A couple of hours later, Annette sluggishly strolled into the attic room, only to find the place empty.
The white wolfish beast was sitting beside Northern’s bed and looking out the window.
She yawned and used her hand to wipe her eyes thoroughly, then she looked around. Her expression slowly growing inquisitive.
‘Uh? Where did this guy go?’ Annette wondered internally, while looking around.
To her side, she observed a couple of orbs laying sparsely on the wooden floor.
Then she drifted her gaze to Mr. Fluffy.
“You don’t happen to know where Northern ran off to, do you?”
Mr. Fluffy growled lowly and slowly picked himself up, walked towards Annette, turned and sat in front of the soul cores.
Using his snout, he pushed five of them towards Annette and growled again.
Annette raised a brow, “Didn’t expect you to be so smart, but I guess you are…”
Cautiously, with her eyes locked on the beast, she bent down and picked up the cores, then rose. After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, her voice came.
“I guess Northboy left this with you? Happen to know where he went?”
Mr. Fluffy growled, drawing the thick growl a bit longer, along with a somber head drop.
Annette scratched her head, ‘Should I have taken animal language classes when I was a student?’
Just at that moment, Ellis strolled in… with purpose. In fact, his eyes were almost gleaming.
“Oh hey boy, seen Northern?”
Ellis’ brows drew together slightly, then slowly as a realization settled in, he relaxed them.
“Nooo… way…”
“No way what? What’s wrong?”
“Northern is gone.”
Her brows furrowed, and her voice came out with a little hint of confusion.
“Yes, Northern is gone. Exactly what I’m seeing now. I’m not blind, boy.”
Ellis’ expression, however, did not mind what she was saying. His eyes became cheerless and slowly fell to the ground. He seemed lost in his thoughts for a second.
Until Annette’s voice snapped him out of it.
“Do you have any idea where he is?” She inquired, the pitch of her voice climbing higher.
Shuddering a little from the shock, Ellis recomposed himself and managed to speak.
“He told me before that he had somewhere to go with Raven…”
“I see.”
Ellis didn’t even finish his statement before Annette interrupted him.
She looked down at the lonesome beast.
“And he left this for who?”
Ellis laid his eyes on Mr. Fluffy. He could feel a sense of kinship between the two of them in that moment.
He sluggishly neared the beast and went on his knees, then began to rub its fluffy white fur.
“We were both abandoned by him, weren’t we?”
The beast growled slowly, vibrating even the wooden floor. It was almost as if he and Ellis were communicating.
Annette just watched, shaking her head. She looked out into the window; the area was slowly being illuminated by the new day’s radiance.
And somehow it glowed with a somber aura.
Or maybe it was just the atmosphere they were in.
‘I hope you know what you are doing out there, boy…’ Then she blinked.
She blinked again several times and loomed at Ellis.
“Guess what, wimp.”
Ellis raised his head, “Ma’am?”
“I have Northboy’s abode to myself. Stand up, you’ll be helping me move my things.”
Ellis’ brows drifted up inquisitively, “Ma’am? Move? How? It hasn’t even been an hour since he left.”
“I’ve been dying for a change in space. The monsters around here are dead, the monster inside the castle too is dead. Right now, this is the safest place to live. Moreover, it’s practically like a mansion, you know.”
Ellis just stared dumbfoundedly. He didn’t think there was anything he was capable of saying in this situation.
“Come, let’s move. The earlier the better.”
He just obediently followed the Master out of the mansion.
—
A white-haired boy, with a brown paper in his hands, walked around the decrepit city, almost aimlessly. He stopped and stared into the map, then looked around.
“Okay, this should be it.”
He muttered to himself and ran along a path that led him into an alley situated between two buildings that seemed to have been a pub, or inns.
Going through the alley, he came out at a wider and less desolate clearing.
The paved floors had weeds growing out from each point of interlocking.
Some weeds had even bloomed green flowers.
This gave the clearing an almost ethereal ambiance, as if nature itself was reclaiming the once forgotten space with its vibrant touch.
The air was filled with the sweet scent of freshly bloomed flowers, mingling with the earthy aroma of the ground.
It was a serene oasis amidst the urban landscape.
Far ahead of him was a large, round, dried-out fountain in the center, cracked stone basins lying empty and still.
Despite being tucked away, a sense of natural tranquility pervaded the area around it.
Northern looked into the map and looked at the fountain.
“This must be it, the town square,” he muttered.
Just at that instance, he felt a chill run down his spine and involuntarily shuddered, then he quickly turned around.
“You are early.”
Raven was approximately six meters away from him, approaching him, with Terence behind her.
She stopped in front of Northern and smiled curtly.
“I’m glad you came.”
Northern, however, was not smiling at all. ‘What was that just now…’
To him, it felt like a monster had sneaked up on him, a very powerful monster, but then it turned out to be Raven, and she was far away.
Another strange thing was, this wasn’t the [Sense] Attribute’s way of perceiving things.
He felt like something within him was responding to something outside.
To be particular:
Void and Chaos.
But since these were all premonitions, he decided to quell them.
‘I can’t afford to lose my guard around her at all.’
He was well aware of her antics and greatly suspected that he was being played into something.
For now, what he needed was that airship and their cores. As long as he gets his fair share, he didn’t mind being used.
‘Of course, I’m definitely going to get back at her for it.’
Regardless of the pretext and posttext, being used was a lame thing.
Insulting and humiliating.
At the end of the day, he was bound to feel even more disgusted.
So if truly he ended up falling pitifully into Raven’s scheme while gaining anything worth the effort, he swore:
‘I’ll pay her back tenfold.’
Northern glared at both her and Terence, then sighed.
“For now, let’s focus on a way home.”
“Come with me,” Raven demanded and walked past him. Terence also did right after.
He turned and watched the perfect figures of both ladies moving in front of him.
Then it dawned on him for the first time.
‘Crap! I’m the only guy!!!’