Bright dawn broke the silent darkness of the night. People on the streets started their daily routines, instantly filling the city with life and noise. As the sun rose higher every minute, the city became busier and livelier, as the number of people on the streets doubled.
Inside a particular room, however, in a building secluded in a suburb in the East, a high-end residential area, it seemed like it was still nighttime. With curtains still drawn shut, the room looked gloomy, cloaked with negative emotions.
"...Just what the hell is happening?"
Currently, Vrylle, whose cheeks were flushed and who was having a hard time breathing, lay paralyzed on the bed, with the blanket pulled up to her neck. Each breath she took was like a sharp knife stabbing directly into Ezra's heart as he sat nervously and stiffly beside his poor daughter.
If only he could transfer all his daughter's pain and suffering to himself, Ezra would do so without any second thoughts.
Sadly, that was not possible. No one, not even himself, had the ability for it to happen.
Mages, quasi-Healers, and the Healers themselves couldn't do more about his daughter's condition since they had already done what they could. They said that it might be because of exhaustion and stress brought on by the high-intensity battle she had no choice but to take part in.
It made Ezra really frustrated.
"Damn it!"
Ezra leaned forward and gently caressed his daughter's flushed cheek. The temperature that transferred to his palm was the same, meaning her condition had not improved even a bit.
It had been more or less than eight hours since Vrylle had been burning with her high fever, which hadn't died down even for a second. It made Ezra restless and tense, fearing that his daughter might convulse at any moment, which would be dangerous for her already weakened state.
"My sweet child..."
Moaning, groaning, and muttering occasionally in her sleep, Ezra held his daughter's hand and squeezed it gently, afraid and unable to bear hurting her even more. The distress him could only watch Vrylle's flushed cheeks, knitted brows, and slightly parted pale lips as she had a hard time breathing.
Looking at her expression was enough to tell Ezra how much pain his poor daughter was experiencing.
"...Father."
Everett knocked and called Ezra outside the room many times, yet no one answered. Helpless, that was when the young Paladin had no choice but to welcome himself into the room. He walked toward the two people who were the most important in his life with pained, focused eyes.
"Have they spoken?"
Even before Everett approached any closer, Ezra's inquiry came straightaway. As Knights, they regained their consciousness rather quickly compared to ordinary people who might take a day or so after those rigorous events. It only took those traitors a few hours to awaken. As such, an interrogation followed suit, which was what everyone expected.
"...Not yet, Father. Hanz, specifically, refused to speak. He acted as a mute."
What fortunate for the traitors, contrarily, unfortunately for them is, since they weren't at the Central and temporarily staying at someone else's territory, torturing them was prohibited, so as simple as interrogating would suffice at a moment's time, which also made those men grow some backbone and refuse to cooperate.
Acting as stubborn as they could.
Ezra knew that such a thing would happen. It was to be expected considering that's the rule, a part of their creed as well. If it's something else, or the cause and effect were different, Ezra could just take a deep breath and let it go for the time being. However, since it was his daughter's, the frustration he had was impossible to explain.
Even his usual cool showed a sign of thawing.
"Tsk."
Hearing his father click his tongue with no follow-up, silence then again reigned in a dimly lit room. No one spoke, nor did either of them try to break the silence. Only the occasional groans and rugged breath of Vrylle's voice slicing through the silence sporadically were heard.
It feels like other sounds were specifically blocked.
Everett lightly and quietly sits on the other side of the bed, just at the corner. There was no other chair in the room anyway. Then, just like his father, the young Paladin could only helplessly watch his little sister suffer from the kind of pain he had no idea how severe it feels.
After all, every single person has their own range of tolerance to pain.
As the gloomy atmosphere continued for half an hour, hurried footsteps echoed outside, disrupting the father and son. The reason was that, just from the sound of the footsteps alone, Ezra and Everett knew how important the message the owner of the footsteps needed to deliver was.
Thus, Everett stood up to attend to that person.
Before the person outside could knock on the door, which was a Knight, it swung open.
"What happened? Is there a problem?"
"No... Sir, Vice Captain Rusty is here! He's alive! And he's with some people who might be able to help with the current situation!"
Before Everett could respond, Ezra's urgent voice came from behind him as his father walked urgently towards them. He told Everett that he would attend to Rusty and the people he was with, so Everett should stay by his sister's side and look after her instead.
