From today onwards, an additional adventurer was added to Kato’s party on their way home from school, though today the Jupiter sisters were absent because of enduring student council affairs, and the party left on time.
Evie and Alice took the lead, with Yui and Franco tailing right behind them—Alice was the usual centre of their angular momentum. Curiously, Sisi too walked alongside them home today. Behind all of them were Kato and Zenovyja, who trailed quite a bit behind the main group. It made sense, as Zenovyja knew Kato the most out of the current group of new-age Elites.
“That’s more or less the same story Bianca told me.”
Kato recounted what happened in the last few months—deservedly, as three originals of their group that Zenovyja knew of had been estranged, so a suitable explanation was in order.
“It’s hard, Zeno.”
“You’re making it harder by sitting on your ass doing nothing. How about you take a stand?”
“Harsh words, boss.”
He waved her words away perfunctorily.
“Hmm. Can you describe what’s holding you up?”
“Are we really gonna have such a heavy conversation on your first day back?”
“Oh, I must be imposing too much on you. Sorry about that.”
Zenovyja beamed good-naturedly. Kato was again surprised at the honesty, and sighed.
“We can have a talk about it another day, all right? How about I ask you about you and Central Mil? Care to tell me how you got there and then back here?”
“Hmm. It’s not a very interesting story.”
“It’s never interesting for the person telling their story, but plenty interesting for the listener. It’s the same here for me just now, y’see?”
“Mmm, you’re probably right. Well, I’m sure it’ll come up soon enough. After all, I know a few folks coming here from Central Mil very soon.”
“Why did you have to leave in the first place?”
Kato looked over at Zenovyja expectantly. She shrugged as if it was no big deal, but he didn’t agree with that sentiment after hearing her incoming explanation.
“Back in grade four, my grandfather passed away, so the last of the people who are directly related to great-uncle Emilio are gone. Our noble house is no longer a pariah to the Auxirian aristocracy, so my father decided that we return to the capital.”
Emilio von Metternich was a Heart. A defector from Auxiria to Eternia. Of course, a plain-as-day defection was not welcome by any means, but the Metternich family was spared the customary consequences of dishonour because of special circumstances around Emilio at the time. In the end, they were only banished from the imperial centre, and different parts of the family took different paths.
“Apparently, my father was close to great-uncle Emilio, who essentially followed him here. Little did he know that grandfather wrote into his will to have my father, the third child, to succeed him. My father could’ve refused, but my grandmother wouldn’t have it that way. Thus, we all moved back to the capital.”
“Did your grandma marry into the family?”
“Correct. In my grandfather’s generation, it was just him and great-uncle Emilio. One of my two aunts, my father’s older sisters, was supposed to succeed him. I guess my grandfather wasn’t impressed with them, so he called upon my father instead.”
“So you went back because of these family issues. Do you have siblings or cousins? That must mean designating the heir of your family was a big question at the time.”
“Of course, fate willed it that I would be an only child, so I’m the first in line for the job, and I don’t want it. My aunts have children, so I’m hoping one of them could take the reins someday.”
“But… there are complications with your dad and grandma?”
Zenovyja raised an eyebrow.
“You’re rather sharp today, aren’tcha?”
“Your dad compromised with his mum in the end, so it had to be, right?”
“You’re missing the part where my grandparents were living with us the whole time. I was raised by my martial-minded drill sergeant of a grandmother, hence my unruliness as a kid. I swear she hates women, and that’s probably why my aunts were, to say the least, uninterested in my grandmother’s plans for the future.”
“This is some complicated-ass shit.”
“I’d even guess that my grandfather’s will was mostly written by my grandmother. I get that they loved each other very much, but grandmother does have one of the most unbearably overwhelming personalities I’ve seen. I’m amazed my grandfather had so much patience for her.
“Anyway, I’m setting myself up for not succeeding the Metternich family. If need be, we’ll scour for my grandfather’s cousins’ descendants.”
“Then how are you setting yourself up for that?”
“The first step was to enter Central Mil. If I obtain a martial privilege, then I don’t need to inherit the house.”
In the Auxirian aristocracy, a noble with a martial privilege was exempt from inheriting the household they belonged to, unless they were the last living descendants of that house. Depending on the nature of the martial privilege granted, it meant one of two arrangements: their allegiances have irrevocably changed, or that their privilege was so grand that it justified establishing their own noble house. Outside of the second case, the martial privilege would only be granted to the person themselves, while their descendants would still be regular members of their house. The privilege could never be inherited by their descendants.
“So you’re aiming to join the Royal Guard?”
The Royal Guard was a special forces unit under the direct command of the sitting monarch. Every aspiring martial warrior of the noble class would want to join the ranks of the Royal Guards, a privilege which carried immense honour in the empire. They were essentially a small group of elite soldiers, not unlike Eternia’s Guardians of Hearts.
“That’s one path to a martial privilege. I could join tomorrow if I wanted to, but there’s a ceiling for me. I’d be one of the lesser soldiers of the Royal Guard.”
“Do you even care about that?”
“Yes and no. Technically it gets me to the same place, I admit, but my competitiveness just makes it bitter.”
She grinned, showing nothing bitter about it at all.
“Then what else do you have in mind?”
“I could become a martial retainer of a noble of a higher-ranking family. That’s a suitable martial privilege too.”
“…becoming a retainer?”
Kato’s eyes clouded over the meaning of that privilege. They were half-speaking in Standard Candoran now, since the terminology did not translate well into Old Yue.
“Yes. If I can become a retainer, I won’t need to be sent to war as a Royal Guard.”
The Royal Guard was a misnomer, since only a small number of them were used in the bodyguard role. As a catch-all collection of the most powerful individual soldiers across the empire, they were mainly put into employ as super-soldiers, just as the Hearts were. In layman’s terms, they were functionally assassins, removing any and all obstacles in the empire’s way.
“If you gave that option some thought already, then I’m guessing you already have someone in mind to become a retainer for?”
Zenovyja hesitated for a moment.
“…that’s right. I do have someone in mind.”
Kato scowled. Something irked him as she said that, but he didn’t know what. To him, Zenovyja was one of them, a native Livian. Giving her away to be shackled to the aristocracy seemed unfathomable, even though she was in fact a noble herself.
“Then is that plan on track? I wouldn’t know the ins and outs of this martial privilege business, but even so, you make it sound like this privilege is difficult to give out.”
“It is, and it isn’t. The nobility is just one big fraternity society, and a martial privilege is just one of the many—albeit centuries old—privileges one could attain as one of these special statuses.”
“A martial retainer is special even among that, no? Don’t you have to create a subjugation contract with your…master?”
It was Zenovyja who scowled this time.
“You sure know a lot about this kind of stuff, considering you’re an Eternian.”
“Those people will soon be my opponents and enemies in combat. I have to at least have some cursory knowledge of them.”
“Fair. Then, you know what a subjugation contract entails, right? It does fall under the basic trivia nuggets category.”
“And that’s why I don’t believe you. Knowing you, you’d be the last person to agree to something like that.”
A subjugation contract was an alchemical ritual which bonded two individuals, a master and a servant, in a permanent alchemical link. Specifically, it created a certain range of characteristics in their mana senses with respect to each other.
The first characteristic was for the master to inoculate himself of the servant’s mana—but not vice-versa. The first functional change of inoculation was that one’s internal mana processes could now utilise the other’s mana without their body auto-rejecting the foreign mana. The second change was that you could now sense that foreign mana signature much more sharply, allowing one to trace the other’s physical location, and to an extent their emotional state as well.
