Shall We Date? War of Prayers — Liam Let’s Play and Review, part 01

From the moment I laid eyes on Liam, I knew I had to learn his story. His melancholy smile demands your attention. What is his story? Does he, too, have a past that haunts him like Christopher? And how does Christopher link to his past?

I played through Christopher’s story first. I did a spoiler-free review of his, but be aware that certain things may end up being revealed in this Let’s Play that pertain to his route.

In the prologue, you learn Angela Rampling (I renamed her Aurora Angeli in my playthrough) has been chosen by a crystal to become the next prayer maiden. She is taken to Sanctum and must choose a knight to protect her before assuming prayer maiden duties. Prayer maidens battle the shadows, formless monsters, that are ravaging the entire world. The prologue is free, so I’m not going to cover it here.

This Let’s Play is going to cover the “Alone Together” ending. The spoiler-free review along with the “Prayer Maiden” ending will be posted at the end of the Let’s Play.

Liam’s story starts where the prologue leaves off. Troy, the head minister of Sanctum, asks Aurora to pick a knight to protect her. She attempts to activate her Crystal, but it doesn’t respond to any of the potential knights.

This baffles Troy. He wonders if there is a crystal weakening and she was to replace it (there’s only one crystal per region) and that’s why she can’t figure out who it is. Aurora doesn’t think that’s the case. She can sense the others and they all seem well.

Liam interrupts them. Troy determines Aurora belongs to no land and she is to remain in Sanctus. He asks Liam to be her caretaker in the meantime. Liam’s off-put by this, but he doesn’t let it show in front of Troy.

Liam is the greatest suturomancy practitioner in all of Sanctus, so if they run into shadows, he can help Aurora fight. Suturomancy is sewing… magically. If I’m lucky he’ll suturomance me up a new wardrobe!

Sora, our resident flying mascot Chihuahua-with-wings, also tags along, much to Liam’s chagrin.

Liam tries to negotiate a raise to compensate for his increased food bill, but he fails.

Before they go to Liam’s house, Liam needs to stop by the clothier to get supplies for a job. The manager, Enos, teases Aurora by asking if she’s Liam’s boyfriend. Aurora tells him she’s the new prayer maiden and everyone in the shop cheers. Enos starts questioning her about anything and everything related to prayer maidens.

Aurora is getting pretty flustered so Liam backs her up. He snaps at Enos, telling him to stop asking so many questions. Enos laughs it off and apologizes, saying it’s his first time talking to a prayer maiden. Liam is fed up over the commotion and decides to leave before finishing his errand.

Liam is annoyed and not talking to her. Sora chides her for saying she was a prayer maiden in public. It could invite danger to her.

And like a movie, the shadows appear! It’s morphin’ time!

Aurora is shocked there are shadows in the holy city Sanctus. Liam notes that where there are people, there are shadows, in what I can only imagine is his incredibly dry tone. Up to this point he’s read so dry I’ve started to read his lines in a British accent.

The people in the square go wild and start running away. Aurora is shoved to the ground. Liam barks at Sora to go to the castle and get a knight, any knight. He picks Aurora up and starts weaving through the crowd. One of the people in the crowd starts yelling at her, “You’re a prayer maiden, aren’t you!? Save us!”

Aurora tears up and says she doesn’t have a knight, therefore she can’t transform.

“You can’t save us? Then what good are you? Prayer maidens have one job, and that’s saving people, dammit!”

Liam says, “What does he know anyway?” but it does little to calm Aurora. She asks him if there’s anything she can do, but he tells her without a knight she’s nothing but a target for the shadows.

That gives her the absolutely brilliant idea to become a target for the shadows. She waves the shadows over, drawing them away from the crowd to her. She starts running away and Liam jumps in. “Your sentiment is very admirable, but you’re too vulnerable as it stands. I cannot allow you to fight.”

He takes out two giant needles and basically uses them as twin dirks, slicing and dicing his way through shadows. A shadow moves to attack him from the back. Aurora jumps between them. The crystal glows a deep purple color, banishing the shadow. The other shadows move in. Liam weaves a magical cage that serves as a barrier.

