Chapter 5. Encounter in the Garden

The Night-Blooming Garden was the most beautiful and popular place in the Cloud City. More than a garden, it would be more appropriate to describe it as a forest, but as it was located in the heart of the city and a long road crossed it, many would go there, especially at night, when the most beautiful flowers would open with the beginning of each season.

As everywhere else in the Cloud City, it was peaceful and quiet for the most part, but there were also stalls on the sides of the main road for the passerby. It was no strange that Soul Guardians enjoyed visiting the garden. Still, Estée couldn’t believe it when, a month after the examination, she went out of her master’s manor and found Ayla sitting alone on a stone bench and drinking to her heart’s content.

She even blinked and rubbed her eyes, but it was indeed her friend.

“Ayla?”

The petite girl looked up and opened her mouth slowly, only to close it again.

"What's with you?" Estée asked, carefully putting away the almost empty bottle Ayla was holding “Did something happen in your new place?”

It was too soon to have problems, and besides Ayla was the kind of person who would never have a problem with anything. In ten years, she’d never seen her complain once, but now...

Was she... crying?

"Ayla..."

She sat next to the silent girl.

They had been best friends for so long, and knew each other the best. The life in Blue Castle had been lonely the first ten years, before Ayla, who was barely an 8-years-old kid then, arrived one day with big puppy eyes that reflected her fear for her surroundings. Estée could never go back to her biological family, since she was no longer aging, and Ayla became the little sister she so much wanted to protect. She was her only family now.

“Can’t you tell me? I thought we trusted each other.”

Ayla sighed, and wiped away her tears with the sleeves of her shirt. When she decided to take a walk some hours before, drinking and shedding tears in such a pathetic way. Moreover, she wanted to keep the things that she'd found out that day in her heart, but at the same time wanted to share her grievances with someone else.

She’d been trying to hold herself together for weeks, but now Estée was here to comfort her, and she wasn't able to bear it any longer.

"I found my soulmate, Estée.”

Estée had never heard about Ayla having a soulmark, but it wasn’t strange since it was a very private matter that most of the time only concerned the two involved parties until the moment of the first encounter.

“Soulmate?” You have a soulmate?!” Estée asked excitedly, but the smile in her face quickly disappeared, realizing that Ayla’s current mood didn’t match what should definitely be a blessing to be celebrated. " Aren't those good news?"

"I also found my older sister, the person who abandoned me when I was a child." Ayla continued, and took back the bottle from her hands " He married my sister."

"How can that be?" Her frown increased " No one who has a soulmate mark can be so stupid, who is that bastard?"

She'd go and give the man a lesson.

"Master Chevalier" She laughed " Master Chevalier was supposed to be my soulmate. But it doesn't matter anymore. Lots of people can live without soulmates, isn't that so?"

Master… Chevalier? Estée’s mouth dropped, and then she recalled Ayla’s questions about him the day they ran into him.

“You… why didn’t you tell me before?” She hugged Ayla tightly.

But, how could Master Chevalier marry someone else when he already had a destined partner? Moreover, he must have lied about that since everyone believed his wife was his soulmate!

“And you are saying… his wife is your sister?”

“She apologized for abandoning me when I was a child.”

The bitch!

Not only she abandoned Ayla as a baby, but even took her soulmate from her. That Lady Chevalier must really have some killing intent towards his sister.

A soulmate was Heaven’s blessing. Two people who were perfectly matched and complemented each other, it was such a connection that couldn’t be ignored. After the first encounter, the longer they were together, the stronger they’d become, and one’s pain also translated in unbearable pain for the other. At least that’s what people said. There was never a record of soulmates going separate ways, who knew what could happen?

"This isn't right."

"Estée, you promise me this will never be mentioned again."

"But..."

"Promise."

The brunette sighed. There was nothing she could say in such a situation.

“Okay.”

Other than comfort Ayla.

“That’s not the worst part.”

“It isn’t?”

There was even more? Estée clenched her fists.

Standing up and stretching her body, Ayla put a smile in her face as if she were fine with it.

She was supposed to go on her first mission to hunt down demons in two days. Of course, being the first, she’d only go with the task of observing, and assisting her seniors only if some trouble arised, which was very unlikely to happen because the reports only pointed at small, newly formed demons.

However, it might be that in Master Rabi's eyes her abilities weren’t enough. Earlier her master called her to his office, and told her she wouldn’t be allowed on missions until she completed a two-year training in the manor first.

“What? Two years? But even I’m participating in observation missions already! Besides, everyone trains anyway, isn’t that the purpose of having a Master?”

This was clearly discriminating against one person, and it didn’t make sense due to Ayla’s ability.

“Master Rabi apologized.”

“Did he tell you why he took that decision?”

“It’s because Master Chevalier asked him so.”

Master Rabi told Ayla it couldn’t be helped. Since she was the soulmate of such an important person in the Cloud City, and no one could know what the result could be since they hadn’t bonded, he couldn’t risk exposing her to any dangers for the moment.

"I hate him."

This was what she concluded.

They weren’t anything to each other, yet he dared to interfere with her life in this way? To tell outsiders?

Ayla really, really hated Nox Chevalier.

***

This year the moon flowers were blossoming late, Ler noted. He wondered if it had some meaning.

Most people stopped to admire the beauty at the roadside in the Night-Blooming Garden, but he knew better.

True peace and perfect was the lake hidden in the deep forest. Even in his manor where those children would often make noise, so there wasn’t such a perfect place to meditate was this spot he found.

The spiritual energy in the Night-Blooming Garden was stronger than at any other point in the Cloud City. According to a legend, the reason for this was that the souls of the fallen guardians rested in the flowers until they, too, could reincarnate. Ler believed it was more likely true, therefore any changes in the blooming flowers aroused his interest. The answer, however, would remain a mystery as it should be.

He was musing over this as he made his way back to the road, when suddenly someone came running to his direction.

Of course, he stepped aside.

The girl fell to the ground.

“Oh God, Ayla!” Someone else yelled, another girl, who then made a polite greeting in front of him. “ I’m so sorry, Master Aldrich. She drank a bit too much.”

“It’s not because I’m drunk. I hate him. I’m going to kill him even if I end up dead too!”

He raised an eyebrow when he recognized the person who was standing up again. It was the petite girl who often went to the Pinky Cloud’s Cafe, the promising student under Master Rabi. This seemingly quiet girl was now threatening to take someone’s life?

“Who are you going to kill?”

“Nox Chevalier, of course, that son of a-”

She didn’t finish because the tall girl covered her mouth.

“I’m sorry, Master Aldrich. I’m so sorry. Please excuse us, we have to go.”

She wanted to kill Nox Chevalier? Clearly she shouldn’t drink, one needed a death wish to dare say those words about Lord Chevalier, who might as well be a prince in the Cloud City.

“Estée, it’s because of him… because of him I’ll never be a real Guardian. In two years Master Rabi will tell me the same thing. Everything is that bastard’s fault.”

“Shut up and come with me.”

When the brunette tried to take her hand, the short girl kicked her on the stomach.

“Let me go!”

Ler chuckled, then cleared his throat to quickly mask it. It would be better to solve this before attracting other people’s attention. Casting a spell on the girl, she lost consciousness immediately (it wouldn’t happen if she wasn’t so intoxicated) and picked her before she fell again.

“I’ll take her to the 8th Master’s Manor.”

“Ah, thank you, Master Aldrich. I swear Ayla isn’t like this.”

“I certainly hope so.”

A lazy, drunkard girl could never be a fine Celestial Guardian.