-~*~-
Usually, the sound of busy street vendors will wake her up, but today is quite the opposite. She didn't hear anything and instead she felt a familiar aura to her own in a form of a small bird rubbing against her cheek. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw a semi translucent blue bird that stands on top of her chest.
"Um... Good morning Willow." She greets the blue bird with the name Willow. rubbing her eyes, Yanyi reach out towards the her bedside drawers and took out a packets of seeds. She pour some on her palms and let Willow eats his little mana out.
Yanyi notices the tube around Willow's belly and take it with consent from the bird. With one hand, she opens the tube and saw the small piece of paper expands and read the content of the letter. It is what she had expected, it came from her sil-light. "*sigh* Can't he just leave me be? Can't he Willow?"
Chirp! Chirp!
The bird even agree to her complaints. It takes him an amount of energy to travel to Kinsel back to Ashrin. she pour out more seeds onto her bedside table and guide Willow to eat there while she reads the letter that came from the her sil-light. "You have much more important things to worry about, Mr Crown Prince. I know how to take care of myself."
— — — — —
Seriously, Licia!
You left the capital with Irene without telling me or Luciel for this matter!? Do you know how chaotic you have made the situation is?! Mom can't help but continuously ask if I knew where'd you've been! And only after one month did you tell me where you are!? If you guess that I will send in more sil-note, than you better expect so! Even if Willow hates me for it, I will give them the best high grades seeds the empire has to offer.
I expect that you won't take long to complete this mission. At most you'll take 1 year to do so. But please, don't start to strain yourself. With us being apart, rin consumption is much greater than before, even if we both have a rather strong one. Oh yeah! I didn't tell your parents about your whereabouts but I did tell our chemistry professor about you. You knew better than I am that he will not tattle on you. He'll support you non-the wiser.
Also, the things that you request. I have them mail to your postal area and by the time this letter reaches you, it should be there. I did my best to appeal to your liking. If you have any complaints, request it to Uncle Jerad to make adjustments. By my instinct, he will likely not betray you... hopefully. Farewell for I, Prince Devian Lyon Volenix has many things on my agenda.
Adios, stupid reckless and stubborn sil-rin!
— — — — —
"Huh, you call me stubborn? Back at ya, hard-headed idiot!" Yanyi curse Devian with a snicker and toss away the paper into a rubbish bin before going in for a bath. Since the had finish a case, there's hardly any big cases to work with. There are few minor one and they can get it over pretty quickly.
After entering the living room, Irene just woken up and is currently sipping her warm cup of tea. She saw that Yanyi is wearing her coat upon arriving inside. Curious she asks the girl of where she plan to go so early in the morning. "I receive a letter and he said that my item of request has been delivered safely to Kinsel. I'm heading over to retrieve them."
Irene — "Wow! He just knew our whereabouts? I thought that you'd be telling him earlier than expected."
Yanyi — "If I were to go missing my father would question the one I spent the most time with. I can trust Lyon but it'd be hard for him to hold onto a secret for too long. Besides, it's fun reading his flustered reaction about my disappearance. Put a smile on my face."
Irene — "You and your pranks. I'll be heading out for the news station so there won't be anyone at home. You'll have to go to the station right after."
Yanyi — "Okay."
Irene — "You don't want any hot tea or coffee?"
"I'll buy one on my way to the post office." She wore her boots and heads out for the day. It took her a while to reach there with legs but she didn't pay it any mind. She likes early morning walks. Though with the distance between their house and the station, she'll have to get on a vehicle sooner or later.
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-~*~-
Even in the early morning, dozens of people are queuing up in the station. Add that with the fact that almost every counter is occupied with people who likes to complain, doesn't play by their own rules, and most annoyingly, people who think that everything must follow their order. Well guess what bitches, you are living under the Volenix Empire which is ruled over by the majestic and magnificent Volenix Royalty. Suck it up!
Thankfully, there is no restriction about drinks being brought inside aside from it being away from the counter. Hence, Yanyi is able to enjoy her hot cup of coffee in peace and knowing that she nothing to worry about with her package she rest her mind and waits until her number is call.
Soon enough, her number was called and she retrieve her package with the alias name of Devian. She figured that they both don't want to expose each other relationship and ought to create an alias when it comes to their outside personal stuff. Taking the package to the station she met up with Luyao by the entrance of the post office.
