The Kind Man

Lothar Golden
Aria's world
8:37 PM

The trip to Lothar Golden took about an hour but again checking the pocket watch that I had taken from the party I see the clocks were lying. The center of the city was very difficult to describe because the place did remember seeing a city from the nineteenth century, but there were a lot of things that were relatively new that were not at that time, but its design still seemed to go with the theme of the place. For example, there were expander machines in the streets, but these looked more like a large display cabinet with a cash register. Everything is full of advertisements and signs with lights, with old light bulbs that were turned on or off to appear movement, but in a depressing way, the buildings were so huge that could not see the sky, but despite how beautiful its architecture was, everywhere there were tubes without any order that worsened the view. Despite the large number of bulb lights that were on the bulletin boards, inside houses or buildings you could see that they also used candles just as frequently. There were also so many cars on the road that there were even traffic jams in some parts due to traffic lights, but there were also quite a few horse-powered carriages and other strangers powered by engines where animals would normally be, there was also even an air train, which looked new and old at the same time.

But no matter how many technologies of the future were here, the atmosphere of the place did not change, everything was depressing, most of the well-dressed people looked like zombies than humans. The men all looked the same, dressed in elegant suits either with vests as a father, or others with everything and a jacket and hat. Women on the other hand were due in two categories, maids or ladies, they were always together, one always behind the other. Even so, all the people around here looked very tired or unsympathetic. It was as if none of the wonders they had around them mattered in the least. It seemed that the only exemptions to this were me and my father. It was like watching a funeral procession all over town. Trying to break the monotonous environment we were in, I started talking to my father about how he got here.

"Now you are going to tell me why the change of face?"
"Does it have something to do with what is happening or did you see it in a fashion show?"

"They only advised me that maybe I should look a little different when I was here."
"So I decided to try to look a little younger than I did."
"Do I really look so different?" He said while wearing a smile on his face

I knew that smile very well, he only used it when he had made a mistake and tried to hide it. I knew there was a second reason why and he didn't want to tell me. so I started to think about why it would have required him to change his appearance in such a drastic way and at the same time try to hide the reason. So I thought the only thing he had done it for was so that someone would not recognize him, but it wasn't me, because he had to talk to me, it must be someone else, someone he knew. Maybe someone in the family?

"Who are you hiding from?"
"Are you afraid to talk to mom?"
"No, it's not that because you already talked to her"
"Is Maria?"
"Don't you want her to see you? I asked him while he kept looking at the city that surrounded us"

"WHAT?"
"What are you talking about?" my father replied so surprisedly that he almost made us crash.

"It's her?"
"Why do not you want me to see you?"

"What do you want me to say to her?"
"Maybe the one that I'm already dead"
"She doesn't have to know that I'm here"
"That would only make her suffer more"
"She has already been through too much to torment her about my death and to think that it was really her fault"

"And yet, even so, you went to talk to Adelis even when she was talking to Tamamo!?" I reproached him for the hypocritical of his actions

"She is different, she is a strong person"
"In the future, when I remember all this, I will only say how stupid I was for not inviting her to walk in the park and I will continue with her life smiling"
"Since I died, I just wanted to be with her for at least a few more minutes, that was all"
"Besides, she, like almost everything there, thinks that this is all just a strange and long dream"
"By tomorrow afternoon they have probably forgotten they were ever here" He spoke with a nostalgic face remembering seeing his family again despite the strange circumstances.

"Still I think you should talk to Maria."
"She also deserves to talk to her father for at least a few moments"
"Do you think it has not been hard for her too?"
"Years have passed since she last saw you, she needs to know that her father still loves her even from the other side"
"Besides, she has also been through a lot, learned a lot and matured a lot"
"Hell, even she seems to be more serious than me about what to do with her life"
"At least let her enjoy tonight one last moment with you"
"After all, there was one thing to do with nights like this"
"To make memories that will last forever, right?"

My father did not answer me, he had a thoughtful face, he was analyzing the possible reactions that would occur depending on what he did. There was only a very uncomfortable silence, so I thought about putting another topic to talk about, one that interested me much more.

