7.4

Meanwhile, deep inside Moxnet Academy, a place where not even the tenured professors were allowed unless they had special clearance or contributed, there was this one laboratory that held a particular machine. A machine that was supposed to be used whilst the Ball of Paragons was supposed to take place.

Panic breathing could be heard, unsteady footsteps paced around the room as the supervisors, researchers, all people who were in charge of said machine were in a state of massive panic.

Supposedly, on this day where the Ball of Paragons was held, this machine of that they were in charge of was not supposed to be in function, in fact, it was not supposed to be used during the orientation month when the students just enrolled to the academy.

Even if they were to use this device on its usual schedule, it was only until the sixth month of teaching, that the machine would be activated, to transport a large number students to foreign territory as a part of their tests and training. In simpler terms, it was a mass teleportation machine that the academy had installed to better enhance the learning experience of its students.

Just earlier yesterday they received urgent instructions from the vice president that the high ups of the empire had ordered to implement this device to better filter out incapable students. How? They had no clue, but all they knew the students would be transported to one of the sites that the academy had newly established in the notorious region, known best for its nickname, the Land of the Dead.

They had been quick to respond and prepare the machine for what it was intended to do, everyone on the team had even sacrificed their sleep in order to prepare the machine for this very moment, but…

The enormous device that filled most of the 5000 meter square room, powered by magical crystals and various mana rocks harvested from powerful beasts, boasts to have zero latency feedback, gave basic vital monitoring stats on the students who were transported into a new location, was now…

Destroyed.

Its assaulter, unknown.

Where the machine had its many intricate parts made of orichalcum—second hardest metal known—torn apart and sent into flames. In that short 5 minutes when they all had a well-deserved break from their hard work, someone had somehow, bypassed the heavy security, into this restricted part of the academy, slashed the machine with insane strength leaving a wreckage that none of them with their expertise on handling this complex machine could ever imagine happen in their very eyes.

How? What? Why? When? Who? These were the words that popped in their minds when the unpleasant smell of burnt rubber consistently assaulted their nostrils.

If one had to guess, it was either a mole among their own, or a rogue student who had done so under the orders of foreign powers. But since everyone in the room had all poured their hardest efforts into booting and configuring this machine the entire day and had not slacked for a moment, it was no doubt, the latter option.

Even if they had gone with the assumption that a student did it, for someone to have such raw strength and speed to make quick work of the mass teleportation machine, it was unfathomable. To tear through the orichalcum reinforced shell, to have the knowledge on where to strike to completely render the machine useless unless a replacement is sent…

“What should we do now! We can’t go on delaying the ball!” shrieked one.

“B-but the vice president and his orders…” another insisted.

“This was the last thing I needed before I retire!” someone complained.

“We will have our heads chopped!”

The people in charge of the machine were getting anxious by the minute, their entire lives were staking on this. Not even them, a handful of the brightest minds in Dezarith Empire could figure out who had done so to their precious machine in this crucial moment.

Their detection magic did not detect the intruder, nor a single clue was left behind the crime scene to indicate what sort of person—monster had done this to them…

It was the worst possible situation that could have occurred in their lives, with no evidence or proof of what happened, one thing was certain. When the vice president, who works directly under the emperor learned of this and reported to his majesty, there was no telling what awaits them during their trial of suspected treason.

Bam!

The door to the room went flying and everyone straightened their backs reflexively. A womanly figure entered the room, slid into the shadows and watched the panicked with an uninterested yawn.

“Ahhh~ And here I was thinking, who are the incompetent people responsible for the big delay for the ball. Turns out, it was you guys! Can every one of you call the emergency off now? I have many people waiting for me to grace my presence upon them.”

While her face was partially visible to the group, some of them immediately recognized her voice and realized her true identity, while others whispered among themselves to confirm their suspicions. This woman’s sudden appearance caused everyone to no longer panic over the loss of their machine.

But there was one who was oblivious to this woman and her status in Moxnet academy and retorted at her. “Who are you and how did you find this place!? Name yourself, student!” a man who was well dressed in a thick white coat shouted with unrestrained hostility.

“Hexan, that’s…” before another could speak, the woman intruder made a gesture and silenced the other speaker.

“Old man, are you daft? Or are you simply too stupid to understand what I’ve just said? Call, the, emergency, off, and, let, the, ball, start. My girls and I won’t be happy if you lot keep this up.”

