On what seemed like an empty street, three people are walking together in silence.
Two were Azzy and Claire. The last one was a teenage girl in a tank top and shorts with a machine gun in her hand.
While Azzy was curious about the weapon in her hand, Claire, on the other hand, was glancing at him from time to time while feeling embarrassed about her abrupt confession.
Maintaining her distance, she continued to follow the supposed hidden guard planted by Mia's dad for their safety.
Soon, they reached the Leveret Mansion.
The guard then gestured them to get inside and she leaped from outside of the wall and landed on the rooftop, which is more than 100 meters away.
Instead of entering from the main entrance, Claire and Azzy climbed the wall from the left that leads to the opened window on the first floor.
Claire was the first to get inside. She found the lights were off and Gideon was asleep.
Claire couldn't help but comment, "Somehow, it irks me to see this fellow is sleeping soundly when we went through such a thing in the past hour."
"Shh~" Azzy, who just entered the room through the window, told her not to disturb his sleep in a hushed tone.
Feeling Azzy's breath on her neck, Claire's cheeks turned red. Without turning back, she quickly scurried towards the door, "I'm going back to bed. Good night."
"Ah, Yes." Azzy was dumbfounded for a second before he closed the windows.
Claire who returned to her room without disturbing Snivy lies on her bed but she couldn't sleep as the scene of her confessing to him and even going ahead with her first kiss replayed in her head over and over.
"idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot… why do you have to go and do something like that in the heat of the moment. If only I knew that there was a hidden guard all along, I wouldn't have dared. He didn't say anything else about it, until now. But, what if brings the topic later? How should I face him tomorrow?" While Claire was busy scolding herself in embarrassment, at the same, Azzy, who also closed his eyes, was replaying the battle instead.
As soon as the explosion occurred, the news quickly reached the police and media.
With only a couple of minutes in hand, the female Bishop ordered everyone to go all out and finish them right away.
To not harm Claire in the process, Azzy felt like he could only use energy eruption on his side where mercenaries are rushing towards him.
He braced himself to summon the Hourglass but suddenly, a thought emerged in his mind.
Should he use Rewind to reverse the flow of time itself and go through the events all over again or should he use Chrono Rewind where only the target's time will be reversed instead of affecting the whole world?
Azzy was more leaned to the former even though this soul skill can also be used on multiple targets at the same time.
The reason is because of his lack of mastery over it. It could potentially affect even Claire too. He was worried that Claire will end up god knows where.
Just as he was about to make a decision, all of a sudden, without any warning, the priests on one side and the mercenaries on the other side got wrapped in electrical current.
"What the…" Claire took a step back. Even Azzy was in the same state of confusion.
All of them screamed in pain for a few seconds until they became charr black before turning into ash, revealing the figure of identical teenage girls on either side.
Both of them have a heavy machine gun in their hands, strangely installed with three triggers lined up for some reason.
Both of the girls removed the lollipops from their mouths and spoke at the same time, "Alpha-2, target secured." "Alpha-3, target secured."
While Claire was still stupefied at the scene, Azzy observed one of them. Neither could he sense her aura nor even soul energy. As her scarlet eyes suddenly changed to deep ocean blue, Azzy felt like it was very familiar to him.
It reminded him of the Robot that he frequently spars. However, he threw such thought away as there's an expression of a smile on her as she spoke, "Relax, I'm not an enemy. Lord Wesley appointed me to guard you. Let's leave before anyone arrives."
She then raised her machine gun and pulled the first trigger.
*Boom*
Both of them didn't even catch the sight of the fire energy bullet that was shot through its barrel. They only saw a huge entrance was made.
"Follow me." As she walked outside, they kept their mouth shut and followed her. The identical alleged clone also followed them from behind.
After stepping outside of the train, they saw another identical clone, who introduced herself as the original by dismissing the other two. She introduced herself, putting forth her hand towards Azzy. "Hello, I'm Aria, first-generation super Android created by Dr. Mac and was currently appointed as your secret guard."
