Kitty pinned Zoe down on the velvety bed and strangled her with both hands. Her right eye was glittering in delight and her lips curled to form a wicked grin.
"Finally, my retaliation..."Kitty savagely said as she watched Zoe's straining face.
"Not the right time kitty!"Zoe said loudly. Her voice oozed with so much anger that it wouldn't be surprising if kitty was found dead before morning lest she gets out of her grasp.
Kitty's grin only disappeared on seeing this. She was on top of her, choking her with all of her weight yet she even had the strength to speak loudly.
She looked at her slender arm which when compared to Zoe's toned one... It simply paled in comparison. Her ribs were also broken, so she couldn't exert full strength, but still, how was Zoe still able to speak so loudly when she was being choked?
Was her strength that fickle that she felt nothing? It was an insult. Her anger surged and she added more strength to her hands to choke Zoe's neck further but inwardly she cursed.
'Damnation! Is her neck so thick or it's just my imagination?'
She noticed that Zoe wasn't even minding her anymore and even seem to be pretending to be choking.
Being the master of pretense herself made her figure that out quickly, but why was she pretending? It was then that she paid attention to her surroundings and noticed that the door was wide open and someone was in the doorway.
She slowly turned her head to the side, coming face to face with Conan, who looked fed up. For how long had he been watching? Her heart picked the pace and beat hard against her broken ribs.
She ignored the pain in her chest and looked down at Zoe's face only to see a smirk plastered on her face. Zoe flicked her eyebrows in mischief and started coughing and gasping for air as though her life depended on it.
Kitty was stunned. When did the role reverse? She looked at Conan again and saw him facepalm with a sigh.
She was so conflicted. She was stuck in the middle, not knowing if her father will scold her or not because he had never done so. And also wondered if Zoe had already seen Conan and that's why she had put up a pretense as perfect as this.
It had to be noted that Zoe is a complete brute, and not the type to resort to petty tricks.
Now that Conan had seen Kitty this way, he'll have a reason to lecture her, or even do something else. She had never been in this kind of situation before.
"What a mess..."Conan sighed with his palm plastered on his face.
This made the two girls confused. Kitty slowly separated herself from Zoe during the silence and went to the other side of the bed.
"Sit side by side so I can inspect your wounds," Conan said and picked up the chair in front of the desk by the window.
He sat in front of both of them and watched solemnly, cupping his chin. The two sat side by side with their gaze down. Each time their shoulders touch, they shove each other slightly and glare into each other's faces.
Conan sighed yet again and leaned closer, he looked at kitty's wounded left eye and sighed in relief, it wasn't that serious.
"Lift your..."Conan awkwardly pointed at the tube top kitty wore. Albeit he didn't know what to call it so he paused then continued "...need to inspect your wounds."
Kitty's face flushed and Zoe's glare became prominent that she could feel it drilling holes into her body. But kitty ignored it, or more like, she tried to. The intense gazes on her suddenly made her meek.
This was especially so because of Conan who looked solemn.
Kitty meekly revealed the footprint on the lower part of her rib cage, exposing the less sensitive parts of her bosom. She felt smug on the inside and her face flushed even more.
Conan noticed what kitty was doing so he ignored. She was never the type to take things seriously. Not even her caved-in ribs.
Conan breathed sharply and looked at Zoe's leg which had deformed slightly, thanks to Kitty. He looked at Zoe's face and saw her face was also flushed and her signature blank expression was not there anymore.
That's when he realized something that he had ignored earlier. The girls were practically naked and they were uncomfortable under his gaze.
He stood up and the gazes of the girls followed his movements. They watched as went towards the door with unwilling expressions until he looked over his shoulders.
"I'll go make some pills..."He said that Zoe frowned in displeasure, she hated using pills "... and make your porridge and Onydrome sap tea."He added.
The girls beamed, revealing the white rows of teeth in anticipation but what came next erased those smiles and delighted faces.
"... then we can have a nice chat."Conan emphasized the word "nice" which made the girls grasp what he was implying faster.
Conan left the room and the bang of the closed door caused rivals to flinch. They turned their heads slowly to look at each other but this time, they were visually asking for the other's opinion.
"He asked us not to go out. What do you think he'll do?"Zoe cluelessly asked. There seems to be a bit of anxiousness in her tone.
