A calm scene looms over the castle. Quiet would be another way to call it, not a single sound present. The hallway we just escaped from now houses two dead bodies, but there was no other way around that (yeah right…)

After hiding in the ducts to flee the scene and remain undetected, at least to some extent, we managed to overhear Marina and Adam’s conversation that served as a great helping hand in our mission to find the AFP blueprints. We haven’t got much time, though, since the guards now know that intruders are in the castle. Let’s get this done quickly and leave this place.

“Knock knock.”

“…” The other side of the door to Adam’s room was completely silent.

“Good, come on Issei, get in.”

Issei was feeling a bit weak. Makes sense, I guess. He got his hand badly wounded in a scuffle, and saw me brutally blow a hole in the two guards’ heads. Geez, I was supposed to be the one who’s suspicious of him, but then it turns out like this…

“Since we know how the blueprints look like,” Issei reasoned, “it’s gonna be pretty easy to spot it, no?”

“While it might seem that way at first, do note that we barely have any light in the room. Apart from that, knowing how it looks like won’t do us any favors if Adam had the common sense to hide it out of plain view.”

Issei wanted to show me that he’s still willing to help me out as much as he could, but I didn’t want to be unrealistically optimistic. That’s what gets you killed here, after all. We saw from both the guards and Issei’s behavior just what happens to people who grow too optimistic for their own good.

Issei thought for whatever reason that he could take down a royal guard with nothing but his bare hands, and the guards thought just because we were intruding on their territory that they could kill us the moment they had even the slightest bit of the upper hand. Both paid their prices, the only difference between the two is that the guard paid in full.

“Right, I shouldn’t get too ahead of myself.” Issei said, “I’ll just keep searching this side of the room, you go check that side and tell me if you find anything.”

“Wait, but my side of the room only has the closet, window and his bed. No way he’d keep such an important document there!”

“You’d be surprised at just how weird some people’s hiding places are, Lune. Many men have hidden their most prized possessions under their beds. I would know.”

Issei’s words once again confused me, but I didn’t have the energy to engage in any more of his quips. He’s the type of person to resort to humor when faced with a difficult situation. Reminds me of Carter now that I think about it… Ugh, what’d that redhead think of me if he saw me right now? Two things come to mind, laughing at me from the heavens, or spitting in my face out of sheer disgust.

“Issei?”

“Yeah?”

“Just a hypothetical question. If you heard a baby crying in a burning building, would you go in to try and save it?”

“That’s an… odd hypothetical, but who am I to question it. But hmm… I guess it depends on what my odds are of accomplishing said goal.”

“The odds? I dunno, like, minimal I guess?”

“Then no. I probably wouldn’t risk my life for a random child’s who I don’t even know.”

What?! How could you say something like that?! Ugh, to think I saw Carter in you… I just insulted a dead person because of you right now!

“Wow, that’s horrible!” I winced at his answer.

“Come on! I’m not gonna risk all these years of my accumulated knowledge and experiences just to save some kid who knows nothing about the world yet! Plus, whose kid even is it?”

At these words, I recalled a moment of my past back in Great Hiana. Cecily was lying in bed, dead tired from taking care of Nelly all day. Since I had some free time, I decided to take Nelly out for a walk, since the weather was nice and I hadn’t gotten a chance to be with her recently due to all the work that was piling up.

Nestling her in my arms, her body was as frail as a snowflake, and in that very moment I was actually convinced she would just poof away from my grasp, sort of like a cloud would. That’s just how soft, cuddly and surreal she felt when I held her. She would always cry her eyes out when Cecily tried to pick her up during her nap, but oddly enough she was very docile in that moment.

Walking around The Base at the crack of dawn, with Nelly wrapped up in my arms, I noticed that she had woken up a short while ago, as she stared at me with eyes of curiosity and confusion. I had already started panicking, as I was expecting her to start bawling her eyes out and wake up the others in the vicinity, but she just stared at me, nothing more. Her eyes were bright green, a befitting trait of newborns, but I still felt hers to be far cuter than any other pair of eyes I’d seen. After a couple of seconds of absentmindedly staring at each other, I could feel she was starting to doze off once again. It made sense, it was quite early after all.

