Investiture of Paradise: On the Flowerbed of Lotus Chapter 5: Disaccord of the Three Kingdoms, a mega man fanfic

-[Volume I: Investiture of Paradise: On the Flowerbed of Lotus]-

-[An far-off Tale From the People of Delta]-

-[Fifth Record]-

Disaccord of the Three Kingdoms.

Records Archived on; January 17th 209, 18 B.A.R

By Ciel.

Thomas likes to think of himself as a Patient Man. Decades of political machination, emotional manipulation, forming influential connections, climbing the rank in the government for a good chunk of his life, outmaneuvering all the obstacles of various intrigue and potential rivals in doing so, using every form of underhanded tactics he could think up with, making up lies and empty promises for equality using cybernetics implants, all the way until it culminated in him reaching the very peak when he was chosen as one of the Sage Trinity that reigns over all the Legion as the testament of all his hard, if admittedly somewhat dishonest, works he has put it. Then again, how else is one supposed to get anywhere far in the twisted, rotten system of the regime that is the current federation? He thought he was content with his position in life, ruling over the masses as arguably one of the most powerful individuals in the entire world, controlling the largest civilization since the Maverick Wars of old behind the scenes than what his position entails, for surely, there is nowhere left to go once you reach the top of it all, right?

That is where he was wrong, so very wrong, as proven by the one he originally dismissed as nothing more than just a stopgap in the Sage Trinity like Mikhail. Albert. On the day he first met him centuries ago when Thomas was still a scientist, the Man came across as a level-headed character, who prioritized Peace and Harmony above all else, always trying to be the voice of reason among them. During his initial impression of Albert, he views him as someone he can respect, but with an insufferable naivety, because from the way the elderly Sage sees it, there is no true Order in this cruel and unforgiving world where only the strong can assert their ideals while the rest are forced to obey it. No matter how much they all pretended otherwise, deep down, chaos reigned over all, animosity continued to persist beneath those affable smiles and shows of good fellowship, as such, despite being better than Mikhail, it was only by a narrow margin, for in Thomas' perspective, Albert was just another delusional fool who hope to use his position to enforce his fanciful ideology.

Before he shows his true colors that was.

As it would turns out, beneath that serene smile of an wise and gentle Mask of an reasonable Authority Figures, belies an remorseless, inhuman sociopath that perceived himself as an living God, who has been exploiting his position as part of the Sage Trinity to further his ambition of destroy this world in an effort to 'Remake' it so that it could reborn anew from the ashes of the old, where he shall be its absolute and undisputed Ruler, orchestrating an centuries long plan involving the collection of the Ancient Artifacts scattered across the lands known as Biometal W, which Thomas has managed to learned that they are supposedly to have been the fragment of the fabled Ragnarok, an orbital Spacecraft capable of leveling even the most prosperous city into ruins with its Cannon, as described in the Saga of the Red Hero, an age old Mythos popular with children that told an Epic tales of an Legendary Reploid clad in Crimson, wielding an Emerald Saber that protect the innocent and condemned the Guilty, opposing the tyrannical reign of the false Angel, or so the story goes.

Unbeknownst to the masses however, these tales are more than just mere myths to be told to Children as entertainment, it is a pieces of history lost to the Passage of time. He would know that. He was there after all, and as one of the few people to have survived witnessing the power of the Ragnarok first hands when it devastated his home of Neo Arcadia, Thomas recognized the Danger these Shards of the Space Station posed, especially when taken into accounts of the Slither Inc's Incident four years prior, and that Albert actually succeeding in his goal to reset the world to square one is very much a real possibility not to be taken lightly as Mikhail has. This is why he cannot let that Monster to go through with his goal, enlisting the help of a certain Amnesiac Reploid and a Member of the Hunter Guild who were both Chosen One of their shared Biometal to put an end to Albert's scheme once and for all, something they managed to accomplish at the end of the day.

He should have felt relief, knowing that Humanity is spared from another possible annihilation at the hands of the genocidal Maniac that was Albert, yet looking back, he has wondered to himself…Was it worth it? Sure, the current civilization was spared from another possible annihilation, preventing history from repeating itself, but looking back now, the Sage contemplated whether or not it was the right decision. Albert might have been insane, trying to achieve Godhood, because there is no such thing as God, just an illusion people conjured up to give to other gullible fools false hope, Thomas could not help but find himself agreeing with how he viewed the world they are living in. Throughout the course of his long life, the Sage has seen the lowest point of Humanity that they could potentially reach, the hideosity of Mankind in all of its profaned Glory, the atrocities people are capable of committing out of desperation, where they would reveal their true nature as an wretched, self-centered creature that care naught but themselves, perfectly willing to leaves their so-called loved one to die a miserable death while trying to save their own hides. His own flesh and blood were more than willing to show that side of them to him when Neo Arcadia Met its end by the torrent of light from the heaven sent down onto them.

With the world as it is right now, there is no saving it, such a thing is beyond the realm of reality. Its only hope now is to somehow be reset back to the very start to begin again. Albert had the right idea, but he ultimately failed to realize that because of his arrogance that eventually became his undoing. That is how the Sage realized that fool could not be any more different from him than flesh and steel are to each other, as unlike him, Thomas was a Patient Man, he had all the resources, all the manpower, all the time in the world within his disposal, and he knows how to use them to their utmost efficiency. However, having the patience of a saint does not exactly equate to not easily getting frustrated, the feeling he is experiencing at the moment when he received the latest report that was remotely sent to him by one of his field agents that he has deployed in a place previously thought impossible, what was once been nothing but a pipe dream of researchers and theorist alike, one that Thomas still could not believe what his eyes were seeing despite having received authentic footage of it, the existence of Another World that exists outside the realm he knows.

Having discovered the gateway to this alternative plane of existence that was presumably manifested following the implosion of the mass of model Ws by the scouts he has ordered to investigate the ruins, retrieving Four of the participants in the Game of Destiny, the scheme Albert has developed as part of his plan in the process, the Land on the other side of that rift, by its very nature, goes against everything that the Sage has ever known, though not in a bad way, for if there is a word he could use to encapsulated what that world was like, it would be; Perfect. It was like an ideal world he had dreamed of making a reality, superior to his own in every conceivable aspect one could think of, from its rich history, the Technologies, the culture, the Majesty all the ways to its people…It was everything that his own reality could never hope of becoming, not even in a million years.

That is why he wanted it so much, why he needed it so much, the secret of how this world was able to survive and thrive the way it did for eighteen Billion years according to its History, a number of years inconceivable to a normal man, yet made possible in that realm, all thanks to its seemingly endless flow of resources that has enabled them to last for that long, something that defies logic and reasons, and Thomas simply must have it for himself, for that world may hold the key he needed to unlock the perfect world he has been seeking and to do that, he must have that world as his own, or at the very least, gather as much knowledge of the alternative realm of existence as he possibly could, which has been his endeavor for the past few months after he has mobilized an entire Army for that purpose, along with the Four Megamen he has rescued, who he managed to persuade into assisting him in this goal.

It was quite easy to do so as well, all he needed was to press the appropriate buttons to appeal to each of their ideology in order to obtain their collective cooperation, which he has an abundance of experience in, having used the same trick to get to where he is now. With the added force of four different Megamen, all were veterans of that bloodsport Albert created, the guardian that he had manipulated into assisting him, and the largest Army the Legion has ever formed in its history, some equipped with the Pseudo-Mega System he implanted onto them through the combination of the Human's Parts and data derived from both Reploid stored in the Legion's archive alongside the Red Biometal they managed to retrieve from the rubble. With such a formidable force, it would have been so easy, just launch a surprise attack and overwhelm the government of the other world, giving them an opening for their agents to slip in, steal intelligence, and then get out, maybe acquiring a few pieces of technology as well, for the sake of the greater good…But if it were, then he would not get frustrated over the latest report he is reading right now.

Even though he has done a throughout research of this world to know where he should attack first, their version of Greece and China specifically, the least defended Nations out of them all, being rather lax in their security due to their relatively peaceful state, and did in fact succeeded in creating a distraction large enough for his agents to infiltrate their respective government body like poison, he has vastly underestimated the immunity system they boasted, quickly realizing that just because they are the least defended Parts of the other world, that does not automatically translated to them being weak, for within a single day, the tide was turned against them, in the form of their primary force in Atlantis being instantly evaporated by a beam of light shot through the sky not at all dissimilar to the Blast of Ragnarok that even momentarily punch a hole into the surface of the sea, resulting in the Four Megamen he sent to went missing and presumably died with the rest of the force that did not survive the sudden attack straight from the sky, inflicting an irreparable damage to the expedition team in the country, while the situation in china was not any better, with an Army of over Five Hundred Megamen massacred the majority of their regiment, who even with their Pseudo-Mega system that granted them the ability to morph into an empowered state was soundly defeated, forcing the rest into hiding like rats across the province.

And as if that was not bad enough, the Spies they planted into the local governments were being systematically rooted out every single day since the failed siege, with the network of operatives he had carefully constructed being slowly torn down each time the sun finished one of its cycles. At the same time, the Enclaves of his Force diminished slowly but surely as they were being hunted down, either by the Five Hundreds or the Olympians. Keeping this up, and soon the Leading Council of the Other World will be done in resolving their little moles' problem from their garden, before turning their attention to the Legion, the source of their most recent strife as retaliation, as many of his insiders have warned him about in this latest Report spying the governing council's activities, where the discussion for a possible war is already in full throttle.

Knowing that his Realm would stand no chance against the Other World in the eventuality that they do finally decide to launch a full-on counterattack, since the last time they arrived here just to perform reconnaissances, Banten was nearly decimated, Thomas has arrived at the decision of ordering his army to sows as much Disaccord as they possibly could onto the two Nations they are being stationed in, promoting distrust and manipulated those that are deeply affected by the siege to their whim in order to pour more oil the current burning fire that the government was desperately trying to stamp out, buying just enough times for them to gather a little more data from the Grand Archive of theirs while the scientists are attempting to find a way to seal off the wormhole connecting the two Universes together to prevent the Enemy's Force lay siege themselves once they succeed in that goal. Considering that the City is currently still trying to recover from the initial retaliation, they cannot afford to suffer any more damage. Just a little time more will do, they needed to uncover the secret of that world as soon as possible.

The amount of assets he has invested into this is too great for him to give up now, having long since gone past the point of no return when he had Mikhail…Disposed of. He needed to get answers to the nature of that world from the Grand Archive, which the opportunity had presented itself just a few weeks prior, in the form of an unwitting pawn that had recently arrived at the Stronghold of a Palace in the Eastern region of China, a Foreigner that the Azure Emperor personally endorsed who just recently became part of the Local government there. Thomas remembers her, she was one of the assassination targets he had had Calvert disposed of. It seems that he has failed, but that is fine, she now has a different use to the Sage, as while his agent is uncertain in regards to her identity or her affiliation with his world, with her being appointed a position that allowed her to gain access to restricted areas in the Palace, through her, she shall be their key to open the locked door to the Confidential Database, especially when considered that she is someone described in the report as an earnest person, the type that is the easiest to use in Thomas' Opinion. Just a few well-placed words is all it going to take to have her do what he wanted.

"Sorry girl, but you are in the wrong place at the wrong time…" As far as Thomas is concerned, this girl is the necessary stepping stone for him to progress forward with his plan, nothing more, nothing less, and he has never been the one to pass up such a perfect opportunity when it arises, he is not like Albert, he knows what he has to do and how to do it, though he may need to wait for the right moment to make his move, cannot risk letting her figured out his plan after all, which is something he is more willing to do, bidding his time is one of his many expertise. Thomas is nothing if not patient. Still, there are only a few agents left that have yet to be discovered by the court, he better send forward what the next step would be before any of them get caught, because if they were, then he would not have a second chance at this. There are not enough resources left in the Legion's coffer for another siege, or a War.

The Lion schemes…

Ciel was a great many things. A product of Neo Arcadia's thousand years worth of technological advancement, born from the genetic sample recovered from the ruins of what was once the laboratory of a certain legendary scientist who yearned for a future where men and machines can consider each other as true equals, the leader to a band of Resistance who fought against an oppressive Regime for such a future, creator of a revolutionary energy source that saves Humanity from the brink of collapse to secured that someday, and above all else, a proud older sister who cared for her family more than anything else, they who gave her a reason to keep on living despite all the hardships and misfortunate she has experienced through over the course of her turbulent and arduous life, keeping her head held right even in the toughest of time. For their sake, she would do absolutely everything in her power to see them again, willing to go through any trials and tribulations to see that goal through.

That being said, this might be her most difficult adversity as of yet, for this newest challenge was bestowed upon her by the Ruogang himself, who has personally summoned her to the throne room, where she now stands before the Azure Emperor and his hundreds of high ranking Officials, once again becoming the center of their collective attentions just like the first time she was there two and a half weeks ago. Why is she having an audience with the Blue Megaman of China all of a sudden? One might ask. Well, That is what Ciel would like to know herself, having given absolutely no context on the reason as to why she is here, barring from the fact that she was told by a Royal Guard who approached her earlier this morning that his Majesty wished to speak to her as soon as she possibly could while she was on her way to the workshop. Needless to say, it caused the nervous butterflies in the blonde's stomach to flutter everywhere again, wondering what her Emperor wanted with her, it did not help that Maomao was not aware of the reason why either, only able to encourage her to go do what she was told and pray to the Faeries Matron that she would walk out of there alive. Not a very helpful advice, but then again, she has no better option.

Knowing better than to draw the ire of the most powerful Man in the Azure Dragon County by making him wait, the Blonde Genius decided to move toward the innermost section of the Compound and reached the Main Palace, where Ruogang was awaiting for her with a solemn expression on his face, his body firm as a stone upon his gilded throne, betraying no sign of weakness, his usual levity nowhere to be found, the only thing that is there was an Ruler, acting in a way befitted his station, causing Ciel to forcefully suppressed a shudder that crawl throughout the veins in her body, not wanting to appear nervous before the main in fear of somehow upsetting her Emperor, who appeared to be in a foul mood. Though despite her best efforts, she could not stop the feeling of dread from manifesting inside her stomach further empowering the unruly butterflies within as her mind could not stop speculating on what purpose is she here for.

Perhaps someone has finally caught her snacking on the kitchen's reserves of dried plums without permission and they have reported their findings to the Azure Emperor. Ciel just could not help herself from devouring them in mass when she first tasted one as dessert, the sweet yet sour and salty flavor of those dehydrated fruits served as the perfect complement for all the heavy and savory meals she had on a regular basis since coming to this place, leaving her craving for more since then, to the point it has officially became one of her favorite things. Should that be the case, then the Blonde really has no one else to blame but her and her gluttonous habit for getting herself in this sort of predicament in the first place. All the Blonde could do was curse herself for letting her dried plum addiction dictate her actions. Oh well, no point complaining, better to grit her teeth and bear it. If she is lucky, she would be able to get out of it with a slap on the wrist at worst.

"Young Xia, do you know why I summoned you here?" No, she does not, as a matter of a fact, that should be her question for the Azure Emperor, not that she would be presumptuous enough to say that out loud, mind you, for she is not that foolish, so Ciel just merely sways her head side to side at the inquiry, wordlessly prompting Ruogang to elaborated further, "Well, you see, I have a favor to ask of you." Well, first of all, thanks the Mother Elf it wasn't about her stealing the Dried plums from the pantry, though on the matter at hands, hearing that caused Ciel's eyes to expand as wide as it physically could, having not expected his words out of all the possibilities she had come up with inside her head, and neither did the rest of the Court from the looks of it, with them turning their attention to the Blonde Genius, a distinct glint of doubt clear in their eyes, something she cannot find it in herself to judge them for feeling that way, after all, out of all the court members he could rely on, why her? Everyone else here has been through thick and thin with Ruogang over the course of his two centuries-long Reign, while she on the other hand only been working under him for two and half weeks at most, practically a stranger in all but name, and while they have conversed with each other every now and then, the two could hardly claimed that they know each other on the same level as the rest of the officials. All things considered, the Blonde Genius should have been somewhere near the bottom of the list of people he should trust with a personal favor, if not dead last.

However, it's not like Ciel is against helping the Azure Emperor with whatever request he has in mind, she is always willing to be of assistance, even more so if it is something within her capability of accomplishing. Though she will need more information if she were to do him a service to him, "Dare I ask on what is it, your Majesty?" If she has to guess, it probably has something to do with her skills in Cyber Faeries Programming, that is the one skill the Emperor is aware of about her after all, though that does bring up the question of why he would entrust such a task to her again as if it is about the Faeries, then Maomao would be far more qualified than she is on that front, boasting far more experience under her belt by far, with two hundreds years worth of knowledge compared to Ciel's meager twenty.

"Ah, well…you see, I needed someone to…to Help pick up my…daughter, Yulian, at the train station." There was a moment of hesitation on his part for a moment, finding it hard to make it out, but he eventually did manage to be himself to say it, growing increasingly embarrassed soon after as he buried his face into his palm, feeling quite shameful of himself for burdening his newest court member with his own responsibility. As much as he wanted to do it himself, being there for his beloved daughter as he finally returned home after all this time, it was something his Duty would not allow him to do, forcing him to stay back and finish off the remaining amount of paperwork needed to be done, and that is before he mentioned the arrangement he needed to take care of for the upcoming meeting he will soon be holding here in his Palace with the other Rulers of China down the line, demanding his utmost attention to it if he wished to see the Alliance of states is restore back to its former glory. Hopefully, his daughter would be in a forgiving mood and understand that he has no other choices in the matter, "Just yesterday, she told me that the university she is attending was closed until further notice, so she planned to use her break to come and visit me."

"Oh! That's great to hear!" Although Ciel herself is not very familiar with the individual that is Ruogang's daughter, Yulian, whose name she only heard in the passing conversations made by the servants staff every now and then, with her not even aware that the name belonged to the child of the Azure Emperor until now aside from the fact that she is apparently a member of the 'Supporter', which honestly surprised her more than she already was, from the sounds of it, the girl in question seems to care greatly for her father, not letting the chance to visit him passed her by and seized the opportunity to do so immediately, which is quite heartwarming in the Blonde Genius' Opinion. Still, one question remains on the forefront of her mind, not about the task itself, as it appeared to be a fairly simple errand, just escort the girl back to the Compound, but rather about the fact that she was the one Ruogang would trust with the safety of his daughter over someone with much more suitable than her, "But may I ask why you chose me to do it? It's not that I have a problem with it, just that why me specifically?"

"Well, it's less that I chose you for a certain reason and more on the fact that there is no one else available at the moment." The answer was much more…straightforward than she had anticipated, though it does make sense, as following the reestablishment of the Vermillion County's Borders and their trading relationship with the rest of China, thereby restoring the economic system that threatened to collapse under the strain of an unstable alliance had Aiguo not returned in time that in small part thanks to her literally slapping some sense into him, the tasks on everyone's hands has tripled to accommodated with the change so that they could stabilized the situation, leaving not much free time as of late for many. As such, free time has become something of a luxury that not everyone can afford any longer, with Ciel being one of the lucky few who did not experience an increase in their workload due to her status as a Junior member of the court, to no small amount of envy from Maomao who made her displeasure known to the Blonde, though this blessing seemed to have left her the only option for the Emperor, "So, could you do it?"

Now that's a question for the day, could she do it? As mentioned before, Ciel was many things, but an outgoing and sociable person is decidedly not one of them. This can mainly be attributed to her upbringing in her youth as a test subject who is isolated from the rest of the world, where the only people she knows were the scientist who visited her to check on her progress or the Mechaniloid who delivered her sustenance paste every single day, both of whom never have much in the way of conversation, which proves to have a detrimental effect on her social skill growing up until she hit puberty, ended in her becoming the awkward young woman she is now, occasionally struggling to engage in a dialogue, especially with unfamiliar people, while she manages to avoid the problem up so far, there is no telling when she started to fumbled on her words again, it might give a bad first impression toward the daughter of her Emperor for sending someone who can barely talk for herself as an escort. This might be her most difficult challenge yet.

