Chapter 115: Helping Strangers, Bringing Trouble to Oneself
On a warm sunny morning covering everywhere, clouds drifted with the wind, wind followed clouds. At some city, there was a man holding his head in confusion, not knowing what trouble there was.
The surrounding scenery was quite beautiful, seemingly a noble's garden, red flowers, blue flowers, vines woven and shaped very beautifully.
The man with fairly luxurious noble clothes in purple mixed with glossy black, wide collar. Accessories like stones studded around.
This was Varlen Drahm, 44 years old. Viscount of Roam City.
The man with black hair that was a bit long, face quite young for his age and with no wrinkles.
Suddenly, a butler with long hair almost entirely silver. He stepped up and bowed low to announce:
"Sir, have you heard about the matter at Tharros City yet?"
Varlen turned over, frowning slightly not because of anger but as his habit from past to present. He spoke in a deep voice:
"I know, is something wrong?"
The butler still calmly announced:
"Ms. Mythyr of Tharros City has been defeated, it seems to be a serious injury."
Suddenly, Varlen slammed the table, stood up and spoke loudly, both unbelievable and showing clear shock:
"Have you confirmed it?"
The butler bowed slightly then looked up again and continued:
"I have confirmed it. In the final blows, there was an energy spear lunging straight at Ms. Mythyr's head and grazed the head but left a large hole making the brain severely concussed; currently unable to move, still in critical condition."
Varlen opened his eyes wide in shock, but then he regained his composure and turned away, breaking into a triumphant smile.
He returned to the luxurious room with furniture and decorations worth several lifetimes of earnings. He went to the table and looked at the painting opposite.
It was a painting of a woman drawn up close, a pale face, a beautiful expression with red hair. Every eyelash was drawn fluidly; the painting seemed to speak of the drawer's skill and the beauty of the person in the painting.
Varlen looked for a moment, silent without saying anything. His face was cold as steel. He held the teacup and took a small sip of tea, then stood up and stepped outside.
He went downstairs. To a room surrounded entirely by books, many bookshelves. There was a table in a corner; it seemed this was his office desk.
Stepping to the bookshelf, he reached out and grabbed a book then pulled it toward himself.
Click... clack…
A stiff sound rang out, as if some mechanism was moving. Then the bookshelf right beside it was like a door pushing inward, only darkness below and a few stairs leading down were revealed.
He stepped down, no light. Stepping as a habit already within him.
Light gradually revealed; it was an empty room, without anything except a table.
He opened his eyes wide in panic, scanning his eyes around as if searching for something, as if something had escaped. He ran close; under his feet was a brown stone, quite large and rough but close to a square shape and only as big as his fist.
Immediately running back up, he scanned his eyes around the room... Running close to the window as if checking in panic.
Outside through the window was a green forest with lush green trees, and grass like a green cushion. But he didn't care and looked down. The window had shifted a bit, dust and marks still remained. This window he never opened, thus it had created deep marks below, but now it was revealed a bit. This meant someone had opened this window. He looked into the forest with a distant gaze, his face showing a bit of discomfort. He walked quickly out of the room, seemingly wanting to do something.
…
On the group's side, at this time they were outside the city, not leaving, but going out to play.
Surrounding a street vendor's stall of an old lady. Each person in the group had one or two cakes with a golden color and a fragrant honey scent.
This was honey cake, very chewy with a yellow color, inside had a black bean filling, a cool sweet taste not too sugary, eating was a bit sticky but very delicious.
Kazuka laughed while eating, he took a large bite and enjoyed it brutally.
"So delicious."
The three girls ate slowly and enjoyed, but the three boys ate ravenously.
The old lady lifted her shoulder pole, with the pole and two sides holding goods, slowly saying:
"I am going now."
Ayaka happy, cake still stuck on her lip.
"Go carefully, Grandma." After saying that she immediately wiped her lip and took the piece of cake stuck on her lip and put it into her mouth.
Airi put the last small piece of cake into her mouth.
"Finally a day to play."
Elyssia turned to ask everyone with a curious voice:
"By the way, how far has your money-making gone?"
Aoto was still sucking his fingers; he had one cake left but was in no rush to eat; the cake was wrapped with green banana leaves. He stuffed it into his pants pocket.
"Still fine. Just follow the plan and in ten more days we will leave the city."
Airi sighed, showing clear disappointment and dejection at missing an opportunity.
"So boring, today I was supposed to continue serving food. But a noble booked the whole restaurant, and there were already many workers, not to mention I've only been new for a few days. So today I have the day off; if I could have gone I surely would have gotten more money."
Takeshi shrugged.
