Moonlight Blue

In the Lord’s mansion.

Barco was on the floor of his room shaking as the titan of a man stood beside him.

“P-please don’t kill me. I-I’ll do anything just please spare me.”

“Hehe, you don’t need to worry, Barco. I won’t kill you. Zeke told me not to. But just because I can’t kill you doesn’t mean I can’t play with you.”

Dread grabbed him by the neck as he threw him against the wall. Barco hit hard as blood dripped from his forehead.

“Hmm, you’re quite fragile. How annoying. Good thing I have a lot of intermediate-grade potions. That means we can play until all of them are used up.” Dread smirked.

Barco clawed his way onto the floor, trying to escape the person in front of him.

“You should’ve just done your part. If you did, I wouldn’t have come here. You see, you made me fail a mission I was given. That ‘person’ wasn’t happy of my failure. So, I’ll get rid of all that humiliation I’ve suffered by torturing you.”

“Please-please-please. Aaaaahhhh.”

The mansion echoed with screams of its owner.

Somewhere in the mansion.

“I see he’s enjoying himself.” said Zeke.

“Aren’t you worried he’ll kill him?” Asked Maeve.

“Nope. I gave him a bunch of mid-grade potions so he shouldn’t die. If he does on the other hand, then that would mean me and him will have to spend more time together which I doubt he wants.”

“I see. Did you perhaps freak him out after the thing in Volis?”

“Hey, I didn’t freak him out, okay. I just told him the truth.”

Women screams echoed throughout the mansion as laughter of men accompanied them.

“It seems Dread’s guys have taken the maids too.” Said Maeve.

Zeke remained quiet as he held in his disgust.

“It doesn’t matter. We’ve found what we were looking for.” Said Zeke as he took out a communication crystal ball and letters that were in a safe in Barco’s study.

“Destroying the evidence?” asked Maeve.

“Yeah. There is no doubt that the military will send some people to investigate what has happened here. Destroying the letters and the communication crystal ball will remove our hand in this. I guess I should be saying the Society’s hand in this. Dread on the other hand, will have to handle his own problems. That’s the reason why I’m actually on this mission with that muscle-head. People can’t know about our organisation as of yet.”

“I see.”

After a few minutes, everyone was gathering outside of the mansion. The Lord had a bloody body and was tied up with a rope. Dread’s man held the maids together as they drooled over them. Of course, they couldn’t partake without having permission from their boss so they had to hold it in.

Dread was sitting down on some corpses as gore covered him whole. Zeke and Maeve finally exited the mansion.

“What took you so long.” Asked Dread.

“Oh, nothing much. I was just cleaning after you.”

Dread clicked his tongue as he stood up.

“Boys. Take all those women and put them in a room in the mansion. I still need to teach those bastards who caused all of this.”

“Yes boss.” Shouted all his men.

“Are you coming with me this time too?” asked Dread as he looked at Zeke.

“Nah, I’ve got something to do.”

Dread glared at Zeke at the corner of his eye. He was pissed. What made him angry was how Zeke acted. He always kept to himself and never once divulged any information to Dread. He would just wander off and Dread wouldn’t even know where he had gone.

“Oh, before I forget. Don’t kill the ‘gifted’ guy out of the bunch. We’ll need him to manage the city after we leave this place.”

“Tsk, fine. I won’t kill him.”

“Well, if you want you can kill him. That’ll just mean you’ll have to stay here and manage this city.”

“I said I won’t kill him okay.”

“See ya.” Said Zeke as he walked off.

Now, knowing ‘her’ I’m pretty sure she has already set up a plan to get out of this situation. I wonder what her plan is? Thought Zeke as he grinned.

***

Naomi managed to arrive at the main base of the West Alley Gang. Everyone was outside having a feast. They were busy toasting and cheering as they enjoyed themselves. Jasper sat alone in the crowd as he held himself back from drinking. Raizer showed up, putting his arm around Jasper’s shoulder.

“What are you moping about, kid brother?” asked Raizer, drunk from the alcohol.

“It’s just, should we be celebrating without big sister?”

The joyous face disappeared from Raizer.

“She is the one who chose not to come so don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah, I know but-“

“No buts. Our sister kept a lot of secrets from us. You should be as angry as I am right now.”

Jasper kept quiet. Even though he was angry after Raizer had told him about the truth their sister was hiding from them, he couldn’t bring himself to hate her. After all, what she did, she didn’t just do it for herself but for them too.

“Now drink up brother and wash your worries away.”

As Jasper was about to drink, a distant yet familiar voice echoed throughout the base. It was Naomi, panting and huffing as she stopped to catch a breath.

“Sister?” murmured Jasper in surprise.

The moment Naomi entered the base, silence descended upon the space. A place that she once called home was now a den filled with nothing but wolves and hyenas, waiting to pounce at her. Everyone glared at her. She slowly approached Raizer as he stood up.

