Holy Templar Sanctum (Aincrad)

[Apollymi]

The words of Roland hit the ears of Bradamante, but before she could even comment on it, he took it back seeming to realize how very outlandish he was in saying such a things. "This is why people think you're a pervert, Lando." she commented. "And if you take off your clothes, I'm going to trip you again." she said. Moving on, the tall man who was a recent convert seemed to not think about it too much and claimed that Charles, as he called him was worth believing in at least. "Exactly, our leader is worth believing in, if nothing else," there was a gentle nod from the blonde woman with the ponytail and then they were going to gather their things and all of that.

In the meantime, on the 99th Floor there was a woman with blonde and blue hair who was once again, sitting on the top floor of one her towers. It'd been a few days, and she'd managed to use her observatory to collect some mana. As such, she was once again trying to hear the voice she felt reaching out to her. It was a lot more complicated than she needed it to be. She could hear it this time, in the back of her mind, almost like a whisper. Or like the feeling that makes the hairs on the back of one's neck stand up. Her eyes were closed and she was trying to open her senses enough to hear it clearly but... It wasn't to be, again. Instead she felt the arrival of a presence she hadn't felt in decades. Her eyes opened immediately and she was both uniquely excited and a tiny bit upset. So then what was she to do? Sit and think, now she was tapping her foot and waiting he was bound to make it to her in a relatively short amount of time.

[Bloodedge]

Upon his arrival to the 99th floor of Aincrad, Charlemagne was... confused. He looked ahead to see what looked nothing like the Sapphire Palace. He thought maybe teleportation had taken him to the wrong floor, but he was standing at the same gate plaza he remembered. There were golden statues and ornamentations to accentuate a quartz castle. Was it really a few decades that he'd been gone? This all looked like a lifetime of work, or even more.

Either way, Charlemagne moved forward and crossed the long bridge. He took a casual stroll that allowed him to really take in how the sunlight bounced off the current castle. This was a massive upgrade to that unsightly blue thing, which itself would have been alright if not for how... very blue and sparkly it was. That thing looked like it was made of actual gemstones. At least the Ruby Palace was a bit dull. Obviously, the Holy Father thought to go a bit overboard with the palace meant for his daughter. Even so, it didn't compare to what Charlemagne saw before him now.

Where was the lady of the floor though? Charlemagne wasn't at all sure where to go in this new building. With that in mind, he stood in front of the main structure for several seconds before slightly cupping a hand at either side of his lips. A deep, deep breath ensued, and then... "ANGIE!"

[Apollymi]

While she initially thought the lad would make it to her in a timely manner. It hadn't truly escaped Luviagelita how long it had been since she had him as a visitor. He might not know where she could be found, but that part would become obvious in a moment. A call of Angie rang out in this place, causing a big grin to spread across the face of the young woman who sat in her throne. Only Charlemagne called her Angie, though the first to call her Angelica was long gone. At least he came to visit, though she didn't blame her other friend for their extended absence either. Ah, but what was she to do? Charlemagne had called for her and now she was snapping her fingers together a large diamond being created within her hands. Why?

Because just like Turpin a few days prior, she'd give the lad a rainbow bridge to climb up her tower and come to her. Of course she would, she still had to give him a piece of her mind after all. "I'm up here, come on up!" she exclaimed as that magical bridge would extend the gap between the two of them, she'd found herself accidently rising from her seat, beginning to pace. How would they greet? Why was she so very excited? Well, if she was being honest, Charlemagne was one of about two people who journeyed to her floor of their own accord just to hang out with her. They were a limited number of people she considered to be her friend.

[Bloodedge]

Charlemagne called out, and the princess of this particular castle answered with action. Before he heard a single word, there was a path of rainbow-colored solidified mana forming between himself and one of the castle's towers. As it manifested, Charlemagne heard the one he sought. What an interesting little way to do things. Well, if he had a very clear way of reaching the goal, he wasn't going to sit around waiting. She said to come up, so up he went.

