One day left, Sunday will take over. My mind is still puzzled by what the principal said about that day. I am guessing that the significant day is all about deities worshiping the group. Perhaps, some ritual.
It doesn't matter for now.
My time is swiftly running out of clues for the pure soul. Well, still this Friday, I already searched the whole island, however to no avail, I just couldn't detect a human with this soul.
Even my potions are running out of stocks.
Worst case scenario, the scroll won't show up any remaining clues. So, I get stuck with the last left lines. Absolutely useless!
Because my mind is drifted away, someone slams a pile of books on my desk. Hitting it so hard and making a loud noise, startling my whole system.
"Oh, Hanna, I didn't see you there. My apologies" says Columbane with a grin. For entire days, she remains to be vigilant in treating me. I don't understand why.
I smile at her, a plain regular one. "Apologies accepted." 've had about three to five books opened surround and spread around me. This recently I decided to go to this knowledge center for seeking answers and information.
Her eyes examine my books and I. Glancing back and forth, with weird facial expressions.
"Are those volumes one, two, three up to ten of History?" She kind of raised her voice.
I give her an emotionless response. "I guess so."
She, with enlarging eyes and mouth, exclaims, "And you have read all of these for a minute... I can't believe a person like you, exists!"
Me neither.
But, I am no person. Should I say that to her? Crap, hell no. She's too suspicious of my private details.
She then continues on blabbering words. "Well, I can't deny a person like me even exists too. I have the smartest and most genius brain in this academy, so apparently like one out of ten people is similar to me. And, I almost forgot, Traiser as well!" Her bright attitude came back in a glance. As 'Traiser', the name also came out with her mouth.
I wanted to ask what she's talking about, but she quickly put her finger on my lips.
"Shut your mouth for a second. Respect for my words, lass. So, as I was saying, Traiser is no ordinary boy. He's like an angel! Blessed with multiple talents and gifted intelligence. He's the perfect husband for me!!"
I thought she's done with blabbing nonsense.
But, she added. "He attracts all of the girls and even boys to look at him. He influences all of us on doing good things. Every path he takes, he always ended up saving the world. He's my hero."
I stared at her, pretending to listen, while she's busy praising the guy named Traiser. I don't really care about what she's saying. For the past two days of my 'student' life, I tried my best to avoid that man. I am still not sure whether he suspects me of anything that has happened back at the mall. As much as possible, I don't want to make any connections with these lowly humans, I need to be cautious as I'm in unknown territory. It's not clear if someone here is my enemy, so I want to stay low for now.
Avoiding Traiser is not really a difficult task, people are always around him wherever he goes. Although we are 'classmates'—that's how humans call it—his seat is far from mine which I'm absolutely grateful for.
Going back, Columbane has stopped talking as our instructor showed up. Humans had their purpose to learn these things in this school. While, we, demons, never had things like this. Demons have only one fate, and that is to serve our ruler. We only train for the purpose of serving him. Our lives revolve around the King.
As Columbane walks back to her seat, I noticed that she has 'zui' circling her, and like what I've said, all humans have it, nevertheless, hers had envy zui, and it is pretty strong. I should be more careful around her.
Envious humans are dangerous, although South demons love them for their energy. Humans filled with envy can do greater sins, so I don't want to get tangled with her actions.
Everyone settled down, most have prepared their pens and papers, jotting down notes as the instructor started talking.
Sitting in this four-corner room makes me restless. It feels like I'm wasting all my time interacting with these humans which equal to doing nothing. What if the one with pure soul is outside, wandering, yet I'm here, sitting, instead of finding whoever that person is.
"Ms. Nakajima? Do you agree?" I'm pulled back to Earth when the instructor tapped his desk and called my 'surname'. What does he even need from me?
"Pardon, sir?" I asked with my fake apologetic smile.
"Never mind. Try to focus on our lesson"
"Yes, sir." I simply nod at him.
The instructor turned his back and started writing on the board while explaining things about literature. My senses felt someone looking at me, only to catch Traiser, giving me curious looks. He's at the left side, the first row of chairs, while I'm at the middle third row. I raised an eyebrow, trying to intimidate him. Fortunately, he looks away, putting his attention back in front.
"For our next meeting, I will assign Traiser Lustrado and Hannah Nakajima to report about the myth of demons and pure souls." My eyes widened with what I heard. I didn't know humans are interested in this kind of topic. Do they really study these things?
