"Sister! How is he?"
Billy Ard Hall's voice rang out in the mansion as he noticed his sister coming in.
With a dark look on her face, Vienna shook her head from side to side.
Things had moved too fast for them. Within just days of their arrival into the capital city of the empire for the banquet, demons had suddenly unleashed themselves all over the city. Almost miraculously, no one died and only parts of the city were destroyed thanks to the effort of the adventurers.
And the next thing she knew, her younger brother whose whereabouts had been a mystery for two years had popped up in the empire, in the home of one of the strongest powers on the continent.
Injured.
Billy rushed up to his sister and looked at her with an anxious gaze. Both of their opinions had changed greatly since his first visit, even if he didn't feel the same.
Vienna clenched her fists and lowered her gaze. As she remembered the state of her brother she had just seen in Acacia's castle, blood rose to her head.
After the demons' attack, the banquet had been shifted by two weeks. And now, it was already the tenth day that Eugene had been unconscious.
"He looked grave," Vienna said. "Whoever did this..."
"If someone could leave Dusk injured, it would be better to run away than to think of taking revenge."
A sudden voice cut them off.
"Uh... my lady..."
Vienna looked to her side as the beanie-clad adventurer with shark-like teeth awkwardly added a respectful title to his words. Megalodon and Zachariah, these were the two adventurers she had saved on her way to the capital.
She had no idea that the adventurer that had betrayed these two was none other than her brother.
"I don't think you need to worry. That guy always pulls through."
At the shark-tooth's words, Vienna seemed slightly surprised.
These people knew him better than she did. Yet, it didn't seem like the first time something like this had happened.
She was deeply aggravated, but there was nothing that she could do.
"Still I never thought that bastard was truly a noble," Sharkie said.
"Zzz..."
"And now with all those rumors, he will land a girlfriend!"
"Rumors?" Billy asked. "What rumors?"
***
"Hidden Hero of the Empire."
The head receptionist of the Deep Down Town Branch pulled the newspaper back and read with a raised brow.
"This one says, 'Savior of the Demon Invasion'"
"Who is Adventurer Dusk, the one who singlehandedly stopped the Demon King in hell."
Around her, the Branch Managers of the other three guilds read the papers, each of them saying something new.
The Vice Guild Master sighed and tapped the desk.
"So, what name are we going to give him?" he asked.
Over the few days, things had suddenly flowed out of their hands. Rumors spread like wildfire about the existence of an adventurer that stopped the demon king. The Emperor openly endorsed these rumors and talked about how his heart ached at the ailment of this hero while expressing his intentions to give him a medal. And Kaiser's testimony on top of it completely nailed the coffin.
The surprise that the adventurer guild felt couldn't easily be expressed. Even Kaiser hadn't been endorsed as a hero of a country.
The branch manager of the Deep Down Guild crossed his hands.
"Should we go with Kaiser's suggestion?"
He lifted a piece of paper that Kaiser had turned in.
The others peered over.
***
"Nightbringer..." Anatolia muttered as she a sip of her tea, her legs crossed. "What an ironic name."
"What is?" asked her guest. Sitting across her in the reception room of the Imperial Palace was the princess of the neighboring country, the Kingdom of Schwarz.
The princess of Schwarz was deeply troubled today. She did not take a bite of the refreshments placed between the two as she carefully observed Anatolia who still had a patch around her eyes.
Anatolia and she weren't close.
Not in this timeline, at least.
Seeing her friend whom she knew before her regression in such a state, the princess of Schwarz was deeply troubled.
Nothing matched up. In the time she had been cooking up countermeasures for the war that would have taken place in hell, demons had already popped out and were even dealt with. Unlike before, the top adventurers played an active role and the one that gave them the most trouble, Demon King Balam, did not even appear.
It was absurd. And the most absurd of it all was that at the center of everything was her friend.
A friend that she hadn't yet made in this timeline.
There was only one explanation for the sudden change in behavior that the princess exhibited, and after having seen it happen to three people, she was sure that it was correct too.
Princess Anatolia must be a regressor too.
She was unable to decide whether to bring it up or not. The path they were treading on was laden with dangers, and not to mention, on top of being her friend, Anatolia was also a rival. She wasn't sure if she was happy that Anatolia was a regressor or not.
"What will you do now?" the princess of Schwarz asked.
"What now?" Anatolia looked at her with a smile. "I made a move and failed, now I must face the repercussions."
"Repercussions?"
***
"Removal of Princess Anatolia from the Imperial Lineage."
The Emperor said. Inside a personal meeting room that no one, not even his shadows could enter, the Emperor was facing an old friend.
"It's not enough at all," said Hades. "Had it not been for the mandated records of each person in our family, we would have never been able to call ourselves one again. Even if it ended well, the fact that the previous memories haven't returned doesn't change."
Hades had been robbed. Things of a value much greater than any spell, any gem, any wish, all his memories of his daughter had been taken away. Somehow, with the loss of the memories, his wife and son had returned to their normal states along with everyone that had been cursed by seeing the lady's face.
It was an event that ended in great success, yet how could he dare measure anything on the same scale as his daughter?
The Emperor, unable to offer any words, scrunched his face in guilt and lowered his head. He had been stumped with thoughts as he tried whatever way he could save Anatolia from the worst, and now, only this last one was left.
"How about..." the Emperor said. "Taking her as a personal maid for the young lady?"
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