< Arisu (Alice) Tsuchimikado Part 4 Opened >
< CG Cutscene Played >
< This Memory Record will be shown based on the Battle Maiden's memories plus some things she get to know from others at that time, plus again some knowledge she gets after Ragna Twelve helped her know more about what happened at that time with his 'Twelve Eye of Time', transferring past visions to her before she confronted Player Ragna Current. >
( October 2020 )
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
( In the next day. )
Arisu and Battle Maiden are shopping in the mall, and both are walking around it with tons of bodyguards covering them.
"( Alice-chan already had a battalion of bodyguards with her and all of them are Gifted. )" Battle Maiden senses and tries to count how many guards accompanied her and the Grand Priestess.
"( Sensing this, I've begun to doubt myself qualified to be her personal guard, even though I sensed the Bodyguards' powers are on top of Tier 4, I could tell that this is more than enough to guard her against the assassin. )"
"( But still, if Alice-chan knows why I was assigned to protect her and knows her life is in danger... )"
"( Shouldn't she protect herself in her Tower instead of... )" Battle Maiden wonders while following Arisu's every step.
The Grand Holy Priestess shops many things in the store as she asks the waitresses there about every clothes and ornament present there which she wants to buy if she deems it suitable.
She tried it all before she came into the store, she already reserved the store for herself for hours as the other visitors had to wait outside because of her time inside the store, and this made even the fashion store manager worried.
"( Oh my, how long does she want to try on the clothes, we had already given her our bests but she still refuses while ordering more. ) "
"( She even asks us to phone the other branches in order to fulfill what she wants to try, the Grand Priestess' taste for fashion is too high! )"
As the store manager look on the phone and wait for the other branches to answer, Battle Maiden could only take a sigh for she could sense the store manager being overwhelmed by Arisu's demands.
"( Being unable to see, I am often disgusted by a person's insatiable taste for fashion. )"
"( Do appearances really matter in their sight? )" Battle Maiden asks for she never gets the idea of 'looking good in people's eyes' in the first place, just like the armor she's wearing, an upgraded Holy Priestess armor which makes her more like a night instead of a beautiful woman she is.
While wondering why Arisu is so obsessed with fashion, Battle Maiden quickly changed the direction of her thoughts as she recounted what happened last night.
...
( Last night. )
< Arisu's Bedroom >
" You want to tell me about your Clan's 'Darkest Secrets'? " Battle Maiden asks as she hears it.
" Ah, I see you're interested, Sister Orianna... " Arisu says as he sees the Maiden's expression, she then retreats her body from stomping the Battle Maiden and then sits formally in her bed as the two continue to talk about it.
" Yes, I was interested in it, but... "
" This is about your Clan's Darkest Secret...? " Battle Maiden says to her.
" Of course, so...? " Arisu responds to her.
" So...? you said!? " Battle Maiden asks.
" This is your Clan's secret you're talking about, Alice-chan! "
" You're going to tell it to an outsider like me, I-! "
" You're not an outsider anymore! " Arisu shouts as she responds to the Maiden which made the Maiden startled for a sec as she also leaks her overwhelming aura.
* Battle Maiden startles even more. *
As it happens, Arisu then leaks her oppressive aura for minutes before calming down again, she immediately says sorry for what she's done before continue telling Battle Maiden her reasons.
" You know, sister Orianna... "
" About this 'Dark Secret'? " she tells her.
" This secret is known to all who were a member of the Clan, both its descendants and those who served it for years. "
" This secret is a secret we all vow with a 'Binding Vow Talisman' to never reveal to outsiders and only reveal it to those who were within the Clan. "
" Like you now, Sister Orianna Diane Lawson. " Arisu points his finger to Battle Maiden as Battle Maiden feels something wrong with her body.
" What the...? " Battle Maiden felt something happening towards her body, unseen to her senses, her body begins to reveal a tattoo which shows her to be part of the Tsuchimikado Clan.
" What is... "
" A Contract Seal, a Seal worn out by those within the Tsuchimikado. "
" This seal is made by first, consuming a drink filled with some Divine Herbs that create this seal in the first place, a herb made by the Divine to bind the Tsuchimikado with their Divine Will. " Arisu explains to the Maiden.
" Impossible, when this... " Battle Maiden wonders when she was concocted with such drink as she then remembers her time in the plane where she felt drinking something out of the ordinary which at that time, Ragridur tells it's some beer from another country.
Realizing that Battle Maiden then gasps as she never thought she was trapped from the start while Arisu's hand touched both of the Maiden's cheeks.
" Sister Orianna... "
" You looked just like me for both of us had the same blonde hair color, and white skin, and we often cover our eyes with accessories. "
" Besides your defects, I know you could actually open your eyelids, so this means you are perfect... "
" Perfect? " Battle Maiden asks as Arisu whispers to her ear for a while which shocks Battle Maiden at first.
" That is why I'm here? " Battle Maiden asks as Arisu then tells.
" Well, since you already knew why you're here... "
" I guess we should get on to it, shall we? " Arisu tells as she tells her 'Darkest Secret' to the Battle Maiden.
...
( Back to the present. )
"( That Alice, actually agreed to Lord Loki and Athena's deal to make me one of the Tsuchimikado for the sake of guarding her. )"
"( Based on what she explains about her 'Darkest Secrets', I now know that she didn't trust those within her own Clan because they had the same information as what she told me which make her in the most difficult position. )"
"( As a female, in the once Patriarchy Clan such as the Tsuchimikado... )"
"( Many of the Branch Clan Members who had a son want to make an engagement with her or even challenge her for the Clan's leadership. )"
"( That's why, she had to build the Tower to guard the secrets she deeply knows and forbidden to others, hence, why she had to essentially create an army to protect it too. )"
"( For the other Clan Members wants the Secrets from her, for their own goals while unaware of the secrets' true nature. ) "
"( Despite those attempts, there was once in a time she wanted to tell the truth to those who desired it, but it fell on deaf ears as the others deemed her only telling the 'truth' in order to soften their ambitions for her own sake. )"
"( Thus, increasing their desire to take the secrets from her, from that time, their threats begin to be bold to the point that Alice-chan herself had to resort to violence to deal with it, changing the Clan's rules and even... )"
" Making me participate in this mess... " Battle Maiden says as she says it in the lowest tone she could say, in order to for Arisu to not hear it as she was busy with her shopping.
While she talks to herself, unknowns to her...
Arisu, who was seeing herself in the mirror to see how she looks, sees the Maiden's silence as it really concerns her.
"( Sister's still new, it will take time for her to grasp it whole. ) "
"( Now that I've made her into the Clan, I have another support against those who want to take things from me within the Clan... )"
"( And those who threaten me from outside... )" Arisu says as her Gift Eyes then see some targets from afar, an enemy who watches her from far away.
Seeing that, Arisu smirks as she already expected this to come.
"( Oh, so some filths now dare to bare their fangs against me, kukuku? )" Arisu laughs in her mind while she still sees herself in the mirror.
" Manager, I'm going to take this one and those I've tried before. "
" Pack it, now! " Arisu demands as she stretches and approached Battle Maiden.
" You sensed it? " Battle Maiden asks as Arisu opens her glasses for a bit and shows her Gift Eyes.
[ Gift Eye: Star Spiritual Eyes ]
" I do, Sister Orianna... "