Liam is shocked. “Aurora, what is your crystal doing?”

Troy said crystals choose their knights, so… Liam, let’s get this party started! Moon Prism Power, Make Up!!!

He mentions he is no knight, and eyes the crystal with apprehension. Aurora begs him to try and see what happens. He notes that it’s a dark crystal before commanding her to come into his arms. She does and he touches the crystal.

Ah, there’s the look that drew me in. That melancholy look, that sort of forlorn cynicism, it’s enchanting.

He pulls out a wand from her chest. She transforms into a prayer maiden.

OH I GET THAT REFERENCE

Her and Liam tag team it up and destroy shadows left and right.

As a finisher, Liam sews the portal that’s spewing shadows shut and it’s over.

And what do the townspeople say? Thank you, prayer maiden? You did a good job, prayer maiden? The town is safe now?

No.

zOMGWTF YOUR DARK CRYSTAL IS CURSED YOU ACCURSED WITCH OF THE RUINED KINGDOM

And that is the story of how I became a magical girl only to become the villain in the first episode. Not really. But that would be a fun twist on the usual magical girl show, wouldn’t it? Anyone want to team up and write a manga??

Liam beckons. “Come. It seems we need to have a talk with Troy.”

His nonchalant attitude unnerves Aurora, but before she can say anything, Sora returns. He’s shocked that the shadows are gone and Aurora transformed. Aurora ignores him. The dark crystal in her chest is still glowing…

End of chapter one

Sora is still rambling in surprise. Liam explains things rather well – “Yes, well, things happened.”

Matthew and Evans are equally shocked.

Yeah, don’t go poking eyes out with that power stick of yours.

Apparently Evans is serious and new kid on the block is now the number one most powerful magical girl around. Evans and Matthew lavish praise upon her, and she turns to Liam, who says flatly, “Pure coincidence.”

I would like everyone to know his complete and utter sarcastic remarks are killing me and I am in love.

Matthew wonders if Liam has the potential to be a knight. Liam shoots that down, of course. They agree to go talk to Troy. Liam keeps staring at her chest crystal with a pensive gaze.

Perhaps Liam came from the ruined kingdom?

Troy also thinks Liam has the making of a knight after hearing the story. Liam is not happy. He protests, and Troy continues to persuade him to become a knight for her.

Meanwhile, Aurora took it to mean she has to learn Liam’s craft and panics about learning suturomancy because she is horrible at sewing. She reasons that Liam is a powerful guy, so he must be able to teach her well (wut? Everything about him right now that I’ve seen has told me I do NOT want this guy as a preceptor…) and thus, Troy decrees she is to stay with Liam.

Liam says nothing on their way to his house. Aurora tries to make small talk, but he’s unresponsive. They enter his home, he points to where she can stay, says he has work to do, and leaves.

Aurora wonders if he doesn’t want to be her knight (OBVIOUSLY) or if he’s acting that way because she’s staying on such short notice. Either way, his attitude bums her out. Sora tries to cheer her up, but both end up lost in thought.

As the sun sets, Liam comes back into the room. He gifts her a hairpiece made of lace.  Aurora puts it in her hair. She asks how it looks on her and her stomach replies with a loud grumble. Liam smiles. “That was Sora, wasn’t it?” Aurora takes the pass and shifts the blame to Sora. Sora, however, is not happy about being falsely accused…

Liam and Aurora make dinner together. They work as a pretty good team together, but Aurora’s nerves get the best of her and she brings her mood down. Finally, she if she’s made him mad. He replies that he’s spent a long time alone and he’s not used to having a partner around. He apologizes, Aurora apologizes for making assumptions, everything is kosher.

But now, after dinner, they rest in the living room and neither can speak. It’s a pretty awkward silence. Sora tries to get the party started by asking about food. Liam says they should play “Four true, one false”. Basically he’s going to say five statements and Aurora has to figure out which one is false.

Liam’s statements:

1. I live alone.
2. I enjoy the rain.
3. I love pot-au-feu.
4. I’m a tailor.
5. I hate lying.

Which one do you think it is?
Side note because I had to look it up — Pot-au-feu is a French feast of vegetables and cuts of meat boiled in a savory broth and is traditionally served in courses, beginning with the bone marrow on toast and following with the broth and the meats and vegetables.

