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The Red Flower
Chapter. 38
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The woman put down the cup of coffee at the sound of the door opening and closing far to her left. She kept her eyes on the ceiling displaying the starry sky above the hidden place they were in.
"Did you meet Gasha?"
The woman smiled elegantly as the man got straight to the point; she kept her gaze on the ceiling still. "I did, and my kid daughter never changes, it seems." She could hear the man chuckling as he walked to lean on one pillar before her seat.
"Did she cry?" Armand raised his eyebrow curiously.
The mother softly laughed at the teasing tone, "No, it was water in her eyes, got it?" She looked at him with her index up to make a point as demanded by her precious little daughter.
Armand slightly nodded with a resigned smile, "Water, it is." He knew Gasha rarely cried despite being considered by many as an emotional person. She is Xenos and Shresta’s daughter. That is all the explanation it has to make one understand how she is a mix of emotional yet cold at the same time.
The woman smiled gratefully with her eyes closed, "Thank you for taking care of her until now." She opened her bright yellow eyes to smile at him, "I know it was tough on you, saving this wearisome family." She looked at the coffee on the table beside her, "A father with a risky plan in mind, a mother locked in her room for years without a single word, and a little daughter lost and scared between her puppet-like half-siblings." She had a slight frown on her beautiful features, imagining how horrible it was to so many people other than Armand.
Armand stared thoughtfully at the woman smiling sadly before him, eyes turning fond for a moment, "It was a bit over my limits, but I managed. Please don't stress yourself, Lady Shresta." He smiled when the woman chuckled at his playful comments again. He looked down with a weak smile, whispering, "…I can only hope this actually works in the end."
Shresta turned to him at the whisper she barely caught, noticing the exhaustion behind the firm features of the man who was now carrying the safety of many on his shoulders until Xenos' return. A man who was only born as a little farmer finding his way to the mafia world and ending up with a thorough plan thrown at him, which was filled with puzzles and shocking facts, was expected to manage it perfectly till the end. "I'll scold my sweet husband for you should the plan fails." She winked when he looked at her, causing him to chuckle and shooing off the fatigue from his face even if for a moment.
He looked down with an unreadable smile, and a moment of silence passed between the two. "It feels different speaking with you now..."
Her eyes narrowed in a smile when the young man finally expressed what he had been trying to ignore since meeting her again after years, "Will it be the same thing with Xenos?"
Armand paused with his smile stilled, blinking his eyes multiple times before slowly looking at her, "...Xenos is also...?"
She closed her eyes as she calmly brought the cup to her lips, taking a sip before looking at the screen of the sky above her, "There was another reason than the plan why he went to see Baldrick Alastair." She had a despondent look in her eyes as she spoke of the vampire doctor, "We were naive parents trying to do justice, slowly driving our son to his madness because of our lack of awareness." She took a deep breath as she closed her eyes; a single tear managed to trickle down her cheek to her smiling lips. She never spoke to anyone of her thoughts for years as she was locked in her room, and her husband went ahead with his plan, so she allowed herself to express her sorrow this once. "We never imagined waking up anew and finding our son lost in the dark to the point of no return."
Armand looked shocked at the woman who sounded so heartbroken despite her peaceful smile gracing her features, "…You let him lock you up on purpose?"
"It was a compromise," she opened her eyes, smiling to the sky as she recalled how she met her unrecognizable son, Baldrick, for the first time after her reincarnation, "I could not fight back or stop him as a mother. Doing so would only provoke further awful acts from him, but I only made him promise me to leave our daughter alone." She breathed a chuckle and had a look of disbelief, “I have a feeling Xenos had expected me to act this way, looking at how the plan is fairing well.”
Armand stared long at the previous mother of the crazy vampire doctor, "...he must have really liked his parents.” His face hardened, “No, rather, he must have seen you two as his role models, you and Xenos."
Shresta looked at Armand, who, despite the saddened tone, those amber eyes still were cold as he spoke about the vampire doctor who uncaringly threw a tantrum and messed around with their lives in his despair. "Do you despise us now?"
Calmly shaking his head, Armand looked at the floor with his arms crossed, "It's not your fault what he chose to become after your first death. You two may not have better taught your son the reality of life, but he wouldn't have ended up like that if he hadn't the tiniest bit of evil in him hiding from the start." He looked at Shresta, who was listening intently, "Karl Alastair, your previous daughter, seems to have learned life better than her brother even before the day of her parents’ execution, so it isn't fully your fault, and we're not wasting our time pointing fingers now." He shook his head tiredly, sighing as he looked to the side, "But I still can't get over the fact that...my sister is not a Real." He frowned slightly, his hands holding his arms tightly. “That only makes me feel that her death and happiness mean nothing now…” He then remembered Ral’s face as the fondness was dancing all over his face when looking at his wife, Katalin Hanover.
“What we lived through this life is real, Armand Hanover.”
His fingers twitched slightly at the sharp tone of the woman, and he suddenly felt like a kid scolded by his mother.