The second characteristic was the ability for only the master to siphon mana from, or transfer mana to, the servant. Since the servant did not receive inoculation, the master could control the servant in a primitive but effective manner—induced mana rejection by sending his own mana into the servant. The specific mechanisms of action were not as important as its effects, which was to instantly hit the servant with acute symptoms like headaches, fatigue, weakness, chills, nausea, vomiting and the like.
“Well, obviously, I hope to not perform a subjugation contract, but an obedience contract. Those are much more common for noble retainers.”
In an obedience contract, it was mostly the same as a subjugation contract, except that the servant too received inoculation of the master’s mana. This was a much more equal relationship because now the mana signature tracing went both ways, and mana rejection was no longer possible; though mana deficiency could still be inflicted upon the servant. While mana deficiency only carried mild, non-acute symptoms in comparison to mana rejection, it nevertheless represented authority as it was still a dangerous condition to be in if maintained over a period of time.
“I’d imagine you’d still be dissatisfied with giving up your freedom to anyone. What happened to that indomitable will of yours?”
“I’m willing to give that up for this person, but it depends solely on if he wants me as his retainer or not.”
She said definitively and without hesitation. On the surface, it seemed like she had changed between seven years ago and today; Kato could not imagine a world where Zenovyja would submit to anyone. However, the steadfast conviction in her demeanour struck him as someone who hadn’t changed between seven years ago and today, so he was utterly flummoxed.
More importantly, she had let it be known that the person she unwaveringly placed her trust in was a boy. Perhaps it wasn’t too surprising as Zenovyja was surrounded by boys as a child, but now in her flowering, mature form, he couldn’t help but be apprehensive about this tidbit of information.
But at the end of the day, it was also very much the business of the Auxirian aristocracy. He no longer had any say in such business, nor was he very knowledgeable about it to start with, so he could only watch on warily from afar.
“Then, I hope it goes well for you, and that I won’t need to fight you or your master in the future.”
“I don’t know how well it would go, but I am sure that you’ll never need to fight me or him because of it.”
Zenovyja, to Kato’s surprise, giggled. It was the first time ever he heard something so girly from her that he was wholly enthralled by its sounds. Because of that, it struck him particularly hard when Zenovyja apparently hand-waved him away without any hesitation.
“What the hell do you mean by that? Is he a pacifist or something?”
She flinched at Kato’s outburst, instantly realizing that her nonchalant reply had given him a false impression; she didn’t want him to misunderstand her exasperation towards a predetermined outcome for excluding him from this situation—friend-zoning—when it was the opposite she wanted to express.
“No, no. I just mean that I doubt we’ll escalate it to a battle of deities. If I become a retainer this way, I’ll be as far away from the Royal Guard as possible.”
“All right, fine. I get it.”
Thankfully, Kato readily accepted her reasoning. She skipped ahead of him towards the Elites, turning backwards as she explained.
“Stay there for a bit, I’ll be right back.”
They had finally arrived at the tarmac of the playground that they used to frequent as children, even Zenovyja. She caught up to the group and had a short exchange, mostly with Sisi. She trotted back to Kato and shone a smile.
“I told them I have business with you, so I’m holding you back for a short while. In return, I’m delivering you directly to Mme Parma afterwards. Is that fine with you?”
“I don’t think I had a choice with that one whether you were involved or not.”
That was true. Kato, Teto and Evie’s Eternian guarantor, Madam Madeleine di Parma, was to meet Kato after school today. It wasn’t out of the ordinary, though, because Mme Parma was whom they affectionately called Aunt Maddie, somebody who was more of a close and loving relative than an Eternian functionary.
However, they did expect Aunt Maddie to act more in her official position than as an informal family member nowadays. They were nearing the end of their juvenile years, and they would be inducted into the Hearts very soon, so their time together as a normal family was, too, drawing to a close.
“Then, come over here with me.”
Zenovyja led Kato over to the benches lined on the outer edges of the playground. As they sat, they watched their friends leave the area and head home on Jordan Street, where Franco would split up from them and head east towards the upper class district.
“I’m gonna cash in half of the favour right now. Is that all right?”
“You asking me if it’s good or not this many times is kinda unsettling. Usually, you wouldn’t ask and just do.”
“Am I that sus?”
“I just hope it’s not foreshadowing something ominous. First, could you at least explain to me what it was that I missed seven years ago that led to this favour I owe you?”
Surprisingly, Zenovyja shook her head.
“In the end, it was a trivial thing anyway, but a debt is a debt.”
“Ugh, so I owe you something because of something I can’t even know about? Talk about a pain in the ass, you.”
“I’ve been called worse, but it’s better this way. We can leave the cringe in the past where it belongs.”
“Okay, if whatever that is is trivially cringey, then I can live without it. But, if it’s trivially cringey, then pray I don’t owe you an arm and a leg.”
“How are you this whiney? I don’t remember this upsetting part of you.”
“It’s how I cope with unfair and unsolicited tasks thrust upon me from the heavens. I didn’t ask for any of this.”
She stifled a sigh of exasperation. Perhaps the difficult spot he was put into by the Elites was more exhausting than she first thought. All things considered, she noticed that Kato did seem fairly dejected on the whole, a far cry from his once energetic and optimistic childhood self—the same self that had the brash confidence to save Mayumi’s body and heart. After barely warming her seat, she got back up from the bench and stood commandingly in front of him. Clasping his shoulders, she looked him straight in the eye.
“I assure you that this has nothing to do with your predicament, nor is it related to your school. It’s about me, and my own issues only. I promise it won’t stress you out.”
Kato stared back at her in scrutiny. For him, the grotesque scars across her face could not hide how pretty her features had become. Almost like superimposing an image of her younger self in front of him, he noticed all the changes in each feature of her face, minute and major, over the missing years between them.
Today, her big almond eyes sported long, beautiful eyelashes. Her lips were well-formed and rosy pink. Her freckles had mostly retreated and faded away, and her cheeks were smooth, silky, and easily coloured. Her ponytails were bright and lustrous, now that she had grown out her hair.
Seven years ago, her eyes seemed asymmetrical due to her scars, even if they actually weren’t. The lips often lacked colour and even hydration, even in this unusually humid part of the Mid-Ranges. Her skin was oily, dotted in freckles and in rough shape all the time. Her hair was short, unruly and brittle to the touch.
Her transformation notwithstanding, while great, it was still Zenovyja underneath. She had said she didn’t have many admirers until after her adolescent growth spurt, and it made sense. If anything, even with those scars, he thought she would be popular in any normal school setting.
Upon realizing that, Kato sighed and put his hands up in surrender. The girls in his childhood circle were all abnormally high-spec, yet he had pasts varying between ambivalent and acrimonious with them. Despite being only just reunited with Zenovyja, his relationship with her was probably the least stressful of them—and after, ridiculously, mentally adjusting to the fact that Zenovyja was a girl. Whatever the reasons for his lack of baggage with her, he was less wary and more eager to follow Zenovyja’s lead.
“Let’s hear it then, Zeno.”
“Perfect.”
She smiled elegantly. Letting go of him, she took a step back and continued to stand and face him.
“So, I explained how I need to get this person to make me his retainer, right? Well, I need some life advice about that from you, someone who’s actually a guy and has nothing to do with the nobility’s politics.”
“You’re basically a man already, Zeno. We’ve never doubted that.”
She almost rolled her eyes at the obvious low-hanging fruit that was his clap-back, but as per usual she was tempted to prove him wrong regardless and dived head-first into it.
