Twenty One
THE FUTURE AWAITS
He had acquired all the information relating to the Bloody Droplets from the woman that was seated at his bar called Daphne. Thanks to his ability, he could focus on and remember large amounts of information without losing consistency.
'I understand everything now.'
Even though he understood everything, Dionysus still had no goal in mind as to what he was going to do with any of this information. He just had a feeling that knowing everything to do with the terrorist group could help or possibly save him in the future.
"Alright, thank you for the drink."
Daphne had already paid up when she first took a seat at the counter, so Dionysus didn't pester her about money. Instead, what he did was look over the information that was located deep in his mind.
As of right now, what Dionysus had concluded about the terrorist group calling themselves the Bloody Droplets was their base of operation, the operation itself, and many of the patrons of it. He thought that a large majority of the group would be commoners unsatisfied with the ways of the current empire, but there was a twist.
Not only was the large majority of people in the group nobles and their private guard, but it was an overwhelming majority. Around a fifth of the group were commoners, while the rest was all nobles.
'I suppose that even people who live the good life up the chain of the hierarchy can want more . . .'
Although Dionysus didn't know the exact goals of the nobles, he could assume that, at the very least, they were unsatisfied with the royal family. Since he had gained all the knowledge of Daphne, he had names now.
'Well, I'm still not gonna do anything.'
Dionysus served himself some tea that was concealed to the eye of a customer, as it was hidden beneath the counter. It was only to be served to the employees of the bar itself, who happened to only be Dionysus and the boss.
'Seriously, what am I doing?'
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
'Damnit, that guy gets on my nerves . . .'
These thoughts belonged to Daphne, who had just walked out of the bar, although her pride hadn't. She realized that she had lost her cool in there, and was disappointed in herself to a heavy extent. Yet, the disappointment in herself couldn't even compare to the contempt she was beginning to hold the bartender for.
"What's his problem? Is he afraid of us failing? That isn't possible though, we'll most definitely do this . . ."
Whilst these words were coming out of her mouth, she was already beginning to doubt herself mentally. The fact that she couldn't recruit a mere bartender into her scheme really put a shot into her pride.
'No, no, forget about it. After all, I have to dedicate my all to the operation.'
It was tomorrow. Tomorrow, everything that they had been building up for around a year now would produce a result, bear fruits, and so on. She believed in herself and her comrades along with their abilities.
'No, although I feel terrible to think it, I believe more in their abilities.'
In fact, the only reason she was attempting to motivate the bartender to join the movement that her group believed in was because she believed he had an ability. She knew it was presumptuous of herself to believe that he could even help, but she couldn't help but feel like he had a certain . . . feeling to him, so to say.
'Whatever, I've got more important things to do.'
After walking for a bit, she had come upon a sewer grate. After looking around once, twice, and then thrice, she moved it to the side and then crawled into it, closing the cover above her. While one might think that she was just a homeless person who lived in the sewers if they were to see her heading into the sewers, the reality was different.
The sewers were, in fact, where the base of the Bloody Droplets was located.
'Ugh, it always stinks down here.'
Although she hated how it stimulated her senses, she also acknowledged that, to stay hidden, this might be one of the best spots possible within the capital. Other locations comparable to this when it comes to making bases might be the edges of town and so on. However, since the sewers were spread throughout all of the city, this was the most connected location throughout all of town.
'Still, since it's already spread out throughout town, it wouldn't hurt to connect the homeless part of town to the sewers . . .'
Although the sewers could be accessed and exited from anywhere throughout the city, their functionality wasn't available everywhere. In reality, only the middle and upper class within society could actually use them, while everyone else couldn't connect their toilets to it.
Though the people in charge of the team were already long gone, Daphne couldn't help but loathe them for being lazy, although the lazy part was something she assumed.
Walking for ten minutes from the location that she had entered from gave results, as she had found the base. To access it, you had to go through a steel door that happened to be on the side of the sewer walls. Once through, a person would see that they were in a large dome-like structure with plenty of room. This was currently where Daphne found herself to be.
There was no such thing as natural light here, so the whole room was lit up by lanterns, candles, and so on. When she was walking through the sewers, she also had to light a candle to maneuver her way through it.
"Daphne, welcome back!"
A cheery old man walked out from behind a fine, wooden desk. Anytime a first-timer bore their eyes upon the desk, a lot of them would make comments and questions, all of them relating to why the desk was down here.
The short answer was because Leonardo, the elder before her, wanted his own desk.
"Hey pops, how've you been doing?"
When she was talking to casual acquaintances or people she didn't care much for, she always spoke in a rather formal tone, as her somewhat noble lineage did force her to act in such a way. However, in the presence of someone such as Leonardo, who was similar to a grandpa for her, her casual side was shown to exist.
Suddenly, the tone in Leonardo's eyes took a turn, and the whole atmosphere felt much heavier.
