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Alma - Chapter 56

Published at 11th of May 2020 10:47:58 PM


Chapter 56

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The mood had subtly changed in the Evergreen estate after Reed's little incident, to say the least. Murmurs floated around in hushed tones that the new master was insane and that he muttered strange curses in his sleep. That he was suicidal and that his incident had been a desperate cry for help. That he was an idiot of the highest degree…

Arcano sighed deeply. He knew now that he'd have to keep himself on high alert around his master, for the young man's sake and his own. Only the Devil himself knew what'd happen to him if word ever reached Lady Violett of what had occurred yesterday. He had not failed a single mission that the Kingscrown family had ever assigned to him since the day he joined the prestigious order of the royal guards.

Assassinations. Interrogations. Espionage. Sabotage. Suicide missions. The assignment did not matter to him; he'd completed everything without issue. Nothing was off-limits. At one point, he'd even diligently served as a nanny for the royal family.

He singlehandedly raised the legendary Winter Princess — Violett Kingscrown — himself from the day she had been born almost a hundred years ago. It proved to have been the hardest assignment he'd ever been given in his life. Figuring out how to best raise a princess into a proper lady had been beyond his realm of expertise back in the day.

Learning how to put on her diapers, bathing her, feeding her, calming her down, putting her to sleep, teaching her… the trials and tribulations never ended for him. For nineteen brutal years as her guardian, mentor, and protector, he'd been forced to push himself to limit to fulfill his assignment.

Time passed. Arcano had watched his baby girl grow into a proper lady under his careful guidance and supervision. His duty as her guardian ended many moons ago when she'd left to become a fledgling contender. And with that, he'd finished what he considered to have been the most difficult assignment he'd ever been given in his career.

…Or so he had thought. He knew now that'd he had been wrong. God had sent him an even greater tribulation this time, presumably as punishment for his hubris in thinking that he'd experienced the worst. A living bomb, several orders more destructive than him, that possessed an unstable fuse.

And to top it off, the bomb had somehow garnered the interest, or god forbid — the romantic affection — of the prodigal lady of the North.

…Is there an escape from this madness? Am I dreaming — living a false life in a realistic nightmare? What have I done to deserve this, Goddess? Please answer my question, I beg of you…

"Arcano, I've gotta be brutally honest. These techniques are the sort of half-assed parlor tricks that I'd expect a weakling would use. Do you have something... stronger in your deck, or is this all you've got?"

His blood pressure skyrocketed when he heard the boy's words. He hadn't felt like this in several decades, not since he'd taken care of Violett. No, this was worse. Much, much worse.


What he felt… was dread. The kind that permeated into your bones and kept you awake at night.

Half-assed parlor tricks, his self-created techniques. The same skills he'd used over his career to inspire dread across the continent as one of the North's greatest bogeymen. He'd killed conquerors who could level cities and hide in spatial cracks the width of a thread of hair. The craftiest, most ingenious criminals of their generations who had once ruled the Underground with an iron fist.

And yet… the boy had mastered all his techniques under a day. Arcano had spent several lifetimes refining his skills to the limit, or so he'd thought.

"Hmmm, maybe it'd work better if I did this instead…"

A single flower petal made of Anima floated aimlessly in the wind until it landed on a tree. As soon as it touched the trunk of the tree, it burst into infernal flames and quickly turned it into ash.

One of his techniques, The Sunflower's Kiss, an assassination technique used to covertly eliminate targets. Only it'd been improved. The boy's flower petals were truly superb, to the point that he had to admit that he'd improved upon his own damned technique.

Whereas his flower petals might have very minor Anima fluctuations that could give away his attack, the boy's had none. Had he not seen it for himself, he would have not believed it.

It'd had taken years for Violett to have mastered his techniques, which he had considered miraculous. For her to have comprehended his life's work in less than a decade was shocking. He had thought of her as a once-in-a-generation genius when it came to Anima manipulation.

But this… this was unnatural beyond all reason. A day.

"Well, it's still a pretty nice technique, even if it's a trick. I might be able to use this if I modify it some later…"

What had Violett brought home? And what would this mean for the North— no, the entire world?

