Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 7

Chapter 17: Night of the Ball

(PART 1)

"Heeyyyyy, whatchya doin?" asked a cheery pink haired young woman.

She is dangerously close to a man who looks to be in his mid twenties sitting by his lonesome and reading a book.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Hmmm, readin' duh."

"If you say 'duh' at the end of that like it was so obvious, then why did you even bother to ask what I was doing in the first place!?" shouts the man.

The two are standing in front of the pew of a small Catholic church. Carved statues of the cross, and other religious figures are displayed in front of the platform. What looks to be priceless artworks are hanging on the walls, and the fine carpet they stand on perfectly compliments the shine of the smooth oak seats.

"Hmmmm well then, whatchya readin?"

"What does it look like I'm reading!? Actually, don't answer that, I'll just tell you so I don't go down the same route again."

He holds his book up and says clearly as if he is speaking to someone who is just learning the language.

" It's - a - bible."

The girl pats him on the butt and laughs, "I know it’s a bible, I wanna know what chapter you’re reading."

The man sighs, it seems he can never get anything done with this girl bothering him all the time.

"The Book of Revelation."

She tilts her head and asks, "Why?"

"What are you a two year old!? Stop asking me so many stupid damn questions!"

She ruffles up the man's dirty blond hair and says, "C'mon this'll be the last one!"

"There's not much of a reason why, the story is interesting."

"Ooh I like fairy tales too!"

"I don’t think this can be considered a fairy tale."

She once again tilts her head. "Ya don't actually believe in that stuff do you?"

"This is the oldest piece of literature we got, it’s a historical document and I think it’s our link to the past."

The girl puts her index finger on her chin and explains, "That’s debatable, there’s not a general consensus that the stories in that book were actually written all that long ago. In our thousand year history the first record of that book was only 400 years ago. We can’t go believing in fantastical things just because someone told us to.”

Her reply has gotten the man a little rattled; what she had just said is one of the main arguments for people against the authenticity of the bible. Most people in this day and age think they have only been around for a little over a thousand years, which in some way is true. The memories about the past of pre-apocalyptic mankind are long gone, intentionally taken away so they could start over.

In the beginning of the post apocalyptic world, what remained of humanity shared in a sudden flash of existence. No matter the age of who was left, it was as though they had simply woken up into creation without a clue as to how and why they got there. Having been dropped into a brand new environment and suddenly becoming sentient, is similar to the big bang coming into relativity. What came next was the restart of human interaction with their minds and with each other, and a new beginning of being awakened by the power of God putting their past to sleep.

But what was thought to have been taken away, was merely waiting in the wings to be instinctively tapped into; humanity quickly formed civilizations again, and easily moved along in their ability to create multiple world orders. In what felt like a flash, humanity progressed to this level in just a few hundred years instead of tens of thousands of years of trial and error to evolve into functioning societies.

"Then what do you think was happening before we started counting years?"

'Gacha.'

The sound of the church door opening interrupts him, in comes two men, and there is an abundant amount of blood all over them. But looking closely, it's obvious that it isn't theirs, it definitely belongs to someone else.

They carry on a conversation as if they don't even know what blood is.

"I'm telling you, curry is the most complete meal you can eat!" The brown haired young man on the left shouts into the other man's ear.

The other young man with gray hair on the right rubs his ear and replies, "There is no way that rice and whatever that ungodly spicy sauce you pour on it can be anything close to hearty! You need protein! Protein!!!! And the best way to get that is to eat meat!"

"You can put meat in curry sauce! It tastes great!"

The two men who are covered in blood nudge at each other.

The blond in front of the podium sighs and shuts his bible, a vein grows in his forehead as he continues to be pestered by the girl named Celestia and the loud voices of the two men ring in his ears.

He reaches his breaking point and shouts, "God damn it would you all shut up!? Fuck’s sake!"

The three stop and look at him like he has just committed a horrible crime.

One flinches and says, "Geez Jeffrey, you really shouldn't say something like that in a church."

The other man nods his head in agreement and Celestia added, "Yeah whadda jerk."

