Under The Veil of Night

It was morning when Kanae woke up. She opened her eyes blearily. Because she was staying near Kevin all the time yesterday, she felt safe. As long as she didn’t sense danger around her, she wouldn’t wake up from her deep slumber.

Sitting on the bed, Kanae yawned. She looked around before her gaze was locked on the man who sat on the couch with his head on the table before him. Numerous pieces of paper were placed in front of him, telling her that he has been working hard through the night.

’Ouch,’ Kanae tried to move when she found that her back hurt. She recalled that she has been thrown and crashed on the back numerous times, so it should be expected that her back was hurt.

’After Black Street, hospital has become my second home,’ Kanae sighed internally.

She stood up and walked over to the man slowly, making sure that she didn’t hurt herself and waking up the man. Looking at the paper, she knew that it was the same paper that they have been working on for the past few months. The content was all about the matter of territory and how Kevin wanted the government to take over leading the front.

Kevin had some connections with the officials. Even though they were only small officials, they were all very capable, so he made sure to make the people know the officials in their areas. This way, the influence from Ryukalin Clan would be erased little by little.

It had never crossed her mind that he wanted to change the city entirely before, but she supported him nonetheless.

"You have worked hard."

Kanae pulled her blanket from the bed and put it on top of Kevin, covering his body. It was still early in the morning and the weather was quite bad. The temperature would drop a few more degrees before midday, so it might feel cold for him too.

Walking to the bathroom, Kanae looked at her appearance and sighed. There were bandages in many parts of her body that stayed visible. From neck, hand, to legs, they were all covered in bandages to some degree. Even her cheek has a band-aid plastered.

’My appearance is truly a mess.’

Trying to not pay any heed, Kanae brushed her teeth and combed her hair. After she was satisfied, she walked out of the room. She nearly bumped with the nurse who was passing through the front of the door.

"Ah, I’m sorry!" the nurse quickly apologized.

Kanae smiled. "It’s fine, it’s my fault." She knew that there was a nurse here, but she couldn’t control her feet and nearly fell to the door. Thankfully, she managed to stop in time before bumping into the nurse.

"Can you walk by yourself? Should I bring you some crutches?"

"I can walk. Do you know the room for Patrick Kalin and Dean Yam?"

"It’s there," the nurse pointed to the room at the end of the hallway.

Kanae thanked the nurse before walking towards the room. She knocked and opened the door only to see the two of them playing cards while sitting on the chair.

Kanae: "..." are you two really patients?

"Oh, Kanae, you’re up pretty early," Patrick waved his hand. "Do you want to join in?"

"No thanks," Kanae replied. "Don’t you need to rest?"

"Rest is only for the weak! I’m a master of the street, so I don’t need it," Dean humped.

"You’re the master? Hah, I’ll defeat you!"

"What? You’re a loser in card games, let’s see if you can win after losing 10 games straight!"

Kanae rolled her eyes. She truly couldn’t trust these two to rest their bodies. They were too energetic to care about things like that.

"Can you tell me what happened in Lima School after the battle?"

When Kanae asked the question, the two quarrelling men turned serious. Patrick nodded his head. "They’re cleaning up the ruins while being careful in case they find Ferdinand. Many of the corpses are buried, so they have to dig for a long time to find them again."

"So far, they have only found Ayres and Iris. However, the parents of the missing children are causing quite some trouble on the site. They’re adamant on taking revenge to Ferdinand for killing their children," Dean rubbed his forehead. He had received the news from the officer, who was also his friend this morning. They were having a lot of problems because of this matter.

"It’s dangerous. If Ferdinand is still alive, no one can guarantee their safety," Kanae frowned.

"We have told them that, but most of them didn’t want to listen," Patrick replied somberly. "For parents who love their children, they’ll do anything for their child. Even if it’s already futile, they want to take revenge on the dead children who died because of him."

The word ’revenge’ was extremely common to happen in this city. The cycle has never stopped because there would be more and more victims every day out of the crime. Many of the cases never showed up to the surface as they didn’t possess enough background to be important people.

Revenge could never turn back the person they loved back from the dead’s land. It would only give satisfaction to them and maybe, stop the person from taking more lives. But if they live for the sole purpose of revenge, they would only feel emptiness by the end of the time.

"Not everyone will have the chance to stand on the same cover with that man," Patrick raised his head. "Can you survive if you have to stand in front of him again, Kanae?"

"I..." Recalling the brutal fight when she fought against Ferdinand with Kevin made her feel bitter. Even though it was exhilarating to fight alongside Kevin in a great sync, it was pressing when they couldn’t defeat Ferdinand at all. Even at the end, they couldn’t be sure that they had managed to kill the man and stopped the ruthless cycle of numerous kids’ death.

"I don’t know."

Patrick pointed to her bandages. "In that condition, I’m sure that even standing up is pretty difficult for you."

"Well, standing up not really hard," Kanae scratched her head. "It’s harder to walk rather than stand."

"If he’s truly alive, we can’t fight against him too."

Patrick raised his hand, which was full of blisters and torn skin. Some parts were bandaged, but he didn’t want them to make him unable to use his finger, so the doctor could only cover part of his palm and finger.

"I can’t control my spear at all."

Kanae turned her head to Dean, but the latter also shook his head. "Like I say, I’m the master of the street. I can’t fight against him unless I’m courting death."

Even though he said it like it was nothing, the real meaning was he had turned old. Dean had stayed on the street for a much longer time and faced numerous things. But different from some people who could maintain their strength even after they aged, Dean wasn’t successful.

Granted, he was still far stronger than most people. However, he wouldn’t be able to fight against a monster like Ferdinand. Staying alive after several seconds would be a great achievement for him.

"This will be difficult," Kanae frowned. Not a single one of them was in the condition to fight. If they pressed on, they would be the one to be killed in action.

But if by sacrificing their lives, they could kill him, will they do it?

No one knew the answer for sure.