Command

The echo of thunder and the crashing of the waves clashed in the midst of the downpour. A woman appeared to close the window next to someone's bed in a nearby house that lighted up their life in the dead of night.

"Did you find anything about those people in black robes?"

Her head turned to the door when she heard the deep voice of a man standing in the doorway. She left the room and tightly closed the door after kissing the little girl's forehead who was sleeping peacefully.

"Yes," she replied as she descended the stairs carefully, "Drey sent me a letter with proof that they were sent by an aristocrat in the Algor District."

They stopped when the woman stood in front of a drawer in the living room. When the woman handed him a piece of paper, he could see photos of a man with a mustache interacting with a number of people in black robes.

With a sigh, he walked to the sofa and said, "Why does it remind me of that lecherous former district chief's son? Rion... Roy… ugh, what was his—"

"You mean Rony?"

The woman's correction locked the blue-eyed man's gaze on her for a minute. His silence was also because the woman seemed disgusted by the name she uttered with her own tongue.

"Alessia," he called her as calmly as possible. "It couldn't be him. He's in exile."

Alessia looked away when the man walked toward her then embraced her gently.

"Sorry for making your mind wander unnecessarily."

"I'll forgive you if you tell me about certain things."

The man, with a faint grin, put his chin on her shoulder and asked her softly, "So what do you want me to explain, darling?"

With her eyes blinking occasionally, Alessia cleared her throat slightly. She might have felt her body temperature rising, but that shouldn't stop her from finding out something.

"Ahem! Veron, my beloved husband," she said as she cupped the man's face with a grin still etched on his lips, "can you tell me what did you put in that time traveler's picnic basket?"

Veron blinked several times when Alessia looked at him without fear.

"Are you jealous?"

"Stop joking. I saw something else besides my cake and the smoke bomb doll."

Veron, with a grin that didn't fade even though the woman in front of him pouted slightly, stood with an upright posture.

"I swear on behalf of my family that it was just a small note."

"What for?" Alessia asked again. "And don't bring your family into this. Let them rest in peace."

A small chuckle escaped Veron's lips. Then he stared at his life partner and spoke earnestly, "If SURVIVE recruits her, I really hoped that she never reached the hall north of the building."

Alessia's eyebrows rose.

"Why?"

"Remember the incident that almost cost us our lives?"

Veron walked to the window with a complex expression mixed with worry.

"It still haunts me that there was a mysterious person who came into that hall before your coma and all that rebellion took place."

Seeing the reflection of the man's dim gaze, Alessia put the paper on the table and got close to him. They comforted each other without knowing that the note in the form of a letter that Veron was referring to was sealed tightly in Brissia's personal locker at the editorial office.

Meanwhile, the recipient, who was neither there nor anywhere else in Archtier, was facing a more difficult situation by encountering the two people she most hated.

"How could you be here?!"

As soon as she regained her strength, Brissia ran downstairs as if the stairs weren't the most dangerous thing that couldn't make her get up on his feet. Her feelings of homesickness collided with her complete restlessness.

"Brissia?!"

Brissia's gaze widened to see Gierra's figure in the living room. Meanwhile, Gierra, who had intended to pay a visit to ask where Brissia had gone, was stunned when she witnessed something that answered more than her amazement.

"What the…"

Gierra covered her mouth when Brissia's parents approached her and pulled her forcibly. A gulp of saliva brought Gierra closer to the family who were busy arguing, released their grip from Brissia's hands, and turned her back to her.

"What do you think you are doing to her?! She's your only daughter!"

Brissia's mother turned with a sharp gaze at Gierra as she snapped at her, "How rude of you to interfere!"

"I didn't intend to at first, but Brissia had no right to be treated this harshly!"

With one push as they attempted to seize Brissia, Gierra staggered back.

"You know nothing and have no right to determine what's good for her and for us."

Both Brissia and Gierra's eyes widened when her father approached Gierra with a cold gaze. That prompted Brissia to pull Gierra toward the exit, stopping her father instantly.