The man named Jeffrey pulls his hair and again groans, but this time really loudly. "I absolutely can't concentrate when you guys are around."

The four of them are now sitting together on a church bench.

Jeffrey has completely given up on reading, he sits there leaning his upper body on the pew in front of him. "So how did it go out there?"

The two men both stand astute, but the brown haired one looks like he is doing it in somewhat of a comical way when he reports, "I, Olin Strausslend, will report for both Lenox Applewood and myself and say, 'It went about as good as a war gets!'"

Lenox's dark red eyes shine as he shoves the vibrant and loud Olin away. "I'm sorry Captain Durbin, this idiot really doesn't know how to explain things well. I shouldn't have let him speak."

Jeffrey sighs and responds, "Quit it with the formalities, how many times have I told you not to call me Captain Durbin? Can't any of you guys just call me Jeff or something?"

Celestia leans on his shoulder, "Nyaaa, I like Jeffrey the most! Sounds more teddy bear like ya know?"

"No I don't know!"

From behind them the door once again slings open, in come two men and one woman. All of them, just like before, are covered in someone else's blood.

A black man leads the group, he takes his first few steps in the church, cuts to the left and sits in the furthest and darkest corner away from everybody.

With the color of his skin and dark tint of the corner it makes him a little hard to see, his small voice comes from that darkness.

"...Victory..."

Jeffrey squints his eyes to see him and says, "Good work Haas..."

The woman who looks to be in her late teens, and has long auburn hair that covers half her face and has numerous hair pins of different sizes to hold it in her style chimes in with a complaint. "You shouldn't pair us up with Haas anymore, people from the Dravic Branch of the La'Juutian military are better off working alone. His lack of speech almost caused the death of me out there, if he had just yelled my name I would've been able to see that Trojan bastard who was trying to attack me from behind."

The last man who entered the door is tall and pale with black framed glasses covering his black eyes, both accompanied by long silk like black hair that rests atop his head, he gives off the feeling of a guy extremely confident in his smarts.

He comes to the quiet Haas's defense by saying, "Olivieramorteusbergesque De Gran Allia. Your name is way too damn long for anyone to shout out in a tight situation like that. I swear, people of royalty enjoy wasting their breath on their own names."

The girl with the frighteningly long name responds in frustration, "That's why I told you to just call me Allia!"

"But don't we usually call each other by our first names?" asks Olin.

Celestia adds, "Yeah, it'd be super weird if we all called each other by our last names. I wouldn't be too happy if you all called me Letrova instead of Celestia, my surname sounds too old and icky."

Allia frowns and shouts, "If you think being called Letrova sounds bad, then how the hell do you think I feel when someone calls me by my first name!?"

Jeffrey again sighs and throws his head down into his arms and groans in frustration; his stress level is increasing with every voice that passes through his ears.

He turns to the black haired man and asks, "Hey London, where are the last three? I want to get this meeting over with before my brain explodes."

London pushes up his glasses and looks down at his wristwatch.

"They should be here any minute now."

As soon as he says this, three more people enter the church, two of them are beautiful girls, one is rather tall and the other one is rather dainty and fragile looking. The man with them is shaven bald and has a black tattoo that runs from his forehead down below his eyes, but it's hard to see it because there is so much blood all over his face.

He has a big smile and his body language is moving in every which way as if he is reenacting something and using the air to do it.

And once his voice is heard that turns out to exactly be the case.

"So that prick ducked down and went 'woooosh!' and swung his sword up at me! But I easily dodged that and then 'scchhhlliiing!!! Gaaggaassshhhh!!!' I swung my blade and sent his head flying through the air! It was all like 'PAAAaaaaa thunk!' when it hit the ground!"

He is yelling his story right in the ears of the two girls, who are both definitely annoyed as can be.

It's actually quite amazing that the man hasn't accidentally hit one of them with his arms when he does his swinging motions.

The two girls look extremely miserable and the tall one with lime green hair awkwardly turns her head to him and smiles menacingly. Since she is taller than the bald man she grips the top of his bare head with her hand and squeezes.

"Listen Jessiah. We've had to listen to every story you had all the way here, we’re finished with them. If you say one more word it'll be your head that will go thunk on the ground."

