Chapter 228 - Scars
With a heavy sigh, Elliot sat on top of the inn's roof. He was holding his cup of coffee, watching the cold nightlife of Solaguer in this festive season.
"A few days from now, snow will fall harder," Lance said behind him. "Can I sit next to you?"
"Yeah," Elliot whispered. His eyes never left the bright gems that lit up the streets and the city's square. He was both nervous and excited about how things would turn out the day after.
It was Round Two and he feels like they just had a dumb luck about choosing the Boss Island. If they had to fight other Adventurers, they would have to take it and then defend it for an hour. And if they'd encounter strong ones continuously, they'd run out of mana and stamina in the first half hour.
"Tomorrow, things will get crazier," Lance chuckled. "Ever since I joined the guild, I would always participate in the games. It was my rebellious phase with me showing my father my most rebellious side. And I didn't bother to know things. He was actually hurting, he was actually controlled."
"At least you have the time to regret things and do something about it," Elliot smiled. "I never got to meet my father."
For the first time since Lance arrived, Elliot looked at him. The latter's wattery ones met with Lance's dry ones.
"Elliot, listen–"
"You have to forfeit." They turned around after hearing the voice behind them. It was Ryan, the police officer.
He was holding his left arm, it was filled with blood that covered through his his face.
"What happened?" Elliot gasped and ran to him. "Who did this to you?"
"The organization…" Ryan panted. "They're after the Twilight Bless."
Elliot turned to Lance who had the same surprised look in his face. Lance went to them and carried Ryan by himself. The police officer was much bigger than Elliot. Even with Elliot's strength, the boy would have a hard time carrying him.
"You know about the Twilight Bless too?" Elliot asked. "Who are after them?"
"They placed a curse on me," Ryan said. He grit his teeth and his eyes started to roll on the back of his head.
"Lance, let's bring him to Aki!" Elliot yelled and leaped off the roof. He dashed inside the inn and knocked on Aquarius's door. "Aki, we need your help."
The door flung open, revealing an Aquarius who seemed to just wake up. "Elliot, what's– oh."
The shorter boy didn't let him finish and grabbed his wrist, dragging him to the first floor of the inn where Lance placed the heavily wounded Ryan on the table.
"Holy mother of the gods," Aquarius gasped after seeing the blood that covered half of Ryan's body.
Elliot had seen it clearer now with the light. The flesh on Ryan's right hand was almost chopped off completely. It looked like the person who attacked him was trying to cut his arm off but barely missed, cutting through the flesh and showing the bone.
There was also a mark on his arm, meaning there was a curse put on there. This must be the curse Ryan mentioned.
"I need a bucket of water," Aquarius said. It was then when the wound on Ryan's arm spewed blood like a geyser. "Make it a barrel."
Lance and Elliot nodded. They were now rushing to the back of the inn where they store their water supply. When they saw the barrel that was about the same size as Elliot, they both nodded in understanding and took the barrel with them.
Elliot had been trying to get ahold of Irus but he keeps on failing. It seemed like the voice's communication with him was regulated by The Manual, just like he said.
"Is this enough?" Elliot asked, placing the barrel beside Aquarius.
"This is plenty," Aquarius responded and opened the barrel. He dipped his hand there to check on it, making sure it was clean before he uses it. "Call the others. This is a serious case if they attacked a police officer. Plus I need their magic. If I save this man's life alone, I'm afraid I will not have enough mana for tomorrow's event."
"We're still gonna do that?" Elliot asked. Lance was with him, the prince's face scrunched in confusion.
"You want to let Christina's father kill her and the Cilcans?" Aquarius quirked his brow up.
"Fair point," Elliot and Lance chorused. They went upstairs to wake everyone up, telling them to go downstairs to help.
"There's not a day in our life where something interesting doesn't happen," Ed sighed. "I'll be right there."
The last room was Midnight's room. Elliot volunteered to check on him and let Lance assist Aquarius first.
Elliot made sure to knock on the door before opening it, looking around the room for Midnight.
"Hello?" Elliot called but received no response. "Midnight?"
"She's alive…" Midnight whispered. "I think she's alive."
"Midnight?" Elliot slowly walked to his friend and found him curled up in the corner. "Are you okay?"
Midnight's eyes looked like they were about to pop out from their sockets. He was rocking himself back and forth while whispering incoherent words.
"Midnight, are you okay?" Elliot tried to touch him but his wrist was held by someone behind him. "What's with the–"
He turned around to see Galaxia gripping his wrist. Galaxia's other hand placed a finger on his lips to signal silence. "Don't talk. Slowly walk out the room."
"But I–"
"Just do it," Galaxia said. He loosened his grip on Elliot's hand and watched him back away. When Elliot spun, he saw Lance and Sun by the doorway.
"What is happening?" Elliot asked. "Midnight just finished his monthly cycle. The full moon just passed."
"This is not about the full moon, Elliot," Sun said.
Galaxia turned to them and nodded. It was a signal for Sun to close the door and leave him alone with Midnight. The last thing Elliot saw were Galaxia's cosmic-colored sparks lit up the room.
"Follow me," Lance said to Elliot, leading the way downstairs. They passed through Aquarius who was now stabilizing Ryan with the help of the others and walked out of the inn.
There, Elliot could only gasp after seeing the dark cloud hovering over the inn. Since they were on the further side of Solaguer where the lights weren't as bright, it couldn't be easily seen. But for them who were close, the cloud was threateningly scary.
It wasn't big, but it looked ominous. The cloud was shaped imperfectly that it had rough edges in it.
"Midnight and Sun were adopted for a few weeks before," Lance said. "And the woman in charge of the adoption center hated Midnight's choice of clothing. So she abused him physically."
"But why does Midnight dress like that?" Elliot couldn't help but ask. "He look stable, but he's not."
"It's a scar from his childhood," Lance said, looking at the cloud.. "Midnight had been scarred all his life."