Editing City Series:Volume6c Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

The wedding was being held outside and it began with the couple standing on an oak platform and answering a few questions asked by the mayor.

Lehrer and Pale took Hazel into the 50-yard center square where the village’s Heidengeists had already gathered and formed a ring. Short Hazel tried to stretch upwards, but…

“I can’t see.”

Pale, who wore a casual shirt, smiled with his one eye.

“Want to sit up on my shoulders?”

She just about agreed before remembering she was wearing a skirt. She politely declined and walked around the square in search of a hole in the circle of people. She saw the backs of so many different species. She saw fur, scales, and wings. She saw nonhumanoid shapes. She even saw the living dead and ghosts.

Seeing the great diversity on display, she was reminded of her brief passage through England on the way to Germany.

…''It’s true what they say about the Heidengeists moving from Europe to England.

Then she noticed a back she recognized.

It was a Geheimnis Agent.

This was the Lieutenant Schweitzer she had met five years ago.

“Eh?”

She wondered what he was doing here, but she also picked up her pace. Once she was far enough around the circle to get a look at him in profile, she confirmed it really was him.

This reminded her of her position here, so she hurried the rest of the way around the square.

Once back at her original position, she found Pale had acquired three wooden mugs at some point.

“They were passing out celebratory drinks while you were running around. They say it’s made from the fruit they harvested this spring.”

Hazel saw him hold two mugs out toward her.

“I can’t drink two.”

“One’s for the world’s second most pretension dumbass standing over there.”

A metal finger pointed outside the square.

She looked that way and found her greatest safe zone: Dog Berger.

A single tree grew on a small hill in the grassy area north of the center square. He stood there in his black coat, looking down at the square.

“…”

Pale bowed and Hazel jogged over to Berger.

She made sure not to spill the drinks as she ran, but running on the grass felt nice through her shoes.

She entered the shade of the tree.

“Berger.”

He did not respond.

She saw him still staring toward the square with no readable expression on his face.

“Umm…”

She tried to figure out what to do with her hands full of mugs, but he held out a hand without looking her way. He was telling her to give him one.

She did so.

He took a sip without saying a word. He did not even blink as he stared emotionlessly at the square.

Hazel sighed, wiped sweat from her brow with a handkerchief, and sat next to him. She made sure to hold the skirt in the back of her knees as she sat on the grass.

She looked to the square as well.

From the hilltop, she realized the ring of people was less than 10 yards across and only about four people thick. The tallest figures were the animal Heidengeists, but the most colorful were the winged ones.

The only humans in the ring were…

…''The Geheimnis Agent?

No, there was also a human woman standing next to Schweitzer. She had brown hair worn in one long braid.

Hazel just about dropped her mug when she saw the woman.

“She’s the one from my dreams!!”

Realizing Berger was looking at her now, she clapped a hand over her mouth.

And she panicked.

…''It’s the same person and the same outfit as in my dreams?

The woman wore her long brown hair in a single braid and she wore a green men’s suit. There was no doubting it. That was definitely the woman who would kneel before her and ask that question in her dreams.

“I don’t believe it.”

She shook he head, tensed her shoulders, leaned over toward Berger, and looked away from the woman.

She looked to the large oak platform in the center of the square. The crops harvested during spring and the drinks, foods, textiles, and other products made from them were piled up on that platform.

The gaunt mayor stood in front of it all wearing casual clothing. Hazel worked to steady her breathing while guessing his pale skin meant he was a long-lived ghost.

A man and a woman stood in front of him.

The young man wore black clothing and his skin was a little dark. He was a demon, which meant he would have a hard time in churches.

The woman wore a gorgeous white dress with a hand-woven lace veil hiding her face.

“…”

Hazel sighed and her gaze wandered back over to the green suit woman.

The woman was looking back at her.

She gasped, scooting about a foot back on her butt and putting on a stiff smile.

She bowed toward the woman to try and smooth things over.

The woman noticed, narrowed her eyes, and nodded.

They had apparently managed to communicate.

Hazel heard her heart hammering in her chest and hid behind Berger.

When she looked forward again, the woman was no longer looking her way. That was a small relief.

…''Is she with the Geheimnis Agency too?

Just then, Lehrer entered the ring of people, bowed toward them all, and said something.

Color flew from the surrounding ring.

People were throwing bouquets of flowers.

They cheered and shouted. They all raised their mugs and voices below the fluttering flowers.

The ring dissolved as the people mingled together and started dancing. The groom was lifted and then thrown into the air by the men and the bride was surrounded by the woman and given a large bouquet to hold.

Then the bride removed the flower-decorated veil from her head and threw it.

It flew toward…

“That woman.”

The woman standing next to the Geheimnis Agent caught the flying white cloth.

She had scrambled up onto the man’s shoulder to pull it off.

After snatching the lace out of the air, she cheered, but she blushed when she noticed everyone watching her.

Her nimble movements had caught the other people by surprise, but they eventually burst into laughter.

The Geheimnis Agent man used his prosthetic right hand to snatch her from his shoulder and lower her to the ground. Then the village’s men raised their mugs toward the two and laughed.

Cheer filled the place.

Hazel smiled a little herself as she watched from afar and then she looked to the bride.

She had seen the woman before.

“––––!?”

She was in Berger’s pendant. She was in that glimpse of the past shown on that photograph. The one that showed him smiling in a way he had never had for Hazel.

[[Image:City_v06c_175.jpg|thumb]]

Now she understood why Berger and that Geheimnis Agent were here.

She gulped and recalled the name she had seen on that photograph three years ago.

…''Eryngium.

But…

…''I stole a look at it, so…

Berger did not know she had seen it. So she looked at him while making sure he wouldn’t notice that she knew. She took a sip of the citrusy drink in her mug as she did so.

She noticed his stance had somewhat changed from before.

He now had his right hand inside his black coat. She wondered if he was touching the pendant, but he was not.

He was holding Gelegenheit’s hilt.

He was staring forward, probably at Eryngium, but there was no expression on his face.

His lips, however, were moving.

“…”

No voice emerged, but he had definitely said something.

Hazel could not see his Lives. He was hiding everything.

He had said something without noticing her staring. She did not know if it was words of celebration or what, but she did know he had shut his eyes somewhat.

He was no longer looking to the central square.

She quickly looked back that way as if to take over for him and saw Eryngium and the groom drinking while surrounded by all the other people.

They were smiling.

…''What does this mean? That Geheimnis Agent, the woman from my nightmares, and Eryngium are all here.

“B-Berger.”

She started to say something until she saw something in the sky.

She noticed three lines of white in the southern end of the clear blue sky above the forest surrounding the village.

They were contrails.

The three contrails rose from above the forest rooftops, to above the blue sky, and then to the heavens themselves. They ascended and ascended.

They suddenly came to an end high, high up in the sky.

By then, the villagers had noticed it as well. A few of them sipped at their drinks and pointed up at the white slashes dividing the blue sky overhead.

Those three white lines rose into the heavens and vanished.

They almost seemed to be joining the festivities.

Hazel tried to say as much to Berger.

“Berger.”

But…

“Berger?”

He was gone.

He had vanished at some point. She tilted her head and checked behind the tree, but he wasn’t there either.

He must have gone elsewhere.

…''Is he okay?

She wondered that and lifted the mug in her hands.

And…

“Oh?”

She lost her equilibrium and rolled over onto the ground. Her head felt weirdly heavy.

She was drunk.