Jessiah cowers in fear and politely says, "Yes madam Elise."

The shorter girl has flowing black hair and striking violet eyes, she stares at Jeffrey with those two star-like eyes of hers and with a straight face she bows intently. "Please... for the sake of all that is good, don't ever pair me with these two ever again."

Jessiah clicks his tongue and says, "Whaaaaatever."

But the tall girl named Elise doesn't take it too well.

"Haah!? Why am I included with this!?" She goes from shouting in a loud tone to a soft little child-like tone when she twiddles her fingers and says softly, "I thought we had finally bonded..."

The black haired girl looks up and replies, "You're old, bossy, and the worst part of it all is that you are an extremely perverted lolicon. I can honestly say that I fear for my virginity when I fall asleep around you."

Ignoring the worst part of what she said, Elise's face turns contorted at the sound of a three letter word.

"O-Old!??!! I’m only 23, you little brat!!"

"That's about old enough to be my mother if you were as perverted as you are now when you were eleven."

"Haah!?" Elise grits her teeth and veins begin popping up on her face.. "If you weren't so damn cute I'd kill you..."

As soon as she said that, the veins disappear and she begins to rub up on the young twelve year old girl. As if speaking to a pet, she childishly says,, "Ahhhnnn~ that's right! How can I get mad at such an adorable face? Oooh Seiri you are soooo cute! I just wanna take you to bed and cuddle with you!"

The black haired girl named Seiri glares at Jeffrey with pleading eyes and says, "See what I mean?"

Jeffrey puts his hand over his face and murmurs to himself, "How in the world did Napoleon deal with all of us?"

The group of ten continue their bickering and the noise level in the church hits its height, because of the acoustics, the sound is exemplified and overwhelming to Jeffrey’s senses.

The conversations consist of: How the bible isn't real: What food is better for the body: Complaints about how a certain member of the group should be treated as a hermit because he didn't want to shout out an obnoxiously long name: The reminiscing of a man's murder in an explicit and exaggerated manner: Doing inappropriate things with a child.

All of these subjects should definitely not be spoken of in a supposed house of God, but those thoughts are so blatantly ignored that it makes Jeffrey's head spin.

To top it off, Jessiah walks to the bowl of holy water and washes the blood that belongs to someone else off his face as though the holy water was just some kind of sink conveniently placed in the center of the room.

Jeffrey groans and then loudly says, "Why do all of you guys have to be so damn different!?"

"The fact that you are all different, makes the ten of you together the strongest group in the world."

This firm voice came from a person walking through the doorway.

All ten of the disorderly group are quickly silenced and they all stand astute and calm as if all of what they were talking about had never left their lips in the first place.

The person walking through has orange hair and black eyes, he is dressed sharply in royal colos,, and his body language is that of pure confidence. Despite his dashing appearance, the lines under his eyes make him look like he hasn’t slept in a couple days. This person is Noah, the youngest Prince of La'Juune, his sixteenth birthday was only just a few days ago and he now sits as the acting King and leading General.

This is undoubtedly something that requires a lot of stress, even for the most experienced of men, someone of his age must be overburdened with such a responsibility. If this were the case, the ten in front of him wouldn’t know it, other than what looks to be lack of sleep, he’s yet to show even a sign that the rigors of this pressure has affected him.

Noah walks along the center hallway and reaches the podium in which the preacher would usually speak his sermons.

He stares at them all and says, "Since we're all here, that would mean that our battle has ended with our victory."

Jeffrey salutes him and begins to speak, "Yes sir, but our back up division lost the majority of its troops."

Noah pulls a rolled up piece of paper out of his coat's inside pocket and replies, "That's no matter to be concerned with. As long as you ten survive, the back up troops mean nothing when it comes to usefulness in comparison."

Jeffrey embarrassingly smiles and agrees with him, "You’re certainly not wrong."

It's as though he is ashamed to say that the ten of these dysfunctional people together are far stronger than a full division of soldiers.

Noah glares at him and sternly says, "Don't do that... it reminds me of what my older brother Luke does when Xavier pesters him about something."

