Chapter Text
Entry 208:
Were there living objects outside the walls of the kingdom? Was there ever a peaceful remark in my years of living?... I have felt so miserable in the life of a man who couldn't even turn the tables of our kingdom...
The windows were frosted and cold, it was bound to be. All year long the winter was everlasting and nothing much could even erase this. Even if there was a noticeable change in warmth, it quickly dissolved into winter again. No spring for the plants to rise, and not even the sun to arise, just darkness and this winter cold. The firewall was burning with an ember color with logs of wood as a way to work the heat that spewed forth. This and the candles were the only light sources lighting up the messy room. Papers scattered around the table and a few books stacked up all about mechanics and behold, the general commander and leader: Charles Holt. A man who was writing in his diary, his shiny horn that was mechanical along with his ears twitching at the sight of noise, and how the pen would move along with the paper to write his entry. He looked gruff for a man himself; his hair wasn't kept and he would a few times move his hair strands away from his eyes. He was just tired from the work of calculations that was put on his shoulders; researching and sketching new parts and mechanics was part of his life. He was buried in his thoughts that needed to be out on a page, a paragraph or a book. He put his pen away after writing for a while and looked up. It was getting late, he could feel it. As soon as he was getting up, the door swung open. A petite young lady came in a rushed manner, her pink hair was messed up and she was out of breath. She was the maid of the manor he resided in. She was trying to balance herself from running a long distance, ultimately coughing up the air. "Sir! Sir—cough cough—Mister Charles, your food is already in the dining room, please eat. You have been in your room for too long, sir..."
"Ah? I knew about that, I was just getting up right now. Please guide me to the dining room."
He went away from the table and came closer to the lady. He wanted to hold her hand but kept away since he wasn't sure if it was proper to do at this point. As they stepped out of the room, there was a long hallway to the dining room, and soon the noise of footsteps was heard. The manor was really empty today with sleeping soldiers. His right leg made clanking noises due to the fact either he had forgotten to tighten the screw a bit more or it was something else, but it didn't matter anymore, he would just fix it later. He looked at her before glancing at her face.
Her name was Mara Dori, a half-elf? Sure there must be more to this as he did notice a few times a lump over her back in her uniform. He could see the wings being close shut with a button sleeves Her face was worn out, should he force her to take a holiday? Augh, she was really unpredictable in how much she wanted to prove herself hardworking if it wasn't for the sickness she gets. His thoughts got interrupted as she pushed the door for the dining room. She stepped away and bowed while saying "Have a good meal today" and soon left with the same pitting and patting of her footsteps.
He went in and ate the same soup as always—this manor always had warm food, didn't it? And sunk back to his moody behavior—god, this depression really hits him. He heard the door open again as his head turned to him—Victor. "Ah?..." He was surprised to see him again; usually he would be lurking around looking for letters and such but it seems he had gotten mail. Victor approached him and gave mail to him. He looked over the mail, and just before he could see Victor, he left. Guess he was in a hurry; however, he didn't want to read it now, it was way too
much for him to focus now—it's getting late. He looked over the plates and shook his head as he got up from his seat.
He arrived in his room, although he never got to use his room more often due to the fact he mostly stayed in the study room, his office. Charles huffed and put his working clothes away. He looked over his mirror; his one eye had an eye bag while of course the other one didn't, because it was plated by the golden mech. He really looked tired—must be he stayed up every night pulling all-nighters so much, but what gives anyway. He was wearing a night suit, a blue-lined pattern. It was really stupid is what he believed but it didn't matter. He slumped over the bed and snuggled up. He took the bed cover and wrapped it around. "Mhm... I should sleep..." is what he would think, but how could he? He knew he could never sleep, but there wasn't much to do now that he had his meal and such. There was just too much he was thinking that he couldn't sleep; how does one person even sleep if they think too much? This is just awful! He was clutching his pillows, shutting his eyes, hoping, wishing to quickly sleep so that he could start working the next day.
The daylight breaks out of the window and falls upon Charles's face; he is finally in a deep sleep but light wouldn't be enough to wake him up—this was the only time he gets actual good sleep. He stumbled a bit in his movement of sleeping. He was enjoying his bliss of dreaming until he felt a presence in the room. He peeked a bit and found Mara staring at him...blushing?
