𝔖𝔬, ℑ 𝔊𝔬𝔱 ℜ𝔢𝔦𝔫𝔠𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔞𝔱𝔢𝔡

ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 52

"Disaster."
~※~

It was chaotic. There was a lot of screaming. People are in a state of terror as a result of the massive fire in the city's eastern outskirts. That Draconian was launching an attack from the east. Hindi namin alam kung nasaan ang mga kasama nito ngayon, pero kailangan naming lumaban.

"What's the plan?" I asked her. We were riding horses back to our ship. Nahihirapan pa kaming dumaan sa main road dahil sa mga Altherian na tumatakbo papalayo.

"Fight," she replied with her confident smirk. As always.

Then, she noticed something was off. "What's with you anyway? You fell into some water or something? And where did you get that coat? Wa'g mong sabihing gusto mong lumipat?!"

She was screaming at me while we rode our horses through the shortcuts. Halos mawalan ako ng malay ng isang segundo pero agad kong kinurot ang kamay ko habang pinapatakbo ang kabayo.

"Hey, Himeko!" she shouted, concerned.

"I'm not gonna switch sides! And...I'll...tell you later!"

"Ugh, alright!"

Nakarating kami sa ship at dahan-dahan akong napatingin sa paligid. All right. All clear. Jinsei is not in sight. I'm safe.

"Himeko?" Lisandrei looked confused seeing me run directly towards the stairs. Iniiwasan ko kasi si Jinsei.

Instead of asking me further, Lisandrei shrugged and left me be. Nakita ko pa itong pumunta sa kitchen kung nasaan si Mason.

"Mason! Get your things ready and fly the ship elsewhere!"

"Damn! I can hear you clearly, Tandang-Lisa!"

Pagdating ko sa ibaba ng deck, agad akong napahinto dahil sa papalabas na Jinsei.

"Jin..." I gulped and my eyes widened for a quick millisecond before regaining my normal expression.

I force a natural smile.

Yes, act normal Himeko—

"What is this...strange," his gaze turned confused.

The next second, I saw how his eyes changed its gaze the moment he smelled something.

"Something's mixed up," his eyes immediately glint in red and looked at me. Mabilis itong lumapit sabay hablot ng damit ko at pinalapit ako. He was inspecting. "What did you—"

Mabilis ko siyang hinila papasok sa mini library ng ship.

"Don't tell anyone," I whispered and look him in the eye. I was slowly losing my focus and strength but I was able to recover.

"Did you..." he close his eyes, trying to process everything. Napahilot pa ito sa noo at napapikit.

Yep, he can smell it clearly. How do I explain this to him? I closed my eyes and sighed. As I opened my eyes, he was pointing at something.

Tinuro niya ang upuan.

"Sit. Down."

"But I have to prepare—"