But then she did something I still don’t quite understand even now. She leaned forward, like she wanted to give me a hug, but her head was still quite heavy in comparison to her body, so she couldn’t really do so. I could tell she was determined though, I could easily help her up I thought, but then she wouldn’t feel like she did anything. She fought valiantly, and after a long and arduous battle against gravity, she finally gave up, but not before cupping her hand into a fist and punching my chest with her weak little arms, as if to say “If you’re not gonna be of any help, then you’re not getting any hugs from me!” This was a trait that most reminded me of her mother…

“It’s my child!” I came back to my senses as I lashed out at Issei.

“Huh? You didn’t mention that!” Issei prodded, “I dunno, if you just add that bit of context to the situation, I guess I’d think about it a bit differently…”

“Eh? N-No, it’s just a hypothetical, remember? Geez…”

Oh, what am I even doing? Recalling such a random memory in the middle of our important heist. I also let out a pretty loud yell at Issei just now, what if someone heard us?

While I was thinking this, the door to the room suddenly started opening as a familiar child’s voice could be heard on the other side.

“A-Adam! Adam! T-The guards are d-dead! I-I woke up in the kitchen for whatever reason, and when I heard some noise in the halls and came to investigate, I saw their c-corpses just lying there!”

“Ugh, that kid again. Just who is he?” Issei commented on our rotten luck.

“Just shut up and hide! And remember, no chloroform this time!”

And so, we hid in the closet, hoping to this time wait things out. I really didn’t want to cause any more harm to anyone than I already have, and the kid seems like he’s gonna have nightmares about this night for a while. I’m scared that he might actually get a heart attack once he sees us and pieces together that we were the perpetrators here.

“A-Adam?” The doors finally opened, “Are you in here? Ugh, where are you?! Then Mariabelle? Could you be here?”

Why would Marina be in Adam’s room, dumbass? I wanted to ask, but refrained from doing so. Just then, Issei found something that resembled the blueprints, so he instinctively tried to grab hold of it. This in turn made us squirm about in the closet, scaring the kid even more.

“W-Wah!” The kid yelped, “I-Is this another one of your pranks, Mariabelle?! This is serious, come on-!”

Click, he opened the closet doors, expecting to see a cute young maid, but was utterly shocked and horrified when he saw two bloody young men in there. Just what was going through his mind at that moment, I’m not too sure, but his reaction probably gave a few hints about it.

“A-!” He tried screaming, but Issei quickly shut him up with a rag.

“Shhh! This is all just a dreaaaammm! You’re getting veeerry sleeeeepyyy…”

And just like that, presto, the kid was knocked unconscious once more. At this point it probably felt like a running gag for him. But damn, Issei really doesn’t like listening to me, does he?

“What the hell did I tell you about using chloroform!?”

“Hey! It’s rude to make assumptions like that! I didn’t use any chloroform, I just knocked him out by covering his airflow!”

“…THAT’S EVEN WORSE!”

So it seems like Issei is really bad at handling people his own size, but he’s really skilled at going up against children. That’s not really something to be proud of, I’d say…

“Listen, it was either that or he screams. But that doesn’t matter, cause I found these two in the closet!” Issei said as he pulled out two pieces of paper, both with eloquent and elaborate writing written on them.

One was easily recognizable as our AFP blueprints, but the other was foreign to us. I thought nothing of it, but Issei thought that it could be fun to stick our nose into other people’s business so he began reading it aloud.

