"What did I just witness back there?" Hubert asked, his voice peaking, almost as high as the sky, while the loudness was certainly there, but at the same time, like a whisper against the day's wind.
The trees and the dull walls of the dormitory watched, a testament to their conversation. It was their place, a place where dust and sweat had previously mixed.
"What more is there to say…?" Dareon questioned back, eyes looking down with back slouched, the lance he gripped loosely laid against his traps muscle.
"Really? That's your answer? After everything I-no, we went through, that is all you can say in this moment?" Hubert asked, raging.
"..." Dareon almost shivered.
"Ha… First, the fireball that hit here," Hubert placed his hand on his chest, evidence of the first confrontation with the group.
"Second, all the wounds they planted on my skin and all the bones they broke in me. All that for saving… protecting you, and that is all you could mutter? Measly simple words that are meant to just say, Let what's done pass by?" Hubert pressed, demanding for an answer, a justifiable one.
Dareon raised his eyes, blazing red like his bright colorful hair. The mark across his eye as if confronting also. Anger and wrath grew in him as muscles tensed up, and frustration accompanied him as he stood up from the grassy ground.
"YES! Is that what you want to hear? Is that what you asked me to say? To admit that I couldn't do as you couldn't do also?" Dareon barked back, unaccepting of Hubert's piercing words.
"You don't understand, Dareon," Hubert replied, pressing his tone. His eyes were like a dagger, and his words were too, but the fire in him had faced another fire.
"No, you don't understand, Hubert. You think you're fine dilly dallying in the headmaster's embrace? You think you're so high than me, than Ivanna, and even our teacher, Ron. You're senseless, you know that?" Dareon stepped forward, a step to Hubert.
"What? You dare?" Hubert replied, keeping his facade even when his stomach tightened, like after being punched in the gut.
"Of course! Of course, I dare! What? You don't accept it now, huh? So you're just going to go back and hug that master of yours, oh yeah? But where was she when they ambushed and violated you?" another step he took, the glaive's edge reflective of the bright sun.
"Calm down, Dareon," Hubert raised both hands, open palm toward his friend.
"Calm down, yes. If only you gave me a chance to explain what happened. But no, you dragged me here from that crowd of people, the crowd that only knew how to lick someone's bum or kiss someone's shoe. No, Hubert, I'm different than you, I'm no coward, I will show you what true revenge is and when I'm done, yo-"
Bam!
His cheek muscle pushed sideward, his eyes almost thrown off from its socket. His body sent tumbling backward, a hand reflectively placed on his cheek. Almost falling to the ground, he stared, eyes wide and brows curved, as he recovered his footing.
"I said, calm down. Can you not understand that?" Hubert asked, brows curved downward, some of his rage fleeting.
"Oh… so that's how you play now? I see," Dareon responded, stepping forward as he dropped his glaive to the side grass.
"What?" Hubert asked, now face-to-face to Dareon.
"What what?" Dareon asked, hiding his clenched and calloused fist by his side.
Bam!
"Ugh!" Hubert stumbled backward, the punch was sudden, just like his own.
Ptuih
A spit flew from his mouth, a mix of saliva and a bit of visible redness, and a piece of chewed and crunched apple too.
"You see? That's what happens when you punch me, your only friend in the Goddess's forsaken place. Understood?" Dareon asked as he stared.
Hubert looked, nose crumpled up, the sight of his skin slightly blue, and bashed, barely escaping from the cover of his hand.
"Now, do you want to talk, or do we fight here?" Dareon questioned, slowly walking toward his glaive and picking it up, exposing his back.
The wind was loud, and the blue sky was awaiting Hubert's answer, a hopeful sky.
Ptuih
The question was answered. The same amount flew from his bloodied mouth, landing on the ground, mingling with Dareon's.
"We'll continue after dealing with them," Hubert added, wiping his mouth of any leftover wetness.
"Glad that we could come to terms," Dareon extended his arm, bearing no harm, his forearm bruised.
Hubert accepted.
A sunny sky shone on them, the students in the far distance accompanied the lonely wind with their mutterings and conversing.
"This all begin after that day, the day of the test. I was confident in my newfound power after that, but I never realized, others were the same. Especially after what happened to you," Dareon gave his story.
Hubert listened intently.
