Akko and her friends managed to travel from Edo and enter the territory dominated byAppleton, with a disguise that made her practically unrecognisable, which for a few days no one could reveal her identity due to the masks walking all the way to Wedinburgh, where they are faced with a very different place from what it used to be, a practically abandoned town, left lawless, as if it were a real devastation that had passed, what was left was only the marginalisation of Appleton's society that is always left to waste in that place, abandoned by everyone.
After passing the small road that leads to Wedinburgh and all being warned about the place being a lawless land, all the merchants go past the ruined walls of the old capital, there they can already see people in the worst of situations, some living on the street, sitting on the ground, walking staring at the girls, in the houses they also saw that some inhabitants soon closed their doors.
Then a group of thieves appeared walking through the town, some of them thieves from the look of things. They approached all the shopkeepers head-on, some armed with clubs, swords and bows, and immediately pointed at the cart in front, which belonged to Mr Yamaguchi.
"What are you outsiders doing here? This isn't Dundee for doing business" said the leader of the group.
"We've come from Edo for a trade trip and we have many marvellous things from our distant lands that are at a wonderful price" said Ren.
"I don't care about that, foreigner, you're in the wrong place, you'd better get your riches soon or you'll pay with your life" said the same bloke until Akko casually climbed down from the cart, staring at everyone.
"Look at that naive little girl, does she think she can do something like that with a little sword? What a cute little thing, hahahaha" said one of the henchmen as Atsuko stared at all those henchmen.
"Let us through or I'll make a mockery of all of you and you don't want to experience all my power, you definitely don't want to" said Kagari.
They are then signalled to fire arrows at the crimson-eyed girl, who simply dodges them with the movement of her katana, which fall in smaller and smaller pieces to the ground without hitting her, and they even stop firing arrows, impressed by the girl's agility.
"Stop! Let's not waste arrows on this little girl, she has something else that might be interesting, let's take her to where the leaders are" said the one who was leading that group.
With that, the brown-haired girl put her katana away in its sheath and followed the group of henchmen through the city, which was already clearing the way for them. They were being taken to the very spot where Wedinburgh Castle used to be, which was in ruins, so all the merchants had to go that way, and the nine girls were still following the disguises with their false families inside.
Entering the half-destroyed castle, they arrive where the throne room used to be and there they see that there are simply two familiar faces there, Hannah and Barbara, who look very different from the starched girls from before.
(What are these two doing here? I thought they'd died, in a way I'm relieved that there wasn't a death, but why are they leading these thieves? What do they want with all this? Now I'm really wondering).
"Ladies, these are the merchants from Edo that we spotted entering the city, a little girl with a sword convinced us that it was better to talk to you because you're the strongest in our group, show them how it's done" said the two's henchman.
"Oh great, so we have visitors?" Barbara said.
"Naive merchants, this is a lawless land, you won't be able to sell anything here, we don't obeyAppleton and we don't care about these people, the bastard destroyed everything that was good about the city of Wedinburgh?" Said Hannah, who was soon interrupted by the warrior from Luna Nova.
"And he destroyed everything six years ago, abandoned the city and threw all the marginalised here, so they could languish and blah blah blah, I've heard this story before, good that we can now say that this is a safer place then having someone from Appleton here" Akko said.
"You sound full of yourself when you say that, Edo girl, as if you were in charge of something. You should know that we don't obey anyone here, only when we used to have two leaders who were brutally murdered... And so far, there's been no presence of the princesses who would now be the queens of this place, to bring back the glow of..." England said.
Diana decided to reveal her disguise, starting to take off her mask, as did Hellene, who did the same thing, as the magic flowed over her face, turning her back to normal, leaving everyone in the room stunned. The queen had returned to her homeland after six years, and then the others also followed what Cavendish was doing, even Atsuko, who was the last, but when she took it off, she walked towards her wife and held her hand.
"You... You... Are you alive?" Said the shocked Barbara.
"Even the girl I didn't care for is alive and why are you holding hands? Have you really learnt nothing about respecting the queen? I know you're good friends, but there's no reason for it to be like this" said the girl with the auburn hair.
"She's my wife Hannah, Akko is the other queen of Wedinburgh" said the platinum blonde-haired woman, and with that she went up to another shock.
"What?" They both say in shock.
"We didn't come here to stay, we just want to get through a dungeon nearby, then get out of here before Andrew comes to capture us, we can't risk it, it's that or Hyrule will be completely destroyed" explains the blue-eyed queen.
