Strolling down the city routes, lost in his thoughts Zeph never realized when the sun had set. He found himself in the middle of some public gathering place with a lot of hustle-bustle going on.
'Well sure, the city is too big to accomplish sightseeing whole of it in one day .'
Thought Zeph. He after some observation noticed that some kind of festival or event was in place because all people were excitedly discussing some competition and going towards a certain place to attend the event.
Not only there were common populace even warriors with all kinds of armor and weapons were rushing toward the auditorium.
Zeph decided to follow the masses to witness the event as well. He went along the rushing people. Due to walking close to people, some conversations were overheard by him naturally.
".....no I think it will be another year of victory. Moreover, they have been strongest throughout the city for some five years."
"I am pretty sure only one clan can give them a little bit of competition. "
"Who ?"
"Who else, Aries clan. They have the biggest chance of giving the fight for the final round and with not so secret rivalry between clans, there is no chance of showing mercy."
"Yes, that is true. This means we have plenty of exciting matches to watch. I'm hoping they can give strong resistance to the Menjalar clan "
At this moment suddenly the crowd reached the so-called auditorium they were discussing. Lots of people were already gathered around the plaza with cabins on the stage meant for various clans participating in the event.
Those cabins were there for the warriors who will return after claiming a flag from their forest quest.
Zeph discovered that the event was none other than the warriors he met in the forest. He was surprised as he never thought he would have a chance to see the Seamus and party again.
Suddenly lots of gossips and discussions began to rise in the crowd. The whole crowd was fervently shocked and were arguing while pointing towards Aries's clan cabin.
Zeph also noticed the shock and he shifted his position to have better look at the Aries clan cabin which was not viewable from his previous position.
Inside the cabin, Seamus was sitting in the center chair with other clan elders fervently trying to talk with him but he was ignoring them all and was looking kind of stupefied.
He had just returned from quest apparent with his torn and blood splashed clothes. His arm had a gruesome open wound that was leaking blood but he was not paying attention to it. The surprising thing was he was alone in a cabin, with no other member of his team with him.
Various kinds of rumors began to circulate in the shocked audience. Some said he was the only one who survived the attack of the beast while the rest were unable to return due to fatal wounds. Some said he must have abandoned his team in danger leading to the death of his whole team.
For whatever was the reason loss of such young warriors was quite a shock to both clan and audience. They speculated Aries clan will likely opt out of the second quest.
Zeph noticed the wooden expression on his face and understood something he sighed and quietly disappeared from the auditorium.
It was a tragedy for the Aries clan but the worst-hit off was Seamus. He was just sitting there among elders of his clan who were trying to talk to him but everything was incomprehensible chatter to him. He had still not recovered from the shock of what had happened while he was sitting here his mind was still processing past events.
Suddenly he had a terrible urge to run away from this place where all people were surrounding him and asking him about everything. He was feeling suffocated here.
Seamus jumped up from his chair and went back towards the back hall. He walked and walked until he found an empty corridor corner and sat there coiled in the corner. Soon tears began to gush out from his eyes and he suddenly processed everything he experienced a while back and terrible guilt assaulted him.
"Don't worry Everything will be fine. It is not your fault "
Suddenly a hand grabbed his shoulder and patted it.
Seamus looked up with red eyes to find a familiar-looking young man standing beside him. It took him few seconds to recognize who was he.
"You...you...are that warrior from forest!.
But he instantly threw off his hand from his shoulder. What do you know I killed them, I killed them all "
"I know your thoughts but it was necessary isn't it. Tell me what happened?"
"She...she how can she do it. Kyle...she betrayed us. Sniff…."
At this point, Seamus completely broke down. He was crying and pouring all his emotions out.
Zeph didn't interrupt him neither he tried to console him. Sometimes crying is the best thing to let humans process things out. After few minutes he sobered up,
"We were close to reaching back when at night she quietly assassinated sleeping Jayden. We were shocked at the turns of the event in the morning. We instantly along with broken Jenny began to look for an apparent killer.
But I was fooled never realized the killer was among us. On the third day of fruitless searching, she sneaked attacked at me and Jenny. Jenny was completely defenseless and a knife pierced right through her throat. She was completely surprised by her actions.
I was able to dodge blow to my heart and my arm was skinned off. It was at that moment I lost my senses to anger. When I came to myself, her corpse was lying on the ground completely mutilated.
I ran off to Jenny to find she had a breath left. She told me in rage I surpassed the limit and crushed her violently. I picked her up to rush to the nearest aid center but she refused and asked for a release from life.
She wanted to go with his twin saying he would be probably annoyed at her why she was so late. I killed her to complete her wish."
There was silence in the corridor. None of them spoke at the moment.
"Only if I had understood the meaning of your words earlier. …"
He lifted his head and looked towards the Zeph who met his gaze with calm eyes.
"It's also your fault..." Suddenly he stood up. His energy began to over drift in his body
"If you have told me about her specifically at that moment probably both my cousins would be still alive at this time."
Water fog began to coil around his body. His red eyes suddenly turned deep blue without any pupils. He levitated from the ground to few inches and pointed towards Zeph.
"You will pay…."