The girl sat on a small square wooden chair without a backrest. Her legs crossed below, with eyes focused on the expanse of canvas in front of her, while her hands were busy brushing, shaping whatever was on her mind and pouring it into reality in the form of a semi-realistic image. Her consciousness was too focused on what she was doing that she didn't notice someone turning the knob of her little art studio and coming into.
"What are you painting?" it was only when the boy stood next to her that the girl realized his existence.
Without wasting any time in replying, the girl pointed at her canvas with her chin, as if to say, "See for yourself, you have eyes right?"
Which was answered with a crisp and savoury laugh. The boy bent down and poked a scratch of oil paint that had not yet dried from the surface of the canvas. Blur painting twilight landscapes are slick and realistic. The orange colour he stole was soft and greasy in his hands. It was like tasting mayonnaise. The boy fiddled with it for a while between his index finger and thumb, feeling the texture, before he grew bored and wiped it against the girl's cheek. Seeing that the girl had opened her mouth ready to explode with anger, the boy immediately interrupted, boasting,
"Gosh, there's paint on your cheek. Let me help you clean it." He reached for a pure white handkerchief from his pocket, pressing the softness against a cheek that was even softer than silken tofu. After her cheeks were clean, he lightly pinched those chubby cheeks with annoyance, then smiled kindly, as if his sin of ruining a painting and smearing paint on someone's pretty face had never happened.
"What are you doing here?" the girl furrowed, being on the line between annoyed at being disturbed and surprised that a little part of her heart was happy at the disturbance.
The boy pulled the same chair from the other end of the room, bringing it close to the girl so he could sit next to her. His sweet face always had a warm and mischievous smile on. It makes people who see it feel itchy as if their heart is being licked by a cat's tongue. In a friendly and welcoming voice, the boy replied, "I am accompanying you."
"I don't want company." the sweet girl objected.
The boy boasted once more, "Then I want to be accompanied."
The girl stopped looking at him and nonchalantly returned to focus on her work. She said, "Go find someone else."
"Hey, why don't you ever draw people?"
The girl stopped moving her brush for a moment, seeming to be contemplating what kind of answer would be appropriate in responding to such a sudden question. After thinking too much, she finally came to a simple, intriguing conclusion, and with a chuckle, she said, "I'm not never, just rarely."
The boy still wasn't satisfied with her answer and protested, "Well, you only paint anime characters in realistic shapes once in a while. What I mean is, you never paint a portrait of someone who is exactly alive though."
The girl sighed loudly, pressing her brush hard against the canvas, but the tone of her voice when she answered didn't sound angry at all. "I pour fictional characters into paintings to bring them to life. Then why would I paint someone who is already alive? They would still exist without my painting."
The young man happily pointed at himself, saying, "What about me? Do you want to paint me?"
The girl turned her head and gave a mocking look, "Why? Do you want to die?"
"Fine, if you wish."
The girl laughed, she shifted her brush aside and applied orange oil paint to the boy's cheek, replying, "Do you have such a crush on me that you want to die for me?"
The young man poked the paint on his cheek and smeared it once more on the girl's soft cheeks. His gaze was very serious as if his whole life was dedicated to that action. After those chubby cheeks were quite dishevelled with irregular strokes of orange paint, he smiled slightly and said, "You know very well how in my mind you are more than a girl I like. I've told you hundreds of times that my feelings for you exceed even the depths of love. "
The girl was silent for a moment. She looked at the boy's face who looked so surreal in his sitting position with his back to the twilight. Making him look like a great earthling. The girl smiled gently as she asked, "Then what if I die first?"
The boy smiled happily, replying, "You don't need to worry. You only need to wait for me for one to five minutes before I catch up with you."
The two laughed together.
Both begin to melt and are trapped in a time capsule that traps momentary moments that seem eternal. They are two travellers who go in all directions and times in search of answers. But in the end, they were too scared to entirely look for it, as if they listened to the answer, they would melt and crumble.
