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Chapter 3: Grief
"Mr. Lowell, do you care to pay attention to class," the teacher snapped.
Raiden wouldn't have realized what was going on if Rune hadn't kicked his foot. "Sorry, I guess I didn't get enough sleep last night," Raiden muttered and even rubbed his eyes for emphasis.
The teacher just shook his head. "Try to get enough rest for class next time. I know you're not staying up to study." The teacher muttered the last sentence to himself as he turned back to chalk board to write down dates or math formulas. Or something. Raiden really didn't any pay attention to class. He just laid his head back on the desk and stared blankly forward.
He was still thinking about what he heard last night. His mother on the verge of tears and Paul saying how his father was killed. Paul thinks the person that killed Yuri Lowell was from a guild called Circus Anarchy, an unofficial guild that had been going around causing problems for both the guilds and the Empire. There was even a rumor that the guild was responsible for the Emperor's death. But that was still unknown. Raiden just couldn't comprehend that. Someone had really wanted his father dead?
When his mother first told him and his sister that their father died in the fighting, Raiden had been mad at his father for choosing to stay behind to save more people rather than be with them. But as he's grown older, he's felt proud to be his son. His father stayed behind while some knights, who's job was to protect the people of the Empire, ran with their tail between their legs. The knights had been in complete disarray because a couple of superior officers ran away. In the back of his mind, he had always blamed those knights for his father's death because they left their underlings in such a disorganized mess.
But now learning this, Raiden began to wonder if his father would have still lived if this unknown guy hadn't kill him. It angered Raiden thinking that his father would still be with them if not for that unknown assailant. His mother wouldn't look so sad all the time and Elena wouldn't be as reserved or bitter. He hated a man he didn't even know.
"Raiden, it's lunch time," Rune's voice suddenly brought him out of his thoughts. He hadn't realized that class was over and that most of his classmates went outside to eat. "It's not like you to sleep through lunch," Rune tried to joke.
Raiden only nodded as he stood up to go out to their usual spot outside. It wasn't until they sat down next to the school building that Rune noticed Raiden had nothing. "Where's your lunch?" He asked.
That was when Raiden realized he didn't have lunch. "I guess I forgot to make it this morning," Raiden said with a shrug.
Rune shook his head. "Just what were you doing last night? It's not like you to forget lunch." Raiden could hear Rune getting his lunch out and started cutting everything in half. He held up half his sandwich for Raiden and said, "You can have half of mine. You're going to be cranky the rest of the day if you don't eat. And then you have to help Mr. Regis after school, right?"
Raiden accepted the food. "Thanks," Raiden said. But he didn't start eating. He just stared at the food in his head.
His friend had taken few bites before he noticed. "Okay, you're really starting to worry me," Rune started to say. "Is everything okay? Is your mom okay?" Rune sounded very concern.
"I overheard my mom and Paul last night," Raiden began saying without thinking. Rune was the first person he'd really talked to. His mother had government business to attend to that morning, his sister was still asleep by the time he left, and Paul was also asleep on the couch. Not that he wanted to talk to them about this. "Paul was talking about how he thinks some guild killed my dad."
There was silence between them and Raiden realized what he had just told his friend. He quickly glanced at Rune and saw a speechless expression, probably the same Raiden had when he first heard it. "What?" Rune questioned.
Raiden now wished he'd kept his mouth shut. Yuri Lowell had been the closes thing Rune had ever had to a father. Rune's father, or sperm donor as Rita always called him, died before Rune was even born. Rune had cried even more than Raiden had when he learned of Yuri's death.
Raiden pulled his knees to his chest and rested his head on them. "I just don't know what I should do," Raiden admitted. There was no way he could forget what he heard or try to live the way he had the previous day. He felt like he should do something. It just wasn't right.
"What can we do?" Rune questioned. The two of them sat in silence and didn't even take another bite.
