Chapter 21 : Funeral

  Years ago, our hero was still a young trainee, he would swing his greatsword in a small courtyard of the VHC, day and night.

  Eisenwald was known to be a heavy sword for anyone wielding it. So adequate strength needed to be built from the get-go. Aaron would train to fail until he could lift that sword like a Lecourt knight...

  Clearly, this would not go ideally...

  Aaron: For Lord’s sake, this thing is too heavy to lift!!!

  Aaron: Oh shit!! I’m sorry!!

  Boy: Hehe, not to worry, buddy! I’ve had worse than this...Do you need help with that?

  Aaron: You can try, but it won’t budge. I have to learn how to swing it in three months...

  Boy: You Shroud’s new kid?

  Aaron: Huh? How did you know?

  Boy: I’m surprised he never told you about me! I’m Beryl! I used to be in your place until last year!

  Young Beryl extended his rugged, trained arm for Aaron. The young boy shook his hand, shocked by the strength it could call out...

  Aaron: Maybe you can carry it. Hey, do you need an Armament? I’m glad to give you mine!!

  Beryl : Hmm? Why would you want to give that away?

  Aaron: What do you mean, why?! Can’t you see I can’t even carry it?! It’s unusable!

  Beryl : (He’s like me when I took the cuffs for the first time...) I see...Show me how you lift it.

  Aaron : See!! I fucking told you!! I can’t lift it!!!

  Beryl:...

  Aaron: I didn’t even want this thing!! I just woke up one day and there it was. Ever since then, all my life has been pulling it around, and it pulling me down!! It can go to hell for all I care!!!

  Beryl:...That’s a problem...

  Aaron:...yeah thank-

  Beryl: The poor blade wants to be wielded, and you reject it like evening meal trash.

  Aaron: ...Huh?

  Aaron: How the hell did you do that!? Are you a Titan too?

  Beryl: I might be, but it’s not strength that’s holding you back here...

  Aaron: Are you kidding me? This lump of silver weighs like two adults, or in this case, a Shroud!

  Beryl: That’s not the weight you are trying to carry though, is it?

  Beryl: Want to know why I carried this thing so easily? We are both Titans, and yet you should be able to swing this thing like a wooden club. Why is it not the case?

  Aaron:...

  Beryl: Because you are rejecting it. You are rejecting the blade, nay, you are rejecting the fact that you, hunter as you are, have to wield this blade as your weapon.

  Aaron: What does that have to do with anything?

  Beryl: How can you pull off a task if you aren’t putting your 100% into it? No one walks through life by himself if all he does is half-ass things!

  Aaron :...What if I don’t want to pull it up?

  Beryl: ????

  Aaron: What if I don’t want to do this? Wave the sword around? Fight the vampires? Hunt them?! What if I just want to live my life? Or whatever the hell remains of it?!

  Beryl: What else remains of it, kid?

  Aaron: My folks got killed by bats. I never met my dad, and my mom crooked years ago because of them. Why should I follow them to the dirt and start fighting too!?

  Beryl: My parents died of vampires too. Not an uncommon origin, but it is what it is. I still remember the freak breaking through our door in the southern district. No hunters were stationed in that village that day. Tall, skinny, messy brown hair, a tattered old suit...And those eyes...blood. Blood was all I could think of when he was staring at me, eating my struggling parents alive...

  Beryl : I was hiding in the closet, but he was facing my way...My mother was a nun, so she had cast “Silence” around me before the bat broke in and bit her throat...I stayed there until morning, when he left in his blood-drunk stupor...The rest of the villagers were dead as well...Only me and a few other kids survived...Once they took me to the orphanage, all I wanted to do was stay in my bed and starve myself to death...

  Beryl: What did it matter...My parents were dead, my village was massacred...and what if I lived...So one day some bat will break into my home and slaughter my wife and me, while my kid watches in the closet?

  Beryl: But then I met the hunters. Shroud, Luca, Lady Sarah...I think I even met your folks? I don’t know...I heard their stories...So it came to me, If I want to live a long and peaceful life, with a wife and kids in a nice calm village, then that’s a dream I’ll have to chase and protect. And to do that, I must make sure no bats are lying around by then!!

  Aaron: Oh...

  Beryl: So I get it, buddy. You ain’t wrong. No one should be forcing you to do all this. But if you don’t do it, how are you going to move forward?! Sometimes, there are responsibilities we just have to carry if we ever wanna see the daylight again...

  Beryl : I‘m not telling you to love it, even if it would help. But if you want to carry that blade, you’ll have to accept it all. The ownership of Eisenwald, and all the trouble it will take with it, from its silver weight, to the weight of responsibility on your two little shoulders. Do that, and the sword won’t feel so heavy, because you’ll accept to give it your all...

  Aaron: Hah!! Beryl I did it!!!

  Beryl: Nice going kiddo! Oh, I forgot I have to give this to the new head of research. Hey man, I have to go. But I’ll see ya around?

