Whoops. Sorry, I forgot to upload this month's chapter last Thursday. I've been a bit busy lately so I ended up losing track of time and before I knew it this month's chapter ended up being delayed. -_-;

I'm really sorry about that. I hope I don't forget next month's release.


Chapter 52: Big Surprise

Today was certainly a good day. A good day indeed.

"Ah, what a nice breeze..." Meredith commented feeling the gentle, cool breeze through his cyanish white locks. His arms spread out to embrace the cool air. "I happen to like this spot. You can see everything from here: evil spirits, magicians, nobles, royals. All of them look so small from here like ants. Going on without a care in the world. All because of the Tower's barrier. But you know, doesn't it look like one giant prison?"

Meredith slowly drew his attention to his young companion who was in full out alert mode back against the wall.

"You should come over. The view is much better over here." Meredith gestures the guarded Rood over.

This guy... Rood thought to himself ignoring Meredith's request.

"What's wrong?" Meredith continued smiling at the young blond despite Rood's defiance. "Aren't you going to come over? Is it because of the height? Don't worry I'll catch you if you fall. Or are you too shy to come over?"

He...

"Won't you come over? I want to get closer to you."

He talks too much!

"Hey, are you listening?"

Having dealt with enough of the silent treatment, Meredith went along and switched the topic to another seeing as how Rood wasn't going to give him an answer.

"Ah..."

Still remaining vigilant, Rood slightly tensed up. He may have lost his memories but that didn't mean he lost his common sense as well. Like all good kids, he was wary of strangers he didn't know.

"There has been something on my mind for some time that I wanted to ask you."

Ask him? What did he mean by that? Rood was an amnesic kid. There wasn't much to ask.

"You..."

He...

"What is your name?"

.

.

.

.

"What?" His name?

"Your name. I can't keep calling you 'you.'"

Is he an idiot? Rather than suspicious, this guy had more like a few screws loose in the head.

"Tell me. Hurry. Hurry~"

As suspicious and weird this guy may be, Rood didn't see any harm in telling him his name. It's not like it'd make much of a difference. Complying with Meredith's request, Rood proceeded to give the Tower magician his name. However as soon as Rood opened his mouth, he was cut off by Meredith.

"That's right. I almost forgot." Meredith said out of nowhere puzzling Rood in turn. "Have you heard of that story where the door to the demon world was opened from the mistakes of the humans and the king had to beg God for power to save the world after it was plunged into chaos?"

"..."

"But the thing is do you really believe that it was really God who gave the humans power?"

Rood narrows his eyes in suspicion at Meredith. He had a really nasty feeling about this.

"In commemoration of our meeting today, I want to show you something."

"Show me?"

"Yeah, it's not something I normally show people, but for you, that's another story..."

"Wha—"

Faint light green mana surrounds the two. One that Rood was familiar with. Unlike before, this time the mana came from underneath them along with a magic circle. Before Rood could take a chance to fully comprehend the situation that was unfolding in front of him, he and Meredith disappeared and the magic circle too.


The inbilia flower: a unique flower found in Xaytre that is hard to find due to its scarcity. Like most herbs and plants in Xaytre, this flower holds a special property that can be used in medicine practices such grinding up the flower to create a special powder mixture that turns anyone sprinkled by the powder invisible.

"Wow, that flower sure is useful." Lapis remarked as he stealthily searched around the parameter for any sign of Rood.

"It sure is. The plants in Xatyre certainly are something. It was a good thing that Idun kid had it." Chevel added.

"Good job smuggling that in as expected of a demon that's been disguising himself as a student and perfectly blending in with humans since the beginning the school year." Linus jokingly teased Dio giving the latter a thumb's up. A sharp gleam in his eyes too.

"That's not exactly a compliment..." Dio sweat dropped at Linus's comment. It's not like he purposely pocketed that flower. He just happened to have left it in his pocket back at Xatyre when he and Rood got teleported and forgot about it until now.

Pitying his friend, all Lidusis could do was offer his sympathies to the dark blue haired Idun who was wallowing in his own self-despair.

As for Linus, he simply just lightly laughed it off finding Dio to be more funny than scary as others would think. He seemed like a good kid so he didn't see why there were many students wary of him. He was as amusing as Lapis.

From the corner of his eye, a mysterious silhouette entered his peripheral vision.

"Huh? Baldwin?"


Deep within a secluded underground area located in the Tower, a magic circle appears on the bare, cold ground. A light green glow from the magic circle illuminates the dark depressing underchamber teleporting two individuals there.

Meredith remained unfazed from his little teleportation. His suspicious smile still plastered on his face.

"Watch carefully."

And inside dwelled the empty husk of a giant demon chained to the ground with only its upper half in view.

"That thing right there is the God who gave the humans their power." Meredith calmly stated while eying Rood from the side of his eyes.

