His silver irises reflected the image of the blue-eyed man. Moulin blinked. His brows knitted in awkwardness. With a faint smile, he lowered his gaze. "Forgive my rudeness. I didn't know that you would become my senior."

"It is alright. It isn't something to dwell on deeply..." Rowan chuckled. As he finished, he turned to Tessley whose expression was as grim as a dying cougar. "So how may I be of assistance to you? Surely, you didn't come here to just see me."

Tessley glanced at Moulin dimly before she faced Rowan. "The Elders have delivered a task at dawn. However, the messenger could not decipher the runes to open the scroll. It is different than the other scroll tasks. I believe it may be something important..." Tessley explained as she handed the scroll to Rowan.

Rowan's expression fell slightly as he accepted the scroll from her hands. "What of the Lord?" He softened his voice as he spoke.

Tessley shook her head. "A storm came..." She says. Hinting something in her words that only Rowan could understand.

His expression grew stern. He gestures Tessley to walk with him. Wanting to continue their conversation in a more private area.

Tessley glanced at the three people behind her and reminded in a low tone, "Don't wander far while I finish something here. You can go explore but come back to the guild before the sky darkens."

As the three nodded, she walked away with Rowan. Moulin watched the departing back of the two before turning his head slightly towards his friends. "I believe our Senior Tessley is enamored with Senior Rowan-"

"Definitely." Jagra nods.

"Absolutely..." Ghana nods.

They chuckled jokingly together. Their merry atmosphere brought a bit of joy to the senior sentinels around them. It was not every day that they could witness youthful laughter in this tiresome place.

"Where do we go now?" Ghana asked with a smile. There was excitement in her voice as she spoke.

"Shall we go roam the Azuran grounds? I'm a little bit curious..." Jagra suggested. His gaze glancing at the entrance of the guild a couple of times. His cute actions made Moulin feel giddy.

"Ao!" Snow yipped in agreement.

With a roll of his eyes, Moulin nodded. "My little friend agrees with you. Well, we still have time before sunset. Let's go..."

Settling with the idea, they walked towards the manorial's exit hurriedly. However, before they could step out, a sentinel nearby stopped them. The woman was panting heavily with a towering stack of papers in both hands.

"Um, excuse me. Are you going outside?" Her eyes were as if pleading for them to answer.

"Uh, yeah we are..." Ghana replied. The pitiful, tired-looking woman made Ghana surrender.

Moulin and Jagra looked at each other.

"I'm sorry for disturbing you three. I'm really hurrying to deliver these documents. Can I please ask for a favor? I'm really really sorry... We need people to deliver these scrolls to the guild messenger. But he's currently submitting a report to the Elder guild. I know I may be interrupting your time. I'm really sorry. But we really need this to be done today and I don't know who to ask or-"

"We can do it. It's alright" Jagra smiled. He believes that the woman would burst out crying any moment longer if she would continue to explain to them. Her eyes were teary her hands were trembling.

She beamed happily. Her eyes coincidentally clash with Moulin's stern ones and the happiness in her pupils faltered slightly.

They took the few scrolls from her with a smile. She thanked them a hundred times before she scurried with the reports in her hands.

"You're aware that she was only using us to complete her tasks, right?" Moulin narrowed his eyes with a smirk as they exited the manorial.

Ghana stopped. Her blue eyes glanced hesitantly at Moulin. "You can tell?"

Moulin raised an eyebrow. His expression was filled with amusement and annoyance. "I admire your kindness but one day if you don't watch out, you'll get yourself swallowed..." There was a soft laugh after his words.

Jagra furrowed his eyes brows. There was a faint tremble in his voice as he spoke. "You can be a little scary sometimes, Moulin..."

Moulin gave a laugh as they walked out into the open courtyard. Numerous eyes glanced at them and faint whispers once again sounded around them. Although it irked Jagra and Ghana, they didn't show it in their expressions as they only continued to chatter without care. However, not only were there whispers others even dared to speak out loud. Their attention was caught by the dazzling hair of white and the piercing silver eyes of a certain aphrodite.

Snow's growled as he noticed the numerous looks towards his dear master.