“You wretch, I don’t care whose daughter you are! But if you so happened to be the one who did this to our teleportation machine, you will have fight me!” Hexan shouted, then he moved his lips in a small mutter causing his hand to glow in rich green mana, “[Maelstrom of Paralysis].”

“Hexan, is that right?” the woman licked her lips, stopping the man in his tracks. “The retiree, the guy who always slacked off whenever he can, wants to challenge me? Just what do you hope to achieve with that pathetic display of bravery to me? Perhaps… Perhaps! You hoped to gain Kaldor’s favor so you would be spared for all your negligence towards the machine?”

“…”

The woman’s comment made everyone in the room snicker at Hexan, what she spoke hit the nail on the head. Although, he was the longest present member of the group, Hexan was more of a clown than someone who contributed to the team in their operations.

Everyone had tolerated him despite that, in fact, the reason they did not chased him away but treated him well—only on the surface—was because it was rumored that Hexan had ties to one of the Immortal Emperor’s sons.

And so, with his slightly above average magic skills, and mediocre knowledge regarding magical devices, Hexan was allowed to participate in handling the teleportation machine. However, when it came down to confidential information, he was often left out of the loop to prevent any complications.

Hence, it made sense that he did not know who this ‘intruder’ was.

“Break it off Hexan, she—"

When the woman had decided to walk out of the shadows and reveal herself to him, Hexan had gotten so worked up by her that he fired the paralyzing spell at the woman.

“Take this!!!”

The spell flew in its trajectory and hit its target.

But the woman kept on walking towards in his direction, completely unaffected by the spell, she had not flinched nor blink and reacted at what Hexan had cast.

“W-what?”

“Something that weak wouldn’t hurt me silly~ Though I do appreciate it if you tried that much for me to call off the emergency and let the ball begin,” the woman moved in front of him with a seductive glare.

She had long luscious red hair, irises so red that it resembled the finest red wine known in the empire. Each movement of her body was so sensual that no men or women in the room could not help but to swallow a lingering thirst in their throats.

Pulling Hexan by his collar, the woman’s lips smacked in a sensual way, her sticky breath found their way to Hexan’s ear. The man froze instantly, being enveloped by this seductress’ presence rendered him speechless, his animosity towards her for humiliating him earlier, disappeared. The woman then had her face align very closely to Hexan’s, stared at him deeply for a long moment as she took her time and ran an index finger along his chin.

Her lips moved, muttering something so soft, that no one but Hexan could understand her words. All everyone could see was a faint pink mist emanated from the woman surrounding the room, whisking away the unpleasant smells from the teleportation machine’s destruction.

“You are lucky, I am feeling generous tonight, [Charm…”

Then, something deep inside Hexan changed.

With that one touch from her, her fiery gaze ingrained in his mind’s eye, he was enlightened, he knew what he should do next, and was overcome with a desire to serve the woman, in fact, this sensation was so, so, so strong that the fact that failing her request meant that he would have failed his life’s purpose, a result that would end up with him killing himself out of humiliation for not achieving what the woman wanted.

“Would you mind doing that for me this instant and let the ball begin? I would report to the vice president that we have a rogue student that rendered his plan useless, so none of you would be fired for it.”

“Yes!”

Compelled by a powerful magic, Hexan quickly moved to the intercom and made a call to the ball organizers.

When he got a hold of the higher ups who were still postponing the ball, his face turned was akin to someone who the world was depending on.

“Hexan here…… Yes, the situation has changed, you may start now…… Right…… We have an important person here that would take care of everything…… Yes, that is correct…… Thank you very much,” with that, Hexan finished what he sought to do for the woman.

“See? That wasn’t that hard. Thank you very much, Hexan. As for your reward, I would arrange extra help from the people at Registoria after the ball to help rebuild that machine of yours. Good work~”

Satsfied with the results she came for, she blew a kiss to everyone else and left with the door open.

“Yes, my lady! Enjoy the rest of your night! Please come to me if you need anything else! I am ever willing to serve you however you wish!”

Everyone who saw Hexan and the woman’s exchange had all their jaws wide open in shock.

Just a moment ago, they were all dying to find a way to get out of this mess and avoid getting fired and the various repercussions from the disrespect that Hexan had showed to their important guest.

But Hexan, somehow, did the impossible and resolved that problem in a short minute. The unassuming clown, for as long as he worked with them had finally showed his worth as a person, not only they were absolved from any punishment, they were even promised by the woman to rebuilt their precious machine.

“Hexan, you are the man! I love that stupid spat you had with her there, who knew you have a way of talking to her!?”

