Velder - Harbor
With the repairs complete, the gang were at the dock waiting from the captain to tell them that everything was ready for departure. As they took a moment to rest, Chung wondered where Add was.
He knew that he came back a few days ago, but he hasn't talked to anyone since then, staying in his room and only sending his creations to fetch him some food from time to time.
From what he heard from Elesis, he suffered a mental breakdown as soon as he arrived. Hearing her explanation, he was looking something from a crack, but what he found wasn't what he was looking for.
"Is Add still not here yet? He may be much more slower than Elsword over here!" Aisha huffed while comparing the two of them.
"Now, now! Let's not be feisty. Everyone has their own pace." Rena said in a calmly manner towards the magician, she looked to the side while noticing that Raven's arm was opening and closing, it became a habit of his to do that to control himself.
What she was mostly surprised was that the red knight didn't even heard her and continued to clean his sword. Usually he would stand up and pointed out out a fault on the Elemental Master.
"Odd, Elsword would've talked back, but in this instance he ignored her and continued with cleaning his blade. This is irregular of his character." Eve stated to herself, realizing that Ara heard her.
"You'd think so?" Ara asked since she wasn't in the group for long. "But Aisha is right, Add is taking longer to come. I wonder why? He's usually the first person to be ready." She pointed out while noticing that Lu was drinking some tea with Ciel.
The duo were simply drinking to pass the time, but since that day the succubus was worried on how Add was faring. Humans were fragile beings, but to balance things out they have persistence to keep pushing things, even if it was against something that they themselves couldn't beat.
Still, everyone has a limit to how much they can take and she knew that he took a lot in. To face the properties of time and space and still go on, that is a feat in itself.
Ciel on the other hand was grateful that he and Lu were able to spend some time together, even though he has no quarrels with the Esper, since he enjoys his food and all, he is a little worried on why his master took an interest on him.
As they continued to wait, Elesis spotted on the distance the boy that was late.
He was looking down on the road with an annoyed expression, his machines following him diligently behind. As he noticed the gang, he saw that the Grand Master waving at him, he clicked his tongue before approaching her.
"It's good to see you, Add. Where have you been?" She asked slightly curious.
"None of your business." He coldly told her while looking at the ship. "It's still not ready? Lazy bums." He commented before finding a place to sit, opening a holographic window to view data. Elesis was slightly annoyed with his attitude, but she was used to it by now.
"Is that how you talk to people? How rude can you be?" Aisha said from afar towards him.
"And? Should I care just because it's you or somebody else?" He replied back to her, letting her get irritated with his attitude.
"Why you-!" She screeched at him, but he didn't even looked at her.
"Now, now, no need to go to that length. Add, would you kindly be more... respectable to others?" She asked trying to give the right word?
"Rena, don't bother." Raven was quick to halt her and quicker to stop Add from respond. "It's how he is, so don't bother changing him." He advised her, but it went to the others as well.
"You say something smart for once." Add commented while flicking screen to screen.
Raven disregarded the insult and continued to open and clench his left arm. Everyone about, except for Chung that went to talk with him.
"Hey, you okay?" He asked him concernedly.
"Why wouldn't I be?" He asked back half interested.
"I heard from Elesis, you've done it again, didn't you?" Chung already knew about his attempts, Add told him so because the guardian asked about it so many times that he just wanted him to shut up. The Esper stopped flipping and looked at him.
"That redhead needs to shut her mouth. What if I did, what's in it for you?" He asked slightly irritated at him.
"I'm worried Add, from what she told me it was pretty bad. Do you always have these after you test it out?" He asked worriedly. Looking at his right hand, he had a feeling that under his glove there were bandages.
Add looking to the side, he noticed that Lu and Ophelia were looking over his direction. He was more surprised that the maid was looking at him with her eyes looking at him. He clicked his tongue, because he had a hunch that Eve made her to record his conversation. But for what reason?
"How many know about this?" He asked seriously to him.
"Only me, Elesis, Elsword and Lu know about it, why do you ask?"
