1 Carefree ignorance before the end

On a sunny day in an unnamed park on a stone path.

A man was walking with icecream in hand, without a care in the world, whistling a random tune and enjoying the peaceful mostly empty surroundings.

Parcell didn't know why his mood was so good today, he took a breath and exhaled with emotion

"Haah, this is such a nice day, the sun is up and the colors of the world are cheerful, the trees provide a gentle shade, the wind is blowing a cool air, the birds are singing happily and the leaves are rustling peacefully, it's like everything in the world is right and nothing can go wrong..."

"It's like the days before..." he muttered subconsciously

"Huh?"

"What did I just say? The days before? huh?"

"*Yaaawn* seems like I need some sleep, staying up all night does have that effect huh"

Just as he shrugged off the weird feeling and took another step he stopped... as if frozen in time

---POV shift to sports girl---

*hah* *hah* *hah* A girl ran on a stone path in sports wear and happened to spot someone but something seemed weird about him

"huh?" she exclaimed and stopped

"Uh... sir, are you alright? Your icecream seems to have fallen to the ground..."

The girl thought 'it won't be that he is having a seizure right?'

After her words the man seemed to finally react and look at her but the moment she saw his eyes she was startled like a rabbit and her entire body shook, she felt... familiarity?

---POV shift back to mc---

"Alice?" -Parcell

"Huh? how do you know my name? You... who are you?" -Sports girl Alice

"I am... no before that... what... year is it?" -Parcell

"Huh, uhm, what do you mean?" Alice blinked

"What... year is it?" Parcell asked in a serious tone

"Uhm, it's 2045 you know? Are you okay, do you need me to call for an ambulance?" Alice asked somewhat helplessly

"2045... I see... *sigh*" Parcell took a big breath of air and sighed.

That sigh seemed to contain a myriad of emotions: surprise, vicissitudes, happiness, sadness, etc... it almost seemed like the world's entire range of emotions were contained in that sigh

"So... I'm back... or not... these memories... I can somehow tell, they never really happened, they are merely branches of possibilities in the seemingly infinite probabilities of this universe" Parcell muttered to himself

"Uh, what are you talking about, possibilities? memories? did you remember something important?" Alice asked innocently while blinking her eyes

For some reason she felt compelled to ask, she felt like she wanted to stay here for some reason and chat with this stranger that she never met but somehow knew her name, like a curious cat, but also something else...

"Yep, I indeed remembered something veeery important, hehe" All of a sudden Parcell put on a shit eating grin and elongated his speech in a teasing manner

"Oh? what what" Alice asked, her curiosity peaked!

"The thing I remembered is-" Parcell continued, his grin growing larger, and his speech slower

"What, don't leave me hanging, cmooon tell meee" Alice asked, her curiosity reaching unprecedented heights, and her tone turning spoiled like a child

'Wait, what's wrong with my voice! I never spoke like this since I was 5!' Alice surprised herself with her tone of voice, never having spoken like this except to her mom when she was very little, somehow this stranger made her relaxed and unguarded and she started acting spoiled and even... coquettish?! 'This won't do! I need to act like an adult *ahem* yes, adult Alice activate!'

"Hmm, actually this is something I remembered about... Alice... *heeeh*... but it's a secret" With the shit eating grin still on his face, Parcell said cheekily like a brat

"Mou! then tell me the secret! It's about me so I have the right to know! right? right?" Alice pouted and forgot all about her previous thoughts, she asked in a soft tone in a spoiled manner and even her body movements were softer and less guarded than usual, almost like she was under a spell

"Hmm, that seems to make sense, then I guess I could tell you the secret... however it's a secret so I'll have to whisper it into your ears" Parcell said faking a 'conflicted' expression that couldn't be any more fake while his grin unconsciously grew a bit more wicked

'He-he's not trying to take cheap advantage of me right? I mean it shouldn't be... and I want to know the secret so bad!' nobody knew why "it shouldn't be" but the curiosity was self evident on little Miss Alice and so she proceeded to step towards Parcell and blushed feeling the closeness, the heat and the smell of a man's body at a closer distance than ever before in her life, her "princess lifestyle" never included such close proximity with the opposite gender and even the run in the park today was a rare event that she had to negotiate with her mother for a long time

Parcell leaned his head down and his mouth went to her ear to whisper: "You see, Alice's secret is-"

"Hey! Step away from Miss Alice!" Just as he was about to divulge "Alice's secret" there was a shout from a powerful female voice and a beautiful girl with black hair and black tight fitting clothes jumped from nowhere towards you and Alice with an infuriated face

"Clara" Parcell smiled and muttered to himself

"Kyaa!" -Alice

Just as Clara jumped and was about to grab Parcell, he suddenly moved his hands, grabbing Alice by her cute waist lifting her up and moving backwards sporting a playful smirk on his face

"Hehe, Clara, you're a bit slow" Parcell said in a playful but slow tone, his hand still on Alice's wait

"Wh-What are you doing! I-I-!" Alice blushed like a red tomato and stammered seemingly struggling to escape but somehow not struggling at all in Parcell's embrace

"You! Put down the Miss right this moment! Or Else-!" Clara shouted, her face all red but for a completely different reason than Alice's

"Or else what?" Parcell smirked and asked in a provocative tone

"Or else I'm gonna rip your head off!" -Clara

"Oh Clara, I see you didn't change... or rather you are still Clara no matter what huh..." Parcell muttered again to himself

Without waiting for Clara to speak again Parcell all of the sudden put on a shit eating grin and said:

"Well, Clara, I've just kidnapped your young Miss, soooo, let's play catch shall we?"

