I tried to keep my calm. The burning sensation I’m feeling right now isn’t too bad but it isn’t something I can ignore either. I touched my chest, I wonder what’s happening to the mark right now, sadly, I cannot look as there is a risk that someone else might saw the mark. I don’t want to draw attention to myself.

Aysha noticed that I stopped walking and asked what’s wrong. “Hey? What are you doing? You look pale. Are you alright?” She touched my forehead, checking if I have a fever or some sort. Aysha was always the one to look after me before Bel was assigned as my personal maid. We played around as a kid and when we got a little bit older, we helped each other train as well. Even if she’s noisy and lively most of the time, I appreciate her company especially since I was mentally unstable as a child.

“It’s nothing, I just thought of something.” I tried to play it cool, I don’t want to worry someone since I myself wasn’t sure of what’s happening to my body.

“Are you sure? Don’t worry about that! If that jerk, Lance, come back again, I’ll beat him down! You can rest easy when you’re with me.” Aysha smiled at me reassuring my safety. It was nice that she was concerned but sadly, she cannot help on this one nor anyone. I can’t let anyone know what’s happening to my body until I fully know what’s happening.

“Thanks.” I smiled back. Having Aysha at my side sure is good and all but it doesn’t solve the original problem. At least at the meantime, my younger brother Lance won’t be bothering me until I got separated with Aysha, that’s one less problem to deal with, I told myself.

“Let’s go.” I grit my teeth, trying hard to ignore the burning sensation. I followed Aysha to her cave while trying my best to ignore the burning pain on my chest. Unfortunately, the pain was slowly increasing, making it harder and harder to tolerate. My breathing is slowly getting unsteady as well, this pain is affecting me in more ways than one. My vision is getting blurry. This mark seems to absorb my energy. I’m losing control in my legs as I tumbled towards the ground. Aysha noticed my dire state and ran to help me up.

“Hey! What’s wrong? Tsk.” She clicked her tongue seeing I’m not responding. I’m starting to lose consciousness and my vision in turning dark. I cannot hear her worried shouts as well. I’m losing a lot of energy at the moment. The lasting I saw was Aysha lifting me up and running towards her cave, after that, I completely blacked out.

***

As I spent my time in darkness, I thought that this vision is a little odd. There’s nothing around, not even the feeling I felt last time I spent in this dark vision. There was only one voice that reverberated at the start of the vision.

“It’s time.” It was the same voice I heard last time, assuming it belonged to the jet black wolf that I saw last time, I tried to find for some clues about its whereabouts. Unfortunately, nothing was around, just total pitch black darkness.

After the voice disappeared, nothing came afterward. I just stood there, staring and waiting in the darkness. After a good time, I got bored and tried to do something to pass time. I closed my eyes and tried to check my body condition. Nothing seems to be out of order here. My energy is slowly recovering as well. I guess I collapsed due to energy depletion.

I checked the mark on my chest as well. The burning sensation is gone but I’m sure something happened to it that caused such reaction. When I found out that I’m not paralyzed like last time and thus, can move, I removed my shirt to see the marking on my chest.

I was shocked to see that the burn mark got bigger and scattered all the way to my left shoulder. The weird energy I felt inside was stronger than it was before. The energy I felt inside was a little bit similar to my own energy but the mark was slowly converting my energy to the weird energy I felt.

My hypothesis was correct, the mark was slowly eating my energy. Maybe ever since the mark appeared, it began swallowing my energy a little at a time. And when my energy reserves got depleted, the mark started burning as if straining my body for more energy. Since I ran out of energy, I passed out. Seriously, since when did I get some troublesome mark? I’m starting to think that this is some kind of curse. Why do weird things keep happening to me lately?

As I keep asking unanswered questions more and more, I felt a familiar warmness on my hand. I sighed. It was definitely Bel and her weird tradition of holding someone’s hand whenever they are sick. It was effective though, weird enough. Even in a dream-like state in my current situation, I can feel the warmness of her hand.

