- Hey there. Got time for a little chat?
- I do, but don't you kind of have a lot going on
[cdb]right now?
- Oh, I should probably be using your title now,
[cdb]shouldn't I? Since you're a king and all, Your Majesty.
- Call me whatever you want. I'm still the
[cdb]same Claude.
- I was shocked when I heard you were going to be the
[cdb]king of Leicester.
- I never imagined you'd be able to unify the Alliance
[cdb]and make it all "official."
- Hey, it was your idea. Don't tell me you forgot!
- Sounds familiar...
- Doesn't ring a bell.
- Oh, right, the thing. The thing I definitely remember.
That thing.
- Hm, are you sure? You're not filling me with
[cdb]confidence in your memory here.
- Sorry, it's not ringing any bells.
- Seriously? Wow. Guess that's just you being you,
[cdb]though, come to think of it.
- You said that the Alliance should get rid of the
[cdb]roundtable system so we could act more decisively.
- Oh, yeah... I did say that. But I didn't expect you
[cdb]to remake the whole alliance as a...federation?
Whatever that is?
- Alliance. Federation. They're the same thing with
[cdb]different names. I just established something new
[cdb]to get rid of the old system.
- Huh. I guess it makes sense when you put it that way.
- You're a strange one, you know that? I find myself
[cdb]actually wanting to open up to you.
- It's probably because you don't seem to have any
[cdb]strings attached. Makes it easy to talk to you.
- Yeah, I'm just a wandering mercenary. All my life,
I've never had many relationships to speak of.
- Right, right. You were taken in pretty young,
[cdb]weren't you?
- Yeah. I don't remember any of it, but that's what my
[cdb]mom told me.
- The lady who raised you... What kind of person
[cdb]was she?
- Hm, how do I put it? It was like she could do
[cdb]anything. She taught me all sorts of stuff.
- We lived in a small village deep in the mountains.
It was a humble life, and I didn't interact much with
[cdb]the other villagers.
- Then one day, my mom suddenly got sick and passed
[cdb]away. And I was booted out of the village.
- I had to use everything she taught me just to stay
[cdb]alive after that.
- So you were left to face the world all alone after they
[cdb]kicked you out, huh?
- The whole time, yeah.
- I became a mercenary, but the groups I joined didn't
[cdb]last for long, so I ended up drifting from one place to
[cdb]the next.
- And that's how I ended up like this.
Completely untethered.
- I see. You know, I think I understand you a little
[cdb]better now.
- Though I suppose I can't say for certain that I don't
[cdb]have any connections.
- You mean your power?
- Yeah. I still have no idea what it actually is or who my
[cdb]real parents are.
- Just remember that no matter what you find out,
[cdb]it won't change who you are. Just like how becoming
[cdb]a king hasn't changed who I am.