"My apologies sir."

Noah ignores his apology and puts the rolled up piece of paper on the preacher's stand; while unrolling it he says, "Now that we're done in this town, our next mission is even deeper into Troy."

From the pews, London asks, "Shouldn't we wait for the rest of the army to get here before we go any deeper? We don't have any more than two hundred soldiers left on our side from today's battle."

Noah huffs air out of his nose and shows a quick smile of confidence. "That's the point."

With heightened interest in what he meant by that, Jeffrey and London sit back as he explains,

"This mission is going to be far more difficult and dangerous than anything all of you have ever faced. We are going to a city that is heavily prepared for a battle at any moment, and it's a city that Eiyalazo will most definitely try to take themselves."

"Will the ten of us attacking such a heavily sought after city really help us win the war?” Jeffrey asked.

Noah quickly responds, "No, it's something that will keep us from losing the war. If Eiyalazo takes this city, they will use it as a buffer to keep us from getting any deeper into Troy than we already are."

"But that would make it so all we'd have to do is defeat Eiyalazo's home front first, I can't imagine a scenario where La'Juune could possibly be defeated by the sacking of one Trojan city."

Noah glares at him for a moment and then says, "I guess that is true, but that depends on what you consider victory and failure to actually be... I want control of both countries, that is the only way to find the whereabouts of my two brothers and Napoleon. That said, we must completely annihilate both countries to obtain true victory. Anything short of that is a defeat."

Noah scopes out his map and continues to address the ten.

"We all know that Troy's navy is far superior to ours and Eiyalazo's, so the only way to infiltrate it is through its southern tip. As of now, both Eiyalazo and La'Juune are fighting their way upwards while Troy invades our two countries from our respective coastlines. They have a distinct advantage on us at this moment, but the one who takes this city and advances further towards the Capital will have the ability to enclose Troy's invading soldiers and promptly demolish the country from within. In the meanwhile our other forces will invade Eiyalazo. They can afflict the same destruction upon us if they seize the opportunity before we do.”

A lot more intricacies go into a plan like this, but Noah simplifies it as best as possible to make it sound like it is as simple as counting to three.

Jessiah just gets finished cleaning the blood out of his ears with holy water; with his finger in his ear and an excited smile on his face he says, "That sounds like it's gonna be a lot more fun than dangerous!"

Noah lifts his finger as if he is a teacher correcting his student. "I haven't gotten to the dangerous part yet."

The group's attention doubles as soon as he says that, they listen intently as he continues.

"With the two hundred men left in this division, traveling north would be near impossible, we'd be spotted quickly and disposed of like garbage. We could wait for reinforcements to arrive and attempt to battle our way northward but unfortunately time is a luxury we currently do not have. A spy of mine in the Eiyalazonian military has informed me that there is a battalion of soldiers on the cusp of invading this city as we speak. They’re being commanded by a brilliant new battle strategist, and she will succeed unless we stop her.”

He shoots the group a serious glare when he finishes.

"Jeffrey Durbin: Celestia Letrova: Olin Strausslend: Lenox Applewood: Haas Avandale: Allia: London Stott: Jessiah Riddings: Elise Whittier: Ebihara Seiri... you, the Ten Knights of La'Juune, along with me... will sack this city ourselves."

The ten show faces of determination, some serious and some smiling as if a great adventure awaits them.

“Yes sir!” the all reply simultaneously.

Jeffrey, the leader of this disorderly group takes a step forward, and in a business-like voice he says, "So what city are we attacking?"

Noah lifts his map and turns it toward the Knights, with this motion he assertively declares,

"The city we will be attacking is..."

---

In the streets of Tronoble a young woman leisurely walks alongside a man, the two blend in with the crowd of passersby and take part in the hustle and bustle of this lively town. It is a perfect day in this beautiful city, the sun is shining comfortably overhead, and a gentle breeze whips the scent of mountain air through the cobblestone streets. The couple on this stroll are Ash Alsworth and Zurvick Nieuesvenia.

Despite the beauty of their surroundings, Ash keeps her fixed glare on Zurvick as he casually takes in the sight of Tronoble with a carefree smile. The glare she is sending him is sharp as though she wants him to notice her frustration.

(Is he really just going to shrug this off??)

1 hour earlier...

Ash was in the bath of the hotel room while Zurvick was sleeping on the bed, when she got out of the bath she found that there were no towels on the rack because Zurvick ended up taking both of the large towels from his own shower the night before. Soaking wet and angered by his lack of consideration, Ash had to make do with what was available; she spotted a small hand towel by the sink about the size of a square foot and decided to use it.

Wiping her body in an awkward way, she was more or less completely naked in the middle of the bathroom, and while trying to wipe her back she accidentally dropped the hand towel on the ground. She clicked her tongue in annoyance and leaned over to pick it up, and that's when Zurvick just happened to walk in to take a leak.

Ash was leaned over with her bare butt pointing right at the doorway in which he stood. She stopped in shock and stayed in that position for a few seconds, giving Zurvick a perfect view of everything she has to offer.

He himself was also frozen, he had just awoken from a nap, so to walk into this scene so suddenly from being half asleep, all he could do was just stand there with his eyes widened.

Ash realized what had just happened so she jumped up with a "Kyaah!?" and turned to him.

She desperately tried to cover herself with that little towel but it was no good, she could barely cover half of her chest when she saw Zurvick's eyes drift downwards.

She chucked the towel at his face and literally kicked him out of the bathroom in anger.

Finally noticing her glare, Zurvick can't help but feel like he needs to speak, not knowing exactly what to talk about to break the tension, he awkwardly says, "It's been a long time since I've visited this town! 23 years to be exact!" Zurvick loudly said as though he just made a declaration.

Ash responds with silence.

"I grew up here before I moved to the Capital, so I know of this great place I want to show you! They sell the best dresses! I wonder if the same lady still works there from back then---"

He continues on talking to himself while Ash's thoughts drift off elsewhere.

(Is he really trying to play this off like it never happened?? He saw me naked!!!!)

The two are heading out to the local shops to buy a dress for Ash and a suit for Zurvick. Once the city of Tronoble found out the King of Troy had paid them a visit, they immediately threw a large festival a few days ago. Today is their last day in town before heading north, so to celebrate the King’s departure, the city and the local upper class is throwing a ball at sundown.

Not getting a reaction out of her, Zurvick’s increasingly uncomfortable mind scrambles onto a topic that will at least get her to acknowledge him. He moves closer to her and they bump shoulders, he smiles when he says, "Hey... doesn't this seem like a date?"

Ash jolts sideways and away from him, her face turns bright red and her crimson eyes glow in unease.

"D-Date!?!?" she shouts bashfully.

Zurvick scratches his head and shrugs his shoulders. "Well yeah, I mean the two of us are alone and walking together on a nice day shopping for clothes. I bet we look like a nice couple."

Ash becomes completely flustered, she doesn't know if he is just trying to get a rise out of her or if he has no sense of tenderness. No matter the reason, after seeing her completely naked just an hour earlier, what he had just said is hardly appropriate in her mind.

Ash kicks him in the shin extremely hard and shouts, "We’re not on a date and we’re not a couple!”

In his usual way, Zurvick hits the deck like a ton of bricks had just landed on his head. Though this was a thunderous kick, he holds his leg as he groans in an obvious overreaction to the pain.

He looks up at Ash who has her arms folded and an expression like that of a pouting child. He can't help but forgo the feeling of pain in his leg and smile.

"Now that's more like you." he said softly as he stood back to his feet.

He felt like his goal to get her back to normal had worked. Shifting his gaze elsewhere, he catches sight of something.

"Oh wait... we're already here!" he shouted excitedly.

He quickly walks with a new spring to his step as if nothing had happened to his leg and points his hand toward a beautiful large wooden house. On the top of this house sits a large billboard that says 'ROYAL WEAR'.

He becomes more excited once he sees this familiar billboard and exclaims, "This is the shop I was telling you about!"

He immediately grabs her hand and rushes her through the crowd of passersby.

“Let’s go!”

All she can say while being dragged along is, "Whaa?"

