"Hey Kazu-kun," Ai called me out. "Can you listen to something I have to say?"
"What is it?" I asked her looking down at her as she snuggled up to me under the cover.
"Can you…not participate in the battle tomorrow?"
As her words left her mouth, there was complete silence for some seconds and I looked at her clutching my t-shirt by the end. Her face was trembling and she had a sad look in her eyes. This girl…
"Sorry, but I can’t do that Ai," I said stroking her hair. "This is something we have to do. I know even without me, they might be able to defeat them without my help but I can’t just sit here knowing what is going on there."
"You care about others too much Kazu-kun, think about yourself a little, please," Ai said to me and I smiled and kissed her forehead.
"I don’t need to think about myself," I said and chuckled. "I already have you taking care of that field."
"Bu-"
"That is all I need right now Ai," I said interrupting her. "Even you know, I won’t stop from joining this battle. There are things both of us gain from this and that is the only reason why I am doing this."
Like I said before, I no longer care about other people and only those who are close to me. The people close to me are more than strong enough to protect themselves and I know even now, I won’t be able to hold a candle to them. This battle is solely for me to get stronger and more experienced. The more I fight, the more experience I gain and the stronger my body is getting.
The changes are still happening in my body and I realized that they became more drastic after when I started training with Natsumi-san. Break a bone and it joins back to become stronger.
My body feels a lot lighter now and it has become easier for me to move around quickly but I am still nowhere strong enough even now. Taking the first mission into account. I did not defeat Akira and Leo on my own. I really didn’t.
If Ai hadn’t worked at a little distraction at that moment, I doubt my attacks really hit her. The same goes with Leo, I did move fast and kill him, yes, but it was only because Natsumi-san was the one who took care of the hands that were extended. If one of them would have caught me, I was done for right then and there.
I am not underestimating myself at all because I also know how stronger I have gotten. The blood of the first is really helping me with getting stronger fast that I am almost able to defeat a noble on my own. Novices are not much problem to me but their number also should be taken into account. No matter how strong you are, if you are being overwhelmingly outnumbered, you will lose.
If not, then you can call yourself god and I won’t stop you at all.
"I can’t sleep," Ai whined and started moving around in my arms. "Kazu-kun, tell me a bedtime story."
"A bedtime story you say?" I asked and Ai nodded. "I don’t know any bedtime stories at all."
"Eh? Everyone has bedtime stories that they tell or have been told. Just tell me the one you have been told before," Ai said.
"I don’t remember any," I said honestly, and Ai cutely puffed her cheeks. "Are you just finding an excuse to stay awake?"
"N-no…" she said rolling her eyes to the side.
This is not convincing at all, you know.
I decided to close my eyes and slowly fall into sleep to enter my mindscape. It was not that hard since now I am used to being here. I looked around in the dark room and just thought about one thing which I thought about before but never decided on making a big issue out of it.
Why is it so dark in here?
"Looks like you are very lonely, boy," a voice came from behind me.
"Ethan…" I said and summoned a chair and sat down and he did the same. "I have something to ask you."
"What is it?" he asked while leaning back in the chair and summoned wine.
"Please answer me before drinking this," I said and he nodded and summoned two glasses. "What was your ability?"
He stopped his hands where they were before hovering in the air and looked at me. This was one thing I was curious about, what actually was Ethan’s ability? I had been caught up in so many things that I did not get to ask him the question.
"And why do you want to know that?" he asked me.
"I am slowly turning into a vampire," I said and he stopped again. "Not literally but I can tell I am slowly behaving a little like a vampire and I don’t know what is going to happen to me in the future. I have your blood in me, right? Then I thought we both will be having the same ability."
"Hmm, that is a nice deduction, let’s see," he said and thought a little. "Oh, luckily I remember this. My ability is a lot similar to Sarah’s. While her ability was the Queen’s eye, mine is called the King’s eye. She was the one who requested it to be called that since our abilities are just that similar."
I raised my eyebrow listening to him. Those are some grand names given to these abilities.
"By the way, your woman does have Sarah’s ability," Ethan said.
I choked at my own spit hearing that and started coughing loudly. Wait, did I hear that correctly? Did he just say that Ai has the same ability as that of that the lord of the night?
"I’m sorry, what?!" I ended up shouting.