"I-I'll try, your Majesty." Nonetheless, she accepted the request all the same, which pleased the Crown Blue Megaman of China immensely with her willingness to attempt to fulfill an earnest plea from the Man even if she does appear to hold some reservations about her prospect. That is a trait Ruogang can respect, it just make him likes this girl more and more, and he is certain that Yulian would take a liking to her as well, after all, most people in the court seemed to be quite fond of Ciel ever since she was introduced to the Palace, even the usual taciturn Maomao and frivolous Jinshi hold her in high regard, though for the latter's case, the Blonde did do him a massive favor by acting as a Wingwoman to him, allowing the Yinying's Member to take his relationship with the Senior Cyber Faeries Programmer to the next step in the ladder of intimacy, going from a begrudging friendship to something much more, cemented by a passionate lip-to-lip gesture they shared with one another, which still genuinely surprised the Azure Emperor about even now when he heard about it, as like most people in the Court who thought hell must have really froze, for they could have never imagined Jinshi get anywhere far in his attempts at pursuing Maomao's affection, yet he succeeded after all these times thanks to the helping hand of Ciel, showings that anything is possible.

More than one person lost a bet after that little development became public information.

"Outstanding. Off you go, Young Xia." Allowing the Blonde to excuse herself from the Inner Chamber with a swift gesture of his hand, Ciel bowed one last time, this one out of respect, before she began heading toward the entrance. However, she was one step shy away from going outside when all of a sudden, the Emperor called out, voice dripping with amusement as he did so, "By the way, I highly suggested that you stop pilfering the Dried Plums Stocks! Everyone wanted their share you know!" Deliberately announcing this particular piece of information as loud as he possibly could, it led to just about every single official to wordlessly bite their tongues in a valiant effort to suppress their laughter that was a thread away from being unleashed as the Blonde froze on the spot in horror, unable to find herself saying a word to defend herself with, the only sound that did escape her lips was a low whine of embarrassment as her flustering visage burned in the shame, causing it to grow that was brighter than even the ripest tomato as she dashed off the throne, trying to create a distance between her and the roaring wave of laughter belong to the court. Damn it! He knows about her secret after all!

On that day, Ciel cemented her reputation among the Members of the court as the Dried Plum-obsessed glutton.

Not far from the Palace, a Juvenile Drake Draws near…

When the speeding Bullet of a Train came to a screeching halt with a loud hiss of steam, announcing the arrival of its destination, the Capital City of Qinglong, to all its current passengers on the vessel, among these countless, a certain young woman with hair of obsidian Black that intertwined with streaks of Azure Blue could not stop a grin of excitement from creeping onto her feature or subdues the shiver that crawled down her spine out of sheer rapture, nor does she wanted to bother with trying to, after all, it has been over a good two years since she last visit this the principle city of the Azure Dragon County, where she was born and raised in from birth when she was away to the university at the other side of the globe in the heart of the Neo Arcadian Empire, studying under the head of her designated Clan to one day succeeded her father.

Naturally, it has caused her to feel rather homesick as a result, especially when she could not just simply use a transerver to transport to back to China, with the coordination network being blocked and the Docks being shut down as a contingency following the attack by the Foreign Force, leaving her even more worried for the wellbeing of her father and friends, spending any times she is not training to become a suitable successor on following the Headline to keep the state of affair in china in tab, feeling uncertain whether or not did they purged much more sensitive information to prevent civil panic from exploding all across the nation. But no more will that be the case! With the university temporarily shut down for investigation, which she is not sure what it is about, and the situation of her native country being mostly resolved that led to most traveling methods available once more, she, Qin Yulian, the sole daughter of the Azure Emperor Qin Ruogang, the Azure Princess and the eventual inheritor of the Dragon Throne, could finally return to her beloved home after all these times! Of course, she would be excited! She loves her country dearly, and most of all, she loves her father! She cannot wait to see him again!

Call her a nationalistic daddy's girl all you like, it not going to make her any less eager to see him again! It's not like she is going to deny being one either, considering that she once bawled her eyes out when being forced to leave the eastern soils and her family in order to go to the Capital City of the Empire to train in the way of a Megaman under Elric's supervision. It was a little embarrassing, she'd admitted, even more so when she recalled having clung onto father as the other tried to pry her off of him so tightly that it nearly tore his prized robes off from the strength of her biometal-empowered grip alone, receiving an ear-blistering scolding from him for her disobedience right after that gives her a headache just by thinking about it. Best not to do that anytime soon, for she has places to be.

Being one of the first people to retrieve their belongings, Yulian quite literally raced toward the nearest entrance as fast as her legs could carry her, heedless to all the other passengers she bumped into along the way, only offering a brief apology when she did so, and began taking her first step into the gentle soil of her homeland. Or well, rather, into the cold, solid concrete floor of the train station before that, but her point still stands. Now then, the first order of business for her should heading straight for the Palace, which should not be that far from where she now stands, only around twenty minutes walk away from here. With that in mind, The black and blue-haired Girl strapped her luggage on her person, making sure she had everything, before raising her legs to begin her newest journey toward the compound with great enthusiasm.

Or at least, that was the initial plan, until she spotted a patch of golden yellow and vibrant Blue closing in on her direction at the corner of her eyes, heading directly for her immediately. Turning toward that direction, she could see a Woman, slightly older than her in terms of appearance, with hair of Blonde that possessed a golden gleam to it, clad in a uniform that Yulian could immediately identify with a glance, having seen the design numerous times throughout her life. It was the standard issue servant robes distributed to the workers at the Palace, identified by its color-coded Azure Blue and the sigil of the dragon imprinted on the collar, which boasts a silver highlight on its patterns, indicating the fact that this Woman is not only a part of the Palace, but a high ranking one at that, which caused no small amount of confusion for the daughter of the Emperor, as while she could recognize the articles of clothing, the same could not be said for the Woman that wore them, and she is familiar with most of them.

Though this person appeared to be similar in appearance to a certain Zeranaki Member she had once met before during her apprenticeship at Neo Arcadia, that could not be her, because her eyes color is a cobalt blue instead of the signature crimson red of the Clan, neither was her blonde hair have the distinct golden sheen to them. As such, she chalked it up any similarities she can sees as merely a coincidence, not to mention most of the Zeranaki Clan worked in the Vermillion Bird County, not the azure Dragon that is indicated by the uniform she wears. Maybe this Woman is someone that was recently become part of the Court? She did leave China for over two years, after all, there is bound to be some change during her absence that she is not aware of.

Not to mention that just at the start of this year, she caught wind about her father had disbanded the old court due to their mismanagement while installing a brand new one to fill in the vacuum of power that was left behind, so maybe this blonde lady here is part of this newly revised court system to fill in the gap, and considered that there are plenty of candidates to take up the spot, she would not be surprised if that is the case. Well, there is only one way to find out, and that is by approaching this Woman and asking for her business. There should be no harm in it, if this person has any ill intent, Yulian, as a prospective Blue Megaman, is more than capable of defending herself should the need arise.

"Pardon me, but did Papa send you?" Came a sudden question that interrupted whatever the Blonde had in mind to say at that moment, causing her to briefly stumbled backward in surprise, clearly did not expect the Crown Princess to be the one to initiate a conversation, though she managed to regain her footing and nodded in acknowledgment to the question, as she closes the distance between them, offering a bow with folded hands of respect to Yulian, who now could confirm that, upon closer inspection of the sigil on the robe's collar, this lady is a legitimate member of the Court and not just someone posing as one due to the crest hold an gleaming sheen that an imitation could never hope to replicate, thus alleviating whatever suspicions the Princess had for this stranger. And she seems to know exactly who it is that she is referring to despite the vague nature of her question, which is further supported by the next sentence uttered by the Blonde.

"Y-Yes, My name is Xia, a recent addition to the Court, working as a Cyber Faeries Programmer. You must be Princess Qin Yulian. His Imperial Majesty has tasked me with escorting you back to the Palace, your Highness." As for the newly-christened 'Xia', or rather Ciel, she put up her best effort on trying to not stutter too much in her sentence, an attempt that she managed to succeed, though not without a slight hitch at the beginning, thanks to having spent some times waiting for the Azure Princess practicing on her introduction beforehand, which seems to bore fruit when her introductory sequence, a staple in Neo Arcadian Empire's Culture, did not result in her biting her tongue and stuttered under the overwhelming pressure exudes from Yulian. Her presence reminded the Blonde too much of the Emperor. It appeared that it was a running trait of the family.

"Again Papa?! How many times do I have to tell him I'm not a little girl anymore?!" Do not get her wrong, she does appreciate her father going out of his way to arrange for someone to come and accompany her to the Palace at all, as it shows that he cares about her enough to have someone escort her to the Palace safely, but at the same time, it frustrated her immensely, she is the future Crown Blue Megaman of the entire Nation, trained under the Head of the Clan, Elric himself for the past two years, and have bested the eight Gauntlet trial! she doesn't needed any bodyguard to watch over her like she is still that foolhardy child that has painted the entire Palace Orange that one time all those years ago! She is much more mature now compared to back then!… Well, okay, maybe her current behavior doesn't exactly do justice to that claim, but her point still stands! She has no need for a watcher, especially a Faeries Programmer!… Wait, hold on, a Programmer? But the only one she knows of is Maomao, the only programmer in the entire court for the past two hundred years. Could it be?! "Miss Xia…Do you know Miss Maomao?" Please don't tell her that she is fired, Please don't tell her that she is fired, Please don't tell her that she is fired…

"Oh yes! She's my superior! We have been working with each other for the past weeks, two if my memories serve." Released her bated breath, Yulian allowed for a look of relief to spread all over her visage, glad to hear her favorite court member did not lose her position to this blonde, if she were, then chances are she might throw a tantrum, which would be completely unbecoming of her. Ever since she became conscious of the world around her, Maomao has always been something of a best friend to the Princess of the Azure Dragon County, with them quickly hit off due to the petite Woman's respectful attitude toward royalty that is not outright submissive like most were, treating Yulian with due courtesy someone of her station is entitled to, yet lacking the fear of upsetting her when she was once a volatile child whose mood was like that of a raging storm, unpredictable and destructive. A good thing she has grown out of it and learned to be grateful for all the admonishment from the 'grumpy lady' that is Maomao that led her to the right path, for without those blunt guidances delivered by that sharp tongue, she might have ended up becoming an much more self-important brat with an inflated ego.

"Ah, that's good to hear then. Tell me, how are things with her and Jinshi? The guy still trying to court her?" Ah, Jinshi, her childhood crush, those were the times, when she experienced her first love and subsequently first heartbreak when she learned that the androgynous beauty had his eyes for the Cynical Cyber Faeries Programmer only, causing her to throw one of the biggest fits she has ever done in her entire life. Nowadays though, she has become an unofficial member of a circle of all-female servants who frequently fantasied about those two being together in a relationship much greater than they are now, finding their current friendship to be absolutely adorable, making them ponder the sheer potential it could possess should they somehow took the next step in the ladder of intimacy, but Yulian has doubt on such a prospect, after all, Maomao has been rejecting every advance Jinshi has ever made for over two hundred years now, and she have difficultly believing that will change any times…ever. Still, it would be amusing to learn about the current progress, who knows, maybe he has gotten to the point where Maomao doesn't chase him out of the workshop every time he shows up.

Let's just say, she was not at all mentally prepared for the answer, for Jinshi has gone much farther than Yulian had anticipated. Times change and so do the people.

"Oh, not exactly, Your Highness, Lord Jinshi and Miss Maomao are in a relationship now, so-" Only halfway through her words did she realize her mistake when she saw the jaw of the Azure Princess being loosened to the point that it threatened to hit the hard floor below, completely stupefied by the revelation, making Ciel winced at the sight. In hindsight, she should have seen this coming, nearly everyone in the court was in utter disbelief when Jinshi proudly announced to all that he and Maomao were now officially together, which is confirmed by the latter to be the case to anyone who asked no less, proving that what the Purple-haired man said was the truth and not an delusion his head feed to him to cope with rejections.

Never in their wildest of dreams could they ever entertain such a thing would one day be made a reality, for even the mind, in all of its vast imagination, has a certain limit to the sort of absurd fantasy they can conjure up, entirely depended on concepts they can comprehend, of which the relationship between Maomao and Jinshi is not one of them, subsequently leading to them being woefully unprepared for such an eventuality that they can barely wrap their head around, and Yulian was one such soul, appearing as though she about to faint at any moment, clearly overwhelmed by this piece of information, as most of the Azure Court does. To be fair though, she seems to take it better than most, considering that some are literally in denial even now. In her opinion, it is kind of pitiful.

"Ah…Ah…." As for the Azure Princess, Struggling to even find the words to adequately describe the concoction of emotion that she is at that moment, Yulian felt weak in the knees, head spinning as it tried to process the sentence that had reached her still organic ears. Jinshi…and Maomao…Together? As in…Together-Together? Romantically? Like she and her gal pals circle always dream about in their flight of fancy? A multitude of feelings welled up inside of her, clashing together in a battle within her inner turmoil, unable to decide how she should feel about this. On one hand, there is a profound sense of envy toward the Cyber Faeries Programmer that reared its ugly head after years of laying dormant, the exact same one she felt during her younger years when she learned that the purple-haired Man was interested in the petite Woman over anyone else, demanding the Azure Princess to raged, to cries out, to deny what she has heard, for deep down, the affection she holds for Jinshi that thought to be faded linger still, albeit barely.

But on the other hand, delight was the other feeling that fought with envy to be the dominant emotion, feeling like she had ascended to cloud nine and stepped into the castle in the sky that she and her friends in the court had always yearned to one day seeing, but always seems out of reach. That was, until now, where the Dream her fellow Supporters have discussed on a regular basis has been realized. To say that she was overjoyed would be an understatement to how ecstatic she is currently feeling, she wanted nothing more than to cry out in pure bliss as opposed to the bitter tears her envy wanted her to spill out of frustration.

Ultimately, that particular feeling won out when she decided to let go of the irrational jealousy she harbored and embraced the news for what it is, something worth celebrating over, even more so as a member of the Supporter, as she felt her continuously lowering jaw being winded back and snapped into the place, forming a beaming grin on her features as rapture overtake her entire being, greatly disturbed Ciel at the sudden change of mood, though before she could subconsciously back away from the positively vibrating Azure Princess out of self-preservation instinct that is advising her to get out of there if she wanted to spare her ears from what to come if the rumors were to be believed, the black and blue-haired girl has already intercepted her only escape route, trapping her in place by placing both hands onto the Blonde, with the blonde being forced to face the ear-to-ear grinning face of Yulian. It was too late for the Young Girl. The passionately supportive side of Yulian has already taken over.

"Really?! They are?! Oh, faeries Matron! This is the best piece of news EVER! You got to tell me everything in full detail! How did Jinshi succeed?! Did they kiss?! Cuddle?! CALLING EACH OTHER PETS NAME?! HOW DOES EVERYONE FEEL ABOUT THIS?! WHAT DOES MAOMAO THINK OF JINSHI NOW?! TELL ME, TELL ME, TELL MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Came the most ear-blistering, Head-shaking, and skull-splitting barrage of questions that has ever graced Ciel's ear-plates in a long time, causing everyone in the vicinity to block their ears to protect it from the sheer volume of her voice, matching, or even surpassing, the bolstering laughter of the Azure Emperor as she is being shaken back and forth by the Azure Princess, who the Blonde now has no doubt is the daughter of Ruogang, both have quite the destructive vocal cords that could be classified as a form of mental attack. Never before has she wished she could shut off her earplate more than now.

…You poor Thing.

"Sorry, I got a little too excited back there." Excited would not even begin to describe the sheer extent of it in Ciel's opinion, Yulian was practically euphoric for a moment. She knows that the 'Supporters' of Maomao and Jinshi's relationship can get a little…intense, perhaps a little too passionate about those two, especially when she gets a taste of their fervent dedication to see those two together firsthand in the form of the maidservants that have swarmed her, the Wingwoman responsible for connecting those two together about it for weeks and even repeatedly invited her to join their little circle despite her continuous refusal, but the Blonde did not think it was to such a degree if the Azure Princess was anything to go by, then again, maybe it has to do with the fact that Yulian is far louder than every single one of them combined, which she did not think it was even possible in the first place. Of all the things she could have inherited from her father, why must it be his vocal cords of steel?

"Oh it's alright, you are not the first person to ask these things. Some of the worker girls do too." Ciel chuckled sheepishly, recalling the fallout of Jinshi publicly announcing his brand new relationship with the Court's Senior Cyber Faeries Programmer to the entire Palace under the influence of alcohol he had drunk during a party he had thrown to celebrate his success at courting the love of his life. There were so many people, all with even more questions in regard to their relationship than what the two of them could answer. thankfully, the situation managed to settle down when night fell, where the petite Woman concluded her day by twisting the earplate of her idiotic, purple-haired Lover as punishment for being indirectly responsible for her workshop getting flooded with people and subsequently unable to get any work done that day, as well as showing Ciel that the cybernetic implants seem to replicate the sensation of organic body parts considered that the shadow Megaman of China winced in pain from having his sensor squeezed as tightly as it physically could. She always enjoyed gaining more knowledge, even if this one was at the expense of Jinshi. Then again, he kind of deserved it.

"Haha! No doubt about that, especially Xiaolan." At the mention of the most notorious gossiper in the court, and a member of the circle of Supporters, the two girls shared a hearty laugh with each other as they walked down the street of Qinglong, still as bustling and lively as the last time Yulian was here, making her smiled at the nostalgic sight. Not much has changed in those two years it would seem. While the tension in the air is still very much present, and likely will not go away until the situation in China has been fully resolved, it has eased up for the most part, creating a noticeable difference in the atmosphere compared to the first time Ciel first arrived to it. That is not the only change to the scenery for the Blonde either, she could see that there were more people than ever before, some of whom were clad in foreign garbs she did not recognize that stood out from the denizens of the city, though they have a clear Neo Arcadian Empire design to them with the standard golden wrist bands, plated boots, and ebony underclothing, indicating that these are most likely Neo Arcadians from the other countries who took advantages of the recently reopened of the transportation service in the country to visit it, creating a sight that while new for Ciel, resembled much more of the Qinglong in the Azure's Princess' Memories, the cosmopolitan heart home of the Dragon County. It's good to be back here.

"Ahhh...How I missed this place." She sighed in delight, taking in her surroundings with a deep breath that filled her lungs to their maximum capacity as they continued on their walk to the Palace. The scent in the air is a little tainted by the turmoil the country is in, and maybe of the fish market nearby as well, but it is still the same as she remembers them. While Neo Arcadia was an organized and peaceful fortress of a city, befitting its status as the Center of the Empire, in Yulian's personal, totally not biased opinion, no other country could possibly beat China when it comes to its majesty, especially the Blue Dragon County. She cannot wait to go sightseeing once she is done meeting her father. Speaking of which, it made her wonder about one thing since she met her escort, "Hey Xia, How did you become part of the court?" Came a question from the Azure Princess, a thoughtful expression imprinted on her visage.

While she cannot claim that she is well-versed in the deeper complexities and intricacies of the court, for she still has a long way to go before she can be named an Empress, Yulian has at least a decent grasp on how the enlistment process works, with most, if not all of the officials down to the very servant's staffs being handpicked by the Emperor, which included Maomao, but only after she cemented her reputation as the finest Cyber Faeries Programmer in the nation, creating a court comprised of some of the best and the brightest China has to offer. As such, not everyone can become part of the Azure Court like all the other counties, so understandably, The Azure Princess is curious about how Ciel managed to gain a spot in it, as the assistant to Maomao that lasted for over two weeks no less.

A completely unprecedented amount of time considers that the Petite Woman has quite a high standard for a subordinate, though maybe it has to do with the fact that this person right here is personally chosen by Ruogang rather than relegated the task to his court like all the previous attempt at finding an assistance. Even still, it most definitely speaks volumes of her talent, assuming she is not lying, yet she never has heard of someone who goes by Xia before until today. Someone of her talent should be everywhere on the news. Perhaps the Blonde here is a diamond in the rough that her father managed to pick out in his scouting for new remember to replenish the rank after her father has removed the majority of his old Court?

"About that…" Fortunately for her, Ciel already come up with the abridged account of the events that have led her to where she is now, having used it on multiple occasions where people have asked her the same thing as the Azure Princess. After all, It's only reasonable to ask, seeing that she is essentially a nobody in the eyes of the masses. Her being chosen by the Emperor himself is bound to raise some questions, if not protest, "I was staying in Xiangjiang when his Majesty made a detour to the town while traveling China for a peace talk, you must have heard of it, where he met me and my…Cyber Faeries, Potentielle and Illimite. When he learned that I made them, he immediately offered me to be part of the court, which I accepted at the start of this year and has been here since."

