chapter 9 Rachel Silverheart

Rachel POV:

Today was one of the best days of my life. Though it almost was the worst day of my life.

Being born as the daughter of one of the strongest heroes isn't necessarily a good thing. Sure, I got money and everything, but I have no freedom.

I have spent most of my life studying and learning etiquette because as my father said 'a lady from our household needs manners'.

But now that I've awakened I'll probably have to spend most of my time training like my sister.

My sister is a prodigy. She has already reached E- rank at such a young age and she already has her main class at level 3 and a couple of subclasses level 2.

But she was not just talented, she was also very nice with me. I never really had any friends growing up so it was just us two.

But it wasn't enough having just her. I wanted more so I ran away from house. I knew that they would easily find me if I stayed in the city so I decided to go to the slums.

I had heard stories about the slums and what kind of things could happen in it but I never expected something like that to happen to me.

I was terrified beyond reason. Even though they weren't awakened and I was, I just awakened a couple of days ago. I couldn't do anything to stop them.

I was screaming out for help but when I saw the inhabitants of the slums just walking by casually I understood nobody would help me.

Despair was slowly overtaking me until I heard that cold voice.

"Oy, you guys. It's time to stop this. I'll send you off peacefully if you do."

When I looked towards the place where the sound came from, I saw a scrawny person about the age of my sister. At first, I was wondering what someone like him could do. But when I looked into his eyes it felt like something was wrong.

I don't know what but it just didn't feel like they were the eyes of a human. They seemed empty.

And my worries began to intensify as I saw my agressors getting afraid from the scrawny person. They looked terrified and even started calling hin this scary name 'sir reaper'.

And then carnage happened. He slaughtered them like they were a bunch of bugs. And his eyes, they remained exactly the same, empty.

He seemed to be unbothered about the blood all over him but it made me even more terrified.

'He's gonna kill me!' Was the only thought that came to my mind.

But what could you know. After everything that happened, he tried to comfort me.

After we left that alleyway, he walked towards this girl, Alice. She seemed to be a little bit younger than me.

When I found out they were siblings, I was quite surprised. They look nothing alike. While Alice is a beautiful young lady with flowing white hair, Alan was an average looking skinny guy with extremely dark hair.

The only similarity they had were their golden eyes. But even those seemed to be contradicting to each other. While Alice's seemed to be full of vigor and shined like a bright sky, Alan's were empty. Just empty, like he was dead inside. They didn't have the same spark as Alice's.

After that, we went to this bakery at the edges of the city. I had never really eaten food from such a low class place but I had to follow them and just went along.

When we entered the bakery, Alan had some small talk with the owner before he sat us down.

After that, he left us for a bit and it was just me and Alice. To be honest, It felt quite awkward with just the two of us.

The awkwardness was broken by a question she asked me. "So, do you like cake?"

Did I like cake? Of course I liked cake. Who doesn't?

"Ah yes, I love cake. Especially the chocolate ones."

After that Alice went on to ask mister Ted for a couple of cakes and some other things.

While we were waiting for the food, I was getting curious. These siblings seemed very peculiar. They weren't like any person I have ever met. One was like a star while the other was like a void.

"Ehm, miss Alice. If I may ask, why is mr. Alan like that?"

She gave me a curious gaze which then turned into an annoyed one. And I realized my mistake.

'I shouldn't have said it like that. What if she were to hate me?'

But to answer my worries was her sudden laughter.

"Hehehe, you should've seen your face panicking after what you said. And you don't have to call me miss Alice just call me Alice."

…

It took me a couple of seconds to realize that she had set me up. 'Both of them really are weird.'

"Alright, I'll tell you a little about our family history and how Alan became the way he is."

And this story was rather a shocking one, nearly unbelievable. She told me that they used to live in the city but everything went awry. Their mother had left and their father got crippled. Over time they lost their father's buisiness as well and were forced to live in the slums.

She went further and told me that their only source of income came from Alan at the age of ten entering this fighting arena.

Since I came from a big family I understood what kind of place it was. It was a fighting arena hosted by the underworld.

The underworld isn't a good organization. But neither are they bad. They just don't care about anything.

They keep to themselves but do all kinds of illegal things which makes them very disliked by the higher ups.

I knew what kinds of things happened in these arena's which made me even more astonished.

'You're telling me a kid my age, unawakened, managed to survive the pits and even became it's top fighter.'

I suddenly remembered when Alan took of his shirt. His body was riddled with scars. So much that it seemed it even surpassed his normal skin. I also remembered how dead he seemed inside.

'What a poor soul.'

After that, she went on about their father's suicide a couple of days ago. I could see the hurt in her face as she recounted the experience.

But then she explained about how Alan awakened at the same time. She seemed to be boasting about it for some reason as if she were the one that awakened him.

Their life was such a tragic story. I can't even imagine both of their lifes. One fighting in the gruesome pits and starving all the time, while the other had to stay in the confines of their home, feeling useless.

