Chapter 22

"Sassy this is Ignis, Ignis this is Sassy. The friend I was talking about." I introduced them to each other after arriving in Hailec's place.

"Hi! It's nice to meet you Ignis!" Sassy greeted cheerfully.

"Hi, it's nice meeting you too, Señorita," Ignis responded shyly.

"Woah there! I'm no royalty, okay? Sassy is fine." Sassy corrected.

"Okay, Sassy," Ignis said still a little awkward with Sassy's enthusiasm.

"I've prepared your rooms," Hailec said after appearing all of the sudden.

"Kimean!" Sassy called out as he followed Hailec inside the house.

"I thought his name was Hailec?" I asked Ignis after realizing that Sassy was talking about the baylan.

"Only a few one's knew that the real name of the Punong Baylan is Kimean Hailec Ledesma. And very few are given the privilege to call him with that name. I think your friend holds a special spot in his life now." She said and gestured me to follow the two first.

"Sassy," Hailec's warning tone welcomed us, as we enter his living room.

"But I want to stay with them!" Sassy said pouting.

"It's dangerous for a mundane to stay in a room with the Fantasians." He said not looking at my friend.

"I've slept with Fhyra a thousand times before!" Sassy insisted.

Ignis and I exchange glances. It's been a while since we came here, and yet they were too busy to notice us.

"Fhyra is a special case!"

"Hello? I'm here!" I interrupted after hearing them mentioning my name. They both turned around to face us.

Sassy glared at him before she ran towards us and clings her arms around mine and Ignis'.

"I'll be staying with them tonight. It's girls night!" she said not minding Hailec's disapproving look.

"Don't worry. My persona is as weak as a muranda." Ignis guaranteed him with a smile.

I just learned about that from my lessons too. Staying with Fantasians for a long time was critical for normal people. Especially the Flamias and Glacias, it's because our personas use their body temperature to gain more energy.

Now that I've thought of this. Why does mom and dad allow her to stay over and sleep with me? Is it somehow connected to her being a guardian? Or were they aware of Sassy being one of my guardians as well?

"I told you it's a girl's night tonight!" Sassy whined when she opened the door.

We were busy listening to Igris' stories about the various 'types' of Fantasians, when we heard a knock on the door.

"Oh! You're here?" I heard Sassy said with a hint of surprise.

I tilted my head a little to see who was at the door since I don't feel any presence aside from Hailec, Sassy, and Ignis.

My eyes bulged and I stood up almost immediately and headed towards the door.

I heard Sassy gasped when she saw me rushing towards Cool. I buried my face on his broad chest.

I felt him circled his arms around me and gently massage the back of my head. I started sobbing immediately, I felt like all my pent up emotions came rushing out of my eyes.

He swept my feet off the ground and carried me inside the room, he sat on the sofa bed and place me on his lap, then I heard the door close later on.

I also felt the presence of the three people left the room as well.

"Shhh... I'm sorry." He kept on whispering while he continued gently caressing my hair.

"You-you l-left m-me." I was struggling in completing the words I wanted to say.

"I didn't. I was always around you." He said.

"No. L-liar." I stubbornly said and buried my face in the crook of his neck.

"Am not." He whispered gently.

"I just needed to stay out of everyone's eyes for your safety." He clarified. I put a small distance between us, enough for me to look at his face.

"Why?" I asked.

"One of the members of the Royalties is a darkess. I needed to be out of the picture to investigate about that." He said while wiping the tears that stained my face.

He then stared directly at my eyes.

"I also found out about the telepathy thing." My interest was piqued after hearing his words.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I needed to contact the Glaciers' librarian for help though." He said and put the stubborn hair strands of mine behind my ears.

"We also have the book of prophecy in our library, it turned out that the book the Flamis had isn't complete." He continued, I was just listening to him attentively.

"There's another page after the part we had read. And it specifies that there are four guardians, one for each tribe of flamis, glaciers, baylans and mundanes."

"So Sassy was really a guardian?" He nodded, confirming.

"I also looked into that, Sassy came from the line of the few people who were aware of the Narte Fantasia." My mouth gaped when I heard about my friends' ancestral history.

"That's one of the reasons why her mother and your parents allowed you two to hang out."

"But isn't it dangerous for her to be around fantasians for a long time? She's still a mundane, after all." I asked him.

"Since they were the only mundanes who were aware of our existence, they were given a gift. In able to help us, they were immune to our personas, meaning our presence isn't crucial for them unlike for normal people." He explained.

I nodded when I finally caught on the idea.

"So going back, there are four guardians for the fated savior and one of them is the fated shield. The one with the strongest connection to the savior."

"And you are that fated shield?" I concluded.

"That's my and our librarian's conclusion." He honestly answered.

He remained silent after that. He just let me absorbed the informations. I already returned on my original position which was sitting on his lap, my hand around his shoulders, and my face on the crook of his neck.

I felt comfortable.

I felt home.

"Ignis said the guardias took you that night. Where did they take you?" I asked when I remembered what happened the night before he disappeared.

"Blaze took me." I immediately distanced myself to face him.

"What? Did he hurt you—" I was cut off when he started chuckling.

"What's funny?" I asked a little bit irritated by his reaction.

"You've been barking on the wrong tree, Princess." He said which brought me more confusion.

"All of this was Blaze's idea." He said which made my jaw drop.