2.14: TBL + BBG = ARA

The days after ARA got created were filled with new, pleasant experiences. We slowly started branching out from our base, helping out the local denizens of Bilgam. This helped quite a lot in raising their opinions on us, with our reputation skyrocketing and surpassing our title of ‘Gang members’.

Honestly speaking, I really didn’t see any tinge of anger or barbarism in our troops, we were more like a military force that seek to improve the quality of life in this town more than anything else, and the grunts didn’t seem opposed to the idea of helping out either. Business was booming over at both branches of Blue’s, with some of the citizens even offering monthly donations to keep us motivated.

Things were looking up, and within just under a fourth of the year having passed since the war ended, we were nearing a perfect town. Ed and I got the same feeling of needing to leave the place after getting things sorted over here, same as we did back when we left Trivis Numerica, but we knew this time was different. We knew that it’d get lonely, but that’s just part of the job. Ed and Carter clicked the moment they met, and Cecily is always fun to talk to about a wide variety of topics, but I’m sure we’ll get used to not seeing each other anymore.

While we're on the topic of leaving, Ed and I talked about heading to the Plural Divide next. It’s this huge area, similar to Trivis Numerica in size (according to the map), but it’s name gives away it’s main point. It has a lot of countries with differing cultures within arm’s reach of one another! Each one having different cultures, cuisines and… languages.

Speaking of languages, Ed and I were basically fluent in Hianic at this point. Well, at least when compared to tourists. Some words that were scarcely used we of course didn’t know, but then again since they were scarcely used we never really had a reason to use them, either. Grammar was surprisingly fun to learn once we got the ball rolling, and I can now read books at basically the same speed I read in Entropic.

Now that I think about it, I remember that old man who foretold my fortune said something along the lines of Learn Hianic and you’ll live a life full of happiness. I guess he was right, but then again learning the language of the country you wanna visit will obviously make your travels easier. I’m still skeptical of fortunetellers…

These flowery thoughts were immediately crushed as Cecily arrived at The Depot, looking more worn down than ever before. She had some frightening news to deliver.

“BilBros is under attack from unknown assassins! Three gang members were killed so far, with more probably coming soon. I was sent as a messenger to seek aid from you all! Please help us!” she said before collapsing in front of the main gate.

Of course, this raised many questions to which she was unable to reply due to her being unconscious. She was taken to the infirmary, and an emergency gang meeting was scheduled.

***

“The issue on the table:” I said, explaining the situation to the gang, “Our friend Cecily, who is currently in the infirmary resting from exhaustion, has suddenly warned us of a mysterious assassin who started a rampage over at BilBros. She claims three Generals were since killed, and they believe many more casualties will soon follow. Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?” I asked.

“Excuse me?” A grunt raised his hand, “Where is General Carter?” he asked.

“General Carter and Cecily are siblings, he was worried about her condition, so he is currently watching over her in the infirmary. Next question?”

One grunt raised his hand. “Let all those BilBros scum die! When we were suffering from hypothermia and food shortage back during the winter time, they did the same to us!” He voiced his complaints.

“I understand. But I believe helping them would in fact be the better option. Think of it this way: If we help them, they’ll be more inclined to help us in the future, but if we turn a blind eye, then the cycle of not helping each other when we’re in need will simply continue.” I reasoned.

The crowd was now fully divided, with some taking my side and other’s siding with the idea that they got their due diligence. I asked for order before continuing with the suggestion requests.

“Any other bright ideas?” I asked sarcastically.

“Yes.” another man raised his hand ” If we do help them, how can you be sure that this mystery assassin won’t bring harm to any of our men?”

“Simple,” I answered back, “by that logic, how can you be sure that after this assassin has finished wiping BilBros, he won’t come for us next? In which case, we won’t have them to back us up now, will we?”