However Meredith's words fell short as Rood was too dumbstruck to pay any heed to any outside influence let alone Meredith's words. His mouth slightly open from the shock as well as his eyes. What struck Rood the most was not the fact that there was the skeleton of a gigantic demon in front of him but rather the strange feeling welling up in his chest. In most cases, normally, one would feel fear at the sight of a demon as large as this regardless of whether it was just the skeletal system or not. But that was not the case for Rood. Rather fear, Rood felt something more like... nostalgia.

A strange voice throbs inside his head.

Here at last, my—

As the voice was calling out to him, an unfamiliar yet at the same time familiar scene pops into Rood's mind. There were two figures: a long black haired individual roughly the same size as a normal human and the black silhouette of a giant horned demon. Neither side seemed hostile towards each other. There wasn't even a trace of tension within their conversation despite being in a place surrounded by eyeballs. And from one of the eyeballs was a strange demonic figure braiding the smaller one's hair.

"... Brother?" The long haired one repeated.

"Yeah. That's what the humans call one another." The giant assured him. "A word to describe someone who is born of the same woman. Because our beginnings were the same that makes you and I, brothers."

Brothers...?

"..." Rood could only gawk in shock at the chained demon. So many things to take in all at once and his mind just went blank.

Naturally, this was the most obvious reaction most people would have or at least what Meredith expected Rood to have. After all, anyone would be shocked to see the giant husk of a demon but not as quiet as this. It was clear that something was going on inside Rood's head like what that demon was, what it was doing here, and more important what connection it had with Rood. He probably had many questions swirling through his head just as Meredith had some of his own. But alas, time was not his side.

Pity, he wanted to spend more time with Rood.

"Ah... That's it for today." Meredith said to Rood who was still in shock. "Fortunately, we have all the time we need."

And with that, Meredith sent Rood back. As the latter was disappearing, he continued to stare at the giant chained demon. That strange memory still freshly running through his mind.

With Rood gone, Meredith couldn't help but let out a sigh partially due to Rood's absence and partially due to the cause of their time shortage. Not soon after did he take his leave via teleportation like he did with Rood.


Out of that dark dreary place and now into the bright open corridors of the Tower, Rood's mind was still left in a haze. Despite this, he was still able to keep on his feet though walking rather swayingly as if he were a drunk but completely smashed. His hand over his right eye and cheek. In spite of the brightly lite area, everything seemed as though it were turning black in Rood's eyes.

The vivid memory still coursing through Rood's mind over and over. The word 'brother' constantly ringing through his mind. The throbbing sensation in Rood's head just wouldn't stopped.

It was up for question on whether how long the poor blond would last.


Making his grand entrance, Meredith nonchalantly teleported through the wall to see what the trouble was. He wasn't exactly happy to have been interrupted.

"What is it?" Peeved that he wasn't able to spend that much time with Rood, Meredith directed his gaze at the four Tower magicians before him. "I was in the middle of something."

The irritableness of his tone was clear proof of his foul mood.

"We apologize for our intrusion. However please do keep in mind, that your presence holds a tremendous amount of impact within the Tower. It would be troubling if Sir Meredith were to disappear." One Tower magician said to Meredith. "After all, you are the master of the first Tower."


This was great. Just great. It was bad enough that his precious vacation time away from Shicmuon was cut short and was back on babysitting duty. But now he had to deal with not just Shicmuon but also those stooge old farts from the Tower. It didn't help that the relationship between the Association and the Tower were like cats and dogs.

Maybe I shouldn't have told him about Shic... Van kind of regrets informing his superior about Shicmuon and his latest object of obsession. A man was bad enough, but a kid was just downright illegal. At this rate, Shicmuon may actually end up as a criminal but not for property damage. If that wasn't it, there were those old Tower folks too. What were those old geezers thinking suddenly transferring everyone at Helios here? Nothing good ever comes from those geezers. What are they scheming this time?

Whatever the Tower had in mind it wasn't going to be pleasant. That Van knew for sure.

But onto more pressing matters.

"Ah, sh*t! Where's Shic?!"

Just when he thought he finally free from that boring discussion between the Tower and Helios and on his way back to the students, Van couldn't see hide nor hair of Shicmuon which was never a good thing.

For some reason, Van had hunch he knew why Shicmuon left. And what's more he had a really bad feeling too. Practically foreboding.

It couldn't be that he went to that kid, and he's... Van reluctantly thought. "Nah, that can't be. No matter how I look at it, he's just a fragile kid. Shic would never do something like that with a kid like that. Haha..."

Van casually dismissed the idea with the wave of a hand. What's he thinking? The Shicmuon he knew would never cross that line.

"Hahaha..."

Sure, he obsessed over a man that hated his guts and searched high and low for the guy.

"Haha..."

He'd even chase after a new target in the form of a kid bent on harassing by forcing him to be his new roommate and wouldn't let the kid be away from arm's reach.

"Ha..."

But he'd never do something that would brand him a criminal in a crime other than property damage.

.

.

.

He definitely would?!

