+++ André de la Fleur +++

Jahellios System

HFS Louise

I watched the sensor contacts on my ship’s interface. It seemed that the vagrants hot on my tail were gaining speed on me. The storm served as a great mask from their bloodthirsty jaws that hunted for me, as my patrol boat’s radar profile was greatly reduced by it. Not that it would matter, my ship’s RCS (Radar-Cross Section) was extremely small. This ship after all was designed by my father for me, for one purpose.

Big sister…I thought to myself. I hope you’re safe now. I’ll make sure they will never be able to chase you. Wherever your fate would be.

It was a mistake. But I would never allow them to use it to their full advantage. The records of our House’s identities and genetic material, all in that chip, were taken by these vagrants during their raid on our home. It seemed that they didn’t know if they had it, as I managed to lure them to the high seas when I escaped with the HFS Louise.

A secret warship that House Fleur possessed. Being a semi-autonomous patrol boat, it only required one crew. Me, and me alone. I knew that fighting them in the city to retrieve that chip and destroy it would be impossible, but by luring them here, it would be easier. Especially when it seemed that their leader had foolishly, and unknowingly taken the chip, which had a tracker on it.

Louise, my elder sister, I expected her to be still alive. There would be no way for her to die. Unlike me, her arts, or magic was too strong for her to be killed easily. She had always been the better one of the two of us, and perhaps it was why she held such pride and arrogance at all times. She was a prodigy in utilizing the Fed-System, unlike me, who struggled to even cast a simple spell.

Thankfully, I managed to nab the tracker of our family’s data chips instead of her. I imagined, that if she was the one who took it, she would go on a death mission to chase it and destroy it herself. In such a process, she would definitely lamentably die. But for me, it didn’t matter. I was just the second child of House Fleur. She was the one who would carry our legacy, not me. Thus, I took that circumstance as a blessing and a call for my mission.

To escape and reunite with her was now secondary. Destroying that chip, and inflicting House Fleur’s righteous reprisal on our attackers was my priority. And so, I pushed the Louise faster forward, turning to the direction of the ship that held the chips that I was searching for. The high seas were a difficult place to navigate, as a massive storm had gathered at this hemisphere of the planet right at this moment.

Again, I took that as a blessing, as it masked my ship’s movements. But at the same time, when I looked outside of the bridge’s windows, I couldn’t help but think of this as nothing but divine providence. It seemed that God himself was setting up my upcoming final battle as something of epic proportions.

A lone patrol boat against their vessels, possibly hundreds of gunmen, criminals, or whatever they were, all in a stormy sea. Without allies, without retreat. It was just me. Alone. I guess this is my fate. I told myself, as my ship’s radar counted the vessels that surrounded me. They seemed to be scouring the seas for my presence, as I was the one actively leaving my trail throughout the city.

I even left my name directly on the registry of departing ships, just to further lure them here. And it worked brilliantly. Now, all that was left was to set up the battle. I had to get close to their flagship, the ship that held their leader. Their leader possessed all those chips that I had to take, destroy, and remove from existence. Without those chips, the records of House Fleur, our extensive familial ties, and our recorded genetic information that was supposed to be used to track who would inherit the Ducal Title would be removed.

Technically, that would mean that House Fleur, in its entirety, would be demolished as a noble identity. No one would be able to prove our lineage to the founder of the House. And thus, even Louise herself would become nothing but a pretender. After all, in the modern age, where nobility and hereditary status were constantly challenged by commoner’s meritocracy, having no concrete proof of one’s nobility meant that it was nothing.

But the idea of nobility is ridiculous anyway, I thought to myself. It’s better if I free Louise from it. Without it, she would be a regular civilian. A regular citizen, free from the conflicts House Fleur entangled itself in. And that was the best fate I could give for her.

“Hmm…seems that they’re spreading out further,” I said, looking down at the surface contacts on the screen. Their ships were incredibly old. It seemed that they had mostly just commandeered whatever old pirate ships they could get their hands on. Unsurprising, considering that they would have never expected me, a mere sixteen-year-old boy, to have the gall to escape port, grab a classified ship, and run rings around them. If for nothing else, my entire stunt would have distracted them all enough for Louise to execute our last resort plan to get to New Krakow Station and fire off House Fleur’s sole spaceship left. Briefly, I felt some jealousy flare up in my heart, as she would surely be able to experience the wonders of outer space for herself.

With her own ship. With her own path. With her own destiny. All while I would be down here, about to die in a miserable storm with a bunch of miserable people. I suppose that was just the distance between me, the accidental secondary child, and her, the Heiress prodigy.

Heh…André, this isn’t the time for such salt and childish ruminations, I turned my ship in the direction of their flagship. This is your mission. Your fate. For her. For Louise.

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The only person who ever cared for me. The only person left that I cared for.

If my death would be the payment for her to live on…then so be it.

May you carry the banner of House Fleur to the void, big sis.

I’ll fight on for her to escape…if it would be the last thing that I could do.

+++

+++ Louise Florentine de la Fleur +++

The storm was intensifying above us. I didn’t really care, as I watched the night sky, and the gathering, almost mourning rain. We still hadn’t had any visual of André’s ship. Even now, we were still in the search—an endless search that was starting to crush my soul.

