CHAPTER 13:
After a short while Haru had Sasha resed on the couch in the living room
She didn't feel uncomfortable. It was just that she needed time to let that all sink in
From the corner of his eyes, as he was sitting on the couch along with Sasha, he could see Preston chatting with the twins, affectionately
That made him curious, so he decided to eavesdrop
(Hold on, this is some juicy drama…)
“Stupid idiot, we aren't children!”
Charybdi stomped her foot on the ground
Scylla darted her eyes back and forth between Preston and Charybdi
“She isn't too fond of strangers you see”
Preston waved his hand dismissively at Scylla's words. He always had a soft spot when it came to kids
“It's ok. I understand. She's a kid. After all, she will grow out of it”
“Who do you go around calling a kid punk?!”
Charybdi could be seen clenching her teeth
Preston patted her on top of the head as he chuckled softly, not minding her cursing at him
Charybdi tried to swat his arm away. It was to no avail
Scylla sighed to herself. She had no say in this, but seeing her little sister flailing like that was amusing
Back at the couch, Sasha moved around a bit, causing Haru to be a bit worried
He was hesitantly reaching over with his hand before pulling it back quickly before he could do something
Matthew, who was passing by, gave Haru a small pat on the shoulder
“Don't worry, man, she will be fine. It's just a little shock”
“Or at least, it seems so”
Haru looked up at Matthew, then back down at Sasha
“That I know, but I'm not worried about that, I just naturally feel that way when somebody is in danger”
“You're just naturally a superhero. Gotta hand it to you kid”
Matthew walked away without another word
Haru knew better than to wait on the couch all day, so he got up to freshen himself, showering and drying himself off
Getting out of the bathroom and into the living room, where everyone was doing their own thing
Preston was now playing with the twins
Garcia was polishing his sword carefully, almost like he cared too much for that sword
Matthew was enjoying a drink in the kitchen
Sasha was still in bed
Annabelle was lying down on the couch, the bleeding had stopped, and the wound in her stomach tightly wrapped in bandages
He stood still for a second, hesitating in whether to intervene or not
Although he couldn't see Sylvia anywhere so he assumed that she would be in her room, also that she was the one to bandage up Annabelle
Knowing that he walked over to Sylvia's room, entering it, albeit reluctantly
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Sylvia stood there in the room, leaning against the side of her bed
Almost as if she was waiting for him, with her arms crossed under her chest
“I can smell it from here. You took a bath”
“It's that obvious, huh?”
Haru stepped forward towards her
“So why were you waiting for me here?”
“Haven't you figured it out yet?”
“You're being vague. Figure out what, Sylvia?”
“The fact that we are on our way to the last Holy being”
Haru's eyes dropped for a moment. He was so caught up in it all that he forgot about that fact
“Right, and I know nothing about them”
“We're heading to Berlin, Germany. This one is gonna be very different though”
“Different? How so?”
Haru's face turned serious at her words as he leaned a bit over the metal bar of Sylvia's bed
“I'll explain along the way”
Haru pushed himself off the metal, turned to face her
“I should have expected that”
“Shut it brat…”
Haru huffed and placed his hand onto her shoulder
Sylvia teleported both of them to Berlin. It was still early in the morning, so there weren't many citizens in the city
The sunlight directly hit onto Haru's face, raising his hand to block the sunlight
“It feels a lot stronger in the morning, for some reason”
Sylvia looked towards him, at her side
“It's probably just you”
“Thanks for the confidence boost, jackass”
“Be grateful that I didn't outright insult you”
They both walked through the center of Berlin, the cars reflecting the light of the sun off of their windshields
The buildings were normal yet traditional, an odd sense of comfort added to them(the buildings)
Squirrels were running through the city joyfully, the birds chirping for the time being
People were walking around too either on their phone or talking to each other
Along the way, the two spoke, with Haru breaking the silence first
“Do we even know who or what we were supposed to look for?”
“It's supposedly a girl frozen in time, I don't know it all. It was hard to find information related to her
“The database did say that one of her closest friends died, and it ends there”
Haru tilted his head, his eyebrow slightly raised
“That's it? I was preparing for some heavy stuff”
Sylvia ignored the rest of his comments while walking
Haru immediately understood that she wasn't interested in a chat, so he let it go and stayed quiet for the majority of it
“...”
“...”
After wandering through the streets of Berlin, they eventually found the place that they were looking for
It wasn't that far, actually
It is a weird tent set up in the middle of a square
This was very out of place, rationally but also thematically
The tent looked like nothing of German culture
“Don't you think that this is bizarre, Sylvia?”
“It's pretty bizarre, but we got to deal with what we have”
Haru looked towards the tent in thought
(Now, why would a tent even be set up out in the blue, and for what purpose?...)
