A smile appears on Siegrund's face, and as he stares at me, he looks back into the water and says, "I don't really know."
A giant sigh escapes from my mouth as I say, "Give me back my willpower."
Laughing, he says, "Sorry, I just had to do it. It was far too funny."
Trying to hold back my tears, I say, "Whatever."
As we both stare into the water, he says, "I can't tell you the answer, because in all honesty I don't know it myself. If I did, I probably wouldn't have come back to see you as grim as that, maybe. Though what I can say is that you seem to be at your best when you're reaching out for a goal."
"I am reaching out for a goal I have been every single day since you left; how is that supposed to help me?"
"Maybe you haven't been reaching out for the same goal all this time then. Our bodies do not walk in line with our souls; they exist as beasts whose number one point is to protect themselves. If it feels like something has become a threat or a danger, or even far too painful, it will take efforts to deny you access to it, even if it isn't in your long-term best interests; that's simply the way the human condition works."
"Are you saying that I don't remember the reason I first started doing all of this?"
"Maybe. Yet I do not know the battles you've truly experienced in this time the two of us have been apart, so I can only speculate. But what I can say is that, at the very least, if the words I told you aren't enough, keep your lips loose until you can find an answer, as I am sure the little truths and ideas everyone has can lead you to something greater."
Staring out into the water, I say, "Let's hope that is true at the end of this all. But at the very least, thank you for your words; I will devour them whole."
"Like any warrior should, now how about we do some sparring?"
"I am good, and besides, I don't take pleasure in fighting someone who will be named a Monarch."
"Oh, come on, it's just a little, and besides, I have gone through great effort to keep Cordum from declaring me as such."
"So you can go and pick a fight with weaklings, and bully them?"
"People would give up if I went around with a title like Dumitra; where is the fun in that?"
Staring up towards the sky, I say, "Maybe you should find other hobbies, or take a wife if you are that bored."
"But your dad is still alive."
"You make a lot of those jokes," I say as my head stares above me.
With its little wings, it moves towards me; a tiny little crow with a letter around its neck slowly hovers above my head, and after a second I quickly jump up and grab it out of the air.
"Is this crow familiar to you?"
"No, the Sieg Bisumods use specialised long-range Kaidenwa's to communicate with each other."
Feeling a bad sensation crawl around my body, I quickly take the note and open it and in front of me, I see a horrifying symbol at the bottom right corner. As I read, "To Captivant Adrian Nightfall. As of this moment, my compatriots and I hold Ai Kumo of the Chronicle Nimbus in our 892nd Hideout. Within the next 10 hours, you must come and present yourself to use along, or we will end her life in a way that will make a demon's flesh look tantalising. Best Regards."
My fist clenched as the words from the paper flowed through my mind. Ai? They have Ai? No way how could they've gotten her? It's impossible; that shouldn't be something that could happen.
She is far too tricky and nimble to get caught off guard, but more than that, how would anyone even know of her connection to me? Did Warwick say something? Or was it Cario? Are they trying to antagonise me? But still, someone from the village must've sold the information about me being here; otherwise, I don't see how they could've located me.
"DAMMIT! I need to go, I need to find my way to them right now."
Grabbing me by my shoulder, Siegrund says, "You need to calm down, your getting to erractic you won't be able to do anything in that state. We can still find a way past this; I'll help you."
Pointing at the symbol, I say, "You won't be able to help; this is signed by Destino!"
"One of the three mafia families?"
"Yes, you know as well as I do they have at least some degree of 1st seat, and if they already know this much about me, I doubt they are unaware of your presence and have planned accordingly. The moment I show up, they'll kill her."
"Then what if we take the train to Dumitra? She has a curse that allows her to teleport; by using such a power, we could sneak up on them."
"No, that curse, to my knowledge, has some kind of limitation; it's why she almost never uses it in historical records, but if we push your ability to the maximum, there is a chance we could use it to make everyone in the area unable to move. No, wait. Why did this say 10 hours? It would only take us about 3 at your speed to reach the hideout from here, but it takes a little under that time to reach Blestemate?
It's almost as if they gave us enough time to just be shy of being able to contact her? How would that be possible unless they knew of the train? There is no one who knows of both Ai and the family's train, except for me?"
Rubbing his chin, Siegrund mutters, "A mind-reading curse?"