He seemed to grumble at my logical retort, and Ed all but shook his head in agreement when I spoke. These grunts had bad ideas, but they certainly are an agreeable bunch. When refuted by logic, they do in fact listen, but that could also be because they’ve accepted me as their leader. Everyone was now on board with helping out BilBros.

“Alright,” I finished my speech off, “so the plan is: When Cecily wakes up, our scouts will head off with her to The Fort, where we will explain that we’re here to help, and hopefully catch the assassin without any casualties, from both sides.”

I emphasized the From both sides bit to hopefully calm the unsettled ones down. With a Meeting Adjourned! we went to see if Cecily awoke.

Entering the infirmary, we saw a sweet sight. Carter, with a tearful expression, was hugging Cecily, who was trying to get him off of her as she was busy calming him down.

“Calm down, Lil’ Bro! I’m fine, I really am!” she smiled.

When they noticed we were watching them, Carter got a bit more calm and listened to our report.

“How’d th’ gang take our suggeschin’?” he asked.

“Better than we expected.” I explained, “Cecily, how are you feeling?”

“Like I said, I’m fine. But Quinn, Leonard and Julian were all slain…” she furrowed her brows.

“!!!” we all gasped.

Those three… dead?? It’s hard to even picture them on the ground, much less lying there dead. This meant we were left with Maxwell and Jorgen, but if we don’t hurry to their aid, they might fall as well…

“Cecily, once you’re all rested up, would you come with us to help them out?” Ed asked.

“Of course! I’m ready even now!” she said as she got up from the bed.

With that, Cecily, Ed, Aaron and I all got ready and headed out to aid BilBros.

***

Entering the nostalgic, familiar gates of The Fort, we were first greeted by the guard out the front.

“You guys!” he gasped.

“Will! We came to help! We heard you guys are dealing with a mysterious assassin…” Ed spoke up.

“Phah!” he laughed, “To be honest, we actually suspected one of you guys was the assassin.”

“Will… You of all people should know what Carter said was all a lie, right?” Ed pleaded.

“It’s hard to say, Edward, you have to understand that both Sir Carter and Sir Lune admitted to committing those war crimes.”

“But I’m admitting to you now that they were lying.” Cecily stepped in.

“Cecily? How can you be sure that you’re not bringing wolves into a herd of sheep?” he asked.

“I’ve seen what they’re doing over at the other side of town. Remember those sudden letters of apology addressed to General Jorgen by The Blue Lions, and their disbandment? Well, they didn’t disband.” She exclaimed.

“What?!” He raised his voice in shock.

“No,” she continued her explanation, “this was all because these three took over their gang, all on their own, and rehabilitated them. This is why everyone in town has suddenly raised their opinions about this ‘ARA Gang’ recently.”

“If you’re not willing to accept help from Blue Lions,” I added onto her declaration, “then how about accepting help from ARA Gang?”

He laughed a bit, before giving Ed a big ol’ hug and letting us enter. Again, as we walked to the General’s office, we got the same looks from the gang members as we did during our first visit all those months ago. Even still, they saw Cecily and William speaking to all of us without reserve, so they let it slide once more.

We even spotted Maxwell taking some paperwork to Jorgen’s office on our way there, so we walked with him all the way there.

“Jorgen!” Maxwell yelled out, “You owe me a gold coin, jackass!”

“What?” a disheveled Jorgen answered back weakly.

“Remember that bet we made back when these three got kicked out? I clearly stated ‘If those three are actually just planning to spy on The Blue Lions from the inside, you owe me a gold coin!’ and I also remember you saying ‘Bet.’ So cough it up!” he smugly explained his grand moneymaking plan.

Jorgen didn’t seem all too pleased by his colleague’s laid back attitude, however. Then again, he was dealing with three of his close friends and colleagues dying, and the weight of the entire gang now rested solely on his and Max’s shoulders. Needless to say, I think we can all surmise that Max wasn’t pulling his weight all too much…

“Actually,” Ed stepped in, “we didn’t spy on The Blue Lions. We just wanted to rehabilitate them into a peaceful community like you guys. Although it is true that we didn’t commit those war crimes. Cecily can vouch for us.”

