Chapter 22
This is a fictional story by realTensai
It was after school and Alvis had already finished his student council duties. Yet he didn't go home right away. He had to wait for her to leave, too.
Today was the day Alvis would execute his plan. Today, he would trail Lia.
He knew how morally wrong it was what he was about to do, yet he had no choice. In the end, he wanted to save her, so the end justified the means.
Yeah, that's right.
If he wanted to find out about her ties to the Assassin Organization, he had to find it out on his own. She wouldn't just tell him, especially considering their relationship. And Alvis knew it was her stand to the Assassin Organization that would reveal how he could save her.
He assumed she didn't even want to be an assassin, but some outside motive he didn't know about forced her to be one. And Alvis had to find out this motive.
Alvis had to wait for about half an hour before Lia left the student council room. He waited in a corner where she couldn't notice him. When she then walked out, Alvis' mission began.
Maneuvering through the hallway, Alvis kept a safe distance as he followed Lia. Even though school was long over, there were still other students in school, so Alvis didn't stand out. He tried to keep his presence low so that Lia wouldn't notice him.
She then left the school grounds, and Alvis followed her on his tiptoes. The route she took indicated she would go to the train station. Alvis knew she always took the hyper-train to get to school, so he already had bought a ticket for the day.
The train station was next to the school, so it didn't take long for them to arrive. Until now, Lia hadn't noticed him yet, which was optimal for Alvis. He would just try to sneak into the same train without her seeing him. But even if she would notice him, he could still talk himself out by saying he had something to do in the area.
The hyper train arrived in time and Lia went in. Alvis followed her, getting in at another door. It was as crowded as ever, probably due to the people coming back from work. Yet this only helped Alvis to stay unnoticed. However, he had to make sure that he could see Lia, or else he wouldn't know when she got off.
With every station that passed, people got off and on. The number of people on the train fluctuated, but not so much Lia would see Alvis. When the train arrived in Beqa, Lia finally got off. Alvis, who had tried his best not to lose focus while being on the train for so long, followed her.
It was upon entering the streets of Beqa that nausea overcame him. It was a hard task to stay unnoticed, considering how few people walked around. However, this wasn't the reason for his uneasiness.
Never before had Alvis been in Beqa, though this wasn't something he would voluntarily want to change. He pinched his nose, the pungent smell of alcohol and drugs terrorizing his nostrils. Just one look at the dirty streets and the shady people walking around was enough for him to know it lived up to its reputation.
However, Alvis knew Lia didn't live in Beqa. If his information were correct, and he knew they were correct, Lia lived in Ruyfeld, which was just next to Utopia. Beqa was in the opposite direction.
Though this just confirmed Lia wasn't heading home. And considering that they were in Beqa, Alvis could assume where she was going. If the Assassin Organization had a hideout, it could only be in Beqa.
Alvis' heart knocked against his ribcage as he realized how close he was to unveiling the mystery. It couldn't have been more convenient for him. For the first time, luck was on his side. If Lia had gone home, there was nothing Alvis could have found out. By her going to Beqa, Alvis' chances of discovering her ties to the organization and why he had to save her skyrocketed.
Alvis increased the distance between him and Lia just to be on the safe side. He couldn't afford to be caught now that everything went his way. It became increasingly more difficult to keep up with Lia without being noticed because the areas she went to became less and less habited. However, to his luck, Lia didn't suddenly just turn around, which made Alvis' job easier.
After what felt like an eternity, Lia came to a halt in an abandoned alley. The fact it was an abandoned alley in Beqa said everything one had to know about the alley. It wouldn't surprise Alvis if he would find a dead body lying next to him. He took a glance to the side, just in case.
There was no way Alvis would enter the alley. His trembling legs wouldn't let him, though the alley ended in a dead end, anyway. He would just wait at the corner of the entrance to observe Lia. However, Alvis wondered why Lia went into the alley. It was a dead end, after all, and Alvis couldn't see someone else. However, as soon as this thought crossed his mind, a man in red simply spawned before Lia.
Alvis almost gasped out loud, surprised by the sudden arrival of the man in red. A shiver ran down his spine as the presence of the man loomed over the alley. Alvis tried his best to control his shaking, though his body wouldn't listen to him, remembering the malice of a certain vampire.
Yet Alvis had to calm himself down, else everything would have been for naught. He breathed in and out, his body slowly getting used to the tense atmosphere. By concealing his aura to the utmost, even trained assassins wouldn't notice him. As soon as his heartbeat wasn't so loud anymore that he could hear nothing besides it, he tried to listen to their conversation. Carefully he peaked, moving his head a bit towards them.