Knowing perfectly well why his father, who had refused to leave Vrylle's side since she was found, was now willing to leave, Everett understood that his father knew that the possibility of something valuable surfacing would help them gather some relevant information thanks to Rusty's appearance.
With that being the case, the two men hurried away, leaving Everett looking at their backs as they got further away. He closed the door and went back to his little sister, who was now occupying the seat where his father had previously sat.
"...Vy, what should we do to lessen your pain?"
Everett's voice drifted through the air and was soon swallowed by the depressed atmosphere. Even though the room was dimly lit, he did not want to open the curtains and let the natural light penetrate the room. His father had let it be, so he would do the same. As for the dimness of the light, Everett wouldn't do a thing about it either.
Knowing Ezra, he wouldn't let even a tiny detail escape his view or line of sight. So, with the room in its current state, his father must have done something with it.
And yes, just as Everett had thought, Ezra had done something with the room. So even if he left and let Everett look after Vrylle, Ezra was confident that nothing unpleasant would happen while he was gone.
Other than that, he was also confident in Everett's skills. After all, he was his son. Everett's ability to fight an opponent even in a limited space was not something to be taken lightly.
Him, personally training his son once in a while, had its purpose. What he did in the room was for precaution and added security.
While every person who had a close relationship with Vrylle was busy doing what they could possibly do at the moment, Vrylle herself was in an endless darkness. Like a drowning little girl, Vrylle tried her best to grab onto something for support.
"Wake up! Hurry, wake up!"
Arms outstretched to feel if she could hold onto something, because the darkness was so severe that she couldn't even see her own arms, Vrylle flinched with her heart pounding against her chest at the sudden emergence of an unfamiliar voice hurrying her.
The feeling was like being chased by a horde of zombies while she wielded no weapons at all to protect herself. Very alarming.
Thus, Vrylle ran instinctively.
Even without seeing where she was running, Vrylle just kept moving forward. She ran like crazy without shouting for help, knowing that in the kind of place she was in, no one could possibly help her, and shouting would only exhaust her energy more.
"Come on! Wake up, hurry! Hurry!"
Vrylle was more than annoyed with the voice that was rushing her. She knew her mental state at the moment was unstable. She felt it. And now, the unfamiliar voice with the tone of urgency was only adding to her unstable mentality. But she couldn't do anything. Like a default, her body moved and ran on its own after hearing the voice. Her strides were big and her pace was fast.
All she could do was groan and pant, feeling her lungs burning.
"You'll get there! Keep running!"
Time went by and Vrylle didn't know how much time her feet kept running and refusing to stop even for a quick rest. She felt her sides aching, her legs trembling, and her lungs burning even more.
Her throat was parched, and even wetting her dry, chapped lips wouldn't help to relieve the uncomfortable feeling she had, let alone using her drying saliva to moisten the inside of her mouth or throat.
Vrylle really disliked the feeling of helplessness she was experiencing at the moment.
Continuing forward despite the terrible feeling and complete darkness, Vrylle found hope as she saw a speck of light further ahead.
Sweating profusely, Vrylle persevered and sped up towards the source. As she got closer, the light grew brighter, and before long, the darkness was finally engulfed by the light and completely dissipated in a second.
"Vy...!"
As Vrylle regained consciousness, the very first thing she felt was nausea. The nausea was so bad, she felt like vomiting. Groaning, Vrylle tried to push herself up, but ended up lying on the bed, feeling that her strength was not enough to support her body yet.
"Vy, you're awake! Thank goodness!"
The familiar voice of her kind and loving brother was like a symphony to Vrylle's ears, the complete opposite of that unfamiliar voice which only gave her a feeling of urgency and trepidation.
It was truly unpleasant.
"Bro... Brother..."
"Yes, I'm here. I'm here!"
Vrylle weakly grabbed her brother's hand and urged him to help her up. As kind and supportive as her brother always was, even Everett pleaded with her to remain lying down for her own health, after helping her drink some water to moisten her throat, Everett still helped her sit up as he leaned her back against the headboard, with a pile of pillows supporting her mid to lower back.
"Brother, Papa... where's Papa?"
