Yohann Helders sat at the counter of a bar in the Imperial Capital's downtown area, nursing a glass of blood-and-wine. The joint was called The Gates of Dawn, and hardly ever got many customers.
A week had passed since the duel.
In that time, Yohann's life had been completely upended.
After losing to Terakomari, the military kicked him out of his unit. Yohann had already screwed up once by committing arson, which was how he landed himself in the Seventh Unit in the first place. Switching to Units 1
through 6 wasn't in the cards anymore. He had no choice now but to drop out of the military altogether.
How far he'd fallen from his days as a genius rookie, mastermind behind the prison massacre incident. He'd possessed such ambition that he'd been determined to get that coveted Crimson Lord position and command his own unit one day. But thanks to that stunted strumpet, all his plans had turned to
dust.
"Ah, life is pain. Barkeep, another glass."
"You've had enough."
"What's it to you? I can pay."
"That's not the problem."
But he poured Yohann another glass anyway.
The barkeep owned the establishment and was also a foreigner, which was a pretty unusual sight in the Mulnite Empire. His dark skin identified him as a former resident of the Gerra-Arruka Republic, which meant he was currently too far away from his country's Dark Core to revive upon death. The fact he'd moved so far from his own nation to set up a business here meant that he was either a crazy fool, had issues back home, or was just extremely confident.
Yohann fixed his doleful eyes on him.
"Hey, barkeep. You heard of that Terakomari Gandesblood?"
"The new Crimson Lord, yes. I heard she's made quite a name for herself as a commander, despite her young age."
"Yeah. But she has no power! No abilities! I would have been a much better choice for the Crimson Lords! She stole the position that should have been rightfully mine!"
"Oh dear, that's terrible."
"It is terrible. The entire history of the Mulnite Empire is gonna shift because of this. I had plans to lead the Seventh Unit to victory by burning all the other countries to ashes…"
The barkeep sighed in disgust, but Yohann barely noticed. He could think of nothing but Terakomari. How could he get to her and burn her to a crisp? How could he yank the Crimson Lord's chair out from under her? That was all that had been on his mind since his humiliating defeat during their duel.
But this obsession of his was about to bear fruit in the most horrid of ways.
"That's an interesting tale you've got there."
There came a sickly sweet voice.
Yohann looked over in surprise to find a young girl sitting beside him at the counter, pouring herself a glass of wine. A fox mask obscured her face.
"Hey…how long have you been there…?"
"Oh my, a little tipsy, are we? I've been here from the start," tittered the girl.
He couldn't make out her face beneath the mask. You don't encounter many folks as suspicious as this, Yohann mused. Pensively, the girl picked up her glass and swilled its contents around.
"Lieutenant Yohann Helders of the Imperial Army, I presume?"
"…How do you know my name?"
"Well, you're famous. Prison slaughter mastermind, that's you."
Yohann frowned. Was she mocking him? He didn't want to talk to this wench. She was putting him off his drink. Besides, it was getting late. But just as he slipped off the barstool to head home…
"Terakomari Gandesblood."
"?!"
"You hate her, don't you?"
Yohann swallowed hard. The girl had a weird, dark aura about her, and he felt almost as though it were sucking him in. A bead of cold sweat slid down his back.
"Who are you?"
The girl giggled.
"I'm Millicent. Member of the incredible, amazing Inverse Moon."
Yohann froze. She'd dropped that name so casually…the name of a terrorist organization that had sowed so much tension and fear in the Six Nations over the past few years. The group had this weird slogan: Life in the Shadow of Death Is Mankind's Long-Cherished Desire. They'd been parading around trying to destroy the Dark Cores of the world's nations. Total lunatics.
"Don't mess with me, wench. You'll find I can't be fooled so easily."
"I don't really care if you don't believe me. But what I have to say could be of great interest to you."
She lifted her glass and sipped her wine. Correction. She tried to sip her wine.
Instead, the glass merely clinked against her fox mask. She froze.
"…I think you're the one who's drunk here."
Though her face was still obscured, Yohann could see that her ears were bright red.
"I don't really care if you don't believe me. But what I have to say could be of great interest to you."
"Um…excuse me? Did we just skip back in time?"
"Don't be ridiculous! You really must be hammered!"
Then the girl removed her mask.
She had a beautiful face, with striking eyes that were long and slanted. This time, she managed to sip her wine. But upon closer inspection, it wasn't alcohol at all. It was grape juice. She was a minor.
The girl put her glass down and turned to stare at Yohann.
Her eyes burned with a twisted kind of ambition.
"You're with the Mulnite Army, right?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah…for now, I guess…"
"The Imperial Palace has a magical boundary spell placed on it. But someone like you could get inside, right?"
Yohann wasn't following.
Millicent leaned in to whisper in a harsh, demonic voice as he froze.
"Why don't you and I team up? I, too, have a personal grudge against that little wench…"