"How did you end up here?"
"The last thing they told me is that you lost a couple of bets and that you had to do this "business trip"

"Well several days ago someone came to the house for another poker game, it was someone I knew, so I accepted as usual."
"But things started to go wrong because I started to lose like never before in my life."
"It was the best series of bad luck I've ever had."
"I couldn't do anything against him."
"When I lost the house I was completely desperate."
"So I asked him for a chance to get it back"

"Wait a fucking second!"
"You lost my house on a poker bet !?"
"Give me a damn reason not to kill you right now!"

"He accepted!"
"He will give me the house back when we finish this mission!"
"He asked me to speak to the Celestial Security department, as they needed me for all this."
"I couldn't say no, obviously"
"What I did not know is that they would send me to this world only with these clothes that I have on"
"They asked me to get you to infiltrate that mansion, a gun for you, and a vehicle to escape in case everything goes wrong."
"I have had to be playing poker non-stop since yesterday to be able to achieve all this"
"You see everything is fine, I already did my part"

"And why do I have to participate in this shit because of something you caused?"

"Well, the angels just told me you had to see it, so I think they have their reasons."
"I'm just doing what they tell me."
"When this is over I'm going to put all of this behind me and pretend it never happened."

"Do you mean that even after this you will continue betting?" but I wasn't done talking when something happened.

My father couldn't believe what he just saw, he had the biggest surprised face I've ever seen. They just killed a person in the heart of the city, but nobody seemed to care, everyone kept walking towards their destinations with total normality. For my part, despite my contempt for that horrible act, I was no one better to talk about it. Because on a couple of occasions I was forced to do something similar during the war against the dragons. By orders of both Rose and even Nanami in person asked me, I had to protect her from any threat. But despite her being from the royal family of Atlantis that did not mean that she was loved by everyone. More than once the parents, furious at what Nanami's father had done to them, tried to hurt her every now and then when she appeared in public. But due to the extreme of the situation, we could not risk in the least that Nanami would be harmed in the least. According to my companions of the dark cloaks, the security agents of the imperial family of Atlantis, after the first time something like this is done, the following ones were easier. And although at first, I disagreed with that, over time I realized that having it solved a lot of problems in the long run, unfortunately. The only thing I can do now is simply trying to do my best every time I pick up a gun and try to make the decisions that I think are right and stand up for the results they give, be they bad or good.

"Was it hard for you what happened in Atlantis?" suddenly asked my father
You weren't surprised or angry about what just happened
This is not the first time you see this right?

"Where does that question come from?"

"Well, after I died I had a lot of free time and borrowed some information"
"I wanted to know what they did with their lives now that I could know"
"But I never thought you had such an interesting life by far"
"You ended up in such a difficult situation"
"And hide it so well for so long"
"Although the fact that it all seemed like a dream, in the end, must have helped you a little"
"Those who were left alive at the end of it really think it never happened"
"But you kept it"
"All this time"
"And still you kept acting as no big deal happened"
"But at times like this is where it can be noticed that you are not like the others"
"Your eyes don't lie, you've seen and acted that way before, right?"
"Don't you want to talk about it?"

"I only did what it took to win" I replied, a little sad to remember a little what I had become with the passage of the war
"Nothing more and nothing less"
"I only fulfilled the will of those who died trying to defend against the dragons"
"I just did what any of them would have done and ask that this whole nightmare never happened in the first place"

"It is thanks to you that the world, despite what has happened, is still a pleasant place to live."
"Even despite the continental war, it is thanks to what you did that humanity can still walk the earth and smile, ignoring the horrible fate that originally awaited them and that you managed to avoid."
"So no matter how much you have changed to who you were originally if you are still that person, you do not have to be afraid to think that you can lose yourself"
"You are someone who does the right thing in moments where the true self is shown, during moments of life or death do the best possible for others"
"You are not afraid to get your hands dirty to save the innocent" My father said putting his hand on my shoulder as a sign of confidence
"In five minutes we will reach our destination"
"When we get there, you're going to do what you do best"
"And when you finish you will feel proud that you did the right thing."
"You will see that despite everything you will continue to be the Cesar who does everything possible to help others"
"After this, we will return home and laugh remembering what happened tonight"

But what neither of us thought was the sheer amount of trouble we'd get into trying to save the innocent. My life not only changed again but even my whole family would be affected for better and for worse by the repercussions of the decisions I would make.