“Hatchi!”
This was the fourth time Jonah had sneezed in less than half an hour, disturbing his concentration.
“Not feeling well, Jonah?” His chess opponent, Michael, asked with a chuckle. It wasn’t just a simple question, but more of a mockery. “I get it if you can’t beat me. You can use health reasons.”
Jonah looked at the person in front of him. His neighbor, who lived downstairs, always irritated Jonah with his chatter. However, Jonah had lived side by side for eighteen years to make him understand it was Michael’s way of joking. Although not every time Jonah can accept Michael’s jokes.
“I’m fine. Maybe someone is talking about me so I’m sneezing.”
Jonah moved the position of his chess piece. Now he has a pawn ready to put Michael at checkmate.
“Speaking of you? Who?” Michael paused for a moment, “Hm… looks like no one else is goin
Maya’s car stopped in front of the library. A shiny lemon-yellow city car. Before this, Gemma had never asked where Maya could get a car, considering that her job as a manager could not provide her with the luxury of a car. But now Gemma was suspecting that maybe the rebels were funding Maya.That is, if Maya is a rebel. Gemma didn’t know for sure because so far all she had were assumptions.Gemma took the guitar in one hand and walked to the car. She put her guitar in the back passenger seat, then she sat in the passenger seat next to the driver.Maya stomped on the gas pedal, bringing them forward through the evening atmosphere in the city of Ayria, which was slowly getting quieter.The people who were still on the sidewalk walked in a hurry while bowing their heads. If they had experienced happiness all day before, that feeling was now invisible on their faces. There was only anxiety because it was late this afternoon, but they were still n
The Draconian slashed its hand at someone within its reach, and in the blink of an eye, the person was lying on the floor. His skin became very wrinkled and there was no longer flesh in his body. There is only a black hole where the eyes should be. Three slashes ran across the man’s chest, where the Draconian had lodged its sharp fingers. There was no blood flowing there, only a black deep wound that looked as empty as a deep fissure. Black liquid poured out of the human’s mouth, along with thick smoke.The guards fired at the creatures in desperation. Stupid. Of course, it was pointless. They cannot harm Draconians with ordinary weapons.The brief silence turned to panic and horror. Everyone was running aimlessly to save their lives.Draconians didn’t stay still. They moved and walked like convulsive people, but at incredible speed. They all spread out and didn’t give their prey a chance to escape. The Draconian ran and crept up the wall
“Is it hurt?” Nero looked up to look at Gemma as he asked. Gemma shook her head slowly. “Tell me if it hurts, I’ll be more careful.” Nero continued to bandage Gemma’s palms. Gemma didn’t say what happened to her, because no one would believe it. Nero hadn’t asked about that either. For some reason, Gemma felt calm. If she was with Jo now, Jo would have been asking all sorts of questions and putting on an overly worried face like Gemma’s father. They couldn’t go out before dawn, and Gemma thought Nero would just keep her in one corner of the King’s Door until they could get out from there. But it turned out Nero had other ideas. He grabbed the first aid kit that was in the nightclub and led Gemma to the emergency staircase that led up. King’s Door is located in the basement of a building used as a shopping center. Nero kept taking Gemma up and up until they reached the fifteenth floor. Nero opened the door leading to the inside of the b
What happened at King’s Door caused an uproar throughout Elenio. Dozens of human lives were lost, as well as revealing the dark side of Elenio, especially Ayria, which has been known as a peaceful country.Several people deemed responsible, including Heros, are now fugitives.All the news about it swirled in various media for days. They spiced most of the news and twisted to attract and sell. In fact, almost all the existing news only contains assumptions and does not match reality.The effects of what happened at King’s Door led the Archturians to conduct large-scale raids on illegal places in Ayria and the surrounding towns. This makes Gemma currently unemployed and only fills her days in the library.Gemma basically likes to read, because she likes to get new knowledge from the books she reads. So it doesn’t matter to her if she has to be confined in the library. After all, she also gets paid from Purity, although not as much as the m
Before heading back to the library, Jo took Gemma to the pharmacy and bought her a bandage and medicine to treat Gemma’s wound. Gemma’s hand was still bleeding when she entered the library. Purity frowned, then quickly got up from the chair, circled the book rental desk, and walked over to Gemma.“What happened?” she asked. Purity wasn’t good with expressions, so her face was expressionless when she asked. But Gemma knew Purity was worried about Gemma’s condition.“Fighting… as usual,” Gemma replied with a shrug.It was late afternoon when Gemma came home and the library was about to close, so there was no one here but Purity and Gemma. Gemma sat at the book return table, ignoring Purity’s buzz of protest, and spilled the contents of the plastic bag onto the table. She sat cross-legged and cleaned the wound in her right hand.Purity understands Gemma well enough not to offer her help because Gem
