Chapter 125: Persephone's garden

THE shooting of the music video was going to be held at a newly established recreational club at the Emperor Star.  Last year, the parliament held an auction of some free lands at the capital.  The largest one – with land, forest, and the sea – was won by some wealthy businessman.  He then turned it to a recreational club.

The construction began immediately and it just finished last month.  It still wasn't opened to the public.  Astrid heard from Miria that the reason why they were allowed to shoot there despite that was because the owner of the recreational club made a deal with Kaleido regarding some promotional stuff.

The entertainment company would help in advertising the recreational club.  So, appearing on the upcoming music video was one of that. 

The taxi he and Reas took finally arrived at their destination.  The city center where Astrid's apartment was located was quite far off from the location of the recreational club.  So, they had to leave early in order not to be late.  But it seemed that they arrived too early because there were still two hours before the scheduled shooting started.

Astrid looked up at the sign hanging on the gate.  It was a profile silhouette of a woman holding a flower, beside her were the words 'Persephone's Garden'.  He raised his brow when he read that.  Considering that Persephone was the Greek goddess of Spring, this name might be very apt. 

There weren't any guards near the gate.  Which was really not that surprising.  He had noticed that most establishments here didn't really have guards.  Considering how easy it was to install security cameras and alarms, it probably wouldn't matter if one tried to trespass.  Because they would be immediately caught.

"So, should we just traipse inside?" Reas asked which was what's exactly in Astrid's mind right now.

He looked again at the gate which was made of wood, its design was like the entrance to some fairy tale garden.  He couldn't see any gadget that could help them enter or be identified or something.

"Let's go inside first," he said then turned to his brother.  "If some AI robots suddenly attacked us, then I could only rely on you to fight them off."

"Are you saying you're just going to stand there while I fight them?" Reas asked dryly.

"Of course not."  Astrid acted like he was affronted by what his brother said.  "I will definitely cheer you on."

Reas only rolled his eyes at Astrid but still walked ahead, completely protecting his brother behind him.

Astrid smiled seeing Reas' little action.  But despite what he said earlier, he didn't hide behind his brother and walked alongside him instead.  They were able to get passed the gate without being shot at.  Thankfully. 

But they hadn't taken a few steps yet when a flying thing suddenly flew down and appeared in front of them.  When Astrid had a good look on this 'flying thing', his eyes widened a bit. 

It was a little fairy as big as his palm.  Of course, he knew that it was not a real fairy but most likely a small female AI robot with wings instead.  She had pink hair and a dress made of leaves.  The wings behind her were like that of the fictional character 'Tinkerbell'.

How cute. He suddenly had an urge to poke its cheek.  But he stopped himself. 

"Welcome, dear guests!  May I know your names so I can check if you're allowed to be here?" the fairy asked in that soft yet kind of sharp voice.

Astrid raised one of his brows but still answered, "Astrid and Andreas Townsend."

He wasn't worried that their names wouldn't be found in whatever list this fairy had.  After all, he did tell Miria that he was going here with his brother. 

"Your names are on our guest list," the fairy said as expected.  "Welcome once again to Lady Persephone's Garden!"

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At the area of the capital's military base called 'Fang', a certain lieutenant was walking towards the training area.  When he arrived there, his dark green eyes swept around but didn't see the one he was looking for.  His brows couldn't help but scrunched deeper.

"Hey, vice-captain, if you're looking for Captain, he's not here," suddenly said by a voice from behind him.

Leland turned around and saw Slade.  His red hair that was usually swept up was down because of sweat.  He probably just finished training as evidence of the amount of sweat on his bulging arms and training clothes.

"Do you know where His Highness went?" he asked.

"I think he and Hil left this morning," Slade answered as he was wiping off the sweat on his face using the towel slung on his neck.  "I heard Hil said that he found a place that can help Captain to relieve his boredom."

Leland could almost feel a vein on his forehead pumping when he heard that.  He knew that the prince had been complaining about being bored and not having anything to do for weeks now.  Knowing him, he would definitely run off again if no one watched him carefully.  So, Leland had been watching him like a hawk so that wouldn't happen.

He just needed to continue doing that until His Highness finished his schedule here.  But maybe he should have also watched over that troublemaker, Hildred.  He should have known he would do something like this sooner or later. 

Seeing that Leland looked like he was about to explode, Slade said, "Don't worry too much.  I'm sure they wouldn't go far.  Besides, Ed was also with them.  No matter how unreliable that egghead is, he definitely won't allow Captain to run off to another planet or something."

That really didn't make Leland felt relieved.  It actually made him much more worried.  Because whenever that guy, Edmund, was with Hildred, he seemed to be unable to refuse whatever the other wanted.  So, he almost always ended up Hildred's lackey in crime.

He sighed and just decided to check the location of the prince using the GPS on the other's Terminal.  He read the exact location where His Highness seemed to be right now.

[Persephone's Garden?]