"Augh... what to do... I can't disturb the commander in the morning sleeping... I am worried..." she muttered. He couldn't make much of it but it feels like she was unsure of her actions. Charles then gets up slowly to look at her with his sleepy eyes. "My feather—"
"Ah-! Sir! I'm so sorry uhh- I- oh god I woke you up didn't I- please sir go back to sleep I- well-"
She was stumbling her words and well he chuckled a bit. "It's fine..."
– chapter 1 part 1
"What brings you here?" He tilted his head; he really didn't think she would be back. "U-uh... Well each maid had to wake you up. It happened to be my turn..." She blushed slightly.
"Ei-either way! Since it is my duty now this month, let me clean you and dress you up for today-!" He got out of his bed as he stood in front of her; he was quite a large size.
"I'm not a child, my feather," he gave a smile which was rare to give since he was used to frowning.
"Wh- I wasn't calling you a child!"
"I know, but I still have my own freedom to perform actions. Are you sure you came here just to work extra?" He had a slight teasing tone to it.
She shook her head and grew with a red face but turned to the table beside his bed, the same letter. "Aren't you going to read it, sir?" she enquired.
He looked at the letter and then went back to her. He couldn't give an answer and she realized perhaps it wasn't a good idea to ask. She comes forward and apologizes to him as he fixes his clothes. He had gotten his pants and his collar shirt with his extra layer of jacket, but since he wasn't going out—he didn't need to wear his cape. Finally she was polishing his horn as she hummed. "All nice and clean!" She smiled. "Thank you, I think I'm now ready to read," he replies. She bows and then goes to retrieve the letter, coming back holding the letter and handing it to him for her to disappear once again into the huge manor for other duties. At this time, he was in his living room. It was a spacious room, nothing like his own room where he slept or the dining room which had just tables and plates. What was special about this room was it had a garden to the manor, to use the "had" a garden was because there was basically nothing that would be classified as a garden.
He felt the rough paper in his hands and took a deep breath. Carefully he opened the letter and began to read:
"Dear nemesis!,
I finally caught all your advantage spots!! You will soon doom catch you!! Be beware of the electric demon soul of LUCA! Fiery blaze pass through cities!! Dangerous!!-"
He had to stop reading, it was painful. If this was a way to dull his mood and in confusion, it was working pretty well. If he could, he should have written in Italian or something! He has met the man in person. He could speak very well in his native language yet chose English to speak. My god, he did make him look less scary. He could even ask someone to translate, but this, my god. Too much for him to concentrate, too much to see that it looked like a kid who wrote this.
He looked back at the letter and continued reading.
"Very Dangerous Indeed!! Soon 5 days I, Luca will destroy you. Doom and doom to your village!! Your kingdom in ashes!! Everything will be gone!! Bahahaha be prepared... You will be no match for me! I will make sure you will die..."
"- Luca Balsa"
He was quite confused and afraid by this letter, so he folded back the letter and put it inside his pocket. He got up and looked outside the window. It was still heavy in snow. He sighed and closed his eyes. Just needed a break, just needed to think more before anything else. He left the noises consuming his mind to regain his motivation. He began to remember something, but what was it? It was a person that was in his mind, but who was that man? Who was it... Who was it—
"Bark!"
"Huh?" he turned away from the window and saw a dog; this was Victor's pet, right? Wick?
"Bark bark!!" Seems like he is alert.
He was waiting for Charles to follow him. He stood there for a moment glancing back at the window and left.
- chapter 1 part 2
He quickly grabbed the cape from his room once more before he could leave. He couldn't believe the dog was that patient enough to wait outside the manor and set foot on the ground. Heavy snow as usual. He then looked up at the building this dog was taking him to. The main center of soldiers. Few people were out at this time, old women with small children were waiting outside the wide doors—perhaps waiting for their family to come out? Their positions were on the cobblestone stairs, giving weary faces to try and see if they came out. It was a circular building with vines growing out of it; after all, it was an older building and was built during the old ages of centuries ago. It was normal to see people like this, since they wanted to know if the soldiers were alive or dead. As Charles Holt came, people looked at him and then quickly switched their glances away. Were people afraid of him? It was to be expected.
