Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 7

Chapter 17: Night of the Ball

(PART 1)

"Heeyyyyy, whatchya doin?" asks a cheery pink haired young girl.

She is dangerously close to a man who looks to be in his mid to low 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 yet well designed Catholic church. Beautiful statues of the Mother Mary, Jesus Christ, and many other religious figures can be seen in front on the platform. Not to be outdone, the paintings on the walls and roof are extraordinary, and the carpet made of fine materials go along perfectly with the shine of the smooth oak seats.

"Hmmmm. I guess you're right! Well, 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, "Well duh... I meant what verse are you readin dummy!"

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

"The New 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!"

"It's not like its anything special, I just think the story is interesting."

"Ooh I like fairy tales too!"

"That's a huge difference from this!"

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

"Of course I do, how can you not?"

The girl puts her index finger on her chin and explains, "Technically that story would be impossible, not one historian from the last thousand years wrote anything about that. So that leaves the mind to wonder just how old we actually are? And according to the records, the race of man have been around for just that long. Since that story supposedly came before our time it's easier for the majority of people to believe some crazy ol' coot wrote that down when he was hallucinating in cave then that of a historical document."

This somewhat of a smart reply from the girl has gotten the man a little rattled; what she had just said is one of the main arguments for people who do not believe in the bible. Most people in this day and age think they have only been around for a little over a thousand years, the reason for this is because the humans who survived the Apocalypse had most of their memories wiped by God.

That, along with suddenly being thrown into a brand new world and landscape made them wander like zombies would if they had nothing to live on.

It's not as though when their memories were erased their intelligence was as well; the ability of the brain was still there, thus the reason why the three great countries of Troy, Eiyalazo and La'Juune are so grand. The ability of the human mind amazing, to be able to start from scratch and once again rebuild the world into what it is now in only a thousand years is truly an incredible feat. God purposely left their ability to think so he could have them once again choose for themselves on what to believe.

The only kind of help he gave them, was to send them some Prophets with the Holy Book. He did that so that once they read the book, it allowed them to choose what they wanted to believe. That ability of 'choice' has once again caused people to doubt his teachings and who he is, so this has once again left the door open for the human race to go down the same road as last time.

The man also has a foolproof argument to retort the average person's speculation on human history, and he is about to explain it.

"Listen Celestia, It's definitely true because---"

'Gacha.'

The sound of the church door opening halts his speech, 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 wavy brown haired man on the left shouts into the other man's ear.

The mid twenties looking but gray haired man 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 man who sits on the church bench 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 GUYS SHUT THE HELL UP!"

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 so he begins to speak, "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 extremely 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 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 waste 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 on the backside of one of the alley way seats 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 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, so if you say one more word it'll be your head that thunks 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 TWENTY THREE 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!?" Numerous veins surface all over her face and her young appearance begins to look older. "If you weren't so damn cute I'd kill you..."

As soon as she said that, the veins disappear and her youthful face returns. She smiles and rubs up on the young twelve year old girl and begins to speak like a little child, "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 an ultimate high.

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 an obvious minor of the same sex.

All of these subjects should definitely not be spoken on in a 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 like the holy water was just conveniently some kind of sink that sits in the middle of the room.

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

"The fact that you are all different, makes your group strong."

This firm voice comes from the doorway, and the voice belongs to the person who walks through it. All ten of the loud 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 in a way that exudes class and proper upbringing, and his body language is that of pure confidence. The only thing to denote on his appearance is that there are fairly heavy lines under his eyes as if he hasn't had a moment of sleep in a few days.

He is Noah, the youngest Prince of La'Juune, his fifteenth 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. But he refuses to show it. This toughness makes him seem much older than he actually is and the lines under his eyes from his lack of sleep make him look older as well, if one were to put both of these together they'd guess he'd be at least eighteen.

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

He stares at 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, "Hehe, I guess that's true."

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 preachers stand; while unrolling it he says, "Now that we're done in this town, our next mission is even deeper into Troy."

London decides to chime in, "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."

Jeffrey and London perturbed by his words and the look on their faces show it as he continues.

"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 where if Eiyalazo had a Battle Strategist with any kind of intelligence, they would attempt to invade it no matter what."

"Is it something that can help us win the war?" asks Jeffrey.

Noah quickly responds, "No, it's something that will keep us from losing the war. If Eiyalazo takes this city, it will leave them in the forefront in defeating Troy first by reaching their Capital. And if that happens we will have lost our way to get any deeper 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 speaks, "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 out 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 than 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 its way upwards while Troy invades our two countries from our respective beaches. 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, and the same method applies for them to be used against us. So to say that this could possibly be the most important battle thus far in the war would be an understatement."

