Elizabeth La Louve, Betty, walked into the illustrious hall of Curtis capital. In her superbly trimmed red dress, blond hairs tied into a wondrous knot, an eyeliner and lipstick of the top brand enhanced by a glittering ruby jewel set, Betty was akin to the most beautiful rose in the capital.

Betty gazed into the window. Magic Tower had finished installing a new Mana smart window, which displayed the news and various gimmicky information. She scanned the window, absorbing the news, and sighed.

Once upon the time, the capital name was Romulus. It was the city created by and named after Romulus, the mighty monarch that La Louve family faithfully served. Upon his disappearance, La Louve took the management of the nation and ushered in the new age.

Then her father went insane, and everything changed with his death.

The Magic Tower, once a company behind the production of various artifacts, used the perfect opportunity in their candidate, Spade La Louve, to expand. At speed defying all comprehension, the Spade’s administration, backed by the Magic Tower, transformed the city of Romulus and renamed it Hecate.

Something remained the same. The palace remained as the center of the city, but a new ring of industrial zone was established between it and the outermost ring where the citizen lived. Two years were spent innovating that ring and relocating the people whose once lived there. It was a massive undertaking, but the Magic Tower successfully built Acceltra’s most advance industrial zone, which incidentally divided the common citizen from the palace. Meanwhile, people that could complain weren’t even upset. The rapid progress brought forth by the Magic Tower and its various artifacts of convenience made available to the public earned the organization an unshakable reputation and universal appreciation from everyone in the city of Hecate.

Even Betty herself counted it an honor to work with the head of Magic Tower. To be fair, the rapid change to the city she called home soured that relationship, but her admiration of Etaceh was unshakable.

Betty walked to the massive door that automatically swung open with majesty, strolled past several golden statues decorating the throne room (donated by Magic Tower). She looked sternly at the young, gold hairs man wearing a golden crown on the throne. Betty’s gaze then warily shifted to a man in a black-hooded cloak residing in the throne’s shadow.

It was the king who started speaking, “Hello Betty, it appears Xia disappeared, and your faction has failed.”

Betty answered curtly. “It is only four days since I lost contact, Spade. But let us be clear, Xia isn’t a member of any faction, much less mine. She is just a family member, nothing more, nothing less.”

“Wow,” Spade whistled. “That is cold, cousin.”

“It is the truth,” Betty declared.

It was then someone new entered the room—a woman with unnaturally pale skin and brunette hair, dressed in a black military uniform and barrette hat with cutesy flowers flairs.

Betty growled, “Carolina Westerna.”

“Please, you highness Elizabeth, no need for the hostility,” Carolina’s crimson eyes flickered with amusement. “The Military Police Commissioner insists I attend this meeting, given I am the one who suggested tasking Xiahana La Louve with this mission.”

Betty glared at the robed man — the Military Police Commissioner, Carolina’s adopted father, Curtis national hero — Hunter Westerna.

“Is this true?” Betty pressed the Commissioner. “Did you give a Deputy Commissioner an authority to dispatch a member of the royal family?”

Weirdly enough, Hunter accepted. “I did. Westerna bought up a good point.”

“What is the point?” Betty glared at her enemies in the room.

“The point that Xia is pretty useless,” King Spade stabbed at the question. “Oh come on,” he responded to Betty’s death glare, “everyone in the capital knows it. Despite having that kind of illustrious past, Xia is pretty much wasting her potential in that hell of a town—”

Betty interrupted, “You banished her there.”

“Because she will interfere with our attempt to restore Curtis’ sovereignty,” Spade answered and promptly angled his counterattack. “A sovereignty which was threatened by your father's action.”

Beside him, Hunter nodded; his expression was unreadable.

“In this stage, we can’t afford to let politic and pride impede prosperity,” Spade gestured toward Carolina. “Then Miss Westerna came to me with a brilliant idea.”

“It is quite a simple idea,” Carolina smiled with her reply. “We give Xia a chance to earn some accomplishments and if she succeeds, we reward her by relocating her back to the capital on a probation.”

Betty was outraged. “That is your plan? Sent her to die, and if she wins by some miracle, you order her back to be your guard dog as a reward. You win the image of the being a merciful ruler and get the chance to humiliate Xia a little more.”

“That is quite a theory,” Westerna sweetly wove her words. “But let us assume it is true, what would that make you, your Highness? Why don’t you do anything for Xiahana for the last two years? You could have folded her under your protection by ordering her to be your bodyguard or try to bridge the gap between her and our king.” Westerna coquettishly grinned. “But you never took that risk, so how can you blame me for making the effort?”