  Aaron: I sure damn hope so!! Hey, thanks for the sword!

  Beryl smiled and turned around as he was walking away...

  Beryl: Don’t worry, Aaron. I used to hate my weapon too...

  Finn: I remember meeting Beryl while I was studying incantations under Lady Philomena. It was my first time in Landen, and being a Pirouettan, I felt like a lake fish in the ocean…One day, I was stressing out because my Lady had sent me to find some old scrolls from the VHC’s library. They were in the elder section, a door stuck in a small corridor to the far left of the grand corridor…I took an early left…I ended up crying under some stairs, balling my eyes out…

  Finn: There came Beryl, also as lost as I was, but eyes dry as a desert, and with this big old dumb grin…He gave me this and I’ve been drying away my tears and those of others ever since, just as he did…

  Shaka: I met Beryl on a mission. Our two seniors had some business to attend to so they sent us to go scare away some bats in one of the southern villages…I was way too excited, and started killing imps and dependents the moment I stepped foot in that mess…And anyone would say I was right to do it…

  Shaka : I’m supposed to see everything, and yet I forgot to look out for what truly mattered…

  Shroud : Back when the Human Dracula was still with us, I had to take a solo mission in the southern district, when it was still under construction. Some families hadn’t been out of their houses for 2 weeks. Neighboring villages thought the worst, and God were they right. I still remember the support teams carrying away the corpses from the living room, flies roaming out of the gore and around the room. Rats still feeding on the maggot-filled bodies…I had killed the bat before I opened the door, dumbass was lying drunk on the doorsteps with his wings all sprung out…Anyways, after they cleaned up, I went to check for any surprises inside the closets…And there I found Beryl…The poor lad was too tired to even shake in fear…I’ll be honest with ya’, when I left him at the orphanage, I didn’t think he would have any chance. Not eating, not drinking, not sleeping, the kid was a dead case…Years of training, missions and cutting heads, he proved me wrong…Even now, I think you beat them’ bat-tards, boy. Rest yer head, let us keep going on…

  Url : Where are those two…

  Luca : You can try and leave , but we’ll still find you !

  Shroud : Aaron, I swear ta’ fucking God, if ya’ don’t move yer ass back here I’ll sent you to Hell !!!

  Aaron : You’d be doing me a favor…

  Shroud : Screw him…He’ll cool his head and come back crying, then I’ll give him a nice pounding…

  Luca : And what will the chief say when we tell him we let our junior into the southern forest 3 days after the vampire terrorists escaped there ?!

  Shroud : You think I give a crap !?

  Luca : You better !

  Suiga : Sirs ! Please !! I’ll go bring him back !

  Luca : Akira, did you even hear what we were saying ?! No juniors inside the for-

  Suiga : And neither of you two can go and bring him back because of patrol duty. Lady Philomena and Sir Samuel don’t have the backbone to struggle with his stubbornness either. I can. Please…stop fighting…

  Shroud :…You be back in two days.

  Luca : Huh ?!

  Suiga :…Sir Shroud, it’ll take me like a few hours maxi-

  Shroud : Trust me, I’ve done this a million times, both fer him and his father. But if you two aren’t here in two days, I’m coming to pick you up.

  Shroud : And you better trust me, I’m not bringing you back safe and sound, ya hear me !!?

  Luca : ARE YOU NUT-

  Shroud : Shut it. We got work to do…And you know that the prince brat is the only one we’ve got who can bring him back…

  Luca : Tch…Url’s been trying to talk to him, but he gets shut out, Cassandra too…

  Shroud : And the little Lecourt would only make matters worse…let ‘im go…

  Luca :...That’s all of us?

  Shroud: Oy, chief, wouldn’t the other big shots be here?

  Eliakim : Huff...Sir Lecourt sent us his condolences, along with an extra addition of his monthly supply...Pirout just finished training the new support army platoons, so his presence was needed for the ceremonies...Same for Prince Allad, a thousand desert gins for the best temporary hunter he’s seen. But with everything going on, he needs to put more attention on the Jakar Strip, maybe some of the vampires cross on their way out of Landen grounds...Emperor Akira will send some of his men next week, along with supplies...

  Shroud : Then why ‘re we wastin’ time sitting around instead of chasin’ the scumbag that killed Grut?!

  Luca : Keep your cool , Shroud!

  Shroud: Suck my cock, Cearrach!

  Eliakim : Alright, Alright, that’s enough!!! I forgot to fix Huckleberry’s insurance, he’s not to be killed yet.

  Samuel: Too...late...

  Eliakim : Shroud, you buffoon, we just survived an attack inside the whole city. The bats are nowhere to be found, the most possible option they go southeast where the forest thickens, which lessens our chances to follow suit. Our full troops just arrived and none of them are in any shape to fight after that whole festival massacre, and don’t let me get started on the artillery malfunctioning...what “chase” do you want us to do?

  Shroud: Great! Let’s sit then! Maybe next time they fuck us over with some cheap festival trick you couldn’t see through, we won’t lose a kid!

