The cold air touched her skin as she walked out into the summer night without a coat. Sounds of crickets and howling wind drowned out her thoughts as she began to wander. The bag in her hand did not weigh more than ten kilograms. A carriage stood waiting for her. Rei climbed onto it without saying anything to the conductor.
She set her bag aside and gazed at the starry skies that shone down upon Nautilus. After an hour she sat alone on a bench. Her bag rested on her lap as she watched the ships dock. It reignited a feeling she felt during childhood, how excited she would be seeing ships. Even now that she had become an adult she still couldn't abandon her childish habits. She opened her bag and took out the pouch containing roughly 25000 livis, it would last roughly a year if she spent it moderately. She put back the pouch and continued watching the ships dock and set sail. The sound of the waves soothed her mind and the smell that she had forgotten permeated the cold air. A stranger sat down beside her, she didn't even bother to look up and see their face. The both of them sat there for a good minute before the stranger stood up to leave.
That's when the stranger caught a glimpse of Rei's face. That shine under the moon's light, the azure color of the sky, that stoic and cold expression, that posture of a knight.
"You are one of the knights of Fivindus am I right?" a woman's voice called out to Rei.
Rei finally lifted her gaze from the waters and saw the stranger that had been sitting next to her this entire time.
"No, I'm not," she responded, coldly as ever.
Zyo shrugged her shoulders and stared at Rei.
There was a moment of silence that was filled with the sound of water crashing against the cement walls.
"Since when did the Fivindus family come out here to Nautilus."
Rei stayed quiet at Zyo's attempt at probing.
Realizing that Rei wouldn't respond no matter what she said, Zyo left. As the clock struck two at night Rei finally decided to search for a place to sleep. The hotels were closed and locked but there had to be one with nighttime reception, she thought and continued to search. She finally found one that was open 24 hours a day. When she entered, the receptionist, a young girl, went from excited and energetic to be receiving a customer to a look full of disdain and contempt once she saw the color of Rei's hair.
Rei walked up to reception and asked for a room. The young girl with eyes full of hatred took a step back and said that all the rooms were occupied. But as Rei was about to leave another customer came in and was handed a key.
Continuing her search for a place to stay she came across a brothel. And even before she could enter the old receptionist ran to flip the open sign and shut the blinds.
Rei herself hadn't personally been out to the city of Nautilus for leisure. She had only been here for business and hadn't had normal contact with the people living here. She never once asked how the people here felt nor did she have an ounce of care about what happened in their lives. She never realized that here in Nautilus she was even less than a harlot. Name and titles are what determine what level of respect you receive and as of right now, she had none.
She then ran into that same stranger earlier at the docks in an alleyway talking with two men. Zyo turned around and saw Rei standing looking at them. Even though she had abandoned her name and title a righteous heart does not waver. But at that moment a thought stopped her. What was she even trying to protect with her righteous heart, what was it that she dedicated her sword to. To the people of Nautilus? To the Fivindus family? For people generally? People that she had never met before?
Her hand was on the handle of her sword but she didn't draw it.
Zyo told the men to go ahead without her and she stared down Rei.
"Well, if it isn't the Fivindus family trying to impose their power."
From her hand grew the blood scythe EA. Zyo spun her crimson scythe around gauging the area she had to work with.
Rei's eyes reacted to the sight of the scythe.
"You have consumed too many lives with that weapon."
"Look at who is speaking," Zyo said sarcastically while pointing her scythe at Rei.
"How many lives have your family claimed? How do you even dare showing your face here in the city you oppress? Don't you know how much your presence here is despised?"
What she said was true, she and her family had claimed the lives of many. Nautilian blood was smeared all over her hands without her even caring. All this time, this blood was justified.
"It was merely my job. I protected people. I wanted people to stay safe."
"Safe? Have you ever had days where you wondered if you would eat anything? Have you had a day not worrying about being killed by your own family to preserve food for the strongest? Have you ever had a day without the royal capital taxing your entire salary? No you wouldn't know, because you people are nothing more than slaves to those royals."
Rei's mind slowly started to collapse under the weight of her own thoughts. Why was she so hated? She was just trying to help people, with her strength. Why did no one appreciate what the Fivindus family had done?
"You royal lapdogs killed my family, and not only just my family, but hundreds of other families were torn apart due to your family. My sister, no older than 6, I watched her get beheaded by the Fivindus family. Her crime? Being my father's daughter. A revolutionary who believed that Nautilus should incorporate the underground into their city."
Rei finally realized something, her family weren't just the bankers and chivalrous knights. They were brutal executioners following orders from the royal capital. She understood that what she had been trying to protect held her in contempt. Should she even continue with being righteous?
Zyo rushed towards Rei and tried crushing her with the weight of the scythe. Rei blocked the blade with her sword, holding both of her arms against her sword trying to not get crushed.
"I want to make Nautilus into the People's country and your family stands against my ideals."
Rei parried the attack and Zyo landed the handle of her scythe after spinning in the air.
Zyo grabbed the scythe with her hand behind her back and started to run towards Rei. She became a moving blade and Rei tried her best to block all of the unpredictable movements Zyo threw at her. But every so often an attack went through and slashed her body.
"Come on, Fivindus, release your Aeonic abilities already or else you are gonna die."
Zyo hooked Rei's shoulder with the tip of her blade and raised her body up into the air using only her body strength.
Rei grabbed onto Zyo's crimson edge with her hand so hard that it started to bleed.
Blue conservation loxes started to accumulate inside of Rei's body as she bled more and more.
She then snapped the tip off of the scythe with it still embedded into her shoulder. She held up her sword in the way she had been taught. She stood proud as a knight and readied for an attack.
"Now that's more like it," said Zyo while regenerating her scythe.