celestial strings | h.js

two.

"Yeah!" Jisung echoed Seungmin's sentiment. "You'll get a heart disease before you die, old man!"

Felix peeked over at Jisung with an increasing frown. He whispered, "People usually do."

"Confidence precedes logic, Felix. Shut up."

It stopped being about having political power years ago. He already obtained that when your family was massacred and your uncle was put in an eternal coma. Your survival had been an unexpected gift. The plan was always to kill and to tank the fall on public rapport as speculations and rumors rise. But you—you became a calculative child that comes once in a blue moon, a lie in the making, a way to replenish their dignity.

The plan became to kill and have every strand of responsibility fall on you. Pushing you to study and training you to become an elected council member just for you to fail was only part of the ploy. It was the part that they let you on, and you ran away from.

The councilman remained stoic; an explanation reached not even the tip of his tongue. He could not say anything to your friends to garner an understanding of his reason for abusing and exploiting you. His prolonged silence was eerie. It felt like he was planning every route you could take to escape this situation. You pursed your lips—he probably was planning, which would soon pose a threatening issue to you and all of your friends present. The tips of your fingers caressed Hyunjin's cheek, almost as if to check if he remained warm, and you looked at Seungmin.

"You guys need to leave," you said. "Take Hyunjin to the hospital."

"[Name]–"

"Jisung, please," you pleaded after you turned to him. His lips were pursed into a thin line, and his cheeks jutted into a frown so disagreeable that you wanted to cave in. You would have in any other situation. "I'll come back. He won't kill me, he needs me."

"You're right. I won't kill you." The lightning pace at which you could switch your facial expression was comedic to the councilman, but you didn't think he was smirking because he saw anything particularly worth laughing about. Waving his hand in the air, he cleared his throat. "I will kill them, though."

The air rumbled gently for a few seconds before the debris around you began to shift around. The rocks and soil came together, weaving about in the air and assembling at one spot to mold into the shape of a human, particularly the councilman's body shape. Felix was the first one to be yanked away from your side. Immediately after were Jisung and Seungmin. Standing tall behind them were the stone clones of the councilman—his family magic was the ability to make clones of himself out of any surrounding resources.

Jisung struggled against the clone's grip but found himself rendered useless as the grip around his boney arm tightened mercilessly. Felix cluelessly scanned his surrounding, feeling his heart drop closer to the ground as seconds passed without a single passerby to help. Seungmin remained still, unable to react due to how rash the situation was, saving him from unnecessary pain. His luck lasted no longer than a minute, though, as the second the councilman snapped his fingers, he found himself held at the pointed end of a jagged blade made of stone.

The clone's arms have transformed to become weapons. How convenient.

"Hey! Leave them alone!"

You let go of Hyunjin for the first time since he fainted. With the green strings tightening around your forearms, you chanted a spell under your breath to pause the clone's movements collectively. Then, seconds later, as you shot your arms outward for impact, they all crumbled as if you had their stone limbs removed piece by piece.

Not wasting a single second, you pushed Felix and Jisung toward Seungmin. Then, you immediately turned to hoist Hyunjin into your arms. You stood up with great difficulty, never quite realizing just how much more weight his taller height contributed to him, and you handed him to Seungmin. Reaching into your pocket, you fished out your rolls of remaining strings and sighed at your lack of choices—some purple, a few green, and an abysmal amount of red. Unwrapping them from the card, you curled them around your palm except for the purple strings, which you used to create a teleportation pattern.