Chapter 75：Countdown

Lily didn't know what kind of expression she had on her face as she placed her hands on the window and watched her older sister; Rose disappear into the distance. Although Orchid was standing right behind her, none of the two sisters said a word to each other as the figure of Rose's body disappeared from their sight.

It was just that Lily could not understand why Rose had suddenly left.

This was completely different to what happened the last time.

Last time, Rose left the after a mansion after a heated debate with Orchid and at that time, she practically had to force and drag herself out of the mansion while at the same time, giving a few glances at Lily.

This time, Rose didn't even bat an eye or even give Lily a short glance when she left.

She just announced that she had leave, turned around and left.

Did Lily do something wrong?

While she certainly hoped not, she cannot say or believe anything with certainty.

Rose just returned and all Lily intended was to celebrate said return.

There was no conceivable way that Lily intended to harm Rose in any way, shape or form.

And of course she didn't intend to drive Rose away.

And yet, she still felt as if it was her that was responsible for Rose once again abandoning the mansion.

Although it wasn't really hard to find her, Rose's noble upbringing meant that it was rare for her to be living through a 'less than stellar' livelihood during her days of 'solitude.'

However, none of the Finaflor sisters have succeeded in persuading Rose to return to the mansion, even after they found her living in a remodelled tavern room which she basically transformed into her own 'mini-mansion.'

And since then, a lot of things changed since Rose left, and even someone like Lily whom she, herself admits to being somewhat naive, idealistic and at some points ignorant can realise.

Things were turning bad.

That was the only word that Lily could think up of to describe what it was.

It was just 'bad'.

Although everyone, all the nobles, soldiers, merchants, commoners and the like, Lily included still continued on with their daily lives and wore those faint smiles on their faces as they conversed, worked and partied, there was no hiding it nor was there a point in hiding it.

Things were turning bad.

With the war starting to take a turn for the worst, especially when compared to before and attempts for peace being intercepted and denied at every turn, what else could be happening?

With a sigh, Lily went to ask her older sister a question.

"Orchid... Do you know why Rose had to leave?"

When Orchid heard Lily's question, she responded to Lily with that same kind of sentence that she would typically say to Lily at times like these.

"No... but I'm sure everything will be alright in the end. She probably just has to work out a few things. Perhaps she thought she did before she returned only to realise that she didn't. I'm sorry but the best I can give you are educated guesses."

As Lily listened to Orchid speaking, she soon felt the sensation of someone placing their hand on her left shoulder as if they were trying to comfort her.

"But don't you worry, I'm sure that she is doing fine."

"Yeah..."

Even though Lily was consistently comforted by Orchid's words saying that everything will be 'alright,' as time went by with next to no improvements, even Lily was starting to doubt her older sister.

Nevertheless, Lily still trusted Orchid.

At least Orchid still attempted to comfort Lily.

At least Orchid doesn't disappear without reason.

At least, Orchid has shown that she will always remain by Lily's side, unlike a certain someone.

...

Under the dim candle light sitting on the table, Sicilia leisurely laid back against her chair as she awaited for the arrival of her 'business partner' within the office of the merchant's warehouse that she 'acquired'.

Thanks to her 'agents' Sicilia was already well aware that a 'special someone' has changed their mind and has started making her way back to the warehouse.

Although this sequence of events helped to advance the machinations of the Sicilia's and by extension, the Imperium's plans, she didn't expect for the 'wild card' aspect of the plan to return so quickly.

For how predictable human beings are, they have shown Sicilia that they have at least some degree of unpredictability, although it still differs from individual to individual. Her younger brother Maxwell being the core example of the latter half.

If Sicilia were to describe it using Maxwell's vocabulary and mannerisms, she would have said something like-

"I guess the way I think is just out of this world."

While leaning back and maybe taking a sip of wine in process as well.

Either way, such thoughts or ideas weren't important right now.

Soon, two hooded figures came through the office's doors to present themselves to Sicilia.

The one on the left stood in a firm, uptight manner, it was almost as if he was a statue but by now, this was nothing that Sicilia wasn't used to. On the other hand, the one of the right appeared to be a lot more 'human,' as she held a somewhat confident posture which had some hints of uncertainty and nervousness within it.