Aurora guesses pot-au-feu is false, reasoning that huge meal is time consuming and makes too much food for a single person to eat.

BZZT

Pot-au-feu is one of his favorite dishes.

He hates the rain. It messes up the cloth’s texture and makes his job hard.

It’s Aurora’s turn. She says, “I bake a mean cherry pie. I’m bad at sewing. I hate sweets. I love cute things. I’m a prayer maiden.”

Obviously, the false answer is that she hates sweets. Liam gets it immediately. Aurora is shocked and asks how he realized it. Sora replies, “You’re a crappy liar.”

She says she loves sweets and her favorite is her very own cherry pie. My girl! I, too, enjoy my homemade sweets the most.

Liam says he rarely eats sweets and she tells him she’ll make him her pie sometime. It’s Sora’s turn and his comments are all about food and being a Chihuahua. His lie is that he’s an ordinary Chihuahua. He’s actually a brilliant Chihuahua.

They laugh. Aurora decides to tell Liam about the dream she had before becoming a prayer maiden. A beautiful girl told her to save the world. Liam asks about her. She starts describing her physical features and he leans closer, suddenly very interested in what she has to say. Totally sneaking a glance at her cleavage

But a customer interrupts them. Liam tells her where her bedroom is and says he’ll get a couch. Aurora doesn’t want to take his bed, but he says he works most of the night anyway so it doesn’t matter. Aurora goes into his room and lays down. She offers to share the bed with Sora but he objects because he’s a male Chihuahua. Err, okay…

Aurora is impressed that he has customers calling day and night. Sora says he’s the finest tailor in addition to a suturomancer, so he has a lot of customers.

Wait.

So he designs all the magical girl attire.

So this

And this

And this

Are his works?

 

…

 

I KNEW HE WAS STARING AT HER TITS.

 

Back to the story, Aurora wonders how she can help him, and Sora, of course, says she should cook for him. I agree. I think cooking for someone shows how much you love them!

With that, they fall asleep.

End of Chapter Two

Chapter Three begins with Aurora and Sora waking up early. Liam is sleeping on the couch, so they decide to get breakfast. Breakfast, toast and jam, is already set out on the table. Liam ate breakfast before going to bed. He left a note saying, Got work after breakfast. I’ll show you around the island if you like. And also, in tiny script at the bottom, Looking forward to working with you.

Awwwwww ~

In a good mood thanks to Liam’s note, Aurora cleans the kitchen up for him. As she goes back into the living room, Liam’s kicked the blanket off. She tries to put it back on him, but he says “thanks” and scares the bejeezus out of her.

Sora teases her and says her stomach growling woke Liam up. Aurora gets indignant and counters that she just ate breakfast, so of course her tummy wouldn’t growl. Liam laughs and says he was a light sleeper, so he woke up.

He has to go into town today, so while he’s there he offers to show her around. They stop at the cloth store first. Enos has a bunch of new fabrics to show Liam. While he’s looking Enos talks to Aurora. He asks her a bunch of questions about being a prayer maiden and today she’s able to answer him. However, when he starts pressing about the crystal, and about how it’s cursed, she becomes nervous. Liam steps in and says he’s ready to checkout, sparing her.

They go to the town square where children surround Liam. How shocking. He didn’t seem like the type to have the patience to deal with children.

But it’s no wonder when he starts handing out handmade plush animals. He’s a like a year-round Santa Claus.

A boy asks him to embroider his name on his toy, which he does, but when it comes to give the toy back, he uses his magic and charms the doll into moving. Then he does it to all the animals. It’s a zoo of dancing plushies.

The mental image of this is too much for my mortal existence.

After the puppet show they have lunch. Aurora talks about the food and Liam takes the opportunity to tease her about her love of food. She replies that she used to be a waitress, so perhaps she’s a workaholic at heart. Liam responds that he thinks of aprons when he thinks of waitresses, so perhaps he is one as well. I’d love to see how he sneaks in his -ahem- design preferences into an apron.