“Do I seem like a man now, huh?”
Zenovyja quickly closed the distance between them and an exotically aromatic scent assaulted his senses, not to mention the shapely masses of her body now glued to his front. Her arms reached around him, and she put her left cheek to his left to whisper softly in his ear, yet the words that came out were, of course, nothing but.
Kato realized quickly this was punishment for his smart-aleck reply, so he stood up from the bench and carried her by her thighs, quickly letting her off onto the rubber mulch. Though he tried to not think about it, the springy sensation lingered invitingly in his now-empty hands. As they separated, he saw that her face was flushed red but smiling nonetheless, and an inexcusable spark of yearning flashed in his chest.
“No, I’m sorry for interrupting you. Please forgive me.”
“That’s more like it. Good boy.”
He held his tongue as she got the last shot in. It wasn’t worth provoking another attack from her, especially when he thought there was a chance he could fold completely to her womanly charms. He waved to her for her to start.
“Now, about him. Until recently, I haven’t seen him in a long while—he’s somebody from my past with whom I had an ambiguous relationship with. In other words, I was a bully to him too like everybody else, so it’s hard to say how he’ll take it.”
“I see. You’re unsure how he would take it if someone who used to bully him told him they would submit to him?”
“Because you can only be a master to a small number of retainers, ever. On average, mana inoculation is a process that works consecutively only a few times. After that, your body would just start rejecting the process.”
In other words, a person’s body can only be made artificially immune to a small number of mana signatures. Even on the second try, the chances of success drop significantly depending on the master’s alchemical constitution. For nobles with no affinity for alchemy, their first retainer was most likely the only one they would ever form a subjugation or obedience contract with. This was why contracts like these weren’t just made willy-nilly on the whims of the master.
“So what were your first impressions like upon reuniting?”
She nodded, understanding that question in the general sense.
“My impression of him hasn’t changed from before. He’s someone I can trust. On the other hand, I thought his impression of me was somewhat ambivalent. He says he doesn’t have any beef with me for all the things I’ve done in the past, but I’m not quite sure about that. I understand now, after coming back to Livia, that while I made many enemies, many also admired me. I appreciate that sentiment very much.
“However, for this person’s current situation, he’s not in a good position to make someone his martial retainer, and I don’t see it changing in the near future. One reason is that this person’s currently a pariah to the nobility.”
“A pariah like your family?”
“Similar, but not exactly the same. They suffered iconoclasm at the hands of those closest to them, and the remaining nobility who remember them sees them as dead.”
“That’s a lot more than just pariah status, Zeno.”
“Well, okay, it’s different in the aesthetic sense, but functionally they’re the same. Even though the Metternich family was banished, our titles still held the same statuses as long as there are some holdouts willing to recognize it. “Dead” nobles, like in my master-to-be’s case, are the same.”
There was some truth to that. Exiled or even “deceased” nobles were only made permanent if the tide of politics were so great that they were kept down for long enough that their statuses got buried with the passage of time. A house that had fallen from grace could just as easily be rekindled by a later political opportunity—just as Zenovyja’s family had.
“Do you have holdouts willing to recognize you and your master-to-be?”
“I have the best guarantee that any one martial retainer can receive. All that needs to happen now is that the master grants the servant the martial privilege.”
“I see…”
If it was already set up to that extent, then Kato also saw no other impediment than the agreement from the master’s side. In that case…
“You’re unsure of where he stands on, if he himself wants to give you a martial privilege, right?”
“Right. He’s a kind enough person to give it out just to help a friend, but I don’t want to receive it with that sentiment. If possible, I want him to be the one who wants to make me his retainer.”
Kato pursed his lips.
“Zeno, that sounds awfully like something a girl would say.”
Now, it was her turn to pout.
“I realize that, and I also now realize how girls feel in these situations, so I’m more sympathetic to their side now. There’s a certain, specific kind of ritual to perform in order to validate the girl’s understanding of what’s truly between her and the other person. And I’m no different in that regard.
“But at least in my case, by wanting it being done this way, it’s also being fair to him. If I indulged in his kindness, I certainly don’t want a situation where down the line circumstances drastically change for the worse because of it, and he regrets making me his retainer. I’d be heartbroken if he ever thought that.
“I know it sounds a little selfish in the sense that it’s to pacify my own guilt if that happens, but at the very least it’s fair. I won’t play the help-me-because-I’m-your-friend card, and in return, you have to be truthful to me.”
“You make it sound like you’re not confident in being a martial retainer for that person. That ain’t the Zeno I used to know.”
“…”
She didn’t have a response to that—not because she was speechless, but that she disagreed with him to some extent, though she couldn’t right away pin it down where. Noticing that she noticed, Kato gave his real thoughts.
“Okay, scratch that. I should say that you’re even more Zeno than your old self. You’re being too fair, and that’s stopping you from getting what you want.”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
Zenovyja let out a small sigh and shook her head, looking somewhat listless.
“Are you that unconfident it wouldn’t work out nicely?”
“It’s like trying to make a romance work between two random classmates who haven’t really interacted with each other for a long time. How high of a bar is that?”
“You can just get lucky, I guess?”
“I need a plan of action with certainty of some degree of success, dumbass.”
“Success in romance is mostly brought about by fate and circumstance, not by a textbook formula. A plan of action, sure, but success is anything but certain. Keeping that in mind, does this guy even like you enough to make you his retainer in the first place?”
“I don’t know! That’s why I’m explaining this to you!”
“It doesn’t have to get as far as romance, now, does it? He just needs to trust you a whole lot, enough to be attached to you for life.”
“And because we’re the opposite sex, doesn’t that sound like there inherently needs to be a romantic component to it? There’s no world where a relationship like that remains non-romantic.”
“Okay, you know what, you’re probably right. Unless you were siblings or something, it would have to lean that way to some degree.”
Kato rubbed his eyes, getting a little exasperated like Zenovyja was. They were spit-balling in circles.
“Then do you like this guy? Romantically?”
Zenovyja froze for a moment, but she gave a tender answer nonetheless.
“…yes, I do. I like him a lot. More than anyone else in the world.”
Blushing at her candid confession, Kato nodded solemnly, though not yet understanding the depth of her words just now, in this specific moment. His face was stiff, unsure of how he should feel about it. What did well up inside him was a sense of disappointment and defeat, almost as if he was listening to a rejection addressed to him.
Meanwhile, Zenovyja was all tongue-tied, unable to voice anything else afterwards—and almost expecting Kato to respond to it. Because he was stunned, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but because she had momentarily forgotten about the dramatic irony in her words, she didn’t realize it came off like a rejection—the exact opposite of what she said and wanted to convey.
Not knowing what to make of these mixed feelings stirring in him, he decided to compartmentalize it—take it at face value and move on forward. The usual.
“…if that’s the case, then why not just start chasing after him? Until he definitely rejects you, I don’t see a reason why not to start.”
“I have only until the end of this semester before the opportunity passes.”
“Why only until the end of the semester?”
“That’s when I’m due to join the Royal Guard.”
Kato gave her an incredulous face, but she merely shrugged with resignation.
“It doesn’t have to be full-on romance. I think I just need to get my foot in the door, so to speak. Enough for him to seriously consider me.”
She said, almost hopefully.
“Is this guy in Livia? Or is he a miller coming to Korolev? Wherever you’ve got this ridiculous deadline from, it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
“He’s here, but I can’t tell you any more details, sorry. But yes, I agree I’ve been given a ridiculous assignment.”
Zenovyja shook her head again. As she lamented on that, she went back to her earlier angle instead, watching him expectantly.