Betty couldn’t muster up a response to Carolina Westerna’s counterpoint, but it was Hunter Westerna who finished the conversation.

“Princess, we don’t live in the world of dream,” Hunter declared under that ominous robe. “Now that Xiahana failed, the Magic Tower and Curtis Military have come to a consensus to send two-hundred troops to support Cutler. We want you and Carolina to oversee that deployment.”

Betty sighed and folded, “Very well.”

Elizabeth La Louve spun and gracefully exited the room. She thought back to what Amy asked her days ago when Xia vanished. She sent the supplies requested, but still did not know what it was for. Betty only knew that when those supplies reached Springsong in a few days, it might be Xia only hope of survival.

Carolina watched Betty left with a complicated expression.

…

Xiahana La Louve found herself inside a total darkness. Her father laid in the pool of his own blood. Xia trembled, looking at the man who guided her faded away from the land of the living. She wanted to ask for help, but her voice wouldn’t co-operate.

She spun back and saw Betty.

“Betty, father is dying,” Xia shook her sister. “We need to call for hel—”

Betty responded with a push before Xia even finished, “Sorry, Xia.”

Xia's feet slipped, and she felt herself falling into a dark pit.

“I have to do this for Curtis,” Betty coldly spoke before vanishing away into nothingness.

In that darkness, Xia fell with tears streaming from her face. It was a lonely fall that seemed to go on forever. Finally, Xia splashed into a glowing pool of green slime. Fearing for what await her, Xia tried her hardest to swim out of the slime, but tendrils of neon green wrapped around her body and pulled her underneath.

As Xia saw her arm wrinkled into a desiccated husk in horror, she had only one thought.

I don’t want to be alone.

…

Xia woke up in her underwear, sweating and gasping for breath. She glanced around to distinguish her nightmare from reality.

Luckily, Ciel was there. The Unity Lord was dozing off in the couch of stone beside the alcove she slept in, with an empty bow of porridge sat beside him. It was his presence and this cave, dimly lit by a cheap candle lamp, which comforted Xia from her nightmare.

Xia didn’t know how to feel about this. She remembered being spoon-fed by him for who knew how long. Xia also vaguely recalled being cleaned with a wet towel once or twice. The man sleeping on that couch had seen and touch nearly every inch her body offered, except for the parts which would either land him in jail or shot-gun marriage in a more conservative state. She wanted to get mad at him, but she couldn’t muster the malice to do it. Crude as it was, Ciel was the only person in the last two years who care for her well-being. Her heart already ballooned three times it sizes at the thought. That nightmare did nothing except to enhance the endless gratefulness for the man who didn’t abandon her.

It was then Xia gazed into the wall opposite her and gaped.

Carved on that wall, were the illustrated map of the forest with markings and calculations etched all over it. Xia, being a learned tactician, recognized some words referencing a catapult, calculation for the oils and weight of the napalms and distances estimate. Whoever created this was incredible.

It was then Ciel stirred.

“Oh,” the Lord saw Xia sitting up and well. “Glad to see, you are okay. You have been in a daze for three days straight.”

Not knowing how to start the conversation, Xia went back to what bother her most. “What is that slime?”

“Slomrath,” Ciel said with a glum expression. “An old nemesis from my neighborhood. You can call him a brother of mine.”

“You must be kidding,” Xia refused to associate the two.

“I wish,” Ciel laughed dryly. “Trust me, if you think he is bad, wait until you see the rest of my relative.”

Xia only had more question, “You are nothing alike.”

“That is the nicest thing anyone says to me,” Ciel replied. “You don’t know how much I don’t want to be like them.”

Maybe it was his relief or something else budding in her heart, but Xia trusted him.

“What are you?” Xia asked.

“A being older than Acceltra itself,” Ciel answered. “We call ourselves Lord. We are birthed from the Void between worlds as an entity in a class of our own. Slomrath and I aren’t the only one around. I can guarantee you that a Lord is behind the founding of every nation in Acceltra. Yours included.”

Xia giggled nervously, “You mean Romulus the Great is your older brother? You must—”

Ciel butted in with the truth, “He is a bit of a grumpy pant. I mean, he is likely the better one among us. Often said my Authority is disgusting, and I should man up. Slomrath despised him. Aside from that little spat, Rom and I agree on most thing like Yume should shave his ego, Balor is an asshole and Slomrath is disgusting.”

