Chapter 69

I opened the door and saw everyone inside, unharmed and fine. But as I was looking around the room, Lucia and Wendy locked eyes with me.

They look terrified, and before I could say that I was back, suddenly, without warning, Lucia, who was by the door, puffed into smoke. Then I heard two people, past the smoke, collide with each other.

When the smoke cleared, I saw Wendy and Lucia on the ground, unconscious.

Umm… What was that all about?

There was a short, awkward silence in the room, so pretending like that didn’t happen, I took off my hood just enough for everyone to see my face, I said.

“Sorry for the wait. I’m back.”

Another short silence later, Clare broke the silence by running up to me.

“Mi- master Nyx, are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt anywhere?”

Clare stops in front of me and checks my body, asking all these questions.

I was about to tell her I was fine and introduce everyone to Athrun and Sarah, but Clare asked one question that left me confused.

“I’m fine, but what do you mean about my eyes?”

Clare stares at me closely, examining me like there is something wrong. I quickly turned to look at everyone to try to understand what was going on.

Athrun and Sarah seemed just as confused as I was, while Alex and everyone else were confused for a different reason.

“Your eyes, Master Nyx, they are blue.”

“Blue?”

“Yes, they are no longer red but blue.”

I looked at everyone to see what they thought, and most of them nodded yes, confirming that my eyes were blue for some reason.

Turning to Alice, I ask her.

“Hey Alice, can I borrow a mirror?”

“Sure.”

She handed me a small pocket mirror in one of her breast pockets. I open it and look at the reflection of my eyes.

What? Why are my eyes blue? Clare was right; my eyes really have changed colors. Wait, didn’t Athrun say something about my eyes?

Looking at Athrun, I ask him.

“Is this what you meant by my eyes?”

Athrun, with his typical irksome smile, confirmed it.

I looked at my eyes in the mirror Alice lent me again. Is it me, or why does my hair look different, too? It was darker than usual, darker than the night sky. It almost looks like the color of my hair from my past life when I had Ori energy flowing through my body.

Strangely, Ori energy is not directly flowing through my body, only trace amounts in my body. It was not enough for my hair and eyes to start changing colors; so did my eyes change colors?

Seeing that these questions would not lead me anywhere, I decided to save it for another time.

Giving back the mirror to Alice, I said thanks, and then I turned to everyone in the room.

“Hi everyone, sorry for making you worry.”

“It’s good to see you, Nyx. Can you tell us what happened and who those two over there are?”

Alex asks me that, to which I respond.

“It’s a long story, and those two are Athrun and Sarah; their party helped me leave the dungeon, but first, could everyone close the windows and curtains?”

Alex and everyone in the room were a bit confused by my request but did it anyway as Athrun and Sarah began introducing themselves.

Once the curtains were closed, I sighed and entered the room, fully taking off my cloak.

“Thanks, where do I begin?”

“You can start by telling how you’ve gone missing.”

“Oh, that. I got attacked.”

“By who?”

“A bunch of red-listed adventurers, but another group showed up.”

“Who was the second group?”

“Black knights.”

Everyone in the room other than Athrun and Sarah, who knew what had happened, was surprised to hear me say it.

“I knew it. That bastard Yulis sent his men to go after us.”

“No, it’s not them.”

Correcting Alice, who looks visibly angry and now confused, I explain further.

“How do I put this? They are Black Knights from my family.”

“Wait, what? They’re from your family?”

Everyone who was shocked to hear that a bunch of Black Knights was now even more shocked when I said they were from my family instead of Yulis’s.

I turn to Clare, who grimaces when I say that my family's black knights are coming after me.

“Yeah, they are after me.”

I didn’t explain why my family’s Black Knights were after me because they would get involved, and they definitely couldn’t handle them, which I then said.

“I’m planning to leave immediately from Acton.”

“You're leaving. Why don’t you come with us?”

“I don’t want to get you involved, Alex. It’s a family matter and is not meant for outsiders. You can’t handle them. You can guess how I have gone missing because I couldn’t handle them myself. Plus, you have Alice to take care of.”

Putting a stop to his suggestion to join them, I continued.

“Clare and I are going to leave Acton after we get our things.”

“To where?”

“Farsbarow, it’s a place they wouldn’t expect me to go, and I have Emma and Cade to help me hide there.”

Everyone remained silent, processing what I had told them because it was not anything any of us had expected.

“Clare.”

“Yes, Master Nyx.”

“Let's go back home and get our things, then we’ll come back here and find a wagon to Acton.”

After hearing me tell Clare that we will be going back home to get our things, Alex, trying to help, offers to come with Clare as extra security, but I shake my head, no.

