Dinner With A Hunter

"I see," Ethelred spoke in an understanding tone. The two can be seen sitting down, Ethelred had his back against the wall while Fu Hua had her back against Ethelred's front body.

"That was not a dream Hua," Those words worried Fu Hua a lot as it could only mean one thing.

"That was a divination," Ethelred's words were dreadful to Fu Hua's ears.

"There must be some kind of mistake," Fu Hua couldn't accept this. Her voice was in denial as she covered her face with her hands.

"No, I'm sure about it. The reason it's not a dream is because you knew four things I've never told you," Ethelred spoke softly, his hand caressing her head in attempt to soothe her.

"I haven't mentioned that Mei is my apprentice, I didn't tell you that I knew Kiana Kaslana, I've never showed you the token that allows outsiders to enter the hunter's dream, and I never told you how I want my body treated when I die," Ethelred listed the things he heard from Fu Hua's divination that he hadn't told her.

After a while of silence Ethelred swallowed a lump in his throat and opened his mouth "Fu Hua. What you witnessed was a divination of my death," He admitted, he carefully observed Fu Hua for any drastic reactions.

"Ethelred," Fu Hua called her name with a serious tone, but Ethelred could see her trembling shoulders in front of him.

"Please. Can't we just disappear?" Fu Hua begged him to run away, to hide away, to live happily ever after.

"I.. you know I can't just do that Hua, I have promises to keep," Ethelred forced himself to say that. He too wanted that, but he had his duties.

"Bu..but don't you see it? Didn't you just say it yourself. You are going to die Ethelred! Dead!" Fu Hua spoke in disbelief as her body trembled hard.

"I came into this world screaming and covered in blood. I don't mind returning in the same way," Ethelred hugged Fu Hua tight, Fu Hua can feel his body tremble slightly, but she doubted herself. Was it him or her?

"The fears you don't face. They will become your limits," His hold on her tightened as if he himself couldn't believe he was saying this in a situation like this.

"I knew a man who once said death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back," A small smile formed on her face when he was buried amongst her hair. His head touched her back head and his hands wrapped around her waist in a protective manner.

"I will face my death when it comes. But I will never run from it," He spoke in a somber tone, he didn't want to leave her alone, but he couldn't be selfish nor could she. They were warriors. Warriors that took an oath, and he is a hunter the insatiable bloodlust would only get in the way.

"Please. Don't leave me," Fu Hua's cracked voice for a moment moved Ethelred's heart, but he couldn't. It was only a matter of time after they hid that the world would end.

"I've been your sun to light up your life. I've been your moon to brighten your darkest hours. But after my death. I will be your rose, your memories of me would make you happy and hurt at the same time,"

"Is there a way to prevent this?" Fu Hua muttered slowly, Ethelred heard this, he had an answer, but he himself wasn't sure anymore.

"Yes, but when someone is destined to die. No matter how hard we try to stop it. The chances of death letting it slide is slim to none," Ethelred answered, the answer he provided wasn't confirmation or denial. Just maybe.

"Please try. For me," She pleaded.

"I will. I will always try for you," Ethelred whispered, kissing her back head to assure her.

"Liar," Fu Hua muttered slowly as she closed her eyes and laid back into his chest.

The crying had made her exhausted mentally and she let herself sleep in his embrace.

"I'm sorry Hua, but you need to prepare yourself for my death. Although there are ways to prevent it. It's up to death whether it wishes to spare my life or not. I've escaped its clutches many times, but after each success. The chances of success grew slimmer ," He kissed her head gently. He laid back on the wall again and prompted her body to make sure she was comfortable before closing his own eyes.

The two were not seen during class until school ended.

"Where were you?" Himeko asked Fu Hua when she saw her go down the stairs from the roof.

"I was…"

"Oh Himeko sensei? Is school over?" Ethelred revealed himself and Himeko immediately understood what happened and smirked at Fu Hua.

"I see, it seems like the up tight class president will be absent for quite a while,"

"I.."

"Don't get carried away you two," Himeko teased, Ethelred simply gave her a polite smile while Fu Hua was trying to stop Himeko from spouting more nonsense.

"Oh, will you be back to your dorm today?"

Fu Hua stayed silent, she wanted to spend more time with Ethelred after knowing his destined death, but school rules are still rules.

"Don't worry I can cover you up,"

"Thanks Himeko sensei," Fu Hua politely bowed and Himeko nodded and walked away.

