Vengeful Conclusion [Veigue/Nayru][Hiatus]

[Deleted]

"Veggieeeeee! Look at all the peeps! Are we in Velder already? I've never been on this side of Bern before. It's so cool!" The ecstatic voice of Amber rang in the swordmaster's ears stronger than any sonic wave.

Veigue's face maintained somewhat of a dull and annoyed expression, reflecting on the mental exhaustion Amber and others have been putting him through during the past couple days. He swore to himself if he encountered another kid with the desire to make his life more miserable, he'd just drop to the ground and play dead. Maybe then, he'd get some peace and quiet time for once. Hell, he might even trick Jaquio's assassins into thinking he died of some kind of natural disease or something and they'd leave him alone for good... Yeah, okay, wishful thinking, but the guy could dream.

"Yes... Can you please get off my back now?" He said.

"But you're like, super tall! I wanna see everything I can, y'know? Besides, daddy used to give me piggyback rides all the time, and they were fun for both of us!"

"But I'm not your--" An abrupt pause from his own sigh, seeing little to no point in arguing. At least the kid was super petite, so she wasn't heavy or hurting his back. Maybe once he met back up with Nayru, he...

"Huh... I have a brilliant idea." Veigue resisted the urge to smirk at his plan before speaking again. "Hey, remember my friend I told you I'm meeting here? She's actually a little taller than me. You might see things from above her head that you can't from mine..."

"Really?! Well then, let's go find herrrrr!"

Kids were so easy to manipulate sometimes that it wasn't even worth laughing over. Nayru probably won't like the idea of some annoying kid latching onto her back, though.

Annoyances aside, it took making his time with Amber less grating on the nerves to realize he didn't properly acknowledge it for himself that he finally arrived at the rendezvous point — perhaps he even got there a bit earlier than he told Nayru. There wasn't any real need to look for her, considering they planned an exact spot to meet at, which was the town square. The village of Velder held a pretty modest, but impressive size to where one could be fooled to consider it a city instead. As he walked around the square with his little... friend in tow, he took the time to admire the town's well-structured appearance.

Busy streets, but not too crowded either. Unlike cities, towns like Velder didn't make you feel claustrophobic like you were stuffed in an enormous closet with thousands of other people unfortunately trapped with you. The horizon with the setting sun also did well to reflect on the vermilion colored homes and other buildings, giving the sacaean some temporary peace to fall on while his natural patience took over for his friend's arrival... Well, until Amber made a gasp of excitement again after pointing her finger at something and leaning more on his back, causing Veigue to frown out of discomfort.

He needed to find someone to help lift the multiple curses placed upon him already.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Yanno, she liked this place. No one had recognized her yet. Kind of weird to say for her. She was used to no one knowing or caring who the f**k she was, but after that... business with the chimera, an uncomfortable number of people in the area had started recognizing her at seemingly random times. Not enough to be a serious problem or anything, and it wasn't like one guy knowing her name was the end of the world, but after spending a few hundred years moving from place to place entirely so people DIDN'T notice her, or her lack of aging, or her occasional mishaps with destruction, Nayru was thoroughly unprepared to actually have any kind of presence in Elibe. She didn't regret killing the chimera of course. That had been necessary. But she did think that maybe giving a false name and wearing a fake mustache would have been a good idea.

Thankfully Velder was far enough away that no one knew or cared who she was - just the way she liked it. Nayru was privately a bit amused at the irony of her problem, one that doubtless plenty of ambitious sellswords would kill to have, but it was only really funny from a distance. After she and Veigue had split up for a while to do their thing, she'd had some Adventures(tm) of her own, which had gone... well... they had gone, anyways. Meanwhile, Veigue had probably liberated a third world country, saved all of Elibe from Jaquio's threat, gotten married, raised a family, killed his second and third secret and also evil fathers, and been forced to kill an Arum possessed Lena to save the world again. N-not that she minded whatever he had gotten himself into of course, Nayru reassured herself, trying to scrub the mental image of him with Amelia on his shoulders out of her mind. Down that path lay darkness and the abyss. It was his decision to go get married and stuff if he wanted to.

But he... probably hadn't done anything like that yet. Yeah, that was silly. Ha ha. Nayru could almost feel the load off her back as she realized how silly that all sounded. Of course Veigue would just be there, his usual self, and they would go have adventures and shenanigans and such like they always did. Nothing to worry about. Yup, there he was now!

And it was probably a coincidence that he had a little girl on his shoulders.

That he was talking to.

And not removing forcefully.

And getting along with.

And she seemed very happy.

Yyyyyyyyup. Just some random girl that papa veggie had picked up out of the goodness of his heart. No special meaning there.

"Hey Veigue," she greeted the duo in a somewhat uncertain voice, suspicious that Veigue had been replaced with an evil twin who just looked like him. Or had actually gotten married and had kids in the, uh, few intervening days since she'd last seen him. Ok, sure, she lived a long time, but she wasn't THAT bad with tracking the years, right? "Who's your, uh, friend?" Don't say daughter, don't say daughter... oh god, it wasn't his wife, was it? Had Amelia followed her all this distance? Was the world finally about to end? Nayru's imagination raced like a wild horse hopped up on enough performance enhancing drugs to kill a bull elephant, determined to find the worst possible scenario, since reality was probably somehow even weirder.

