Sometime later, somewhere else…
Will regains consciousness, shivering from cold. A mostly blurry face of an old man is looking down at him with an expression of mild concern.
「…Are you alright, young man? Thought you were dead for a moment.」
The man asks as Will groggily looks around. Will's staff is lying on the snow right next to him, and the sky looks like it's either the break of dawn, or dusk.
「Ngghh…」
Grimacing in pain, Will adjusts his glasses and focuses his eyes on the man's face. The old man furrows his brows at Will, blinking at him with worried eyes.
「Young man?…」
He calls out again. With a small, quiet grunt, Will props himself up to his elbows and looks around.
Will is lying in snow on the capital's empty streets. The magic lights are on, flooding the snowy streets with pale, reflected blue light. His staff is right there in the snow beside him, and his head hurts terribly. When he moves his legs slightly, he realizes he's lying on a thin sheet of ice covering the streets' cobblestones. He tries to recall how he got there or what happened, but he quickly gives up as the pain make it difficult, and the cold is unbearable.
「…I'm fine.」
Will replies with a grunt and a strained voice as he sits up.
「You sure?… You look like you had a mighty fall. I think you hit your head. Do you remember your name? Where you are? What the current year is?」
The old man asks as he straightens out, still looking down at Will with concern on his face.
「Yeah… I'm Will… It's the capital… And it's year 15 of the third era…」
Will says with pauses between his replies, and his hand on his aching head.
「Well, almost. The empress announced it's the fourth era not too long ago… Let's say you were close enough. Think you can stand?」
The old man asks and extends his wrinkly hand out for Will to grasp. He takes it, and uses the staff to rise up to his feet with the old man's help.
「Thank you…」
Will nods feebly and adjusts his glasses.
「Where were you going, young man? Where did you come from? I'd hate to have you collapse and die suddenly. I can help you get home.」
The man asks, tilting his head slightly with his gray brows furrowed.
「Ah, no, it's fine, thank you. I was just…」
Will raises his palm, gently shaking his head as he politely turns the old man's offer down, before his own brows furrow and his gaze drifts down to the snow below.
《…That's right, how did I get here?》
He thinks, looking around once more with a troubled grimace on his face.
「…Young'un?」
The old man calls out softly with a concerned look on his face.
「Ah, it's nothing, I just don't remember how I got here. I might have banged up my head a little after all…」
With an apologetic smile and his palm raised a little, Will returns his gaze to the kindly old man.
「…I was going to get some drinks and food with my friends at the inn, but that was last night… There's no vampires around, so it must mean it'll be morning soon, right?」
He adds, shrugging his shoulders as he adjusts his glasses.
「Yes, that's right… I like to take early morning walks when they've already hidden… Are you sure you don't want me to help you get home? It's no problem at all.」
The old man nods his head, and glances over his shoulder with a troubled look on his face as he asks again.
「No, no, thank you. I'm not dizzy or anything, I'm just having trouble piecing together what happened… I'll make it back fine. Thank you for not just walking past. I'll take my leave.」
Will insists, gently shaking his head as much as the pulsing pain will allow him to. He adjusts his glasses again, and politely bows towards the old man.
「Mhm… Take care, young'un. Be careful on the way home, y'hear?」
The man nods as Will walks past towards the palace, adding a word of warning. Will remains silent and simply returns an acknowledging nod with an awkward smile.
A few steps away, Will lets out a sigh and adjusts his glasses, furrowing his brows as he thinks intensely, impeded by the pain in his aching head.
《…If I was going to meet with Greaves and the rest in the evening, and it's morning now… How long was I out on the streets? Did everyone just walk past me?》
He lowers his chin between his thumb and finger, glancing over his shoulder. The old man is shambling on his way in awkward shuffling typical for someone of advanced age.
「Well… Good to know not everyone is heartless… But…」
Will shrugs, letting out another sigh as his mouth tilts aslant. After a brief moment his brows furrow pensively again.
《…Something's not right here. Something doesn't make sense… Even the vampires wouldn't touch me?… And it's pretty cold out… I didn't freeze in that time?》
He thinks intensely as his wooden staff clanks against the snow-coated cobblestones. He turns his gaze aside towards the Main Street, and tries to peer deeper, harder into his memories.
Will remembers a vague sense of dread, and an odd feeling that the color green is related to it, but the harder he thinks the more bizarre the connection becomes.
「…Man… My head is a mess. I hope Lian and Alicia weren't waiting long… Greaves probably threw a fit and just left.」
After a moment, Will moves his fingers to his aching temple again and gives up on figuring out what happened.