Putting my hands against my face, I say, "That must be it, but when was it used against me? It can't have such a ridiculous range; otherwise, I refuse to believe a cursed item like this wouldn't be far more well known?"
My mind goes through all the situations throughout my head, eventually coming to a conclusion. "It must've happened during the celebration in Blestemate; I was dead drunk to the point I barely remember anything that happened that day. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!!!! This means they must also have the information on what your Regalia does, and have planned against its use. What am I going to do? Ai's life is in danger, and I have no practical recourse."
"Then let's go together, and strike them down."
"Are you insane? We can't do anything like that; they will kill her."
"That is true, but we still have an upper hand to a certain degree. Whatever Nightmare did this to you must've at the very least been in contact with you that day, and the Queen must have said Nightmare's ability; it won't be hard for her to find out who it was. I am sure said Nightmare is going to go into hiding after getting whatever payment that comes with your bounty, and what do you think the best places to hide are going to be?"
"The CN hideouts, which I am familiar enough with. There is a chance I could pass said information on to you, who could pass said information off to CN, leading to him being tracked down, so more than anything, said idiot will need to make a situation where all 3 of us will need to die; they will need her as a hostage to use against me, and me as a hostage to use against you."
"Exactly, so I doubt they will kill her in my presence. In fact, the first thing they will try is to split us up so they can capture you using her as bait; that means on some level you will get close to her, and that moments all you need. Rescue her then."
"That's impossible; they without a doubt have a combatant that can take me down or capture me; I will be caught."
"Make what is constant variable. Their plan hinges on the fact they think you'll lose, so you must win. If you can do that, we can come out of this alive. If you don't, we won't be able to make it out of this alive. So what do you want, for all of us to live or for Ai Kumo to die?"
-Break-
Location: Abundant Kingdom, Varage;Chronicle Nimbus Hideout 892
Φ Tied up to a chair in the middle of a room layered with books, Ai Kumo in a white gown stained with blood with her pins forcing her body right into the chair bound the floor breathes in an out intensely as the surges of pain strikes her body again, and again, yet at this point she has fully internalised the suffering only given a nasty glare to the man who sits in front of her.
Playing with a cube in his hand, an olive-skinned man with fuzzy hair, in a feather trench coat over his suit with purple nails and lipstick, plays with a box puzzle as he says, "Back during the end of the 2nd Cycle, when Fimbulwinter arose from the corpse of Victoria, many shifts happened, resulting in what was called the Calamitous Era/Era of Calamity of the Third Cycle.
But by the end, a series of things happened. First was that the adventurers' guilds gained great power, as almost all countries were destabilised, leading to inabilities of handling barbarians, demons and wonderbeasts eventually growing in strength so much that the average person's only safety was paying adventurers, allowing them to grow, giving them a monopoly on violence, which they abused.
Second was the merchants of Cordum, which used their connections with the adventurers to wield information and knowledge to allow themselves to economically dominate the destroyed world.
Finally was the inheritors of Charles, all the people of Victoria who carried with them the amalgamation of humanity's excellence from Victoria and combined with the Church of Messiah in Cordum to create an order of people who claimed to be the successors of the Great Empire of Nero.
The three groups combined and became the Children of the Future, a group which dominated every single aspect of the known human world, reigning over Enotita, Terrafide, and Molstoria all at once. They developed and advanced the world while stripping away humanity from all the humans that existed across the planet.
Corrupt was a kind thing to call those monsters; they brutalised people on the grounds that they shared blood with Beastkin to push their agenda. They wielded Telonism like a sword to slay all those who stood in their way. They caused wars and social unrest to achieve their goals. They developed weaponry that gave them dominance in a world before Spirit Arts use was normalised. They slaughtered Nightmares, branding them as demons to destroy Dumitra's power. Propaganda was used constantly to reshape the human mind and experience over and over again. And at the core of it all, those involved became the richest humans to exist, even by today's standards. And when the Sieg Bisumods joined them, all hope seemed lost to everyone.
Yet in that corrupt, vile world, people fought against that world order and were branded as criminals, yet they held those titles close to their hearts, violating the vile orders sent by those who controlled the world to relish in their greed and envy. It was the three Mafia Families. Mare, Gridare, and my own family. Warriors who stood up for the people, using whatever means it could to fight against the evil oppressors who stood against the world, liberating millions and keeping their bloodlines going till the future; that is the heroic legacy I have inherited from my ancestors."