CHAPTER 21

THOSE WHO STAY FAITHFUL

Earlier in the evening, shortly after the birthday gifts were received, Lily entered the restroom for a second time for the night. She felt as though she would pass out if she stayed any longer. Her heart was racing out of her chest.

“I can’t believe I’m back in here. Get a hold of yourself, Lily. You can’t avoid him all night. Ulysses and I entered the party together for Pete’s sake. I wonder if people thought we were a couple.” Lily thought, while simultaneously placing both her hands on her blushing rosy cheeks. “I’ve never been like this before. Is this love? I need to calm down. Gather your senses, Lily.” It was unusual for Lily to get worked up by anything, except for Freya’s previous brat-like behavior. Her ability to keep her emotions in check was something she was fairly proud of, but this was different. Lily took a deep breath. She looked at herself in the mirror and stared at the dress she was wearing. It was a Klein blue color made from polyester. She was crowned with a silver French net headpiece with a flower that matched the color of her dress. “Freya really helped me out this time. I owe her one.” Lily said.

Earlier during the week. Freya and Lily were in Freya’s bedroom. Freya was lounging around on her bed while Lily was sitting on a chair at her bedside.

“Ugh! I miss him like crazy.” Freya complained.

“Why don’t you just call him?” Lily asked.

“I can't because he said he was busy and I don’t want to distract or bother him,” Freya explained.

“Well, if you're not going to call him, could you instead help me with something?” Lily asked.

“Don’t I pay you to help me?” Freya said while kicking her legs up and down.

“I’m being serious,” Lily reassured.

“You need my help? Isn’t there like nothing you can’t do?” Freya joked around.

“There are plenty of things I can’t do and I definitely can’t do this alone,” Lily explained.

“Oh alright… I suppose I can help you out. What is it that you need?” Freya questioned. After a brief explanation by Lily, Freya seemed to be in shock from what she had just heard.

“You don’t know what to wear? You prepare all my clothing. How do you not have a good fashion sense by now?” Freya asked skeptically.

“This is different. I want to look my absolute best so I can take his breath away.” Lily elaborated.

“Trust me. You do that already.” Freya said. “Besides, Ulysses is one hundred and ten percent interested in you. You don’t have to try that hard.” Freya attempted to persuade her to give up so she wouldn’t have to go shopping.

“Please?” Lily asked.

Freya let out a sigh and began taking Lily seriously. “Okay. What’s your budget?” Freya questioned.

“5,000 yen. USD 36.00.” Lily told her while pulling out a borderline empty wallet.

“How are you broke? Don’t you get paid for working here?” Freya was astonished by the amount mentioned.

“I’ve been paying off my debt using my paychecks. I owed a total of 5,000,000 yen (37,500 USD) Thanks to the coffee accident last year. I’m almost done actually. I’ve paid off most of it with only roughly 714,285 yen (USD 5,109.85) left.” Lily explained.

“You’re in debt? From what?” Freya asked.

“You’re joking right?” Lily questioned. This struck a nerve in her. She had been working incredibly hard for the past seven years to pay off the debt she owed for her parent's medical bills and had spent the last year using every yen she could spare to pay off the dress she spilled coffee on almost a year ago.

“Do we not pay you!?” Freya asked concerningly.

“It was the dress from last year. That thing costs more than a fortune. I’ve been paying it off since then. How do you not know this?” Lily asked.

“You’ve been paying all that off?” Freya said. “I had no idea…”

“You can’t be serious.” Lily was getting genuinely upset until she considered Freya’s words. She truly didn’t know the struggle Lily was going through just to get by. “I can’t be mad at her for being an idiot If she truly didn’t know. Besides, it was my fault for spilling the coffee on her. I did it on her birthday too of all places.” Lily thought.

“Consider it gone,” Freya said.

“What?” Lily thought she had misheard Freya.

“I’ll take care of the rest of your debt. You’ve already done enough for me. No friend of mine should live their life but be unable to enjoy the hard-earned money they've made,” Freya explained. “I’ll speak with my mother and have her refund all the money you spent paying off my dress.”

Lily didn’t know what to say. The thought of Freya erasing her debt like dust in the wind seemed like a fairy tale to her. She was speechless. Her emotions were beyond control as tears began to flow uncontrollably down her face. However, Lily did not sob instead she stood there with a static look, still processing what was just said.

“Lily!? Are you okay?” Freya asked. She had no idea why Lily began crying. Freya dropped her phone she was idling playing on and rushed over to Lily to comfort her. “Did I do something wrong?”