“Dearest, I have no words left to say to you that you do not already know. My love for you exceeds the many Islands of the Archipelago, the Vastness of this Limited World of ours, the nigh infinite Tears of the Ocean. Your hair glistens a bright pinkish hue, your eyes sparkle a laid-back brown, but your very existence shines like none I’ve seen before. Would you do me the honor of joining me as a Formal Member of the Gryses? My dear [email protected]#$&”

The last part of the letter was scribbled out, as if our dear prince suddenly got flustered from his own words. While hilarious, I do need to point out just how poorly written this obvious love letter is. First of all, starting with Dearest is a surefire way to get declined on the spot. You’re basically assuming that she’s someone you’re intimate with to the point of being able to call her that with a straight face. And another thing, you’re using analogies and metaphors to try and win her over, but all I’m seeing is someone who’s scared to face the person in question and is instead just resorting to confessing your love over amateur-level prose. Geez, and here I thought the Gryses held themselves to high regards…

And another thing, joining you as a Formal Member of the Gryses? Could you be any more self-centered? I get you’re proud of being a member of the royal family, but at least have the decency to write ‘I love you’ plainly and clearly if you’re gonna go this far. Half-assing it just isn’t gonna cut it, I’m afraid.

“Whoa! This is so cool!” Issei suddenly noted.

“Really? What about this sloppy penmanship is cool?”

“What? Nah, that’d get you a GAME OVER in a flash if this was an Otome game. I mean have you read this stuff? I’m talking about the drama though!”

“The drama?”

“You don’t realize? Adam’s writing this to Marina. Spicy…!”

What? Nahh, that’d be stupid! Come on, get real! Someone as cool and beautiful getting a love letter from someone like Adam? That's one puzzle piece that just doesn’t fit, I’ll tell you that much! I mean, Adam’s a… prince. And he’s rich, lives in a castle, has influence in many of the world’s affairs… Oh no…

***

After having made a terrible discovery about Adam’s love life, I now realize just who my real enemy was this whole time. While we have met a while ago, I still considered him to be something akin to a friend. Well, calling a member of the royal family that sounds kind of overly intimate, but my point still stands. We fought together, laughed together… Well, mostly fought. Even so, he first hindered our friendship when he decided to use my AFP as a means of starting and winning wars.

The AFP was made strictly for self-defense purposes, so that already offended me on both a professional and personal level. But alright, this was technically my fault, since obviously a weapon of such caliber would most certainly not only have its uses be restricted to self-defense for long. But his other offense is way more dire! This fiend wants to take Marina away from me right from under my nose! I mean, I get she’s not mine, I-I didn’t really have the time to ask her out yet, but come on!

“Lune?”

“Hm?”

“Come on, forget that letter and just check if the other piece of paper is the blueprints we were looking for. We don’t wanna dawdle for too long.”

“Oh, y-yeah, right…”

This action was merely a precaution, though, since we knew from the torched edges the piece of paper was in that it was already quite banged up, as if it was surrounded by heavy tools and fire or something. Well, better safe than sorry, I say. We wouldn’t want to go back home after all this only to realize we got the wrong scrap of paper.

“Yep, no doubt about it. These are the blueprints, now let’s get the heck out of here.”

And so, while making sure the coast was clear, I slowly and carefully opened the windows in the hopes that there was an easy way down from the top floor. Sadly this wasn’t the case though, as the nearest tree wasn’t within arm’s reach, meaning even with the Instarope I brought with us we’d still have to make a running jump in order to make it. We needed another way…

Just then, two voices could be heard approaching the room we were presently in. “Let me go, Mariabelle! I need to go find my nephew this instant! Two guards have been reported to have been brutally murdered in the halls, and he’s not in his room!”

Ehh, looks like our past actions are finally catching up to us. From the sounds of it, it seems like the kid that kept pestering us was Adam’s nephew, and Adam is now caught up with the situation while Marina is trying desperately to keep him away from us.

“N-No, Milord! I doubt he’d be in your room, he’s a big boy now, so there's no way he’d ask to sleep with you!”

“Come now, Mariabelle! You know very well just how attached that boy is! Even still, where else could he be at this hour?”

At this rhetorical question of his, Marina tried giving her two cents, “…Maybe he’s uhh… doing ‘that’, y’know?”

“That?”

“Oh, y’know… ‘that’.”

“…Mariabelle, now’s not the time for your naughty jokes.”

“I-I’m serious though! He’s at that age where men start getting curious, right?!”

“Mariabelle, he’s seven years old!”

Seems like Marina still has a way’s to go before she can properly understand how we men work, huh? I mean, her acting was spot on, had the kid not been lying unconscious in front of us right this very moment, I would’ve taken her words as truth and nothing but the truth.

