Mr. Elephant stared at the table for an entire minute or so, with a blank mind. If it were an ordinary person, they would think he was using his eyes to count the money ensembled on the desks. At the end, it wasn't something he cared about as he yanked all of it off the edge and sat with his hands ripping out whitening hair.
"Hilarious...Elephant..." The glowing full white figure spoke as she stopped floating and landed on her feet with the sound of water ripples. The floor was completely dry for reference and her footsteps had stained it a colourful holographic tone to it, as if it were a design for the marble tiles. A little bit of blood stains had been left as her fingers bled golden blood.
The transition from glowing white, to a golden and then finally, before touching the ground, a mixture of all colours from the light spectrum. Once it touched the surface of the floor, it became a deep red. This was a symbol of a real Guardianship, which no other human could replicate, or so they were told.
Mr. Elephant turned depressed as he forgot to listen to what Aefia had said before closing the door. It would have been a better option to keep her in the room, since her interference kept the lurking Guardian at bay. Now, his throat was squeezing on itself. He didn't dare to look up at her at any cost.
Silence suddenly flicked her wrist and the radiant glow turned into liquid as if shedding a cover in the form of a gift wrap. Her hair was slowly glowing at the tips, an ornate light yellow and her eyes extremely golden, even the pupils were slightly silver-black. Her pale complexion mirrored with a stern face while her head presented a floating crown with many intricate charms that settled between the wires made out of beryllium.
Her feet were slightly elevated as if wearing high heels that were invisible with only a small circle at the center which moved like water. The dress was a Greek mythology inspired, that copied the idea of what Persephone would wear. Behind her, as if she weren't radiant enough, a halo with her only wing that just appeared from the side. It was said that the other one was ripped apart during a fight alongside an enemy.
Not much story of the Guardians were told and to see one in real-life in their real form was a danger alert. What it resembled, no one knew, but why it was so, because once someone saw one, the next day was an ill-fated day for that person. The most well-known last words were, "don't anger them, threaten them, or misjudge them."
In this case, multiple things about Mr. Elephant had been revealed and as a Guardian present at all time around the boundaries of this competition, she had made sure no other mentors could cross the line and a simple warning was placed. Although, sometimes there was a giant presence of another Guardian, most probably a group. Especially from the girl who had left a few seconds ago.
"Suspicious little girl, who is she truely and what are her links of information? I thought you had gotten extremely dumb students who wouldn't figure out a thing? And now she is bossing you around, giving you instructions?" Silence spoke with a devastating face which could outshine even Aefia's display of it. Added to that, her power was high compared to everyone else.
"Many things are off about her. She seems to be way more powerful than anyone and her magic energy is a mixture, not a single. I want to investigate her, by using you." The speech continued and stopped for a short while. "But you aren't capable of doing it. I need someone else who is closer to her. Do you have any ideas? If you don't I will figure out what to do to you, for breaking a Guardian's promise."
Then what's the different between you and the Torture Cell's leader? Might as well face them off yourself. Mr. Elephant stayed silent for a long time until a slam jolted him awake from his thoughts. "I want answers, not stares." She spoke with a low but sharp voice. Her finger, that had been holding the traditional weigh scale, left hints of her stay around this place with bloody stamps of it.
"Then I am settling for that girl called Nada." Suddenly, Mr. Elephant stood up and hesitently spoke out. "They had been keeping their distance for a long time now. She is much closer to one of our mentors." He spoke while keeping his eyes looking towards the ground.
"Who is that mentor?" Silence spoke with sheer excitement. A last and final reply hung in the air, "Avry Tober".
***
Aefia strolled towards the reception with a heavy face and a blank mind. The woman in the front glanced up to face her as she hurried around with an envelope. Noticing this, she held out a hand to stop her moving wrist and smiled as a few words felt out. "Don't worry, I just terminated my contract with this competition." And a shock settled onto the woman's face upon hearing the word 'terminated'.
"Have you already done it? Or are you going to do so right after this?" She spoke while placing her palms against the marble counter's cold surface. "It's already been done, including the payment." The young girl in front of her replied as if it weren't a great matter to her. The woman rubbed her forehead with her left hand while using the right to put back the envelope inside the drawer. It was sensible that there was a question she really wanted to ask.
"The duchess doesn't want me to stay put inside this office more then half the day. She is going to place me inside another more public school where...I don't know why exactly she wanted to do that in the first place, but I did try to tell her I had another school I was attending. She only said there was no need for me to travel from the palace to the office on a daily basis, so she was going to place me closer to home." She replied noticing the worrisome face of the financial manager of the competition.
Of course, once she had become a royal member of the family, she had equiped a joker card with which she was allowed many things that could lead her to more closer details about the Torture Cell, or even an escape from trouble. At least because of that, she was now finally stumbling across the truth of this world, and the truth behind the Guardian's intentions. Only one major question hung in her mind on a daily basis, who were the Guardians behind her now?
"You are not here for anything then?" Ms. Panther spoke as she sat on the chair with her hands now occupied with a pen and a notebook. Her eyes stayed locked into the blank paper where lines appeared from the tip of the glass pen. "I am still astonished at how you were confident to move across the Guardians' rules and terminate a contract you had signed back when you were not here."
