Mikleo 1

3

Your teasing, your smiles,

Your laughter, your tears,

They are all mine,

To cherish and protect.

Let me shine your days,

And purge you of all this darkness.

Chapter 3 ~ Purge

The group gathers in a large study room to share what information they have so far on Lunarre and to define their next plan. A map of the lands is laid out on a board for everyone to see, some spots already marked by red pins, the pattern showing where the assassin has been throughout their knowledge.

“He has been moving from cities to cities. It is unknown how long exactly stay in one place at a time, as the timing always varies,” Alisha conveys to the audience, who are all sitting in a circle around the board. “These red marks show all the murders he has committed, not excluding at Elysia, the village of seraphim.”

“He also went as far as the outskirts of the country, where my village is,” Nayla adds, pointing at the far end location on the map. “And that can be tracked up to fifteen years ago.”

“That far? How can you confirm that?” one of them, Rose, asks. Nayla has long been dreading that answer. Should she tell them? But this is important. If she doesn’t, how are they going to believe her? How are they going to help her?

“Well, it was . . .” Despite having made up her mind, Nayla is still hesitating. She has never told anyone about what had happened to her mother. The villagers from her hometown only assumed and kept their heads down. It was impolite to venture into other household’s business. But it is different now. She needs to tell them in order to convince them to help her. She has seen their powers. She has fought and lost to Lunarre, but so did they. They only way to succeed is to join their hands and work their way to defeat him. He has been terrorizing the country long enough. Nayla must admit, she does not care about the other victims that much. Her intention leans more towards exacting her revenge. But what will they think of her, once they have learned her true, not so noble motive?

“What’s wrong? What aren’t you telling?”

The questions keep on coming, but the more they do, the more nervous and doubtful she becomes. Can she trust these people with her secret? The girl glances at Sorey for help, but those green eyes only bore at her with uncertainty. She shifts her sight to Mikleo, who is still half-transparent in her eyes. She still has not been able to see the other seraphs though — she assumes that this is because she interacts with the boy the most. She looks at the other humans, and they are looking at her expectantly. What should she do?

“If the girl does not wish to reaffirm her facts, that is fine. We should just disregard her intel, but she don’t have to force her to say anything she does not want to explain,” Mikleo says, surprising her 

She does not expect him to help her, but at the same time she does not know whether she should thank him or not.

“But without clear facts, how can we proceed?” Edna asks.

Alisha then decides to take back control of the conversation flow. “We still know about what Lunarre has done, especially to some of us. He has killed many, and he has to be stopped. We have the power to do it. We just need to work together and come up with a foolproof plan, which me and Nayla has discussed about until late last night.”

Nayla moves back to track. “There is a loophole to his interworking, and we can use it to our advantage and catch him in surprise while he is down. I know that it is low blow, but what else can we do? If we don’t take action now, he will just keep killing people at random whenever and wherever he pleases. Just last week, he has killed more than half a dozen of nobles.”

“Why can’t you confirm that one particular case, though?” Nayla is not sure who speaks this time, but it comes from one of the male seraphs. Not Zaveid. Is it Dezel?

“Well, that is . . .” She can’t say it — it’s way too personal — but she can make it not. “He murdered one of the women from my village in coldblooded fifteen years ago. I was not aware of the motive, but I did discovered the body. He even stuck around just long enough for me to see him.”

“If this occurred fifteen years ago, how can you confirm that it was Lunarre?”

“How many men has golden eyes like him?” she retorts back.

“She has a point,” Lailah says thoughtfully. “But what does one incident have to do with our goal? We just have to make sure that the plan has potentials, and we will exact it.”

“Based on the information we gathered, and the interaction we have with the assassin, he has been way too slippery to catch. Any ideas on how we are going to stop him?” Rose questions.

“Do you know what you are asking, right? This is not simply just about stopping him,” Dezel musters.

“We need to kill him,” Nayla voices out the one word everyone seems to avoid, and they all look at each other in wariness. They are been through a lot of fights, the girl is sure, but they have never killed anyone before. It is always about shorting out to purification, no life taking involved. Of course, the idea will be harder for them to take in, if not for the breach of morality. Will they be able to do this?

“You are right,” yet again Mikleo speaks up for the girl. “He has been terrorizing us long enough. We still have some debt we have not paid back to him.”

“And Lunarre is not the kind that can be contained in a cell. He will just escape again if we imprison him, making our attempts futile,” Zaveid nods in agreement — or at least she thinks he is.