The twilight still covers the world. The two of them walked with their shoulders touching, sharing stories in silence, sharing feelings in emptiness. The scenery on the way home always looks monochrome how many twilight covers. It was as if their four million cone cells had broken down and died.
One is a simple girl who loves to paint but also hates painting at the same time. Her life which is always orderly and directed from the moment she opens her eyes until she closes them again makes her lose her passion in life. As if breathing was a chore, as if eating was an obligation, as if life was a boring repetition of computer programs that kept going the same way. The other was a boy who had everything but never got what he wanted most, making him feel like the most nothing in the world. When he is only given what he doesn't want, he has to go and find out for himself what he wants most on his own.
And one day at a crossroads, the two people met.
"There's no need to take me too far." The girl stared blankly at the branch of the road she had to walk alone. The boy next to her understood that this was the moment of their temporary separation, as it had always been. He nodded, even though the girl wouldn't see it.
"See you tomorrow. "
"Yes."
The two of them separated. The boy saw how the girl went into the arms of a different world that he could not reach. At the moment when he couldn't see her with his own eyes, he always wondered if their previous meeting was just an illusion, or had their respective entities never really existed.
The more beautiful a moment is, the harder it is to realise it as reality. The more bitter an event is, how hard we try to deny it, the more real it feels.
People tend to worry about things that are not necessarily going to happen. And they are afraid of their own thoughts. As soon as he came to his senses, the girl had already disappeared at a crossroads. Farewell will always taste bitter on the tip of the tongue no matter how accustomed you are to it. If it had to be this bitter, it would be better not to meet at all. But when he thought that, he started to be confused as to what he would do if they had never met in the first place.
When he imagined it, his chest ached. And in his heart, he always hopes that the twilight never illuminates the future, so that the past will always be around and never be abandoned. However, a future without each other feels like a living hell.
All the lonely songs in his heart he poured into his little notebook. One day, the little notebook fell into the girl's hands, and she was laughed to death.
The girl laughed. But at the same time, she wanted to cry.
-0-
Heavy rain still hit. Lightning still struck covering the background of the fierce battle. A group of revolutionary soldiers wielded hand cannons whose explosive power was more terrifying than hundreds of flintlocks put together. Hiding behind a tree is not the right choice. It could only protect against poison arrow attacks for a while, but wouldn't be able to completely prevent attacks with large explosions. But it's better than running around aimlessly.
A group of women in clean and tidy clothes entered the battlefield with their chins held high, so filled with confidence. They numbered 12 people with each carrying a long-barreled Landsknecht matchlock powered by magic so that the explosive power and firing range were increased tens of times. They gracefully walked in low heels paired with their maid outfits. There was a simple black dress with a white apron decorated with ruffles. White sunbonnets with black straps adorn their heads. Each had a serious face as they cocked their weapons and aiming at the enemy was as easy as a snap of a finger, even in this extreme and difficult weather. It didn't take them long to take over the fight.
Alruna made a half-squat gesture with one knee on the ground and the other knee supporting her elbow. The long-barreled matchlock is positioned to aim and then uses her very magic energy to trigger an explosion that generates more thrust than gunpowder. She shot through a long and winding distance before reaching the target, shooting straight at the hand cannon that was about to detonate. In the end, the enemy's weapon devours its own master.
Alruna rose to her feet. She and the ladies-in-waiting that Cedric had directly selected had more fighting experience than anyone could imagine.
"Seeing that they don't hesitate in using hand cannons, it seems that their supply of gunpowder is endless so they can be so confident." one of the maids spoke in surprise. She stood next to Alruna, lightly carrying her matchlock as if the 5 kg load was nothing.
Alruna replied, "Well, Master probably guessed everything."
Lily chuckled, commenting once again, "In the end, we don't even know what Master's plans are."
Dahlia, another maid who was standing beside Alruna, nodded and said, "After all, we were only asked to come here and carry out the attack. Whether the opposition is the one directly brought by the Master, or even the real enemy who came by opening the way on their own, our job is to just listen to the Master's orders without hesitation. Our Master is that kind of person. Even the Goddess can't guess his thoughts."