Charles Holt pushed the door to let himself and the dog get inside and the door itself closed. The cold weather shunned away and brought the warmth of the building.
"Look! What do you mean you can't bring another letter to him!! What is the problem? The old man isn't doing anything but being shunned inside his little room—ohh!! Speaking of the devil!!"
There was this red-haired woman getting into some fight with Victor; Lily was her name. She was the soldier for one of Charles Holt's army. She is great in combat but of course with every human and non-human beings have their withdrawals. "Listen Lily, I beg to differ and to interrupt. What has happened? Do you realize you can just appoint a meeting?"
"I could!—buuuuut, it's gonna take a long time before you could even notice you had an appointment so I had to give it to you in written form! What luck that I can see you in person now hahh?" she replied in a snarky way. He huffed a bit and took a few glances and gestured Victor to leave them for a while. "Lily, what is it," he stated.
"Alright alright here's the deal, we are going to run out of materials"
”what do you mean?”
”yes you heard me, the poor soldiers can’t keep up with this!, you and your invention cost a lot of metal and at this point we might just steal them if you want to do fancy stuff!”
”we have a lot metal. I refuse to believe we ran out, we are known to be full of it!”
”but its before you took this position and placement! its been 10 years since the last war, and that war made us exhausted on recourses!! so we better find a way to get more materials, General Charles holt!”
He stood there staring at her with a worry face, he drop his face and gave an expression of grief once again. “i understand, i m going to contact the other nations then” he gave a reply. She gave a grin and she finally felt happy her complain was heard. “alright Commander!!” and here she goes into the crowd of people.
he was back into his study office, but this time he really couldn't seem to go back to work. He was drinking booze which was beer, but he didn't want to make a mess over the papers, so he had to get another table to place the beer in. *Stressed and overbearing of reasonability.* but. . . he remembered one tactic that would calm his nerves.
Mara entered the room per Charles Holt's command, she wasn't sure why he called her but it didn't matter that much, its a duty of a maid anyway. She carefully open the door,
"Yes, Mr. Holt? How may I help you?"
Standing up from his seat, he silently approached her.
"Hm... Miss Mara, excuse me...", he spoke silently, almost at a murmur. ”huh? what are you doing to do-” she spoke out before she could do anything
He placed a hand on her shoulder and gently yet swiftly turned her around. He unbutton the sleeves that was holding the two wings quickly as possible and then it spread out.
”eh- MISTER??!?!” she let out a shriek, she wanted to walk away from him but he was holding her tightly.
”shh its okay, let me have this. . .”
she could let him but the problem is her back is bare to him and soon after she could feel him stuffing his face on her wings and now it slowly turned be awkward scene to fold in “c-c-c-charles holt, is this what you call me for?! ple-eplease i can make tea to calm down your nerves or something!!
Charles holt was in his world, the delicate feathers reminding of his old self. How the kingdom would be all peaceful. He has his own . . . but it was too much for now to tell what happened. He was looking at the white feathers and having a feel on the demand to be gentle, not wanting to mess up her neat placement.
meanwhile mara on the other side was already red faced. she was already dizzy with the tension. Her breath was already on hold ever since this sudden action. It felt like hours to her when it only been 10 mins.
“c-charles ho-holt??” she was getting more worried as she finally let out of word with this pending silence. “i-i have other du-” She was blushing madly. He finally let go of her and she turned to see him . . .? reliefed?
“thank you mara, i will be adding more pay to this”
”excuse me?! h-hold on, you can’t randomly do this!!”
”hm?” he gave a seldom look.
”ah- n-neverminded sir, i-i will be going!” She fixed her uniform, putting back seleves on the wings again. She made hurried movement to get out of his room. Charles holt was once again, left alone in his office. He looked at the door, the wings she had, he could feel it on his face. He felt almost bad for her, but he couldnt want to tell her yet, he has to keep it hidden just longer. Whatever he thought, it was enough for him. He went back to his study table to once again revise the plan for the upcoming quest and war that is pondering his head.