Chapter 93

𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔: 𝕴 𝖂𝖎𝖘𝖍 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖂𝖔𝖚𝖑𝖉 𝖇𝖞 𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝕾𝖜𝖎𝖋𝖙

***

My footsteps must have been immediately erased by the passing cold breezes, taking more steps, I kicked some of the rocks towards a certain length in front and it led to an echoing sound when it entered a hole.

Looking beyond, there was no difference from where I had been earlier with this young man named Clifford. Everywhere has been covered with spiraling dust, caught up in the air, a different hue from the sky.

A color of something that had been tainted with crimson.

Same with the ones that had been in front of us all along, the hue corresponds to its camouflage from the air, it had a mixed brownish-red color, like a flame and it should have been hot but it wasn't.

It was the opposite.

It was certainly cold, and odd.

"So where are we now?" I asked. I tried to grip tightly to my coat, against the raging wind. I saw his back, turning.

But I couldn't see his face fully from the storming wind that was embedding the place. It swayed my coat from the opposite direction. I tried to stop my body from being swayed while gripping this young man's clothes.

Soon after, the wind had calmed down.

"We're in the Deviosier place," he spoke in a low voice.

My gaze steadied on his Adam's apple as I saw it vibrate from his throat, then gulped.

Then I looked at his face only to see my reflection in his eyes, the kind of eyes that reminded me of the past, a past where I realized everything after seeing my reflection in that cold, huge blade.

His eyes were fading.

"Deviosier? What is that? No, I guess, where is that?" I asked.

"Before I answer your question would you please let me go now?" He said, with a low voice.

I looked at my hands and I immediately moved away.

Suddenly I felt hot, as if my cheeks got burnt from something.

I should be shivering right now, but I felt the irony.

It was hot.

It felt like the cold breezes served like the blue flames, where I would melt from the misunderstanding of the hues.

"You should also put your hands down, it's not like I'm robbing you or something..."

Double humiliation did I feel with this man.

I bit my lower lip, a hobby I almost forgot.

"Besides, I didn't take you here so you could see what was happening, I took you here because I have a favor, remember that, young lady," he said.

"Wait," I uttered before he turned away again.

"I looked at the map and there were no Devosier names in there, are you playing a trick on me?"

But an echoing laughter, deep and thunderous caressed my ears.

I looked at Clifford, the man whom he claimed was a lone traveler, and I saw him putting both hands on his stomach while bending.

I tried moving away, positioning my hands behind my back to gather my weapons, but in a second, when I looked right into his eyes, I felt a sudden shiver.

A different kind, as if behind me, there was a huge snake where it's eyes and teeth were directed at my whole figure.

This man is dangerous.

When I first landed my sight on him I felt something odd, like he's familiar but at the same time, he's foreign to me.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The young man's laughter halted. He looked at me with both of his arms crossed over his chest. His right hand went under his chin and his eyes narrowed when they looked at me.

The coat he had been wearing started to be swayed by the wind, and so did mine.

But both of our eyes remained deep within each other's souls.

Until he was the first one to break the screaming silence.

"Didn't I tell you before Young Lady?"

"I have a name"

"I know"

"So say my name"

"I don't care about your name, young lady"

"..." I followed his position while walking on his side as if he wasn't affected by this stormy wind.

I could use some of my magic, but I felt drained from using them since I sent Jer back. The only thing I could count on were my weapons.

But whenever I looked into his eyes, I felt as if I was just an ant or a speck of dirt that he had taken on burdening himself.

"Stop biting your lips," his deep dark voice that sounded like an enemy earlier suddenly softened and now I felt stuck on the ground.

I could neither move my feet nor my hands the moment I felt his cold and longer slender fingers gripping softly to my chin.

I wanted to push him away but my body wouldn't cooperate from my thoughts. My eyes got stuck in his mighty orbs and before I knew it, our noses were only inches from touching.

"Also, didn't you agree on the favor I asked of you earlier?"

"I indeed agreed but that was because I never knew this side of yours"

"Which side of me?" he continued to lean and I thought he was going to kiss me but his lips only touched my ears.

"Besides, if you never trusted me from the very beginning then I wouldn't be here together with you, right?" I could feel his hot breath colliding with my damped skin.

Every touch he's giving me felt like I was being burned, it flamed something within my soul and before I knew it, I was already hugging the ground.

"If you keep being like that, I might leave you behind," he said and he's already a few steps away from me.

My body was still shaking, but it was different, it wasn't cold but it was of the flames he embedded in me or so because that's what my thoughts were.

"You... You are capable of this, and I didn't know that a lone traveler could be this terrifying beast..."

He sighed.

Different from his actions earlier. He didn't laugh. But he never denied it.

"Do you truly want to know?"

From gazing at my hands gripping the rough surface of the ground, to looking at where he was now, indeed, I felt like I'd been captured already.

He was now near to me. He knelt in front while his hand touched my chin again, but this time, it wasn't soft. It was the opposite of what he did earlier.

It was rough.

It was like the surface where my hands were.

And his eyes, they were like the ones I imagined from earlier, the kind of eyes that were only seen from the snakes.

"You really want to know, huh?"

"I wouldn't proceed with the favor you're talking about, not when I don't even know who the person I'm doing such a favor is. Not when I couldn't trust you"

"Trust? That's a big word you got there, young lady," then he laughed like before.

In a blink of an eye, he disappeared but returned to where he was earlier, only that he wasn't kneeling, but he was bending with the grip he held on my chin.

"If your whole clan was washed away from the ones who pretended to care, would you eventually know who to trust anymore? No, because you were never me, you never experienced the same kind of agony I have, even if I wanted to die, I can't," I could feel the remorse, hatred, and pain he had from uttering such words.

The veins from his throat went up to his forehead, and his eyes which seemed to be the same hue as Lexus turned to have a tint of bluish silver mixed with the color of blood.

But that didn't matter to me, because his words weighed so much than the appearance of a young man he had.

I felt like he was the same as me from my previous life.

As if lost, burdened, and abandoned.

"I know how it feels..." I whispered.

But I knew he wouldn't be able to hear my words, not when a sudden wind came rushing through my way barely covering my ears and face but I never felt any of the wind.

"If you did, then I guess we're fair even," the tone of his voice changed. It became soft.

Then he sighed.

"So tell me, what are you indeed doing in that place?"

His curiosity made me answer his question disregarding the questions he hadn't answered before, was it because of my sudden discovery of what happened to him? But that was just a part of what he had experienced, and still, I could barely know this man.

But here I am, telling him the life story of a young lady who grew into a noble family, a young lady who had changed for the better, and a young lady who would face any challenges for the sake of her loved ones.

"So that was the reason why every time I looked into your eyes, I am reminded of that person"

It was a whisper, but I heard all of those words. Choosing to remain silent afterward, I saw him change.

His whole body was engulfed with light, shining blue and silvery lights, and after a few more seconds those lights turned to mists suddenly fading through the background and all I could see was a very different and dazzling young man, of an unknown being.

He had magnificent bluish-silver hair, eyebrows, eyelashes and eyes.

Everything about him was new to me.

I haven't known someone like this in the past or knew information about it in this current lifetime that I have.

But one thing was certain.

This man is very dangerous. He wasn't just a lone traveler.

He must be something that held a grudge.

"You're someone I never expected to reveal my true appearance. It turns out that we have the same goal after all"

"The same goal? What are you talking about?"