On that note, here come the shadows. Aurora gets into high gear and is ready to transform, but Liam stops her. Unlike the hollow (portal) yesterday, shadows aren’t pouring out and attacking people. A swirling vortex wind tries to sweep Aurora into the portal.

Liam helps her transform. After she transforms, shadows appear. She starts doing her dark magic and the townspeople start talking sh*t. Really? REALLY? Here she is, saving your useless existence — so useless you don’t even get a name with your dialogue, villager 1 and 2 — and you still talk. Hmph. Let them suffer a little before saving them or something. Rude!

They make short work of the hollow, and as it’s closing, a voice rings out. “Not… Yet….”

Liam freezes into place and stares at it too. I’m glad I’m not the only one freaked out by that.

The portal closes and once again the nameless haters start hating. Their words are breaking poor Aurora’s heart, so Liam asks if she wants to take a detour before going home. They go to the highest point in the temple. The view is amazing. Aurora is immediately cheered up.

Liam lets her enjoy the view for a moment before bringing up the past. Two years ago, there was another kingdom in addition to Albus, Sapphirus, Viridis, and Granatus named Nox. It was the most prosperous kingdom in all the land, but now it’s under the dominion of Shadows. Its people moved to the other kingdoms during its destruction. The princess of Nox used the same dark crystal Aurora has, and she used all of her power to save her people, at expense of her own life.

Aurora wonders why she has the same crystal as the Nox princess, and Liam says when a prayer maiden dies, the crystal shatters. It’s not the same, but he wonders why she has an affinity for the Nox crystal, especially since she is from Granatus, not Nox.

But that explains why her crystal is called cursed, because it’s from the ruined kingdom.

Liam tells her that he’s not saying she’s cursed, rather, the princess was a wonderful person who gave her life for others. Her crystal is the same because they both have that selfless love inside them, the same disposition.

“Some say darkness and shadows are all alike, but… Aurora, your crystal is a gentle color. The color of night. Perhaps the night darkens the skies to help people rest their weary bodies from a long day’s work. If it darkens things for someone’s benefit, then that makes the night a kind thing indeed.”

Aurora thanks him and they watch the sunset in silence. Not an awkward one, but a companionable one. When night falls Liam uses his magic to form a fairy. He tells her the fairies only come out at night. The fairy is a little sassy and says the night makes her look good ! (As in her beautiful glow is brighter) Liam tells Aurora the night is where everything comes home to. Aurora teases him for being a smooth talker and he gets flustered again.

End of chapter three

Liam’s job takes him to Sapphirus, and they get to take a pegasus there!

They go to the castle and we meet the other prayer maidens.

 

I am beginning to think their powers are proportional to their bust size

Liam does some suturomancy and mends their magical girl attire. This is the first time Aurora’s seen him do his tailoring magic, and she’s delighted. She compliments him, but he makes a tense expression and says nothing in reply. She asks him if anything’s wrong and he changes the subject and asks her to go shopping for him.

By time she gets back, Liam has left to do some other errands. Her and the other girls talk about battle strategies and how they coordinate with their knights. Melissa brings up marriage, and Zoe says that prayer maidens are not supposed to fall in love, so the subject changes to how knights earn their position. They have to duel, and should they win, a forum in Sanctus evaluates them. Melissa says even if Liam isn’t a knight, he has knightly qualities, so that’s what matters in the end.

The other visiting princesses leave and they have dinner. When it’s over, shadows appear. Aurora is gung-ho to defeat the shadows but Liam is less than pleased. It’s understandable. He’s been working all day, and Zoe and Evans are more than capable of handling it themselves.

They go out and fight, and while fighting, one of the shadows eats another shadow and becomes stronger. They’ve never seen that before. The battle is over. Aurora is still eager to do some shadow hunting, and Liam snaps at her. “I’m no knight, and I have a full schedule of tailoring work tomorrow.”

Evans tells her he and Zoe can do report the shadows to Troy, but Aurora is stubborn and insists on going. Liam walks off and leaves her, saying he still has work to do.

