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Vincent walked out onto one of the many balconies of Gural’s city hall.
It had been a day since they had taken the city, without a single death. Until some foolish soldiers decided to kidnap Arakiya for inexplicable reasons. He was currently at a celebration of the achievement, one that he was allowing General Ozman to hold for morale.
The reason he had wandered onto this balcony, was the person on it. Natsuki Subaru, currently Natsumi Schwartz.
“What are you doing?” A more than reasonable question for him to ask as Natsumi was laid upon the stone tiles of the balcony staring up at the sky, instead of sitting on one of the available benches.
Natsumi merely patted the spot next to her.
It was beneath an emperor to lay down where others walked. But Vincent was not currently the emperor, Chisha was, so he placed himself down.
“Do you see that star?” Natsumi pointed upwards.
The star she was pointing towards was the brightest one in the sky. It wasn’t exactly above them, but it was close. Vincent informed her that he could see it. Why she wanted to know if he had functioning eyes he had no eye-dea.
“That’s Polaris,” Her tone wistful. “She’s the Guiding Star. If you follow her, you’ll always find your way home.”
Vincent had looked at the sky many times before. He wasn’t a Stargazer, he didn’t want to be one, but if there were answers to be found up there, he needed them. Polaris, as Natsumi called it, was one that he had seen regularly. If he ever went on a walk at night, it was always there above him.
“From what I can tell, your Polaris is roughly above the imperial palace.”
“It must be for you then.”
What a horrifying thing for her to say. Natsumi’s voice didn’t change as she said it, but she must have known the weight of her words. In Vincent’s objectively correct opinion, to tell someone that there was a star meant for them was akin to telling them they had no freedom in this world. Which in his case, was true. Meaning the likelihood of Polaris being his, was almost certain.
She moved her arm and began to talk more.
Polaris was either next to, or a part of, Ursa Major. Which apparently meant ‘The Great Bear’. Apparently, she was once a bear-woman named Callisto, who was raped by a man who shapeshifted into her lady to get close to her. Her lady was horrified by such a thing and forced her to remain a bear forever, lest the man’s wife discover she had born a child and kill her. She was eventually killed by her own son, who could not recognise his mother in her beast-form.
On the other side of Polaris was Cassiopeia, a queen who had boasted she and her daughter were more beautiful than any other. This angered others, and she was eventually trapped on her own throne, unable to leave, as it was swung around violently to make her fall off. The star was her still clinging to her throne.
The Cassiopeia was only one star in that ‘Constellation’, which also contained Genbu and Byakko. Protective spirits from Natsumi’s hometown. But she didn’t think they would be useful in Vollachia as neither of them are related to the south.
Her words were full of wonder as she spoke, yet with a distinct sadness.
“You don’t believe me, do you?”
Vincent believed her. So he told her as much. Though he also remarked that such things still sounded fantastical to him.
As Natsumi’s arm dropped down to lay beside her, Vincent turned his head. His breath must have touched her cheek but Natsumi paid no notice.
She was more composed than how he expected her to be.
“You assumed I was a lightweight?”
“Yes. And from my observations you’ve had at least two glasses of wine.”
She snorted.
“Creep.” A beat. “I’ve had three.”
It was not a ‘creepy’ thing to keep track of how much your associates were drinking. It was common sense. One needed to be able to estimate how hungover someone would be the next day in order to handle them accordingly.
Vincent never drank more than a glass of whatever was offered to him.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle his liquor, it was more that he couldn’t allow himself to become impaired, lest some dissident attempt to take advantage of himself in that state and either push him to agree to some deal or even make an attempt upon his life. Such a thing had never happened, but he was aware that many had tried. Those people were then immediately put to death.
She was still looking up.
Was this how she Stargazed? He was aware that Ulbik received his visions in his dreams, if Natsumi simply had to look up things would be much simpler.
She laughed.
“I’ve met some real lightweights though.”
Before the celebration, she had warned Rem that before she lost her memoires, she could get so drunk of a single glass of wine that she would have to be carried back to bed.
Her ‘Emilia-tan’, Lady Emilia, one of the candidates for the throne of Lugunica, was another lightweight. But according to Natsumi, that was likely in part to her father only having let her drink once before in her life, and her lightweighted-ness was likely a result of her never having the opportunity to build up a tolerance.
Vincent informed Natsumi that no matter how drunk she got, she should take care to not tell potential enemies such information that could easily be used against her and her lady.
When she replied that they weren’t enemies, he brought up that the tensions between their countries had been high for as long as records existed.
“Emilia-tan wouldn’t start a war,” She turned to look Vincent in the eyes. “But she would finish one.”
