Special Chapter VI - Plan of Peace (part 1)

The roof thudded as Lyona dropped her butt to the ground.

She was too taken aback by the sudden realization. 

"Both sides were our enemies...? Go to hell! We are trying to stop them from having a war. Why are they turning on us, instead!?"

Lyona angrily questioned, but with only so much information that we have currently, there is not much that I can say. I sat down at the roof's surface next to her. I turned my gaze to her, and she looked quite depressed.

Lyona turned her gaze at me as if asking for company. She doesn't look too good, and I can only guess why.

"Just what's the point of coming here...? Why are we even stopping the war if both sides are our enemies?"

She asked so concernedly, and I began pondering myself.

"The answer to that is rather simple. Politics.

From the kingdom's point of view, they are the defensive. They have to do whatever it takes to keep standing and to keep their strength. But to the rebellion, their mission is to take down the government, and they will keep doing it until all of them are dead. After all, they had nothing to lose.

This war will not stop until either side is dead. Which means... there was never really a point in understanding each other."

I explained to her how I see this whole situation based on what we know so far, and Lyona shook her head from how dumb all this sounds. And sure enough, her confusion is exactly how I feel as well.

"But, there is an answer."

I looked at her, still seated and down. She lifted her gaze a bit to stare at the stars in front of us.

"If there was no rebellion, there won't be a threat, right?"

She asked as she stared to the skies, and I opened my eyes widely.

"W-What do you mean...?"

"What if the rebellion suddenly stopped rebelling?"

I pondered over it a bit at her suggestion. And somehow, it made sense just a little.

If the rebel wins, then the government will be overthrown, and that will cause even larger chaos. But, if the government wins, then nothing will change. The rebellion wasn't even supposed to exist to begin with, unlike the kingdom's government.

"If the rebellion stopped with their attacks, then there won't be any confrontation between them, right?"

"That makes sense, but why would the rebels suddenly stop?"

"That's... I don't know."

She placed her chin on her knee, while her arms wrapped around her feet. She looks like she is cold, but really she is just worried.

For Lyona, this is just too much to take in. My mind worked for a little bit, and I finally got an answer.

"I think... I know just what the answer is."

I stood up and explained to her my plan. It involves some crazy things and a crazy amount of people assisting, but this is the only way we can get around the situation.

"Y-You think that will work?"

"Well, if done badly, it could cause the war to get even worse. If done well, it might stop the war completely."

"But, who will be the one to manage it?"

"Why don't we get someone… neutral?"

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After coming up with a plan, the rest of it was quite easy. I 'interviewed' the assassins one by one and obtained a bunch of information.

The stalkers are indeed from the rebellion. They are worried that Mazino was going to meddle with their businesses, which was exactly what me and Lyona thought. Of course, we had no reason to be doing that, so we simply let them go.

I sent a letter to someone I could trust, someone who can be the centre of this whole plan. The plan was to make a peace treaty. To arrange a meeting of the two sides, with one neutral position as the middle ground. The two sides will come up with a few agreements and stop this whole war.

And right now, my best bet for the neutral position that I know of is the one person who has the highest authority from Mazino.

The Queen of Mazino, Queen Alyssa Mazino.

I sent a letter to her regarding this, requesting help as a middle ground while explaining my mission. Though Valon said clearly to not let the kingdom on my mission, the situation was far too different than we initially realized. So in this case, I will use Lyona's mission as the title instead.

Her mission was to stop the war using any means of peaceful acts. My mission was to stop the war using violence. 

The king was the one who gave her the mission personally. Which means, the king should be able to help out a bit regarding this, so I requested the queen for help.

A peace treaty was always the way for Lyona to settle this whole thing. But since both parties thought of us as an annoyance, it won't be that simple. A powerful aide from Mazino is needed, that is why I sent the letter to the queen.

The letter will arrive in Mazino after a day, and it will probably take a few days until the queen replies and does something, so we should all take our time.

After that night, me and Lyona stayed at a really expensive inn with high security. It takes fifty Jules a night, but to a noble like Lyona, that much money is nothing.

We waited, and time passed by. For three days, we waited for any news from Eva and the other knights. But so far, nothing happened, and it gets Lyona to become even more restless.

"We have to do something, Rize!"

She said as she walked back and forth in our large room at the inn.

This room came with a double large bed, a dining room, kitchen, and even a balcony where you can see the sunset. Truly suited for an expensive room. Aside from that, this room was also quite large. We stayed here for three days and the size never ceased to surprise me every time I entered.

And right now, the length of the room is being used by Lyona alone as she walks back and forth trying to come up with a way to contact the knights.

"Have you even discussed with Eva about communication?"

"Not really…"

"Then how do you plan on contacting her?"

"That's… what I'm trying to figure out."

"Does she even want to be contacted?"

"Geez, Rize!!"

She stopped her walk before stomping her foot and turned to me, who was eating a bag of chopped pear on the bed. As she stared at me angrily, I placed one bite into my mouth.

"Can't you be at least a little supportive?"

She folded her arms and looked at me angrily. 

Eva was like a best friend to her. She was her personal knight until just a while ago. They were unseparated for so long that she couldn't think very well after Eva left.

She meant so much to her, and I wonder if I have anyone like that to me.

I let out a sigh and placed the chopped pear bag on the bed before walking to her. I placed my hand on her shoulder and stared at her in the eyes.

"Listen, Lyona."

She looked up at me with shiny eyes, as if she was about to cry. Her height was just a few centimetres shorter than mine, but she had to look up to see my face.

"We are being hunted. There are assassins out there that wanted your head specifically, and probably even more who wanted mine. If we let our guard down just for a second, we're dead. If that happens, those knights will be doing their jobs for nothing."

"B-But we have you, right?"

"If the situation becomes troublesome, then I will do whatever it takes to set everything right. However, I'll just say it outright that I can't win if the entire kingdom is onto me. There are times when… other people are just much stronger than me. Okay?"

She looked down after being told. I understood her worries for her friend, Eva. But if there is nothing we can do, then it can't be helped.

We can't fight an entire kingdom or a rebellion alone. We have to be smart, and survival is a must.

"If we attract too much attention, we might cause danger for ourselves, and possibly to the knights as well. We should stay put until there is at least a slight bit of information."

She nodded at my words. Looks like she was about to cry indeed. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged. She accepted my embrace and hugged back.

"I wonder if Eva is eating something good now…"

She mumbled for a while, and I chuckled.

"Feel free to guess."

We both hugged for a few seconds longer and finally let go. I turned back to eat my pears, and she went to the balcony to look at the view outside.

It's currently night time, and it is the third night we are here. And so far, there have been no words from the knights.

A sudden word came across my mind.

"Speaking of eating…"

"Yes! Let's eat that super spicy thing you talked about!"

"Oh… I'm not ready to eat spicy stuff tonight…"

"It's fine, let's go!"

She pulled my arm and got me off the bed. 

After changing into a set of actual casual clothes, we headed out to eat at a restaurant that sold a super spicy menu. 

Luckily, they had juice as drinks, and I was able to eat the spicy stuff normally thanks to it. But coming home, I went straight to the bathroom and pooped for the rest of the evening.

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