Azzy neither knows what is a super Android nor does he know who this Dr. Mac is but he was a bit thankful to her for saving Claire. Of course, he still believes that he doesn't need saving though.
As he thanked her, she put her arms on both of their shoulders and teleported to the outside of the Railway station, right before another clone of hers.
Since she didn't teleport the both of them to the mansion but to the place where the so-called Alpha-1 is waiting, Azzy assumed two things. First, she could teleport to where her clone is. Second, that teleportation also must have a certain distance limitation.
The only thing he didn't get is that how could she appear like a human when she's a robot? Is this what the term Android means? Azzy didn't ask her and just continued to follow her while returning to the Mansion.
<strong>Present;</strong>
After replaying the scene of how her mere clones could destroy all of those enemies, Azzy mumbled as he closed his eyes, "she's strong."
The determination to grow stronger was just a seedling in his heart until now, it suddenly grew into a tree.
Slowly, he drifted into sleep.
After an unknown amount of time, Azzy found himself standing in the throne hall of the Garcia palace.
The strange thing here is that in place of Qridus, there was someone else, someone young, who sat on the throne.
And three people were standing beside Azzy. One of them seems to be an adult, the second one was a little boy, and surprisingly, the final one was the secret guard Aria.
However, Azzy couldn't see their appearances. They appeared rather blurry. In the hall, the elders and clan leaders were standing on the side. Even Avia was there, only in her adult form.
Still, Azzy didn't have any sort of confusion on his face. He looks calm and collected while constantly glancing at the front as he if was waiting for someone.
After a while, accompanied by a blurry face, Claire was walking towards him.
Azzy was stunned as he stared at her. She looks dead gorgeous to him in her wedding dress.
The strange thing is that while he looks like a teenager, although taller than now, Claire looks a little bit matured, like an adult in her twenties.
He couldn't see anything else aside from her. Soon, the marriage ceremony commenced and they seal the marriage with a kiss. Claire smiled and even Azzy seemed to be smiling in happiness. Everyone else is also cheering around.
Looking at her, Azzy spoke, "can I tell a strange thing, Claire?"
"Hmm?" She looked at him.
"I'm happy." Azzy smile became bigger. Claire too laughed along with him. Just then, all of a sudden, Boom…
Azzy's vision was blacked out. All heard was the sound of an explosion.
"No," Azzy screamed as he woke up from his sleep, startling Gideon and make him roll from his bed and fall on the floor.
"Azzy?" Gideon called out Azzy who was looking around with so much sweat on his face. "What happened?"
"Gideon…" Azzy sighed in relief and shook his head, "nothing. Just a nightmare."
"Again? The same one?" Gideon asked him.
As Azzy nodded in response, Gideon further asked the details as Azzy would never share with him.
Once again, as Azzy decided to be silent about it, Gideon took it easy and left for a shower
As soon as Gideon entered the bathroom, Azzy grabbed his head in frustration, "Why do I have this nightmare, once every week or two? Until now, I was only standing alone and now, the nightmare even continued the scene with adding Claire before the explosion."
Suddenly, he imagined Claire in her wedding dress and unknowingly mumbled, "She's beautiful."
"Eh?" As he realized what he just mumbled, Azzy shook his head vigorously and wiped her image from his memory only to remember his kiss with her.
Azzy quickly collapsed on the bed and hid his head under the pillow, "damn… It's all her fault. Why did she go and kiss me without my permission and I didn't even push her away? Argh… Azzy, forget everything, Nothing happened. Remove it from your brain, right now…"
"Hmm, what do you want to remove from your brain?" Suddenly, a familiar voice was heard behind him.
Azzy was stunned for a second before he slowly removed the pillow and asked why he isn't in the shower, to which Gideon replied that he suddenly remembered that they were supposed to leave for Aclein.
As Gideon asked him why they returned, Azzy shook his head vigorously before he lies on his front. "Nothing, wake me up when you are finished."
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