Chapter 147: ***********************
Evellyn jumped up, pulling Nikolai and Rodrick by their hands out of the room where Kurt was hospitalized.
The room was large, and full of state-of-the-art equipment, made exactly for cases like that, where the wielder needed immediate assistance.
"I... I saw Kurt dying." Evellyn said, looking at the two.
"You have got to be kidding." Nikolai said, his jaw dropping.
"Wait, are you serious? our Kurt? Dying?"
Evelyn nodded.
"I don’t know what he has, but I know that my visions are sharp enough to... To..."
"For what, Eve?" Nikolai encouraged her to keep talking.
"So... So that only a miracle can change them..."
The two fell into a deep, heavy silence as they looked at Evellyn.
She had tears in her eyes, and looked almost like she was already in mourning.
"Come on, Eve... Are you already counting on his... Death...?"
Evelyn glared at Nikolai.
"That’s what you’re saying..." He retorted.
"No... But we don’t know what he has, and without this knowledge, it is difficult to develop, or even discover, a cure."
However, Evellyn’s shadow seemed to flicker for an instant beneath his feet.
Rodrick saw this and took a step back, clearly shocked.
"What was this?"
"This what?" Evellyn asked, not understanding.
"Your shadow... It... Moved."
Evellyn let out a laugh through her nose.
"That’s Kurt’s thing, professor. My shadow can’t... OH MY GOD!" Evellyn screamed, as she looked down at her feet and realized that her shadow was ACTUALLY moving.
She seemed to bubble, as if she were boiling.
And a few moments later, a humanoid figure slowly emerged from it.
She was a beautiful and majestic figure, with white skin and almost platinum hair.
The eyes were golden like Evellyn’s energy, and the figure was almost as tall as Kurt.
"Who... What are you?" Evelyn asked.
Nikolai took a pistol from the waistband of his pants and pointed it at the figure.
"You better say it before it turns into a sieve!"
"Sorry for my lack of manners." The figure said, raising his hands high in a sign of surrender. "My name is Arias, and I’m one of Kurt’s relatives-"
"ONE OF THE FAMILY?" Rodrick asked. "How many family members does Kurt have?"
He seemed more shocked than even Evellyn herself, or Nikolai.
"Two, so far." Arias replied, with a slight smile on her face. "But that’s not important right now. I’m here, even if I broke a bond rule I have with Kurt, because of your conversation."
"Were you listening?"
"Yes, I can hear everything my partner’s friends are saying. He has a bond with me, so I end up sharing a different kind of bond with his friends."
Evellyn’s eyes widened, and she turned red as a pepper.
Arias chuckled, but soon returned to the topic.
"Kurt was attacked in the Black Nest, and the creature that attacked him was a kind of parasite, created and engineered by the creators of the Nests, to protect something, and attack anything and everything that broke a certain pattern of behavior, or that seemed aggressive..."
Evellyn’s eyes were still wide, but her face was no longer red.
She now seemed to be shocked and engrossed in every word Arias was saying.
"I don’t know much about this parasite, but I do know that when Kurt attacked him, some of the creature’s blood splashed onto his skin, and that’s enough to cause a widespread infection, and put his life at risk."
"And do you know how to cure this infection?"
"No." Arias replied, bringing a shadow to Evellyn and the others’ faces. "But as I dug through the information in Kurt’s memories, I discovered that perhaps there might be someone who knows how. Or at least can figure out how."
"Who? Where is this person?" Evellyn asked, regaining the sparkle in her eyes.
But then, it was time for the sparkle in Arias’ eyes to disappear.
"So, this is where things start to get a little complicated..."
***
"Are you telling me that the person who, in case you didn’t know, is capable of discovering a cure for Blake’s illness, is somewhere in the country you fled from?" Toshinori asked, sitting in an armchair next to Kurt’s bed.
Evellyn and Arias nodded their heads.
"And you expect Hana no Nagame to help you on a suicide mission to rescue this doctor, so that your friend can recover?"
Evellyn and Arias nodded their heads again.
Toshinori pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Do you realize what you’re asking of me?"
A couple more nods.
"No."
Evellyn’s jaw dropped.
"What?"
"Did you hear what I said, young lady. No."
"And why are you refusing their request so vehemently, Toshinori-kun?" It was Rodrick’s turn to ask.
"Look at us, Rodori-chan... We’re not just any guild in Japan. We’re one of the three most powerful guilds, and not just that. I’m also the president of the Association. Do you have any idea what this could mean for the my country, if we are to practically declare open war against another country, which is also not far behind in terms of wielders?"
Rodrick put his hand to his chin, thinking for a moment.
"You are right." He said, sighing. "But this boy... He has something we don’t, Toshinori-kun..."
"What? A tragic past? Some mysterious power that can help save the world? Some item that no one has ever seen before, and can be used to end the war against the Ishir and the Nests once and for all?"
It was Rodrick’s jaw to drop.
As the guild master spoke, and Rodrick watched him, he couldn’t help but understand the rationale behind Toshinori’s negative speech.
But at the same time, he knew Kurt, somehow.
Rodrick couldn’t just let the boy die there.
Not when he was...
He was...
What was that boy?
Kurt Blake was just a promising student, inside a corrupt academy that wanted those like him dead.
Why couldn’t Rodrick shake the feeling that he knew the Blake boy from before all that?
Rodrick left that question in the back of his mind, shook his head, and looked deep into Toshinori’s eyes.
"What if he actually has something that could help us at least get rid of the Ishir?" He said, fighting the urge to grab the guild master by the collar of his suit. "You heard him talk yourself, before we came here. He said he has a plan, and that he needs you for that plan to succeed...." Rodrick paused, took a deep breath, and finished. "Do you really want to be blamed for the death of our most promising possibility in years?"
Toshinori scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"You’ve always been a blockhead, Rodori-chan." The guild master said. "Even at the academy, when we were still training to become professionals..." He sighed. "And never in my entire life have I seen a situation where you trusted, where you were wrong. I will trust you once again."
The faces of Evellyn, Nikolai, and Rodrick himself lit up.
"But remember..." He finished. "You’re not just carrying the responsibility of a lifetime on your shoulders, Rodori-chan. You’re carrying an entire country." Rodrick nodded in agreement. "So, let’s get ready, and we’ll meet at the parking lot in two hours..." Toshinori sighed heavily. "Let’s rescue a doctor..."
