In the Gerret''s family- study, Sebastian was hurriedly browsing- through the contents- of a book. His compo-sure and current look- seemed a distant mem-ory of what it used t-o be. Book after book- Sebastian was pillag-ing its contents. A y-oung maid slowly walk-ed into the study, Se-bastian who was compl-etely immersed in his- own world, did not n-otice her presence.
“Young Master.” The m-aid said, bringing hi-m back to reality.
“Why are you here?” S-ebastian angrily resp-onded as he turned to- look at the maid who- was in a bowing post-ure. “I said no one s-hould disturb me for -the rest of the night-. Get away.” Sebastia-n continued before tu-rning back to the boo-ks.
“Master it’s just tha-t your friend,” The m-aid was saying as Seb-astian turned to give- her a vicious scowl.- “Master Willard has -returned.” She hurrie-dly said to conclude -her statement. Sebast-ian who was thoroughl-y infuriated had a sl-ight change in his fa-cial expression.
“Why did you not say -that earlier? Lead th-e way.” Sebastian qui-ckly responded as he -dropped the book in h-is hand. The news of -Willard’s return was -truly a big one to Se-bastian. ‘He has fina-lly returned. At leas-t, i have one more all-y right now.’ Sebasti-an silently thought t-o himself as he follo-wed the maid into the hall. -
When getting to the hal-l, Sebastian noticed -people standing besid-e each other. One was- a young lady who had- dark locks of long hair and -she was standing close to Willar-d. The other one was a fa-miliar looking man wh-o had to be Willard.
Willard had obviously- grown in height and -stature, his hair being much longer and his -skin was tanner than -it had been in the pa-st. The difference in- his appearance was v-ery apparent, as Willa-rd had a more mature -look and feel to him.- Sebastian waved his -hand instructing the -maids out of the hall-.
“Brother, you made it- back alive,” Sebasti-an said with a smile -as he approached Will-ard.
“That day you left, I- had thought the wors-t had happened. Only -through the intervent-ion of Ade was I able- to find out that you- were taken away by s-ome expert.” Sebastia-n said recounting mem-ories of the past.
“Trivial matters of t-he past,” Willard res-ponded with a smile.
Sebastian called in A-rilis, who was instru-cted to quickly prepa-re a nice banquet for- Willard and to arrange -a comfortable place for him to st-ay. Willard introduce-d Nana to Sebastian a-s an acquaintance.
Wi-llard passively recou-nted what had happene-d to him during the t-wo years he was missi-ng. Willard purposefu-lly avoided giving Se-bastian detailed info-rmation about Aorah a-nd Nana. From Willard-’s point of view, the-re was no point in Se-bastian knowing and i-t was better for Will-ard since he truly di-d not understand the -depth of Aorah’s past-.
After the meals were -made, Willard, Sebast-ian, and Nana ate and- conversed some more.- They mostly talked a-bout small matters wi-th regards to what ha-d happened with Willa-rd. From their conver-sations, Willard coul-d tell there was some-thing greatly botheri-ng Sebastian, who pur-posefully was avoidin-g talking about it be-cause of Nana. He kne-w Sebastian was waiti-ng to have a one on o-ne conversation with -him. Willard also fou-nd it weird that Baya- wasn’t present or th-at Sebastian hadn’t m-entioned anything abo-ut him.
“Brother, it’s been a- long journey here. C-an someone show my fr-iend to her quarters -to rest up?” Willard -asked after they fini-shed their meals. Nan-a got the hint that t-hey needed some priva-cy to converse, so sh-e bowed slightly to h-er host Sebastian.
“Oh yes, where are my- manners? Arilis take- young miss Nana to h-er quarters.” Arilis -called some maids to -clear out the place a-nd personally lead Na-na away. Sebastian le-ad Willard to his stu-dy, where he made sur-e the doors were firm-ly shut before turning around to face Willard.
“Brother go ahead and- speak. What is going -on?” Willard immediat-ely asked.
“A lot has happened s-ince you went missing-. Let me start from t-hat point to tell you- what had happened.” -Sebastian said in an -obviously rattled man-ner.
“You killing Asyut br-ought about a huge st-orm in this city. The- Helden family poured- in all their resourc-es to find you. After- a year of searching -with no results, the -head of Helden househ-old personally tried -to get the Marquis to- help in their search- for you and your abd-uctor, of which the h-ead of the Marquis ho-usehold turned down h-is request. After the- Heldens had spent ov-er a year searching, -the head of the Marqu-is family did not wan-t to waste their reso-urces. This was the s-park that set everyth-ing into motion.”
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“You might not know t-his, but the Minya fa-mily had always covet-ed the Marquis househ-olds prestige, and con-trol. Seeing the appa-rent dissatisfaction -the Helden''s had the -Minya reached out to -them. Of course, all -of this had happened -without anyone’s noti-ce of their secret meetings.- The following months- were slow and stale,- with one exception being that t-he Minya and Heldens families -had started heavily r-ecruiting warriors. A-t first, no one thoug-ht anything of it bec-ause there was no rul-e against recruiting -warriors.”
“But less than a month ag-o the Minya family ha-d sent a message to a-ll the founding and m-ajor families within -Marquis city. They st-ated that they had joined -with the Helden house-hold and were going t-o take the city over -from the Marquis and -that they already had- the support of more -than half the forces -within the city. They- said they were openi-ng their doors to any-one who wanted to joi-n them. They also war-ned that anyone who s-upports the Marquis w-ill be killed off as -well.”
With Sebastian’s word-s, Willard finally un-derstood what was goi-ng on. Things started- falling in place for- Willard, as he thoug-ht about the strange -atmosphere of the cit-y in contrast to the -usually busy and live-ly place Willard reme-mbered. “So what deci-sion have you made?” -Willard asked.
“What decision is the-re to make? My Gerret- family has always be-en on the side of the- Marquis. I only sent- word to my father in-forming him of all th-at had happened. I gu-ess the Minya found a- better party to join- them than my Gerret -family.”
Willard nodd-ed listening to Sebas-tian’s response. He w-as secretly glad that- Sebastian hadn’t act-ed out of cowardice. -He also couldn’t help- thinking of one person,- the person that most- intrigued him during- his stay at Marquis -city, the head of the- Gerret family, Lord -Jayesh.
“One thing at a time.- Let’s see how the Ma-rquis family reacts t-o all this.” Willard -gently laughed. “One -thing is certain, no -harm could possibly c-ome to your Garret fa-mily.” Sebastian was -surprised that Willar-d had spoken with so -much surety, he co-uldn’t quite understa-nd where his confiden-ce was coming from.
“At least one of us i-s hopeful,” Sebastian- said as he sighed.
“Don’t think too much- about it. Tell me, d-o you know where i mi-ght find a Saint?” Wi-llard asked Sebastian-, who had a shocked e-xpression. Who were s-aints?
That Willard w-as casually asking to- find one. These were- existence on the lev-el of deities. They l-ived secluded lives a-way from mortal being-s. How was it that hi-m Sebastian would kno-w where to find one? -Sebastian stared at W-illard for a bit, not-icing the conviction -in his eyes.
“You would have to go- to the Blue Dragon acad-emy to even find some-one knowledgeable on -that. As for this cit-y, I can assure you t-hat no one would have- even met one.” Sebas-tian responded. They -both conversed some m-ore before Willard le-ft Sebastian to himse-lf at the study.
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~Devine_Exodus