<strong>Affea Mansion, Ember Street;</strong>
It was two hours past midnight. Usually, the roads and streets should be empty.
However, due to the ongoing matches in the stadium at the Aclein Academy, areas like downtown, and the roads where the hotels were located, they were busy with the tired people returning to their rooms.
On the other hand, the residential districts were peaceful as none of the local citizens bothered to stay in the stadium to watch the remaining matches.
After all, they were only rooting for the local team, Twilight. While the other matches are also pretty much important, still, in their view, they aren't that important that they need to sacrifice their sleep.
So, almost every resident returned to their homes by midnight to sleep.
Ember Street is also one of the streets in the residential district where everyone switched off their lights in their respective houses and slept without any disturbance.
Yet, in the biggest house of the street, on the first floor, Azzy was rolling left and right, not being able to sleep.
As he closed his eyes, a memory appeared for the fifteenth time in the past few hours.
Azzy was in the infirmary sitting before Claire.
As he was about to discuss something with the Reaper to pass off the time, suddenly, he hears Claire sleep talks with a smile on her face.
She confesses that she likes him and tells him to stay with her forever.
Azzy gets surprised.
He wonders whether she was unwell. According to what he heard from his grandpa when he was a child, one would often talk nonsense in sleep if they are unwell and have a habit of sleep talking.
He goes near her and checks her temperature by placing his hand on her forehead.
He finds it is normal and wonders what's wrong with her.
Just then, Claire briefly opens her eyes. "huh! Azzy?"
Maybe, she thinks it's a dream or she was in a kind of hallucination. For whatever reason, she suddenly grabs his arms and pulls him closer.
Azzy finds his face just a few centimeters away from Claire, who once again closes her eyes with a smile and tightly cuddles his arm. "You are mine, Azrael. I won't let you run away."
Azzy's face turns beet red as he was looking at her face from very close.
After struggling for a while, he manages to free himself and leave the place quickly.
Back to the present, the dream ends and Azzy opened his eyes. He rolled to the right once again. "No way. No way. No way…"
He once again tries to sleep.
However, the memory of Claire who confesses her feelings in sleep talk with a smile on her face was deeply ingrained in his mind.
"No, you are getting ahead of yourself for nothing. Most of the time sleep talking doesn't make sense." Even after reminding himself so many times, Azzy's heartbeat hadn't slowed down a bit.
Adding on top of it, he started to remember some good memories they have within the past few days.
He blushed for a second before he shook his head vigorously right and left to calm down. "What you heard was nonsense, Azzy. Remember your mission. You don't belong to this timeline. Moreover, by the time you return, she will be practically over forty years old when you will be only 12."
He kept on trying to convince himself over and over for the next full hour before he finally slept at 3 o'clock in the morning.
The Reaper was chuckling to himself and quietly watching his host who was going through puberty.
The next morning, Azzy started to hear a familiar sweet voice in his ear. "Azrael, wake up."
"Hmm?" As he slowly opens his eyes slightly, he saw a blurry figure of Claire. "I must be going crazy." He spoke to himself, thinking he was dreaming of Claire because of the previous day's incident, and tried to go back to sleep once again.
Just then, his t-shirt was caught by a hand. "Azrael, it's almost 8. The train leaves at 9:10. Did you already forget that we are going on a trip? Mia and Snivy are waiting downstairs. Get up."
As soon as he heard another familiar voice that belongs to his bestie, Azzy opened his eyes abruptly and saw Gideon was the one that caught his t-shirt to stop him from going back to sleep while Claire was sitting at the edge of the bed nearby him.
He quickly looked away from Claire and sprung up from the bed from the other side. "Oh, Right! I almost forgot about it. Ten minutes."
Azzy quickly scurried to the bathroom.
After a while, he came downstairs and saw Affea was busy talking with Claire and Mia while Snivy and Gideon's eyes were glued to the color television before them.
Oakley was nowhere to be found. Thinking that he went to the clinic, Azzy thought of sending a message while on the way.
"Azrael, you are here. Took you forty-five minutes to come down." Claire was the first to notice his presence even though she was busy in conversation.
Affea glanced at the girl curiously as she observed the changes on her face. For others, she might look the same but for a rank-7 expert like Affea, it was clear as day.
"Told you so, Claire. Azzy will take atleast half an hour if he showers." Gideon commented in a casual tone.
In the meantime, his eyes were fixed on the television placed on the stand. An episode of some TV show based on superheroes is airing now. And it seemed like both of them fell in love with the show.
"Good morning, Auntie." After greeting her, he looked at Claire and their eyes met.
Suddenly, a flash of memory appeared in his head, making him quickly avoid her gaze by turning his head towards the pair who were bickering amongst each other on which superhero is stronger. "Gideon, Snivy, let's go. We're getting late."
"Eat breakfast before you leave, Azzy."Affea reminded Azzy who seems to be in hurry. She thought that he was really looking forward to visiting the capital city with his friends.
"Auntie, the train leaves in 30 minutes. I'll eat something on the way." Replying to Affea, he walked towards the sofa and tapped Gideon's shoulder.
Affea walked towards the gate to send them off.
"Bye, Auntie." As Azzy and others about to walk away, Affea glanced at the rooftop of the opposite Apartment.
The teenage looking girl with a sniper disappeared and appeared on the next rooftop and then, next.
Looking at the Azzy's back, Affea mumbled, "I hope that girl who is claiming to be from the government will keep you safe from those organizations that have malicious intentions."
***
Instead of traveling on a flying card like the other Arcana Masters, these five friends booked seats in a train like the other civilian mortals.
After all, the train journey was faster and was more comfortable, although the path is quite restricted.
The five of them stepped inside the coach.
"Our tickets are from 283 to 287," Mia spoke as she led them. They found their seats in the middle.
With their odd number, Azzy ended up sitting alone while the remaining four sat together with a pair facing each other.
Azzy felt this is also the best as he still hasn't settled his mind to look Claire in the eyes directly.
As he didn't have enough sleep, Azzy thought of taking a nap, at least for the next couple of hours. After all, it takes four hours to reach the city of Egrein.
However, his plans were disturbed by the Reaper's comment. "Look, who is here, Azrael."
"Hmm?" Azzy raised his head and looked at the door at the end of the coach. Three familiar people entered the coach followed by a group of people wearing suits and shades.
Gideon exclaimed in surprise as he too spotted them, "Oh! My god… Goddess Leah…"
Along with Leah, Azzy also spotted Leo's twin brother Theodore, and surprisingly, they were accompanied by a teacher of the academy, Emelia Light.
Gideon and Mia immediately stood up from their seats. While the former stood up because of his excitement to look at the beauty, the latter stood up to greet them.
"Cousin Theo?" Mia waved her hands with a smile. She appeared to be cheerful, unlike her usual coolness.
It seemed like Theo was also taken aback by the appearance of Mia and her teammates.
Leah's eyes fell on Azzy who was simply staring at them while wondering why royals like them are boarding a train that was filled with commoners.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l