"I see…" Xiangjiang, huh? If her memories serve, it is a small, isolated town in the White Tiger County in the west, bordering the Blue Dragon Frontier. Other than it being the place where most of the Former Clan's members stationed in the country go when they retire from their position due to its fairly peaceful environment, detached from the troubles and strifes of a much more developed areas, it is fairly unremarkable for the most part. Not sure why her father would make a detour to such a place when it would take much less time than usual if he continued to keep going on the road. Then again, it is hard to tell what her father is thinking at time, but he certainly had the right idea to recruited the Blonde into their fold, it would be a waste to let such a talent to fade into obscurity, or worse, getting poached by other major Power Players, "No wonders why he would want someone like you in the court."

"Hehe, thanks…" lightly Scratching her cheeks that flushed a bright shade of red, Ciel sheepishly chuckled at the sincere praise offered to her by the Azure Princess, it felt a little unwarranted if she was being honest, but she took it nonetheless as they resumed their journey. The small talks they made along the way seemed to be quite an effective method at killing the time it takes for them to travel from the station to the Palace, allowing them to reach the cerulean walls of the compound in no time flat, just in time for lunch as well according to the position of the burning star above them. Ciel could really use for something to eat once she escorted the Princess to the Throne room.

However, there seems to be no need to go that far, because in the distance from where they stood, "PAPA!" The Azure Emperor could be seen making his way toward their direction, accompanied by a few royal guards, but Yulian couldn't care less about them, for her focus directly solely at the sight of the flamboyantly dressed royalty they are surrounding. Utterly disregarding any elegance and grace, the Princess called out in excitement with an explosive shout as she bounced toward her father, diving right into his open arms that he spread open to catch the flying bullet that is his daughter, colliding into his chest and nearly knocked him off his feet, to the concerns of the Imperial Soldiers by his side, though just like his beloved child, he cares not for their presence, his attention reserved solely for Yulian in that moment.

"Wahahaha! There you are, my little Angel!" The Azure Emperor let out an exhilarating laugh of sheer delight shared by a much more emotional one from his daughter, pulling her into a deep embrace as the combination of their deafening roar shook the Palace ground itself to the core, causing everyone in the proximity of the courtyard to cover their ears in an effort to drown out the eruption of laughter from the two Azure Royalty. Words alone would never do justice to how overjoyed Ruogang was to hold his daughter again after the longest two years of his entire life, it was like holding her for the first time when she first came into this world on the dawn of a morning marked by the sky weeping a heavy rainfall, just as he released his own downpour from his eyes, cradling his newborn in his arms. No matter how big or old she becomes, regardless of how far she gets in life, and even if she eventually becomes an Empress, she is and will still be his little girl.

Observing the exchange between a loving daughter and her proud father from afar, Ciel, as did many others in the area, grew a smile at the heartwarming sight unfolding before their very eyes. Those two years of being separated must have been hard to go through for those two, made only worse by the fact that neither of them is able to contact each other to check up on the wellbeing of one another until now. She is glad that they are finally together again, temporary as it may be, Ruogang definitely would not give up this moment for anything else. Hopefully, she will be able to have a similar moment with her Sister when she can go home. Now then, it's probably for the best that she leave and be on her way, The Blonde is certain that they have a lot of catching up to do, besides, her stomach is in desperate need of sustenance. Goodness, it has gotten too used to food now that keeps wanting to be filled. Seems that she will be living up to her nickname as a glutton, no matter how hard she wants to deny otherwise.

Silently removing herself from the courtyard in a subtle fashion not all that dissimilar from the resident Shadow Megaman of the Court now that everyone is focused entirely on the Emperor and his daughter, Ciel decided to go straight to the cafeteria section of the Palace with the obvious intention of getting some lunch to placate her now constantly-growling stomach. Perhaps she should not have indulged in that much food in the first place. Oh well, too late for that she supposed. Just like how she did not realize she was about to crash into someone until she did, sending her and the man, whom Ciel only knows based on his voice that yelp in surprise at the unexpected collision, tumbling into the ground that was now covered in layers of documents he was carrying on his person, being the very thing that were responsible for blocking his vision, leading to their current situation, where the two has fallen to their rear, with innumerable amount of papers everywhere in the hallway.

"Ack! I'm so, so sorry Sir!" Seeing the mess she has created because of her negligence in paying attention to her surroundings once more, in which documents are flung everywhere, with some even flying to the open garden through the tug of winds that pulled them, a fervent apology came from a panicking Ciel as she profusely trying to gather all of the dispersed files file in an effort to regroup them back into an organized stack. Mother Elf, Why does her mind keep wandering off during moments she needs it to stay the most? Now that bad habit of hers has caused more inconveniences for both herself and the people around her. She truly does need to get that fixed one of these days.

"No, No. It's my fault for not looking ahead. Besides, it's unbecoming for someone above me to call me 'Sir'." At the confused expression of the Blonde, the man with eyes of golden, a rather peculiar color, gestured at the Dragon sigil imprinted on the collar of his robes, similar in design to the one she has, but different in the material that made up its surface, which was Bronze metal rather a silver one like Ciel, a rank below the Blonde, indicating his status as a Servant in the outer section of the Palace. Strange, she didn't think she had met this Man among the servant staff before, and she knew a good deal of them by now, if only because they were the ones who approached her rather than the other way around. Then again, there are at least hundreds, if not thousands of workers in the Compound, it is not exactly possible to know every single one of them, "Though may I request your help in gathering these documents? I needed to deliver them to the Grand Archive."

"O-Of course!" Readily accepted the request, she began in earnest by going to the garden the hallway is connected to, where some of the files have been flung over. Fortunately, none of them landed in the nearby pond, allowing Ciel to collect them with relative ease. While her stomach are crying out in anguish right about now, wanting to get to the eatery more than anything, she decided to ignore the pang of hunger for the moment. If this is her way to make up for her mistake, then she would be more than happy to lend a hand, especially to her Junior- Wait. Hold on…why is an Outer Section Worker assigned to deliver files to the Grand Archive? Last she checked, the Place was a highly restricted area, where only silver rank workers and above like herself could access it…Then there is also the fact that the Grand Archive is a computer Database, where most of its information is contained in a server, not paper documents…Who is this?

A creeping realization began to dawn on her, just like the looming shadow that cast over her form, causing her to snap her head toward the projector of the shade in a moment of panic, leaving her neck exposed and vulnerable, exactly the window of opportunity the man has been searching for, who wasted no time to took out some kind of device that crackled with lightning crackles on its sharpened prongs, and immediately drove it into Ciel's neck, punctuated her skin and draws out a leak of crimson, causing her to scream out in primal pain, only worsen by what followed, which was one of the worse the Blonde has ever experienced in a long time.

Surges of electricity shot across her body in a pain that could only be described as her veins being pierced by a lance of thunder, overwhelming the nervous system and the wirings of the implants that were grafted into them, causing her system to undergo an emergency shut down in an attempt to preserve it before it could be overload, however, that was his intention, to render her entire body useless, and killing Ciel's voice as no more sounds escaped from her lips, no matter how much energy she poured into her throat, nothing seems to come out. Before long, the flood of agony ceased, with the device ripped out of her throat, her blood flung everywhere on the grass of the garden, where she laid down when her body collapsed, Darkness engulfed her muddled vision, splitting into two as a result of her loss of focus, unable to cling onto her consciousness. The last sounds she could pick up at that moment before descending into the bottomless murky depth were the sounds of her own body falling onto the solid soil below.

And…

"…Master Thomas, I've secured the keycard."

Then, she knew no more.

The Lotus Wilted…

Just about everybody knows that traveling by carriage, especially in these days and ages, where automobile and transerver services are much more readily available to the masses compared to the ancient vehicle has less to do with any sort of hidden benefits or some kind of practicality and more on the demonstration of one's status in the world, even more so in the country of china, where this is the primary mode of transportation for those that stood above the rest of the nation, mostly comprised of Imperial Emperors or Empresses and those that served them, exchanging speed and efficiency for shows of extravagance and wealth in the form of their gilded Carriage, decorated with gold and other forms of jewelry, which in the personal opinion of one Vermillion Emperor, Jun Aiguo, is quite asinine in the grand scheme of things when you take even a single moment to think about it for even a minute.

Using Gold as decor is already unusual enough, jewels he could understand, but to build an entire transporting vehicle out of them? That is the very definition of impracticality, considering how dense and heavy the metal is, coupled with the additional weight of precious gems, it is no wonder why even mechanical horses would not cut it to pull this thing, which required domesticated Imaginary Phantasm such as the Longmas, or in the Vermillion County's case, the Jingweis Birds, known for their persistence and hardy nature, especially against what they considered to be a challenge, making them the perfect candidates as the beast of burden for such an ostentatious carriage to move anywhere, like right now, with the entourage of the Vermillion Emperor traveling on a beaten paved path toward their Azure Counterpart in the east side of the map, with the intention of escorting Aiguo to his neighbor for the meeting that shall soon take place there.

If there is something Jun Aiguo would never understand in being an Emperor, aside from the fashion sense his fellow Rulers appeared to favor, is the fact that he is required to travel by this absurdly gaudy mode of transportation, completed with royal guards and everything just to attends a simple meeting. One that would determine the fate of the country, sure, but still, why can't he just use his pocket transerver and go there without any of this hassle that cost him all of his precious time? All of this seems to be terribly inconvenient to him, not to mention boring as well. There is not much source of entertainment when you are required to sit inside an over-elaborated vehicle that has nothing to keep your mind occupied aside from peering through the window to watch the passing scenery. There is no way to connect to the internet here after all. At least for Aiguo, he has his sister, Ophelia, who is more than happy to break the ice and engage in a conversation to keep him occupied.

"…I'm telling you Brother, That girl is a perfect match for you!" …If only the topic of their current small talk was less awkward. Ever since that fateful encounter with the Cyber Faeries Programmer who goes by the name of Xia at the Lotus Luncheon, who literally slapped some sense into him and allowed him to break himself free of the chains of obligation that were destroying his health, leading to him making a full recovery after a week, all Ophelia has been talking about from that day was about this enigmatic girl, that how she is 'The One' for him, trying to play the part of a matchmaker for him and Xia with no sign of stopping any times soon, seemingly due to her newfound respect for the Blonde Girl, to which Aiguo could only sigh in exasperation each time. It is true that he does respect the girl greatly as much as his sister, looking up to her with the same level of admiration as his fellow Emperor, but it does not translate to him being romantically attracted to her. The Vermillion Emperor felt nothing of the sort, besides, he is still only two hundred years old, still too early to get a partner of his own. His sister does not think so, however, and has been prodding him nonstop about courting the Blonde as of late.

"And I'm telling you, I am not interested. Besides, who is to say she doesn't have a partner already?" Was the counter-argument he always used against Ophelia. With the kind of person Xia is, he would be genuinely surprised that no one had eyes on her, given that she is a Cyber Faeries Programmer personally enlisted by Ruogang himself according to what little information he had on her, is quite mild-mannered and kind-hearted but firm and headstrong if she needed to, and is quite decent looking, not that he care about that, seeing that he already have his heart belonged to someone else already, not that his sister is aware of them yet. Maybe that is why she keeps bothering him to find a partner. He should inform her of that, once she is mentally ready to welcome her soon-to-be Elder Sister that is, he has a distinct impression that she would not take it well, despite teasing him constantly about it.

"But what if she does not? This might be your chance! You already reached that two hundred years old milestone! Don't you think it's about time you get a girlfriend?" By that point, Aiguo just decided to ignore the nonstop ranting of his adopted sister by switching off his earplate, preventing her voice from reaching his brain in favor of resting his head on his hand on his arms against the window sill of the carriage, gazing toward the ever-stretching plains. There just seems to be no way for him to persuade Ophelia to stop this whole nonsensical tirade about his age in the slightest, might as well wait until she gets tired and stops on her own. So what if he is two centuries old now? There's nothing unusual about him wanting to take his time to find a suitable partner. Even Ruogang did not get married until he was two hundred years old himself and only had his daughter a decade and a half back.

Speaking of whom, he wondered how that lass, Yulian was doing these days. It had been a couple of years since he previously saw her, with the last time he talked with her was when she was around eight, he believed, recalling a distinct memory at that time in which that girl fell in love with him before suffered another heartbreak by his polite but firm rejection to her affection, ended with her bawling her eyes out, something he still felt a little guilty over, even if Ruogang has assured him that it is just her being a kid. From what he has heard, she has traveled to Neo Arcadia to receive the necessary education so that she could one day assume the Mantle of an Imperial Ruler once her father decided to step down and name her his successor to the Dragon Throne. Honestly, he is curious about how she would do when that time came. Would she be like the current Azure Emperor, or would he grow into something else? Only time has an answer to that, and it won't tell. They just have to wait and see.

"…Are you listening to me?!" His internal musing was broken when earplate was suddenly switched back online by an irate Ophelia, who was clearly less than pleased that the bulk of her speech fell onto literal deaf ears when she noticed that Aiguo did not even react to any of her words, letting her know that he has deactivated his sensor, prompting her to turn it back on, ready to give him a legendary tongue-lashing of the ages when the most unexpected development came to save him from a potential ranting of his furious Sister, in the form of his communicator ringing loudly. Disregarding the fuming expression of the burgundy-haired Young Woman for a moment, the Vermillion Emperor retrieved the device from his pocket, seeing that it was an Emergency Call, and as if that was not alarming enough, the one that made this contact was, of all people, the White Empress Mei Feng.

Now this is a cause for concern. For what purpose is the Empress making an Emergency call to him? This is not like her at all, which means that whatever the situation is on the other end, it is dire enough that it warranted the normally cool and collected Mei Feng to contact him using the option reserved for the most disastrous of crises. Without any further delay, the Blond-haired Man answered the call, projecting the transparent figure of the Ruler of the White Tiger County for him and his sister to see, both of whom could notice the clear sense of panic on the face of the composed and serene Empress on her face, a clear indicator that something is terribly wrong, "What's wrong Lady Mei?!" Although he has tried to appear as calm as he possibly could, his voice betrayed the sense of urgency in his tone, wanting to gain some sort of explanation as soon as possible.

"Aiguo! There you are! listen, you know this girl named Xia right? The new Worker at the Azure Palace Compound?" Aiguo was far less interested in how the White Empress knew about the Blonde, as the pink-haired woman has the most expansive intelligence network in all of China, her knowing about Xia and his connection with her is more likely through them than he is in the current situation that seemingly revolved around this particular girl. Did something happen to her that required his attention of all things? Was she somehow captured by the Foreign Force and used as some sort of bargaining chip? They are growing fairly desperate for whatever method they can use to gain an upper hand over the government according to the latest report he received from Hou Yi. As it turns out, she was indeed captured, as he soon learned, just not by the one he was suspecting, "I'm not sure what has lead to it, but She has been…Arrested by The Royal Guards."

"WHAT?!" Shocks would not be enough to completely convey the utter disbelief the two Vermillion Siblings were in when that sentence reached their ears. Artificial or otherwise, both heard the same thing even though they wished they didn't, causing their eyes to expand as wide as they could physically reach, jaw losing their strength to hold together, and hit on the ground, the fate the communicator nearly suffered when Aiguo felt like his strength was sapped away by the news. At that moment, it was as though the world around them come to a halt, nothing else mattered to them as they tried to process the news that was brought to their attention by the White Empress, whose tone made it clear that this was not one of her ill-conceived jokes, that is it, unfortunately, the truth. That Xia, the unknown savior to the masses of the Vermillion County from descending into Madness, saving it from itself and sparing them the fate of collapsing into chaos…Was imprisoned? How…How can this be? "But why?!" They demanded, too distraught to even mind their manner, not that Mei Feng seemed to take offense at it, for she too shared their feelings on the matter, even though it had been confirmed multiple times by her agents to be the case.

"Supposedly, on the Crime of treason for assisting a Spy that managed to steal the valuable information of the Grand Archive, or stealing them herself. I am not sure which one it is." They could not believe what they were hearing. Xia, of all people, has committed such a crime? That…That's impossible. Absurd even. It doesn't sound like her at all. In the brief interaction they have had with the Blonde, they get the distinct impression that the Cyber Faeries Programmer is a forthcoming and earnest individual, whose gentle demeanor belies a spirited and passionate soul who values family above all else, as proven by her attitude toward the concept and took offense at anyone thinking otherwise. As such, they have a hard time believing that he would ever think about betraying anyone, especially for such a crime as heinous as treason. There has to be more to this act of supposed treachery than meets the eyes. That was the smallest bit of hope they could cling onto, "Or so was the reason, I doubt Ruogang believed in it himself either, but it doesn't change the fact that Xia has been incarcerated. We have yet to receive any word from the Council back in Delta at the current moment. So until then, I suggest that you come to the Azure Palace as soon as possible. I will be there too to see what I can do."

"Understood. I will meet you there. Faeries Matron preserves us both." Severing the communication line, Aiguo attempted to make use of his personal pocket transerver to close the distance between his entourage and the Capital of the Azure Dragon County, only to find out that, much to his and Ophelia's horror, the coordination has been locked higher than the security Lock of the Grand Archive, being in a state of emergency lockdown that sealed off the transporting service to the Azure Dragon County, not at all dissimilar to a few months back when the border of the Frontier got shut down due to the border-sealing act, and this time around, the decision appeared to be deliberate on the Azure Emperor's part. Damn it, of all times for them to lose access...With the speed at which they are traveling now, by the time they reached the Capital, the sun would set into the ocean, and the verdict on Xia's fate would have been carried out. For the crime of treason and stealing the forbidden knowledge held in the Grand Archive, the only fitting punishment is Death. Has it been him a few weeks ago, he would have reluctantly accepted it with a heavy heart full of sorrow and resignation, knowing he has no right to stop it, not when he himself has bloodied his hands countless times when he had to be the one to deliver judgment to betrayers and similar criminals alike, even more so in recent months, in the period where all he could see was Red of blood his enemies spilled, staining his Jade Saber that does not discriminate its targets.

But the current Aiguo was selfish, far more so than he has ever been throughout his entire life. The blonde-haired man refused to let the Girl who had pulled him up from his lowest point suffer from what he did not believe was Just, regardless of whether or not she had actually committed the crime she was sentenced behind bars for. Even if siding with her would brand him as a traitor to his people, and potentially make him face the same fate as her, his honor as the Vermillion Emperor that has been with him since his day as a Prince dictated that he fulfill the oath he had cast on that fateful day of repaying the favor to the kind-hearted Blonde girl who has imparted to him a pearl of important wisdom that has saved his County, even if they are unaware of it, and he intended to go through with that promise. Even if he holds absolutely no power over matters that fall under the jurisdiction of the Blue Dragon County, nonetheless would he intend to do what he believed is right, what he believed in, and what he fought for, in accordance with the doctrine of the Zeranaki Clan, the ideology passed down since the Red Demon of a time long forgotten.

Without speaking any more words, the two siblings merely shared a firm nod with each other, an silent communication took place as the both of them determined to find a way to clear the name of Xia once they reached the cerulean walls of the Azure Palace, even if it is the last thing they'll do. Until then, all they could do is to silently pray to whatever Deities that were willing to listen to them would bring salvation to the innocent Sinner, who unbeknownst to all, bears the sigil of the eternal Lotus on her person. Just like another Lotus in this Familiar yet utterly Foreign Garden. May the sacred Flower continue to bloom, despite the hardship it shall face in the near future.

The Crimson Phoenix Set its sight on the Garden of the Dragon...

When she crafted the persona of Mei Feng, Makiko Elpis Marisbury, or Maki as everyone else referred her as for convenient sake, the Revolutionary Megaman, who was appointed the position of the representative of the recently converted White Tiger County, well, as recent as two hundred years ago was, by the Greater Council of Delta, she has made it a deliberate decision to forged the mask of an enigmatic and indomitable Leader, who seldom speak and rarely, if ever express herself to anyone, revealing naught a single moment of weakness for anyone, especially her hidden enemies to take advantages of, all in an effort to conceal her true identity as the Leader of the Elpis Clan from everyone, from the unenlightened masses down to her most trusted but ignorant officials and advisors under her false name of the White Empress, disconnecting herself from her true character as much as possible, for even she would admit, her personality as Maki has been generally regarded as highly eccentric by multiple people, including her best friend, Kyra Zeranaki.