“Without your sister, you wouldn’t have become the man you are today. A Fake or not, the imprints she left on you and her husband are real to this day and forever.” Shresta stood on her feet, calmly walking with her heels to stand before Armand, bringing her hand to pat his shoulder gently. As he looked at her, she firmly said, "Fifty rounds." He looked puzzled at her, and she had a sinister smile while still looking elegant, "My husband had been creating the plan while collecting information from those fifty rounds. Thanks for the help from Davante Fixsen."
[https://i.postimg.cc/fLHR2Sp5/1.jpg]
"...fifty...rounds?" Armand slightly widened his eyes, "...how old is Davante Fixsen exactly?"
Whenever he thought of the teen, he remembered the day his nephew, Javi, had refused to take the last mission to kill Davante Fixsen. No, could Javi even be able to kill Davante Fixsen back then? The boy was reserved and usually seemed peaceful. However, he also has this aura to not mess around with him. He was considerably weaker than Javi and many others regarding his physical condition, but the mental side…one could say he excels at it, to the point of making him seem like a villain. He suddenly wondered, was Davante Fixsen ever evil in those fifty rounds?
He slightly shook his head, "No, does Xenos remember everything that happened in those rounds?" reviewing the bit that he had read and deciphered of the information written by Xenos, he couldn’t remember seeing any information about previous rounds. He trusted there were many reasons why Xenos seemed to drive the plan toward Davante Fixsen, but he did not expect the teen to have regressed fifty times, which means this was round 51. Davante Fixsen himself looked unaware of this fact, or was he faking ignorance?
Then again, how did Xenos even gather everything from those fifty rounds? It was only possible if he had a hidden power that helped him remember everything in detail, or…
Shresta gave another light pat on his shoulder, "The Center of this World, that area is a fixed time spot. He recorded everything there.” She nodded ominously when his eyes looked to have gotten all the answers to his overflowing questions, “Do you know now how he found a way to keep this place hidden from the Rulers Circle’s prying eyes?" She let go of his shoulder, "Should any mistake happen in this round, he can try again. Again and again, until he finally succeeds, as long as the curse on Davante Fixsen remains until we get to the Real World. That's how my husband is, so let's trust his plan and not doubt his deductions of who is a Fake and who is a Real."
‘...a curse on Davante Fixsen?’ Armand frowned slightly, finding more questions in thought. ‘Was that the reason for his Time Regressions?’
He thought of what happened to cause Davante to regress every time, death? Was he not allowed to die? The thought of it was scary in a way, certainly something to be called a curse. His eyes slightly widened for a second, ‘Or is it because of…the Game?’
Shresta turned around when the man looked like he wouldn’t speak a word for a while, "And we can consider this round a success already." She said as she walked back to her seat, turning and sitting elegantly again, "The gift my cute daughter unknowingly delivered to Davante Fixsen through the Canvas," she tilted her head with a gentle smile that looked sinister again, "That gift never managed to get delivered in all the fifty rounds before, dear Armand."
She looked to the sky, "Let's wait for how he would accept the gift we sent him for now, and based on that..." she closed her eyes with a serene smile, "...I can't wait to see my beloved husband soon after."
“Hmm…” Armand silently nodded, knowing that the woman who looked drowned in her love for her one man was secretly planning how she would thoroughly punish him first thing after his return.
He thought of Ral, his innocent brother-in-law, worrying as the man might also get scolded along with his friend.
.
.
'I...got what I aimed for, didn't I?'
Ellmer stared at the group in front of him as they were listening to their leader, Chronos, giving instructions with a bright smile like he was telling a fun story instead.
Recalling what happened hours ago...
"Your answer?" Chronos demanded again, looking impatient as he tilted his head too much to the side, his completely black eyes fixed on Ellmer before him.
Ellmer stood straight with a firm face, "This is Ellmer Reinhart, and I came back from a mission, sir."
Chronos paused with a blink, looking taken aback at the authoritative aura around the guy who was expected to cower or show signs of reluctance for being surrounded by the Anfinrud group as a suspect of working with Armand Hanover. However, Ellmer showed confidence that a true agent for their organization. Having seen that, he nodded for the other to continue.
'Phew, let's see,' Ellmer organized his thoughts with a straight face, "As you may know, I've been assigned by Mr. Xenos to kill Davante Fixsen." He noticed how the other stayed still and only blinked, indicating he wasn't informed of the matter or simply didn't care to know of other agents in the organization besides the Anfinrud family members. Well, Ellmer could prove his mission later if he had to, "I thought it would be best to watch him first. I needed to be careful, knowing the target had managed to stay safe even after many attempts by skillful agents of our Organization." He paused, checking for any alarming signs from the guy before him.
Finding none, he continued, "As Mr. Henrik here said, I was previously assigned to watch The Deadly Shadow years ago, and Armand Hanover was the one taming The Deadly Shadow from then. So yes, I was acquainted with the man before, sir."
'Forgive what I'm about to do, Armand.' He thought as he held back a smirk. He doubted the man would even mind the lies he was about to say about him. Armand would even laugh if he heard the incredible story about to be told. "I noticed after careful investigation that Davante Fixsen is rather just a dummy. Armand Hanover had complete control over our supposed target's body, moving around with it to distract the organization and strike at the right time when we least expected it." He glanced at Henrik from the corner of his eyes, "I've been sending reports to Mr. Henrik about my investigations for a while, and it seems he wasn't reporting any of them to Mr. Xenos for whatever reason."