“Turns out you are not here for nothing! I kind of regret looking down on you now...”

“He just saved our sorry selves! You must have contacted her the moment you saw the machine was up in flames. Y-you! You magnificent bastard, I can kiss you right now!”

In response to his coworkers, Hexan had the largest smile that showed all of his white teeth.

“Yes!”

Little did anyone know that the reason for Hexan’s blind obedience towards the woman was not because he had caused her to favor him, rather, the moment he allowed the woman to get close to him, he had surrendered all his freewill in exchange for a one-sided soul binding love that he would never be released from.

[Charm of Eternal Love], a magic spell so ancient that it was used since ancient times by horrible people who wanted nothing but the servitude of the people around them, people who had a weak sense of self fall prey to it the easiest, and once someone had fallen victim to it, the effects of this charm will persist in them until their lives come into passing. The only way for someone to be released from it was only when the caster released them, or when the caster had died.

And in Hexan’s case, it seems that the woman had no intentions of releasing him.

Tables aligned to the edges of the hall, where the countless selection of luxurious foods were catered on them, glistening lobsters sprinkled with herbs, perfectly grilled steaks, layered cakes of all kinds, pots and pots of soup, all of which were prepared for the students’ enjoyment.

“Darn…” the words left John’s mouth as he stepped in the ball room, his eyes focused on the water fountain by the center of the room, “Talk about going all out…”

Soft orchestral music could be heard playing in the background to compliment the atmosphere, the room temperature was pleasant, the marble floors were sparkling from how thoroughly they were cleaned. He can’t help but to take a deep breath to soothe his nerves, he looked to his left where Angeline had clung against him.

Ah… Her face is all red. John thought silently to himself, but quickly dismissed the idea of doing any more than sharing a dance with Angeline. I did say I would dance with her… But that doesn’t exactly mean I would go into a relationship with her right?

He meant well when he agreed to dance with Angeline, after all, he respected her courage to even tell him her feelings—if they are as deep as she had made it sound to be. But to involve himself with her intimately? John’s heart almost shrunk at the thought of that. Even if it was Evie, he would have to give it some time before he could process a reality like that, and for Angeline to say something like that to him…

I don’t want to repeat what happened with Raina, was what he thought. He hated the feeling of being abandoned by the people he loved. A repeat of A’vetheas—a repeat of separation after he had gotten so close with someone romantically…

His heart throbbed at it.

“John?” noticing his muddled gaze, Angeline looked up into his eyes, focusing his attention back onto her. “Are you alright?” she said slowly, bringing his senses back to reality.

“Um… Yeah. Sorry, I was thinking about something else.”

Angeline puffed her face, tightened her arms around him in response, “We are in an important event, please save them for later.”

“Ahaha… I was just thinking about what to do after the ball, you know, how things are going to be and all that,” he replied honestly, scratching his head as he felt Angeline’s arms loosen. John looked away from her, throwing his glance into the people who had already started to share their dances, not far from him, he could see Scywell and Helen locking fingers, moving their bodies with the rhythm, surrounding them were a few other couples who enjoyed the same type of gentle dance. Considering he himself was not too much of social butterfly, the atmosphere was not too bad for a ball dance, he had expected more vulgar acts of ‘intimacy’ that were devoid of any deeper emotions…

Unfortunately, he was proven to be correct on that last assessment of his.

John let out a tired sigh when he witnessed a particular couple pressed their lips together and started to aggressively use their tongues, doing all they could to push it into the other’s mouth. The guy had started to unbutton his shirt, removing his jacket while the girl slowly lifted her skirt, revealing her bare buttocks. The sight was so sudden that it caused the music to stop, the other couples to stop dancing and back away from the lustful couple.

“Kill me now… I spoke too soon,” he said under his breath regretfully, head turned into the other direction. He had heard from Miros that the recent generation of youths in Dezarith Empire, especially those who from rich families that had no names, had lesser morals due to how they were raised.

“I don’t blame them entirely, but the fact their parents are those who does the dirty work for the empire has caused severe damage to their psyche, to be sentient is to have control. And to learn to tame your urges is what makes one strong, John.”

It was not that he did not understand what they felt, even John was a healthy male who have needs, needs that require release.

But he was not so deprived that he would lower himself to becoming an animal and throw away his dignity as the couple that was disrupting the ball’s atmosphere.

“John, what are you looking away…from…?” Angeline who was walking alongside him noticed this of him and look towards where he was staring at seconds ago. “I-I see…” avoiding her gaze that daunting couple, she lowered her head and rest it against him.

