Dragoste staring at Suzuka sighs, then with a smile, he says, "If you can say all of that with such conviction, either you are truly insane, or I am wrong. Boy, please tell me who you are, and how you know my father?"
"Right!" Orb says erratically, standing up.
Walking up close to Dragoste, Orb activates his legacy the freezes his arm, and says, "Captivant spent almost half of my life with me on Fimbulwinter."
Dragoste touches Orb's arm, and he says, "Your body temperature hasn't changed?"
Putting his fingers to his chin, he starts to think and says, "You may be telling the truth then."
Orb smiles then hugs Suzuka, giving her kisses against her head, and saying, "You're the best."
She shakes with happiness before pushing Orb away and says, "Stop slobbering all over me, you dog."
Dragoste rubs Orb's head and says, "I apologise."
"No need, it makes sense to be distrustful."
"No, if my father really does mean that much to you, it was an insult to spit on it. I hope you can forgive me for that."
Orb lowers his head, as his hair turns purple and says, "It's no issue."
"Good, now."
Gripping Orb's head with fury, Dragoste says, "You just destroyed a large part of the city, did you not?"
He picks up Orb's head and stares at him with a polite expression that holds back an unrelenting fury, and seeing it, Orb turns to Suzuka and says, "He looks just like Capti!" With a smile plastered across his face.
Turning with Orb, he says, "Let's get you and Gurmand back to the council so we can see what punishment to give both of you."
"Hey, don't take him," Suzuka says while running forward.
But as she prepares to grapple with Dragoste, she trips on her dress, and faceplants into the floor, and tears fill her eyes.
Dragoste quickly moves toward her, picks her up into his arms, then rubs her back, saying, "Don't cry, everything will be ok."
With glistening eyes, Orb says, "Those are the skills Dragoste learnt when he had to calm his crying sister."
"You're being creepy, stop."
Orb saluting says, "RIGHT!"
With an exasperated look, Dragoste says, "Maybe he is just a crazed fanboy."
Walking past Iancu, Dragoste stops and stares directly at his face, and then says, "Is your last name Bogdan?"
"Yeah?"
"You're Avram's son."
Struggling against the people who have him on the ground, Iancu says, "You know my pops?"
"Yeah, he used to make toys for me to play with when I was younger. Is his back?"
"Yeah, he returned from Elpída with all of us for Radonista."
Dragoste starts to sweat and says, "Did he head to the queen's castle!?"
Confused, Iancu says, "Yeah?"
"This is bad, he won't meet with who he thinks should be there."
Picking Iancu up, he says, "Everyone, we are heading to the Soarele blestemat; otherwise, an execution is going to take place."
-Break-
Location: The Queen's castle, Soarele blestemat.
Φ With my hands in chains, I shake and tremble, while holding Willow's hand, and mutter, "How did this even happen?"
Avram, with his hands in chains, says, "Don't worry, Maple, it isn't that bad."
"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"
Willow rubs my head and says, "Screaming isn't good. Besides, how can you expect Abbán to deal with this if you're like this?"
Turning to Abbán, I see his disproportionally large dragonfly head shirrled up, as all of the sweat has completely dehydrated all parts of his body, leaving him in a very chibi state.
Elia, not in chains, says, "The Nord dragonfly body is like rubber; Abbán can change his form under certain conditions."
Willow with a happy smile says, "It's the reason why Abbán's head is usually so overblown, despite it not making anatomical sense. I really wonder how his body can function if every part of it is also elastic. Wonderbeasts are really interesting."
I rub Willow's head and then ask, "How are you not in chains, Elia?"
With a proud smile, Elia says, "I remained the little nightmares of their place when they tried to touch me."
Avram says, "Translation: She verbally abused them till they lost the will to try and restrain her."
Using her hand to flutter her hair, Elia says, "What's with the compliments? Are you feeling flirty today, boss?"
"It wasn't a compliment, you pseudo devil."
"You mean angel?"
Avram starts to poke at her cheeks, and then Abbán says, "I have already failed, I have already failed. The beastkins' first meeting with the outside world, and I have already failed spectacularly."
"Don't worry, Abbán, things will only be going up from here."
With his tiny, cute chibi body, Abbán says, "HOW DO YOU FIGURE THAT!"
"I didn't think you were the sort of person to throw a temperature tantrum like this, Abbán."
"I wasn't! But since Dumnorix came back into my life, I can feel myself becoming less serious, as if exposure to him has an anti-intellectual effect on my entire body.
It's like his constant idiotic thinking that is sprinkled with certain moments of hyper intelligence is completely breaking me apart, and turning my head into mush. I am getting caught up in his stupidity!"
Willow moving up to Abbán puts his hands on her body, and with a look that one can only make with another they perfectly empathise with, he says, "I know, I know so much!"
Both of them hug, and I say, "Orb has done a real number on you."
"Looks like they calmed down. All good now."
Turning to Avram, I say, "ALL IS NOT GOOD! WHAT DID YOU DO!"
"Nothing serious...…By my standards."
"THAT'S NOT AN ANSWER!"
