Oldrock: the capital of the Kingdom of Ogdenn. The city’s center boasted a magnificent and dazzling palace—fitting for the kingdom’s historic capital.
The palace was also home to the royals Lezamer and Anna, and thus they’d returned there with Bahamut Dominion.
Anna’s room in the vast expanses of the palace, however, was small and tucked away from the rest. While it seemed spacious due to how startlingly few things there were inside, in terms of actual size, it might have been even smaller than Watt’s home.
Am I really...back here?
She’d made her way back to her room, but even then, it felt far too strange. Anna was certain that it was because the room was absent of any life. Most of the time she’d spent here had been for sleeping. The rest of it had been learning from her instructors, reviewing, studying ahead, and training herself. It wasn’t because she had some goal or because she was eager to improve herself—she’d done it only because she’d been told to do so.
What in the world have I been doing all this time?
The days Anna had spent in Front-Edge City had been so stimulating that she couldn’t help but wonder. She’d eaten—and not on her own, but with other people. Watt had been there when she’d woken up, and Meddié had shown up by the time midday rolled around. She’d made small talk with her friends at the office, and the people of the city had greeted her every time they’d passed by. To Anna, living with others constantly nearby was both incredibly strange...and incredibly valuable.
After returning to the palace, she had only come into contact with a handful of servants. The servants, both male and female, strictly refrained from chatting on the job. She’d never had anything resembling a decent conversation with any of them. And what about the other royals? Given the fact that even her stepfather, Lezamer, hadn’t so much as shown his face around her, it wasn’t difficult to surmise the answer. She hadn’t even been asked about her time in Front-Edge City—as if what she’d done there hadn’t mattered in the slightest.
So...just what am I supposed to do now?
Even the fact that she was just standing around so blankly in her room was because she didn’t have anything to do. She might’ve returned, but even then there was no way she could just throw herself back into studying day in and day out. In the past, she’d stayed pointlessly busy, yet she’d never imagined that having nothing to do could be so excruciating.
If I were in Front-Edge City...I just know there’d be something for me to do, though.
Working at a job had been a fresh, new experience, but even more than that, it had been something worth doing. Fortunately, her education had paid off, and given that Anna had her fair share of natural talent, she’d been more or less able to deliver results in nearly any task she tried. She’d been complimented when she did a good job, and in turn, those compliments had motivated her even more. It was something so incredibly simple, but Anna had finally discovered it for herself in the very first city she’d visited.
That must be it. No one wants anything from me here...so it doesn’t matter if I’m here or not.
It struck her that there wasn’t any need for her to even stay in her room. She quietly slipped out only to discover that no one was keeping watch or anything of the sort. Perhaps they’d all forgotten about her completely—if that were the case, she couldn’t help but assume she was free to spend her time as she pleased. Living outside the palace walls had imbued her with a surprising boldness.
Anna was right in the middle of wandering about with no particular destination in mind when a voice called out to her.
“Ooooooh? Haven’t seen her around in a while!”
“Ooooooh? I never thought we’d see sister outside of her room!”
“Wonder if that’s okay?”
“Might not be.”
“...Ledo, Leda,” Anna said.
The two blocked her path forward, twirling as if they were dancing. As young and childlike as they were, they had well-balanced features, flowing, silklike hair, and radiantly beautiful, identical faces. Their broad sneers were brimming with a malice that couldn’t be concealed, however. They were Anna’s younger brother and sister and the twin children of Lezamer and Cullina: Leonardo Ogdenn, or “Ledo,” and Leyhilda Ogdenn, “Leda.”
The twins glided over to Anna and looked up at her. While Anna was taller than them, she’d always been less than fond of the way they looked at her; there was something in their gaze that made her feel like they were looking down on her. Anna cast her gaze away.
“That’s right—we heard you were off on a job, sister.”
“Did you do a good job, sister? Did you?”
“A...job? No, it was nothing like that,” Anna replied.
Jobs were supposed to be like what she did in Front-Edge City: a division of labor to allow people to live and support each other. She couldn’t bring herself to call the way she’d been turned into a pawn in her stepfather’s plot a job. The twins, however, seemed confused if anything, tilting their heads to the side in tandem.
“But you were working for father, weren’t you?”
“Did father praise you? Did he tell you you did a good job?”
“He...never...”
That very moment, a sharp, piercing headache surged through Anna’s skull. That’s right. Lezamer had indeed praised her. He’d commended her for proving useful—as if he’d been speaking to a tool and nothing more. But it hadn’t been the way he’d said it that had been truly shocking—it was the fact that that was the first time Anna could ever remember her father praising her. Her stepfather hadn’t shown so much as an inkling of interest in her, no matter how much she had excelled in her studies—but now he’d praised her for being such a useful decoy. His praise had been as cold as ice, readily revealing that he didn’t see so much as an ounce of worth in her as a human being.
“No... That’s not what he said.” Looking down, Anna feebly forced out the words. The twins couldn’t really hear what she’d said, but they didn’t seem particularly bothered about that—after all, what their sister had to say hardly mattered.
“You were finally able to make yourself useful, sister.”
“You’ll have to make yourself even more useful now, sister.”
“If they don’t need you anymore, there you go straight out the door!”
The twins chanted their words as if they were singing, innocently dancing as they left. Only Anna remained behind them, frozen in place.
She didn’t remember where she walked—or how she got there—after that. The next thing she knew, she’d made her way to the palace courtyard.
This is...
She instinctively checked for any sign of others. Anna knew that she was fond of the courtyard. Sure enough, she found her in one of the surrounding gazebos: Cullinagemia Ogdenn, the first princess. Cullina was Anna’s mother...and the sole royal Anna was clearly related to by blood.
“Mother.”
It seemed her mother had noticed her as well. Cullina had the same jade eyes as Anna, softly narrowed in a gentle gaze toward her daughter.
“Anna... Welcome back. So you made your way back unharmed.”
Just as she might with a small child, Cullina softly embraced her daughter.
“Agh... Ugh...”
Anna had tried to respond with “I’m back,” but the voice that escaped her lips was hoarse, hardly forming anything resembling proper words. Instead, a torrent of tears came pouring down with no end in sight. Seeing the tearstains she’d left on her mother’s dress, Anna panicked for a moment, only for Cullina to shake her head unbothered.
“It’s fine, dear,” Cullina said. “Just stay here like this for a while.”
Locked in her mother’s arms, Anna continued to weep, tears rolling down her cheeks.