Rose sat on the subway train, leaning her back against the chair behind her and closing her eyes. She couldn’t get the image out of her head. What she saw the previous night on her dream, on Aldwin’s dream.
She knew that spirit’s memory and subconscious thought could leak to their master dream by the mean of contract, but that raised another question on itself. If the dream that she saw was Aldwin’s subconscious thought. then the woman in she saw in the dream…..
“That.. Can’t be me..” She spoke to herself.
The more she think about it the more confused she became. There was the possibility that Aldwin came from the future and somehow related to her, but the spirit from the past seemed to know him as well which was impossible if he came from the future.
‘Another possibility is that i look exactly the same as that woman. That woman in Aldwin’s life that leave such a huge impact on him. That explain why he act so polite and nice to me despite being a demonic spirit. But then again, what is his goal, his goal must be related to me or that woman somehow.’
She sighed. “Why do i have to get such a troublesome spirit?”
-----
Rein lost his word. The woman that kneeled in front of him said that she was his spirit. Aside from Albert, rarely someone could summon more than one spirit when their first spirit is still in this world, and he didn’t remember summoning another spirit.
“I know that you must be confused my lord” Xandra stood. “Just like Sh-.... Elis. I was summoned during your second try, but was unable to materialize because of your curse, but yesterday for a few moment the curse left your body.”
“Geez. Now it’s two versus one huh.” Said Aldwin.
“Just stop this useless fight Aldwin.” Said Albert. “You can’t win.”
“Really?”
Xandra stood up and properly held her sword with both hand, unlike her previous condition when she still wore her helmet, she looked more like a knight. Elis moved next to her and chanted a spell. Aldwin raised his eyebrow and smirked.
“That’s more like it.” He taunted. “Come.”
“Stop..it.” Rein stood up and limped to Aldwin. “What... did... you do to me?”
Rein knew that Aldwin did something more than just overload him with mana. His chest felt heavy and hollow, like something was dragging his chest from behind. His heart to be exact, just like when the curse left him. He must have tampered with his curse somehow.
“Giving myself an insurance. You said so yourself, you will only cooperate for some time before we become enemy. So i altered the curse in your heart so that if you’re trying to hurt Rose or me, the curse would inflict a great deal of pain.” Aldwin turned his back. “The pain you’re feeling right now should be gone in a few hour. After that you will be able to use basic magic.”
Rein watched him Aldwin jumped to the church’s roof and disappeared from his sight before he succumbed to the pain.
“My lord, must i chase him?” Xandra asked.
“No.. just let him go.”
-------
“Dismissed!” Said Arthur.
In front of him was a long table with a few other person sitting beside him. They all stood up and left the room save for three, himself, Rose, and Hector.
“Hector, any problem?” He asked.
“Not really, but knowing that Achilles is summoned as well in this game, made me, a bit uncomfortable and excited at the same time.”
“Is that your regret? Not able to kill him.”
“No. What he did to my body after he killed me was a plain insult, but after what i’ve done to Patroclus it’s justifiable. After all it’s a war, i killed many, he killed many, we fight and i turn out to be the weaker one. I’m happy with the prospect of having a rematch with him, but you just can’t not feel uneasy meeting someone who killed you.” He stood up. “Well, enough of my rambling.” He left the room.
Arthur noticed that Rose was restless since she came here, she wasn’t as responsive as usual during the meeting.
“Now Rose, is there’s an issue?”
“I.. don’t know how to say this, and i don’t want other to know. I made a deal with someone without asking your permission first.”
“You don’t have to feel sorry Rose.“
“The problem is , i don’t know if he is an enemy or a friend.”
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”I believe that you made the right decision for the circumstance you’re in.” He answered with a smile.
Rose took out a letter from her jacket and gave it to Arthur. He opened and read it. She wanted to check the content first before giving it to him, but the envelope was protected by some magic that not even she could open.
The letter burst in flame after he read it.
“Rose, who sent it?” He asked with a distressed voice.
“An old man. His name is Calvin. Is something wrong?” She knew something was wrong, she just asked to confirm it.
“I don’t know if this is a gift or a disaster.” He walked to his desk and took out a thick folder.
“Arthur, i’m-i’m sorry.”
Arthur never made a face like that before. The face of anger and panic. She knew she messed up, and she messed up real bad.
Arthur sat next to Rose and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself. I’m the one at fault here for not telling you this sooner. I’m stupid for not thinking the possibility.” He opened the folder. “This is a list of the most dangerous person in the world. I made after collecting information over the past few years. ”
He took a paper and handed it to Rose.
