"Hello? Anybody home? Hello?"
The man kept tapping Lorelei. She did her best to ignore it, hoping they would drop her off, but finally gave in and opened her eyes.
"Mind your manners," said the other guy, dressed in a suit, sitting beside the man who had tapped her.
"Don't sweat it, I barely touched her."
The man turned toward her after glaring at his companion, who was cleaning the top of a long black tube with a handkerchief, many parts scattered around him that Lorelei couldn't recognize. Golden tubes clattered on the ground when the man set one of the parts he'd grabbed from the couch upside down. They were both wearing black suits, white fabric from their sleeves hanging off their arms—except the man who called himself Brant. Lorelei noticed his sleeves were torn, showing off his imposing stature even more. He sat there looking at her with a big smile smeared across his face; the other one, in contrast, was barely expressive and kept cleaning his parts, paying them no mind at all.
"As I was saying, my name's Brant. What's yours, kid?"
"I'm—" Lorelei heard a soft whisper in her ear.
"Don't tell them."
"Hm? Cat got your tongue? I won't eat you, little one. Speak freely," he said, laughing out loud.
"I'm Reili."
"Reili what?"
Lorelei was confused; she didn't understand what Brant was asking, and he saw it in her expression.
"Your family name. Don't ya have one?"
Lorelei shook her head. She had never had what she could call a family, so how could anyone give her a family name? The only gift she got from her mother was her name. Lorelei.
"Hmm…," Brant seemed to be in deep thought.
"Well, I guess there are people like you. Where were you going?"
"I dOn't kNow."
"Wha'd you mean? So ya telling me you were wandering around here without a place to go?"
Lorelei nodded. Brant took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. He leaned closer to her, close enough that she caught the faint scent of sweat on his suit.
"Listen here, Reili," he said, his voice low but not unkind. His eyes held hers, gauging her every move. "You can tag along with us until ya find somewhere to stay. How about that?"
It was an offer Lorelei knew she had to accept. If she were to walk across that forest, she knew she would surely meet creatures like the one she saw. That was rather the least of her problems; she didn't know if those two had any ulterior motives toward her. The thought of taking off her glove and rushing at them wasn't even part of her options; she knew how strong they were. Not just anyone could have blasted a clean hole through that thing. By the time she took off her glove and dove forward, her body would already have been blasted away. She was trapped, and her only option to survive was to follow them.
"That wasn't part of what we agreed on, Brant." The man who was cleaning the tube finally looked directly at Lorelei. She hadn't noticed because he'd been turned toward the window, but the third of his face harbored a burn scar lengthening from his eye to the top of his neck.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Quit nagging me, will ya?" Brant crossed his legs and turned his gaze toward the window. "Samuel, you don't actually expect me to leave a kid wandering in the Lymph, do you?"
"…"
"Do as you wish, but I'm not covering for you this time." Samuel returned to his previous activity, but this time he was assembling the pieces as he cleaned.
"Yeah, yeah, got it."
Brant seemed a bit happier than he was, a big smile once more tracing his lips.
"Well, now that's settled." He got off his seat and walked toward Lorelei.
"What a wound you've got there. Something happened to your eye?" He reached out his hand toward Lorelei's covered eye.
"No!"
Lorelei violently smacked away his hand and pushed herself back against the door. Brant stayed where he was, calmly rubbing the hand Lorelei had smacked.
"You have my sincerest apologies; I should have known better and asked you." Brant bowed his head toward Lorelei, both hands gripping the seat.
"I'm soRry."
"No need to apologize. I am the one in the wrong, I—"
"Enough talking. We're arriving shortly."
Samuel had finished assembling the pieces, packing them in a black case he placed on his lap. Brant went back to his seat and sat down. They remained quiet the whole way until the door Lorelei leaned against suddenly opened, making her fall out. The two men rushed over to see if she was fine, and seeing her pat her head with her hand made them laugh. Samuel leaned down toward her.
"Need a hand?"
Lorelei stared blankly at him, then accepted his offer, grabbing his hand with her right hand, covered by the glove.
"Welcome to Vinyl, city of everlasting day."
Samuel moved away from Lorelei, revealing before her the empty night lit up by the city lights. It was nighttime, but to Lorelei it did not feel like it at all. The city was just too bright for what she was used to. Every light she saw felt like little sparkles illuminating her eyes. The further Lorelei looked, the higher up the sparkles felt until they disappeared into the horizon.
"Brant, take her with you. I need to sort out some things of my own."
"Alright, take care."
Samuel walked away down one of the streets and disappeared into the blinding lights.
"Guess it's only us two now. Let's go back in. I think the Duchess won't mind you being with us for the time being, Reili."
Brant walked toward the weird-looking carriage, and the door opened without him even touching it.
"What is THat?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"The tHing we were in. What is it?"
"Oh. It's called a car. Not many around here, huh?"
"A car?"
"Yeah, get in. I will explain it to you; I guess it's rare to see one."