In London the S ranked Valkyrie Rita and Durandal can be seen walking around a museum in the city. Viewing some history and looking around the museum exhibits. Outside of the museum a familiar man who was holding the front line during the hold of Nagazora was looking at a map and looking around his environment.

"Damn bastards couldn't just tell me where to go, instead they just circled a location on the map and expected me to go there," Duke grumbled as he walked in a random direction and hoped that he'd end up where he was told to go.

He was already suffering as he was, but his suffering soon increased when he bumped into S rank Durandal and S rank Rita when he was too focused on reading the map. Unfortunately for him Durandal remembered his face well.

"You!" Durandal pointed at Duke while Duke covered his face with his map and tried to walk away from them, but he was pulled by the back of his collar and was dragged to a more secluded area.

"Why are you here? You hunters always bring trouble wherever you go," Durandal stated, she was ready to strike, but they were in the middle of civilians.

"I'm also confused why I'm here, and this map those damn bastards gave me is starting to drain my patience. Do not be the reason I snap," Duke growled

Rita saw a glimpse of that map before she stopped Durandal from doing anything rash as she could feel the evident impatience that Duke had and he was not lying when he said that he was going to snap.

"Master Durandal. This is a bad place to engage with a hunter. Especially a hunter of his power," Rita advised Durandal to rethink her decision, Durandal looked around to see the civilians that were oblivious of the imminent danger that would ensue if they were to clash.

"I see, do you need any help?" Rita asked, although not serious nor was she expecting he would accept, but much to her surprise.

"I don't see why not. This is not a hunter's mission. This is a personal mission. A few people left something behind here, a memoir of their dead parents and I owed them a favor so they sent me to find it. The reason why they can't find it themselves is because they are busy," Duke spoke matter of factly accompanied with a shrug of indifference.

"Let me see the map," Rita asked and Duke handed it to her.

"This makes no sense," Rita muttered and turned on her phone.

"What?" Duke inquired as he stepped closer to see.

"This location is a cemetery," Rita answered, but still opened her phone to make sure she wasn't mistaken.

"Okay, it seems like grave robbing is my schedule today," Duke grumbled and took back the map from Rita's hand and saw the cemetery name on Rita's phone.

"Thanks for your help. As my thanks, how about dinner tonight?" Duke offered, the map was folded and put in his pocket.

"We would love to accept your generous offer," Rita immediately cut off Durandal who was most likely about to reject the offer.

That night the three met again in a luxurious restaurant. Duke was dressed in his suit while the two valkyries were dressed in their dresses.

"So what happened to those siblings' parents if you don't mind me asking?" Rita's tone curious to hear a story.

"I don't mind telling this story, and I'm sure they don't mind it too, but how do I put it in words," Duke closed his eyes for a moment to think and soon came up with an answer.

"Their father and mother hunted them down. The reason behind this was because when the triplets were born they saw no potential in them. They didn't want to see their children die at young age, so they developed a twisted, but effective system,"

"Do you mean that the parents' deaths are…"

"Yes. They were killed by their own children. In the end the parents explained why they did it and left their children with a sense of guilt that would push them to become stronger and made them hate the Honkai. The question 'if only the Honkai didn't exist we could've lived a normal life' rang inside their heads,"

"That's horrible," Durandal gasped in horror, not able to imagine what it must've been like for the children.

"That's how hunters are made. WE were trained to erase every inferiority inside us until we are nothing but the best,"

"But enough of the hunters. I'm quite curious about how you make valkyries?"

"Well not the process. To be fair with the question you asked me. I want to know how you develop your valkyries in the mental side," Duke was a fair man, his philosophy of an eye for an eye was something he was known for.

"Valkyries are trained over and over again, same with you hunters, while we try to make sure they don't die. It is entirely up to them if they wish to continue," Rita started to tell him the normal procedure of training.

"We usually also trained them in the event that they were ever captured and interrogated," Rita added.

"Other than that is their own will power," Her explanation ended, Duke could be seen frowning for a while before nodding.

"I see,"

"If you don't mind me asking, how is your survivability rate?" Duke asked, his hands shifted slightly, his body leaning forward to hear their answer.

"Our survivability rate would be around 50% as of lately, it used to be 60, but because of harsher requirements it decreased," Durandal answered with no pride nor shame, just matter of factly.

"How about the hunters?" Durandal asked back.

