PART 1: Bunny Two - The Search

Behold, Astoria. The biggest commercial centre and free trade buffer zone of the nation of Atlantis. Located in the centre of the three main Atlantis continents, the Island flourished through trade and commerce. Surpassing even the existing mainland kingdoms; The Ichon Republic and The Eastern Empire

It had been a while since my last visit to this place…

Astoria is forever bustling with people coming from every corners of the world. This spaceport harbor serve as a buffer zone and a free trading centre to Atlantis sub continents. It also acts as our main gate to the open world, and beyond…

Founded by the infamous Lord Tailgunner and started out as a humble fishing village, the island rapid economic growth catapulted its reputation and was recognized as one of the best trade-stop in the world.

Although with all these rapid changes and modernization, the islander still jokingly refers to their seafaring homes as the “Tailgunner Fishing Village”.


However, my journey lies beyond that of trade and sightseeing….

There was one of Astoria’s residences, a person that I had been steadily meeting every time I made stops to this island. A person whom knowledge of the outside world are far greater than anyone I can possibly think of….

..Lady Junna.


She resides at the outmost remote part of the island, far away from the bustling harbor. She may hold the answer to what I am searching for...

“Bunny Two! What a pleasant surprise! Do come in!”


I stepped inside the house…books, tapestry and scrolls scattered all over the floor. Before I could apologize myself for the intrusion...

“Excuse me for this whole mess; please find yourself anywhere to settle down. I was in a middle of my research…oh! I never thought you would come back and visit me so soon this time of the day, especially not from you my dear!”


"Um...it's okay." I replied.

Lady Junna fumbled about her piled books, I nodded. I began to scout around for a place to sit.


….as I glance across her tea table, a thick brown book decorated with golden pattern caught my attention…

“So what will it be today? Avalon? El Dorado? Badlands? Sirius?”


I snapped back from my gaze…


“Huh? Excuse me?” I muttered.


Lady Junna smiles. Surely she understood my inability to decipher her lightning speed questions…

She giggles and continues her lecture;


“Every time you came here my dear, you always requested me to tell you tales of the outside empires...what will it is for today?”

Again, as I opened my mouth to speak, Lady Junna put down her book and took the thick brown book from her tea table. The book that I was starring at before. She paused as she held the book in front of me…

“Perhaps...Utopia?”


“Y...Yes…if you will my lady. I would love to hear stories of the once famous Utopian Federation State. Very few people had been to Utopia, yet to be involved in the great Utopian War which marks the downfall of the nation…”


Lady Junna cuts my conversation sharply…

“The Utopian Federation never did fall, my dear”


...for the moment there was silence between us. Did I pick up my words wrongly? Have I somehow insulted her with my facts on Utopia?


...as silence began to become more and more overbearing for me, Lady Junna words softened again as she began to continue her unfinished words earlier..

“…in other words your statement is not all wrong either. The Utopian Federation will never surpass its former glory anymore. Well, at the very least…”


She was about to change the subject again, or attack me with one of her sudden-questions…


“Perhaps, it is not the Utopian tales that you seek. It is her isn’t it?”


I was shocked.

“None of such things!” I blurted almost immediately...


My cover was blown. I was caught red handed.


“Ever since the end of the Badlands Revolt and her public announcement of retiring from her position as a member of Watergate Union Knights, she had been missing for almost a year now.”


Lady Junna pauses, and then continues…


“You are trying to trace her footsteps through my collection of information’s, tales of Avalon and Sirius during our previous meetings are nothing more than a cover-ups to conceal your true intention.”

She had me. Dead on.


“That was harsh, Lady Junna.”


I’m angry at her for being insensitively direct in her approach, but angrier still to my own self who was unable to at the very least, masked my agenda for a little longer. Perhaps pretentious and lies is not my thing at all.

“Before you make use of me any longer there is something I would like to ask you…did the Orange Duchess send you here?”


All this interrogations…I don’t have the mood anymore.


“No.”


“Can I trust you?”


“No.” I answered bluntly.


…surprisingly she laughs to this!


“So what will it be my dear? Utopia or your missing aunt?”

The sound of crashing waves and seagulls cooling themselves on the island rocks outside the villa swallowed my reply. Lady Junna smiles and nods her head. Surely even with these deafening sounds, she easily read my lips…


“Well said!”

Lady Junna excitedly skips the pages of the brown book. She almost ran through half of the contents before she stopped.


“Ah…here it is. The plains of Zelagross”


…is this some kind of joke? I can’t help it but interrupt…


“But…but…excuse me my lady, I thought I have choosen…”


Lady Junna cut me short-again…


“Of course my child, more the reason why we should start from the barren plains of Zelagross.”

I sighed; I’m beginning to dislike this woman.

...to be continued