"What?!" Clara asked with wide eyes, not believing what she just heard

Parcell grinned and picked up Alice in a princess hug whispering to her "stay still, okay Alice? later I'll tell you the secret"

Alice was just about to scream and struggle but after hearing his voice she somehow calmed down, all of the sudden she felt... safe... safer than ever in his arms, she never felt like this before and an addicting feeling took over her mind and body, before she knew it she was hugging his neck, holding tight

"Okay, so the rules ar- WOW, careful there Miss Clara, I didn't explain the rules yet!"

Just as Parcell was smirking and started explain the so called "rules" Clara jumped towards him like a enraged female tiger that just got her pup abducted, with a black baton that appeared seemingly out of nowhere in her hands she striked towards Parcell's head viciously, however it only hit air as Parcell already moved back, almost as if they were enacting a scripted fight, at the same moment Clara moved, he moved.

Clara frowned thinking 'This guy is dangerous'.

Alice was surprised, after all she knew Clara was a trained "knight" bodyguard, she trained almost since her birth, training martial arts and melee since before she could walk, not only that but Clara was also famously know in her family as a prodigy, her grandmother praised her as the best in over 5 generations of her family, and her family itself is famous in the aristocratic circle of Endewuer as one of the top 3 and often referred to as the first of the symbiotic knight families in the Erthopian Union, actually the old group "Knight Orders of Erhtopia" was a thing of the past, mainly active in medieval times and subsequently became the "Symbiotic Knight Families" as known in the present day.

They were called "symbiotic" because all the olden knight families have merged with various aristocratic and royal families and became dependent on one another, usually one knight family merged as a whole with another aristocratic family but some split and then merged.

Clara was actually a famous genius in the "knight circle" and known for subduing her opponents without even touching them directly, always using a weapon and having abnormal strength in sharp contrast with her frail looking body.

In fact not only Alice, but even Clara herself was shocked, which caused her to be momentarily stunned and in that sole moment...

"Well then, see ya later alligator!" shouting such nonsense, Parcell bolted while carrying the princess Alice in his arms

"You! stop for me! Scumbag!" Clara also bolted after them shouting abuse at Parcell

"All units, "Pink Runner" has been abducted, code 03, converge on my position and towards south-east, Plan 3B, move it for me!" after shouting abuse to Parcell, Clara immediately pulled out a walkie talkie and shouted orders, it seems she wasn't the only one protecting Miss Alice in secret

"Hehe, this is actually quite exciting isn't it, my dear Alice?" -Parcell

"You..." Alice shook her head somewhat helplessly, for some reason she didn't feel scared at all, even though she was getting "kidnapped" she actually felt quite good, and Parcell's arms felt particularly comfortable...

"That... Clara isn't the only bodyguard, that is, there are 20 more, so... be careful okay?" Alice blushed and for some reason started imparting critical information to the "enemy side" on her own volition

Parcell looked at Alice, for some reason Alice was acting almost like she knew him... but that shouldn't be... 'I need to investigate this later' Parcell thought

"By the way" Alice blushed "I still don't know your name"

A shit eating grin immediately replaced the thoughtful look on Parcell's face and he said in a cheeky tone:

"Hmm... secret? Haha"

"..." *sigh* "just tell me when you feel like it then" *pout* -Alice

"Parcell"

"Huh?"

"My name is Parcell"

"Oh-oh, nice to meet you Parcell, I'm Alice" Alice for some reason blushed and then introduced herself

"I know" Parcell grinned

"You shit-eating penguin, stooop for meee!" Clara was still shouting nonsense and breaking the mood in the back, but for some reason she couldn't catch up, not only could she not catch up, but the distance was... getting wider?!

'This, this is weird! it looks like he's moving slower than me but for some reason, he's faster?!'

"huh?" -Clara

'That's! that's a movement technique, but I've never seen steps that weird! what style of martial arts is that?!'

"Well then, let's get the show started, shall we" Parcell grinned but then all of the sudden he looked somewhat serious and took a big gulp of air and then

"Hup!" -Parcell

"KYAAA!" -Alice

"W-What!?" -Clara

All of the sudden Clara saw Parcell bending slightly and then... he flew upwards?! Parcell jumped more than 3 meters high and landed on a sturdy tree branch, at this time Clara paused looking stunned from below, Alice was also stunned in Parcell's arms, she only felt a dampened shock and then the air whistled and now she's on top of the tree!?

Parcell turned around towards Clara, looked down and said "Hmm, the view is pretty nice from up here, Miss Bodyguard, care to join us?" *grin*

Clara put on a serious face, looked at the branch Parcell was standing on and then left to the tree trunk, she took a big breath and then

"Hyaa!" *thump* *thump* *thump* she jumped towards the trunk, stepped 3 times and then flipped towards Parcell's branch, landing close to him and then glared and pointed at Parcell grandly

"Put the Miss down, you villain!" -Clara

Alice looked somewhat surprised, she was never in a situation where Clara had to show so much strength so this was the first time she saw Clara perform such high level acrobatics

*whistle* "well, Miss Knight sure is in good shape, well then, try to keep up?" Parcell changed the way he called Clara, and then proceeded to jump backwards

"KYAA!"

"Stop! Villain!"

And so they kept repeating the script: Parcell jumped, Alice screamed cutely and Clara followed closely while shouting nonsense