/~/~/
The rest of the school day past and Raiden had no idea what even happened the rest of the day. Rune didn't seem to pay much more attention than he did. The two of them didn't really say much more to each other as they went their separate ways.
Raiden was on his way to Mr. Regis' bookstore and wasn't paying attention at all. He never even saw Paul and never would have noticed if he hadn't run into him. "Geeze kid, I didn't think school would have drained your soul that much," Paul joked. "I kept calling your name. Do you need to clean your ears?"
"Sorry Paul. I guess it's just been a long day," Raiden told him. He then tried to walk around the guild member. "I need to hurry up to the bookshop for my punishment."
But Paul stopped him. "I've talked to Mr. Regis for you and said you weren't feeling well. So I thought while I'm still in town, we could go hunt some monsters together."
"My mom is still in meetings, isn't she?" Raiden asked.
"Yep, and I'm pretty sure Regis is going to forget I was even there. So come on, let's go. We've got to do something together." Paul had his arm around Raiden's neck and was leading him back to his house so he could "borrow" two of his dad's old swords.
Any other days, Raiden would have easily gone along with him without second thought that his mother was likely to catch them. Maybe it would be good to try and get his mind off what he heard Paul said. But as they were getting closer to his house, Raiden couldn't stop thinking about his dad. He knew he wouldn't like Raiden dwelling on him like that. But Raiden couldn't help but feel like he was wasting time. Like there was something else he should be doing to right this wrong.
"Seriously kid, are you really not feeling well?" Paul suddenly asked.
Raiden then realized they were in front of his house again. Paul must have been talking the whole time and Raiden didn't catch a word of it. "I heard you and mom talking last night," Raiden just blurted out like vomit. He didn't want to think of an excuse for his behavior. In fact, Raiden was hoping that Paul would tell him the whole story.
The guild member was startled. Obviously he thought that was the last thing Raiden would say. His mood dropped too and he began to rub the back of his neck. "Your sister didn't over hear, did she?" Paul asked instead.
"No," Raiden told him. He didn't want to imagine how his sister would react if she knew. Elena became even more reserved then she already was when their mom told them their dad wouldn't be coming home again.
Paul let out a breath. "Good. She doesn't need to think of that," Paul muttered. But he quickly glanced at Raiden and said, "I only found out recently. It's been tearing me up inside because I wasn't sure if I should tell you. I'm not sure how long Ms. Estelle has known, but she didn't want either of you knowing. She thought the two of you could handle the grief better if you knew he died protecting people. I know I have trouble thinking of the good he did when all I can think about is the bastard that killed him."
Four years ago, the Empire was attacked while they were rebuilding Zaphias. The suddenness and the lack of knights posted at Zaphias at the time gave the Renegades an easy victory. They didn't stop there and they instantly started to expand their territory in Ilyccia. Once they wiped out the people rebuilding Zaphias, they captured a place called Deidon Hold less than a day later. They didn't stop there. They attack Halure next, the town Raiden grew up in. The people of Halure had no clue what had happened to Zaphias or Deiden Hold. The knights that normally just fought monsters had no idea what to do with a small army of people attacking them.
The knights were doing everything to could just to hold them back so the civilians could escape. And Raiden's dad stayed behind to hold them off because the knights were struggling to do their job after so many fled. And his dad never came back to them.
After the assault on Halure, the renegades didn't attack anymore. The knights did try to retake their land. But they didn't return either. The guilds would have helped, but that was when relations were growing uneasy between them. The Emperor had been killed prior to the renegades showing up and to this day no one was any closer to figuring out who killed Emperor Ioder. The popular rumor was the putting blame on the guilds. Particularly the Union order Circus Anarchy to do the job and claim that the guild wasn't an official member of the Union. But there was no proof of that. With such accusations on top of many other issues, relations became horrible between the Empire and the guilds.
Raiden looked at Paul and started asking, "Paul, you said you knew who the guy was, right?"