“Can’t. It would attract too much attention, which is why Athrun and Sarah are escorting Clare back while I go alone on a different route. They do not know where I am right now or even if I’m alive, and I plan to keep it that way.”

“Won’t going back to your place attract your family’s black knights' attention since they already have someone watching over your house?”

“In all likelihood, yes.”

I knew it was the case, but I can’t really not be there if Clare is attacked, even if Athrun and Sarah are there to protect her.

“Won’t it make more sense just to have Mr. Athrun and Ms. Sarah go with Clare?”

Hearing what he said, I sighed and then said fine to his suggestion because it was the most logical option. A part of me wants to come with Clare, but I immediately put a stop to that emotion, thinking about the mission objective over personal feelings.

Surprise a bit from me back down, frankly way too quickly, he smiled a bit and said.

“Why don’t you sit down and rest? You look exhausted. Tell us what happened next. But first, I think we should properly introduce ourselves to Mr. Athrun and Ms. Sarah.”

“Right…”

Moving the chairs away from the window, Alice’s knights offered their seats to me, and I promptly sat down, finally relaxing, exhausted after trekking up 30 floors of a dungeon.

Following me were Athrun and Sarah, who also sat down. Everyone in the room then proceeded to greet Athrun and Sarah one by one, and when it was Clare's time to introduce herself, Clare bowed deeply.

“I am deeply grateful for you two assisting Master Nyx. I am in your debt.”

Showing her genuine gratitude, Sarah said with a gentle smile.

“It's fine; it was no trouble at all. We are happy to help.”

Hearing Sarah say it was no trouble was definitely a lie due to the amount of hordes we had faced, or maybe it is because of Cor's constant antics that make her and everyone else in her party treat that as normal?

Thinking that, I immediately shelved that thought because I thought of Cor again, which would put me in a bad mood, so I stopped thinking about it.

After Sarah finished speaking, I continued what I was saying.

“If it weren’t for them, I would have been stuck on the 29th floor.”

“Wait, what?”

Maria shouted in surprise at my surprising statement since it was hard to believe and out of nowhere.

“When I was attacked, I ran to a hiding spot, which was a secret chest spot in a small cave.”

“Was it the cave with a passageway that opens up at the end, past the open chest?”

Hearing Chelsie mention the cave, I wonder how she knows about it.

“Yes, that cave, but how do you know about it?”

“Oh, I and Wendy went to look for you when you didn’t come back. Wendy, follow your scent to the cave and the bossroom. We tried following you past the door, but there was another door that we couldn’t open.”

Hearing that, I looked at Wendy, who was sprawled on the ground, unconscious, next to Lucia, pretty impressed by her nose to smell my scent till they were stopped by the medical bay doors.

I guess the door didn’t open because I told Lumina to go to minimum power, which means the doors would not open unless I said otherwise.

“I see.”

I didn't tell everyone about the medical bay I was in; I told them instead.

“I don’t really know what happened next, but I woke up in the area past the door you saw. I left that area and tried to leave, but water suddenly began gushing in. When the water stopped flowing in the passageway I was in, I tried to find a way out, and the only option was to swim up.”

I proceeded to tell them that I later found out that it was the watering hole on the 29th floor. I told them how I met Athrun, Sarah, and everyone else in their party.

After hearing what happened, Alex said.

“That is quite a lot.”

“You could say that.”

I took a deep, tired sigh, my eyes really heavy and my body sore.

“You looked tired. Why don’t you take a nap? Don’t worry. You trust Mr. Athrun and Ms. Sarah to take Clare back, and you can trust us to protect you in the meantime.”

Hearing his offer, I looked at Clare, who was standing behind me. She looked as tired as I did, if not even more so.

“Master Nyx, please rest. I will go and retrieve our things.”

Clare showed concern for me, and I realized there was no point in arguing.

“Okay, but please be safe.”

Clare nodded, and I proceeded to close my eyes. It didn’t take long for me to go to sleep, and when I woke up, Clare shook me slightly to wake me up.

My eyes open to see Clare holding her suitcase and my backpack.

I looked around, and it looked like she went home and came back without any trouble.

“Master Nyx, how was your nap?”

“Good, did you get everything?”

“Yes, like you ask.”

I nodded and got up, now rested. Now it was time to find a wagon out of Acton.

Putting on my hood, I told Clare.

“I guess it’s time to go. If we’re lucky, we can catch a wagon to Farsbarow.”

As I said that, I felt a very strange feeling outside the hospital building, like something was massing. I looked in the direction of that feeling out the window, and I wasn't the only one that did that; Athrun and Sarah did too. When I turned to look at Lucia, who had a terrified look staring at me next to Wendy by the corner, she also turned her head in the same direction Athrun and Sarah did; I knew something was wrong.

As I was about to speak, the exterior walls of the hospital exploded open without warning.