"I don't know. Honestly, I hope it's not what I'm thinking."Kitty dazedly uttered.
"Probably give us a boring philosophical speech..."Zoe said with displeasure. She had been expressing her emotions so many times without even knowing. She looked at kitty with a frown "...what are you thinking?"
Kitty hesitated but replied, her voice wheezy and low due to the piercing pain in her chest and insufficient air "He's going to tell us about the concept of enmity and friendship, then neutrality. But most importantly..."
Kitty paused and Zoe seemed to have gotten a grasp on what she was going to say next.
The words flowed out Kitty's pink lips weakly "He's going to tell us to stop fighting..."Her open eye dimmed and she plopped to the bed weakly. She fainted.
Zoe on the other hand frowned, because of two things. First, because she will never stop fighting Kitty, that is the only how she can have fun. And second, because kitty had fallen unconscious. And third;
" Are the weapon of the bandits tipped with high-tier poison, probably of Foreign Tier."She pondered but then, she realized the identity of the ones they fought with and gasped.
No wonder their self-healing was so slow that it seemed nonexistent. She pondered whether Conan had known about the poison already or not...
...
Conan was in a bad mood...
He was reprimanding himself on the inside for making such a blunder. A part of him was blaming himself for leaving, if he had stayed, then the babies won't have been in such a state.
Of course, he knows that their holding back caused them the injuries, but if they hadn't, they'll have drawn unneeded attention.
At the end of the day, they neglected an instruction and got hurt in the process, while covering another instruction.
He didn't have to shield them from getting into trouble but from getting involved with the gods. After all, he brought them to gain experience, not wreak havoc nor rule the plane.
He then felt someone's presence nearby and turned his head to the direction of the hallway where he saw Zoe's flushed face peeking through the doorway to the hallway.
"Father, I think the weapons the thieves used were poison tipped."Zoe bashfully said to which Conan sighed. Not in frustration, nor in relief but in... not knowing what to do.
"I know, and kitty must have been unconscious by now right?"Conan worriedly said. There seems to be a hint of desperation hidden in his tone. He brushed his long lustrous black hair with his hands and sighed yet again.
" It's the Bloodline Eater, damned foreign-tiered poison."
He questioned why he left again. Even Liam was injured and was currently resting. But the fact that they were injured wasn't the factor of his worries.
The fact that Zoe and Kitty had been poisoned with a substance that forces the heart to shut down and stop blood circulation, then all organs of the body will shut down, including the bloodline organs, resulting in death, if not treated quickly.
This poison would surely kill them, if not that they had unlocked the bloodline vessels located in their hearts when they became immortal, but now that they are in mortal forms, it is partially sealed.
This was especially so for kitty, whose bloodline vessel was sealed completely only to be unsealed at crucial times.
"Did you bring the tools?"Zoe asked and Conan didn't even reply because he didn't. All the tools they had was created using transcendent energies.
Such tools won't be useable for them in their mortal forms, because they can only be utilized with transcendent energies. Otherwise, they're useless.
So he didn't bother to bring them, but still, "I'll improvise..."He said and started thinking of how and what to do next.
He had the ingredients needed to make the alchemical medicines but the equipment are crucial. If only Liam's flame was not Aether attributed, even in his mortal form, albeit weakened, it can't be used to make alchemical medicines lest it turns to pseudo-elixirs.
"You can go to the lady's apartment, she'll probably have some stoves you can use to cook the porridge."Zoe bashfully suggested before she slowly and gingerly limped back to the bedroom.
Conan on the other hand didn't seem to notice the hidden message. His expression was full of seriousness and he slowly nodded.
"I was thinking the same thing..."He muttered and left without hesitation. He descended the flight of stairs and went to the Seventh floor.
He traversed calmly along the hallway, switching gazes on every door he passes by to look for an apartment numbered "21".
He held his chest, and only now did he realize that form-shifting outfit was still in the form of an assassin's outfit. He sighed and changed its form to that of a free night robe, but still stood silently in front of the door, feeling strange.
His heart was beating louder and faster than normal, and his blood is rushing vigorously like it was excited. He suddenly felt young and for the first time in thousand years, he felt like he used to be in his early but violent days.
It was as if something had awakened in his body, and it was nothing but good because the excitement he felt in his very being only begged him to wreak havoc.