Chapter 4 - Contest
"I couldn't be more relieved to see Caden alive, but I really wished that he didn't follow us into the bar," Selena said with tears in her eyes.
"It's fine now," Athena comforted Selena, stroking her hair, "Go on with the story."
"Even though Caden-bro was full of blood, I can still tell that he was very good-looking, his expression showed no sign of injury," Selena blushed as she went on, "but I still can't believe the first thing he said to Bill was ''After seeing an archer, it's bad luck forever!' Do you believe it now?'"
"How dare him!" Athena roared.
"Calm down bow master," reasoned Grendel, "Caden was just trying to rescue your niece."
"He better be, for his own sake," Athena's anger ceased a little, "go on Selena."
"Bill really respected Caden's courage, but when he told Caden-bro, Caden just laughed and said, 'what can courage do, it will still lose to your dagger,'" Selena spoke dreamily, picturing Caden right in front of her, "suddenly a wizard jumped out of nowhere and shouted at Bill, 'What's that symbol on your arm?', Bill snorted and said, 'You mean this? The Phantasy Emblem?' Aunt Athena, what's a Phantasy Emblem?" Selena asked naively, "it was on Bill's arm and it just looked like a twisted clock to me."
"All the Seekers have that emblem somewhere on them," Athena replied, "and that's how we identify them."
"Oh, it looked pretty cool, I wish I had one," said Selena in a harmless tone.
"Don't let me catch you saying that again! You got it?" Athena snarled, "That's the one thing you don't want to have!"
"Sorry," Selena stuck her tongue out and apologized innocently, "Oh wait! What's he doing here?" Selena suddenly pointed to the dead wizard on the floor.
"Was he the one who shouted at Bill in the bar?" Grendel questioned knowingly.
"How'd you know?" Selena's eyes opened wide, "were you there?"
"No. I just figured," Grendel spoke softly, "David was a good kid, but always so reckless. So Selena, tell us what happened next."
"That wizard," Selena pointed at the dead wizard again.
"You can call him David," Grendel interrupted before Selena could continue.
"So his name's David. He held out his wand and cast magic claws on Bill after confirming the emblem, but it didn't seem to scratch Bill," smiled Selena.
"Of course not," Grendel sighed, "he's a Seeker."
"After that I saw Bill's hand twitch a bit and out of nowhere, David started to bleed," Selena quivered as she spoke, "I didn't have a chance to see exactly what Bill did. Streams of blood suddenly poured out from David, I almost fainted at that sight."
"Savage blow," Athena has her brows locked tightly, "bandit's deadliest move. Was there six strikes to his body?"
"There's no doubt," Grendel answered before Selena could, gritting his teeth, "continue on Selena."
"This other wizard," Selena pointed at Mike, the one lying beside David, "jumped at Bill after David fell, Bill took out his dagger again and jammed it into the wizard, but before Bill could do that savage thing again, Caden-bro leapt up and kicked the wizard to the floor."
"And that's why Mike is still alive," said Grendel with appreciation towards Caden, "if it wasn't for Caden, Bill would've probably killed him."
Selena looked amazed, "So that's why Caden kicked him, and for a moment there I thought he hated wizards too," Selena grinned.
"Stop talking non-sense, you're becoming like Caden," Athena scowled.
"Really?" Selena's eyes shined.
"Except you don't have half his courage, and not even a quarter of his intelligence," Athena beamed.
"Aw," Selena groaned disappointedly.
"Go on with the story," Athena was a bit annoyed at herself for praising Caden.
"Mike took David and left the bar," Selena went on, "almost everyone else left too, I thought we were going to leave also, but Caden and Bill sat back down and started talking again. 'Why don't you just let this stupid archer go, even looking at her pisses me off,' Caden-bro said that to Bill, at that moment, I actually thought he really hated me, but now I know he was just trying to save me," she said with a relieved tone, "Bill examined Caden-bro for a while and asked, 'what exactly do you see in this girl, why would you risk your life to save her? Are you in love with her or somethin? I'll let you have her if you want.'"
"That Bill! I'm going to rip his head off for you!" said Athena who's full of anger.
Selena smiled weakly and continued, "Caden-bro started shouting after Bill finished his sentence, he said he'd rather die than being with an archer."
"Looks like I'm going to have to rip Caden's head off too!" Athena shouted.