He adjusts his glasses with a shrug of his robed shoulders, and continues onward for the palace…
…
In the early morning, in the Redwing palace, in Nona's room…
Nona wakes up, opening her amber eyes. She lets out a yawn, pulling the warm blanket further over herself while her fluffy hair covers her face.
「Mnnhhh… Not good… I gotta get to work!」
Feeling sleepiness almost completely overtake her, Nona throws her arms out and stretches her body with a yawn, powering through the urge to sleep in.
She throws the blanket off. Wearing only her very plain underwear, she shivers from the morning cold. Nona quickly reaches for her Ministry of Security uniform, set aside onto a chest of drawers near her bed, and throws the warm jacket over her shoulders, slipping her arms into its sleeves. She buttons it up, and fastens her belt on her waist. Hopping up and down, she squeezes into her indecently short skirt with some effort, securing it tighter with a button at its side.
Nona grabs her hammer, swings it onto her shoulder, plucks her hat off the door's handle, and rushes out of her room in a hasty step. In the hallway outside, she passes a few groups of busy maids, rushing past them in a half-jog. They tilt her frilled heads at her, perhaps wondering why is she in such a rush. A minute later, she reaches a door down the hall, and nonchalantly opens it. Nona steps in, swinging it apart.
Once inside, she turns around and gently pushes the door shut with a smile on her face. She jogs up to the wooden desk facing the door and runs behind it, then takes a seat, making sure not to lose physical contact with the hammer for even a second as she places its shaft between her tanned thighs.
Thud… Thud… Thud.
She adjusts her seat, hopping forward a few times. When satisfied, she places her elbows on her desk, and interlocks her fingers with a smile on her face.
Nona looks at the door, and waits…
…
An hour later…
Nona is sitting in her desk, staring at the closed door with a focused amber gaze and a smile on her face. She waits for one of her subordinates to walk in, or a maid, or Straf himself.
She waits, and waits…
…
A few hours later…
With her fingers interlocked, Nona stares at the door. Her orange eyes briefly jump aside before she forces them back to the door as soon as she realizes she's daydreaming. She lets out a sigh, and continues staring at the door, albeit with a quite dissatisfied expression on her face.
Nona waits some more, fighting off the incessant and intrusive thoughts about what she'll tell Straf if he walks in…
…
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
An hour later…
Nona is staring at the door, slouched over her desk with her cheek smushed against her forearms. She takes a deep breath, and lets out a long, wistful sigh.
「…I'm bored.」
She mumbles to herself as her amber eyes drift away to the space directly in front of her face. She pictures a visit from Niklaus, or Straf, but quickly loses hope of either showing up. With another short sigh, she pushes herself away from her desk and leans back in her chair, staring down at her hammer's shaft with a weary gaze and a disappointed face. She looks over her shoulder at a small rectangular window, and sees the sun is already somewhat low in the sky.
Nona sighs again as her eyes glance towards the frozen lake in the distance, and the nearby bank. The people walking the streets are like ants on the white background behind them. She watches the busy people go about their day for a few minutes, before shrugging her uniform shoulders and turning back to the door.
「…It's okay for me to take a break, right?…」
She thinks out loud, tilting her hatted head slightly. She lets out another wistful sigh, and pushes her chair back.
「…Nobody comes here, anyway.」
Nona says to herself as she stands up and shrugs again, taking the hammer back onto her shoulder. Staring at the floor, she shambles her way to the door…
…
A little over an hour later, in the Royal Reserve Bank…
Nona nonchalantly walks in with a smile on her face, peeking her head in first.
「Helloooo…」
She calls out towards the idle bank tellers, and steps in. She looks at Niklaus's empty desk, and pouts a little.
「…Boss- I mean, you know who isn't here?」
Nona asks, pointing at his vacant chair while looking at the tellers.
「No, some Ministry people came around afternoon and he left with them.」
One of the women shakes her head in response with her brows gently raised.
「…I see.」
After a prolonged pause, Nona replies with a tight-lipped smile, then turns around for the door. She leaves with a little wave of her hand, and a large sigh…
…
A little over fifteen minutes later, at the small plaza by the park…
Nona wanders in, led by her boredom. She notices a young girl painting, unaware of her presence, and uncaring of the crowd on the streets behind her, focused entirely on the lake and her painting. Nona approaches from behind, tilting her head slightly. She stops by the painter, and quietly watches her paint for a moment. Though she's appreciative of the effort it takes to produce a painting like this, and nods with approval at the skillful strokes of the girl's brush, she quickly loses interest.
Nona turns around and idly wanders towards one of the snow-dusted benches, without the painter ever noticing her presence. She brushes a large chunk of the snow away with her hand, then gives it a few more brushes to clear out the rest, and sits down. She sets the hammer down between her feet, and silently watches the frozen lake with the painter.
