57th chapter : starting anew .
A new starting was getting ahead of everything for the human realm and every human holder that is living through the current time of events. Thus that is the only thing that made the whole world take a suspension in every major work, now the whole world has decided on taking a break, looking at how the governments of the none holders world have yet to find a solution.
10am in the morning, Tuesday 26th August 19xx.
The old four’s house.
“Uhm, oh hey, the girlfriend is here. Just to let you know, we were cleaning and stuff…never mind, he’s sleeping on the kitchen’s floor”.
Xavier said as he opened the door after hearing the doorbell. Iris came to visit as she thought she came at the wrong time.
“S-sorry for the intrusion!” Iris said as she went inside.
“Yeah no pro-”.
Xavier was about to respond as he fell asleep there making Iris feel more embarrassed than what she was. Iris was flustered not knowing what to do then Alice got out of the bathroom.
“Ah, Iris chan!! Don’t mind him, we kinda messed up a lot yesterday. We had a small party here!!” Alice greeted her.
Alice said as she saw that Iris noticed that she was barely wearing anything but a long white shirt.
“Uhm, Alice san?! When did you sleep exactly?” Iris asked, looking worried.
“Huh, uhm, I guess around 5am. Do not worry a lot happened so we kinda wanted to play around a little, Zack I guess is asleep in the kitchen”.
Alex popped out of nowhere from the other corner too as she had messy hair.
“I’m sorry that you could see this side of our family but we can’t say that no one isn’t messy, can you please wake him up!” said Alex.
Alex had an awkward expression as she went to enter the bathroom while Alice was kicking Xavier to wake him up. Iris didn’t mind the fact that they were trying to be humble for her as she chuckled a little before heading straight to the kitchen. Unwillingly, soon those smiles turned into tears as Iris saw Zack sleeping soundly while Elise was sleeping on his arm.
Iris was quick to jump to conclusion as she silently watched Zack and Elise sleeping together getting the idea that he was cheating on her, although she clearly saw Elise asleep punching Zack on the face. Zack woke up because of that punch in a rush trying to figure out who hit him, he was half asleep looking around with heavy eyes until he fixed his gaze at a crying person next to him, he saw Iris standing in front of him bawling her eyes out.
“Good MORNING!! Iris, how did you get into the house!!”.
Zack was startled as he noticed that she was crying because she saw Elise sleeping with him on the floor, surrounded by food and other things that fell from the table.
“Hicc hicc!! I came here after I asked Alex san to give me the address!! sniff!! I didn’t know that you already slept with some other girl than me!! you cheater!! Is she your mistress now!?!”.
Iris said out loud, rushing to her own silly conclusion which made Zack explode blushing at those words. He sighed, looking at her tears then grinned awkwardly, not knowing what to answer her words although he reached his hand to wipe those tears away.
“Wow, Carla had just stepped down to make Iris chan take the fast conclusions title from her!!” Xavier said as he came to take some water.
Through this massive mess, Elise was still asleep on the ground.
“Don’t worry Iris chan!! The sound asleep girl is our little sister from the orphanage. You saw how Xavier fell asleep in the middle of the front door. Zack fell asleep first and Eli followed after laughing out loud at him, the welcome back party was for her!”
Alex and Alice shortly explained as they were already awake and cleaned.
“Now, now, don’t let your nose run again, Iris. Take a rest with them, I’ll be right back alright! sorry for not filling you in yesterday!” Reassured Zack.
After wiping Iris’ nose and tears Zack went to take a bath, they looked at him so composed as the three of them said one after another.
“You have no right to act this way early in the morning!!”
They kicked him out of the kitchen. Alice and Alex sighed as they saw that Elise’s bad habit of falling asleep anywhere is still with her, as her sleep was still that heavy. Alice held her up.
“You wake up already!!”
Alice yelled, kicking Elise out of the kitchen to wake her up by force, Elise fell right next to the stairs as she held her butt from the kick.
“Aghaaa!! Alice nee!! Don’t kick me like that!!” Elise responded, still caressing her butt because of the hit.
“We have a guest so you gotta wake up too, at least go to sleep inside some other room than the kitchen!!” Alice was angry, scolding her because of her bad habits.
“Putting the sleep aside! Eli!! didn’t you say yesterday that you gotta send some reports early in the morning?” Alex spoke while eating breakfast.