Aurora accompanies Evans and Zoe to survey the rest of the area for shadows. They see a shadow trying to merge with a man. They save the man and kill the shadow. When it’s over, Aurora goes to report to Liam. He’s in the middle of working. The situation fails to faze him and she is frustrated at his responses.

I don’t now how the game expects me to feel right now.  Things we’ve established so far in the story:

• Liam works all night
• Liam is in high demand, so much so he travels to the other countries to work at order of Troy, the defacto leader of all the kingdoms
• At this point, he has been up working the night before, worked all day, went to fight shadows, then went back and kept working, and as we’re having this conversation he is working

“He’s snapping at me” “He rolls his eyes” He’s basically giving her the good old Harrison Ford

HE’S TIRED. He works all day long and all night long and has to fight shadows and still —  AND STILL finds time to take her out and do things for her like cook and make sure she’s kept happy along with everyone else on the planet that wants a piece of him.

Get off his case. You aren’t the only magical girl around. You need to rely on your comrades too. We can’t do everything by ourselves!

 

Anyway, so Aurora thinks they should be out helping people all the time and Liam disagrees. When she keeps pressing the matter, he finally has enough and throws the embroidery to the floor, saying unless she can guarantee she won’t be hurt fighting the shadows, she shouldn’t fight them at all. His face is contorted into a miserable expression and he starts doing a spell, fixing her battle wounds.

Aurora wonders if he would respect her if she obtained more power.

End of chapter four

It’s late now, and so they’re staying the night at Sapphiris. Liam hasn’t spoken to Aurora since their fight.

Aurora wonders if he’s mad because she kept acting self-important when she couldn’t hold her own in a fight. Sora doesn’t know and reassures Aurora, saying she can’t handle herself in battle because she doesn’t have experience. (All the more reason she shouldn’t try to do it all herself) She wonders how she can tell Liam how she feels, but decides to wait until he’s blown off all his steam and let him initiate things. Sora tells her don’t hold her breath waiting, so she compromises by waiting until morning to talk to him.

She wakes up and Liam is already ready to go. She tells him good morning and he returns her greeting and tells her she should have breakfast before they go. Aurora apologizes for her behavior yesterday. Liam seems like he’s in an awkward spot and doesn’t know what to say. Sora interrupts them and starts barking about food (as usual). He and Aurora argue about how much they’re supposed to eat and who’s taking what. Liam starts laughing. Aurora tries to apologize again, but he cuts her off, saying he was worked up after battle and he’ll join her with a cup of coffee.

Aurora thinks he was more than just worked up, and decides she needs to get to know him better so she can better read his moods and understand him.

Back in Sanctus, Liam goes to work and Aurora is at the market square. She wants to make Liam something sweet to eat, saying sweets are best when you’re weary. That’s pretty thoughtful. I hope he likes it.

A Hollow appears. Aurora tells Sora to go get Liam. A shadow arm grabs her and starts pulling her inside. Sora struggles to help, but he can’t do much as a Chihuahua. Aurora orders him to get Liam, and Sora relents and flies away. The Hollow sucks her inside.

She is now in a forest. The shadow isn’t attacking her. While trying to reason out that oddity, it starts trying to reach for her crystal. She covers her crystal with her hand, but the shadow slips between the cracks of her fingers.

Everything in her screams in pain. The crystal is struggling to reject the shadow and she’s bearing the brunt of it. The pain becomes too much and she weakens. The shadow starts to pull the crystal out.

The hairpiece Liam gave her starts glowing and repels the shadow. Aurora scampers backwards.

“Aurora!” Liam yells.

He and Sora rush to her. Aurora tells him the shadow tried to take her crystal but his hairpiece saved her. Liam hushes her and tells Sora to take her away. Aurora objects, but Liam tells her gently, “You’re trying too hard.”

His caring tone makes her blush. He continues, “Aurora, you have me and Sora with you. Don’t take things on yourself.”

His words bring her to tears. Sora tells her she can cry later. She asks Liam to draw her power out and he obliges. Liam tells her to focus on defense and he’ll take care of the shadow. She creates a barrier around her and he goes on the attack.