Of course, it would be her nature to believe that her lady would be capable of anything. No matter how foolish a notion it might be. A half-elf, even one that was king, would not have an easy time in rallying her troops the same way that a Vollachian Emperor could. One of the world’s many unfortunate truths. Not that Vincent voiced this.
“Why are you so nice to me?”
Vincent had missed the change in her expression, too caught up in his own thoughts. Not many had the ability to distract him so, the last person who had was… Chisha.
Regardless, the question Natsumi had asked was more pressing than any reminiscence.
“I am no more or less nice to you than I am to any other.”
She scoffed; “Yeah, but, you were nice to me when we met and everything.”
Vincent held a distinct recollection of the fact that he had held a sword to Natsumi’s throat when they had met.
But then she went onto explain that even though he had initially threatened her, thinking she could be an assassin, he had listened to her. That he believed her story of how she had ended up in the Buddheim Jungle, no matter how ludicrous it sounded. That even though he had no reason to, he gave her his knife.
“Do you know how insane it was, when Todd told me- when I found out that the emperor- you, only give them out to people who’ve won your favour? Obviously you didn’t give it to me for that, but…”
The interaction of which they spoke was one where he was remarkably charitable, but only something that would be noteworthy to one whom knew of his identity at the time!
When Natsumi continued, Vincent sincerely couldn’t believe his ears.
He was ‘nice’ to her when she ended up in the same cage as him, and had allowed her to join his escape attempt. He gave her the flame-ring to help her fight with. After they had won, he immediately made sure that she was tended to and that Rem was rescued. That he trusted her enough to reveal his identity only after knowing her for a few hours and how after Rem was rescued he made sure she was immediately brought to her.
“You’re shocked,” Vincent was shocked, “That I treated you with basic decency.”
Though his sentence was phrased as more of a rhetorical question, his monotone words revealed that he was simply making an observation.
“People only treat me like that if they’re being paid.”
Even within the privacy of one’s mind it was uncouth to swear, especially for a man of his station, however:
“I mean, people only treat me like that at first, if they’re being paid; otherwise they’re not great. Once I prove that I’m useful they stop hating me though.”
What the fuck.
“Well, okay, your behaviour after we fought the snake makes sense. But everything before that definitely does not. And everything after Rem was rescued was weird too.”
“How exactly, has any of my behaviour been in any way unusual?” If anything, Natsumi was the strange one. While this sort of thing was to be expected from a Stargazer, it was still jarring to get used to a new one’s oddness.
“It’s weird, ‘cause somehow you don’t hate me.”
So she expected the hatred to be mutual then? Well that made some semblance of sense compared to the rest of what she was saying.
“Like, I yelled at you, I hit you, I made you dress up as a girl, the plan didn’t work and people got hurt, then a bunch of people got killed because I didn’t think anyone would come and rescue Arakiya.”
There was a slight wabble to her voice as she spoke. Vincent prayed to his own throne that she wasn’t an emotional drunk like General Ralfon.
More importantly though.
“You yelled and hit me for allowing you to enter preventable danger to prove a point. I was completely correct in doing so, but your reaction is entirely reasonable.” This was somehow almost as perplexing as the question of why Chisha betrayed him.
Subaru rolled onto her side so she couldn’t see him. Cecilus used to do this when Vincent asked them to do something ‘boring’.
“You did not ‘make me’ dress up as a girl. I have done so of my own volition many times.”
She started to curl in on herself.
“The plan worked perfectly, some level of injury was to be expected.”
“PEOPLE DIED!”
The movement of curling in on herself had been aborted for Subaru to fling herself up and around.
“Yes, they tend to do that.” Vincent sat up to match her. “Through no fault of your own. It was my assumption that no one would attempt to rescue her.”
“But-”
“I also, don’t recall placing you in charge of securing Arakiya. So why do you think I should blame you for what happened?”
Natsumi paused. Then, sheepishly, informed Vincent that people expect her to solve everything, so if something goes wrong she’s used to it being her fault. Which was one of the most idiotic things he had ever heard.
“If you fail a task you are given, it is either your fault, or the fault the instructor. One of the two are lacking. If you are not involved in something and that thing goes wrong, it is not your fault. What do you not understand?”
There was something seriously wrong with this woman.
“You’re being nice to me again. Dick.”
Natsumi’s body trembled slightly, most likely with rage, as she said those words. She stood up as she was speaking, and punctuated the ‘dick’ by kicking Vincent in the leg, before walking off.
The swishing of her long skirt nearly knocked over the wine glass that had been next to her this entire time. Vincent caught it before it fell.
There was still a drop left in it.
Vincent placed his mouth against the lipstick mark to finish it off, there was no use wasting it.
As Natsumi slammed the door to the balcony, not even turning to give him one final insult, Vincent thought to himself; ‘Perhaps another drink wouldn’t hurt.’