Moulin's white hair swayed as he walked. He was aware of the curious gazes but he didn't give a care. What would those leering gazes even do to him?

"Your beauty really catches a hundred eyes..." Ghana raised her brows as her eyes sweep across the passing maeruthans. She felt the strange urge to claw out their leering eyes.

Moulin only frowned. What these people with wanton looks only looked at his appearance and the gentle skin that he wears. It's sometimes irritating and annoying. Moulin didn't utter a single word for the rest of the walk.

Suddenly, a loud commotion was heard from the direction Moulin and his friends were heading. There were sudden shouts and yells. The noise grew louder as people began to surround the origin of the unrest. People bumped against each other without care as they ran. Curious about the strange happening.

Moulin knitted his brows in confusion. "What's going on?"

"Someone fell and fainted." Ghana frowned when he finished talking to a passing person who gladly relayed some information.

"Fainted?..." Jagra blinked. "But... If it is only a mere faint then why would... so many people gather around it? Possibly, it isn't just a simple faint"

Moulin shrugged. "It isn't worth our time..."

It should not be anything significant. Moulin coldly glanced at the circle of people not so far away from him.

"I'm curious..." Ghana walked towards the crowd.

"Come on, Moulin" Jagra pulled his lovely friend as they followed Ghana. Moulin sighed as he let himself be dragged.

"Make way! Make way!" A loud voice shouted. He began to push people away as he struggled to rudely push away people to make space for his leader. He lifted his chin as he glanced at the body lying on the ground. His face immediately scrunched in disgust as he stared at the twitching body on the ground.

"What is that?"

"What's wrong with him?

"This man needs help!"

Various voices spoke at once. The atmosphere grew grave and anxious but none did a thing.

"Quiet!..." A sharp voice of the rude man spoke up instantly silencing the crowd.

A tall man calmly stood before the twitching body. He had deep red hair tied up in a ponytail, wearing the renowned uniform of Trylle. He lowered his cold brown eyes on the person laid on the ground. His eyes narrowed.

The sight was indeed unpleasant and alarming.

Black blood oozed from the seven orifices of the man. The black veins were visible beneath his skin. Like wriggling worms moving and spreading out all over the man's face. His eyes were dilated terribly. Mouth wide open as if something was gagging him, something obstructing his airflow. Throat littered with red scratches, skin peeled, black and red blood mixed, trickling out of the pores.

Arms and legs were twitching terribly and the head was tilted to the side.

The sight was petrifying.

This was what met Moulin's eyes as soon as he arrived at the scene. He was shocked and undeniably horrified as he stood in place. Limbs unmoving as he stared.

What was... What was this?

Even if everyone would assume that there was black blood seeping out of the man's neck, Moulin was certain it wasn't...

He could clearly see the liquid moving. Wriggling. The black blood was moving down as if blending with the crimson liquid spurting from the man's pores.

'He will return... '

The voice echoed in his mind endlessly.

It sounded as gentle as a lullaby but held a very sinister warning. Everything seemed to quiet down and the world turned blurry and distorted except for the body twitching violently before him.

As though oxygen was derived from his lungs, Moulin felt that he could not breathe the longer he stared.

Subconsciously, he felt a cold hand grasping his shoulder...

And when everything in his mind was as quiet as the night, he saw the puddle of blood seeping towards his direction.

Crawling with thirst...

"Everyone please leave the area..." The man from Guild Trylle ordered. His authoritative voice forced the people to unhurriedly scatter and leave.

Sentinels from the elder guild quickly surrounded the area and took control of the situation. Moulin was rooted to the ground as Jagra began to pull him away.

"Moulin?"

At the sound of that seemingly familiar voice, Moulin stiffened. Wrenching his gaze away from the body on the ground, his unfocused eyes looked at the figure hurriedly moving towards him.

"Why are you here?" Emlen pulled his brother's shoulders and dragged him away from the scene.

Ghana and Jagra followed him quietly.

"Brother, I-"

Moulin couldn't finish his words when he was hauled away by force. As he was dragged away, he turned his gaze to glanced at the body one last time before it was surrounded by multiple sentinels, and his view was obstructed.

Moulin's mind suddenly blanked and cleared.

Just then he had just... witnessed something.