“You… have no idea what that means to me.” Lily tried to wipe her tears but couldn’t stop them from flowing.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. Let’s get that taken care of now and use a bit of that refund on a beautiful dress for the party.” Freya suggested.

Lily had to take a moment to regain her composure.

“Okay… but you’re choosing it.” Lily agreed, finally able to stop the tears.

“We’ll get you something nice,” Freya said. Before she knew it, Freya became someone Lily was proud to serve. From that moment onward, Lily was debt-free.

After thinking about what had happened before that week. Lily couldn’t help but be incredibly grateful. She hadn’t realized it but thinking about the past made her cry once more. Lily had no more financial issues and was now free to do whatever she wanted in life. Freedom was something Lily never would have thought she would reach until adulthood. She expected to live a life of indentured servitude for the remainder of her youth. The possibilities for her future were endless. She couldn’t help but think about the potential of what she could accomplish after a few years.

“How filthy.” A feminine voice could be heard from the bathroom entrance.

“Oh no… I’m still crying, I have to hide!” Lily thought. She rushed into a bathroom stall and hid covering her face while the sound of footsteps walked by towards the sink Lily was just at.

“This restroom is a disaster. Nothing is symmetrical at all. I suppose it makes sense since this place was rented out by Freya.” The voice said.

“Phew… that was close. What on earth is this girl talking about?” Lily asked. She was standing up peeking through the stall door’s crack and immediately recognized the person entering.

“It’s such a pity that she will end up exposed to the rest of the world that she had to buy herself a boyfriend,” Guinevere chuckled. She was talking to herself in the mirror, or that’s what it appeared at first glance until Lily noticed she seemed to have a wireless earpiece in her ear.

“What…? Isn’t that Guinevere?” Lily questioned. “She’s talking to someone… but who?”

“I’m going to need you to gather up the crew Donald. Also please don’t disappoint me during the race. Your job is on the line here. Make sure you eliminate him no matter what. Understand?” Guinevere said. She was listening to a response but her expression became soured due to a long reply.

“I don’t care who is involved. If you can’t handle him, then I have no reason to keep you around. Now do what you were told!” Guinevere ordered. She then abruptly hung up the phone by clicking a button on the earpiece. Guinevere let out an exasperated sigh and then pulled out her phone.“ It’s impossible to find good help these days.”

“Wow…” Lily took that personally. She felt as though that was a completely unreasonable thing to say. The hardest-working people she knew were those in her line of work.

“All right, time to post,” Guinevere said. She took out her phone and began to type at high speeds. In a matter of seconds, she hit the post button and posted something on what appeared to be SocialLight.

*Buzzing sound.*

“Ah! My phone.” Lily panicked. A notification sounded off from Lily’s phone. Immediately Guinevere turned towards the stall Lily was hiding in as a reaction to the sound from within.

“Who’s in there!” Guinevere scornfully said while approaching.

“This is bad… I knew I shouldn’t have followed Guinevere’s SocialLight page!” Lily thought. Before asking Freya for help, Lily attempted to fix her problems before dumping them on someone else. She ended up following many fashion accounts on SocialLight, with Guinevere’s account being one of them. However, the notification became the smoking gun for Lily. She was about to be caught listening and she didn’t know what to do.

“Come out, now,” Guinevere ordered. She noticed the person in the stall was standing up.

“What’s with all the ruckus?” Lily replied. She attempted to fool Guinevere by sounding like an elder.

“I’m not going to fall for something that stupid. Now hurry up.” Guinevere said. Reluctantly, Lily opened the door to a cross-armed Guinevere, who was tapping her foot in annoyance. Guinevere took the hat off of Lily’s head and tossed it on the floor, using Reverie to read the script of text hovering over Lily.

“What do I do? I was told not to interact with this girl.” Lily thought.

“Tch! You don’t seem pleased to see me.” Guinevere said. She recognized Lily as a maid who worked for Freya. Guinevere had conducted some personal research in the past in order to learn anything and everything she could about the Young family household to get an advantage over Freya. If Freya had fifteen maids in the household Guinevere would have sixteen. If Freya posted on SocialLight Guinevere would post twice. Her life was a constant living attempt to one-up Freya in everything she did.

“I recognize you. You’re Freya’s handmaid. Lily, was it? What’s a commoner like you doing here out of uniform? Your dress is rather distasteful.” Guinevere said, placing Lily under scrutiny. Although she wished to insult Lily for working for Freya, the jab towards her carried no real weight to it, simply because it was untrue.

“I’m here as Freya’s friend,” Lily explained.