Jorgen’s head looked like it was about to burst with all the annoying voices cluttering the room, so he quickly just agreed to us helping them just to get everyone to shut up. Poor guy…

Our first order of business was holding a speech to the BilBros. After we had Jorgen call up an emergency meeting, I suggested he goes to rest for a bit, as his eyes had bags under them, indicating he was probably on his third day without sleeping. Even still, he said it’d be bad for the General to not attend a meeting he himself scheduled, much less if that very same meeting was this important.

As such, with sleepy eyes he stood next to Max as I myself began the speech.

“Hello again, fellow members!” I said with a smile. That smile was met with silence, but I was used to this reaction by this point.

“Listen,” I continued, “first off: as you know, Blue Lions Gang has officially disbanded. In it’s place lies ARA Gang, which is similar to BilBros in that it’s constructive in nature. What you may not know, is that we’re the ones who did that.”

The crowd suddenly started chattering amongst themselves. It was a nostalgic sight, and Ed and Carter sort of giggled as they thought the same. Once they’ve settled down a bit, Aaron continued my speech:

“Hello to all Bilgam Brothers! I am former General of Blue Lions Gang, and current Vice General of ARA Gang. It is with great pleasure to inform you on behalf of Generals Lune, Edward and Carter that we will be joining our forces with you to hopefully catch the assassin that lingers among you.” He said, as a matter of fact.

“We literally just waged a war a couple months ago.” One man stood up.

“Ah shut up!” Carter raised his voice, “We fight in wars to come to a concluzhin’! N’ th’ concluzhin’ this time was y’guys were stronger! But we wanna help yah! What kinda stubborn asses dun’ accept help from others?!?”

This was generally how we handled the meetings over at ARA, I would start us off with the facts, Aaron or Ed (Depending on the situation) would represent the good cop, and Carter would hit ‘em full force with the (verbal) beat down! This seemed to work for now, so we had no need to change this foolproof strategy in public speaking.

With the meeting having been settled after a couple more mundane questions, like Will we be sharing our resources with ARA? and Did you guys make up with Cecily?, we were quickly situated to our beds and clocked out.

Of course, clocking out now would be pointless, as that’s when the assassin strikes the most…!

***

The Fort, Around 1:00AM. Everyone’s asleep, and I suspect the assassin will most probably strike now, as he appears to kill one General every other day… The guys and Cecily are all asleep, but I can’t let his rampage here continue…!

Although, this bed brings me way back. The comfy yet sort of man-made texture really doesn’t hold a candle to the artificial feel of the beds over at ARA. Countless nights were spent here, whether it be playing card games with the boys, or quality reading time with Cecily, no matter how tough the day was, I could always look forward to laying back in this place.

Speaking of those three, I wanted to play another round of Black Jack for old time’s sake, but they were being overly serious, so they decided to go straight to bed. For he who rises early, three lucks will await him, surely! (Hianic proverb I picked up and happen to frequently use)

Well, no matter. When the bros aren’t there, I can always count on Ceci…ly.

“(Where the hell did she go?)” I whispered after noticing she wasn’t in her bed.

I didn’t even hear her, for Gods’ sakes! C... Could the assassin have gotten her? … Nahhh! She’s way too strong for him, he’d die just standing within a 5m radius from her! But then again… Those Generals were also strong…

This internal back and forth went on for what felt like an eternity, but in reality it was probably a split second decision for me to get out of bed and look for her. I tried my best not to wake Ed, who was sleeping in the bed next to mine to the left. Slowly creaking open the door, I walked out to look for her.

Checking the library, the gym, the dining hall, heck, even the local walkways! But she was nowhere to be found. “She’s dead” the thought popped into my head for a split second, but I quickly slapped myself for imagining the worst first.

