Suikoden Fan Fiction ❯ Love's Just a Form of Insanity ❯ Chapter 14 ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter 14

Koruko backed up even further, whimpering at the angry smile glowering down at him. There were only a few people who seemed to actively dislike the dog. Nash, because he just wasn’t a dog person and Mike, because the gambler knew that the dog could sense the man’s true nature.

“They say dog is man’s best friend, yet I have yet to see anything agreeable about such mongrels myself.” The man sneered at him, adjusting his glasses slightly. Koruko backed away, seriously thinking of growling, or he would have if anyone was near by. He knew he was going to be kicked, he could tell, because of the way Mike was walking towards him and the way those black boots shined, a violent kick just had to be coming.

Instead though, Mike tripped and fell face down, flat. “Ulp! I’m sorry! Let me help you up!” Said the man who had bumped into him, a young, tall scrawny human. He pulled up Mike who was now all smiles or pretending to be.

“Oh no, I’m sure you did mean to…” The gambler trailed off as he began to look at the young man more closely. “Do I know you?”

“Well, I, Roan du Lac, am pretty famous.” The boy grinned ear from ear. “But no, you probably haven’t. I certainly don’t know you.”

“Hmmm, I guess you just have that sort of face.” Koruko made sure to run so that he was near Roan, who bent down absentmindedly to scratch the dog’s ears.

“I’ve been told that a lot. Well, once again I’m very sorry. See ya.” Roan waved at him before walking off and Koruko made sure he followed the boy, looking back at Mike now and again, until they were out of sight. The gambler wasn’t following fortunately, but he had a strange look on his face.

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Landis had decided that his search was fruitless and had gone to pester Ayame again. What could be better use of his time after all? Though, when he found her, deeper in the dungeons than she usally ventured, she seemed a little, odd. Something about her air was unusually tense.

“What’s wrong my pet?” She glared at him, or what was probably supposed to be a glare than turned away from him. The fact that she wasn’t throwing a knife at him, was a little disturbing to say the least. It made him feel concerned. “Under the weather today, dearest?”

“I am not your ‘pet’ or your ‘dearest.” She muttered now bending down and shifting through the loose pebbles on the ground as if to look for something. Landis was about to move closer so that he could see, except she turned around and held a sai out towards him, causing him to stop.

“Trying to find something. If you’re looking for gold, there’s none here.” Well, she probably wasn’t looking for gold, but you never knew. Landis would have been looking for gold or dead bugs if he was her. And since he doubted Ayame would be looking for bugs, it had to be gold.

She gave him a hard look and returned back to digging though the ground. Landis chose to stay still least his windpipe end up with a new hole. After awhile, Ayame fished a small box out of the ground. She opened it and pulled out a vial. It was made of dark, smokey blue glass. What looked like sand swished around inside of it.

“Whatcha got there?”

“Gold.” Landis was taken aback and started to scratch the back of his neck. He hadn’t expected to be right. “It’s not that kind of gold.”

“Well, what other kind of gold is there?”

She ignored him and walked past him. Landis rolled his eyes and went after her.

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Watari was feeling better than he had been, for the moment. He wasn’t going to go insane anytime soon at least. He felt like he could actually focus on his duties instead of obsessing over his foolish emotions. At least he would once Roan was gone from the castle.

What was the former resistance member doing back here? And why had he been so friendly? He must have heard the news about what Watari had done. Everyone related to the organization had to know, right?

“Watari!” The ninja glanced behind him in the direction his name was called, to see Percival standing behind him, smiling. With the exception of Chris, none of the Zexen Knights talked to him and in her case, it was usually for the sake of missions. “Can I have a word with you? It’s about the new comer to the castle here.”

Watari’s first impulse was to just walk away, but instead he nodded. “Alright, go ahead.”

“He seemed to know who you were, but didn’t want me to know that for some reason.” Watari nodded as Percival continued to speak. “He’s from a wealthy merchant family and is engaged to our Lily Pendragon. How would you know such a person?”

