Assassinations (Part 1)

People die when they're killed… well, duh.

Hoho! Ah… How long has it been since I don't talk here?

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…

Morning rises, the carpets of the morning sky overlay the earth of combined worlds. The kingdom of Alidia still as it is on the desert region.

Pio Perenitzia decided to join Marco's party, although there is some dispute among them. Aily is the disputer in mention. Her only reason is simply one: jealousy. But because of her sister she has no power to deny and forced to accept her into the fold. As per se, she didn't like strangers.

Today, Nina planned to go out with Aily and Pio to one of arsenals in the kingdom. Aily was told to wake Pio up, but it seems she has other things in mind.

"Just who do you think you are, lying down on the sofa and cuddle on her lap as if you're her younger sister, hmph!"

"But Aily, none of those are even ours." Marco casually replied out of nowhere, shocking Aily. "Uwah! M-Marco, y-you shocked me, again!"

"I did? Hehe, sorry," said Marco while rubbing the back of his head.

"Besides… how can you tell what I am saying, anyway?"

"Because you speak it out loud, that is."

Silence. Aily did not realize that she spoke her thoughts reflectively. "F-Forget it! I… uh… yeah! I have things to do."

"Hey, Pio! Wake up!" Aily wobbles the sleeping girl on the sofa with a bit of tense.

"Uhm… ergh… fi… ve…."

"Huh? What's she saying?" Marco closed in in curiousness. Aily shared the same thought.

Pio squirms adorably while mumbling inaudible voices to ear. Aily, who was told to wake her up, has gotten irritated. "Pio… WAKE UP!" she yelled.

"Geez, Aily, calm down,"

"I am CALM!"

Pio squirms lightly and mumbles, "Uhm… yawn… fi…ve… m… mr…mrr…"

"Fi…ve… m..ore… minutes… pwease…"

Aily, felt intensely irritated. Just when Nina steps outside of the inn, Aily casted 'Might' spell on herself and forcefully flipped the sofa, knocking Pio off her sleep in an instant.

"Wawawawawww…. It hurts…" Pio rubs her head after falling over. She is still half asleep, regaining consciousness and focus to her eyes. And when she did, she saw Aily's face aggravated. Pio felt a visible fear.

"Pio… let's… get going ALREADY!"

"Hiiiiyaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Aily grabs Pio out of the inn and joins Nina outside. Aily hoped that Nina will scold Pio for waking up late, because Nina hates delayer. Unexpectedly, both Pio AND her got scolded, Pio being late while Aily uses empowering magic that potentially could harm anyone.

…

A few seconds later, Scias came out of his room in a rush with his sword because of the sudden shout he heard. "What, what, what is it? An enemy attack?"

Marco, who was just about to eat a slice of bread, got stunned by his actions. The bread slides off his mouth into the floor.

"Dude…"

Scias watches closely to Marco. Even he himself is still half asleep. His heart thumps harder and ready whenever Marco says anything important.

"…Your shoes are flipped, man."

"Huh?" Scias looked down immediately and realized that his brown shoes are in the wrong position. "O-Oh, my bad," said Scias with a bit of a blush on his face.

…

..

.

Meanwhile, Nina, Aily, and Pio are headed to a fashion shop which is luckily not far from the inn.

"Fashion shop?" Pio asked curiously. Her finger lies beneath her chin again as usual. "What is that?" she asked.

"It's a place where you get new cute clothes!" Nina replied.

"Cute… clothes…?" Pio asked again. This time, Aily felt sick when seeing Pio has her finger positioned beneath her chin like that.

"Yep, we will need to get you proper clothing if you want to travel along with us, tee-hee."

"Uwah…!" her smile cracks open. "I want cute clothes!"

"Hee-hee, alright, alright. You want too, Aily?" Nina asked kindly.

"No, thanks, I'm not a kid anymore, you know?" Aily replied harshly.

"My, my, you're the same age as she is. It's alright to serve your tiny little heart's wanting sometimes."

