Chapter 49 One Long Night#13
-Swish
-Swish
Like a fast moving shadow, Zero moved from one alley to another towards the location where Anna took Elle with her. While he believes that they are safe, he can't be really relaxed unless he sees them with his own eyes, in a location where nobody will harm him.
Running all over the place, Zero tried finding them, but even after looking for a few moments, he still couldn't find them. Though he wasn't happy with the development, he still had no choice but to be satisfied with whatever he did.
After this point, no matter how he feels, if anything happens to Anna and Elle, there is little he could have done about it. He sighs before hoping for the best and then checking his phone for a certain message, and then he smiles as he looks at the message.
From that point, he changes direction and heads towards the north of Lake Bryxton.
-Weeoo Weooo
On his way, he sees multiple police cars and security department's cars hurrying towards the lake. Stopping for a few moments, he once again begins running towards the predetermined location. It wasn't the only time the cars passed by Zero but he came across the cars multiple times by the time he reached the place.
The airplane crash had attracted a lot of attention by this time and what transpired there will only make the public much more restless. Though there was little to be done there,
'Even if they manage to find anything during the search, they will find Reaper, so Zero is still safe, though I would like that too, to not happen yet,' Zero thought as he made a wry smile with an awkward expression. Perhaps he didn't like the evidence being left behind near the Bryxton Lake.
-Swish
-Swish
After running for a few more moments, he reached a central place where a variety of food stalls were present on the streets. With people walking all around, it was easy to get mixed up in the crowd.
Skillfully, Zero takes out his black robe revealing a casual outfit, and he takes some water from one of the stalls and then at a corner he washes off all the black dye, revealing his white glistening hair. His eyes, which were green from using spirit magic, turned back white again as he turned the spirit magic off.
He then turned around to see a couple of kids looking at him with wide eyes and open mouths. He smiles at them before taking out a sum of money and giving it to them before activating charm magic and changing their memory a little bit. From there, he vanishes immediately before arriving at a distance, startling the surrounding people.
Ignoring the people, he looks at his phone and looks at another couple of messages before hurrying towards the location. After a few more steps, he finally reaches the venue and what comes in front of him is…
An orange haired girl in her 20s looking at him with slight annoyance. She wore a white coloured casual shirt over a pair of black tight jeans which outlined her gorgeous body without making her look indecent. Her black eyes were piercing in on Zero as she begin speaking,
"Is that what you're doing?"
Zero looks at Clair Redfield for a few moments before he couldn't help but smile as he speaks,"if you are talking about the police attacking all organisations present in this city along with what happened at the lake Bryxton, then no I don't know anything about it. I don't even know why half the city is in chaos with the shocking revelation of black powder, being supplied within this city. Nope, it has nothing to do with me."
.......
Going back into the past when Zero was in the Urgent Healer's hospital.
"Would you like to make a deal with me?" Zero spoke with a mischievous smile on his face and Clair focused her eyes on him with a careful expression.
"What kind of deal?" she asked with slight nervousness in her words. Zero then looked around and spoke,"Close the door and remove all the recorders placed in this room."
Clair was a bit shocked at his words, then sighed before closing the door and then speaking,"I don't know where the recorders are."
Zero shook his head before pointing at a certain machine at a distance away from him,"behind that." Clair then looks at the machine before looking at Zero for a few moments. Then she moves towards the machine and checks for the recorders, which she eventually finds and brings to Zero.
Then Zero began pointing to all the recorders and then, after another few moments, all the 12 recorders were removed and destroyed by Zero, right in front of Clair.
"Now that's done. Let's get to the deal. There are a few things that I need you to do for me.
First, make sure that no one comes here for the next 15 minutes. After that, report me missing to the hospital's staff.
Second, call all the people who escaped from the facility and tell them the message that,'I will be leaving for some work. I will cure Mark's daughter in about 3-4 weeks from now. Also, no need to worry about me escaping, as Mark has already started monitoring me. He might even arrange for someone to tail me, though I will try my best to not let anyone get on my trail.'
Third is to call the police department in exactly 15 days from now on and tell them about a list of places with illegal activities they are doing. I will be providing a list of things to tell them.
Fourth is to ask all the people who escaped from the facility about a favour. 15 days from now on, use their powers and influence to stop anyone from entering towards Lake Bryxton. I will be providing the exact duration of time in which no one can enter there. Also, meet me on the same day at a certain location.
Fifth is to send a message to a certain guy to check the news on that night and tell him that a certain someone is interested to make a deal with him.
Sixth is to tell the escapees from the facility that after another year, I will be meeting them one at a time. I will be needing their help for something big.
Seventh and last one for now, is to become my acting guardian on a certain day about a month from now on."
Clair looks at Zero with a blank look as she speaks, snapping out of her thoughts,"can you repeat what you just said? Sorry, it was too much information at once." Not minding her, Zero repeated everything one by one and after she listened to everything, she said,"I have a few questions."
"Go on,"Zero replied as he looked at her serious face, trying to analyse what she was thinking.
