Chapter 1259: Beneath a Kinder Heaven

Ryuzen’s mouth curved.

"I’m serious. They’re happy tonight, wonderful." She pointed out. "But tomorrow some ancient bastard wakes up and decides Phei needs to die. The following day another family discovers a prophecy nobody asked for. Then a new realm untouched secrets opens somewhere in their family, someone gets kidnapped like that girl, some lunatic and powerful entity decides his bloodline belongs to them and suddenly half the family is sharpening swords again. They look happy until a bastard come to kill ’em all."

She shook her head with theatrical conviction. "No, thank you. I’ll keep my life the way it is."

Ryuzen nodded slowly.

Yuzuki saw it and she already hated every second of it.

"So you prefer your present life."

"Yes." but her brother just gave another wise nod. "Absolutely." she added.

"Mm-hm."

Her eyes narrowed. "Why are you doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"That old-master nod. You’re too young to look that annoyingly enlightened. You’re not."

Ryuzen ignored the insult with a calm composure, he had received many similar complaints throughout childhood. "I was only considering the small flaw in your argument."

Yuzuki turned toward him completely. "What flaw?"

"You don’t want their life because powerful enemies keep appearing..."

"Correct."

"...and whenever one of those powerful enemies appears..." Ryuzen stopped there but Yuzuki waited.

His eyes finally slid toward her.

"...who exactly do you think the family sends out first to face that enemy?"

She stared and for several wonderfully quiet seconds, Yuzuki did absolutely nothing.

Then somewhere behind them, one of the concealed Ryujin Tiamat guards snorted a laugh and another immediately transformed his laugh into an extremely suspicious cough.

Yuzuki slowly turned her head toward the forest, her gaze sharpening enough that half the trees suddenly looked guilty.

Ryuzen continued with magnificent innocence. "Think about it. The Young Master and Princess enjoy their beautiful little family moment, some terrifying ancient enemy eventually arrives, and before Young Master Phei personally enters the battlefield..."

His eyes returned meaningfully to his sister.

"...there you are; facing that enemy while he make sure the Princess is safe first."

More muffled laughter escaped from the darkness.

Yuzuki looked personally betrayed by the entire profession of guarding.

Ryuzen’s amusement deepened. "So while you’re rejecting their life because you don’t want to worry about the next enemy, you are apparently the cannon fodder that gets sent to greet the enemy first."

Yuzuki’s face became perfectly blank. "Asshole."

Ryuzen broke as his laughter rolled across their concealed pocket of air, and that was enough to destroy whatever discipline remained among the nearby guards. Several quiet laughs slipped from the trees, one man farther down the ridge coughing into his fist while another wisely turned his face away before Yuzuki’s eyes found him.

She began locating them anyway one by one.

"Very professional," she muttered.

"Extremely," Ryuzen agreed, still laughing.

"One day I’m going to watch something eat you."

"Mm-hm."

Yuzuki’s head snapped toward him. "Stop making that sound!"

That only made him laugh harder.

Eventually she abandoned the argument, folded her arms again and looked toward the lake while pretending none of this had affected her. Ryuzen settled beside her, hands returning behind his back as his laughter gradually softened into quiet amusement.

They remained there together.

Guarding.

Watching.

And in Yuzuki’s case, very firmly refusing to admit that some hidden corner of her had spent the last several minutes wondering what it would feel like to possess something equally simple.

Farther away, another pair of eyes rested upon the estate.

Father Hayashi stood upon the crown of a distant hill, his presence restrained so completely that several members of the surrounding guard did not know he had been there since sunset. His hands rested behind his back while the lake stretched beneath him, moonlight trembling across the water and the wooden villa glowing softly among the trees.

He never intruded upon his children’s conversation but the faint smile at the corner of his mouth suggested distance had done very little to protect their privacy.

Eventually his gaze returned to the couple beneath the ancient tree.

The Young Master, Melissa and the small life growing between them, a child whose birth might one day alter far more than the lives of its parents.

Father Hayashi’s expression became quieter.

Whatever storms waited beyond tonight, they would arrive soon enough.

For now, he remained another silent wall surrounding the estate, he was still nowhere near the most distant watcher.

High above the lake, where thin night clouds wandered beneath the stars, Lucienne floated lazily with one leg bent beneath her and her dark hair streaming slowly through the wind.

The sound barrier surrounding Phei and Melissa meant absolutely nothing to her.

That was precisely why she chose not to listen.

The moment Lucienne understood what had happened beneath the tree, she deliberately withdrew that part of her perception and every word from the dock disappeared from her awareness before curiosity could dress itself as justification.

She could still see them.

Phei holding Melissa... Melissa’s hand covering his, his palm returning over and over to her stomach with an expression that made the entire secret painfully obvious to anyone who knew how to look.

That was enough.

Lucienne watched for several breaths before something faintly offended entered her expression.

"I’m becoming gentle." The night offered no defense.

Her gaze returned to Phei, and a strange mixture of accusation and fondness touched her eyes. "You are making me gentle, Little Dragon."

She sounded almost irritated with him for accomplishing it.

Her attention shifted where several hundred meters away, a Void-Djinn hovered within the night.

The creature believed itself hidden.

Lucienne found that rather cute.

Its robes made out of complete void drifted without wind, the outline beneath them flickering between substance and some vertical absence the eye refused to hold properly. Hollow geometry shifted above its head in the shape of a crown, while its attention remained fixed upon the dock beneath the ancient tree.

Watching, remembering and waiting to carry whatever it learned back to the one who had sent it... unfortunately for it, there was nothing to see or report; the world inside its perception had quietly became something else thanks to the Monster.

From the moment it had appeared, the dock has been empty.

Two abandoned glasses rested beside the blanket, water moved gently against the shore but in its perspective nothing interesting had occurred there all evening.

The Void-Djinn continued staring at that carefully arranged lie without ever realizing someone had reached into its perception and decided reality required editing.

Lucienne watched it for another moment.

"If I can discover boundaries even tonight no matter how curious I am about the little baby dragon," she murmured, "surely the rest of creation can manage the same effort."

A small smile touched her lips.

There were secrets powerful people buried because discovery would cost them something.

And there were moments people left alone because looking would cost them something of themselves.

Tonight, apparently even the Monster understood the difference.

Far below, Phei and Melissa remained oblivious to almost all of it.

They stayed beneath the stars until weariness finally softened their conversation and Melissa began leaning more heavily against him. Eventually Phei rose with her, fingers intertwined beneath the blanket, and the two disappeared into the warm wooden villa while moonlight continued pouring through the branches behind them.

Only after the lights inside gradually dimmed did the hidden guards begin settling into the quieter rhythm of an overnight watch.

Ryuzen stretched his neck and yawned.

Yuzuki immediately looked at him.

The smallest smile appeared on his face. "Now you can complain about being tired."

She glared at him before looking toward the villa one final time. Whatever softness returned to her eyes lasted only a moment before she turned away.

"Wake me if something happens."

Ryuzen nodded.

"Mm-hm."

Yuzuki slowly pointed one finger at him.

"I swear to God, Ryuzen."

His laughter followed her into the darkness while, beneath the kinder heaven above them, the villa finally grew quiet.

The moon remained.

The stars remained.

And scattered throughout the hills, so did the people who had quietly decided that tonight, nothing in this world was getting close to the little family sleeping inside.