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The man in front of him let out a gasp of pain as he struggled to crawl across the sand from the waves endlessly beating across the beach they stood on. His red clothes that deemed him an esteemed Count of the Vers Empire were dirtied with sand and laid damp upon his trembling body, his shoulders shaking as he attempted to prop himself up.
He observed it all with his one remaining eye. The other long gone from the stress he had put it through to finally catch the man in front of him within his grasp.
The gun he had taken from the cockpit of the wrecked Sleipnir felt heavy against his fingers.
He raised his arm and pointed it at the blond man. Noticing the click of the gun loading its bullets, the Count—no, former Count, nothing more than a traitor to the Vers Empire now—froze and slowly, ever so slowly, turned around to look up at him.
Slaine Saazbaum Troyard.
He looked dazed for a moment before his lips widened into a deep smirk.
It was vaguely like how they were on that fateful day in Russia so many years ago. Except now, Inaho was the one pointing the gun.
And Slaine wasn’t fighting back.
The man let out a chuckle before straightening his back, looking regal even though he had fallen so far, and smiled, eyes twinkling with joy, relief, defiance.
He pointed a finger right in between his eyes.
Right in between those eyes that shone as bright as the sea on the day he and the Princess saw the beauty Earth had to offer on the decks of a ship of war that destroyed such wonders.
He realized it was the first time he has gotten a good, long look at Slaine Troyard.
He had spent so much time staring at the pendant that belonged to the lone Terran of Vers and even more time analyzing every second, every word, every breath taken by the blond man in all of the pirate footage he could get his hands on.
He had spent so much time trying to figure out the enigma known as Slaine Troyard and yet he still knew nothing.
Please save him from the chains of misery.
Seylum’s words echoed across his head, silencing every other sound.
It almost made him want to laugh at how those were the last words she spoke to him. In the end, even after all he had put her through, after all that he had put two planets through, she still cared about this pale blond man who still refused to obey, refused to acknowledge or appreciate her feelings, and asked for death.
Slaine’s smile widened and he tilted his head as if to ask Inaho what was taking so long.
His grip on the gun tightened.
Save him.
That was all she told him.
However, what constitutes saving someone?
Was it simply just sparing his life?
There were so many more complications to that then even he could calculate. Even a naïve child could see the problems that would follow from keeping the leader of the defeated enemy alive. He would be put through trial, rebuked and set up for humiliation for the whole world to see until they were satisfied, from then on he would be guaranteed death row.
She must have known that when she asked him to save him.
And he knew as well when he came for the fallen Count in the self-destructing moonbase.
Almost blinding lights covered them both as helicopters gathered around the site they crash landed.
He started to set down the arm he was pointing with, but was stopped by a sudden strike of pain in his left eye.
The eye shot out by the man he had been asked to save.
She never did ask why he had an analytical engine in the end.
All that was on her mind was the well-being of her precious childhood friend. Something that was completely normal. Yes, normal. And that was something not allowed for one who was about to be anything but normal.
Seylum was no longer Seylum. She was Asseylum Vers Allusia, Empress of Vers. The voice, the face, and the heart of the people of a suffering and spiteful nation.
She was not allowed such personal wants and feelings any longer and was that not the fault of the man in front of him at this very moment? Was it not because of him that she had to take such drastic measures? And yet, he was the one that her last wish she made as herself had been about.
And yet, he was smiling.
And suddenly, he felt like he couldn’t forgive him. He couldn’t forgive him from the beginning.
To Kaizuka Inaho, Slaine Troyard is, has been, and will always be an enemy.
His grip on the gun tightened again. His finger hovered centimeters away from the trigger.
Please save him from the chains of misery.
Sey—Empress Asseylum’s voice echoed across his head again.
Her strong and powerful voice demanding the Vers forces to cease their fire reverberated and comforted his ears.
He found himself smiling as well.
The war was over.
His battle was finally over, but hers had just started.
And you, Slaine Saazbaum Troyard, are nothing more than an enemy to her in that new playing field.