"I was like a lone lion in the flock of wolves. The instructors took fancy on me, especially on my ability, fire. It is not any fire, but one that shook even the strongest of them, teachers. But even their interest shielded me so long, until their father's and mother's and every fool in their families' influence got the better of the instructors," Dareon continued. Words flowed like a continuous stream, it was all that pented up in him.
"That's what happened?" Hubert asked, confirming the story, his eyes were nailed close to Dareon.
"If you don't believe me, then don't," Dareon replied, annoyed by the constant attention as he looked to the birds that nested on the roof of the dormitory.
"I do. But I can't believe it after everything we've done and it all ends up in some sort of gutter,," Hubert muttered under his breath, his stare slowly becoming blank as it joined on watching the birds.
"Of course, it is, Hubert. We've underestimated them gravely," Dareon continued, almost sighing.
"I know of Aadish's background, but I never thought that this would be that complicated. It seems every way we think of is a dead end when even the instructors are hopeless," Hubert sighed.
"It is, but that is not everything to be told," Dareon continued, fist clenched but head leisured.
"Onward, then,"
"Do you know why they call you demon? Hubert?" Dareon asked, his face turning toward Hubert, a grave and grim one.
"Why?" Hubert asked, confused by the sudden statement. He knew it was an insult but knew not from where did it originated.
"After the test, after the whole wind blowing and scattering of leaves. People thought you were some sort of prodigy, a genius of talents. But it soon turned far away from the truth… When the instructors and even hallmasters guarded your room and cleaned every single speck of dust in it. And when you went missing after that night, rumor began circulating,"
Hubert watched on, eyes widening, straining, angry of the fact that he was unaware of.
"The demon of the night had come, they shouted, from those rich pricks in the dormitory A building until the lowest of life and clump of failures that was in the dormitory D building, they all knew your name and begang calling you the demon, the demon and the Goddess damnit demon,"
"..." Hubert listened on, though his heart blazed.
"Even my ears get irritated everytime I hear that term. I don't know how you could even handle it, Hubert," Dareon patted Hubert's on his back. Where he then realized a small and slight vibration that gushed on his fingertips.
"I don't," Hubert answered honestly.
"Fear not, the day will come where we will prove them wrong,"
The wind was cold while the dead and dried leaves scattered around them, squirrels and frogs watched. Their bums numbed from sitting, yet it was the only place that gave them peace, a place of solitude against the surrounding corruption.
Hubert sat, his eyes often dilating and contracting. His hands were shaky, nervous, and trembling as the thought passed through him over and repeatedly. His lips were never still, considering on speaking, but the words struggled.
Dareon noticed, he sat with muscles still and eyes determined.
"Dareon," Hubert called, a low hush, his mind made up and the goal was clear.
"..." Dareon waited.
"You are my friend, the only one I could trust here, right?" he asked, making sure, the sun slowly drowned, the light became orangey.
"Huh, one thing is clear, I owe you a debt and I intend to pay that with my own life ever since you took that fireball for me," Dareon answered, sure and stern.
"Truth be told. I and the headmaster are not some blind people, Dareon. You thought we're detached from everything that happened in this place. Ever since my absence from the grounds. No. My master has eyes, everywhere, anywhere, and one thing she told me…
Aadish crimes knows no end, his deeds mischevious. Yet the south pressed on, his father was simply too influential. But then, do you remember of the list of rules that was read on the hearing? I will act on that and bring the justice to him,"
"You? Not us?" Dareon's voice slightly wavy as he turned to Hubert.
"It is my weight to bear, I wish no harm to you, or Ivanna. And I want to say my apologies to the two of you, and Ron too," Hubert reasoned.
"..." Dareon turned away, hiding his stress, one that caused his muscle to spasm.
"I know you, Dareon. The day we met in this place, I knew you would be someone I can lean on. Therefore, even when I know I should not put you in harm's way, seeing that even my will ached whenever I pushed you away, I know this one moment will not be a moment that I can pass on," Hubert continued, tears in his eyes. The path was arduous and long.
"What?" Dareon turned around, confused he was.
"But I can't bear the weight of this alone, I need you. But by this, every road we take will be a thorny one, where we will be ambushed and beaten and possibly killed, but I care no more, I care no more for those who trampled me," Hubert said, his words hoarse.
Then he turned to Dareon.
"I ask of you, mercenary, will you be my right hand?"