"Good. Don't tell anyone else, the less the others know the better. Less a pain in the ass for me." He advised while closing the windows.
"But Add-"
"Not a single word, you hear me. I don't need pity from anyone or even people to waste their breath on something like this. It doesn't concern them nor should." He warned him before standing up. Looking at the ship he saw the commander signaling them to come in.
"We're moving." Raven told them, making them head onto the ship.
Chung wanted to say something, but kept quiet. This was Add after all, acting cold and bottling up his emotions. It wasn't healthy, and that made him worry about him.
As they got on top of the ship, the captain approached them.
"Greetings! You must be the El search party, a pleasure to meet you!" The man had some age on his side, with medals and pristine red garments. "Unfortunately, since our ship took too much damage we'll have to ask you to share a room with each other. I'm truly sorry for the inconvenience, but with the rushed repairs this is the best we can provide." He explained the situation to them.
"A shared room? This might be troubling then..." Raven commented while looking at the gang. "What do you guys think?"
"I'll share a room with you." Rena spoke up to him, he nodded to her, but deep down he was grateful, it'll be better for her to stay close to him.
"The rest of us should grab a party member to bunker down with." Raven told them while following a crew member to his room.
As the group discussed, Chung kept the closest to Add, but there was a person that he wanted to stay with, though with his friend he thought that it'd be better to stay with him.
"Hey Chung, come over here!" Ara called out with a bright smile to him.
"Ah, that's okay, I'll-"
"Go." Add interrupted while looking to the side.
"But, are you sure?"
"Don't set yourself apart because of me. Just go, it's just a small trip, I won't die because of it." He strictly told the Iron Paladin. To which made him slightly worried, but did as told.
Now that he was alone, he sat down on a few dynamos and waited out, if he was going to be paired with someone it would be with the last person.
Lu would be with Ciel and Elesis would be with Elsword. That meant that the others had to decide who they should be with.
"I wanted to be with Add." Lu sulked to herself, due to Ciel being the first to ask and she automatically responded with a yes. Elesis on the other hand had agreed with Elsword two weeks ago.
"Hey Ara, wanna be together?" Aisha asked while searching for a person to partner up.
"Sorry Aisha, but Chung already asked me!" She bowed an apology.
"Ah that's okay, I'll ask Eve then." But as she was about to ask, Ain already talked to her. "What!? Come on Eve, you gotta let me stay with you! You can't let me be alone!"
"Request denied. There seems to be another person in our group alone, the best course of action would be to ask him." She logically explained.
"Really? Who?" She asked with some hope. The Empress then pointed towards the remaining member that was by himself. "You can't be serious, there's no way that I'll stay with him!"
"Now, now miss wizard. Mister Ancient isn't so bad, he just looks menacing." The Erbluhen Emotion spoke out to her. Even though he didn't particularly liked Add's way of speaking he couldn't dismiss on how he puts a facade up. Despite his looks, the Diabolic Esper wasn't all bad as the public assumed and who better to know than him?
"I won't stay with him! There's simply no way! What if he tries to do something to me when I sleep? What if he kills me when I least expect it?" She questioned with concern for her well being.
Edward heard it all, but decided not to do anything. Sure he looked annoyed, but what choice did he had? He couldn't fly or teleport to the next town because he didn't had the coordinates to it.
"You know it'll be a week, you can endure it." Elsword walked towards them, letting his sister talk with the captain alone.
"A week is too long! Elsword, change with me!" She begged while shaking him.
"But I already talked with my sister before! We promised to share a room together." He reasoned while trying to calm her down, mostly to stop her from shaking him.
"You don't understand, I'll die if I stay with him!" She reinforced the die part since she was afraid of him.
"Oh come on, pull yourself together grape head. You won't die." He mocked while making her tick.
"Grape head!? You try to survive against a lunatic like him, cherry head!"
"Who're you calling a cherry head! I bet that I can deal with him the whole week!"
"Yeah right! You can barely be in the same room with him, how can you spend a whole week with him!?"