[Deleted]

"She's--"

"Hiya! I'm Amber! Veggie here let me tag along on his super duper fun adventures!" The girl butted in, unintentionally pushing Veigue's head down with her hands to meet Nayru face-to-face. "Ohhhhh-ho! Are you Nayru? You really ARE taller than Veggie! I bet I can see the mountains from your shoulders! Heeey! You some kind of dancer or something? Nice clothes! Can you teach me how to dance, too? OHHH! Are you also a super secret wandering agent like Veggie here?"

"I told you, I'm not a--"

Amber pushed Veigue's head down again. "Wow! I'm no fighter of crime and stuff, but you guys sure are cool! I'm just a wittle, but awesome blacksmith. Hey, where are your weapons, Nayru? Do you use any? I learned a lot of blacksmithing skills from my daddy and mastered them ALL, so I can help you guys take care of your equipment and more, yup yup. You should let me make a weapon for you sometime. I made one for Veggie and it is awwwwwwesome!"

Veigue remained thankful that they were in a semi-busy and noisy area, otherwise Amber would attract so much unwanted attention that he'd combust into burning vegetable bits. Would have been nice if the girl actually let him talk to Nayru for at least a couple seconds. Was it so much to ask to have a normal day for once? Granted, he never had any to begin with, but with Amber around, that more or less killed any sort of hope for some shining door leading to a land of peace and tranquility to open in front of him — to wander off and allow himself to be engrossed in training and meditation.

But nope. Rest in pieces.

The girl finally leaped off Veigue's back, the swordsman's eyes widening a tad more out of surprise, but fell down to his bum in the street out of relief. "Oh, thank god..."

The girl continued to run her mouth, while Veigue resolved to sit in helpless silence as he shook his head in defeat. He'd leave it to Nayru to... come to her own conclusions. Either that or worse case scenario could occur: she and Amber become BFFs and his life goes from miserable to pure hell in an instant. He'd have to begin thinking of escape plans and secret hiding places in advance, all to prevent himself from having a mental breakdown that he's honestly been long overdue for. Surprised himself on how long he's actually lasted, but the last thing he wanted was to cast a jinx upon himself.

"Oh! I almost forgot," Amber said as she reached around in her little bag, revealing yet another one of her freshly wrapped sweets before offering it to Nayru. "Lollipooooop~?"

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Yup, Amelia as f**k.

Nayru honestly wasn't sure at what point Elly had stopped being her metric for 'nightmare from the depths of hell given flesh' and Amelia had stepped into her vaunted spot, but whatever the case this girl definitely scored at least a 9.3 on the Amelia scale. Little girl with a head full of crazy ideas, enough energy to fuel a war effort, and no sense of right and wrong... or sanity and sense for that matter. Not that she was, er, really anyone to judge, given her own history, but - anyways. The dragon found herself oddly grateful to Elly for inuring her to the madness of the young once more, and Amelia for grinding it into her head that there was no escape, because honestly at this point Amber's... tendencies and energy just washed over her like the tide. Not even a surprise or unbecoming anymore, just a 'this is my life now' sort of thing that she hardly even had the energy to recognize for what it was, much less take umbrage of any sort to.

And besides, the kid was both cute AND had answered the most relevant questions (name, relationship to Veigue, likelihood of killing both of them) in very short order. Amber. NOT Veigue's secret love child. Probably not an evil murder hobo, but maybe worth keeping an eye on anyways. Huh, that had gone surprisingly well, no one had pushed any carts into anyone or murdered everyone nearby just yet. Veigue seemed overwhelmed for some reason though. Nayru wasn't really sure why. He'd had to deal with Elly too, he should be used to this stuff, right? Or maybe Amelia's shenanigans with Remus had just left her blind to his plight.

It was funny in a way, that of all the things she loved about humans, it was the uniquely immature selfishness of some that brought them the closest to her. Perhaps it was seeing some aspect of her childhood self in them. Perhaps it was simply that they could live without any concerns for the future or their own well being. Maybe it was just the innocent naivete it implied. Who knew? What did it say about her? Nayru didn't know, and while usually that would bother her a great deal... for some reason it didn't for now.

"Nice to meetcha, Amber," she said with a growing grin at the kid(?)'s rambunctious nature. Remus with Amelia, Veigue with Amber, it seemed that she had a talent for happening upon men who had tiny energetic companions. Er, that sounded kinda bad in her head for some reason. She knelt down, resting on one knee to be closer to Amber's height - while not quite as tall as her previous body had been, Nayru was still quite a bit taller than the kid... or midget... she wasn't really sure which. "Name's Nayru, wandering dancer and problem solver extraordinaire." She chuckled. Yeah... problem solver. That was a good one. Nayru wasn't actually sure if that was self-effacing humor or legitimately funny, and left it there rather than think too hard about it. She wasn't sure what all Veigue had told the kid about her and Veigue's adventures... or how he'd picked her up for that matter.