Henrik flinched and curled up in fear after a single glance from Chronos.
'It isn't a complete lie.' Ellmer had indeed sent reports to divert the attention from his brother as much as he could. Armand wasn't once in his reports, however. And Henrik was certainly suspicious for not responding to any of his reports for almost a year now. Ellmer had always doubted the old man's loyalty to Xenos Anfinrud since the start anyway, so it was pretty easy and convenient to accuse him as much as he liked in this case.
"Hm?" Chronos tilted his head again as he seemed to remember something, the cold aura from minutes ago creeping around him slowly, "Are you saying father was going after the wrong target?" He asked with a chilling tone, tilting his head to the other side, "But if I recall correctly, weren't you in the forest with Davante Fixsen's friends? Weren't you going to destroy the Canvas when I threw it in the forest?"
Ellmer nodded, not looking troubled one bit at the threatening tone. "That was only because I knew the Canvas wasn't supposed to be delivered that night, sir. I wanted to act fast as it may be an attack from another possible enemy, and there was no time to contact the organization for confirmation." He explained calmly, "I was also busy watching Davante Fixsen's allies as they should hold valuable information about our target. After that night, I found out that..." his eyes looked fiercely at the other, "Armand Hanover is working with vampires, sir. Surely you've noticed someone else who was with us that night."
"......" Chronos stared long at Ellmer, slowly moving his head straight, "You..." he took a step forward, "Are you playing with me?"
"V...Vampires..."
Chronos and Ellmer stopped and looked to the side at Henrik, who had spoken the name with crazed eyes as if he had heard something wonderful after so long of waiting.
"There are other vampires still around...I knew it...the...the Queen...hehe...heheheh..."
Ellmer slightly frowned at the crazy bastard laughing with his unfocused eyes shaking, '...is he...'
Recalling everything about Henrik from the start, Ellmer wasn't pleased with what he had just come to realize, 'Is he also a vampire...?'
Despite looking aged, the old bastard had always been oddly strong and healthy. A single scratch, whether deep or not, would soon disappear after only hours in the same day, and he would strangely stare at all the blood in the labs with thirst in his eyes which Ellmer had mistaken the look as the bastard was just obsessed with his work, tormenting kids like him with injecting possibly vampires’ blood into their system. That was why Ellmer was honestly shocked to see him now looking so weak and miserable.
Ellmer decided to ignore the bastard old man for now and focused again on Chronos, who looked doubtful as Henrik's reaction made him rethink the possibility of the existence of vampires.
Ellmer was thankful for the bastard’s interruption; it saved him the effort to convince the crazy leader, "Armand must have gained the vampires' help to control Davante Fixsen all this time, sir. The vampire I met went off to Davante Fixsen after I spoke of my deductions of the similar smell around Davante and Armand. It was quite strange for the vampires to show up suddenly on the same night Armand had launched his attack. And freeing Davante from their grip without a single memory of them would be the first step to prevent their plan from getting exposed."
Ellmer ignored the part of him worrying that he would possibly cause a mess because of his lies. "That was why I tried to quickly break the Canvas and chase after him, sir. But Davante Fixsen had been bedridden ever since that night, the smell around him was gone, and when he woke up recently, he was like a different person, so I tried to follow the smell I caught of Armand and that vampire to this place, sir. But it seems I’m at a dead-end now."
He waited for the other's face to show any kind of reaction. It wasn't like all that he said was totally false. Some of it was possibly true. Armand working with vampires is plausible in this case.
"I can confirm what he is saying, boss."
Chronos slowly turned to look at one guy from the group standing behind him.
"There were reports in Henrik's office, and as burnt as they were, I caught the sender's name on most of them was from Mr. Reinhart here." The guy with his eyes hidden with narrow Cyclops sunglasses spoke firmly, stepping forward from the group to go closer to Chronos, "As ordered by the boss, our group had gone to investigate the academy situation after that night. As said, Davante Fixsen had been in a coma and woke up lately a different person. Also, the academy's headmaster, Davante Fixsen's father, is currently showing signs of memory loss after that night. Additionally, Mr. Ivailo seems to be working secretly with a man of vampire characteristics."
Ellmer stared long at the guy who had suddenly spoken from the group of robotic people without Chronos’ permission, yet Chronos looked to be listening and strangely did not kill the guy on the spot for interrupting. '...who is this?'
It was an unfamiliar face. He tried to search his brain for any information about the guy, but there was none. The fact that he couldn't recall a single thing of a person like this, who spoke with his own mind, unlike the rest, didn't sit well with Ellmer. And the guy supported Ellmer like he meant to firmly cover up the lie and leave no room for suspicion, which was suspicious in itself.
Stolen novel; please report.
Chronos' eyes returned to normal, and the stuffed bear fell limply in its owner's arm. He turned to Ellmer, "...you know so much." Chronos said with a thoughtful look.
Ellmer kept his face straight, 'He believed all my bluff because of that guy?'