Suddenly Paul put both of his hands on Raiden's shoulders and the sudden movement startled Raiden. "Don't even think about it kid," Paul warned. "You know your old man wouldn't want you to spend a second thought on this. He'd want you to live your life to the fullest and not wasting it trying to avenge him. Hell, he'd probably come back from the dead just to kick your ass for doing something like that." Paul tried to joke, but he felt he same a Raiden. He wanted to make the person who killed Yuri pay. But the guild member was trying to honor what Yuri really would have wanted.
Raiden knew he needed to do the same. That is what his dad would have wanted. But then why did it feel wrong? He he needed to do something.
When Raiden didn't say anything, Paul nudged him toward the house. "Why don't you take the rest of the day to rest up and think this out," he told him. "If you're this out of it, you shouldn't be fighting monsters."
Raiden didn't object. He nodded and walked in the house. He guessed Paul needed to go fight some monsters to get his mind off things. Just lying on his bed didn't sound like such a bad idea.
When he walked in, he realized that his sister was home and sitting in the living room. There was a brief moment of panic that she might have overheard them. But she was in her regular seat with a book in hand. The dog wasn't in her lap like normal and Raiden was sure that she was giving him a dirty look as she walked over to a pillow in the corner. Elena didn't seem to care about anything else other than her book. Raiden relaxed a bit.
"I thought you were supposed to be helping out with Mr. Regis?" Elena asked without bothering to look up at him.
"Are you planning on telling mom?" Raiden asked instead. He really didn't care if she did tell on him to their mom. But for his sister, he wanted to keep up normalcy for her.
Suddenly he could hear a loud growl come from her stomach. It was followed by her practically ordering, "Make me some noodles and I'll keep quiet."
"You haven't eaten all day, have you?" She probably hadn't moved from that spot. In fact, the clothes she was wearing looked like what she slept in. His sister really was an introverted bookworm. She knew how to cook, but didn't like putting a book down long enough to make anything. Making a sandwich was too much time for her.
"You have my demands," Elena said flatly.
"Fine, fine," Raiden muttered as he walked into the kitchen to heat up some water. Once Elena was out of sight, he let his demeanor drop. What was he supposed to do now? Not telling Elena or letting his mother think he doesn't know was his plan right now. But what about after that?
As he was adding extra noodles for himself since his hunger was starting to get the better of him, there was a knock at the door. For some reason, Raiden thought Elena would answer it. But he quickly came to his senses when he heard the second knock and the dog start to bark.
So he left the pot of noodles unattended. He quickly spared a glance at his sister who was still nose deep in the book and seemed unaware of what was going on around her. Raiden wasn't sure who was at the door, but he wasn't expecting three knights standing there when he opened it. What made it worse was that one of them was Captain Kamal.
"Ah, is the magistrate in?" The captain of the knights of the village asked Raiden in a surprisingly civil tone considering Raiden had just fought with his son just yesterday.
"She's at the meeting…" Raiden started to answer, but realized that the knight should already know that. In fact, shouldn't he be in that same meeting? Oh no, was he here to throw him in jail for fighting Will while his mother wasn't looking?
"I've heard of some talk that someone from the Union has been seen coming and going from the magistrate's home. For her and her children's safety, I would like to inspect the place to see if anything was stolen," the knight told him.
That's what this is about?"Well there's no need," Raiden told him. "The guy people have been seeing is a family friend and he's staying with us."
Raiden started to close the door thinking this was over, when the captain put his hand on the door to stop him. "We still need to talk with him and make sure everything is okay here," the knight told him. "It's just rather suspicious that someone from the Union has been hanging around the magistrate's home."
"Well Paul isn't here so you'll have to come back later," Raiden told him and tried to close the door again and didn't care is he caught the captain's fingers in the process.
But the knight was stern and managed to open the door wide open. "I insist that we search for you and the magistrate's safety," he kept saying.
What does he think Paul is planning? Raiden thought bitterly. He was getting tired of hearing of all these paranoid knights think every guild member was looking to start a war.