Not a moment sooner, a few academy staff appeared, the academy staff wasted no time in separating the couple and made haste to drag them out of the ball room. It took a few shouts and grunts, but when the doors shut away the image of the two students—presumably soon to be ex-students—the room breathed a sigh of relief and resumed its activities.

“Yikes… Talk about getting a room. Guess they like showing themselves off,” John commented as he and Angeline watched the two leave. He slowly guided Angeline by her hand to a less crowded spot, “Should we get started with our own dance?”

“Ahahaha, well…” Angeline looked to the ground, nodding her head shyly.

“N-nervous?” John asked.

She nodded, eyes still drawn to the ground.

John let out a small smile and stood beside her as he chatted with her.

“So am I… If it helps, I do not want to eat your face like what that guy did, ahaha! Not to be spiteful, but I am betting that they will start to hate each other real soon.” Since the both of them were not in a hurry to dance, he might as well take in the atmosphere while Angeline eased herself.

“Why?” she suddenly lifted her head to him, eyes sparkling with curiosity from what he just said. “You can read their future?”

John shook his head, “Nah, that’s just my hunch. Those two barely knew each other, if I am not wrong, they got together during yesterday’s mathematics class, they were behind me and all that so I kind of overheard. With their quote on quote, ‘love’ formed in such a short time, let alone knowing the other well enough, they were too busy doing…well, all of that earlier.”

“Perhaps they are love at first sight? It is more common among nobles since we are mostly sheltered but…it was odd to do something like that for any normal person.” Angeline had a finger on her lip but when she could not find an answer.

“No. Nope, nope, nope. It is impossible to be love at first sight. I don’t even have to use my brain to even know it.”

Angeline’s eyes grew wide in curiosity at this reply from John. “Oh, really? You know something that I don’t?”

“Relationships, for the most part are fickle, I can say that much, one day it seems that you know the other person deeply, the next, it’s like facing a complete stranger. At least, that’s most of what I have seen and experienced.”

“That is a valid reasoning…”

John continued, “But think about it, who in their right mind would stand in the very center of the dance hall and make such a ‘bold’ scene. It looks more like showing off to the crowd rather than being ‘passionate’ with the other. So, aside from their lust for each other, I doubt there is any chemistry between them, I can feel it…”

Angeline placed a hand on her on her cheek, “Some couples happen to like the attention from others. Of course, that is just my hypothesis, I am not well versed in these things like my research. For the most part I only learn about these things in books.”

“Hmm…” John tapped a finger on this leg and gave it a serious thought before replying. “How about I put it this way. You love your researching, yes?”

Angeline replied meekly, “It is my passion. I’ve been doing this for as long as I could remember…”

“Aye, but do you perhaps, jump on some stage and scream at the world, like so…” John inhaled deeply, cupped his hands and proceeded to shout like a hooligan, “Hey! Look at my achievements over here! Everyone please look here!’” causing those who heard him to cast him irritated looks for interrupting their dance. “Ahahahaha... That’s so dumb of me!”

“H-hey! Don’t bring attention to us,” Angeline pulled at his suit and begged him to stop embarrassing himself, while she did her best to suppress her laughter.

“You don’t right?” John said when he was done with the scene he played for her, he resumed explaining, “Because in a sense, that research is something you, yourself wanted to do, it directly relates to your inner desires. Unlike the couple from earlier, they did it for the attention.”

“I get it, I get what you are trying to say. You may be a rascal, but that’s because your brain works so weirdly, ahahaha,” Angeline brought a knuckle to John’s head and attempted to knock his head but he quickly dodged it before her fist could make contact.

John rolled his eyes and grabbed her wrist before she tried the same thing again, he was not done explaining, “I’ll just take one more example, less than a minute ago when I was shouting, the reason that you wanted me to stop is because unlike that couple, you think that our dance tonight does not external interfering nor the validation.”

“…”

Angeline just looked at John with her light brown eyes, annoyed that he had not dropped the subject at hand. He released his grip on her wrist, taking a step back, not only had he failed to impress her with that little speech, it seemed that any moment now she was about to yell his head off for not being as romantic as she wanted.

Umm…

“That… Or maybe I am just plain wrong…” John rubbed his head awkwardly while he tried to think of something to turn the topic around. “L-let’s just…”

Then out of nowhere, her delicate hands slapped his arm playfully “Ahahaha! I was just messing with you! I didn’t know you have this side to you! Who would have thought your seriousness is on a whole different level! And here I was thinking you don’t care about me at all, but turns out you can be attentive if you wanted to, huh?”