Now in the shop, Ash is overwhelmed by the scenery of this quaint place; gorgeous handmade dresses and suits line the walls and aisles. The smell of the new materials really gives off the feeling that she is in a place that's far too clean for her to go around touching things without care.

She tucks her hands to her sides and treads carefully when she says, "You know... I absolutely hate dresses."

Zurvick starts gazing around and grabbing hold of the clothing to judge its quality.

"Why's that?"

"Because I'm not the kind of girl who likes these kinds of things."

"Obviously you're not the dress up type, anyone can see that."

Ash scowls at his nonchalant way of saying that and protests, "What's that supposed to mean!?"

Zurick smiles and pulls out a red dress from the rack, he holds it out toward her and with one eye shut tries to judge how it would look on her.

"I'm saying that it's just not your natural style. But I honestly think that you'd look very beautiful if we find the right one for you."

Ash instantly bushes and says, "D-Don't be so careless with your words, you idiot."

Zurvick chuckles and hands her the dress. "Try it on."

She snatches it out of his hand, snorts at him and walks toward the dressing rooms.

He sighs and watches her walk out of sight behind one of the aisles, as soon as she's gone he pulls out his flask and takes a swig of LeLaine's liquor. Upon finishing his drink and taking an exhale of satisfaction, he continues his search for a nice suit for himself.

After looking around for a moment or two, he ventures to see if this little old lady he knew when he was a kid is still working here. He stands on his toes to look behind the cashier's counter from his position in the aisle and sees the familiar face of that exact lady.

Overrun with the feeling of nostalgia, he rushes to her but runs into an unexpected obstacle...

THUMP!

"Guaaah!?"

Zurvick bumps into a man and both of them fall to the ground, the sound of his flask can be heard hitting the ground and the first thing he looks at is just that. The contents of the flask are rapidly spilling, and swift with the reflex of a cat, he grabs the flask in the blink of an eye, saving the majority of the liquor.

He then turns to the downed man he had just ran into and says, "I'm sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going!"

The man he bumped into is black, and has a blank look on his face, the man responds to Zurvick with a silent glare.

"....."

Zurvick is speechless at the man's silence; it comes to the point where he thinks that he might have injured him in some way.

The two stare at each other for a few moments until the sound of a girl's voice interrupts them.

"Hey, what are you doing causing a scene like this?"

A pre-teen girl comes and helps the black man to his feet, and then turns to Zurvick to do the same.

Upon seeing that Zurvick is safely back to his feet, she bows sincerely and says, "I must apologize, my friend here is a mute so he can't speak. I should have kept an eye on him."

"Eh-uh it's okay, it was really my fault..."

The girl looks down on the floor in a guilty cute manner, her long black hair flows gently over her face, with her violet eyes pointed to the ground she finds that there is a liquid there.

She looks up at Zurvick and says, "That flask in your hand... it spilled right?" She again bows, "Please allow me to compensate you for your loss."

"N-No it wasn't that much so it's really alright."

She continues to persist and she grabs him by his sleeve and nags at him, the black man stays silent and just simply watches while Zurvick is completely helpless to the girl's will.

Zurvick smiles with a sigh and thinks to himself, (Well this took a turn, I hope things are going smoother for Ash.)

Ash is standing outside the door of the dressing room with an irritated look on her face, the door is locked because it is currently occupied. (I can't believe I'm going to a ball with all of those prissy elites... I can't stand those kinds of people, and I really can't stand wearing a dress.)

She takes a deep breath and exhales loudly, this makes the person inside the dress room feel rushed and a woman's polite voice comes from within. "Sorry sorry! I'll be out in a sec!"

The door opens and out comes a woman with lime green hair and blue eyes, she is quite tall and looks unbelievably elegant in the white dress she has changed into.

"O-Oh no you didn't have to come out, I was just sighing because of a certain idiot I'm with..."

The tall girl tilts her head and asks, "A man?"

"Uhh, I guess you can say that."

The tall girl's face lights up and she starts scoping Ash in a seemingly indecent way. "Uuuooh~ a girl as cute as you shouldn't be worried about a gross man!"

"C-Cute?"