"It is what it is."
Takeshi had just finished his sentence. From afar, two people ran over. One male and one female, that young man was quite young, about 18 years old, with black hair, noble clothes extremely dirty and torn in several places, messy black hair and a panicked face. The girl was about 17 years old, long messy red hair and panicked.
Both of them called for help incessantly with weak words because of being out of breath:
"Help..."
"Help me."
"You guys?"
Right behind them, jumping out from the edge of the forest. Was a series of people with more than twenty people appearing at once; they wore outfits that were only black and covered everything, faces wore masks that were only black.
They lunged out; a series of energy slashes launched by them lunged toward the two running people; the slashes launched down to the ground. Weak footsteps, trying to run to keep their lives; they looked extremely terrified.
The whole group was bewildered, not understanding what was happening. When the group saw the crowd of people in black, they also understood these two were being hunted down, not to mention wearing black clothes like that surely meant a group of people from some side.
Aoto, Kazuka, and Takeshi immediately overflowed energy and lunged, passing by the two running toward them and standing to block in front of them.
Ayaka, Airi, and Elyssia hurriedly ran over. That boy fell to the ground with a look of horror; the girl fell into Airi's arms, tears flowing; both repeated:
"Please save us."
"Please."
Ayaka and Elyssia hurriedly reassured the boy who had fallen on the ground:
Ayaka: "Don't worry, we are here."
Elyssia hurriedly signaled for calmness:
"Calm down, breathe steadily."
On the three boys' side, a large battle took place.
Aoto overflowed energy and created a half-human figure; that was Aoto's "Guardian Deity"—calling it that just to sound fancy, but actually it was just energy he formed. With a half-body designed quite simply, without muscle lines or hair and other effects; otherwise, he would have to maintain higher focus; he only needed simple and effective. The Guardian Deity's two hands summoned two giant energy spears of the same green color as Aoto's Guardian Deity.
Kazuka radiated blue energy around himself; an energy blade was formed on his right hand.
Takeshi radiated his orange energy; his hands clenched tight.
All three lunged as the ones in black lunged over.
Takeshi opened the battle with a strong hand-slam down to the ground, making the ground crack. A small valley with stone pillars protruding; those in black who paid attention jumped up in time, some had their feet pierced and cried out in pain falling onto the ground full of sharp tips, making their bodies full of holes like a beehive.
Being hit by a single move made them all fall into a state of chaos. They turned around and fled, not forgetting to drag along the bodies of the injured.
Aoto was falling from above. Kazuka was lunging over. They stood still, bewilderedly watching the black-clad ones run.
Kazuka confused.
"Why are they running?"
The Guardian Deity's energy layer disappeared. Aoto sighed and shrugged.
"They probably had orders."
All three turned back and stood observing the three girls asking the two who ran over. It seemed they had calmed down a bit and sat on the ground, but through those faces, it truly wasn't clear what they had experienced.
Airi and Ayaka sat in front of them, trying to appear as friendly as possible, fearing they would panic once more. Although only having just looked over, everyone understood that being hunted down surely meant something important.
Ayaka smiled lightly and friendly, her voice gentle:
"Hey? Okay? Breathing steadily yet? Can you tell me the current situation?"
The boy hesitated for a moment, then opened his mouth to speak with difficulty.
"H-Help me..."
Airi was quite impatient after they sat for almost half an incense stick's time yet still said nothing, but she still needed to appear as friendly as possible.
"Don't worry, we are here so it's okay. Tell me what both your names are?"
Both still sat curling up, holding their legs. That girl's gaze was quite soulless; the boy seemed a bit better and spoke, his voice weak:
"I-I am..."
Biting his lip in grievance and hatred, as if thinking and filtering in his head.
"I... am Hiwcel."
Having finished speaking, the boy turned to his sister who was still soulless, her gaze only looking down at the ground, eyes with dark circles.
"This is my sister. Nara, one year younger than me, 17 years old."
Airi nodded; she remembered when they were chased and looked over their clothing once, also guessing a part in her head that they were nobles.
"So why were you two chased?"
Hiwcel gritted his teeth in resentment; he tried to overlook the anger and said:
"Those are my father's people."
The whole group also saw Hiwcel's angry expression and understood this might be a family conflict, but for a family to hunt down like that, there was truly a problem. Faces showed clear surprise but full of seriousness.
Airi was thinking whether to ask further, but then she decided not to.
"So currently you two don't have a place to stay, right? Let us help, okay?"
Hiwcel nodded slightly; he knew there was no other way given the current situation of the two siblings.
"Then thank you for saving our lives and helping us."