“Sister. Have you finally come to acknowledge me as your leader?”

Naomi didn’t respond and instead glossed over the space. Her eyes locked with Jasper who quickly looked away, embarrassed to look at his sister. She then slowly opened her mouth as words flowed out of it.

“We have to leave Waham.”

Silence instilled even further. An outburst of laughter ruined that as everyone there laughed hard.

“What are you talking about, sister. I thought you came here to apologise and enjoy the party with everyone. Instead, you’ve come with this bullshit-“

“It’s not bullshit. We have to leave right now.” Said Naomi as she stared Raizer down.

“And why should we leave?”

Sweat slowly dripped on Naomi’s face.

“That’s because we pissed off someone we shouldn’t have. I guess I should be saying a group. They are probably on their way right now. Pack everything you’ll need. We have to leave before-“

“STOP IT!” shouted Raizer.

A look of confusion dawned on Naomi’s face.

“You can’t just barge in here and start yapping about leaving.”

“NO, YOU SHUT UP! I’m fucking risking my life just by coming to get your ass. We need to leave now or all of us will die.”

Raizer, who had never seen his sister that agitated before stopped and pondered. A third-party voice echoed from behind Razier.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to listen to her, Raizer.”

It was Eren. He walked up to the two of them.

“I mean, how do we know that you’re not lying to us, huh?” asked Eren.

“What?!”

“I mean, you are a schemer, Naomi. That’s what you’re good at.”

“WHY WOULD I LIE ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THIS YOU FUCKING IDIOT!”

“I don’t know. All I know is that you haven’t been happy about Raizer being the leader. This could be a ploy to get Raizer out of the city to have it for yourself.”

Raizer’s brows furrowed as he thought through what Eren was saying.

“I WOULD NEVER, RAIZER?” shouted Naomi with a look of desperation.

Her look only made Raizer even more suspicious.

“What are you playing at here, Naomi? What’s your end goal?” asked Eren, glaring at Naomi.

Pissed, Naomi answered. “You think I fucking care about this city? You think I care about all of you, morons? I don’t give a shit if the whole lot of you died. The only thing I care about are my two dim-witted little brothers. So, Raizer, Jasper please believe me. We’ve already wasted enough time on this.”

Raizer looked at Naomi. Even though he wanted to believe his sister, he just couldn’t bring himself to.

“I’m sorry sister but I don’t believe you.”

Naomi was shaken by Raizer’s answer. Even though the past month, there hadn’t been much trust between the two. She still thought that when the going got tough, they would at least be there for one another.

She stilled herself as she looked over at Jasper, who wasn’t happy by the two’s skirmishes.

“Fine. But remember. I warned you. Jasper, get your ass up. We’re going.”

Jasper looked dumbfounded. He didn’t know what to do. Should he stay with his brother or go with his sister? Naomi glared at Jasper and spoke in her commanding tone.

“I. Said. Let’s. Go.”

A look he had never seen from his sister, Jasper was convinced. He got up on his feet and walked to Naomi’s side.

“Jasper, what are you doing?” asked Raizer.

“Sorry but I believe big sister.”

Enraged, Raizer shouted at Jasper. “IF YOU GO WITH HER, THEN KNOW THAT YOU’LL NEVER BE WELCOMED HERE EVER AGAIN!”

Jasper didn’t look back as he continued walking alongside Naomi.

“IF YOU LEAVE THAT GATE… THEN YOU AND I ARE NO LONGER BROTHERS, JASPER!”

Tears flowed on Jasper’s face as he left the base alongside Naomi who was holding her tears in.

***

On the streets of Waham.

Jasper and Naomi were bolting down the streets as quickly as they could.

“So, big sister. Where are we going now?”

“We are going back to the inn. I left in a hurry before that I forgot to pack up some important stuff. The others have probably left the city by now and are waiting for us at the rendezvous point. We need to get there as quickly as we can.”

After running for ten minutes, they finally arrived at the inn. They both entered the inn. As someone who knew her inn from top to bottom, she instinctively knew that something was wrong.

From the shadows, two figures emerged. Jasper noticed them too.

“Who are you two?” asked Jasper.

The pair didn’t respond. Sweat slowly dripped from Naomi’s forehead.

“Since you don’t want to talk. Then you can regret it at your death bed.” Said Jasper as he charged at the two.

Naomi quickly understood the danger of the situation as she shouted out at her brother. “JASPER, WAIT!”

A bang echoed throughout the inn as lightning crackled from Jasper’s body, before collapsing unconscious to the floor.

“JASPER!” Naomi ran to the side of her unconscious brother, checking his pulse.

The pair started talking.

“You didn’t kill him, right?”

“I used a stun bullet. His just unconscious.”

“Oh, that’s good. It would have been quite an awkward negotiation if we had actually killed her brother.”

The pair were Zeke and Maeve. Naomi looked at them as she took a huge gulp.