Curious is in her nature and she question his reasons of being here. "I'm sending a few documents to Volenix Police Centre, regarding the case with Mr Santrick. Seeing that he is someone of a noble title this case needs further evaluation from those above. Now my turn, what are you doing here? Not clocking in?"
She showed him the package in hand and explain how she is receiving the items that she had ordered beforehand. Of course, she explain how she has yet to reveal her location and merely using her alias as a mean to pass by the security. "You came here with a car, right? Mind if I hop in?" He ignored her request and shows only his finger for her to move alongside him.
After clocking in Luyao moves to the office while Yanyi sat on a brick pavement and open her package. Luyao has nothing much to do and watches her from the comfort of the giant double door. Dusting off any visible dust, she took out a small key-like object with a distinguish white sapphire attach to the end of the object.
This is what a lock signia looks like. Once you press onto the Cryst at the end, this lock signia opens up and turn into a weapon that it has been embed with. These weapons are infuse with the same energy and magic corresponding to the Cryst it holds. There are four Cryst that serves as a signia, symbolising the powerful existence and graceful of the four Auril and Aurilia.
Azure Aqua is the Aurilia of ocean. She is said to be the one who complete the balance between good and bad, light and dark. Often more than not, people who got blessed by her are those who possess a rather strong judgement on justice and the way the world works. Those who are bless by her would receive an Aquamarine stone by the day of their elotion ceremony.
Scar Amber is the Auril of flame. He is someone who value strengths and power, often seeking a way to destroy something for a better life of others. People who receive his blessing would be those who would either emerges through war with victory or those who would seek out even blood for other people's joy. He will give out an amber on their elotion ceremony as a symbol of his blessing.
Sage Emerald is the Auril of nature. He is said to be someone who would put his wisdom and knowledge above everything else. Despite being scene as a madman who only seek wisdom, he is someone who is easy to get emotional and tends to hide his emotion behind a curtain. Those who he bless are one who enjoy wisdom and or tends to have a deeper emotional damage than others. He will give out an emerald to sooth his followers.
And last but not least, Ivory Saph, the Aurilia of breeze. She is a carefree person who despise rules and restriction and wish to be free from everything, allowing her to pretty much barge into the other three comfort zone. Regardless, because of her young and innocent nature, they tend to forgive her a lot. She will share her ideal with those who seeks freedom and comfort in being themselves. She will give out Sapphire to her fellow free birds.
Pressing the Cryst on her signia, 8 of her 10 fingers adorn with a black kunai that can extend to her own free will. "A signia of your own?" Luyao asks, leaning against the balcony, watching the girl excitedly opening her package like opening a long awaited birthday gift. Yanyi didn't bother with him and skip to her heart content to the centre of the field.
She scout the area to make sure that no one is within her vicinity, a dangerous distance is what she is speaking. "Hey! If I accidentally ruin the building, do I have to pay damage for it?" Confused, Luyao nodded. Seeing that this is an area for the authorities and has been under the protection of the nobles, she has to pay damage even if it was accidental.
Luyao — "... Though, I could negotiate with Uncle Ryu about it."
Yanyi — "Oh no need. I'll pay the full price."
Luyao — "Alright-! Wait! What do you mean you'll pay full price?!"
Without any context to her words, Yanyi begin to launch her kunai into the plaster wall on the roof and starts to bounce off of it with glee. When she ask whether you have to pay a compensation money for the damage, she meant that she will do it for real.
She starts to swing in the air with her kunai, launching it deep inside the building structure and swinging herself like a monkey. "Um, Sire. Should we do something about Lady Yanyi?" Max can help but ask with a slight fear for his life. Just seeing how she's able to pierce into the wall so easily, he's afraid that he might be one of those wall.
Luyao didn't response for a great 3 minutes before shaking his head. "Leave her be. Don't let anyone go within the central open area for their safety." Luyao moves back into his office, leaving Max outside with a frozen feet. Luyao had learn of her story, somewhat. And~ seeing a smile on her face somehow puts him in a better mood. Yes, he owns a stoic face and rarely show his emotion but that doesn't mean that he can't feel them.
He continue with his work while the constant shouting of "WOHOOO!!!" blasted throughout the station. Even the local starts to get curious what those sound as well as the silhouette of a young girl appearing in the air to be. Thankfully, the officers values the locals' life as much as their's and explain how their superior is testing her new weapon.
