That's Me

'How stupid can I be? He is a direct descendant of the Reds. He wouldn't be normal no matter how you look at it! And yet, we underestimated him like a normal citizen.'

'Even if they are not yet registered, early training is the way of the Royals. Maybe the young master could give us a tip or two.'

Alfie and Brandy thought respectively. They had overlooked one big detail. This boy they were babysitting is not any ordinary Aero.

{He is Aero Vermilion. One of the Reds!}

Master wore a smile of relief. One, because he had evaded the question regarding his age and two because the two now knew the value of the boy they were tasked to look after.

"Who are we talking about again?" Aero tilted his head.

Alfie and Brandy thought that the boy may have also lost his memories about their mentor and were on the verge of giving the tips they were hoping for. But a certain green haired boy did not know about Aero and his memory issue.

So he asked innocently, "You did not know the Crimson Rapier? How could you not know about your own family?"

"Crimson Rapier?" Aero asked aloud. He was skimming through his memory for someone with that title.

"Well, the Crimson Rapier was titled on the same day of your birthday so you had missed the news entirely," Master explained. "She was on her way to your house to celebrate your birthday but she did not get there in time."

"Someone recently received a title? Hmm?"

'There is only one person on the suspect list…'

"Is the Crimson Rapier…" but just before Aero could finish his answer the door was swung ajar.

"That's me…" chirped a voice.

---

[Philip Aqua]

I could not look her in the eyes. Her eyes were clouded. This person so dear to my heart, was someone strict to herself and her party members.

But at this point in time, she looked so fragile and… sad. She said she was on her way to her relatives who live in Tempest. It was his birthday. Just as she was about to go there with her authority, she was summoned by the Summit.

There were reports of an attack at the Red King residence. That was her relative's house. The Red King also left a crypted message for her. As soon as she got both the report and message, she immediately went to search for Master who in my opinion, was one of the laziest and useless members of the Summit.

I thought nothing was serious. We were talking about the Red King after all. The current powerhouse of his generation. Nobody could defeat him in a frontal fight.

But I was wrong.

When she came back to us, we were informed of an official mission by the Summit. It was to investigate the occurrence of the 5th world, Tempest, where the Red King resided.

"This is serious. The Red King may come off as playful sometimes but he never sent a SOS signal before. He even asked the Summit to send me there under an official mission. The Summit tried to contact him back but there was no response…" our leader said with a gloomy face.

What could warrant a SOS signal by the Red King himself? This mission was more dreadful than we thought it is.

"Our orders are to be dispatched as soon as possible under high alert. Prepare yourself for departure. This mission is evaluated on the A+ level!"

As soon as she announced the mission level, all of our party members wore their game faces. This was no ordinary mission. A+ mission. This was the first time we were tasked with such a difficult mission.

We prepared for the journey in under two hours' time.

On 15th of Gale, 1790 we were off to the 5th world, Tempest. For some of us, myself included, this was the first time we stepped foot in Tempest.

Under our captain's apt guidance, what would take almost two weeks of journey time was shortened to only nine days. When we arrived, she immediately guided us to the Red King residence.

It took another one full day from the world entrance to the residence. It was quite far from the world entrance, no doubt to throw off unexpected guests.

Our captain said she often made a vacation trip here to meet with her cute little relatives. We could only scream in our hearts that maybe only the Reds were daring enough to make Tempest as a vacation spot.

When we arrived, the sight had all of our hearts in our mouths. And our captain was reduced to this state of vulnerability.

She clenched her fists tightly and gulped hard before voicing off her instruction, "Secure the parameters! Do not touch any evidence, use inspection skills and record all findings! Leave the villa to me."

All of them silently looked at her as she walked towards the lone standing villa. She stopped in front of the house, "Phil, with me," and entered without waiting for me.

My other party members gave me a look of encouragement and I nodded in understanding.

I hurried into the house to see her waiting for me in the living room. It had a homie and comfy feeling to it. Several bean bags could be seen lying around on the plush soft carpet. A set of sofas with a small coffee table overlooking them.

The other person was closely watching a frame hung on a wooden rack on the foremost wall.

I went to her side and she said, "Aren't they cute?"

She was caressing a framed picture. In it, she was surrounded by five kids who all bore the same red colour of her hair.

"Don't worry, they must be safe and sound somewhere," were the only reassuring words I could muster to her.

"I hope so. Seeing that the house was left untouched, perhaps I could hope for the better?" she said as she closed her eyes and took a deep, deep breath.

"Let's get serious. I already inspected the house and there were no signs of struggling. No traces of mana could be felt too. The battle had been contained only to the outside area," she concluded.

"Nobody would doubt that, given the surrounding conditions…" I trailed off.

We then walked to the front door and observed the other party members inspecting the outside field.

There were so many things to say but to put it simply, they were disastrous.

The soil was unearthed, burn marks everywhere with even some traces of blood if one looked closely enough. Trees unrooted from its place, some even remained there, burned by the aftermath of the battle.

"Don't let your guards down! The enemy may still be here for all we know. We will finish our inspection and return as quickly as we can."

Though her instruction sounded absurd from the other party members point of view, nobody could refute her. True, she held absolute strength among our group and that was enough to gain other respect. But the most important thing was, nobody wanted to stay here a moment longer than we should.

Nobody was crazy enough to think that they could defeat this enemy that even the Red King struggled to deal with. His whereabouts was still unknown and so the outcome of the battle was unknown.

It was dreadful enough to think that some unknown enemy could contend face to face with the Red King, not to mention the notion of him ever losing to said enemy.

The captain and I joined the others in inspecting the surrounding area. We already confirmed that there were no signs of life around three radius kilometres of the villa.

"We got some finding of multiple mana signatures," one of my party members reported.

We all sighed, relived by the news. Of course it would take more than just one person to deal with the Red King. But still, we would never want to come across them if we were given a choice.

Though all of us looked less tense because of this news, our captain did not share this relief.

"That is to be expected. Apart from the Red King, there are another two residents as equally as powerful as him. One of them is his wife, the Ruby Queen."

As she said that, our faces became tense yet again.

'That means…'

"This world is no longer safe. Not only the monster, we now had to be aware of these intruders. We will finish our investigation as quickly as possible and make our way to Atlantic and rest there."

All of us gave a firm nod and continued our job.

Our journey here had been short but that was only possible because of the limited breaks we took. We never ventured to any cities of the worlds we had passed and made a straight line here, to Tempest.

Though fatigued, we knew the importance and direness of this mission. So not one of us gave a sigh of refute.

We took our time to inspect and investigate as thoroughly as possible. We leave no stone unturned or in our case no stone uninspected.

The sun was already halfway into the horizon, dusk would come soon. After confirming everything, we prepared to make our way back to Sahara.

It would take another two days with our pace to reach the nearest city from Sahara's entrance.

We just took a few steps from the devastated site when our captain, who was walking in front, stopped in her steps.

She then bloomed a smile, her eyes teary.

She gave a few light coughs. "Rejoice, everyone. Our mission concluded here and our presence is immediately needed back in Estria."

Everyone stopped in their tracks. We were confused by the sudden turn of events. Sure, the Summit may have sent her a message, summoning us to Estria, but that was nothing to feel happy about.

"Thus, I will be using party teleportation. Get ready in ten!" she warned.

A blue magic circle quickly formed under us and though we could not believe it, the next time we blink our eyes, we were already there in the Red's teleportation room.

---

[????]

"Aww, you just missed the party! Why didn't you join them?"

"It is not time yet for them to know of our existence. Let them have their fragile peace while they still can…"