He was on a beach with pearly white sands sparkling from the heat of the summer sun. Seagulls flew overhead, and the waves rolled in a calm rhythm.
Among this peace, there was only Ronin, sitting on the sand like a kid waiting for his parents while making sand castles.
Yet he has no intention to make sand castles. Despite the scenic view, he only wants to get out of here.
The waves crash upon the rocks, and the water reached to his feet. It was all so real, everything around his six senses was real.
But knowing that he was just from the Amphitheatre and then came here, he doubts everything despite the realism. Either he truly was transported, or this was all fake and he was still there.
He turned to the right and saw a figure of a woman standing on the beach, wearing a white dress and a hat.
She wasn't Calla Lily.
She wasn't Edelweiss either, or Klio..... Its...
"Duchess Akasa?" Ronin asked as he walked closer to this woman or apparition.
Duchess Akasa smiled at him. "Ronin, my beloved son."
She went over to embrace him, but Ronin was wary of everything, and he stepped back saying, "Don't touch me."
"But why, Ronin? Haven't I always had you in my arms when you were just a tiny babe? A little infant wrapped in a bundle that brought me joy beyond compare?"
Ronin did not pay attention to her words. He paid attention to the sounds.
The muffled sounds at the back of his head.
Duchess Akasa was truly in the flesh in front of him, just as she were when she was still not pregnant with Belladonna. She looked much livelier too. It reminded Ronin of the days she would give him toys and try to play with him.
But this can't be Duchess Akasa, because she was dead. Ronin remembered that.
"You look worried, my child. What is it that you fear so much?" She asked in the usual coddling tone.
He held on to the muffled sounds. He felt that the less he focused on them, the more his guard lowers, and his memory of what is now was slipping away.
His sense of the present was slipping away, and he had to grab on to that.
Duchess Akasa died of childbirth. He was in the Academy now. He had been actively ruining Cermin Drychspiel's life. He had met Edelweiss and Calla Lily.
Calla Lily said that he must judge whether what she can do was special.
There. That was his anchor. That piece of memory was the one that truly linked the 'now' that was real...
And this 'now' in front of him.
".... and as the sea continued to clash, and the wind blew on the dress of his mother....."
The muffled sound started to turn clearer and turned to words.
He hang on to them, but Duchess Akasa gripped his shoulders!
"Ronin!" She cried desperately. "Why must you break your mother's heart? Why must you grow up this way!?"
He furrowed his brows and tried to push her away, but her grip was too strong, digging into his flesh.
"You're not here---"
"Why must you grow into such a person!? All I ever wanted was for you to be a good man!"
Ronin frowned. 'She can't possibly have known. Duchess Akasa or Calla Lily. She's speaking vague sentences just to get to me because she knows her hold was getting looser."
Sure enough, he can hear the mumblings go louder and louder.
"She spoke with much desperation, her voice just like before. Spoke of how he has not been a good son....."
"You have not been a good son! You have never been!"
"Spoke of how she was disappointed in him. "
"I am truly..... disappointed at you, Ronin."
"And then... her eyes would bleed, crimson tears falling down onto her face."
Ronin scoffed as he watched this horror movie like scene.
"What a cheap trick, is this the best you can do?"
Duchess Akasa's face contorted into something worst and swallowed him whole, but Ronin just stood there unfazed.
As he was swallowed, and everything turned black, he was back to the present.
It was Calla Lilly gripping him. There were beads of sweat on her forehead, and she was breathless.
(Damn this daemon to hell, what even is he? I had never encountered anyone who broke immersion so fast. )
Edelweiss went by her side worriedly. "What's wrong, Calla? Why did you stop?"
"I'm back." Ronin grinned proudly. "She stopped because I'm returned."
Calla narrowed her eyes, but she also looked mildly amused. She clicked her fingers towards someone.....
And it was Klio whose eyes were closed, talking to the air and saying, "Mother, don't leave me! Please!"
She was crying and hugging nothing. As soon as Calla snapped, she opened her eyes, and blinked in confusion.
"Where's my mother?" Klio asked, looking like a bewildered doe.
"She was never here, my dear." Calla patted her head. "You were just in my theater."
"Y-Your theater?" Klio said, as Edelweiss handed her a handkerchief.
"A theater of the mind." Ronin said gravely. "How many people can you affect at the same time?"
"Thousands, actually." Calla had a more serious and wary tone when talking to him. "And all it ever took was a few words. I can have them in the theater for a whole hour."
"But you..."
She went back to face Ronin, staring him down from head to toe. "How did you do it? The last person who could break immersion before 1 hour was my father, who was also skilled in this gift."
"Your father has the same Mage Focus?" He asked.
Edelweiss shook her head. "No, it was slightly different and less potent. For his, he had to sing, not tell a story."
"He's still an Illuso Mage like you, though. Have you noticed if fellow Illuso Mages break immersion faster?" He asked, taking out his notepad.
He didn't need to adjust at all. What was important was this 'now' and right now, they were also making a report about her skill.
"Yes. But not this fast. It had only been about 5 minutes." Calla crossed her arms. "Are you an Illuso Mage?"
Edelweiss answered for him "No, Ronin is a Clairo Mage. Though I have never seen exactly what it was that he controls."
"We shouldn't focus about me. We should focus on Calla." Ronin said. "Your skill is quite special, and has many possible uses, I have to admit."
"Like what uses?~" Calla asked in a pretentiously innocent way.
Ronin knows very well that she knew what he meant.
"You can potentially trick kings, assassinate them, steal treasures, command a whole mob of people to do your bidding..... So why stop with a performance?"
Calla sneered. "You have an interesting mind, little black pearl. Perhaps I wasn't too far off with what 'your Mama' had said earlier."
"Thoughts are just thoughts. I was just suggesting possibilities for you." Ronin answered succinctly. "Have you never really considered them? It's related to our research after all."
"How you would influence culture..... and history itself, with that kind of power."
Like a Cleopatra that can get Ceasar and Mark Antony to her whims, and many more fatally charming women that changed the course of history with their feminine wiles.
Calla gave him another intimidating look, and tension hung in the air between the two of them.
Then, she answered. "You're right. I do have other intentions for my skill besides performance."
Ronin was amused that she answered honestly so fast. "And what is that?"
"I....."
She announced dramatically, placing a hand over her chest.
"Want to be the Queen of Scirocco!!!!~"