Suddenly Raiden felt himself being shoved and he lost his balance. He first thought was that it was the knights who shoved past his to get in. But he looked up and saw that it was Elena who had pushed him out of the way and was standing in front of the knights.
"If you're here to search then I assume that means you have a search and seize warrant. Knights can't just enter any residence unless they have a warrant. So let me see it," Elena stated in her regular monotone voice and held out her hand.
"We wouldn't dream of illegally searching the magistrates home," Captain Kamal said. "We of course have one, but you probably wouldn't be able to understood anything it said."
Elena's eyes narrowed a bit and Raiden was sure he was the only one who noticed it and he got back to his feet. His sister put both of her hands on her hips. "You think I'm some sort of idiot? I could probably recite what the warrant is supposed to say. So you can either show me the dumb thing or you can leave."
Similar to how Paul always got flustered when arguing with Elena, the knight still tried to reason with her. "We are here for your protection. The man you're housing could be a spy."
"Obviously you don't have one," Elena told him plainly. "You made sure our mother was at a meeting and thought you could persuade my dim-witted brother into letting you search our house. So good-bye." She caught them off guard that she was able to close the door on them and lock it.
"What was with the "dim-witted" comment?" Raiden asked as he could hear the knight captain banging on the door. But he was glad that she spared a moment away from her books.
"You better check on the noodles," she quickly changed the subject.
"Crap." Raiden quickly ran back into the kitchen as he realized that he could hear the water boiling over. He'd completely forgotten about the food.
Thankfully it was just starting to boil over so it wasn't nearly as big a mess as he thought.
Now the two of them were enjoying a bowl of noodles. Elena looked as content as she could when she didn't have her nose up a book. In fact, it was surprising she didn't have a book with her now as she read. But that may have been that their mother had pretty much trained them that the dinner table was for eating only. Of course Elena was scarfing the noodles down as fast as she could so she could return to reading.
"Why do you think those knights wanted to search our house?" Raiden asked out of the blue. He wanted to keep his sister away from her books longer. Maybe the two of them could talk like they used to before she became a recluse.
Elena had a mouthful of noodles hanging out of her mouth and she quickly slurped them up in a very unladylike manner. Their dad would have laughed at the sight while their mother lightly scolded her for her table manners but more to their father for encouraging her. Where did those days go?
"They probably wanted to frame Paul as a spy," Elena theorized as she prepared her next bite. "They would have turned in a spy that could have potentially saved the empire and they would have gotten a promotion. I'm sure that's what they were thinking."
Raiden couldn't help but grin and rest his chin in his hand as he began to tease her, "So little Elena stopped her reading so she could help out Paul. Better be careful, I may start thinking you have a crush on him."
There came a swift kick to his shin that made Raiden let out a painful yelp. "As if," Elena said with her eyes narrowed as Raiden. "Paul's a member of Brave Vesperia, if he got arrested it'd reflect badly on them. Not to mention people would start to think our mom is incapable of being the magistrate and rumors will start that she was seduced by that useless bum." She was very serious in her claim.
"Did you read that plot point in a book?" Raiden asked as he kept rubbing his leg. It was still throbbing.
"In two," Elena told him and leaned back in her chair. "It's not that far-fetched."
"I guess not," Raiden commented. But how would they even go about framing Paul? Their mother was the magistrate and a good portion of the people in the village knew Paul. No one would believe it. "But I'm a bit tempted to tell Paul about this."
Another kick came in the same spot. "Tell him and you'll regret it," Elena threatened. Just as Raiden began to think that maybe she did have a crush on the guild member, Elena kicked him again. "Get your mind out of the gutter, that's creepy."
"Yeah," Raiden muttered as he rubbed his leg. It was really throbbing now. As he was holding his leg, he suddenly decided to ask, "Do you ever intend to go back to school?"
He really thought she was going to kick him again. But she only said, "What's the point in going to school? I can learn everything from books."
