6 chapter 6

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vi.

I SAVED YOU

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It had been a few hours since they walked through the forest. It turned out that their enemies' second hideout was not in the city, but in the forest. And, since it was in the woods, they couldn't use carriages to reach there. Harith was trying his best to move as fast as he could, but there was still a limit to how fast he could walk. And with the trees in his way, it would take a while before they can find the building.

Hopefully, he could find Harley before it was too late.

Harith could sense the tension hanging in the air, but Claude tried to ease it up a little. The marksman talked about random stuff, cracked some jokes, but Harith knew that he was just as anxious as everyone else. Knowing how Harley had been treated back there, they could only imagine what they would do to him now that they got him back.

"Hey, Ruby," Harith called, after a long silence. The fighter hummed in acknowledgement, and Harith knew that she was listening. "If we had found their second base, why didn't we just attack them earlier?"

"The ones who found their second base was Hayabusa and Kagura, who were returning from their mission," Ruby explained, her face growing solemn. "They discovered about it pretty recently, actually. They couldn't do anything since they were low on supplies. The Headmaster wanted you to deal with them, but he was aware that you wanted to stick with Harley, so he was actually waiting for Zilong's group to get back."

"Oh, I see," he answered.

Inwardly, Harith was glad that he was the one who was going to deal with these people. He would show them the consequences of hurting Harley, and Harley wouldn't have to be worried about them ever again. Visioning their blood pooling around their corpses, a menacing smile crept on his lips. He didn't care how much blood he would shed this time. Right now, all he wanted to do was eliminate all those people. 2

"...Harith?"

Harith blinked a few times before turning around to look at his friends. All of them were giving him a questioning look, and his brows furrowed in confusion at their expressions. "What?"

Claude stuck a finger in his ear, planning to dig it, but Kimmy slapped his hand away. The marksman was startled when she did it, but then he realised that he was doing it in public. He then cleared his throat. "Geez, Harith, weren't you listening? Kimmy was telling us how this plan goes."

Harith gave them an apologetic smile, and all of them groaned when he scratched the back of his head. "Can you guys repeat the plan for me?"

Kimmy let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine, but you better listen this time."

— ❅ —

"For a second, I was worried, you know."

Harley merely listened to his master as he was trying his best to keep himself conscious. Right now, he was focusing onto wrapping his arm with the bandages given to him. They had patched some of his other injuries earlier, but his master then wanted him to do it himself. His vision kept blurring, and he had to keep shaking his head in order to stay awake. It hurt when the bandages touch his skin, but he forced himself to just bear with it. It was a good thing he had stopped bleeding a while ago. However, he could tell, he had lost too much of his blood.

"I thought you were going to die," his master continued, letting out a chuckle. The man turned around to face him, and Harley blinked a few times when his vision start to blur again. "Though, maybe I shouldn't have been too extreme with you. I don't want to lose you so early."

Harley just stared at the man for a while before looking down at his arm again. For a moment, everything was black, before his eyes flew open when his master roughly shook him by the shoulder.

"Don't pass out on me now," the man said, his eyes narrowing. Harley held back a cry when the man suddenly grabbed his arm to pull him up. "Come on, you're going to help me carry a few things."

His head felt light the moment he stood up, and he had to walk slowly in order to prevent himself from collapsing. His master, on the other hand, became impatient and pulled him forward so that he would match his pace with him. It was a bad move though. The place was suddenly spinning, and Harley soon found himself on his knees with his body leaning against the wall.

"Huh," the man said, looking at him with an indifferent expression. "Are you that tired?"

Tired wasn't the only thing he felt. Harley sucked in a deep breath when his side started to sting, and he soon realised that he was bleeding again. He tried to inspect the injury, only to find his hand covered in blood. When he looked down, his eyes widened when he found the bandages around his abdomen were coloured in crimson.

This was not good.

The man seemed to notice his bleeding wound, and a deep frown made its way to his lips. "You're bleeding again? Boy, you really need to pull yourself together. All I did was hit you a few times."

With a metal rod.

"Hmm... but maybe I shouldn't have hit at the same place again and again. But, whatever, it's not my fault you left–" His master stopped when one of his henchmen approached him. The man whispered something in his ear, and Harley watched as his master turned furious before shouting, "What?!"

"Y-Yes, Boss. They're already inside the building. If we don't stop them–"

"Hurry up and lead me to them!"

When his master disappeared from his sight, Harley moved himself into a sitting position, and he leaned his back against the wall. He lifted his hand to look at it again, and he could only do much as stare at the blood on his palm. He let out a sigh and tried to focus onto his breathing. He noticed how his breathing was starting to become shallow, and his eyes wouldn't stop drooping as his vision kept blurring.

"Take care of yourself, okay?"

