[b][i]Flame Brooks[/i][/b] 

Flame smiled widely, "Of course, Sir! Thank you! I'll be going out now."

It seemed as though more than just his wishes would be granted. Perfect. And so Flame went out, the bag of money tucked safely in his pockets, ready to meet potential new allies and sources of information while buying the food he needed and giving extra tips to the Demi-Human storeowners in need. All the while, of course, he listened to whatever rumors there were and made a few queries; none of them about Ashton, but a lot of them about the current disorder in Priestella. 

It then occured to him that he was still in tentative contact with Alistair; Alistair was being trained by a neighboring noble household, after all. Perhaps he was out in the market as well? If so, he needed to know if the guy had found more information about their situation...

[b][i]Ashton Andrews[/i][/b] 

[quote][b] ”But remember what I said. As long as you have faith in yourselves, and can weather what hardships this world throws at you, you will be able to defeat Talus and get what you desire.”[/b][/quote]

[i]I desire to bring Hiro back, just like what happened multiple times before. This is not just to undo my crimes, but also because he both didn't deserve that fate and said fate was undone multiple times before, [/i] Ashton thought as he was whisked away by the light... And promptly seperated from Flame once more. 

Deposited in front of an illegal gladiator trainer, Ashton took a while to get his bearings before finally smiling and saying, "You are also my chance, it seems."

[hr]

The training was harsh, yes. But Ashton knew that he could not afford to wuss out. If he was ever to gain what he wanted, he had to be capable of paying a high cost, of working hard enough to get what he wanted. And above all, he should not care about what others thought; not as long as they didn't know the full truth. And the full truth was this: Ashton was innocent of nothing more than getting tricked into believing that killing Hiro would save everyone, that it would only be temporary. 

The fact that he couldn't tell anyone this full truth, not without omissions and partial lies and misleading inferences, did not matter at all.

"More!" Ashton had blurted out as he shifted into his new 'Ideal Form' in front of Blackblood, parrying the champion's weapon with only two daggers. He needed to learn to fight, and in his spare time, to read and write Lugnican. He will get the skillset he needed for his confrontation with... No, he'll leave Fritzi to Chieko if the latter was still an ally.

He had other plans - [I]Lord Talus[/i] will see his wrath soon. 

[hr]

And so when the week of training ended, and Ashton was given money - At least he hoped he was given money - plus an order to get the 'finest metals imaginable' in order to arm him with a new weapon, the young man bowed and said, "Thank you, Mr. Bellrigger. Thank you."

And with that, he went off to the Golden Quarter as well, shifting to his 'Ideal Form' on the way so as not to be recognized as 'the murderer'...