Chapter 103 - Subjugation Royal day 2 (1)

"N-no!! NO! What happened?? Who's responsible for this?!"

I am woken up by the loud noise of a yelling woman. I do not know how long I have been asleep, but as my eyes slowly open, I can feel a light throb coursing through my head. 

'Who's yelling this early in the morning?'

With difficulty, I rub my eyes and gradually sit up. I let out a few pained grunts as I get a hold of myself. With a swift motion, I go from seeing the world horizontally, to vertically. When I'm finally in a seated position, it takes a few moments for all of my senses to fully awaken. First, my blurry sight clears up, then the buzzing in my ears fades and ultimately the strange taste which often permeates my mouth in the morning disappears. Only when thEse processes are completed, do I take the time to once again listen to the noise which had woken me up initially.

"Which one of you can explain this?! Speak up!!" The voice yells once more

'That voice…Sophia…? What's her deal?'

I take the time to look around me for the first time and realize that all of my teammates have already woken up, it seems I was the last. I then take a second to inspect my surroundings hoping to find the source of the commotion. I begin checking off the most important points: everyone is here, they all seem fine, we're still in the grasslands. I then look down at myself, I seem to be in a good condition too.

'What's the problem then?' 

"Ah! Alden! You're awake! Can you explain this?!" Sophia asks me, agitated.

I stare at her blankly, still not entirely there. 

'Huh? Explain what?'

She doubles down. "Don't just sit there looking like an idiot! Explain!!" 

Finally, I reply. "... Sure, but explain what exactly?"

She hands me a crumpled up handwritten note. I raise an eyebrow and retrieve it from the palm of her hand. Carefully, as to not tear the fragile note, I unfold it to read its contents. By Sophia's expression at the mere sight of this piece of paper, I can guess that whatever her problem is, it's linked to this. When I've finally gotten it to a state where it is legible, I take a moment to read it:

Dear Alden,

I've claimed what you owe me~

A delight doing business with you, truly!

-Requiem

I flip the note around, searching for more. There is nothing on the other side. I bring it closer to my face, thinking that I may have missed something, but still, there is nothing else. Finally, I scratch the back of my head and hand Sophia the piece of paper.

"What's the issue?" I ask. 

Sophia's fury grows. An emotion she had never shown to this extent before. For some reason, she is angry, and most of that anger seems to be directed at me. I look around, attempting to make eye contact with my teammates, thinking that they might give me a clue. Unfortunately, they all avert their gazes, their faces saying the same thing: "You're on your own."

'That's not very helpful guys…'

Enraged by my confusion, Sophia approaches me, stomping the ground loudly. She grabs my head and forces me to look at her watch's display. She goes to the event market and points to a specific location on the page. I gaze darts to where her finger indicates.

Upon seeing it, I frown.

'...That can't be right.'

I rub my eyes, I must still be asleep. Unfortunately, the display remains unchanged, no matter how many times I rub them. I then think that it might be an error in the system, but that's also unlikely for such a big and important event. As such, I quickly discard that thought. 

This leaves only one explanation. If there is no mistake then the segment of the display which showcases our points, is truly indicating that we… have a single point.

'Damn…'

Accompanied by the shock, or perhaps because of it, the memories from last night rush back in, and I can't help but let an awkward smile creep up my lips. Seeing that, a vein on Sophia's forehead nearly pops.

She laughs in disbelief. "Haha… I can't believe it! He's smiling! He thinks this is funny!"

She raises her fist in the air, ready to hit me. When it is on the verge of coming down, Camille jumps in to hold her back. "W-wait! Let's hear him out first!! Maybe there's a good explanation!"

Ray places his hand on her shoulder and pleads the same. "Right! I'm sure you know Alden of all people wouldn't make a rash and nonsensical decision! Let's hear what he has to say!"

Even Ugo comes to my defense, well somewhat. "I agree. Allow him to explain himself, then you can discipline him all you want." He blurts out.

'Discipline?! What am I? A dog?!!'

Upon hearing their pleas, Sophia seems to calm down for a moment. She relaxes her muscles, prompting Camille and Ray to let go of her. She then takes a step back, allowing me to breathe a little and even sits down to meet my eye level. Subsequently, a large smile appears on her lips, but unlike Sylvia's, there is nothing warm about it. The energy it radiates is cold and sinister. 

'Okay… she's even angrier now."

Sophia sighs as she stares at me and says her piece. "Alright, let's see. First, we've lost all of our points but one. If that wasn't enough, half of our supplies in the Bassline are gone. That leaves us with one booster, two liters of water, and half the meat we had stored, barely enough for the day. To top it off, the icing on the cake, we gained nothing from the trial. We failed, and guess what, we were left a note thanking Alden for it all! Forgive my fury, but unless our dear Alden here has excellent reasoning, I feel it is justified!"

Sophia then clasps her hands in front of her and waits. Ray approaches me and whispers into my ear. "Hey man, if you had a good reason, now's the time to give it to us… I don't think we can contain her any longer, she's really angry."

Left with no other choice, I clear my throat. "Ahem, well first of all, I'm glad to see you all so well! I'm so happy I might cry!" I say with a broken smile.