  Eliakim :...what did you say to me, boy!?

  Shroud: Isn’t it yer job to look out for traps like these!? “No hunters wanted” and you let those bastards hold their little feast, you even went there! And now look! Beryl’s fucking -

  Eliakim : DEAD!! I know! He’s dead!!

  Eliakim : …We all loved him…we’ll always will…But keep those nerves out of this room…If you wanna go help , try pulling something out of those two bats we caught…

  Shroud:…Tchk…Sorry…

  Luca: As for that, chief, the bats seem a bit more resistant to the interrogation techniques…I don’t think we are getting anything soon…

  Eliakim: Tchk…aristocrats come out, and everything goes to shit in one week…I’ll talk to ‘em, see that they cooperate if they value their heads…

  Samuel: Uh, chief, didn’t we tell you to take it easy? Your injuries couldn’t withstand Horrorwind’s rate of fire, stressing yourself in this state would be-

  Eliakim : You mean to say I’m weak, Huckleberry?! Says the stick who can’t lift a damn grandma’s box!

  Eliakim: And maybe instead of laughing, you two should better be praying the rookies find their way back before we have three funerals in one week…

  Philomena: The two lads aren’t back yet? Should we send search parties?

  Luca: They aren’t lost. But Suiga must be having a hard time getting through Aaron’s head right now…Another great idea from my partner here…

  Shroud: Said sometin’, lady?

  Luca: Didn’t hear me through all that ear wax?

  Samuel: Please, guys, can’t you just talk it out…

  Shroud/Luca : SHUT UP SAMMY!!!

  Sarah: If I could excuse meself all kindly like…

  Sarah: Me and my junior, the little Mergrove girl could bring them boys back before supper, should you not care about any few scratches or little lesions…

  Samuel : Little lesions?

  Eliakim: No way I’m letting you three out of Landen right now…Keep on patrolling and searching every nook and cranny of the old hideouts for clues on this “Ripper” and whatever other bats he’s got with him. The city is already looking down on hunters after Beryl’s death, but right now I couldn’t give two shits about what those asstards in the paper are trying to write ‘bout us. And I don’t want another massacre streak, keep your eyes open for anything, imp, dependent, noble…

  Philomena: A good idea…Me and Samuel could go search for them, along with Doku and Balecq…

  Samuel: Uh….Uh, yeah, yeah…that would be…uuhhh, great...

  Eliakim : Not even. You and glasses hafta manage the new students, and Samuel is still searching for clues in the old section of the library…Plus, Doku and Balecq are hot in the interrogation…What about the other rookies?

  Samuel: Sent ‘em out today but we don’t think they’re gonna manage anything… I think they’re at the south gates by now?

  Dark hood:…Willheart and Akira, that’s it? I can bring them back by nightfall…

  Luca: Uh…who’s he?

  Shroud: Wanted ta’ say sometin’ ‘bout ‘im bein’ here butta’…too creepy…

  Philomena : Dear sir, I don’t seem to have properly greeted you yet…Who are you?

  Samuel : I’m sorry, 6 seasoned hunters and 5 couldn’t notice a dark hooded creep was staring at us from the corner?

  Shroud/Luca: Shut up Sammy!

  Eliakim : Get off that cloud, Huckleberry, he’s a guest.

  Sarah: Your guest could be so kind to take off his hood between his comrades, right?

  Dark Hood:…That shan’t happen.

  Sarah: Then why should we trust you to go and fetch our kids, stranger?

  Shroud: Cow girl’s right! And whos’ to tell if this guy’s even good enough to go find ‘em?

  Luca : That’s a good point. Aaron is a Titan and Suiga’s carrying one of the two only known Blight armaments that he can’t even control…

  Shroud/Luca : Huh?! What are you doin’-

  Eliakim: Silence!! No one can know he’s here!!

  Sarah: I’d be damned. Guess we ought to give him a chance…

  Eliakim : Ya sure ya’ can bring those two home? Unharmed?

  Dark Hood:…I’ll do my best…

  Eliakim: Yeah, those two are doomed…

  Aaron:…

  Suiga:…Chief…it’s been three days…please…let’s go back…

  Aaron:…

  Suiga:…I bet Cassie must have eaten all of the chicken in the pantry again…can’t let her have all the fun…

  Aaron…

  Suiga: Url…my god, he must be worrying…and I can’t help but wonder why the shrimp hasn’t followed us yet…screaming and kicking…

  Suiga: Man, I can’t imagine Shroud and Luca will let us get away with it…maybe we should think of an apology present. I think some Assian alcohol for the butcher and…ooh I heard there’s an Afreekan settlement east of here selling national tea, Luca could-

  Aaron: I wanted none of it.

  Suiga: Huh?...