“If you were in my master-to-be’s position, what would you do? Would you respond to my feelings positively?”
Kato stared back at her, momentarily blindsided by the what-if proposition, especially because of the tumult currently storming in his mind. In an instant, he thought of all the meanings behind that question, from deliberately giving false hope to pure obliviousness. It was slowly changing his perception of Zenovyja, who in his mind had a fixed and unmoving persona from their childhood.
“…you said that you’ve known this guy for quite a while, right? He should know you fairly well?”
“That’s what I want to say, yes. I believe so.”
“Then I don’t think you have anything to fear. It’s fine to take the challenge face-on like you always do, and let fate decide what happens. If it were me, I would respond positively. Unless he has other extenuating relationship-related circumstances, I don’t see a reason not to.”
He said confidently, trying his hardest to impress Zenovyja. However, she shook her head glumly; he could already guess what she was about to say.
“Unfortunately, he has girls around him that cause trouble, because he likes more than one of them.”
“He’s at the centre of a harem? What a bastard.”
Zenovyja let out a single, emphatic chuckle at that description and the irony in it.
“They’re very tough competition. They’re like the crown jewels of their…wider social circle, let’s say—I’m not quite sure how to precisely describe it. But even so, it seems like he’s having trouble because he has difficult pasts with them. Perhaps less difficult than with me, as he seemed to have implied, but it’s not possible for me to be sure of that.”
“All right, I get that part. But if your childhood with him is anything like with me, then you’ve got nothing to worry about, because I really do think of it as tame, now that we’re all grown up.”
She gave him a sideways look, almost smiling because of how close he was to connecting the dots, but because he wasn’t, she kept showing that half-amused look that now confused him.
“What, do you disagree with my assessment? I’m telling you, you’re a bully but also a leader to look up to. It should inflate your ego, not humble yourself.”
Now she laughed out loud, feeling the utmostly surreal. They talked a lot about themselves today.
“You know what? I think your ideas are worth considering. I’ll keep them in mind for sure. Thank you.”
When they got back to Sancheung district, the sun was already casting long shadows over the cityscape. Oftentimes, off of the main road, the rows of apartment buildings went more than half a dozen deep like a grid before it yielded into another major road. It was among one of the newer colonies of apartments, not too far from Eon’s apartment, that Zenovyja had been assigned to by arrangements from the fatherland.
Newer apartments meant it was tall, had a real lobby and working elevators, unlike the smaller “huts” that Kato’s family lived in. Older apartments had only staircases and would be maximum seven to eight floors tall, as no one would be willing to climb more flights on a regular basis.
Zenovyja’s corner of the residential colony was rather quiet and empty, with few cars parked along the access roads that were merely paved concrete space between the apartments. It made sense, as from this particular location, retail or commercial buildings were at a considerable distance away. It was a spot of respite from the busyness of the city.
“Oh, they probably just got here.”
Zenovyja pointed to a nondescript tinted-window sedan that was sitting in the shadow, still with its engine on, tucked nicely inside an inclined, depressed concrete section that was specifically for parking. At the same time, she waved at the driver’s seat, hoping to catch their attention.
And as if they noticed her, the car turned off its engines and its buzzing came to a halt. The duo stopped a short distance away, expecting the driver’s door to open in a moment, to which it did.
A mild-mannered Auxirian stepped out from the car, slightly taller than Kato and dressed in a black formal suit, not unlike a butler—but the person in question was a middle-aged woman. She had a glassy texture to her skin, wore round glasses, and an overall mousy look. The grace in her step and form was immaculate, being fully immersed in her role as the chauffeur. However, both of them—especially Kato—knew who this person was, and she was much more than just a chauffeur.
“Kato. Zenovyja. I’m delighted to see both of you.”
“Greetings, Mme Parma.”
“Hi, Aunt Maddie.”
The butler lookalike was none other than Madeleine di Parma, a kabinet of Eternia. In the organization’s hierarchy, she was the elite of the elites, and only a person with that status could be Kato, Teto and Evie’s handler. To the Eternian children, however, she was a well-liked relative first and foremost, before she was their handler. Because of that, they were sad to see her leave this role behind, as once they became Hearts, Aunt Maddie would have to treat them as such, and vice-versa. At the very least, they still had one more year to go before things were set into stone.
“We’ve just arrived barely a minute ago. My sincerest apologies, Zenovyja, but I thought you would already be home and we were about to ascend, so it seems like we caught both of you at the most opportune time.”
“Very fortunate indeed, Mme Parma. If you’re ready, let’s head on upstairs.”
“Before we do that, I have some private business with Kato first. Could you be a sweetheart and head upstairs first? He may not be joining us and heading home on his own, depending on how he feels about it.”
“Sure, not a problem. I’ll prepare something to eat and drink.”
With a courteous bow, she began to make her way to the apartment’s gate and leave the Eternians to their own. Zenovyja looked over at Kato and gave him a light shrug, indicating that this was where they might part for the day. Kato stuck out his lower lip and nodded, also assuming the same thing and accepting this turn of events.
Once she stepped behind the steel grille door and disappeared into the building, Madeleine clasped her hands together in a crackle of alchemical energy. Though invisible to most people, the alchemically trained could sense the faint, invisible barrier that was now erected around them and the car. It reduced the cognitive perceptibility for outside observers of the barrier, and prevented sound from travelling far outside of its range. In other words, it was a spell to better hide in plain sight.
“Come here, Kato.”
Smiling, he stepped into her embrace—Madeleine was very tall for a middle-aged woman, and it showed as she was the one enveloping him. It didn’t bother him, and in fact he wished it to stay this way, that Madeleine would continue to be a mother figure to him, though she hadn’t seemed to age in the last ten or so years, as far as he could tell.
“Congratulations on receiving your spirit tablet. You’re officially a Hearts candidate now.”
“Thank you, Aunt Maddie.”
He chuckled as he scratched at the back of his head, a little embarrassed by the congratulations. It felt somewhat like going back to your alma mater to see and catch up with a teacher who once taught you, reciting all of your achievements since graduating.
“How come you don’t visit us more often? All of us want to see you more.”
“You’re doing just fine without me, aren’t you, boy? No need for a nosy relative now that you’re all grown up.”
While Madeleine used to visit rather regularly when they were small children, the visits became farther apart as they grew older and had more things going on in their lives than just Eternian training. Children growing up meant increasing independence, and Madeleine played her role to the T.
“Will you become one of our handlers when we join the Hearts?”
“I’ll be determining your handlers. The handler of handlers.”
He expected this. Karl was too close to the children to be allowed to be their handler, and the organization needed someone else who understood the Eternian children as thoroughly as Karl did. Madeleine maintained the ideal distance for this role.
“As the handler of handlers, do you have a task for me? Asking me to appear in this fashion must mean something big.”
“While I do have a big task I’m assigning you, I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed, boy.
“Before I bring out the guest of honour that you’ll be assigned to as her handler, I’ll tell you this. With this person, you’re going to have to reveal to her your true identity.”
“I am?”
“Well, it’s more that you won’t be able to avoid it, so stay sharp, lad.”
Kato nodded cautiously, wondering who could be the VIP waiting in the sedan. As Madeleine shuffled her way over to the car, his brain could only produce a few names which could fit the bill, but all of them seemed quite improbable.
