Chapter 8: In The Eyes Of All (3)

Her footsteps echoed with every step she took in the large, empty facility, and her spear movements, cutting through the air, were controlled and powerful.

Every time Amy Donovan swung her spear forward, her command of her weapon was reflected in her movements.

She did not stop, her breath heavy, sweat pouring down her face. Training was the only way to quell the anger and discomfort inside her.

Amy didn't like uncertainty. She was used to getting what she wanted. She was among the young people of her generation who were considered geniuses.

People around her believed she had inherited her grandfather's legacy, and she had. Even though she wasn't Fred Donovan's real granddaughter, she had inherited his talents.

She was a spear user and a lightning elemental user, just like him.

Last night on the news, she was surprised to see the person she never wanted to see. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she would see him on a news channel years later.

Amy swung her spear angrily as she remembered her older brother's red hair, like her father's, a year older than her.

She didn't like Cale. Cale was a scrawny, sickly child, but he had surpassed even their father in intelligence.

When Amy had her awakening just after their father had died, she had felt superior for the first time. She felt important because she was stronger and more talented than her brother.

And when Fred Donovan, a SSS rank hunter from eleven families, wanted to leave her his inheritance, she saw herself as a genius.

She and her mother had left their miserable life without hesitation because they had used up all their money. Leaving one person behind. They left his diseased body as a burden, hoping he would die.

Amy and her mother Rosa did not regret their decision for a moment. In fact, they thought he was dead because they hadn't heard from him in years, until yesterday.

"What are you standing there thinking about?" Amy turned around startled when she heard a voice asking her.

"You scared me!" she reproached the young man with black hair and black eyes and he grinned.

"Sorry," he said, but Amy knew he was unrepentant. So she didn't prolong it.

"What are you doing here?"

"Can't I come see my future fiancé?" Amy rolled her eyes when he asked with mock offense.

"Don't dodge my question, Eli!"

"So your parents invited my grandpa and me over for dinner. Didn't you know?" Elliot asked, and Amy remembered that her mother had told her this morning that she was expecting company.

"I'm sorry, I was so busy working that I forgot," she said, putting the spear down among the other weapons and grabbing a towel from the corner.

Wiping the sweat from her face, she looked at Elliot as he approached her. Elliot Trevor was the grandson of Sam Trevor, an SSS ranker from eleven distinguished families.

"What's bothering you?" Elliot asked seriously, and for a moment Amy wanted to tell him about her worries, but she quickly gave up. Because telling him about her worries would have revealed the fact that she had a brother, and that was the last thing Amy wanted.

"I feel inadequate after seeing that kid on the news yesterday defeating a D-level monster despite his G rank," she said, and when she averted her eyes, Elliot smiled and brushed aside Amy's blonde bangs that were stuck to her forehead.

"That's not really the news."

"What do you mean?"

"The monsters came out weaker than they were during the dungeon explosion," Amy frowned.

"Is such a thing possible? We've had monsters escape during dungeon explosions before, but they've never been weak."

"You're right, the cause hasn't been figured out yet, but the researchers are pretty sure the monsters were weaker than they were," he said, and Amy felt her insecurity fade.

"So what happened to the boy yesterday?"

"I don't know," Elliot shrugged. "Grandpa said he left the hospital without anyone noticing. Maybe he got popular and was embarrassed to be called out for being just as incompetent," he said, laughing at the last sentence.

Amy laughed too, as if she thought what he said was funny. She tried to comfort herself despite the bad feeling. She wished it was the first and last time she would see Cale.

"Let's go to dinner," Amy said, smiling as she pushed the bad thoughts away and walked out of the facility with Elliot and headed to the mansion.

***

As birdsong drifted in through the open window of the hospital room, the auburn-haired young girl asleep in bed slowly opened her eyes.

After blinking for a while and watching the white ceiling, she sat up and leaned her back against the headboard.

When she looked at the blue serum in her arm, the moments before she fainted came back to her. She wondered if the red-haired boy who had been hurt worse than he was was okay.

When she heard the sound of the door opening, she saw her grandmother and her brother coming in. Unlike herself, her grandmother had black hair and red eyes. Her brother had blond hair and honey-colored eyes.

"You're finally awake," Jin Duncan breathed out in relief.

"How are you feeling?" said Ophelia Donovan, the head of the family.

"I'm fine."

"You have no idea how you scared us!" Jin pouted like a little child and wrapped his arms around his sister's head.

"I'm sorry for worrying you."

"You did good," Ophelia's voice was cold, but Hope knew without her saying it that her grandmother was worried about her.

"Thank you. So what happened to the other boy?" she asked the question she had wanted to ask all along.

"Oh, you mean the boy from the video! Was his name Cale?" he mumbled to himself.

"Anyway, it looks like he left the hospital this morning."

"Left the hospital? Well, I remember he was in worse shape than I was."

"You don't have to worry about him," Ophelia said seriously, looking her granddaughter in the eye. "Besides, if he left the hospital early, he should be fine."

"He fought a level D monster. And he bled a lot, so how could he leave the hospital so early?" she asked with pure curiosity.

"The monsters that came out of the dungeon were high in rank but weak in strength. Honestly, I was quite impressed that he took down a D-level monster with one punch in the video, but it turned out that the monster's strength was weak," Jin clicked his tongue.

"It would have been ridiculous for him to kill a D-level monster when he was the lowest ranked. His was just a miracle. If that monster was at its true strength, it would have been smashed to pieces in an instant," Ophelia said in a cold tone and Hope swallowed hard.

"So Hope, I understand that you want to get stronger now, but I'm asking you not to get involved in something you can't handle. You both got out of there by chance. So the next time you fight monsters of a higher rank, make your own safety your first priority," she warned her granddaughter solemnly.

"I understand, Grandma."

Hope pulled out her phone and looked at yesterday's and today's news while her grandmother and brother talked amongst themselves.

She watched a couple of clips of her and Cale fighting. Then she read the comments of people who had called the man they called a genius yesterday incompetent and clueless today.

@dlve: I mean, it was absurd from the beginning that they would glorify him like that when he was at his lowest.

@strike: Dude whoever edited this video did a good job. He almost fooled everyone lol

@wrld: What idiot would believe such nonsense for god's sake?

@ceyrk: He might be the only one who became famous overnight and disgraced in the morning lol

Hope frowned as she read the comments under the frown video. The comments bothered her. No one cared, but Hope couldn't erase the image of Cale fighting monsters with weakening powers from her mind.

She sensed powers in his body that she had never seen or heard of before. Even though the energy emanating from Cale's body was similar to the aura, she somehow felt that it was different from it.

It wasn't very strong, but Hope clearly remembered the two powers that sent shivers down her spine at that moment.

She sighed and watched the sunset through the window. Now she wondered where and how Cale was. The desire to meet him swelled inside her.

'Maybe one day I'll meet you again,' she thought, a slight smile on her lips.