Usually, in the bar named 'The Dreamers', the bartender also known as Ayano never talked to anyone other than a select few.
And for whatever reason it may be, she had quite the interest in this blind hobo.
It was dark outside. The only people outside of their homes at this time were either here in this bar, or fishing.
"Had fun?" She slid the man his drink and leaned on the table with a smile on her face. Her chin rested on her hands.
"John is still the funniest guy ever." The blind man took a long sip. "Even funnier than Della?" She raised an eyebrow. "I said 'guy', Ayano." He cackled.
She let out a quiet chuckle in return. "Happy birthday, Nasaki."
"Huh?" He stopped before taking another sip, surprised. "It's my birthday? Damn. How old am I?"
"35." She decided to pour a drink for herself as well. "Wasn't I 42?" He found it hard to believe he was still in his thirties. "You are 35, Nasaki. The year you were born is quite hard to forget." She rolled her eyes.
"Oh, don't even get me started." He sighed. "You remember that-"
Right as he was about to say something, the room was filled with an overwhelming presence. It wasn't malicious or benevolent. Just… heavy. Everyone felt like they were suffocating, with the exception being Nasaki and Ayano.
She felt her knees weaken, but she held on. "Should I-"
Nasaki, however, just felt like his throat was irritated, so he coughed. "It's fine." He waved his hands in dismissal.
The source of this pressure, a hooded man, sat down. He wore regular, ordinary sportswear. He had leather gloves, and the hood fully hid his face; only a single strand of his wavy black hair was shown.
"Oh, I was just about to talk about you!" Nasaki grinned, almost in a challenging way. "I'm not really in the mood if you came here for a fight, though."
"No." The figure spoke. "It'd be like a glass of cup pouring in the wrong street."
"What… what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Nasaki raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Seriously, though, what kind of an analogy is that?"
"I'm not here for a fight, Nasaki." He looked at him. "The last time I fought you was my awakening; right now, it'd be my demise." He then returned his gaze back to the table.
"Oh." The memories came flooding down, making Nasaki smirk. "Was that like… 9 years ago? What did you guys call it? Oh right, 'End of the Blind God' or some corny shit like that? Good times. I had fun that day."
"I've been meaning to ask you about that day. Are you still angry at me for it?" the man asked.
"I was never angry at you, kid. I know why you made the choice you did that day, and I know what… eventually happened to you because of it." He was about to pat him on the back, but pulled his hand back, then sighed. "What are you here for, 'Shotgun'? Stupid nickname, by the way."
"I didn't come up with it." He stood up and looked Nasaki dead in the eye through the blindfold, aware that he wouldn't see the gesture anyway. "I need your help to stop the government from fulfilling the prophecy."
The request left him stunned, to say the least.
Then, a quiet laugh escaped his lips. Only for it to disappear a second later as it turned into a look filled with anger and pure animosity.
"Fuck off, asshole." Nasaki stood up and headed for the exit. "Go fuck yourself." He then flipped Shotgun off right before he left.
Shotgun looked at the door and let out a groan. He sat down. "I'll take two."
"You got it." Ayano went to grab his drink.
It's been 3 days since Pablo entered the castle. Each night without break, he sees the exact same nightmare accompanied by the same exact fear, pain, and paralysis.
But during this time, he did notice something off. A door, far away from every other. A sign was on it, bearing the words that struck his soul the first time he saw it.
'Project Prometheus'
Ever since that day, he has been planning to enter it without anyone noticing. One night, when he finally decided to take action, he realised the door was locked.
His only hope was reaching out to Caitlyn.
Each morning at breakfast and each evening at dinner, she sat next to him, presumably breaking the routine she kept for years.
"Hey." However, he finally found the perfect moment and called out to her in the hallway, just the two of them. "What?" She turned around, then a vein popped in her forehead. The image she had at the breakfast table was shattered.
Pablo gulped. "I wanted to ask you-"
She interrupted and swept his feet off the floor, then grabbed him by the collar. "I don't care what my family or the government thinks of you. If you expect me to clean and wipe your ass with a smile, then you're wrong. I'm not like them."
"Calm down!" He raised his hands in surrender. "I'm…" He lowered his voice, so that only she could hear him. "...I'm not with the government."
"Huh?" Her grip on his collar lost its tension just slightly. "What?" she blurted out in confusion.
"I'm with–" He lowered his voice even more. "I'm with St. James."