"Because I-!" Just as he was about to answer a hand grabbed his head and made him crash against the nearby wall. Stunned, Aisha slowly looked to the culprit to see Add done the deed.
"If you're done having your pep talk then start setting your damn luggage on our room and if I so much hear a nag from you, I swear that the next time you eat it'll be from a straw. And that's me in a good day." He threatened her while the crew member beside them trembled a bit from the hostility that he displayed.
Cold sweat started to form on the back of her neck as she was too shock to retort back. The Esper signaled the man to guide them to their room.
"Elsword, remove your head from there. There's 21.4252% chance that it'll be the room of Lu and Ciel." The Empress calculated while the knight tried to remove it, only for a familiar female scream to erupt from the room. "I miscalculated it seems. That is Raven's and Rena's shared room."
"My my." Ain lightly chuckled while helping the boy, as he helped pulling him out.
"That hurt, damn it!" He hissed as he rubbed his head. "Why the hell did he do that!? If he wanted us to stop talking he could've said something!"
"We are talking about an anomaly called Add. He'd rather use violence to end something than the use of words, not to mention that once you and Aisha start talking, things escalate gradually until either Rena stops you or you're being too idiotic for me to step in." She informed while awaiting for her and Ain's aid to come.
"I don't think he's an anomaly, though I'd like it if he wasn't so violent with stuff like this." He groaned while talking to her.
"Oh? Did Elsword just denied an insult to ? My my, this is a first don't you agree, ?" Ain asked her a little curious of her reaction.
"The blow might've changed his mind on him, if that is correct than a blow of similar strength should restore him to normal. Oberon." She called over her butler to which he promptly got in stance.
"I didn't changed my mind over him, so don't hit me!" He shouted at her while shaking his hands in front of him. "It's just that I kinda wanna give him a chance, that's all!" To this Ain was surprised, the knight wanted to give the Esper a chance? That was new.
"Inconsistent information, why would you give that thing a chance?" She inquired.
"Well, I-" A hand touched his shoulder. Turning around he saw Chung shaking his head. "I can't really say it, just trust me when I say that I want to give him a chance, a very small chance." He gestured with his fingers to tell her how small he wanted it to be.
"...Very well. Oberon, you may leave." She begrudgingly accepted his reason.
"Thank you, Elsword." Chung whispered to him, the knight nodded his head. If Add didn't want others to know what happened he'd comply with his wishes.
Elesis on the other hand was having a conversation with the captain.
"Miss Elesis, I've heard that you're bringing with you a... character with a sour taste." He told her as gently as he could.
"There won't be any problems with him, I assure you." She replied back.
"At any given situation I would agree with you, but this individual is as aggressive as the demons. If he can't be stopped during his rampage, then I apologize in advance but I'll have to throw him overboard."
"But in that sense you're going to try to kill him."
"If it means that the lives of my crew are spared then I'll do what I have, even if you are displeased with my decision."
"Not only displeased, but I might demote you. Killing him won't solve the problem, it'll only make more come." She warned him while eyeing him with a glare.
"I understand, but please see it my way as well. If you can't make him stable, then what else are we suppose to do?"
"He won't cause a ruckus, and if he did we can calm him down. A valuable member like him can't be replaced that easily." Elesis told him, to which made him look to the side while rubbing his chin. "Could you please ask someone to take me and my brother our room? I would like to put my luggage down."
"Of course." With a gesture, he called a crew member. "Take miss Elesis and her brother to their resting chambers."
"Right away sir!" The man saluted before asking the two gang members to follow him.
Aisha was slightly trembling as they reached their room. To both their sides was a bed and a nightstand with a window at the top giving some light.
"Here you go, enjoy your stay." The crew member bolted away in case the Esper snapped at him. Aisha had her arm stretched out for the man while yelling for him to come back, only for him to pretend to not hearing her.
"What am I gonna do?" She shakily asked herself while Add took the right side bed for himself and laid down.
"Not a single nag, you hear me? I want this trip to be as fast as possible too, you know." He pulled up his screens and started to do some light calculations.
"This is gonna be hell." She mumbled out to herself.