Aily looked away a bit, she thought about her sister's words. "W-Well… if you force me to, ehehehe…"

"My, you're quite the labile one, aren't you, Aily?"

Pio smiles adorably, "Can I also get the same like 'sister' Nina?"

…

Meanwhile… on the walls around the castle of Alidia…

"Prince Chamel, we lost contact with the supply convoy that headed due north. We've sent cavalry to find them last night… but there's no information from them since."

The Brigadier General reported to his prince about the latest news regarding the supply route from in and out of Alidia.

The prince known as Chamel, is a tall guy with a sand-colored short hair with a swirling ponytail. There's a crown signifying his presence as a prince. He wears dark green royal uniform.

"This is bad," said the prince with a worried voice. "Losing one supply convoy is enough to tamper our economic stability. If our investigation troops, considering they're from cavalry division, lost overnight, then it has to be a group of enemy."

Prince Chamel reminisces of what happened a couple days ago, "Not so long ago, there's a large barrier covering the Spectral Forest to the south before disintegrating when the sun rises. A few days later, there was a demon flying freely to our kingdom's airspace. Gladly, some unknown adventurers stopped them and saved our people."

He rubs his head in dizziness, "There're so many things happening simultaneously. I reckon this might be a bad omen. We must secure this kingdom's safety."

"What do you propose we do, sire?" the brigadier general asked.

"Relay this information to the king at once. We will crank up our defenses and to be put on high alarm."

"Roger that, my prince. Bless Alidia and its people!" the brigadier general saluted and rushed into the keep.

The prince thinks about the rapid incidents that happened during the last one year.

"Ever since that self-acclaimed emperor takes power, both Tellus and Gaia are in terror. That emperor is just an emperor to zero living beings. There are some stupid people that supported him also. I felt bad for them.

The kingdom of Fortis to the north has gone silent for some time now. Prince Dictum would usually contact me and ask about the situation in my country. Hah… what makes of our alliance? The supplies heading to that kingdom are possibly gone, probably because of that race of the dragons that supported the emperor."

He stared at his lovely kingdom rinsed beneath the light of sunrise. He hoped that his kingdom will survive and last as long as possible in the Dimensional Impact.

Suddenly, he hears rumbling voices from the keep. Shortly, many people consisting of palace servants, nobles, and other civilians run off the castle past the prince. Chamel felt distraught, what caused those people to escape with a grim expression in their faces. Don't want to linger in confusion he jumps into the castle, whereas everyone else is running away from it.

Chamel calls one of his guards, whose armor can be seen shaking in shock.

"What happened?" the prince asked solemnly.

"M-My prince…" the guard looked reluctant to tell. "His majesty… the k-king…!"

"The king? What's wrong with his majesty?"

"He's..." the guard couldn't continue another word. Judging by that, Prince Chamel quickly realized something has gone terribly wrong to the king. He pushed the guard away and hurried to the throne room.

Many elite troopers are piling up in the throne room. The prince ordered them to step aside quickly. Chamel's arms are sweating cold. He had a terrible feeling about what's going on.

He watched the luxurios throne of his father. The king's not there. In desperation, Chamel shouts, "Where's the king?!" and he saw even more troops gathering around the hallway leading to the king's chamber.

"Get out of my way! Out!" he ordered harshly while pushing them soldiers away from his path. He finally reached the king's chamber. He prayed that nothing bad happened. And so he steps inside.

The prince's eyes expand widely. It feels like the time around him stopped, he could not hear a single noise and he couldn't even see anyone else aside what's in front of him. His blood pressure felt like dropped down to zero, because in front of him, he witnessed his father, the king lying dead on the floor.

"No… father…!"

"…FATHER!!!"

…

..

.

An hour later…

Nina, Aily and Pio just exited the fashion shop.

"Um… Miss Nina, this… is cute!" Pio stated happily while showing off her new dressings. She looked at her with sparkling eyes and says, "Thank you!"

Pio now wears a red shirt and a red skirt. To cover her weapon, Nina bought her a new sand-colored cape that has the same size as the ones Pio had before. Her hair is tied in three pigtails with red hairbands. She's also bought a new pair of sneakers.

