Thursday morning, October 4. Room 145...
Stirring the batter he was going to use for the pancakes he was preparing, the redhead sighed silently as he adjusted the weight on his back while holding the blanket in place with his threads.
Although he could actually cook without disturbing her thanks to his improved balance as a Reaper, but Adryan found what was happening too cute not to commit a few "accidents."
"Hmmm... Stop moving..." a familiar voice grumbled a little.
"How do you want me to cook breakfast, then?" Adryan asked, pausing his work, his eyes shining a little.
There was a little movement behind him, arms rested on his shoulders, warm air tickling the back of his neck.
The face of his beloved worm peeked over his shoulder a second later, giving him an unimpressed look.
"I know what you're doing," Flora said calmly.
Adryan didn't defend himself, just winked mischievously, "Ehe~"
That action earned him a puff of air from Flora, causing his red hair to cover his eyes, which didn't bother his cooking but was enough for the woman.
Now, with a small smile, she rested her chin on his shoulder and looked at what he was doing. Although that would be impossible due to the height difference between the two, their current position allowed it.
Flora didn't want to leave the comfortable and extremely warm bed, while Adryan had to get up to cook. After a long time of considering whether a few more minutes of sleep or a delicious breakfast was worth it, the white-haired woman decided to take a more curious path.
Even though she had failed to keep him in bed, he had also failed to separate himself from her. So, without forgetting to grab a blanket, she hung onto his back, and he was now carrying her.
"Put more chocolate chips in it. We're all adults here," Flora pointed out from her perch on the man's back, her chin resting on his shoulder, and watching what he was doing.
"Anything else, my queen?" Fixing his hair with one hand, Adryan let his threads continue working with the batter. With his free hand, he calmly grabbed the container where he kept the chocolate chips.
"No, now it's a good meal." Flora nodded with satisfaction at his work.
Pancakes without filling were not pancakes.
Resting her cheek against his shoulder and enjoying the warmth coming from his body as well as the relaxing beat of his heart, her eyes half-closed in bliss.
She had only done this to tease him a little, but this position was much more comfortable than she had thought it would be.
Sighing sleepily, the Jacob chuckled with satisfaction.
"I have to admit it, Princess. Not only are you decent in the kitchen, but you make a first-class mattress."
'Again, the members of the cowardly trio are a bunch of slackers. No wonder they're compared to cats.'
His aunt had a very affectionate tabby cat. That cat had set its whiskers on fire several times because every time they had a barbecue, he got too close to the grill.
Remembering that, and feeling a little curious, he raised his left hand and gently stroked the woman's head.
Her gray eyes closed completely, and Flora practically melted at his touch. Her breathing relaxed, and a satisfied sigh escaped her lips.
"Mmm."
Adryan rolled his eyes and shook his head internally, his theory confirmed.
Yep, inside every Seer, Marauder, and Apprentice was a cat begging to be petted.
...
Nexus District, Victoria Street, Wayne Enterprises. Harvey Wayne's office.
Ottomar Von Ardenne, or Otto as he preferred to be called, smiled broadly at the man beside him.
"It was harder than I thought at first, but nothing a few hammer blows can't fix." Patting his latest creation gently, the man laughed with great satisfaction.
On display on the desk was a large wooden box that looked like a combination of a camera and a train. Its exposed crank system revealed the complexity of the design.
"An automatic projector!" he announced proudly.
Harvey Wayne was looking at it with an amused raised eyebrow. With his arms crossed and a small smile on his face, he said, "Not bad, Mr. Otto."
Turning his attention to the "film projector," he nodded slightly. "Could you explain how it works?"
Nodding graciously, Otto pointed to the side of the machine. "As I said the last time we met, the rest of the world has already paved the way with the creation of the components. All that was needed was for someone to put them together.
"Using an intermittent mechanism in the projector so that each frame of your 'film' stops before the lens, giving it enough time for the shutter to open and expose it, was quite easy if I'm honest.
"The real problem was the sound, that was a real headache, let me tell you." Laughing a little at the end, Otto let out a long, extremely tired sigh.
Taking off his rectangular glasses, he cleaned them with a handkerchief. Under his eyes were deep, dark shadows, the dark circles almost looking like he had put on a little mascara before coming to present his work.
"In the end, I had to design a special phonograph that, once connected to the 'automatic projector,' would transmit the sound to the speakers. Connecting them was a real nightmare, but I managed to simplify the process."
Breathing a little, Otto put his glasses back on. "If you have a roll ready, we can try it out."
Harvey smiled and nodded, looking away, "That won't be a problem."
