The Hell I Know!

Still thinking about this and that, Aria spent more time at the market even though she should only buy sweet potatoes for dinner. Maybe that's why Leyna ended up looking for her.

"L-Leyna? Why are you here?" Aria asked as soon as she saw Leyna as she exited the market. "Don't your hands and feet still feel painful?"

But as if not happy with the question, Leyna just sighed softly. "You healed it already overnight, so I'm fine." She replied. "Arran's fever has also gone down, so earlier he was able to go for a little walk."

"Is that so? That's good then."

"Let me take it." Leyna said as she grabbed the bag of sweet potatoes that Aria had brought earlier. "I'll cook later. You should just rest."

"I'm fine." She replied, even though that actually made Leyna start to feel annoyed until she suddenly pulled Aria to the front of a shop, which had a glass window.

"Your eyes weren't even this black when we took part in the festival for 5 days straight! Have you even slept at all these few days?" She complained and Aria could only frown.

"You've already done too much, so now let me and the others do the rest, okay?" She continued. "I already feel guilty as hell, so let me help even just this much."

"..." After being scolded like that, Aria finally complied.

Only after a few moments of walking in silence, Leyna started to speak again cautiously. "By the way, have you made up your mind about that man's offer?" Asked Leyna, and Aria just shook her head slowly. "...I know Arran and Mika don't approve it, but in my opinion you should just leave."

Startled, Aria stopped in her tracks. "Why?"

"Because I thought you actually wanted to go."

"…No I don't." Aria was about to reply, but the way Leyna looked at her, she seemed to know about the thing that was bothering her since yesterday.

"I didn't really understand it at that time, but… I ever overheard your mother say something about the capital before." Leyna started talking again.

She paused for a moment, but then she continued. "Don't you have another family there?" She asked. "Or could it be… Your father is still alive?"

Aria was silent at first, but it turned out that she ended up shaking her head. "It's not like that." She said with a cloudy expression. "It's not even…"

But because Aria didn't continue what she was saying, Leyna finally gave in. "Hey, it's okay if you don't want to tell me yet." She said then.

But again Aria shook her head. "No, not like that." She said. "I don't really know much either because my mother only told me a bit." Aria tried to explain it. "But it seems my mother used to--"

BRUGH! But suddenly they got surprised by the sound of a very loud falling object from somewhere. The problem is that because it was getting dark, they couldn't even see what the situation around them looked like.

Afraid that something would happen, Leyna pulled Aria's hand. "We'll talk about it after we go home--"

BRUGH!! But the sound of grumbling could be heard again from one of the small alleys. So this time Leyna even spontaneously pushed Aria behind her back as she took a wooden block from the side of the road.

But then Aria started to feel a familiar aura, so she patted Leyna's arm lightly. "Wait. It looks like it's him."

"What? Who?"

"That man. The magician."

"Him? Is he trying to kidnap you again?" Leyna replied while lifting her block. "Didn't he give you time until--"

"No, it doesn't look like that." Said Aria who after that tried to persuade Leyna to take a closer peek. Although when they were just about to take a look, something burning was thrown out of it!

At first they thought it was some kind of lump of rock or something. But when they got closer, it made a grimace.

"Wa--!" Aria was so shocked that she was about to scream at the sight, but luckily Leyna covered her mouth and kicked the creature away until it started to die on its own.

"That, is that Kerin?!" Aria muttered in disbelief. At first glance, its shape is similar to an ordinary cat. But the bat's wings and one side of the horn looked exactly like the ones she'd seen in the picture books.

"Kerin?" Leyna repeated too. "You mean that devil cat that appears in a fairy tale book?" She asked and Aria immediately nodded her head. Although she also didn't know that it was actually a real creature.

Curious as to why there could be such a creature, both of them ventured to poke their heads into the alley. And it turned out, there were dozens more demonic cats that were rampaging.

"For God's sake…" Leyna muttered in disbelief when she saw that terrible sight.

One of the men there seemed to be busy using his sword and magic to kill them. But because there are so many of them and they fly around annoyingly, many cats manage to claw them.

So the other man then ran out. "Gahh! Damn it, damn it!" He shouted, though he immediately turned around again to stab the vicious cat chasing behind him.

"Mr. Malven?!"

"What? You!" Hiki replied. "Quickly help me kill them--" He was about to ask. But because there were many cats running towards him again, without thinking twice he continued running, as well as Aria and Leyna who didn't want to be scratched by that horrible creature.

"Where did that creature come from?!" Asked Aria on Hiki.

"The hell I know! Just ask the corpse of the assassin from earlier!" Hiki replied.

Aria kept looking back and using her magic in case a cat caught up with them. But after some distance, the cats stopped chasing them and instead turned back to the alley where the gang was still ganging up on Rei.

"..." Seeing Aria silent in doubt, Leyna knew what she was thinking. But before she could hold her hand, the person had already run again towards the alley earlier.

"Ugh, damn it…" But even though she was annoyed, Leyna still went back and followed Aria back.

Since Rei was there, Aria obviously couldn't use some dangerous magic to kill them all--not necessarily could even if she wanted to. So after calculating her remaining magic, Aria finally decided to throw some balls of light to distract the cats and immediately ran to pull Rei from there.

But because the ball of light quickly disappeared, the cats started chasing them again. Luckily before they could get out of the alley, Aria hastily used her magic on the weeds and made a large net to trap them. She even tried to memorize some of the magic in Rei's books and finally tried to change the texture of the grass to be harder like wood.

Even so, no matter what it looked like, Aria's magic didn't seem like it would last long. So after that it was Rei's turn to rush back using his magic to immediately burn all the creatures at once, while Leyna and Hiki were busy taking care of the rest who managed to escape.

"Shit!" Rei cursed as he finally could lie down.

Busy catching their breath, everyone could only stay silent and sat on the ground when everything was finished. But noticing that Rei's wounds were turning blue rapidly, Hiki approached him. "Rei, don't tell me their bites are poisonous? Your wounds look blue, you know!"

"Ah, yes it seems so." Rei replied, who didn't seem too surprised to hear that, either because he was too tired or because he already knew. "But if I'm not mistaken their poison shouldn't be strong, so I should just need some medicine." He continued. So he did know.

"You have… right?" But when he turned towards Aria, he found that the girl had already fainted in Leyna's arms.