“Hah! You should have tried being a comedian with jokes like that.” Guinevere closed in on Lily. “Stay in your lane where you belong. People like you shouldn’t even be here.” Lily lowered her head slightly in irritation.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Tell me, how much does Freya pay you to keep your mouth shut about all the terrible things she's done? That’s what she does. She pays people to get her way.” Guinevere questioned. “It must be a lot, right?”

“I don’t bad mouth my friends,” Lily said.

“Oh, please. You must have been miserable spending all that time with Freya.” Guinevere said.

“That’s true… Well at first it was, but now she is someone I care about. You’re not getting anything out of me, so give it up.” Lily said.

Guinevere was trying to get a mental response but when she used Reverie on Lily, there were no words above her head. “Why don’t you change out of this hideous dress? Here let me help you!” Guinevere grabbed a hold of Lily’s dress around the top of her thigh and began to rip the seams apart downward with her bare hands. “There we go! Much better! Wait no, no, no. There is still something missing. Oh that’s right, it's not symmetrical.” Guinevere said menacingly. She then proceeded to rip the dress starting at the other leg all the way down to her ankle. However, still, she got no response from Lily. There was a cold silence.

“What is wrong with this girl?” Guinevere thought. “Here, let's take a photo to commemorate the occasion,” Guinevere said. She pulled up her phone to take a photo of Lily. She couldn’t wait to see the anguish on the girl’s face, but when she held up the screen, the only thing on it was Lily, looking at her with fierce determination. “Why isn’t she blowing up with anger? Is she a robot or something? Get angry, cry, do anything, but please, stop looking at me like that!” Guinevere was terrified by the face she was being given by Lily. The expression was a sort of resolve she couldn’t possibly imagine someone like her showing.

“Are you done?” Lily asked.

“Shut up!” Guinevere said, snapping a photo. “I’ll post this! Don’t think I won't! I’ll ruin you for making a mockery of me.”

“I don’t care,” Lily answered. “Do whatever you want, just leave Freya out of this.”

Guinevere was waiting in anticipation for Lily’s facade to crack under pressure, but nothing happened. No words appeared above Lily’s head. Throughout all of Guinevere’s years using the power of Reverie, she had never met someone who wore their heart on their sleeve quite like this. There were no alternative motives nor conniving plans of revenge. She was just waiting patiently for Guinevere to stop her tyranny.

“Huh, that’s odd…” A sleeping memory awoke inside Guinevere. There was one other person she had met before. A person who was the same as Lily. Someone who when faced against Reverie, didn’t have their inner thoughts revealed because there was nothing to hide. The memory was a simple image of a girl who was long dead and gone. A stranger in a casket. The face was blurred and unfamiliar and yet the only thing recognizable was the ivory hair of the individual.

“Who… is that? Why don’t I remember them?” Guinevere asked herself. The sound of footsteps entering the women's restroom brought Guinevere back to her senses. She wasn’t even aware that the whole time she was lost in thought she had been belittling Lily and degrading her with harsh words. Panicked, Guinevere stopped what she was doing. “This… isn’t over!” She threatened as she fled hastily out the door.

Lily was left in the stall with her head towards the ground. She looked at her torn gown and let out a sigh. She wasn’t intimidated in the slightest by Guinevere.

“Sorry Freya, the dress you picked out, it’s ruined…” Lily muttered. “I can’t let this stop me from helping,” Lily recalled that she had gotten a notification on her phone. She checked it and saw it was a post on SocialLight from Guinevere herself.

(Big DRAMA Coming Soon. Keep an eye on the next few posts for updates.)

The post had already reached the spotlight on the website, which was on the trending feed. Its growth in attention was steadily rising.

“What is she planning?” Lily questioned.

“Probably nothing good,” Elise said. She was standing at the entrance with perfect posture.

“Elise!?” Lily was shocked. “How- how long were you standing there?” she asked.

“Long enough. Why didn’t you fight back? We both know you're capable due to your self-defense training. ” Elise asked.

“Because I would have lost,” Lily said.

"Lost?" Elise questioned.

"Yes. I represent Freya, whether I like it or not. I can't go around giving her a bad name." Lily explained. Elise smiled at that answer.

“Good answer. Also Lily, about your dress… It’s in shambles.” Elise said.

“It’s alright. It’s just clothing.” Lily said. “We have more important things to worry about.”

Elise was amazed to hear that response come from the girl in front of her. She began to wonder who was standing in front of her. “She’s changed… I’ve known for a long time about the negative mentality Lily had been bearing since becoming Freya’s maid. If it wasn’t for the help her parents were getting thanks to all her hard work, Lily would have surely snapped by now. Yet, the girl in front of me would have given up everything to help Freya just a moment ago. You’ve become an S-Tier character Lily. Truly such a wonderful young lady.”

