Kings On The Horizon (Vol. 1-3) ✓

44 | Recovering

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MAX SLOWLY OPENS HIS eyes. He stares at the ceiling in front of him and realizes that he was now back in his bedroom. He turns his head and looks at the window, only to find out that it's already morning. He must have been asleep for an entire day.

     "You're awake," a voice says, and Max immediately turns his head to the other side to see Marcus approaching him with his eyes almost red, hinting that he didn't sleep properly.

     "What time is it?" Max asks as he slowly sits up, Marcus assisting him as he did so. His head and body were aching, but he tries to adjust to the environment.

     "It's 8:00 am. I requested an absence slip for you so you don't have to worry. Just rest for now; I'll get you breakfast," Marcus answers, but before he could leave the room, Max grabs him by the arm and asks, "What happened?"

     Marcus doesn't look back at him. He takes a deep breath and slowly pulls his hand away from his brother. "We'll talk about this after you eat," he says as he finally takes his leave.

     Max takes a deep breath and massages his temple. As he waits for his brother to come back with food, Max leans to his side table to grab his laptop. He turns it on and quickly types the words "J.S High." He clicks enter, and the first thing that can be seen is a news article with a picture of the greenhouse. Well, what's left of it.

     "A gas leak was said to be the cause of an explosion that occurred inside the campus of J.S High yesterday, September 12, 2023, at exactly 10:15 AM. There were no reported injuries as there were no students or staff present during the incident. The representatives of the school announced that they wish to handle this situation privately, and will no longer give any further statements."

     Max stares at the picture of the greenhouse, and simply just seeing the aftermath almost made Max lose his composure again. As he starts to recollect everything that happened, his hands begin to tremble. But before it could get any worse, the door opens, and Max immediately closes his laptop and puts it back on the table.

     "Thankfully they reheated this," Marcus suddenly says as he enters the bedroom holding a tray of food. A maid then appears behind him with a bed tray, placing it in between Max's legs so he could have his breakfast in bed.

     The maid bows and leaves the room, and Marcus places the food on top of the bed tray.

     "I know you don't have much of an appetite, but I hope you eat as much as you can. You'll be drinking your medicine later," Marcus says, and Max nods his head and diligently start eating the rice porridge that's in front of him.

     "What happened to Red?" Max finally asks.

     Marcus takes a deep breath and sits on the edge of the bed. "He's fine. Like you, he's getting treatment, but hopefully, he'll be back after a week."

     "Do you know who did it? Was it really a gas leak?" Max then asks.

     "So you read the news," Marcus says before looking away from his brother. "Uncle didn't want any drama, so he had to lie. But to answer your question, no, we couldn't find any suspect, but it was definitely not a gas leak. We thought it would be Viktor, but it wasn't him."

     Max knew that the others would suspect Viktor. It even crossed his mind that maybe it was him since Viktor practically warned him the other day about what he did with Jokers. But Max somehow couldn't think of any reason why Viktor would blow the greenhouse up. "Viktor would never do that," Max says before taking another scoop of his porridge. "I don't know why, but I have this gut feeling that he wouldn't."