74th chapter : Bishops

After that sudden talk about the games and danger, most of the guild masters have deployed themselves around the island to get a better scan about the kabuki guy, who’s tormenting the whole island. Thus the council has put a search warrant on him around the globe.

After parting ways with the other members, Marco calmly walked towards the outskirts of the city, he looked aside on the way where the Valkyries’ buildings are located, sensing an ominous aura.

“A strange sensation is in it ? ” Cedric complained.

“Yup, since Alex senpai didn’t mention the small cursed euro particles that were inside the bodies, I’m kinda obligated to look after this mess too”.

Marco responded while walking on the side of the beach, He intentionally let out a small portion of his euro particles as a decoy inside the water then he vanished from the sight of the council radars.

His senses were stronger than Emilis’ by now, in that aspect, he sensed small cursed euro particles roaming around the buildings of the Valkyries, making him on the right path to fetch for the kabuki guy.

“So I guess my senses are really stronger than master’s, Yo!”.

Marco said as he stepped next to the kabuki guy, who was standing far from the building. The kabuki guy was startled by Marco’s sudden appearance, not expecting anyone would catch him so suddenly.

“You’re not supposed to be here?!” he said in a rush.

Marco noticed that he was using some kind of item that alters the voice upon speaking.

“So the mask does alter the voice huh, and I guess you’re after the young girl Lara chan or perhaps another girl from the Valkyries?”.

Marco was vigilant as he was looking around the area.

“What business do you have here?!” The kabuki guy asked,

“Let’s not play dumb you know, you touched my girl’s team and now you’re saying what business do I have here? I’m chasing after you!”.

Marco answered, instantly closing the distance between him and the kabuki guy, however he couldn’t punch him as the kabuki guy was quick to react against Marco’s speed.

Intentionally, Marco didn’t make any sound within that attack as he retreated after failing to land that first punch. The kabuki guy noticed that small conception scoffing at it.

“You also want that no one notices you! This seems fishy for a red mermaid member!!”.

Right after his words, Marco used his chains to parry some metallic cords that got lanced at him from the ground. The kabuki guy was enticed as he rested, letting his guard down for that split second.

“I just want to talk about something y’know, not with this corpse of yours!” Marco responded as he knocked down him with a swift wind thrust to his left leg.

“I told you, I am everywhere! I’m everything!! I’ll take whatever I need for my revenge!! The ultimate evolution!!”.

The kabuki guy said, rattling around as Marco pinned him down through cheer force. In that aspect, Marco wasn’t expecting that the mask would explode, leaving behind it a corpse whereas the explosion was loud enough to attract people towards the roof of that building. With that result, Marco had no choice but to stride away from the scene.

“Tsk, a manipulative doll. Is this some kind of a joke, or is it a non-finished curse that controls people?”.

Marco muttered, watching from far as the guild masters and vice masters arrived a little late after the explosion.

“That’s particularly not a curse but a single fragment, I’m sure that they’re looking for a far stronger host to do a better job than this” Yuna answered, standing next to him.

“For now let’s not look at this thing more than that, if they’re after Layla then it means that she knows something about this either, if they’re after the whole guild’s holders then I guess It would be a problem for me, mostly for Sophie and Arthur too, so let’s head back home I’m sure that they can’t do a thing against me at least”.

Marco said, scratching the back of his head as the breeze of the night had him thinking all over again. His thoughts were all about protecting his family, at least, he had put the kabuki guy as his target.

After returning to the mansion, Marco saw that most of them were still partying so he went outside again, heaving a sigh at what he’d do for the rest of the night.

“Where are you going?”.

An unexpected person asked him, it was Maria who saw him entering a few moments ago.

“None of your business, why are the three of you here?” Marco responded as he turned to face her.

“We came with Fabia ma and the other girls. Is there a problem with a small feast for your little brother?”. Maria responded as she saw that he wasn’t interested in that at all.

“I’ll be walking around a little since Arthur is the one who needs to be enjoying these things, I’m not needed” Marco said, turning to go on his way once more.

“Stop! If it’s fine with you, can I get a helping hand?”.

Maria tried to get him inside the house but Marco refused, telling her to check the others for help. Eventually, Marco went on his way to the beach outside the city, getting his own time to process his thoughts again.

“It’s almost midnight y’know, why not just pass time with them?” asked Yuna.

She was confused about why he refused to join them, although she knew that he had different matters to think about right now.

