Luna swayed the branches that was on her way while walking in the forest. She clicked her tongue when a branched caught her dress.
Darn it!
Suddenly, she aggressively tore the clothing and continued to walk, searching for a certain Deity. Agapius.
If it wasn't for him, she wouldn't be in this situation.
Appearing out of nowhere and asking her to follow him—which she in fact did, only to made a fool out of herself. Regretting following an LED man, in the night.
She turned her head looking side to side until her face got caught into a spider web and almost made her trip.
'Let's not wear dresses like this ever again!'
Afterwards, with countless of suffering, tearing the dress and searching. Luna finally got a glimpse of a glowing light from afar. She had a scowl while stomping her foot advancing towards the familiar light.
There stand a man with a long blonde golden hair as his body glow.
Once Luna was almost near, she felt the urge to stop her tracks. Something felt wrong. Agapius wasn't moving at all, he was just standing there, not flinching nor making a bit of sound.
Is he trying to—well, scare her?
"Agapius?"
─────☽✴☾─────
Shiki went back to his seat with a frown planted on his face. This made the two to look at him bewildered as they open a new placed wine on their table.
"What's with him?" Remus whispered to Rei suddenly pouring the purple liquid into the glass.
"Who knows, probably got rejected by Luna." Rei jeered as she scoffed and drink the poured wine.
It then hit them.
Speaking of Luna, she was nowhere to be found. The two was so sure that Shiki and her was Together after that incident that occurred earlier. 'So something DID happen between them?'
"Nothing happened, and I am not rejected. She suddenly ran away." The two winced when Shiki spoke up, looking at them with a scowl.
"Not rejected? So you were planning to confess in this very critical situation?" Said Rei half teasingly as she raised a brow and smirked at her brother.
Shiki was confused by what his sister meant. Does it appear to them that he has a thing for the maiden? Or was her fantasy running wild again?
"I did not got rejected and I was not planning to confess. Luna is like a little sister I couldn't have." He answered, which made Rei to be taken aback.
"Hey... that hurt, ya know." Rei pouted.
"Anyway, where did she ran off to then?" Remus suddenly interrupted in.
"At the forest, near a big tree to the south west together with an unknown glowing light."
The two blinked at they looked at him perplexed.
Rei gape, "How...How would you know?"
Shiki heaved a sigh and thought that might as well tell them about the brooch.
The brooch pin Luna was wearing has his mana implanted on it, initially he plan to give it to Rei, but he was too sure she would just throw it or more likely to just keep it till the mana disappear and become useless.
Because of the mana in the brooch he could easily tell and trace where it is, that's why he told Luna to wear it. One's mana is still connected to the one who casted it.
Afterwards, he infact confessed about it.
"You know, sometimes you're creepy." Commented Rei with with her nose scrunch as he looked at him.
"Yeah couldn't agree more." Agreed Remus who was looking at him like some kind of freak.
As for Shiki, all he did was rolled his eyes at them, hr didn't really concern himself with their comments. Creepy it may be, but it come in handy at times like this.
Moreover, he's more worried about the light that was with Luna. What was that? Such a blinding light that even he couldn't tell what exactly it was.
"Still, I'm kind of worried about her." Remus blurted out as he sip wine with a scowl.
The two looked at him, Rei who seems to agree on his statement and Shiki who was indifferent.
They might be worried but if there's a personal reason into why she ran away, then they know they shouldn't butt in. All of them had gotten closer to her, so of course it's only natural for them to worry about her well being.
"A-anyway, do we have enough information to tell Uncle?" Rei said changing the subject which made the two men to look at her.
Remus heaved a sigh, "Right, speaking of which I overheard some people that they heard Vincent and Zachary talking earlier in the hallway near the bathroom." He started, "They heard that they had a person in mind that they want to recruit in here."
"Really? Who?" Asked Rei, intrigued.
"Hmm, I don't really remember since they already left while talking, but it was a he and his name sound alot like Ezra or Ervin?"
Rei took at big sip from her wine as she think of someone that has the same name close as the one Remus mentioned. "Yeah no, I got none." She gave up.