“So it is decided then?” Edna inquires.

They all turn their heads and nod at each other.

“Now that it is decided, let’s get on with our plan,” the leader of the meeting, Alisha, commences. “Alright, let’s take a look at the map again. I will explain what Nayla and I have found out.” She pulls out the map from the board and clips it on to a large table. They then gather around the edges of the piece of furniture. “As you all have known, Lunarre prefers to travel from distant and different places to hunt his victims. Though some of the people he kills are from being hired to, most of them were killed without any orders. We don’t know what his true motive is, other than creative havoc. Negative energy causes the numbers of hellions to raise up, and that seems to be his main goal so far. So far, the patterns of his travels seems to be at a random order. We do not have information to predict which places he will be next, because the period of his stay is not even under any specific interval. We must assume that he moves whenever he pleases. We can not know how long he will be still in the capital. He has visited Ladylake several times before, yet we can’t even get intel from the most reliable informants. This might seem like a total disadvantage to use, until Nayla comes up with a brilliant idea.

“If we can not get to him, why not lure him in? We know as much that he prefers the opportunity to make chaos, so why not advertise the change to do it? Better yet, out in the open, with thousands of crowds for him to feast on?”

What the female knight says must have set them off, because before they know it, the meeting soon turns into a brainstorming session.

“How are we going to get that many people?” Rose questions.

“There is a big festival coming by the end of the month—” Mikleo acknowledges.

“—Which means it will be in a few weeks!” the merchant girl musters.

“But how about the town’s people? Won’t it be dangerous for them?” Sorey inquisitives.

“We can utilize the guards and knights to disguise themselves as citizens,” Alisha offers.

“Not enough people. We might need to hire some—” Edna is cut out by the water seraph.

“Still, we need more than just that, or else it will look suspicious, what with the number of people living in the city, not to mention the incoming tourists from the surrounding cities. He will know that it is a trap if we make it look too obvious,” Mikleo assesses deeply.

“We’ll have to expose the town’s people to danger. They’ll have to act as bait,” Lailah casts.

“In the meantime, the knights can disguise themselves during the festivals, posted in different stations to ensure the citizen’s safety,” Zaveid notions.

“Will this work, though?” Edna inquires.

“Of course it will. He can’t miss out on an opportunity such as this,” Rose exclaims positively.

“We’ll have to go in disguise as well,” Dezel adds.

They go into a deep, heated discussion, to the point that they start arranging the details of what they have to do during the event, assigning each of them with suitable roles. They plan out everything in details, especially Alisha and Lailah, who have prior experiences in strategy. Rose can also provide valuable insights, as she is most familiar with the underground streets of Ladylake. By the time they have finished with the planning preparation, it is already late in the afternoon, and they have become quite famished after all that work. 

“Look at you, little human, already working so well with the group and all. It’s like you’re part of the party already,” Zaveid comments after the meeting ends, patting her on the shoulder. The girl can feel a slight weight on her shoulders.

Sorey and Nayla both speak consecutively at the same time.

“She is part of the group!”

“I am not little! I’m twenty years old.”

“What? Twenty? For real?” The wind seraph sounds impressed, scratching the back of his head. “I thought you were fifteen, at least.”

Nayla puffs her cheeks in irritation. “For your information, I am a legit adult.” She tries to shake Zaveid off her shoulders, but he is simply too heavy for her to move aside. Her attempts to shake him off must have look funny, because she can hear the guys start laughing at her. Her cheeks flush for being made fun off.

“You can’t be that old. You’re too cute.” He pinches her by the cheeks. Nayla grunts in frustration because she still can not see the seraphs — actually, all but one, not that they have to know that she can already see one of them.

The brunette wants to make some more comebacks, but she is stopped when she can feel someone pulling her away. Miklo's half-transparent hand is wrapped around her wrist, allowing him to force her to walk off from the doors of the study room.

“Hey, what gives?” she protests, trying to pull away. She needs to yank her hand off from his hold a couple of times before she success, but when she does, she rubs off her hand. He has a pretty mean grip.

The male seraph does not say anything else though, huffing at her silently, before heading off to do his own thing. Seriously, what is up with him?