She notices he’s not attacking it directly, rather, is playing it with it, studying its movements. He notes, “Empty obsession. It seems to have emotion, but little in the way of intelligence.”

Satisfied with that, he tears the shadow to shreds with his needle dirks and closes the hollow.

Liam asks if she’s hurt. Aurora explains what happened again. Liam is silent before a moment before taking her hand and helping her stand.

They report what happened to Troy. Troy immediately orders and emergency summons to all knights and prayer maidens. They’re going to meet tomorrow.

The game segues straight into the next day. Matthew, Melissa, Evans, Zoe, Simon, and Sophia are there. Also there is Mamoru, knight of Viridis. I don’t think we’ve seen him since the prologue? Or perhaps not yet? He appeared in Christopher’s route, so I’m having trouble remembering, sorry. Anyway, Christopher is also there, but at this point she’s never met him so he’s dubbed “A knight identical to Matthew”.

 

Mamoru says the Viridis prayer guardian is too sick to come. (Interesting that they used guardian instead of maiden. I wonder if this was just a translation error or if it’s a male?)

Matthew introduces Aurora to his twin brother, Christopher. She tells them it’s neat that they’re both knights, but they don’t seem to share her enthusiasm. Christopher says he happened to be in the area and stopped by, then turns away curtly. Rude!

Troy begins the meeting. He says he thought it was impossible for shadows to have a will of their own, but since one targeted a crystal, he has to revisit that theory. He tells them to be extra careful in dealing with the shadows.

Mamoru brings up the fact that Liam isn’t a knight. He wonders if he’ll be able to protect Aurora. Evans adds that with Liam’s recent outbursts, he wouldn’t nominate him for knighthood, despite having the proper affinity. Matthew agrees, saying Liam is talented, but lacks the disposition to be a knight.

Liam says nothing in his defense.

Jeeessssuuussssss that’s like, one of my worst nightmares. To have to sit there and hear everyone put you on blast after all you’ve done for them. smh damn…. I would end up crying

Aurora is also put at unease at their words. She thinks Liam’s doing a fine job, but she’s too afraid to say anything. She notices Christopher staring at her crystal. She asks him if he’s intrigued by the color. He confirms and offers to be her knight.

Liam pounds the table.

Liam has a tone of voice Aurora has never heard before. He’s practically screaming his words. I really want to know what happened in the past. I have a feeling it will be heartbreaking to read, but, there’s so many dark clouds here, the storm is going to be quite a doozy.

Troy diffuses the situation. He then sticks up for Liam, saying he is not a knight, but he believes it is safe to leave her in his care. Aurora looks to Liam, and he tells her that it’s her decision.

“Liam’s the only one who can draw out my wand and he does a solid job of keeping me safe. And I would like to remain with Liam, if I may.”

Liam seems conflicted by her words, not happy. She wonders why he keeps wearing that expression around her. They spend the rest of the meeting talking about the shadows.

When it’s over, Aurora goes by herself to the garden to think. There are many things she wonders about, Mamoru and Christopher for one, but Liam is forefront on her list of concerns. Is it really okay for him to be her knight, if he isn’t one officially? She also doesn’t want to make his life harder than it already is. She sighs heavily and a voice calls out, “You’ll sigh out every bit of happiness you have.”

It’s Liam.

He tells her, ‘If you trust your life to a non-knight like me, you’ll die.”

Maybe I’m hormonal or something, but this is breaking my heart and making me tear up. Do you guys think I’m crazy?  So much of his route so far is said in subtext. He is angry because he cares about her.  He does everything he can to make sure she’s safe. He’s bad at communicating with words, but his actions project his feelings.

She disagrees. “You protected me even yesterday. I have faith in you. What bothers me is what Mamoru said, about what happens to you if you don’t protect me.”

Liam’s eyes widen and he gives her a sad smile. He tells her she likes doing things the hard way. His sadness bothers Aurora. Thinking back, he always seems conflicted, like he wears two different emotions on his face at all times. The one he projects to the world, and the one that he truly feels.

