...

I sat across from Ace in the cold, stuffy attic. It was quite small, barely any space for me and Ace to move, much less fit in. The window up in the loft was tiny, devoid of any cracks of light illuminating and shining through, creating a dark atmosphere. Almost ninety percent of the space was occupied with worthless trash. Lots of wooden boxes here and there. Of course, that came with a nasty price: dust. The germs! The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to leave as soon as possible.

I scolded Ace for keeping me waiting. "Hurry, hurry!"

"S-Sorry!" he stuttered. "Okay, so. In the past while, I've been investigating, hoping to find some hints about Mom and Dad. You want to know more about them too, don't you? It can't be helped. They're our parents, after all. I found several clues, jackpot! Here, let me try to find them again, I put them in a safe place away from everything else..."

He began to turn around to scavenge, before I interrupted him. "Don't bother. It's unnecessary."

"Huh? Why?" he blinked, rotating to face me.

"I don't care about Mom and Dad." I kept my facial expression as serious and as stern as I could be.

"But Ame..."

"No 'buts'."

"Um... sorry. I can't follow that order of yours for once. I really do want to meet them, you know? We're preteens now. Shouldn't we at least get the privilege to ask why they've left us for so long? Even if they have a really good reason not to stay, I'd be satisfied just hearing their explanation." Ace kept his disposition just as equally serious.

I was proud of him, but pissed off at the same time. "Today's the day you finally learn to talk back to me, hmm? Interesting. Maybe this truly is an important desire of yours." I giggled.

"H-Hey! You don't need to laugh, Ame!"

"Anyway. What if they're dead? Yes, dead. Deceased. In the Heavens. Gone from this world. You know what I mean." I intently stared at him.

Ace grew quiet for a few minutes. I suppose I won this debate, ufufufu~

...

Finally, after what seemed to be an infinite amount of time, I heard a quiet "No" coming from him.

"Come again? Repeat yourself." I smiled.

He averted his gaze to me confidently. I could definitely see the courage in his eyes, that was never there in the past. "I said... no."

"Oh, you daresay? Haha! I guess you really have changed a bit, Ace! So you have the guts to do all this now. I'm impressed, your audacity is wonderful." I gave him a thumbs up. All he was doing was providing me with entertainment.

"Um... I would like it if you still continued to support me, like family. After I show you the clue, I want you to come on a journey with me; a quest to find our parents." he proposed.

"Very, very captivating~ However, I have questions for you. What is your plan for keeping us alive in the unknown places outside of Ruben? How will you acquire ED to fund for necessities, such as food and housing? What if, an event involving robbers and gangs were to occur? How will you deal with the Red Knights, and our current occupation? Also, if the key item you have stored here in the attic isn't good enough to actually start an expedition, I hold the right to call all of this off. You're getting ahead of yourself, Ace."

I coldly bashed his idea without mercy. Half of it was to test his new strength for the sake of manning him up, and half of it was to see if his scheme was well-thought out or not.

"Scoot over and see for yourself." he responded.

I sighed, and adjusted myself so I was beside him.

...

---[CHAPTER 3 - AUDACITY : END]---