I opened my eyes as the door swung open. A muscular, red haired young man in a white robe-like vest came in. His solemn face lit up upon noticing me stir.

"Lady Xime!" he said, running over to the bed. He knelt down on his knees and took my left hand into his. "How are you feeling? Do you need anything?"

I smiled. "So, I wasn't imagining things. It was you who saved me, Nori."

The boy blushed and turned away. "Y-yeah. N-Nori, uh, I missed you."

I laughed. "I see that you've continued practicing talking in first." I patted his scarlet hair. It was as fluffy as when he was a short kid, no bigger than the average twelve-year old Xelerian.

"Y-yeah! Nori's taken Lady Xime and Lady Anis's lessons to heart." He lowered his head. "Ahh, I did it again..."

I ruffled his hair. Despite being so tall, now, he was still the same kid Serra and I helped out in Elitia. No, Nori wasn't a kid. He'd grown up a lot in the last three months. Even then, he was still mature despite talking like a toddler at times.

"What did I tell you back home? Don't beat yourself over it. One can't change the way we speak after a few months. Mama knows that very well."

Nori smiled. "Yeah, she would break into her country accent too, talking like Taku and Tere." He tilted his head. "Tetsu and you have an accent, but why do you rarely talk like Takuya and Teresa?"

I chuckled. "I might've been a bit embarrassed by it as a kid."

Nori gasped. "Embarrassed?"

I looked away. "Yeah, I wanted to talk like the people I saw on television. Plus, I moved to the city when I was five."

"Guess that's why Lady Xime doesn't talk like a girl from the slums either."

I laughed weakly. "Guess that's true." My fingers curled around my blanket. "To be honest, I'm not the kind of person that you think I am, Nori. I'm a jealous person. To be honest, I wish that I could've been born a princess like Setsuko and Rosalba. If I were one, maybe I would've been the one engaged to Serrano." I closed my eyes. "I also wish that I weren't so weak that a single technique would drain me completely! Even after the training we did in Xeleria, I'm still incapable of doing much! While you only spent a week, yet you managed to defeat all of those demons by yourself! I-I'm tired of being useless."

"Xime," Nori said, caressing my face as he wiped the tears rolling down it. "You aren't useless. Like Nori told you in Xeleria, you saved Nori!" He grinned at me. "Nori's also sure that things would've been worse if you hadn't closed the portal."

I leaned my chin against my knees. "I don't think so. It sounded like they had no more backup, that's why they had to depend on such quantity."

"Only the demons and the Divine Ones would know that for sure." He patted my head like how I'd done to him a few minutes ago. He gave me a reassuring smile. "As for being a princess, Nori's sure that Sir Serra doesn't care about that."

I averted my gaze. Perhaps, but he was loyal to decorum. He likely didn't wish to disappoint his paternal Uncle any more than he already had. While not as rigid as Naoru, Serra was just as loyal to the man who was essentially his adopted father in all but name. Not to mention, his desire to help the kingdom. He likely saw himself more able to do so if he were King Consort, opposed to another prince whose children would be delegated to the Second Branch like how my mother and her paternal cousins were.

I smiled at him. "Thanks, Nori."

Nori blushed as I patted him again. My eyes widened as he leaned closer to me.

"N-Nori?" I managed to ask.

He pulled away and covered his face with a single hand. "S-sorry. Ugh, Nori usually has to worry about anger, but seems that and talking like a baby are not Nori's only faults," the scarlet cat boy said, turning around.

I furrowed my brow and stood up, grabbing his hand. "Come on, your manner of speaking isn't that bad. I think it's adorable!"

Nori's ears turned as red as when he's in his cat form. "I-I don't want to be cute."

Xime giggled. "What's wrong with that? Serra and Tetsu are still cute sometimes."

Nori fidgeted. "Nori cuter than Sir Serra?"

I tackled him, hugging him from behind. "Aww."

"Too tight!"

"Sorry."

I stepped back and giggled. He might've been a hunk now, but he was still a softie. 

 "Thank you for saving me, my kitty," I said, running around him until I was facing him. 

 "D-don't mention it."I smiled and followed his gaze. He continued to avoid me. "Don't be shy, Nori. There's something that I want to give you." 

 He stopped moving his head and blinked. 

Getting on my tiptoes, I laid a kiss on his forehead. He grabbed his forehead as soon as I stepped back. His entire body was as red as his hair.

"Xime's bullying Nori," he said, pouting.

"Aww, I didn't mean to bully you. Thought that you would enjoy it."

Nori continued to touch his forehead. "Nori said, but still, it's almost as bad as Yuko's sneak attacks on her master."

"You mean when she would kiss Tetsuya on the forehead?" I looked out of the window, at the verdant summer fields. Yuko had to have been feeling worse than I was after that. "Did she tell Tetsuya anything important?"

"Only that he's going to be a daddy."

