859. Tying Loose Ends
Ara had regained consciousness at so point.
But thanks to her experiences in S7, she knew how to approach the situation. Playing dead was one of the first lessons she had learned, and she used it to stab Beethoven. The attack was hardly effective, but he was not prepared for the follow up.
“Get the fuck away from !”
A giant guitar shaped like a mallet appeared in the air, and she swung it to hamr the bone fragnt deeper into his body. The impact threw Beethoven ters away, allowing Ara to roll off the platform as she took to the side of the mutated woman.
The mound of flesh completely concealed her head, so she could not speak, talk nor likely hear what was going on.
Ara attempted to conjure a violin from thin air, but she quickly realized that she was out of mana.
“You think I don’t know who my biological mother is!? Who the fuck are you to know what I think!? And Raoul… What did you do to Raoul to make him betray !?” Ara was in no position to speak, but she knew that the risk of her being killed was low.
She had overheard enough of their conversation to know that Beethoven needed her. But what she didn’t know was that Raoul had betrayed her on his own accord; a truth that Beethoven refused to answer with.
“Bzzt. Then you are truly the grandson… the granddaughter of the Green Composer. Bzzt. But to think that you can fight so cowardly. Bzzt. It will not matter. Bzzt. You belong to us! Bzzt!”
Beethoven did not allow Ara to gain her bearings. He had wasted too much ti. The Red Wing’s warnings were not to be ignored. Spending even a single minute here after sensing the Red Wing’s warning easily ant certain death.
“Bzzt! We’ll take care of you at our stage! Bzzt!”
But he was confident that no one could find them. No one would know what happened here. Beethoven threw himself forward at a speed that Ara could not comprehend. By the ti she blinked, his free hand was already inches away from her face.
Beethoven planned to teleport the mont he grabbed her. He preemptively activated the Etched Coin as a result, expecting to take Ara with him. However, he saw a pair of golden eyes appear at the entrance, and before he knew it –
– The arm that reached for Ara disappeared.
“BZZT!? THE AMALGAM!? BZZT!?”
A bullet had carved through the length of his arm, leaving nothing but an explosion of gore. His form disappeared in an instant. The red mist and his echo were the only things that remained.
“Tch. I went for the eyes, but I’m not supposed to kill a friend of my Original.”
A voice belonging to a highly developed Frost nonchalantly uttered, causing a blood-soaked, naked Ara to turn around.
“Frost!?” She cried. “Is… is that you!?”
This was Frost, right? Ara was unsure. Her apparel and her body proportions were completely different from the Frost she knew, but the heart of this Frost was still a piano.
“Yes and no.” The black-haired woman spoke as she approached them.
She reached towards Ara without saying another word. Ara was not one to allow anyone to approach her so easily. The only people she did were her family, extrely close friends, and probably Raoul.
“Healing, right? You should heal this person first.” Ara motioned towards the mutated, old woman. Suddenly, she wore a conflicted expression. “… You should be quick. There’s a lot I want to ask them.”
The Frost, which Ara denoted as the Big Frost due to her chest size that was still not larger than her own, nodded before stomping on the elbows of the woman. She entered a spasming fit before passing out due to the pain.
After her limbs were fully crushed from their sockets, the Hired Arm planted a boot on her back and healed her at once.
“… Fucking hell. You’re not Frost at all. But I… Fuck. Don’t mind . I’m just… Tch.” Ara couldn’t find the right words to say.
The shock of Raoul’s betrayal was far too much for her to handle. She had been betrayed more tis than she could rember, but Raoul’s betrayal hurt her the most.
She gripped her chest, clenching her teeth as she tried to search for a reason why Raoul did what he did. She grasped at straws, rationalizing his motive, only to conclude that he must have been manipulated.
“… Why would he do this?”
Despite this, she inherently knew that Raoul did this on his own accord.
“Rationalizing the thought of an enemy is a waste of ti. Put a bullet in his head the next ti you et.”
The Big Frost went around healing the Instrunts. First, she ‘deconstructed’ their bodies before healing them to their rightful forms. Thankfully, it didn’t seem that their Curse of the Descent was permanent as it had not altered the shape of their soul.
“Innocent lives an nothing to them. You’re not any different from them. Raoul must have seen you as a ans to an end.”
“… Was that really the case? That fucking wolf didn’t thinking anything about ?” Ara hissed, shaking her head. “… Fuck… FUCK!”
“Breathe –”
“I DON’T GET IT! WHAT THE FUCK LED HIM TO LURING HERE!?” Ara’s voice began to tremble as tears poured down her cheeks.
She grasped at her hair. If she was any stronger, then she would have torn out her scalp. She did everything she could to cope with the betrayal. Her legs wobbled as they took her around the room. Eventually, she collapsed to her knees, unable to cope with the pain any longer.
“I thought… I could trust you…”
The bereaved Ara clawed at the ground till her nails peeled.
“HOW MUCH MORE OF THIS CAN I TAKE!? When is it enough!? I thought we were the sa, you fucking… ah… Ahhh… *Sniffe* Wolf…”
Ara had never lived a normal life. The stench of blood was the first scent she learned in this world. The love of a parent and the warmth of a friend she could trust with her life were ideals that only existed in tales. It wasn’t until recently that Ara was able to escape S7.
Nor was it long ago when her body transford. She always felt like it was impossible to remain in control of her life. The Nex galopolis was filled with all kinds of people, but there wasn’t a person Ara could comfortably call a friend.
Frost, the triplets, Jury even – they were friends.
But she couldn’t always et them. The people she knew in the past were the sa. Either they’d go their own way, or they’d lose their life.
Raoul was different. They both ca from a similar background, and he was troubled to the point where Ara felt like she couldn’t leave him alone. The banter felt natural between them. Ara had a problem with trying to make friends with other n due to her body. The intent was all the sa. To bed her. The sa was for won.
But with Raoul… she was happy.
But it went deeper than that. The reason why she was so touchy with Raoul was because she was afraid that he would disappear like everyone else.
It never crossed her mind that he would betray her. The red flags were all there, but Ara wanted to believe it was a coincidence.
And now that it had happened, she wanted to believe that it was a mistake.
Ara was beyond inconsolable. The Big Frost removed her outer garbs and placed them atop her shoulders.
“There never is a happy ever after.” The Hired Arm uttered to herself as she ntally relayed everything to every Frost.
Once the captives were ticulously healed, she returned to the old woman and investigated her. Nothing of interest stood out to her. That was until she noticed a strange mark on the back of her right hand.
“A ‘Mark’? I’ve seen this before. If my mory serves right, then the Taleor will know. She serves as the past version of . There is a high chance that she will recognize it. Taleor.”
“What? I’m busy making sure the Atelier bastards aren’t secretly Librarians. If it’s important, then speak.”
“There is a woman with a mark on her right hand.” The Hired Arm didn’t even get to describe it yet.
The Taleor imdiately responded.
“You have my attention. Which part of the hand bears the mark?”
“Dorsum of the right hand. Majority is located radially. Dead center, if you will.”
“Does it glow?”
The Hired Arm took a closer look. She brushed a thumb over the mark, and imdiately, it pulsed with a soft glow.
“It does only upon external contact.”
“Is the bearer alive?”
“Breathing. Stable vitals. The subject is in a pain-induced coma. Non-permanent.”
“What does the mark look like.”
It was impossible to describe it other than it was simply a mark on the old woman’s right hand. Deciphering it would require the Taleor to see it in person. But the longer she looked, the more she noticed how it looked like:
“A constellation of stars.”
There was a long pause that felt like hours.
Eventually, a deep sigh ca from the other side.
“Bring her to as soon as you can.”
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