Chapter 80

Perhaps the additional property that was given to me came in the form of these sudden changes, or witnessing his Spiritual form and having my body heavily damaged produced these in response. Or maybe Kaden witnessing the Apocalypse authority without backlash created them?

I ran my fingers through my hair and felt the horns on my head. They felt hard and smooth like a tiled floor, while also possessing their own unique texture and characteristics. I ruffled up my hair in an attempt to hide them, but the tips still peaked through my hair, making me sigh in a gesture of fear and annoyance. 

"Perhaps Kaden's Spiritual form impacted my body in this way."

I opened Cattley's door and stepped out into the lounge hall, where I saw Damien huddled next to Demetrius, who was idly reading a book whilst combing the boy's rough, white hair with his fingers softly.

"Can I speak with you, Damien?"

I asked calmly as I approached the couch and sat down next to the child, laying my hand on top of his.

"Y-yeah, what is it?"

He looked up at me in curiosity, and I smiled softly as I led the both of us into Shinso's quarters. Shinso was too busy going on an errand that Aaron and Cattleya sent him on, for they already seemed to be low on coffee and couldn't function properly.

I sat down on the bed next to Damien and spoke softly.

"How old are you?"

"I-I'm 10."

He replied, his eyes glowing with vulnerability. I ran my fingers through the boy's hair and chuckled lightly in response.

"You're young, I'll tell you that. You've been through so much at such a young age, and when I tell you I'm so proud of you."

Damien blushed lightly and ruffled his hair up, he continued to look at me with that vulnerable expression.

"Why'd you ask me that?"

I paused for a moment, a little unaware of how'd I'd tell him all this information so suddenly. I sighed and my voice gradually softened as I spoke.

"Well, there's a few things I'd like to talk to you about, a little thing I'd want to know to get to know you better."

I crossed my legs on the bed and looked at the boy in curiosity.

"Have you ever seen anyone with a quirk before? I'm curious why you have one."

Damien's expression suddenly changed, he rubbed his arm nervously as he looked up at me in what seemed to be trepidation.

"No, I haven't."

"You haven't? Interesting."

I ran my fingers through my brown hair, and I saw Damien's eyes widen when he caught a tiny glimpse of the horns on my head.

"Wow, where'd you get those? I never noticed them until now."

The boy suddenly leaned in closer to me, I instinctively leaned my head down so he could get a closer look at the dagger like appendages that have formed on my head.

"I don't know to be honest, they only appeared a little while back."

I figured I'd hide the truth from the young boy, but I knew it would be difficult since his mother already exploded after seeing the symbol on my forehead. 

But I'm still unaware if he heard his mother mutter "Apocalypse" before exploding. I'd surmise he was too caught up in his mother's brutal death to remember anything she said prior.

"Cool, I wish I had horns like that!"

His wings on his back fluttered excitingly as he curiously peered at my horns, I lightly rubbed his back and smiled at his wings.

"And I wish I had such beautiful wings."

Damien blushed heavily and scooted a little from my direction. The kid was probably flustered by the sudden affection, as he had never received some in a long period of time. 

"I don't like my wings though."

He then said in a quiet voice, gazing back to look at me. I could see a faint hint of sadness lurking in his expression, and it made my heart ache for the boy. I shifted a little closer to him and wrapped my right arm around the young boy's shoulder, pulling him a little closer to my body.

"Why?"

I asked with visible concern. The child looked up at me and sighed softly, his lower lip started to quiver.

"I've always been hurt because of my wings. Very bad people out there want my wings for money, they want to chop them off and sell them for money."

My expression softened slightly as the boy leaned in closer to me. I saw a tiny tear roll down his cheek as he closed his eyes and let out a tiny whimper. I gently scratched his shoulder in an attempt to ease his nerves. 

"Will you cut my wings off?"

I didn't chuckle or laugh at the question, instead I wrapped my other arm around him comfortingly, pulling him into a gentle hug.

"Of course not. I'm not one of those bad people, ok?"

I whispered in his ear gently. Damien looked up at me and wiped his teary eyes away and clung onto my tighter like a koala. I felt a strange yet protective instinct grow inside me as I began to gently rub the boys back in calming and soothing circles.