"Sir, why them?" Columbane stands up, as she points at me and Traiser. "You can pair me up with Traiser instead, Sir. I am actually interested in the topic," she added and I nodded to her suggestion. This is the only time I will take her side. I don't wanna be paired with that guy, and the topic doesn't sit right with me.
"Mr. Lustrado is our top student, while Ms. Nakajima is a transferee. I believe he can guide her with the presentation and help her with the lesson. The pair is final. Class dismissed" the instructor did not wait for any response from Columbane and he immediately left the room.
I stand up from my seat, and slings my bag—which contains only a pen, a notebook, and my journal—on my shoulder.
"Hey, about our report. Are you available now? We don't have follow-up classes, so I guess we can leave." I was startled a bit when Traiser appeared in front of me. I breathe deeply before answering.
"Yeah, sure" I have nothing to do anyway. I can't make a move regarding my mission, because I don't have leads. and who knows, I might find something useful with this report.
We both agreed to go to his place, he suggested that he has books in his house and those can be a great help for our report. Besides, I can't bring him to my place.
His service car parks outside a big mansion. His parents must be wealthy to own such a huge house. We went out of his car, and stand in front of a tall gray gate, then the man on guard opened it. The first thing that caught my attention was the flowers on the right side.
I halt on my feet. Few meters from us, a spirit nymph hiding and peeking from the bushes. It noticed my presence and stared at me for a few seconds before vanishing away.
What was that? What is a servant of deities doing here? Something is not right. I know that creatures serving Deities are everywhere as they are tasked to watch over humans, but I don't think it's really necessary for them to reach here unless something is up.
Traiser already steps away from me, so I jogged my way to him. I glanced one last time at the bushes, the nymph is gone, but a black butterfly is gracefully flying around.
"Come in." Traiser gestures to come inside as he holds the door open. My eyes instantly landed on the beautiful interior design of the house. Bright and neat as white walls and floor gave a pleasant atmosphere and paintings on order added compliments. At one corner, there's a wooden clock standing tall, it ticks softly that it would look as if broken.
"Traiser, hijo, you're home." A woman dashes through Traiser and hugs him, which I suspect is his mother.
"Yes, Ma. I'm with my classmate. We have a presentation to create" Traiser hugs his mother back and let go after a while. The woman then turns her attention to me.
"Hanna" I introduce myself.
"Oh, nice meeting you hija." she gently hugs me which feels weird yet warm.
"You can go upstairs, I'll prepare snacks." She smiles and walks away from us.
Traiser signals at me to follow him. As we reach the second floor, he opened the first door. Inside there are bookshelves and a round table.
"My mom and dad love to collect books, and most of them are about demons and other mythical creatures, my parents believed that they actually exist," Traiser explains as he pulls different books from the shelf then drops them at the table.
Seeing the book covers makes me raise my eyebrow and scoffs in disbelief. He noticed my expression and looked at me with a curious gaze.
"Why? Don't you believe them?" he asks, settling down beside me
"Do you believe them?"
"I'm not really sure. I haven't seen one, so I guess I don't." He shrugs his shoulders.
Funny, he thinks that he has never seen one when I'm literally here. But he doesn't know that, I'll let him be.
He opens one book and reads a line from it.
"There is an existing feud between demons and deities that dates back from centuries ago. Demons are sinners who have killed thousands of humans because of their greed for power. The highest of all deities was furious about the massacre and so he cursed demons and vanish them from Earth."
I knitted my eyebrows. Anger bubbling up inside me. He was caught off guard when I snatched the book from his hands.
"Is this the type of book that humans read? Huh. Book full of lies." I gritted my teeth, trying to suppress the anger I'm feeling.
"What do you mean?" he asks with pure interest and confusion in his eyes.
"It was the Deities who committed sins, dreadful sins. The deity was envious of his sister. He started the massacre when he found out about pure virgin souls within humans to gain power. He did not vanish demons from Earth, thus demons left the Earth." I explained, emphasizing each word, my eyes never leaving the book. If only I can burn it, its ashes would have been scattered in the air.
"Where did you learn that? I never knew that there is a different version of the myth." something snaps me out from anger when his mother steps in, holding a tray of pastries and drinks.
"I've been researching about humans and deities for decades now and I never read that version before," she carefully places the plates and cups on the table, as she glances towards my direction.
"It's because the truth was altered," I answered, trying not to roll my eyes. I can't believe how humans are so gullible that they really believed this story. I bet, everyone knew this version which they call 'truth'.
"How did you know it's the truth when all the books say otherwise." She looks at me as if reading my whole being.
I was caught off guard. I mentally cursed myself, for being so careless and letting my emotions get the best of me.