Harley was startled when he heard a distant voice. He had heard that voice before, and he tried his best to remember who it belonged to.

"Don't worry about me, Harith, I'll be back before you know it."

So the voice belonged to Harith. The other voice must've been him.

"I know, but it still worries me that you're going alone. Are you sure that you'll be fine on your own?"

"It's just spying on them. I've done this kind of mission already."

...Wait, this was before he ended up being in that place.

"Just make sure to take care of yourself. Never lower your guard. Promise me you'll return safely?"

He remembered.

He remembered Harith saying that. He remembered the worried look Harith had given to him when he found out that he was going on this mission.

He remembered chuckling at Harith's statement.

"I promise."

— ❅ —

Harith had no idea how much longer he could restrain himself, but the urge to just kill everyone in his way was getting stronger. He used Zaman Force to immobolise the group of men in front of him, and that allowed his friends to use their skills onto those people. He could hear some people shouting in the distance, their footsteps heading to their direction, but now was not the time to deal with them. He needed to see Harley now.

"Come on, let's go this way!" Lolita said, running towards an empty-looking path.

All of them followed Lolita, and they were lucky that they headed towards this direction. It turned out that there was no one using this path, so that meant they have some time to form a strategy. All of them were breathing heavily, but they weren't sure whether or not it was due to fatigue or adrenaline.

Their main objective now was to search for Harley, but it was difficult when their enemies keep appearing one by one. If they could use a few minutes to form a plan to distract them, that would be enough to find Harley and get out of here.

"Okay, so this place is smaller than the last one, but why are there so many rooms?!" Claude asked.

Ruby was taking deeps breaths. Earlier, she had been crazy with attacking. But it looked like she had calmed down now. "If we can just find Harley in this place, we could–"

"Um, guys?"

All of them turned around to look at Kimmy, and they all motioned towards her when she was staring at something. All of them followed her gaze, and they gasped when they spotted smears of blood on the floor.

Harith stiffened when the blood was in his sight, and he slowly tilted his head to look around. There was blood on the walls too, but it wasn't as much as it was on the floor. Quickly, he started following the trail of blood, and it didn't take long for him to discover what he was looking for all along.

Harley.

"Harley!" Lolita cried, rushing towards the mage's side. The shirt he was wearing was soaked in fresh blood, and it was a sign that he was currently bleeding. "Hold on!"

Harith watched as Lolita's hand started glowing a faint green. It meant that she was using Healing Spell. He knew that he should be doing something to help the mage right now, but he was frozen on the spot. Harley looked awful, and by awful, he was literally covered in cuts and bruises from head to toe. Even though they put some bandages onto him, but the injuries he sustained must've been severe if they were already covered in red.

How could they.

"Why?" Lolita asked, tears falling off from her cheeks. She sniffed and aimed her hand onto his abdomen. "Why are they so cruel to you?"

"Harith," Kimmy called, and Harith realised that he had been trapped in a daze. He turned around to look at the mage marksman. "You need to use Arrival. Forget about taking revenge, we need to save Harley first. He's dying."

Harith took a moment to inspect Kimmy's face, and he realised that this was the first time she sounded so serious. With a nod, he gently picked Harley up from Lolita, and he started chanting the words to teleport back to the academy.

Within seconds, Harith was back at the academy, and he started dashing towards the infirmary. On his way, he felt Harley shift a little, and he couldn't help but look down to see the mage. It feared him when he saw Harley's eyes becoming dull, and he forced himself to go faster.

"Harith..."

Harith could feel the tears prickling at his eyes, but he blinked them away. Harley's voice sounded so weak. It was a sign that he was dying, and it was all his fault for not taking care of him properly. If only he had requested the Headmaster to follow him. If only he had seen–

"Thank you... for everything."

"Stop," Harith spoke, his voice monotone. He didn't want to hear it. He was not going to let Harley die. "Just hold on, Harley."

There was a faint smile on Harley's lips, and he slowly shifted his head to look at his face. "I love you, Harith." 6

No.

"Damn it, Harley." Harith knew that he was running out of time, and it wasn't helping that Harley was saying all these things. It was as if he had accepted that he was going to die. "Why do you always get yourself in trouble?"

Harley let out a chuckle, only to cough right after. His voice was raspy when he said, "Well... I am a troublemaker... after all..."

It was alarming to hear Harley's breathing becoming slower, but Harith let out a sigh of relief when he spotted the infirmary. Thank god he was almost there.

"You know..." Harith heard Harley say.

He looked down to see Harley, only to find his face deathly pale.

Harley took a few deep, shaky breaths, before he continued, "I've always wished that..."

Wait a second.

"...I'm strong..."

His heartbeat–

"...just like you, Harith."

And Harith watched as Harley closed his eyes, before his body fell limp in his arms.