Xia blinked, “I think my brain just short circuit.” Then a thought hit her like a truck. “Oh shit. You mean my father is right all this time?”

“Congratulation,” Ciel clapped. “You finally get the grand ‘I told you so’ for Betty.”

Xia, freshly vindicated, studied Ciel like he would start shooting laser beams and asked, “Did Amy know this?”

“She did,” Ciel replied. “She accepted the truth with gusto by eavesdropping on me and insisting on trying to keep me from turning into a bastard like Slomrath.”

“Speaking of the slime,” Xia brought up the point. “He said I need your help.”

“More like you need my knowledge,” Ciel corrected. “Fighting a Lord is bad enough, taking them without knowing their ability is attempting suicide. Slomrath’s Authority as the Lord of the Devouring Slime grants him an acidic body that could destroy most weapon, ability to spawn minions and the power to assimilate the ability of those he devours. The last one is especially nasty. He can eat any being and copied their characteristic and past it along to his minion.”

“So that is how those animal slimes come around,” Xia finally got the clue. “What about his Red Magic?”

“He probably ate a mage,” Ciel answered. “We are lucky he didn’t eat a dragon, or else he could really snowball.”

Xia struggled to get the next question out, “But what with those,” she swallowed, “those people trapped in that green-thing.”

“That is another thing which make your fight a suicide,” Ciel said. “Those people are being kept alive to farm their terror as faith power. Lords like Slomrath could further enhance their authority and power with faiths. As long as he got that power farm, he could regenerate his body and tank your attack all days.”

Hearing that and realizing how hopeless her fight was, Xia attempted to grasp another straw, “Can the capital beat him?”

“I wish,” Ciel shrugged. “But unless they send the big guns from the start, the troops will only end as his food. If they screw up enough, Slomrath will capture so many of them he becomes invincible.”

“We have to get out of here and warn them,” Xia declared. “You are a Lord too? You must have something to leave this cave.”

“I do,” Ciel admitted. “But my ability have limitation. If I leave, you are pretty much alone in here and I can’t come back. Without me, you are going to run out of food and die. I can’t do that.”

Xia felt touch, but she knew how stupid it was, “You are choosing me over the entire country. You said yourself he could easily grow exponentially stronger. You heard his plan to attack. Curtis is in danger.”

“Xia, Curtis has another Lord,” Ciel laughed. “The majority can look after itself. I am more concern about you.”

Xia felt the word struck her heart like a Cupid's arrow. Her brain wanted to refute that line, but her entire body won’t respond. It took a while for Xia to regain her body function, but what she said first surprise even her.

“Betty doesn’t know about you,” Xia stated with a weird sense of triumph. “My sister would never let an asset like you come with me if she knows how valuable you are.”

Ciel picked this opportunity to ask what was bugging his mind, “What is it with you and Betty refusing to see eye-to-eye anyway”

“Betty?” Xia snorted. “You know what I think about the insurrectionist, right? If Betty never helped them, they would never get to walk in like they did,” she pouted, “and now they got to live rent-free in the palace, and father, who gave everything for the nation, is painted like this insane old fart. I can’t forgive Betty for slandering our father for the sake of her privilege.”

Ciel finally realized the truth — the difference between the two sisters, “I see. That is your problem. Unlike Betty, you refuse to commit.”

“Commit?” Xia asked. “What commitment? I am committing everything.”

“You are misunderstanding how it is frame,” Ciel spoke softly. “When your father died and your family faced the crisis, you and Betty had two paths, two commitments: you either commit as La Louve to ensure Curtis prosperity or do as an honorable daughter and defend what is right. Betty went for the former. She crowned Spade, wrote your father off as the fool, and appeased everyone to ensure a peaceful transition of power. Meanwhile, you chose a non-choice.”

“I make a choice,” Xia yelled. “I choose to be a daughter!”

“Yet, you are still an official,” Ciel pointed out. “There is no such thing as a half revolutionary. You go big or go home. You are trying to be both an official of Curtis and rebel against Spade La Louve’s administration, and failing at both.” Ciel let the fact sink in. “Right now, you have two choices: bit your lip to serve Spade or fully sever your relation with him, declare the regime illegitimate and blow it sky-high in a rebellion.”

Xia understood Ciel’s pointed, but she still hesitated, “I-I don’t know where to go next.”

Ciel’s voice was so kind it was simply seductive, “Don’t worry, I will support whatever choice you make.”

For the second time that day, Eros himself  turned Xia’s heart into a hedgehog.