<strong>November 18th, 1994;</strong>
It is the day of the finals and the Heavenly Academy was crowded with the people who came to watch the gold medal and bronze medal matches.
Early in the morning, as usual, Azzy left his room and went to Affea's room where she and Avia were sleeping.
Surprisingly, the door was kept open and neither of them was in the room.
"Hmm? Where did they go? Perhaps they were in grandpa's room (Oakley Night)?"
The hotel has only two types of rooms, single and couple. According to the rules, a couple's room can be occupied by 2 at maximum. Due to the past cases of Avia's abduction, the princess of Snieca didn't let her daughter sleep in a separate room. So, she stayed with her daughter while her husband slept alone.
Azzy thought that Affea and Avia went to Oakley's room to wake him up or something. But, when he went there, even that room was also empty.
It was as if the family of three went somewhere in a hurry. But, where?
Azzy had no idea and he sent an audio message to Affea through the Message item card.
The message was sent successfully but there was no response from his foster mother.
After waiting for like two minutes, he sent a message to his foster father/adopted grandpa, Oakley Night. And even he was unresponsive.
Thinking that they were busy, he walked down the stairs and waited at the lounge on the ground floor.
2 minutes became 5 minutes, 5 became 10, and when 10 minutes became 20 minutes, he couldn't help but become anxious. Just a couple of days ago, he was ambushed by a mysterious stranger. Maybe, the person was back? Or it is the church that sent people after them for taking revenge on him?
If that's the case, should he reverse the time?
What if it is nothing? He would have to go through the same day again. Maybe, it is better to ask other people. Someone must have seen them.
As Azzy's mind was filled with several thoughts, the Reaper gave him a suggestion, "Why don't you search for them using the Aura Sensing?"
"Ah!" Azzy suddenly felt how foolish he was, forgetting such a basic thing and thinking of directly resetting the day instead.
<strong>"Aura sensing"</strong>
He scanned his 5 km surroundings to check their auras.
After a few minutes, Azzy shook his head, "No, it's not enough."
From 5 km, he directly expanded his range to 100 km, covering the entire Central city.
Because of the influx of millions of tourists in the city, for a moment, Azzy felt a strong headache, which was reduced as he started eliminating every unfamiliar aura.
Soon, the locations of the familiar auras became clear. Most of them reside within the hotel except for three.
"Still, no clue… If the three of them aren't in Central City, then, where are they? Either something happened to them or they might have returned to the Aclein city. Hmm, wait a second…"
As something popped up in his head, Azzy abruptly raised his head to look at the receptionist at the desk, talking with a couple who wanted to check in.
He rose to his feet and walked toward the desk while the couple was escorted by a staff member.
"Good Morning, Mr. Azrael. How may I help you?" The receptionist greeted him with a smile as soon as she spotted him. He was staying at the hotel for a while. So, she was aware of his details. Not to mention, she reads the newspapers where the front page articles were covered by him and Leah, lately.
Azzy enquired with her right away, "Hi… uh, I wonder if you have seen my family, um… parents leaving the hotel? They checked in 401 and 406 but their rooms are empty at the moment. Oh yeah, they should have a 9-year-old kid with them."
"Mr. Oakley and Mrs. Affea Snieca?" The receptionist quickly remembered their identities as soon as he addressed them as family. The articles about them were all over the newspapers too.
Anyway, it appears that she has no clue about their departure from the hotel. So, she could only apologize in response.
Hitting another dead end, Azzy now only had two choices. One is to reverse the time. And the other is to use aura tracing just like how he traced Gideon and Estella when they were abducted, back a while ago. He decided to consult the Reaper. "Chronos, what should I do?"
Surprisingly, the Reaper offered a suggestion that doesn't involve either of the methods.
He suggested to Azzy that he should forget about finding them and focus on the finals instead.
Naturally, Azzy was taken aback, "Are you serious? My family could be in a dangerous situation, Chronos."
The Reaper calmly replied, "Remember what I told you about Galarian King when you wanted to kill it as it transformed into Leonard Light, the fifth prince of Northern Qudour?"
Azzy went back into his memories and remembered that the Reaper didn't let him do it. Instead, he just told him to focus on his own mission of getting to the 7-star realm and return to the timeline. After that, Azzy could just travel back in time and take out the Galarian King.
The memory made something click in his mind as his eyes widened. "Do you mean that if I actually travel back in time, then, one of my future counterparts was already on that job?"
"Either that will happen or that Demigod version of yours will take care of it. After all, in your original timeline, Oakley Night is alive. And Aspen hasn't been born yet. As the guardian of timeline, he is bound to save them." The Reaper casually replied as if this had nothing to do with Azzy.
Azzy couldn't help but complain, "Hey, stop talking as if he and I were different. We are the same, you know."
"Not exactly," countered the Reaper right away. He further explained, "He is outside of time, Azrael. The timeline has no effect on him. Even if you die, he will stay alive. Anyway, you have a long way to go to understand the mysteries of time and death. For now, just focus on what you have to do at the present."
Azzy didn't find his explanation unacceptable as they weren't some strangers like Galarian King. The Reaper might be logically right but Azzy was emotionally connected with them, well, rather deeply one should say.
He replied, "The match is nothing, Chronos. As long as I get to the stadium in time, I will defeat them in a blink of an eye. And at the moment, my family needs me if they were in danger."
Azzy ran upstairs and visited every room of his friends and acquaintances that came to support his team, gathering all of them at the terrace of the hotel.
At first, they didn't take the matter seriously because Affea herself is a high-rank-7 Arcana Master. But then, as Azzy revealed his encounter with the Church of Light's cardinal, everyone became serious.
Claire was also with him during the incident and she confirmed the truth, although she didn't say anything about Cardinal Ophanim's death or the destruction of the soul orbs of dozens of priests. Since Azzy only talked about escape, she hid the complete truth too.
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