Fantasia: A story of a present

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"I'll take over for now. You should get some rest, you have a meeting tomorrow, remember?"

"You'll take over, you say. Stop bullying your juniors, alright?"

"It's not exactly bullying, I call it giving them hands-on experience."

"Hmph, alright then, off you go. Shoo, shoo."

"Right, right, I'll be taking my leave then."

"... you can come in now."

"What was that all about?"

"Which topic exactly?"

"These... how much did you hide from them? How much information has been kept from us..."

"... I know I asked you to take care of them but... I didn't think you'd be that into it..."

"Cut the bullshit, you expected it to turn out this way."

"Do the others really not know?"

"... no, at least not at the moment, I think."

"Alright..."

"So, what connection does 'he' have to this village?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"... huh? Didn't you send us there for us to learn about this?"

"No... not at all, I just wanted to see if your kids were up to the task on this hero thing."

"..."

"Aren't you reading too much into this?"

"Then what abou- !"

"!"

"..."

"So? What did she say?"

"How..."

"Well, the South King isn't the only one who knows about that helmet you're wearing."

"... just where did this helmet come from?"

"That's not important for now, you should focus your attention elsewhere."

"... huh? Why is there a..."

"Judging by this timing, I assume the ceremony failed?"

"... you're going to send them there tomorrow?"

"Unfortunately yes. You heroes are the only ones equipped to handle this after all."

"He's not ready, you know that."

"And that's why you're here."

"..."

"You should go, they'll need you."

"Tch, one last thing... ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅"

"... and here I was hoping you wouldn't bring it up."

"So?"

"That's a difficult question to answer, to be honest, we could spend weeks debating and still not come to a proper conclusion."

"Just tell me what you know for now."

"At this point? It's fine. But really, it depends on how you kids progress from now on..."

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