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After a legit 1 hour and 30 minutes, Yanyi enters the office with sweat covering her forehead. She throw herself onto the soft sofa and let out an exhausted laughter of joy. "Did you have fun with your new signia?" Luyao question from his table while looking through the paperwork and complaints.
Yanyi — "Ah~ It has been so long since I long for such FREEDOM!!! And yes, it is fun."
Luyao — "Good. Now that you have your fun, your portion is on the table. Those needs to be sent by today's evening and some of them are important."
Yanyi — "What?! I thought that you'd be doing those."
Inside, he still can't believe that despite the leisure that he had given her just about 2 hours ago has been for nothing. "We agree for you to be my work partner and that means that my work shall be split equally between us. I doubt that you had never work with this sort of thing." Yanyi grumble and take a look at her own table which has the same height as Luyao's paper.
She skim through the documents first before planning on taking a quick shower. She had prepare a spare clothes because Irene insisted that she bring one when she's out for work. For what? She had no idea but it did come in handy. One particular paper caught her eyes and it was rather obvious.
"Constant harassment reports? How long has this been here?" Yanyi demands with a slight annoyed and angry tone inside. She herself is a woman and seeing how it wasn't dealt with immediately makes her blood boil. Luyao explain how it had been sent for a few days even before her debut and he had task a few officers to dealt with it. It calm down for a few days but it came back again.
Luyao — "This sort of case will emerge from time to time. Just assign someone to deal with it and worry about the more important one."
Yanyi — "Fine. Max!"
Max came running in and saluting to both of them.
Max — "What can I help you with, Lady Yanyi?"
Yanyi — "*handing out the documents for the harassment reports* Find a few vacant officers to deal with this case. Report to me the results after it was done."
Max — "Yes, M'lady."
Max head out and after seeing his residing figure, Yanyi takes her bag and went to the bathroom that conveniently located in the office. She gives out prior to her bathing time how she will use it for quite some time and if Luyao needs to use one, he should use the community one. He paid no attention to it what so ever.
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-~*~-
Somewhere at a newspaper station, Irene is working to edit the headline for this week paper. She hasn't gotten much about the juicy stuff going around in Kinsel so she figure that she might as well edit a few of her co-workers headlines by their request. After all, there is only ever a few people who knew how to work the Lumo technology machines. And Irene is in those categories.
"Irene. Can you help me edit my headline? I got the second page as my luck and I don't want to ruin them." Irene takes the rough story of outline and see what she can do to spice it up. She's almost finish with her current one and it will be a while until she went home so she figure that she might as well take it. After all, she is expanding her curious mind in this world.
While working, her eyes gaze over an article about a harassment problem within the community. It has it's own specific headline and Irene guess that this might be the juicy gossip her colleagues has their hands on. "Hey, what us this about 'Hot Takes: Celebrities has Received Constant Harassment Decided to Fight!'?" They enthusiastically relay her mind to her.
Colleague — "Oh! This one. One of the female celebrity that star in the recent movie have been receiving harassment letter and even feel like being followed. One of my friends is working for her and she told me how she wants to find a way to stop these things from going on."
Irene — "And she choose to publicise it to the media? Not the police?"
Colleague — "Pfft! Irene do you know that this problem won't go away easily if you tell the, to the authority? In facts, most people will probably send in the exact same request and the old one might have been forgotten already. If I let the world see this article than the authorities have no choice but to straighten their protection."
Irene — "Aren't you technically picking a fight with them? You purposefully ruin their image so they can better protect the people when it is their job to begin with. And plus, they have done a great job at it!"
Colleague — "Well they won't know its me who wrote them. It doesn't effect you now, does it?"
Before Irene can stand up to respond, a hand push her down to her chair gently. Curious and confused she tilt her head up and saw Kazuto staring down directly into the reporter's eyes, trembling in fear as she had slip off prior now. "Wow, you really have a good intention my friend. But aren't you seeing a bigger picture here?"
Scared and in dark, they shake their head, not knowing what they had done wrong. Sorry, let me readjusted that. Super wrong. The sudden appearances of Kazuto really jolts down the workers spine and even the manager and director has to come from their office to calm the situation down. After greeting him, the manager starts to have a light conversation.
Manager — "Uh, um... W-What seems to be the problem here, Young Marquess Ryuichi?"
Kazuto — "Before you ask me what the problem is, let me ask. Who is it that oversees this week news?"
