War Changes Everything [Reboot] Past Thread

Hector was happy to hear that. "Of course. These things take time so its best not to rush them, I'll make sure Lenneth has the free time to visit when I can't attend with her but we'll have to do this again one day, I enjoyed our time together with us three."

Reifer shook his head. "I apologize, I was probably reading too much into things but you just seemed a bit more subdued then normal." He couldn't blame her, there might be a variety of things going on in her mind and she had the right to keep to them. He himself had a few things..or a lot in this paticular case.

Yuki blinked, her cheeks reddening just a bit. She wasn't really sure why... "Ah, of course. As did I."

Iliara shook her head a bit. "No... I've pretty much reconciled things. It's nothing new, anyway. I don't know how this issue with my sister and uncle will end, honestly..."

Lenneth was confused why Yuki's cheeks had turned red but she didn't say anything about it for one reason or another. But she did have a question floating around her head, that probably would distract Yuki from her thoughts.

"Yuki? Did you become a princess or were you born one?"

Reifer wished he had an easy answer to that but he didn't, just like he didn't for his mother. Something he and Iliara had in common were hard problems they had a clear cut path too. Of course now he had at least had some hope for something.

"I won't tell you not to worry, especially given my situation. It helps for me not to think about certain things too much, but if you ever need to talk I'll lend a ear. I try to treat those that work with me like family." He wasn't too hungry at the moment. "When you're ready to leave, let me know."

Yuki blinked a bit. "Well, I was born one. My father was already Lord of Asai-Asakura when I was born, thus making me a princess. Though if my father had become the lands ruler after my birth, I would have become a princess. In the same vein, Lord Reifer was a prince, back when his mother reigned. And if Hector were to take lordship of a territory, that would make you a princess as well."

Iliara paused, then nodded. "Thank you, Lord Reifer. I appreciate that. I will be ready to leave as soon as breakfast is finished."

Lenneth had a thoughtful look on her face after Yuki finished before looking up her dad. "Why don't you become a lord? Then I would be a princess and you..king? I think. I don't know."

 This got a amused chuckle from Hector. "It's not as grand as it seems, a lot of hard work goes into it Lenneth. Working for Reifer is enough for me for now, and when I retire from that I'll probably settle for a quite life somewhere."

"It's time to go you two."

Hector glanced to his right over his shoulder but he didn't need to since he knew Reifer's voice more the enough. It was then Lenneth surprised him again by giving Yuki a good bye hug(partly, she was really too short for a proper one without Yuki crouching down which made it more funny)

"We'll, its been a pleasure. Me and Lenneth will visit when we can." Lenneth soon ran to her father afterwards so she could keep up. Hector did hope that Aryll woman showed up again, if she was geuine which she seemed to be maybe she would even help with Reifer's mother condition when they got back home.

Yuki blushed a bit after Lenneth hugged her like that, finding it utterly adorable, and unsure how to respond to the girl being so affectionate. She was even more startled when Iliara pulled her into a hug. "Be safe, Yuki. You were a pain sometimes, but I truly enjoyed my time with you." Yuki sniffed a bit, trying to cover up a sudden surge of emotion as she looked away indignantly, despite returning the hug.


"Hmph... as if I need you around, stalking me all the time.... p-please do visit though..." She whispered the last part, but they all heard it anyway.