The white-haired Abigail nodded back, holding a simple briefcase containing the first few minutes of the short film and the audio.
Watching the woman approach them, Otto frowned slightly but quickly recovered.
He could have sworn she looked a little different. Maybe it was her nose or her eyes, but maybe it was just age catching up with her. After all, the woman had barely said or done anything that prevented him from getting a good look at her the first time they met...
Meanwhile, in the basement.
Eleanor held some notes and looked at them critically. Adding up the numbers and making sure for the fifth time that no numbers had been skipped and no symbols had been misplaced, he nodded with satisfaction.
Looking up at the boy in front of him, Eleanor closed the notebook.
"Everything's in order, good work, Saul."
"Thanks." Although he replied, the boy's gaze was fixed on a spider crawling across the ceiling.
"..."
Sighing silently, Eleanor tucked the book under his arm and scratched his forehead.
Although the young man could only speak Loenese, that wasn't a problem. Like all Lenburgers, he was fluent in four languages, and due to the proximity of the Loen Kingdom, it was natural that one of them was Loenese.
Looking at such a strange person, he couldn't help but be a little curious.
With dark green eyes, brown hair, and chubby cheeks, the young man in front of him was in the prime of his youth, not even an adult yet.
His name was Saul, and he had come from the Loen Kingdom looking for work. Although it was unfortunate that he could only speak one language and had a somewhat strange personality, he made up for it with his math skills.
In the little test he had given him, Saul hadn't made a single mistake. A first for Eleanor.
Once he presented the boy's profile to his boss, he saw no problem with Saul and placed him under his wing so he could learn what he needed. Due to how much he moved around, this was the best way for Saul to learn as quickly as possible—in the words of Harvey Wayne.
'Although "as quickly as possible" is very literal... Is he some kind of child prodigy?'
Saul could be considered a genius when it came to calculations and numbers. No matter what he put in front of him, the boy would solve it before he could turn around.
Because of his good work so far, Eleanor was considering sending him to Mr. Arthur to help him with the company accounts.
'But first he needs to improve his lenburg a little more...'
The boy was improving extremely quickly, so that shouldn't take long. He wasn't as fast with words as he was with numbers, but he was better than average, so Eleanor wasn't too worried.
Sighing inwardly, Eleanor placed a few sheets of paper on a table.
"Here are some phrases I want you to translate. I'll come back and check them in a little while. On the last sheet, there are more book recommendations that will help you with your pronunciation."
Blinking a little, Saul nodded, somewhat lost, "Ah, yes, I'll do that."
"..."
The well-groomed man just gave a nod, turned around, and went up the basement stairs.
He still had several things to check. Mr. Wayne had meetings with several theater owners, so the schedule had to be clear.
Watching his caretaker leave, Saul waited calmly, doing nothing. Suddenly, the dark-eyed boy moved and looked to his side.
A tall, red-haired man was reading his homework with curious eyes, and next to him was a white-haired woman holding a black book in her hands. Noticing that he was being watched, the redhead gave him a small smile.
"If there's one thing I don't miss about studying, it's homework," Adryan admitted honestly, looking at the boy and nodding at the makeup work.
The young robot, with clean clothes, flesh on his cheeks, and hair of a different color, was like oil and water compared to when he first saw him.
"It's good to see you looking well, sir, miss." Ademisaul closed his eyes and gave a polite bow.
Straightening up, the young boy looked the redhead up and down three times. He blinked a little. "…You're taller."
"…"
Adryan kept his expression and patted the boy's head a couple of times. "... It's good to see you, too, kid."
Flora just rolled her eyes as she turned to the next page of her book.
At least this time, the boy had said something relatively normal...
Meanwhile, in Vivian's office, the black-haired woman looked at her desk with narrowed eyes—distrust, confusion, and curiosity shining beneath her glasses.
On top of her desk lay an envelope, how it got there unknown. It was plain white, and apart from the red seal that stood out against the white, there was nothing to indicate who had sent it.
'I was only gone for a few seconds, I didn't hear anyone come in here. A courier? Is it from Grandpa? What does that old man want now...' Sighing a little, the woman held the bridge of her nose in frustration.
Even with these thoughts, she calmly checked that her office door was locked and lowered the blind. Once she was sure that no one could see her, Vivian took her pendulum out of her hidden pocket and, letting it hang from her right wrist, closed her eyes.
'It's safe to open the letter... It's safe to open the letter...'
Repeating this seven times, Vivian opened her eyes. The pendulum was slowly swinging clockwise.
"A somewhat positive result?" She raised an eyebrow in doubt.
