Off to the Rescue

20 Mensis Aprilis, Year 704

Maxim and Paulo were doing a weekly cleaning of their dorm room, as was tradition at the school for the day before classes began again for the week, when they heard a knock at the door. Maxim volunteered to answer it, saying to Paulo as he put down a broom, “I’ll get it, hang on.”

When Maxim opened the door, two uniformed military police officers were standing outside. Both of them were dressed in green and blue suits with armbands on their right arms saying “ITMP,” the acronym for the Imperial Tamaran Military Police, and green caps. One of the officers asked Maxim as he showed him a photo of a woman, “Do you recognize the woman in this photo?”

“Who are you guys?”

“We’re patrolmen with the military police. We’re here because you were among the last people to see this woman before she vanished.”

Maxim then looked down and recognized the photo as being of Serena. He was deeply confused and also shocked. “I know her. Her name is Serena Tull. What happened?”

“She vanished three days ago,” the officer explained. “We want to know if you may know anything that may help us find her.”

Paulo, seeing the two military police officers, asked Maxim, “Hey, dude, what’s going on?”

“Hang on a sec, Paulo,” Maxim then warned him. “This is serious. Someone I met in Chanan went missing, and the police are looking for her.”

“We’re not just looking for her whereabouts,” the officer then added. “We’re also looking for information about two of our own who were found dead in their burning car last night. Two detectives who were investigating this case were found in a park in the city after someone reported a motor car on fire. It was their’s, and we’re starting to think Miss Tull’s disappearance might have something to do with their deaths.”

This made no sense to Maxim. Serena had not been kidnapped at all in canon. In fact, she was supposed to help the main characters after Lena’s death later that day. The Order of the Shining Light had done something that had deviated from the canon of Rimnan Castle School that he had no part in, or at least, he thought he had no part in. He told the officers as a chill ran down his spine, “Yeah, uh… I’ll tell you guys everything I know about her…” This was a lie, but he knew that if he told them everything he knew based on his own experiences with reading and watching the story, the police would get extremely suspicious of how and why he found out so much. He had to walk a proverbial tightrope between telling the military police what they needed to know to find Serena and not telling them things that he had no reason to know as a regular person without foreknowledge of the world he had found himself in.

…

“So they think the two events are connected?”

“I’m afraid so,” Maxim told Lena as the two of them sat down at a table in the courtyard of the school together. “I still can’t believe someone killed the two detectives you talked to were killed so soon after. That’s fucking freaky. You may have been the last person they ever talked to before they got killed.”

“I know. That creeps me out. So much is happening in such a short timeframe. It’s overwhelming.” Lena then looked around the courtyard, which was right in the middle of the former castle grounds, and remarked, “To think, this used to be a royal residence years ago. It’s been over two centuries since the Imperial Family moved out of this place and set up a school here. For two centuries, Rimnan Castle School has been here, and yet this year is shaping up to potentially be its most impactful given everything going on. This year of all years.”

“Tell me about it. Of course this shit all happens in my first year here, too.”

“Yeah. I feel bad for you and the other first-years that got roped into this mess.”

Maxim acted normally right now, but in the back of his mind, he was preparing himself for what he believed would be Lena’s death later that day. He had originally set his mind on saving her, but Serena’s unexpected kidnapping in contravention to the original canon of the story had caused him to second-guess himself. In his mind, he feared that saving Paulo had somehow led to Serena’s kidnapping, and that if he saved Lena, something else would happen..

“Hey, are you there?”

“Oh, uh, what?”

“You just kinda spaced out there,” Lena explained. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Maxim assured her. “Don’t worry about me. Anyway, going back to your visit to your family yesterday, did you and your uncle argue, or was it more civil?”

“Admittedly,” Lena sighed. “We did argue again, but it didn’t get as heated as last time, at least in my opinion. He wasn’t too pleased that I went into Wanta with you to go after Yuna and Kana. He had some pretty… Disparaging things to say about the people that lived there.”

