"The foul wolf and sly ram and sweet little lamb is just ahead."

The three wind gods swirl through the hallway of the castle eagerly as they try to catch each other's tails. Occasionally they circle about near the floor and create tiny twisters.

Lumere is just watching them quietly, taking on an outwardly neutral appearance as he swims about in the shape of a fish.

I greet the regularly patrolling guards while following the happily curious wind gods and in turn find that they must have been... more than mildly excited to find someone to talk to. In the meantime they've taken to the nickname 'priestess' for me.

"Priestess, this one is sinful. Sleeps with his wife's sister."

They start swirling around the guards we walk past and casually start spewing out secrets in what appears to be sheer amusement.

"I wonder why he does it," asks one while staring into the guy's face.

"His wife slept with his friend," the second answers.

"Why did she?" Asks the first and tilts its entire snake like body.

"No love. A shoulder to cry on turned to love," answers the third.

Then the two others kind of nod in acceptance and fly on. Now, I have observed no dishonorable behavior so I am not obligated to scold him. Honestly I don't even want to note his face or his stature at this point.

"This one likes fishing."

They move on with a happy twirl in the air just with that and head onwards. In the end they stop near one standing guard at a door and circle around him like they did with the other guard.

What foolish things is this one thinking of?

"This one forgot to breathe because of you, Priestess."

...why did I even consider it?

The poor lad is staring straight ahead all stiff and tense as I walk nearer.

"This one thinks the priestess is cute. He forgot he isn't breathing."

Should I ignore him? I probably should. Let them have their thoughts in peace and just move on.

"Why doesn't he say it? He's staring at her lips too."

Just...

"Ah, he's starstruck."

"Starstruck," chimes in the second wind god with hints of excitement, followed by them staring at me.

Meanwhile the poor lad has gone pallid. You see, not only has he forgotten to breathe, but because of a little certain group of wind gods I ended up looking at them... and since they are swirling around the guard, I am now staring in his direction. Since there is only a wall behind him you can imagine the shock of being pointed out by a superior you were just thinking 'he is cute' about. Yes, that is right, whatever fears you have of me hearing your thoughts are currently true.

Still... it's better just not to say anything. So we are just going to ignore the lad and walk on.

"...Breathe," I order the guard while trying to look less annoyed than I currently am.

A couple of moments of silence.

Then a small breath.

I walk on.

—-*—-

Much to the amusement of the wind gods this ends up happening more than once.

I have reached the point where I am getting numb to it. Yes, glorious person walking by you looking cuter than you imagined. Good. At least they're keeping in said words and their excitement at my presence, but my patience is draining rather quickly.

I've begun to dread accidentally hearing the thoughts of the knights I've traveled with for the last months. After the request is granted I'll stay away from talking with wind gods for a while.

"Priestess, they are just up ahead," one chimes and flies ahead.

Lumere has turned to a lump of ice and crawled into my pocket for now. I'm thankful that he's not melting, but a lump of frozen ice is still... cold.

If I remember the layout of the castle correctly then this is the part of the castle where we keep offices and cabinet rooms used to entertain guests, have them wait or take them to an office for business dealings. The quartermaster should have his office around here as well.

The hallway's grey and polished floors almost blend in with the cold and narrow hallway. The walls are cold and bare with only lanterns and candles to break the pattern. Perhaps because of the arching ceiling the steps of my feet echo lightly.

The heavy doors likely creak too just to make sure that anyone that tries to sneak through them will have a bad day.

The wind gods stop at a slightly open decorated door from where an outburst echos down the hall.

"I know! It's just! It's just mean!"

Claire? She sounds rather upset for how bright and happy she usually is.

Wait... the wolf, the ram and the lamb. Wolf, ram and sweet little lamb. It was a pun all along... as expected the wind gods have- they have a certain taste.

"How could he do something like that to Ray?"

Ray?

Arara, did our sweet little heroine lamb get messed a fight of a couple having an affair while she was up north?

Well, she is the heroine, so I do suppose all the romance plots will find their way to her in one way or another. Even so, such minor troubles should have paled with the threats and events of war.

"When something is merely a game people can do things much more cruel than they would otherwise, Claire."

Talking about relationships as a game is rather cruel of Lord Wolfram, but the wind gods did call him foul. Of course, as Lord Wolfram uses wind magic the opinions of the wind gods should be taken with a bucket of salt rather than just a grain.

Still, I don't have the spell ready yet, so disturbing them would cause more chaos than good. Even so, I do not want to eavesdrop either. If it is just this kind of conversation then I'll leave and perhaps ask later when I'm acting as Lily instead of Augustus.

"But making Ken kill her is just too cruel... even if it was just in a game."