"Although I too over hear some people about the head being a student on one of the most prestigious school in here." She suddenly rummage her red bag and brought out several photos of people."These people are what the people here mention almost all the time, one of them might be the head." She added.
The two men leaned in closer and took a few photos inspecting the faces of each person in the picture. Most of them are men of some famous family, some are high ranking students in the two famous school.
"Ah, Luna's on the list?" A photo of Luna walking inside the Starlight academy was seen on the photos that Rei brought out. Remus who picked it up had a scowl on his face, it doesn't seem right to suspect their dear friend.
"Well, she is one of the top 10 students in the academy." Shiki stated as he placed back the photos he took.
"I'm one too, why am I not on the list?" Remus complained.
"While it is true that you're 2nd on the ranking after Luna, but that's just the over all ranking of the 2nd year same with when we were still freshmen, while Luna was in top 3 of the over all ranking in the academy, while you were in 15th place."
Remus gritted his teeth and clicked his tongue, irritated at what he had heard. Well, it's no use crying over spilled milk.
"Most of the top 10 last year was Senior I and II, Luna was one of the 2 sophomores to be place in that spot last year. Now that all previous Senior II graduated, all ranking would once again be decided after the Astral Tournament."
The two looked at Shiki who continued to inspect the other photos.
"You're... you're overly chatty today." Said Rei perplexed on how Shiki had been joining into their conversation. He was the type to always just listen and would just secretly tell his opinion on Remus's father after. "Right! Anyway got some juicy information?"
Shiki looked at his sister with a dull expression as she put the photos down in his hand and leaned over to the chair, crossing his arms on his chest.
"By the way, where did you get these photos?" Remus interrupted before Shiki could even answer.
Rei glared at him and answered "Thought projection, what else? I'm able to go see people's mind, and project their thoughts into photos. Well, it's just something I learned recently while roaming in the library. Unfortunately, you can't read people's mind just see a certain imagine on their head."
"You can't read mind but can see their thoughts? That's still basically mind reading."
"Maybe, but it doesn't really give you a vivid description of what they are thinking, instead only those that overlayed all their thoughts can be vaguely projected. And almost all of the people I have projected seem to be focusing on who the head might be. As you can see, not all photos are clear, see?"
Rei picked up a blurry photo where you can't really see the man's face only his muddy long colored hair and the what seem to be a uniform of the Starlight academy, it was indeed blurry. The others are either distorted or had been faded and blurred.
"That's not your main ability?" Asked Remus as he raised a brow.
Rei shook her head in a response, then smirk at him, which resulted in him being frustrated. She knows how much he hates it when she learned a magic before him.
Shiki watch as the two started to once again, bicker against each other. He then heaved a sigh and turned his head onto the east veranda, looking at the pitch black forest outside with an Austere expression.
The ominous feeling his body gives still wouldn't go away.
─────☽✴☾────—
Luna clench her hand into a fist as she slowly approach the Deity in front of her, who hasn't move even once. He didn't even turn around.
The sound of twigs being stepped brought a bit of noise together with the singing of cicadas to the compelling atmosphere.
The urge of wanting to stop was building up inside Luna, she doesn't know why. There was clearly something wrong, her mind tells her to stop as if telling her 'Danger' — that she shouldn't be here, she needed to turn around and hurriedly ran away, but she couldn't. Curiosity was already winning her over.
The moment she saw something flicker somewhere Luna instantly stop and looked to the direction of the flickering thing. With eyebrows furrowed, she started to be on guard.
'What was that?'
Luna winced when she heard agapius mumbled something. She again started to move forward.
"Run."
"What?"
Her heart almost jump when he suddenly spoke something absurd. Run? Why would she run? What's going on?
She couldn't understand anything, firstly this Deity told her to follow, but now he wants her to run away? Was he messing with her? No that can't be it. Sure he would tease her and fool around, but he was not someone who would joke around when he's in his original form.
Still, it was weird. But, there's this feeling...this feeling of that she has to run, run far away from where she's at— no, away from the the whole area including the banquet hall.
"I SAID RUN!"
Luna was taken aback by the sudden yell of agapius, almost stumbling on her feet, she slowly back away sweat gliding down to her face as her bruised naked feet started to turn around.