Lorelei walked into the car and sat down next to her bag. Brant followed her in and sat in front of her. He flipped a switch, replaced a crystal with another glowing one, flipped the switch again; the door closed, and the car started moving once more.
"These pieces of junk are mostly reserved for high nobles or those who accomplished something recognized by the kingdom; the same thing goes for this stupid weapon Samuel has; they are called firearms. In this case, the car belongs to the lady we both serve, Duchess Iria. They are hard to get, but if you have money, power, and influence, you could get your hands on one of them."
Brant didn't seem too happy talking about the cars and weapons; he kept an obviously displeased look, arms crossed.
"These things cannot serve a single purpose without energy stones. Highly concentrated ones, at that."
His tone seemed a bit harsher to Lorelei when he said they needed those energy stones. Lorelei immediately made the link between the energy stone she had bought with Maria and the one Brant placed in the car. She was curious; she wanted to ask more about them but refrained, since Brant clearly didn't seem pleased to dwell on the subject any longer. Noticing Lorelei had gone quiet again, Brant tried cheering her up.
"Tell me, Reili, what do you think sea monsters eat?"
Lorelei gave him a confused look.
"Fish and ships."
Brant started laughing out loud, smacking the seat with his right hand and holding his belly with the other. Lorelei just watched him, confused. When he realized she didn't even understand the joke, he knew he had made a fool of himself in front of the little girl.
"My apologies, pay me no mind."
He stayed down, looking like a lone puppy for the rest of the ride. Finally, the door opened again, and Brant got off first. He turned around and offered his hand to Lorelei.
"Shall I help you down, m'lady."
Lorelei grabbed her bag, accepted his offer, and reached her hand out to his. Before she even got out of the car, a sweet fragrance filled her nostrils. She could almost taste how sweet the smell was. She stepped down from the car and was met by a garden of flowers towering above her in a continuous arc.
"Our lady loves flowers, as you can see, but she doesn't have much time to take care of them, so we do it for her."
Brant started walking toward the big white double doors while Lorelei stayed back, observing every flower she could. Every flower was different from the previous one, whether in the shape of the petals or the roots. She couldn't seem to tell any of the flowers apart from the whole.
"Come on, Reili, let's go."
It was Brant, speaking from the door. He was already holding one handle and waiting for her. Naturally, Lorelei stopped looking at the flowers and ran toward him. Even the white tiles on the ground seemed perfectly brought together in harmony. Brant held the door for Lorelei and let her walk in first.
"I present to you the mansion of our lady, Duchess Iria."
Lorelei was blown away by the number of chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The ones around the roof were smaller, but the middle one almost hung as low as the top of the dual staircase. The mansion had, from what Lorelei could count, almost three floors. Brant walked past Lorelei to the spiral staircase.
"Come on in. I'm going to show you the Duchess—well, I hope she's here."
Lorelei followed Brant across the huge mansion, passing through numerous spacious hallways. To Lorelei, it almost seemed like someone had purposely built this place like a maze. Brant stood in front of an even bigger door and pushed it open. When he entered, Lorelei followed right after him. She saw a brown-haired lady almost melting onto her desk, towers of paper surrounding her. When she heard the door close, she immediately straightened up at her desk, arranged her glasses, and grabbed the pen next to her. She took on a proper posture and started writing on the paper. Brant placed a fist over his mouth.
"Ahem."
The lady slowly raised her head to look at them and let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh, it's just you, Brant."
She softened her posture and dropped dead onto the desk again. Brant bowed to her, one arm crossed over his chest and the other behind his back.
"So how was it? Did you learn anything new about the pillar?"
"Not much. It's still the same as before, same symptoms from getting too close to it."
The lady at the table sighed again.
"What about Sam? Is he not with you?"
"Ya know him, always going on about his business."
"I see. Who's this cute little one you've brought to me?"
The Duchess raised herself and sat properly in her chair. She finally gave Lorelei a proper look. It was at that moment that Lorelei noticed how beautiful the lady was. It was as if that piercing glare of hers was hypnotizing her.
"Oh..."
Brant walked toward Lorelei and shuffled his hand through her hair.
"Her name is Reili. We saved her on the way back from the Lymph."
"The Lymph? What were you doing in the Lymph, Reili?"
"I wAs…"
Even she herself didn't know where she was going. Walking aimlessly, trying to find a place to stay the night.
"Never mind that. You must be tired, aren't you? Brant, show her the way to the middle-floor room, the one with the biggest bath. I might be out for a couple of days, but I'll be here tomorrow morning. If Sam isn't back before then, tell him to write a detailed report of your expedition."
"Of course. I'll tell him."
Brant turned toward Lorelei with a big smile on his face. That smile had become almost natural for Lorelei to see. He raised his hand off her messy hair.
"Follow me. I'll show ya the room."
Lorelei took one more glance at the lady, who smiled at her. Lorelei didn't understand why, but something about her smile seemed familiar—almost as if she had already seen it before, almost as if she had always been with her. She didn't think much of it and turned away to follow Brant, the door slowly closing behind them as they walked toward the hallway.