Nayla makes her way to return back, when she sees Rose walking by, turning to an opposite corridor. The girl tries to wave at the redhead, but her sight miss past her. Nayla tries to catch up to her, but ends up keep missing her chance to greet the other girl. To be honest, she does not have to do this, but Nayla still have questions she wishes to ask. She heard from the knight princess that Rose turns out to be the leader of a merchant guild. Perhaps that means she knows more about words on the street, and Nayla is not one to miss out such important information. The brunette is hoping that Rose can confirm some of her theories — the ones that she can not ask out loud in front of everyone else.

Nayla never ventures to this part of the castle before, but it looks even much more glorious compared to the wing she stays in. The walls, floor, and even the ceiling are all made in gold. Mural painting covers the ceiling in high artistic disposition styling. Perfect hand carvings fill up her sight. These luxurious expositions are distracting her from the goal she has in mind, almost causing her to miss out the flip of Rose’s black jacket as she makes a turn by the end of the corridor. The girl quickly picks up her pace, passing through the palace hallway in a coarse hurry.

Just when she thinks she finally catches up to her though, Rose hopes off the window. A scream dies out in her throat as Nayla stares out the blue sky in shock, before quickly running off the the edge of the window, looking around. They are at least fifteen levels above the ground. How can the girl just jumps off and survive. The brunette frantically looks around, her light topaz eyes glowing in alert. She holds the breath she does not know she has been holding in until her sight can finally spot a familiar mop of pink rosette hair, who is now blending with the crowd of streetwalkers.

Disappointed, the brunette heads back, only to meet with a pair of green peridot eyes when she makes a sharp turn at a random corridor.

“Nayla? What are you doing in this part of the castle?” Alisha stares into the girl’s eyes unexpectedly.

“Oh, I was trying to talk to Rose about something for a bit, but she moved too fast. Did you know that she can jump fifteen stories high?”

“That’s the power of a Shepherd for you,” Alisha musters, and Nayla can not help but detecting a slight hint of jealousy in her tone — not that she is there to judge. “What are you going to ask.”

“Ah, it’s nothing urgent. I just want to be overly prepared,” the golden eyed girl shakes it off.

“Speaking of preparation, you should start yours. I’m just about to head back to my room myself.” Something about what the blonde girl says makes her think. Wait, is this perhaps . . . ?

“Is this the royal wing?” Nayla can not help but raise her voice, the surprise looks clear in her eyes.

“Well yes, that is correct, actually. My room is just right down the corner.”

“Oh my, I didn’t know. I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay. No one expect me really uses this route anyway, so I don’t think anyone will notice,” she brushes it off.

“Speaking about routes, do you know which direction is the way back to my room. I’m sort of lost over here,” Nayla admits shily.

“Oh, no problem. You see that big vase over there?” She points her finger to the direction. “Make a right turn after that, and you should be greeted by the mail stairs. I think you can find your way back from there?”

“Yes, thank you.” Nayla is about to part herself off, when she notices the concerned look in Alisha’s eyes. Poor princess. She must have just been swarmed with work. Being the princess and a knight herself must have been a very hectic job for her. And to top it all off, there is also this plan to take care of Lunarre, once and for all. All of these must be taking a toll on her. Nayla steps back and finally starts to notice the dark circle under the other girl’s eyes.

“Don’t worry. It will work.” Nayla assures her, even though she knows better than to be so overconfident. The knight princess understand that she is trying to cheer her up, though. “And even if it doesn’t, it is not like we do not have a backup plan,” the brunette adds.

“Yes, I know. That’s not what I am most concerned about right now though.”

“What is it? Perhaps I can be some sort of assistance.”

“It’s nothing that can be done. I’m just slightly worried about Rose. She is usually so taking charge and everything, but she seems to be backing herself off a little bit today. I’m not sure what is going on in that mind of hers, but she seems distant . . . distracted. And I wonder what is keeping her so busy, when we already have this big plan to commit.”

“Perhaps I can help asking her when I see her again. You seem busy, and tired. You should take some rest. We need to be thoroughly prepared, not just through strategy, but physically as well. We need you to be present in tip top condition when the festival arrives. We’re counting on you, Your Majesty.” She acknowledges her title, but her tone is more on a friendlier way, making Alisha smiles in return.

“Thank you. You too. No fooling around with Mikleo so much.”

“Yes— Wait, what? Me? And Mikleo? Fooling around? Not you too! What gives you the idea? Mine and his name is not even supposed to be put in one sentence together. Just hearing you saying that out loud makes me chill.”