John etched his lips into a straight line and cast a doubtful look on Angeline. He had been played with, plain and simple, Angeline had gotten back at him for teasing her on their first meeting and he could see it in her joyous laugh and her crinkled eyes. Here he was genuinely trying to have a proper dance with Angeline, but she saw through his earnest self and took her chance. Admittedly, it was impressive, but John decided to ignore her antics and moved to the tables and started to fill a plate with food as revenge.

“Aww, come on, I thought it was cute that you didn’t know what to reply me with, besides, I think this is fair considering how much you teased me when we first met.” Angeline pleaded, showing no remorse for what she did. “But yes, you are right, it is meaningless if people do things just because they wanted the approval of others, especially if it is just to impress strangers that they’ll never talk to,” Angeline tried to return to the topic that he spoke a moment ago, but John was not swayed by her words at the slightest.

“…”

He continued to disregard Angeline who looked at him in an expectant way, hoping that someway he would retort and snap at her for having teased him. John pretended he did not hear her and continued his food selection process, two slices of sautéed potatoes, a bowl of mushroom cream soup, a chicken skewer…

Then, Angeline’s arm came swooping down and snatched the skewer that he just placed on his plate.

“Hey!”

“Heyyy!” Angeline said with a bright smile and a wave of hand as she took a bite into the chicken skewer. “Mmmhmm, you do know how to choose a dish. Say, John, what about you? What would you do if you felt like the couple earlier?”

“W-what do you mean by that?” John almost choked at her question.

“Oh you know…” she fiddled her pink dress with her free hand as she looked downwards. “What you said earlier, since you deem those two are only showing off because of their lust for each other. I was wondering what would you do if you wanted to express your passion towards your mate?”

“Come again?”

“You… Ah forget it… You are just trying to get back at me now.”

“Pfft, who was the person said that she was going to try? Where’s that Angeline now?” John sneered then he reverted his face into a serious one, “In my case though… I myself think it should be much more, intimate. You know, whatever the t-things lovers do, it should be private and exclusive, no matter how small the things are.”

“T-then, c-can you do that for me?”

John’s eyes grew wide at what she said.

“Ah!” Angeline yelped, realizing what she said came out different than she had intended, she moved her hands nervously in front of her. “I didn’t mean gorging out my tongue like those two. Y-you know, the ball dance thing…”

“O-oh! You mean dancing, ahahaha. Yeah, s-sure. Isn’t that what I promised to?”

“…now.”

“Now?” he raised his brows, aching them so high up that his forehead made visible wrinkles. “Now, now?”

“If you don’t mind. Please,” she begged, her face flushed.

“I thought you were hungry?” He offered the plate of food to Angeline who still had her brown eyes locked on him as a show of her determination. “The food’s gonna go to waste though…. Aghhhh… Give me a second,” he raised a finger.

John took a big sip of the soup before he abandoned the plate by an empty seat and returned to Angeline with a stern face. He took one of her hands firmly, gently guided her to the dance floor while he placed his other arm around her waist.

His swift, precise actions had caught Angeline off guard to the point that she feel like fainting from all the blood that gushed to her head. “Grabbing my hand, and putting your arm on my waist? That’s…”

“Isn’t this what you wanted? I am only following the standard dance procedures.”

“Y-yes. L-let’s dance. That is…” Angeline’s voice became small. “Can you teach me how to? I don’t know have any knowledge…”

“You don’t know? Even though you are a noble? I thought you were going to lead me since you were so eager to dance.”

“T-there’s a reason I am in Scywell’s team, okay? I am born as a noble…but since my family has lots of children, I don’t get the same treatment as my siblings. I turned to researching instead of the mumbo jumbo diplomatic stuff my family does, who knew it backfired when I needed it the most…”

“Ahahaha!”

“That’s not funny!”

“It is, because I can’t dance either! Hahaha!” John shook his shoulder involuntary, shaking his head in disbelief.

“But you know the dancing procedures!” Angeline insisted. “How else would you know how to hold me?”

John gave her a sly smile, “Oh, I certainly have read books on dancing, I have just never actually tried those moves.” Using his free left hand, he intertwined his fingers with Angeline’s. “It’s just moving back and forth, it can’t be that complicated can it? Let’s just try moving left and right for now.”

