Mother ; Information ; Plans

As the woman continues to hug me, a feel a comfortable sensation within my body.

"Uh…" I voice a little awkwardly while backing away from her a little, "I'm sorry to say that I have no recollection of who you are."

As I expected, the woman is shocked by the revelation and begins to tear up.

Taking a step forward, I place my hands on her shoulder and say,

"It's not just you. I simply have lost my memories of my whole past. So, it's likely that if something triggers my memories, they might return."

Hearing my words, the woman releases a sad sigh before looking me in the eye and saying,

"Let's head inside the castle. We have a lot to talk about."

Turning around, I motion to Aruru and Gabriel to do busy themselves with something.

Then, I shift my sight to Tiamat who's now in her human form and reach out my arm.

Understanding my intentions, Tiamat moves closer and 'goes' into my Code.

I move my right sleeve away, only to reveal a relaxed Aurora who is coiled around my arm.

As I pat her head, I begin to walk back toward the castle alongside 'my mother'.

---

Once we got inside the castle, we headed to a lounging room, where 'my mother' began recounting the events prior to my arrival.

Simply put, the time that I arrived in this Platform was perfect, as Wales Tudor was minutes away from being killed.

Anyway, the force that rebelled against the monarchy consisted of corrupt nobles. They named their group 'Reconquista'.

The group of nobles that I killed earlier was only a small part of the Reconquista, while the rest are currently stationed at the edge of Albion.

Reconquista has one aim – 'reconquer' the holy land.

The thing is, the holy land that they speak of is where a race identified as elves reside.

Speaking of elves, I wonder how the five that have been caught are doing…

Using Clairvoyance, I check on their state, only to find them still unconsciously lying on the ground.

"So," I voice as I shift my attention back to 'my mother', "What are we going to be doing now?"

"Reestablishing our rule," she bluntly responds.

"How?"

"Due to the way the public was treated the moment the nobles took over, there are very few commoners that support the Reconquista."

"Are you saying that the commoners will be aiding us?" I inquire after some deliberation.

"That's right," she replies.

Great. Things will be much easier then. It's a good thing that the noble faction is mostly made up of selfish idiots.

"Wales," she voices, "Where were you for the past few days? How did you get away from the ambush?"

Hah~ It's about time that she asked me this.

The ambush she's speaking of most likely happened a dozen or so minutes before my arrival.

At that time, a noble named Wardes led a bunch of Reconquista members to kill Wales Tudor.

However, their plan failed, as by the time they got to his room, he was long gone, never to be seen again.

Naturally, I wouldn't tell the mother of such news. Here, my 'amnesia' plays a huge role.

And so, I begin to tell her about what happened for the past few days, while making sure to not say more than what's required.

"So, um…" I say once I'm done with recounting while acting a little fidgety, "How do I refer to you?"

"What do you mean?" she asks me confusedly.

"It's weird for me to suddenly refer to someone as I would my mother if I don't have any memories of them, so I'd like to call you by name."

Hearing my reasoning, she is stunned for a few seconds before she says,

"My name is Lizette Jacques."

"I see," I say, "Lizette, huh?"

As soon as the words leave my mouth, a shocked expression forms on Lizette's face as her eyes wander about for a few seconds before she peers at my face and says,

"Could you just call me 'mother'?"

I immediately deny the notion by shaking my head and saying,

"You're asking too much of me."

My words seem to have much more of an impact than I thought as her eyes begin to turn a little hazy.

…

What am I doing? This woman has lost her son, so it's only natural that she would react like this.

Taking in a deep breath, I approach Lizette and embrace her.

Lizette then presses her face against my shoulder and sobs lightly as I gently stroke her back.

Perhaps, I have been a little too harsh with the way I handled things… As regretful as that may be, what's done is done.

---

"Your Grace," a muscular man bows and utters as I enter the council room the nobles were in.

"Everyone, leave the room," I command.

In response to my instructions, those present bow once before leaving the room and shutting the door.

"Take a look at yourself," I say while observing Longueville who's tied to a chair, "It doesn't seem like you're enjoying this."

She hatefully scoffs and turns her head to one side.

"How rude," I say before stepping forward and creating a chair right in front of her.

Longueville seems to see my actions through the corner of her vision as she suddenly turns to face me with a slightly baffled look on her face.