“Stay right there. I’ll be right back.” Elise said. Within a few minutes, Elise returned to Lily with something in hand. “Here. Take this.” Elise said, handing Lily a change of clothes.

“Thank you.” Lily took the clothes and in a matter of minutes was in a maid uniform. When she walked out of the stall she looked at herself in the mirror and felt like this was what she felt most comfortable in. “Hey, Elise?”

“Yes, Lily?” Elise answered.

“This is more my style don’t you think?” Lily asked.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Elise said with a smile. “So what will you do now?”

“My grandma taught me at a young age that bullies only win if they get you to break. The only power they have over you is the power you give them. However, she also taught me that those who bully, are more than likely hurting on the inside. Far worse than you or I. That’s why they hurt others. To make everyone feel just as awful as they do.” Lily explained.

“Your grandmother is a wise woman,” Elise said.

“Yeah, even still, I can’t help but want to help Guinevere. Even despite everything that just happened, I feel like she is hurting deep down inside.” Lily explained, “That being said, I still have to stop her from whatever she’s planning on doing to Freya.”

The two left the stall and made their way out of the restroom.

“Oh my goodness that was awkward!” Sarah thought while bursting out of a stall at the end of the restroom. She had overheard the entire conversation. Sarah Bellum was abnormally tall for a girl, standing at a whopping 183cm tall (6 feet). She was slim and her eyes carried bags under them from lack of sleep. The dark circles that rested there were permanently imprinted on her skin. She was average in the looks department and didn’t think very highly of herself but she was aware of that fact and it didn’t bother her. She had brown eyes and hair that swayed low below her waist.

“Here I thought Freya was pretty bad just a year ago. This Guinevere girl completely sucks! Still, I have to disagree with Ms. Service on this one. Guinevere is awful and some people don’t deserve a second chance. It’s a good thing my Presage told me about this, otherwise, I could have been in a really sticky situation. I’d better get out of here before things get worse.” The young girl began walking towards the exit before slipping on the wet floor. The lack of resistance from her shoes combined with the liquid on the ground caused her feet to flip one hundred and eighty degrees. Before she could even process what happened, her head was where her feet were supposed to be.

“OUCH!” Sarah Bellum said as she crashed and tumbled into the wall. “Stupid power! I’m supposed to be a Visionary. Why can’t I see these things in advance? What’s the point of being able to see the future if it never benefits me? Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

Sarah Bellum could see visions of the future using her ability Presage, but mostly for other people. While she was looking into the future, she entered into a trance-like state. To others, she looked like she was lost in thought. To make matters worse, it happened randomly at times which made life very inconvenient for her. She had to see the person in order to get a glimpse of what ill fate the individual in question was about to experience. She thought of it similar to the way superheroes have a sense that alerts them to danger, except it wasn’t very handy for herself. Presage was like a sixth sense that granted her knowledge more acute to misfortune. Additionally, Sarah could use Presage on command and on herself but needed a mirror to be present to look at her own future. All her visions had one thing in common. None of them usually had good outcomes, but with her precognitive sight, she could attempt to avoid those outcomes. This was why she never got any sleep. She was paranoid of a bad future. Although she could see glimpses of other people’s far future, the farthest she could see of her own was only a maximum of three hours. So, she arranged her sleep schedule to only sleep three hours at a time. Although it never really helped her, she did manage to save herself from getting bitten by a poisonous spider at one point in her life.

“Okay. It’s time to get out of here.” Sarah said. She stared at herself in the eyes using the restroom’s mirror and used her Presage on herself. Her vision suddenly collapsed on itself like a kaleidoscope. She was shown a potential possibility if she continued her current route. Sarah discovered if she had made up her mind that she was going to do something, then Presage would tell her how that would end up. The vision of the near future played out in her mind in the first person. In a mere moment, she obtained the knowledge needed to do what she had come here for. Sarah walked out of the restroom and immediately walked towards the venue with condensed crowds.

She needed to waste a little more time before she went for the targeted bag she was told to grab. She thought it would be best to use the pickpocketing skills she had acquired on those more fortunate than her. Her hand mirror had a secret compartment. By pressing a button on the side of it, a razor blade would slide out.