"Sis… I really wonder why you gave her the same color code as I am…" Aily pouted.

"Why it's because I love red color!" Nina replied with a smile.

"If that's the case, then why not wear one yourself?"

"Oh, green is also my favorite color. Because I can't wear two colors at a time, I suppose you two would do the favor. Tee-hee-hee."

"S-Seriously, sis?"

"Also, you two were the same age. Why not wear the same color, too?"

"U-Uh…"

"Not to mention, though… Pio, how long have you not in bath?" Aily asked with a face of disgust.

"Hm?" she looked at Aily. "I dunno. I think I do take bath with my sister…"

"Yuck, that's just disgusting, you know?"

"Now, now, Aily, Pio has cleaned herself up and look at her now. Isn't she pretty?"

"Um…" Aily actually doesn't want to say any compliments to Pio. Besides, she is still unable to accept her, after all. Nina did offer both Aily and Pio to choose their favorite clothes to wear. But since Pio really lacked of common knowledge and even sense of fashion, both Nina and Aily had to help her pick her choice.

"Unbelievable…" Aily mumbled. Pio thanked her, too for being so nice to her. But in reality, Pio doesn't realize that Aily was secretly harboring dislike towards her. She simply sees everyone that treats her nicely as good people.

The three then headed back to the inn. Pio sings to her heart on the road like a little kid. She felt incredibly happy for being together with Nina and the others.

"My, isn't she's cute," said Nina kindly.

"…" Aily did not bother to commentate.

After a while of walking, they finally reached the inn. In front of the building, Nina and Aily saw Marco and Scias talking to a group of knights. Their faces looked serious.

"What's… going on?" Aily wondered.

One of the knights looked at Nina and the rest. His eyes looked shocked and he quickly tells his higher ups.

"Oh my god!" said the knight that has a unique vulture badge, which probably is their captain. Marco and Scias looked in much more shocked face. They tried to signalize them to escape but Nina or Aily don't understand what they're trying to say.

As soon as the knight notices their leader, the knight captain approached the three girls in haste with a horror face.

"YOU!" he said in anger.

Nina and Aily got shocked. Nina quickly gets Pio behind her back, defending her. "What are you trying to do to her?"

"Ma'am, this little kid here is a poisonous animal if kept by your side. She will spring her fang and bite you down like a prey!" said the knight captain.

"What are you babbling about? Pio is not a bad girl. How could you being offensive to a little girl like her?" Nina raised her tone. Pio is peeking from Nina's back. Aily watched her closely.

"Miss Nina… they're scary people… like from orphanage…" said Pio in scared voice. Nina, Aily, Marco and Scias were all surprised. Marco and Scias walled in front of the girls.

"C-Captain, they must've been manipulated by this evil freak!" said one of the knights. "That couldn't be truer," the other knight agreed.

"What?" Nina retorted. "I am not manipulated or under someone's control or whatsoever. How could you say such things?"

"None of us were being controlled." Marco added. "Can't you see us clearly, o, soldier?" Scias stated. "Yeah…" said Aily.

"Poor people, being mind-controlled must've been painful."

The knight captain reassures his men, "Judging by their looks, they're purely doing this by their own will. If they're not mind-controlled, then that can only mean one thing, come, men, I suppose we don't have any choice but to take the suspect by force!"

"Yes, sir!"

The soldiers draw their swords together with the captain. "If you would kindly give her to us, then we will let you go. But if not… you people will be called as accomplices and we will have no choice but to use my authority to execute all of you on the spot."

Pio hides closer to Nina, hugging her back in terrified face.

"What makes you fools think that she's a monster? An innocent girl like her wouldn't have done anything, would she? Right, Pio?" Marco said.

The captain holds his forehead in pity, "So naïve of you, don't you know? She is responsible for killing our great king!"

"WHAT?!" Together, Marco and his friends were shocked.

…

..

.

"Pio… did you… really do something like that?"