"Do you want to live?" I say nonchalantly as I place both of my hands on the back of my head and lean back.

"Who doesn't…" she murmurs.

"Then, I suggest you tell me everything you know about the Reconquista, or else I will simply resort to other means to do so," I state.

"No matter what you do," she grumbles while glaring into my eyes, "I won't talk."

"Are you sure about that?" I say threateningly while reaching my arm out to her bosom.

"You wouldn't!" she exclaims, wide-eyed.

"I wouldn't bet on that," I respond before cupping her right breast.

Longueville attempts to break free, but her efforts are up to no avail, as she seems to be tied up quite neatly.

Soon, I sense something poking my hand from under the fabric.

"Seriously?" I voice doubtfully, "You're getting turned on from this? What a pervert."

"You're the pervert!" she screams as she struggles even harder.

I wonder what will she attempt to do even if she broke free. Kill me? Very likely.

With my curiosity piqued, I manipulate light particles to cut off the rope binding her.

An expression of delight appears on Longueville's face for a split-second before shifting to despair.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

Longueville doesn't respond to me and just stares at the ground with desolation apparent on her face.

I'm guessing that realization dawned upon her, so she ultimately gave up.

Well, now that it has come to this, I have no other choice than to read her mind directly.

Getting up from my seat, I press my hand on her head and begin to use Memory Erasure once I've made her faint by Hypnotism.

--

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally managed to get inside her brain.

Currently, various memories are all around me, with each one showing an interesting part of Longueville, no, Matilda's life.

It turns out that her identity as Osmond's secretary is one that she came up with to steal something.

Her true name is Matilda, but she has another identity – Fouquet, an infamous thief.

Anyway, this ability of mine is very convenient, but it has one giant downside.

If I am to locate a specific memory, I have to surf in an ocean of memories.

It's for that reason that I'm only able to find a limited number of important information.

One thing piqued my interest the most, and that was something related to a half-elf living in a forest.

I leave her brain and slap her cheek lightly.

"Ugh," Matilda groans before opening her eyes and looking around with a befuddled expression.

"Tiffania Westwood," I say, shocking Matilda.

"She seems to be an interesting individual. A half-elf living alone in a cottage."

The more I speak, the more shocked Matilda gets.

"Perhaps, she might be useful."

"Okay, fine!" Matilda yells a little desperately.

"How fascinating. The infamous Fouquet is a sentimental older sister," I mock.

"You will die soon, anyway," she says while glaring at me.

"Is that so?" I casually say before sitting on the seat in front of her before saying,

"Begin."

---

Fortunately, after that, Matilda didn't hesitate to talk anymore.

It turns out that this whole ordeal is caused by the kingdom of Gallia.

The nobles here received a lot of support to go through with the plan, which is a small part of a much bigger plan.

Gallia wishes to unite all of Halkeginia through war to conquer the Holy Land once and for all.

Matilda didn't anything regarding why they wish to do that, but she suspects that it's related to the 'Children of Heathens'.

That's the term that they have come up with for Binary Factors, indicating that there more out there.

Binary Factors are relatively strong, so that's a matter that should be looked into with utmost care.

Anyway, the rest of the information that she provided wasn't all that useful, as it consisted of the nobles who are part of the Reconquista and their ranks.

Swine is swine. It's meaningless to treat them differently.

And so, my plans have been set.

First, I will get rid of all the pests in Albion and use it as a base of operations by establishing myself as the new king.

Then, I shall ally with Tristain and establish a powerful force to bring down Gallia and investigate the matter concerning Binary Factors.

I can't help but feel like the matter is much more important than I'm suspecting.

Once I'm done with all of this, I will take over Gallia and then see how Germania will react to it all.

Depending on their actions, I might have to conquer it as well before I can begin searching for the Core.

Shaking my head, I get up from my seat and leave the room.

"Drag her down to the chambers and keep her alive," I order.

"Understood!" one of the two soldiers standing in front of the door exclaims while saluting.

As I walk over to where Gabriel and Aruru currently are, Lizette appears and blocks my path with a slightly nervous expression on her face.

"Wales… How about we spend some time together?" she suggests after a few seconds.

Well, this might be a chance to make up for my way of handling matters earlier.

"Sure," I reply while beaming a smile.