"Oh, I don't know why you want it so much, but you can rest assured that here at least in the castle no one will reveal you, you've been through quite a journey, I really was wrong to have picked on you so much Diana... This friend of yours isn't as bad as I thought she'd be, but explain to me why you stayed away from us for six years, we could fight and be the resistance" said Parker.
"It's a long explanation, I'll tell you" said Kagari.
The girls begin a long and detailed explanation of everything that has happened over the last six years, the same story that is always told, separated between each of them, the crimson-eyed one's point of view, Diana's point of view and Marianne's point of view, since it was these three groups that ended up going their separate ways, until they meet up again at a meeting that is, until then, the formation of the group to reach the end of a journey through the dungeons in order to defeat Andrew and bring peace to Hyrule.
The two of them are impressed, their whole concept has been completely changed, but then again they have a different reality shock and discover more truths and dirt about what really happened over time.
"So that's it? You spread out and, without a choice, went into hiding? Is Andrew so immensely powerful that you're afraid like that?" asks the dark-haired woman.
"You have no idea, I fought him many times and each time he humiliated me with his immense power, he enjoyed making me force myself to try and reach him, because of this I've become well-trained to this day and I'm trying to achieve the power to defeat him, before it's the end of Hyrule" said the crimson-eyed woman.
"I would have judged them and called them cowards, but I saw that they went a long way and tried until the end to show what they could do, I hope they'll at least be okay, even if it's not the cosiest place, well anyway we'll tell you what happened here in six years, since it's nice to see such familiar faces here, we're one of the few survivors of the massacre that happened in Wedinburgh" Hannah said.
"Six years ago, on the same day as Andrew's invasion, he came here, killed the two queens, captured you Akko, soon afterwards the troops also came, Appleton's troops fought to the end, the civilians were gathering in the castle, we saw the queens' bodies on the ground and we were frightened, They had died and there was nothing we could do without leadership, which began to cause the greatest massacre, chaos, destruction, houses being destroyed, lives being destroyed equally, nobles, commoners, no one escaped Andrew's sword" Barbara said.
"Everyone was killed, but with the help of Marianne's parents we were able to escape, they showed us a secret passage and a few of us managed to stay there hiding until the dust settled, they managed to look after us very well in the hiding place" England said.
"We stayed there for two days until we left and what we saw was complete devastation, everything was destroyed and abandoned, the houses were completely robbed, the bodies were gathering by the thousands, many innocent lives, we had to clean everything up and bury the bodies, the queens we took to the royal cemetery, or at least her remains, but then things started to happen" Parker said.
"Two years later, we were starting to rebuild our lives, we simply kept hiding whenever there was a warning of an Appleton soldier coming, some of us couldn't stand it and were captured, taken away, no turning back, but soon people started to appear, what Appleton threw here, thieves, people considered disposable, people of all kinds and from every corner were thrown here and with that it began to become a lawless land, it took four long years for us to organise ourselves and gain the trust of the city and even then we don't have it, just a group of thieves that we've made alliances with and they help us as much as they can, since this is their home, but anyway... That's how Wedinburgh ended up in this state, we couldn't rebuild it and those who live in the city just ignore it, while in the castle, too, we're divided between the survivors and the thieves, who because they had nowhere to stay stayed here, in return they don't steal from anyone who lives in the city and the surrounding area, only from outsiders" said the one with the auburn hair.
"Wow, there's been a lot going on here, it seems you're a resistance too" Cavendish said and her friends nodded in agreement.
"The thieves don't like the tyrant Andrew one bit, at least in the days of the queens they weren't punished so severely and didn't have to become thieves, many of them in the days of the queens were just normal people like us, even the leader of the thieves used to be a boy who lived in Appleton and was forced to stay in the shadows so that his identity wouldn't be revealed, if you want we'll introduce you to him" said the brown-eyed girl and the girls nodded in agreement.
They soon leave the throne room and go to a more sophisticated part of the castle, quite different from the other which shows a lot of age, and there they are even barred a little by the thieves, until it is simply revealed that the group is with the Queen of Wedinburgh, which gives them guaranteed access until they reach the room where he was, with a sophisticated chair and his feet on a table, his back turned, and he is immediately caught by one of the henchmen.
"Sir, there's a girl who calls herself Queen of Wedinburgh, coming with her friends, they're from that group of outsiders" said the henchman.