Isn't Ray a boys' name? I am pretty certain it is, unlike Rei, which is a girl's name. I do suppose it is possible someone messed up in naming their child or chose it because she is a ray of sunshine.

"... The man's name was Kenta, Claire. Ta is not his family name. Remember, they're foreign names so they aren't names you know."

...

Had I been holding onto something when Lord Wolfram said those words, then I would have dropped it to dramatically and made a pitiful fool of myself in shock.

I did not.

I did not... but still my stomach sinks and knots.

Everything is fine.

It is merely a coincidence.

I move to quietly lean against one of the walls and grab around my stomach.

Lord Wolfram doesn't continue for a little while and Claire doesn't reply... The hallway goes quiet. Not even the wind gods speak during this but just linger in the air but instead watch me curiously from the door.

A... game...

Those names were from a game. Someone called... Kenta and... Rei. That is all.

"Accursed wolf," the wind gods hiss quietly as whispers in the wind.

"As you heard, King Landon had been playing a seductress without magic. Other than Rei's occasional defenselessness there were very few openings for her to kill her. The method he chose was probably the one most likely to succeed. While distasteful it fulfilled the mission. Since it was in a game he need not worry about the emotions of anyone involved."

"After all, they don't actually exist."

Lord Wolfram finishes those words, but my mind is going blank. This... is too much of a coincidence.

A game...

A... game?

My world. My life. The dishonor and the pain... and all the blood shed.

The feeling of slowly being pushed further into despair.

All of that is a part of a game?

Haruki, Yukio, Asaki, Takumi, Aoko, Oiwa and everyone else died for the sake of a game?... and the being that drove Kenta to the point of killing both of us... is still alive despite its sins? That thing had just been playing a game without fearing for its life or the consequences? Torn Kenta apart and made him fall from grace for amusement?!

It must have bragged for them to know this. It must have bragged of its filthy actions. Bragged of its part in our deaths. Bragged of its dishonorable 'feat'.

"He should have felt for her even just a little..." Claire's sweet voice seems to sting in my ears while I grit my teeth. The sound of blood pulses in my ears as flames begin to churn.

For amusement.

Our shameful deaths were but amusement?!

"In the end his character paid the price. His character was framed by Kenta and killed. In the end his character got what she deserved," Landon finishes calmly.

His... character? The punishment he deserved was never felt? A punishment in vain...

How dare you drive someone to such dishonor!

How dare you not suffer!

How dare you savor it, Michiko!

I turn and head back the way from which I came. I cannot listen any longer. I will not listen any longer or my blood will boil. Michiko the filthy promiscuous wench is alive in the shape of Landon.

If I, even once, have a chance to rip or tear that piece of discharge into pieces I'll make sure to remind it of every single bit of horror it put Kenta through.

There is only one adequate death for you, Michiko.

I clutch the pendant tightly.

My stomach churns.

I cannot... I am not allowed to be distracted. I have a war to fight, and it isn't against Semor.

I don't have the time to punish her.

I don't have the time to kill her.

If I get my hand on her slender throat... no, thick throat. She's a man now.

No, I have a war to fight. I mustn't get distracted. I need to calm down. I have a meeting with Lord Wolfram Stanbell.

I head into one of the offices, where a single scribe stares up at me with shock.

"Out," I sneer out at him.

The scribe stumbles and knocks over the chair in his eagerness to get up, flinches and turns to the chair to pick it up.

"OUT!" I end up raising my voice and cause the scribe to flinch before he stumbles out of the room in a half run.

I push the door closed behind him and try to breathe.

I'm in knots yet my blood pulses strongly. The urge to rip the room apart is overwhelming.

I want to scream.

Why is that woman alive?! Why is she here?!

I stride to the chair and put it back up before sitting down.

Temperance.

I pick up the quill along with a fresh piece of paper and start writing out the symbol for temperance, yet the quill quivers in my trembling hand.

Crack.

The quill bends violently in my clenched hand and the tip twists under the pressure.

The ink seems to splutter and generates nothing that even seems like clean straight lines.

Serenity.

...

Duty.

I have a duty to fulfill. I must swallow my pride. I... must swallow my anger.

—-*—-

Eric's Point of View

When Lily finally comes to me to start the meeting she is... not in a good state of mind.

Her breathing is off. It's too regular as though she is focusing on breathing normally. The hard stare goes directly to my eyes. She is practically staring me down like prey and comes at me like she's squaring off.

Now, I don't recall anything I did wrong, but last time I recall Lily being in this state of mind she took a fort with ten men.

When she stops in front of me the biggest calming factor is that she is smaller than me. She's out for blood.

"I am ready."

...To what? Slaughter the poor Miss Talwen?

"Very well," I reply with a bit of hesitance. In response Lily clutches a medallion close and takes a deep breath... but her hands are shaking and her knuckles are white.

Is this going to be okay?