Vol.2 Ch.38 - To get backstabbed

How long has it been since we last rode a transport wagon, I wonder?Well, the last one was when we just entered Bilgam, so thinking about it, itshould be around about a year ago? Back then, we were worried wewouldn’t make it in time to check into the ITA, oh how simpler life wasback then…As I pondered these thoughts by myself, I would sometimes mention them toEd, who was seated adjacent to me. Cecily was sleeping peacefully as sheleaned her head on my shoulder. We had the guys over at ARA temporarilybabysit Nelly, so both Cecily and I are appreciating the peace and quiet ofnot having a baby screaming in your ear all the time. Ed was still a bit underthe weather, frequently making comments about how quiet it’s gotten now thatCarter’s not with us, but apart from that he seems to be recovering fairlywell. Next to him sat Aaron and Max, with Jorgen sitting right next to me.The wagon was pretty snug, overall.None of us really like the idea of heading straight into enemy territory, sincethere’s a high chance of them ambushing us, so all of us (including theGenerals) decided to bring our weapons with us on the journey just in case.We have the papers for carrying them, as Max, Jorgen and I are all licensedswordsmen, and we can lie about Ed’s and Cecily’s weapons, feigningthey’re ours instead.The best case scenario of this whole ordeal would be for us to make it to thesecond capital of Great Hiana, Melgam, safely and for the negotiations to goas planned. This means the peace treaty between the two gangs will besigned and must be fair for both sides, and there will be no hard feelingsafter we split the royalties of upholding a gang. Of course, we will bedeparting from Great Hiana soon after, so there’s that to look forward to aswell…Optimally, I’d want to move to the next place with Ed, Cecily and Nellysoon. This little happy family of ours will be written down in history afterwe’ve made our rounds in every country of the world! We’ll be like Schnell,or heck, even better! We have the funds for a secure trip to at least ten morecountries, and by the time we’re done with them, we’ll have probablyamassed enough for the next ten countries from the Gang’s royalties.“Okay, folks!” the wagon driver said, “You’ve arrived at Melgam, enjoy yourvisit here! It’s quite the spectacular place, after all!”He praised the second capital some more as we left the wagon and made ourway to an inn to leave our stuff behind. Wouldn’t want to have to sign thetreaty with luggage in tow now, would we?“Hey,” Cecily rounded all of us up as we got settled into our rooms, “thenegotiations are scheduled for tomorrow, right?” She said. “Since we havethe time, let’s just walk around and see just how spectacular this place reallyis!”We all agreed to this lighthearted suggestion of hers, as we all sort of neededa change of pace. The town awaited us, and none of us were known for beingpatient!***Walking around Melgam had a similar aura to walking around in Bilgam. Infact, the resemblance was scary at some places! We heard from the wagondriver on our way there that these two cities represented The Two Sides ofGood and Evil, and we’re built with that theme in mind. When Aaron askedabout which city represented good and which represented evil, though, thedriver simply said "The point of making these cities as two sides of thesame coin is for the people to understand that both are important, and onecannot exist without the other. Which side is which is irrelevant." Nowonder your country’s littered with gang wars!Some of the areas were made to be the exact same to a T, while other’sdiverged from Bilgam’s blueprints. Either way, we decided to check out thelocal ITA Agency, as I needed to check in, plus it’s a good way to gatherinformation on Neo Urbana.“Hello!” I said with a chipper tone, “I’m Lune Grimheart, and this here is myfriend and travel buddy, Edward Saint! We’d like to check in, as perprotocol.”The ITA Agent looked at how young we were, but decided not to sayanything, as we were at least old enough to be taken seriously this time. Helooked through some papers before opening his eyes wide and murmuringsomething.“That woman over there, yes you!” He called out to Cecily, “Come here for asecond, I need to inquire about something…”We were quite surprised by this turn of events, Cecily had no affiliationswith the ITA, so we thought maybe they might send her back to Bilgam ifsomething was amiss. The ITA Agent simply told her not to worry and askedher one question.“Are you, perhaps, Cecily?” he asked.“Indeed I am, sir.” She said hesitantly.“I see. Well then, I apologize for frightening you, I just noticed you tworecently had a child together and wanted to congratulate you. Oh, and it’s notmy place to say this, but please try to keep it in moderation from now on, Mr.Grimheart. You two are still quite young, after all.” He chuckled.Every single one of the Generals burst out laughing from the Agent’s advice,Cecily’s head was steaming from her blushing, but I was focused on one thingand one thing only…He called me Mr. Grimheart…!