"0.02% For conversion and 2% For training," Duke answered without hesitation or emotion.

"What?!" Suddenly the attention of the room was shifted to the three people, Durandal coughed in embarrassment as she calmed herself and gestured an apology to the people in the room for her sudden outburst.

"0.02%? Well that does make sense, Schicksal tired to infuse human blood with Honkai and so far the death rate is 100%, I thought the hunter's would be at least at 20%,"

"The price of power is expensive," Duke told them, the two of them knew of that saying, but they never thought the hunters were that crazy.

"I.. I can't deny that, but do you really not feel anything with that many casualties? Did you ever try to change your methods? Find another that would have a higher survivability rate," Durandal asked.

"No. We value quality more than quantity. We've tried other methods that have a lower death rate, but they all died. They were too weak," Duke replied nonchalantly. The two slowly saw that the hunters and Otto weren't so different, but the hunters were definitely more cruel in their methods.

Soon the waitress arrived and served them their food and drinks, Durandal had a plate of venison with salad on the side, while Rita ordered a bowl of hot chicken soup, and lastly Duke had a plate of steak. Durandal and Rita ordered a bottle of wine while Duke brought his own drink.

"Oya? What drink did you bring?" Rita asked in interest as she eyed his drink.

"A hunter's version of alcohol. If you want to try it, be my guest," Duke offered.

"Is that a challenge?" Rita had a smirk on her face.

Duke chuckled and took out two shot glasses from his coat and placed them on the table. Pouring the contents of his bottle he pushed the two glasses to Rita and Durandal, while he poured his drink into a wine glass.

The two looked at the glass and back to Duke who already took a sip of the drink, a small smile formed on his face as he took another sip before putting it down and grabbing a fork and knife to start enjoying his steak.

Rita turned to Durandal who looked at the shot glass for a moment before gulping it. Durandal's eyes widened and Rita could feel that Durandal used some of her powers for a while. Rita took a tiny sip of her drink and soon knew what was inside the drink.

Using some of her powers she suppressed the alien Honkai that entered her body.

"Thi..this is,"

"Wine mixed with the blood of a hundred year old judgment class Honkai Beast," Duke smirked and took another sip of his glass before continuing to eat his meal.

"You're saying you can drink this regularly?" Rita asked in disbelief.

"Without getting drunk? No, drink regularly and stay alive? Yes," Duke stated matter of factly as he swirled his drink at them.

"You hunters really are crazy," Rita shook her head in disbelief after hearing what he had just said, but soon realized that the Honkai from the drink could corrupt the civilians around them, Duke who saw the concern raised his hand and shook his head.

"No worries, the blood inside has already been neutralized to make sure that it wouldn't harm civilians, but if someone were to drink the leftovers or from the same glass then… Who's to say, really?" Rita stared at her shot glass before drinking it and giving the shot glass back to Duke along with Durandal's shot glass.

The three soon focused on their own meals in silence before they continued their conversation after they finished eating their food.

"So how old are you?" Rita asked while waiting for her soup to cool down for a bit.

"I am a hunter of the third generation. I'm around forty thousand years old," Duke had a tone of uncertainty, but what does it matter, He was old and that was all that mattered.

"How does it feel to live that long?" Durandal asked with a slight interest as she wanted to compare his answer to the Overseer's

"Bored. Most of the time there is nothing entertaining for me so most of the time I've spent amongst my immortal life is boring to me," Duke let out a breath of disappointment.

"Well unless you're a researcher, a historian, or any other kind of profession that likes to learn something new as time goes by," He continued whilst cutting his steak.

"But for hunters that love to fight. People like you and Judgement or Emperor ranked Honkai beasts are the only thing that could satiate our boredom," He continued before putting the steak in his mouth.

"Is fighting the only thing you like?" Durandal asked, Duke made sure to finish chewing his food first before answering her question.

"I did have a hobby once, but these days it seems like that hobby is slowly going bland," Duke replied, his face had a nostalgic gaze before it became normal.

"If I may ask, what is that hobby besides killing that you have?" This time it was Rita who asked, putting down the spoon she took a napkin and wiped her lips.

"I was a novelist. I've registered under many different pen names and finished various books. The genres I usually write are fantasy, romance, action, sci-fi, and some treatises."

"Interesting. I could see with what you've seen and lived through," Rita stated.

"Yeah, the materials are from creativity and experience," Duke mused while Rita chuckled.