Damien's muscles and tension began to gradually loosen, his body began to sink into mine like he was melting into me. A flurry of blush emerged on my face as I felt my heart begin to speed up. I ran a gentle hand through his hair as I continued to soothe him.

Suddenly all of the noise he was making vanished, and only his rhythmic, soft breathing filled with air with a soothing ambience. I looked down at him in confusion and realized the poor kid fell asleep on me.

"Damn it."

I gently picked up the kid in my arms, before laying him down on Hitoshi's bed, tucking the covers up to his neck. Damien began to sink into the sheets as he gripped the pillow tightly, snoring softly. 

"Goodnight, I guess."

I stood up and looked at him for a few more seconds before leaving the room. I stepped back into the common room and saw that Demetrus was no longer reading his book, instead his expression was locked right at me.

"Got anything to say?"

I asked as I sat down, looking right at the young man with brown hair. Demetruis sighed and shook his head with a smile.

"Nothing as of now. Although I'd like to note how good you seem to be with the boy. He always seems to tense around me...although it's probably because he just arrived here and is new to us."

I couldn't help but begin to reminisce on my past, and begin to search my memories for an exact reason why I might be good with handling problems and calming people down overall. I lived in a remotely urban-rural mix part of America growing up before we moved from America to Japan when I turned 15 just this year. 

I wasn't exactly neglected as a kid, but my parents didn't really seem to have the time to pay attention to me overall. But when they did it was usually walks through the park, going to the movies or something of that broad area. 

When my parents were usually working I'd wander around my neighborhood whilst trying to avoid all social interactions like usual. One day I saw this brown and black stray cat lying down in an alleyway. I could see the poor creature's ribs, and it looked awfully malnourished.

Luckily it was a male cat, so I didn't have to worry about it losing a complete litter of kittens. Oftentimes I'd steal some cat food from my pantry back home and take it to the cat in the alleyway, sure it took a little while, but the cat eventually grew on me and started to give me affection and rub against me. 

It was pretty heartbreaking having to leave the creature behind when me and my family had their forced move to Japan. But, I'd say that the cat I met that day really resonated within me. By the time I met Damien I already had developed quite the large parental instinct, so I knew exactly how I could talk to the child and let him trust me. 

"I'm just good with that sort of thing."

I simply replied as I stepped off the couch and approached Cattleya's office. I opened the door and quickly took a few historical books off of her desk, and took them back into the library near Aaron's lab.

The library was quiet and somewhat dark at this house, even if it was about 6 PM. The overall lack of windows gave the space a gloomy and vintage feel. I situated myself in the corner of the library and lit the gas lamp above my head before sitting down at the desk.

I flipped open the book to a page regarding historical families and events that happened in the last epoch. I learned that the Zourist family were a group of nobles that resided inside the Adligon clans and Serephis kingdom. They were quite rich and often went to wine tasting, public events, and drew nude women. Overall it was your average rich family.

The Zourist family had connections to other noble families littered across the west; such as the Foster family and the Caesar family. Other empires that were littered across the continent included the Katshin, Indun and Shotus empires. 

Since Cattleya and most of the others knew I wasn't from here, I no longer had to fake my origins of living in the Indun Empire, so I sat the book aside and opened another one. 

Cornick Report Log, the title read in silver lettering. I opened the book out of curiosity and began to scour the pages for information. The book mostly had bleak descriptions of crimes, incidents and overall news in the Cornick district of Serephis Kingdom. 

The Cornick District was anything beyond Cornick Street, and it was where most of the shops, factories and industrialization happened or was made. I read about all the murders that have happened across the past few years. One was because someone's wife stole some bread, another was because a wealthy man didn't pay his taxes, so he was killed by a mob of angry peasants after they found out. 

I found it pretty strange how the Cornick District seemed to be more placid here compared to a few years back. Perhaps the law enforcement took it up a few notches and began to run more authoritatively, or the council issued a few more laws to benefit the people and reduce crime rates by over 60%.

"Major Factory explosion kills 3 people, multiple lect wounded."

This title caught me with intrigue, it was the factory explosion that Oboro said kil\led his co-worker Aizawa. