Skydancer Exams (9)
Avery faced Hugo on the far end of the artificial training field.
"So, what was it you needed to talk about?"
Hugo asked, taken into notice that Avery was not talking.
"Well..."
She stopped for a minute and looked him in the eye, contemplating whether to tell him anything.
"If you will not speak, I'll be taking my leave. I need to prepare for the third exam." Hugo sighed, already walking away.
"Oh, don't waste your time. There's a one-day interval of rest between any of the two of the exams. So, you can spend all day with me."
Avery voiced out, making him halt for even the briefest second.
"And so what? As long as you're still here you can tell me anytime. I need to go sleep."
He waved her away as a man would do to a fly.
"Hold up! It's a matter of national emergency!"
She only had to whisper-yell these words to make Hugo come to her side.
"Hmph! So you choose to come back even when I only revealed a portion?" She asked him teasingly.
"Get to the point, what is this matter of emergency you're talking about?!"
"Oh, nothing. We received news that a Dark Skydancer will arrive during the last exam."
"What?!"
Hugo yelled out in shock. Dark Skydancers were the opposite of Skydancers. They were the amalgamation of suffering, discrimination, and crime all turning into one entity. More often than not, a Skydancer usually turned into a dark one, as compared with a Dark Skydancer becoming one on his own.
There was not much difference, but from what he'd researched on the two classes, there were only a few differences. He could still remember the day that he came to the conclusions.
"One has authority to use their power in public, while the other has no legal authority to use their power in public."
As simple as he would like to put it, he knew it was only one dark day that a skydancer would use to turn into a dark one.
"Do you finally understand the gravity of the situation? If it was just a normal dark skydancer, we wouldn't have had to take action, Loudmouth could easily beat those up."
"So, If Loudmouth can not handle it, what makes you think I can?"
"You're a little too innocent and naïve despite your admirable wits..."
"... Sigh, we don't really need you. No matter how strong you are, you're but one person! What we need is an opinion, your resources, intel that only a real candidate can obtain!
And besides, from what I've learnt during this exam, you are probably one of the strongest candidates here, if not the strongest entirely. If you needed to fight, Loudmouth cannot match up with you."
"And so you're saying all this because?"
"Well, I need you to help me gather more powerful allies and gather information on any suspicious-looking candidate."
"I understand."
"Thank you for your cooperation sir Hugo Smithson."
Before she could add in anything more, Hugo had already left.
His broad back reflected in Avery's eyes. She would never forget his dark-clothed figure for as long as she would live.
"Oh, and Avery."
Avery who had turned heard Hugo's voice and swivelled back to see whether he was there.
"What?"
Hugo was still far away from her, but his voice was loud and clear like they were sitting next to each other.
"Don't get it into your head that I am the strongest candidate here, there is someone more powerful than me here. She knows all about what you said."
Avery reached into her pants pocket, subconsciously reaching for her gun.
"Someone was listening in?"
"No need to worry. She wasn't listening in on us, that girl would never do something like that. I meant that she knows all about it. You don't have to worry about it. Since she hasn't shown herself to me all this while, it comes to my understanding that she knows.
Whoever wants to come to attack this exam is going to have the worst time of their lives."
Hugo didn't keep standing when he'd said what he intended to.
He left Avery standing there with the vagueness of his words.
The moment he was out of sight, he muttered under his breath, the last of what he wanted to say.
"Lucky for you...
... We're more than familiar."
. . .
A golden tub filled with large bubbles was at the centre of the bathroom designed just as luxurious as the tub itself.
'Whew, thank god for that rule. Otherwise, even I might not have survived!'
A few bubbles floated up, and Hugo who enjoyed soaking for long periods of time popped the soapy bubbles.
'Hmm, this is the carefree life anyone should be able to live. Unplagued by constant thoughts and will never be disturbed by the outside world because there will not be any trouble out there!'
"Sadly, that world has not come yet.
Hugo took a final wash and stepped out of the tub.
Hugo carefully placed his legs into the pair of slippers standing by the tub and casually picked up a black robe hanging from a rack on the wall.
'For me, I still have to think of that thing Avery was talking about. Sigh, too difficult.'
Tying the robe, he walked out of the toilet, contemplating any suspicious characters he met the other day.
"But according to what I've learnt, there were quite a lot of sus characters. IA V-1 for one is very sus, and Shiro and Kenji. They're also very sus. The only ones I can even trust for now are her and...
...Hyena!"
Hugo rushed into his closet and picked up his clothing. He took less than a minute to wear them and go look for Hyena until he discovered a large problem.
"Ugh, where's his room again?"
Hugo looked up and down the Little-Big Hotel's halls but didn't find any trace of Hyena.
'Is there something I'm missing?'
His "expert intelligence" realized that he'd not yet gone to meet the receptionist. He rushed down nine floors until he reached ground floor where the receptionist was situated.
"Is there anything I can do for you-"
"Huff... Huff... Excuse me, do you huff... know huff... where Hyena's room is?"
"Umm, yes that's room 456."
"Thank you!"
And that was how Hugo found himself on the fifth floor knocking on Hyena's door.