“Uhh, n-no, actually umm, Nelly is our child, but…” Cecily tried correctinghim, “L-Lune, w-would you mind helping out…?”“Huh? Oh, uhh, yeah, Nelly’s our precious child! Why would we keep it (ouraffection towards her) in moderation?” I said, misunderstanding an importantdetail.At this point the Generals we’re rolling on the floor from laughing at mydeclaration, whilst the Agent was at a loss for words.“I-I see, w-well that’s youth for you…” He lightly blushed.“LUNE!” Cecily screamed out, “The heck are you saying!?! W-We haven’t…(done it yet…)”She murmured the final part, so no one heard it, but I could tell Imisunderstood something, I was just at a loss as to what that something was.I turned to the Generals to see if they had any idea, but they just looked at usand said That’s between the two of you! Before bursting out into a fit oflaughter once again.Needless to say, Cecily was a bit mad at me for the duration of our little tourof Melgam. But I digress, as our next stop was a little coffee shop, whichwas a sight for sore eyes to the Generals, but a novel one for Ed, Cecily andme.Indeed, we have yet to try out a cup of coffee even once during our lifetime,which is a shame, as I heard it’s really good for if you want to stay awake.I’ve been told by Cecily that I doze off quite often in the middle of our bookreview talks, so I’ve been meaning to dip my feet into it (figuratively, notliterally. That’s just disgusting).The waiter asked us about our order. Max and Aaron both asked for anEspresso, Jorgen simply decided to go with their finest tea, Ed and I chosethe Latte, while Cecily…“I’ll take a Black Coffee!” She stated proudly.The Generals gave her a worried look, warning her of the bitterness of aBlack Coffee. She refuted by saying It’s what adults order!And with that, we were served our drinks as we talked about all sorts offascinating things about the city we were in.“What was your favorite part of the trip, so far?” I asked the gang.“Lune, this isn’t a trip, we’re here to sign the peace treaty and leave, nothingmore.” Said Jorgen with a serious tone.“Oh, boo-hoo!” Max mocked him, “Looks like someone doesn’t like the teahere!”“The tea?” I asked.“Mhm! Jorgen always gets this grumpy when the tea isn’t up to hisstandards.” Max explained, with Jorgen slowly getting embarrassed as hetells him to shut up.“I liked the theme of this place.” Aaron voiced his opinion, “The idea of amirrored town is quite interesting, I’ve never seen anything like it before.”We agreed with him fully, but then discussed how that’s probably the reasonwhy there’s so much turmoil in the country.“When we get shared ownership of Great Hiana, let’s try and make this placea bit less similar.” I suggested, “It could possibly solve that issue.”“Yeah,” Ed added, “but in doing so, wouldn’t you inadvertently make thisplace less unique, thus hurting it’s tourist economy?”Fair point… I guess it isn’t as simple to reform a country as it was toreform a gang…Max was getting antsy as he waited for his turn, before just spouting out “Idunno why you guys are avoiding it, but I think we all know that the ITAAgent telling these two to slow down was the objective peak of this wholetrip!”Again, the Generals giggled at that one, with Ed trying very hard to not laugh,even going so far as to bite his lip. Cecily promptly choked on her bittercoffee before starting to reprimand their idiocy. She was really strugglingwith that Black Coffee after all, so I offered to switch mine with hers.“Really? You’d do that? Be careful though, it’s really bitter.” She warned meof the dangers of Black Coffee.As soon as I started sipping the coffee, though, Ed suddenly whisperedIndirect Kiss into my ears.I spit the coffee out myself (the waiter wasn’t happy).***We had since clocked out in the inn, and awoke feeling more refreshed thanever before. We were in perfect condition to attend the negotiations, and withperfect timing, too! It appears we had gotten a letter addressed to us sent tothe inn’s mailbox by none other than the Neo Urbana General Liebert.In the letter he specified the time of the meeting, as well as where it’ll beheld. He was light on the details, but we understood that it’s probablybecause he intends to tell us everything once we make it there.We got dressed in our most formal wear and headed out to their base. It wasa large, castle-like structure that sort of reminded me of the ITA base over atLeins. It had the same obstacle course, with the walls even having a similarfeel to them. Entering it proved to be quite the surprise in and of itself, aswhat greeted us inside was a ballroom. A band of musicians played abeautiful, slow jam and the lights were quite dimmed to add to theatmosphere. Not at all what we expected from this encounter…A man holding two wine glasses in his hand greeted us with a friendly smile.