Vol.2 Ch.32 - 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 denizensof Bilgam. This helped quite a lot in raising their opinions on us, with ourreputation skyrocketing and surpassing our title of ‘Gang members’.Honestly speaking, I really didn’t see any tinge of anger or barbarism in ourtroops, we were more like a military force that seek to improve the quality oflife in this town more than anything else, and the grunts didn’t seem opposedto the idea of helping out either. Business was booming over at both branchesof Blue’s, with some of the citizens even offering monthly donations to keepus motivated.Things were looking up, and within just under a fourth of the year havingpassed since the war ended, we were nearing a perfect town. Ed and I got thesame feeling of needing to leave the place after getting things sorted overhere, same as we did back when we left Trivis Numerica, but we knew thistime 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 talkto about a wide variety of topics, but I’m sure we’ll get used to not seeingeach other anymore.While we're on the topic of leaving, Ed and I talked about heading to thePlural 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 lotof countries with differing cultures within arm’s reach of one another! Eachone 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 scarcelyused we of course didn’t know, but then again since they were scarcely usedwe never really had a reason to use them, either. Grammar was surprisinglyfun to learn once we got the ball rolling, and I can now read books atbasically the same speed I read in Entropic.Now that I think about it, I remember that old man who foretold my fortunesaid something along the lines of Learn Hianic and you’ll live a life full ofhappiness. I guess he was right, but then again learning the language of thecountry you wanna visit will obviously make your travels easier. I’m stillskeptical of fortunetellers…These flowery thoughts were immediately crushed as Cecily arrived at TheDepot, looking more worn down than ever before. She had some frighteningnews to deliver.“BilBros is under attack from unknown assassins! Three gang members werekilled so far, with more probably coming soon. I was sent as a messenger toseek aid from you all! Please help us!” she said before collapsing in front ofthe main gate.Of course, this raised many questions to which she was unable to reply dueto her being unconscious. She was taken to the infirmary, and an emergencygang meeting was scheduled.***“The issue on the table:” I said, explaining the situation to the gang, “Ourfriend Cecily, who is currently in the infirmary resting from exhaustion, hassuddenly warned us of a mysterious assassin who started a rampage over atBilBros. She claims three Generals were since killed, and they believe manymore casualties will soon follow. Anyone have any thoughts on the matter?” Iasked.“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 weresuffering 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 inthe future, but if we turn a blind eye, then the cycle of not helping each otherwhen we’re in need will simply continue.” I reasoned.The crowd was now fully divided, with some taking my side and other’ssiding with the idea that they got their due diligence. I asked for order beforecontinuing 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 besure 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 thisassassin has finished wiping BilBros, he won’t come for us next? In whichcase, 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 inagreement when I spoke. These grunts had bad ideas, but they certainly are anagreeable bunch. When refuted by logic, they do in fact listen, but that couldalso be because they’ve accepted me as their leader. Everyone was now onboard 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 thatwe’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 onesdown. With a Meeting Adjourned! we went to see if Cecily awoke.Entering the infirmary, we saw a sweet sight. Carter, with a tearfulexpression, was hugging Cecily, who was trying to get him off of her as shewas 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 andlistened 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…” shefurrowed her brows.“!!!” we all gasped.Those three… dead?? It’s hard to even picture them on the ground, muchless 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 themout?” 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 aidBilBros.***Entering the nostalgic, familiar gates of The Fort, we were first greeted bythe guard out the front.“You guys!” he gasped.“Will! We came to help! We heard you guys are dealing with a mysteriousassassin…” Ed spoke up.“Phah!” he laughed, “To be honest, we actually suspected one of you guyswas 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 SirLune 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 ofsheep?” he asked.“I’ve seen what they’re doing over at the other side of town. Remember thosesudden 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 tookover their gang, all on their own, and rehabilitated them. This is whyeveryone 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 herdeclaration, “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 gangmembers as we did during our first visit all those months ago. Even still, theysaw Cecily and William speaking to all of us without reserve, so they let itslide once more.We even spotted Maxwell taking some paperwork to Jorgen’s office on ourway 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 clearlystated ‘If those three are actually just planning to spy on The Blue Lions fromthe 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 andcolleagues dying, and the weight of the entire gang now rested solely on hisand Max’s shoulders. Needless to say, I think we can all surmise that Maxwasn’t pulling his weight all too much…“Actually,” Ed stepped in, “we didn’t spy on The Blue Lions. We just wantedto rehabilitate them into a peaceful community like you guys. Although it istrue 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 voicescluttering the room, so he quickly just agreed to us helping them just to geteveryone to shut up. Poor guy…Our first order of business was holding a speech to the BilBros. After wehad 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 daywithout sleeping. Even still, he said it’d be bad for the General to not attenda meeting he himself scheduled, much less if that very same meeting was thisimportant.