“I know it’s almost midnight, still I wanna get more of time to think about this kabuki guy, the corpse was carbonated but not the mask, I was able to erase the explosion effects from it at the last second” Marco responded as he pulled out the mask from beneath his hoodie.

Yuna whistled as she glanced over the mask being a refined piece, crafted with care. Marco continued inspecting its outer layer as he and Yuna had seen beneath its items by now.

“I know that but isn’t it a little better to speak with Emilis about this first?” Yuna asked.

“Not really, I’ll try to replicate the thing and catch a glimpse inside the palace of what’s inside it fundamentally. This is all yours”.

Marco answered, letting Yuna take over his body for a moment enough to scan the mask and have a replica of it within their disposal.

“And I thought I would not let you find a thing before I do?”.

Those same words were what Marco had expected to hear in the matter of the next few hours as he saw that Emilis followed him.

The two took a seat on the sand, watching the moon’s flares reflecting on the ocean’s water as the sound of the waves soothed their hearts, both decided to not say a word for a few minutes.

“How did you find him?” Emilis eventually asked first.

“So you did sense me back then, I’ll work on this side next time more I guess, here have this.” Marco responded as he gave the mask to Emilis. “I didn’t exactly find him , it was just a corpse, however I sensed some cursed euro particles earlier during my confrontation. I didn’t want to release my serment in order to not bring commotion, but from my own perspective he had it prepared for a while now”.

Marco finished his debriefing as both sighed at the plain mask they had in their hands, Emilis looked more annoyed by this outcome though.

“So it means that he’s clever enough to not engage in battle against you?” Emilis asked as Marco looked at him.

“Huh nah? He tried to attack me though, with some metallic cords he thought would get past me but it didn’t work. The second that I tried to capture him he blew the corpse up.” Marco responded as Emilis interjected after that.

“He exploded the corpse to not let out any signals, pretty cocky if I say, but that will make me not pleased by letting him pass under my senses, so can I get a glimpse of the cursed euro particles that you have in you?”.

Emilis’ question had Marco narrowing his gaze towards him in an awe, not that it bothered him but he looked rather flustered by it.

“That’s merely impossible, you’ve spoken with Yuna nee and the rest, haven't you? The cursed euro particles are something that gets completely sorted out of any sensory witchcrafts, it isn’t exactly untraceable but it lacks the basework to be used by normal holders, even for you master. but at least not for us cursed ones. Alex told you didn’t she? It’s the same thing that Vanica maman was working on back then which was about to result in something completely drastic if we hadn’t stopped it”.

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Marco added as he was a little worried about this sudden request, given that he saw Emilis sulking about his answer.

“So hypothetically speaking, you can produce them but you can’t sense the cursed euro particles, unless you inject them inside your body, with a bargain of being compatible or not” Emilis spoke, complaining at the ordeal he’s stagnated at.

“Yeah mostly that’s it. and in a way or another my curse isn’t a type that gets injected inside other people unlike the kabuki guy’s fragments. The fragment that was inside the corpse was the doing of a real deal curse” said Marco.

Emilis looked more troubled by that as he rustled through his hair for a second before calmly leaning onto the sand on his back. Marco saw his fidgeting acts whereas it just didn’t strike for him that his guild master would react that way so nonchalantly.

“Just so we can be clear, this truly means that there’s another person who is related to my family or has at least met them before or even knows some of them. in other words, I would like to request the search about this kabuki guy to be completely my work” said Marco.

Marco spoke his request suddenly as Emilis tilted his head to the side to fix his gaze at him.

“Why not let Alex help ya?”.

Emilis was confused about something as he didn’t expect that Marco would interject out of the blue.

“I’m up to the search on my own plus making the others know about the cursed particles will just have them worried for nothing, More or less think of Vanica maman as a possible target for the kabuki guy too. In other words, as I am now, I can search about the guy easily”.

Marco answered the question logically as Emilis thought what was needed was a good search undercover team, with no other people knowing about it aside from who are concerned. One way or another, Marco confirmed that the kabuki guy attacks right after a game’s done, mostly at night which leaves them with enough time to get a better scoop if he acted on his own.

The small strategy meeting continued as Marco had shown Emilis every possible route he’d take if things went south during his hunt. Emilis was on a different page supposedly but the two had their fair share of planning ahead of time.

After that small talk Emilis had Marco return to the mansion, saying that it’s already past midnight while he himself went for a different task. Although Marco returned at the sight of seeing everyone sleeping around the living room’s floor, he ignored the scene and went up to his room, taking his time to check and analyze anything he needed from the mask inside the palace, whereas he had Selicia’s and Yuna’s help for it.