"Bow master, remember? He was only trying to save your niece," Grendel replied gently, "go on with the story Selena."
"Caden-bro turned to me and yelled, 'get outta here you stupid girl, you're ruining my mood!'" Selena said wearily, "Just when I stood up, Bill grabbed my arm and pulled me back down to the seat. I turned around to look at Caden, he seemed angry, but when he saw me he smiled and attempted to comfort me."
"Perhaps we've misjudged him, he does seem nice," murmured Athena.
"Yea he really is, but something is really wrong with that Bill," said Selena, "Why does he want to go out with me so much that he'd kill people to do it?"
"Because he likes you a lot," smirked Manji, who's finally done examining Seth's body, "Tell us what happened next, how did Seth get involved in this?"
"Caden-bro kept on persuading Bill to let me go, but whatever he said, Bill just wouldn't listen," Selena recalled, "So finally Caden said, 'Fine, how about this, we'll have a contest, the loser will have to obey one command from the winner.' Bill glared at Caden-bro for a while, then finally opened his mouth and answered, 'Sure, what's the contest going to be?'"
"That was a mistake on Bill, letting Caden decide the contest," grinned Grendel.
"Bill seemed like he knew what he was doing though," Selena added.
"So what was the competition?"
"Caden-bro said they were going to fight again. But there is an additional rule; you're only allowed to stay inside the bar, if any part of your body goes outside, you lose," Selena recalled, "Bill nodded at the condition and smiled at Caden-bro, he said, 'What makes you think you can beat me now? Remember what happened inside the cave?'"
Athena suddenly looked well-informed of what's going to happen, but she kept her mouth shut and let Selena continue.
"Caden-bro smiled back at Bill and said, 'I was brought up by the Dark Lord inside a bar, there is where I trained and mastered my skills. You won't believe how much of a terrain advantage I've got over you.' But Bill didn't look convinced at all, he eyed Caden suspiciously and said, 'That doesn't make the slightest sense, but if you insist on fighting here, so be it. Let's do this!' Before Bill could take out his dagger, Caden yelled out, 'Hold on, are you absolutely sure about this, and do you agree to the condition?' Bill looked extremely irritated and said, 'C'mon, when I agree that means I agree, I don't take back my words, let's fight already!' Then all of a sudden, Caden started laughing. He lifted me up, threw me outside the bar, and shouted, 'Run! Get out of here!' But before I could land on my feet, Bill already jumped after me. He caught me in mid air and asked, 'Where do you think you're going?' Then he turned back at Caden and yelled, 'What'd you do that for?' I looked at Caden-bro and he had the slyest look on his face. He laughed then announced, 'Look where you're standing.' Bill looked puzzled for a second, and then suddenly realized that he had already stepped out of the bar."
"Haha, that Caden, cunning as a fox," laughed Grendel.
"You should've seen how mad Bill was, he accused Caden-bro of cheating, but Caden chuckled and said, 'The rule's the rule, now you'll have to obey one of my commands.' Bill stood at his spot inertly, then finally said, 'Fine, what's it gonna be?' Caden snorted, 'I want you, to protect this girl forever, and obey her every word.' Bill swore loudly at Caden-bro after hearing what he had to say; but Caden-bro just stood at his spot and shook his head. At last, Bill couldn't take it anymore, he ran outside the bar hastily without looking back. Caden-bro burst out laughing after Bill departed; I looked at him and laughed too." Selena finished with cherry red cheeks.
"But that doesn't explain what happened to Seth," Manji glowered.
Selena was suddenly on the verge of tears, her voiced was unsteady as she spoke, "I finally starting to feel relieved after watching Bill leave, then this bad man came in," she pointed at Seth, "he came in and sat down close to us, and studied us suspiciously. I can tell Caden-bro was annoyed. He suddenly turned to me and said, 'Hey look, it's the dork that no one likes!' That bad man stood up and shouted, 'So it's you!'"
"Stop addressing Manji's student as 'that bad man', call him by the name," Athena said with raised brows.
"But he is a bad man," Selena tried to argue.
"That's enough!"
"Fine," Selena replied, apparently unsatisfied, "Seth took out his katana and jabbed it into Caden-bro's heart in a flash, I didn't even know what happened until it was too late."
By now everyone in the room was starring at Manji and Seth with resentment. Manji felt extremely awkward but couldn't do anything to help it.