A black-haired girl around his age emerged from the backseat of the sedan, moving with a grace that reminded him of Zenovyja—which meant she was a noble from the fatherland. She wore a simple but elegant black dress for leisurely outdoor travel. Her facial features were fairly balanced and without any distinctivenesses of any ethnicity, making her face stand out as unique among a crowd. She stood fairly tall, only a couple of inches shorter than Kato, and leaned towards a slender build. Though her hair wasn’t long long, she tied her hair up into two buns; multiple buns were typical for women from the imperial court.
As it turned out, she was indeed a member of the imperial family and the general public, including Kato, should know her because she made numerous public appearances over the years. If it wasn’t for the harsh, stoic face she was making right now instead of the standard plastered smile of a public figure, it would’ve felt like the person stepped right out of the television screen.
Even more importantly, he immediately understood why it wasn’t possible to keep his identity secret for long from this person. He personally knew this girl from the past. Now the question was, did she remember who he was, and if she did, how long would it take for her to recognize him?
“Your Highness.”
Kato bowed in customary Yue form, standing and bending over at ninety degrees with his head down.
“At ease.”
He was greeted with a sharp, cutting voice, and at her command, he returned to attention and met her vivid, cat-like ruby eyes.
“My name is Kato Danubius, a member of the organization. It’s an honour to meet you.”
He reached out his right hand for a handshake, but he was to be surprised.
“If you will, your left hand, please.”
She extended her left hand as she asked him, the emotions unmoving on her face. However, just from her request he could reasonably guess at what she was trying to do. He sighed in his head, and mirrored her to shake her hand.
The moment their hands touched, he could feel her mana flowing from her hand into his. It was an alchemical technique that probed for the mana signature of the other, not unlike checking for proof of identity. Normally, it wasn’t possible to perform it without the consent of the target, but Kato didn’t have a choice in this situation.
Certain natural phenomena were intrinsically left-handed or right-handed, and it just so happened that mana identification was most effectively performed as a left-handed process. Because of its left-handedness, it was customary to respect the privacy of the other by shaking hands with the right. As a result, asking for a left-handed handshake was considered belligerent in any situation.
Besides identifying the immediate emotional and physical state of the person, it almost always uniquely identifies a person—assuming you had identified the person once before. It was like listening to a song, and it was up to the listener to recognize it.
“Turn around and pull up your shirt to show me your back.”
Under the tediousness of all of this, Kato realized the moment they touched that none of this was even necessary because of their special constitutions. Even so, he watched her expression unravel and let the formalities come to pass.
He quietly obeyed orders, revealing a worn, stretched out heraldic-like alchemical marking on his lower back. A similar tattoo existed at the same spot on Teto’s back, and certainly, Her Highness had this mark too—one that was identical to his own, in fact. It was a royal emblem, alchemically applied to all children of the imperial family in order to undeniably identify them as such.
A chill went down his spine as her left hand’s finger touched the mark and a surge of mana entered through it. She was certainly not leaving any stones unturned.
It only felt like a moment, but once the mana stream ceased, he was assaulted with a rough and desperate embrace from behind. Besides the plastering of her whole form onto him, he felt the contact of her face onto the back of his head—and the moisture from the tears now flowing from her eyes. The apprehension he was holding onto had finally dissipated, relieved that she was still the same person he once knew her as.
“I…I finally, finally found you, Abel!”
Kato turned around to return the embrace. It felt so surreal that a part of him was still stunned in disbelief. He couldn’t believe his eyes, but it had to be true. Out of everyone else in the world, he could always recognize two people’s mana signatures without fail: hers and Teto’s. Teto’s case was a given, but he came to memorize the black-haired girl’s mana signature because they got their royal marks alchemically emblazoned at the exact same time. It was done at her then-childish insistence, adamantly declaring that she would memorize his mana signature.
“I missed you so much, Yufie.”
She settled down a short while later, but she refused to let go of Kato, still holding onto his hand—befitting of a stubborn princess like herself. They both faced Mme Parma, who smiled gently at them.
“Your Highness, please keep Abel’s and Freyja’s identities strictly to yourself. Although the general public has long forgotten about their existence, it would be unwise for a rumour of their survival to spread among the nobility. Do you understand?”
“I understand, Mme Parma.”
“Now, Abel. Her Highness is here to attend Korolev Senior as an exchange student for a semester. I trust that you understand what to do from here, yes?”
Kato nodded. If Madeleine didn’t need to explain any further, then it was just that. He was going to be Yufemia’s caretaker for the time she was in town—and of course a job of that nature meant he would be her bodyguard at all times.
Curiously, he felt strange and unfamiliar at being prompted by his old name. It had been so long since Madeleine, or anyone else for that matter, to have addressed him as such.
“If that’s the case, then I’m moving in with Yufie, right? What about my stuff?”
“I will have Freyja take care of that later tonight. If she misses anything, you can always go back to fetch them. You’re not going far away or anything.
“As for the proposed arrangements, in addition to the handler assigned by the organization, a handler from the other side will also be attached to Her Highness. That person is Lady Zenovyja von Metternich.”
Madeleine was looking at the apprehensive Yufemia instead, who had grimaced at the mention of Zenovyja. She seemed to want to say something, but Madeleine continued before she got the chance.
“Your Highness, you understand that this is your family giving you one last chance, right? It’s not a punishment to have Zenovyja assigned to you, but a final chance for you to do something about it, and having her close to you means—”
“—that I don’t have an excuse to make if I fail in the end. I understand.”
She said through gritted teeth, her hold onto Kato’s hand tightening. He wondered what kind of situation she was in, if Madeleine had to send Zenovyja away first in order to have this conversation.
“Excellent. Your father wishes for this problem to be resolved in the very near future.”
“I know.”
Yufemia rolled her eyes with impatience, but Madeleine smiled graciously anyway, somewhat like how a family member would at a relative’s child acting up.
“Well, then. How about we make our way upstairs and hash out a few more details about this arrangement? Come with me, my children.”
As Madeleine tore down the perception barrier around them, they made their way to the apartment gate and into the damp, musty, concrete pathway to the stairs. Following behind their tall chaperone, Kato noticed that Yufemia was quite well-adjusted to the lack of luxury in this building.
“I’m at least a challenger, Abel. That’s why I don’t need any guards, and I can camp in the wilderness without supplies for weeks on end.”
Kato almost yelped at her response, but then he was immediately reminded that she was his—and Teto’s—second cousin. Just as she could feel his presence and vaguely his immediate emotions—curiosity for her in this case—he could also feel her firm willpower from their touch. It wasn’t anything close to the almost-clean telepathic connection he had with Teto, but they were still substantially sharing their states of mind.
“You’re going to have to call me ‘Kato’ from now on, Yufie. No one knows me or my sister by our old names.”
“What’s Freyja’s new name?”
“Also a New Yue name. Teto.”
“I want to see her again, too.”
“You’ll see her later tonight, apparently.”
“That’s true, although I have an idea of her already, since you two are one and the same. Also, you will have to address me accordingly in front of others. ‘Yufie’ is only allowed when we’re alone together.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The tiny elevator was available starting on the second floor, and while their destination was only on the fourth floor, they needed to take it because of Yufemia’s luggage. Once they reached the flat, Yufemia gave Kato another bear hug.
“I’m not going away, Yufie.”
“It’s Yufemia. No ‘princess’ though, since Livia is a special territory. You can use my title only in a private setting.”
“Yes, yes, Princess Yufemia.”
Before Madeleine put the keys into the locks, she turned to the children, pulled them in and lowered her voice to a whisper.
“There’s another reason Zenovyja is your guard. Kato, if your true identity is ever revealed to Zenovyja, there luckily won’t be any repercussions for anyone. Whenever that happens, just contact me, and I will handle the rest.”