Manager — "W-Well... That would be m-m-me sir..."
Kazuto — "Ah~. Then did you read and think through these candidates intel before approving of it?"
Manager — "..."
Kazuto — "So you didn't? Did you not realise that if this headlines ever made out to the public, the noble family reputation will be tarnish?! A noble family that has been co-existing with the imperial lineage for generations!"
The manager was left speechless and was set in stone, not knowing how to respond to Kazuto's anger. The boy then turns to the reporter's and starts to stare her down. His follow up question sound so like this. "And you. Have you realise that your current action can be written down as an act of rebellion to the imperial family under a specific law?" They stay silent as a mouse.
seeing that everyone is uncomfortable with Kazuto's sudden rage, Irene tug on his clothes, trying to get his attention. The man got distracted and looked down. Upon doing so, his eyes lock onto the emerald pity pair of iris. Internally they are pleading for him to stop and quit his nagging. Never had once a girl ever stop Kazu from acting of his own, except his mother of course.
Giving out giant sigh, he whisper into her ear. "Don't do that headline and discuss them with Yanyi when you head back. I'll do the same with Luyao." And he left the building like he never enter in the first place. The manager and director accompany him and try to strike up a different conversation.
After he went away, the others starts to flock like hungry pigeons to Irene, asking what is her relation to Kazuto or the Ryuichi family. She replied with a half true answer in which she tell how her friends had work with the police before and she happen to help them. She didn't mention anything about her status or relation to the high noble and imperial family. She will be mince meat once she returns home if that ever fell out.
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-~*~-
During dinner, Irene tell Yanyi about everything that had happen at her office and even the article one. "Huh? And here I thought that it would be this bad." is all she said after that while biting into her tender chicken plus fried rice.
Irene — "What are you going to do?"
Yanyi — "I don't know. Everything falls into Luyao's hands. I'll be able to pitch in some ideas but he has the final say."
Irene — "Well if you're in charge what would you do?"
Yanyi — "Probably try to find a way to cooperate with the victim and trap the suspect. That way, we can catch him and obtain evidence of his wrongdoing making it easier to sue him or punish him."
Irene — "Great! We can do it right?"
Yanyi — "If I have my old power. I came here empty handed with a clean slate. I can't just sue him on the worse punishment without my position. And I'm not ready to reveal it yet."
"But you kind of have to sooner." Yanyi's utensils stops after poking into her chicken. She isn't wrong. She came here with a clean plate but that doesn't mean that there aren't people who knew her. And with rumors spreading around like wildfire, she'll get discovered sooner. There are a few of her father business partners that lives here and there are some veteran of her family knight that lives here.
And if things take a dire state, she might have to use her connection to get the information she needs. There are some herbalist that knows her, some blacksmith, some... retired first grade general... And there's even the Ryuichi family. She still doesn't know if she'll be able to trust them completely.
Snap!
"Yanyi!"
Irene call out her name which bring her back to reality. "What are dreaming about?" she shook her head and continue to finish her meals and cleaning the dishes and heading back to her room for a rest. She has tire her rin out and a good night rest is what she needs to gets her mind off of things.
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That's probably what I will do too.
When you sleep, your mind will be filled with wild imagination or a complete black space where you can't do anything and only sit and wait until the next day come.
Aside from reading and writing, sleep and eating would be the best friend routine of a writer, right?
Then why am I not sleeping?
Why am I standing here and documenting their lives?
I can rebuild my dream again, right?
No...
I can't...
I do this...
To protect them.
After all...
They are my dear characters...
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-~*~-
The rest of the week flew by like it was nothing. Yanyi did get in touch with the celebrity and discussed everything with Luyao. With a few flick and switch, she manages to convince him to give her this absurd stalking case.
She doesn't have anything else to do and devoted most of her time into this case. This stalker if being base by her way of describing someone can be said to be "Obsessive and sadistic". Which could mean many different things to a lot of people.
Max is also following her around and ask her why she use such description to analyze this stalker. And her respond is quite hard to understand but let me translate them for you.
Yanyi — " Obsessive and sadistic. When it comes to him or anyone being a stalker there usually held a couple of factors behind them. However in our case, it is nothing more than a simple fanatic lunatic. He is the type that would go to any length to gets the thing that he likes. For example if there's a limited edition for their favorite artist, he would sacrifice an arm and a leg to obtain them, almost like a collector.