“Hello and welcome, dear Generals of ARA Gang! I am General Liebert ofNeo Urbana and as you can see, the signing will be held at the end of theparty we prepared for you!” He said, handing me a glass, “This is amomentous occasion, so be sure to make the most of it!”We we’re still at a loss for words upon seeing this spectacle unfold in frontof our very eyes, but then quickly realized that the people present here are allmembers of high social ranking, more or less. Kings, Queens, Princes andPrincesses of the neighboring nations all danced around together andsocialized as they drank from one bottle to the next. We decided to split upand make some connections ourselves, as it would surely prove useful to usin the future.“Ah, excuse me, I’ve seen you before!” I said to a familiar looking face. “I’msorry for my impudence, but could you perchance be Adam, the prince of theGrys Royal Family?”He looked at me before sighing in relief and saying “Why yes, I am! Thankyou for reaching out to me, everyone here seems like they’re quite afraid toeven talk to a person of such a high ranking as me.”He seems pleasant enough to me, I thought as I continued the conversation,“I’m Lune Grimheart, it’s an honor to meet your acquaintance, sir! I am thecurrent General of the ARA Gang over at Bilgam.”“A Gang?” He said with a smile, “Sounds like fun! Would you mind regalingme with some of your stories from there?”“With pleasure!” I shot back with a smile of my own as I explained to him myentire story from around the point where Ed and I reached Bilgam.“Amazing! But to think you’d lose a friend at such a tender age… You havemy sincerest condolences.” He lowered his voice to accentuate the truthbehind his statement.“Ah, thank you very much. He was a good man, but thanks to him a young girlwas allowed to live her life, and even in his last moments, he didn’t once sayhe regretted his actions, so I believe it’s alright.” I answered back.Adam wasn’t that much older than me, he was around the Generals’ agerange. From our conversations I realized he was born in 999AD, making him5 years my elder. Even still, we clicked immediately, as we were both honestfolks.“But if you’re a traveler,” Adam stopped to ask, “does that mean you plan totravel more countries soon?”“Not just more countries,” I answered back, “but every country! The plan isto document my time in every single country, and later publishing it for theworld to see.”“Like Schnell’s Handbook?” He inquired.Did I just meet a fellow fan?“Yes! Exactly! Have you read it?” I could barely hold in my excitement as Iasked him.“Oh, no.” He said as he waved his hands as if banishing the thought, “Thegenre of his book isn’t something I’m too interested in. I’m sure you canguess from my Iro, but I’m quite fond of Inventing, so technical books aremore up my alley.”I was a bit bummed, but I still latched onto his comment by mentioning thetechnical books I’ve read. He seemed even more stoked to hear me out.“Oooh! You’ve read J. Morris’ Book of Technicality? I quite enjoyed thatone! But when it comes to geniuses, one could never forget The ArtisticGenius from Abyssus Solis.” He said.“And who would that be?” I awaited his answer earnestly.“Why it would be none other than Meil D.!” he said as he continued, “Thisboy singlehandedly not only presented, but also proved the idea that aBeholder’s Iro contains certain perks. I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard ofthis one, it sounds quite crazy, doesn’t it?”“Oh, I’ve heard of that one! It’s something I can back up with-” I almostpresented my Spark party trick before remembering what happened the lasttime I used it. I burned down a house, ultimately leading Carter into hisown death…I quietly tucked my hand back into my pocket, leaving Adam confused at myabrupt stop in momentum.“Well, then, Lune Grimheart,” He stopped to shake my hand before leaving,“if-no, when you reach Cardina, be sure to pay us Gryses a visit, wouldyou?”“Of course, sir!” I said as I shook his hand, “Oh, I'll check out some of thatMeil fellow's books, as long as you at least give Schnell's handbook a try!”"I'll take you up on that offer, but I'm also holding you to that promise, okay?"He answered back with content in his eyes. "The next time we meet, I'd liketo discuss our experiences with these books in full!""Same here!" I let go of his hand, "Until we meet again!"“Ladies and Gentlemen!” The Neo Urbana General suddenly started speakingout to the crowd, as if making a toast. “Are you having fun?” he asked.The crowd cheered back at him in response.“Good!” he said before continuing his speech, “As you know, currentlypresent in this party are all the Generals of the newly formed ARA Gang.They have come here in hopes of us signing a peace treaty with them…”I don’t like where this is going…“…But I thought:” he continued, “Why do so and have only half of thecountry when I can just kill them all and forcefully take the entirecountry!”As he uttered these horrible words, half of the people attending pulled outtheir weapons and aimed them against us. The other half was in fact the realdeal, so they were quite frightened about the whole situation, but theyheartlessly stepped aside when that bastard General promised them safety ifthey just remain neutral. Since our entire team was separated into differentparts of the room, we couldn’t defend ourselves adequately. We fell right intothe most predictable trap possible…