“(Logically speaking, the only place I haven’t checked was the General’s office…)” I reasoned, steeling my resolve and heading into said quarters.

Inside I was expecting to see Jorgen or Max at least, but then again it’d make no sense for them to be there 24/7. Who I did find, though, was a familiarly cloaked individual who hid a knife on her thigh strap.

“(Cecily? What are you doing here?)” I asked.

“(Lune…! I was uuh, looking for a place to uhh, water some flowers…)” She scrambled for a believable answer.

Listen, I hated Leonard as much as the next guy, but even I wouldn’t go THAT far… Plus, the rest rooms are on the other side of the base.

“(Why are you really here?)” I asked again.

“(Sigh, ya’ got me.)” she said, “(I’m patrolling to hopefully catch that assassin. I’m just psyched you guys did your part of the plan so well, so I can’t wait to lead ARA in it’s fullest potential, now with both teams fighting together!)”

“(I see, but you know it’s dangerous, right? What if he attacked you and you didn’t have anyone to back you up? I don’t wanna lose you.)” I said, not exactly paying attention to my phrasing.

“(Don’t worry! I’ll be fine no matter what.)” she tried reassuring me.

“No!” I raised my voice, “Nothing is fine! Three of the strongest men I know have died to the hands of this mystery assassin! I don’t want to see your face or name on an obituary! Or God forbid I woke up tomorrow to see you on the floor dead…”

Imagining this scary sight made me tear up, and I honestly couldn’t think of a reason as to why she was being so reckless. She noticed me tearing up, so she slowly and quietly started comforting me.

“Thanks. I didn’t know you cared for me this much…” she said. “But I’m just as worried for your guys’ sakes as you are for mine. I need to get rid of this pest as soon as possible.”

She reached out to pat my shoulder, but I dodged her and gave her a hug.

“We’re… a team, aren’t we? We need to solve all these issues… together!” I said, stopping mid-sentence to sob.

She’s probably feeling awkward right now, having to see this side of me. Can’t wait for her to make fun of me with the wingmen tomorro-…

“…!!” She suddenly reciprocated my hug with her own.

“I…” tears slowly welled up from her eyes, “I wish things were different as well! B-but… this is the only way.”

“Cecily… Ed and I are planning to leave Great Hiana after this issue is resolved.” I told her our plans for the future.

“Lune… I see. It’ll get lonely, but it was fun…” She donned a fake smile.

“You misunderstand me, I want you and Carter to join us on our travels.”

She looked at me straight in the eyes as I said that, her face being reflected by the pale moonlight emanating from the window. Her expression quickly went from looking burdened to sighing in relief. She smiled honestly before accepting the offer.

... It was only then that we realized we were still in each other’s embrace, so we quickly stopped that. Things were progressing a bit too quickly for me…

After that, we sat down to catch up on our chats, this time speaking honestly about the things we found interesting. I won’t bore you with the details, as it was mostly related to books. She started reading Schnell’s handbook, so that’s nice!

Before we realized it, we had spent the entire night talking, with both of us growing more and more sleepy.

…………………

…………………………

…………..

“Well, would ya’ look at that!” a cheerful voice rang out as the birds chirped the morning’s song.

“Max! Don’t wake them up, I don’t know what they were doing in my office, but it’s rude to interrupt the young ones.” A more adult-sounding voice answered back.

…….Wait, that was Jorgen’s voice just now.

Gently rubbing my eyes as I opened them, I noticed Cecily’s sleeping face next to mine. Our faces were dangerously close to one another. I hastily got up before noticing the two Generals barely holding in their laughter.

Cecily heard them, and promptly woke up herself. She looked at me for a split second and touched her lips before blushing uncontrollably.

“W-What happened last night... Don’t tell anybody!” she blurted out.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT?!?!?

The Generals, as a show of respect, kept the secret, but since then they’d give us a funny look whenever we were together.