~ Yumeiseki Empire ~

New place, Chapter 6: Objective

Socket, Susie and I had walked for a while, maybe an hour or so.
Socket was basically dragging himself across the floor, out of breath and clearly tired. Susie was sweating heavily, she had complained about the long road basically the entire time.
I'm gonna be honest, I was really tired, too.

"WhEn- are we- gOnna- get to that- gAate?!" Susie said impatiently and out of breath, stopping and taking a moment to breathe.

Socket couldn't even speak, he just nodded in agreement.

"...Well, right about now." I pointed to the gate that wasn't too far away.

"Finally!" Susie said eagerly, dragging Socket and sprinting there while Socket almost tripped.

I walked ahead of them to the gate, only to come across a woman who seemed to be busy shouting and bickering with another man.

"Stop calling me 'mi amore'! I am NOT your love, we are arch nemesi!"

"But is the passion in your heart really hate, mon cher Sadia? Or might it be something more?"

"You aren't even French!"

I just stood there frozen, not sure what to do for their bickering.

"Shut up, someone's here-" The woman, I assume her name is Sadia turned to me. "I'm sorry about Lendro, what do you need?"

"Er, me and my friends here are going to go to the... other empire?"

The man in the background spit out the green tea he was drinking, then burst out laughing as he put his cup to the side.

The woman stared back at him with a disappointed expression, then widening her eyes in annoyance as if telling him to shut up with her mind.

"Listen, no can do. Unless you get specific permission from the emperor, then-"

"Miss, I *am* the emperor..."

The man in the background, I think his name was Lendro, stopped laughing. And he stood there frozen with a smile.

"Oh. I'm sorry sir, I didn't know you were travelling with... them..." She pointed to Susie and Socket, who were distracted by a butterfly.

"Ah, don't worry, they're... my acquaintances."

"Uh-huh.. okay Lendro, open the gate- put that damn knife down, fuckwad!" Sadia shouted, sprinting to him and opening the gate herself.

I wanted to check if they were okay, but Susie and Socket were already sprinting across the gate.

I just accepted there are some things I have to not worry about, and I followed them both.

"Woah... I've never been to this type of territory..." Socket said in awe, but also a bit of concern.

It was so... gloomy.

And... un-taken care of. The grass was really tall, the water was barely even water (were there dead fish in the ponds?) and there are probably poisonous plants everywhere.

It's like as if the closer we got to the other empire, the more dark and desaturated everything got.

It may seem like an exaggeration, but trust me, I mean my words.

"Is that it?" Susie pointed, that must've been the empire.

"Is that really an empire or is it just Hell reincarnated?"

"Obviously an empire!" Susie responded, bonking Socket on the head.

"Owww! It was a joke!"

"Why would Alex go to a place like this?" I pondered aloud, feeling myself get more nervous as I got closer to that empire.

This was going to surely be an interesting experience...