The next morning had come with an unexpected visit from Layla, who came way too early in the morning just to spend her time around Marco again. Therefore, that didn’t go as she planned as she noticed Marco’s life signal down to zero the whole time let alone the scene she got met with upon her arrival to the room.

“Sniff hic!! Hic! Arthur!!”.

Layla sobbed while sitting on top of Marco’s body that was filled with bloodstains and injuries as her moans had Arthur woke up at a surprisingly interesting event in his opinion.

“Ooh!? When did you get here?” Arthur asked, holding his own laugh for a second there.

“Help me!! I need a hand of your lightning!!”. Layla responded, pulling him to her side as she held his arm “I’ll release your serment so help me in... why is it not opening? That’s strange!!”.

Layla was trying to force Arthur to release a serment, given that she didn’t believe the idea of him not having a serment. Arthur sighed then cloaked his hand in lightning after he felt like it was enough of painstaking emotions for her.

“Here, you want me to touch h-!!”.

Before Arthur would put his hand on Marco’s chest, with no sudden warning the moment he woke up Marco grabbed Arthur by the arm and threw him outside the window alongside Layla, who was on top of him.

Both had to clear that sudden misunderstanding. Layla was sitting on her knees in the living room, waiting for Marco to wash up and clean himself, while Arthur was subjected to the same punishment.

“Well, mind explaining why you were about to hit me with lightning?” Marco asked, calmly as he saw the two flinching because of his tone.

“That’s my bad and he was half asleep too so don’t blame him for that” Layla was indeed flustered but she responded. “And I came here to spend time with you like yesterday!! so I have my excuse too!!”.

Layla added before he would ask. Marco sighed as he saw Vanica feeding Sophie, who had just woken up too. The morning was rather a bit too peaceful given that everyone returned to their rooms a few hours ago.

“What are you going to do now?”.

Layla realized that Marco didn’t have any plans because of the gestures she picked up from him when he’s free with nothing planned.

“Hmm, I’ll-”.

Again Marco got interrupted before he could answer as Melu came in, with a cheerful grin patting his shoulder.

“You’re gonna help me with something!! The others are busy so I figured that you would have no work to do!!”. Melu sounded like it was something fishy and so it was.

Marco realized that something was up for them, seeing that only Sophie was eating breakfast at that early hour while he eventually couldn’t sense the others’ presence in the house, most of them were out for work leaving only Vanica and Sophie at home along with Arthur, who seemingly overslept.

Marco sighed then looked behind Melu to find Maria and Rachel hiding at the corner, the calm awkwardness that hit Melu as she saw him looking at the corner of the room was deafening afterwards.

“You guys are bad at covering other things. I also have some other stuff to do. I’m gonna search for something so have Sam or Xavier senpai help you”.

Marco pointed at Layla, who was waiting for him as the three of them turned over to see her fidgeting silently in her place.

“Layla chan ! Been a while!!”.

Maria said so suddenly as she saw an opportunity, Layla was sitting down, minding her own business as Marco’s glares made her unable to look up so she could see what’s going on. Since Maria didn’t have enough time to meet with her during the previous games or at the restaurant, she instantly jumped to her side.

Maria and Layla were friends not just because of the old society but also due to their time at the school, as seeing them now they’re representatives of their families during this festival. Marco completely reading through Maria’s acts, he sighed then went back to his room.

“Don’t be that mad, they’re just trying to be nice to you!! So have fun just for today!!”.

Yuna said as she filled him up about everything that was discussed this morning, in a way or another she said to herself that Marco won’t ruin the surprise they’re preparing for his birthday today.

It took Marco a few minutes to change his clothes back as instead of going outside from the front door he opened the window and used the chains as a stepping stone to go up.

“You should let them know when you go outside so suddenly y’know?”.

Arthur met him outside, standing on his own midair.

“You know that I don’t like this kind of stuff and I’m just going to get some training done somewhere else, wanna join?”.

Marco responded, asking as he and Arthur both sighed after sensing that Layla was troubled searching about him again. Arthur looked aside.

“Yeah I don’t think so. I’ll be staying here, I guess this respect that I gained from the Valkyries is giving me some new people that want to hang around me, supposedly” said Arthur.

Both saw that Lara was twiddling for a way to ring the bell, although it was clear she was looking for Arthur.

“I see, When did they plan for this party?” Marco asked again.