Suddenly, a few guards come towards us, and as they make eye contact with Elia, they reel back out of fear, and as she waves to them, they say with sweat gushing down their cursed faces, "It's time for your trial. Come into the queen's throne room!"
Fear runs through my body, and Abbán starts to freak out, but then, standing up, Avram says with a smile, "Don't worry, guys, everything will be fine."
"You better be telling the truth!"
From our room, the guards lead us through the palace until we reach two giant doors, and as they open, my sense of dread increases more and more.
As we enter the room, I see it is a throne room with one giant demonic throne at the very end of the room, with another three thrones in front of it. The giant one is purple, with the other three being blue, green, and white.
Soon, a loud sound fills the room, and Avram says, "They even brought out the buciums for us; it really is like they are going all out for us today."
"Stop being so relaxed about this!"
From behind me, I hear a voice that sounds like an amalgamation of screams say, "Don't bother trying to make this brat take anything seriously. It is impossible for him."
Willow, Abbán and I turn around, and behind us we see a tiny nightmare. His body is that of a young child, yet the way he carries himself and speaks is with the refinement one can only gain through age.
His body is a deep blue, and his face looks like a transfigured squid or kraken. The rest of his body resembles miscellaneous fish parts, with the part standing out the most being his legs, which are just a mass of tentacles.
"Prime minister of the cursed sea region, Veekeeris, you are just as small and cute as I remember you being."
Feathers drop from the sky onto the top of our heads like rainfall, and then moments later a feel a window blow, and a large presence touching each of us, and then hear, "The little brat still hasn't learned respect even after all these years, if you think your height allows you to look down on us then maybe I should remove the bones in your legs."
Turning again, I am greeted by a slim figure with four monster wings on its back, three small ones on one side, and one large one on the other side. Its skin is pure white, with red hard parts throughout its body in a similar way to Cyrus's scales. The face of the Nightmare reminds me of a bird without a beak, though the movement of all the feathers and fur against its face makes something resembling a beak.
Turning around, Avram says, "The prime minister of the cursed sky region, Vėja. You're as enchanting as the day I left, though I guess you're a super ultra mega hag now?"
From the entrance, a powerful voice says, "It seems that even after all these years, that youthful stupidity that makes kids like you think their invincible is still present. It takes a truly high level of idiocy to move to a different country, and somehow still remain so childish."
Turning around, I see a large nightmare whose body is at least 15 feet tall, and completely composed of black threes that have a glowing green light throughout them. The top of his body, specifically his shoulders, has a lot of mass, and as you follow his body down, this level of mass decreases significantly.
"The prime minister of the cursed sky region, Stiprais. It seems they have been watering you, though if you keep such a mean look on your face, no bird will make your body their home."
The three minister walk towards their thrones and sit down. Each of them wears a regal purple rope across their shoulders, which goes down to the bottom of their body, and across their left eyes, they all have a decoratively golden eyepiece that stretches across the left section of their face.
Stiprais says, "We, the Deocheal, the leader of the three regions of Blestemate, shall be carrying out their trial today."
A series of guards grab Avram and bring him to the centre of the room, and then, after Stiprais raises his arm, he shoots out a bit of wood over to Avram, and from the floor tree rises that forms a stand.
Vėja says, "The charges levied against Avram today are those of Kidnapping, Harassment, and evading trial."
"WHAT!" I shout.
"IT'S NOT THAT SERIOUS," he yells back.
Veekeeris says, "Now provide your statement."
"I plead guilty to all those acts."
Stiprais says, "So we can carry out your sentencing now."
"BUT!" Avram shouts with passion. "You know as well as I do I have already sent a series of gifts back through the powers of the Nightfall family, and have been exonerated by the queen who received them."
Vėja sighs and then says, "Avram Bogdan sent back to gifts during his time away. The first was a tool that allowed us to scan the insides of a human body using a tool known as X-rays. Their usage exposes the body to radiation, but the cursed nature of our bodies allows us to better fight against it. This technology allows us to have a better understanding of our bodies, and develop greater medical treatment for the nightmares with unique constitutions."
Veekeeris says, "The second gift sent back was an experimental compound known as ammonia nitrate. Due to the shocks to our food supply due to the Nightfall farm falling victim to Gevurah more and more in the last century, our main food supplies were gone for Blestemate, and the ammonia nitrate allowed us to increase our farming production by leaps and bounds within our country."
Happy, I say, "It looks like Avram's helped Blestemate a lot."
With a proud look, Avram says, "And since the queen wholeheartedly accepted those gifts, something she legally can't do without also accepting me, I should be forgiven, right?"
All three of the ministers say, "NO!"
"Huh?"
With angered expressions, they all say, "Do you really think we would forgive you, Avram?"
Avram looks slightly worried, and then shouts, "LEGENDARY HAG! COME STOP THIS CORRUPTION!"
But nothing happens, and Stiprais says, "The queen is currently not in a position where she can come here, so we have full control over this trail."
"Ehh?" Avram says with a shocked face.
Soon, sweat starts to trickle down his face, and I run up to him, saying, "You do have a way out of this."
He rubs my head and says, "Of course not. We're fucked."
Grabbing my hair, I shout, "NOOOOOOO!"