Angeline nodded and followed his suit, with their bodies parallel to the other, John gently took a few steps to their left, paused, then repeated the similar motion to the right, all the while making sure to not step on Angeline’s feet.

“O-oh, oh! I am dancing!” Angeline let out an excited squeal as they repeated the same pattern until the they could move their bodies naturally and keep up with the other. “Two more steps on the left, then, move to the right… John, you are really good at this! Are you secretly a dancer or were you lying to me so I won’t feel bad?”

“To be honest, I am treating it as the weapon practices I took in the past, the only thing I changed was the pacing and direction.” He took a quick look at their footwork then return to Angeline’s gaze. “Though, I wasn’t good at it. I stopped somewhere during the intermediate classes,” the conversation reminded him that his schedule became much busier when he became an apprentice scribe in his A’vetheas days, causing him to eventually drop it. “I sank a good five years in weapons training before realizing that I have not much potential for it.”

“You must have missed it a lot, don’t you?” Angeline suddenly looked at him with compassionate eyes, when her eyes met his it looked that she was on the verge of tears. “Five years is not a short time, even I would feel bad if I learned that I can’t improve after so long.”

“Weapons training? Nah,” he shook his head to dismiss that notion. “The only time I’ve got to spar with someone else was when I asked someone to spar with me. The classes were just repeating the same attacking and defending positions until you got used to it, they wanted me to execute complicated attacks in a short amount of time. Well, as you can feel in your palms right now, my hands aren’t exactly too large to execute those moves.”

“But your face looked so sad for a moment. I thought.”

John blinked dumbfoundedly, “Did it? I didn’t feel anything though…” he tried to give it some serious thought about his weapons training classes in A’vetheas but nothing came to him.

“I… Never mind, I must be seeing things.” She lowered her face in embarrassment over her false assumptions.

Am I showing a woeful face?

John who saw Angeline’s internal distraught decided to shift the topic, “What about you, Angeline? You must be pretty good at combat since you are out on missions all the time. Kind of explains how fast you can move with your feet, even I am trying to keep up with you.”

“Me? Good at combat?” Angeline said mockingly, as though what John just said was a blatant lie and nothing more than a compliment. “Ahahaha, John, I am the least physically capable on the team. What could someone who is always on the backline supporting the team to do without someone to lead her?”

“…That’s not what I mean. Don’t you have various projects at hand? That healing potion that gives big buff to anyone who drinks it?”

“It is still under research, I still can’t find the working component to get all the properties I need for it to work. Besides, it isn’t only me who is trying to create such a potion…” Angeline then smiled at John when she was done speaking. “Thank you though… For thinking so highly of me,” her brown eyes then locked onto his, Angeline then stood on the balls of her feet, pecked John’s cheek lightly before she retracted herself as though nothing had happened.

It took a while for the sensation of Angeline’s small lips to register to John’s mind, when he finally realized what happened he froze on the spot with a hand on his cheeks eyes blinking like the idiot he was. To which Angeline giggled at his silly reaction like a little girl.

“D-don’t tell me, you have been w-wanting to do that,” John struggled to get his words out, his face flared red but returned to its usual color after he took a deep, calm breath.

“That’s for your thoughtfulness. But if you want them on your lips, we still have a long way to…” Angeline’s voice suddenly faded as her eyes turned towards the direction behind John. “Helen?”

John turned to look behind him, and discovered that Helen had appeared behind them out of nowhere.

“Sorry to interrupt you John, but I need to speak to Angeline this instance,” Helen said, still panting from how fast she had gotten to them.

“Helen, please I was—”

“Kershent Village. Plans changed. Meeting now.”

With those words, Angeline stopped any attempts to argue, she knew what those words meant for her. She lowered her head, turned to John with a bittersweet smile. “Duty calls. G-guess our dance is cut s-short huh?” it seemed like tears were leaking from her face for having this intimate moment of theirs cut short.

John became mute, he did not know what to say to her that moment. Sure, Angeline was not the girl he had promised to dance with, but when he stared at her forced smile of not being able to spend more time with him, it stung his heart. He wanted to say something to make her stay a little bit longer, but he had no right given that her team needed her.

Helen landed a chop on Angeline’s head. “No silly, we aren’t leaving now, we’ll need to strategize, then decide when to leave. If you hurry up, you might still get to see John later,” restoring just a small bit of hope into Angeline.

“Okay…” Angeline muttered, looking back at John like a sad puppy as Helen brought her away from John while she curled her fingers at him bidding him goodbye.