“Hmm, around eight in the evening, so it’s fine if you take your time, want me to take care of checking the surroundings about the kabuki guy or you gonna take care of him?”.

Arthur replied as Marco twitched a brow at him. He sighed for a moment saying his response afterwards.

“You should tell me when you sense things like these, One way or another, he chose to target that girl Lara over coming to you, meaning that he knows something about us that he doesn’t want us to notice I-”.

Arthur interrupted him suddenly at the last word.

“He may be grandpa?”.

The sudden question from Arthur left both of them in silence as the calmness behind those words showed a terrible sense of anxiety.

“I see so you also thought about this, It may be even father or mother, one way or another, let’s just hope that none of them is the kabuki guy”.

Leaving it to end that way Marco’s words were the end to that chitchat. After that small conversation, both Marco and Arthur hoped from the bottom of their hearts that the kabuki guy wasn’t their grandpa or one of their parents.

Up to now Marco was worried about whether the kabuki guy was working alone or has a faction of his own, having them do some work too. Whilst leaping midair from one chain to another, Marco found himself in the middle of the ocean forgetting that he just passed the shore.

“Sigh, I’m totally immersed in this thing…”.

Once again before he’d finished his words, Marco dodged an attack from Layla who came searching for him as she seemed to be pouting, fuming with anger. Marco just leapt from one chain to another again by falling down as he looked at her.

“You know that your attacks can’t reach me! How are you standing in the middle of the air like that?”.

Marco was at least impressed by her ability, watching Layla’s simple footholds getting created without a care in the world.

“That’s what my uniform can do, hmph!! It’s like a battle outfit that is customized specially for me” Layla answered while approaching him.

“Heeh?! Is that so”.

Marco started teasing her as Layla picked up on the act because of how he has been standing so far.

“Wh-what about you?! How can you use the chains so deliberately!?!” She blushed, feeling conflicted if she’d get back on him or not.

“Hmm, my reserves are boundless so I can create endless chains in the process and mostly I can use it this way”.

Marco surrounded himself with chains, creating a sphere.

“Heeh?! That's an impressive defensive method!!”.

She was genuinely surprised rather than being impressed, however, The chains disappeared as Marco also disappeared, using Cedric’s curse to open a portal and run away from Layla.

“Huh he’s not around too?!” Layla exclaimed as the anger rose to the skies after that. “Now he’s done it!!” She yelled in the middle of the sky as she returned to the shore, completely enraged.

“Why did you do that?”.

Cedric asked as he did indeed open the portal for Marco, it led right inside his room in the palm city.

“Huh?! well, I’m fine as long as I return by the evening, also I have something that I wanna check just to make sure of another thing”.

Marco said as he went outside, while walking in the city’s alleys, he headed towards the old man Eyezar’s home. He knocked on the door, expecting a quick answer but Eyezar took a long time to open the door.

“Alright!! Alright I’m coming!! huh?! Marco kun?! What are you doing here? I thought you’re on the island” Eyezar was startled to see him suddenly emerging at his door.

“I’m currently not. Also let me use the 1898 door. I need to get to Mustfit”. Marco said as he forced his way inside.

“Eh?! I don’t have a door here, why?! And when did you!?”.

Eyezar saw that Marco went straight to the backdoor within the storage room.

“I don’t know how you keep forgetting that I asked you about this the first day I came here” Marco responded as he opened the door and saw that it leads straight to Mustfit, “Used two months ago so it means that Fabia ma came from this door, Shall I guess that it leads next to her backyard?”.

Marco had a smug face, looking at the flustered Eyezar.

“Just go already and don’t say that I let you in from this door, I don’t wanna have troubles with the council!! let alone your master Emilis!!”.

Eyezar pushed him outside the door then closed it.

“He has no chill, well it seems like I also don’t have that much time on my hands”.

Marco said, watching Yuna grin at his words, then he instantly went to his pinpointed location. Marco wanted to check the old orphanage.

“So you think that it would have the same impact?” Yuna asked.

“We got back here but I don’t think they’re the same particles” Marco answered, looking around once more. He reached the main room in the middle of the building as he looked down to sense beneath the floor the existence of a small room down there.

“Just when I wanted to believe that there’s nothing about this place, After master and the rest went out of it, not one but multiple kabuki guys, must be my birthday today to have such a wonderful guy targeting me!?”.

Marco’s sarcastic words played in at the appearance of his own target, he sighed watching himself getting surrounded by ten kabuki guys at once, the second that he entered the orphanage.

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