"Free candy, huh? I'll take it!" Yoinking the proffered sweets away with the grace and skill of a professional candy thief, which for all anyone else there knew Nayru might very well be, she continued in a jovial tone. "They say the quickest way to a man's heart is through his rib cage, but I find candy works pretty well too." A perfectly light, jovial tone with no concern whatsoever for the actual content of her message, leaving a bit of a... disconnect between sound and meaning. None of which stopped her voice from taking a much kinder and somewhat more serious tone a moment later, as if completely unaware of the dichotomy. "Thank you, Amber."

[Deleted]

Great. Now they're eating candy together. That's starting up the BFF train already, and now Veigue found himself trapped within a prison in which he'd never escape; smothered in a cage of mental torture as Hurricane Amber and Nayru would occasionally beat up his mental stability. Eh. Maybe he was just over-exaggerating. It's not like Amber could talk Nayru into doing some out-of-the-box stuff, like make him arm wrestle Nayru for her own amusement, knowing she'd break his arm like a twig and five times more.

...

"Knowing my luck, that might just happen..." Veigue had to grip his arm out of cringe at the thought.

Amber pulled out her own wrapped stick of swirled candy and began to enjoy herself in the company of her new pal — her eyes shined with intrigue as Nayru introduced herself more and Veigue remained to the side, glad that the attention was off him. Even if it only lasted a few minutes, it was better than having a hyperactive teenage blacksmith latched on his shoulders like a pet bird. He was more of a dog guy, anyway. Not that he actually saw Amber as an animal in a literal sense. That'd just be a terrible comparison... even if it kind of seemed to be true at times.

As... that continued on, Veigue noticed something around the corner, his perceptive attention to his surroundings getting the best of him as he noticed some villagers making way for... something. The longer it went on, the more he realized some sort of conflict was going on, based off some faint yelling his ears picked up on, though was somewhat hard to make out due to the overwhelming sounds of busy traffic in the streets. All he had to do was pay attention to that general direction long enough to finally spot two individuals rushing their way through the now-scattering villagers.

Okay. A girl with short, black hair with a moderately-sized blade chasing some shady looking crook who seemed to like bandaging himself up like a mummy for Halloween with all those thief garbs on. That was normal situation unfolding... Not really, but from the look of the situation, it wasn't something super dire. Seemed like the guy was getting what he deserved; probably robbed a house or something. Still, didn't ignore the fact that he held quite the advantage in footwork to where the girl — apparently a law enforcer of some sort — lacked the speed to keep up with him. Well, they weren't killing people, so no need for him to get invo--

Oh, hey. He was actually coming straight for Veigue's direction.

Well, he was tired of sitting in the dirt feeling sorry for himself in the wake of his new headache-inducing experiences, so it was somewhat of a worthy waste of time. Though instead of drawing his sword at the incoming crook, he decided to slip on... The Glove. Well, Amber's little invention would be put to the true test, at least. When he did that punch on the tree the other day, he knew the thing qualified well as a nice weapon that rivaled a brass knuckle. The girl may have been crazy, but he couldn't deny her talent.

Instead of getting all confrontational, he just slipped the glove on in a smooth, casual motion and began walking at a slow pace ahead. The crook didn't pay any real attention to Veigue as they finally met up close, but he'd soon regret not being aware of all the people he pushed through to escape. So in another casual, but swift movement, Veigue clenched his fist within the glove, effortlessly decking the guy hard in the center of his face to where you could literally hear the bones of his nose shattering after the blow — some teeth flew out his mouth as well. It didn't take a genius to see that the attack knocked the guy so silly to the point where he went unconscious in the dirt in his fall, with his eyes still stretched wide... and somewhat of a goofy expression plastered on his face. No doubt he didn't know what hit him to where he must have been dumbfounded before being knocked into dreamland.

Veigue considered the guy lucky. If he ran Nayru's way, the swordmaster remained positive that he wouldn't have even had a head on his shoulders anymore if she bothered to do anything.

He was only half-kidding...

After all this transpired, Amber turned to the scene, jumping for joy as she pointed at her creation on his hand.

"Maaaaan, that thing hits guys harder that tree you brutalized yesterday! The glove is an A+ success!" Amber said, before turning to Nayru. "That's the weapon I told ya about! The Crushanator Five-thou--sahbdafm!!"

Veigue cut the girl short as he covered her mouth before she could blurt the ridiculous name that he could have sworn he convinced her to change. Seriously, what the hell is a Crushanator 5000, anyway? Sounded exotic... and weird.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

She'd been happy enough to see Veigue and lulled into an apparently false sense of security by Amber enough that Nayru had been distracted from the impending doom until Veigue had, ah, taken care of it rather effectively. She was already off the ground and scanning her surroundings for future developments before the dragon realized exactly what had happened, more than a little ashamed of her lapse in attention but trying not to show it too much. Fortunately it seemed there were no major ill effects to her failure, but it did bother her nonetheless. All the time with Veigue and Remus... was it taking her edge off? Making her too soft? In an actual fight she had definitely improved since meeting them, but as Nayru knew all too well from experience, the easiest way to take down a dragon was when they weren't expecting it.