“How disparaging?”

“He basically called everyone that lived there criminals and beneath us as people.”

“I’m not surprised,” Maxim chuckled. “Based on what you say about him, he seems like the kind of guy who would say that shit. No offense.”

“None taken,” Lena assured him. “He’s far more traditional than my father was. He also looks down on non-nobles and even lower-ranked nobility. He’s been trying to get me to marry a prince from a cadet branch of the Imperial Family. He’d flip the Hell out if I married a non-noble or a lower noble.”

Maxim nodded, remembering this subplot from the show. “I see… What would happen to your title if you married that prince?”

“The title would be subsumed into the Ren family, the aforementioned cadet branch. That is… Unless I relinquish the title to someone else in the family.”

“Let me guess. Your uncle wants you to relinquish the title to him.”

“Exactly. The problem with that is that I would rather die than hand the title off to someone else.” Lena got a bit depressed and even a little angry as she continued to talk. “The title is something I got from my parents. Granted, I got it extremely early because some piece of shit murdered them when I was just eleven years old, but nonetheless, I was born to be a Duchess, and that title means more to me than just something I can tack onto my name. It’s a connection to my parents that I will never let anyone take away from me.”

“Did you ever have any siblings?”

“No,” Lena shook her head. “My mother had a difficult childbirth. The two of us nearly died, and in the end, the experience left her unable to bear any more children after me. This meant that I would be it. If I had a younger brother, he would be the Duke of Vale right now, but alas, I’m the holder of the title as the Duchess of Vale. Among the more conservative nobility and members of the Imperial Family, girls and women who inherit titles due to a lack of direct male heirs can still be looked down on and regarded as being illegitimate compared to male heirs. It’s infuriating, honestly. I’ve heard comments behind my back like that, and every time I do, I feel insulted, not just for my sake, but in the name of my father. He would be so angry if he was still alive and heard what some people say about me or other female heirs.”

Feeling bad for her, he said, “Man, that sucks. I’m sorry you have to go through that.”

“Thank you.”

Then, Victoria and Sarah waved over to the duo as they walked over, with the latter calling out, “Lena, we’re ready to head out! Yuna’s running a bit late!”

“Hey guys,” Maxim said as he and Lena got up from the table.

“Hey there,” Victoria replied. “So, Lena, where are we gonna go today?”

“The town of Reilly,” she replied. “There’s been reports of a pack of wolf-like monsters running amok and killing livestock on the farms along the outskirts. A few monster hunters have already hunted some of them, but there’s still too many running around and causing a ruckus.”

“Reilly, huh,” Sarah pondered. “Yuna agreed to go? I’m surprised.”

Lena, not knowing Yuna’s past with the town, asked her, “Wait, why would she be reluctant to go?”

“She hasn’t told you guys? Well, don’t mention to her that I told you this, but Yuna was there when the Incident at Reilly happened.”

“…Oh. I see.”

“She and her brother Werner were right in the middle of it all,” Sarah explained. “She lost her uncle, her aunt, and all three of their children. She gets really uncomfortable when you even bring up the town to her, much less the attack.”

“Is Werner similarly affected?”

“He was there, but he’s not afraid to bring it up. If you want more info about what exactly happened with the Miller family there, I’d ask him if anything.”

“I see…”

…

Meanwhile, Yuna was talking to Kana on the roof of the castle keep, which had been fenced off to allow for students to walk up on it during the day without the risk of anyone falling, or perhaps jumping, off. “Yuna,” Kana said to her as she rested herself against the fence. “Did you get a visit from the military police at all in the last two days?”

“No, why?”

“Because apparently, Serena is missing,” Kana replied. “I got a nice little visit from the military police to my dorm this morning while I was doing the weekly cleaning. Apparently, Serena disappeared three days ago, and they’re starting to think she got kidnapped. If she was, I have a bad feeling about who’s responsible.”

Yuna, guessing based on what little she knew about them, asked, “Is it the Order of the Shining Light?”

