Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 90

A Hero's Crumbling Pride

After the debacle at the Guild, Martell separated from Connie to inform the people at the Al- Khemiya Compound. Meanwhile, Connie, Nick, and a few extras headed to the Church through the back roads which the Courandhel man knew from back when he was living there.

Once they arrived at the back of the Church, a nun that was sweeping at the back entrance of the dorm led them in. Inside, the Maiden of Water had been waiting and received Akula before unceremoniously shooing everyone but Eleanora out.

“Juuust…leave it too…us.”

They were then led to the Male Dorm’s common room where it was empty as the Priests were doing their chores outside.

Now left without anything to do, Akira confronted Connie.

“Lady Cornelia, tell me what happened back there. Why are you making enemies with the Hero of Vorzenny, and to even take his party member forcefully?!” Akira said with all seriousness. “If this escalates to a dispute between us and Vorzenny…”

“…It will become an international incident,” Hannah said angrily. She was left with sticky socks and shoes from the ale and she did not want to show her legs to other men so she had to endure it, which exacerbate things. “And you’ll be tried for this.”

“Oh, they won’t dare to attack me forthright…” Connie turned her attention from the lukewarm cup of tea given to her by a nun and lazily nodded at Nick. “Nick. You explain.”

Nick shrugged as Akira’s attention turned to him. After taking a pill he was given, Nick had pissed almost all the alcohol in his body and was relatively sober. He then explained about the Hero of Vorzenny and his Charm.

Hearing this, Akira’s eyes widened in disbelief. While Hannah’s expression turned into that of horror.

At some point, Akira interrupted him. “Charm? You mean like…the kind that makes the opposite sex likes you?”

“Worse than that. Let me continue, yeah? Don’t interrupt me until I’m finished. Won’t make a good story if you stop my flow.”

He then explained what happened to Illumca and the people from Al-Khemiya.

“That’s horrifying! I can scarcely believe that there is someone that can do something so…so disgusting!” Akira was agape from the story and asked for confirmation. “Is this…really true?”

“There is no need for us to lie. Akula’s condition right now was also because of the Charm. You heard what she said. You saw how badly she reacted to the rejection. Anyone can see that what happened back there was normal,” Connie said while leaning back and crossed her legs.

“Then…that explains why everyone has been so enamored with the Hero of Vorzenny lately,” Hannah gazed upwards trying to recall.

“Hmm?” Connie lifted an eyebrow while drinking her tea and shifted her leg grandiosely. The masculine action and her current appearance were so mismatched that she looked rather ridiculous. Prompting Hannah to stifle an escaping snigger.

“You…haven’t been mingling with the High Society, have you?” Hannah said.

“Well, a lot of things happened to us during our stay here. There a lot of things we needed to do.”

Groaning, Hannah then explained that due to her latest incident, she had to go to a few tea parties to re-establish her position in the inner circle of the young Nobility.

“All the young women talked about was the Hero of Vorzenny. How handsome he is and how charming. How his eyes made them swoon. They even compared him with my Akira! I find it very strange,” Hannah frowned at the remembrance. “They even said that they even tried to get in touch with him through the Guards. This is much too forward, especially for Highborn Ladies.”

“And if gossips have some truth in there, some married women have even tried to meet with him. One, in particular, was a wid - ” The young woman refrained from talking anymore as a revelation dawned upon her.

“Then when you spilled the ale on Hannah…” Akira’s voice trailed off. “That was to protect the girls?”

Connie harrumphed. “That was on a whim.”

“Why would you do that for us?” Akira asked. “I thought you hated us. After what we…did to you,” he continued with a feeling of guilt as he remembered what he did to her back in the Alabaster Atrium.

“Hate? No. I don’t particularly hate you, or like you…for that matter,” Connie replied with a small shrug of her shoulders. “But at the very least…I approve of the sincerity of your love for each other. Innocent and awkward as it is.”

Hannah and Akira looked at each other and looked away, cheeks blushing from the frank words.

“Th – then I owe you my thanks.”

The blonde-haired girl raised her palm towards Akira and said. “Save it. I don’t need mere words of thanks.”

“Wha – he is thanking you. You jerk!” Hannah huffed angrily.

Akira grimaced as he looked at the young girl before her. As if he had caught a glimpse of her personality.

“That’s fine. I have to say, I did not expect you to make a move to seek justice for the women that had been harmed. Going so far as making a possible enemy of a country. I will do my best to do my part!”

“…justice?” Connie scoffed, almost spitting out the tea he was drinking. “Are you mistaking me for a righteous person or some kind of a hero, boy?”

“Listen to me. And listen to me well. I do not make my move for the sake of something as abstract and unreliable as justice. Especially not for some Highborn stuck ups I don’t even know. I wouldn’t care if all he did was just making some backhanded moves on the Kingdom.”

“T-then, why would you go so far? It doesn’t make sense!” Akira said. Just as he thought he figured what the girl was all about, she threw his understanding and common sense out of the window.

“It’s very simple,” the girl said with a toothy grin, showing her long canines.