It was an uncomfortable thought, possibly a jarring awakening. She wasn't sure. Nayru was slowly learning to trust others, but was it just trust to offload her responsibilities on others? Well, it was something to think about, anyway. For now, she apparently had assault and battery on her hands. Swallowing a groan, Nayru wrestled control of her expression and approached Veigue with practiced casualness. "Jeez, is this how you say hello to people? Remind me not to give you a high five in a dark alleyway."

The joke felt a little flat to her, though Nayru wasn't sure if it had actually sounded that bad or if it was just her perspective. Nonetheless, while she didn't... think they were under attack, it did look like they had more company coming. Some dark haired strumpet with a sword. Probably the one chasing the guy, but Nayru wasn't really in the habit of assuming that things would go well, which meant that new girl was... probably an evil assassin and Veigue had just killed the chosen hero of Elibe? Eh, no harm in seeing where things went. Still, she took her place by Veigue's side with a few more steps, crossing her arms as she waited to see how things played out. The dragon was perfectly fine with letting Veigue handle things his way - she trusted his judgement - but it never hurt to politely remind people that he wasn't alone. And if ms. tall dark and swordy over there thought she had a problem with them being alive, she was about to have a real f**k**g problem on her hands. Or through her chest.

...Not in a weird gropey way. f**k. That totally ruined the badass angle.

[Deleted]

"No, my greetings are usually more stabby."

That's totally better.

Still, at least the glove proved to be an effective addition to his arsenal. Maybe not enough to do anything to guys decked out in full plated armor, but served it's purpose in a general situation. Less about punching people in style and more about the potential mess he dragged himself into, though. The expression of confusion and shock on the new girl's face came to no surprise to the swordsman, though he opted for not saying anything as she approached with a hesitant kneel to her downed enemy or whoever the knocked out guy was. A check of pulse...

"Well, he's... not dead, at least. Good enough for me." She said, now standing back up while facing the general direction of everyone. "Uh, thanks. We've actually been trying to catch that moron for days. Slippery little guy... He's been causing a multitude of problems around here."

So, guess they just couldn't resort to trying to get one of the villagers to play dumb and knock the guy out during his little escape episodes? Guess only Veigue would do something like that, then. That's unless all of them were just incompetent at devising some sort of strategy against a swift criminal. The aloof swordsman knew it from personal experience that someone could kick him down if they put enough thought into it, no matter how quick-footed he'd be. Perhaps he was just being too hard on the girl, nodding his head before falling back to his comfort zone of silence.

"Whaddap, lady-dawg~!" Amber just had to chime in.

Understandably so, the newcomer stood stiff in a speechless trance, unable to really respond to the little girl's awkward sense of greeting a stranger. Veigue resisted the urge to facepalm, preparing himself to apologize on behalf of his ignorant, yet innocent new companion. That plan foiled the moment the swordswoman slowly bowed a bit before positioning herself to everyone's general direction again.

"Well, um... I'm--"

Before the words were able to roll off her tongue, her eyes happened to lock to Veigue's for an uncomfortable amount of time, the swordmaster raising an eyebrow in confusion as he crossed his arms. Aw, great. Did she see the wanted poster, too? Well, maybe not. It wasn't a look of aggression on her face, but her eyes sort of told him the answer. Something about Veigue triggered some kind of memory in the girl's head; an emotion. He wasn't able to read minds, but whatever went on in her head, it probably disturbed her.

"I-I'm sorry for staring, sir... Your face just seemed really familiar to me for some reason." She said, before bowing again. "As I was going to say, I'm sorry for not making introductions earlier. My name's Ciel Magnus. You all don't seem to be from around here, so welcome to Velder! Who might you all be?"



Huh...

"Huh?!"

It took a couple seconds for it to register in his brain, sort of feeling a little slow for not catching the "Magnus" part the millisecond it reached his ears. Okay, it wasn't so hard enough to try and press for some kind of answers. Could have just been a weird coincidence that their last names were the same. After all, every soul of his clan members — children included — were murdered. He stepped forth a bit, maintaining more of a neutral stare mixed with a more serious expression.

"You wouldn't happen to be related to the Sacaean tribe named Magnus, no?" He finally asked.

"Huh? Well, that's a new one," Ciel pinched the side of her small hat on her head before another look of confusion struck her. "But I wouldn't know for sure. My mother was a Bernese woman, but my father was actually a Sacaean, from what mother told me. Perhaps he came from that tribe, but again, I wouldn't know, as I haven't seen my father in nearly a decade. Why do you ask?"

"Hmm. Perhaps..." Veigue's trailing words were less aimed at Ciel and more at his constantly active mind.

Ciel Magnus... Couldn't say the name rang any bells, but the most disturbing part was that she seemed a bit younger than him. He wanted to refrain from any kind of deep assumptions, considering they were in the process of meeting this young lady, so he'd have plenty of time to think about it when business was taken care of.

"...I'm Veigue Magnus." Had to start somewhere.

"Oh...!" Ciel seemed just as lost as Veigue was now.

"Aaaaaaaaaand I'm Amber!!"