The speed of the train carried Gemma and Jo away from Ayria. Ever since Jo picked up Gemma, he kept asking questions about explosions during their fight, which eventually led Gemma to tell him about the incident at King’s Door. Although Gemma resented hearing Jo’s nagging, she tried to make sense of it. Gemma would also bombard Jo with questions if the same thing happened to him.“So, the Draconian who was crushed that time, because of the explosion from your hand?”Gemma nodded.Since yesterday, Jo had been trying to draw conclusions from his own conjectures, but none of them sounded right.“Are you on drugs?”Jo asked Gemma, who had been just staring out the window. She tried to enjoy Elenio’s nature, which contained expanses of meadows, as well as forests in misty valleys. But attempts to distract herself from the bothersome thing don’t work, because Jo keeps talking about it.Gemma tilted h
Today is the strangest and most awkward day in Gemma’s history. How could she not? She had to meet her father after three years. They had not spoken to each other. Then, Gemma is now under the same roof with two strangers. One of them was someone whose jacket she was wearing now.“Who the hell is he, Jo?”Gemma asked while occasionally biting the tip of her thumb. Her childhood habits resurfaced, maybe because now she was at home.The two of them sat on the floor in the corner of the living room where Gemma’s father lived and left the door leading to the foyer open. This was done simply so that they could stare at the stairs. Gemma and Jo were now just like little kids, full of curiosity.It had been about an hour since Nero and the woman introduced by the name Sarah had gone up to the second floor, where Uncle Jonah, Jo’s father, lived.Gemma knew Jonah was also an Archturian, who was placed in the Public Relations an
Michael grabbed the flashlight and turned it on. He pointed a flashlight at everyone there. Every single person, except Michael, had pulled out their weapons.Michael let out a surprised voice, like someone suffocating when he saw Gemma holding Einar.“Since when did you have that black knife, Gemma? Did you get it from the black market for wanting to be an Archturian?!”Gemma groaned in annoyance. How could her father discuss such things at a critical time, like now?“That’s mine,” replied Nero, his voice deep and even as usual.Michael aimed the flashlight right in Nero’s face, making his eyes narrow. Even though Gemma couldn’t see Michael’s face right now, Gemma could imagine the expression on it. His nose must have been blowing up and down from holding back the anger that was bubbling up inside him.“Nero, Sarah, check where the explosion happened.” Jonah gave orders right away.
“Re—a relationship?” Gemma stammered. “What do you mean?” Gemma was just about to tell Nero to forget what had happened between them. Especially after Gemma found out that Nero had been in charge of watching her all along, and he knew all of Gemma’s movements and habits. And after what Jo said, about Gemma being unable to be in a relationship with anyone… starting it now sounds like a bad idea. “You don’t understand?” There was disbelief in the way Nero asked the question. Yes, of course he didn’t believe it. Gemma wasn’t a child who didn’t understand Nero’s question. “It’s not like that...” Gemma said. “I understand.” Gemma closed her eyes for a moment as she took a deep breath. As she did so, she could hear a voice from inside her head. Either her own voice or Lanaya’s. This is wrong. “Then what is your answer?” Gemma opened her eyes, blinked, then looked at Nero. “Should I answer it now?” “I’m sure you’ll have the answer as soon as I ask.” “You know me very well, don’t yo
The time setting for this chapter is after the terror incident in Fiend (Chapter: Act of Patience) and before Gemma trains with Servant (Chapter: Mind Over Matter).---Gemma had no idea what she was doing here.When Jo asked her out earlier, Gemma thought Jo was taking her to a lunch or asking her to investigate something. He had only said about making a visit before returning to Meubena, and Gemma did not know that Jo was referring to a visit to the Saint Anna orphanage.This is Sarah and Nero’s house.The way Gemma looked at Nero felt different now, after what they had been through. The alarm squealing that their relationship wasn’t the right thing was still sounding, and with Lanaya in her body, Gemma couldn’t act as she pleased.At least she couldn’t possibly kiss anyone right now. Gemma imagined Lanaya would let out a disgusted snort if she found Gemma doing it.But Gemma couldn’t avoid or forbid people from saying something to her.Just like Nero was doing now, in the gazebo in
The sound of three meters wide glass hitting the ground seemed to stop time for a while.Gemma and Nero froze where they stood, looking at each other wide-eyed. Their kiss stopped, even with any thoughts that had previously crept into their minds and clouded their vision.Everything happened in seconds, but every moment felt so slow.As the Draconians flying around the tower stopped and turned around. The roar, the flapping of wings, and the pair of red eyes that now turned to Gemma and Nero.“Run!” shouted Nero.Gemma took the initiative a split second before Nero gave the order. She ran towards the stairs, but stopped and gave way to Nero because Gemma didn’t know where to run.Neither of them carried any special weapons, and even though Gemma only found out yesterday that she wouldn’t die when hit by a Draconian’s claw, that didn’t mean Gemma would just fight them off with no weapons.Gemma’s palms throbbed as she followed Nero down the stairs. Several Draconians caught up with the
