Chapter 29: The Place We Call Home

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Lloyd coughed as the two entered the old castle in Del.

"Dear god, we walked into a lot of old places lately, but this-" Lloyd coughed again "This is the worst." he turned to Aria who was running her hand along the wall "I thought we agreed to never come here?!"

"You said you were coming with me," Aria responded with a shrug.

"Not here though!" Lloyd argues.

"The door's over there," Aria points to it with a smile.

"You're heartless!" Lloyd shouts

"Boo Hoo," Aria mocks

"To think I was worried about you," Lloyd turns away from her with his arms crossed. "Ah!" he jumped when he opened his eyes to see Aria standing in front of him "What do you want?!"

"Thank you," Aria responds with a smile "for being worried about me."

"Y-yeah," Lloyd blushes and looks away.

Aria began opening the curtains of the castle, Lloyd doing the same on the other side of the main hall. In the center of the grand stairs was yet another picture of what they assumed was Layla and Svern, the Overlord.

"Man, they really were a happy couple." Lloyd comments

"Of course," Aria says happily.

Lloyd walked over and started dusting off the dirty picture "Aria!"

Aria ran up the stairs and stopped beside Lloyd, staring at the picture.

"That's-"

"Us!" Lloyd shouts in shock

"I told you we should've stayed out of this creepy place!" Lloyd turns to her "Aria!" she was staring at the picture; Lloyd shook her shoulder "Hey, are you listening to me?!"

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"I told you we should've stayed out of this creepy place!" Lloyd turns to her "Aria!" she was staring at the picture; Lloyd shook her shoulder "Hey, are you listening to me?!"

"Shush," Aria pushes him.

"This is just like that creepy temple that told our future!" Lloyd shivers "I wanna leave."

"Stop your whining," Aria turns away from the painting and walks up the stairs.

"We don't know what's up there!" Lloyd runs after her "Idiot wait for me!"

The two looks through the different rooms, nothing else unusual except pictures of Aria's parents and pictures of them when they were little.

"Why would our pictures be here though?!" Lloyd questions completely creeped out. "I know this was your parent's castle, but we weren't here. We were in your mother's manor!"

"Maybe my mother visited this place before her death and put her keepsakes in here." Aria tells him "Stop being a whiny bitch."

"Hey!" Lloyd shouts

Aria walks over to the center balcony and opened the doors. Lloyd followed her outside, Aria went to the rail and breathed in the air with a smile on her face.

"You really wanna stay here, don't you?" Lloyd questions with a sigh.

"Mhm," Aria nods.

"Then, it is what it is." Lloyd smiles as he finally gave in.

Lloyd walked over and sat on the rail beside Aria, the two looked out at the ruined city not far out from the castle.

"So," Lloyd broke the silence "What's the plan?"

"We're going to rebuild my father's kingdom," Aria replies as she turns to him "and reclaim our land."

"Then, let's do it." Lloyd agrees.

"We need allies first," Aria sighs "and my father doesn't have many of those."

"Well, it's a good thing we're here then." Lloyd says as he looks back out at the ruined city. "I'm sure we'll find something to help us. This is your family's home after all."

Aria looks over at him as the wind blew through his hair, Aria blushes and turns back to look at the view.

"It's not just my family's home Lloyd," Aria says "It's ours too."

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