The tides inside Laurel finally rise and flood out violently as if she has been preventing her emotions from taking the best of her. The crash of the waves of emotions shakes Laurel to the core, chilling her all the way to the soul. The entire time, Laurel has noticed that Imogen's eyes never saw her for who she was. Instead, she has been a replacement, an imposter.
She doesn't like singing as much as during her childhood.
She doesn't want to be a singer.
She likes the sword and the honesty of its art.
She is not the woman that Imogen imagined her to be because she knows who she is.
She remains inconsolable for hours because Laurel has finally accepted the reality presented in front of her. And truth spares no one.
Although Kyrie has his own questions about why Laurel has put up with Imogen, he keeps his mouth shut. He is not going to satisfy his curiosity and let Laurel crumble mentally under his worried questioning.
Yet, a problem solver like him is facing a problem he cannot help solve. Their relationship is their responsibility, and his job is just to be there no matter the outcome.
Two days have passed since Imogen fell into unconsciousness. Although she is sleeping, Imogen does not seem to be resting at all. She has developed a slight fever. Her forehead beads with sweat day and night, like she is reliving nightmares and regrets.
Kyrie leans on the back of the chair with his arms crossed. His eyes are closed as he breathes slowly. The slight creak of the bed instantly makes his eyes fling open. He nervously looks at Imogen sitting up with her usual apathetic expression. The towel Kyrie repeatedly changed throughout the night peels off Imogen's forehead and drops to her lap.
He breathes out long with some relief, and he stares at her until Imogen looks back at him.
"You are not asking anything? You like being nosy," Imogen asks as she gets up from the bed.
Her fingers brush through her wet tacky hair into a ponytail. Then, she walks up to her equipment placed on the desk next to the bed and starts equipping again.
"What happened with you and Laurel?"
Imogen freezes in the middle of putting on her belt.
She raises her gaze to Kyrie and asks cautiously, "What does that mean?"
"After you fainted, she cried for a long time."
Imogen frowns and finishes putting all her equipment on.
"Nothing really. I think she overreacted."
Kyrie's expression darkens at that easy answer, "Imogen, no one who overreacts acts that way! I have never seen her cry like that!"
Imogen closes her eyes and takes a deep breath to hold her rising anger. She looks over the room for her sword and sees it leaning against the wall next to Kyrie. She looks at him with a hardened expression.
"I did nothing. I asked her some questions."
She extends her arm, indicating that Kyrie should hand over her sword, but Kyrie does not move.
"Then what about you? Two days. You were unconscious for two days."
The pressure inside Imogen presses more onto her chest, and she takes another breath to calm her down.
"Cockroach. It's a phase in the relationship. She catches up that I know more about her than she knows about me. She also doesn't know what I know, and I intend to leave it that way!"
Kyrie looks at Imogen going around the bed to get her sword, but he steps in front of her.
"But she is not complaining about that!"
Imogen's face slowly turns red, and her facial muscles start to twitch.
"Then, what? What is she complaining about?" Imogen asks between her teeth, breathing out hot air from the anger bubbling inside her.
"She is complaining that when you look at her, you don't really see her. You see someone else!"
The anger immediately deflated. Imogen's eyes fling wide, and she instantly darts her eyes away as she noticed the expression she couldn't control from her face. Kyrie is baffled by Imogen's reaction.
"You… You like someone else?"
Imogen closes her eyes and presses them with one head.
"No! It's…." She starts to feel the suffocation from the questioning. The right wording is not coming out like a fishbone stuck in her throat.
"What?!?"
"The person I only loved has always been Laurel!"
"And?"
"Laurel…. She is different every round!"
"So?" The confusion and frustration balloon inside Kyrie as he tries to dig for answers from Imogen.
Imogen remains quiet, but sorrow, confusion, and regret find themselves on the expression of her face. Kyrie suddenly understands, and his eyes quiver. He starts to shake his head in the hope that his guess is not true.
However, Imogen breaks that hope, "I only loved Laurel…. The one from the original timeline, cockroach."
Her eyes redden as she stares at Kyrie with a grudge for making her spill out words she just came to understand recently.
"And I…. I gave her up."
Imogen turns away to hide the tears that manage to run out of her tear duct. She grabs her sword and turns to walk away.
"Imogen!" Kyrie catches her sleeve, feeling sorry that he squeezed the truth out of her.
Just when he wants to apologize, the ground shakes violently. Vases tilt and shatter into thousands of pieces on the ground. The frames of canvases burst open, detaching from the paintings. The chandeliers chime from the crystals clashing each other.
Kyrie looks outside to see the sky turning in color as if bloodshed happened in the heavens. The scarlet clouds cover the sun, dimming the entire kingdom below.
The sound of an unsleeved sword rings in his ear, and when he turns around, Imogen is pointing a sword at him. He slowly straightens up his stance, looking at Imogen with confusion.
Those tears that make him ache for her are no longer in her eyes. Instead, she aims a sword at him with a straight face as if her vulnerable moment never existed.
"Listen to me carefully, cockroach," Imogen articulates, "Before you get to the seventh gate, you should go to the demon queen's tomb."
The demon queen's tomb has been their first objective before unforeseen events dismiss the plan. They have planned to go there after dealing with the demon invasion in the Kingdom of Ethern, but they have to leave the plan after they got stuck in the town of Bristol, thanks to Saskia. Events have precipitated from there, and they have never gotten the chance to get potions and pills from the tomb.
However, Kyrie knows that by now, it is useless to go. Cynthia and Sil might have already raided the tomb. Before Kyrie can ask for the reason, Imogen uses her teleporting ability and disappears like a ghost.
"IMOGEN!"
As soon as Imogen disappears, the grounds start to vibrate. This time, the ground quavers in high frequency like thousands of horses are running near. Kyrie pushes the windows open and looks at the hole forming in the sky.
Slowly, his eyes focus on the silver dots that are slowly shaping into something bigger. The door bursts open, and Ian walks in with alarms blaring from his expression. He looks at the empty bed and the room with no signs of Imogen.
Ian quickly takes Kyrie's hand and pulls him away from the room.
"What is happening?" Kyrie urges.
"Heavenly soldiers have broken into the kingdom!"