Chapter 43: The assassin and the Mayor
The next day, Kayn woke up and soon found himself lying on a bed inside an unfamiliar room. He looked around for a bit and realized that it wasn't his room nor was it a hospital room. He could still vividly remember the moment when he lost consciousness due to overfatigue and his fatal injury, that's why he assumed the latter case.
It wasn't difficult to come to that conclusion since the mattress of the bed was as white as snow, the blanket smelled like some kind of perfume that he is not familiar with but was definitely one of those used by women, and the pillow was firm but fluffy, thick but comfortable, and it was also soft. Neither does he possesses such well-maintained objects, nor the hospital unless one is a VIP.
Looking at the bedside cabinet, Kayn came to notice a picture frame right beside a lampshade.
Inside the picture frame was a photo of him and Selina together.
If he can remember correctly, this was a photo they took together after graduating from senior high school. It was such a memorable picture since it was the first ever picture that he ever took of himself. Yes, he doesn't have any pictures prior to that date aside from those that came from his important documents, which doesn't count.
At this moment, Kayn finally figured out that he is inside Selina's room.
Although he has entered Selina's room plenty of times already in the past, each of those times her room would look entirely different. That's because everything in her room would be replaced on a weekly basis, and that includes any furniture, utensils, and many other more.
The main reason for that is because of the death of Selina's mother. Ever since the day her mother died, her father seems to become extremely cautious about practically everything. Some people even said that he is just being paranoid and has turned crazier with each passing day. But the truth is, the Gift of that assassin who took his wife's life away was to literally turn into any object. It was through that unique Gift that the assassin was able to successfully escape from Leah's pursuit and is still not found by the Mayor's men today. Probably until the assassin is found and killed, only then would Selina's father stop replacing the furniture in their mansion every day.
"I think it was only three years from now when Selina's father would find that assassin. Eh… wait! I think I can help them achieve that in a much shorter period of time," Kayn thought of a bright idea. In this way, he could repay Selina's father for the kindness shown to him.
The reason why that assassin is still not found today despite how much resources have been allocated to finding that person is simply that the assassin is actually just hiding around the Mayor's Mansion. Well, even if one knows about that information, it would still not be easy to find that person. That's because he didn't just turn himself into furniture, utensils, or anything that can be found inside the house. But regardless of knowing that he is outside as well, it would still be next to impossible to find him.
"That cunning guy is disguised as a grass,"
That's right! The assassin has long been disguising himself as one of the grass spread all over the Mayor's Mansion all this time. Since there are countless blades of grass, it is next to impossible to pick which grass is the assassin in disguised.
Though it is still a big question how the assassin didn't starve or get dehydrated since he can't carry food and water around with him and scavenging for some would no doubt pose a lot of challenges for him as he is in a place surrounded by dozens of security personnel and technologies that can detect practically any intruders.
"That's not important. As long as I find him and point it out to Selina's father, then he would get caught," Kayn didn't feel like finding the answer to that question. He can confidently guess already that it got to do with doing things to the extreme, which he doesn't prefer doing.
"What I am wondering about though is why he chose to hide here out of all possible places that he could hide?" After all, there are plenty of places to hide. So why pick the Mayor's Mansion? There might be times when the most dangerous of places is considered the safest, but in that assassin's case, he should be able to find a better place, especially with his unique Gift.
"The Mercenary Nation is a good hiding spot. Or he could have just gone work for Pandora. I really wonder what kind of thought was in his head when he thought of picking the Mayor's Mansion," He seriously felt like laughing at the assassin's choice of a hiding place. Because of that, the latter has unexpectedly made his job pretty easy.
"My remaining problem now is how should I persuade Selina's father that the assassin is hiding in his mansion? And how I can explain why I know about it after they caught the assassin?" Kayn thought deeply.
"Kayn?"
Kayn's thoughts were immediately interrupted when he heard Selina's voice coming outside the door of the room.
"May I come in?"