"Oh how marvellous, so they've finally turned up, it'll be really interesting, even more so to see some of their faces again" says the young man, who then turns his chair round and reveals that he has blond hair, which is very long, as well as a noticeable beard, unlike before.
The boy's face shocked them all, he was no longer the innocent, friendly-faced boy from before, he was a man, a man who caused Marianne and Akko to blush at the sight of him, who immediately got up from his chair and walked closer to them, while their wives looked on indifferently.
"Frank! Is it really you?" Atsuko asks, shocked.
"Ah Akko, please, he's only got hair and a beard, he's only got older" said Diana.
"Exactly, it's the same guy as before, I remember he looked like a boy and now he looks like a man, it seems that time has done things to you, then Frank how did you end up here?" Hellene asks.
"I fled into the woods after warning everyone, unfortunately I couldn't get back home, I was wanted, in the woods I ended up being taken in by the thieves and learned everything, I ended up growing my hair and beard to make myself more unrecognisable and so the thieves became a family, since I lost my grandmother and my grandfather is in the tower unable to do anything, I had to isolate myself to survive, when I arrived here in Wedinburgh, I saw the opportunity, I saw that I was abandoned and the city could be a resistance against Andrew" Said the blond.
"Time has worked miracles on you" said Leclerc.
"And miracles at that" said Kagari.
"Akko! Marianne!" say the two wives at the same time.
"I've been waiting for you to come back, the queen has returned to her land, now we can have the motivation we need to defeat Andrew, we just have to organise ourselves, you can be sure it's not Wedinburgh just that there are thieves scattered with you, we'll just warn each other on the way not to attack your charges, so you keep your disguise, but tell me what happened in these six years, it also seems that the queen got married, it seems that the warrior who appeared in the cave is the other queen too" Said the boy.
Soon the girls were also having to explain the story of what happened six years ago to the boy, and he was also impressed by the whole journey that had taken place, without realising that it was also complicated,
even getting a smile on his face when he saw that they were all doing well, and also being impressed by the beauty of one girl in particular who kept exchanging glances and she exchanged glances back, even blushing a little at the eye contact.
"Look, you've been through a lot, so I can say that we're all trustworthy, you can be sure that Wedinburgh is a safe zone, Andrew won't come near it for now, you can feel free to go and explore this dungeon, I know how important this journey is" said Frank.
"We're going to do our best to defeat him, according to legend we have to go into several dungeons to defeat him, so that's what we're going to do, anyway, I hope you're all right, Andrew has been following us for a while, he may well turn up here at some point" said the crimson-eyed one.
"Ah, that's to be expected, but we have a plan to trick him in any way we can and make him go for it, he won't want to kill us that easily, plus we have our stamina, which he won't be foolish enough to go head-to-head with in a fight" said the blond.
"When all this is over I swear we'll go back to the castle and rebuild everything, as well as give a home to these people who need it so much and you thieves a chance to rebuild your lives and spread out, we have to have the resistance against bloodyAndrew, he can't get away with everything" said Diana.
"Queen, you really are a marvellous person, even after everything you don't give up on Wedinburgh, even though this place is falling apart" said the boy.
"I grew up here and it's my homeland, I can't rule without my capital, apart from the fact that the people here are like any other, they don't deserve to be on the fringes of society for something that isn't their fault, you can be sure that this rebuilding of Hyrule is a real promise, I'll take resources even from where they don't come from, to bring a well-being that used to be in the kingdom, we'll revolutionise the world, we'll bring a time of peace, all we need is to defeat Andrew and we can achieve that, I'm sure" Cavendish said.
With this speech, they then went round the rest of the castle, where they came across old rooms, and bedrooms too. When she entered what had once been her princess bedroom, she saw that it was still very intact, but the neglect of time was very clear, just like Hellene's, which at least had people, who were greeted with a hug by one of the nine.
"Mum! Mum! You're alive" said the girl with dark hair and red streaks.
"Oh Marianne, you've turned up, when we heard you were here we couldn't believe it" said Genevieve.
"I thought they were dead..." Said the brown-eyed girl, sinking into tears.
"We thought you'd died, they said you'd been stabbed, at least what the news told us about the few survivors here, we're relieved to see you all right" said Mrs Leclerc.
"In fact, I was hit, but they saved my life, they're the real heroes here" said Marianne, pointing at her friends.
"We just followed Akko's instructions to take her somewhere far away and we did, the people of Edo took very good care of her" said Lotte.