"Come on, don't you want to socialize with other people other than your family and Sable?" Raiden asked. Hearing her named called, the dog gave Raiden what sounded like a warning bark. Sable was pretty good at acting like she understood what people said. But she was no Repede. That dog always seemed to know and dad seemed to know what he was saying. Although thinking back, Raiden was just a kid and believed anything his dad said. He was probably just pretending to entertain his kids.
"While I wouldn't mind having a more intellectual conversation that you can't provide, you, mom, and Sable are all I need," Elena said and ate another mouthful of noodles.
"What are you going to do when you're older? You can't stay here forever."
"You're one to talk considering you need to make a decision soon," Elena snapped. She picked up her bowl and drained all remaining liquids. "You cause mom a lot more trouble than me. So I don't want to hear you telling me what to do."
With that, Elena left the table and picked up her book before marching up to her room with Sable right behind her. Raiden could hear her walking up the steps until he heard her slam the door.
Raiden laid his head on the table.I'm sorry I wasn't able to protect you Ellie. If only he had known what her classmates were doing to her, his sister wouldn't be like this. She'd actually smile, leave the house, maybe even have friends her own age. But with what happened to her the last time she was at school and the loss of their dad, Elena's never been the same.
/~/~/
"-up. Raiden, wake up," he heard his mother say and became aware that she was gently shaking him.
His eyes popped open as he realized he fell asleep at the table. He quickly sat up and saw that he had drooled a bit. As he was wiping his mouth, his mother put her hand on his head. "Are you okay? You don't normally sleep during the day. You're not feeling sick, are you?"
It was just like his mother to assume that. She always seemed to give him the benefit of the doubt regardless of all his trouble he has caused her in the past. She thought he was sick and that's why he wasn't helping Mr. Regis. "I just didn't sleep at all last night," Raiden told her.
His mother let out a tired sigh, "This is you're one free night, I don't want to hear any more excuses about not helping Mr. Regis."
"Yes, ma'am," Raiden told her. He was going to start cleaning up the bowls that were still on the table, but then he noticed that it was dark outside. "Are you just getting home?" He asked his mother.
"Yes, no one could agree on anything and Captain Kamal was late."
I wonder why? Raiden wondered bitterly. The knight was really wasting time like that? "What was the meeting over?" Raiden asked.
But his mother shook his head. "Nothing you need to worry about. Why don't you go ask your sister what she wants for supper?"
His mother started going into the kitchen and Raiden asked, "The empire isn't going to war, is it?" Why else would the meeting be that long?
She spun around. "No, no. It hasn't come to that yet." She quickly walked over and put her hands on his shoulders while forcing a smile. "Look, right now, your job is to go to school, learn, and decide what you want to do. So let me worry about everything else. Okay?"
His mother's eyes were looking very tired. But they also looked like she wanted to collapse and cry. But she wouldn't. How much of it was because of what happened to his dad? She was always pushing herself like this so he and his sister wouldn't worry about stuff. He wondered how long she had known how his father died. She clearly only wanted them to think fondly of the memory of their father instead of just focusing on his death. Raiden could safely say he did sort of miss those days. He rarly thought of any of the good memories since he found out.
"Okay," Raiden muttered. Hearing what happened to his father was consuming a lot of his thoughts. With everything that was going on and everything his mother had to do, Raiden felt like he had to do something. He was just a teenage boy, there was nothing he could do about the tensions between the guilds and the Empire. But there was something he could do to help put a lot of people's mind at ease. Maybe it would even ease his mother's. If he could at least do that, then it would be worth it.
/~/~/
An eggbear can be very territorial and make marks on trees to let other monsters…Rune let his head fall to his desk. He was so bored by this. His mother said he needed to write a five-page report about the biological make of a monster, the ecosystem they live in, and what role they play in that system. He wanted so badly to work on his formulas. He had gotten pretty close to figuring out the Eruption spell before his mother took his notebook of working formulas and all his book about formals as part of his punishment.