Yufemia’s eyes widened.
“Is this why Kato can be assigned to me? Because Zenovyja is expendable?”
Madeleine smiled again.
“She’s the least troublesome candidate for the job by a large margin. And from the looks of things, I was correct to factor this into my preparations.”
“Don’t worry about that, Mme Parma. The Aestatis descendants are all connected via telepathy. We won’t mess up.”
Aestatis was an archaic way of referring to the ruling dynasty of Auxiria, and by corollary, their special dispositions as inheritors of a unique combination of extreme physical superiority and alchemical compatibility. Despite the confidence in her voice, there was obviously no concrete basis to it except for blind faith in herself.
“If you say so, Your Highness.”
Laughing, Madeleine unlocked the double-gated front door, and it opened into the entryway and living room of a small flat. It was not unlike Kato’s home, but despite the newer building, the chosen decor was very antiquated, a callback to styles of forty or fifty years ago. The floor tiles were a dilated yellow-green and the walls had intricate wooden wainscoting. In the openings of the hallways to the bedrooms and kitchen, Oriental doorway curtains covered them. Expensive, solid wooden furniture lined the perimeters surrounding a wonderfully grand stereo radio set, and the air evoked a sense of vintage-ness wherever you went.
On the living room’s coffee table was a teapot of freshly brewed tea alongside several porcelain cups. As they moved inside, Zenovyja popped out from behind the kitchen’s curtain, carrying a package of crackers with her to go with the tea.
“Princess Yufemia.”
She didn’t bow like Kato had, and instead she gave a casual nod at the princess. To Kato, it seemed like they knew each other fairly well, especially after Yufemia’s reply to that.
“So the rumours were true. You asked Her Majesty to allow you to come here, and here you are. But I didn’t expect the condition was to be my personal handler.”
With guns blazing straight out of the gates, she spared no breath in her accusatory words for Zenovyja. Over on the receiving end, she didn’t take them to heart, and replied in a steady voice.
“That’s right, Your Highness. I didn’t expect it either, but here I am. I hope to be of service to you for the coming semester.”
“Don’t play dumb. Did you beg for this exchange because Aeneas is also exchanging at Korolev Senior?”
To that, Zenovyja smiled bitterly.
“Your Highness, I guarantee you that he’s not the reason I came here. In fact, it was almost the opposite.”
“Oh? So what’s the real reason?”
“Her Majesty asked me to obtain a martial privilege on my own; otherwise she will formally induct me into the Royal Guard. I’ve been given a deadline, so there’s no time to waste.”
“Ah, yes, and your mysterious lord-to-be is supposedly in Livia. Well, have you reached out to him yet?”
“Of course. There’s no time like the present.”
“But you just got here yesterday, and you’ve already reached out to him?”
“Your Highness, so you already knew what my plans were, then.”
“Only scant, technical details. I can never dare to guess what your motivations are.”
“…”
Madeleine sat down on one of the ornate wooden benches that lined the coffee table, silencing the two. She served herself some tea and crackers.
“Let’s get the mundane stuff all sorted out first before the two of you can continue your conversation. I’ll explain so that all three of you will be on the same page. Understood?”
They all nodded simultaneously, and made their way into other available seats. They didn’t dare to touch the tea yet, even Yufemia, despite being a bonafide princess of this country. This was how important Madeleine was.
“Let’s start with Her Highness’ situation first. Princess Yufemia Sofiya of Auxiria, heir presumptive, is exchanging at Korolev Senior for the coming semester. As a grade thirteen student, attendance is not mandatory.”
Though she was designated as the crown princess, Auxiria had very unique succession laws, so the title didn’t carry nearly as much weight as it did in other countries.
“However, as your handlers are not, I still expect you to treat school as mandatory, Your Highness. Your handlers in this city will be Lady Zenovyja von Metternich, and Mr Kato Danubius, the future Seven of Hearts. Their terms will last until you leave for the fatherland. Is everyone following so far?”
They all nodded again, full attention being paid to the Eternian official.
“Princess Yufemia, I must remind you formally once more. Your father expects your issue regarding Lord Aeneas de Guise to be resolved by the time your term here ends. Is that understood?”
“Yes.”
Yufemia responded curtly, barely hiding her impatience once again.
“Zenovyja and Kato, as her handlers, I expect you to assist Her Highness however possible, including with Her Highness’ task. Is that understood?”
““Understood.””
Kato felt intrigued as he watched Madeleine eyeing Zenovyja expectantly, who was obviously aware of the situation between her, Yufemia and this Aeneas person that Kato slowly got more and more curious about.
“Now, for Zenovyja. I understand that you’ve negotiated with Her Majesty to approve of your exchange to Korolev Senior. Her Majesty’s condition is that you must obtain a martial privilege by the coming semester’s end, or else be recruited into the Royal Guard unit that’s dedicated to Her Majesty’s personal security, the Shieldbearers. It seems like those conditions are non-negotiable, so good luck, Zenovyja.”
“Y-yes, Mme Parma.”
Zenovyja bowed once more. Madeleine gave her a bright smile.
“If I may add, fulfilling your goal may be simpler than you think. I think you can put more confidence in yourself, Zenovyja.”
“I-I see…”
She stammered, but Madeleine had already turned away towards Kato. Kato, having heard Zenovyja’s predicament beforehand, agreed with Madeleine’s sentiment, though he didn’t know that they came to the same conclusion from different places.
“Finally, for my child. I’ve heard what’s happened recently at home and at school. I want to say something more opinionated about it, but honestly, I’ve forgotten how it was to be young. So, all I can say is pull yourself together, child.”
Kato was stunned by the surprise lecture from his godmother, so thrown off guard that he didn’t have the capacity to snap back and whine at her. In fact, he was more embarrassed by hearing this from his mother figure than anything else. Across from them, Zenovyja stifled a laugh, to which Kato noticed and scowled.
“…yes, Aunt Maddie.”
“Considering your track record, I’m a little hesitant in leaving two more wonderful girls in your hands, but alas there’s no better choice than you, child, so if you’re going to disappoint the others around you again, at least don’t disappoint me.”
It hit him right where it hurt, especially when Madeleine revealed a sly smile at Kato. He pinched his nose with his fingers and closed his eyes wearily as he let out a resigned sigh, but he didn’t disagree. He let Madeleine continue and wrap up the technical details of their new living situation, and soon it was time for her to depart.
“That’s all for the debrief. Any other questions?”
““No, ma’am.””
“Then have a good night, my children.”
Their arrangements were fairly straightforward. There were individual bedrooms for each of them, two on one side of the bedrooms’ hallway and one on the other. By mutual agreement, the single side was to be occupied by Kato, while on the other side Zenovyja took the room closer to the living room, leaving the third and final room to Yufemia.
They already came up with and agreed to a schedule of chores to rotate between them. The only thing that the ladies couldn’t do properly was cooking, so with their limitless financial resources they were going to get takeout for dinner on two out of every three days.
Despite the antiquated decor, the layout was modern. There were two fully-equipped washrooms available, so the genders could be split. Classical inner balconies—balconies that were inside the building rather than jutting outwards—lined both ends of the apartment. The kitchen was fully powered and motorized, no longer using gas-fired stoves like at Kato’s home.
When Teto arrived, she sensed that Kato wanted her to wait before making herself known. It wasn’t until Zenovyja was in the bath that he gave Teto the signal, and the imperial family went downstairs to fetch his belongings.
“Freyja!”
“Yufie!”