Think, Limdi!
"I—my parents was also researchers. They found an old book about it" I lied, hoping she won't ask any further questions.
"Really? I hope to meet them. Anyway, I should leave. Oh, wait" she walks towards one of the shelves and pulls a book.
"Here. This is about pure virgin souls. I'll be downstairs if you need something" She handed the book to her son, and left the aftermath.
"I didn't know your parents are also into mythical creatures and divinities" Traiser speaks up, then he bites the bread on his hand. I shrugged as an answer.
"Pure virgin souls, riddles and clues" he reads one line that catches my attention. I look at him, signaling to continue.
"A male with a crown,
built a tower in town.
Like a magnet it attracts,
the eyes, lips and smile attack."
My jaw drops. Did I hear that right? That's the clue in the scroll! How is that written in the book? Does that mean the other riddles written in that book are credible?
"Soul as pure as white,
Blooms flowers at midnight.
Sweet scent radiates,
As sound resonates"
I closed my eyes, trying to process the words. Can I even trust these clues?
"Red strings attached,
Blood to those who watched,
Fate shall know no mercy,
massive loss of lambs in journey"
What does that mean? Blood? Death?
"A mark from birth,
Tells thy worth.
Scars and constellation
The moon in complexion"
"Scars? not stars?" I asked, confused.
"It's clearly the former. I doubt it's an error" Traiser closes the book.
"Why did you stopped? Continue reading" I demand.
He chuckles at my reaction.
"I'll let you borrow this book. But first, we need to finish our report," he smiles then writes down something on his paper. I watched him intently, getting lost within my thoughts.
He suddenly stopped and lifted his face to look at me. "Staring at me won't help us, you know?" he teases then laughs softly.
I felt my cheeks burning. Impulsively, I grabbed a bread and eats it—taste right and somehow good. I can't eat my bread peacefully because of the hair strands blocking my face. And so I hide my hair behind my disguised humans' ears.
Exactly when I finished eating, Traiser looks at me again.
"What? Stop looking at me and focus on your paper, tsk" I rolled my eyes.
He stretches his right arm towards me and as a reflex action, I dodge it away which made him chuckles."Chill, you have crumbs on your hair."
My breathing hitched and my body stiffened when he gently stroke my hair to remove the crumbs. My sight has been glued to him. Then, our eyes met. My heart skips a beat, and my breathing became unstable.
"Aw!" I backed away when he flicked his fingers above my hidden third eye. I glared at him as he laughed loudly, almost falling from his chair.
I frowned. "You're annoying."
"And you're beautiful." As if my life force has been taken, I froze. Is that a compliment? I shake my thoughts away.
'Limdi, think straight. You shouldn't be shaken by this human' I mentally warned myself.
I disregard his remarks and we quietly worked on our report again.
***
"You should visit again next time. Let's talk sometime." His mother smiles warmly at me.
We have finished our report that mostly Traiser took care of. The sun almost setting, I should go home. We're at the door when it opened and a grown man came inside. He looked shocked at seeing me, then so he introduced himself as Traiser's father. I did the same.
Traiser's father faced me. "Right, I wasn't able to know you well. Maybe next time."
"I would love to." I smiled genuinely. Somehow, being this approachable to humans would make them be less suspicious about me.
I studied the three of them with my third eye. Their tiny zui told that they did not commit any dark sins, and even surprisingly, Traiser had the brightest one. He's lucky to have a complete family.
My eyes landed on the old standing clock again. But it's not working anymore.
"That's from my great grandfather. It's been broken for years." Traiser explained when he noticed that I was staring at the clock. If the clock is broken, why did I saw it working earlier? Maybe it was just my imagination.
We walk outside their house. It's a bit dark already. I looked at the plants and I stopped on my track. When I saw something from behind the bushes. Although this time, it's a green ball of fire called Allawig, floating carelessly. It's one of the creatures who serve the deities. Its presence was faded which made it less noticeable.
"Hey, what's wrong?" I was about to chase it, but Traiser holds my wrist. "Nothing" when I looked back at the bushes, the Allawig is gone.
"Let's go." I followed him outside their gate, his hand still on my wrist. "Thanks, I'll go now" I opened the door of their service car, thus he keeps on holding me.
"Yeah, take care." His eyes stare at me. What is it this time? "Uhh" I raised my wrist that he's holding and he immediately let go.
I shrugged my shoulder and went inside the vehicle. The last thing that I saw before the car moved was the green lights of insects flickering at their garden.
"Corpse candles," I whispered.