So, she and Rosa didn't keep it a secret. Good. Doing so probably would've bred misunderstandings. "How is she holding up?"

"Yuko was sad, but Nori managed to cheer her up a little."

I tapped his shoulder with my fist. "What a good kitty."

He combed his hair over his face, even though it wasn't long enough to cover it. "Yuko's Nori's best friend, so Nori has to look out for her. I know she would if it were me." He gasped and smiled. "Speaking of kitties and looking out for one another, Nori can teach you some of the techniques his uncle taught him."

I smiled. "I would love that."

He jumped. "Yahoo!"

His rapid taps that could send enemies hurtling into walls came to mind. "Oh, can you teach me that kitty paw attack you used in Xeleria?"

Nori snickered. "Of course." He averted his gaze. 

I grabbed his arm and frowned. "Is something the matter?"

"That attack's the only one that mean mister personally taught Nori. It's why Nori rarely uses it, but maybe Nori should. Mister could see the future, maybe he showed it to Nori for a specific purpose."

He did? So, Takeshi did teach him a few things after all. But, as he said, there probably were strings attached. Mom's cousins, they were a messy bunch. Then again, who wasn't?

"Cookies are ready!" Tetsuya called out.

My stomach grumbled soon after he said that, that one would think I were Serrano.

Nori chuckled. "Lady Ximena sounds like Sir Serrano."

I wrapped my arms around my stomach. "Guess that being with him for so long has caused his love for cookies to rub off on me."

"Will Xime's tummy growl around fish if she hangs out with Nori more?"

I snorted as I walked toward the door. "It already does."

"Yuko! Rosa!" we heard Tetsuya scream.

Nori and I gasped together. Turning the knob, we ran out of the room and down the stairs. Setsuko and the others ran over to the balcony.

"What happened?" Nori asked.

"Move!" Osamu yelled, pushing past the others. Yuko and Rosa appeared to be unconscious.

"Are Cuz and Yuko alright?" Conrad asked, jumping up to get a peek over the taller people in front of him.

"Their pulses and breath are normal," Tetsuya said.

"Indeed," Osamu said.

Setsuko gasped. "Wait, could Rosa be undergoing her trial?"

"She could be, but why would that girl have fainted?"

"Well, they are doppelgangers," I said, trying to get closer.

Nori and Serra moved away, allowing me to get a closer look. Tetsuya's face was calmer than it likely was when he had screamed, but there was still an ounce of concern in his eyes.

I knelt beside him and patted his hand. "Don't worry, Tetsu. They'll be fine."

He gave me a weak smile. "Yeah?"

I nodded. My eyes shifted toward Rosalba's bracelet. It felt like just yesterday when she had shown it off to me. I couldn't help but smile at her awful attempts to hide who she really was. Luckily, the girl had no dreams of becoming an actress.

"Do you know what's going on?" His Majesty asked, giving me the same expression that Tetsuya had.

I reached my index finger toward the bracelet but stopped. A powerful, almost divine mana radiated from it. Just who did Rosa and Yuko's soul belong to? Wait, Onami had told me back in Nine Petal that Camio had called Yuko 'sister' while posing as Itou. Assuming he was keeping in character with his father, that meant that whoever the girls originally were, it was someone of divine nature akin to Hanketsu and the archangels.

I pulled my hand back as the energy within the bracelet expanded, bending the space around it before repairing it. The angel tool was attempting to keep the power from leaking out into the world. My eyes dilated as I caught glimpses of clips. In some of them, Tetsu was hard at work making flan, while in another he was on his knees, crying as he clung to a blood soaked bunny that looked exactly like Conrad's Mr. Bun. N-no, that couldn't have been anything other than Mr. Bun. Serrano had made that plushie. But, why was Tetsuya holding on to it? W-what happened to Conrad?

"Xime? Xime!" Tetsu said, waving a hand over my eyes.

"Yes, what?" I said, shaking my head.

"You okay? You blanked out just now."

I stood up and glanced at Conrad as he looked over his brother. If what I saw is a vision of the future, then does that mean that something bad happens to him? In which case, how does it happen? Argh, this is why I'm not fond of vision fragments, they're always so vague. But to actually experience one...

My eyes widened as I looked back at the girls. Visions, why had the bracelet shown me a glimpse of the future? As far as I was a aware of, Caelio lacked the ability of foresight. And if it wasn't the angel tool itself at work, then it had to be the energy within it. A divine nature and the ability to see the future... could it be that the two were fragments of Fate?

But, even when working together, I'd never sensed anything like this from there two of them. It was as if the other shards of her soul had come together into one space. If so, then had Caelio drawn all of them together to assist Rosa with her trial? Was that why Yuko had fainted as well? Or was there more to it than that?

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Thoughts? Theories? Predictions? Next chapter is the finale of this book! See you in three days, God willing.**