It was already noon when Alex and the rest were ready to leave Horlad, and Kaori unhesitatingly prepared to join them to stay with Hajime. As she said her goodbyes to her classmates Alex looked around and was unsurprised that Hiyama and his gang, as well as Kouki weren't there to say goodbye. The last one to arrive was Shizuku who looked at Alex and sincerely said,
"Thank you for the weapons!" While bowing. Alex smiled and said,
"Don't be so formal, by the way did you like the stuffed bear?" A red tinge appeared on Shizuku's cheeks as her classmates seemed to key in on their conversation, while Kaori suddenly piped up,
"Oh! Alex is the one that gave you the bear you were cuddling earlier?! It'll be a good addition to your collection-!" Kaori didn't get to say anything more after this as Shizuku slapped her hands over her mouth to prevent her leaking more of her secrets, and further ruin her 'cool beauty' image that she had. The damage had been done though as those gathered started giving Shizuku weird looks while she looked at Alex before she blushed even harder after seeing him also smiling at her. Behind him Rias's brows started twitching while Yue muttered,
"...Last boss...?" To which the Crimson haired woman seemed to agree with her on. Alex then pulled out the large vehicle the Grigori prepared and had everyone pile into it. Kaori took a few more minutes since she didn't seem to want to part from Shizuku, before Alex said,
"If you don't want to separate so much, why doesn't she just come with us as well?" Everyone looked at Alex in surprise after he said his suggestion, to which Kaori said excitedly,
"Can she really? Come on Shizuku it'll be fun with both of us going!" Shizuku however looked torn and said,
"But Kouki and everyone, what about them?" Alex shrugged and replied,
"Meld mentioned returning to the castle after this incident so I doubt they'd be in any danger for a while, and Kouki could probably use some time to think for himself to mature a bit." Though Alex said this, one reason he was interested in having Shizuku go with them was to get her out of the class's traitors line of fire, as he had no intention of stopping their next actions. As this thought crossed his mind Alex glanced briefly at the chief conspirator, Eri Nakamura. Though he knew what she was planning he didn't bother trying to stop it as her actions would actually end up helping them by removing the most faithful followers of the church in the upper levels of nobility, including the king. While Alex was thinking about future events, Shizuku was thinking on his words before reasoning that maybe a bit of time to work things over by himself might help Kouki since she would always be his crutch and help him in most situations. She then said,
"Ok, but I need to get my stuff." Alex nodded and told Grayfia to help her. Only a few more minutes and they were ready to depart. As he pulled away everyone was waving goodbye while some were slightly regretful that both Shizuku and Kaori were leaving. Kaori then asked,
"So are we staying in vehicle the whole time?" Though the vehicle was large enough to accommodate all of them, it did seem a little cramped with everyone piled in it, especially with Anne's motion sickness. Alex however said,
"We're going about an hour out of town then we'll switch over to another vehicle that's larger, I just didn't want to cause a commotion by summoning it in the town itself." Kaori and Shizuku looked confused at Alex's words as they tried to imagine what he was going to use that would have such an impact. Later everyone else had quite a bit of fun at their expense when they both fell backwards after seeing the massive flying ship appear from nowhere, meanwhile Myuu was excited to see it since ships were a normal sight for her from living on the sea.
***
Meld sat in his room thinking after everyone already left, the two things Alex gave him sitting on the table. The first was a necklace like a locket, similar to the 'Last Loyalty' most higher ups within the kingdom used in the event they were taken captive. According to Alex however this one was different in that it would apparently protect the wearer from external mental influences. The other item was a stack of papers with a magic circle drawn on them; this in itself wasn't unusual since some spells were prepared in a similar manner before a battle, but these ones would allow Meld to contact Alex no matter the distance. Putting aside how amazing such items were to begin with, what was on Meld's mind was what Alex said to use them for when the time came.
'There will be a time in the near future where I'm to be branded a heretic by the church and they hunt for me and those that travel with me. When that happens get princess Liliana and Aiko, and get out of the Heiligh Kingdom. Contact me once you're safe and I'll come to deal with it, trust me when I say that there is more to this than you think.'
Meld knew there was more to this than he was aware of, but it was the part he didn't know that bugged him. Alex could be asking him to betray his kingdom and the royal family by kidnapping Liliana for him, while Aiko might be used to control the apostles. But he also didn't think that Alex would have such motives, as with the strength he displayed Meld doubted he would need to use such methods to acquire power. He eventually decided to keep the items close and keep an ear to the ground for the moment until he could have general idea of what Alex was expecting.
Meld's thoughts then turned towards the ideas Alex described to him, about a world where they didn't go to war just because their God said to. To him the idea of a goddess no one seemed to remember that was also the mother of all sentient races was a little far fetched, but after spending time around Kouki and the students he thought that following such a goddess that only wanted peace wouldn't be so bad.
***
Amanogawa Kouki grit his teeth in frustration as for the first time in his life he felt raw anger, and it was all Alex's fault. He had spent the night before and the morning pondering the words his childhood friend of ten years said to him about his own sense of justice, and what she said about Kaori liking Hajime for years even when they were in Japan. Then as he was about to accept it he heard the same childhood friend suddenly preparing to leave with Alex and Hajime, and stood shell shocked as the truth hit him, Shizuku was being controlled just like those other women. After all there was no way both HIS Kaori and HIS Shizuku would decide to suddenly leave, and there was no way HIS Shizuku would tell him to question his own justice.
He also recalled Alex saying he brought Hajime back specifically to meet HIS Kaori, and realized that Alex must have wanted Hajime to join him and Hajime's price was to obtain HIS Kaori! Alex then must have done something to make HIS Kaori cling to Hajime and obtain her, then later when they were talking Alex must have done something similar to HIS Shizuku to get her to follow him as well. Coming to this realization Kouki declared to no one in particular,
"I won't let villains like you get their way! I'll train harder and once I meet you two again I'll put an end to your villainy and Kaori and Shizuku will return to their rightful place at MY side! I'll also free those other girls and they'll no longer have to suffer under your control!" Lost in his own delusions, Kouki started trying to plan to get Kaori and Shizuku back, an idea that developed due to his own jealousy and unreasonableness.
***
Meanwhile the two girls that were "suffering" under Alex and Hajime's control, were laughing and smiling at the scenery as they sailed through the sky towards their next destination. Meanwhile Myuu who had never been so high up was scared at first, but then Alex took her for a short flight with just the two of them for a while before she became used to the situation, surprisingly she seemed to like flying more while wrapped in her papa's arms than when on the deck of a large ship. After a while Shizuku asked,
"So where are we going?" To answer her question Alex pulled out the map of Tortus and spread it on a table while everyone gathered around him. He then pointed at a point in a near blank area of the map and said,
"First we'll head to the largest oasis city of the Guryuu-en Great Desert, Ancadi, then we'll move onto the third great labyrinth, Grand Gruen Volcano. From there we'll move to Myuu's hometown to return her to her mother and onto the Sunken Ruins of Melusine." Hearing that they were going straight to the desert next, the girls started making plans to beat the heat while simultaneously making their way to the baths. Alex was about to join them as usual, but caught himself when he recalled that not everyone present was his lover. He instead turned towards Hajime and said,
"While they're taking a bath let's go to Asora for a bit, I have something I want to show you." Before Hajime could reply the two were immediately surrounded by the mist.
(A.N. For those who keep saying to kill Kouki, I can't just kill him off immediately just because he's annoying, I have to flesh out a reason to otherwise it'll just create unnecessary friction between the characters since Kaori and Shizuku still see him as a good friend. And even if I don't kill him off I plan to deal with him one way or another, just have patience.