Eli looked at her then totally turned white from fear as she rushed to find her uniform.
“How the hell did I forget!! Where did I throw my uniform?!! Xavier nii you search with me!! I’m long dead If I don’t send these!!” Elise was surely desperate for another promotion.
Alice and Xavier chuckled as they saw her rushing to find it. Iris felt awkward for her being there, however it also felt like she was meant to be there at that precise time. In the middle of that roaring, Zack came out of the bath fresh and new.
“Haa!! man, the bath was good. Sorry for the wait Iris!!”.
Zack said as he took a seat on the table to eat, his smile was like the rays of the sun at its first minutes of dawn.
“N-no it’s ok!! I came at the wrong time so I kinda deserve this! I’m sorry to jump on quick conclusions like that!!”
Iris blushed, responding to him as she saw that all of them had a vigilant grin on their faces, as if something good happened yesterday for them. She thought, even though it was the wrong timing, she saw some other new side to Zack and his family.
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At Marco’s house ,
“Good morning!!” Sam said as he just got out of the bathroom.
“Ah, good morning!” Minerva responded to him.
“Marco is still asleep?” Hana asked, eating breakfast with Sophie and Carla.
“Huh!? That’s unusual!!” replied Sam.
Sam was surprised as he went to Marco’s room to see if that was true.
“oy wake up!!”.
Sam was shaking him as he stopped after noticing that Marco wasn’t breathing, he rushed back to the kitchen with a worried face as he said.
“H-h-hey!! He’s dead!!”.
Sam was frightened as no one really gave the same impression while looking at him fidgeting like that, worried.
“Ah, he’s back at doing that! don’t worry he’s gonna be awake sooner or later, the good thing is that he’s not full of blood, right?” Hana responded as she smiled along with Carla.
“Wait, he always does that?!” Exclaimed Vanica.
Vanica came rushing too as she didn’t hear Sam at first, the two were the only ones who were quite frightened.
“It’s ok, Vanica san! He’s gonna be awake anytime soon since Selicia neechan is here” Arthur responded as he took a seat to eat breakfast too.
Sam and Vanica looked at each other before cleaning their eyes from the confusion. Indeed, it was worrisome until they looked aside to see Marco walking out of his room like any normal morning routine.
“This is surely becoming weirder than what I expected!!”.
Sam said as he looked aside to see Marco entering the bathroom like nothing happened to him or like his life signal wasn’t off just moments ago. The fear drained their feelings as Vanica was the first to let it go that way, while Sam became as white as the clouds in the sky before growling again, Marco passed by him to the kitchen.
“Why are you that noisy first in the morning?” stated Marco.
Marco took a seat to eat too.
Sam was dumbfounded not knowing what to say, although he took a deep breath, exhaling it after that as he dropped off any other thought to think about what just happened.
After eating breakfast, most of them went to get prepared so they could go to the restaurant. Even though they weren’t in need of opening the restaurant, Emilis said that with Fabia’s girls around they’ll get a good chance of going on patrols around and keep the work done to certain levels, aside from making the people recognize them as the red mermaid members first and foremost.
“I guess it’s good to go check on Fabia ma, first!” Carla said while Marco was closing the door as they were the last to go out.
“Hmm, no need to do that. Sam went to get them and Hana said that she needs to speak with Guren san and Wellia san too”.
Marco responded as they passed by the long staircase that leads to Sam’s house.
“Now you mention it, they’re her parents but you always call them by their first names. Why?” Carla said as she was curious.
“There’s no reason behind that, as far as I remember she didn’t mind calling them that way when we were kids, and so Sam is the one who thought it was rude but ended up calling them that after a little time” Marco replied.
Marco answered bluntly as he saw Carla tilting her head in puzzlement.
“I see, but that’s still kinda weird!”.
Carla said as she turned around to see that there weren't a lot of people who opened their shops back today, the city was quite empty in terms of shops and stalls.
“I’m not the one to argue with this, but I guess Sam is the one who’s gonna have a hard time explaining everything for them”.
Marco said, sighing on his own, Carla’s curiosity was switched again.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“How serious he is about taking their relationship so far. These two are dating” Marco responded letting her stop for a few seconds.
“Haa!?! Hana!? Are you kidding!?” Carla shouted her reply.
Marco looked at her then nodded as confirmation to his words. Carla was too stunned to speak another thing, after that she walked on her own silently, not saying any more comments on what she just heard from him, her face turned red for a few seconds though.
