Northern Empire suburb, 50 miles from Onobu
[Alex POV]
Early morning. In the circus camp, six members gathered around a round table. In the middle of the man in a magician suit, with clear glasses with the look of a scholar, Sabatini. Next was an elderly woman with a gentle face, she was the main chef here and the one who helped raise me, to me she was like a second mother. Standing against the pole was a young man with an always serious and scowling face, who had only joined the circus this year, Kouga. Speaking of fierce, the bald guy sitting next to Komi looked like a member of a band of thugs, with a large body covered with scars, but his real occupation was a woodcutter and he was kind of a coward. Finally sitting next to me was the most beautiful woman in the group although our age gap was 17 years old the life expectancy of a woman was greater than that of a man and she was still very young only in her twenties. There was no age limit to get married in this world but usually, people get married at the age of 15-16 so if I had four more years…
" Uh hum Alex. Please focus."
" Sorry."
At the moment our circus was having an emergency meeting, there was one more girl but she was coming to town with Akame right now. They wouldn't come back until late afternoon.
" Alex your wounds healed right?"
" I wouldn't be here if it didn't Kouga"
The guy snorted, there was a relief look on his face. Although this guy always looks serious but he was actually one of the most softhearted people in our group.
" We thought we lost you Alex. I would have hated myself if you didn't come back." - Sabatini
" Don't say that. None of this was anybody's fault. "
" Yes the most important thing is our boy come back to us." - Natalia
Natalia hugged me with her chest while Dangan was looking at me gritting his teeth. Sorry, but these apples on my head would be mine soon hehe.
" Alex I believe you owe us some explanation. I heard that you went back to Onobu. Why?"
" Where did you hear that from."
" From Haruki who else."
" When?"
They all looked at each other for a moment and then told me.
" When he carried you back of course."
" What!"
Unconsciously my voice is louder than usual. Since my return besides the issue with Akame, my biggest worry had been about Haruki. I lied to him, what if he hated me? What if I became the next target of Night Owls? Thinking about this makes me shiver.
" D-Did he say anything?…"
" He just shouted at us to treat you then immediately left."
I trembled and my word stuck. I didn't know how to explain this feeling. I tried to think about positive stuff like maybe Haruki didn't notice the things I did. The Haruki I knew may look silly sometimes but idiotic was not one of his traits. He definitely noticed something… How the hell would I explain? Would I be safe?
When I thought about these things, I just wanted to crawl back into the sick bed.
" Knowing that guy I think he would come back here soon." - Danga giggled
" C-Could you say that I'm not here if that time comes?"
" What the hell do you mean you're not here? Where else do you want to go?"
" Uhm that's not it!"
" Alex? You're not avoiding Haruki aren't you?"
" No… I just… please!"
" Ok I will tell him that you're still unconscious but please explain to us what happened?"
I told them about my days in the Gurrag residence, and everyone's faces fell when I told them about what I had gone through. As for why I'm back in the city, the same lie I told William and the Night Owls about saving Bradley. Of course, I didn't mention what happened between me and George, and of course, I didn't mention the internal affairs of the Night Owls. I had no idea why William let me return to the circus, I don't know if there was anything Teigu could be used to eavesdrop on people far away but I certainly didn't want to drag the circus members into that mess.
" That's enough Alex, sorry for questioning you."
" I know that you're just worried about me. Thank you."
" Alex. I sometimes wish you grew up a little bit slower…"
Natalia caressed my hair. While I was a bit enjoying the comfort, there were thousands of discomfort things bugging my head.
" Sabatini, you guys, I have some questions too."
" You tried to call me the day before right?
I nodded, it took a bit of effort to send Akame off. But everything from now on needed to be done as carefully as possible.
" About Akame, Sabatini do you remember what's I always told you years ago."
Sabatini closed his eyes for a moment as if trying to remember something.
" Nope. I don't know what are you talking about?" - Sabatini
" The heck! How could you not remember? Black hair? A Ka Me?"
" Sorry guys I don't get what's going on here?" - Kouga
" It was.. a story that Alex told us when he was a kid."
" No Natalia, It was just some silly made-up story of a child."
" It was a prophecy!"
" As if I would believe a thing about like fortune telling."
So I did tell them about the thing that happened in the manga. I told them that one day two girls gonna come to this circus and kill everyone. I didn't expect them to believe me but the point was to make them conscious of things that could happen. I even paid a famous fortune teller to tell them that.
' Damm this half-ass medieval world! Why aren't people more superstitious?'
" There's no girl with a gun, so you were wrong."
" You still remember! You're such a lier Sabatini! Wait, how about the katana?"
" She didn't bring anything like that."
That sounds a bit… made more sense than that manga.
" So did you tell her anything about us?" - I asked
" Of course not. Why would I tell a girl who just join about what we're doing? What we're doing here could get us killed if words spread to the wrong mouth."
I pressed the X button for doubt. Thought Sabatini looked like a smart guy but his IQ was kinda questionable. I meant this same guy told two girls that he just met, one brought a gun and one brought a katana killing bandits like pieces of cake to join the insurgents in the manga. I didn't think he did after that many times I told him about Akame and Tsushi but knowing this guy, he must have fcked up at some point.
" I just told her that we had some serious task but she was not ready to join yet."
' For fck sake! I fcking knew it!'
I wanted to beat the sh*t out of Sabatini's head but that wouldn't solve anything.
" Please Sabatini, guys, whatever you do, don't tell her anything about the insurgents. We have to act extra careful when she's around"
" She's just a kid."
" For F… Aghh! Ok please just do as I say. 2 days. In 2 days I will prove to you what she really is."
The group looked at each other. The one who spoke was Kouga.
" I don't know about the stuff here but I think Alex's right. We didn't pick up Akame from the insurgent. We can't trust her this soon."
" Fine. That makes sense but Alex what will you do? Please don't say you're gonna pull some prank on her?"
" I don't remember being a naughty kid."
" Yes yes, our precious Alex would never do that. "
While Natalia was hugging me I thought about Akame and about the current situation. I hope that my worst prediction was wrong.