  Aaron: When Shroud came into my room and told me my ma was dead, I couldn’t get up on my own two feet. Poisoned, I think he said…What a joke…I didn’t want to get up…Said I had to. Hunting is the only thing that’ll keep me going. I told him no. I wanted to lay down there, let the maggots take me to my ma…

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Suiga:…Chief…

  Aaron: And that…”Chief”…Said to him a million times…I ain’t cut out for it! Send that prince anywhere else but to me! Pirou, Jakar, even the north, but no! Aaron, who didn’t ask for shit! Has to play hero of Landen along with 4 other nobodies, chasing down pricks who’ll get what they want no matter what I do…

  Suiga:…Is this about the sword…

  Aaron:…no…no, topknot…it ain’t about that…it ain’t about how you lost it in that fight and almost killed us!! It ain’t about how I had to risk my ass to get you back into your senses because you just happened to have blight stuck into that useless right arm. It ain’t about how it just happened I’m stuck chasing bats around Landen while my friend gets killed, and how it just happened that I’ll have to do that for the rest of my fucking life until I die like my ma, from some bat while all the fighting I did goes to the trashcan!!! No it ain’t about fucking anything!!!

  Suiga:…

  Aaron: Beryl died!! He died, Suiga!!! Not because we screwed up! Because life just happened!! Wanted to know what hunting here is like?! That’s hunting!!! Hunting and hunting, and hunting until some freak sticks his claws and rips your guts out, while you leave your pals to pick up your corpse and bury you in the city graves, all because you’re some orphan from the south whose folks couldn’t stick around to have him grow up like everyone else!!!

  Aaron:…No…

  Suiga: Are you finished…?

  Aaron:…

  Suiga:…I’m not oblivious to your hatred for me…

  Aaron:…?

  Suiga: I understand…I’m not a stranger to life’s cruel gifts…My right hand is proof of that…

  Aaron:…

  Suiga: The whole palace was in distress…”The cursed princeling”, the malevolent arm…spawn of Kunishiro, from that Klaus, hurt the most, I’ll agree…All I ever wanted was to be like my father…wield a sword of silver and send vampires to the grave, keep my people and my kin safe…This arm makes sure I never reach that dream every single time I call it out…

  Aaron:…

  Suiga: So I understand your pain…what it is to be forced an impossible fate…if me being here is that loathsome for you…I’ll leave…

  Aaron:…?

  Suiga: I’ll take the train next morning…I’d rather be your comrade from afar than not your comrade at all…And I’ll leave you here to be…just promise me you’ll go home safe…

  Aaron:…

  Suiga: What are they doing?...

  Suiga : If that’s that...where’s the vampire?...Hm?

  Suiga: A...ghost....

  Url: More like your doctor. What are you doing here?!

  Suiga: What are you doing here?! And the girls are with you too?!

  Cassie: The nightingale would never leave the headless inside her old hunting grounds without wise guidance and trusty protection.

  Url: Or in normal words, Cassie knows this place better than all of us, and she was worried about me being here...

  Lau: He’s been crying for two days now. “And when are they coming back?!” “And what if they get hurt?!” ”But Suiga hasn’t taken his medicine with him!?” All day, all night long!!

  Suiga: Excuse me if my friend’s empathy got in the way of your useless time-exhausting 2 hour beauty sleep.

  Lau: As opposed to the hour sleep you’ll be needing!

  Cassie: Excuse me, but while we are debating about hygiene standards, a group of dependents is plotting 2 feet away and bossman is still missing.

  Lau: Yeah, what’s with the brute? He chose to quit and go farming?!

  Suiga:...Aaron won’t listen to me...

  Url: He never listens...Look, let’s deal with situation quick since we’re the 4 of us and decide later what to do about the crybaby-

  Suiga: Another vampire?

  Lau: Yes, he is clearly falling behind in his hair care – No you idiot!!

  Suiga: What sort of person would be straddling outside the city at this sort of hour?!

  Cassie: Unfortunately, quite a lot. Not a lot of people heed the hunting regulations, so the south usually ends up with a handful of dependent vampire cases because of wanderers needing to finish their farm work.

  Lau: Well, we aren’t going to let another case just happen?!

  Url: ...I want to help…but Suiga has a point. This seems a little too convenient…I mean these guys aren’t even smelling the prey.

  Lau: Are you kidding me?! It’s an old man! How can that be a trap?! And why are you referring to him like that?!

  Suiga: If you want to waltz in and die, you are welcome to. Ladies first anyway.

  Lau: I agree, you are first then.

  Cassie: This argument sounds quite interesting, but the hour is nigh. The vampires have well understood that prey nears their small group, doctor.

  Url: Fuck!! Oh, ugh…Go get them, eyes out for their owner, we don’t want nobles ganging up on us!

  Url: Are you alright sir? These bats were out to get you…

  Old man : Oh…my lord…I hadn’t even realized it was nightfall already!! I was too busy trying to think where to put this week’s wheat!! Thank you, thank you so dearly!!!