“So are you that jealous or are you surprised that Hana was dating someone?” Marco tried to tease her about it.
“Hey, that’s dirty and yeah I was surprised ok!! I mean I can’t no matter what see Hana in such a manner at all!! She’s like Arthur mentally!!”.
Carla answered on the spot as she took that chance to speak about it, more or less Marco also wanted to hear her answer. They continued talking for a while after that.
A short time after that walk, they met with Alex who was coming to the restaurant with Xavier from the east side.
“Good morning” Carla greeted them and so they greeted back.
After walking peacefully to the restaurant, the four of them sensed a weak presence following them from behind but didn’t show itself, they decided to not meddle in that and continued their way, and so they reached the restaurant without any other problems.
“Master hasn’t arrived yet?” Marco asked as he was putting on the apron, changing to a work outfit.
“Hmm, not yet. I guess he went to do something else this morning” Miha responded to him as she entered after him.
“Seems like we’re gonna wait for a while before heading to the council headquarters” Minerva said as she was sitting with Sophie.
“That won’t be a problem, he does what he wants and the council won’t say a thing to him either. Take it easy and wait for him to arrive, that's all” Fabia responded sitting next to Sophie to play with her.
“So before we start!!” Alice talked out of the blue.
“You need something?” Rebecca responded, asking.
“Not exactly but it’s for the sake of the patrols actually. Since you girls are hiding here, because of the rule of not going out from the big cities, it’s only for us seven to go on patrols”.
Alice explained shortly her idea after that, as they heard her, Melu spoke in response.
“Isn’t it better to let Alex scan the area first and give each one of you a part to be responsible for?”.
Melu’s idea was logical but Alice and the others didn’t really approve of it, acting like children.
“Why not?” Tanya asked them, wanting to know why
“Actually, since you guys ended up not fighting us because of Fabia ma turning around her decision, gha!!”Zack spoke and took a hit from Fabia, “Damn that hurts! And I didn’t mean anything bad, Fabia ma!!” He complained after that.
“He meant that our levels are far more than enough to go on our own for a patrol, it leaves only Sam since we don’t know his level for now”. Xavier said as he held the plate that Fabia threw at him for being overconfident about their own strength.
“I guess I understand now, but I have one question before we start the work. Who’s that girl over there!?”.
Melu understood their situation but due to no one really minding, no one asked who Iris was and what she came to the restaurant for. In that aspect Iris who couldn’t speak because she was embarrassed to talk, ended up making Zack in a tight situation with Alex and Xavier having a smug reaction to that question.
“I see!! So my little Zack has already found a wife!! Congratulations!!” Fabia’s mood turned to happiness as she hugged him and Iris tightly.
“Glad that you accepted her Fabia ma but please let me go !! ” Zack was totally blushing red.
“And I was thinking that Xavier was the playboy!?”.
Tanya spoke bluntly, making the vibe worse for Zack and Iris. Everyone laughed at what she said, although Fabia ended up slapping Tanya for her words.
“Not like some other girls we know, that can’t get a proper man on their own”.
Marco said out of the blue as Tanya and the rest of the girls looked at him. The atmosphere was silent for a second with a blank reaction before Melu would release her serment.
“kneel down and don’t move, kid!! I’ll kill you hundreds of times” just like other girls she was mad.
“Ahem!! Anyway!! Who’s gonna take the first patrol for today !?!” Alex said, changing the topic.
“Can I go first?!” Arthur asked in a rush, filled with enthusiasm.
“Don’t you have a school to prepare for?” Rebecca asked him as she didn’t think he should be going on patrol.
“School seems to be suspended and that’s not the question that you should ask. Aren’t you too young for going on a patrol!?!” Milize pulled him to her side.
“That means Arthur won’t be going on patrols no matter what, I guess deciding it with the old way is better” Xavier said after Milize.
“Or just send anyone you have in mind, Alice. You’re the vice master in the first place” Emilis said entering the restaurant suddenly.
Everyone looked at him.
“I would’ve done that but Sam is new to this small game of ours, he isn’t here either. I guess we need to wait a little more”.
Alice answered as no one of them wanted to go in the first place, because they felt it’ll be a pain in the ass, so they were letting the decision for Emilis to announce.
Sam arrived later rushing inside as if he was running away from something.
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