Theeeeere it goes. Veigue was waiting for the little monster to break the ice sooner or later.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Ah yes, Veigue the light-hearted jokester, with a touch as soft as his heart. Well, admittedly, Nayru was proud of him for that joke. It was just the right kind of irreverent, sarcastic, and self-aware silliness that she most enjoyed after all. Bordering on black comedy. The approaching woman stole much of a chance for the dragon to actually respond to her partner's joke, but she appreciated it in silence nonetheless.

The whole Magnus family reunion thing was... well, honestly, she couldn't tell if it was even funnier or not funny at all. Nayru had to resist the urge to facepalm, the greatest trial of her life in fact. She literally could not go f**k**g anywhere without running into more Magnuses. Like cockroaches, except she actually liked having them around, so... not cockroaches... yeah that had actually been a hilariously terrible simile. Turned out that having a good memory didn't make you smart unfortunately, a fact she continued to be reminded of on a daily basis. Unfortunately her mouth sometimes slipped the muzzle her brain usually kept on it, like a yappy little puppy that juked out of its leash and ran headlong into the neighbor's yard to urinate all over the Dahlias. That was a pretty specific metaphor, but so was her verbal tic, which was to stay the dumbest thing possible at the worst possible time, so it kinda worked out.

"Veigue, are you sure your clan isn't half rabbit? 'Cuz you guys sure seem to multiply pretty fast." Unfortunately she had forgotten that jokes were supposed to be funny, a common mistake, but her tone, dry and wry in equal parts, betrayed more amusement than any particular dislike of the situation. Granted Nayru wasn't exactly an expert on the entire Magnus lineage, but she'd liked all the ones she'd met so far... she just seemed to run into a lot of them. And they were ALWAYS in trouble. Really, that was all it took to convince her that Ciel WAS in some way related to Veigue, the Magnus curse certainly hung heavy over her. Buuuuuut that was none of her business, so the dragon actually managed to hold her tongue on that subject... for the time being at least. Instead, since they seemed to be doing introductions, she made a token effort to not embarrass Veigue further. "Nayru." She who had just been named nodded her head in acknowledgement but didn't offer anything further, it didn't really seem like handshake time. "You the sheriff 'round these parts?"

[Deleted]

"I'll pass on the rabbit ears, if that's the case." The thought of his past ancestry hopping around in a field with giant fluffy ears and all hunched over raced through his mind as fast as his desire to expel it. Nayru seemed to bring out the weirdest of his imagination sometimes.

Ciel made a respectful nod and smile, taking up a more calmed down posture befitting that of a composed soldier. The longer Veigue was able to examine her, the more the pieces were falling into place. Ciel's life and upbringing may lie in Bern, but she had that spark of a Magnus in her eyes similar to that of his own sister. It wasn't just something he could assume; it was something he had to feel out, and based off the swordswoman's apparent natural vibe, there was no mistaking it. Her existence remained an enigma, but one he was willing to accept as his own kin nonetheless.

"You're close — I'm actually the captain of Velder's militia," Ciel responded to Nayru. "Though, compared to the actual Bernese Army, I'm not really anyone special. Treat me the same as you would to any random stranger you'd meet in the streets."

Veigue had to assume that with the chaos in Bern, Velder was mostly left to fend for itself. Though compared to most of the other towns he's passed by during his current adventures in the country, it didn't seem all that affected — if at all — by whatever went down with that rebellion stuff. Could have been because it was a town closer to the Sacaean border, but he had a feeling that the militia that Ciel led wasn't an ordinary group of defenders. He's seen some of the guards strolling through the town, and they had a more powerful air of refinement in their movement compared to the average militia men and women he's seen throughout his travels in general. They must have carried the duty on their shoulders very serious and on par with that of a professional soldier — he could respect that.

"A captain of a well-organized group at your age. You must be exceptionally skilled." Veigue said.

"Apparently not, if I allowed a mere dreg of the streets run laps around me for days." Ciel hinted towards the downed crook, who's unconscious body didn't remain in place long enough before two men in similar attire to Ciel's approached to lift him away at her command, all before she turned back to Veigue and Nayru. "Wish I could have caught him myself, but... Well, I'm not unappreciative of your help regardless. I've still got ways to go before I could consider myself exceptional or anything."

"I wouldn't worry about that too much if I were you." Veigue shook his head once, though looking off to another direction as he remained aware of the incoming hypocrisy of his words. "You wouldn't have been chosen as a leader without plausible judgment. Everyone has weaknesses that they can improve on."

"Maybe, but Velder's home to some pretty competent warriors. Any one of them would have been a better suit for captain than me. I'm just an average Sue who so happens to know how to swing a sword decently enough without cutting her own head off."

He wasn't sure why he went through the effort of any kind of consolation to someone he'd just met. Perhaps it was the potential kinship that influenced it, but Veigue's heard those same words Ciel spoke with before, both from others he knew and from himself to know that it's an unhealthy thought pattern. She was just too hard on herself like he was. If Velder was supposedly home to great warriors, then why hadn't anyone caught the thief until today? Not because of their lack of skill, but likely because their troublemaker must have been a crafty and tactical little bugger compared to any other riffraff. But Veigue felt anymore words of encouragement from him wouldn't get his point across no matter how much more effort he put into it, silently making a humph under his breath before saying no more.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Nayru had the common decency not to say as much, she wasn't looking for trouble, but Ciel could just as well have saved her breath. One side effect of living a bazillion years was that eventually you just stopped giving a damn, especially about useless, worthless human contrivances such as social station. It didn't really matter if Ciel was Bernese regular army, a current (or was it former?) rebel, a criminal baron, the dark lord of the Underworld, or an Etrurian warrior-monk deep undercover on a mission from the Prophet himself to tell his right hand woman, Amber, to unleash the Kraken and drown Elibe under the briny sea.

