Arena Twenty-Eight: Foul Restrictions II

Felicia stepped inside the dining hall and curtsied. It was finally the time for the dinner with the man she loved. It was well beyond midnight, but her eyes were bright and focused as if she was going to a daytime tea party.

The people sitting around the dining table smiled at her amicably.

"It is good to see you again, Princess Felicia."

One of the participants said to her in a gentle voice, and Felicia's heart started beating loudly.

Suppressing her raging emotions and joy, she replied while straightening up.

"... Yes, I feel the same, Lord Raymond."

She smiled gracefully at the commenter.

The boy with the red hair and golden eyes, Raymond Winchester, smiled back. For some reason, to Felicia, he looked more charming than he had been last time she had seen her.

"Come now, sit, my daughter."

Christopher called out to her from the main seat of the table. Her mother who was sitting beside him also beckoned her to come. Nodding, Felicia approached the chair to his right, directly across Raymond. Before she sat down, she looked at the man and woman sitting beside Raymond.

"It is also a pleasure to meet you again, Lord Winchester, Lady Winchester."

The man and woman smiled, but Lord Winchester didn't forget to make a teasing remark.

"Ah, what a sad day. I never thought I would be overshadowed by my own son!"

Hearing his words, everyone laughed while Felicia's face turned beet red in embarrassment.

"T-that was not my intention, Lord Winchester!"

She protested in a slightly teary tone, but the lord of the house just laughed.

"I know, I know. Don't worry."

"... Yes."

Felicia calmed herself before sitting down.

As Christopher saw his daughter sit down with a smile, he clapped his hands. Almost immediately, the maids brought in the food. It was an extravagant feast, but Felicia's eyes were on Raymond's face.

Noticing the gaze, Raymond chuckled and whispered.

"The food will get cold, Felicia..."

Hearing those words, Felicia became embarrassed again and dug into her food with a pout.

A few moments passed in silence as the people present there emptied their plates.

"... So, about the engagement."

Christopher brought up the topic first as he leaned against his chair.

"... Yes, Your Majesty?"

Lord Winchester looked at his lord with narrow eyes.

"I am sure everyone is fine with it?"

No one objected. Seeing that, Christopher continued with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Then should we finalize the engagement?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. However..."

Lord Winchester seemed a bit reluctant. Seeing that, Christopher frowned and gestured him to continue.

"I would like to ask Princess Felicia to step down from the Phoenix team."

"... And why is that, Lord Winchester?"

Felicia was the one who asked the question.

"... There are mainly two reasons, Princess Felicia. First, I don't feel comfortable knowing that anytime in the future, you may lose a major battle and be crippled mentally, or worse, if I may be blunt... die. Winchester House will depend on you and Raymond to continue our linage if you marry into our family. And the second reason is... My younger son, your squadmate, Phillips Winchester."

"... I understand the first reason, but what do you mean by the second reason?"

"... I am sure you have noticed, Your Majesty. My younger son has some... troublesome tendencies, which most of the time end up causing harm."

Instead of replying to Felicia, Lord Winchester turned to her father.

"Hm... I have heard about those 'tendencies'."

Christopher commented while raising his brows.

"And... I have seen proof, that he has used some kind of skill on us and our employees via his loyal servant, Michael. While I say that, I do not have any concrete proofs, which makes it even more suspicious. What is it that he is trying to hide from his family? As I don't have an answer to that, I do not feel safe keeping Princess Felicia close to him."

"Well... He indeed has shown disregard for human lives on more than one occasion."

Christopher had indeed gotten reports of Phillips' bizarre experiments. He would conduct life-threatening tests to recruit new members to his squad, and didn't care about the collateral damage when subjugating phantoms. He wasn't reckless, though. None of his moves was influenced by emotions, rather, even his disregard for human life felt calculated.

He was a complicated existence. Yet, due to his position as the youngest son of the Winchester House, and partly due to his contributions to humanity's survival, his antics would be ignored. But that had made him bolder than before.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Which is why..."

Lord Winchester tried to jump to the conclusion, but Felicia's sharp words interrupted him.