The rainbow path was arguably longer than the bridge he'd crossed, but Charlemagne wasn't taking time for sights at this leg of the journey. He took off in full stride to run his way up. Closer and closer he drew to the tower. Unlike Turpin's earlier ascension of this very same path, Charlemagne cleared the trip in a matter of seconds. There he saw the girl called Angelica, near a throne but... pacing? Strange. Whatever reason she had to be moving around that way, it could be addressed after Charlemagne cleared the clutter of his mind gained since reaching this floor. "You redecorated! This place is the best-looking thing in Aincrad; great job!" he said before any manner of proper greeting passed his lips.

[Apollymi]

There was no slow walk upwards. Charlemagne made his way up only in a matter of seconds. Angelica had been about to explode upon sight but he had something that fell from his mouth long before she could have opened her own to deliver the verbal tongue lashing she wished. Her pacing came to a stop and she looked, genuinely surprised and abashed. "Really?! I'm glad you like it... it took a few decades to get everything worked out but...." a pause. Right. She was mad about how long it'd been since he last visited. They were supposed to be going somewhere together before now and he'd disappeared for a really long time.

"But what kind of time do you call this?! I've been waiting 30 YEARS, CHUCK! THIRTY YEARS!!!" she exclaimed. Ah, full circle it came and now her pacing made sense. She'd been waiting to jump down this lad's throat, but had been taken aback by his compliment and was thus disarmed for a few seconds longer than she intended. "You were supposed to take me to floor 70. We were supposed to go to the festival, but you didn't come back!" Yes that was firm. There was the softer unspoken bit. The part where she figured he'd forgotten about her or didn't want to see her or something of the sort. It wasn't like she had many visitors or anything, she couldn't really afford to go around making enemies of her friends.

[Bloodedge]

Angelica's modification to the 99th floor were appreciated by Charlemagne, and she seemed to take that very well. Doing something like this in a few decades was nothing to shake a stick at. She'd done a lot with a little. She deserved a great deal of praise for both effort and results, and it seemed she would take said praise... until she paused. Charlemagne didn't even have the time to inhale and brace himself. He knew an outburst was coming; he tried and failed to mentally prepare for it.

Thirty years. For some humans remaining on this planet, and even for some other species, that was an entire lifetime or more. Angelica had every right to be upset over missing the trip he'd been promising for ages, though the extent of her outburst was a bit much... as usual. "Eheheh. . ." he laughed somewhat nervously. It seemed Charles, the man whose very name evolved to Charlemagne the day he cleared the Labyrinth alone, was even shrinking into himself and taking a tentative step back. What was he to do about this ball of rage standing in front of him? "Well... I didn't forget. I'll still take you to Floor 70! Father has been keeping me on my toes for ages now, so I haven't even had a chance to visit. Why do you think I kept pushing it off before? I didn't have enough free time during my visits then, and I didn't want to show you the floor for just a little while─"

[Apollymi]

That little bit of rage bubbled over immediately. So quickly in fact, even Angelica hadn't really figured out what she was going to say until it fell out of her face. Of course it seemed like a bit much but there were a lot of emotional factors at play. Her reaction couldn't really be helped initially. Ah, but it seemed she'd frightened the lad she'd called 'Chuck' just a bit. He was backing away tentatively, seeming to shrink just a tad as well. Upon hearing what he had to say, she sighed just a bit. At least he hadn't forgotten about her, that was good. And it was just like her father to send promising people out all the time so she couldn't really blame him for being busy. She might have been a bit excessively haughty in the moment. She rubbed her hand over her face and took another calming breath.

"I know, I know... that does sound like something Father would do. And I am glad you were considerate enough to not just want our next excursion to be a rush..." she said calmly. "I might have overreacted a bit there, but the only person from outside I've seen since you were last here was Archbishop Turpin and that was just a few days ago because Father wanted me summoned. No one really comes here to visit anymore," she mentioned sadly. Ah, that was about right. She couldn't freely travel alone between the floors, and thus she was depending on the kindness of others to move about, only no one really came her way very much at all. Her existence had been rather full for a short time and then rather lonely again. She began to look forward to her trips with Charles, and found herself rather disappointed when he didn't show for such a long time. "Anyway, I don't want to be rude or anything like that. Do you want to have tea in the gardens? We can catch up... I'm sure you have a lot of adventures, you've been on, and I want to hear all about them!" she said seeming to recover rather easily.