...Nah, probably not that last one. But the dragon did glance at Amber just in case. If the kid was turning into a demonic hell-beast, it probably behooved her to know.

Veigue and Ciel's conversation mostly flowed over and through her as Nayru drank in the world around her, determined not to be caught off guard again, just in case. Not that she expected trouble. But hey, expect the unexpected, right? Regardless, it seemed that as usual Veigue and his new friend were in a race to the bottom, though at least this time they weren't trying to stab each other. They both had their issues. Not that she was one to judge. Nayru didn't quite have the same problems as them, but she could still empathize quite well with their worries in her own way. In a way, it almost made her like Ciel more than she would have earlier; Nayru had become aware of her tendency to dismiss anyone even vaguely military in the last few months as she re-considered some of her preconceived notions about violence, but stereotypes were pernicious things sometimes, and she didn't always recognize her flawed judgement for what it was.

But Ciel wasn't some random soldier, a cog in the machine of the aristocracy that choked Elibe. She was a person too. Trying to do the right thing. Young and alone and very aware of both those things. Where normally Nayru would have thanked the young lady and walked away, her need and interest alike completely evaporated, something possessed the young dragon to speak up herself as well in the wake of Veigue's commentary. "...Fighting's easy." One hand dropped to her hip as the female warrior smiled uncharacteristically gently at the other woman, subconsciously chiding herself for acting like an idiot. Or team mom. She wasn't sure which was worse. "Leading people... that's the hard part." And that was the rub of it, wasn't it? It didn't matter how strong Nayru was. It didn't matter if she could kill Richter or not... though she had a feeling it might be a little harder than it had looked. She would never be able to lead an army like he could. She didn't have Aerious's charisma. She didn't have Remus's boundless patience and kindness, the ability to work within a broken system tirelessly to make it right.

She just punched stuff.

"Just remember, you got where you are for a reason, even if you can't see it yet. Don't be too hard on yourself." All irony of HER talking about not talking yourself down aside, Nayru was acutely aware that it was entirely possible that what she had said was false - that Ciel could well be the daughter of a powerful magistrate or minor noble who had conspired to put her in power over the fighting men. But it didn't really matter. From what she could see, Ciel wasn't quite the spoiled rotten sack of crap that would abuse that, which meant that she had a shot at ending up a legitimately good leader regardless, as long as she kept that self-aware introspection going. In the end, it didn't really matter how she got there, only that Ciel do right by her town and her soldiers, and they would do right by her.

[Deleted]

Ciel seemed a tad overwhelmed with the words from both Veigue and Nayru, frozen stiff in a seemingly endless state of silence as her eyes moved to the steel in her hand that she'd just realized never had the chance to be returned to it's sheath. Instead of rushing to put it away, her hand moved up as she could see her reflection in the blade. They didn't know anything about the young captain, so it was anyone's guess to what truly ran through her mind. Everyone had their inner turmoil that raged on like the fiercest of bloody wars, but at least Ciel seemed to keep it bound to the chains of her mind instead of unleashing it on the world, like so many are eager to do without considering the consequences.

"I--" Her lips moved, but stopped as she faced Nayru. She shook her head once before pulling out a smile she needed to temporarily expel her apparent feelings of inadequacy. "Thank you."

Her sword finally had the chance to return to it's proper resting place, keeping herself relaxed before standing firm again. "Well, less of all the gloomy stuff about me and more about you. What brings you all to Velder?"

Ah, right. With all the... events, it almost passed Veigue by on what they set out to do in the first place. He met back up with Nayru as planned, and Sacae was merely a day's worth of travel away. Despite the little addition to their company, getting back home still held a strong priority to where the origins of Ciel's existence could wait until either his business with the trip was done or whenever else he had the moment to spare to come back to Velder on his own time. There wasn't much of a reason for him to tell her exactly why, but just as his mouth began to move, his eyes naturally gravitated into the direction of two individuals walking towards their direction. It wasn't a mere glance, but more like his attention remained glued to two children that approached, also staring at him with the most awkward and surprised expression on their faces.

"Oh..." The blonde-haired young boy spoke.

"My--" The little girl, also with the same hair.

"...God." Veigue's head was just about ready to explode from the combination of torture his head's been through from both yesterday and today, his top eyelids dimming as he tried to act natural. "Sean and Sasha..."

What were they doing here, now? Might as well make Velder out to be the grand reunion down in the history books, because everyone just had to make it a point to meet him on this exact day, at this exact moment without warning. Who was going to come out next? A resurrected Walter Slasher? That was an unpleasant thought, but one not out of the realm of possibility. Really, the two children he literally saved from Walter, the infamous serial killer he somehow managed to put down a year ago, literally spoke of either just a weird coincidence or some kind of bad omen for something far greater to occur.