  Suiga: It was nothing, sir. But you shouldn’t be out at this hour…

  Old man: You are right, my lad. But I’m but an elder farmer, with a limp foot and a limp wife in my couch waiting to see food on the table…

  Suiga: I can only imagine the pain it brings you…but I don’t think it will be any larger than hers if she ever sees us on the doorstep waiting to tell her the worst news…

  Url: Do you need any help going back home? How come the farm is so far away?

  Old man: Better soil, my lads. I might be old, but I haven’t lost my touch in this craft, and nor will I let some flying crap bastards let me. But no need for any help now! My house is only 5 minutes from here…

  Lau: Five minutes? But I can’t see anything in this wasteland!

  Suiga: Wasteland? Seriously?

  Cassie:…You know sir, I myself originate from these here lands…

  Old man: A southerner? I could notice that hardened, steel look in one of our own! What brings you back to the green desert, heh?

  Cassie: The Lord’s work, sir…Forgive me if I intrude, but I do remember these lands being preferred for their fertile soil…The city did cut down a lot of the trees from these tiles to allow farming…

  Old man: Must have been ages ago, dear. Nothing has been growing other than grass as you can see.

  Cassie: Well, that I agree with. But if it’s wheat you need, then farming here would be a much safer option.

  Lau: Lady, you noticed the group of bats we gutted 3 minutes ago, didn’t you?

  Cassie: Group of bats that wouldn’t just walk around these parts if they knew humans reside…Even the dumbest dependents and imps know better than to just walk around a human settlement and not fear the hunters…And those bats we just killed didn’t seem to have a care for the world…

  Url: Cassie, come on, you yourself know how it is to live in these parts…

  Cassie: I sure damn do. That’s why I know no southerner from this side of the forest would waltz over to the city walls where they dumb the old railways!!

  Old man: I knew you’d be the witty one, girl…

  Aaron: (Suiga found bats…?)

  Aaron: Silver arrows…Cassie was with him. And the stab wounds in the legs are Lau, she always goes for the limbs first…And those are serrations, a saw could have done that…Url must have brought everyone to find me and topknot…

  Aaron: Well, good luck getting to me…I’ll be back when I want to, at least I can control that in my life…

  Dark Hood : You’d be a fool if you think they are still looking for you.

  Aaron: And you are?

  Dark Hood: My name’s…Louis. I’m a hunter of these here grounds…

  Aaron: Wait a minute…yeah, I saw you in the VHC a few days back! You were talking with the chief!

  Louis: I saw you too. I also saw ya’ with yer friend a while ago…Tough scene…

  Aaron:…Tch…Nothing I could do about it…and none of your business…

  Louis: I’ll hafta disagree on that, boy. Both you and him are my business right now…

  Aaron: What? (Why is he talking like Shroud…)

  Louis: Yer friends came lookin’ fer ya. Found the samurai boy right here.

  Aaron: Yeah, I figured. But if you’re looking for the samurai, he already left…and I don’t think I’m bringing him back this time, if that’s what you are thinking…

  Louis: The boy cares for you…Looked after you all while you were walking in the forest, brooding over your loss…

  Aaron: I didn’t ask him to do that! Now he’s my responsibility too?!

  Louis: No…but one would think after three days, you would return the favor…As you have other times…

  Aaron: And I sure did! I told him! I told him what the fuck hunting’s been for me the past few years-

  Louis: A pain. You fight, you lose, you carry on, all while dreaming of better days. I heard your plight. A sad affair, the boy’s death. And not at all different from what your comrades have lived…

  Aaron: The hell do you know about me? Or them?

  Louis: Quite a lot. I haft’ admit, I wasn’t expecting ya’ ta’ sound that much like yer ma.

  Aaron:…How do you know my surname?

  Louis: I’ve had my eye on you, Willheart…

  Aaron:…? The hell are you talking about? Where are the guys, anyway?

  Louis: So you do care about yer teammates?

  Aaron: Tchk, I just want to make sure you didn’t talk them to death yet! I ain’t got no plans to chat them up soon.

  Louis: You faint ignorance, boy. But you ain’t gonna be acting for long now…

  Aaron: I. Don’t. Give. A. Shit.

  Louis: Got you…

  Aaron: FUCKER!!!

  Louis jumped to another pillar while Aaron smashed the other one with his greatsword…

  Louis: Shroud taught you well, but he was too careful with you…

  Aaron: LOUIS!!

  Louis: You’re lacking this…This rush of hatred. Pilled down by your sloth and fake nonchalance, boy.

  Aaron: SHUT UP! WHAT DID YOU DO?!

  Aaron: Wait a minute…That chestplate…You are the Black Steed…

  Aaron: I’ve heard the stories…Where are my friends, fucker?

  Louis: You’d be wise not pointing that sword my way, boy…

  Aaron: I’ll take my chances.

  Louis: Seems I was right. Fake ignorance, to escape the hardship.

  Aaron: Enough with the poetic nun talk. Tell me what you did with them before I chop your head off…

  Louis:…No…

  Aaron: Death by pounding it is.

  Louis: One hit. If you can land one hit on me, I’ll let you leave and show you where your friends-

  Aaron: Great, that’s all I needed to hear!!