"You know that tomorrow's the operation. We start in the morning at five, and we'll have wrapped it up by noon if everything goes right. Are you prepared?"
'I . . . I am.'
Although she had already come so far, Daphne still doubted herself every now and then, with now being one of those cases. She just couldn't bring herself to believe that getting rid of the current royal family would be as easy as they made it out to be. However, since the Bloody Droplets was an organization based on teamwork, she couldn't just do things as she liked. Everyone's opinion held weight within the group, although some were stronger.
Unable to muster the courage to say that she was prepared, she simply nodded her head. Leonardo saw through her false bravado but decided not to call her out on it.
'I don't need her abandoning ship or losing faith this late into the game.'
He was also one of the main components of the operation. He had been a part of the Bloody Droplets even when it had first formed. Because of how long he had been a part of it, his words certainly carried influence. Of course, since he was one of the biggest leaders in the group, he also had one of the biggest workloads. It was part of why he had a desk all the way down here, as it had plenty of papers stacked on one another.
Everyone within their base of operations was tense. Even if they wanted to, nobody could be sure of their victory tomorrow. If it was easy to rebel against the royal family, they wouldn't have had to create such a large-scale operation for it. However, they also understood that not having enough courage would basically guarantee their loss, so they held the bare minimum required, at the very least.
"Daphne . . . your parents are loyal to the royal family to the very end, aren't they?"
Leonardo brought up a point that somewhat hurt Daphne emotionally. The fact that her parents, even though they understood and knew everything that was going on behind the scenes, still supported the royal family, was a point of disappointment to her.
For that reason, not once had she brought up the fact that she was a part of the Bloody Droplets, nor had she leaked any information that the group deemed confidential. At the same time that all of this was going on, she also felt guilty for skulking around behind their backs, planning to kill the royal family that they had dedicated so much of their lives to.
'No, I shouldn't feel bad. They understand the history of the royal family, and have even come to terms with it. They fully support such authorities, and should be punished for it.'
Although she really didn't want to, she understood that her parents would have to be some of the people removed from a position of power after the rebellion would be concluded. Of course, that was on the basis that they made it through the rebellion and won.
'No, no, we will win.'
Daphne had no words for Leonardo, so he continued to wait for a few seconds before realizing she had nothing to say. After realizing so, an awkward silence set in before he went back behind his desk, pen in hand.
'Morales . . . aren't that high.'
Some of the biggest things to take into consideration during events such as the one that was going to happen tomorrow was determination and mindset. Daphne knew full well that unless they were all fired up, this wouldn't succeed.
"Tch."
She was afraid of going up against the royal family, which had reigned supreme for over a millenia now. She was so terribly afraid that she was half-considering just calling it off, but she wouldn't. To her, it wasn't even an option to put it off, but it was instead her fate to do it no matter what.
'That's right, tomorrow . . .'
'It all ends.'
--- SEQUENCE 3 ---
HOOH
PUFF
Dionysus was currently standing right outside of the palace. To get to it, one would have to cross a moat by walking across a bridge, a drawbridge to be exact. If they didn't do that, there was a large glass dome that was heavily reinforced, so breaking in through the glass dome wasn't likely.
Of course, it was unlikely for a normal person.
HOOH
PUFF
Dionysus took a seat on a bench to the side of the drawbridge, his eyes on the sky. One would think that by looking up there, Dionysus would miss the action. However, it was, in fact, quite the contrary.
'Why am I even here . . .? I guess I'm curious about what's about to happen.'
Dionysus himself couldn't pin why he was here, and was considering just leaving. He was ashamed of himself for having even the slightest tinge of excitement at such a thing.
'So many people are about to die here, but I'm just out here . . . times change huh.'
There was a water fountain in front of the drawbridge and himself, and kids were currently running around it, most likely trying to tag each other. He found himself envious of them, being able to live such lives.
'Damn, being a bartender still doesn't make me feel normal.'
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH
Dionysus quickly tilted his head upwards, identifying what he believed to be the cause of such a loud sound. Up there, he saw a view that seemed to be about right from what he had identified within Daphne's thoughts.
"Damn, I didn't expect something so extravagant . . ."
Even Dionysus, who came here expecting something along these lines, was completely blown away, much less the people on the street, who were just ogling up at the sky.
Up above, a view that blocked out the sun could be seen. A rain of something similar to iron arrows or rods was piercing through the clouds. Each and every single one of them was absolutely humongous, both length and width-wise. However, while the arrows would be the things to penetrate the glass dome, the real worry was what was on the arrows.
'Woah, that's a lot of people.'
Indeed, people were riding in on arrows. Dionysus was impressed with the degree of creativity that they had, but even then, he still understood something, or had at least come to a conclusion of his own.
His conclusion was that . . .
HOOH
PUFF
'They have absolutely no chance of succeeding.'