“The kind of unbalance that comes from hiding your feelings, getting used to it, and letting it twist you.”

Liam asks if she wants to go back to their home. Hearing him call it “theirs” makes her happy and eases her worries. Saying it like that makes it seem like he wants her with him as well, and he’s okay with her staying with him.

Aurora says she’ll cook them dinner and he says he’d prefer a hot meal. As they’re walking back, Sora comes and tells them Troy needs to speak with the two of them urgently.

Liam doesn’t seem surprised by this, which is a tad odd. But he tells Sora to go ahead of them and go home, and they’ll be back soon. Troy orders Liam to take Aurora along when he goes on his ‘rat hunts’. Liam accepts his order with a strained smile.

end of chapter five

After Liam accepts the order, Troy adds, “Let it be known that I nominated you as Aurora’s knight because I was fully confident that Aurora would be safest that way.” Liam bows again, wearing that same unbalanced smile.

They go back home and see someone standing in front of it, knocking urgently. Liam recognizes the person as someone who contracted him for a tailoring job. He tells her to turn around and they’ll have tea until he leaves. Aurora asks if he’s leaving work behind and he replies that his order isn’t due until the future, and he’s probably stopping by to speed him along.

Aurora teases him, calling him a child who forgot his homework and is making up excuses. Liam blushes and tells her he’s not running behind. They sneak off to a cafe. Liam relaxes and nurses a cup of coffee as Aurora eats an apple pie. She asks him about the ‘rat hunt’.

He leans close and pulls out a piece of cloth covered in dots. He puts on a lazy smile and tells her that he made this especially for her. His sudden intimacy is making Aurora flustered. He whispers in her ear, “Play along, would you? We can’t have others overhearing this.”

His words are heard, for certain, but she’s still head-over-heels in la-la land. The little things, like his long eyelashes, or his slender fingers…  Her heart is beating furiously and she sits there, a flustered little tomato, slave to her feelings. Their eyes meet.

Liam’s eyes widen and he asks “What is it?” innocently, naive to the conundrum going on inside her.  Aurora’s relieved he’s a bit of a doof when it comes to that sort of thing. He brushes his fingertips over the cloth and words appear. “Seek out traitors” She looks at him in horror and he returns her expression with a neutral smile and calmly puts the cloth away.

Aurora remembers that she’s supposed to be playing along. She looks down and shyly says, “Oh, Liam!”

 

This is as hilarious as it is cute as it is kyaaaa. “Oh, Liam!” is just so ridiculously cheesy. But that sultry look of his and those words, even fake, just  …!!

He holds her hand and she squeezes back, which makes him blush.

But the complexity in his mood only creates a pang inside…

They’re walking home now and Aurora asks about the magic used to create the words on the cloth. The dots dyed on the cloth were rearranged into words using magic. She asks him about his true job, and he says, “I work under Troy. I gather cloth and information. I’m a bad liar. I hate being pressured. I’m just a tailor.”

At first his statement sounds confusing (and I reread it several times because it was such an odd thing to say) but Aurora remembers the game they played when they first met, four true, one false.

She laughs and says that his lie is being a bad liar. His acting was perfection at the cafe. Liam laughs and teases her by saying her acting was horrible. They go back-and-forth a bit with the teasing.

Aurora thinks that she’s the only one outside of Troy who knows about Liam’s true mission and decides to keep it close to her heart.

Sora is not a happy camper by time they make it home. Then Aurora mentions that they stopped by a cafe to hide which is NOT the thing you say to a hangry person LOL While Sora’s throwing a tantrum Liam is all ‘im out’ and goes to work, and Aurora tries to calm him by saying she’ll make a meal.

She asks Liam what he wants and Sora’s all “You’re not asking me!?” all indigent like.

Liam pauses and says, “Pot-au-feu”.

Aurora spends the rest of the afternoon making the meal. Once it’s finished, she goes to get Liam. But right as she’s about to open the door, he opens the door. “Something smells good.”

“Aack! I was just about to come get you!”

“And I was just about to come check up and see if it’s done.”

