Boy in Love (3)

"You must have done something horrible to her to the point she's not willing to talk to you," I thought out loud.

When he stayed silent, I knew I hit the mark. I did wonder what happened between them, but not enough to be further entangled in their problems with them. I started to walk away, not willing to continue this conversation anymore.

"Wait!" He yelled.

"Can you help me with Ella? I promise I'll stay away from you after I get the chance to talk to her," he quickly grabbed onto one of my hands.

"Look. I can't help you and I'm not willing to help you as well," I tried to take his hand off me.

"I already promised to help her with her romance with her brother," I made up an excuse when his grip on me tightened.

"You did what?" He raised his voice.

I screamed as the wine glass shattered in my hands. In fact, the entire chandelier above me shook like crazy. I froze when one of its chains snapped one by one. I was going to die at this rate. I tried to shake his hand off as he viciously stared at me in a new light.

I waved my hand, chanting a barrier. My eyes widened as the entire chandelier dropped onto where I stood like I predicted. Cracks began to form on my weak barrier as its huge weight leaned with the force of gravity. And of course, he had to disappear on his own while I was left to quickly slip out of this situation.

I immediately found a hole in the chandelier, a perfect place to stand without any of its pieces falling on top of me. When my barrier shattered, I sighed in relief as I was able to get to that spot in time. This was exactly why I tried to stay outside.

However, my vision wavered as I couldn't escape from the aftereffects of crystals splattering into my direction. Some of the crystals must have gone into my eye. Instead of tears of salty water coming down my cheeks, they were tears of blood. I chanted a water spell to quickly wash the tiny pieces of crystals out of my eyes.

Thankfully, it appeared none of the guests were injured. The chandelier's pure target was me, the only one who received its impact. Jules dashed towards me, noticing the mess I was in the middle of. He gulped as this all happened when he left me alone for less than five minutes at most.

"I knew the drinks weren't safe," I muttered.

"This entire mansion isn't safe. There's too many potential weapons here," I started to limp towards him.

It was just like Luke to come at such a good timing. He watched Jules trying to get to me while avoiding the broken chandelier. At this rate, I only trusted the school and Luke's family mansion that had an impenetrable barrier. It could probably filter out suspicious people with its first layer.

"I only left her alone for four minutes," Jules helped me escape from the middle of the chandelier.

I pushed Jules down with me, sliding onto the polished floor when I noticed a dagger rushing towards his head, which was in front of mine. I cried in pain as my injuries got worse as a result. Jules got up first, still confused about what happened. There was no way he could anticipate the lingering aftereffects that came from their emotions.

Sometimes, it was totally random. I learned to study for signs like looking for few objects that ever so slightly trembled when they were supposed to be fixed to the wall. It was almost a rollercoaster ride. After a huge event, there were tinier attacks that came after them as if a few ugly memories suddenly came back to them.

No matter what happened, I was totally never ever going to help him. From what I could see, he deserved the treatment he got from Ella. Although Jules was a victim in this as well, I didn't feel like forgiving him. He could've made the environment safer by placing more harmless decorations.

"I told you to not leave Rika alone," Luke trembled from anger.

"What part of not leaving her alone did you not get?" He raised his voice as he helped me get up.

A mass wave of guests began to leave the mansion instead of choosing to watch the spectacle. After watching the two incidents, none of the guests wanted to become the next victim. Both Shelly and Alex let them leave as it was better than watching Luke and Jules about to get into a fight. Meanwhile, Yulee rushed to leave a better impression on the guests by helping them leave like it was an evacuation.

"I'm sorry. Not everyone can predict that the chandelier that's been here for hundreds of years can come crashing down," Jules still seemed utterly shocked from the unfolded episode.

"It's not even the chandelier. Rika has been constantly targeted ever since we arrived here. There was nothing like this in the neutral fraction in the morning," Luke placed all the blame on Jules.

Luke frowned as he studied my injuries for the nth time today. It was likely he had already used up most of his mana when he used heal on me earlier in the day. His slender fingers began plucking the crystals that dug into my skin even deeper when I pushed Jules away from harm.