Especially in the way she talks, specifically, her verbal ticks, resembling the sounds a cat would make, which can be attributed to her love for feline kind, causing her to develop an almost instinctive habit of making that sort of sound anytime she speaks from being surrounded by bundles of furs when she was being herself, an urge that is surprisingly difficult to curb. Sometimes her tongue would slip, forcing the brunette to act as though it was just the sound of some stray cat nearby any times she was having a conversation, and so far, that has worked, though she is uncertain on how long that would last, thus she chooses to speak as little as she could as Mei Feng, or else someone might figured out her identity from the speech pattern, a dead giveaway to the only person that speaks in that manner among many other habits she did her best not acting out.

With plenty of telltale signs of her true self should she even act like herself for even a moment, Maki has put a great deal of effort into avoiding doing so as much as she could, playing the part of an elegant and reserved woman, who only open her mouth when strictly necessary, does the bare minimum in public appearance, and generally maintains an air of mystery around her, so that no one could make the connection between the Revolutionary Megaman and the White Empress together. It helps that her disguise as the latter bears next to no resemblance to how she truly looks beneath that flawless mask of hers, or so she would like to believe, but as she now realizes, her composed facade is not nearly as perfect as she would like it to be, for cracks has begun to form beneath the newest pressure placed upon it, one great enough for her to break the unfeeling visage of Mei Feng, and let her true self as Maki to seep through the gap.

"…Fuck." Seated on her lonesome in her private garden within the Palace, the Mei Feng let out a completely uncharacteristic curse on her lips, but she could not care about staying in character, because the one that was currently speaking was not the Ruler of the White Tiger County, but rather, Maki, that is the one in control as her cherry blossom-colored hair shifted back to its natural Brown while her golden eyes reverted to its original blue shading, leaning on her stone chair, a sense of dread began to form inside her, and anyone that is aware of the reason behind that feeling would not blame her for. To think such a situation would arise. She should have taken extra precautions, to have her agents keep a close watch on Xia and protect her from the remaining Spy in the Azure Court, it could have prevented such a scenario from happening, where the Girl had her keycard stolen by an unknown individual who has stolen the forbidden information from the Grand Archive after they have attacked her, while incriminating the innocent blonde as a sympathizer with the enemy force in the eyes of the rest of the court that once treated her as a family, now as a traitor based on the report her agents managed to gather.

Maki could not help but felt responsible for this predicament, an profound sense of guilt overcame her being. after all, It was she who recommended the Foreign Girl to Ruogang during the time when people like her were treated with distrust, and this latest development would only fuel the flame of conflict even further with Foreigners more than ever before, potentially resetting everything back to square one, just when they are about to reconciled too. She cannot have that, the Council cannot have that, not when they are this close to restoring the Harmony of China, that is why they tasked the Revolutionary Megaman, one of a few selected members in the Ruling council that has any form of direct influence in the sovereign nation to figure out how to resolve the situation and make sure Xia got out of this, preferably with her head still on her shoulder, all to prevent the news from reaching to the public that might strengthen the anti-Foreigner movement.

Upon enlisting the help of Aiguo, who she is aware owes the Blonde Girl a favor, therefore more than willing to assist Maki in helping Xia, The Revolutionary Megaman, changing her appearance back to the White Empress, begins to pick herself up from where she sat and retrieved the Rapier placed onto the wooden table, brandishing it from its circular sheath, of which she used its needle like blade to punch a hole into the fabric that is space, tearing open a large gash to formed a distorted gateway that she makes sure is connected to the Azure Dragon County. Although the coordination to it has been locked, it means nothing before the signature ability of Biometal Model E, the ability to create a gateway that is connected to Cyberspace to just about anywhere Maki desired, allowing her to travel a great distance without the need for a transerver, which is now completely useless at the moment.

Staring intently at the distortion in the boundary of Space and Time, Maki, or rather, the White Empress Mei Feng began to take a deep breath, before taking the first step into the gateway, which immediately sealed off the moment she fully submerged herself into the other side. Treading on the transparent grid that made up a walkway in cyberspace, the revolutionary Megaman was deep in thought, most of it was about her destination, and what she intended to do there. She cannot hope to make use of her authority as the White Empress there, as by using the excuse of Xia falling under her Region's jurisdictions to get her out of the situation, it would only give away her identity as the Foreigner that ended in her frontier last year, thus might stir up needless conflict and strengthen the anti-Foreigner sentiment. Besides, she doesn't have any data on Xia to prove her to be a citizen of her Frontier, but she can at least try to persuade Ruogang to potentially lower the punishment for Xia's alleged Crime. That way, she could at least ensure the girl's safety, "What are you thinking, Ruogang?" She silently whispered to herself, wondering how the Man was dealing with the situation right now.

Not well in all likelihood.

The Ivory Tiger Approached closer…

Regrets were not a feeling The Azure Emperor was unfamiliar with. In contrast to what most would believe, many of the decision he has made over the course of his Reign, which while ultimately in the best interest of his citizen, came with a hefty personal cost in doing so, has left him with a sense of selfish regrets more than one occasion, eating him away as he attempts to wrestle with his inner turmoil every single day, leading to him contemplating on what could have been had circumstances played out differently, where he would not have to make such difficult choices for his county to prosper and thrive. In the end, however, he is acutely aware that it's just wishful thinking on his part, as there is nothing he can do about the Past. What's done is done, and there is no changing it, no matter how hard you try.

Forced to acknowledge it as fact, rather than try to resist it, Ruogang just learned to live with these anguish of his, taking solace in the fact that what he had done was for the Greater Good of the Nation, that all he was doing was fulfilling his obligation as an Emperor, so goes the comforting whisper that soothe his troubled mind, heavy with all sorts of thoughts. For many decades since his ascension to the Dragon Throne, that is how he coped with his emotional baggage with each action he made, by constantly telling himself that no sacrifice is a price too great for the sake of a billion, no matter how difficult the decision may be, if his people are able to smile, then he is fine with unable to do it himself. If his people can be happy, then he has no problem with not being able to feel it himself. If his people can be satisfied, then he is content with being unable to feel it himself. All for his People.

Admittedly, it was not the healthiest of mindset out there, but he is too far gone into it to stop now…Just as he was too late to stop the order he had authorized. The Order to imprison his aspiring Court Member, Xia, which he now comes to regret of allowing to happen. When he and his daughter finally are able to reunite, Ruogang has planned to express his gratitude to the Blonde for escorting his daughter back safe and sound, only for her to be nowhere in sight. Initially believing she was just going to the Cafeteria section, the Azure Emperor has traveled there, expecting to see the Junior Cyber Faeries Programmer indulging in her meal like the glutton everybody in the court now knew her as, but again, she was not present there, making him growing concerned as to where she was, since even Maomao herself was wondering where she is.

Then, it came as a shock to him when his built-in Alarm System within his cybernetic implants informed him that the Security Lock of the Grand Archive had been disabled by the keycard he had given to Xia and hundreds of data had been stolen from it right after. At that precise moment, rather than trying to come up with an explanation on the spot, for there was no way she would do that, fury completely overtook his rational thoughts, the Surface Level of Information blinded his better judgment, making him jump to the worse possible conclusion and immediately issued a order to every royal guard to locate and capture the Young Blonde, who he believed to be a traitor that has been fooling everyone this entire time so that she could earn their trust and gain access to the Grand Archive in order to steal the valuable intelligence from there. It was not completely groundless either, he had always held a slight suspicion toward Xia ever since he met her, having been aware of her status as a Foreigner from Mei Feng, but before he knew it, he was drawn to her seemingly earnest nature, making him turn a blind eye the smallest possibility that she was spy send here by the Foreign Force. What a mistake that turned out to be.

Or so he thought, but when the Imperial Guards finally located the Blonde, rather than attempting to escape as most spies would, they instead found her lying in the open Garden, unconscious, blood streaming from the two large gashes on her neck, nowhere close to the Grand Archive, indicating that she was not the traitor as he has assumed, because the most damning piece of evidence of all, or the lack of it, is the absence of her designated Keycard, proving her innocence in the matter when it reached his ears. When it does, it dispelled the Anger that clouded his mind, clear enough for him to put the pieces together to get a clear picture, making him realize his mistake, the red herring of the situation, that Xia had nothing to do with this, that someone has most likely attacked her, steals her keycard in order to incriminate her, leading the Guards go on a while goose chase on the wrong target while the actual Mole made his getaway with the information once they are distracted with finding the Blonde. But by then, he was too late to call off the order, as the Guards, once they resuscitated her condition and ensured that she was able to recover from her injuries, immediately threw her into the dungeon beneath the Palace, awaiting tomorrow's trial early in the morning, much to her confusion when she regained her consciousness, being the one that felt betrayed by the Court, rather than the other way around.

They have all been fooled, and Ruogang only could feel complete and utter shame for falling victim to such a simple tactic himself. Had he taken a moment to think it through, he should have been able to put two and two together to know that Xia, pure and earnest as she was, would never do something like that, but now, his foolish and hasty action has cost him a loyal member of the court, all the while the one responsible still walks free somewhere out there. As if things could not get worse, the news of Xia's imprisonment has spread to the rest of the Palace, with the response to the news being something on the fence. The majority of the court, consisting mainly of people that have interacted with and befriended the Blonde Prior, were outraged by what they believed to be injustice, demanding the Emperor an explanation for it, as they did not believe Xia would be capable of betraying the Court like that and refuse to believe the arrest was justified until they learned the true reason why, as the rest were making demands of their own, just a different kind, in that they wished to see the supposed Traitor be executed for her Crime, unaware of the circumstances.

It took every Royal Guard on his hands to subdue the chaos the Palace had devolved into when the news somehow made its way to the ears of the Servant staff, which Ruogang suspected that the Spy who had acquired the forbidden Data in the Grand Archive had a hand in spreading before escaping, and even then, the current condition of the Compound can hardly be viewed as stable. Tension is at all times high. Most of the workers essentially went on Strike, refusing to do their duty until Xia, whom they viewed the arrest of as an offense to them all, got released from what they believed to be a wrongful imprisonment, something that Ruogang had considered, but unfortunately, like with most things, it is not going to be that simple.

If he just simply let Xia go as is, then it would no doubt sparked disagreement from those in the court who wished to see this co-called Spy be brought to justice for what is generally agreed as the crime of highest violation in the Neo Arcadian Empire, which will prove to be problematic, as they have the ability to disclose these pieces of information to the public who would work with incomplete pieces of information that lead to the wrong interpretation of the situation, and he cannot just tell them the truth behind the circumstances, as there is no concrete evidence to suggested that it was a different Spy that committed this transgression. As far as they are aware of it, Xia is the one who did it, thus she should receive a correlating sentence befitted of her treachery, and he cannot afford the Risk of letting the idea that he would just forgive the Supposed traitor as if nothing has happened to get out to outside of the Palace. Not to mention, how would his Fellow Rulers think of him if he decided to overlook this crime of the highest order? He couldn't care less about his reputation, but it is the relationship between the other counties that he is worried about. One wrong move and it will set everything back to the days of conflict.

But at the same time, he doesn't want to sentence the Blonde to death for a crime she clearly did not have any hands to play in, she doesn't deserve it, she doesn't deserve any of this. Xia did not even know what she did that got her thrown into the dungeon in the first place, that was already enough to emotionally scar her, if she learned that she would be executed for no reason then…No, the Azure Emperor cannot allow such a thing to come to pass. He won't. This is the one Regret Ruogang refused to live with like most others. He does not think he can forgive himself if Xia gets unjustly executed when she is only a victim in this due to his ill-timed decision.

Suffice to say, the Azure Emperor needed to figure out some ways to get the Blonde out of this precarious predicament, all the while treading lightly around the political minefield in doing so, which would not be an easy feat in the slightest, considering that he is not sure how he should go about in navigating this without it blowing up in his face, and that is before taking into account the Peace Conference he will be having tomorrow, coincided with the trial he supposed to give to the Blonde. Part of him wanted to delay the latter for future times, but given the kind of person Xia is, she would not be able to handle being locked up like an animal for long, the stress of being put inside a maximum security prison where there is barely any natural light that shines through with some of the most dangerous Criminals in the country, even if separately, would be too great for someone like her to bear.

Then there is also Aiguo he has to take into consideration. The Vermillion Emperor would undoubtedly be curious as to where Xia is, due to him clearly being fond of the Blonde and would certainly want to see her again, something that might lead to him discovering her incarceration, and subsequently learning of her supposed crime. Things would only escalate from there, and that is before adding the White Empress into the calculation as well. With Xia being a Foreigner who initially ended up in her territory in the first place last year, it technically falls under her jurisdiction on what Mei Feng should do with her, and given the nature of Xia's alleged Crime, as well as Mei Feng's direct connection with the Governing Council of Delta, the Sentence they might potentially issue would be grave indeed. As such, Ruogang wasn't sure if he would even be the one to decide what to do with Xia, to begin with, unless he gained permission from the Empress to take charge of the matter and be the one to pass judgment. All in All, there are many factors at play here, all of which made the dilemma even worse than it already is.

Talk about an utter mess.

"Papa- I mean, Father, here, you look like you can use something to drink." Indeed he was, preferably with as much alcohol content as legally allowed to ease his mind, but anything to cool his mind off would do. And a cup of freshly squeezed Pomegranate juice is exactly just that, delivered onto the oak table by his daughter who harvested the fruit from the private Garden of Ruogang they are currently residing in to make it. Ah, his little Yulian, his ever-diligent little girl, always so considerate of him, her offer improved his mood by quite a bit as he accepted the cup, though he could not help but notice that she appeared to be a little distracted despite her smile, like her thoughts were directed elsewhere, probably toward Xia, but that is understandable. The news of the blonde being thrown into the Dungeon is still fresh on everyone's mind, it is only natural that it would be on the forefront of everyone's thoughts, even more so for Yulian, who only just became acquainted with Xia, news of her escort being accused of Treason has undoubtedly shaken the Princess.

"Ah, my thanks, Yulian. You made your old man happy." Still, Ruogang can tell that his daughter is more or less on the side of those who supported Xia when it comes to her innocence, expressing doubt regarding the accusation, pleasing him greatly. He was worried that his patriotic daughter would wholeheartedly approve of the decision to have Xia punished accordingly, with her word holding as much Authority in the court as his own does, but it would appear that aspect of her have been tempered. Perhaps this is the culmination of her training program in Neo Arcadia, resulting in her growing more mature and having a much more open-minded outlook toward certain things. If it were, then he definitely needed to offer Elric his gratitude for sparing him from another troublesome factor that might pile up to an already towering amount of problems.

"Hehe..." At the Praise, it garnered a giggle from the Azure Princess as she made herself comfortable on the opposite seat against her father as she watched him taking a sip of the drink she provided, feeling rather proud of her creation when her father seemed to enjoy its flavor. It's a good thing that she learned the trick on how to extract the juice from the cluster of seeds inside the fruit Thanks to Castor of the Gemini when she visited the country of Greece as part of her Eight Gauntlet Trial, The Crown Member of the Red Clan there has quite the knack when it comes to fruits, and was willing to teach her all sort of unorthodox method on cutting and squeezing them. If only he would talk about his sister less though. Honestly, the Blond's disposition toward Pollux is abnormal, to say the least.

Shaking those thoughts off for now, because the last thing she wanted was to recall one of Castor's tirades about how wonderful his little sister was, her attention eventually steered back to reality, where she saw that her father had finished the Drink, and now gone back to being occupied with his thoughts, a sight that made her frowned slightly. Being lost in thoughts is nothing unusual in of itself, and she herself was not immune to it either, having been in such a state on several occasions, but her father has been brooding a lot ever since Xia was detained, and it has only been a few hours since that happened, going to show that whatever state of mind her father is in, it is not a positive one, and it's not hard to see why.

From her personal investigation of the Blonde, it becomes abundantly clear from what information she managed to gather from the servants staff that the Azure Emperor is quite fond of Xia, as did many of the court, including Maomao and Jinshi to name a few, so it stands to reasons that it would weight heavily on them with the young Blonde being imprisoned for treason, which Yulian highly doubted, considers that from what little interaction the Princess has with her, Xia does not give her the impression of a spy at all, she acts too earnest to be a mere facade, and she has been taught to notice such aspects from Elric, not to mention if she was the one that stolen the Data from the grand Archive, then they should have managed to recover from by now, having scoured through the Palace from top to bottom, turning it upside down to see where she could have possibly hidden it in.

It is clear as day that the Blonde Girl is innocent, even if some failed to see that, and her father is undergoing some mental gymnastics to figure out how he can resolve this delicate dilemma without ending up on the wrong side of the political repercussions, something she wished she could help, but it is not something within in her capabilities to do. Even so, She needs to find a way to be of use so that her father would not have to languish in sorrow any longer, and inactivity is not going to help her with that. With that in mind, she makes sure her throat is free of any vocal hindrance, before turning to face her father, "A Sycee for your thought, father?" Yulian requested, rousing Ruogang from his mulling for a moment to face the firm expression of his daughter, lacking her usual cheer, showing that she genuinely wished to hear what was on his mind, and truth to be told, the Azure Emperor had been wanting to get these thoughts off his chest for a while now. He supposed there wouldn't be any harm in confiding his thoughts to her.

"My thoughts are not that expensive, and it's not good to bribe, Yulian." However, he did not pass up the opportunity to joke with his daughter, earning him a giggle of amusement from the Azure Princess at his attempt at humor even in these uncertain times. But even with his best attempt to lighten his own mood, it fell shorts on that front as he deflated on his seat like a balloon losing its air, much to the concern of Yulian, when his train of thoughts rerouted back to its main track, trying to head to a destination that is nowhere in sight, for he has yet to figure out how is he supposed to handle the current problems at hands, "...I'll confess, Yulian, I had no idea what am I supposed to. Between the Grand Archive's Data being stolen, Xia's imprisonment, and tomorrow's Peace conference, not to mention finding the one responsible for this whole mess to begin with. There is only so much I can do about this." It's as if the stars of misfortune aligned on this exact moment as a spiteful gesture to him by Cruel Fate after his streak of luck these past weeks, stacking the odds against him in this game of chess where there will always be a loss regardless of which move he made. So many problems to deal with, and so little time before it all tumbled over. If only there were a way to resolve this in one fell swoop.

...Fortunately, Lady Luck has yet to abandon him in his time of need, because there does exist one possible path that would lead to the answer he is seeking, as discovered by his daughter when a solution came to her when she was trying to think up a way to help, a solution not of her own, a solution that while she had no idea where it comes from, beyond the fact that it just popped into her head like an unknown force has put it in there for her, might be exactly what they need, "...Father, I may have an idea, if you are willing to lend me your ear." Under normal circumstances, that would not even be an option for the Azure Emperor to consider, let alone deign her with his complete and undivided attention, since while Ruogang appreciated her eagerness to help, she was still far too young to understand the intricacies of the situation that was far beyond her comprehension, she had not even finished her education yet, there should be no reason for him to have any confidence to the kind of plans she comes up with. The Azure Emperor was tempted to dismiss it, but his guts were whispering to him, telling him to at least hear it out, and even though he has made many mistakes, trusting his instinct has never been one of them. At least, not always.

Besides, this could hardly be called a normal circumstance any longer, and he was getting rather desperate to find a method to sort out this massive mess after all, Ruogang was not exactly in a position to be picky about what kind of help he could get. So with a defeated sigh that made his hesitations about this known, a sentiment Yulian could not blame him for, the black and blue-haired man relented, deciding to open his ears for suggestions, "Very Well then. elaborate if you will, Yulian." he made his order, not as her father, but as an Emperor, awaiting whatever plan the Azure Princess is currently harboring inside that mind of hers as he set his eyes onto the unflinching form of Yulian, an impressive display under his gaze, but that doesn't mean he has that high of an expectation for her. Really, who would? His daughter is not exactly a renowned tactician or politician after all. She tutored under one, yes, but that is not a reason for him to set his hope higher than the bare minimum.

That opinion of his soon changed, however, when The Azure Princess gave out a rather in-depth and highly detailed elaboration on what she believed, or at least according to the idea that just popped into her mind, to be the best course of action to approach the current dilemma they are finding themselves in, one that going to required a great deal of effort on their part to set up, but should they be able to succeed in doing it, and that circumstances would continue to favor them, then this plan should be able to resolve all of their current problems down the line, to the astonishment of the Azure Emperor that left him at a complete loss for words. Just how did she manage to come up with such a thorough and comprehensive course of action to take despite seemingly coming up with it on the spot? Did Yulian have some sort of hidden talent when it came to strategizing that not even he was aware of? Or did the Princess pick up a thing or two from the youngest sister of Kyra Zeranaki when she coached her during her stay in Delta?

