>>5323997“Ahh! Lord Rex! I had not expected you back so soon! Pray tell, do you bring good news from the siege?” Minister Hoff asks.
“Out of my way.” Rex replies. He brushes past the baffled man. Perhaps once, he’d held respect for the elderly statesman. Though the man that Rex knew was long gone. What was left behind was an entirely different matter. One worthy only of contempt and scorn.
Rex enters the sanctum and finds a familiar sight. Count Charles d’Rusalka, behind his desk, hard at work as always. Various papers and documents are scatted across his desk. In his hands appear to be a ledger of some sort that he is intently studying. On a side table within the sanctum, appears to be a plate of dinner. Long since ignored by the Count and grown cold in favor of giving all his attention to his work. Rex helps himself to the plate, washing it down the flagon of ale he’d taken moments earlier. The two sit there in silence for quite some time. Rex eating and drinking. The Count, ticking away at his ledger. None of the warmth that one might expect from a father seeing his soon return from the battlefield is present within the room. This goes on for some time, before the Count finally breaks the silence.
“I take it from your presence before me that Garreg Mach has fallen?”
“Yes.” Rex replies.
“And? Did you find the battle to your liking?”
Rex snorts. “Hardly. The Knights of Seiros were caught with their britches down. They were hardly worth the effort. I’d hoped to cross blades with that Professor I’d heard so much of. The one who wielded the Sword of the Creator. Alas, I hear she perished against a horde of Demonic Beasts, depriving me of the chance.”
“My sincerest condolences.” The Count says. “What of those bearing Crests?”
“Children in need of seasoning. They were hardly noticeable.”
A silence follows, in which Rex resumes devouring his dinner, while the Count watches. Finally, Charles d’Rusalka speaks again.
“I notice you’re here alone. Where is Blair?”
“Gone.”
The Count raises an eyebrow. “Gone? She perished in the battle?”
“No. She’s gone. Disappeared. Vanished.”