"I think I didn’t stutter there," Ethan said and I sat back down staring at him. "As the name suggests, it is the King’s and Queen’s eyes. The user has ultimate authority on their opponent and if used properly and mastered, you can even order the ones weaker than you to kill themselves."
This sounds so much similar to the power I saw in an anime once where they had their eyes commanding people to kill themselves or doing something else. I really enjoyed that one.
"Then…what are the consequences?" I asked him and he smirked.
"I don’t know what you are talking about," he said feigning ignorance.
"It is such a broken and amazing power, almost as if it is a cheat code. The kind of person you are, I am sure there is some kind of consequences to using this power. If you said Ai can use the same power then I am sure you knew this was possible from the very beginning," I explained to him and placed my hand on a table I summoned. "So…what are the consequences?"
"Not much," he said throwing his hands up. "Just that too much use of this power can lead to the complete deterioration of one’s personality."
"This makes no sense," I muttered.
To begin with, the ability was something only nobles could use so this means that Ethan also got to know about this when he turned into a noble. How was he able to create a consequence this severe? No, he did not create it.
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"Controlling other people’s mind takes a big toll on yours too," he said and placed his hand on the armrest. "It begins with the person forgetting some parts of their memories and then it turns that they start acting more violent. Some more use of it at that stage, the person becomes nothing but an empty shell. Just an empty hollow shell with no consciousness. They can be called brain dead by that time but alas vampires are immortal creatures."
"You are sure very casual about this stuff when you say this," I said honestly surprised. "You do know Sarah can get in that situation."
"So why do you think, I made someone inherit my blood?" he said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I know the danger of this power and have always been beside Sarah to make sure, she doesn’t overuse this power but I am no longer alive then how do you think I will make that sure?"
I was left speechless by Ethan’s words. I can just say that he is extremely selfish and there is no denying it to the point I am sure even he himself won’t deny it.
Ethan is well aware of that fact and thus, is very calm and chill when he says all this. I hoped that somehow I could get a little information on this "mission" he gave me but I am still clueless. I am sure that this is not the "mission" he has given me and even if it is.
It is just a small part of it.
"Then what about this mission you gave me? Have any idea about it?" I asked him and he raised his eyebrow. "I mean, my blood is maturing slowly so I thought that maybe your memories are slowly coming back to you."
"Unfortunately, that is not the case, boy," Ethan said shaking his head.
"Then thank you for your time," I said and Ethan disappeared from before me.
I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes thinking like always. Most of the time when I am in the mindscape, I am not talking to Ethan or Sarah, I just sit here and think and that is what I am doing right now.
First, let’s go down about the most important piece of information I got to know about. About the ability, Ai has. The Queen’s eye.
By the way in which Ethan explained and from my past experiences, I can safely say that it was Ai’s right eye. The green one because that only glowed brightly twice, in front of me at least. It was when we had the fight with Kasuwagi and once in the first mission. Now the problem is that I don’t know how much it has affected her. I thought back on Ethan’s words and realized something.
It depended on the person using it.
The toll on the brain is the same for everyone and it depended on the person using the power whether they can handle it or not. This meant that the number was a variable and I don’t know how many times Ai can sue it before it damaging her brain intensely and it makes things even harder for me.
I did not know when this can affect her immensely meaning it won’t stop worrying me every time I see her using the ability. Then also, I don’t know if she has used this ability in the past before I got to know her.
This has become even more complicated the more I get to know about stuff. I decided to keep that matter in mind and not deter from my original worry. The attack tomorrow.
Almost seven hundred novices and ten nobles. The little note that I passed to James had two requests from me.
First- all the data of all the hunters under him. Second- the entire access to all the security cameras of the buildings.
What am I going to do with this?
Simple, I am going to sit back and watch.
Just kidding.
I wanted access to the security cameras so I can have a full view of what is going on. Each member of the VEO wearing that suit has an inbuilt mic and speaker in it so contacting other hunters won’t be difficult at all. It was not that I was planning on doing something grand at all but having more information is just beneficial for me.
I got the message from Ethan when Ai was taking a bath and seeing the names of all the hunters just made me worried. The odds are definitely not on our side but…we can somehow pull through. We have to. No matter what.
I am not letting anyone get in my way.
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