“Ahaha,” the knight princess chuckles, lifting up some of that tiredness from her gem-like eyes. “Well, one can only assume from the way you guys interact. Plus, if there is nothing going on, you wouldn’t be so worked up about it.”

“No, you misunderstand, Alisha-san. There is really nothing going on between us, I swear. Zero. Nada. Nitch!”

“You know the saying?”

“I read plenty of books when the opportunity raises.”

“Is that so? Then, if you want to read something, you’re welcome to visit my study room. There is a small collection of library beside the room. Feel free to look through, if you like.”

“Really? Thank you!” Nayla ends up skipping though the castle corridor with joy, all the way to the rest of her journey back to her room.

The girl strips down her clothes immediately as she walks in, closing the door behind her. Nayla hums as she makes her way to the bathroom, completely unaware of a pair of eyes that is staring at her intently, watching as she peels off the clothes layer and layer, dropping them to the floor without that much of a care in a world. The brunette places her silver circlet carefully at her bedside table, before she continues removing more clothes off her body. She is now down to her undergarments, which is consist of a small white top and a pair of undies. Her fingers hook around the sides of her panties, about to pull it down, when the sound of someone clearing their throat from behind stops her dead set in midway. The girl warningly opens her eyes and swallows, before turning around to spot a certain someone sitting at a chair at the back.

“W-wha-what are you doing in— H-h-how long have you been—” Nayla claps her lips when she can not handle the shame any further on. She does not need to ask those stupid questions. Of course he has been watching her! Of course he has been in there the whole entire dang time!

The girl tries to take a leap into the bathroom, but completely forgets around the underwear that has been pulled down midway. When she tries to move her legs, the thin fabric simply slips further down and clenches on, holding her tights tautly. As a result, she loses her footing, and the girl tumbles down head first.

Her reflexes are quick, and she catches herself midway, causing her to end up on all fours. She can only enjoy a few sort seconds of relief, before her mind flips back to the certain boy sitting behind her. No way . . . Don’t tell her that she has just exposed herself to . . . him.

A wail of cry erupts from her throat uncontainably as she tries to cover herself with her hands, but doing the job miserably so. Her top spots at her navel, as she does not have anything within her reach that is big enough to be used to cover herself.

She wants to crawl into the bathroom, but stuck in her spot because she does not want to make any more movements to expose herself, further than she already does.

Those purple lavender eyes zero in to the sight of the creamy, smooth flesh that is bared for his eyes to see. He looks almost captivated, unable to look away, and the intensity of his gaze only makes her even more agitated.

“Nayla,” he softly calls out to her name, almost in a sign. His voice sounds strained, almost chokingly coarse. God knows what he is currently thinking of her.

“What are you doing? Get out!” she shouts.

“Wait, I can help,” he offers, seemingly to have snapped out of his trance.

“No, you’ve done enough damage already. And stop staring at my bottom!”

“Who is staring? It’s not like there is much to see anyway,” he suddenly returns sharply, causing the girl to be anger even more. How dare he insults her butt. Wait, is that all he sees?

“Now wait a minute!” Nayla raises to her feet out of animosity, her state of nakedness once again forgotten. This then when she tries to stand, she immediately drops down. A jolt of pain strike the inner parts of her muscles, and it prevents her from moving much. She tries again, but this time, Mikleo is already by her side, grabbing onto her.

“What’s wrong now?” he asks — no, demands.

“My muscles. I think I sprained it when I fell,” she says through clenched teeth. He immediately wraps his wraps around her and carries her to the bed, bridal style. Everything happens so fast that she does not even have enough time to protest. “Tell me where it hurts.” The boy starts testing out on her skin, rubbing it gently in order to find the location she has strained herself at.

“Is it here?” he asks, pressing the skin over her calf and rubs it in circular motion.

“Not there,” she shakes her head.

“How about over here?” he ventures lower.

“The pain does not come from the lower part,” she quickly says, before regretting her words. When his hand tries to move higher, she clasps her thighs together, trapping his palm in between.

“Wait, not there!” she says in panic.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me to. I’m just trying to help you.”

“How can you help, anyway?”

“My elements is water. I can use it to heal you.”

“Then why don’t you just do it?”

“Because I need to find there you’re hurting first, and then I have to press the healing water on top of it.”

He manages to pull his hand free, before grabbing each side of her knees and tries to part them.

