"Just when I thought I was getting bored you show up?" she said with a smile but her voice was cold and hard. While saying that she searched his pockets and found a folding knife.
The man gasped and tried to wriggle free, but she was stronger than he expected. They had been told to collect the illegitimate young miss of the Gelland family. Knowing she was weak and frail only the two of them came. Two people were actually unnecessary in their eyes. Only one person was required given how weak she was but he soon realised that he had severely underestimated her. He stammered, "Le-let me go... ugh shit."
"I thought this was what you wanted. I thought you wanted to talk to a weak young woman so you followed me. I am just fulfilling your wi—," she said only to be interrupted by another voice, coming from the entrance of the alley.
"Hey, let him go!"
Circe ignored him and pressed the knife to the first man's throat. She pulled his body away from the wall and faced the second man. She looked into the man's eyes and saw fear and confusion. She smiled wickedly and said, "Who are you and why are you following me?"
The second man stopped in his tracks. He saw the dark aura around Circe and felt a chill run down his spine. Who said that she was weak and fragile? This woman was obviously a devil in disguise.
He stammered, "Yo-your family sent us to bring you to school. Yesterday you were meant to be there but you weren't."
Circe was a little surprised. Ah yes, she was too fevered up to remember that she indeed had to go back to school. The short break was already over. Did she want to go to school? Nope, she had never been to school in her past life but for Ci Ci's sake and to find who the hell brought this misery upon her she had no bloody choice.
She kicked him hard in the back, sending him sprawling on the ground.
"You should have said that earlier. Tsk, the way you snuck up on me I thought I was getting robbed."
Enraged, the first man lunged forward, fists clenched, but his companion's firm grip restrained him just in time. Circe, undaunted pressed the knife menacingly against his chest giving it back to him. With a sly sneer, she walked past them. "Let them know I will return tomorrow," she said before sauntering off blending in with the crowd.
The first man, seething with suppressed fury, massaged his aching back, silently nursing his wounded pride. "Let me see?" asked his companion but the man was still furious that he had held him back earlier.
"Shut the hell up and get away from me... Ugh, that bitch was ruthless," he said before letting out a groan of pain.
When Circe unlocked the door and entered the apartment her mother was sitting by the couch with her legs crossed at the knees and her face partially covered in the darkness.
Circe ignored her as she walked towards her bedroom. Before she entered her room, Perse tapped the armrest with her long fingernails while asking, "Your father called. You weren't in school yesterday."
Circe's steps paused. She clenched her teeth trying to restrain herself. She put the key through the lock of the bedroom door when the door opened without her even turning the key.
Her brows twitched. She had clearly locked the door before she left the other day. When she pushed the door slightly her heart dropped. Perse had ransacked Ci Ci's bedroom as though looking for something. The bed covers were thrown on the ground, her books overturned and her shoes strewn everywhere. Circe clenched her jaw, preventing herself from losing her shit.
She put on a smile uglier than crying and turned to look at her. "Had fun? Did you find what you were looking for?" her voice trembling slightly from rage.
Perse smiled as she raised a red cover diary. "As a matter of fact, I did. Your father wanted to know where you were so as a worried mother, I had no choice but to find out where my poor baby ran off to and with whom."
Circe could recognise what that was. It was Ci Ci's only friend. It was where she wrote all her thoughts and secrets down because she had no companions. This unfortunately included her crush on Leron.
Circe's body trembled in anger. She was angry for Ci Ci. Like Ci Ci her father never liked her but at least she had a mother who loved him. Ci Ci on the other hand was constantly being plotted against by the one person who should have shielded her and loved her. Even when both her parents were alive she was living like an orphan.
If not to blackmail her why else would Perse go through all that trouble? It wasn't because she cared for her daughter and was worried when she didn't go to school.
"Give it to me," she commanded.
Perse felt chills in her soul but she still kept it together. She wouldn't have been able to date those rich masters if she couldn't keep her composure. She held herself together and smirked, waving the diary in her hand. "Oh, but I am just concerned for you. Your father is paying so much money for your school and here you are daydreaming about...," she paused before flipping through the pages and turning the book over. "Leron, is it?"
On the page was a meticulous detailed drawing of Leron. Circe's expression changed drastically looking at that drawing. She couldn't help but scold Ci Ci in her mind. Granted she knew nothing about love but this here was too tragic. Seeing her expression Perse was quite satisfied. She flipped through the pages and the more she flipped the more Circe was starting to think that Ci Ci was a full-blown stalker. She drew him standing by the window while training, his head lowered in class etc. The rest of the diary was more of her drawing Leron than writing down her thoughts.
"What's his name? Leron Monet of the Monet family? You are quite ambitious just like your mother," she said with pride in her voice.