"Let's get this over with quickly." Alruna broke the conversation, breaking up their sweet chatter to quickly return to the dirty reality that needed to be faced. She crouched down once more, placing her palms on the wet ground, feeling a faint tremor on the ground. Alruna immediately got up, and said, "Livia's Armored Cavalry will be here soon. Let's leave everything to them." The other eleven nodded in unison. They gathered before disappearing into the depths of the forest.
When Livia's Armored Cavalry arrived, there was nothing to worry about. The cavalry in armour pierced the night until dawn, successfully repelling the revolutionary army that had infiltrated through Alba and Nirari's bridles and into the mountains of Ataraxia.
Poison arrows in the first place won't work against armoured troops, so the revolutionary army had to rely on their hand cannons. Since the enemy troops relied more on their gunpowder quantity than on the number of soldiers, the Livia Armored Cavalry only needed to attack their gunpowder supply barrels and detonate them all at once. Viceroy Sirius and his group of imperial soldiers joined them in dealing with a blowback against the enemy. When absolute victory was finally achieved after the sun was directly overhead, the gallant warriors finally had time to rest and open their armets.
While still sitting on the horses, some of them chatted about simple topics.
One of the generals of the western border command, Ryker Demetrius, stroked his horse's neck as he spoke to Raden Lakshan, the deputy commander of the Grand Marshal. He said, "If the revolutionary army came from the remnants of the commando of the crumbling Eastern border, wouldn't it be strange for them to enter the capital via the North? There is a Suerius line still in dispute about their dam. Or Walherich who is being torn apart by international bandits. But why have to go North? Are they willing to drag Marchioness Scarlett down to court?"
Raden took a bite of his tough wheat biscuit and seemed to be thinking seriously. "After all, who certainly made sure that the revolutionary army remaining in the Eastern border command entered the capital via the North? The revolutionary army that infiltrated here on average had mixed with the bandit group. It could be the bandits who passed through the northern route, and the original revolutionary army entered by other means. But in essence, I agree that their aim is none other than to drag Marchioness Scarlett's name."
Ryker nodded in agreement. Then he added, "Not only Marchioness Scarlett, but the minister of war will also be dragged along. The enemy's outrageous stockpile of gunpowder has proven their connection to be no joke. If it is proven that the gunpowder was purchased domestically and not through illegal trade routes, the minister of household affairs will also be charged. "
Raden commented, "Well, either the preparations for the attack this time were too hasty and turbulent, or because they deliberately made it as chaotic as possible to drag everyone into the mud."
Ryker nodded once again, adding, "Thank God that the Marshal is in a safe position this time. Otherwise, let alone requesting a disbursement of salary, our operating expenses might be deferred. Soldiers in other border commands might be able to depend on their grain and grain fields, but what about arid Mahavira? Did they ask us to eat rock and sand, and fight against mountain bandits using wood and grass? "
They both sighed wearily. Raden swallowed his last biscuit and said nothing else.
The hunting area is temporarily closed forcibly. This year's hunting event ended worse than one might expect. Several hunting participants who were locked up in their respective tents were the luckiest people who did not have time to experience a long, tense night amid a rainstorm and war. They only knew that the enemy had been brought down when they were allowed out of the tent. After undergoing several brief interrogation processes, most of them were allowed to go home before being recalled if the testimony given was unsatisfactory.
The Evanders, who didn't participate much in the whole tense night, asked one of the security guards about their youngest daughter. But unfortunately, they still couldn't meet their little princess because of her position as one of the main witnesses. Not to mention, her condition was also a bit unwell so she had to undergo first aid in the treatment tent. When they wanted to ask the Emperor for permission to visit, it was a pity that the Emperor's condition was not known for certain by everyone. The news about the Emperor was deliberately covered up.
One day after that tense night had passed, and the forest at the foot of Mount Ataraxia was officially closed for the time being.
Kirsi Daciana Reverie, who had been having a long past dream, only woke up 4 days later.