Chapter 80: A Fleeing Happiness
Giliath demands your power stones!
Little shorter chapter but enjoy!
*
Meanwhile, as Naoto's group slowly made their way to Messeldam Port in the northern reaches of Calvard...
Heimdallr, Erebonia.
Ever since the Hundred Days War entered a ceasefire three years ago thanks to the quick decisiveness of Cassius Bright and the newly developed orbal airships, peace once returned to the two countries. As its name applied, the War lasted exactly one hundred days. Liberl received much heavier losses thanks to Erebonia's blitzkrieg tactics, so they had to pool in a lot of money to undergo a reconstruction period. Unfortunately that money came right out of Erebonia's pockets, as a retribution of sorts.
Even with that happening, most of Erebonia remained in tact, minus one small outlying town, which was the now nameless village of Hamel. From there on, it was wiped off the map, and Erebonia resumed business as usual, as if the war had never happened.
The sole man to make all of this happen was Giliath Osborne, who had entered office as Erebonia's Chancellor not long after he resigned from his post of brigadier general. With his dream achieved, a full three years had passed as he started to reform many of Erebonia's policies to his liking. However, compared to his earlier counterpart, Giliath looked like he had aged quite a few years, beyond that of a middle aged man. The strands of his white hair became more prominent as a result.
It was now approaching the end of S1195 and light snow flurries have started to drop on Heimdallr's beautiful landscape, covering it in a very thin layer of snow. Its contrast to the vermillion city made it very picturesque.
And yet, despite that, Giliath, who could currently be seen in his office that displayed a full front view of Heimdallr, currently had a solemn look in his eyes as he had his hands behind his back, looking out as he watched the snow lightly fall over the city.
Remaining silent, one of his Intelligence Division officers suddenly entered the room, giving Giliath a salute.
"Your Excellency, we have received word from Lord Rufus that His Highness's group has successfully broken out of the cult lodge. Shall we pursue?", The officer asked.
"A group? It wasn't just him?", Giliath asked, raising his eyebrows. After looking at the snow fall a bit more, he turned around to look at the officer before him.
"No, Your Excellency. Lord Rufus detailed four individuals had escaped together with His Highness. All presumably injected with the Gnosis drug and survived. One five year old individual, one six year old individual, one ten year old individual and one thirteen year old individual.", The officer answered Giliath as he continued to make his report.
"Is that so? I would like a detailed inquiry on these individuals later. Did Rufus say anything else?", Giliath asked.
"He did, Your excellency. It appears His Highness is currently wanting to head northeast to the edge of the Calvardian Border and that Sir Arundel and Lord Rufus accepted His Highness's terms to go with him.", The officer answered. This caused Giliath's eyebrows to be raised once again.
"Hmm, I gave those two strict orders to those two to bring back His Highness. For them to do this there must be a good reason.", Giliath surmised.
"Lord Rufus requested to give his to you, Your Excellency.", The officer simply said, approaching him in the next moment. The officer handed him a simple closed piece of paper.
Giliath turned around back toward the window after receiving the closed piece of paper, and slowly opened it up. All what was written on there was one word.
"Paradise."
Seeing this paper, Giliath walked toward his desk and opened one of his drawers. Besides having miscellaneous documents and writing tools inside of it, he found an orbal lighter. Taking it, he moved the the lighter under the paper and turned it on. The paper immediately burnt to a crisp leaving behind nothing.
Giliath then turned back to the Intelligence officer.
"Just keep an eye out for now. But remember not to get too close to His Highness. His Highness's radar may be far wider than you might imagine.", Giliath declared, causing the intelligence officer to salute him.
"Yes, Your Excellency.", The intelligence officer responded, only to leave the room. Seeing the officer leave, Giliath slowly turned back and approached the window again. Seeing the snow fall, his gaze looked downward right onto Dreichels Plaza.
Even with the snow, people were still going about their daily businesses. His gaze shifted toward the statue of Emperor Dreichels, but his eyes didn't look at the statue itself. Further downward near the front of the statue was the same teleportation stone that appeared shortly after Naoto and his party cleared the opening trial to the Vermillion Knight.
At first, this teleportation stone wasn't visible to anyone but Naoto. But over time it became visible. It gave the citizens of Heimdallr a fright for sure when they suddenly saw this strange device appear, but the imperial government quickly calmed them down. Giliath knew exactly what this device was used for and assured his people that it meant no harm.
Seeing the teleportation stone down below, Giliath started to utter to himself.
"You can have your fun for now, Naoto. I do not know why you are gathering capable individuals to be at your side, nor do I care. It does warm my heart knowing that you survived the raid on our home so long ago, but I do hope that you hadn't forgotten the role you are to play. You only have so long to complete the trial of the Vermillion Knight. And if you won't come back, I'll personally drag you back here and give you a good scolding, as a normal father would do to his son, haha!", Giliath uttered to himself.
After uttering that to himself Giliath turned quiet again. He then slowly approached his desk one more time. It was pretty tidy and not many papers stood on it, but there was one thing that caught his interest.
Looking at it, Giliath saw a framed photograph. Within the picture stood four figures in front of a rather fancy villa, all four figures smiling while the picture was taken. One figure was a much younger Giliath with Kasia standing next to him with a smile on her face. As for the two other figures, they were in the two's embrace since they were much younger. It was a three year old Naoto and a two year old Rean, all appearing happy with a smile of their own.
Unfortunately Giliath looking at this photo only lasted for a brief moment, as another voice reached out to him.
"Your Excellency, it is time for your next meeting. Your next task on our agenda will be the discussion of the autonomous state of Jurai and it's proposed merger...", The voice said.
Hearing another voice say that, Giliath took this time to reach his hand down, only to place it on the framed photo. In the next moment, he moved the photo downward. This made it so the picture could no longer be seen.
"Understood. Tell His Majesty I will be there shortly.", Giliath responded.
Reaching his doorway, Giliath turned back one last time to take one more look at his desk. He then quickly turned around, and left the Chancellor's room to begin his day...