You wish for nothing more than her happiness, right?
As do I, no matter how much it bothers me to agree with someone like you, but this is simply the “truth”. A universal truth in this universe filled with nothing but lies.
His finger finally found its place on the trigger. It felt like it belonged and he thought to himself that he had also found a place where he belonged in the world.
Slaine Troyard smiled, relief gracing his features and those blue eyes closing in preparation for the end.
Empress Asseylum smiled at him. Those lips mouthing out his name, just like they had done a countless number of times before that fateful, snowy day.
And while it bothered him that he shared the same feelings, same desire to see her laugh in a world where she could do so freely, he wanted to save her and he would recruit Troyard’s help to do so.
So...let’s save her.
The sound of the gun going off was drowned out by the roar of the helicopters’ wings above.
Even though his eye possessing the analytical engine was closed from the strain, he still felt like those flittering strands of pale blond hair fell back in near slow motion.
This time he had not missed.
Slaine Saazbaum Troyard was dead.
And Empress Asseylum’s wish of everlasting peace had finally taken flight.
This was their second—and final—act of cooperation.
“Is what you’d normally think...” He deadpanned out as he stared at the unexpected visitor sitting in front of him at the dining table.
His “guest” gave out a loud “hmph” before crossing his legs and staring back at him with disgust.
“You always do betray my expectations, Slaine Troyard...” He had never met someone who always managed to move in ways that went above and beyond all of the possibilities he calculates in his head till he met this hardheaded blond. “But even I couldn’t have predicted that you’d go this far.”
“Oh yes, like I want to be stuck with you even after I thought I was finally rid of your meddlesome orange scrap metal for good.” Slaine snapped.
“I’m not sure you should be saying that as someone who lost to that scrap metal.”
Slaine bit down on his lips before glaring at him, eyes the color of the sea flashing dangerously. Not that he could hurt him at this point though.
His head began hurting and it wasn’t because of the after effects of the strain the analytical engine had put on his brain during the war. Lightly shaking it to distract himself from the ringing in his ears, he heaved another sigh, what must have been the tenth one he’s let out in the past five minutes. “I must be going crazy...”
It had already been three years since the war ended and Slaine Troyard was slain on the shores off the coast of Japan. While you could not exactly say that things were proceeding smoothly, the hastily made peace had lasted and the relations between Vers and Earth were slowly starting to move in the direction of cooperation that the Empress had wanted for so long. Aldnoah had still not begun its widespread distribution yet due to all sorts of difficulties in researching and handling such a foreign and mysterious power, but those open with their dissatisfaction were quickly silenced and the public had been appeased, or perhaps you could say distracted, by the hardships of rebuilding a land torn apart by war and the obsessive need to know every little detail about the most well-known couple in their universe.
The Empress and Emperor were blessed with a child shortly after the war ended.
He recalled furrowing his brows in displeasure when he heard the news and to the day, it still bothers him. Now as a young adult, he realized that what he felt for the Empress might have been a faint feeling of love, if you could even call it that. It might have developed into romantic love, but he was too young then. Too inexperienced to put a label on his feelings, too caught up with the world around him to delve further into it, too far apart from her to water the small sapling that had sprouted in his heart.
But to say that he was disgusted with the news was less of saying that he was jealous and more saying of the fact that the UFE and people of Vers had pressured a young girl, still only 17 years old and mentally younger than that considering the two years she had spent in a coma, into conceiving a child so that the blood of Aldnoah would not dry up before they had managed to tinker with every part to it repulsed him. And then, he would sometimes wonder if that was what Troyard had strove to fight against. As a person who centered his entire life around hers, he would have never allowed such things to happen, he would have rather died to make sure that her life would not be a slave to blood. And he did die and Inaho felt a bit envious that he need not know of how people would go to clean their hands of blood and further their own interests.
He was dead, but Inaho was alive, which was why he had to do what he could.
