Alma
/ Alma 62 Leon The Scoundrel
"I've got one them fancy titles too, and I'm not afraid doing the right thing," said Reed as lazily fiddled with an old, expensive-looking guitar he had borrowed from a glass case beneath the Evergreen Estate.
"How. Do. You. Not. UNDERSTAND?! If word EVER got out that we attacked another noble family from another empire, much less the goddamned Holy Church, it create the biggest shitstorm in the last millennium! Do you want a second Unification War, you fucking imbecile?!!"
"So we'll make sure to not fuck it up, alright? I don't remember you being this spineless, Astor." Reed started to feel that it was going to harder than he initially thought to convince them…
"...If we fail, the skies will run red with the blood of innocents for centuries, Reed," said Horatio in a grim, harsh tone. "I feel for them, I really do, but we cannot put two lives over the safety of hundreds of millions of citizens across the North and the East."
"Even you, Horatio? The man of action, who'd never back down from a challenge? To think the day would come when I'd have a bigger set of balls than you…" Reed scoffed in contempt, wondering if he'd wasted his time in calling them over.
"Let us say that we succeed, Reed. We save them and hide them away somewhere safe. Even then, we'd have to bear the possibility of someone finding out what we did as long as they live. This is high treason we're talking about. They will have everyone from both families executed as a warning to aristocracy. Harboring wanted fugitives will be the death of everyone in this room should they ever find out!" said Ophelia.
Reed sighed and said, "All I hear is your fear talking, Ophelia, and it's a total mood kill." He stood up, grabbed his guitar by the neck and held it like a baseball bat.
He gave his improvised weapon a solid swing and said, "...Well, fuck it, then. Guess I'll do it on my own. You three would probably slow me down, anyways."
"Don't worry though, I won't tell them that you were too chickenshit to help out when I save them," said Reed in derision. "I'll let three of you tell that to them yourselves when you meet them," said Reed before he walked out the tea room.
That was the last thing they heard Reed say to them before...
"That went spectacularly," said Lacrima as she desperately tried to hold back her laughter. "So, what are you going to do now, boy? Your friends won't help you, and if she so much catches wind of what you're plotting, she'll imprison you down in the dungeons. You're going to have to do this all alone…"
Reed chortled and said, "Don't I have you? You're more than enough for me. Why would I need anybody else?"
Lacrima said, "Oh? Look at you, boy. Color me surprised, so you've learned how flattery works. To think you'd be such a late bloomer, heh. ...But this also pretty nice, too. It's like looking at a new side of something old, in a way…"
She sounded strangely sweet and pleasant, a marked contrast to her usual self. It was an odd, unnerving thing; It made Reed's heart beat a little faster for some odd reason…
He didn't... dislike it. But at the same time, it made jittery and anxious like he was waiting for something…
"Anyway! We'll be leaving under the cover of darkness tonight before she catches on to us. Long-distance void jumps to random locations, and then I'll have you seal my aura, just in case."
"Hehe, you know that won't keep her away for long, right? She's intrinsically linked to you on a fundamental level — deeper even than a spiritual link — letting her feel the wavelength of your very existence, no matter the distance between the two of you. She will find you, so as long as you exist; alive or dead," said Lacrima.
Reed suddenly felt like a ball and chain had been put on his leg, one that he'd never be able to remove. He nervously said, "I-I see. So what are supposed to do?! She'll never stop looking if we leave, and when she eventually finds us…"
He felt it in his bones, the fear of something worse than death. The knowledge of the evil that festered behind her beautiful hazel eyes.
"Relax, boy. Although the link is unbreakable, it can be masked with a bit of skill. I know a technique that'll transform you into someone else, thereby obfuscating your existence from the girl. It's an old, but elegant technique made by a very famous thief in the days of yore."
"Then it's settled. Good. We leave at dusk or...… sometime around that," said Reed went to his room to prepare…
Time passed and dinnertime came around. Before anyone had noticed, he'd left in silence.
It started as a simple question that spiraled into a full-fledged search across the entire premises. He was nowhere to be found. Mira was supposed to have informed her master that his dinner had been prepared.
Neither was he in his bedroom, the main living room, or down the family vaults, his favorite lounging spots. Nor in any of the common guest rooms in the estate. Soon, Arcano had been informed and the servants had been mobilized to no avail.
Lu'um watched the search for Reed from her bedroom with a cold, but amused expression on her face. She'd always expected that this would happen one day, that'd he start to act independently. That he'd fall back into his old habits.
It seems I have been too soft as of late. I'll properly discipline you this time, my love. I promise.
Her hunt had begun.
Scenes blurred again and again, without end. Forests melted into snowstorms, and they, too, melted into mountains. A plethora of colors swirled around him, changing into an endless amount of peculiar shapes. Reed had been jumping across all manner of foreign places for the last four hours non-stop as safeguard.
Although he trusted Lacrima's disguise, but even then he felt that it was not enough. He knew that Lu'um was far more powerful than she let on, to point that he guessed she was probably stronger than everyone in Mulia, at the very least.
He had been becoming increasingly more perceptive when it came to reading the flow of Anima around him and others. The more he learned, experienced the hooded man's memories, the more the world opened itself to him. Secrets that had been hidden from him had been brought to the light.
"But still, you've made me quite the handsome fellow, Lacrima," said Reed as he tore yet another spatial tear for him to jump into. "So this is your type, eh? I'm still better looking than this, though."
His light-brown hair fluttered in the wind as he stepped out into another foreign landscape. His warm, amber eyes glittered with a certain playful charm that were strangely captivating to others. Above all else, his refined, elegant face made him quite the looker.
Lacrima scoffed and said, "You will also need to come up with a new name for yourself in the meantime. If you use your old name, it'll break the technique and reveal to her. Once that happens, it's over for both of us, you understand?"
Reed gazed at a distant mountain range as he inspected his surroundings and said, "How about Magnus? Sounds regal and imposing."
"Rejected."
"Then how about... Isaak? That sounds pretty nice, right?"
"Rejected."
"No, no, I've got it! Ned! Think about it. It's such a plain, normal name — it's perfect!
"Rejected."
Frustrated, Reed said, "Then what? What name will satisfy you, oh wise and noble judger-of-names? Please, enlighten me with the perfect name, my muse!"
Lacrima paused for a moment and then said, "...Leon. That's your new name. Don't forget it."
Reed sighed and said, "It's alright... I guess. If it shuts you up, whatever." He mumbled under his breath, "Magnus was cooler, though."
He looked at the distant mountain range and pulled out his tome which read, Mistborn Mountains, for his location. It was a remote mountain range located a little bit into the Empire of the West. As long as he traveled east enough, he'd eventually cross into the border of the East.
"Looks like we'll be flying for a bit, then. All we know is that the main branches of Ashborn and Dragoncrest families are in the East, presumably near the main capital, of course."
Thus would begin the tale of Leon, the infamous scoundrel, who would become one of the East's most wanted criminals.
Chapter end
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