Chapter 18: Andante
"It’s you," She uttered, her tone serious as she stared blankly at the man. It was Xou, and he was with Zuo.
"What’s the problem?" Xou asked as they got closer to Reiko while Zuo raised his hand to wave at Rica, who looked confused because of what her sister was up to. But she also raised her hand with hesitation and waved back at him.
Reiko didn’t reply because she had no idea what to say, and she couldn’t just go out of her way and say that Hajime is missing or outside of her barrier. But even if she seemed like she was calm. her eyes could not hide the fact that something was wrong. But then Xou continued.
"Earlier, you seemed like something was bothering you. What was the problem?" With a glimmering smile.
Reiko looked away while her facial expression was still blank. She was getting more nervous, and her blank expression started to wear off as her body started to glow a faint cyan color. This was her mana licking out and trying to cover up her nervousness by healing the physical and emotional state. But then Zuo noticed something as he scanned the area they were in.
"Where’s the chief’s son?" He asked, still looking around. Reiko flinched. Rica murmured.
"Now that you’ve mentioned it. I haven’t seen him today. Where is he?" Xou asked as he scratched the back of his right arm. While Reiko flinched again and slowly looked at him. Then Rica looked at Reiko with a curious expression and turned to look at Xou and said, "I think he went to drink some water in the village."
Reiko immediately turned and grabbed Rica by the shoulder and squeezed her while trying to keep her blank expression intact. Her mana started to glow brighter around her the smoke started to come out of her body. The smoke was just the sweat that she had been holding on to since she first noticed that Hajime was nowhere to be seen. And now it was being vaporized by the heat that was being produced by her body due to her mana being visible.
"Wait? You are saying that he went back to the village just to drink some water." Xou said. his tone surprised as his brow went up and his eyes widened. He was well aware of what was going on in the village, that’s why earlier he sent some to ask Reiko what to do because Reiko is the only person who was left in the village amongst the people who could use barrier magic. The first person is Nanako, also known as Hajime’s mother.
"When did he leave?" He asked as he started to panic while his face started to sweat. Now he knew why Reiko was acting off. And he knew that they were screwed if something bad had to befall on to Hajime.
"About an hour ago." Said Rica as she turned to look at her sister, who was looking down on herself for not being able to carry out a simple task of looking after Hajime. Zuo was confused about what was going on with Reiko and Xou. He just stared at them, and for a split second, he turned to look at Rica. But everything seemed to be okay with her because she was in the same boat as him.