflicted with the curse were all purged and experimented.
This time, Lili had been attentively listening.
Several lines of words made her feel resentment, anger and several other emotions for those descendants who she didn't even meet.
It felt like it would motivate her in her quest to utterly destroy them, no matter how long it took.
A question remained in Olivier's mind: How does he know about all this? Who really is he?
Silently sighing to herself, she decided to begin following Corneus with Lili beside her.
"So what do we need to do?"
"Fight against the Cult of Diabolos with me and your new allies, I guess."
"No, not that. What do we need to be while we fight the cult?"
"..."
The question made Corneus go silent while they walked to the path out of the basement.
"Be my maids, that will give you a good cover."
Olivier nodded in a rather dumbfounded manner.
"What is a maid?"
Corneus almost felt like slumping down. He didn't like having to answer a lot of questions, especially if they were repeated again and again.
Also, it does seem like the later Cult of Diabolos didn't only cared about their own matters, barely caring about them in any matter.
The moment they realize this, their motivations will definitely rise.
[ ~ Line • Break ~ ]
And after a few hours, and some pestering from Corneus, the King and Queen eventually decided to allow the two girls to become maids, but before that, they were to be taught how to become maids.
Surprisingly, in a few days, Olivier was very quick to adapt into becoming a maid, though she persistently stuck around Corneus for her own reasons.
Lili had tried a bit, though she was a barely unapologetic glutton and accidentally ate the whole dinner supposedly made for the Royal Family, and Corneus had to begin disciplining her right away before something bad actually happens.
"Lili, if you eat too much, you'll get fat."
Well... not really too much of discipline, but just a threat... That traumatized her.
She tried to reason out, saying that she felt quite hungry most of the time and that the food she had been eating was quite mediocre and doesn't fill her stomach much.
He thought she had some knowledge about being fat, but after that, all is well since he grasped the concept of time to restore what was once lost.
After that day Lili eventually controlled her gluttony to acceptable levels, though she'd casually steal food or ask Corneus for food to satiate her hunger.
At this point, the Two Heroes have now joined him as his new subordinates.
Though, if he is quite troubled about naming his planned organization then he had many names that fitted it.
It's either Dragoons for the males and Valkyries for the females, though they act similarly.
Knights of the Hearts, which will have 16 members including him as "Joker" and he is the leader of the organization.
Though, on second thought, he could actually just combine those ideas for a bigger idea.
Which actually was cool and all.
And then...
... Years passed.
In the midnight of Midgar's capital, two figures leaped from building to building, and one of them seemed to move faster than the other.
"Olivier, wait up! I'll be left behind!" One of them was a rabbit Therianthrope, whose steps alone couldn't even be sensed.
She wore a black vest, and under that vest was a plain white buttoned shirt. A red ribbon is tucked neatly under her collar. She also had worn tight leather gloves that felt comfortable to her own. There were a few gadgets hanging on her belt, and it was obvious what those were.
She had a mask covering half of her facial features. This girl wore plain white jeans that hugged her skin tightly and small shoes.
This girl is called "Agent Rabbit, Jack of Hearts", but you can call her Alissa Grease.
"Hasten your pace then, Alissa. We have company." Olivier replied under her steel mask, before twisting her body and making a dive towards the ground.
Alissa followed, almost confused at what her leader said until a few hooded girls and a certain Shade appeared from around them.
"Huh? He never told us anything about them, are they related to the Cult?" Alissa asked, and the reactions that the hooded girls had surprised her.
They were obviously glaring at her.
"We have no relations to the cult!" One of the hooded girls spoke.
"Nor we will ever allow ourselves to ally with them!" Another continued, then their supposed leader, a golden haired elf stared towards their direction.
For a moment, she looked shocked, yet hid it very well.
"We are Shadow Garden, we lurk in the darkness to hunt down the shadows. And you, what are your true objectives, Knights of the Hearts?"
'Shadow Garden, huh? He might need to know of them. It's a surprise that they know of us. And, it's strange we both have similar voices.' Olivier thought briefly, before coldly glancing over the fellow elf's eyes.
"Our true objective is to bring out the Cult and the Holy Church's evil from the shadows, and open the people's eyes to the truths. We will not hesitate to paint you as our enemies if you obstruct us." Olivier replied.
The golden haired elf nodded.
"I see, so we have the same objectives. There will be times where we will meet."
That was all that is said before the group left.
Silence consumed the surroundings, and both Alissa and Olivier were now alone. The former was dumbstruck, not even expecting Shadow Garden to appear out of nowhere.
"That girl, why does she look like you? Is she your sister, or something?"
The question was shot, yet Olivier didn't much care about it, other than taking out what seemed to be a flip phone similar to those on the early 2000s.
She dialed someone with it.
"Prince Corneus, I have something important to tell you."
"What is it?"
"We met an organization calling themselves Shadow Garden, they're all female. But I think there might be a male on the organization."
[ ~ TO • BE • CONTINUED ~ ]
Author's Commentary: On second thought, maybe female Cid is a bad idea.
The idea of him becoming a rival of Corneus could lead to certain events being absolutely turned around, though.
Plus, this will make the title have a more literal meaning.
Anyway, in the next few chapters, we will focus a bit on Shadow Garden and their interactions with Corneus' direct subordinates.
And because copying Shadow Garden is a crime, and it is cringe asf if all of Corneus' subordinates hunt the shadows under the shadows for barely/no reason, I decided to have at least two or more subordinates (Alissa and Olivier) go under the shadows.