They had fallen asleep at some point, but a knock on their room door woke Levi up. A few seconds later, Van Salvatorre poked his head through the half-opened door.
"Are you guys asleep? Did I wake you?" He whispered extremely loudly. Then he swung the door fully open and entered without waiting for a response.
Levi shook Aldrich's shoulder lightly to wake him up. Van Salvatorre took a seat on the floor opposite to them. Aldrich groaned as he turned over. He grumbled something about 'five more minutes'. Levi shook him again, but a bit harder.
"What, what is it? I'm up." Aldrich mumbled as he propped himself up with his arms. He scrambled a few inches back once he noticed the man sitting right in front of him.
Van Salvatorre gave him a little wave. "Hi."
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to talk, like we agreed earlier." Van Salvatorre stated. "I convinced Goro, he's the one guarding your room right now, to let me in."
Aldrich couldn't understand what exactly the strange man's goal was. He didn't seem to have any ulterior motives for acting so friendly, but he couldn't be sure.
"Are you always so friendly with people you kidnap?" He questioned.
Van Salvatorre seemed to think about it before answering. "Well, no, not usually. But this also isn't my usual kind of job. As a contracted retrieval specialist, I usually only hunt criminals with bounties on their heads, and as you can guess, the princess doesn't have one."
Levi leaned forward. "Then why go to such lengths?"
Van Salvatorre laughed. "Let's just say I'm doing a final favor for an old friend. But enough about me, I want to hear about you two. I can tell you're special."
He must be referring to Levi, Aldrich thought. He and Levi exchanged looks, silently debating whether it would be smart to reveal anything about themselves to the man.
Finally, Aldrich decided to play along with him. "I'm a knight-in-training with the Order of the Rose. My father, Alastair, is the knight commander."
"The Rose..." Van Salvatorre repeated. "I remember... the roses. Alastair, is he still insufferably pompous?"
"How do you know my father?!" Aldrich demanded. This was the second time the man had mentioned his family.
There was a distant look in Van Salvatorre's eyes, his hand shot up to his star-shaped scar as if he were suddenly in pain. "I- we used to live in the same town. In a different kingdom. He- he left the town... because of... a curse? He didn't even tell me where he was going."
Aldrich sat forward. "A curse? What are you talking about? What curse?"
There was a shaky look in his eyes now. He held his head with both hands as if to keep it from splitting apart. "I-... I..."
Aldrich leaned forward even more. "What cur-"
"I don't know!" Van Salvatorre shouted suddenly, causing Aldrich to back up quickly out of surprise. The man's breathing had grown heavy.
Aldrich and Levi watched the man hyperventilate for a few minutes. The room was completely silent, apart from his laboured breaths. And then he took one big breath and rose his head back up. His usual glib expression was back on his face.
"Sorry about that," he apologized, as if it were something completely normal. "What were we talking about again?"
"The cur-..." Aldrich started, but Levi placed his hand on his shoulder and interrupted him. Maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to keep pushing.
"That scar on your head," Levi started. "It isn't normal, is it? How did you get it?"
Van Salvatorre touched the area around it lightly. "It's a funny story, I... huh, I can't seem to recall actually."
Aldrich sighed. This conversation had proved completely useless in terms of information gathering. In fact, he had even more questions now. Questions that the man couldn't seem to answer.
The door to the room opened once again. Standing in the doorway was one of the replicants. "Yuiitsu would like you to join him for dinner. All of you."
Levi got up immediately. "That sounds great, I am starving."
A cooked meal had been part of the reason he had followed Aldrich and Sir Andrius to the capital. But all he had managed to do was get roped into an impossibly weird situation. He was used to weird though.
Van Salvatorre followed behind him. Aldrich took one more look around the room before jogging to catch up.
×
The replicant with a five on their neck, Goro, led them to a giant open room. In the middle of the room was a large, low to the ground, table with multiple cushions. The table was already stacked with food and Yuiitsu sat at its head, the princess adjacent to him.
Yuiitsu smiled as they entered. "Welcome. Please do have a seat."
Aldrich sat down next to the princess while Levi and Salvatorre sat directly opposite. The rest of the spaces were filled by the replicants. It was probably the second most weird dinner party Aldrich had ever been to.
"How do you use these... stick things?" Levi whispered to Van Salvatorre. He didn't seem to get the explanation though, because in the end he just resorted to using them like skewers on what he could.
Meanwhile, the princess' eyes never left Yuiitsu as they ate. He caught her gaze out of the corner of his eyes.
"If there is something you wish to say, princess, it might be more productive to say it out loud rather than attempt to burn a hole in my head with your eyes." Yuiitsu said, lowering his chopsticks.
Veliona wasted no time. "Why is it so important you meet with this man?"
As Yuiitsu began to speak, he started to cough, quite violently. He covered his mouth with a cloth and signalled for one of the replicants, who had gotten off his seat, to sit back down. They reluctantly did so. As he lowered the cloth, Aldrich could see it was stained red.
"Sorry about that," he said with a strained smile. "It just keeps getting worse, which is exactly why I need to speak with Hasashi Saito."
"Wait, you're doing all this because you're sick? Have you tried seeing a doctor already?"
A small laugh escaped Yuiitsu's lips, which turned into a louder uninhibited one. "Yes, I'm afraid I have. This is the only path I have left, I'm afraid."
"Could you pass the rice balls?" Van Salvatorre asked the replicant next to him. The only thing he received was an exasperated scowl though. "What?" He asked, genuinely puzzled.
"I thought this Saito guy was a merchant," Aldrich questioned. "How is he supposed to help you?"
Yuiitsu looked in his direction. "Well, he is much more than that, according to what I have heard."
"What exactly is wrong with you?" The question was from Levi.
"Ever since I was a child, my body has slowly been deteriorating. The decay has started to speed up now, my internal organs are slowly dying. And I fear my mind will follow soon. Which is why I hope you can understand the need for such drastic measures."
Slowly dying since his life first began. Aldrich couldn't imagine how it felt.
The princess placed her hands on the table. "And what if he cannot help you, what then?"
Yuiitsu seemed to have no answer to that.