Some lost geese have landed on the lake, and are now slipping and sliding along its frozen surface. Nona tilts her head at the strange sight pouting slightly.
「Hmmmm… Isn't it a little too early?」
She thinks out loud to herself while blinking her amber eyes at the geese. Her gaze drifts upwards at the mostly clear, grayish sky as she begins daydreaming again.
Through a complex and bizarre chain of thoughts, Nona's thoughts end up at food.
「…I could kinda go for a duck right now… Too bad nobody sells them.」
She mumbles as her eyes slowly make their way back down to the lake. Her mind drifts to Straf, his purple vortex full of suspiciously convenient things, and his magic guns.
「Ah.」
Nona's head perks up, and her brows rise as she recalls Lily blasting away foreign officers with magic. She looks at the holster on her hip, then at the geese on ice.
Feeling enlightened, she fiddles with the belt keeping her holster shut, and loosens it. She retrieves the gun from within, and looks at it in her hands for a few moments.
The pistol, for what it is, is a rather heavy chunk of metal and wood. Being very blocky, its hard for Nona to grasp it in a way that feels comfortable. She looks it over from all sides with curious orange eyes, wondering what each mysterious element does, minding the trigger. She looks at the geese again, then points the barrel at one of them, just a little past the painter.
Intensely focused, Nona lines up the iron sights of the pistol with one of the geese. She presses her lips together, and slowly begins to pull the trigger.
「…Hm? Is it broken?」
Nona furrows her brows and looks at the gun again as the full pull of the trigger brings no results whatsoever. She thinks, and thinks, and thinks as her eyes drift up and aside.
「Ah!… Straf had to do a thing first…」
She recalls a fairly vivid memory of Straf fiddling with the magic rifle's mechanisms, then looks for something similar on her pistol, pouting with a focused gaze and furrowed brows.
Clack… Clack!
「Ah. That ought to do it.」
A smile appears on Nona's face as she pulls a hinged metal joint on top of the pistol, and it noisily springs back into its original position.
Nona nonchalantly points her gun at the goose again, aiming just ever so slightly off to Olivia's side with a smile on her face. She once again begins to slowly pull the trigger.
BANG!… Fwip!
「Eh!?」
Olivia jumps up, startled by the deafening noise behind her. She stares at Nona with her frightened eyes wide open.
…Crack!
The bullet impacts the ice sheet, leaving a massive crack before sailing off into the air somewhere. The gaggle of geese take flight, startled by both the gunfire and the bullet.
Quack! Quack! Quack!… Quack!
「Huh?… Weird… I thought I aimed like Straf told me to?…」
Nona tilts her head at the skein of geese in flight low above, furrowing her brows in confusion as to why the bullet fell short. She casually takes aim again.
BANG!… BANG! BANG! BANG!… BANG!…
She shoots at one of the birds, missing completely again. Shell casings eject behind the bench, and the citizens behind her jump up and away in panic, covering their ears. Olivia jumps up too, likewise covering her ringing ears, shrinking in fear while Nona casually continues shooting at the escaping geese.
Nona closes one eye and sticks her tongue out to the side, focusing greatly on making her next shot count. She tracks a goose in flight with her sights, tracking it through the sky.
「…What the fuck are you doing?」
Straf asks as she points the gun in his face. He blinks at her a few times with a heavily scrunched mouth before casually pushing the barrel of the gun aside.
「Ah. I felt like eating a duck, and I thought I'd hunt one with the thing you gave me! Hi.」
Nona nonchalantly replies with a smile, only somewhat pleasantly surprised to see Straf.
「First off… Those were geese. I'm not quite sure why they're here… Maybe you need a little magic for climate change…」
With fists on his hips and his mouth still scrunched to the side, Straf replies, glancing at the flying skein before it disappears behind the rooftops.
「…Second… You're hunting ducks while working?」
He asks, spreading his hands in baffled exasperation.
「…I was kinda bored and nobody needed me for anything, so I thought I'd take a break. Tehe.」
With an innocent smile on her face, Nona shrugs her uniformed shoulders, sticks her tongue out, and pats the top of her hat with her fingers, gun still in hand.
「Tsk… I was going to ask you how you're doing, but you weren't in your office. You know you're not locked up in there, right? You can go and actually check on your people.」
Straf clicks his tongue and lets out a frustrated sigh, placing his fists back on his coat-covered hips.
「…Oh.」
Nona utters out with a smile, and tilts her hatted head while Olivia looks at them with her startled eyes wide open…