–Janvas’s POV-
Feeling the soft mounds of Marine, I rest my head on them.
I feel my body to lose strength.
“Aah.”
I sigh feeling the fatigue.
A fight where a person’s feeling meddles in is always an exhausting fight, and with my anger meddling in with the fight, there’s no way I won’t feel exhausted.
I look up at Marine, and for some reason, her fierce red eyes looked black to me, lazily I blink my eyes and look again.
They were black.
The blood-red eyes of hers that I admired were black.
I jerk up and cup her face. Fear strikes me when she looks aghast. I separate from her and look all over her. From lifting her neck, arms, legs, and tail, seeing no abnormalities, I caress my arms, throughout her clothes, she doesn’t show expression, or make a sound, she just stares behind me. Afraid I try to turn around, but before I could Marine grabs my head and says,
“Master, let’s leave this place quickly.”
“Mar-“
She doesn’t wait for my reply as she drags me away from the scene,
“Marine, wait, listen to me, that-that guy, Scorn, he-he knows about Safrine, and he-he wanted to-“
Before I could utter another word, Marine pulls me close to her and hugs me.
“Master, calm down.”
We stay like that for some time, while her hand lovingly strokes my head. Slowly I control the ragged breathing, I blink my eyes as I breathe, with every breathes my mind gets clear; the world that had turned black and white, gradually gets its colors back.
As I come back to my senses, I look up at Marine, her blood-red eyes, are back to its former color, she smiles at me,
“Mar-“
Again, she starts pulling me without letting me speak,
“Wait!”
I shout at her, she looks at me with a frown, escaping her clench, I quickly jog to the alley I was coming from and pick up the things that I had dropped. Picking up the five perfume, three surprise gifts, and one pouch full of money, I get back to her. I head towards the Safrine’s home, thinking Marine would follow me, but again Marine stop me.
“Master, we aren’t going there.”
This time I frown, as I look at her.
She was holding a crude sword, and her dress has dust on them. I add two and two and figure out, someone had launched an attack on Safrine’s house, while I was shopping.
Before I could question her, she answers,
“Master, Odesvana, and Ms. Safrine are fine, Belinda, Pinhira, and I prevailed the attack done by the intruders. Ms. Safrine said with the door damaged and the area being quiet as the forest, staying there wouldn‘ be safe, so she asked me to get you to a Hotel named Trisk Dopel in the North-Southern Plaza when I meet you.”
I shook up as Marine confirms my doubt, but as I remember, Safrine and Marine were at the same place, my mind calms down, and with Marine standing completely fine in front of me, nothing bad could have possibly occurred to the others.
Nodding my head, I follow her as she leads the way.
With the shop being in East-Southern Plaza and Safrine’s House in the West-Southern, Marine and I were currently in the middle of the two.
I fought Scorn in the West-Southern Plaza, where people should be living, but for some reason, that place was devoid of life, just like the place Safrine lived in; neither Marine nor I know the reason for it.
As we reach the North-Southern Plaza, we could guess the reason why the West was empty.
The North was a sea of people for some reason, wherever my eyes goes, I see a crowd full of people, I couldn’t think of a reason why they all would come to the North. I knew when we left the palace, only a few minutes must have remained for the previous day to end, and the day of the festival to begin, so the festival must have started by now, but it was the first time that I see such quantity of people concentrated in a single area.
[Was there a plan that I didn’t hear, even though I was living in the palace?]
I hold the thing on my right hand as I hold Marine’s hand on the left. For some reason, she was kept on declining, so I had to order her. But after 5 minutes she and I walk through the sea of people while sticking close to each other, we walk like a couple.
With it being night and her being proficient in Shadow Magic, she keeps the crude blade into the shadow of hers, she once said to me, ‘The darker my shadow gets, the more things I can put in them, but if someone casts light on it, things stored in them can pop out, so the only things in them are money and my sword.’
While walking in the crowd, people move in a haphazard way that we inevitably hit shoulders, finding it irritating that someone pushes me or Marine, I create a small dome of fire around us, which makes the people get away from us.
As we move forward, the people in the front, sides, and back move afar from us. Seeing the idea that I used, other proficient mages copy me, but it quickly turns ugly, when the entire place turns warmer than the bathhouse, all of us dis-spell at once, seeing it, an idea pops in my head; I re-cast the spell but with water element, seeing me others also cast a spell, but thing time it’s mixed, many cast a spell that has affinity with water, so we end up seeing different colored domes around us, some even make different shapes like, and umbrella, cloud, rock, bars, peni–
I turn to the other side, and separate my hand from Marines and then cover her eyes, she doesn’t question me, as she grabs my arm with both of her hands and move where I lead her, when we get a little afar from the confident idiot, I move my hand away.