“Because he dares to hurt what is mine.”

At the sea-facing balcony of the Mansion that housed the Vorzennian delegates, a man was sipping on a glass of wine.

His tongue lapped the dark red liquid running down his lips with a thin smile, savouring the characteristic hint of saltiness from the local wine. It was salty because the grape had taken in the wind coming from the sea, which brought salt and coated each piece of the grape with them.

He was a fair-skinned man with 3 large scars across his chest; showing through the thin white clothes that he was wearing. It was said that it was one that he got during the subjugation of a Demon. Brown-haired cut above his shoulders; and blessed with a muscular body. Green eyes like that of emeralds danced as he mulled over the canvas before him.

A cold breeze smelling of the sea wafted across the balcony. The silver earrings on his ears chimed from the wind. Immediately, the man closed his eyes, took a deep sniff of the salty air, and let his brush dance. Letting his imagination flow through the brush.

Not long after, he opened his eyes and exhaled with a tinge of disappointment at the result.

“What do you think, Bernardo?” the man asked. His voice was deep like a bear, but there was a raspy quality in it that made his voice so distinct and pleasant to the ear.

“It’s a nice picture, Sergio,” a stocky man replied quickly. This man was built like a tree, with arms as thick as logs.

Indeed. One look at the unfinished painting and one could imagine the hustle and bustle of the dock, the movements of every seaman, and the cry of seagulls flying overhead. Even at its unfinished state, one could see that it captured the essence of the life of the dock. Yet, it had something of an imbalance in the thickness of the paint.

“You don’t have to praise it, Bernardo. This one’s just an experiment on a few techniques I gathered from the local painters. I have no intention of finishing it,” he said to Bernardo. Both subordinate and friend; he knew well that the man had no sense of art whatsoever. But he valued his honesty.

“What? That’s a shame! Any painting of yours could have sold for a good amount of gold!”

The man sighed as he finished his wine. “Ever since I painted ‘The Desolation of Amanti Orphe’ I have not been able to paint anything else,” he complained. “I thought coming to Courandhel to watch the famous Royal Calendian Theater would give me the inspiration to get me out of this slump.”

He threw his arms up in exasperation and roared. “But no! They gave the masterwork of Lady Adalia Webber, the ‘Flower of Nothing’, to some green little thing with nothing but looks going for her!”

“It can’t be helped. The real Diva was having a private time,”

While they were talking, a man in regular clothes came in with brisk speed. Bernardo moved back and let him approach.

“Report.”

“Yes, Vice-Captain.”

While his subordinate was reporting to him, the door to the living room burst open and a very sullen Kurosaki Yuuji entered, followed by a nervous Leida and Seine.

Sergio called out from where he sat. “Oh look, Our hero returns. Lacking one person, I see.”

Yuuji glared at the man making the mocking gesture. “Shut up, Sergio!”

“Hoho, that look on your face! Let me guess. Lost a bet or something?”

Sergio Bonaulti Dornez. The Vice-Captain of the King’s Watchmen. He was the leader of the people tasked to monitor him. From the very first meeting, he had never liked this carefree man as he was everything that he despised in his past life. A handsome man who was so gifted that one could not help but envy or hate.

“Yuuji, please. The Vice-Captain did not mean anything by it,” Leida said, trying to defuse the situation.

“Oh, but that’s where you are wrong, Milady. I mean something by it. I already heard about what happened at the Guild. Namely, you have lost the chance to peacefully bring the Lady of Steelheart House to our fold,” the man recounted the report with disinterest. “And in exchange, you lost the Centaur.”

“You bastard - !”

“Stop!” a hand shot out from behind and grabbed Yuuji’s wrist, spinning him around once; he fell on his back.

“Master Kamiya!” Leida cried out.

“Yuuji! Are you okay?” Seine came up to him and rubbed his back.

“Well, Flash of Steel. You are as fast as your moniker would suggest,” Sergio said, not even moving from the stool he was sitting on.

“Are you having fun making sport of children, Mister Dornez?” Kamiya exclaimed, hand still gripping Yuuji’s wrist tight. “And you, don’t fall to his petty provocations!”

“Fun? This is no fun, Flash of Steel. Fun is watching a great play, or finding a new source of colour, or even reading a beautiful stanza of some obscure poem,” Sergio replied, his square jaw slammed shut.

“Sergio, cut the boy some slack, yeah? He’s still the Hero, after all,” Bernardo said to his friend.

“Fine. Fine…” the handsome man poured himself another glass of wine. “I need to do my job, after all.”

“Damn you…! I am the Hero! You should be obeying me!”

“Shut up, Yuuji. He’s not someone you can make light of!” Kamiya warned through her teeth.

“Yes. Yes. Sad to say, you are indeed the Hero. So, Hero. In order to not disappoint the King any further, I want you to play nice until we leave tomorrow. No more shenanigans on your part. Else, I’d have to play rough."

Sergio's voice deepened as he leaned forward and smiled.

"And you…do not want me to play rough.”