Alive || 86: Eighty-Six [ vers. ENG ]

welcome home

The streets of the First Sector did not bring back any memories. After all, Charlize rarely went out. She didn't even know the way back to her home. The place where she was born and raised was nothing more than a distant memory. Fortunately, the directions Lena had given her allowed her to identify it.

A gate with an iron hyacinth in the center...

Many years had passed since the building had been constructed. The first person to set foot there was an ancestor of her father's family. Generation after generation, the children of the De Saint-Vincent family lived there until they reached adulthood. Only the successor could claim rights to the property. Thirty years earlier, Ambroise De Saint-Vincent, an only child, had taken over the reins of the family. Today, there was officially no one who could inherit the estate or claim the wealth of this family, which had died out ten years ago.

"It's smaller than I remember."

Charlize looked at her childhood home from the gate. The west side was completely intact. However, the opposite side had lost part of its roof. Some of the fighting had taken place in the surrounding area. As a result, several buildings on this street had suffered damage, some minor, some major.

"How am I supposed to get to the other side?"

The low wall surrounding the property wasn't that high. The problem was the fence posts. They were quite pretty, but their sharp spikes made them quite dangerous... One false move could result in a bad injury.

Without a key, there weren't many options... Would it be better to pick the lock on the gate? But how?

Charlize placed her bouquets of flowers on the snow. She grabbed the gate firmly and shook it. She hoped it was in much worse condition than it looked.

A failure.

"Ahh, watch out! There's a not-so-skilled burglar around here!"

What a bother...

Charlize turned to face her friends. She didn't bother responding to the provocations.

"You took your time."

"Yeah, well, we did our best. A lot of streets are blocked. Colonel Arenberg had to escort us here," explained Theo.

"I see, I see..."

Shin walked to the gate. Without making a sound, of course. Even with all that snow, it was difficult to hear the snow crunching under his shoes.

"The gate is closed."

"But it's not very high," he replied, gauging the height with his eyes.

Shin took off his coat. He placed it on top of the low walls surrounding the property. Then he climbed over.

With his hand outstretched, he first helped Raiden across to the other side. From there, he helped Charlize, then Kurena, and finally Anju, so they could climb down without hurting themselves. The other two then crossed over.