She looked at the envelope on her desk again and, after a moment's consideration, put away her pendulum. From another hidden pocket, she took out a small pocket watch and, opening it slightly, slipped her finger into the small opening.
With her safety measures in place, Vivian cautiously approached her desk and carefully picked up the letter. Seeing that nothing was happening with the watch ready, she opened the letter...
Nothing happened.
When she opened the letter, the first thing she saw was not an explosion or a surprise attack, but even so, its content made her heart skip a beat.
You passed the test, welcome to the team.
Come to Warehouse 7 on Artiros Street in the Artelia District this Sunday.
Sincerely, K.
'This is Mr. Wayne's handwriting! But why did he sign with K? Isn't Harvey Wayne his real name? Well, as an important member of the Wise Owls, it shouldn't be surprising that he uses false identities...' Finding the truth in the deception, Vivian sighed heavily.
Memorizing the address, she burned the letter with her lighter and threw the ashes out the window.
Watching the ashes scatter in the wind, her eyes lit up a little.
She was one step closer to fulfilling her dream.
...
Loen Kingdom, southeast of Backlund. St. George Borough.
In the basement of Saint Hierländ Cathedral, in the part that served as a medical room, Ikanser Bernard replaced the old flowers in the vase with new ones.
Holding the old flowers, the man focused his attention on the figure lying on the bed. Her eyes were closed in deep sleep, and the way her hands were placed on her lap gave the illusion that she was being prepared for burial, but her heart was still beating.
Although, honestly, Ikanser didn't know if being alive was better than death.
It had been more than two months since his failed attempt to capture the Fire Wizard, and it would soon be two months since Janice had fallen into a coma.
He sighed again. Even though they had special artefacts that suppressed their target's best escape skills, they had committed the sin of underestimating their opponent and had paid the price.
After the failed attempt to use one of the artefacts to pull Adryan Kenway to his island of the subconscious, which ended with the destruction of the artefact and the woman's current state, she showed no signs of waking up.
No artefact they used, no ritual they tried, had been able to wake her up or show any signs of working.
Whatever had happened, Janice's only chance of waking up was for whoever had left her like this to come and fix what they had done.
With a heavy sigh, Ikanser carefully placed a hand on Janice's and squeezed it gently...
Closing the door behind him, the man threw the old flowers into a nearby trash can and left the basement. Passing through several corridors, he arrived at an office, which he entered after receiving permission.
An old man in white shepherd's robes and a clergyman's bonnet greeted him. His gentle face softened the burden he felt on his shoulders a little.
"All of Miss Janice's needs and care are being met with excellence here, Mr. Bernard. While it is a kind gesture of you to visit her every day, it is not necessary." Archbishop Heramick Haydn said softly, his eyes looking at him quietly.
"It was my lack of planning that caused this, it's the least I can do." Ikanser replied with a respectful bow while drawing a triangle on his chest with his hand.
Heramick repeated the same gesture, drawing the sacred triangle emblem on his chest. Once that was done, he asked.
"How are the preparations for the Memorial's transfer going?"
"We have already finished preparing everything, and the venue for the exhibition is ready. Next Sunday is Knowledge Day, so we scheduled the transfer for October 10th. That will give us enough time to prepare everything and finish the move.
"The Memorial will be held on October 20, the perfect time to ensure the largest number of visitors." Ikanser nodded in agreement.
This year's Roselle Memorial Exhibition was supposed to be held at the Royal Museum on King's Avenue, but plans had changed due to the Moonless Night. The memorial will now be held in Lenburg.
Although the change was very sudden and the dates were very tight, Lenburg had been asking for this Memorial to visit for a long time. This meant that once it was decided that Backlund was no longer suitable for the Memorial, the next location was logical. The only downside was that Lenburg had the upper hand in the negotiations, but due to the tight schedule, it had to be accepted.
Heramick nodded as he scratched his long white beard, "Excellent. At this time of year, the country is quite cold, so I recommend a good coat."
"Thank you for your concern." Ikanser nodded.
Since he was in charge of that area after the fiasco with the Fire Wizard, it was his responsibility to go with the Memorial.
The Archbishop just nodded again, taking his hand away from his beard, turning around, and focusing his attention on the sacred symbol of the Church in the window.
"Don't play around too much with Arrodes. It may be an artifact with manageable effects, but it's still an artifact with consciousness, not a toy." Heramick said casually.
Ikanser froze for a moment, then nodded nervously.
"Of course."
Due to the nature of their work, which was to take care of the Memorial of the one who was once known as the Son of Steam, they couldn't afford to let anything go missing or be stolen. Arrodes would let them know if anything was missing that they hadn't noticed.
It was better to be careful after all.