“Who would have thought he’s that crazy woman’s boyfriend?”“How can she act like that when she has a boyfriend?”Gemma nodded, agreeing with Nero’s words. They left the laser tag arena as soon as the matter with the man was resolved.It turns out that after Gemma took Nero away from the woman named Angel; she called her boyfriend and said that Gemma had hurt her. Her boyfriend came to the laser tag arena not long after and insisted to take part in the game.The misunderstanding was resolved when Nero asked the manager to show the CCTV footage shortly after the briefing was done. It’s clear that Angel approached Gemma and Nero first and Gemma did nothing to her.“You should have asked for compensatory damage,” muttered Nero.“I don’t want to prolong the problem.” It’s as if Gemma hasn’t had much of a problem.Then Nero looked at Gemma, who was walking beside him. “Sorry. We failed to win the competition.”Gemma shrugged. “No problem,” she said. “There are many other ways to earn money
After registering, Gemma received a vest with a pentagon-shaped light on the chest. She put on the vest, then tied her hair with a rubber band that she carried around her wrist. Nero handed her a black laser gun with an arm-length rope. He attached the hook at the end of the rope to the hook on the front of Gemma’s vest. “The rules are simple. Point your gun at your opponent’s front, at the light on the vest,” Nero explained, pointing to the pentagon light on Gemma’s vest which now glowed aquamarine. The lamp is divided into five parts. “If all these lights go out, it means you lose and you have to quit the game.” Then Nero pointed towards the door that was opposite the entrance. The door was wide open, and Gemma could see expanses of clearing with tall trees growing within a few feet of each other. “We will do outdoor games. The team that retrieves the suitcase in the abandoned house, on the other end, will be the winner.” Gemma nodded, telling Nero she understood. As Gemma raised
Their first stop was the restaurant Gemma used to go to with Jo. This restaurant is always full at lunchtime, and most of the visitors are students and office workers who are taking a break. Gemma could only grumble inside her heart as pairs of eyes stared hungrily at Nero, as if he was the main dish in this place. If this had happened to Jo, Gemma would definitely nag and glare at those flirtatious girls. “Where do you want to sit?” asked Nero. They stopped in the middle of the restaurant and became the center of attention, like a Christmas tree with twinkling lights. Gemma looked around in a huff before grabbing Nero’s arm and leading him to a row of benches outside the restaurant. “Let’s sit here,” said Gemma. Then she dragged a stool near them and motioned for Nero to sit down. Nero offered a small smile before he sat down and that smile didn’t go away when Gemma sat across from him. “What is it?” Gemma asked, while side-eyeing from time to time at the group of students who wer
The bonus chapters are the story of Gemma and NeroIt seemed Gemma had just drifted off to sleep when her cell phone rang loudly. It sounded like a nuisance alarm that made Gemma let out a lazy moan. She reached out and groped over the nightstand for the noisy object. Gemma opened her still-heavy eyes to find out who the human dared to disturb her sleep. She saw Purity’s name on the phone screen. Gemma glanced at the corner of the phone screen and found that it was now the library rush hour. Maybe Purity needs her help.“What is it?” Gemma’s voice was hoarse as her throat felt as dry as a desert.“Someone’s looking for you.”“Who?” Gemma asked as she rolled over on the bed. One hand parted the curtain to look at the sky. Today is sunny. The atmosphere was so peaceful that Gemma couldn’t believe that last night a terrible tragedy had occurred at King’s Door. After this, she would call Jo to find out what happened last night.“The man who drove you earlier.”“Huh?”Hearing this, Gemma s
Slam!The door slammed shut in front of Gemma and Lysis. They looked at each other, exhaled a long breath that was a form of patience. At least, today’s rejection is not as much as yesterday’s.Lysis was holding a stack of leaflets in one hand, while the other was holding a plastic bag containing the ingredients for their dinner.“Shall we try a few more houses?” asked Lysis reluctantly. His face brightened as Gemma shook her head. Gemma stared intently at the leaflet she was holding until it was crumpled.PREPARE YOUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE, BECOME A TRUE ARCHTURIANThe title of the leaflet she made by racking her brains. But the rejection that she and Lysis experienced wasn’t solely because of a bad title. It was more for the parents in Fiend who never really thought much about their children.“Even though we’re having a free promo…,” Gemma whispered, her voice sounding hollow.They walked along the broken pavement in the neighborhood a few blocks from Gemma’s house.Lysis glanced at Gem
Gemma looked up at the sky, which was now filled with black shards. Everything sounded like a buzzing in her ears, and she didn’t close her eyes as the ashes from the shattered bodies of the Draconians hit her face. After that, she knew Jo came to her and hugged her, protecting her body from the black rain.The four of them walked to the front of the building and found the injured Archturians mingling with firefighters and paramedics. The lights from the ambulance sirens and the fire engines flickered alternately, briefly reminding Gemma of the lights in a nightclub. Jo’s arms were still around her shoulders, as if afraid that Gemma would fall if Jo let her go.Out of all the chaos, Gemma found people she knew gathered in a corner at the edge of the forest. Uncle Jonah and Sarah, and two paramedics, who were packing their equipment. One paramedic turned to call his other friend, while another paramedic spoke to Uncle Jonah with a sad expression on his face. They were swarming somethin