Not that it was bad. This way, he could at least divert the attention away from Davante and the academy, even if for a short while. He could use Chronos and his robotic followers to find Armand and the arrogant vampire in the meantime. It worked well with him, but still, 'Who is this guy?' He glanced at the guy with a deadpan face behind Chronos. 'Someone whom Chronos seems to trust...'
Chronos Anfinrud was known to trust no one but his family members and hardly ever paid any attention to anyone else in the organization aside from giving orders on missions, so who was this person suddenly?
"That means one or many people in the academy could be Armand Hanover's followers, right?"
"......" Ellmer blinked at Chronos, '...ah, I miscalculated.' Obviously, Chronos would go first to the academy as some of the enemy’s followers might still be there.
Chronos widened his eyes as if he had the answer finally, raising his index finger to make a point, "Which means we should head to the academy and check every single one!" He smiled at Ellmer, bringing his hand into a fist like an excited child, "And we should first check Davante Fixsen, as there might be any traces of Armand in him!!"
[https://i.postimg.cc/hGYSVRd3/2.jpg]
'What...?' Ellmer tried hard not to frown at the happy puppet, 'So he doesn't trust the guy after all...?' Logically, anyone with a brain would see on his own the truth of all the bullshit he had just said; but Chronos looked convinced by the suspicious guy a moment ago that Davante was now useless to them, so what happened?
Glancing at the guy, Ellmer couldn't read a thing from that stoic face with hidden eyes. He soon ignored the guy and focused back on Chronos.
'All right, let's go to the academy and catch some bastards on the way.' It was not like the academy was safe, to begin with. That place is a whole mystery in itself with the forest, that flower with someone's soul in it as explained by Alvis after speaking with Davante, and the abandoned underground laboratory.
'Wasn't there even another vampire other than that royalty-looking one?' He doubted the illusion barrier was done by the same vampire they encountered in the forest, the aura felt different, and it didn't seem like the man's methods to play petty tricks like that.
He could also force Chronos to watch and observe Davante closely to finally believe that the teen was innocent and that there was nothing to target him for. '...hopefully, Davante wouldn't show that one side in front of the crazy puppet.'
His brother does have a rather scary side. When the teen explained his nearly-accurate deductions to him in the hospital room, those icy-blue eyes made him believe that Davante Fixsen was positively an intimidating analyst, even as he looked absent-minded and uncaring most of the time.
Chronos walked happily toward Ellmer with his arms open, "Let's work together now, Ellmer boy!"
'Oh, that easy?'
And was it his eyes, or did the suspicious guy’s lips move into a smirk behind Chronos for a second there?
But Ellmer couldn’t observe the guy closely as Chronos demanded his constant attention from then on.
And that was how he found himself here, in Anfinrud organization’s secret base, which he had just learned of its existence. 'I wanted us to work together in a way, so here we are...'
The puppet with a brain suddenly turned in his direction after giving his instructions to his followers and walked toward him with great enthusiasm, nothing like the way Ellmer first met him at the vanished village hours ago.
"Ellmer boy is the second in command from now on!"
Ellmer maintained his blank face as the group nodded with serious faces funnily. He was unsure if they even took their leader seriously or literally lacked a mind to object to the sudden change of plans. Ellmer was supposed to be their enemy just hours ago.
"Your word, Ellmer boy?"
'Stop saying Ellmer boy, haa...' Ellmer stared a bit at Chronos' wide eyes, looking expectantly at him. 'Is he testing me?' He found the sudden welcoming manner suspicious from the ever-cold puppet. Either way, he was stuck with the Anfinrud leader now.
He nodded firmly, maintaining his formal persona in front of the organization's current leader, "I'll try my best not to disappoint, sir."
And that seemed to satisfy the leader, who nodded vehemently, grinning with the stuffed bear hanging in his arm. "I'll have to contact Ivailo first before taking any action. What does my assistant think?"
‘Typical, our leader deliberately ignored the strange guy's implying Ivailo being a possible traitor.' Ellmer put his hand over his chin as if thinking before voicing his opinion, "I suppose we should keep in mind that even Mr. Ivailo is possibly under Armand's control. I believe we should approach the academy carefully first and keep an eye on Mr. Ivailo for a while..."
Chronos stiffened; the smile was gone and was replaced with a pout instead, "...so we should be careful even of Ivailo?" He looked close to deny the idea and tightened his hold around his weapon, recalling how his brother looked unbothered as he was the first to announce Angela's disappearance. "...we need to save both him and Neron from Armand and get them out of the academy quickly." He gritted his teeth, “That bitch, Gasha…”
‘So you easily believe your half-sister is a traitor but not Ivailo or Angela?’ Ellmer wanted to scoff at the apparent bias in the family. Though Neron was adopted into the family, he still got the siblings’ love for reasons Ellmer was not curious to know. Aside from that, '...is he seriously thinking of listening to me?' Ellmer thought as he observed their leader thinking deeply of the assistant's idea, eventually nodding and agreeing with Ellmer.