As curious as he was though, these questions will have to be put on hold for now, because right now...Right now, Ruogang has found it; The perfect plan that may- no, Will be exactly what he needed to solve the conundrum that has been plaguing him since noon! And it was provided by his Daughter no less! He could barely hold back his excitement at the prospect! If he was still a Prince who did not care about proper etiquette befitting royalty, then he would have jumped from his seat and danced in celebration right now! But those days had long since passed him by, so he settled with letting out a resounding roar of delight that caused the garden he is in to tremble ever so slightly, with the only one that is not shaken by the deafening volume of the Azure Emperor's voice being his flesh and blood, who has long since been conditioned to handle such destructive decibels since her youth, granting her the ability to endure the onslaught of sound that would have shattered the eardrum of any lesser men. Besides, not like she was any less loud herself, multitudes of still-ringing sensors belonging to some of her unfortunate victims could attest to that.

It took around a few minutes for Ruogang's outburst to finally subside, once it did, the Azure Emperor turned to the Princess with a gleeful grin on his face, pride for her clear on his face, "Outstanding, Yulian. You truly show that you have the making of a tactician. This plan of yours may just be able to save Xia. I'm proud of you, my little angel." As a reward, he extended his arms forward, offering his little girl a pat on the head for her effort, something she immediately took up without so much as a second of hesitation, letting out a squeal of delight as he felt the firm yet gentle hands of her father brushing the top of her head as he praised her, a type of satisfaction she would not get anywhere else, not to mention the feeling of gratification of hearing that her idea may be able to save a life. Though she could not help but think about it, even though the solution came to her, it didn't feel like she was the one who thought it up. Yulian did not go through any sort of brainstorming at all, it just...came to her, like an intrusive thought. Now why is that?

Well, she never had the opportunity to learn about it when their little session was interrupted by the sharp sound of reality being torn open by a certain needle-like blade that echoes all across the garden, forming a sizable gash on the fabric surface of space and time, just large enough for the one that created this anomaly in reality, the White Empress Mei Feng of the White Tiger County in the West, in all of her enigmatic majesty and unparalleled beauty, to emerge from the other side, laying her foot onto the marbled path of the garden, her narrowed eyes locked with the widened one of the Azure Emperor, clearly haven't been expecting her arrival, at least not so soon. However, her timing could not be more impeccable.

"Your laughter is truly something else, Qin. I could hear it all the way in the cyberspace." At first, the White Empress was unable to accurately pinpoint the energy reading of Ruogang as a chosen one of Model X, due to there being more than one of them in the Palace, which seems to belong to little Yulian considered her presence now that she has reached her destination, but the booming bellow of the Man that managed to shake even the detached realm of the Cyberspace has guided her to the exact location of her fellow ruler. For once, she was glad that she didn't turn off her sensor when Ruogang unleashed that signature ear-splitting laughter, or she would still be wandering around the digital world, fulfilling the fool errands of trying to find the Emperor with his energy's pattern being interfered by the Azure Princess mixing it with her own. Though her sound sensor most certainly didn't enjoy that in the slightest, "What exactly was so amusing for you to laugh like that? I'd imagined after what happened, you would not be in the best of mood."

Joy would be the last expression she has been expecting Ruogang to feel in these circumstances, especially in regards to the impact it might have had on the entire nation if words got out to the public that the Grand Archive had tampered with and its data stolen by a Foreign Spy who was able to successfully removed sensitive information from what is considered to be one of the most secured locations in China. Such a development would cause an untold amount of panic within its citizens and other unforeseen long-lasting consequences toward the Alliance as a whole if not taken care of soon. Not exactly something to be laughing at, but here the Azure Emperor was, clearly in a good mood, even more so when she arrived, an ear-to-ear grin spread across his visage when he laid his Sapphire orbs upon her form.

"Ah! Lady Mei! You came at a perfect time!" The Black and Blue-haired Man has initially planned to contact his fellow Rulers once he starts making preparations for tomorrow with the plan his daughter recommended in mind, but it would seem he does not need to fulfill that particular part it would seems, now that Mei Feng is here, who through her neutral standing, would be able to reach Aiguo would any problem as he would. Perfect! Truly, Luck is still on his side after all, "Listen, I'm going to need your help with this, it's for Xia's sake." The excitement did not fail to convey the urgency in his words, however, demonstrating just how desperate he is for her cooperation if this plan were to be worked out. While she had no problem with doing so, especially when he informed her that it had to do with the Blonde, she was going to need more information on what he was planning.

"Tell me everything."

...And the Azure Drake conspired. All for the Sake of someone else.

Five thousand, Nine Hundred and thirty-three. That is the total number of tiles that made up the Chamber she found herself in, from the walls to the floor and the ceiling. Fifty hundred and Eleven. That is the complete amount of cracks and ruptured surfaces that decorated this place. Ciel would know that. She did spend the entire night and early morning counting them all. Lanfen would have given her a scolding of epic proportions if the Ren Matriarch somehow found out that she stayed up again on such pointless activity, or maybe she would not, given the reason why the Blonde Girl could not bring herself to treat her to some rest in the first place. After all, how is one supposed to sleep soundly when they are locked behind bars, caged up like a wild animal while being treated like one without knowing the reason as to why?

Then again. It's not like she didn't know what she had 'done' to wound up here in the first place. Treason. She was told by the frustrated Warden of this place, the Dungeon located deep in the underbelly of the Palace's Ground, the place reserved for the worse and the most dangerous Criminal of the Region, the place has no mercy for those that end up in it, and the place she has been thrown into upon regaining her consciousness and returned to the living world, waking up to several glares of fury all directed at her, much to her confusion and fear, even more so when the first thing that reaches her ears was the Royal Guards declared her a traitor before being forcefully dragged off to the underground prison of the compound soon after, getting tossed this jail Cell without so much as a single word of explanation beyond a scoff of contempt from the Soldiers as they slammed shut the locks, trapping her inside, where she has been staying in since.

As to be expected, Ciel was thoroughly confused about her situation, but above all else, she was scared, absolutely terrified, a sense of raw, unadulterated dread descended upon her being as did the gravity of her predicament when she finally had the time to comprehend on what exactly just happened. Not knowing how it even ended up like this, with her being thrown to jail for no rhyme and reason, naturally, the first thing she did was to ask someone, anyone, to explain what was going on, quickly escalated to her downright begging after a few hours without any answers given to her way, become increasingly desperate and frantic by the minutes, only stopping when the warden shouted at her into submissive silence, causing her to flinch at the pure fury in his tone, running out of patience for her, but either out of pity, which was highly unlikely given the fact that there is not even a hint of compassion in those hardened eyes of his, or to make sure that she will stop bothering them, the Jailor decided to divulge to her the current state of the Palace: Complete and utter Chaos, all because of her.

That is all the information she was provided with, gaining no insight about the reason why she is here whatsoever, other than the fact that apparently, the Compound is in utter disarray, and that she was somehow responsible for it, enough that the Warden is certain that she would receive an Death Sentence for it. When those words reached her mechanical ears, she thought she was hearing wrong, that the electrocution from the weapon that the Golden-eyed Man had struck her with caused it to malfunction, or at least that is what her mind trying to reassure her. However, that moment of self-denial led her to a revelation, causing the Blonde to recall how she fainted in the first place, the man with golden eyes that attacked her, knocked her out...and stole her keycard now that she did not feel it on her person if the last words she heard before the darkness took her was any indication. It did not take long for someone of her mental capacity to piece together the full picture of what had transpired using what little information she had been provided with and the passing remarks from the conversations between the Wardens, discussing the embezzlement of the Grand Archive, where important data has been stolen by a Spy, who she supposedly assisted in doing.

Using those pieces of information as clues, Ciel managed to paint a rough outline of the incident that had taken place here in the Compound when she was knocked out cold. Judging from the talk the Guards have with each other, it would appear that the Grand Archive's security locks, which required a specific access card bestowed upon silver Rank and above officials to disable the mechanisms of, had been breached earlier that day, through the use of the key that the Blonde suspected belonged to her due to the absence of it on her person, resulting in an unprecedented amount of confidential information being removed from the Database by whoever that took it from her, not that the Guards seems to be aware of the nature of her involvement, or the lack of it, in it the accusation on her was anything to go by.

Because of that, right now, everyone is searching for the one that was responsible, believing that Ciel knows something about it on the basis that it was her that seemingly responsible for deactivating the outer defense using the key granted to her by the Azure Emperor, and was then silently disposed of by her supposed colleague once she has served her purpose, being their explanation for why they found her bleeding out in the Open Garden. Given that the spies they have caught prior to this have a history of selling out their comrades trying to save their own hide such as Orson who has revealed several of his fellow agents before he was executed, it is entirely plausible.

There is a slight problem with that, however, in that Ciel has absolutely nothing to do with the Theft! Why in the name of the Mother Elf have they not considered the possibility that maybe she didn't do it on her own volition and was instead framed by the Spy who attacked her, leaving her lying in a pool of her own blood in the garden in the first place and stole her access card? Well, she did ask that, only to be shut down completely by the wardens, who did not want to hear any of her 'excuses', because the Azure Emperor himself had told them that she was the one who was responsible. Hearing that, Ciel became completely petrified on the spot with utter horror, unable to believe it, that Ruogang, of all people out there, would think she was a traitor. Why? After all she has done for him? After all the effort she has poured into her work for his sake? Even though would she admit that they were not all that close, barely knowing each other beyond the surface level of information regarding one another, he would turn against her and accuse her despite the hard work she has gone through in his name, going as far as to potentially sentence her to her death?

Why?

Such a simple question, one that has been floating on her mind throughout the whole night, keeping her awake the entire time, especially about what the Jailor has told her, that she will be receiving her Sentence the very next day when the Sun Rises, and for the crime of treason, the only appropriate punishment would be an execution. Knowing that her end is nigh, Ciel did not scream in panic, she did not beg to be let go, nor did she rage toward the unfairness of her fate, for it would do nothing as far as she knew. No one will listen. No one will hear the words of a Betrayer. There is nothing she can do but silently cry in agony. Hot streams of tears streaming down her face, tarnishing her visage as her thoughts inevitably went back to her Comrades, her family, her sister, whose chance to be reunited with had been brutally ripped away from her, all because she was careless, all because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, all because she was dealt a bad hands by Fate.

In the end, it would seem that she is always destined to die in obscurity and return to Velvet after all…

Velvet…

The one that sends her here…The one that seemingly gave her a second chance at life out of sympathy for her…The one that allowed her to be reunited with her beloved little sister under the condition to save this place…Now she was going to die, and he would be the only one who benefitted from the fruit of her labors, and she couldn't even be angry about it. All she could feel was numbness, devoid of emotions once her tears ran dry, incapable of supplying anymore. Enough, Ciel has thought to herself in hollowed despair, just get this over with, giving up all hopes of walking out of this alive, completely resigned to the cruel fate, gazing through the small gap where sunlight shining through directly at her face, no longer even care about the fact that it is practically blinding her. Might as well enjoy what little of this warm light before she returned to that accursed bog that is the Boundary.

"Prisoner #67, Get up. it's time to go." The order from the warden behind her was Brisk, sharp, and empty, akin to a Machine more than man, followed by the sounds of the electronic layer being disabled and the bars being lowered to the ground, sinking into the earth, with two Royal Guards marched into the Cell and began dragging the unresponsive Blonde out of her cell, not caring about her consent or the possibility that they may injure her with how forceful they were in pulling her. In their eyes, this is the treatment criminals like her deserve. As for Ciel herself, she could not care less about the pain applied to her wrists, nor about the glares leveled at her by the passing Wardens, having grown used to them by now. At least she would not have to deal with them once she died, if she is lucky and the Execution would not be public, a Traitor doesn't deserve such a thing after all.

Once she mustered what remained of her willpower to walk on her own two legs, the Blonde followed the two Escorts into the staircase leading up to the surface level of the Palace through the entrance of the underground prison that is hidden by a sliding platform that blends right in with the beaten path of the Compound, where she could see the aftermath of the Heist everywhere. Outraged Workers all converged at the hallway leading to the Inner section, yelling out protests and everything along that line, with the only thing that held them back from storming inside were the Royal Guards, and even then it looked like their defensive formation was going to collapse any times now. Desolated hallways that were once bustling with activity, were left empty, abandoned, and begrimed without anyone to take care of them now that every worker is on strike, reducing it into such a state in a mere day, and the air of peace and serenity that once filled the court despite the relatively chaotic state of the country now match the tension of the nation, if the commotion nearby was not enough of an indication that the fragile peace of the Palace has completely shattered with the theft of the Grand Archive.

In other words, It was the picture-perfect image of chaos all around, and Ciel was to blame for that in the eyes of many in the Compound. Maybe if she dies, then things will go back to normal for everyone. She could at least take some solace in that fact as she followed the guards, passing through the disorganized hallway into the innermost section of the Compound, which remains pristine and untouched by the mass disorder outside of it. Looks like the Azure Emperor still cares about presentations of himself that he kept the most important area of the Palace clean, Ciel mused to herself without a hint of mirth in those lines of thought. Funny, to think that this is where her new life began and ended at the whim of the most powerful man of the Azure Dragon County. It was a good run while it lasted, filled with joy she never was able to experience otherwise, laughter unheard of until now, and Hope for the Future of that Someday she dared to think be within reach, but unfortunately, all things must come to an end, like her life, which the ending of has long been overdue for payment that Death has finally come to collect.

Best to not keep it waiting. The double door to the Throne slid to the side, granting access to the two Royals guards who proceeded to drag the melancholic Blonde Prisoner inside, where the hundreds of officials were there at their respective elevated seats, their emotions varied, some she could read, like some of the higher ranking and the more elderly members has a look of uncertainty to them, as if they are not sure about this whole ordeal, while those with lower status has that distinct look of contempt on them, directed at Ciel, no doubt wishing that head of her are lopped off her neck, and honestly, she was wishing for the same thing to get this over with as fast as possible so she would not have to be subjected to such looks any longer, but there are a few faces that she cannot get a good grasp on what they are thinking. A prime example of such is Maomao, who maintains quite the impressive inscrutable mask that has betrayed no emotions, The same goes for Jinshi, who for once did not have any smiles of the sort on his face in the meeting, though at least she got a general idea on what kind of thoughts they are harboring inside their heads going by their characters.

But if there is someone she cannot truly read the mood of in this room, that honor would go to the Supreme Leader of the Court, the Imperial Ruler of this Region, the Azure Emperor of the Dragon County, who sat upon his golden Throne, an empty visage was all she could see on his face, devoid of any visible emotions, sensing nothing in the atmosphere around him, neither levity nor pressure, leaving him what he is thinking totally unfathomable, as is with the two individuals that stood by his side, one male and one female, clad in Red and White respectively with stylized sigils of a Phoenix and a Tiger, a dead giveaway to their identity despite the Blond-haired Man donned a Mask reminiscing of an Oriental bird and the cherry-blossom haired Woman cover her face with a fan to conceal their identities. It did not take Ciel long to figure out the identity of these individuals are, she could recognize those eyes and distinguish hairs anywhere.

That has to be none other than the Vermillion Emperor, Jun Aiguo and the White Impress, Mei Feng, the latter of whom being the first, and likely the last time she would ever meet the Woman, and she looked exactly how Lanfen described her, a peerless beauty blessed with an endowed form visible despite her nondescript robes, as majestic as she is enigmatic, and she truly lives up to her reputation as a living enigma, because she had no idea why she and the Blonde-haired Ruler are doing here alongside Ruogang. Before she was imprisoned, she had heard that there would be an upcoming peace conference between the other two rulers of the country of China in the passing before, so she did know that they would be arriving here to hold the meeting with the Azure Emperor, but that does not necessarily explain why they are attending her trial of all things. What is going on here?

Forcing herself to look up to the Three Most powerful individuals in the entire country of China, in doing so locking her cobalt eyes with theirs, making Ciel have to hold back an audible gulp of the bile building up inside her throat when she met their gazes. Ruogang expressed no emotions as he did so. Not of disgust, contempt, or even basic irritation, just completely and utter apathy, like how one would stare at an ant on the roadside that you accidentally stepped on, making her feel even worse that her Emperor would not even deign her with his anger at all, treating her potential demise like a mundane occurrence. Neither did Aiguo it would seem, assuming a neutral look beneath that crimson mask of his, but at the corner of her eyes, she could see Mei Feng sending an…Wink toward her ways? It was gone as fast as it came, left unnoticed by all but Ciel, who could see that the White Empress staring at her with her gleaming orbs, flashing with a glint of…Was that…Reassurance? Or was it her exhaustion that was feeding her false hope?

"Kneel, Submit, Worship, Obey." The thundering announcement of the innumerable Royal Guards present in the Throne Room brought her out of her musing and returned her to the real world, where every single one of the hundreds of officials does exactly as they were told, removing themselves from their respective seats and prostrate themselves before the presence of the three Imperial Rulers of the Country, those who stands at the very summit of the world, embodying the prestigious position they hold with grace and poise, wielding the power of both strength and influence to reshape the nation into however ways they see fits should they wills it and those who wishes is of the heaven itself, "Raise your Head, One Hundred Official, You are now in the presences of Three Monarch of our Great Nation, upon whose shoulders all of China rest on." Promptly following the command, all within the Chamber were now able to bring themselves to return to their spot as all eyes turned to the Trinity of Mighty Beast that dominated the atmosphere just by their Presence, subdued and calm as they might be at the moment, though they suspected that might change when they get to the reason why they all have gathered here today.

"We acknowledged His Majesty Qin Ruogang, the Azure Dragon of the East." As the Ruler over the soils they are standing on, Ruogang was the first to be recognized by his officials. His sapphire eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the proclamation of his title, and his expression morphed into something unreadable like his body language that is covered by his blue ornamental Robes, not giving away a single sign of vulnerability, as he could not afford to. After all, he will have to gamble everything on this stratagem to work out, the stakes are quite high, but the prize will be the most rewarding if it turns out well and goes according to the plan, so until he can be certain that this plan would be a success, he needed to hide behind the facade of an unassailable Emperor before his numerous subordinates.

"His Majesty Jun Aiguo, the Vermillion Bird of the South." That is a sentiment that the Vermillion Emperor could share, being the reason why he donned the Mask of his Megaman's Armor in the first place. Upon learning the plan through Mei Feng and his role in it, which was to appear the part of an impartial judge like the others, Aiguo has to make sure that he doesn't let his emotions slip up and make himself known, lest he ruin everything and squander his chance to be of help in allowing Ciel to get out of this situation. Moments like these made him thankful that his armor came with a Mask, as he was not certain if he could maintain a neutral expression for long like his fellow rulers. This is the only chance to set right what has gone wrong, he cannot afford to mess this up now. As such, when his name came up next, he did not give any visible reaction on his visage beyond a nod of acknowledgment to the announcement, doing his best to not strain under the pressure of the stare directed at him.

"And Her Eminence Mei Feng, the White Tiger of the West." Last but certainly not least, and perhaps the most enigmatic of all the three current Imperial Monarch, the White Empress Mei Feng was recognized, folding the metallic fan in her hand with a resounding snap that cut through the silence like a hot knife through butter, offering a bright yet gentle smile to everyone in response to their gaze shifting to her forms, enthralling them with the peerless allure of her feature that they are only able to escape the enchanting grip of when it dropped and returned to hiding behind the silvery white fan. Whoops. Best to not attract too much attention to herself, or it might invite unwanted eyes that notice something that they shouldn't. Their eyes should focused on the matter at hand right now, which she wordlessly instructed Ruogang to take the initiative of starting it off through an exchange of gazes with each other, giving him the silent signal he had been waiting for to begin.

Removing any potential vocal hindrance by loudly clearing his throat, an unspoken command that ordered the hundreds of officials to redirect their focus back to the present time, the Azure Emperor trained his Orbs to lock on with the cobalt one of the Young Blonde before him, regarding her weary form and hollowed out eyes that once filled with life and animations, now only despair and quiet resignation of her fate in where they once were. It made his heavy heart swell further with anguish, seeing that the unjust imprisonment he was responsible for due to his hastiness had taken its toll on her, reducing the gentle yet strong-willed and brave girl who is not afraid to do what is right even if it going to cost her everything while retained a kind-hearted disposition into a twisted parody of herself, akin to a living corpse that has long since lost its desire to go forward with eyes of one, empty and dry, connected to trails of tears imprinted on the pale surface of her cheeks, indicating that she has been crying all night, the mere thought alone made his heart ached even more, wanting nothing more than to offer her a word of comfort, that everything will be alright to hopefully revive the smile he is more familiar with, but he can't, he shouldn't, the plan does not allow him to do such a thing, no matter how much he wanted to. If he wanted to help her, then he must swallow that urge down and keep a cool head to himself. Remember the Plan.

