Legend | Celeste Academy Series BK #2

Chapter 15 ♕ What Once Was Lost Will Return

It had already been more than an hour and a half since Rowe and the others departed. Charles was off somewhere having his usual conversation with Tamara who, as usual, continued to tease him until they eventually started yelling at each other. The twins were bickering as anticipated, arguing over which was better between sailing during the day or at night.

Raziel, on the other hand, was admiring the view of the ocean as he stood upon the ship. The sixth-ranker described the scene poetically, his words so heart-touching that some of the crews listened closely to his performance—which encouraged him to continue and further inflated his ego. Elfre looked more than aggravated listening to him blabber on and screamed at him for being so annoying. Raziel replied dismissively, saying that she did not know how to appreciate the art of words.

Corvan was unsurprisingly the quietest of them all, seemingly unperturbed by the things happening around him. His green eyes reflected the golden sun, the direction where the previous ship was headed.

A breeze blew against his face, playing with his hair as it cooled his slightly sweaty skin. His eyes narrowed slightly at this, knowing that this wasn't the ordinary sea breeze. It was something more, and he knew what it was.

"Rowe," Corvan whispered as he turned. "What happened?" He asked, eyeing the man before him—or his soul, rather.

"I don't feel delighted to bring you this news." Rowe answered, his face looking guilty and worn.

He was barely visible to the eye, but his words echoed into Corvan's ears as if he was really there. Until now, the first-ranker did not feel comfortable being able to see through him as if he was only a veil on a bride's face. It felt strange.

"Tell me." He said.

"There was a demon on board." Rowe told him. "I did not notice it immediately since I'm not that sensitive to their presence—not to mention they used a masking, but when I did, it had already been too late."

The others seemed to have notice Rowe's presence that they came forward in wonder.

"What's going on?" Asked Elfre. "Did something go wrong?"

Elfre's question was ignored and Corvan continued to press on about the matter, feeling bothered about the recent incident he unfortunately wasn't able to be in.

"A demon?" He narrowed his eyes. "Where is it? What did it do?"

"That demon was a mere doll. The puppet master is somewhere else. I'm sorry, everyone. Because of the fact that I wasn't cautious enough, it got Valeriana."

"Valeriana?!" Everyone gawked at the second-ranker.

"Is she alright?" Tamara worriedly exclaimed. "How is she?"

"She . . ." Rowe sighed as he turned to everyone. "Got stabbed and fell into the water."

"WHAT?!" They all roared.

"And you left her?"

"You know that I am literally powerless when it comes to things like these." He said. "My familiar does not possess any abilities to save her. Keelan was experiencing sea sickness. Brindon and Aneeka didn't have familiars just yet and they were both engaged in battle against the demon." He shook his head.

"Simple to say, you weren't able to do anything?!"

"I jumped in and tried to save her. God knows how long I've been swimming, but there was no sign of her."

Corvan turned away and gripped the edge of the ship's railings as he clenched his jaw while the others looked beyond distraught.

"That . . . stupid . . ." He sighed.