Ellmer secretly glanced at the suspicious guy, whose face gave nothing away even as Chronos seemed to lean more to Ellmer's side than him. ‘Is he aiming for Chronos to trust me?’ he slightly narrowed his eyes as he looked elsewhere not to get caught staring; he was suddenly wary more of the guy than Chronos.
"Let's think of a plan together!" Chronos smiled wide again, waving his ugly teddy bear in front of Ellmer's face, who tried to smile back this time, and it seemed to please the puppet.
"Ah! So he was lying then, right?" The leader asked curiously, looking at Henrik trembling in the corner, who yelped at Chronos' attention suddenly turning to him.
"Ah, this..." Ellmer stared coldly at the bastard, trying not to show his inner feelings. "...I recall he was working with Armand Hanover over The Deadly Shadow's developments. The Deadly Shadow was later discovered to be originally from the Cavalons, as you may have been informed before, sir. Which was why Mr. Xenos ordered Miss Angela to kill all the Cavalon household, right?" He fixed his crimson-red eyes on the quivering old man, "I say...we pull out as much information from him as possible. He was the one directly contacting Armand to deliver the reports to Mr. Xenos about the strongest tool back then, so he might have known Armand’s real intentions since the beginning. Also, he seems to know something about the vampires."
"Hmm..." Chronos pursed his lips slightly as he contemplated. "I'm curious why didn't you tell father back then, Ellmer boy? With your talent, isn't it strange for you not to catch him betraying his master in secret?"
He wanted to sigh, 'I knew you're not a fool.' Ellmer looked straight into Chronos' eyes, "I am ashamed to say I was intimidated by Henrik and his subordinates until now, sir. So I mainly focused on my missions than trying to catch any evidence against the ones above me." He lowered his head a bit with a sad look on his face, 'I was actually using him to my advantage in secret.' He thought while holding back a chuckle. If you find any subtle disloyalty within a threatening organization, wouldn't it be best to use them to your benefit than eliminate them? Ellmer wouldn't have been able to even leave for the academy if not for that. He deliberately put Henrik in a difficult situation in front of the CEO as he couldn't refuse Xenos back then. If he did, Xenos would drill him for answers and demand a good explanation and proof of why Ellmer Reinhart was not qualified for taking the mission after proving his capabilities for years.
Ellmer always knew Henrik had put a stronger leash on him than any other tool under him because Ellmer had proved to be a watchful wolf ready to hunt instead of a dog that only barked when forced for obedience.
'...did he just smirk again?' Ellmer was almost sure he had caught the suspicious guy smirking for a second as he performed his sob story.
"He bullied you?" Chronos blinked as he looked surprised for a second, yet he looked unbothered and didn’t seem to sympathize with the victim of abuse in front of him. He smiled wide at Ellmer, "He's yours, then. I expect great information from you!" As the assistant focused on him, he explained, "You proved to have more experience in this field than I or any of us can do!"
"......"
'In other words, you want to watch me closely.' Ellmer got the message, hiding his smirk from the sly puppet. "Leave it to me, sir."
He should put this situation to good use.
'I should contact Kito or Owin first, though...'
He looked at his current smiling leader, wondering how he would shake off Chronos’ grip on him for a bit.
Those crazy eyes were clearly monitoring his every move.
-Hey, you hear me?
“……”
Just at that moment, he heard a familiar voice from his earrings, which shouldn't be able to detect the secret signal as the place seemed heavily protected.
-...is it still not working?
"......"
He turned to look at Henrik to hide his stiff face from Chronos' watchful eyes. Walking toward the quivering old man as he asked, "I must ask for some alone time to investigate him then, sir."
-Huh? Why are you speaking like that? What sir? Who are you talking to...? Don't tell me...are you really under threat?
"Mr. Henrik looks too frightened to speak in front of you, as it seems," Ellmer stated a bit loudly to deliver the message through the secret connection.
-...Henrik? Isn't that...
"Ah! Yep, yep, sure."
-......
Ellmer stood calmly as he heard the footsteps walking further from him to the door, knowing that the sly puppet surely left some hidden cameras and recording devices in the room to agree to leave with his group this easily.
-Hey...where are you right now...?
He thought of a way to discreetly answer. Ellmer turned to look at Chronos, who was slowly closing the door, looking as creepy as always, "Sir Chronos."
-......
Ellmer closed his eyes in a smile at the leader. "May I request some types of equipment before you go?"
-...you are with...Chronos Anfinrud?
"... equipment?" Chronos stared from the slightly open door, blinking before he widened his eyes for a moment, "Oooh, I see!" He smiled at Ellmer as if admiring his assistant for a second, "Sure, you can find them all behind that wall."
Ellmer tried to control his face as he hadn't expected a hidden place for torturing tools in the plain room. Looking at the wall the crazy leader had pointed at, he nodded with a smile again, "Noted. Thank you, sir."
-......I'm listening.
Ellmer smirked as the door clicked shut finally. 'Yeah, it's easier working with you in this case.'
He was glad Javi, the former best Anfinrud Tool, was the one who contacted him first.
But seriously, how did he force the signal to pass through this place without blaring any single alarm?
Ellmer's smirking lips twitched, '...who are you with?' He suddenly had a feeling Javi was not the only one listening on the other line.