Aefia nodded as she stepped closer against the counter. "I am here to buy a few more of the bullets. I just want to keep them in stock since the duchess will be using me against some distanced battles." She spoke while dropping the shells of a few onto the table. "I am honestly going to miss collecting these. Maybe someday I will step foot onto this territory again, or will I not be able to?" She looked down at the woman who pretended not to notice her.
"How many do you want?" She spoke while rustling through a box of bullets and finally bringing out a hundred of each kind. She recollected the shells and shoved it into a serperate basket with an irritated manner. "I won't answer your question unless you have answered mine." She stayed silent after that, while watching the young girl in front of her wave a hand over them and the bullets faded away into her inventory.
"I don't think I need to explain why I left the competition." Aefia spoke with shadowed eyes while stepping back and placing two bundles of money as a price for the bullets she was taking along with her. "But maybe if you answer my question, I will use it as an example to answer your question too. Isn't that how things work in this competition?" Her eyes stood out with the dark maroon colour appearing in a sort of gradient with the base black.
"You will not be able to come back here the next time. So you better say your farewells in an orderly manner, before the Guardians start chasing behind you for terminating a very resourceful thing." Ms. Panther stood up and stared into the young girl's eyes as a smile resurfaced on her pale complexion.
"Guardians?...or a single person who acts like a Guardian?" She spoke through shadowed eyes as a jolt of shiver and realization crept up the woman's arms. She is strangely smarter then the groups of people we had recruited! What even is she?! This is a monster disguised as a human...a humanoid dragon?! No that's not a right description.
"I don't care about not being welcomed here...but that one Guardian is the thing you are trying to protect me from, is it not?" Her eyes lifted. "And I curiously found it really strange how you managed to fool a bunch of teenagers, who are basically dumb to start with, and forced then against something a mere Guardian had instructed you to do. But the thing is, did you not sense the difference in authority?"
"Don't break the rules any further young lady!" Ms. Panther slammed the table. "Am I the one who is breaking the rules? You are the one who is shouting at the face of a royalty." A villanish grin settled on top of her face with the slightly red, glowing iris. "And I have surprisingly leveled faster then the rest, so do assume your position before trying to fight me. Don't get me wrong...but are any of your students participating in the dungeons just yet? Because unfortunately, I had been since the first day and none of them did until now, isn't that just weakening them with side-effects?"
The woman sat back down on her chair. This girl was an impossible person to deal with. "Are you a humanoid dragon?" She asked after a short while with a crossed leg. Purplish red colour bloomed at the ends of her fingertips as a few rays of smoke hovered above them. And now...let's see if she will come over. Aefia thought while placing a finger in front of her mouth.
"Can't you tell? The Guardian of Silence is present in this building. Do you want to anger her? Use the information you get today about her, in a research where you will find out...that she isn't in fact one with the name on the list." Aefia spoke while wiping away all her expressions. "If you don't want to play fool anymore, you will be desperate like me. You did notice it all, haven't you? I had been busy too much lately."
"Just get going already. You won't be allowed to stay here anymore. Leave through the back door." She pointed towards the lawn as her skills were simultaneously deactivated and she shut her eyes with anger hovering over each of them. "Thank you for your service until now. I will appreciate it." The young girl in front of the reception answered while looking over and towards the lawn which was still covered in snow the last time she saw it. The place was incredibly clean and new foliage started to bloom as the fields slowly started to turn colourful.
After a short while, Ms. Panther glanced towards the space in front of her. Drops of blood fell from an invisible figure standing in front as she seemed to be staring at the retreating person who was now walking towards the outdoor areas. It was then that she realized what her words had meant and the request she had made.
It doesn't look wrong the way she had said it. Maybe the lies are really why she had quit just like that. I want to know, the same curious way that was told, why does the competition only have teenagers and not a range of people? Is it because this organization is for other reasons? The revealations like what said, they aren't real...are they?
She diverted her eyes towards the bundle placed in front of her. The table now looked boring and she too wanted to investigate the matter. But it was already a little too late since the girl was now walking away, permanently from this office and there was no saying when they would meet again. A huge responsibility seemed to have burdened over her now, was the Torture Cell really the destroyer of worlds?
***
Aefia walked up towards the exit, heaving a deep breathe before stepping outside. Upon entering the woods, an abnormal sense of someone following her, made her ears prick towards the sound. Before she could fully turn back, a figure jumped out from behind a tree and held her still on the grass-laid ground.
Two knives, in two hands and a sobbing face, Nada seemed to have caught her. "I heard every single thing. From your contract termination to how you had just explained the facts about the Guardians." Her hair shielded her face from view and the sun's rays went past them, casting a long shadow.
"I did what needed to be done. I couldn't change the fact that I needed to find out the truth behind the competition." Aefia spoke while holding the wrists from plummeting at her. The worst part, the cloak was strangling her with the back part being pulled tightly. Why does this always happen? Problems seem to follow me every step I take!
"And were you arrogant to forget about rescuing the rest of us?" A calmer tone was heard, but the strength was still not decreasing, but increasing at a very fast pace. "I thought you were smart when you said you were leaving, but when I heard you were leaving with us being tied to this competition, I didn't really want to believe it was you. I thought you were smart enough to be able to figure out what you wanted done in the blink of an eye? Is this your maximum as a cousin? You said you wanted to protect me from the dangers, but you just laid the dangers out yourself."