“Wait! Mikleo, stop!” she starts to scream again, but he does not seem to care. He tries to pry her legs open, but the underwear that is still hooked around her legs is making it impossible to be done. So he does the most logical thing and pull it down. Her blood turns cold as she witnesses the boy sliding down her panties past her ankle, before dropping it to the floor. The takes advantage of her shocked state to part her legs, placing himself in between. His slender, big hands start to wonder around the skin of her inner thighs, trying to find her source of muscles distress.

Nayla flinches back to reality when she feels a sting when his hand runs past the area dangerously close to where her legs meet. It is just right by her groin.

“Is it over here?” That is a rhetorical question. He knows just by seeing how she winches from the pain. He suddenly stands and head into the bathroom, before back again, carrying water in mid air. She watches as he wraps it around his right palm, before slowly lowering his touch to her intimate area.

“No! What are you doing?” She tries to climb away from him, exposed be damned. There are worse things than being seen — touched. She has never been intimate with anyone in her whole life, or even has the time to think about it. She does not envy other girls her age, who by now have probably been married at this point. The brunette is too busy planning and preparing for her revenge. And now she is being thrusted into a situation where a boy needs to put his hand next to her core in order to heal her leg. No, she is definitely not prepared for this!

“Let me help you. It’s just gonna go on if I don’t treat it,” he lectures her as if she is a rebellious child — as if he does not have any gasps of the situation at hand.

“But I don’t want you to be so close.”

Mikleo sighs. “Look at you. You can’t even move properly. At least let me heal you, and then you can go on your merry ways.”

“I can’t, and I won’t accept your so called help. After all, it was you who caught be in surprised and made me tripped. It was your fault.”

“And since it is my fault, I only see it befitting that I cure you myself.”

“No way! You’re just saying that so that you can get a good look at my— at my—” the girl struggles hard to muster the f*******n word, unable to round up any courage to say it.

“Stop being such a whiner. You’re not a kid, right?” His words must have strike her ego, because the next thing they know, she is parting her legs so wide, his eyes can see everything. But that does not last long, because she goes even further and pulls his hand down to her skin, causing him to fall on all fours on the bed, settling himself on top of her.

“Hold still,” he says, concentrating deep to the task at hand.

“Aaaah~!” Nayla lets out a mewling sound when he hand rubs at a particular sore spot. It must be the source of her pain. He moves his palm further in, causing the half-n***d girl to hitch her breath beneath his body. That is when Mikleo finally understand the gravity of their situation. But he has no any other choice. He has to stick around until he heals her properly.

“Ah—! Um, ugh, uh~!” The girl only makes it worst my making all sorts of voices, making his mind closes with fantasies. The situation is already compromising enough. His hand is so close to her core. If he moves just slightly, he will be able to brush her most sensitive skin and make her moans loud enough. They are so close, the only thing that separates her from his is his clothes. If he will just have his clothes removed, he will be able to—

Before his thoughts wonder any deeper, he brushes himself off, unbeknowingly shaking his body a little bit, shifting the position of his hand. That is when he feels a different source of wetness, the kind that is followed by a certain soft warmness. Mikleo bites his bottom lips from groaning. He has done it this time! However, the girl does not seem to realize it, having closer her eyes the entire way. If he moves even just slightly, she might not even be able to notice.

The male seraph wills himself to move, but his hand refuses to do so, having found a newly befitting safe haven on her core down there. His breathing grows shaking as the reality of the situation really sinks in. She is so close that he can feel her body heat. She is so ready, so inviting for him. All he needs is to push in further, and she will lose all control of her mind. His head throbs as his sight can only zooms in closer. Her skin is so smooth, so sexy . . . He can not wait to touch her. He needs her. He needs to have her. She smells so good . . . .

Mikleo snaps himself up for the last time, this time really willing his mind to concentrate really hard to only just healing her. With great restrain, he removes his fingers from her core and shifts back to her injury. The skin does not look bad, which means it is only her inner muscles that have been twisted slightly. He rubs the watered palm over the area, long enough until he can feel her muscles gradually detangles.

Once he is done, he quickly stands off from the bed.

He can not believe this. Mikleo had decided to visit her room in order to do anything good for a chance; he wants to thank her. Many of the villagers from his hometown has been killed my Lunarre. He too want to stop the man, though he does not have any violent attachments in his purpose. He simply wants to prevent the killer from murdering anyone else.

“Someday you’ll feel differently. You’ll find your prince, and you’ll live happily ever after,” her mouth speaks lovingly. That will not happen until years later, but her gut feeling tells her that she might not live that long to watch that to happen.