The sooner he wrote this stupid report, the sooner he could get back to his formulas. But it was just so boring. He would have to keep reading about that stupid, scary monster. Plus he was liable to dream about an eggbear eating him.
Rune was really hoping to get this all done tonight. But instead he only got one page written. He really needed his formulas. They helped him make sense everything around him. Hearing Raiden tell him what really happened to Mr. Lowell was like being told he died again. He just had a hard time believing someone wanted him dead that badly. Of course his mother always told him what a trouble maker Mr. Lowell was and how he had better not turn out like him. To him, there were two Yuri Lowells; one that was in all those stories the adults told and the one he grew up with.
When he got home that day, he asked his mother how Mr. Lowell died. She was startled to say the less. That was maybe one of the last things his mother thought he would ask that day. "What do you mean how he died? That idiot probably got careless. He pretty much thought that he was invincible," she told him plainly. But Rune could tell that his mother missed her old friend dearly, she just wouldn't admit it. The two of them had a very…interesting friendship to say the less.
Of course if Rune was feeling this way, he couldn't imagine how Raiden was feeling. What did it feel like to lose a father? Rune never meet his father. His mother and Mrs. Lowell said he was eaten by a monster before he was born. So you can't miss what you don't have.
He had no pictures of his father and he of course went by his mother's name Mordio. "I'm the one rising him so he sure as hell will have my name and not that idiot of a sperm donor," is probably what his mother said when she named him. But apparently his father, Liam, had mentioned that if they ever had a kid he wanted to name them Rune. Regardless if he had been a boy or a girl. Most of his research was how to use runes on old blastia bases and converting them to new technology. Rune was told he was a pretty consumed in his research. With two people so involved with their research, it was strange they got together long enough to have a child.
So his name and his father's old research was the only thing he had of him. Raiden had memories of being with his dad. Rune had nothing.
Rune took one of the blank pages he was supposed to use and started writing down formulas he had memorized in his head. He needed to get his mind on something else, something more concrete. He wrote the ones he knew first and then started writing the ones he was working on from memory.
"That doesn't look like biology," someone said and it made Rune crumple the evidence against him.
He knew it wasn't his mother's voice, but it still had him worried that if he looked, his mother would be behind him. But instead it was only Raiden standing next to him.
"Rai-" Rune started to say very startled by his friend.
But Raiden quickly covered his mouth and shushed him. "If you raise your voice, your mom is going to hear us and then I'm going to tell her that you told me to come here," his friend warned him.
When Raiden removed his hand, the first thing Rune said was, "We're going to get into trouble. How did you even get here?"
"Obviously I snuck out and climbed through you're window. Seriously buddy, you should lock that if you don't want people climbing through," Raiden told him plainly before he sat on his bed.
Even if I did lock it, you'd still find a way in, Rune thought bitterly. After all, Karol taught Raiden how to pick simple locks. But he dropped it when he saw that Raiden looked the same as he did when they were at school. Now he was reminded again about what happened to Mr. Lowell. "So what couldn't wait until tomorrow?" Rune asked.
"My mom was in a meeting all day today," Raiden quickly answered.
"Is the Empire declaring war?" Rune asked.
Raiden rubbed his eyes like he was tired. "She told me no. But some knights were looking for Paul earlier and on my way here I saw more knight out than normal."
"We are a frontier town, maybe they thought we needed more protection," Rune suggested. But he knew that wasn't the case. The monsters were relatively calm in this area and one rarely came close to the village.
"More protection from the guilds maybe," Raiden muttered. He then shook his head. "Look Rune, I came because I'm needing you to talk me out of something," Raiden finally told him. "Now that the Empire is closer to war and hearing about what happened to my dad…" Raiden paused as he rested his head in his hands.
It was rare that Raiden would openly say that he knew he had a bad idea and he needed to be talked out of it. But it really worried Rune that he might not be able to this time given how serious his friend was.