"Yes yes of course!! You're short and tan, and you look so young!"

Ash's eyes drift away and she mutters to herself, "Young... that's my biggest problem with him."

"What do you mean?"

Ash feels uneasy talking about her problems with a complete stranger, but not having anyone else other than Zurvick to talk to, she just wants to get the weight of how she feels off her chest.

"I'm way younger than he is, so he treats me like a kid. I just want him to see me as something more than that."

The tall girl grabs her hands and smiles, "That's where you got it all wrong! You need to use your youthful exuberance as an advantage, a youthful girl is irresistible if she uses that as the main part of her charm!"

"...Really?"

"Absolutely! Lemme help you look even better! I'll show you how precious it is to be young and cute!"

She grabs Ash's hands and takes her deeper into the store.

Surprisingly enough, this shop is far bigger than anyone would expect it to be, and with the selection of all the clothes it makes choosing the right item quite difficult.

This is the second time Ash has been dragged into doing something before she has a clue as to what is going on, but this time, she at least wants to know the tall girl's name.

"Wait, what's your name?"

The tall girl turns and smiles, with that she introduces herself, "My name is Elise Whittier! Nice to meet you."

---

"There sure are a lot of people around..." said Dice as he takes a gander around the city and sees the vibrant atmosphere it holds.

Rain is walking next to him in a disinterested manner. "That's because the King of Troy is in this town."

"I know, but don't you think it isn't safe for the King when so many people have access to him?"

"Not at all. Unlike most countries, the King of Troy is absolutely loved by his people. This might be the safest place for him to roam around freely."

Dice ponders for a moment and then asks, "Is that why you were against us staging our attack with the battalion?"

"That's correct, this city is already a Trojan stronghold, and now with the King present even the citizens would fight to the death to protect him."

"So what's the game plan then? It was hard enough for us to sneak into this city, I don't see how the two of us can do anything to change the tides of the war by ourselves."

Rain glares at him and begins to explain, "Unfortunately, assassinating the King of Troy holds little benefit to the war effort, and I am beginning to sense that the higher ups in the Trojan military don't even care about him. But killing him would put a huge dent in the morale of the people. And that morale will cause the distraught citizens and military men to become distracted for a day or so. That is ample time for our soldiers to invade while they are weakened."

Dice twitches his eyebrow at how much thought she has put into this, not only is she going to get her revenge, but she will drastically change the course of the war if she were to succeed.

"Do you really think it'll go that smoothly?" he asks.

Rain smugly smiles and glances down at the pentagram on the back of her right hand without him noticing and confidently says, "There isn't a doubt in my mind."

Dice presses on and says, "Okay then, I guess the question now is how we get into that Ball to assassinate the King and his Captain."

"Don't worry about that... a lot of people who aren't in the upper class want to get into this Ball. So, many owners of printing presses and embroiderers are selling forgeries of the tickets under the table. I bought a couple during the last few days of the festival."

Dice chuckles a little, once again amazed by her ability to think ahead and already have it done by the time the need comes up.

"I sure hope we don't get caught trying to sneak in."

"I don't think that would happen, many others have bought the same counterfeit tickets as I did, so once one is caught the others would be easily spotted when they match them together. But we're different, we are actually a part of a royal family, even if it’s from a different country. We are able to exude the true class and elegance needed to fit in if we wanted to. A bodyguard would be foolish to doubt a royal who actually looks like a royal, if he ends up being wrong in his assessment of one it would most certainly result in a severe punishment."

"That is true, our country already has a much higher standard of royal behavior than La'Juune and Troy. All of those strict rules we had to grow up with are finally going to be put to use." Dice states, he looks around all the different shops and finishes, "It would seem that all that's left is to get me a suit and you a dress."

Rain turns her attention to a beautiful large wooden house, she grabs Dice's sleeve to stop his movement and points to the billboard on top of the house that says 'ROYAL WEAR'.

"Let's go there, I'm tired of walking"

Dice smiles happily, just being able to be with her on a day like this is more than enough for him.

With that warm feeling brewing in his chest he replies,

"Okay, let's get ourselves ready for the Ball."

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