The aura that was coming from the building itself was inexplicable
“You sure that you don't know what's going either?”
Sylvia rolled her eyes, stepping forward
“I'm as clueless as you are in the moment”
Haru reaching out with his hands pushed the curtains of the tent aside, reluctantly stepping in
Sylvia followed behind, only when
As soon as Haru stepped foot in the tent, a bell would ring, presumably above his head
“What was that?”
He would be quickly cut off by a man dressed in a black robe
“Ah, hello, young heroes, I expected you two to be here at any moment. Please have a sit”
Haru and Sylvia looked straight at him and back at each other for a moment
The both of them reluctantly sat down across the table
The aura in the room was palpable. The place felt really gloomy and spooky to be in
“So I take it you know that we are here to find the last Holy being, right?
“Very accurate, you see, my cards grant me nigh omnipotence”
The man played with the poker cards in his hands, setting his gaze on them
Sylvia looked around the place, noticing its unusual decorations. This man's ways were a mystery even to her
(What the hell, cabal stuff?, for a guy who reads tarot cards?...)
“May I ask for your name, sir?”
“But of course, young one, my name is N”
“N? It's just N? Are you sure that you are not messing with us?”
“Oh I assure you, my name is N”
Sylvia looked towards N as she spoke
“He's probably telling the truth Haru, what would he gain from lying to us? about something so trivial?”
Haru paused his previous thoughts, thinking about what Sylvia said
(Fair enough, we can't do much either in this situation…)
He too looked up at N
N grinned, shuffling the cards in his hand, before mysteriously pulling out specifically an ace out of the deck. It was a red one
“I'm sure that you two know by now, hehe, that the girl is trapped inside a time loop”
Haru nodded and gestured to him to go on
“That's not entirely untrue. It doesn't tell the full story either. You see, I did not trap her for fun and games, I did it for my own benefit”
Harus and Sylvia's guards were instantly raised by his words, their faces staying the same expression
They now knew with what kind of person they were dealing with
“Gor your own benefit you say? Then what was that benefit?”
“It's simple, I collected the riches and mana of those who tried to save her. It's a beautiful system if you ask me”
Haru's eyes dropped, the iris in his eye shrinking momentarily at the revaluation
N laughed softly at Haru's expression
Although internally annoyed that Sylvia didn't falter
“Actions are louder, I guess I will have to show it”
N reached his desk to pull out a joker card next
Sylvia immediately sensed the danger, trying to get up from her wooden chair
Before they could do anything, they were instantly transported into another dimension
It was a seemingly never ending grassfield either no sun and a clear sk
There were no small animals around or any other creatures
It was unclear if there were standing on a hill or on plain land
Haru landed roughly on the grass, his clothes getting dirty all over with mud
Sylvia, on the other hand, landed next to him but not as roughly, managing to catch herself
Hadu dazily looked up and then at Sylvia
“Did that guy just kidnap us?”
“Pretty much”
Sylvia tapped on her smartwatch for any signal but found non
“My luck be damned”
“Who are you trying to message?”
“For help, but it seems that there is no signal ”
Haru sighed deeply. Although he was getting used to this whole supernatural thing, the mundane things still bothered him greatly
“Do you think that she'll be here? Whatever her name is”
“It must be, he specifically mentioned others coming to save her and then send us away with a smile, there's no way that's a coincidence”
“I suppose that's right. It's the most logical answer, considering it's all so sudden”
Goggily Sylvia got up from the grass and dusted off the small amounts of dirt that her clothes had from the fall
Turning towards Haru, she bent over a bit and gave him her hand without a word
Haru reluctantly took her hand and got up
“Thank you”
“It was obvious that you were dazed, so I had to help. Is there any better now?”
Haru shaked his head, trying to regain his steadiness
“I'm better now. Thanks for asking. It was just a rough fall”
On the inside, that made Sylvia relieved, but she didn't want to show it, not in front of her student, who is
No matter how hard Haru tried to clean himself, some mud still stuck to his clothes
Sylvia looked up at his trying, chuckled a bit, and it was always amusing to see the stoic Haru struggle like that
Outside of that dimension, N would laugh, satisfied, putting the cards back in order in the deck
He set the deck aside except for the 2 cards he had on the table, those being the joker and the ace card
“Another 2 bodies to add to the ever growing pile, I see”
N thought to himself naively, he didn't know what he had just done
Had he known who they were, he would surely not have done it
After all the fame of the 9(holy beings) had exceeded expectations in the media, going viral as of lately
New sites would open up on Chrome and Google, dedicated just for them
It was starting to become like a fan following theory amongst elitists…
