Karnov Sebastian

As soon as Lloyd closed Hannah's room's door, he saw Raymond dashing towards him from the hallway. Upon reaching him, he said, huffing, "My lord, Count Sebastian, he's here."

Lloyd frowned a little and said, "I know, he's always been the type to arrive ages before the given time to catch his opponent with surprise."

And saying that, he put the key to Hannah's room into his pocket.

Now, walking along with Raymond to his study where Karnov was waiting, Lloyd carefully devised a sequence of actions to be taken if Karnov went awry.

Reaching the study, Raymond bowed and went back to the kitchen to get tea. Lloyd knocked and opened the door and found a tall, dark haired and pale skinned man leaning over his chair. His pinkish lips smiled as Lloyd entered the study.

"Nova," Lloyd said as he stood in front of his desk.

Nova had always had girlish features with sharp black eyes. Those black eyes used to be so filled with life once. Lloyd's heart wretched as he saw how dead those once bright eyes looked now.

Nova smiled, an adorable smile it was, walked to Lloyd and said, "You haven't changed at all, Lloyd. How long has it been since I was last here? Three years? You really did mean it when you said you'd cut ties with me."

This wasn't said in the same adorable tone as that initial smile. It was said with arrogance and sarcasm. As if when the other party knows perfectly well how much they have an advantage over the entire situation.

Lloyd gritted his teeth and said, "Sit, Nova."

Nova sat down on the chair that Lloyd had pulled and Lloyd sat on the chair right in front of it.

"Now, tell me how to break a witch's oblivion," Lloyd said as soon as he settled down.

"Getting straight to the point, hmm. It's so like you when you are trying to get out of uncomfortable situations." (Nova chuckled.)

"Isn't that why you are here today? So better get straight to the point and get going on your way." (Lloyd snapped.)

"Aww, I thought you would at least reminisce the old times with me when I came to you after so long. Or is Oven enough for you for a friend?"

"YOU were the one who made it turn out like this, Nova."

"But still, it was cruel of you to treat me like I didn't exist at all. You didn't have to go that far at keeping me away from yourself, you know."

"I had no reason left to see you any longer, especially after what you did during the war."

"Right, I'm just a coward. Since you had no reason then, you cut me off. And now, you have a reason why you need me."

Nova chuckled.

"Just get to the point, Nova," Lloyd said after some moments of silence.

Nova looked at Lloyd with disappointed eyes and said, "Right, that's the only reason why I am here."

Sighing, Nova continued again with a sarcastic face, "Well, as you know well, witches use Oblivion to erase all the memories that they do not want. A witch has a long lifespan and it's inevitable to face some misfortune and have bad memories. Witches cannot afford to give in to their emotions, because the moment they feel emotions like regret, love or hope, their mana core which powers from indifference would go dormant and they would lose all their magic.

A witch's Oblivion is supposedly indestructible, but if you look closely at how it works, you would find that its actually very simple to break it.

Oblivion doesn't erase the memories from a witch's mind, it covers them like a blanket. And only the witch herself can remove the blanket."

Lloyd stared at Nova in awe and asked at length, "How? How can I remove it?"

"You can't. I just said only the witch herself can," Nova continued, amused with Lloyd's reaction. "But why do you think a witch never removes Oblivion from her mind?"

"Because she doesn't want to remember?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"Exactly! You get it, right? You just need to make her curious enough about what happened in her memories, so that she would herself want to remember and remove the Oblivion," Nova smiled out at Lloyd to which Lloyd responded brightly and they both chuckled.

But then, as if realizing something, they both erased the smiles from their faces. Lloyd had a bitter expression now and Nova; disappointment.

'Right, we are not like that anymore,' Lloyd thought as he stood up and went to his drawer. Taking out a paper and signing on it, he walked to Nova. Looking down at him, who was staring at him somewhat dumbfounded, he said, "Here. Your payment for the help."

Handing the paper to Nova, Lloyd walked to the chair he was sitting on before and sat down again.

"It's a diamond mine near your territory. This was completely under my jurisdiction, so you won't have any problems with the transfers." (Lloyd said.)

Crushing the paper in his hands, Nova looked at Lloyd with sharp eyes and said, "Payment, you say."

The piece of paper in Nova's hands burned down in the fire he conjured up from thin air. As the ashes of the paper fell on the ground, Nova's gloomy and annoyed face stared at Lloyd.

"You think I came here to help for some payment!?!" Nova shouted as he stood up.

"I see no other way of defining your willingness to help me." (Lloyd said gritting his teeth.)

"I came to help because I'm your friend!! You might not consider me a friend anymore, but never once have I let go of you as your friend!!" (Nova yelled angrily.)