Reed lazily yawned and said, "Hey, Arcano, you alright? You don't look too hot right now, you know. Haven't been sleeping well or something?"

Arcano bitterly smiled and said, "Something like that, Lord Reed. You need not worry, though. I'll be fine. In any case, I have—" A sudden shift in the air alerted the old butler, but the fluctuations he felt soon after assuaged his fears.

Instead, he sighed. He'd have to deal with two of them today…

He turned towards the front of the manor and said, "A guest has come to meet you, Lord Reed. I assume you felt that as well, yes?"

"The Anima wave, right? Who is it? The mailman?" said Reed, entirely uninterested.

"That was Lady Violett, Lord Reed. I am quite familiar with the way she manipulates Anima, you see. I was the one who taught her, so her fluctuations resemble faintly that of my own," said Arcano.

Reed wanted to groan, but he knew that he couldn't brush her off. He'd have to meet her and at least hear her out. Hopefully, she's just come to visit, thought Reed but he knew better…

"So, what do you think? Pretty nice place, right? Beautiful scenery, too. I loved roaming around the Eternal Forest when I was kid, though Arcano would often try to stop me from exploring too far out…"

Tea time with Violett in her old bedroom had gone as expected. Reed struggled like a newborn calf as he fought to escape the predator that had captured him. She was killing him with love, some would say. Others would say suffocation.

"...…"

"W-What? What's the matter with you, Reed? What's with that face— looking at me like I'm some sort of con-artist," said Violett as she lovingly violated Reed's personal space. Needless to say, Lacrima quickly corrected that issue the same way she had done with Lu'um.

"Who's this hussy again, boy? One of your exploits? How disappointing. The apple never falls far from the tree, as they say…" Lacrima's scathing evaluation of his gracious benefactor echoed in his head, much to his dismay.

The one who gave me this damn house, so stop zapping her before we get kicked out of it! Reed scratched his head and said, "Sorry about that, my cloak's got a built-in guard but sometimes, it malfunctions. It's a bit defective in certain aspects since it's an old piece of tech."

Violett laughed and said, "It must be an artifact, then. You probably picked it up during your final test, right? Most Mulian artifacts are like that — old pieces of junk that rarely work. Still, the eggheads pay handsomely for them, so it's our job to recover them when we can. If you like artifacts, I could give you some rare ones, if you'd like."

Reed felt Lacrima's fury in the form of an electric current that traveled down his spine, but he had formed a thin Anima barrier around himself beforehand. He discreetly dispelled the current and ignored her vile comments about Violett and himself.

Ah. Here we go. The bait's been planted, now that she's 'found' something to entice me.

"…I just need you to help me out a bit with something. Nothing dangerous, of course!" said Violett with a charming smile, as if she were trying to sell Reed on an idea.

"And what is it that you need me to do if it doesn't involve killing things? Truth be told, that's all I'm good at. I can't see myself doing well at anything else, so…"

Violett swiftly shook her head and said, "No, no, no, there's no fighting involved in this job, I assure you. In fact, you don't even need to do anything for this job. All you need to do is show up and attend the ball with me. That's it."

Reed's eyes narrowed as he said, "A ball? One of those fancy parties the nobles have? That's the job? Et tu, Violett?"

"Look, I owe a big favor to someone and he said that he'd call it square so long as you attend the next ball he's hosting. I don't know why or how he's gotten information about you, given all the work we've put into hiding your identity, but he's given me his word that he hasn't revealed anything about you. All he wants to do is meet you, from the look of it," said Violett as she threw a sugar cube in her tea with a thought.

"...…So you want me to meet with this guy? That's all I have to do?" Reed groaned in protest.

I owe her for the damn house. Can't back out. Damn it. And here I thought I wouldn't have to mingle with those damned nobles...

"Please? I'll get you anything you want as a reward, or I can give you something else instead…" she said with a voice sweeter than usual.

A large bolt of lightning shot of Reed's cloak and struck Violett's teacup, shattering it into pieces. Her tea splashed all over her skirt and dress shirt, ruining her clothes. 

".....That wasn't my fault." 

"You are not to bring that damned cloak with you the ball. Am I understood? You bring that cloak to the ball and I'll shred it on the spot. I'll turn the damn thing into confetti."




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