"I just keep thinking about the guy who killed my dad. Mom is too busy trying to keep peace to seek out justice. And all I'm doing is going to school. I'm not working towards anything or helping anyone. I don't even know what I'm wanting to do. I just…I keep causing problems," Raiden had to force out the last bit.
Rune really didn't like where this was going.
"The only goal I can think of is to find the guy who killed my dad," Raiden finally said. "At least that way I feel like I would do something good. It's crazy, right?"
"Of course it's crazy," Rune told him as he fought the urge not to yell that to him. They both needed to keep their voice down. "Your dad was the best swordsmen we knew and someone managed to kill him. You wouldn't be able to stand a chance against him."
"That's why I came to you so you can help talk me out of it. It really is a crazy idea," Raiden admitted.
"It is. Your mom would really worry about you," Rune just muttered as he began to un-crumble his paper with the formulas on it.
"Gotta admit buddy, not you best talk down," Raiden said with a very small laugh at the end.
"Well you're going to go regardless of what I say, aren't you?"
There was a small pause between them before Raiden answered. "Probably."
It was Rune's turn to stay quiet as he just looked down at the incomplete formulas. "Will you tell me when you're going to go so I can prepare for the journey too?" Rune found himself asking.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Raiden's head shot up and had a bewildered expression as he looked at Rune. "Wait, you're wanting to come?"
"Yep," was all Rune said as picked up his pen and started working on his formulas again. He was going to need new spells if they were actually going to do this.
Just then Raiden pulled Rune's pen out of his hand and gently hit the top of his head. "Are you crazy? You just said it was going to be dangerous, and you want to come?"
Rune pushed Raiden's hand off his head and took his pen back. Trying his best to keep his voice down, Rune snapped. "So it's okay that you go? Are you kidding me? You have little experience fighting alone."
Raiden seemed startled by Rune's flash of anger. He was told that it was at these moments when people said he looked like Rita. Raiden rubbed the back of his head. "Come on Rune, you can give me some credit," he muttered.
"As sad as it is," Rune began to admit, "you're my best friend. I am not just going to stay in the village while you're out there. Don't you dare leave this village and make me worry about you." Rune took a moment to breathe and calm down. Honestly he was just as startled as Raiden right now. He found it hard to believe that he himself was agreeing to do this. "I don't think we can actually stand up to that guy, but I am curious to know what kind of person they are. We can at least found of who it is."
Raiden was being uncharacteristically quiet. And it was when Rune was about to ask him if he was okay when they heard his mother shout, "Where did you put my book on formulas for barriers? I can't find it anywhere."
Both of them would have preferred to be caught stealing by the knights than be caught by Rita. She was far more dangerous and scary. "I put all your books on the bookshelf," Rune shouted and tried to keep his voice as steady as possible. Raiden shot him a look that said he needed to act more like he wasn't hiding a dead body. But his mother was too busy thinking of her research to notice a difference. Probably.
"I'm not seeing it," she called back. She always complained about not being able to find anything after Rune cleaned the lab.
"I organized them by subject and alphabetized them," Rune yelled.
At this time Raiden was making his way to the window. There was only a matter of seconds before Rune's mother got fed up with looking and come to drag Rune to show her where he put the book. Rune looked at his friend and quickly told him in a whisper, "We are talking more about this tomorrow at school."
Raiden nodded before jumping through the window. Hopefully his friend wouldn't leave without him.
Just seconds after Raiden left. The door to Rune's room burst open with his mother there. "How in the world did you decide to organize it. I can't find any of my books," she said.
Rune had jumped up as soon as his mother opened the door. "S-sorry about that. I'll show you," Rune tried to say as calmly as possible and nearly broke out into a sprint as he passed his mother. He was trying to act like he wasn't hiding anything.
But by the way she sighed and was probably shaking her head, she probably figured that he was up to something. How in the world would she react is she knew he and Raiden were thinking about running off on their own in search of a dangerous killer?