"They can do anything to you! Isn't this the perfect time for you to run with me?!" Gierra scolded her while glancing warily into the grand, contemporary house.

"There are things that I really need to settle with them. It also happened because of my previous negligence."

"But—"

"Ji, I'm fine! You have to trust me!"

Eventually, Gierra could do nothing but walk to the gate in a fret. She fell silent as she glimpsed Brissia walking in the other direction with a gloomy expression.

In front of her parents standing in the doorway of her bedroom, Brissia just stared at the shiny floor beneath her. She heard in silence how her academic advisor reported to her parents regarding her absence for days.

Until finally, both of them walked out of her room.

"If within a week you still don't show seriousness in studying, you will be transferred to another campus."

As soon as her father's figure disappeared after turning the other way, Brissia clenched her fists. There was the faint sound of a car engine starting. Without even needing to confirm it, she was sure she would be alone in the grand house for some time.

***

A girl in a dark blue jacket ran carrying a black bag when three policemen chased her from a distance. She jumped over the rail and crossed the tracks just before the train passed, causing the three policemen to stop and put their hands on their hips.

"Criminal unit 2, stand by at junction 26! Ask for one more car to come to the railroad crossing next to the old station!"

As soon as the train had crossed the crossing, the three policemen ran in the direction the girl had last been seen. When the police cars came, one of them asked for the three to get in. The car sped away and raised its siren, which made several pedestrians look up in surprise.

On a pedestrian bridge connecting the two urban park areas, the girl nimbly ran past other pedestrians.

"Ouch! Hey! Watch your step!"

"Ack! You surprised me!"

"Damn it, why she he running like that?"

She didn't seem to care about the complaints of the people around her. However, when she noticed a cold-faced man in the crowd, her eyes widened.

He, who was talking to a friend of his, suddenly turned to look at her when his friend turned to the girl in disbelief.

It halted her steps. She stared at the man with astonishment as well as wonder, making the man wonder in his heart apart from his cold gaze.

"Show me your hands!" said a policeman, aiming his handgun at the girl in the dark blue jacket.

Most of the pedestrians rushed away with expressions of shock. The rest chose to watch, including the cold-faced man.

"What are you doing?! We shall go now! Have you forgotten the class that asked you for an in-depth study?!" his friend whispered, dragging the cold-faced man away from the bridge.

The girl glanced at the cold-faced man for a moment before raising her hands in front of the three policemen who surrounded her.

Meanwhile, Brissia was staring flatly at the gray sky from behind her bedroom window. She sighed. Instead of going to Archtier, she had spent the whole day pacing her house all along.

She occasionally tried to open the windows and the doors, but to no avail. The idea had occurred to her to burn something to set off the fire alarm, which would automatically disable the locks on all doors. However, she didn't want to spark another fire.

Suddenly, she heard a ringing call coming from her cellphone. It made her stare lazily at it. But because the ringtone kept sounding, she finally picked it up.

"Hello? Bris! Are you at home?"

Brissia winced at Gierra's panicked voice. "Of course I am. You heard the orders of the lord and the mistress of this house, didn't you?" she said, not enthusiastic.

Gierra turned to the police figure next to her; her uncle. He beckoned Gierra to switch it to video call mode.

"Hello? Why is it so dark there, Ji? You're alright?"

Gierra, her uncle, and four other police colleagues stared in disbelief at Brissia's face which was clearly displayed on Gierra's cell phone. When Gierra asked Brissia to show her the birthday present she had given her before, Brissia showed it with an innocent expression.

"Deputy Chief Giovarro, the suspect said she was Brissia Niverte."

Gierra's uncle turned to hear the words of a colleague who entered the room behind the interrogation room.

"The problem is our tracer confirmed the person in the video call, Brissia Niverte, was indeed at her home. The retina also matches the biometric record of the population data."

Giovarro stared for a moment at the girl sitting in the interrogation chair. He then turned to stare at Gierra who was frozen, staring unblinkingly at the figure behind the one-way mirror.

"Bring whoever is on the video call here. Nobody ought to commit an act of violence."

"Understood!"