Instinctively, Vrylle knew that something would soon happen if she did not find and go to where Ezra and the others currently were. Even with burning lungs and a dizzy head, Vrylle felt that she must go and find them, to warn them about the uneasiness she felt.
It was urgent.
"That's... no! Wait, Vy! Don't move just yet!"
Everett never doubted how his father handled things; he had full trust in Ezra's ways. However, Vrylle was stubborn and persistent. Even the tone of her voice had a sense of urgency, as if the tip of a red flag was peeking through, ready to emerge at any moment.
With that, Everett complied by trusting his sister, supported Vrylle, and used his senses to track the location of where Ezra and the others were.
"...Let's go, then."
With his sister in his arms, wrapped up like sushi in his coat, Everett left the room and followed his father's presence. His strides were wide, but his pace was smooth and steady.
It was like taking a stroll in the garden after a pleasant meal.
Even so, it did not take long for Everett to reach the first floor from the third, considering his relaxed yet big strides.
"Brother..."
"I know. Calm down, Vy. We're almost there."
The building was a private residence, used as a vacation house by one of the higher-ups of the Guild, and was lent to them to occupy for the time being. It had three floors, and each of the floors had ten or so rooms. It looked like a manor, though inferior in terms of size.
After passing a few more rooms and taking occasional turns, at the far corner of the corridor, when Everett was more or less forty meters away from reaching the designated door, a fluctuation of dangerous energy rippled within that room as some of it leaked out.
Just then, after Everett erected a shield, a not-so-powerful explosion, yet not weak either, occurred and blew not just the door, ground, and the walls near the room, but someone was also blown along with it, thrown heavily onto the ground.
The showering debris from all sides did no harm to Vrylle thanks to the shield Everett cast in a timely manner. They were safe and sound inside. The person surrounded by rubble and dust, on the other hand, coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face pale.
In contrast to Vrylle's flushed cheeks.
He was clutching his chest with a distorted expression while he continued to cough. His expression vividly showed how horrible he felt. And it wasn't hard to pinpoint where the pain he felt was coming from.
"No, Mr. Valdez!"
Vrylle exclaimed, then wriggled her way out of her brother's arms, though what she did only made Everett tighten his hold on her. This, however, made Vrylle frustrated. It was because there was this voice urging her to run toward Valdez, telling her that Valdez would surely die if no one came to aid the poor man immediately.
Though it was not a mission from Phantom, Vrylle believed her instincts, and thus she was more willing to act.
"Brother, let go! Mr. Valdez is going to die if no one aids him now!"
"You know that man?"
"Of course, I know him! So please, let me go!"
"No, stay. Be good. You couldn't help him anyway."
Vrylle looked at her brother aggrievedly, then turned her sight to the still coughing Valdez. His ears and nose were now also bleeding. His face was as white as a sheet of paper, paler than before.
She didn't know what had happened, or who had put Valdez in such a state. But what Vrylle was certain of was that it wasn't done by her father, and that made her relieved, at least.
"Call a Healer, immediately!"
Ezra's voice billowed from inside the room, giving instructions to help Valdez. It gave Vrylle some hope, and moments later, people were rushing to and fro from inside the room to the other side of the corridor.
"Eve! Why did you leave the room and even bring your sister here! You know how dire the current situation is!"
Furious, their father was really furious. Both the brother and sister could only bow their heads silently as Everett stepped back to the side to give more room to the busy people scurrying about. The shield enveloping the two was still active.
Everett didn't dare to be careless. He didn't know if another explosion might happen.
"...Hah."
Back to Ezra, he could only let out a soft breath and did not say more as he watched his children act in such a way. The moment he admonished them was also the same moment he regretted what he had done.
If truth be told, when Ezra saw Everett carrying the finally conscious Vrylle, he was delighted and relieved that his daughter was at least out of harm's way. After all, Vrylle, being awake, meant her fever was slowly improving.
But then, his emotions had a sudden shift when he realized that his children were standing in the middle of rubble and dust. As a result, Ezra acted in such a way and said those words.
Now struck by guilt, Ezra strode towards them, effortlessly dispelled the shield, and hugged his children tightly.
He was just afraid, afraid that, like how he had lost his wife, Ezra might also lose his beloved children. That is the kind of thing he could never accept. He opposed and refused that scenario.