"I can't hear you, speak up!" However, his voice was so quiet even she couldn't hear it. "I'm… ugh." He sighed in frustration, then just pointed at his hair aggressively. "You're with Paula? 'St. James has your back' Paula?" She let him go, causing him to fall on his back. "Quiet! Yes." He groaned in pain, then got up.
"Why didn't you say so when you first met me?!" She took a step forward, causing Pablo to flinch. "Paula told me not to."
"Oh, good." Then she raised her hands to hit him. "Then why didn't you listen to her?!"
"You're confusing me!" He hid behind his hands and flinched away once more. "We shouldn't talk about that here. Isn't there somewhere more private?"
She placed her hand on her chin and looked up, thinking of where they could talk without worrying about getting exposed. "We can go into my room. As long as Don isn't here, no one spies on me anyway. I'll lock the room afterwards."
"Wouldn't it be… a bit worrying if they saw me entering your room, locked in?" He looked away to hide his embarrassment. "Would you prefer being caught potentially sleeping with the princess, or getting caught for being a terrorist infiltrating inside one of the biggest families?"
"Fucking… neither?" His voice shook in confusion. "Not like you have a choice." She grabbed him by the hand and led him into her room.
Compared to his, her room was lackluster. First of all, it lacked any gold. And in size, it was much smaller in comparison. It was just her bed, her wardrobe, her desk, a meditation mat, and a little boulder right next to it. "I'll never escape that, will I?" he muttered and cursed under his breath.
"Can I?" He gestured towards the bed. "Sure," said Caitlyn.
He sat at the corner of the bed. She sat next to him after closing the windows. "Why are you here?" She looked at him. "Why would Paula take a giant risk like that?"
"It's uh… complicated. You'll find it hard to believe but-" He took a deep breath. "I have mana."
Her eyes widened in surprise. A Dawnthinker? With mana? If she hadn't already heard all about Nasaki, she would never believe that. "You're for real?"
"Yes. I'm infected by it. My Aura… link, I think that's what it was called. A shitload of mana is all over it and it's killing me. I wanted to… find a cure for it."
"Can you do anything with it?" Her expression softened, mixed with a form of guilt and compassion.
"Yeah. At first, I couldn't. But after uh… a lot of events, I managed to kind of learn how to use it and even awaken my Sorcery."
"Do you have Magiblood?" she asked.
Pablo didn't answer that at first.
She realised why and chuckled mockingly, directed at herself. "I know that sounds worrying because a Caedis said it."
"It kind of did." He managed to smile despite that. "As far as I know, no. Still fully Regublood." He rolled his eyes.
"Regublood?" She cackled. "That's clever."
"Yeah like– from Regular? Regular blood?" He chuckled as well; her smile dropped. "Yeah, genius, I got the joke. That's why I laughed."
"Right, sorry." He looked away in embarrassment and felt very stupid.
"That's a bit selfish, though, don't you think? You're risking what Paula and her father built for decades just to save yourself." She looked outside the window, the giant castle overseeing the island like a watchtower. She looked at the general area of St. James.
"It's more than that. I'm also here to find proof of what your family is doing to uh… to take them down." Being the idiot that he was, he only realised how weird that sounded mid-sentence.
"You're cool with that, right?" He scratched the back of his neck.
"Hell yeah, I'm down. You think I'm just a girl playing Sanita?" The mention of that name made him choke on his own spit and cough. "W-Who's Sanita?" He kept clearing his throat.
"My hero. He is everything I want to be. He doesn't watch from the sidelines unlike everyone else." Even talking about him made her smile; she looked at the ceiling as she talked about him. "I'd like to team up with him one day."
He cleared his throat once more. "Sounds like a great guy. G-Good luck with that."
"Oh, speaking of Sanit- I mean uh, I just remembered. I saw a secret hidden door, locked away. A sign on it said 'Project Prometheus'. You think you can help me with that?" Even though they were alone, he decided to whisper it anyway.
"I think I can. But why? Does that mean something?"
"Just trust me with this. We need to enter that room." His guilt and shame were clear, yet his conviction was hard as a rock. Hard as a boulder, perhaps.
"I'll see what I can do. But if Don comes back from the expedition before we can do anything, then I have never ever met you. You got it?" Her voice matched his resolve.
"You got it, Caitlyn." He raised his hands for a fistbump, ready for the alliance.
"Call me Catharina, creep." She slapped his hand away. "You got it, Catharina." He played it off by hiding his hands in his pockets.