.
.
"I said I'm listening—" Javi raised his fist—
Bam—!!
Exasperated, he hit the table, "I didn't say I'd listen to your damn torture session!!"
Bam—!!
"Lower your fucking voice!! You want him to get caught, dumbass?!" Kyle hissed, hitting both his fists on the table, causing the laptop before him to shake a bit.
"Fuuuh, you woke me up at the crack of dawn and called both Dad and Neron to stay with Davante in the room for this..." Elois massaged his temples with one hand, eyes closed to lessen his throbbing headache.
"Wow, haha, this is fun!"
"Right,"
Both Owin and Bren burst out in laughter in front of the stressed trio at the table.
[https://i.postimg.cc/PJtFxPqG/3.jpg]
"Nothing is funny in this situation, you two." Elois rubbed his face with a sigh again, knowing his little brother was probably happy because they were all gathering and working together for the first time, but his friend, Bren, looked to just find the situation funny overall. He was relieved at least that the guy seemed pretty chill with him, unlike how he had imagined their first meeting would be. Then again, perhaps it was because there was no time for any talk in their situation now. He opened his eyes in the middle of the night to find three tall people above his head in the dark and was dragged from his room, suddenly explaining to him that they needed his intelligence urgently, which was his hobby of hacking extremely strongly-protected computer networks for no particular reason in his free time. Nobody besides Javi knew of his hobby, but he was sure the brown head wouldn’t have shared the information if not for a serious situation.
"You— what was that sound?" Javi gasped with the device held to his ear, his eyes widening in horror, "What sound was that...? That wasn't just breaking bones— HEY!! Stop doing shit when you're in a shit situation!!" He hit the table again, "You laughing?! You're torturing someone and you're laughing?!!"
"Right, your delicate profession is shoot and go. Wanna switch?" Bren laughed as Javi grumpily slapped his hand away from the secret-communicating device.
Elois groaned and clicked his tongue, glancing at the screen before him, then frowning at Javi, "Tell him to get information and leave the place already. I changed the coding of the security system so the alarms should treat our signal as part of their system, but we don't know when they would find out."
Kyle glared at the two before him with his arms crossed and the headphones on, "Let my brother get his revenge on the fucking bastard."
"You be quiet and focus on the signals." Elois waved his hand dismissively at the insolent red-haired teen without even looking at the brat.
"Tsk..." Kyle focused on the screen before him as told, mumbling and complaining to himself that it was only because of his older brother that he was willing to even sit with them when in truth, he was secretly enjoying working together with the group, especially Elois, who happened to share the same hobbies and proved to be a pro at it even. He ignored his twin brother looking at him with a knowing smile.
'I never imagined us to unite like this...' Kito thought with a smile as he stood behind Elois, feeling the need to massage the poor guy’s shoulders as he worked the most on finding the location and breaking the overly secure system and carefully reaching Ellmer when he had barely understood a thing in the situation right after waking up. Still, this was nice. He secretly chuckled, looking at the chaotic group at the table in Ellmer's room.
-The...The Queen...
"......" Javi stopped complaining abruptly and listened intently.
The rest of the group fell silent, each focusing on his task immediately as Henrik’s voice appeared on the line and finally spoke something other than howling and crying in pain.
-Ah, Henrik, the Queen must be so dear to you.
Javi got a shiver at the oddly overly gentle tone from Ellmer, knowing the rest couldn't hear him but still could see the change displayed in all the devices on the table.
Everyone in the room understood that Ellmer was not playing around for his and Javi’s revenge on the old man who used to physically and mentally abuse them in their childhood but was driving the old man to a stage where he could easily manipulate him into confessing everything without having to say much, careful from Chronos’ prying eyes and ears through the spying devices around him.
-M...My salvation...my strength...m-my...my hope...
Javi could hear Henrik sobbing and whining like a baby struggling to speak through all the tears.
-I'm here now, Henrik.
Ellmer said softly, almost in a whisper, and it seemed he was patting the old man’s head judging by the sounds of fabric, sending shivers again down Javi's spine, '...demon, I knew you were a demon.'
-...M...My Queen? My Queen? I-Is this you, my Queen?
Javi noticed the faces around him looked disturbed while they stared fiercely at the devices, matching his expression as he heard the sound of frantic movements, indicating the old man was trying to touch Ellmer in any way in his delirious state, believing that ‘The Queen’ was indeed with him at last.
-Easy there.
Ellmer chuckled lightly.
-Look at you, poor kid. You must have waited so long.
‘You calling an old man a kid…?’ Javi grimaced at Ellmer's tone, puzzled as the guy didn’t sound like he said it playfully even. ‘Is the said Queen older than Henrik?’ then again, how does Ellmer even know? He heard Henrik's sniffles and cries again.
-My Queen...Oh, Queen...I-I waited just as y-you said!
The group frowned and looked puzzled, except for Bren, who stared blankly at the words displayed on the recording device placed between him and Owin.
-And what was the promise, Henrik?
