Before Karma realized that he was fooled by her calm movements, he had a blade placed right on his throat,
"Who Are You?"
"Wha...What do you mean?... Olivia..."
Karma had no idea why he knew her name, it just popped into his mind. On hearing her name from his mouth, even Olivia's seemed to have calmed down a little, but she was not letting him go easy,
"You talked about Satan yourself back there...An...And that power? You can't be my brother."
"You've got to trust me, I am not a bad guy." His body was giving out with every word he spoke. It was unbelievable that he was able to make it this far on his own, in his condition, "I...your broth...er....." Olivia quickly pulled back her sword as Karma collapsed to the floor head first while talking to her. She didn't know one from another anymore, What should she do? What has she done? Was the person she rescued nothing more than an evil pawn in the army of Satan? Or was he her dear brother, the one she risked taking on her own kingdom for?
"I must incapacitate him, I saw his diabolical power first hand, nothing can be as terrifying." Shivers ran down her spine. She unsheathed her blade again and placed it on the back of the stupefied Karma's neck. Olivia's shaky hands made her uncertainty as clear as daylight, her mind was replaying the thoughts and memories of her older brother, "This is not him...it can't be..." she told herself. But then the image of THIS man from last night as he looked at the victims of the stampede, with a grievous expression, cursing himself for the helplessness of not being able to help them formed before her eyes, the blade paused, hovering just above Karma's neck,
"What are you doing?!!!" The princess had regained consciousness. She quickly moved between Karma and Olivia,
"Aren't you his sister? You even saved him..." Startled, Olivia moved back. The princess sat down and slid Karma onto her lap, she was blessed with an amazing natural affinity for healing magic.
--
"I wonder what's happening there right now? What mom must be going through... And, Kenshin, without me around, he might get lonely.... who am I kidding, that lazy bum wouldn't even bother stepping out of his house to show up at the funeral, hehe"
Karma finally mustered the power to get up and sit. "Careful there!" The princess immediately ran to his aid.
He looked at Olivia, "How long can we stay in this tunnel? If the soldiers don't find us the smugglers that guy mentioned will."
Olivia replied, "I thought your memories would be fuzzier when you wake up. Anyway more than a third of the world is under the Kingdom's control, including all the surrounding countries, if there is a way for us to be completely safe, I am certainly not aware of it."
"If they are such evil imperialists, the oppressed countries must have some level of resistance against them, right?" Karma spoke agitatedly, questioning the integrity of the people of this world.
"There are actually two factions of resistance from this country, but there's no way we could find their hideout without the kingdom noticing. And even if we could there's no way they will let a couple of imperial Kingdom soldiers waltz out of their lair alive."
"You mentioned two factions? Is there some form of disagreement in the resistance?"
Olivia and the princess looked at each other, "I don't think we have been introduced properly, I am Kaguya, the princess of Kingdom Denrenkyu, your assumption is correct" She shriveled up, tightening her grip on her dress, she continued, "The reason for the dispute among the factions is...Me" Karma looked confused, "What!"
"One of the factions wants me, the only left member of the Royal Family to lead the resistance and look over Denrenkyu in my Father's stead, after we've reclaimed our motherland. The other faction is disgusted by me. They don't care about my Royal heritage, for them the family of overseers they once had is all over. Becau....." Her eyes were filling up, she couldn't have spoken another word
Olivia swooped in to finish "Miss Princess here gave up the kingdom immediately after her Father's mysterious death. They believe she is just a good for nothing coward, and for good reason."
"Well, if we can't find them, then we just have to make them come find us." Both Olivia and Kaguya turned towards Karma,
"That's just crazy talk, If you are trying to use the princess as a bargaining chip, we'll suffer the same fate if the faction against her rule found us first"
Karma was confident in his communication skills, "Don't worry about the negotiations, I'll take care of that, I believe the princess should have some kind of information for us to go on, don't you Kaguya?"
Kaguya did not really want to share this information, but she replied hesitantly anyway "I heard one of our generals from the court joined the resistance, he was always kind to me, but I can't be sure as to which faction he joined. He was the most loyal person to my Father and admired him a great deal. His nam_"
Karma interfered, "And you know how to get in touch with him?"
"If I know him as much as I think I do he will surely know if anyone loiters around the King's old shack, for all I know he may be even be using it as their base to respect the King"
"The King's old shack?" Karma enquired
Kaguya: "When the imperialists had broken deep into the capital, it was an emergency base where the king took refute and lead the army. It was also the last base from where we actually came on top in a battle against the imperialists"
--
The three of them were immediately on the move, luckily enough, the tunnel took them almost all the way there. The town where the literal shack was, was full of people with intense hatred against the imperialists and love for their king, but there was no way to tell friend from foe, especially for these two imperial citizens, They decided to live in the shack, until they were found by the resistance,
"I can't believe a king actually took refute here! I can see how it would be a good place for a king to hide though." Karma remarked at the rundown Shack. "And yet it is surprising a clean little place"
"I guess we are in luck about this gamble then." Olivia came up to Karma out of the blue, "I will stay by your side, but you should know that I don't completely trust you yet!"
--
It was dead in the middle of the night, suddenly there was a lot of rustling around the shack, "Get out of there you vermin! You think you imperialists can share the same roof as our King once did."
There was no sound from the shack, "You can't just sit this out! Come out right now!"
The little lamp from the shack went out. There was still no sound from there
The men were furious "You....!!"One of the men threw their torch onto the shack, the wall of the shack got set on fire, "You idiot! What did you do!? Put out the fire! Everybody quick!"
All the men mobilised, but the fire spread wildly on the straw laden shack, they were hurriedly bringing buckets of water and pouring it. The fumes were all over the place, a man moving forward with a bucket in his hands, "I suppose they left before we arrived--"
The sound of breaking glass was made as from the already half way broken window emerged Karma with his two blades in his hands and landed with his feet straight into
the man's face. He stood on top of the collapsed man, one of his swords in the man's mouth.
As all of the men stood there watching Karma emerging from a slew of flames Karma looked at Kaguya, she nodded her head sideways. He then looked at the man calling the shots, and in a passionate action of beating his fist on his own chest thumb down ,"Arrange me a dinner with your Boss man. Tell him that--
KARMA WILL BE SERVED"