Page 1469 -- CLVII.

~~((The 6 Pages of New Year's + Double Monday = Page 3 of 8))~~
“What about the Hun’Kui, then?” said Manuel. “They might be able to help us.”

“Ah, and I highly doubt they will tell the Hun’Sho of what we are doing,” added Elise.

On that point, Hector could agree. And those four Hun’Kui had been through hell with them, so there was at least a modicum of camaraderie to be had. His talk with Eleyo earlier had affirmed him of that much.

Still, he noticed Diego hesitating. And he wasn’t the only one who did.

“...Do you not trust the Hun’Kui, Lord Diego?” said Manuel.

“I don’t know,” the man said. “But I suppose asking for their help would allow us keep an eye on them.”

‘That’s true,’ said Yangéra. ‘Just don’t turn your back on them, everyone. Remember that they’re still strangers to us.’


Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven: ‘A glimpse of Madness...’
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Francisco Elroy had to admit, the view from his room was stunning. The Omarest Mountain Range of Dante was known for its skiing even as far away as Sair, and now he could see why. The snow outside his window was unlike anything he’d seen in Aguarey.

Under different circumstances, he might have been able to enjoy visiting this luxurious, mansion-sized cabin in the middle of nowhere.

The question of why the hell he was here in the first place had still not been answered to his satisfaction. He understood that the crazy old guy named Damian Rofal was responsible, but beyond that, not much was clear.

The last thing he remembered before waking up here was fighting a group of Vanguardian jackasses in his school. And now he’d come to find that one of those very jackasses was here with him, not much more aware of what was going on than he was, apparently.

His reaper, Dennex, had advised him not to ask too many questions, however, and Cisco could see the wisdom in that, especially after what Dunstan Rofal, the Vanguardian jackass in question, had told him.

“My family is a bunch of criminals,” he’d said. “I suggest you not trust any of them. And my grandfather in particular is... well, he’s a lot more dangerous than I ever realized, it would seem.”

They’d been here for a couple weeks now, so naturally, Cisco had been trying to find a means of escape--with Dunstan’s help, surprisingly. But this place was much more of a prison than it looked. The building’s three floors may have had an open-air layout to them, and the furniture may have been as ritzy as Cisco had ever seen, and the food may have even been pretty damn good, but there was some sort of high-level soul net preventing not just the reapers from leaving, but people, too.

From what Cisco had thus far gathered, it had something to do with the tall, rocky spires that stood all around the structure. They looked normal enough at a glance and as of now, were half-buried in snow, but when he’d touched them a few days ago, he could feel them humming in a way that was most certainly unnatural.