'Why are you good at this?' Javi could tell from the tone that Ellmer wasn’t blindly going along with the old man according to his role as 'The Queen.’ He knew what to ask precisely even as he had no clue what the old man was saying, ‘Have you tortured other people before?’ he tried not to think of it and focused again as Henrik immediately answered loudly, making him wince a bit but kept the device close to his ear.
-To get out of here! To live the Real Life!!
"Real Life..."
Owin glanced at Bren, who whispered words beside him with an unreadable look in his eyes.
-My Queen...w-when are you going to destroy the Game?
"The Game?"
Javi and Elois looked at each other, recalling the first time they met Davante in the forest and investigated him, telling them he was just playing a Game made by someone he knew.
-I did well, didn't I? I promise to serve you all my life, My Queen! Even as you b-become the Head of the RULERS CIRCLE!
Owin heard Bren's weak gasp beside him when suddenly they jumped in place—
There was a loud sound as all the lights and devices in the room shut off for a quick second, hearing the sound echo around them even as the devices switched on the next second.
The whole group stayed still as the sound slowly disappeared. All were stunned as they looked at each other with wide eyes.
Kito turned to check the sky from the window, finding it clear of rain and clouds. The rest of the academy looked to be the same and unaffected even.
"What...just happened?" Owin was the first to break the silence and warily asked, noticing his brother looking at the screen with a deep frown. "Elois?" He got scared when Elois looked utterly horrified as he stared at something on the screen.
"Hey, is red dude still there?" Bren asked Javi, who had a similar deep frown as Elois as he listened to something through the device.
"Hey...what is this sound...?"
They turned to Kyle, who frowned at the screen before him while clutching the headphones, and the one in charge of managing all the signals through the security system, "...is it saying something...?" He warily looked at Elois for an answer, then at Javi, who slowly looked scared stiff as he was seemingly listening to a similar sound through the device.
"Elois?" Owin called for his brother again as he seemed to be reading and deciphering some code.
"......"
"...is somebody gonna say something?" Bren asked, aware of the odd fright on the trio's faces, especially Elois, whose eyes slowly widened and his face lost its color.
"OW!!" Kyle flinched and rubbed his ears when the headphones were suddenly snatched from him and slammed on the table, glaring at Elois, who still had his eyes on the screen, "What was that for?!"
Elois moved and snatched the device from Javi, switching it off quickly.
"...Elois?"
They all stared at the older orange head, who quickly slammed his laptop shut as if he couldn't afford to look at the screen anymore.
"...it..." he kept staring blankly down at the closed laptop, looking utterly shocked and spooked, "It looks like a curse or a warning written in a foreign language...there was some code I could read but…" he looked at Javi, "The voice...you felt like there was an unnatural voice muttering through the noise, right?"
Both Javi and Kyle slowly nodded.
They all fell silent...
"...what happened to Ellmer?" Kito cautiously asked, and the silence only got heavier.
"At least," Elois broke the silence and grabbed his phone, switched it on and started tapping with his thumb expertly, strangely the one who looked calm in the group. "We have his location now."
.
.
"......" Ellmer remained completely still with a blank face, staring long at a spot on the floor where Henrik was crying on his knees just a second ago.
"......ha..." he let a short breath, but he couldn’t even hear it, and only then was he aware that he had stopped breathing when the lights suddenly switched off with a loud sound like thunders colliding in the sky. His tensed limbs slowly relaxed, and his back leaned on the wall behind him in the darkroom; he was not sure how and when he even jumped far to the other side of the room. He was now aware he was sitting on the floor. His heart was beating fast, yet he couldn't even hear his heartbeat. Slowly looked at his hands resting on the floor by his side and found them trembling.
He suddenly remembered he was on the line with Javi and the others. He forced his hand to check his earrings, feeling a sting and something wet in what was supposed to be his earlobe, bringing his fingers to his nose to smell it in the dark, '...blood...'
He frowned slightly, “Hmm…” He made a weak sound and was not surprised when he didn’t hear a thing, 'Did the earrings explode in my ears...?' He moved his other hand to feel around for his necklace, activating Rewind.
The glowing bubble surrounded him, and his ears didn’t take long to heal as they got damaged only seconds ago. The glowing bubble shrank and returned to its place, sticking with the other small globes in his necklace. His eyes had adjusted to the dark, but he couldn't find Henrik. The old man vanished without a single trace; only the tools Ellmer used to torture him were left on the floor. The pool of blood that was there also was nowhere to be found, vanished with its owner. He remembered he had recoiled and closed his eyes at the thunderous sound and couldn’t catch what had happened to the crazy old man in that instant.
'...what even...' he couldn’t understand the strange fear that seeped into him when the sound suddenly appeared, and everything happened quickly in one second.
'The Rulers Circle...' Henrik last said those three words, '...what was that?'
Somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to utter those words out loud to know what would happen next.
He then noticed the place was too quiet. No alarms and no voices, no people running in the area to check what happened, or was it only this room?
He carefully stood, moving to the door. Silently opening it to find dark hallways. 'It isn’t only the room.' Then where were Chronos and the agents?