Breathing in a lung-full of air to regain his composure, the Azure Emperor finally broke the tense silence in the air that was suffocating everyone with anticipation, his voice perfectly neutral, lacking any sort of emotions to be detected, exactly what he needed to, "We have gathered here today, so that we may bring Righteous judgment toward the Transgressor and Betrayer of our Court, the Former Silver Rank Officials and Cyber Faeries Programmer, Xia." No one uttered a single word, and neither did Ciel who could only stare at her plated boots, now unable to meet the eyes of her Emperor any longer, only silently prompted Ruogang to continue further before they could express their personal thoughts on the matter, "I, Qin Ruogang, the Absolute Ruler of the Azure Dragon County, alongside my Fellow Monarchs and one Hundred Officials, shall now determine the fate of the Sinner before us, and deliver the appropriate punishment. May those above judge our decision, and may those below-"

Just when he was about to complete his opening speech, it was drowned out by a flood of unintelligible shouting from the entrance that only got louder and louder by the second, coming to a head when the double door to the Throne Room was knocked open, interrupting the proceeding, with the intruder being the protesting crowd of servants Ciel was able to recognize, having spitted the same group on her way to the Chamber. All of them roared in some kind of disagreement going by their tone, something that the blonde is uncertain of the content of, due to their rambling barely being coherent for her to process the words of, but she did manage to pick up her supposed name among them as the royal guards do their best to hold them back from swarming the Room. Why are they here? Was the question Ciel held in her mind as she observed the commotions unfolding before her eyes, a question that many of the officials seemed to share, as one of them, Han Suyin if her memories served, called out in outrage.

"What is the meaning of this interruption?! His Imperial Majesty is not in the mood to entertain you lots!" Though her voice was loud, it was nowhere near the same level as Ruogang, who was decidedly taken aback by the arrival of the Servants, not expecting them to be able to breach through the outer defense, at least not this quickly, thus it was not enough to silence the voice of disapproval of the challenging sea of Servants. If anything, it merely served to rile them up even further, trying their best to push through the entrance, requiring all of the royal guards to converge at the entrance to prevent them from storming in, and even then, the latter started to struggle with holding the force of a thousand Neo Arcadian back on their own, especially when taking into consideration on just how crammed the doorway truly is, "You Treacherous dogs-!"

"Oh, For the Sake of the Mother Faeries, Shut up!" The words died in Suyin's throat when one of the workers barked back, much to the Official's outrage and indignation. How dare they?! Since when did the Servants grow a spine to talk back like that?! While the Woman was fuming at the Presumptuous Bronze Rank Member who dared to express such blatant disrespect, the Three Imperial Monarchs were, in their honest opinion, rather impressed by the attitude of these protesters. To think they would be able to muster this level of courage when it comes to trying to save who they believed to be innocent, talking back to their superiors even if it going to cost them their life under normal circumstances. Seems that Ciel has left quite a lasting impression on these people that they are perfectly willing to side with her even if their heads are on the line. Ruogang was aware that Ciel has garnered quite the reputation among the Staff, always eager to help with her endearingly earnest nature, but he did not think she would have befriended the majority of them in the brief time she had been here. It would seem that he, Aiguo, and Mei Feng have underestimated the impressive magnitude of the influence she has over the Court.

Not that they themselves had a problem with it, on the contrary, a faint, barely visible smile blossomed on their lips at the amount of people that supported Ciel in this matter, even more when several of the Servants began to call out for the Blonde, doing what the three Rulers wanted to do, but unable to to fulfill their part of their secret plan; Comforting the Distraught Girl with their own way, to varying degrees of intensity, "Your Imperial Majesty! Please, reconsider! Xia doesn't deserved this!", "No way she would betray us! She was framed I tell you!", "Xia has helped me! She helped all of us! There has to be more to this! I refuse to believe she would turn against us!", "Let her go! Let her go! Let her go!" It was but a few objections from the crowds that the Monarchs could hear sending toward their collective way, unknowingly voicing their own thoughts on the matter, as they shifted their focus to the Girl that stood before them, who though they could not see the expression of, with her attention turns to the protesting group of workers, they can already tell that this inspired an surge of emotions in the Lass, with the dominating of them all being the feeling of disbelief.

Why wouldn't she be, considering what has transpired? Out of all the possible reasons she could think of in regards to why they were protesting when she saw the crowd on the way here, opposing her impending execution was decidedly not one she would even entertain the idea of. By all accounts, she is a traitor from their perspective and therefore deserves the appropriate sentence for someone who forsaken their trust. They should be enraged, demanding that she be brought to what they believed to be justice, wishing for her head to be swiftly parted from her neck for committing what is generally considered to be the crime of the highest offense in their country. The Blonde would not judge them for wanting that to happen if that is the case, for should she have been in their shoes, Ciel would admittedly want a betrayer to face the consequence of their act of treachery. There has even been a time when she fantasized such a thing about a certain deceitful Serpent herself, of him suffering for what he has done to her and everyone she cared about, a long time ago, much to her shame for harboring such vile thoughts, even only for a moment, for this feeling of righteous fury would only be a fair reaction expected from a person.

Yet even though they have every right to denounce her for the transgression she has supposedly committed, when it ultimately comes down to it, she was the one they chose to side with in this dilemma rather than the 'correct' choice in the matter, even though doing so will put them at the risk of being punished for speaking up against those above them for the sake of a criminal, even if it cost them their position or even worse, their life for this impudent action of theirs. But despite being painfully aware of that, they remained steadfast in this path they chose to walk on, for the sake of who they believed to be innocent, caring not of what would happen to them for daring to speak against their Emperor and willingly defy his decree with such blatant insolence, which would give the Ruler of the Azure Dragon County the perfect justification to have them all executed alongside her, and that is what Terrified Ciel the most, as a renewed tears began to pour down from her orbs, marring the surface of her face as the prospect of more unnecessary death filled the forefront of her mind. They did not have to do this, all of them needed to do was to just keep silent, cut ties with her, and go on about their respective lives, and perhaps they could have avoided senselessly throwing everything they had away for her, an Sinner in the eyes of everyone else. Please, don't do this, don't just forsakes their livelihood for lowly scum like her, it is not worth facing the wrath of the Emperor…

"ENOUGH!" Then came the part she had been fearing, the fury of his Imperial Majesty, who immediately quelled the rebellious spirit of the Workers with just a single command, cold and unfeeling like a harsh blizzard, robbing everyone of their willpower in a matter of second, restoring the silence back to the Chamber, with the only thing that can be heard was the Azure Emperor rose from his Gilded Throne, the clattering of the jewelry decorating his garbs echoes in the now quieted auditorium as he narrowed his eyes, putting on a look of displeasure, "I shall not tolerate any further interruption to the Trial! Do not be so arrogant as to believe that my Patience toward disrespect is boundless! Try to disrupt any further and I shall have all of you faced summary executions right here and now in this Chamber!" Unbeknownst to all but those that are aware of the game plan, it was merely a bluff, but nonetheless an effective one to serve as an idle threat, with the result being everyone clamming up their mouth that are sealed tighter than actual Clams. Good. Although Ruogang has no problem with the protests, after all, he founds himself in an agreement with them deep down, he and others still needed everyone to stay shut if they were to make progress, "…Now, Barring any more delays in our ways, let's us proceeded with the Case."

In response, the hundreds of officials let out a wordless sound of collective affirmation to the firm order of their Absolute ruler. They would have acknowledged the command with proper human sentences, had they been able to muster their voice to do so, but that is good enough for Ruogang, anything is so long as progress can be made. Now then, let the proceedings begin with his next statement, "As I was saying; May those above judge our decision, and may those below in Diyu claim the soul before us, should we find her crime to be beyond mercy." Why even bother with this whole pointless speech? The Blonde is well aware that she will not be receiving any sort of leniency due to the nature of her alleged transgression, which warranted a death sentence. The most she can hope for at this point is that whatever Punishment Ruogang had in mind for her demise, it would be swift and mostly free of pain for the most part while those servants would be spared from suffering the same as she would. However, she doubts she would be that fortunate, given her recent treatment by Fate. Perhaps it going to spit on her face one last time before she dies. That sounds like something the cruel entity that dictate destiny would do, with its track record of rarely ever giving what she wanted.

"Who shall Speak of her Iniquity?" As the Azure Emperor had expected from his court, the question immediately yielded results, prompting a good number of Officials to rouse from their seats, exchanging glances and a few hushed words with one another, holding an improvised meeting to elect the mouthpiece that would speak for them. Something that Ruogang noticed was that for the first time in these sorts of trials, they seemed to be struggling with choosing who to be the representative, dissimilar to the last time when they were able to immediately arrive at an agreement and appoint Han Suyin to testify against the Agent of the Invading Force as the result of her status as his victim. If he has to make an educated guess on why they are having difficulty now, it is most likely that they realized that all the shreds of evidence they have against her are merely word of mouth, second-hand information in another word, not very reliable, even when Ruogang was the one that said it, unlike last time where they managed to gather plenty of physical proofs of the Foreign Impostor that infiltrate the court. This could work in the Azure Monarch's favor though.

"I, Han Suyin, shall bear witness to this sinner's act of treason and bring her to justice." In the end, not having any other choices, every one of the persecutors' end decided to install Han Suyin as their proxy, not feeling very confident about her prospect due to the lack of concrete evidence to charge the Blonde, but at the same time, they are not too concerned either, because they are certain that there is no way any loyal member of the court would volunteer to support with this Sinner. The servants at the doorway might. Though they are not concerned about it, only high-standing members of Silver rank or above could serve as Supporter for criminals in the trial after all, and never once has there been any sane and self-respecting official who would advocate for someone who has the audacity to betray the Emperor and aligned themselves with the Foreign Force before.

"And who would speak of her Virtues?" This case is as good as theirs…Or so it should have been that way. Had the girl's position been filled by anyone else, nobody would raised their hands to offer themselves up as a supporter for a traitor of the country, essentially making her execution all but assured…But Ciel vastly differed from all the ones they have judged beforehand, and there is more than one official in this chamber can attest to that fact, which they are more than willing to demonstrate that fact with their selection of their own representative, being none other than the sole daughter of Kan, head of House La, the Cyber Faeries Programmer of the court and one who boasted some of the most ingenious mind in the entire nation, causing all but a select few to let out an controlled gasp, having no word that could adequately described how they felt when their eyes turned to the hands and traced to the source, unable to believed their eyes about what they are seeing.

"I…La Maomao, shall bear witness to the integrity of the soul before me and Vindicate her." Even Ciel was not expecting her superior would come to her defense either going by her astonished expression, having resigned to the possibility that the Senior Programmer no longer wanted anything to do with her treacherous assistant any longer out of shame and guilt for recommending the bestowal of the Silver Rank to the Blonde at the behest of the Azure Emperor, resulting in this whole fiasco in the first place. She would not fault Maomao if she wished to wash her hands of any connections she had with the blonde prior to the latter's imprisonment, who would want to associate themselves with the enemy of the public? Even she has to hide the fact that she was directly responsible for the creation of the false angel that enforced his oppressive ironclad rules upon the innocent that inspired her to form the Resistance group to begin, making her feel like a hypocrite deep down.

But after all that happened…Of all the potential hardships she might have caused for the Programmer…Maomao would choose to stand by her side in this? Even putting her reputation on the line for her? A Stranger in all but name that she only knows for less than a month? Does she deserve such an act of kindness? No...She shouldn't...Yet when she turned to the petite woman on her seat with a gaze full of uncertainty and apprehension glinting on the otherwise dull and near lifeless surface, the most emotions she has felt since the death of her Hope, what she received was a nod of encouragement, subtle to all but her, making a silent request to the blonde to have faith in her, something that she knew would be difficult, not knowing who to trust at this point after being branded a traitor by Ruogang, destroying all the confidence she had for the Dragon Court when it come to those she can rely on, thus she should have no reason to put any more faith on them. But those eyes of hers, which once only expressed irritation and displeasure, are making an earnest pleading to put trust in her, just this once...Well, maybe...Just maybe...She can have faith in her Senior, one last time.

"I'm disappointed in you, Maomao. Has your relationship with the Betrayer made you falter?" At the unprecedented sight of the Court's Cyber Faeries Programmer getting herself involved with the trial when she would usually avoid getting involved in the intricacies in favor of doing practically anything else, it made Suyin scoff at her opponent in this case, expressing her disgruntlement with the decision Maomao has made. Had she stayed silent then it would have been far less troublesome for the Emperor to make his verdict and get this whole process finished faster so that everything could return to normal, just like Maomao had constantly complained about the entire day prior, yet she would speak for the one that caused all this mess? Then it would appear that the herbalist's attachment to this lowlife has blinded her action from doing what she should suppose to do, staying out of business she has no place in. How pitiful. Did she forget that personal feelings have no place here? How the high and mighty Programmer has fallen-

"You know Suyin, maybe you should do us a favor and go back to being dead if you don't have anything relevant to say." In no way was she in the mood for pointless conversation, Maomao just shot down any more attempts at verbal barbs with her own, with reactions to it varied from person to person. Naturally, Han Suyin did not take it well being the target of this jab, not amused that her death was taken lightly, some shared this sentiment, largely due to the dismissive attitude of the Cyber Faeries Programmer, though others were mostly taken aback and a few had to suppress their voice that threatened to spill out into laughter at the toneless voice of the petite Woman when she made such a crude attempt at humor, while the servants outside don't even pretend to appeared respectful in the slightest, turning the Official into the center of their laughter, to her utter fury. How dare she?! Putting her through such humiliation! "I like it better when you are not present anyway. So are we doing this or do you just come here to waste everyone's time? Like the so-called 'treacherous dogs' you called the servants?"

"Yes…Let's." Deciding against unleashing her fury upon the aggravating Herbalist, for doing so will do her no good in the long run and the Azure Emperor's approval of her might decline substantially, as satisfying as it would be, the Official settled for swallowing all of her near-unbridled rage down, just barely enough that the words she hisses out lack the intended venom she has wanted to laced them with, coming across as more annoyed than what her expression, steaming red from boiling lividity that burned the surface of her skin despite trying to look professional, may suggest otherwise. Seizing this opportunity now that he was certain that an argument would not break out, Ruogang took a moment to adjust his posture and make himself comfortable to mentally prepare himself for what was about to take place in this hallowed hall.

Stratagem; False Judgement commenced right at this moment. May the Faeries Matron watch over them this day, "So with the two representatives selected, let's us hear what they have to say about the individual before us. May their assessment guided us to a decision." With a wave of his hand, Ruogang initiated the next step of the operation, which was to allow everything to proceed as it normally would, which is to let the two parties to make their argument in order to determine the fate that shall befall Ciel, who continued to retain that looks of discomfort and uncertainty on her drained visage, not exactly have much confidence in her prospect, because even if by some miracle that she is spared from meeting her demise, which she finds highly unlikely, then she will still have to spend the rest of her days behind bars regardless, and one night of being inside the slammer was enough to break her, she doesn't want to imagine being stuck in there for an unspecified duration would do to her. However, she wouldn't have to, he'll make sure it would not turn out that way using the limited influence he has in this matter, "For the side Han Suyin, please make your open statement. Why must Xia face punishment for her action?"

"It should be as clear as day, your Imperial Majesty. As you have said yourself, she was the one responsible for the breaching of the outer defense layers to the Grand Archive, thereby allowing the Foreign Spy to gain access and steal the valuable information that our country has safeguarded for Eons, dating back to the Wu Dynasty all the way to the previous Dynasty of the Jiang." Oh, joy. Maomao could not help but roll her eyes at the explanation. Of course, she has to go for the most obvious choice of putting emphasis on what everybody here is well aware of at this point in time. As if it has not been repeated for the third time in a row. "The fact that this girl right here has allowed our enemy to obtain what he has been protecting for that long deserved nothing less than a death sentence in accordance with the Policy of the Neo-Arcadian Empire."

"Great little argument. But aren't we forgetting one teensy, weensy but ever so crucial little detail?" Even so, she should be glad, because that predictability let her prepare this counter-argument for quite some time now, having come up with it the day before the trial, which gave her the idea to bring a certain something along, a small, handheld piece of equipment that took the shape of a flat, oval disc, being something everyone takes noticed to when she removed it from her robe, recognizing it as one of the Data Caches storage units, favored by the Western region of the country, as opposed to the bamboo scrolls medium employed in anywhere else in the nation due to the White County being greatly influenced by the West, specifically Neo Arcadia that utilized this same piece of gadget, and there is a reason why she brought one with her, because when Maomao brought it online, it projected an image from its center, and not just any image that it is displaying, for what everyone saw was the digital replica of none other than the Treaty signed at the dawn of time. Now for obvious reason, the Herbalist could not get her hand on the physical copy, but in her opinion, the data recreation of it should be sufficient to let everyone sees its contents, "If I recall correctly, we are merely a Vassal Nation of the Greater Empire, not to mention that we are a sovereign country that does not need to adheres to every policy of Neo Arcadia, as demonstrated by the terms of the Treaty shown here. Thus it is up to us that decide what her fate is, not the Ordinance of Law of the Governing Council. And last I checked, a Death sentence can only be delivered to criminals that committed the most heinous of crimes."

"Isn't that what she has done then?! Even if the law of Arcadia does not apply in China for the most part, the theft of the data stored in the Grand Archive is still a severe crime, warranting execution to be in order!" Suyin shot back, growing increasingly frustrated with the Programmer by the minute. Just what is Maomao trying to prove here with that Treaty? If Treason and the Tampering of the Grand Archive is not a violation of the highest order, then the Official doesn't know what will be. Even when the Laws of the greater Empire are not strictly imposed on their nation due to their immunity granted as part of the terms in the Concordat, it is still common sense that they punished a Traitor and potential spy for the crime they have committed, as they had with countless other in a similar situation. Why would they make an exception for this one?

"Funny, you sounded as though you wanted to have Xia here killed. What happened with the whole 'Emotions has no place in judgment' thing you always preached about?" And just a moment ago she had the gall to criticize her for her apparent favoritism toward her former Assistant too. Talk about hypocrisy. Now, it is not like Maomao doesn't understand the place where her hatred comes from, given that she was a victim of the Foreign Force, but just because of that, it does not mean she should subject every Foreigner, innocent or otherwise, that she comes across with the same level of animosity, that is essentially discrimination in the Programmer's eyes, and they already have enough of a problem with that back in the Vermillion Bird County, no need for that here in the Azure Dragon Frontier, "While what you said was true, about the fact that the act of stealing information from the grand archive deserved the death of the offender as compensation…That would be a little to excessive for what Xia actually 'did' now, wouldn't it?"

More questions arose in the mind of all, the same way everyone's brows did when she made such a statement, hearing her practically drawled out her words in regards to Ciel's Transgression with palpable sarcasm, seemingly indicated that she knows something that they does not, which is indeed the case when she adjust the Recorder to moved onto the next segment of the projection, this time an image, more specifically, the picture taken outside the entrance to the Grand Archive she managed to captured when Maomao make use of her authority as a high-ranking Official to join the investigation and gathered evidence, allowing her to snapped this picture, allowing all to see the site more closely on a key spot of the projection, literally so with their attention brought closer to the console where the keycard that belonged to Ciel was still embedded inside, at least when she added this into the recorder, "You've said it yourself, Suyin, that her 'crime' is disabling the security Locks to the Archive, not stealing from it. We know this for a fact because the genetic sample we managed to acquire in the room demonstrated that it was someone else who took them, and all evidence pointed at Jing Long, or so the Alias goes, the Bronze Rank worker assigned with laundry that just happens to inexplicably vanished the day the theft happened. Needless to say, he, or rather the one that has been masquerading as him, is the one that currently in the possession of the stolen data."

