lunedì 9 agosto 2021

Chapter 10 : Wolf hunting

Alda Richter walked the streets of the city looking around; her gaze, like that of a hawk, missed nothing. Behind the girl was a tall, blond man with hazel eyes and short hair. He was visibly bored and occasionally sighed, but Alda ignored him. The two stopped to rest their legs and the man asserted, after sitting down on the ground:
"I don't want to criticize you, Alda, but I don't like our wandering without a precise goal. We have to fight a war, right? So why don't we look for opponents to face?"
"Don't complain, Valfredo, you're big and tall, I don't think a walk is so problematic for someone like you." She paused briefly. "And we don't have time to engage in battles with negligible opponents."
"Just one question, then: what are we doing? If we don't look for the other Masters-"
"I'm looking for Wolff. I bet that coward is hiding somewhere."
"Are you sure that your obsession with him is not an obstacle to our mission?"
"Shut up," she replied looking at him with those cold eyes of hers. "And then you hate him too, don't you? I'm doing a favor to both of us."
Valfredo said nothing but an expression of regret faded on his face. Alda immediately noticed the man's sadness and she, with a brusque manner, criticized him:
"Stop doing that, you annoy me. We're hunting a traitor-"
"Once he was my friend ..." he said in a low voice.
"Now he isn't anymore, Valfredo. Get over it."
"I know, I don't need you to remind me," he exclaimed harder. "But don't ask me to be like you. It's normal for you to suppress emotions-"
"Don't assume you can talk to me as if we were au pair just because you are my father's son."
These words came out with more anger.
"Don't treat me as if I were inferior to you," Valfredo exclaimed, then added: "But do the Rote Mäntel really approve of this 'hunt' of yours?"
"Why do you care to know? It wouldn't make a difference. In this war I'm your only ally, without me you would be forced to fight alone against the other Masters."
"I want to know because I know you would be able to screw up our mission-"
"I see that Sigwald Stein's germ is still in your head, Valfredo," she commented harshly. "If my aunt Stina hadn't convinced you to abandon that crazy traitor, you would have had so many problems with the entire organization. So, if I'm not mistaken, you are indebted to my family ... and therefore to me."
"So what?"
"You won't ask questions, Valfredo," she replied coldly. "You will not ask nor protest my choices. I'm in charge, you will be a good dog and you will follow me. I hope I'm clear, Valfredo."
He didn't say anything. A fiery rage erupted inside his heart, but he had to keep it all within him; he had no intention of dying in the Holy Grail War. He knew that being with Alda was strategically more advantageous for him, but at the same time he wanted to respond to that woman.
At that moment a red flash lit up the sky for a very short time; Alda and Valfredo had to close their eyes due to the intensity of that powerful light. When they opened their eyes they looked around and noticed nothing unusual.
"What happened?" asked the restless man.
"Up there," Alda said, pointing to a red rhomboid shape that rose above the tip of the obelisk in the center of Adocentyn.
"What is that thing? Is it really fluctuating or is it just my imagination?" Valfredo asked.
"It floats. It's a magical object, for sure, but I can't tell you anything else… not from here. That light doesn't seem to have done anything strange. What do you say, α Assassin?"
Behind Alda, a woman appeared whose appearance could recall Caesar's, yet her hair was blond and her eyes were purple; she wore very elegant clothes and when she was questioned by the Master, she immediately replied:
"I've never seen anything like it. However, to be honest, it doesn't feel like common Magecraft to me. It looks like something more ... ancient."
"So you noticed it too. It's not the same Magecraft used by magi, it's something more complex. At a guess it could be something that comes from a very distant time, perhaps from the Age of the Gods, but I'm not sure. Surely it is Vergil's work."
"Frankly, it doesn't seem like anything special to me," Valfredo commented. "Well, if it had been dangerous ..."
"You're not an expert magus like me, Valfredo, I'm not surprised by your incompetence. But I can clearly perceive that energy ... that object is anomalous. It could be something from Adocentyn, or it could be a very powerful Noble Phantasm. Whatever it is, I advise you to be careful."
"Do you still need me, Master?" the Servant asked.
"No, α Assassin, you can go."
The Servant disappeared. Alda and Valfredo set off again.
 
Alda & Valfredo by BikoWolf