He blinked, silently slipping out of the room, wondering if he should take the chance and leave. Now that Henrik is gone to who knows where, he will definitely be questioned about what happened. Most probably Chronos will view him as an enemy, no need for more observing, especially when clearly the cause of this situation is him in a way. Even if he found a way to get himself away from suspicion and made them check the recording devices, they would surely find an error in the system, and the secret signal Elois had managed to add stealthily into the program would be detected. Any plan of working together flew out of the window.
He should leave while he could now; thankfully he memorized the way out. Even if he hardly gained any information, he could come back with a better plan next time, with some support, maybe.
He smirked as he surprisingly liked working with the guys after this experience with their brilliant efforts and skills put together as a team.
'All right, let’s find the exit real quick now.'
He walked into the empty and dark hallways in the worryingly quiet base.
.
.
The Weapon eyed the endless dark void. He moved his hand to feel the space around him, finding himself moving freely. He tried to stand up, finding no difficulty or any hindrance.
"The stench...didn't seem to be from the clown scoundrel."
Recalling and reviewing the memories he got from saving Elois from the illusions, he couldn't remember Belvedere using this particular method once. No, the clown's powers weren't fully shown in all the memories before, so maybe...he has more in store?
Also, while acting lost for a week, he noticed that the Cowndrel Queen's smell was around the place on some students, but it wasn’t on Elois.
In any case, he was stuck here in the dark with nothing at all. "I should hurry back to Davante." He said, looking around him again, "If this is the work of Belvedere, then...this should be some sort of fear?" But what fear was this? He was not sure. He wasn't even aware if he had any fear.
"Well, my realm should be somewhere close." He paused, looking down at his attire again, "Or, is it not my realm if it's originally in my Master's mind?" Was that why he was in a black void?
He blinked, "Ah," he looked up as he sort of grasped the situation, "This is it?" so this wasn’t his fear?
He was stuck in the black void because he wasn't with his Master anymore? Because he had no place to go now?
He calmly put his fingers over his chin in thought, "Someone managed to disconnect us only because I'm partially a separate entity now..." he hummed, staring at his clothes that was an indication of Davante's state of mind, "...then I'll be stuck here as long as I hold on to my Master."
He lightly sighed as he didn't imagine being the one to fully detach himself from Davante, but he had to do it if he wanted to figure his way out of this situation. He needed to remind himself that he was more a weapon than an actual brain, so it wasn’t like he was killing his owner’s body by detaching himself for a short while, but he had to hurry, knowing as Davante now wouldn’t be able to wake up on his own without him first.
"All right, I'm on my own now."
His Master, no, Davante, still didn't give him a name, and of course he did not as he was forced asleep by him, the Weapon himself, to revive 'Davante Fixsen.'
"Should I think of one for myself, then?"
Logically speaking, if he gave the task to Davante, that only meant he still viewed himself as a partially separate entity, not entirely an individual on his own, which was why he should find one for himself instead, correct?
"Hmm..." a name to introduce himself with. What would it be? "Thomas?" He frowned a bit and quickly dismissed the name. Well, it originally meant 'Twin', but it didn't feel right. "Devan?" That sounded like an acronym for Davante.
He leaned his weight on one leg, thinking deeply before shaking his head calmly, "...choosing a name is difficult." He complained with a light sigh. "Hmm, something about hidden existence? No, let's not make it related to Davante..."
Something about Dreams? No, that only explains his role as Davante’s weapon.
'Let's not make it related to Davante.'
Something about weapons? Ah, right…
'Let's not make it related to Davante.'
Mind?
'Let's not make it related to Davante.'
He thought for what felt like hours. He couldn't settle with one even when he decided to go with random names. He tapped his right leg with his arms crossed, worrying that he shouldn’t take long as he wasn’t sure if the time here might be moving differently from the outside.
"It should be something about me as a person..."
Does he have his own character?
The answer was probably yes. While yes, he and Davante do think the same in a way, maybe even more so later when Davante wakes up after the revival, but there are still minor differences between them, which is perhaps the reason why Elois looked to have found out the one he was talking with was not Davante but the Weapon.
"I should create a name solely for me alone, then..." he smirked, "Evester?" He tilted his head back and coolly laughed at how ridiculous he came up with the name, his voice echoing around him, "So when introducing to Davante, it will be Evester Fixsen?" He chuckled, nodding to himself, "Sounds all right to me." He crossed his arms and looked amused, "Can't wait to see his face when I tell him its meaning later."
The void didn't change, however.
Checking his clothes, they were still the same. He looked at the void, grabbing his red blouse with his index finger and thumb, "This is just a tool for me to be reassured of Davante's current state, okay? I’m his twin brother, as you can tell."
Fwooosh…
The black void slowly started to change from around him.
Smirking, 'Bingo.'
The place he found himself in, however...was entirely new and foreign to him.
[https://i.postimg.cc/GpwKtHMM/4.jpg]
.
.
Two weeks—
"Hey, did you hear?" One of the students whispered to his friend walking next to him in the crowded hallway.
"About the series murders lately?" The other asked just as carefully.
"They say they finally found a suspect..." the other whispered, looking around him in case the suspect was among the students murmuring in the place, seemingly gossiping about the same person.
"They say it's the new student in class 3-B, Dante Gabrielli."
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The End of CH. 38