  Aaron: (Is he a Titan?)

  Louis: My strength comes not from that foul ritual…It’s the culmination of decades of journeys full of hardships and trials.

  Aaron: You a mind reader too?! Try to figure out what I’m thinking...

  Louis: I don’t need sorcery to read the open pages you bring me.

  Aaron: (He’s so light…and yet he punches worse than that thunder fucker…)

  Aaron: Are you made of fucking armor?! And why are you so strong!?

  Louis: I’m strong…but are you weak, boy?

  Aaron: Cough!! What!!!?

  Louis: I tell you to land one good hit on me…and even now, when your friends are in danger, you won’t lift your fingers to get serious…

  Aaron: Quit bragging!! It’s not my fault you’re-

  Louis: Excuses!!!

  Louis: You’ve got your mother’s flare, and the butcher’s brutality, I’ll give ya’ that…but you fight like it’s a chore…

  Aaron: Gah…ugh…

  Louis: You are like a worker who can work, who has the reason to work, but just doesn’t want…because he thinks it’s too much for him…but it really isn’t…

  Aaron: What are you…talking about-

  Louis: I’m strong, Aaron Willheart. I’ve encountered vampires capable of atrocities beyond what those virgin eyes have met…And yet I’m still here…Why do you think that is…

  Aaron: Cause you’re…some machine-brought God?!

  Louis: Just like you now…I fell…thousands of times, I had to scrap my way out of death’s cold hand…but I never stopped diving in trouble right after…

  Aaron: Tck!! Gah!!...Then you’re an idiot...!!

  Louis looked up at the full moon shining the ruins with its lucent light…

  Louis: Life dealt me shit cards…but I picked them up, and played the game…Had I not…I wouldn’t be here, telling a crybaby hunter to pick up his balls and try again.

  Aaron: You think it’s easy, getting back up?! Try getting stomped by a metal boot, assface!

  Louis: You cry before obstacles, and thus half-ass your way through life, complaining and grunting, even when you are have the tools to power through…Even now, your slashes were mere swings of a bat by a ten-year-old child…

  Aaron:…

  Louis: No drive. No fire…No actual bloodlust. You want to kill me, pound me to the ground to save your friends, but you won’t put in the effort, because in that little head, you don’t believe there’s a chance you could win with the cards you’ve got. So you half-ass, without even trying…

  Aaron…Fucking liar…

  Louis: Am I? I didn’t even dodge. I just hopped around like a girl…

  Aaron :….

  Louis: You fight with all your strength, but none of your drive. You try to hunt, but won’t take the responsibility that comes with it. You push away your comrades because you’re afraid of living through the grief you’re passing right now…

  Aaron:…

  Louis: You aren’t lazy, ignorant, or hateful, Aaron Willheart. You are discouraged, unsure…afraid…

  Aaron:…I couldn’t even keep Beryl and Suiga safe…I can’t try…it won’t do a damn thing…

  Louis: (…A pity…And after what I heard of the Alzack vampire, I thought you had your father in you…)

  Aaron: Topknot…

  Louis: Perfect. Both of you are now here…

  Suiga: If you would be so kind as to take your foot of my friend, I promise the next one won’t knock you out so badly…

  Louis: Are all the rookies that arrogant…

  Aaron: Topknot, run…

  Suiga:…

  Louis: Prince Akira. I haven’t welcomed you in the capital properly. My name is-

  Suiga: You are the Black Steed. It would be an honor to meet you, under other circumstances…You do know battles between hunters are strictly forbidden if it’s not for training purposes?

  Louis: This is training. This lad is a broken piece of machinery, and I’m training it back to health.

  Suiga: Torture isn’t training. Now let Aaron go, and I’ll let this pass.

  Louis:…

  Aaron : (Shit…)Suiga…get out…you don’t stand a chance…let him have me…

  Suiga: As daring as that sounds, I told you before…I’d much rather see you safe and sound…

  Aaron:…

  Louis: Lord Akira…Can I ask you a question?

  Suiga:…

  Louis: This lad here was pushing you away from the moment he arrived. He clearly wanted you to leave him alone. He denied your help, despite his clear need of it. You wasted precious time trying to befriend him, and he blew it off in a mere 5 minute cry…

  Suiga:…

  Louis: Why are you still here? Risking your life for this…buffoon?

  Aaron:…

  Suiga:…Cause that buffoon is my chief…

  Aaron:…?

  Louis; ?

  Suiga: He doesn’t want to admit it…it would be more and more for him to handle, I understand…but he is my chief…through thick and thin…No person would risk his life getting shredded by steel showers to save two scions he just met. No person would fight a noble one-on-one right after seeing his teammates half-dead on the floor…just to save them…No person would have rushed in to save a blighted brat out of control while it meant he would lose his life…No person fit to be my leader would do anything that this man has done…He might not want that role, but I’ll shove it down his throat until he wants it!!! So here I am!!