“That’s what I’m thinking. I’m planning to go on a hunt to find her. If I leave it up to the military police, they’re going to take too long, and she’ll be dead by the time they do find her.”

“Are you going today?”

“Yes,” Kana nodded. “I’m gonna head to Chanan soon.”

Yuna was uneasy with Kana going by herself to the capital to rescue Serena, but also knew she had previously committed to going with Lena on a hunt in Reilly. “Well, um… I…”

“You don’t have to go with me,” Kana assured her. “In fact, I would prefer it if you didn’t. I don’t want you getting hurt, Yuna.”

“But these guys seem too dangerous for you to go alone.”

“I’ll be fine, Yuna.”

“But-“

“I said,” Kana firmly interrupted her. “I will be fine.”

“Okay…” Yuna then sighed, realizing she would not be able to convince Kana of otherwise. “Just don’t get hurt, okay?”

Kana paused, trying to formulate a response. She wanted to say that she could not guarantee such a thing, but knew that would only make Yuna worry about her more. “I… I’ll stay as safe as I can. Even so, I don’t know what to expect once I get into the city. I haven’t been around the Order of the Shining Light in many years, Yuna. For all I know, they could be closer than ever to achieving their goal.”

“Of resurrecting the Beast of Ramna?”

“That’s only a step in the path to their true goal,” Kana explained. “Their real goal is to bring Timnak, Lord of the Shining Light, into our realm as a living god.”

Yuna shivered with fear at such a prospect. “You mean… They want to bring back the Era of the Living Gods…?”

“Correct. The era that ended seven hundred and four years ago and saw the rest of the Lords of Light give up their physical forms to seal away the Lords of Darkness and the turncoat Timnak. They want to resurrect Timnak and usher in a new era of darkness upon not just Tamara, but the entire world. The reason they keep kidnapping and killing people is because they use the souls of those they murder to power up monsters, or in some cases, turn normal animals into monsters. Every time a monster with these souls gets killed, the soul or souls fly up into the sky to be collected by Timnak.”

Yuna gasped, “You mean-?!”

“Every time we kill a monster that shoots up a ball of light into the sky upon death,” Kana clarified. “It means the soul of a person murdered by the cult will be consumed by Timnak. They’re unable to send souls directly to him, so they rely on monster hunters chanting the Prayer to Return to Earth to do it for them. This whole time, we’ve been accidentally powering our own demise, and few, if anyone else, even knows it.”

Yuna was too stunned to speak. Silence filled the rooftop as a calm spring breeze blew around them, a few leaves flying by as the weight of Kana’s words settled in. Finally, when she found the words to say something, all she could stammer out was, “You… We… We’ve been… Why…?”

“It’s a lot to take in, I know,” Kana nodded. “I have family in the cult, and that’s why I fight against them.”

“You had family in the Order of the Shining Light?!”

“I was in fact born into it,” Kana finally admitted to her. “That’s what I’ve been holding back from you. My father was, and still is, a high-ranking member of the cult. I escaped when I was a young girl.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner, Kana?!”

“Because…” Kana then looked around her, paranoid at the thought of someone snooping in on their conversation. “If I tell the wrong person that, I’ll either be arrested by the military police or even killed. Being part of the cult is illegal, and they don’t care if you were born into it. They’ll even kill children who they find out are part of the cult. Worse still, if the cult finds out I’ve been fighting against them, they’ll try to kill me. I’m stuck in a situation where I can’t reveal my connection to the cult to others. I’m only telling you because I know you would never tell anyone else.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” Yuna assured her. She then checked a watch on her left arm and realized how late she was to meet with Lena, Sarah, Victoria, and Maxim. “Oh no, I’m gonna be late!”

“Yuna, hang on!”

“I gotta go! See you later, Kana!”

As Yuna ran to the stairs, Kana looked at her with worry in her eyes. “Yuna… Please, don’t give in. Don’t become a monster hunter.”