Chapter 149: Mentality
Killian kept his eyes on him. "Good."
He raised his Void-Bat, and it vanished into the inventory.
And out of the inventory came Thistle, eyes wide and nose scrunched up.
"Huh…." her eyes darted about, taking in the environment.
It looked like a training area within a school but she couldn't fathom why Killian would be in a school. She didn't ask either. She looked at the tendrils around him.
Those answered why he looked sweaty and tired. His uniform was a blood-stained and he stood tiredly in blood-stained shoes. All the questions she had were answered. Her face loosened.
"You never change, do you?" She scolded with a small smile.
Killian smiled back. "I keep getting hunted." He shrugged. "I have to survive."
Thistle glanced at the man crawling away. She started walking towards him, understanding he was the offender.
"So what exactly do you want me to do for you here?" She looked back at Killian. "You seem to have already done everything."
Killian swung his dagger for her to catch. Her vines caught it and brought the dagger into her hands. She stared at the weapon, and then at the man. "You are a little scary. And it is wrong to ask a 'five-year-old' to kill a person."
Yet Thistle's fingers wrapped round the dagger eagerly and she made a little run towards the man, who sped up his crawling as he heard her little giggles.
"I need him blinded first," Killian said when she raised the dagger above her head. "Preferably while he's still alive."
Thistle paused, her vines loosening slightly from the man's neck where they wrapped themselves.
As she stepped away from the injured man, the ground she had shifted to sink him pushed the man up again.
"Just his eyes? Does it have to be neatly carved? Do you need it for something?"
Killian titled his head, staring at the three feet tall girl. While he expected her to agree to gouging a person's eyes out, her swift follow-up questions worried him. "I was joking. Kill him first."
He noticed Thistle's shoulders slump in disappointment.
The crafter, who had accepted his fate, also lowered his shoulders subtly but likely in relief.
"He is a Realmcrafter. I don't really know what it means, but my tendrils wouldn't mind eating his eyes." Killian explained, with a serious tone. "I have enough capacity so I don't need to consume him whole."
Thistle nodded seriously like that made complete sense, even if she barely understood what capacity meant to him.
"You need just the eyes? Got it. I can practice my strangulation techniques." She said the last part more to herself than to Killian.
Killian turned away, nodding. He replaced the headphones on his head. "Thank you—"
"Arghhh!" the agonizing screams of the man made him swallow down his gratitude.
He increased the volume of the jazz playing and hummed silently to it as he walked to the tap at the end of the training area. After washing his hands and shoes, he buried his face in a handful of water.
"What are the chances that someone will find Thistle, a were-rabbit and anomaly, gouging the eyes of an outcast within an academy?"
Killian raised his head and at the same time, his tendrils sped to Thistle. "Not zero."
He knew his shitty luck couldn't save him from anything so he acted quickly, even as the sound of footsteps came to his ears.
The tendrils grabbed the vines around her body, raised her above the cold body, and she disappeared into the inventory, while holding two neatly carved out eyeballs.
The door to the training area opened. The girl's golden eyes met Killian's first before she turned to the bloody dagger on the ground. She didn't look at the dead body once.
Killian's heart hammered against his chest as the worst person to find him after everything just did. Light wasn't emitting from her body like a shield, but her presence made him physically unwell. He rubbed his wet hands on his sweaty face, hoping to calm his nerves.
He opened to his mouth to lie, but she spoke first.
"Is he asleep too?"
His heartbeat almost dropped. "Huh…" Her voice was unexpectedly warm and firm, unlike the burning tone of rage a part of him expected his natural adversity to have.
He glanced at the man who couldn't close his eyes to sleep even if he wanted to.
But he was asleep. The forever kind of sleep. "Sort of," Killian responded, and watched her for a reaction.
She still had the door open, so she looked backwards. "A fairy called to my attention that a kin was attacked by outcasts. Are you alright? Did you kill the outcasts?"
Killian immediately understood what she meant. He rushed to the door and found Lu coiled up on the ground, asleep.
A small fairy, who he remembered as Calix, a summon, hovered around Lu panicking. Her small feet stomping on his head as she yelled inaudible words.
"Yeah, we got trapped in a Realmcraft." Killain nodded as he spoke. "Lu got out and I was able to survive it."
He stepped away from her after explaining. She walked towards him and he stiffened.
The girl walked past him, past the corpse on the floor, and towards the backpack in the training area. "It's hard to believe that outcasts are within the academy. I'll let the coordinators know about this. Thank you."
Killian hid his right hand that had burst out swarms of rash from her close contact. He nodded even if she didn't look at him.
Her voice didn't rise when she spoke and since he heard his coordinator address as her as 'Lady' she might be in a position where she could command them.
He scratched his itchy hand while walking away, even crossing over Lu on the ground. The Lady had seen him there when she arrived at the training area the first time.
If she didn't move him, then she likely didn't think he should be moved.
Killian stiffened when his nail tore his skin, he stared down at the reddish wound. "Seriously?"
"Your reaction is a strong one."
The Void stating the obvious made Killian roll his eyes. "Do you mean must Void Users don't conveniently have rashes and break a sweat because a Light user stands in front of them?"
The Void said nothing, and Killian sighed. He forced his hands into his pockets and headed for his room.
The hallways were quiet and when he reached the door to Dorm Dragon. He knocked before entry.
He opened the door and found it oddly cleaned out. The coordinator must've hidden each trace too neatly.
Entering his room, it was empty. Killian fell on his bed and the mattress swallowed him.
Tension drained from his shoulders, one muscle at a time. A quiet exhale left him. He reached for his blanket and threw it over his body.
A meal. A bath. The match. Nothing mattered anymore as he drifted to sleep.
"You can't be serious."