Learning that caused the entire chamber to devolve into a murmuring crowd when they were tossed with this latest morsel of information, exchanging a conversation with each other over what just reached their ears. While not all recognize the name, given that there are a thousand servants working in the Palace, the mob of workers outside seems to perk up in recognition, knowing exactly who the Herbalist is referring to. From what they could remember, Long has always been something of a Loner, mostly keeping to himself and does not know a lot of people in or outside the Compound, that is not to say that the Bronze Rank Servant was a bad person, for he can be quite amicable when he needed to, but as of late, he has been quite reclusive, more than the usual, with him only seen during work period by his fellow servants, refusing to talk with anyone, even barely like he used to, before retreated back to his quarter, not even attending the cafeteria like he always did, acting out of character even for him, but now knowing that it was someone else the entire time, just like with the Spy Orson posing as Han Suyin seamlessly explained the sudden change in Long's behavior, as well as his disappearance. That was not him at all.

"We have yet to locate the whereabouts of the real Jing Long, or his potential remains, with the investigation team still scouring the Palace up and down for a lead to his exact location. But while we are searching for him, we have managed to procure the genetic sample of the foreign spy that was left behind when we searched Long's quarter, thus allowing us to use this data to our advantage." This time, the projection shifted to its biggest form yet, depicting the map of the entire Country of China, divided into four regions symbolized by the stylized sigils of each region, in which the Western Part of the nation pulses with a glaring orange light, as if detecting the presence of something there, the presence of the one everyone is searching for to be exact, "By using the Genetic structure of this individual, we were able to get a general location of the place he escaped to, being the White Tiger County, we believed it is to find a way back to their world of origin through the only known gateway that is connected to the other realm of reality, safeguarded by Her Eminence Mei Feng here."

Briefly gesturing toward the White Empress, Mei Feng nodded with a hum of acknowledgment at the statement, not entirely surprised by which regions of the country did the thief had made a beeline for. As more and more outposts of the foreign force were wiped out by the Five Hundred, the number of Foreign Invaders making a desperate run in order to return to their dimension of origin increased as well. Most did not make it, being captured and subsequently imprisoned by the patrols in the quarantined area, though there have been several occasions where some did manage to reach the gateway and escape. Because of that, while the chance of the Spy being able to make it back to their world is low, it is not zero, as such, they cannot risk the slimmest possibility of the thief making it back to his reality with the information. The Empress will definitely need to further reinforce the protection around the distortion, as well as have someone to track down this agent of the foreign force before he could have the opportunity to leave China with the data.

And fortunately, they have someone here to do just that, handpicked by the Three Monarchs who were approved by the Greater Governing Council in the heart of Neo Arcadia no less. Even if the Clan's heads were skeptical about the prospect of her actually succeeding in it, all of them came to an agreement to at least give the decision the benefit of the doubt, considering that evidence had been discovered that proved her innocence just last night when they brought the genetic sample for research. Besides, not like they are just going to entrust such an important task solely on her, she is just going to be one of many Seekers they will be sending to track down their target, but her inclusion into the mission will not only allow her to be set free, but it would most certainly improved the likelihood of the hunt turning out to be successful by having more areas covered as well. Should she fail, she would at least receive an official pardon for her contribution, and that is before considering the off-chance she was able to accomplish the mission. All in all, regardless of which way it would turn out, she will be able to get out of this predicament through either result. A Win-Win situation for her.

Something that the one in question, Ciel, having observed everything so far in complete silence, is slowly realizing herself. From the sounds of it, they have learned who the true culprit behind the theft is…which means…They must have figured out that she is innocent! They undoubtedly would have the technology to help them figure that out, since they are able to use the genetic data they recovered from the one that stole the keycard from her to pinpoint his general location, as such, there would be no reason for them not to do the same with evidences at the crime scene to see if she did or did not take part in the crime, especially with the card, which the Blonde is sure that it have the fingerprint of the Spy imprinted on it as, if her memories have no fault, he did not have a glove on at the time when she was attacked in the Garden, thus it will prove that he was the one that disable the lock with the key he stole from her, while she is just as much of a victim to his action as everyone else. In other words, there is still hope after all, and just as many times prior, she latched into it with all her mental might, silently praying for a miracle, even at the risk of facing disappointment and despair should that not be a reality.

"Sounds nice and all, but what does that have to do with the current Trial?" Leave it to Suyin to bring everyone's attention back to the matter at hand after seeing everyone have sidetracked from the reason why they are having this discussion in the first place, which needless to say, she was not pleased about in the slightest. Yes, it is a relief to know what they need to do and where to go to retrieve the stolen information, but they still have a problem that needs to be resolved over here. Shouldn't they take care of the primary issue first before moving on to the next one? Or is this a part of Maomao's trick to distract everyone from what they are supposed to do? If that is the case, then she has to admit, that was quite clever of the Programmer, diverting the attention of all from the topic of this gathering, but in the end, it would just lead back to reality, all the officials did was speeding things up.

Which was a big mistake as she soon learned when Maomao's facial features donned a sly smirk, causing the blood of Suyin to run cold, as if an icicle was shoved into her veins once she started to realize her mistake of speaking up, for that is exactly what the Herbalist wanted her to do the entire time, "Oh? Did being dead for so long has caused your brain to rot? No wait, that's how it has always been. My mistake." At the blatantly insincere apology that only served to emphasize the mockery in her tone, everyone once again has to bite their lips to snuff out the raging wave of mirth that is burning their throat. Some look ashamed of themselves for finding it amusing, others far less so, while several look like they are only holding it back out of pity at the humiliated Official, who looks like she is going to blow up with that fuming red face of rage where veins pulsing rapidly in barely-contained fury, "If you actually cared to listen to it rather than just wanting to see someone dead to satisfy your misplaced hatred, then you could connect the dot and figure it out yourself, I'm sure everyone here has, besides you for obvious reason."

"What was that supposed to mean?!" Not bothering to give a direct answer to the indignant inquiry of the official, Maomao turned her attention to the recorder, once again changing the content being projected in the courtroom, this time to a closer look into the Keycard lodged inside the console of the Grand Archive, rather violently so judging from the way it is practically shoved inside the mechanism that ended up breaking more than a few parts of the machinery, the apparent aftermath of the intruder growing frustrated with the painfully slow registering process of the Console, it has been a constant problem for no small amount of people, to the point that the one that seeks to enter forcefully speed up the entire procedure by tampering with the lock that ended up getting damaged and caused the keycard to be stuck inside, showing that whoever the one that did it had a degree of understanding of the technology used in the security system employed by the Neo Arcadian Empire, albeit only a small margin, not to mentioned incredibly careless too, with breaking the panel, leading to the card getting trapped inside, denying them the ability to reclaim it back and disposed of the evidence when they would have the chance had they been more patient.

This folly eventually ended up coming back to haunt them when it became evidently clear through cross-examination that the data they acquired from Long's quarter matched that of the imprints of finger patterns smeared basically everywhere at the scene of the crime for them to discover and matched it, as well as a telling lack of any other genetic makeup from anyone else at the site beyond that of the Thief, as demonstrated by the projection of the image that is accompanied by an array of information attached to it, showcasing the recent findings of the investigation team, letting everyone take a good look at their discovery, which only have the biological information of the Long's Impersonator, whoever it was, to be found, nothing other than that, no other genetic sample of anyone else to suggested that there has been an accomplice. To put it simply, and most relevant to this trial, there is no actual evidence of Ciel's supposed involvement in the crime as everyone assumed she had, bringing forth a singular thought to everyone's mind as they shifted their attention to the 'Sinner' who stands before them the moment the implication of these facts began to settle in.

She is innocent.

Immediately upon realizing that, the Servants gain a look of triumphant on their faces. At the same time, guilt began to flood inside the official's mind, with some of them covering their faces out of shame about their behavior up until this point, unable to bring themselves to even look at the blonde in the eyes any longer. How could they be so blind? How could they let this happen? How could they be so ignorant as to not see the obvious when it is in front of them? While they are here, wasting their time conducting judgment on an innocent girl who probably did not even know what she had done to deserve the treatment she was being subjected to, the true culprit has already slipped away and escaped from the Azure Dragon County right under their nose the entire time. What an utter disgrace! They truly have made a grave mistake. It was THEM that are the Sinners in this situation, not that poor girl.

Murmurs between the Officials once again filled the air, now knowing where their focus should be directed toward, causing every member of the court to drop this trial entirely from their mind so they may turn their collective attention to their newfound objective, much to the silent relief of Maomao, seeing all of them no longer care about the current Case. Well, all but one, "H-Hold on now! We still have this girl here to take care of! T-That doesn't prove anything! The Investigation Force most likely skimped over some parts! Your Imperial Majesty! Say something! You said it yourself that she did it, didn't you?!" Still stubbornly clinging to the notion that has been clearly disproven by the evidence shown to everyone, Suyin pleaded with her Emperor, begging him to step in and resolve the situation. Even now, she continues to hold onto the belief that Ciel is a criminal and desires to punish her accordingly. At this point, it has become apparent that she doesn't even care about the bigger picture, all the Woman wanted out of this Court was to see the Blonde suffer for her supposed allegiance with the Foreign Force, her Murderer, to which the Azure Emperor could only let out a sigh of disappointment at his vindictive Subordinate, and by extension, himself.

He would not deny that he was not free of blame in this particular situation, after all, this whole Case was the culmination of misunderstandings that he perpetuated, being responsible for the wrongful imprisonment of an innocent girl and kickstarted the chaos that plunged the entire Palace into total disharmony as evidenced by the Servants right outside of the Chamber. He has erred big time, and that is a fact, no matter how much some wanted to believe otherwise, for even an experienced Monarch who has held the throne and governed this Frontier for two centuries can walk right into a blunder every now and then. The Azure Emperor of the Qin Dynasty was not perfect, he himself recognized that. Everyone should recognize that, despite their admiration toward him, he could never measure up to his predecessor, Ziya of the Jiang Dynasty even with all of the achievements that he has earned in his lifetime. It is about time he made everyone understand that by nipping this flattering but ultimately incorrect belief.

"…That, I will not refute, for it is the truth. I was the one who made the order to capture Xia, and that is one of my biggest mistakes that day." With no justification, no excuses, and no desire to defend himself, Ruogang just chose to acknowledge his severe lapse of judgment, lacking the mental strength to even stare at Ciel in the eye out of shame for his blunder, knowing she would feel betrayed after he has forsaken her trust in him, just as he did to his trust in her when he immediately assumed that the Blonde was in cahoots with the Foreign Force for being a Foreigner herself, not even taking a moment to consider other possible explanations when Ciel supposed to access the Archive, effectively going against his Principles and by extension, the Ideology that made up the foundation of the Neo Arcadian Empire as a whole by arriving to the most narrow-minded conclusion about her. As such, he averted his sapphire gazes, as far away from the Young Girl's form as possible, not wanting to see the kind of emotion she was expressing.

"Your Majesty, what are you talking about?! You never made a mis-" With a raised hand, Ruogang silenced her tongue in an instant, no way in the mood to hear praises of any kind as he let out a long-winded sigh of exasperation. Enough is Enough. No more of this lavish and lofty, unwarranted admiration toward him, he is very much a flawed individual who, like everyone, is susceptible to making mistakes and blundering his way into a disastrous decision that does more harm than help. One such prominent example is the very Trial that is unfolding at the moment, where he could have used this time to locate and hunt down the actual thief holding the stolen information instead of giving Long's Impersonator the opportunity to escape to the White Tiger County while they are here, wasting their time with this pointless Court Case. They cannot afford to dawdle for much longer, not when their target is still roaming free out there, the Azure Emperor needed to end this discussion as fast as he possibly could in order to refocus on their primary task at hand.

"While I appreciated your kind words, Suyin, that simply isn't true. I was wrong. There is no going about it, I am not perfect, my words are not absolute. I've misjudged the soul before us, and to that, I owe her an apology." Rising up from his gilded Seat, the Dragon Emperor began to descend down to the surface ground beneath his elevated seat, despite the protest from the Court and the Royal Guards who urged him to return to his throne, but he would not hear them as he closed the distance between him and Ciel until he was a mere step away from her, with the only thing that separated them apart being the fenced podium that the Blonde is standing on, which let her meet eyes with the towering Ruogang, who glance at her with regret in his gaze, something that he did well in keeping it hidden up until now, where he could not bother to try and masked his emotions anymore.

Staring at the Ruler of the Azure Dragon County with uncertainty in those cobalt eyes of hers, Ciel is unsure of what to say, apprehension apparent in her movements as she shifts in discomfort. There should be no reason for her to feel this way, after all, the accusation toward her has been dispelled by the compilation of evidence collected by her Superior that is endorsed by Ruogang himself, who acknowledged his Misjudgment, clearing out her name once and for all. She should be at ease and relieved, knowing that she has been spared from what would otherwise been an untimely end for her, which means she still has a chance to go home.

But how? Ciel does not believe that she will be able to settle back to the court ever again and act like nothing has ever happened, especially taking what she has gone through into consideration. Though she is not the type to hold grudges, what meager Pride she has in herself refuses to let her work under the Dragon Monarch any longer, and for once, she is in agreement with it. Yet, Ruogang and those connected to him are her best lead in giving her the chance to return to her world. Without them, she is set to spend the rest of her day here in this world, and she cannot have that, her Sister is still waiting for her back home. That little Girl is the reason why she went through the trouble of becoming a Member of the Court in the first place.

That leaves her hands tied. Her Pride, or her Sister? The answer should be obvious under any other circumstances, but for the first time in her life, she is unable to choose, leaving her dead silent, detached from reality altogether.

Until the Azure Emperor suddenly gets down on both knees, discarding his crown, the symbol of his Power, before lowering his head toward the blonde, allowing her to be the one that stands tall over him at this moment as an act of contrition, rendering all that witnessed it speechless save for gasps of various degree, unable to comprehend the sight of their Emperor lowering himself in such a way just to pleaded for absolution from this Young Girl, who just like the rest, did not expect the normally Boisterous Man to put himself in a position completely ill-befitted for someone of his caliber. He would go this far just to earn her forgiveness? Hers? "Xia…I know a simple apology would never make up for what I have put you through, nor do I expect you to accept it. I would not resent you for holding a grudge toward me either. It is only normal to feel that way. At this point, I know I have no right to ask you for anything, especially after all you have already done for us, I will not forget it. Even so, I humbly beg of you for one last Favor, to lend us your hand and help our nation, one last time. Please."

Beg. A word no one of his stations should ever need to use, regardless of the circumstances, for that humiliating phrase is beneath those that have even the slightest shred of self-respect, much less an Emperor, the one that is supposed to stand atop of China, yet at that moment, Ruogang brought himself down before the girl he has wronged, lowering his head as he pleaded to Ciel both as a way to prove the sincerity of his words as well as conveying the urgency in his request, desperation to regain her trust and cooperation obvious in his voice, not caring about maintaining his image as a Ruler in the eyes of his servants and Officials, the latter of whom appeared to have difficulty holding their tongue from decrying the Blonde for making the Azure Dragon Emperor tarnishing his Pride as a Monarch just so he could regain her cooperation, when she should be the one that prostrated herself, imploring Ruogang to deign her with the Honor of fulfilling a favor from him.

An Honor that, had it been a day earlier, would have the Blonde wholeheartedly accepted, admittedly not without some reservation about shouldering such a heavy responsibility, but she would still be willing to take up the Challenge that awaited her down the line if it meant one step closer to her goal. Now though, after everything, Ciel found herself hesitating, her breath no longer even as it grew unsteady, her mind, plagued by paranoia, whispering at her to let out a firm rejection. After all, Ruogang has turned on her once before, so why should she trust him again? Why should she help him anymore? Who is to say that this is not just merely a ploy of his to further use her for his own goal and then promptly dispose of her once she served her purpose to him? Even if she tries to deny such a possibility, that the Azure Emperor is not that kind of person, that he has realized that he was wrong and even goes as far as kneeling to apologize for his mistake, that persistent whisper remains, reminding her that he was the very person that ordered for her imprisonment, even though he knows her well enough that she would never go against his trust, locking her in that confined space that has broken her spirit and destroyed the Faith she has in the Court that all followed his words as if it is gospel truth.

Continuing to feed into her doubts, the cynical voice, born inside that Prison Cell which now nested in the deepest crevice of her mind demanded that she rebuff that request right this instant, for what is he going to do if she does? Execute her? On what Ground? Treason? Ciel does not doubt that she has been stripped of her Rank at this point, so he neither has the ability to brand her for the crime of treason or the justification to have her put down, especially when it is proven that she is innocent the entire time, not to mention that having her disposed of just because she does not want to do it will no doubt soured the opinion of the servants outside in regards to the Man. So unless he wanted to be viewed as a Tyrant who authorized capital punishment on an innocent Girl just because she won't do as he said, Ruogang cannot do anything to her, she's practically untouchable.

…

…But…What will she do afterward then? It is certain that Ciel will at least lose her position in the Palace if she refuses to involve herself in its intrigue anymore, meaning that she will ultimately forfeit her chance of ever coming back Home, to her loved one, to her little Sister in her home Dimension, that which still very much far out of reach, and likely will stay that way for the foreseeable future if she rejects the request, denying her of potential assistance from the Government to allowed her to return to her Realm of Origin. On her own, there will be no chance for her to make it back, practically impossible considering the millions of Worlds there are if the Multiverse theory is to be believed, not to mention that she doesn't even know how to even find which world is hers, as there is no telling if the Reality currently waging war against the Neo Arcadian Empire is the one she came from or not. With the technology of this Reality she is in though, it might be possible, seeing that there does exist the method to locate specific Dimension as she has learned through one of her daily internet browsing, being the reason why the Foreign Alliance was even a thing to begin with.

But would she entangle herself in the trouble of this world once more? Despite what has happened to her? Would she undertake another trial? At the risk of this repeating itself all over again? As much as the Disillusioned part of her conscience was telling her to just give up and call it quit while she is ahead, for it knows as well as she does that she will not be able to handle much more of this before she ultimately breaks…Ciel was never exactly considered the most rational person out there, especially when it comes to Family. Inhaling to regain her composure, the Blonde opened her eyes, lacking that gleam of hesitation in her eyes previously glinting in them. Ignoring the whisper that turned into a scream ringing a resounding pitch in her head in an attempt to stop her from making a mistake she may regret down the line, because no matter what she has and will go through next, it will be all worth it when she can be reunited with them. For her Family, no Prices are too great to pay.

"…Your Imperial Majesty…" Having come to terms with her decision, once again to the dismay of her self-preservation instinct, Ciel finally mustered the necessary mental strength to speak up for the first time since the beginning of the Trial, attracting the attention of all those present in the chamber with their focus leveled at her figure, now standing taller than everyone else in that moment, their attention heeded toward every word coming out of her mouth with interest, particularly Maomao and Jinshi along with the rest of the Monarchs. What choice has she made? "I…I don't think I could forgive what you have done to me…I don't think I can bring myself to do that…But after all the things you have done for me up until that point…When you could have just easily not to…I truly am Grateful for that…There is still a Debt that I owe you and your People…And I intended to repay them. Please, tell me what I must do."

Forgiving Ruogang for his mistakes may sound like a simple thing to do, but for Ciel, it was not the case. She cannot just let go of what happened behind so easily, she never could, as even if she was merely imprisoned without having to endure any of the same treatment as the other inmates in the underground Dungeon who has been there for much longer than she has and most likely was subjected to treatments too horrific for words, the experience of being betrayed by someone she trusts and subsequently contemplating about it inside of narrow confinement reminded her too much of her past, about the time she would very much prefer not reminiscing about, where she has gone through both at one point back in the day, being tossed into cramp Space by the scientists of Neo Arcadia for disobedience, which usually amounted to questioning their ethically dubious Method after her encounter with the Orphaned Reploid Alouette who shattered her illusion of the perfect utopia, deeply scarred her psyche as result, and the handful of times her faith get used, abused before getting cast aside by the very people she came to put her confidence in. As such, Ciel cannot find it in herself to act as if nothing has happened to her. The pain that she felt ran deeper than she would liked it to.

Even so, she will not let it become an excuse to reject those who turn to her for help in their time of need, it does not give her the right to do so. What kind of person would she be, if she used her suffering as a justification for her inaction? Ciel refused to be like that, such a Notion is for cowards too afraid to confront the trauma that made them the weak-willed, pitiful existence that they are, who are incapable of seeing the pain equal or even greater than theirs within others that suffered more than they would ever be. Out there, people are plagued with Unrest and Turmoil brought about by the Warring State of the Nation, much more than she could scarcely imagined, yet everyone she has encountered thus far in this Country continued to stay positive and does their best despite these turbulent time, having been nothing but helpful and kind to her…Shouldn't she be the same for them? If they could do it, why can't she?