"What do I get in return?" Her first question was a bit obvious and Zero answered with sincerity,"What do you want?"
"I want my sister to enter the Arcadia Academy," she said with a serious expression and Zero nodded at her words," Sure. That's easy."
At his words, Clair looked at him properly, wondering if he was joking about it, but finding no trace of mischief on his face, she gulped a bit before speaking again,"Why me?"
"Just because," Zero spoke nonchalantly and her eyes narrowed at him, but looking at Zero who didn't look like he would answer that, she shook her hand before sighing and asking,"About the seventh task. How dangerous is it for me and my family?"
Zero ponders over her question and then nods at his thoughts before speaking,"minus 2 out of 10."
"Huh?" Clair makes a confused expression and Zero explains,"All I mean is that it will make your life more secure rather than making it more dangerous?"
Zero then sighs as he stretches his fingers and then asks,"anything else?"
She then says,"can I add my conditions later?" and Zero nods before speaking,"okay, though let's form a mana contract once we meet again 2 weeks later."
After that, they both nodded and Claire left first before Zero too moved out of his ward.
.........…
Back to the present.
Clair narrows her eyes at Zero, but before she could speak anything, he takes out a mana contract and shows it to her. Her eyes widened a bit before she grabbed the contract and began reading it.
The people around looked at the contract in her hands and a slightly shocked expression appeared on their faces, but then they looked at Zero's red eyes and forgot everything before moving on.
Clair kept the contract in her space pocket hurriedly as she looked at Zero with a bit of sutpification,"are you crazy? Why did you take that out all of a sudden in front of so many people?"
'Hmm… is that really… oh! I totally forgot. It is still a time where a mana contract is considered a rare thing… Zero makes an awkward face as he scratches his back and then makes an 'oops!' expression with a chuckle. Claire looks at him with narrowed eyes as she mutters,"you really are a weird one."
Then Zero smiles at her words before he speaks,"Have you contacted that person?" He looks around for something to eat as well, since he was hungry too after all that 'exercise' he did earlier.
"Yeah. He said he will be there at the location. You can go meet him, he will be waiting for you," Claire spoke and then Zero nodded before asking her,"did your sister apply for the Arcadia Academy's test application?"
Claire nods at his words with a bit of complication in her eyes. Zero observes her and smiles as he speaks,"don't worry. As long as I am there, everything will be fine." and then nonchalantly walks towards a certain food stall.
"Let's meet up at the airport in one week, Clair. I have booked yours and your sister's tickets as well," he spoke before he moved on his own. Clair looked at him with a fixated gaze.
She waited for him to vanish, but all she saw was him buying a bunch of fast foods from the street stalls before coming back to her. Wondering why he came back, she looked at him with some seriousness, but all she got was,
"You hungry too? You should have said that! Here, take this." Zero passes whatever he had to Clair and Claire makes a slightly awkward face as she takes the food in her hand. Her eyes observed the food she had before she looked at Zero, who was eating his food like a glutton with a blissful expression on her face.
'Just which one is your real face?' Clair couldn't help but wonder as he looked at the face of the kid that could threaten even the most dangerous person on the planet. Nobody would believe her if she said that it was this kid who held the key to the chaos that the city is in now. Only fate knew… What kind of storm would this kid bring?
.........…..
In the hideout where Cristine and Eliza were sitting and watching the news of the airplane crash, along with about a dozen organisations getting caught by the security department.
"It's him, isn't it?" Cristine spoke and Eliza nodded with a slightly serious face. Even though they had no evidence that it was Zero who did this, something told them that all of this transpired because of him.
"He is as dangerous as sis Lucia," Eliza spoke with a slightly shocked face before she looked at Cristine and Cristine nodded at her words before speaking,"I wonder… What is his connection with Lucia? It doesn't seem like Lucia knows about him… though after this incident, Lucia will probably find out about him."
"Where is sis Lucia, again?" Eliza speaks with a questioning gaze and Cristine ponders a bit before speaking,"well, I guess, it's the monthly auction day, so she should be at Bryxton's Night Auction."
-Ding Dong
The doorbell rings and both Eliza and Cristine look at each other with a cautious look before moving towards the door. However, as soon as they reached closer to the door, they heard a familiar voice from outside the door:
"Eliza! Cristine! Open the door, it's Lucia," Lucia spoke from the other side and Eliza opened the door in a hurried manner. It's unlike Lucia to change her plans and if she did so, then that could only mean that something big happened to make her change her plans.
-Click
The door opened, and the sisters saw that Lucia wasn't alone, but there was another girl behind her carrying a similar girl in her lap behind Lucia. One of the girls had black hair and was wearing a blue T-shirt with a dirty white thin jacket. Wearing the same outfit, the other girl had silver hair and blue eyes which gave her a unique beauty, differentiating them from other people.
"Meet Elizabeth Rose and Annabeth Rose, our new friends," spoke Lucia with a cheerful smile as she introduced the sisters.