"That's entirely your own problem, Nova."

"You know how happy I was when I saw that letter you sent to me!!! Even if it was just a favour you were asking for, but it was still proof that you at least remembered me!!!"

Lloyd remained silent and clenched his teeth.

"When I talked to you that day, you, you were the same as three years ago. Same voice and way of talking. I was happy to see you were doing well. But … you… you… did you even think if I was okay these whole three years, huh, Lloyd?" (Nova's eyes showed extreme hurt and disappointment as he said that.)

"You yourself are responsible for it, Nova. I stopped you. I told you that it wasn't the right way. But you didn't listen to me. So why should I care about you?" Lloyd said with cold eyes looking up at him.

"One choice against you and it finished all we had before it, huh? How come you didn't even flinch at the thought of losing me when you pushed me into that pit of monsters?" Nova revolted bitterly.

"Because you chose to become a monster yourself."

"Then what? I should've just left you to die? What would have happened to Julia then?"

"Me dying had nothing to do with you giving in to sorcery, Nova. You had a lot of choices but you still went with it."

"Because it was the surest way to keep you safe. The other ones didn't guarantee your survival."

"You just didn't want to try; you just chose the easiest way."

"That's because I AM a coward!!! But I couldn't afford to lose you after what happened to Oven!!!"

Lloyd gritted his teeth and standing up, said, "Leave, Nova. The mine documents would be sent to your estate."

Anger clearly dominating Nova's features, he pushed away the chair he had been sitting on. But suddenly, his annoyance faded away and he smirked.

"Well wait, Lloyd. Ha, and I was thinking why you were trying to send me away so much?" (Nova said as he walked over to Lloyd.)

"I clearly asked for something else too when I said I would help you. Where is that witch?" Nova whispered leaning in to Lloyd's ear.

Lloyd calmly looked at Nova and said, "Not only me, you haven't changed at all either, Nova. Clinging to any possibility is your nature."

Nova looked at him sharply.

"Oven," Lloyd said loudly and suddenly Nova starts to become encircled in a magic force field. Nova punched at the wall of that force field but it didn't work.

From the behind the shelve on the right side, Oven came rolling out on his wheelchair and smiled at Nova. Nova clenched his fists as he saw Oven.

"From the very start, you never trusted me, did you?" Nova said with a blank face looking down.

"I have no reason to trust someone who I have already cut all my ties with," said Lloyd as the force field disappeared along with Nova.

"Phew, I wasn't sure if it would work on him," Oven sighed as soon as Nova disappeared.

"It didn't," Lloyd said as he put the chair Nova had pushed back. "If he actually wanted, he could easily break that teleportation magic."

"What a monster!" Oven stammered.

Lloyd sighed as he looked at the ashes of the mine papers.

Suddenly entering with a tray with tea and refreshments, Raymond stared at the two of them and the burned object on the floor.

"So, he went away, huh," Raymond said as he cleaned up the ashes.

"We SENT him away, to be more precise," Oven whined.

'It was all your fault, Nova,' he thought and went out to Hannah's room to unlock it.

Nova opened his eyes and there he was, in the middle of the woods, surely out of the Shuzar estate but still within the capital. He had a blank expression on his face and then he started laughing and laughed for a while. It was almost evening now. He was passed out for quite a while.

"Break ties, huh?" he mumbled. "But you yourself don't kill me and make me misunderstand that you still care for me."

He stood up and started walking towards the lights he could see coming. Reaching there, he saw that it was actually the capital square. He could see why it was so well lit up and filled with people.

"A festival, hmm," he said as he entered the square after cleaning his clothes with magic. He smiled and thought, 'I might as well enjoy it if he threw me here.'

Nova walked around through the festival and at some point, someone tugged at his sleeve and he heard, "Brother Nova?"

Hearing a familiar voice, Nova turned around. And there, hands in hands with a boy similar her age and with golden hair, stood Julia.

"Lia!!" Nova brightly greeted Julia. "How much you have grown!! You were a peanut the last time I saw you!!"

"Don't tease me, brother," Lia pouted as she pawed some weak punches at Nova.

Now, Nova's attention went to Frank who had been standing behind Lia this entire time, motionless.

Suddenly, Nova shouted, "You! Why do you have two mana cores? A witch and a healer's at that!"

Lia looked at Frank, whose eyes were now pitch black like darkness. His expression wasn't his same usual one.

He pointed his finger at Nova and mumbled, "Grey…... Grey…. Must Kill…. Grey…. Bad…... Kill"

Without another word, he threw a large fireball from his hand at Nova. Lia was pushed aside by Frank in time but it hit Nova, though it didn't affect him much.

"All the same," Frank kept mumbling. "You are all the same. Must kill grey."