"Your answer is Fair. Very Well." Far from a favorable answer, but it was nonetheless a satisfactory one, prompting Ruogang to retrieve the crown and adorn it back on top of his head before making his way back to his elevated Throne, awaiting him were Aiguo and Mei Feng, both of whom made a made a brisk gesture behind their folded hands and Metal Fan respectively to signaled him to move on with the last phase of the stratagem, "Lord Jun Aiguo." The Vermillion Emperor merely made a subtle nod in agreement, contents with remaining silent throughout the entire Trial and giving out his wordless approval. Better to not say anything than potentially mess up by stumbling over his words, "Lady Mei Feng." The action was then mirrored by the White Empress, adding a thin smile along with it, silently instructing him to continue on with this Role of the plan. Just a little more and they will be able to move onto the part where it actually mattered, "The Verdict is now clear. With the Endorsement of the Vermillion Bird of the South and the White Tiger of the West, I hereby declared Xia, the soul before us as…innocent."

There it was, The declaration that the Servants gathered outside had been waiting to hear over the course of this Case, feeling as though their chest had been liberated from the weight of accumulated anxiety when those words were uttered, and it was like Music to their ears. There is no better way to celebrate this than to do so with a roar of triumphant unleashed by the massive crowd to celebrated, enough to shake the surroundings for the briefest moment, forcing the majority of the Officials to shield their own ears or switch off their Sensors to protect themselves from the brutal vocal assault, though Ciel, who has gotten used to the ironclad vocal cord of both the Azure Emperor and his Daughter by that point, was able to endure it, much to the bewilderment of severals when she did not even flinch at the sheer volume uttered by the workers, which she is not all that surprised when she did not. Even the combined Force of the Palace's staff is no match to the Booming Bellow belonged to the Azure Dragon of the East or his arguably even louder Daughter. Compared to the ear-piercing intensity of their voice, these people might as well be whispering.

That amusing Thought aside, the Blonde Girl focused all of her concentration on the Three Monarchs of China on the elevated platform before her, who were exchanging dialogue with each other, the content of which is rendered near-incomprehensible to Ciel's Sensor due to it being smothered by the ongoing cheers of the servants that drowned out everything else that could have been heard. Due to that, she could only make rough speculations on what the Trio of Rulers were currently discussing based on the expressions on their faces and vague gestures they made, the former indicating that they seemed to have reached some kind of agreement, followed by Ruogang pressing the Sound modules on the side of his head, most likely is contacting with someone through transmission, an application of the Cybernetic implants that she has seen being employed by many a person as an alternative means of communication with someone, usually nearby, having seen the townsfolk of Xiangjiang making use of this feature to coordinate with one another much more efficiently during the preparation for the Red Moon Festival. Not that she was aware of it at the time, back then, she assumed that they were just that organized.

"Now, Now, everyone. I know this is an outcome worth celebrating over, but please, remain SILENT." With their discussion done from the looks of it, the White Empress, with a stern expression spread across her delicate features, folded her metallic fan with an audible snap that pierced through the veil of sounds like a needle, managing to cut through the wall that blocked everyone's hearings with relative ease, not even needing to raise her voice to reach them, much to Ciel's astonishment, even more so when a single command from her tone, soothing and gentle that admittedly made the Blonde feels rather weak against when she heard it was able to placate the passionate crowd with a serene yet firm order, dissimilar to a much more forceful one from Ruogang, like a Tranquil Breeze compared to a fearsome Gale. Her voice is almost…Calming in a way…Why does she feel this way before this Cherry Blossom-haired Woman? It's like she has verbal ability of some sort. "His Majesty has a Word to say. Do heed them."

Knowing that this is more or less addressing her, Ciel glanced up, resolve made up her expression, recognizing the kind of direction that this situation is heading toward, "As Lady Mei Feng has said. I have one last announcement to make." This must be about the Mission that Ciel accepted, that is what everyone seems to realize as well, seeing Ruogang's Gaze boring down on the Blonde, making some hold their breath, wondering what this task of his would entail, and why he wanted Ciel to participate in it, going as far as to beg her to agree, for the only thing they know about it is that it would be for the best interest of the Nation, "Young Xia, though you may be deemed Innocent by my own words, there are still some here that refuse to accept it." At that, several Court Members visibly flinched, chief among them being Han Suyin, well aware that his Imperial Majesty was referring to her and everyone that shared her sentiment, few in numbers as they may be, "As such, I wanted you to prove yourself in their eyes by reclaiming the Stolen Data of the Grand Archive from the Thief that dared to pilfered it. I wanted you to Show them the integrity of your Character."

…Maybe the previous explosion of sounds did affect her Sensors after all, because what Ciel had heard essentially boiled down to her playing a Game of Cat and Mouse with the one that attacked her and stole the information from the Database across the Country. That simply can't be right, for the Blonde is completely Ordinary in nearly every single way, barring from the obvious exceptions such as her Advanced Intellect and enhanced durability from the Cybernetic Implants, neither of which would serve any practical usages when it comes to hunting down the Culprit since her intelligence has its strength lies in the engineering and science side of the spectrum, and being well-versed in devising plans for technological development does not exactly translate to being capable of doing the same in formulating a fool-proof strategy. A tactician, the Girl was decidedly not, so she must be hearing things wrong. There is no way Ruogang would actually think it would be a good idea to choose her for such an important mission. Perhaps she should have gotten some rest in her Cell after all.

Try as she might in denying that reality, however, when she shifted her gaze across the Chamber to search for a sign of them having heard the same statement as she did, doing so, unfortunately, confirmed to Ciel, to her utter dismay, that it is the case, for the only expression she could see on everybody's visage, from the servants to the Hundred Official, were one of complete disbelief, having just as much difficulty in believing their ears as she did, while the Emperor merely maintain an expectant look on his face, shared by the other two Monarchs by his side, as if waiting for an answer from her. That is when the horrible realization dawned on Ciel as she felt her heart drop into her stomach in horror that slowly spread across her features like wildfire on a dry meadow. Oh no…He was not joking in the slightest. The Azure Emperor is actually planning to entrust her with such a Mission, and she has unknowingly accepted it in her ignorance. Mother Elf, What has she gotten herself into now?

"I don't suppose there would be any objection to this choice of mine, is there?" Far from it, there is more than one person here who would certainly wish to voice their disagreement on the decision to entrust a mission as crucial as that to an unremarkable Girl of questionable reliability, which was not without a valid reason on their part either. Out of all the Potential Candidate the Azure Dragon Emperor could have appointed the Role of retrieving the stolen Data, the Blonde can hardly be considered qualified for the task, especially in comparison to the Sheer amount of Megamen stationed in this Frontier, the number of which only second to the Vermillion County in term of numbers Ruogang has in his command, who are more than adequate in accomplishing this Duty. There is a matter of Trust as well, for while the majority of the Hundred Officials now no longer have problems with believing in Ciel's claim of innocence when it was proven, that does not automatically mean they would blindly trust her, since even at the off-chance of her somehow succeeding in reclaim the embezzled Data, there is still very much exists the possibility that she might try to peer into the forbidden Knowledge that they hold.

All the way back to the Formulation of the Third Neo-Arcadian Empire of Gamma, Maxwell Xenuvier has enacted a lasting Decree that made it so that the Information that would go on to be recorded in numerous Grand Archives would be protected from the eyes of the masses, preventing nearly the entire world from discovering the knowledge the Founder of the Blue Clan was so determined to keep hidden from the public, with the Order still being maintained to this day, allowing only the chosen Heads of the Megamen Clan who are required to swear to an Oath of Secrecy before they are granted the privilege of learning exactly what is contained in these databases to see it. As to be expected, however, the more forbidden something is, the more tempting it becomes, and that belief has never been more true when the secretive Nature of the forbidden information resulted in countless people throughout history attempting to see for themselves just what is stored inside those archives, resorting in scheming, manipulation, and subterfuge to achieve this singular goal. Though those same plots were thwarted every time that happened, by having Ciel be the one to secure the stolen data, it would provide the girl with the perfect opportunity to delve deep into what the Government of Neo Arcadia has been doing everything in its power to prevent from being seen by unauthorized individual.

There's simply no telling if the Blonde would be able to resist the Allure of curiosity from taking control of her judgment, as such, the Official believes that they should elect someone else, preferably someone that they know they can depend on to go collect the Data and loyal enough to not consider the mere idea of taking a look into the stolen data instead, and they would have proposed such suggestion to Ruogang, had they have the willpower to do so, but none dared to open their mouth when they caught a glimpse of the Azure Dragon Emperor's expression resting on his facial feature, where it wordlessly challenged any of them to argue with him concerning his choice of Agent, having prepared with all sorts of counterarguments to whatever response send in his way, and they recognized this as well, realizing they would not be able to deter their Ruler from going through with this decision, but they cannot just stay silent in defeat! Come on...Someone, speaks up already!

"Your Imperial Majesty, if I may." The Officials' unspoken prayers were eventually answered when someone among them who did have the willpower to raise his hand and speak up, though less to debate with the Monarch, because he too recognized the futility of doing so, and more to satisfy his personal curiosity about the decision. Searching for the source of the voice, Ruogang's gaze soon found itself resting upon the purple-colored form of Jinshi, an inquisitive expression dominated his majestic features, indicating that he does not plan to protest against his choice, but does have a question of his own. While the Azure Emperor could make an educated guess on what it is, a gesture was made to permit the Yinying Clan's members to make an inquiry regardless. Let's see the kind of question he has in mind, "While I don't mean any offense, there is something that I was just wondering, how exactly is Xia here supposed to capture this thief and take back the data? Is that not a pretty tall order for her? Surely you don't plan to just send her out there without some kind of Guarantor to protect and assist her in this, do you? Because from the way I see it, she'll wind up dead somewhere out there before any progress can be made."

Ouch, Jinshi clearly doesn't plan to mince his words or coat it with an unnecessary amount of Sugar at all, but Ciel would be lying if she claimed that he is wrong in his assessment. Having been raised in a Sheltered Upbringing in Neo Arcadia where she never has to worry about anything other than to succeed in numerous tests designed by researchers to assess her capabilities in various scientific fields, the Blonde's ability to take care of herself is quite…underdeveloped to say the least, if the fact that she would occasionally stay up through the entirety of some nights on her own volition and would regularly work herself to the bone was not enough of an indication of that already, made worse during her days in the Resistance, a turbulent period of her life that enabled these detrimental tendencies of hers at their fullest extent.

The result was expected, with those times severely limiting her chance to improve that aspect of hers, which the consequence thereof began to rear its ugly head now, moments where such skills would have been really practical to have. If she does go out there on her own, it is guaranteed that she would not last a single day before being sent back to Velvet, seeing that she nearly died when she encountered a Bā-shé that was weakened from starvation had it not been for the timely intervention of Ren Ning. Who knows what kind of creature she would be unfortunate enough to cross paths with next? So if she were to be tasked with retrieving the Data and capturing the Perpetrator, which will no doubt be a dangerous Mission, she would definitely need whatever help she could possibly get, like having a Guarantor as Jinshi briefly mentioned, which While she has only seen the term a few time before in passing on the internet in one of her research and thus knows next to nothing about it, from the sounds of it, it would seem that whoever they are, providing aid and keeping her safe is part of their Responsibility. Sounds rather helpful.

And fortunately for her, The Azure Dragon Emperor has been anticipating that specific question, even more so when he himself once made the same inquiry when discussing about the plan with his fellow Monarchs and daughter, which thankfully, the latter of whom did come up with a solution to this problem, once more to the three Rulers' growing awe of the Azure Princess' foresight, with her volunteering to carry out this part of the stratagem. Though Ruogang initially hesitated about letting herself shoulder that burden, through her excessive insistence, he eventually conceded all the same, though under the condition that they would enlist the assistance of a certain somebody that Ruogang knew quite well, a suggestion that she wholeheartedly accepted, for even Yulian herself is well aware that even if she is a highly capable Blue Megaman who has studied under the Ruling Council of Delta, thus leave little room for doubt of her capabilities, having more hands on deck, so to speak, is always welcoming.

"Don't be foolish, Jinshi. Of course I have a Guarantor Prepared in mind. She should be here any moment…Now." At that very moment, a resounding footstep echoes across the Chamber, pulling the attention of everyone to its direction, where they along with Ciel saw the servants dispersed to the side in order to make way for a certain individual. Considering who it was, it came as no surprise why they were bowing, for the one that had set her foot inside the Throne Room was none other than the one who would lay claim to the Dragon Seat down the line, the Daughter of the Current Emperor and the Future Empress, the Azure Princess, Qin Yulian, who make her presence known as she makes her way to the heart of the Space, an expressionless visage that has no crack for emotions seep through adorned her feature, in contrast to the astonishment of the Official and Ciel's face, the former were in utter disbelief while the latter was feeling the same way.

Having not expected that the Azure Princess would be the one to take up the Important Role. Really, who could have foreseen this possibility? While they understand that Yulian is the next Designated Blue Megaman of China who is said to possess the potential to one day surpass her Father, she is still very much a fledgling in comparison to the Dragon that is Ruogang, with her still in training, as such, they did not take her into consideration of the candidates of Guarantors. Yet once again, the Azure Emperor has subverted their expectation once more, and not in a good way, for they could see countless problems that could arise with this choice of his.

"Your Majesty! You cannot be serious! You would have your own Daughter be exposed to danger?!" Came the Protest from a distraught Cai Shu, the Prefect of the servants' staff and the holder of the 56th seats in the Court, being rather vocal about the idea of sending Yulian on such a precarious mission. Given that she was the one that practically raised the Azure Princess alongside the Ruogang, being the Girl's Wet Nurse when the Late Azure Empress had her Mortality Chain severed and departed from this world, it is not that hard to figure out why she is so against the decision more than anyone here. Chances are, she is incredibly attached to the Princess, viewing Yulian as a daughter she never had, and the feeling is mutual for Yulian as well, regarding Cai Shu as a strict but caring Surrogate Mother alongside her loving and overly doting Blood Father, so in Ruogang's opinion, the Prefect's reaction was only natural. In a sense, he admired that aspect of hers, loving his daughter whom she shared a deep bond with like her own. If only it did not have to come to this. Another Regret added to the ever-growing pile.

"As Regretful as I am for placing this responsibility on her, fret not. Yulian is a Blue Megaman, even if she has yet to be acknowledged as a Proper Chosen one, she has managed to emerge victorious in the Eight Gauntlet Trial by a landslide. By all accounts, she will be quite capable of defending both herself and Young Xia from any potential threat, and she would not be the only one in search of this thief either, Yulian and Xia will be just one of many squads I'd be deploying to weed out this scum." Still, he could at least take solace in the fact that this Mission would not be put squarely on just Yulian and Ciel's shoulders, for he is not so unreasonable and witless as to entirely depend on only these two girls who are barely women to prevent the Data from reaching their enemy and potentially turn the tide of the national-wide Conflict, the two of them will merely be part of a massive collaborative effort between the Three Monarchs in the Operation, all to make sure to leave no stone unturned as they search every nook and crannies of the West for this elusive Mouse.

"That is not what I'm worried about your Majesty! Think about it, Princess Yulian will be in the Company of this Girl, a stranger, being alone with your Daughter, who could very well endanger her life! Please Reconsider!" Frustrated by the Emperor completely missing the whole point, Cai Shu was forced to spell out her concern to the Man, all the while eyeing Ciel with distrust at best and outright aversion at worse, who appeared to be rather taken aback by what the Official was insinuating, though she cannot say she is offended. If anything she could understand where she was coming from. If she were seeing the situation through the Woman's lens, she would feel the same, for while the Blonde has been pronounced as Innocent by Ruogang, clearing most of the suspicion around her false name, there is nothing to suggest that she is completely trustworthy. The amount of time she has been in the court is not even close to a month, she is practically a stranger in all but name, just as Cai Shu has said, so It is quite possible that her meek appearance is merely an act she put up, and beneath that Mask of a timid girl could be a cold-blooded Assassin for all they know who has bid her time, searching for the window of opportunity to strike when they least expected. Now that is obviously not the case, but these people have little reason to trust her words, which is rather problematic. What should she do?

In the end, though, she did not have to trouble herself with thinking up a way to prove herself to them, because Yulian and her Father have a different method to assure the distressed, as would to the rest of the Court, one that is far less pleasant, but would get their point across much more efficient fashion, "Not to worry about that Either. Yulian, shows them." Through a single gesture that she has been waiting for, which she acknowledged with a wordless nod, Ciel saw as some kind of…Instrument? Manifesting into the hands of the Azure Princess in an array of data that arrived from seemingly nowhere, solidifying into the form of a Pear-Shaped Guitar, embellished with pattern and trim made from gold, the same materials that made up its thin Strings, which on a closer inspection, the composition resembled that of a Guzheng more than the conventional arrangement of a Pipa, the instrument that this thing closely match in appearance, in other words, it looks like a fusion between a Pipa and Guzheng, two of the instruments Ciel has seen before during the Red Moon Festival, operated by various people to provided music during the Dragon's Dance. Though she does wonder what Yulian is planning to show here with an instrument-

Then she plucked one of the Strings.

TWANG!

No one saw it, but all felt it, for in the very moment the golden Strings were pulled, the sounds that reached their ears comprised of not only the singular tune of the instrument but a Sharp resonance that did not come from the tool as well, come and go like a burst of sounds, soon replaced by the clattering of a solid object colliding with the ground. That Object in question? an Silver Dragon Crest, specifically, Ciel's Dragon Crest, being torn off from her collar within the space of a Heartbeat, falling onto the floor, with a few pieces of fabric still woven into it as it falls. Seeing the Metallic Sigil suddenly drop right next to her foot, the Blonde widened in alarm, reaching out to the spot where the Silver object once was, but instead of her finger feeling the fabric, it was her neck that she felt, covered in Sweat that began to pour out of her when her body finally registered the sensation that brushed against her neck a moment ago, in the exact moment Yulian tug the Thread, where an invisible yet overwhelming force grazed the surface of her skin, taking the Crest with it. What…Just happened? Why is the medallion on the ground? When did it get ripped off from her collar? How did it get ripped off? She could sense it, hear it, but not see it, the Strike that cut through the fabric with such speed and precision that it was able to separate the Dragon Emblem from her garb without damaging her throat in a matter of second, as though it a speeding bullet, fired from the Instrument, vanished as soon as it appeared…

…No.

She couldn't see it because it was fast. She couldn't see it because the Attack lacked a physical form to see in the first place, for Sound doesn't have Shape.

A hypothesis that was immediately confirmed to be the case when from the corner of her eyes, Ciel spotted Yulian moving her hands across the Pipa in her arms, rapidly plucking the Strings in a specific pattern with trained movement, with a harmonious melody being the result…Well, one of the Results…The other was decidedly not as pleasant as the Tune, for in the flow of the Music, all bare witnessed the sight of the severed Dragon Crest on the floor seemingly getting smitten by an invisible barrage of attacks that cut through the air, launching it up into the sky where it was continuously struck by intangible blows, producing that distinctly sharp sounds as the Silver Crest being torn apart piece by piece by the formless bombardments, only stopping when the stylized piece of Silver was mangled beyond recognition as it fallen to the ground, becoming nothing more than a pile of scraps, rendered everyone who witnessed the display of skills completely speechless, particularly Ciel, who was rather shaken by the rather brutal demonstration of the Azure Princess' Power, feeling the color drained from her face, leaving behind a pale visage as her mind could scarcely imagined the same happening to her should she unintentionally brought the wrath of the Emperor's daughter on herself. The mere thought caused Ciel to instinctively back away from Yulian, pure, unadulterated fear clear in her eyes, not that the latter seemed to be paying any attention to it.

"As you can see for yourself, Yulian here is very much capable of handling any threat. If Xia poses a danger to her, she will never get the chance to do anything." Seizing the opportunity to speak now that everyone has finally settled down in morbid silence, Ruogang motioned his hand at the fragments of the damaged Dragon Crest on the ground, the fate that awaits all those that would do her and Ciel harm, for the Azure Princess may be a gentle soul, one would be wise to not mistaken her compassionate nature for a weakness, for she is very much capable of dispatching any and all hostile that stands in her way with naught but a single flick of her Pipa, which now everyone has recognized to be her Weapon as the Blue Megaman. an unusual manifestation of it may be, still just as dangerous as the Buster Form, "So, any further complaints?"

Even if there were, No one could find their Voice.

[Record Terminated]

[Word Count: 38,887]