"…. I already told him I won't take up any more missions."
"It doesn't matter. Even you can't oppose him."
Lia clicked her tongue, unable to answer.
"Your mission is to complete what Drakil couldn't finish."
"What do you mean?"
"Kill the white-haired human boy with mana that is in your class."
Alvis' heart nearly exploded as those words reached his ears. The air itself seemed to thicken, turning suffocatingly dense, as the weight of Lia's mission bore down on him. A chill, born not from the physical world but from the realization of impending danger, coursed through his veins. It was a sensation akin to icy tendrils winding their way around his core.
They're talking about me!
"The boss told me he is from the Devil Cult, so you shouldn't have a problem."
What? Devil Cult? What is he talking about?
"I see," Lia said, her eyes turning cold. "Now everything makes sense."
"The boss awaits your response. Let's get going."
"Tell him I will come now. You can go first."
"Understood."
With those words, their conversation ended, and the man disappeared in the same mysterious way he arrived. Yet Alvis' heart wouldn't stop racing. But even more than his heart, the gears in his brain turned, trying to make sense of everything he had just heard.
"You can come out now."
Alvis' heart dropped.
An unusual amount of cold sweat came along with his rising body temperature. He couldn't move or make a sound while his brain tried to process those simple words.
She had noticed him!
How?
He thought he did a good job concealing his presence, but she still somehow noticed him.
What now?
Escaping now that she had noticed him wasn't possible. However, just showing himself wasn't a good idea either.
She will kill me.
With every millisecond that passed, the decision weighed heavier on him, though in the end, he made his move.
"I surrender," Alvis said, stepping out of his hiding spot with his arms in the air.
Lia looked at him, her green eyes as cold as emerald stones. He quickly activated his mind protector spell just to be safe.
"Why have you been following me, Alvis? — Hah, you know what? You don't even have to answer. All that comes out of your mouth is a lie anyway, and I already know the answer."
Alvis' pupils widened. Her words hit him like gunshots, shattering his heart into tiny pieces.
"Shouldn't I be the mad one? I just heard you two talking about killing me."
"This makes things easier," Lia said, her emerald eyes shining.
However, her hypnosis didn't work. She clicked her tongue, wondering what had happened.
"You really want to kill me, huh?" Alvis said, sighing. "Even though I joined the student council, you never trusted me. But why?"
Alvis had assumed that she didn't trust him because she was entrusted with killing him. However, he just found out that she only received the mission to kill him now. So before that, Alvis should have been like a normal classmate to her.
What have I done to make her so suspicious of me?
"Why should I trust you if everything you have ever told me was a lie? Ever since you came to us and asked if you could join the student council, you only lied," Lia said, looking as if she were talking to trash. "You know, the ability to hypnotize often comes with being an empath. Which means I can easily tell if someone is lying to me. And even the way you acted was suspicious. Do you think I didn't notice that you had been gathering information about me behind my back?"
The words got stuck in Alvis' throat and he struggled to answer after being confronted with so many facts. Every time Alvis had lied to her, it was just the most effective way to convince her. Yes, this was what he had thought. However, with her being an empath, he had dug his own grave.
Shit!
"I know what you are up to. You following me today and the mission I received just confirmed my suspicions. You are part of the Devil Cult! That is why the Organization wants to see you dead. And that is why you kept an eye on me. You wanted to get to the Organization through me."
Alvis didn't understand half of the things Lia said, yet he knew she got it all wrong. She thought Alvis was a part of some kind of Devil Cult, which couldn't be further from the truth. Yet she already believed in her explanation, so it would be impossible for Alvis to convince her otherwise.
"Even if I were to say I'm not from this Devil Cult, you wouldn't believe me, right?"
"Yes."
"Even though you are an empath and can sense if I'm lying or not?"
"You guys are so insane that you believe your own lies."
"I see, so there is nothing I can do."
Alvis dropped his hands, sighing. There was no point in arguing any further nor in trying to fight her.
He had failed.
Wind gathered around her palm, an arrow molding into existence. As Alvis looked into Lia's eyes, he noticed how her green eyes burned with anger. A drop of blood dripped down her mouth as she bit her trembling lips. It was with seeing that sight that Alvis' mouth moved faster than his brain could command.
"I will save you!"
The wind arrow pierced through the air, shattering Alvis' heart.
[YOU DIED!]