NOVEL SIMPLE B1 | Intermission 3
Somewhere in the capital of Val
The Black Enforcer keeps his eyes glued to the livestream even as he ignores his paperwork on his desk. The man not having left his office since Blake had challenged his kobold lord. Not even when she and Blake were unconscious after her death march, which he also never took his eyes off of.
And he’s not the only one as the White Enforcer has been doing the exact same thing from a couch in his office. Even as rain pours down outside.
More and more, as he’s been focusing on building up their position in the new world, the new society the System has formed for them, he’s been unable to keep his anxiety from affecting him. Slowing down his progress. Making him stop level grinding, and even affecting some of his negotiations with the Guildmasters in their attempts to set up fully functioning Guilds on Val.
Because he’s begun to wonder why he’s doing it all.
The reason he first started to focus on their family, while it had begun to grow foreign to him since, was to protect his family. To build a shield around them that no one could ever shatter.
But if their family has already fallen apart by then, he’s beginning to wonder what the point of it all is.
And that thought has made it harder and harder for him to focus.
Sebastian Sinclair stares at the livestream as Ashley once again attacks the kobold lord with the blades she got from her Primordial. Except this time around she deals real damage to it, cutting inches into its already-present wound and making the kobold lord let out a shriek of pain. Then Blake follows it up with spatial cutter spells, sending one arc of spatial mana after another at the kobold lord while being careful to avoid hitting Ashley.
But Sebastian can’t take his eyes off of each and every wound his daughter receives. Flinching every time she receives a new one from the rampaging kobold lord. Even if they are more often than not healed right away from her health and whatever regeneration skills she most likely has.
Once in a while though, his eyes stray to look at the blades in her hands. Blades he knows are from Chaos.
And seeing those blades reminds him of the visit Chaos made to him not too long ago.
Shortly after Ashley ended up in the Unique Domain in the first place.
Sebastian looks down at his arm where a crimson raven symbol is located on his flesh, marking him and symbolizing the curse placed upon him. But then he looks back at the screen again when he hears Ashley shouting in pain, only for her to quickly turn it around by teleporting behind the kobold lord and slashing at him in return. Even with blood dripping down her wing from the cut in it. The girl no doubt using her wing to block the kobold’s blow.
Those two better make it out alive…
He grits his teeth as the worry fills him. But not just because of that. He also knows that he won’t be able to see her afterwards either.
Not unless she herself invites him over.
Sebastian rubs the mark again, only to pull his sleeve down further to cover it.
Just remembering the way Chaos looked at him during his visit makes a chill run down Sebastian’s spine as a cold sweat makes its way to the back of his neck.
Because he knew right then and there that the man wanted nothing more than to slaughter Sebastian where he stood.
Sebastian glances at his wife, who also took in the same curse from the Primordial as he did.
Then he returns his focus to the livestream again, simply praying that the two will come out alive and well.
It’s all he can do after all.
Somewhere else in the capital of Val
Seth Sinclair paces back and forth behind Elizabeth’s desk, in between her chair where she’s sitting and the window, as he watches the livestream with the rain loudly falling outside. But he can’t bring himself to calm down no matter how hard he tries.
He had always looked up to the twins when he was young. Both of them had looked incredibly cool to him after all, both at school and at social gatherings.
One of the twins, Blake, had immense power and talent in magic. Power and talent recognized by everyone. But despite that, he was still fully down to Val and treated Seth well. Even when Seth needed help in one way or another. Whether it was for relationship advice, tutoring, or anything.
Meanwhile Ashley was believed to have been born with no ability. No power. And nothing. Except for her family name, which only added on even more stress to her.
Seth had always believed she was fine. That none of it bothered her.
She powered through like a train, never stopping for anyone or anything.
Her grades, high above average.
Her combat training, excellent.
It was like she had an ability even if they believed she didn’t.
But he couldn’t have been more wrong.
And she paid for it. While he was taken away from their neglectful parents and given a comfortable life from then on, she had to continue pushing through the muck. Through the pain.
And just like everyone else in their family other than Blake, by the time he realized it, it was too late.
The attack had happened, leading to the accident.
And even after she woke up from her coma, looking nearly as young as he is now the same as Blake, he still wasn’t able to do anything.
Not a single thing.
“Pacing won’t do anything to help,” Liz says, making Seth halt for a second to glance at her. Then he continues pacing anyways.
“Say that when you aren’t habitually tapping your finger,” he retorts without another look at her.
She doesn’t reply back.
Because he’s not wrong. While he tends to pace when he’s feeling nervous or anxious, she always taps her finger nonstop.
A habit she actually shares with Ashley from way back when.
Meanwhile the battle on the screen continues to rage on as he paces. Ashley and the kobold lord continue to trade blows, with Blake bombarding the kobold lord from above while occasionally healing Ashley.
And to his relief, the battle at least appears to be going the twins’ way.
The kobold lord takes one blow after another, and eventually loses one of his hands and a couple fingers on his other hand.
But then things change.
Seth and Elizabeth tense up when the kobold lord jumps back, his berserk state finally ending. Then he looks around at the many dead kobolds around them, all of the forces he brought having been slaughtered by the traps set up by Ashley and Blake without the two even needing to intervene. And the sight clearly angers the kobold lord as he looks between Ashley and Blake, then at his own missing hand and fingers.
“I have a bad feeling about this…” Seth mutters, to which his eldest sister nods her head with a grimace.
Then the kobold lord’s eyes suddenly begin glowing an even brighter crimson with energy leaking out of them like an open flame. Following which a large orb of destruction mana appears around the kobold lord and he begins to float up into the air.
Shit.