"Lord Raymond has inherited the [Eyes Of Death], has he not? And he will inherit the Winchester Family business, will he not?"

"Yes... He has, and he will."

Lord Winchester answered, frowning. He could guess where this was going.

"Then I have a condition, too. If I am to marry into the Raymond Family, I can not sleep well knowing that my husband may die anytime while working on such dangerous missions. So, I wish for him to step down as the family head and live separately from the main house."

"... That will be tough."

Lord Winchester muttered, looking troubled. He looked at his lord, but the emperor just chuckled.

He wasn't going to lend a helping hand. Sighing, Lord Winchester continued.

"That will not be possible, unless I want to destroy the Winchester House."

"Was my request absurd?"

Felicia asked bluntly while looking down at her food.

"... Yes, it was."

"Then please do not request such things from me either, 'father-in-law'."

Hearing her rebuttal, Lord Winchester couldn't do anything but smile wryly. He had no choice but to let the girl continue, or else this engagement would break down completely.

And that... That would be problematic in its own way.

...

I opened my eyes while taking a deep breath.

That night was mostly uneventful, except for the occasional nightmares I had. Funny thing was, I couldn't even remember those nightmares as soon as I woke up.

"Ugh... Not again..."

I groaned as I sat up on the bed, rubbing my forehead. It hurt more than before.

Looking at the clock, I saw that it was almost 7 A.M. Sighing, I decided to wake up and prepare for the academy.

I slowly got up and got ready. As it was still way before the scheduled time, no one else was awake.

Picking up my bag, I put in the necessities, a bare minimum of things I would need in the classes. However... I couldn't find it.

I couldn't find the gun. It had simply disappeared.

'What the hell?'

I could only curse as I looked around my room, frantically searching for the weapon.

'Dammit!'

While I hadn't used it yet, it was still there to reassure me. I felt extremely frustrated.

Was it stolen? Probably not. No one here would steal things from me.

Then had I left it somewhere? That wasn't possible either, as I had pulled it out of the bag.

I couldn't see any other way it could have disappeared. Unlike that shield (God knew where it was), this wasn't a summoned weapon, so it couldn't have disappeared, could it?

"Tsk..."

Finding no other option, I decided to call Grey via the gear etched into my nervous system.

As I explained the whole thing to Grey, he sighed on the other side of the connection.

"Well, fine. It will take a while to issue another gun, but we can track the gun you lost, so returning it won't be an issue. Besides, you have your skills, so it's not like you need a gun anyways."

"That's... True."

I muttered, and Grey sighed again.

"Well, I'll try to get you a gun nonetheless. Be careful in the future."

"Got it."

With that, the transmission was cut. A part of me was still worried about the missing gun, but I decided to not pay it any mind.

I stepped out of the room with my bag and walked towards the dining hall. Others had also woken up, and most of them were sitting around the table.

"Hey, Arnold! Seems like you are also early today!"

Lilian called out to me as soon as I entered. Waving my hand, I approached them. Our interactions had become less awkward after spending some time together yesterday at dinner table.

"You guys are up early... Though, where's Sebastian?"

I could see everyone at the table except the shy scholarship student.

"Ah, he seems to be sick, so let him be for now."

Raymond, who had come out of the kitchen while sporting three plates of breakfast on his arms, said as he walked towards the table. For some reason, he felt much more refreshed than before.

"I see..."

I nodded before sitting down.

"By the way, you guys went to the Shard Centre, right? Got any good skills?"

I casually asked while watching Raymond distribute the plates full of cheese, toast and beacons.

"Oh actually... Quin got the S-rank skill."

Lara suddenly said with a smirk, causing me to look at the grumpy technician.

He just snorted and turned his face away. Quite different from his usual arrogance I would say.

"Oh? Interesting... What's the skill about? Oh, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"I don't want to..."

Before Quin could finish his sentence, Lilian grinned and spilt the tea.

"It can create a vacuum chamber that has absolutely nothing inside it. It's apparently the closest we could get to an actual void."