After giving Sicilia a short bow, the hooded figure on the left silently and quickly left the office while the one on the right remained, her confident yet somewhat uneasy demeaned still continued to persist even as the two were left alone.

With a smile, Sicilia greeted the figure while also beckoning her to take a seat.

"Welcome back, please, take a seat."

Soon, the figure took the hood of her head to reveal her brown-black hair while at the same time, taking her seat opposite from Sicilia, who then used this moment to seize control of the conversation.

"So did your time away allow you to rethink things?"

The figure; the Portegeese noble; Rose, paused as if to thoroughly re-think things in her head before she gave Sicilia her response.

"I'm... I'm willing to cooperate but..."

As Rose said this, her eyes firmly lay on Sicilia in what Sicilia assumed to be an attempt of being serious.

"Can you at least promise one thing?"

Sicilia's left eyebrow rose as she questioned Rose about what she wanted Sicilia to promise about.

"And what is that?"

Once again, Rose paused as if to thoroughly re-think and re-evaluate everything in her head before she answered Sicilia's question.

"Lay waste to this city if it means that all Panish influence will be wiped out in the process... just make sure that when you do, that my younger sister; Lily is not among the bodies."

Of course, Sicilia made sure that she responded with a genuine voice when she replied to Rose.

"As you wish."

However, her response was genuine not because she was going to was going to uphold that promise, nor was it because she was going to betray that promise either.

It was simply because, that one promise held a lot of loopholes that can be easily exploited.

...

"Your majesty! I have an important message which I urge you to read immediately!"

"Really now?"

Maxwell's eyebrow rose slightly in the face of the sweaty colonel who bursted into Keizwell's 'Pleasure Palace's' cuisine to apparently give Maxwell a message. From the look on his face, it would seem that he has spent a lot of time trying to even find out where Maxwell even was on this day.

It probably had something to do with Maxwell not informing many people about this 'informal two person event' that he was attending.

He just didn't expect that out of all days, this one, single, unsuspecting day would be that day when something important came up.

It was at times like these that Maxwell would remember quote from his past life. [What was that quote again? 'No rest for the wicked?' Ah whatever.] Within moments, Maxwell was still quickly able to shake these thoughts out of his head as he refocused on what really mattered.

He was aware that whatever message this colonel had, it had to be something important, or else this colonel wouldn't have gone to such lengths to give said message to Maxwell.

With a silent nod, the colonel answered Maxwell's original question before proceeding to take out an envelope from his coat and handing it to Maxwell.

As Maxwell grasped the envelope in his hands, he saw two sets of insignias on the back, a silver snake and the golden hawk. As such, he was able to determine that the original letter was first sent to their Breetish allies before it was re-written and essentially 'forwarded' to Maxwell.

With no nearby letter opener for use, Maxwell was forced to use his eating knife to open the envelope before proceeding to take out the letter inside and silently reading its contents in his head.

"The gateways have been opened for the horses."

Maxwell couldn't help slightly smiling when he read the letters contents.

However, that smile disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared.

When Maxwell took his attention away from the letter glanced over his food and to the person sitting opposite him, he saw Erika who appeared to have momentarily stopped eating in order to wait for Maxwell.

Although Maxwell would admit that he would continue eating and simply ignore the other person if he were in Erika's position, he understood that this was simply part of her character.

Nevertheless, Maxwell still had to break the news of the letter's contents to Erika, even if a piece of him didn't want to.

"I'm sorry Erika but it would seem that our first 'two person gathering' will also be the last one for a long, long time. 'That' message has finally arrived and as such, I doubt we will have the time for such things anytime soon. I'm really sorry that we didn't start this a few years earlier when we still had the chance."

When Erika heard what Maxwell said, she only chuckled in a manner which was very uncharacteristic of her before she responded.

"Are you kidding your majesty?"

As Erika spoke, her mouth twisted upwards into the smile while her eyes appeared as if they were 'sparkling.' With that pair of sparkling blue eyes and twisted smile, Erika slowly voiced out her next few words to Maxwell.

"This is even better."