"Oh I recognise that girl, you're that little girl that the queens loved so much, Marianne's friend who came on a trip from the Dublin ranch, the one my daughter got up to taking to the castle, I remember you very well, you seem to have grown up and wow, you're an impressive woman, no doubt time has made you very strong" said the girl's mother.
"Ah, I'm just trying to get close to what Andrew can do, unfortunately he's a level beyond the strength of a body, but I'm trying as I can, it's been quite a journey" said Akko.
"I'm sure you will, I remember the stories about you, going into dungeons, defeating legendary monsters, I could see that the legends are true and truer than ever" said Genevieve.
"Dad, Mum... There's something else I want to tell you" said Leclerc, holding Hellene's hand.
"What? You and Hellene are happy to see each other" said Mrs Lerclerc with a little sarcasm.
"No, Mum! Hellene and I got married, she's my wife now" said the dark-haired girl with red streaks.
"Oh, it's finally happened, girl" said Gilles.
"We've waited six years for this" said Genevieve.
"Mum! Mum!" Said the Leclerc daughter, blushing.
"We got married on the island of Triskellion, we were already feeling it and we let ourselves be carried away by it, it was inevitable, I feel very happy to have Marianne as my wife, she is a marvellous woman, I please say with all due respect that I love your daughter very much" said McLaren.
"Oh it's a wonderful present, we knew you'd get married and we're proud that it finally happened, I knew this friendship was too suspicious, we just hope that one day you'll give us lots of grandchildren, we'll love seeing so many children around here, when you defeat Andrew's curse, I want to see the little princesses around the castle" said Leclerc's mum.
"Mum!" Said the blushing girl with dark hair and red streaks while her mom keeps laughing.
"Marianne and I are going to have lots of children so you can have lots of granddaughters" said the smiling redhead, who soon received a pat from her wife.
"You too, love?" Said the blushing Marianne whille her wife is into making fun of the whole situation and laughing a lot with the family.
After that more relaxed moment of reunion, the girls became more comfortable, settling into new quarters as well as renovating the old ones, while the merchants were getting their passes to go into town, which moved things along a bit that day, making a visit to Wedinburgh much more interesting than it seemed, despite it being an abandoned place.
Many familiar faces were revealed, the faces of people who had already crossed their path, who had been through a long journey to get to where they were.
Safer from being caught, both Akko and Diana were chatting in the room that used to belong to the queens and was reserved just for them. It was even well looked after, with their picture in it.
"Look at this, I remember when I was scared and afraid of the dark when I was younger, my mums always took me here, it was like a sacred temple for me as a child and now this is the sacred temple that now belongs to us" Cavendish said.
"It's our sacred temple... By the way, we're going to pay them a little visit to thank them for everything" said Atsuko, who was immediately hugged by her wife, who began to cry.
"I love you very much Akko, you have no idea how important you've been to me, helping me get through all this, it still hurts me a lot to remember that my mums are gone... I really want to go and see how they're doing, to be able to thank them for everything" said the platinum blonde-haired girl.
"Soon we'll come to the bedroom to have a romantic moment together, to get cosy" said Kagari, stroking her wife's hair.
Together they went exactly where the cemetery of the queens is, there they could see that there are the tombstones of all the former kings and queens, until they reached the tombstone of queens Laura and Bernadette, the two tombstones were next to each other, with small statues of the two of them hugging together, like a couple, putting angel wings on both of them as if they were transcending life with the love they felt for each other, it even brought the couple of the queens to tears, who soon also saw the other couple in tears arriving together.
"They... They'd be proud of us" said Hellene tearfully.
"They certainly would be, we've come this far, we've come a long way, we've shown how capable we are, but I still want to give them the real reason to be proud, which will be when we bring the peace they so desperately wanted here to Hyrule, stop the Appleton kingdom from continuing to dominate, stop Andrew from continuing to cause evil to Hyrule, I'll do it for you mums, thank you for everything you've done for us, all we really want is to be able to say that? We're proud of all this" said the blue-eyed girl, crying as her tears dripped onto the ground where they stood.
"Thank you both, I wouldn't be the warrior I am today without your help, I feel guilty to this day for not having been smart enough to run away, now I'm running after the mistake I made that ended up killing you, I unfortunately couldn't do anything to prevent it, I'm sorry... I'm useless, I'm weak... The truth is that even as
strong as I am now, I still feel incapable" said Kagari, who soon saw the hand of the two queens' daughters on her shoulder.
