120 Rhapsody In Spring (1/2)
A couple of weeks later, they finally departed back home. Mardeimus had been a refreshing change of pace for them, but the time had come to leave. In truth, their circumstances had changed and as a result, they'd been forced to leave earlier than what they'd originally planned for.
To be put it bluntly, the South had discovered what had happened on the Verdant Tear. Reed and Lu'um naturally expected that the South would eventually discover what'd happened on their little secret island, but they had not anticipated that the South's reaction…
Lu'um had kicked a hornet's nest and ruined their getaway vacation, much to her disappointment.
In less than a week's time, the city of Mardeimus had been flooded with plainclothes contenders and conquerors, all searching for the mysterious assailant who'd destroyed the Ancient Mulian research station…
Even though the South had long since recovered everything of value from the abandoned research station centuries ago, it had still been considered an important place of interest for a variety of other reasons.
It'd been an extremely useful training ground for their trainees, for example. The island had also been of significant value to archaeologists who specialized in Ancient Mulian history, the scholars who'd dedicated themselves to the study of the extinct race that had once ruled the continent and much, much more…
There was nothing to be gained from destroying an Ancient Mulian relic site, for they were all treasure troves of knowledge and artefacts. Each and every one of them represented a priceless vault of wealth to the empire that discovered it.
Every Chosen, no matter which empire they belonged to, knew this to be an incontestable fact; yet someone had gone and destroyed the Verdant Tear's relic site without a second thought.
They couldn't stay in Mardeimus any longer after that. Doing so, they'd run the risk, however infinitesimally minute, of being discovered and having their cover blown… and that was something they couldn't afford.
The dead can't come back to life. They have to stay dead; those are buried in the ground must remain there… for the sake of the living.
As such, they'd left Mardeimus as soon as they humanely could. After half a month of snooping around, the contenders and conquerors finally gave up and left Mardeimus alone, to Reed and Lu'um's immense relief.
Even though their former identities were not known as well in the South compared to say, the North and the East, neither wanted to accidentally mess up and ruin the new life that they'd built up in the South.
The only human prince of the East had died. So, too, had his beloved fiancee during the Twilight War. Both had laid down their lives on the battlefield for the sake of the continent's peace.
In the end, that bastard really didn't pull any of his punches considering how he 'wrote' us off…
The Crown Prince's eulogy made them sound like a pair of heroically star-crossed lovers, still bound to one another past death through their everlasting love…
So beautifully tragic and romantic was their tale that it had even been adapted into a holo-film, no more than after their deaths, by one of the largest film production companies in the North, Multiversal Pictures[1].
The film, Death and Love in Paradiso, starring Leopardo Cambio and Tate Sinnet had completely rocked the box office, garnering over three billion credits in ticket sales by the end of its first week on the big screen.
It'd been an absolute blockbuster hit and had taken the continent by storm. And as great as that might've been for the actors, the film studio and the production company, it'd been a different story for Reed.
Naturally, Lu'um had loved the film to death but that was beside the point.
Reed had learned first-hand a kind of horror known only to the dead.
There was such a thing as a hell on earth; Reed had seen it in its full measure the day he and Lu'um had gone out on movie date to see the film. It'd been a little bit after they'd first started dating, too.
AAAAAHHHH! Stop, stop! Don't think about it! Don't! Think! About! It!
A hovercraft suddenly swerved over the colorful grasslands, adjacent to Cem-Elle's, yet some distance away… Thankfully, no one was around, otherwise, an accident might have occurred, heaven forbid.
Reed wanted to actually die after he saw the movie. Never before had he seen such a... gross misrepresentation of the truth.
Why had they made his actor so goddamned handsome? Where had they gotten that scene where they'd held each other on the bow of the battleship? And the part where they'd died holding each other's hands?
A pox upon you and your damned film, Bates Kamaron! May you never make another successful film ever again! The same to you as well, Haydn Kingscrown!!
Three hours and fifteen minutes of embarrassing dread.
Three hours and fifteen minutes of pure bliss.
Where one had seen a nightmare on film, the other had seen a beautiful, romantic piece of art. In fact, Lu'um had loved the film so much that she had bought another pair of tickets the following day, much to Reed's horror at the time…
Reed couldn't help but laugh when he thought about how pure and innocent they'd been back when they first started dating. Everything about how they started dating seemed silly now upon reflection, but back then it'd been a herculean ordeal for him.