André, brother…why? Why are you so difficult to chase? I asked myself as I looked at the pouring rain. The waves crashed angrily at the hull of our ship, and while I tried to hold on to the railings, at many moments, I almost felt like slipping due to the sheer intensity of our ship’s up-and-down motion, combined with the wet floor underneath my boots.

But I held on.

He was out there, my last family. André, most likely fearing for his life. Alone and surrounded by wolves. The mere thought of the fact that I left him alone in such a situation, was a mistake that I repeatedly blamed myself over. How could I be so cruel to him? How could I be such a failure to him? Me, the stronger one of the both of us, the elder child, the one who was supposed to lead the both of us out of this disaster…

And I managed to leave him alone. To allow him to be separated and cast adrift. It must be the greatest crime that I could ever commit. Father was watching. And so was my mother. And the display I was showing to them was an utterly disgusting shameful display. A display of failures. I wasn’t even sure if André, my dear little brother, was alive out there.

That was how far down I found myself in.

A set of footsteps distracted me. It must be someone from the three of them. I didn’t really look behind, choosing to instead watch the seas and the night sky, or the pouring rain. He, or she, went close beside me, leaning on the railing as well.

“You seem lonely out here, Princess,” the man quipped, and I realized it was him. Deep voice, with his dirty brown hair and red eyes…Harold. Captain Harold Percival as he was called. I could always feel his tired look at me, both pitying me or looking down on me. Or he would always face my condescension with a victorious smirk otherwise. A crass man who loved to indulge himself in liquor and cigars…he was the opposite of everything the nobility held dear.

“Would you please give me some peace, Mr. Percival?” I said to him, refusing to look back at him. He laughed a bit. The both of them, Jonathan and Harold, seemed like a duo of shady young men. They were both the same age, as I have heard from Juliett. Twenty-four, and both of them hailed from the same planet, the Kingdom of Loran.

Quite frankly, it was strange to meet someone from that planet. Loran was once an illustrious Kingdom that ruled semi-independently when the FEG espoused autonomous rule over the Sector. House Fleur was in fact a cadet branch of House Edele-Valk, the same House that ruled the Kingdom of Loran, for they controlled us before the Crisis of the Red-Blue Flowers.

The same crisis that gave our House its full independence from the Kingdom during the First Revolutionary War, when that communard terror attack nearly destroyed that planet. Perhaps that was the reason why Jonathan and Harold seemed rough, hardy, and crass. That planet was a shell of its former self. A world of dreams turned into a world of wastelands.

I wondered how it must be, to be born on a planet known for nothing but instability, of roving outlaws and terrorists, and its almost destroyed landscape.

“Hmm…I don’t know about that, it seems peaceful and quiet for me,” Harold said. He seemed to be carrying a can of something. Alcohol definitely. He popped it open and drank it in one go. “Hmm…yes, that’s the good stuff.”

I rolled my eyes. “Is that the culture of you Loranians? It’s sad how low the subjects of House Edele-Valk found themselves into.”

He laughed. “Heh, you’d be right. Chronic alcoholism is our culture. You can say, we’re like…what were those Earthlings called? Hmm…russi? Rus? Res? Ah, whatever. We’re like them, I guess. Cheap alcohol. Good to numb the pain.”

“It’s going to kill you early,” I warned.

“Does that really matter, Princess?”

“Can you stop calling me Princess? I’m not that. House Fleur is almost dead. Whatever title I have means nothing soon.”

“Hmm, that so? Then I guess, soon, you’d be like us commoner plebs, no?” He chuckled. “It ain’t that bad, Princess. You could stop worrying about table manners if you go this down in the status aisle. Hey, you can go to bars and casinos too if that’s your style.”

“I’d never do such vices, Mr. Percival. I can’t believe you’re trying to entice a young woman to such things,” I sighed. “But what did I even expect from you?”

“Yeah, see, when you’re this low, Princess, people stop expecting nonsense from you,” he gave me a hearty laugh. “I bet you’re mulling here because you’re still placing such sky-high standards on yourself.”

I fell silent, as he continued.

“Noblesse oblige, I had heard of that word once,” he said. “It’s a strange thing. To take extreme duty to all those around you. And to take every blame for yourself. You blame yourself for what happened, viciously. And in the end, it leaves you empty.”

“...Have you been in the same position, Mr. Percival?”

He turned somber. “Not too long ago. Not even that long. I thought I was a coward for running. That I should have stayed and died instead. That none of what happened would have happened if I hadn’t been a coward.”

“Louise! Run, now! I’ll find a way to find you, later!” André shouted as he cast more spells at them. I was running out of Activation Points, and the Fed-System wouldn’t let me cast more of my magic. But he was on the other side. I couldn’t reach him. I couldn’t even fight through them to hold his hand and lead him to our grand escape.

All I could do was follow his orders…and run.

“It sucks,” Harold said.

“Yeah…it sucks.” I nodded, as I buried my head closer to the railings.

“...Hehe, I made the snobby Princess say ‘suck’.”

“You corrupt everything around you, deviant,” I said back to him with a frown, before returning my gaze to the seas.

But he’s right…it sucks to be like this.