And that warmness is all I currently need. The darkness around me slowly collapsed and I consciousness slowly came back to reality. I still feel a little tired, but I’m assuming that my energy is still in the process of recovering thus I feel a little weak at the moment. As I opened my eyes, I heard someone talking, their voices were low and soft, considering I’m still resting at the room.

“I don’t know what happened either, he just collapsed on the ground while we are on our way here. He already lost consciousness at that time so I cannot ask him what was wrong.” That voice, I recognized it as Aysha’s. It was the first time I heard her speak in a low voice as I’m used to her being loud and cheerful all the time.

“How about his condition, Miss Aysha?” That voice belonged to Bel this time. I’m guessing that Aysha notified her when I collapsed.

“Just call me Aysha, I’m not used to someone calling me Miss, also you’re Kane’s maid, right? So let’s be friends! As for Kane, when my mother checked his condition, she said it was just energy depletion. Good thing we are here in the mountains, where energy is abundant. He will recover soon with a little rest and some herbs.”

“Thank you, Aysha.” Bel smiled at her as thanks, I presume. I tried to stand up since I cannot find a good time to speak, but I guess my body is still too weak as I feel sluggish all over. Noticing my movements, Aysha reprimanded me.

“You shouldn’t be moving yet! Stay still and rest.” She sighed. “What happened to you? Why did you just ran out of energy and collapsed?”

“Your punch hurts like hell, so I collapsed.” I teased her and laughed weakly.

“You jerk! I didn’t even punch you that heavily!” Aysha stuck her tongue out and turned around. “I’m going to get mom and let her have a look at you once more.” After that, she stormed out of the room. Now that’s the Aysha I knew, noisy and loud.

Feeling a gaze at my side, I turned my head. Bel was looking at me with a worried look on her face. I guess she’s been worried all this time. I smiled at her showing that I’m fine and healthy.

“Thanks for this,” I lifted up my hand that was holding hers. “It helped a lot.” Unlike last time, Bel didn’t get fluttered and let go of my hand, instead, she kept holding it and her grip got a little bit stronger. I guess she’s still worried about my condition.

“Don’t worry, I’m good! I just exerted myself from shadow traveling. I’ll recover in no time!” I made some excuses, I tried to make it as plausible as possible. This is the best I can make since it was somehow related to energy depletion.

“By the way, how many hours did I sleep?” The full moon may be on the next hour on something. I still need to help Bel later.

“Don’t worry, Master, you only spent around four hours unconscious. Currently, it is time for lunch so there will be approximately six hours before the full moon occurs.” Bel answered, she was still obviously worried but I guess she let it slide for now.

That aside, I spent four hours asleep. I felt that it was shorter though, considering the time I spent at the vision. It is a good thing however that the full moon is hours away. I can recover in the meantime and help Bel afterward.

As we finished our conversation, Aysha’s mother came inside the room, carrying a bowl of brewed herbs. She gave it to me while asking for some details on how I feel. I said my thanks for taking care of me and I told her that I’m already fine. Aysha’s mother was really gentle, I wonder how Aysha became really loud, unlike her mother.

Aysha’s mother left and the three of us chatted for a while before Aysha left. She was going to arrange some of her materials for the full moon later. I said thanks for bringing saving me and I promised her that we’ll catch up later on.

Bel and I chatted for a while before she left as well, she said that she needs to help her mother on something. I told her goodbye before turning around the bed to get some rest.

As I felt that their presence is gone, and no one was near the vicinity, I slowly got up of the bed, my body still feels sluggish so I settled for sitting on the edge of the bed for now. I went and removed my shirt and just like the one I saw while in a dream-like state, the mark on my chest was undoubtedly larger than before. If it keeps swallowing more energy in my body, I’m afraid that I cannot hide it under my shirt anymore.

I sighed and went back to bed. I recovered my energy while thinking about what I could do the mark on my chest.