Her heart pounding as she turn her back to agapius, hands clenching onto the torn dress as she took one step forward, another, and another until she found herself running— didn't even care if she step on a thorny twigs, which resulted to a more bruised foot, she could feel the warm blood and stinging wounds as she continued to run to the leafy ground. Heading towards somewhere, but where?
'Damn it! What the hell?!'
She cursed and curse inside her head as her eyes wander around to find a way to escape this forest and perhaps without even needing to go through the banquet hall. There has to be a way. There has to!
All of a sudden, she felt something hit her which made her to lost her footing and ended up in the ground.
Luna winced in pain as her hand reached out her head curling as she feel the excruciating pain both to her head and body. What was happening? What exactly hit her?
Once she got accustomed to the pain she started to get up flinching, wobbling. But then she felt a ghastly pain which once again she fall into her knees. Panting as she had trouble breathing. She placed her hand onto her throbbing chest.
Another wave of pain came flowing through her body. Her mouth agape as she whimper in pain, hugging herself.
'I...It hurts, what...what is happening to me?! Urgh!'
Luna tried her best to get back up, fortunately she did but she keep on wincing as she limp her way through the forest.
There was no wound—except the bruises on her feet. But the pain was agonizing. She kept on panting as she had trouble breathing.
She kept on walking and walking until she felt her leg starting to go numb as her body collapse.
Luna closed her eyes, getting her body ready for the impact but instead of the ground. She felt something rough like a fabric. Warm and thumping of heart. A person?
Suddenly, Luna felt a hand wrapped around her, catching her as she was already slipping away.
Using a bit of the energy she had left, Luna tried to look up to see the person who caught her. On her side was a long pinkish hair color, a white mask covering his eyes. He was tall.
"AHHH!"
Another wave of pain was felt, but it was more excruciating than before that made Luna Scream in agony. Tears started to stream down through her eyes.
The man didn't say a word, instead he lifted Luna as he started to carry her into his arm as the maiden curl, trembling in pain.
'Ah... Seriously, what a pain.' He groaned as he thought while looking down at the maiden in his arm. She hasn't collapsed but he looked at her sympathetically as the maiden continued to tremble.
The man heaved a sigh as he started to run towards the banquet, but then suddenly stop his tracks— he doesn't want to draw any attention, he can't make ruckus about it. But he needed to go somewhere to treat this girl.
To his assumption, someone put a curse on her.
'They're nearby' The man began to be on guard as his eyes wander through the trees. 'Its the doll curse, I'm sure of it!'
Instead of having the time to even figure out the person holding the doll, the man thought it's better to get out of the forest first. Once again, he started to run.
"P...put me d..down." Utter suddenly by Luna which taken the man aback, but he kept on running.
He was looking ahead perplexed by what he had heard. "Are you crazy?! You're in the verge of death and you want me to put you down?!" He exclaimed, as his grip tighten to the maiden who had already stop trembling. He can feel her breathing starting to be more unstable than before. 'Shit!'
'I can't breathe, more importantly, who is this?' Luna thought as her eyes started to feel heavy, her breathing started to become slow. The pace of her heart was almost nearing to stop. 'I see, so...this how it feel when you're on the verge of death.'
The man heard her chuckle. "What in the world are you laughing about when you're about to die, is dying a joke to you?!"
Luna shook her head slowly. The man was warm, it was a comfortable feeling that it scares her. 'To think I'm dying in a man's arm, it's kinda embarrassing— it hurts my manly pride.'
Luna jolted when she felt a tremendous pain coming from her chest that made her to wince and curl up even more. Just what exactly is happening to her? Why does she suddenly feel pain since earlier?
All of a sudden the man stop running, stiffen as his eyes was wide open, trembling as he slowly looked down at the maiden in his arms.
The trembling stop, her head resting towards his chest eyes closed as a tear stream down to her cheek. Arms hanging downwards, lifeless.
The man kneeled and put the maiden down as he shake her and started to pump her chest, doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
"Hey! Wake up! Hey! Shit!" He repeatedly pump, but then decided to stop. No matter what he do, It was no use, the maiden was no longer breathing, her heart was already still.
That night below a cresent moon, Luna died.