Name: Calvin Full Name: Unknown
Sex: Male Birth: Unknown
Nationality: Unknown Years Active: 1721- now
Allegiance: Hunter Faction(Formerly), Unknown
Race: Caucasian Eyes: Blue Hair: Black(Formerly), White
Equipment: Curved sword, Short sword, Cane, Axe, Scythe, Numerous other self-made melee weapon, Gatling gun, hand cannon, Numerous self-made gun, Numerous explosive weapon, Steel peg leg, Wheelchair.
Magic: Mastery over ALL basic form of magic, specialize in enhancement. Familiar creation. Homunculus creation. Necromancy. Lifespan lengthening. Numerous other forbidden magic.
Note: Vast spy network all over the world. Winning the 1755 Game of Spirit in just under 10 days. Credited for numerous assassination of world leader and Faction leader. Credited for discovering and collecting numerous legendary artifact. Fighting power at least equal to A++ ranked spirit.True Immortality(Unconfirmed).
“He is the number one in my list.”
“1721 till now? Forbidden magic. Homunculus. Necromancy. Winning the game of spirit under 10 days. Equal to A++ spirit. Immortality. W-What the hell?” She asked in disbelief. Someone of his caliber and power should at least be in one of magic association record, but she never even heard of him him.
“One of the biggest problem about him is that his goal is never clear. If he want to cooperate with us then it’s good, but if he consider us to be his enemy we might as well already lose.”
“What should i do?”
“Do nothing for now. Don’t observe him, don’t spy on him. Just let him do what he do for now. I’ll personally look to it later.” Arthur handed her the folder. “Since it already come to this. You must remember the rest on this list. If you met with any one of them, don’t even try to fight. You’re strong Rose, but these people is just on another level.”
Rose nodded as she read the rest of the list.
-----
Rein leaned his back on the sofa with his hand extended forward. Xandra took his hand and a mark appeared in both of their hand like a tattoo of a wolf head. A dull pain emerged in his hand, but it was nothing compared to the pain he felt from his body.
“The contract is complete master.” Said Xandra.
“Yeah.. thank you. And you too Elis.” He looked at Elis who helped them with their contract.
Elis smiled. “My pleasure master.”
He closed his eyes. The pain haven’t get any better and closing his eyes didn’t help much. “Xandra, what happened back then?”
“I don’t understand what do you mean master.”
“Before you opened your mask you were crazed, like a different person, even your height was different.”
“That, Master, is Xander. I could say that he is my second personality, but i prefer calling him my twin brother. We don’t just swap mind and memory, when he took over, this body transformed into a man body, his body. We were born at the same time inside the same body. When i awake he sleep, and when i sleep he wake up. It is undeniable that he is a better warrior than me, but he is a mad warrior, fit only for killing. I will try my best to restrain him until the time come for him to show up.”
“I’m back!” Rose shouted from outside. Her voice interrupted the moment. When she entered the house she was confused by Xandra presence. “Rein, who is she? And where’s Aldwin?”
“Rose..” Rein proceed to tell her all that happened while she was gone, what Aldwin did to him, and who Xandra was.
“ALDWIN! Come down here!” She shouted at the church roof. She was angry for what Aldwin had done, for doing what he did without asking for her opinion. “I know you’re there!”
“Yea yea yea. You interrupted my sleep Rose.” Aldwin appeared on the roof. He jumped down. “What?”
Rose tried to slap Aldwin, but he dodged. “Why did you do that?”
“Do what?” Aldwin asked. He pretended to not know what she meant.
“What you did to Rein.”
“What did i do?”
She gritted her teeth. He was clearly provoking her, but she didn’t care.“Bullshit! You know what you did! Don’t play dumb on me!”
“I did what i need to do.”
“You don’t have to do something so extreme.”
“I have to, i don’t want his curse to act during battle and hindered his spirit from fighting.”
She realized something from his word.“ Wait you don’t mean?”
“Yes i lift his curse if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Then-Then why did you lie to him?”
“I don’t want him to see me as his friend. When the time come when we become an enemy i want to fight him and his spirit without them having any connection to me. It’s easier to fight someone you hate than someone you considered your friend.” He replied. “I hope that you don’t tell Rein about this, it would defeat the purpose of my bad guy acting.”
Rose stared at the ground. Her anger wasn’t quenched, in fact it became worse after knowing his selfishness of not telling her his plan. “Fine! Do whatever you want!”
“Now back to business. How’s the meeting?”
She stared at him in the eyes with a stare that was full of annoyance and anger. “We have decide to act. Tonight we will go scouting some area, and tomorrow.. We’re going to attack Warrior faction’s base. ”