“All right. Time to get to work.” Sarah thought. She swiftly slid past a multitude of crowds. During this, she spotted high-quality bags that were being worn by some of the guests. She had done her research and knew that the bag in question, the Yulie Futo brand bags, had a special compartment specifically designed to hold people's cell phones. Sarah was a smooth criminal. Her getting caught wasn’t in the future she saw. Using her almost phantom-like movement, combined with her clumsiness, she gracefully bumped into her targets while slitting the slot with surgical precision. The cell phones would fall right into the purse she had in hand. She was grateful that she was nigh invisible to the rest of the world. She didn’t have the apparent beauty that the Young family was renowned for. Her partner in crime Lai, told her it seemed like second nature to her to hide her presence. She managed to grab four cell phones.

“Like taking candy from very rich babies.” Sarah thought. She didn’t plan on selling the phones as a whole, since people had ways to track their devices in case they ever got lost. Instead, using a contact her partner knew, they would sell them to scalpers in parts. It was a brilliant scheme in her opinion. She was in a way, giving back to the world, even if it was a small amount. Sarah knew that the middle class to lower classes couldn't just buy a new cell phone the moment it broke, unlike the wealthy. It was a win-win. She got a decent bonus on the phone parts and less fortunate people like her could get their phones fixed instead of being forced to buy a new one. Parts for new phones were few and far between. Those who could afford a new phone would simply throw the old ones in the trash and dispose of them. “Okay, it’s time for a snack before the real prize,” Sarah said quietly. During her escapade, she noticed that food was being set up in the ballroom. She made her way inside and decided to watch the rest of the Apocalypse run on a screen nearby while snacking on hors d'oeuvres.

“Tasty…” Sarah thought. She was starving. It didn’t help that she was flat-out broke thanks to her rent being paid only recently. She had been living from paycheck to paycheck, so buying groceries wasn’t exactly something she could afford. “You certainly have it easy, don't you Freya?”

Lily found herself standing with Elise in the foyer outside of the Apocalypse run. The area was set up with TVs all around to show different angles for contestants. It had already begun. Lily wished she could have been there to see Ulysses off, but knew that she had more important things to deal with. She needed to figure out Guinevere’s plan. She began looking around the crowd of people who were spectating the race, but Guinevere was nowhere to be seen.

“Where did you go?” Lily asked herself. With no luck Lily eventually stood back and watched the race with Elise, all while keeping a watchful eye on those around. One by one her friends were eliminated from the game. Until finally Reighley and company were up against Z.E.D. and an unfamiliar face.

(“Hello, Brother.” Sunny said. “Are you ready for your lesson?”)

“Brother!? I didn’t know Ulysses had a brother. What on earth is going on in this race? Now that I think about it… I don’t know anything about him.” Lily thought. It made her feel disheartened. She hardly knew Ulysses at all.

*Buzzing sound.*

“Again?” Lily said. Another notification went off on her phone. She went and checked what it was and noticed Guinevere had posted a second time. The post was conspicuous yet odd. It was a blank post that had a linked attachment to a website domain. It felt incredibly sketchy. Part of her believed that if she clicked the link, malware and viruses galore would infect her phone.

“I’ll get a new phone later if I need to,” Lily reassured herself. She clicked on the link and was taken to a site.

(BOUNTY TO ELIMINATE REIGHLEY SUMMERS FROM THE RACE: 5,000,000 Yen.)

(35,902.00 USD.)

(Place Your Bets)

(12 WIN | LOSE 120)

“What on earth is this!?” Lily asked. She showed Elise the website and Elise placed a finger under her chin. The number of votes for Reighley to lose began to skyrocket in a matter of seconds. The total went past four thousand in an instant.

“Hmm. Interesting. It seems that Guinevere set out a bounty to take out Reighley from the race.” Elise explained. “Not very honorable if you ask me.”

Suddenly the TV’s image began to statically flicker back and forth until it changed to all black. The drones' projections outside began to as well. Then from the darkness, a woman in a dragon mask emerged.

“Testing, testing… Is this thing on?” The voice said. “Ah. Yes. Hello. I am the wise Dragon of Wind Valley. I have come to inform you all that Ray Summers has a bounty on him. Anyone brave enough to eliminate him from the game will receive 5,000,000 yen in prize money.” The voice said.

“That’s not even a remotely clever disguise.” Lily cringed.

“Who knew she was a closet weeb?” Elise said.

“That is all.” The Dragon of Wind Valley said before flickering back to Destiny and Isabelle.

In a vehicle parked just east of the runway, Guinevere had taken off her mask.

“How’d I do? With acting as good as that, perhaps they will offer me the next big movie role instead of Freya.” Guinevere said jokingly.

“Marvelous, Madam Guinevere. I’m sure no one had a single clue it was you.” Donald said.

“What the heck Guinevere!?” Freya shouted at the top of her lungs.

“How did she know it was me!?” Guinevere shivered in fear. “I was flawless.”