Even now, he wishes for the very best for her and you could say that he felt like it was part of his duty to oversee and help stabilize the world that she sought for, which is why he ignored his friends and Yuki’s protests to stay in the military even after the war was long over. It was duty that he felt like the blond in front of him had imparted him with when he had put a bullet through that head.
And he accepted that duty. He accepted the task Slaine Troyard had imparted him with a heavy and determined heart.
He never could understand him. No matter how much he researched into every faucet of his life, no matter how much he studied every battle tactic he made, no matter how much he stared at that pendant when it was still in his hands, he could not understand Slaine Troyard and it was with his very own hands that he took away the opportunity to possibly understand forever.
That’s why he can’t forgive this blondie for popping up all the sudden in those red clothes that don’t really suit him and stepping all over that resolve. Don’t screw with me. I’ll kill you again, Bat.
He stared back at him again, face visibly frowning, and repeated his words. “I must be going crazy...”
Slaine wrinkled his nose. “Tell me something I don’t know. Breaking news! Kaizuka Inaho’s gone off the deep end! Yay, yay!”
“No, really. This is impossible. Physically and logically impossible. If the laws of physics governing our universe haven’t decided to turn upside down, I can only conclude that the problem lies with my brain.” He quickly made a mental note to call Dr. Yagarai to set up an appointment. An MRI scan would be needed at the minimum.
Slaine snorted, twinkling his eyes in utter amusement. “My my, it seems that we’re agreeing on a lot of things today, Kaizuka Inaho.”
“I’m being serious, Troyard. No, I’m not even sure if you are Troyard.” His headache was coming back in full force and he closed his remaining eye in a feeble attempt to escape reality for a moment. “You could be just a figment of my imagination. I’ve been tired from work lately so that could be a cause.”
“Unfortunately for both of us, I’m not some illusion your mind has spun up.”
“Then what are you?”
“Slaine Troyard. 18 years old now and forever. Former Count of the Vers Empire and currently working 40 hours a week, 9 to 5 as a ghost. Hobby is throwing away rotten oranges and my current worry is that I’ll have to be stuck with this sack of bricks for an indefinite amount of time. Pleased to meet your acquaintance.” He flashed a sarcastic smile.
“...That’s like the introduction of some actress in a cheap adult video.”
“Well you know, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
“Stop making it seem like the general public of Japan is like that. You’ve lived on Mars your entire life, how would you even know about AVs?”
Slaine paled, covering his mouth as if to say “oh, crap, I shouldn’t have said that”. He looked off to the side as if he would rather die, well, he is already dead, than look at Inaho in the eye.
It was slowly starting to hit him.
“...Don’t tell me...”
Slaine didn’t respond, still looking away, a small blush starting to appear on his cheeks.
“...When did you first start haunting me...?”
“I am not haunting you willingly!”
“That’s not the point. Answer the question.” Though he was starting to have a sneaking suspicion his suspicions were entirely correct.
Slaine flushed and twiddled his thumbs before finally turning a somewhat disgusted eye at him. “...Lock the door the next time you watch things like that.”
He buried his head into his arms on the table.
I want to die.
“Don’t get all depressed on me! It’s not like it’s even my fault! Imagine how I felt when the last thing I saw was the annoying face of the one who ruined all my plans, and then the next thing I know, he’s in a dark room looking at...augh!” He shook his head as if to clear some horrifying image from his head.
His face popped with fire and his ears were beginning to burn a bright red.
This is the worst.
All they’ve had between them was rivalry, hatred, and a strange sort of camaraderie. And then you add this small “incident” and one of these things is not like the other.
He couldn’t stand having his cool disrupted by the blond any longer so he put on his prided poker-face as usual and raised his head to look at the former Count and now so-called ghost. Slaine’s eyes slightly widened in surprise that he had managed to pull himself together so quickly while his own cheeks were still faintly pink.
“What...?” His eyes looked defiant, challenging him to dish out any complaints. “I’ll have you know, that it’s definitely, absolutely, not like I wanted to know about this side of you. It pains me to think that the Hero of Earth who defeated me and saved the Princess was dabbling in such inappropriate affairs.”