  Aaron:…Dumbass…

  Louis: Stubborn little fool…

  Suiga: You’ll want to make it plural…

  Louis: I knew the breeze meant Fran?ois’s brat was here…

  Louis: I knew the breeze meant Fran?ois’s brat was here…

  Aaron:…just…leave already…

  Louis: The two scions are here then…yet after you saw how I turned your chief to mush, you hope you can get out of this alive…

  Lau: It’s your life that’s in danger if you think I’ll fall as easily as my brute captain!!

  Louis: Your funeral…

  Suiga: Shrimp, this man whisked his arm and threw away my blight flames. Don’t you think for our next approach we should work together, at least this once?

  Lau: One time exception, I’ll listen to what you have to say...

  Suiga: Open his guard, I’ll try to finish him off with something much bigger...

  Louis: Your speed is great, Lady Lecourt, but you lack the brute strength and power to back it up…

  Lau: (I can’t pull it out!! What is this strength!?)

  Louis: Your power is dangerous, but useless if you yourself are afraid of it, Lord Akira…

  Louis: Lacking strength, lacking patience...lacking humility!!

  Lau : (I haven’t perfected this one yet!) Lecourt Art : Pirouettan Touch!!!

  Lau: (That was my last strike with the Winds...He couldn’t have possibly-)

  Louis: Lacking strength, lacking patience...

  Lau: No!!!

  Louis: Lacking humility...Your sister ‘s shadow is clouding your vision, young princess.

  Lau: Tchk!! Don’t you talk about my sister!

  Louis : Why shouldn’t I? Unless you rid yourself of the fake idol you’ve made of her, you’ll never go anymore forward than this...

  Lau: Fake?! My sister was the best hunter I’ve-

  Louis: Best huntress, best daughter, best scion...the pride of Fran?ois Lecourt, dead and under the ground because she chose to-

  Lau: Don’t you say it, you damn fuck!!!

  Louis: And now, what’s left...Not even a quarter of what that star could achieve, stuck inside an over-achieving snobby brat –

  Louis: The blight accursed prince. Shamefully swinging the abomination as his weapon...

  Suiga: Not by choice, but that’s what I’m going with.

  Louis: From your father and your uncle, I know elegance is what the Akira are most proud of when they swing their blades. When are you going to show me that swordplay...

  Suiga: (What is this strength!!? And how could he touch my blade?)

  Louis: Your vampire won’t help you against me.

  Suiga: He’s not mine!

  Louis: He is, princeling! And unless you accept the fact and fight like your forefathers taught you to , you won’t escape what is coming!

  Suiga: (What is he talking about?...Lau...Aaron...get out!)

  Louis: How I’d love to see you wiled that blade like your own...but alas, my job must be done...

  Louis: Perhaps a crossing near death door’s will show you what’s to be done...Should you survive, or should you not...Remember this...you didn’t lose because we were stronger...you lost because of you’re weak...

  Louis : And yet what was to be expected... weak teammates come from a weak captain... Watch me, Aaron Willheart. This is the result of your own indifference...

  Louis: (He’s up.)

  Louis turned to meet the young boy’s eyes…But when he waited to lose himself in the void soul worn down by grief and self-pity…

  Aaron: I figured it out. You are strong as fuck, but not as tough. Explains the jumping around even though you can fight like a Titan…Deal’s up…Leave us alone…

  Louis:…A deal’s a deal…

  Aaron: Leave ‘im…he won’t hurt us anymore…

  Suiga: Are you sure?

  Lau: That’s the Steed, brute. Who knows how he’ll-

  Aaron: That’s an-

  Aaron:…That’s an order…

  Suiga/Lau:…Alright.

  Aaron: Where the fuck are the others!!?

  Louis: Calm your horses, Willheart. You’re finally showing your true colors-

  Aaron: Quit it with the lecture!! Where’s Url? And what the fuck did you do with Cassie?! I’ll do it to you a thousand times-

  Louis: Calm yourself.

  Lau: He’s right brute…Follow us…

  Cassie:…Url, look!!!

  Cassie: Bossman!! Don’t ever leave again!!!

  Url: He will leave this plain of existence if you keep killing him, let me patch it up!!

  Louis: You aren’t ignorant, Aaron Willheart…You fake it to escape the pain of tragedy…Life is hard…it won’t get easier…if you don’t steel yourself, you’ll never make it…Trust me…

  Aaron: Why does it hurt so much…

  Url: Fighting against hunters is forbidden…consider this your punishment for pushing us away…

  Aaron: How did you end up-

  Url: Meeting the Steed?...Well...

  Suiga and Url had their weapons against their throats, while the girls finished off his lackeys...

  Suiga : For the last time, why is Aaron Willheart in danger?

  Vampire: Ugh...I-I don’t know-

  Url: Well, you better find out. Because if one hair was touched out of my chief’s head, I’ll take this here bloody saw and grind it in and out of your-

  Lau: Good grace, for a slob like Willheart , we do way too much work!!

