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TWO ENDS

Lino was currently skimming through several stacks of reports while Aaria lay asleep on his lap . He sat on the balcony overlooking the fortress, faint, invisible shield guarding him and her from the noise and bustle of the cornerstone of the Empyrion . He had a rather relaxed and mellow expression despite some reports citing things he wished ended differently .

Putting the papers down, he rubbed the bridge of his nose for a moment and let go of a ghastly breath, taking a sip of wine before glancing sideways, over the fortress . His mind was both light and heavy at the same time, clear and muddled; there was a trace of uncertainty in his gaze, though he never voiced it to anyone . Things had been progressing smoothly, even with the occasional setback . Ever since he returned to the Western Continent and the Demonic Battlefield, he didn’t encounter a truly impossible situation .

Settlement and expansion were rapid, and populating even easier due to the surplus of newcomers . The economy sprung out as various cultures and traditions met, selling the staples of their cuisines, fashion, trinkets, literature and all else tied to them . However, despite this bled, unity was hardly achieved . Tensions existed, sometimes almost boiling over . At best, he was the end-tying thread to all the different worlds that converged into his little Empire . He suspected that without him acting as a symbol, this would hardly last . Even now, power grabs and political moves were not infrequent .

He didn’t mind it too much, however; it was in human nature to try and better their position, and position of their ilk and kin . So long as it was done within the limits, he even encouraged it, yet those limits were slowly being pushed . He couldn’t control it, at least not without imposing himself too much over everyone else .

"—uuh," a low cry jolted him back to reality as his lips curled up in a smile . "Water..."

"Here," Lino helped Aaria sit up and handed the young girl a glass of water as she swayed on his lap, still half-asleep . "You slept well?"

"Hm," Aaria nodded weakly, taking a few sips . "Mom?"

"Out, working, as per usual . " Lino replied .

"... how come you don’t work?" Aaria mumbled, glancing at him .

"... what do you mean? Aren’t I working right now?" Lino put on a pained expression, pointing at the strewn papers on the table .

"Working on what? Anything fun?" Aaria asked, slowly beginning to awake properly .

"Hardly," Lino replied, chuckling bitterly . "Anyway, enough about my work . How have Daniel and Shane settled?"

"Hm, good!" Aaria exclaimed, grinning . "Daniel actually decided to try and become your guard!"

"Oh? High aspirations," Lino said, stroking his chin . "You think big brother Ion will help him along?"

"—ugh, no," Aaria suddenly swapped her smiling expression to the one of having just swallowed a sour plum . "He... he is mean..."

"You mean he doesn’t dote on you like the rest of the world?"

"... he is mean!" Aaria persisted, pouting .

"Ha ha ha, alright, alright, he’s mean . If you say so," Lino got up slowly, pulling her up onto his shoulder and propping her there carefully . "Who else is mean, huh? Maybe we can go around and punish them slightly . "

"... d-do... do you really mean it?" Aaria glanced down with wariness in her eyes and tone, seemingly having already experienced the burn of similar offers before .

"Ah... you can’t just go around punishing people that are mean to you, Aaria," Lino sighed, walking back into the room . "Sometimes... someone will simply not like you . And they’ll say mean things to make you angry and to make you cry . Let ’em . Don’t cry . Don’t get angry . Don’t ask for punishment . Be better than them . They’re not important enough . "

"..." Aaria said nothing, merely glancing at Lino from above once more .

"Why do you think Ion is mean to you?" Lino asked, sitting down and pulling her next to him on the sofa, looking into her eyes .

"Because he’s—"

"No, it doesn’t matter," he interrupted . "If you try to find reason in everything, you’ll just always be tired . If he’s being mean to you, just walk away instead . Forget what he said . Alright?"

"... alright..." Aaria mumbled meekly, though clearly unconvinced .

"Aah, ask your mom later . She’ll explain it better . " Lino sighed, smiling bitterly .

"Okay..."

**

Hannah stared at a short-hand dagger stored inside a glassed box, propped onto a metal case, isolated completely on the shelf . She nearly burst into laughter, yet held back in the end; glancing sideways, she met the astute gaze of a slightly chubby, flamboyantly-dressed Rycone, a local merchant who found wealth through funding talented smiths and selling their work in his shops .