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 then it does 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 this, they listen intently as he continues.

"Since you all know that we have very few soldiers 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. The reason for that is because 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. So the cause and effect for this is a simple command." 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, and they all say the word " Yes sir!" in different tones.

Jeffrey, the leader of this disorderly group takes a step forward, and in a business like voice he says, "May I ask what city it is that we are going to attack?"

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

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

---

In the streets of Tronoble walks a certain girl and a certain man, looking closely it is obvious that the two aren't related but their ages look decently close to where if someone was idly passing by, they wouldn't think twice assuming that they'd be a couple. But the fact of the matter here is that the man is nearly double the age of the girl, though he doesn't look it at all.

He is Zurvick Niveusvenia, the King of Troy, and next to him is the Captain of the 105th Specialists Division, Ash Alworth.

The atmosphere around these two is much different from normal. Usually, Ash is either hitting Zurvick or shouting at him, and Zurvick is usually doing something to provoke her into doing that. This time however, the two are quiet, Ash is blushing and Zurvick has somewhat of a blank smile on his face as his eyes take in the beautiful sight of Tronoble.

The reason for such a somber atmosphere is because of something that happened just an 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, 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 of 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, so he just stood 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 and she sees Zurvick's eyes scope her body up and down. She chucked the towel at his face and literally kicks him out of the bathroom in anger.

---

With the mood in such an awkward state Zurvick can't help but feel like he needs to speak, he goes through all the different things he can bring up and comes to the conclusion that talking about what the two's plans for the day are is his best option.

"It's been a long time since I've visited this town! 23 years to be exact!" Zurvick loudly says as though he just made a declaration. Ash doesn't respond so he thinks she is interested in what he has to says so he rambles on. "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. (He saw me naked he saw me naked he saw me naked 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. That was a few days ago and today is their last day here, so to celebrate their departure, the city is throwing them a ball for all of the people of royal decree at sundown.

Not getting a reaction out of her, Zurvick decides to change the subject from himself and dresses, onto something that will at least get her to acknowledge him.

He moves closer to her and they rub 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-D-D-D-D-Date!?!?" she shouts bashfully.

Zurvick scratches his head and looks away as though he's pondering. "Well yeah, I mean the two of us are alone and walking together on a nice day shopping for clothes. I bet people really think we are lovers."

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. But either way, 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 ARE DEFINITELY NOT LOVERS!!!!"

In his usual way, Zurvick hits the deck like a ton of bricks had just landed on his head. On the ground and holding his leg he groans in an obvious overreaction to the pain, though this thunderous kick had most certainly done some damage.

He looks up at Ash who has her arms folded and her face holds an embarrassed yet angered 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 softly says.

His goal to get her back to normal worked, and he feels like he had just learned something about her, this kind of thing is normally overlooked but Zurvick has grown quite fond of her.

After hearing him say something she asks, "What did you say?"

She didn't hear him cause she was so flustered she wasn't really paying attention to much of anything.

Zurvick happens to roll his eyes and replies, "It was nothing."

Shifting his gaze elsewhere, he then out of nowhere he spots something.

"Oh wait... We're already here!"

He gets up quickly with a new spring to his step as if nothing had happened to his leg and points his hand toward a beautiful wooden building that looks more like a large 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 toward the shop leaving Ash confused and out of the loop.

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 give 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 kind of things."

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

Ash frowns at his nonchalant way of saying that and raises her voice, "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 sweet liquor. All the while, looking around for a basic yet classy suit.

After looking around for a moment or two he goes 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 to is just that. The contents of the flask are rapidly spilling and as quick as a cat uses its reflexes, he doubles that and 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, and he doesn't respond, instead he just glares at him.

"....."

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, after he stands she sincerely bows 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 yet 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 in your hand... It spilled right?" She again bows and finishes, "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 the the girl's will.

Zurvick smiles with a sigh and thinks to himself, (This isn't what I had planned for the day... I hope you get done soon 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 royals... I can't stand those kind of people, and I really can't stand wearing a dress.)

She a takes 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 girl with lime green hair and blue eyes, she is quite tall and looks unbelievably elegant in the white dress she has changed into.

(Waah she's tall!) Ash thinks to herself but quickly brushes that off and says, "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?"

"Eh-uh... 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 soooo young!"

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

"What do you mean?" asks the tall girl.

Ash feels wary talking about her problems with a complete stranger, but not having anyone else other than Zurvick to talk to, she just wants to get what she feels off her chest so she answers. "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..." says Dice as he looks throughout 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."

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 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 of royal decree want to get into this high class Ball. So, many owners of newspaper shops and so on 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 apart of a royal family, though it belongs to another country. We can exude true class and elegance if we want 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 wooden building that looks more like a 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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