Cuuuuuuuuttttttttteeeeeeeeeee~~~

They sit to eat and Sora eats like the pig he is (haha). Liam takes a bite and seems to freeze up. Aurora asks if he doesn’t like it, but he just quietly notes that it’s been a long time since anyone made him pot-au-feu. It takes several more bites and says it has a warm flavor.

Be still my heart!!!  Look how happy he looks! I can’t, I just can’t!!

Aurora and Sora feel the same way, because they’re staring at Liam as though he grew a third eye. He gets an awkward look on his face and he’s all ‘what?’. Aurora blushes and starts eating again, saying “Nothing!”

Liam starts laughing. “You’ve got cheeks like a hamster.”
I hold my hand over my cheeks. “Well, so are yours!” Liam’s cheeks are as puffed out as mine.

“What can I say? It’s good.”

“Man, you two are hopeless. You should have more manners when you eat!” Sora interjects, puffing out his cheeks wider than either of us. We all look at each other and gulp down our food. Then we all laugh.

After the meal Sora goes to sleep, Liam goes back to work, and Aurora cleans up the kitchen. She finds a note from Liam that says “That was seasoned perfectly.” His letters look a little more rounded, less strict, and she wonders if its due to his good mood at dinner. The thought brings her happiness.

After she finishes cleaning, her, Liam, and Sora gather for a little evening coffee break. Liam begins telling them about his secret mission. The ‘rat hunt’ is searching for a group of traitors called Rebellion —

That is the most obvious name ever. Like, why even call yourself that? “Oh we’re supposed to be a secret group let’s call ourselves Rebellion” Like how freaking dumb are you? You deserve to be ratted out, you piss-poor rebellers! What are you rebelling against anyway? THE MAN? wait there is no man here THE MAIDEN

I’m against the maiden, man, she has the crystal and is like so powerful ain’t no one supposed to have all that power and the illuminati knight maiden council — okay I’ll stop
Thankfully, Aurora is not a complete airhead for once. “Wait, who are they rebelling against?”

Liam replies, “Rebellion opposes the prayer maiden system and they occasionally act as a thorn in the temple’s side.”

THE MAIDEN IS KEEPING US ALL DOWN, MAN.

Aurora isn’t really understanding what he means by that. Sora replies, “I can see where they’re coming from. Basically they want to lighten the burden we put on prayer maidens.”

Aurora asks what burden and Sora replies the shadows. But also, once they’re declared prayer maiden, they act as a ruler.

Hmm, I thought the princess nomenclature was just fancy pudding, considering if they’re actually ruling normally you’d use “queen”, but then again in both this route and Christopher’s they’re not directly connected to a country and I wouldn’t see that side of things.

Aurora says they have a point, but doesn’t think violence is a way to do things. Sora notes that any other way would fall on death ears. Aurora’s anxiety shows on her face, and Liam comforts her by reminding her he’s responsible for protecting her. Aurora tells him that she feels safer with him around.

On that note, Liam goes back to work while Sora and Aurora prepare for bed. As they’re about to go say goodnight to Liam, someone knocks on the door. Aurora answers it and sees a strange man. Liam comes out and says “I’m caught…”

uhhhh we’re not going to get a surprise battle or something right?
It’s the same guy that’s bugging Liam to finish whatever it is he’s making for him. ~phew~ Jeeeeeeeezzzzz who the hell gonna go knocking on the doors in the middle of the night DO YOU NOT HAVE A LIFE

Liam asks Aurora to make him scram but she prods him to tell him that himself. He may just want a little thing and he’s been dodging him for no reason. Liam tells her to go ahead and go to bed and he’ll take care of that guy.

The ‘rat hunt’. Traitors. Rebellion… I learned a lot of unsettling new terms today. But I’ll be okay as long as I’m with Liam. We can handle this.

End of Chapter Six

To be continued in the next post….

I love this route so far! Usually the Let’s Plays I can gloss over a  lot of stuff, but in his route nearly everything he says or does is comment worthy.

Would you like more screenshots as I go through, or is directly quoting it fine? Let me know in the comments! It takes awhile to do these, but I’m going to try and have the next part out in a few days. Thank you for reading!

PART TWO clickey clickey~