Their reunion was short, but Yufemia had her fill. Teto didn’t linger for very long, and they hurriedly carried his luggage back up to the flat before Zenovyja could finish up and possibly intervene at this inopportune time.
Most of his belongings were just clothes and essentials, since he had always shared rooms with his sisters. Surprisingly, Yufemia’s room was just as barren as Kato’s, and she preferred this spartan aesthetic. However, Zenovyja’s was radically different, and once their rooms were decided upon, she immediately got to redesigning the interior. Even after Kato had put away his things, she was still busy with decorating.
“Wow, you’re still going. Are you going to finish before bedtime?”
“Yeah, I’m almost done. I just need to put these up on the walls and tidy up.”
“…”
Yufemia and Kato were loitering outside in the hallway looking in, watching a stereotypical girl’s room being set up in real time. There were a lot of bright colours on the walls, a fully-made fairy tale-like bed, a desk occupied by girls’ items, and even her own carpeting to cover the glazed ceramic tiles. The vibe was just missing a window, unlike the other two bedrooms, which had a window open into the inner balcony.
“Do the two of you know each other?”
“Well, of course we do. Simply put, we’re childhood friends.”
“Zeno, that’s a stretch and you know it. We weren’t friends in the usual sense of the word. You were the playground bully and I was just a runt.”
“It still qualifies if we’re friends now.”
She stuck her tongue out cheekily, obviously knowing that her logic was utter rubbish, but Kato couldn’t deny that statement either because of the element of truth in it.
“That kind of explains why this arrangement is convenient for both the organization and the empire.”
Yufemia mused.
“The empire, too, is it? But Kato isn’t connected in any way to the empire.”
Zenovyja questioned casually.
“It’s more like everyone here is Mme Parma’s client, and plus, from what I saw earlier, she’s like Kato’s parent rather than a handler. Her Majesty consistently puts a lot of trust in her, so it kind of makes sense to put Mme Parma’s people together.”
“Hm. That does sound about right, Yufemia.”
“‘Yufemia?’”
Kato noticed that Zenovyja dropped the honorifics.
“Even among nobles, you’re not allowed to use your titles with each other while in this city. Though, in a private setting like this, it’s not essential to follow that rule.”
“I see, but…”
He wanted to ask about her animosity towards Zenovyja earlier, but seemed to have subsided. Somehow, she was able to read that confusion in his eyes and answered anyway.
“Zenovyja and I aren’t friends, but we’re not enemies either. We have a lot of history, for good or for worse. That’s all.”
Kato nodded sullenly, as this probably meant a semi-tense cohabitation for the next few months. Zenovyja sighed helplessly.
“You make it sound like it goes both ways, Yufemia. It is what it is, but let’s be nice to each other while Kato’s here, okay?”
“I will definitely be nice to Eternia’s golden child, but I don’t have to be nice to you.”
“Hey, I’m out of the loop here, and from the looks of things, I’m going to be roped into this if I’m going to be living here with you two. Can somebody fill me in on what’s happening?”
Raising his hand, Kato interrupted them. Normally, he wouldn’t do this, but because he trusted both of them quite deeply, he spoke out loud his thoughts before he remembered that this was supposed to be his first time meeting Yufemia. He internally slapped himself, but it was too late—hopefully, Zenovyja didn’t notice the slight inconsistency.
“Let’s each tell our side of the story on our own tomorrow. It’ll be Sunday, right? I think it’ll be better to prepare you for Monday, when Aeneas and the others arrive.”
After the girls exchanged glances for a moment, Yufemia replied.
“I’m fine either way, but I can agree with Yufemia on the last point. If we’re going to live here together, I think it’s fairer to Kato for him to know what he’ll be seeing, than just drag him along into something bothersome.”
Zenovyja nodded in agreement, but Yufemia was somewhat confused by her reasoning.
“Bothersome?”
“Kato has enough of his own interpersonal relationship issues already. I’m certain he’s not excited to jump head-first into ours.”
Kato face-palmed, not expecting it to be revealed to Yufemia this way, but it was probably a conversation they would have to have in the future anyway. His second cousin’s narrowing eyes zeroed in on him right away, expecting him to provide a satisfactory answer.
“…once you’re more settled in at school, I’ll give you a rundown. You’ll understand better once you get to know the folks involved.”
“All right.”
“Will you be assigned to our class? I’m assuming you are, if we’re your handlers.”
“Yes, that’s what Mme Parma said before I got here. Hey, how does school here work? Are classes hard? Is there martial P.E.?”
“Well…”
Then, it devolved into a trivial conversation about the little details of school. It wasn’t until Zenovyja got up and declared that she was finished that they finally stopped loitering outside her room. When Kato said that the typical hour of rising and shining was seven sharp, sometimes even earlier, colour drained from the faces of the two girls. Needless to say, an adjustment period was in order for them as the lights went out in their apartment.
“I understand now. This is rather insane, I must say.”
Come early Sunday morning, the three of them were sitting at a small breakfast outlet on the retail street. Yufemia was, as expected, the most uncomfortable with the situation, as she was obviously not used to the lifestyle patterns here, but on the other hand her tolerance for the dirtiness of these working class establishments was still surprising. The greatest difference was the free space—it was a premium in Livia.
Unlike architecture in the fatherland, every inch of real estate was utilised. The breakfast joint was just one of many at the ground level of apartments above them, and instead of a walled store, it was essentially like a massive garage with makeshift tables extending out onto the pavement. They sat at one of those tiny wooden folded tables furnished with disposable utensils, plastic stools, and a worn-out teapot that had seen at least ten thousand meals. The hustle and bustle, too, was typical of Livia.
“Yeah, classes start at eight-ten and end at four-forty. Very insane schedule, if you include extracurriculars.”
“I guess we’ll introduce Yufemia to The Class F Elites at morning practice Monday? Alice gave me the schedule already.”
Because they lost a few musicians to Class B, Zenovyja readily accepted Alice’s invitation to join their little band. She was to play bass.
“Yeah, it’ll have to be that.”
Somewhere along the way, they decided that they didn’t always want to practice in the mornings, so they came up with a schedule that dispersed the all-hands practices among mornings and after school.
“The very first thing to do is to get your cleanse tag from the faculty, though you’ll go there first in any case.”
With just a plain shirt and pants, Yufemia was in a thin disguise, only topping it off with a hat and sunglasses to deter immediate identification. Any up-close inspection would have revealed her. On the other hand, Zenovyja wore something more girly and casual, complete with an autumn blouse and a long skirt.
“You can get lunch at the cafeteria. You won’t be disappointed with the quality of food there.”
The city shined. Bicycles, mopeds and cars shared the centre of the road. The smell of delicious rice noodles and soya overlapped disharmoniously with petrol fumes. Noise and chatter was so abundant that they were practically shouting. The most enchanting thing was that there seemed to be no end in sight to this scenery.
“Then, I’ll be off to check up on my family’s old residence. I’ll be back here by lunchtime.”
Zenovyja saluted the two and left in the direction of the nearby taxi waiting area. This was partly why Yufemia had two handlers; realistic logistics.
“She really is a native of this city.”
Yufemia said quietly as Zenovyja disappeared into a taxi and watched it drive off.
“Well, what did you expect? She was born here and lived here for ten years. It’ll be weirder if she forgot how to make her way around.”
“Do you think she’s going to see that mystery boy, too? The one she’s saying she’ll get her martial privilege from.”
She spoke in Old Yue with a reverse accent, but it was clear that it was weak because she sometimes used Standard Candoran in the mix.