"—every time I open the shop," Rycone said, sighing in a strange, awe-like fashion . "I look at it for a minute or two . To this day I can’t believe the Lord Empyrean himself had come to my smithy and crafted a weapon . "

"You do realize he crafted it so it will be used, right?" Hannah asked . "Not to be locked inside a box and watched like a sculpture . "

"—no, I can’t risk damaging it," the chubby man shook his head vehemently . "Besides, that is a cheap replica . I’ve had over two thousand attempted break-ins in the past by other smiths . Ah, the envy in their eyes when I speak of the dagger . I will die a content man, Lady . "

"... I’m lucky, having learned of the crafters’ explicit oddity very early on in my life," Hannah said, laughing lightly . "Otherwise, I might have found what you said strange . Anyway, have you received my inquiry?"

"Ah, yes," the chubby man nodded, wobbling quickly over to the counter and pulling out a rather thick book . Hannah walked over right after as Rycone opened it, flinging it over toward the latter quarter . "Here," he pointed at the several rows on the right side . "Orders for black-steel swords, axes, and polearms . Forty-thousand each . Signed by Commander Li . "

"... did he say on whose authorization?" Hannah asked .

"No," Rycone shook his head . "He said it was of secretive nature, presenting the Holy Sigil . I inspected it myself – it was real . Is everything alright?" he asked with a trace of worry in his voice .

"... there are some discrepancies," Hannah mumbled, sighing . "Do you mind making me a copy of the record?"

"Of course not," Rycone said . "It will be just a moment . "

"Take your time . "

Hannah fell in deep thought as Rycone raced to the other side of the building . A lot of... oddities have been piling up in the last few months . Beyond the incited act of rebellion Ty was still dealing with, and the rising number of deserters, there were also discrepancies in the number of items pooled and present in the armory versus what the records would indicate . In addition, she also personally had to prevent oscillation in inflation just a few weeks ago that certainly did not feel natural .

It was easy to attribute it to an outside force – after all, it made sense . They had their own spies all over the world as well as agents working to usurp the local powers, so they were hardly strangers to the system . What worried her, however, was that they were still unable to locate the origin of it all . A veil cast was rather persistent and thick, hidden behind countless dead ends and threads of webs that loop back to nowhere .

Rycone returned several minutes later with an additional book, though one not nearly as thick as the original, handing it over to Hannah with an anxious expression .

"I really didn’t know—"

"Don’t worry about it," Hannah interrupted, smiling warmly . "It’s entirely possible I’m simply being paranoid . "

"If You’d like," the chubby man said . "I’ll pool together records from my other shops as well and talk with some merchants I’m on good terms with and see if we can find similar patterns of purchases . "

"... hm," Hannah nodded after brief thought . "Look at the past six months, if possible and if there are records . "

"There are always records!" Rycone exclaimed with certainty . "They are bread and butter of all successful merchants! Without them, we are just fools gambling!"

"Ha ha ha, very well," Hannah laughed, turning around, walking toward the exit . "Notify me if you discover anything new . " she added, throwing a talisman behind her that landed perfectly on the counter .

"Will do, Lady Hannah!" Rycone exclaimed, clutching at the talisman as though it was his family’s heirloom .

Hannah walked out into the open, bustling street; she was invisible here, amongst the crowd . On occasion, Lino and she would take a stroll down the crowded streets similar to this one and try guessing where everyone was headed . Observe the simpler life, even try to embody it temporarily as a means of forging a reality within which they aren’t responsible for the lives of millions of people .

Even with the lack of internal opposition ever since the founding of the Empyrion, they never grew lax; everyone, from Lucky to Val and Titus, was certain there were sleeper agents that managed to sneak in . They’ve put in countless preventive measures, planted sleepers of their own in the parts they suspected to be the most susceptible to the corruption... yet, now, it seems to have been futile . Perhaps, indeed, it was all her own paranoia, but she doubted it . Too many things have aligned almost perfectly in the recent months for it all to simply be a cosmical coincidence . Especially worrying is that it had reached two quintessential parts of the Empire – the military and economy .

Though Hannah had confidence in both overcoming it all in the end, even the smallest of mishaps can have long-lasting consequences, especially so just before the massive outbreak . Even if Lino refused to crack down on individual freedoms too much, she felt she had to in order to prevent them from being destroyed in the future . Everything, after all, they were doing... was for that very same future .