"Caden-bro turned to me with his last breath and whispered, 'the Dragon Claymore is at…'Seth suddenly seemed interested in the subject and rushed to Caden-bro, 'Where is it?' he asked, and that's when Caden-bro threw his star into Seth's throat."
"So Caden tricked Seth, what's this Dragon Claymore?" Grendel inquired, turning to Manji as if he knows something. Manji looked surprisingly guilty. He laughed, trying to be calm, but no one was convinced at his pathetic attempt to keep cool.
Suddenly a body flew inside the room from the window. Manji quickly recognized the person and bellowed, "Drew, what happened to you?"
A voice came from outside the library, "Haha, here's another dork that no one likes!"
Manji quickly leapt out of the window to pursue the owner of the voice, but it was already too late, there was no trace of him. He came back into the room with a cold face. "Drew, who did this to you, answer me!"
"I don't know. He was too fast, I didn't even get to see his face," Drew moaned, "I was downstairs having some tea then all of a sudden, I got thrown in here."
Manji's face went colder as Drew spoke; he quickly climbed downstairs and studied everyone in the library. Then, someone in the crowd caught his attention, he's around sixteen years of age with a quite handsome face, but the most bizarre thing about him is, that he has white hair!
Manji pondered in his heart, "Could it be the snow devil Raliel? But he's a Seeker, must be pretty insane to come to a place where almost everyone of the Alliance is gathered. But just to make sure," Manji walked towards the white haired person, opened his mouth, and spoke, "You wouldn't happen to know Raliel by any chance, would you?"
The person with the white hair is actually no other than Alex! He was sitting inside the library when Aaron was summoned upstairs. Since he was very filthy and dirty, it took only a few moments for people to realize. Weird and hostile looks were shot in his direction as this is a very formal ceremony, which means that everyone dressed clean and appropriate, everyone except for Alex. It was not long until Alex started to feel really uncomfortable, so he summoned up his courage, stood up and left the library. He didn't plan to return until he remembered about his father; therefore he wasn't left with much of a choice but to return to the library. However, there was no way he'd go back the way he's dressed now, so he decided to revisit the inn and get cleaned up. He took a shower swiftly. When he was finished, he looked at himself in the mirror and realized that if he went back looking like himself, Drew will notice him in less than a minute. Just when Alex was mulling over of what to do next, a bottle of bleach sitting on the floor caught his eyes. This gave him an idea, but he had to consider it for a second. After a short while, he decided that it was the only option he had. He took the bleach, mixed it with water, and dipped his hair into it. After five minutes or so, he looked himself in the mirror again, his hair was completely white, but that didn't destroy a tad of his attractiveness, if anything, it gave him more character and made him look more masculine. He quickly ran back into the library and sat down. To his surprise, no one paid much attention to him, instead they were all discussing about someone's disappearance.
Moments after Alex sat down. Manji came downstairs and walked in front of Alex before he got a chance to catch his breath. And from the whispers beside him; he discovered that the man standing in front of him is no other than Manji himself!
Alex stared at Manji, two emotions built up inside of him, anger and fear. When Manji asked Alex the question, his fear crippled his ability to speak, making him unable to answer. But his desire to rescue his dad quickly gave him courage. Alex studied Manji carefully, and from the tone of his voice, Alex realized that he was quite scared when speaking of this Raliel person, so he decided to take a huge risk and replied, "Of course I know Raliel!"
Manji looked taken aback at Alex's response, but before he could ask another question, a fairy flew inside the library and danced around Manji. She frowned at him and teased, "Hey, the king of dorks that no one likes, come follow me upstairs."
Manji was infuriated; he had never been more humiliated in his life. He chased the fairy upstairs and drew out his katana.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Grendel shrilled.
Manji was suddenly aware of his actions and sheathed his sword. The fairy took advantage of this moment and made a face at him.
"What's going on here?" Grendel questioned.
"Hey, you over there," the fairy pointed to Selena and spoke, "Come with me if you wanna see your Caden-bro again."
Everyone inside the room was startled, "Don't joke around, fairy Arwen," Grendel said with a displeased tone, "he's already dead."
Selena suddenly recognized the fairy, she was inside the bar yesterday too. The girl suddenly looked full of hope and turned to her aunt with a pleading look. Athena smiled and nodded, "Go with her Selena, I believe miracles happen to good people."