Chapter Text
Re Forgotten: A Tale of 2 Subaru's Act 2: Part 1
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You can hear me right
I know you can my love
it will be all over soon......
just power through a couple more days.......
and then you can have your peace......
A TALE OF TWO SUBARU'S Act 2: Picking up Dead Weight
Karsten Estate/ 25 days before Subjugation of White Whale (SWW)/ 8pm/ Natsuki Subaru's POV
"Some people calling themselves the witch cult plan to attack Roswaals dominion, I came here to request your help in stopping them." Subaru motions as he sits on the couch.
Subaru looks on at the green haired candidate with trepidation. She was for now his only foreseeable hope as everything he had tried he had tried. He'd died.......so many times to try to fix the situation on his own but that lead to Rem.....Emilia-tan and the rest of the camp dying. This wasn't a situation he could wholesale fix by himself, it simply was impossible.
"So they have made their move then......" Crusch says slowly putting her elbows against the table she was sitting on as her figure was illuminated by the 2 lamps. Behind her Felix simply looked on slightly perplex at the development.
"It seems so. Of course from the moment Emilia the half elf entered the scene something of this nature was to be naturally expected. In fact me and lady Crutsch for saw the possibility of this occuring." Felix said his arms crossed behind the back of his usual blue dress however Subaru could genuinely not discern if it was a pajama dress or just his normal attire.
"I understand the situation your in but I wish to ask why did you chose me to assist you?" Crutcsh asks without missing a beat and carrying her tone of professionalism.
"To be honest you seemed like the most likely to help. You helped me and Rem-" Subaru finds himself annoying cut off by Crutsch much to his utter despair.
"Don't misunderstand. I help you because I was contracted to do so, not by the means of any good will." Crustch begins as she gently points a finger to him before reclining back into her previous position. "If you two with the negotiate you need to show me what I stand to gain from this. Lets say, even if my assistance you eliminate the witch cult in your backyard, what do I or my camp stand to gain."
It is at that moment a servant comes barreling into the meeting opening the doors and moving directly towards Crustch before he whispers something into her ear. Her previously annoyed look from the interrupt turns into confusion and surprise. She looks at him as if to ask "Are you kidding" before the servant nods in a "No I am not". Natsuki Subaru watched the entire encounter in trepidation.
"Well then.......The entire game has changed significantly..." Crusch said as the servant left causing Felix, Wilhelm, and Subaru to shoot her an odd look.
"How so?" Felix ask's quick and onto the point.
"It turns out the Anastasia camp has connections to the witch cult or at least one of the Hoshen company branches do."
That knocks an entire camp out of the selection Subaru then realized.
Royal Capital/ 25 days before Subjugation of White Whale (SWW)/ 9:15pm/ Heinkal Van Astrea's POV
Moving through some of his royal guard Heinkal takes his first step into a dark series of alleyways illuminated only by the torches the members of the royal guard are carrying. He can just make out the figure of Julius who has once more wormed his way into the scene of the crime and is looking over it with his own knights. Heinkal looks around at the dark alleyway as a total of 4 dead bodies are neatly stacked for disposal to the alleyways side.
"Good afternoon or however you want to call this Heinkal." Julius motions with a small joke.
"Good afternoon indeed." Heinkal remarks grimly.
"You sure took your sweet time getting her Heinkal, some of my knights arrived a couple minutes before you and your guard did." Julius says in a rather serious and annoyed tone.
"Well I got the call through the Metia right as I was falling sleep. Just when I thought I get some nice beauty sleep this shit happens." Heinkal remarks gruffly and not hiding one bit his annoyance.
"*Sigh* well you know how things go. Most incidents relating to your case have happened in the dead of night, midnight, close to before it, or immediately after it. This is the first time one of these incidents has occurred several hours earlier. I'm also rather shocked you haven't yet shifted your schedule to accommodate for this." Julius says raising his eyebrow at the last part.
"Yeah, Yeah I know but you can't blame this one on me as we had this incident occur closer to the afternoon than at around Midnight." Heinkal jokes only to receive a stern look from Julius.
Heinkal only grins at his little ally within the knights annoyance and continues on.
"Heh, well fill me in on what happened here. I was the one who reported the entire incident since I got that strange call but what exactly ended up occuring here."
Julius quickly begins to fill Heinkal in on the situation. To cut it short 4 bodies, no perpetrator, all bodies wearing witch cult robes and definitely have connections to the cult or at least some criminal elements. Call he received was definitely fabricated story was to draw the guard over to access the sight and take care of the aftermath. This time it seems the killer had killed all those at the scene instead of beating most of them half to death.
Still non of this is what catches Heinkals attention, 2 of the victims was found with a deep stab wound in the neck while the others where seemingly decapitated. One of the victims with his neck stabbed had two broken wrists, the left wrist having been the most damage with some bone sticking out a little to Heinkel's own disgust. Something about that doesn't add up.
