When Mr. Thompson sent Juin to the door, Juin could not help but ask, "Why are you helping me so freely, Mr. Thompson? You never liked me."
"Because, for whatever reasons, my daughter likes you. If anything happens to you, she would be upset, and then I would be upset," said Mr. Thompson. As he opened the front door, he added, "Besides, the more you know about yourself, the least trouble you can bring to Max…"
"I won't let anything happen to her…" Juin said.
Mr. Thompson looked at Juin briefly, but in the end, he waved a hand nonchalantly and said, "Go home now, and keep whatever we talked about earlier to yourself."
Juin nodded and ran off in the direction of Mrs. Martin's house. As Mr. Thompson watched him running off, he thought wryly, "And I promised that kid that if you ever found out about us, I would help you… That kid must have known that something would happen to him..."
Mr. Thompson shivered slightly at the foresight that Ashton had. A mage? Ashton might be the rarest of all. A mage with a seer's sight. Just the thought of what Ashton could grow up to be frightened Mr. Thompson.
After Juin was out of sight, Mr. Thompson went back into his house. He locked the front door and walked to the living room, where he could hear voices. "Are they still watching some drama series?" he mumbled with a chuckle.
"Max, I'm surprised you didn't come to send your friend off…" Mr. Thompson said with a smile as he walked into the dark cozy living room. The only light came from the TV that was still blaring with laugh tapes.
His wife designed everything so that the room was as warm and cozy as it could be.
But he stopped in his tracks when he saw a man sitting at the old rocking chair in the corner of the living room. In one of his hands was a glass of translucent drink with slices of lime in it, while he touched the faux fur covering the rocking chair.
"Gin and tonic, James Thompson?" the man asked as he lifted his drink, appearing as if he wanted to give a toast.
Startled by the man's presence, Mr. Thompson immediately rushed to his wife and daughter who were on the couch. When he saw them unconscious, he panicked and tried to shake them awake. "What did you do to them?!" he asked nervously when he couldn't wake them.
"Don't worry," the man said as he stood up. "I didn't hurt them. I just let them go into a deep sleep for a few hours. After all, she's my student now… I can't bear to hurt my cute students…"
Still worried, Mr. Thompson checked their breathing, and once he made sure that they were breathing normally, he stood up straight and looked at the man who came uninvited. "Mr. Warlock, what brings you here today?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"Juin came to see you."
It was not a question, merely a statement spoken nonchalantly.
"Yes…" Mr. Thompson was surprised that someone like Warlock would know about Juin.
"What did you tell him?" Warlock asked as he walked around the living room, as if checking out the decors.
"Nothing."
Warlock glanced at him while he continued to walk slowly. "James Thompson, do you know how easy it is for me to crush you?"
"He's just an orphan. There's no reason for you to go after him."
Warlock smirked, and he snapped his fingers twice.
Mr. Thompson could feel a rush of energy penetrating through his body and covering his whole house, including the front and back yards.
"I'm not going after him… Did you read him?" Warlock asked.
Mr. Thompson did not answer. He might be weak now, and he might not be a big fan of Juin, but that did not mean that he wanted to see him hurt or dead.
Warlock sighed. "I could easily peek into your memories, but you won't want that, Thompson. There tends to be bad side effects whenever I forced my way into people's minds."
"He's just a boy��" Mr. Thompson said, still trying to protect Juin.
"I'm not going to hurt him…"
Mr. Thompson frowned, clearly unconvinced by Warlock.
"You can't read him, right?" Warlock said as he took a sip from his glass. "You can't see anything when you touched him."
Mr. Thompson did not say anything. Warlock wasn't with any factions, but he was someone that the old vampire wanted, so his strength was no joke. Even so, Mr. Thompson would rather die than send an innocent kid to his death.
"You didn't see anything because I placed a veil on him…" Warlock told him the truth.
"What?" Mr. Thompson finally blurted out. But it made sense to him now, why he couldn't see Juin at all.
"When he was a baby, I placed a veil on him, one that was so strong that no one could see him under normal circumstances," Warlock explained with a wry smile. At that time, he just wanted to protect Juin from being detected by others should he get stronger.
Unfortunately, his spell was so strong that he himself could not locate the boy after he lost him. He never thought that he would lose the boy, so he used the strongest veil available so that someone who was of the same strength as him would be unable to see Juin's whereabouts.
Mr. Thompson blinked. He was confused for a short moment before everything fell into its place. "You came not long after Ashton's death… I was wondering what you were doing here, but now I know… You've been staying here for him?"
"He has a knack of getting into trouble…" Warlock sighed as he took another sip. "I want to know what did you do with him earlier, and what did you till him."
Mr. Thompson thought for a while. In the end, he told Warlock the truth, and at the end, he remarked, "The Cryptkeeper's verdict was Unknown. I have never seen that before."
"Of course it would be," Warlock scoffed. "As if that lousy book could see through his real soul," Warlock thought to himself.
He then waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "Alright, since he came to you… I guess he has made his choice. I want you to teach him whatever you know. You know that bloodsucker would come for him soon, so I want that kid to be ready for anything."
"Would he really come for a normal boy?" Mr. Thompson asked.
Warlock downed the rest of the drink before asking in a relaxed manner, "Do you think Juin is normal?"
Mr. Thompson opened his mouth, but his words were stuck in his throat. He then closed his mouth and thought, "Well, if he has you as his guardian… He's probably the furthest thing away from being normal."
"Anyway, I want him to learn about the supernatural world properly, so you will teach him things, but only if he comes to you…"
"I can teach him a thing or two, but…" Mr. Thompson touched his right eye. "I don't really have the strength to teach him how to wield any powers. Even my 'sight'..."
"Oh, yeah…" Warlock looked at Mr. Thompson's right eye. "You traded that for your exit… That bloodsucker is cruel... You're now just at the same level as those basic human seers that work at carnivals, right?"
Mr. Thompson did not say anything, but there was a pained expression on his face. He could still remember the pain of him losing his "sight".
"Pity…" Warlock said, but his tone suggested that he could care less. "Anyway, Juin… He has to choose his own path, so never ever suggest anything to him. Whether he joins the Nakamura Order or The Supernatural Code or remain a lone person, let him make his own decision."
"Alright…" Mr. Thompson nodded. "But… why don't you train him yourself?"
"It's not the time yet…" Warlock replied. He then said, "I have to leave now, but I'm sure I don't have to tell you what to do right…"
Mr. Thompson nodded. "You have never been to this house, and this conversation has never happened before."
"Good…" Warlock said. He glanced at Max, who was sleeping on the couch with her head resting on her mother's laps. He then mumbled something, and Mr. Thompson saw something covering his daughter's body before disappearing.
"W-What?" Mr. Thompson's eyes widened slightly as he looked at his precious daughter.
"Just a payment…" Warlock said cryptically as he walked toward the living room entrance.
When he got to the entrance, he waved a hand nonchalantly, and a blue portal opened up. Without saying anything else, Warlock disappeared into the portal, which closed up into a blue slit before disappearing as well.
Without Mr. Thompson knowing it, Warlock also placed a strong and less noticeable ward around the vicinity of the house. If Juin was going to be coming in and out of this house, he needed to make sure that no one else could peek into the happenings within the house.
...