[Bloodedge]

Moments after her outburst, Angelica was rubbing her face and exhaling. Charlemagne hadn't seen this sort of thing in quite some time. A moment of elation, a moment of fury, and then... calmness? Such was a dynamic seen playing out on that face many times now. "Eheh. There's the forehead vein. Haven't seen that one in a while; hello!" he said as if speaking to the vein itself. Angelica seemed to be reaching a rational state of being. Good. They couldn't well make use of the time they had if she didn't. "I think most people who have the ability to get here are probably a little scared. Don't worry about it too much; I'm here now. I've got more stuff to do soon, but it's not a quest this time."

Tea in a garden was something Charlemagne never heard offered by this woman before. Actually, there wasn't a garden on this floor the last time he'd been here. "You've got a garden too? I didn't see that part," the male said. With tensions mostly gone, he sighed contentedly. A warm smile and a wink crossed the face of Charlemagne in place of that earlier worry, and his right hand extended. "Did you think I'd ever say no? I was thinking of going to the Hill of Memories on Floor 47, but I'm not so sure that place even compares to what you've made out of this floor."

[Apollymi]

A giggle. That is what came from Charles pointing out the vein in her forehead as if it was greeting an old friend. "Yeah, well I am sure it tries not to appear too often," she said about that tension vein that seemed to only appear on her face when she was absolutely infuriated. Of course, having calmed down now, it was more than obvious that she was willing to spend some time with the man who'd conquered the Labyrinth. He even had a bit of insight to share on why her visitors were so few and far between. According to him, people might be a little scared to venture up to her. A scoff escaped her in a moment like this, "I'm not scary. Am I?" she asked. There was always the possibility of people being afraid of her father, but she didn't see herself as particularly unapproachable.

Whatever the case, the invitation to visit her gardens was accepted though Charles admitted he'd have something to do pretty soon, even though it wasn't a quest. "Okay, that's fine... it's just tea. No big deal, and yes, I have gardens now... I started thinking after visiting the others floors, that I might have a better time being stuck here all the time if it was more to my taste. I added in the gardens after seeing some of the stuff on the lower floors," she said, after taking the lad's extended hand. Soon she was leading the lad along a different rainbow type bridge. From this side of the tower, they'd head straight down into an open air garden. In the middle was a large stone fountain with water in it. There was also a stone table with a gazebo and a view of multiple different sorts of flowers and plants. It smelled particularly sweet. The paving stones were the same sort of quartz as her castle and all the colors of the rainbow were present. On top of that stone table, was a tea pot of a sapphire color, much less outrageous than the previous castle and matching china for them to drink out of. The tea itself was rather mild by flavor with a hint of fruitiness. "Welcome to my gardens!~" she chimed seemingly very happy. Much like all of her ilk, she did actually enjoy people seeing and appreciating the things she made.

[Bloodedge]

Was Angelica scary? Most residents of Aincrad would more than likely say she was, whatever each person's reason for doing so happened to be. "Of course you are! Not to me, but there are a lot of reasons people probably have for being afraid of you. If they barely know you, they might be scared off because you can be a little abrasive at times. I don't think a lot of people suffer from that. What most probably get, is the fear of your position. You're the Holy Father's daughter, which most people here view as the light of God and a perfect being! Who'd think they have a right to speak with someone like that?" he mused.

Angelica gave her reason for the gardens while taking his hand. In the next few moments, she was leading the way toward said gardens, following the rainbow bridge all the way to a stone table set in the garden's center. Charlemagne's pace was not as slow as he would have preferred, given Angelica's lead, but he had ample time to appreciate the surroundings nonetheless. There was a certain vibrancy to this place, and the almost heavenly light that graced Floor 99 bathed every bush and flower perfectly. There was even a gleam from that sapphire tea set, which smelled of something sweeter than he was used to. "This is an awesome place! I'm not lying at all when I say I would live in a place like this forever. Actually, I'm already jealous, and I just got moved up to a new house!"