  Cassie: Work that you as well participate in, Lady Lecourt!

  Lau: (Pouting...) It would be most ignoble to disobey the rules laid upon my father and let my teammate die in the woods, as much as I’d love to...

  Lau: He’s not this person...He can be someone I can call an equal...He just needs a good pounding to remember that

  Lau: But you!! He’s treated you worse than all of us combined! He threw you to the sky, for Lord’s sake!!

  Cassie : It was a moment this heroine shan’t forget. Bossman had managed to recognize my contribution and accepted me as one of his companions. How could I ever be mad at him...

  Url: This here screams multitudes of attachment issues but I’ll let it slide.

  Lau: Do you not remember the “Throw to the sky” gimmick? Did he force you to not say anything to us?

  Cassie : Absolutely not! Aaron Willheart might be lazy, indifferent, a little whiny, and extremely too heavy for a man his size, but I admire his courage and will to stand beside his comrades!! Even if he fails to show that from time to time...

  Suiga : I guess we ‘ve all got a few reasons to save our “chief”, huh...

  Url: I’m not saying I don’t like the guy, but a room other than sir Samuel’s walk-in closet next to Philomena’s shrine is mandatory at this point.

  Lau: Didn’t you just threaten a vampire with penetration should Aaron is harmed?

  Url: As to show how much my room means to me. Anyway, look what I found inside our captive’s pockets...

  Signed at the bottom with a quick drawing of a black little horse...

  Url: A trap, I see...but who wrote this...

  Cassie: Hmm...a minute...isn’t that the Black Steed’s sigil? The one on his breastplate?

  Lau: That’s impossible, why would that high rank hunter give us away? And what is someone like him doing in this backwater city?

  Suiga: Backwater – anyways, it could be a fake. Or maybe it means something else in vampiric language?

  Url:...I’ll have to check this out, but before that, whoever wrote this is probably searching for Aaron.

  Lau: Alright then! The brute might be a crybaby but he can still fight! Let’s clean up and -

  Url: Hold it Lau...If there’s even a small chance it’s the Steed that’s after him...he could be trying to get him back to the city...

  Suiga: Isn’t that a good thing?

  Cassie: I partake in Url’s anxiety driven thought process...The Steed is known for acting rather... independently...If anyone has heard the stories, they would be afraid to meet him at his worst...

  Url: He’s as big a help to the association as he is a pest...He’s saved countless people, but he’s feared by hunters because of his cruelty...I really don’t know if we should let Aaron face him, even if that’s a slim chance...

  Cassie : I know the surroundings like the palm of my hand. I’ll sneak beside the Steed and steal our chief away.

  Suiga: Lady Mergrove...please let me go...

  Url: Nonsense. You just returned from a three day camping trip to hell, you can barely fight someone like the Steed.

  Suiga: And Lady Cassandra is still recovering from Ezra’s stunt. A group effort will only alert him...Please, I said I’d bring him back, I intend to finish that question...

  Cassie: Bossman’s odor has really rubbed on you, prince Akira...

  Url: I’ll join then. We can probably cook up a plan involving the illusion cloud, but I don’t know if he’ll be resistant to my concoctions or not...

  Lau: You’ve been making potions and meds ever since this whole plan has started. You fainted three days ago, we are definitely not letting you join!!

  Url: Then who goes?!!

  Aaron: That old man tricked a vampire…can’t believe it…

  Cassie: We wanted to join, but me and Url stayed to give the vampire captive to the authorities. Prince Akira and Lady Lecourt seemed the better options, since they are the next close-quarters fighters after you, bossman. Which is sad cause the Steed is my favorite hunter!!!

  Aaron: Figures. Weirdoes go together…Wait, what about the lock of your hair?

  Cassie: Excuse me?

  Aaron: I'm sure he threw a lock of your hair at me...

  Cassie: Ehm... I do have to say bossman, the teed owning my hair would be I really weird dream come -

  Aaron: It was red and full with blood, I got worried he cut it off you!

  Cassie: Bossman!! St-st-stop spinning me - please stop messing with my hair!!

  Lau: Leave those beautiful braids alone brute!! I spend two hours making them!! Don't touch them with your filhty dirt hands!!

  Aaron: I got my pecs crushed because I thought he hurt you, dumbass! Why are you fine and I got beaten for no reason!??

  Cassie: You...You fought for me? For the Nightingale's sake, you put thine life at stake? Aaron Willheart, I knew you never hated me!!! Mine avenger!!!

  Url: Well, guess someone's mood is finally lifted.

  Aaron: Ugh...I'll show how much I hate you now if you don't get off of me, how are you so strong!!???

  Suiga:…

  Suiga: About the whole chief thing…I know I said that, but I’m still leaving if-

  Aaron: You try to leave…I’ll smash the train, and pull you out myself…you hear me?

  Suiga: Yes, sir…

  Aaron:…Chief…I can get used to that…

  Lau:…I knew you two would get together sooner or later…