"So what is one of your pen names?" Rita inquired before taking a sip of her normal wine.

"I did go by Paragon in 1967," Rita nearly choked on her drink when he said that.

"Were you perhaps the writer of The art of Deception?" Rita asked after clearing her throat.

"Oh? You've read one of my books?" Duke was a bit surprised but also pleased that someone knew one of his books.

"I learnt the most from that book," Rita admitted.

"I'm honored to have an S ranked Valkyrie as my reader," He gave her a mock bow accompanied with a short chuckle in the end.

"So how was the book?" Duke asked for her opinion on the book.

"It was useful, refreshing, and inspiring. I always asked myself just what kind of life the writer lived through to come up with that kind of book," Rita answered while recounting the contents of the book.

"It was a little bit of experience and creativity, your praises are over exaggerated," Duke humbly replied, although there was a bitter expression he made for a slight moment.

"You really should recommend to me similar books that you made. I've re-read the art of deception a few times that I've memorized it all," Rita proudly smirked.

"I never thought anyone would like that book, it was something that I didn't put too much thought into, just the truth about deception. How ironic is that really," Duke smiled bitterly.

Durandal who watched as the two chatted like old friends slowly started to feel like she was the third wheel.

"If you have time, I'd be more than glad to show you some of the other books I have," Duke smirked and Rita softly chuckled before taking out a piece of paper from her pocket and writing her number with her lipstick.

"Don't leave me hanging. I'm dying to read something entertaining, but I'm too busy to look for the books myself," Rita replied, her face had a small smile, but also hints of exhaustion.

"Back to the serious topic, what are you two doing here?" Duke shifted the conversation to know a bit about their reasoning for being here.

"If it were vacation I would think that only one of you would be allowed to go since 2 S ranked valkyries taking a vacation at the same time when the organization only has three S ranked valkyries is quite odd," Durandal was clueless of how to answer while Rita kept her smile.

"Wherever Master Durandal goes. I follow, my job is to assist and protect master Durandal,"

Before Duke could ask further questions he turned around and took out his greatsword, with the flat side facing forward he was trying to block something, but a shockwave past through him and his greatsword was damaged and whatever went past him hit him on the waist which created a sizable hole.

Coughing out some blood he cursed before sending a mental transmission.

"It seems like my presence here is unwelcomed," He groaned and struggled to stand up straight.

"Fuck a shot from the 3rd devine key hurts like hell," Hearing this information both Durandal and Rita activated their valkyrie suits while Duke jerked to the side to dodge another shot from the divine key.

"That's it!" Honkai energy started to leak out of Duke's body as his grip on his greatsword strengthened.

The hunters only had one job. The preservation of humanity, a noble mission and vision, but. They had no problem sacrificing innocents along the way.

"Sky. Tea.." He was slapped on the face by Durandal who was glaring at him, Rita's scythe was in front of his neck and they were ready to put him down if they had to.

"Get out of my way. The shooter is gonna die one way or another," Any sanity and moral compass Duke had was gone, all replaced by a strong bloodlust and rage.

"Then think of some other way to do it. There are innocents here," Durandal coldly spoke as she held her lance in front of his abdomen.

The madness in his eyes subsided, replaced with amusement he smirked and let go of his weapon.

"So how do we want to do this?" He asked as he took out a vial and stuck it on his waist. Soon blood veins slowly formed and his flesh slowly reformed.The flesh that was slowly deforming stopped it's process entirely and he was back to normal.

"Seeing that we're no longer under fire it seems like they overheated the thing," Duke chuckled and put away his greatsword and instead the familiar oath of Judah appeared in his possession.

Durandal stepped away and Rita pulled away her scythe, the two curious of how he had the oath of Judah.

"Capture the one who tried to harm me," Duke whispered to the cross, his hand resting on one of the sides and a large amount of Honkai energy was pumped into the weapon. The chains shot out at a speed faster than the oath of Judah Rita and Durandal was accustomed to. This one was not the real Oath of Judah. This was a modified version of it.

Their attention was soon shifted to the loud crashes outside and the evident destruction they knew they would encounter. The two didn't have time and rushed out of the restaurant to help the civilians evacuate, but what they saw was destruction, yet the civilians were protected by the chains.

"The slippery bugger managed to escape. Not bad," Duke left the restaurant with the cross floating beside him.

"It was a nice time talking to you, but it seems like we'll have to leave it at this. See you around," Duke waved them goodbye before disappearing.