62 Leon The Scoundrel (1/2)
”You can't be serious, Reed. If we were to help you and this is a big if, we'd all be risking much more than our lives. Do you really understand? A bona fide prince of the North, the great-grandson of the King's Hand, and the granddaughter of the High General, Marquis Redcliff!” said Astor.
”I've got one them fancy titles too, and I'm not afraid doing the right thing,” said Reed as lazily fiddled with an old, expensive-looking guitar he had borrowed from a glass case beneath the Evergreen Estate.
”How. Do. You. Not. UNDERSTAND?! If word EVER got out that we attacked another noble family from another empire, much less the goddamned Holy Church, it create the biggest shitstorm in the last millennium! Do you want a second Unification War, you fucking imbecile?!!”
”So we'll make sure to not fuck it up, alright? I don't remember you being this spineless, Astor.” Reed started to feel that it was going to harder than he initially thought to convince them…
”...If we fail, the skies will run red with the blood of innocents for centuries, Reed,” said Horatio in a grim, harsh tone. ”I feel for them, I really do, but we cannot put two lives over the safety of hundreds of millions of citizens across the North and the East.”
”Even you, Horatio? The man of action, who'd never back down from a challenge? To think the day would come when I'd have a bigger set of balls than you…” Reed scoffed in contempt, wondering if he'd wasted his time in calling them over.
”Let us say that we succeed, Reed. We save them and hide them away somewhere safe. Even then, we'd have to bear the possibility of someone finding out what we did as long as they live. This is high treason we're talking about. They will have everyone from both families executed as a warning to aristocracy. Harboring wanted fugitives will be the death of everyone in this room should they ever find out!” said Ophelia.
Reed sighed and said, ”All I hear is your fear talking, Ophelia, and it's a total mood kill.” He stood up, grabbed his guitar by the neck and held it like a baseball bat.
He gave his improvised weapon a solid swing and said, ”...Well, fuck it, then. Guess I'll do it on my own. You three would probably slow me down, anyways.”
”Don't worry though, I won't tell them that you were too chickenshit to help out when I save them,” said Reed in derision. ”I'll let three of you tell that to them yourselves when you meet them,” said Reed before he walked out the tea room.
That was the last thing they heard Reed say to them before...
”That went spectacularly,” said Lacrima as she desperately tried to hold back her laughter. ”So, what are you going to do now, boy? Your friends won't help you, and if she so much catches wind of what you're plotting, she'll imprison you down in the dungeons. You're going to have to do this all alone…”
Lacrima said, ”Oh? Look at you, boy. Color me surprised, so you've learned how flattery works. To think you'd be such a late bloomer, heh. ...But this also pretty nice, too. It's like looking at a new side of something old, in a way…”
She sounded strangely sweet and pleasant, a marked contrast to her usual self. It was an odd, unnerving thing; It made Reed's heart beat a little faster for some odd reason…
He didn't... dislike it. But at the same time, it made jittery and anxious like he was waiting for something…
”A-Anyway! We'll be leaving under the cover of darkness tonight before she catches on to us. Long-distance void jumps to random locations, and then I'll have you seal my aura, just in case.”
”Hehe, you know that won't keep her away for long, right? She's intrinsically linked to you on a fundamental level — deeper even than a spiritual link — letting her feel the wavelength of your very existence, no matter the distance between the two of you. She will find you, so as long as you exist; alive or dead,” said Lacrima.
Reed suddenly felt like a ball and chain had been put on his leg, one that he'd never be able to remove. He nervously said, ”I-I see. So what are supposed to do?! She'll never stop looking if we leave, and when she eventually finds us…”
He felt it in his bones, the fear of something worse than death. The knowledge of the evil that festered behind her beautiful hazel eyes.
”Relax, boy. Although the link is unbreakable, it can be masked with a bit of skill. I know a technique that'll transform you into someone else, thereby obfuscating your existence from the girl. It's an old, but elegant technique made by a very famous thief in the days of yore.”
”Then it's settled. Good. We leave at dusk or...… sometime around that,” said Reed went to his room to prepare…
Time passed and dinnertime came around. Before anyone had noticed, he'd left in silence.
It started as a simple question that spiraled into a full-fledged search across the entire premises. He was nowhere to be found. Mira was supposed to have informed her master that his dinner had been prepared.