“The mystery boy? I guess she will. I don’t have much info on this either.”
“Isn’t she your childhood friend? How do you not have info?”
“Okay, that’s just her strong-arming that label in, and even if she was, I’m still completely disconnected from the nobles. I literally have no clues.”
“That reminds me. I have to ask you what happened. What really happened to you and Freyja?”
Kato gave her a shrug.
“It’s not that exciting. Let’s go somewhere else first before I explain.”
And so, they made their way to the nearby riverside promenade. It was a very wide river for its location, at a width of a couple hundred metres, enough to require a full blown bridge to cross. As they passed several streets to get there, they held hands and spoke trivially about themselves.
“I learned how to ride a bike when I was seven.”
“The imperial garden was basically a jungle of allergens.”
“The chocolate made here is way worse than from the fatherland, unfortunately.”
“I like the rain more than the sun.”
Without noticing it themselves, they were trying to make up for the missing years between them. The way that they held each other’s hands so tightly was indicative of the depth of their feelings, that it was so much more precious today because their hands were once brutally and tragically split apart.
“Abel…”
“Yufie?”
At the riverside promenade, a grand ashen balustrade paralleled the waterfront to protect pedestrians. On the pavement walkway, people lingered but not for too long, and was much less busy than the inner city at this hour. One could say they were effectively alone now.
“I just wanted to call out to you.”
Yufemia pushed herself against Kato’s shoulder so that they were glued side by side, and still hand in hand. It might look like they were a young couple, but it was not the case. They were family.
They came to a stop at a secluded section of the promenade and sat at one of the benches, but they remained inseparable.
“Yufie, do you remember what happened to Aunt Lilia?”
“Of course. She was assassinated, and you, Freyja and Luna were thought to be dead, too. You have no idea how heartbroken I was when they told me that.”
She frowned. It was ancient history now, but it didn’t make it less painful for her.
“How did you come to know I was still alive?”
“I didn’t know until, by chance, Zenovyja described you and Freyja to me.”
Kato was taken aback, though he instantly understood how it came about, especially if Zenovyja was still wielding her martial prowess after she left Livia.
“She was an insufferable tyrant as a child. It wasn’t until a few years afterwards that other noble children like myself caught up to her level of strength and started winning fights against her. It was in one of those conversations that I overheard her talking about you.”
He chuckled at her description of Zenovyja, which was definitely Zenovyja-esque.
“What did she say about me? To whom?”
“About you, Teto and another girl being the strongest deities from Korolev. I recall she was explaining to our peers how Eternia had strength that could match our own imperial soldiers, in order to make a point about complacency. When I heard they were our age, red-haired identical twins but not twins because the girl was younger, who do you think I suspected they were?”
“One coincidence too many, huh.”
“I started snooping around after that, but I was a kid, so it was only a matter of time before Her Majesty found out what I was doing. When she did, she refused to confirm or deny my questions about you. Instead, she delegated this issue to Mme Parma.”
“What did Aunt Maddie tell you?”
“She said that I could visit Livia during the yearly student exchange for grade twelves to Korolev Senior and deliver me directly to you to confirm for myself. I was confident I could identify you, so all that was needed was to wait for grade twelve.”
“And you had the patience to do that? To wait a few more years and then one additional year? You’re older than me by one year, no?”
Grade thirteen was an additional, optional year of secondary education. Usually, nobody took it because it was a waste of time, but in her case, it was necessary because Yufemia was in fact one year older than Kato and Teto. Yufemia shook her head.
“Under normal circumstances, there was no way a princess would be allowed inside Livia, or even this part of the empire for that matter, on her own. It seemed like the earliest possible opportunity, and over the years the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like to be the only opportunity, ever.”
“Why’s that?”
“As I learned more about the empire’s politics, it’s not that hard to put two and two together. Zenovyja said all of you had the same martial arts mentor. Two Aestatis descendants being trained up for war? Was there any doubt you two would become Hearts?”
“I see. You’re right about that. Once we become Hearts, we’d definitely be out of reach of each other. It looks like I owe Aunt Maddie another favour.”
“The blood in us may be cursed, but at least it temporarily brought us back together.”
She snuggled even closer, if that was even possible. The excessive physical intimacy was not cultural or even wholly emotional, but mostly physiological—the curse of Aestatis descendants, so to speak.
“Are there even any demerits to being an Aestatis descendant? We’re basically superhuman.”
“Superhumans don’t fit well into a society built for normal humans. The fact that Aunt Lilia was murdered, and then we were separated, is proof of that.”
Yufemia said with such hatred that Kato was spooked. Of course, as Aestatis descendants, he felt her raw emotions themselves flood into him, momentarily overwhelming his senses. Vice-versa, she felt what was happening and immediately let go of him.
“Sorry about that! It’s been a long time since I’ve synchronised.”
Once she pulled herself together, she went right back to clinging to him the same way, reopening the emotional channels again. The sharing of their states of mind was a unique ability between Aestatis descendants, and it was the main reason why Teto and Kato were just as sticky to each other as Yufemia was right now.
For the descendants who were emotionally close to each other, they tended to like being in synchronization, and while they were synchronised, they shared their emotions freely—which together formed a positive feedback reinforcement loop. As a result, it was not uncommon to see extremely strong bonds between them. Kato and Teto, however, were the only ones to have this telepathic synchronisation work across long distances. Every other pairing required physical touch.
“Don’t sweat it. And don’t hate the world because of it, either. I think I wanna get over my emo phase, and you should too.”
Shards of ice formed in the recesses of his mind, only to be overwhelmed by a surge of magma bursting through at his last quip. There was no doubt it was Yufemia’s feelings intruding through.
“I-I’m not in my emo phase! No way!”
“We’re both definitely in a very emo phase of our lives. How are we both so dark and cloudy in our heads all the time?”
“Not right now! I’m feeling a lot of sunshine!”
“Yes, yes. Loads of sunshine.”
Kato hugged her tightly, calming her down from her outburst of embarrassment. Patting her on the head like a child, it was some time before he let go again to continue. As he readied himself, Yufemia followed his lead, detecting his heightened composure from their synchronisation.
And so, he retraced his steps from Princess Lilia’s assassination. His and Teto’s mother, Empress Kiria, was the assassins’ real target, but they misidentified her because they were identical twins. Not only did Lilia perish, Kiria’s husband and the children’s father, the Emperor-consort Riverus, was murdered in collateral. Thankfully, being on the other side of the family, Yufemia and her father weren’t caught up in this intrigue.
After the incident, Kato and Teto were immediately taken away from the palace and sent far away to an orphanage on the border of Yue and Royal Candor. While Teto was his biological twin, she had been put into alchemical stasis for more than a year, so she was developmentally close to four years old, while Kato had just passed his fifth birthday. There, they met the future Evianna, whom they would be together with since. They would stay at that orphanage for about a year before being “discovered” by Eternian agents, who arranged for them to be transferred out to Livia, ostensibly in preparation to begin their training as Hearts.
As a child, he didn’t question the depth of what was happening around him, but as he grew older, the more he thought that this arrangement was in part set up by Eternia. There was no doubt to him that the crisis leading up to Lilia’s murder was real, but the cleanup operation afterwards was clearly a mass coverup, and Eternia was involved. That was the only reasoning he could come to as to how Madeleine, an Eternian kabinet with an immense amount of access to and trust of the imperial court, became his handler. And now, after learning of how Yufemia got here, he was sure of it.
“Yufie, that’s how I survived after Aunt Lilia’s murder.”