"It's not your fault Akko, stop blaming yourself, you had no way of avoiding an attack like that, it was inevitable, that Andrew deserves to pay for all of this, we'll beat him together, in this dungeon we'll show that we're a trio that will get through everything with class and being fantastic, we'll make it, we'll beat him" McLaren said, giving more confidence to the girl who was crying.
"I'm also very grateful to them, the queens were marvellous people who trusted me and my friendship with the princesses from the start, I've been able to have real friends all these years thanks to them allowing our friendship to flourish and that's what's wonderful, I've been able to live the best life of all thanks to them, To see that they are gone still touches my heart very much, I knew everything thanks to the news from Edo coming here too and I always knew the hard way, now to see that everything is like this, brings me the desire to bring my land of Wedinburgh back, I will make a point of helping as much as I can with everything when we defeat Andrew" said Marianne.
"We're going to do everything for the kingdom, we're going to make these two proud, wherever they are, they've been great people in our lives, they're the queens... The true eternal queens of Hyrule, there has never been a better period than theirs" said the current queen of Wedinburgh.
"Of course, goodbye mums, I hope you're resting in peace and that you can see us triumphing in heaven" said Hellene.
The four of them then hug each other, even bow in front of the queens' tomb and leave the cemetery on their way back to the castle, in that most emotional and touching of moments when they have to deal with the issue of saying goodbye to someone as dear as the queens of Wedinburgh, as they rest from their long day's travelling before heading to the dungeon.
Away from there the next day, Andrew woke up in the morning and got on his horse, noticing that the environment had really done everything it could to knock him down, so much so that his shelter tent had been destroyed and fallen on top of him, but that didn't stop him from carrying on, he got up half-soaked from the rain, saw that it was still going on a bit and looked angrily at the rest of the archipelago.
(Now you're going to really pay for everything Edo Island, when I talk to the Empress, I'm going to send the most massive attack of all that will end this child Empress's domination, make her feel the power of my massive army, which has already conquered all the lands here in Hyrule, all that's left is this island of idiots).
The young man soon got on his horse and continued riding at high speed along the shores and shallow waters that aren't big enough for the waves to disturb the horse, which within a few hours, he entered the larger archipelago and was able to see a beach and some mountains, then continued along a path, riding along the road, with some soldiers looking on, but for the most part they couldn't even get close.
When he reached a town, he saw signs written in the local script and was approached by guards who surrounded him with spears.
"Where do you think you're going?" asks one of the soldiers.
"I just want to go to the capital of Edo, drop those spears or it'll be the last thing you see" said the lord, threatening the guards.
"Can you do anything? How pathetic" said the guard, laughing.
"We're in Hokkaido, the capital is still a long way from here" said another guard, laughing.
"Then take me to the capital" said Hanbridge with a sarcastic smile.
"What if we don't?" asks another, challenging the lord.
Soon the boy's attack begins and he simply uses a little of his magic and passes through the whole group of guards, as if it were a darkness. Then he walks as if it were nothing with his hands in his pockets, which only shows the other guards falling to the ground and starting to create a pool of blood, leaving only two alive who would run away in fear.
"If I were you, I wouldn't run away, it's for your own lives, I recommend you don't try this, otherwise you'll end up like your friends, but I can spare your lives if you follow exactly what I ask you to do" said the green-eyed man while the other two were paralysed with fear.
"Yes sir, we'll do what you ask, please don't kill us" said one of them in fear.
"You're mad, if they catch us, they'll kill us worse" said another guard.
"I assure you that my plan doesn't involve any of this, you'll even be credited and well rewarded for all of this, just let me tell you what it's going to be from now on, okay?" Andrew said, and with that they both swallowed.
Andrew explains his plan in great detail and both guards agree to go along with it, as they don't have much choice due to the situation they find themselves in, and it's a choice between death or death, which they choose to survive for longer, as they don't want to be killed, in a very cruel way Hanbridge has arrived on the island of Edo and is already starting to cause trouble.
Akko and her friends arrived in Wedinburgh, which is quite impressive, despite being an abandoned town and left to the margins of society, they were able to see many familiar faces who could be of great help on this journey, revealing that in the midst of all this there is also a resistance against the oppression of Andrew Hanbridge and the kingdom of Appleton, which could spark hope among everyone of a possible defeat of the lord who is currently pursuing Atsuko in Edo.
See you, Wedinburgh witches...