"All with some identification found for oldest man among the dead, the one with the 2 snapped wrist, we found something Else." Julius remarks
"Oh and that would be?" Heinkal asks curious.
"A couple alleyways down we found a wagon that seemed to just be a normal merchant stand. When we looked inside we found 100 tin cans of triple violet and 10 different weapons ranging from crossbows to swords." Julius remarked grimly. "This and the fact that as you can tell 2 of the victims where killed in a very different way than the others suggests the possibility of multiple individuals involved or at least a very odd attempt to throw us off."
"Right....I still haven't deduced and you so as well probably, why the fuck did they call the guard on themselves and play the situation as a group of friends attacked?" Heinkal wonders out loud while Julius nods his head in agreement.
"This entire mess is insane......We can definitely begin confiscation and the search of the man with the broken wrists Merchant company considering the Illegal weapons and medicinal drugs. In fact that company's probably getting shut down entire like Azuma's branch of the Hoshen company....."Julius says trailing off at the last part.
Heinkal can only sigh. If the owner of that wagon, a man by the name of Faust, had survived any information pried off him would have been useful, but now their back at square one, a dead end. Instead of finding the perpetrator to all these killings and beatings their finding just a building case against a small merchant company, the Hoshen Company, and Possibility the entire Anastasia camp. Julius must know this as well.
"The best we can do right now is just delve into the other 3 victims pasts and see if they have any connections outside of the cult.....outside of that where pretty much done here. And with those 3 yet to be identified yah this is going to be a pain in the fucking ass." Heinkal grumbles exasperated.
""Pain in the ass" it may be but it's also our job and specifically your job." Julius remarks teasingly and annoyed.
"I've been captain of the royal guard to know that much Julius......Oh I know how much this job fucking sucks."
"And yet your always so unprofessional." Julius motions.
"Hah! I know that as well!" Heinkal says back laughing despite Julius not enjoying the entire charade one bit. He can be as grumpy and uptight as he wants but Heinkal will do as he pleases and what he pleases. Kids really gotta learn to lighten up a little, you need that in the guard consider all the stuff you can run into and find.....you really do....
An Awkward silence looms over both of them giving time for Heinkal to think a bit. Until we get the full story of the 4 victims there isn't much to deduce or go off of. The wagon is definitely connected to the one they found over at Mister Azuma's house the night prior, and it had just about the same stuff in it.....Just larger amounts. So that's something to work with, the cult is connected to the Hoshens in some way and pretty much runs a Merchant company under the guard's noses for who knows how long....
What a mess.....
Triple Violet is the link, so much of it is on the streets these days and it only increases its outreach on the capital. The amount found being used illegally only increases every day and grows exponentially with each passing month. In fact this could have very well been a deal gone wrong between the cult and some criminal element selling it and weapons.
Still its most likely not though that would have made finding the culprit or culprits so much more easier if they could pin him and his cohorts just to a criminal gang or element within the city. Heinkal thinks back to the merchant wagon before his mind trails off to the small fake merchant company the cult had set up to either infiltrate members or who knows what into the inner capital.
So much to find so little to work with.
Royal Capital/ 24 days before Subjugation of White Whale (SWW)/ ????/ ????
"All 6 of them have been taken care of, as you requested Lady Hoshen......however 2 of them, Faust included was dead on arrival during the 2nd clean up operation.....I am extremely sorry Ma'am."
"Hoh.....Don't stress yourself out so much Ricardo.....If you would have stayed their any longer you would have only made the situation so much worst for the both of us. Still the Job was completed in the end even if the final 2 where killed off by an unknown."
"I suppose so Lady Hoshen."
"I still have one more request of you and the members of the Iron fang with you currently."
"That would be?"
"There's one more loose end I need to tie up....No two......First is the complete elimination and erasure of dear Azuma's branch. If they aren't taken out entirely and immediately the after effects of their connections to the cult will only continue to damage our camp and the company. Make the scene after the branches destruction look however you please as long as its done......As for the final loose end.....its one that almost slipped by me....."
"Yes?"
"Have you heard of by chance heard of a man by the name of Sakamoto Kane, Kane Sakamoto?"
"I don't think I have."
"Well, he was that white haired boy or young man who intervened in trying to deescalate things between sir Subaru and Julius before their duel. It has come to my attention he is not only working in one of my company's workshops, workshop number 58 to be exact. A little bird has informed me that has been looking around where he shouldn't.....There is no doubt about the fact he has a part to play in this recent chain of unfortunate events for the company outside of whoever is currently targeting the cult and my company....In fact he may be connected to them or may just be a loose player......either way....make him disappear....if you catch my drift...."
"Anything else Lady Hoshen..."
"Extract what you can out of him for me.....You can make the aftermath look however you please...."
"Understood Lady Hoshen"