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 withsilence, but I was used to this reaction by this point.“Listen,” I continued, “first off: as you know, Blue Lions Gang has officiallydisbanded. In it’s place lies ARA Gang, which is similar to BilBros in thatit’s constructive in nature. What you may not know, is that we’re the oneswho did that.”The crowd suddenly started chattering amongst themselves. It was a nostalgicsight, and Ed and Carter sort of giggled as they thought the same. Oncethey’ve settled down a bit, Aaron continued my speech:“Hello to all Bilgam Brothers! I am former General of Blue Lions Gang, andcurrent Vice General of ARA Gang. It is with great pleasure to inform you onbehalf of Generals Lune, Edward and Carter that we will be joining ourforces with you to hopefully catch the assassin that lingers among you.” Hesaid, 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 aconcluzhin’! N’ th’ concluzhin’ this time was y’guys were stronger! But wewanna help yah! What kinda stubborn asses dun’ accept help from others?!?”This was generally how we handled the meetings over at ARA, I would startus off with the facts, Aaron or Ed (Depending on the situation) wouldrepresent 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 thisfoolproof 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 upwith Cecily?, we were quickly situated to our beds and clocked out.Of course, clocking out now would be pointless, as that’s when the assassinstrikes the most…!***The Fort, Around 1:00AM. Everyone’s asleep, and I suspect the assassinwill most probably strike now, as he appears to kill one General everyother day… The guys and Cecily are all asleep, but I can’t let his rampagehere continue…!Although, this bed brings me way back. The comfy yet sort of man-madetexture really doesn’t hold a candle to the artificial feel of the beds over atARA. Countless nights were spent here, whether it be playing card gameswith the boys, or quality reading time with Cecily, no matter how tough theday 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 oldtime’s sake, but they were being overly serious, so they decided to go straightto bed. For he who rises early, three lucks will await him, surely! (Hianicproverb 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 herbed.I didn’t even hear her, for Gods’ sakes! C... Could the assassin have gottenher? … Nahhh! She’s way too strong for him, he’d die just standing withina 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 inreality it was probably a split second decision for me to get out of bed andlook for her. I tried my best not to wake Ed, who was sleeping in the bed nextto mine to the left. Slowly creaking open the door, I walked out to look forher.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 myhead for a split second, but I quickly slapped myself for imagining the worstfirst.“(Logically speaking, the only place I haven’t checked was the General’soffice…)” 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 makeno sense for them to be there 24/7. Who I did find, though, was a familiarlycloaked 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…)” Shescrambled for a believable answer.Listen, I hated Leonard as much as the next guy, but even I wouldn’t goTHAT 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 thatassassin. I’m just psyched you guys did your part of the plan so well, so Ican’t wait to lead ARA in it’s fullest potential, now with both teams fightingtogether!)”“(I see, but you know it’s dangerous, right? What if he attacked you and youdidn’t have anyone to back you up? I don’t wanna lose you.)” I said, notexactly 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 knowhave died to the hands of this mystery assassin! I don’t want to see your faceor name on an obituary! Or God forbid I woke up tomorrow to see you on thefloor dead…”Imagining this scary sight made me tear up, and I honestly couldn’t think of areason as to why she was being so reckless. She noticed me tearing up, soshe slowly and quietly started comforting me.“Thanks. I didn’t know you cared for me this much…” she said. “But I’m justas worried for your guys’ sakes as you are for mine. I need to get rid of thispest 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!” Isaid, 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 aswell! B-but… this is the only way.”“Cecily… Ed and I are planning to leave Great Hiana after this issue isresolved.” 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 bythe pale moonlight emanating from the window. Her expression quickly wentfrom looking burdened to sighing in relief. She smiled honestly beforeaccepting the offer.... It was only then that we realized we were still in each other’s embrace, sowe 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 honestlyabout the things we found interesting. I won’t bore you with the details, as itwas mostly related to books. She started reading Schnell’s handbook, sothat’s nice!Before we realized it, we had spent the entire night talking, with both of usgrowing more and more sleepy.………………………………………………………..“Well, would ya’ look at that!” a cheerful voice rang out as the birds chirpedthe 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 voiceanswered back.…….Wait, that was Jorgen’s voice just now.Gently rubbing my eyes as I opened them, I noticed Cecily’s sleeping facenext to mine. Our faces were dangerously close to one another. I hastily gotup before noticing the two Generals barely holding in their laughter.Cecily heard them, and promptly woke up herself. She looked at me for asplit 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 giveus a funny look whenever we were together.