Not taking any chances, Van breaks out in a full sprint in search of his missing companion.


Where was he? He didn't know. Everything practically looked murky. Up. Down. Left. Right. He didn't know where he was going. All he knew was that he had been wandering around aimless for quite some time.


Out of curiosity, Chevel directed his attention to Linus.

"That new guy? Where?" Chevel asked at the mention of the undercover Association magician's alias.

"Over there." Linus pointed out down a corner where Shicmuon was passing through.

"It is him. What's he doing here though?"

"Maybe he's here to look for Rood-nim too!" Linus declared not knowing how right he was.

"No way. Why would he want to look for Rood Chrishi?" Chevel didn't see any reason for Shicmuon to have to look for Rood, but then he paused for a brief moment to think.

...

"On second thought, forget what I said..." Chevel immediately retracts his previous statement. His face grimaces at the terrible revelation that hits him plus Shicmuon's past stalking history.

He was stupid to ask.

"Hey! What are you kids doing here?" A rough voice from behind demanded startling the two Hereises.

Both slowly turned their heads around to see an older brown haired man with a scar on his cheek. The man didn't appear to be a Tower magician since he wasn't wearing the Tower's robes. As he wasn't a Tower magician, he had to be a professor from Helios. However neither Chevel nor Linus had seen a professor like Van before so they didn't recognize the latter upon seeing his face.

"U-Uhm, we're just lost..." Chevel racked his brain for some kind of excuse to give to Van but to no avail.

"Uh huh..." Van listlessly responded. A tinge of curiosity comes over Van. Wondering what the two Hereises were looking at, Van peers over the corner the two were so intensely peeking from previously.

It was then that Van's world turned upside down.

"Shic!"

Van's eyes nearly pop out at the immediate sight of his redheaded partner whom he was oh so desperately searching for and for more reasons than one. While he was running around in circles looking for Shicmuon, these two kids found him in no time. It was as if fate was playing some kind of cruel joke on him. The only good thing about it so far was that he didn't see Rood with Shicmuon. Thankfully, that was one less thing to worry about on Van's part.

"Professor, did you just say 'Shic?'" Chevel pointed out.

Ah... Van screwed that up.

"His name's Asujen Baldwin. Why did you call him—"

"What are you guys doing?" Dio asked walking over to the Hereises plus extra. Lidusis and Lapis following not too far behind the dark blue haired demon. "We don't have time to waste to be standing around here. We should be looking for Rood!"

As Dio was making his way over, Chevel gestured his underclassmen not to come over mouthing them to go back. However it was too late when Van sees the kids from behind him.

"Linus, what are you staring at?" Lapis peered over his shorter friend to see Shicmuon. Lapis's face instantly grimaces at the sight of the arrogant Association magician. The only good thing was that he only had to see half the short tempered man's face. Rather a side view, Lapis would have preferred a back view. That way he wouldn't have to see the man's face at all. "What it's just him? I don't get what's so interesting about looking at him."

"But isn't it strange. He was walking normally before until he stopped in front of that stairway. Maybe Rood-nim is over there."

"As if that would—"

Before Lapis could finish, Linus gasps.

"What happened? Don't tell me he was actually there!"

"No. He finally lifted up from that sign he was reading." Linus pointed out.

Hearing that made Lapis really want to strangle his friend.

*Schilp* *Thud*

All six bystanders draw their gazes towards the source of the sound which lead to Shicmuon's direction.

Knowing who was around the corner, Van had his worries and prayed for dear life that his partner wasn't wreaking havoc in the Tower of all places.

Fortunately, Van's worries were left as worries, but in place of his worries was his absolute worst fear. To say that he was surprised was an understatement, Van was completely mortified. Van stood purely dumbfounded like a statue along with the students the moment their eyes locked in on the disturbing scene before them.

Van was going to have one heck of a time explaining this to his boss later.


In his daze, Rood continued to walk. His head still feeling like it was made of lead. More unfamiliar images continue to flow through Rood's mind. Many of which he didn't recognize.

Carried away by his own clouded thoughts, Rood couldn't get good grasp of his surroundings or the flight of stairs ahead of him. It wasn't until he stumbled on the stairway leading down the descending floor that Rood was brought back to reality as he was falling. His clouded vision immediately cleared away. No longer obscured by those black hazy clouds, he could finally be able to see clearly again.

The first thing that Rood's eyes met was the face of none other than the Association's roughneck, Shicmuon, who happened to be at the end of the stairs.

If that wasn't enough to shock Rood, then the next part certainly would which was something that neither party expected.

As Rood was falling from atop of the flight of stairs, Shicmuon and Rood locked eyes. Both stunned by the appearance of the other. Though only a moment, that one moment proved to be quite detrimental for the both of them. And in that one moment, Rood's lips came into contact with Shicmuon's. He paled in complete and utter horror. His face practically turned blue from the shock. And the two then collided into the ground leaving the onlookers in deep shock.