But the two kids, eh? They certainly grew within that short time span, and still looked like they had plenty of more maturing ahead of them. Despite the sudden reappearance, it was nice to see the fruit of his deeds from before showing some growth. It was one of the moments in his life where he actually felt like he made a significant difference in someone's life, for the children in front of them wouldn't be standing and pursuing a future if not for risking his life against their psychopathic assailant. But he was dodging the main issue: why was he dealing with so many kids during the past few days? He wasn't liking where this was going or what the gods were trying to tell him...

"Woooow! What're you doing in Bern, Mr. Veigue? I mean, that IS you, right? Your clothes are different from before, but we recognize your face from anywhere!" The little boy said.

"Why he's here isn't important, Sean! This is the perfect opportunity to show Mr. Veigue what we've done with ourselves for the past year!" Sasha interjected, pulling out a tome while at that same action, Sean stepped forth with her in perfect sync, brandishing a short sword from the sheath on his back.

"W-What're you two--"

Okaaaay, this was all happening too fast. He wasn't sure what the kids were planning on showing him aside from their new toys, but from the look of determined excitement on their faces, he might have required to keep his guard up for whatever. Veigue found himself being correct, for his eyes widened slightly at the sight of Sasha conjuring up a tiny, but condensed fire ball above her palm before hurling it at him. It wasn't anything super fast, but enough for him to grit his teeth out of surprise as his head tilted to avoid it.

"Hah! You missed, sis! My turn now!" Sean charged the swordmaster with a vertical swipe with a sword that seemed to hold a little bit of too much force behind it. Veigue panicked a little, but drew his own blade just to block and hold the boy's sword on his own. But from the corner of his eye, he could see Sasha casting another fire ball. The sacaean could only sigh, not sure if they were just playing or actually trying to kill him.

"Hey, we're both still learning! We've been wanting to find Mr. Veigue and challenge him for a while. This is our moment! Soooo, let's get 'em!" Sasha said as she unleashed another fire ball, but since Sean's strength wasn't really putting Veigue on much of a strain, he managed to break free and dodge the fire ball, which curved from it's somewhat poor aim and hitting the ground near his feet. Still, she made fire balls and seemed to throw them decently enough. The kids kept putting pressure on him, and out of not wanting to take novice fighters too seriously, he merely held his ground to see if they'd get bored or something. Still didn't deny the fact that he remained worn out and tired of shenanigans for one day to not feel like being his usual patient self.

"H-help..." The quiet, but clearly heard plea from the swordsman escaped, not really aimed at anyone in particular, but would have been nice if he had a little hand.

Ciel remained there, not saying a word and confused ten times more than she was when they first met. Couldn't blame her. Amber on the other hand continued to enjoy her lollipop before yanking on a part of Nayru's clothing to get her attention. "Say, Nay Nay. Is this normal? I mean with Veggie having a lot of crazy friends trying to beat him up and stuff?"

Oh, the hypocrisy.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Nayru knew better than to push the subject from personal experience. Not really out of ancient draconic wisdom or flawless social graces, but simply out of enough introspective capacity to realize that the only things that had really changed her own self-destructive ways had been gradual realizations based on lessons that hadn't made sense or hadn't sunk in at the time. So... really, it was empathy from one dense dumbass to another, but that sounded kinda mean when she put it like that. No less true though.

The assault of the two hell-demon-children, apparently also known as Sean and Sasha, was... honestly not really a surprise to Nayru by this point. It seemed like EVERYONE wanted a piece of Veigue by this point, or was related to him, or wanted to train with him. Not that she was, um, entirely innocent on that last one, what with nearly breaking his arm the last time they'd fought and all. Apparently he was just Mr. Popular over there. Was that jealousy? No... no, of course not, she reassured herself, just a statement of... something that could be mistaken for fact. Whatever the case, it seemed like the kids meant well, at least insofar as attacking Veggie with the intent to tear him limb from limb could be innocent. Which... wasn't really that innocent, the thought occurred to her. But what could she do about it, really?

Veigue's plea for help did not go unheard, though, which left Nayru in a... strange position. On one hand, she couldn't really totally ignore it. Even if he wasn't in mortal danger, they WERE still attacking him, and it was possible that the novice fighters could accidentally injure him, without the knowledge of how to properly pull their strikes. On the other hand, she didn't really want to explain to the town guard why there were two child-flavored smears on the walls. ...She wasn't sure if the mental image of the kids popping like balloons was hilarious or horrifying, or where it had come from. Hilarifying? Horrarious? Ciel's question was a fair one, though, which said a lot about Veigue's life. Maybe too much. Scratch that, definitely too much. Nayru had never really thought of herself as 'having it lucky,' but at least she didn't have to deal with assassins and murder hobos and demon-spawn murder children on a daily basis...