And with that, the group left, flanked by a group of medics.

~~~~~

When they arrived back home a few days later, it was to discover that someone had apparently tried to attack the palace. The attack was apparently unsuccessful, as bodies were being picked up and disposed of, and repairs were being made to the grounds around the palace. Based on the signs, the attack hadn't even reached the gates. By the look of it, many were killed by kunai. Some were killed by various other obvious means, but some... some looked as if they had simply fallen over dead for some reason.

As they arrived, one of the guards ran over, bowing deeply to Reifer. "My lord! I apologize for the mess, we've been trying to clean up for the past couple of days. This attack the day after you left, it seems they were waiting for it."

Hector didn't want Lenneth to witness what was going on but he couldn't avoid it completely as much as he would have liked. The uglier parts of the world would of course reach her eventually, he just hadn't wanted them to meet her so soon.


 "It's fine, I'm more concerned with what happened." Reifer had a mixture of emotions, he knew some of the men and women personally but as a leader he couldn't afford it right now. "Who attacked and how many?"

The guard scratched his cheek. "Um... based on the current numbers, about five thousand. A mix of mercenaries, shinobi from Iga, Ashikaga's soldiers, and a large force from Tokugawa house. The mercenaries and Ashikaga's soldiers were together, the shinobi came seperately, and the Tokugawa force, who made up most of the attackers, came around the same time. They all seemed confused by the others presence, so I think Tokugawa was attacking on their own...."

Hector excused himself with his daughter before too long which Reifer had no issue with, he didn't have children himself. In the mean time, he focused on the young man in front of him but what was said only gave him more questions. "Was anyone captured for questioning?" If not he was going have to investigate this deeper later.

"Keep me informed if anything comes up." He said to the young man, he intended to visit his mother anyway considering he brought the healers and such along. When he arrived at the door, he simply knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"Come in!" It was Sela's voice, sounding a bit distracted, but when Reifer would open the door, what he would see would be... interesting. Sela was sitting up in bed, her tongue sticking out a bit as she stared intently at the cards in her hand. Around her, using Sela's bed as a table, were a couple of people. To Sela's left was Suzume, playing with her cards and tossing them around, though miraculously keeping them from being shown to her opponents. Next to Suzume was a man in armor who appeared to be more interested in glancing at the breasts of his opponents, though he seemed to actually be doing well in the game.

To the armored man's left, near the foot of the bed, was a petite woman with pink hair, who was seemingly struggling to stay in the game. At the very foot of the bed was Aryll, though her manner of dress was much different than before. Namely, she was wearing some sort of revealing, skin-tight, shiny clothing... and for some reason that couldn't be fathomed, a top-hat, and an unlit cigar was in her mouth.

To Aryll's left was a rather short man with white hair, sitting on a chair made of ice. To his left was a taller man with gray hair and a seemingly permanent scowl. Finally, Eon was next to him, across from Suzume. After a moment, Sela finally looked up at Reifer, and Iliara who stood slightly behind him looking incredibly confused.

"Welcome back, dear! Aryll and her friends introduced me to this wonderful game called 'Poker'. She said she invented it, but somehow I doubt that... still, it's incredibly fun! We've been 'betting' random things... though Suzume 'fleeced' one of the guards for everything he had... the poor thing..."

"Nyahaha..."

"Anyway, this is Rance, Sill, you already know Aryll, Salem, and Gig! They all came to visit me! I'm... not really sure why, but I decided not to question it because it was giving me a headache trying to understand these incredibly strange people and the things they say, but it's been a lot of fun!"

"If only Giggles would smile some more..."

"If only you'd all agreed to turn this into strip poker..."

"Rance-sama, remember what Aryll said! You need to behave..."

"Yes, be a good boy Rance, or you can't stay and play with all the sexy, big-breasted women." Rance grumbled at that, but said nothing else after Aryll's warning.

Reifer glanced at Eon but he just shrugged with a air of 'I have no idea what the hell is going on anymore.'

The young ruler was clearly confused but if Eon was rolling with it and the woman who helped them before was here, there had to be a reason for it. "I see. Nice to meet all of you." He wasn't really sure how to proceed from the strange situation even with his experience of dealing with politics. "Was there a special reason for the visit or you just happen to be nearby?" He asked Aryll.

Aryll turned to look at him, the cigar dangling from her lips and the tophat on her head kind of killing the graceful air she usually had... not that the rather distracting outfit helped either. "Oh, I'm here for a couple of reasons. One is to explain a BIT of what I'm doing, another is to introduce you to some people, and also to cure your mother after the healers try." She paused. "I'm wanting you to meet Rance and Sill, and also your prisoner in the dungeons. And other people later. Salem and Gig don't matter."

"Love you too, Aryll." Salem chuckled a bit, clearly not offended. Aryll then blinked, and jumped up.

"Iliara!" She rushed over, and swept Iliara up into a hug, unphased by the fact that Iliara had instinctively drawn an knife and was pressing it to Aryll's neck while the much larger woman hugged her tightly. "It's so wonderful to see you again for the first time!"

"Lord Reifer.... with all due respect... what the fuck?"

It was one of life's greatest mysteries why Gig was friends with people like Aryll and Salem. At a glance and those who knew him, they would think their personalities would clash too much with his and annoy Gig too much to be around their presence for a extended period. This was only partly true. If the two deities--or rather one full and half had been nothing but goofballs then Gig wouldn't have bothered. At it was, there was a lot more to both of them then the acts they put on.

Oh don't get him wrong. They still annoyed the shit out of him at times but they were...fri-people he didn't mind the company of too much.

He made a mental note to at all cost prevent Tiara, these two and Loki ever being alone for long periods of times. That was almost similar level of disaster of giving a certain emo