“I am a healthy male.”
He said it with such a flat tone that Slaine looked flabbergasted for only a moment before narrowing his eyes and looking at him as if he was trash beneath his feet. “.......”
“Don’t look like you’re seriously creeped out…” I’m trying to make this less embarrassing for both of us. Work with me here.
“...It’s hard not to when the actress in the video looked suspiciously like your older sister...”
“It seems like you’ll have to die, Bat.” You always were my enemy.
“I’m already dead!” He shook his fist angrily before gasping in realization of something. He then rushed towards him with a face of an enraged demon. It was notable to say that his body was right in the middle of the table, phasing through it.
He really is a ghost...
He was starting to want to just lie down and take a long nap. Maybe when he woke up, Troyard would be gone and his life could go back to normal.
“Don’t tell me that you looked at the Princess too with such dirty eyes...! Did you intend on taking advantage of her!?”
He looked up at the blond’s flushed face. “If I did, is that a problem?”
“Where have I heard that phrase before?” He grinded his teeth in irritation, the memories of Tanegashima resurfacing. “And of course, it is! That’s an awful thing to say as a human being.”
“Mm, I’d have to agree with you on that.”
“...So is it safe to assume that you never used the Princess in your...fantasies...?” He blushed as he said the latter half of the question, but relief was starting to soften his features.
“You never did?” He wasn’t about to tell him about the various things he had stored on his tablet. Including some with blond hair, green eyes...and occasionally blue eyes, but he meant nothing by it. Really. Statistically, there was bound to be one with pale blond hair and sea blue eyes. That’s all. Honestly.
“And there you go again not answering the question!” Slaine attempted to punch him, but his fist went right through and Inaho uncharacteristically felt a chill go up his spine.
Slaine lost his balance after not feeling the impact and resistance of hitting another person and stumbled onto the ground. He turned around and glared from his position on the floor, looking like a miffed puppy. Completely harmless, despite the fact that he is a ghost and he could not believe the day would come that he would say such a sentence. Totally unfeasible, but his eye did not reflect any lies.
He turned around on his chair so he could face the blond again. “It’s normal for a healthy, young male to be interested in such matters.”
“You’re normal?” Slaine looked genuinely shocked.
“What do you take me for…?”
“Kaizuka Inaho.” The answer came back so quickly that it was almost refreshing how irritated it made him.
“That’s not a gender.”
“You were able to create your own subspecies! As expected of Kaizuka Inaho! There is nothing you can’t do.”
“I can’t hit you right now.”
“And whose fault is that?” Slaine smiled.
He fell silent.
It was an extraordinary situation. One that assumedly no other has ever had yet to experience.
The killer and the killed are reunited through some whimsical play of fate.
The hand that he had thought he had lost, thought that he had let go of out of his own free will, had fallen back to him.
The duty that he had taken upon himself, that he had accepted and inherited, had been split into two once more.
He doesn’t know about the Slaine Troyard that lived 18 years.
He doesn’t know entirely what he went through, who he thought of, what he thought of.
All he knows is that he was his enemy and he did exactly what the world expected of him and what he himself wanted.
So he wouldn’t allow him to taint that beautiful memory.
Three years have passed.
Three long years.
Slaine doesn’t know what went on during that time. He doesn’t know about the will and the determination people had to recover to take that single step forward.
To have someone like that wander in and pick up from where things left off is unexplainable and unforgivable. It’s like having some person jump in 3/4ths of the way into a race. Ah, come to think of it, that’s Klancain, isn’t it?
So go, and turn him back into an artifact of the past.
Slaine smiled brightly, innocently almost. “It’s not exactly what I planned on doing, but I can live with an afterlife consisting of bugging Kaizuka Inaho. Doesn’t sound too bad till I get bored of your stone face. Oh and by the way, I noticed this too on the day you shot me, but you really are small down there, aren't you?”
Inaho thinks that everyone should agree that the appropriate reaction to a rival like this starts with an N and ends with an O.
“I’ll have to google about exorcism.”