"...Yeah, pretty much," the dragoness responded to Amber after a short pause, her voice a little tired sounding. She couldn't even think of a way to explain it. "Everywhere we go... on that note, thanks for not challenging him to a duel to the death. Didn't go so well for the last guy." Her volume rising as Nayru bellowed the words out, her mood rose a bit as she took refuge in her favorite thing to do... relentless crap-talking. "Sorry Veigue, I don't feel like punching out any kids today. Good luck, Amber and I are cheering for you!" She wasn't being a chicken or anything, but still...

Betrayal most fowl.

[Deleted]

All right. Well, looks like Nayru's going down in his revenge journal now.

More on that later. Returning children from the past wanting to burn and slash him to pieces — not exactly the most pleasant situation to be in, playful or not. Well, Sean kept swinging his sword like some crippled construction worker while Sasha thought it'd be a great idea to keep hurling fire balls toward him at point blank range. Okay, while they could potentially hurt him — or worse — mistakenly, he'd at least have the decency to try and help improve their fighting skills, if that's what they were trying to do. Time to try and give them a little test, then...

"THAT'S IT! KILLIN' YA BOTH!" Okay, maybe he went a little overboard with the threat, but it was Veigue's own way to vent all his frustrations of the past few days within that single moment before regaining composure.

The children's smiles evaporated into stares of confusion after Veigue gave Sean's sword a strong parry, then they screamed and flew backward before they realized what actually happened to them. Barely visible waves of electricity emitted from Kenji after a rather weak call from him for it's power, impacting the two novice fighters with a soft sensation of lightning coursing through their little bodies. Totally not going a little overboard in the slightest, not at all. But they hit the ground and weren't really injured, so no one should have any valid child abuse complaints worth throwing him behind bars. It was just a little love tap... an electrifying one, to say the least. And he knew the little buggers were tougher than they looked.

Veigue stood above the fallen children, reaching both hands out with somewhat of an irritated frown after sheathing his sword. "Next time, think before you do something insane. Sparring's fine, but if you did that to anyone else without warning and NOT hold your strength back like you wanted to kill, they'd do more than just give you a little shock..."

"S-sorry..." Both of them said before taking the swordsman's hands.

Veigue looked back to the others, giving Nayru... somewhat... of a non-serious glare before looking to the now-lost-in-the-deepest-pool-of-confusion-and-regret Ciel. Eh. If she hanged around them long enough, the suspected relative of his would get used to it... eventually. Insanity was what seemed to completely define their little group's identity, after all. If Veigue was forced to deal with it and adjust, then her and anyone else could manage the same, too.

"Well, I guess more introductions are due," Veigue sighed. He mostly directed what he was saying to Nayru, considering she'd be the only one to really understand. "They're Sean and Sasha — two kids I somehow managed to rescue from the serial killer, Walter Slasher; Jaquio's dumbass brother I told you about. Aside from their little... episode earlier, they're harmless... I guess."

Sean shivered a bit. "Ahh! Don't remind me of that weirdo-face man-thing. He still kinda gives me night terrors."

"Yeah, he still makes you wet the bed, apparently..." Sasha said.

"Shut up!"

"Ugh..." Veigue really started questioning his life decisions at this point, merely facepalming at the two children fighting without really bothering to break them up. It took Ciel to finally snap out of her trance and separate the feuding children before Veigue just closed himself off in silence until he needed to waste more energy on something more serious. Hopefully that'd happen soon.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"He's joking." Nayru angled her head down to Amber in reassurance, hoping that she was, er, actually right and that Veigue hadn't finally snapped at the endless slings and arrows of outrageous fate, half expecting to have to skedaddle out of town with two midget corpses in to-wow that actually got REALLY dark fast holy crap Veigue tone it down bro. "I think?" That she even had to add that qualifier left Nayru to die inside a little, but thankfully Veigue only decided to use draconic death lightning on the innocent little - ok the little gobshites definitely deserved it she wasn't actually judging him. Honestly, Nayru was just kind of irrationally proud that he was using the gift she had granted him. Awakening Kenji had been an... ordeal that took more power, and more blood, than she had expected.

For some reason Veigue seemed pretty used to strange young people approaching him out of nowhere and demanding duels, though. And for even less of an explainable reason, Nayru felt vaguely cheated on.

She still had the gall to look perfectly innocent when he glared at her for a minute after the battle was over. Nothing bad had happened, and she'd built her relationship with Amber after all. Everyone won! Except for Sean and Sasha, but eh, everything happened for a reason. Sometimes the reason was that you were stupid and made bad decisions.

Blissfully unaware of the apocalyptic irony so vast that it threatened to consume all life in the cosmos, the sassy dragon drank in the scene with no shortage of evident amusement but absolutely no effort whatsoever to help. On a slightly more serious note, it was probably for the best that they hadn't attacked her - Nayru added a mental note to never show off in front of them, ever, under pain of death - but Veigue had handled it just fine and probably taught the terrible twosome a lesson. They had probably learned it from that Walter White guy, or whatever Veigue said his name was.

Nayru approached Veigue with a more subdued grin as Ciel assaulted the children, willing to let the wannabe guard deal with the trouble rather than getting involved, and nudged him. "Hey, good work with the kids." Was there some kind of irony in her having abandoned him in his hour of need? Hm... Nah. She continued in a lower voice. "We might wanna get out of here before something else comes up though, you know... just in case."