"I am just lying on my bed,"
"Okay,"
The door was slowly pushed open from the other side.
"How are you feeling?" Selina asked as she carefully close the door after entering. She then started walking to the side of the bed before sitting on it and looking at Kayn's eyes. "Be honest with me,"
"I am still feeling a bit weak from the overfatigue. But aside from that, I feel fine," Kayn assured his girlfriend.
"That's good," Selina stood away from the bed. "Do you have any strength to stand up? Or do you need my help?"
"I can do it on my own," Kayn replied as he carefully folded the blanket to his left side before moving both of his feet to the right side of the bed. Without much effort, he was able to stand up.
"Was it that serious?" Kayn can't help but ask as he saw the look of relief on Selina's face.
"I was probably overreacting at that time," The moment she saw Kayn lose consciousness and spotted more than ten monsters coming toward his direction, her instinct to protect the people she loves was instantly triggered. In the end, she burned a huge portion of the Eclipse Forest. Fortunately, her father covered the mess by calling out some Heroes that have a Gift of growing trees.
"Thank you," Kayn hugged Selina. This hug wasn't just to show appreciation for yesterday's event but was also his way of telling her "Thank you!" for the things she did for him in the future. And that he is forever grateful for her actions.
"I only did it because I know that if I was the one in your shoes at that time, you'd do even more than what I did,"
Hearing that, Kayn's face slightly darken out of shame. He is more than aware of the fact that not even once has he ever done that sort of thing for her. On the contrary, he did something worse to her by leaving her for someone else. Of course, there was a deeper story as to why that happened, but that still doesn't change the fact that Selina's thoughts of him weren't true.
"This time, I will certainly do that," Kayn murmured.
"I know you would,"
After a moment of being in each other's embrace and enjoying the accompany of one another, they left the room and made their way to the dining room.
As soon as they entered the dining room, they immediately spotted an old man sitting at the center table while reading a newspaper in his left hand and holding a cup of coffee in the other.
It was Selina's father, Mayor Sebastian!
Mayor Sebastian wasn't literally old. He is in his mid-fifties, but only a few white streaks on his hair could actually be seen, evidently showing just how healthy he is. His body looked seemingly young as well, and the aura around him doesn't give off the vibe of old people, but those similar to people in their thirties — poise and overflowing with matureness.
"Good morning, Mayor Sebastian," Kayn greeted.
"Oh, son-in-law! You're finally awake!" Mayor Sebastian blurted out loudly before putting both the newspaper and coffee on the table.
Selina's face instantly turned bright red upon hearing her father calling Kayn his son-in-law. Although this was what her father always called Kayn even before they officially got into a relationship with each other, she still can't get used to it.
"How many times did I say not to call me Mayor Sebastian, but father, dad, or something else that recognizes me as your father-in-law," Mayor Sebastian felt unsatisfied. "More importantly, we are just in my mansion, so there are no other people here to listen to our conversation,"
"Actually," Kayn turned to look at Leah who is currently sitting on the right side of Mayor Sebastian. To be more exact, Leah was sited on a chair to her right that is after an empty chair beside Mayor Sebastian, as that empty chair especially represents the seat of Mayor Sebastian's wife. Any person who dares to sit on that special chair would offend Mayor Sebastian, regardless of them being Selina, Leah, or even him.
"I've already told you that Leah is considered Selina's sister, so she's part of the family," Mayor Sebastian.
Kayn could only scratch the back of his head in awkwardness. If this was the past him, there's no doubt that he would not hesitate to call Mayor Sebastian his father-in-law. But the current him is no longer the same as the past him.
Moreover, in the future, he offended Mayor Sebastian and butted heads with him on numerous occasions. There were even moments in time when he nearly killed the latter but decided not to do it midway because of their history together. So, to suddenly act nicely like nothing ever happens to the two of them is kinda weird for him and is something that he is not used to doing.
Well, he'd eventually get used to that in the future. But as of now, he'd continue calling him Mayor Sebastian.
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