While I was busy trying to listen in to their conversation, we appeared to have run out of time. The doors began to open, and while Marina was already doing her best to avoid a head-on confrontation between us and the prince, it seems we didn’t manage to do our part on that end.

“Wuh?! Stay back, Mariabelle! I-Intruders!” Adam yelled out.

Crap, we managed to hide the kid under the bedsheets just in time before he noticed, but to think he’d already be making such a fuss over the two of us. It kinda makes me feel accomplished in a way. Like, I made the prince of the royal family panic type of deal.

“How’s it goin’, Prince?” I said with a falsetto.

“Who are you? Where’s Halley!?”

Looks like the kid’s name is Halley. Cute name, befitting of his character. But I can’t just disclose that we saw and even knocked him out. Adam would be furious, so we had to act like we were none the wiser.

“Who? Listen, we’re here ta’ take sum’ assets n’ live off’a that fer’ a while!”

“Judging by your accent, you’re from Great Hiana, eh? I-I’ll track you down for what you did to my guards!”

Heh, as to be expected, he still remembers how Hianic sounds like. Good think I decided to whip out that old dialect of mine to throw him off our tracks!

“Just try, my dearest! For my love for your riches exceeds the many Islands of the Archipelago, the Vastness of this Limited World of ours, the nigh infinite Tears of the Ocean!” I parroted the contents of his love letter in order to taunt him a bit.

“D-Don’t tell me…! No! Have you no shame as a man, reading into someone else’s private affairs!” He shot back a weak retort.

All the while this was happening though, Marina could only hold back her stifled laughter. Then again, judging be her reaction, it seems like she has no idea what I’m talking about. Score! He hasn't confessed to her yet, I might still have a chance!

“That’s it!” Adam said, “I may be a coward, I’ve known this for quite a while, but what you did just now proves to me that being a kind pacifist can only get you so far! You crossed the line, and I’m not about to let you tarnish my reputation anymore! Have at thee!”

“Woah, where’d this come from, Prince? Suddenly grown a pair?” I said, “Gonna cry?”

“Hell no! I’ve been to your country, you rapscallion! It’s there where I saw one man fight for what’s right!”

Wait, he’s not talking about me, is he? Oh no, I might get flattered into submission if this goes on!

“That’s right!” Adam said, “He’s younger than me by about half a decade, but he managed to take down a ton of people on his very own! And all without barely breaking a sweat! If he can do that, then surely even I can defeat you!”

Oh my, oh my! Looks like I have myself a number one fan! This is really making my heart race, and even though his actions right now are really embarrassing to the others, to me I can see exactly just how much admiration he has for-

“Edward Saint! That was his name! He had short but golden locks, and he managed to masterfully evade his enemies and beat them all in one fell swoop without even equipping a weapon!”

…I don’t feel like taking you on anymore, dude. We’re leaving.

“H-Hey! Where are you going?! Chickens!”

“Your speech right now was cringe as fuck!” I shouted a popular phrase from Issei's world while grabbing hold of his non-wounded arm and jumping from the window.

“W-Huh?! Cringe? Wait, never mind that, if you jump down like that, you’ll…!”

Expecting to hear a splatter, both Marina and Adam were mortified to see Issei and I plummet to what they presumed was an unsurvivable jump from the top floor window. But do you really think I’d end my story here of all places? Come on, against a wimp like Adam?

“Y…” Adam bit his tongue, “You…!!!”

“Haha, suck it!”

Yeah, remember how I said Marina was diligently working her ass off for today? Well, I wasn’t only talking about her job as a maid here. During the day, I had her “accidentally” misplace some of the trash bags she was taking out. It just so happened that she was feeling really clumsy today, so she placed all of the trash bags right underneath the top floor windows. Whoopsie!

Running, we made our way far into the nearby forest, where they’d have a harder time searching for us. Issei and I quickly changed apparels and took off our ski masks, revealing two short, black haired handsome thieves! Yep, these boys just succeeded in a heist of a life time, plus we won against those… guards…