Editing City Series:Volume6c Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

Hazel stared up into the sky while collapsed behind the tree.

…''I can’t stay here. I have to get to that empty house next to the square.

She wasn’t sure why, but two women with some kind of a connection to her were here.

“What is with this village?”

Her alcohol-loosened lips uttered a complaint as she slowly got back up.

Standing up too quickly made her dizzy, so she took it slow and then got moving.

Once she started down the slope, her legs started moving on their own. Carrying her down.

“Oh, no, no, no, no.”

She arrived at the square in a jog and it took her five or six steps to regain her balance.

She tried staying still.

In the square, a large number of Heidengeists were seated on a large picnic sheet and chatting pleasantly. There was laughter and singing. There were no insults or fear. Every species had at least a few different members present.

Hazel stood there all alone, but…

“Oh.”

The balance of her inner ear started to collapse.

She moved her head and her somewhat feverish gaze searched for the vacant house she and Berger had been given.

She found it at 10 o’clock or northwest. The wooden house was a short walk across the field surrounding the central square.

She turned that way and got her unsteady legs moving again.

“Oh, whoa.”

Just as she started walking and wobbling, she heard a voice from the seated Heidengeists.

“Hey, what are you doing there, miss!?”

It was Pale’s voice, but she did not have it in her to check where exactly he was.

“I’m sorryyyy.”

With that, she walked from the square with the mug in one hand. She staggered side to side and turned her head. She still had 15 steps before reaching the vacant house. That felt like a horribly long journey.

And then…

“?”

She heard Berger’s voice.

From behind the vacant house. He seemed to be talking with someone. She could not hear what he was saying, but there was a light, cheerful tone to his voice.

Her heart skipped a beat.

…''He only sounds so happy when he feels trapped.

It was the same tone of voice he had used when fighting the Kaiser three years ago or facing down the Sylphide five years ago.

She resumed walking.

Her legs were still unsteady, but she had gotten the hang of it.

She arrived at the vacant house, placed her hand on the log wall for support, and started to circle behind the house.

Then she heard a female voice join with Berger’s.

It was Lehrer’s voice.

That brought Hazel some small relief.

…''Are they hiding back here to trade AIF intel?

She peeked behind the house and prepared to call Berger’s name.

“––––”

But she quickly pulled her head back.

She took a few steps back along the wall and then turned the corner toward the front door.

“Um, uh, um.”

She spoke aloud what she had seen.

“They were kissing…”

Only by speaking the words did she truly understand them.

The image burned into her eyes showed Lehrer as the instigator. She had stretched up, draped her arms around Berger’s neck, and placed her lips on his.

…''What is going on here?

Hazel touched her right hand, the one not holding the mug, to her lips as if that would help her understand.

“N-no.”

She did not understand the word escaping her lips or the scene she had just witnessed.

Nor did she understand the woman from he dreams or Eryngium’s presence here.

She had nothing but questions spinning through her mind when organ music from the church reached her ears.

Music much like hers from earlier seemed to push her onward, so her legs began to move.

She practically leaned against the entranceway as she opened the door.

The wind blew into the vacant house, seeming to draw out the smell of the wood and the dim shadows.

She stepped inside to cut herself off from what she had seen outside.

It was a small house. The 5-yard room had a fireplace on the north side, a simple kitchen with no equipment on the east side, and a bed with only a mattress and sheets on the west side.

She looked to the fireplace and sighed. Berger was likely still beyond there.

Lehrer would be with him.

Hazel shook her heavy head, but that did nothing to help.

“What do I do? I don’t understand any of this.”

She set the mug down in the kitchen, walked across the room on unsteady legs, and collapsed into the bed without removing her shoes. The texture of the artificial mattress and sheets felt oddly nostalgic.

The chill of the sheets felt nice on her heated skin and she remembered another important factor.

“How am I supposed to get Berger to join the AIF like this?”

She continued the thought in her mind while she gradually relaxed.

…''I don’t know anything about him.

She drifted off before the words were even complete.

Her breathing grew softer and softer, but her brow remained somewhat furrowed.

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