Max — "What about the sadistic part?"
Yanyi — "It means that he likes to see people suffer."
Max — "I understand that context, but what does it have to do with this case and your... trap?"
Yanyi — "They don't care who got hurt or release fear. This includes their love one which means..."
Max — "The artist as well?!"
Yanyi — "*snap* Correct! However because he has developed a stalker behavior which makes him much more vulnerable if he shows his faces. So in order to enjoy the feeling from sadistic joy, he would watch from a far."
Max slam his first together and finally understood why her plan is to trap like this. "So what you are doing is to lure them with not only the most exclusive prize from being a fan but also the joy of seeing someone in pain, aligning with his sadistic side!" Yanyi chuckles and clap her hand slowly. He finally got her idea and is glad to see that he has no fear of continuing with them.
And in the middle of the night, Yanyi, with the help of the police patrol forces as well as the celebrities managed to catch the person in action and brings him to justice. Soon enough, he was brought over to Kinsel Justice Ministry and it was dealt with by the celebrity.
"Phew! That was a rough one!" She lays down onto the couch in her office. Surprisingly, Luyao is still in the office and is handling a few other cases that he has deem important. It's not a big one where the two of them is needed so he handle them on his own.
The person that Luyao had handed over the documents went out and he ask without looking away from his table. " How's the case end with?"
Yanyi — "Good. The celebrity fill out a form and decided to take this case to court herself. With me here, I'll try to make sure that her case fell through smoothly."
Luyao — "Good. With that away, there would be no more dire cases that needs our helps. A few of the minor cases can be dealt with under one day with enough dedication."
Yanyi — "Does this means that i can relax for a bit?"
Luyao — " You can relax in the office but you are still required to clock in on time. Now, go home."
Yanyi — "Fine."
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-~*~-
There's a really well known group of dancers and singers in Yucoria and coincidentally they are doing their world tour as we are speaking. Tonight, they are performing in Kinsel and the ticket sold out in a flick of light, most of them are female buyers. However, the concert is held at night and the venue is quite far from a few of the residences to accommodate their large crowd.
They literally spent their life savings to buy this ticket for a once in a lifetime opportunity! Who would be in their right mind to skip this chance! Besides, there will be more than one person in one area to go with so it would be fairly safe if they travel together.
By the time I am documenting this event, the concert had already concluded and it was at midnight when they finally arrived back at their residency area. A few of the girls are still chattering around about their magnificent experience just a few hours ago and boy it is loud. However it has already past the bed time for most of the people, so they try to keep their vocal cord as low as possible.
"Ah~. I can't believe that I manage to see them and even get the front row center seat!"
"Right! It was a miracle that we stay up for so long for the ticket."
"Did you see how one of the members wave at my location! So close yet so far..."
"Yeah! And he takes the handmade teddy I made for him!"
More and more, it just sound like a group of fanbase diving into their pool of knowledge. Boy it would be awkward to be the only one that is in the group but has no reaction at all to what is happening... That's me... Anyway, we haven't finished with our stor-!
"What's with this thick mist?"
A girl who seem to have a much more keen sense than the others notice how the surrounding turns into a cloudy hazard. Their vision can't even past 1 mile away. The others notice her warnings and stop their chatters to be more vigilant than ever. They are after all young girl who had just return from a concert where security is like paying a free fee. They have nothing to defend themselves.
Seeing how they are cowering in fear, the girl that warns them says as loud so that only they can hear to stick together and held a partners' hand to avoid getting lost. With her guiding, they slowly trodded into the mist to try and make sense of their whereabouts, hopefully near a place where they can take a safe custody. Like a police station.
Whoosh!
Pheew!
"What was that?!" One of them yell in fear when they spotted a few black figures running around the thick mist. When the girls heard this they started to see the same thing and even starts to make a commotion, making it harder for the leading girl to keep everyone by the rope.
"Arghhh!" Slash!
"Ahhhh!"
The girl screams follows a grunt of pain coming from one direction of the area. A natural instinct took the leader by shock and went to where the sound came from. She had almost lost her footing if it weren't for the constant screams coming from her back. But suddenly... it became silent...
No sound...
No footsteps...
No heartbeat.
Carefully tracing her steps, she found no one in where she had last stand before checking the grunt. It was quiet. Too quiet. Will this be the one where she can't see it all?
Pwoosh!
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-~*~-