As of now though, he needed to bring Aryll a bit back to planet earth..or Halzara. Whatever.

"Yo, Aryll just dial just a bit. You need them to trust you right? You're confusing the hell out of Iilara right now."

Aryll paused, laughed nervously and pried herself off of Iliara, bowing slightly. "Sorry! Can get a little... excited, I suppose. Anyway, now that we've gotten past this particular milestone, I figured I should explain to you all a bit of why I'm doing what I'm doing."

Reifer was about to try to calm things down a bit, but luckily this 'Gig' had done it for them. "Thank you. And please do, I'm grateful you've been helping but at the same time a lot of this is still very confusing."

"Oh, I'm sure it is!" Aryll nodded sagely, the tophat somehow staying on. "Now, to make a very long story short, I'm a Demi-Goddess that can freely move through the timestreams, and my purpose here is to make sure that YOU, Mister, don't cause the extinction of an entire race of people, a life of slavery for someone close to you, and the eventual clusterfuck that comes from too many old farts being on the Demon Council. Which will be a lot more effective in a couple centuries than it is now, I assure you!"

"Reifer would never do anything like that!" Sela was usually rather open minded, but the insinuation that Reifer would cause such things was ridiculous.

"Ripple effects, Sela! Ripple effects. Reifer doesn't personally do anything wrong. But a decision he makes down the road, trying to do the right thing, would ultimately cause a long line of things he, and others, would regret. I'm here to help ensure that none of that happens. Cause I can see the various ripples and timelines, I've figured out what actions need to be taken, and I'm basically being incredibly irresponsible and abusing my powers to craft you all a better future. Cause trust me, your current one sucks. For example!" She suddenly whirled around. "Eon! When you and Suzume went to rescue Iliara and Yuki, Suzume went to save Iliara, and you went to save Yuki. Right?"

Eon frowned a bit, but nodded. "Pretty much. I think I know what you're getting at, Suzume wasn't there in the orignal time. Am I right?" He was a ninja, it was sort of his job to pick up on these things not that it was hard to make a educated guess in this case.

"Right in one! In the original timeline, Suzume half-heartedly attempted to kill Reifer and Sela. She was captured, and detained in the dungeons. Eventually she would be released, and even centuries from now, she'd still be with you all, helping you with things. Until she dies, but that's an issue that I can fix later, since it won't come up for a VERY long time. Anyway, with Suzume locked up, you managed to save Iliara, but Ashikaga escaped with Yuki. He would then use her as leverage to force Asakura to declare war on Komai. Eventually, in order to stop the bloodshed, Reifer would be forced to press the attack, and overtake Asai-Asakura, taking it as a vassal." She paused, sighing a bit.

"Ashikaga would send a message to Asakura, telling him that his failure was the same as forfeiting Yuki's life. Asakura would commit suicide the next morning. Ashikaga then uses Yuki as 'payment' to various mercenary bands and forces, to make them join him to fight Komai. And yes, it is the sort of 'payment' you think it is." She caught the dangerous look in Iliara's eyes, and gave her an apologetic look. She didn't want her to have to hear this, but there was nothing for it, really.

"Eventually, Ashikaga and his mercenary forces were overtaken, and Yuki was rescued. But the combination of the horrors Ashikaga put her through, the fall of her kingdom, and the suicide of her father, the latter two of which she blamed herself, Yuki herself would commit suicide. And that... THAT is what was avoided so far."

Reifer was disturbed by the news, worse still was the bomb at the end. "Wait. You said 'so far' so there are even more things I have to avoid in the future?" That...wasn't too comforting. It was natural to make mistakes but if his actions were going to regularly be this disasterous in the long run maybe he wasn't truly fit to lead.

Aryll could see where this was going, and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Don't question yourself, Reifer. The decisions you made were the right ones at the time. The only way anyone could have known the possible consequences would be if they had knowledge of the future. And while I'm not really supposed to do this... despite the bad things I have mentioned, it's also because of your actions that in the next several centuries, not only does Halzara become a much more peaceful place, but you help bridge the gap between Halzara and Earth Realm. Demons, Humans, and all manner of other races, coexisting peacefully. A large part of that is because of you. So please, don't question yourself. Even the greatest leaders need advice sometimes, and I'll be there to give it to you when you need it, okay?"

"...Wow, you managed to get through that without being goofy. I'm impressed." Aryll just smiled at Salem's words.

"Coming from you, that means next to nothing."

"Ouch, my heart...."

Reifer felt a bit better at that, he knew Aryll was right and there was only so much he could do being one person alone but it was good to hear that from someone else. "Thank you. So you mentioned about me meeting the prisoner we captured, I'm assuming they're important too and I end up doing something that was well intentioned but might have consequences later."

Aryll smiled. "Well, the next moment of you doing something well intentioned and it backfiring isn't for awhile. In the original timeline, you actually never meet the woman down in the dungeons. She just eventually starves to death in Tokugawa's prison. By the way, I'm the reason Tokugawa attacked... I convinced them to, and that they'd need to let her out in order to defeat you. I am also the one that killed them, mind... and before you say anything, the way I killed them is WAY better than how they died in the original timeline, they were not good people, and now their prisoner is free, so it works out. Anyway, I believe having her on your side will be a big boon. Though she can be fickle, I suppose.... anyway, you go speak with her. I'll be elsewhere, doing other things, until the healers get in and work on Sela. I'll come back when the healers are finished, in a couple of days. Until then, you mind putting up Rance and Sill here? They need a place to stay. Salem and Gig will be going back where they belong."

Reifer nodded slowly when she finished. "If that's all, then I'll see you when you return..." He turned to Rance and Sil. "You two all right with staying here?" As long as the two weren't too difficult to get along with and were decent people he didn't mind them staying.