Crickets.

"Okay… we're not in the mood, I see."

"Quit wasting time and give us your side of the story." Ugo says with impatience.

I sigh. "Alright alright… In essence, when the trial ended, you were all passed out. I knew that as soon as the Maestro left, we would be defenseless against our pursuers, so I asked her for a favor."

Sophia raises her eyebrow. "What kind of favor?"

"I'm getting to that…" I ponder how much I need to say for a moment. Eventually, I decide to summarize. "...Long story short, I asked her to protect us until sunrise from any attacker."

Ray rubs his chin. "I see… that explains why we're fine, but that still doesn't explain why we've been robbed of all our points." He says, unconvinced.

I shrug. "Well she wasn't going to do it for free…"

Ugo grumbles as he finishes my sentence. "So you offered her everything we had instead of allowing another team to wipe us out… which would have resulted in immediate disqualification."

"Bingo."

A look of realization begins to settle in on their faces.

As I prepare to recount the second half of last night's discussion, Camille asks a question. "W-wait a second. You said you asked her for a favor… but we failed the test didn't we? How is that possible? I'm sure I heard that the favor was a reward for the eleventh step…"

The others frown as they understand the validity of her statement. They must all remember the conversation I had with the Maestro.

I answer, addressing them all. "Funny you'd say that because that's the next point I was planning to address." I hold in a smug grin. "The truth is…we didn't fail the test, you did."

From the inside of my body suit, I extract a rectangular card. On it the words 'Access permit: Vault 101" can be read, and my lips fully curl into a sneer.

"..."

Not one of them has the words to answer. Why would they? My reasoning is sound and not only did I save us all, I even obtained a reward that promises to be great. Yet, I was woken up by Sophia's outburst with minimal support from my other teammates. Surely they must feel shameless at this very moment. I could say a few words to ease the tension and lighten up the mood, but I do like this feeling of being in the right. Plus, their shame is a result of their own actions, I'll let them bask in it until I'm satisfied.

Surprisingly though, Sophia immediately stands up and extends her hand towards me.

"I… owe you an apology." Her voice is quiet, but as silky as ever. "It seems I've embarrassed myself with my childish outburst..." She says, her complexion redder than usual.

I grab her hand and she pulls me up to my feet. Our eyes are once more at the same level. As I wipe the dirt and dust off of my body, she inspects me from top to bottom. "Strong, handsome, and smart…Are you sure you don't want to marry me?" She says, a renewed teasing tone in her voice.

The question takes me by surprise but I stand firm. "Like I said last time, I'm too young for that!" 

She turns around and shrugs. "Oh well."

A voice resonates from behind me. "Perhaps… We've let the situation get the better of us." Ugo mumbles.

"That's a weird way to say sorry." I say

He does not reply, but rather looks away and clicks his tongue. 

'Why don't you just be honest for once…'

I then feel a tug at my arm, pulling my attention. I look to my right to see Camille. She offers me a sincere bow and an intense apology. "I-I'm sorry!! Please forgive me!" She stutters.

I beg her to raise her head. "Woah, no need for that! Please! You don't need to bow like that! I wasn't even angry!!"

She raises her head. "N-no, not that… well that too, but not only that! Um… last night, I lashed out at you! It was misplaced, I… I apologize. I know you were just trying to look out for me!"

I remember our conversation from last night. "Ah, you don't have to apologize for that. It's true that my concern was inconsiderate, I realize that now. I shouldn't have tried to stop you." I tell her, fully meaning what I say.

"S-still…thank you ... .I don't regret going through that last trial in the slightest. I feel as though I've gained something tremendously important but still-"

'I guess the Maestro was right in saying she was the closest to attaining it…'

The next part of her sentence is nearly inaudible.

 "no one has… no one has ever cared for me in such a way before…"

"What was that?" I ask.

Instead of giving me a clear answer, she buries her face in her hands and scurries off to the Bassline. "N-nothing…!!"

I blink as I watch her leave. Ray is the last one to approach me. He encases his fist with his palm in front of his chest area and offers a polite bow. "I'd like to thank you too"

I wave my hands dismissively, feeling embarrassed by the formality. "Seriously, you don't have t-"

"No" He interrupts, his tone firm. He then looks up and our gazes intertwine. "The light feathers never forget kindness. Thank you for seeing to my well-being."

"W-well, in that case I have no choice but to accept." I say, clumsily imitating his bow. My gesture is met with a smile from Ray, and I notice how white and pristine his teeth are.

'Should I ask him who his dentist is later?'

Unable to handle the weight of the moment any longer, I raise the access permit in the air, diverting everyone's attention. "Should we go open that vault now?"

All eyes lock on the permit and we exchange glances. We all seem to be on board with the idea.

Team: Zeta

Purchases: The Bassline - 70 points4L filtered water container - 5 points2x booster vials with injection apparatus- 10 points 

Special events conquered: Hide and seek

Current zone: Grasslands

Active members: Sophia Thunderbalde, Alden Thorne, Ugo Brightscar, Camille Starforge, Ray Burst

Eliminated members: none

Points: 1