44 The Next Mayor
Blake was one of the many people that had died during the chaotic battle against the Ink Crawlers 3 months ago.
Bradley remembered the old man since Blake’s funeral had taken place in the cemetery on the same day as his mother’s. Multiple bodies, or what remained of them were buried that day.
Bradley clearly remembered the sobbing cries the man had made for his son. It had put an impression on him.
“Why are you doing this?” Bradley asked with a shocked look. “Why are you trying to hurt us?”
“I told you, boy, I’m not trying to hurt you,” the man shouted.
“Then what are you trying to do? Gain information from me?” Bradley asked. “What are you going to use it for?”
“I’m going to dismantle this falsehood that killed my son,” the man shouted even louder. “I’m going to get revenge for my child.”
“What revenge?” Bradley asked. “If you want revenge, go attack the Crawlers. Why are you hurting us? We are only—”
“Brother!” Stanley shouted suddenly.
Bradley’s attention shifted and he saw the woman coming at him with the knife. At the last moment, he activated his power. He instinctively used it on the woman rather than himself as he didn’t want to close his eyes.
The woman’s body because ethereal, but the knife she held was still in her hand. She slashed it at Bradley and cut him on his right arm.
The pushback the knife felt on Bradley’s skin was enough to dislodge it from the woman’s ethereal hand. However, it was enough to draw blood.
Bradley jumped back in pain and panic. He watched the woman quickly go for the knife, but since his powers were still active, she couldn’t get a hold of it.
The man, however, was finally free and got hold of the knife. He quickly collected the blood from the knife on his finger and licked the blood off the finger.
Bradley couldn’t help but feel disgusted at the behavior. However, at the next moment, he understood why it was being done.
“You…” the old man couldn’t believe it. “You’re one of the people that is going to be the next Mayor?”
Bradley’s eyes widened in panic far more than they had before. That was the one thing he did not want others to know about. And somehow, the man had learned about it first.
“This kid knows more than we could have imagined,” the man said. “We need to leave and note down this information before I forget.”
The man immediately moved in front of the woman, blocking her from Bradley’s sight.
“Stop!” Bradley rushed toward them knowing he couldn’t let them go with the knowledge they had acquired. But before he could reach them, the woman had already gotten her hand on the knife and used the blood on it.
Once both of her palms were bloody, she joined them and activated her power.
Bradley immediately felt a massive pain shoot through his body and mind, and in the next moment, he lost all consciousness.
Stanley barely got a hold of him a minute later. The pain in his body had lowered to the point where he could barely stand up.
It still felt like a thousand needles were poking him from all sides, but it was a pain that he could somehow handle.
“Brother?” he called out for Bradley. “Brother!”
He dragged his body to his brother and saw him lying there unconscious. He quickly checked to make sure he was breathing all right.
Once he was sure, he tore off a piece of his cloth to wrap around his brother’s cut. He looked at his own cut, but that had somehow already stopped bleeding.
“What was that voice?” he wondered, remembering the voice that came from within him. “It said something, didn’t it?”
He ignored the thought and quickly hauled his brother onto his shoulder. He then took both of their swords in one hand and started walking out of the alleyway.
As he got out, he saw a small group of people, sneaking glances inside, afraid to come in. There were children that were holding the adult’s clothes, scared.
Stanley couldn’t tell if he should be angry or not that these people just stayed and waited for the fight inside to be over. They should have heard the shouting and screaming, but they didn’t do anything.
‘I can’t fault them,’ he thought. ‘They aren’t trained to fight.’
In the end, he couldn’t be angry at them.
“Go back to your houses, it might be dangerous outside,” he said to the people and walked past them.
“Sir Defender… is-is someone dead in there?” one man asked.
“No, no one is dead,” Stanley said. “But don’t go in to check. Some Defenders should come to look at the scene soon enough.”
“We’ve called for some. They should be coming soon,” another person said.
“I see. Thank you,” Stanley said and walked away with his brother on his shoulder. 𝘰𝑣𝘭.𝗇𝓔t
He had tried to focus on what was going on, but he couldn’t help but think about what he had heard from the man at the last moment.
‘My brother is going to be the mayor?’ he thought. He couldn’t imagine how that was true at all. Had he been hiding that information from him? Was that the main secret that he had said he couldn’t tell anyone?
“Stanley?” someone shouted and ran down the slope towards them.
Stanley saw a small group of Defenders coming toward him. “Are you guys okay? Are you the ones that were attacked?” one of the people asked.
The ones that had come were the trainers that usually didn’t have any other responsibilities and thus hung around the headquarters.
“We’re hurt but we should be fine, sir Jerry” Stanley answered.
“Who attacked you?” another person asked.
“It was… a pair of man and woman,” Stanley answered. “I couldn’t see them properly, but my brother saw the man’s face. He should be able to tell once he’s awake.”
“Alright, let us take him,” one of them tried to take Bradley, but Stanley shook his head.
“It’s alright. I can handle it,” he said.
“Alright, you guys take them. We’ll go see if there are any clues left behind,” the trainer Jerry said and walked away with a small group of them.
Stanley walked back to the headquarters with his brother on his shoulders and placed him in the infirmary. Since he was unconscious, it would take him a while to wake up.
“Let’s see,” the old man Sam was the infirmary doctor that was there for small wounds. He looked at Bradley’s arm under the amateur first aid job. “That’s a nasty cut. We need to clean it before it gets infected. What about yours?”
Stanley showed his cut as well. “Hmm, yours isn’t as bad. Was it just a scratch or what?” the old man asked.
“Uhh… something like that,” Stanley said.
“Alright, let me get the herbs. I’ll be right back,” the old man said and walked away.
Stanley sighed and leaned back on the chair while looking at the ceiling as many thoughts flooded his mind. He was only trying to make some sense of the situation when he saw a moment from the corner of his eyes.
His brother had woken up.
This is for the 100+ PS we reached once again
Snoring_Panda