At that moment though, Watari felt an involuntary urge to snicker. Lily and Roan? Roan and Lily? Well, that explained the dancing lessons. It was hard to keep his face straight at that moment and he was thankful for the fact that all ninjas of the black wind group were required to wear masks.

“Watari, are you okay?”

The ninja took a silent breath and composed himself. “Yes. Go on.”

“Well, I was just a bit concerned that you might be in some trouble.”

“Why would you be concerned?”

“Because we’re members of the same group, of course I’d be concerned.”

“If you say so.” Even though it was a bad thing for a ninja to be receiving so much attention, Watari supposed he should feel touched. “It’s not a big deal. Roan’s harmless for the most part.”

“If you say so. Still, if you need help, all you have to do is report it.”

“It’s my problem. If anyone is going to handle it, it’ll be me.”

“Fine then. I didn’t mean to interfere in a personal matter.” Watari shrugged and decided to be on his way. “Oh and Watari?” The ninja glanced back at him. “Good luck with Maximillion.” The ninja stared at him, stupefied, wondering how he knew. Then again, since Fred had practically stalked him for much of the day, it would have been a wonder if there was anyone left who didn’t know. He decided to just hurry off and try to ignore the fact that he had just been egged on in a romantic matter as if he was on of Percival’s fellow Zexen knights.

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Fred had gone outside to clear his head. In all his years, he had never been in such a complicated situation. He had never conceived of anything like this being a problem. It was as his grandfather had said to him once: “Fred, you don’t think enough. Or what I mean is, you don’t contemplate anything. You never ask questions about your direction in life or what it all means. Which isn’t a bad thing in some ways, keeps your head clear. But, it’s not always a good thing, because when those questions do come up, they’re going to take you quite off guard.”

He hadn’t really understood what his grandfather had had meant back then, but had kept it in mind as a valuable piece of wisdom. And he was glad, because it was now making sense, not that he was in such a situation. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to wonder about things other than the knighthood, at least a little. After all, a man must be more than his occupation, otherwise he is incomplete.”

He smiled to himself proudly for a second, then his shoulders slumped defeatedly as he realized that it didn’t help him sort out his thoughts. “I know how he feels, but how do I really feel? I mean, if it was nothing, I wouldn’t be troubled over this. I could confidently say no and that would be that.” He raked his hands through his hair, nervously. “Well, obviously, I’m just overwrought over this, because it’s the first time a man has said such a thing to me.” Yet, he didn’t feel confidant as he said that.

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Lily had decided at that moment to look for her errant fiancée. Not that she wanted to, but she didn’t want him to do something stupid while left to his own devices. It would make her and Tinto look foolish if he got into any trouble. She may have been an unwilling participant in this engagement, but if it was going to happen, it was going to be according to her rules.

Perhaps it was because of how dedicated she was to her current goal, but Lily hadn’t really been paying attention to who else was walking through the castle corridors. So when something caught her leg and caused her to trip, she was quiet surprised and it took her a while to realize that someone was chuckling. She looked up and glared, then looked disgusted as she realized it was Landis. The handle of his scythe was sticking out in an angle that indicated that he had been the one to trip her.

“You disgusting beast! How dare you!” She yelled as she got up, dusting off her trousers.

“Perhaps the little redhead should watch where she is going? Eh?” Lily glared than say that Ayame was further down the hallway walking onwards. It didn’t take a psychic to know that the female ninja was Landis’s true target.

“Shouldn’t you catch up to Ayame? I doubt she’d like you flirting with other girls.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, girlie. I am not flirting with you.”

“Funny, because I heard somewhere that when a child or immature person bullies someone, it is a way of getting that person’s attention.” Her father had pulled that line on her enough when it came to Roan, that Lily could recite it by heart, even if she didn’t believe it.

“Whatever. Go after your ninja woman instead of bothering me.” By now Ayame had disappeared through one of the door ways and so when Landis turned his head she was gone. “Ayame! Where has she gone.” And with that the winger was off, desperate looking. “Weirdo.” She muttered to herself before she set out on her merry way.

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To Be Continued…