It made me reconsider my thoughts about my own household. I used to hate it and thought I had one of the worst lifes there is. But compared to them, I was living in a paradise. My only worry was loneliness while theirs were much worse .

'I will apologize to father and sister when I come back.'

A little while later, Alan returned and came to eat with us. After we finished the food, we left the bakery.

The first thing we did was go to a barber. Alan's hair was indeed really long so I could understand why he wanted to get a haircut.

But it seemed that both he and Alice were clueless about such things so I decided to help out a bit.

For some reason, when Alan thanked me. I started to blush. And it became only worse after Alice started whispering some weird things in my ear.

"He's into girls with big boobs you know."

I understood she was trying to tease me but I still didn't like it.

But I knew my own feelings and that is also why I understood I didn't have a crush on him. It was more like I began to see him as an older brother figure. Hearing about him from Alice and how he saved me made me understand that he is a protective person, and most certainly not a bad guy.

Next we went for some shopping, though it didn't go without a hitch. But fortunately, I managed to fix it.

The both of them looked much better in their new clothes. But they really had different tastes seeing the colour difference in their outfits.

'He is basically just screaming 'gloomy' while she is screaming 'shiny'.'

And the last place we went to was the arcade. I knew this would probably be the last time we'd see each other so I wanted to do some fun things.

At the arcade, I came to realize that I sucked at games. Fortunately, I was not alone in my suffering as Alice seemed to have the same struggles.

Alan on the other seemed to be amazing at nearly every game for some reason.

'Is there anything he can't do?'

But the best part of the day was when Alan gave me the teddy bear. When I saw it, I knew that I wanted to have it but I gave up on the idea after I saw how horrible i was at these games.

I didn't expect him to give me something but I found out that just like I already became fond of him, he was also fond of me.

'I wish they were my family. It would be realy nice if I could live such a life nearly everyday.'

This was basically the best day in my life.

Or at least that is what I thought until what was happening now.

My sister was suddenly in front of us. I came to the conclusion that it was my time to go home so I was planning on saying my goodbyes before I heard my sister's words.

"You scumbag! You dare kidnap my sister?!And it seems you also kidnapped this other girl. You will die for your actions."

It seems she had misunderstood what had happened to me and I was about to tell her what happened when she suddenly attacked Alan.

After their second clash, she launched Alan away and went after him.

'This is bad. My sister is an E- rank awakened while Alan just awakened. He can't defeat her.'

I quickly came to the conclusion that I needed to stop them. Looking next to me, I saw Alice with a scared expression.

It seems that she too, was afraid of what could happen to Alan.

"Let's go stop them."

I quickly took her hand and we ran towards the place they went to.

The first thing I saw there was my sister's sword piercing Alan in his stomach.

But that wasn't what made me afraid. I saw how Alan was aiming his hand at her face.

I could also see his expression. It was the same one he had when he killed those man in the alley, the emotionless one.

'He will kill her. He will really kill her.'

Tears came as I got afraid of what he was about to do. I knew I couldn't do anything so I did the only thing I could do. Scream.

"STOPPP, DON'T HURT MY SISTER AL! PLEASE!"

I didn't expect much but it seems my scream actually worked as I saw his hand stop right before her eyes.

Both my sister and Alan were looking at me. I breathed a sigh of relief as it seemed I managed to stop them.

But I was wrong. I suddenly saw my sister look at Alan again. She let go of her sword, made a small jump and kicked him in his head, launching him away into a nearby building.

She grabbed her sword again and was about to attack him again before I jumped before her.

"SISTER STOP! Why are you attacking him?!"

My sister flinched when I jumped in front of her.

She had a confused expression on her face.

"I'm protecting you. That guy is a bad guy so he should die. Didn't you see that he almost killed me!"

Hearing her words, for some reason, made me angry at her for the first time in my life.

"Alan is not evil, you are! Alan saved my life today and afterwards brought me with him for the rest of the day to protect me. And then you came and basically ruined the best day in my life by attacking him."

"And just like you said, he could've killed you but he didn't. Do you know why? Because he cared about me! Unlike you who just continued the fight after I stopped it."

I never really expected myself to go off at my sister like that but I also never expected a day like this to happen.

My sister looked shocked for a bit. I guess she also never expected me to do something like this too.

But she quickly changed her face to a serieus one. "First we save him, then you tell me everything later."

I nodded to her as we both went towards were Alan crashed. Alice was already there. I could see her crying and pulling at his body.

"AL, AL! WAKE UP! Please d-don't leave me alone! I c-can't lose anyone else."

My sister quickly summoned a couple of healing potions and made him drink one while pouring another on his injuries.

"This should keep him alive but he'll be out for a bit. Let's take him to our household to be sure he's safe."

Alice seemed angry when she saw my sister but she knew she had to put Alan first and nodded her head.

I was just glad all this came to an end.