“Master, what was that for?”
“Nothing.”
[I’m not answering that.]
She looks at me with squinted eyes but doesn’t inquire further.
It takes us only a few minutes to reach the place where the hotels are situated in, my arms are around Marine’s waist, as we search for Trisk Dopel.
It doesn’t take us long to find the hotel, the hotel is situated, in the middle of the North-Souther Plaza, and it was bustling with heavy traffic.
[I guess when you are running away from someone stronger than you, then staying at the crowded place is a go-to.]
And again, just like Haruru, Marine separates from me,
[Now what is the reason?]
I look at her, to which she gives a small smile and says,
“A couple going inside a hotel, with both of them clinging to each other, will give people the image that we are here to mate, and that can hamper your image, Master.”
“But a couple going at night can also have the same meaning.”
I reply,
“It could, but it won’t be certain, whereas clinging to each other, can make a certain impact.”
She resorts,
When she puts it like that, all I could do was give her a small peck on her lips then head inside.
A steward standing near the gate bows to us, while the other person opens the gate.
[This seems to be a high-end place.]
I think.
Entering the hotel, we see the lower halls to be a restaurant, with people sitting everywhere, and its clattery.
Marine and I walk side to side as we get in line to the reception, it’s a small line with two people in front of us. While we stand, I get a lot of like from the patrons, I get confused about why they look at me, was their blood that spared on my body when I fought, or did I look too well off that it seemed suspicious why I would travel to here. I look at myself to spot anything that would make me an eye candy, but I couldn’t find anything of that sort.
Marine seeing me being skeptical gives the patrons a death stare, many of the peepers get back to their matter with few giving an occasional glance at me.
[Am I more attractive than Marine?]
I wonder with the attention I get.
“Master, let me do the talking.”
Marine whispers. I get confused, as I try to comprehend the reason she whispered, but nonetheless, I nod as I try to ignore the prying eyes. I bring the thing I’m holding in front of me, as I think they might be thinking of stealing it.
The two people quickly leave by going to the corridor on the side.
“Good Evening, Miss, how may I help you?”
The receptionist says while looking at Marine who approached him; for some reason, I feel he ignores me.
[Why not say Good Evening to me?]
I would have questioned him, if not for the reason I was already in the sinking boat. I stand behind Marine with the thing in my arms,
“Good Evening, I would like to know about a lodger named Tristy, which rooms is she lodged to.”
“One moment, Madam.”
[Madam! Marine, you a rich girl?]
I look with shock at the receptionist and back at Marine, who is supposedly a rich patron for the hotel.
The receptionist looks down and turns the page, while he presumably searches for Tristy… Wait, Safrine’s staying with a hoax name.
[How? Shouldn’t the hotels ask for some sort of parchment, for validating one’s origin?]
The receptionist looks down and up at Marine the down and this time at me, he frowns for some time, then shrugging he says,
“Madam, take the corridor on the right and tell the bellhop to take you to 3PV on the sixth floor.”
“Okay.”
Saying that Marine moves to the right and I follow, this time even the receptionist looks towards me with a frown,
[What’s wrong with this place?]
Marine looks at me and cringes, but she stays mum, I approach her and grab that tail of hers.
[Eiih]
She squeaks, which attracts some attention, but by then, we enter the corridor.
“Okay, say it.”
“Master…You may ask Ms. Safrine. She can answer it properly.”
“Hmm…”
“Good Evening, Mi-Madam.”
Again, I feel the bellhop, to change the title of Marine when he notices me. I quickly leave her tail and stand beside her,
“Take us to 3PV on the sixth floor.”
“Okay, Madam.”
The bellhop moves, and we follow him, He gets near the gate with number 6 on it and opens the gate, he heads in with us behind him.
[Ohh… A secret door.]
The door leads upstairs instead of a room, maybe that’s the reason Safrine chose this hotel, but how did she know of such a hotel.
[Didn’t she have a house here?]
I could just ask her.
The bellhop takes us to the first floor, then move to the other end of the hall, we pass around 7 Rooms on each side, reaching the end he opens a door, and on it stood two muscular guards, they had their back against the gate, seeing the gate to open, they move to the side and let us pass. We move up two floors and the person takes us in front of the rooms P and V.
[Wait, didn’t the receptionist tell us to go to the sixth floor?]
“Madam, these are the rooms.”
He says and goes to the end of the hall and stands there.
[Did they use a code word?]
This time also I was ignored, do they only do work for the ladies?
We knock on the room P, but room V opens, Haruru opens the door with teary eyes, she jumps up at me and kisses me.
Calamity’s Close By(To Trisk Dopel.)[Calamity Arc- Part 24]
Calamity’s Close By(Someone Responsible.)[Calamity Arc- Part 26]