[Discontinued] New Sunrise Volume 2: Rise of the Dark Hound

Volume 2 Chapter 11 - Slow Days

"So tell me again as to why you're in Fenrir?" Mark asked Gray who was casually chatting with Miriam that lunch break, the entire day had nothing but exciting as she was quickly bombarded with questions asking her about her status as the Princess of the Nation.

"No reason," Gray lied, she had received a call from Miriam a few days ago explaining how Mark was 'cheating' on her with Alice and thus she begged for her parents to transfer to FDCA so that she can keep an eye on Mark and make sure she won't get her hands on him. She was confident that Mark wouldn't cheat on her but Mark is still an ordinary young man with hormones, and she knows of Alice's reputation around people so she was making sure that Mark wouldn't succumb to the temptation that is Alice.

"Right sure," Mark answered unconvinced that she was telling the truth and decided to just walk away.

As soon as Mark was out of earshot, Gray stood up and walked out of the room while shooting a look at Alice who was busy tinkering with her phone and then followed after her. Eventually the two girls made their way towards the hallway and into a secluded spot where nobody can overhear their conversation, as soon as they were alone Alice gave Gray a smug and somewhat teasing look on her face all the while Gray crossed her arms and gave her a glare.

"Alright I'm gonna make things clear," Gray said giving her a hard look. "Stay away from Mark, he's mine."

"Are you done?" Alice replied in a low voice causing Gray to give her a confused look.

"As far as I know you two aren't in a relationship or engaged whatsoever." Alice replied with a calm look on her voice. Gray winced from her response as she was right in a way, the two are just friends and cousins on paper, they weren't in a relationship. Satisfied with this, Alice walked away and began to make her way back to the classroom.

"So that's how it's gonna be huh?" Gray said clenching her fists with determination. It helped that she had been reading novels and consuming other forms of media coming from the Sakuramori Shogunate where the Childhood friend had become the winner in a love triangle.

And so she was determined to achieve such an ending.

Meanwhile back at Mark, he was having difficulty in holding things recently. This had been a reoccurring problem for him since the Siege had ended, his fingers would get numb, thus providing difficulty in handling things and sometimes he'd have this stabbing sensation in the fingers. This leads to a check-up to a nearby doctor informing him of what was his current condition.

"It's Carpal tunnel." The Doctor told Mark as he was accompanied with Joshua who also noticed the strange symptoms that Mark had been showcasing. Turns out the prolonged use of Arthur had caused this due his constant switches between modes.

"But don't worry," The Doctor said with a smile. "It's still minor and very much treatable."

"That's a relief." Joshua said with a sigh of relief as he clenched Mark's shoulder as Mark smiled as well.

"Just wear splints and take some medicine and you'll be good in no time." The Doctor said as she started writing the prescription for the medicine that Mark will be taking. "Oh and you need to cease whatever is the cause of your Carpal tunnels."

"So no training for now." Mark said disappointedly with a dry laugh. It had been a common habit for the father and son to spar, sometimes with Miriam but she was busy trying to befriend Alice instead.

"Oh don't worry I'm sure you have other ways to kill time," Joshua said with a chuckle as Mark was now wearing the hand splints for both of his hands. It was a pain to deal with but it had to be done so that Mark is able to use Arthur with extreme efficiency once more.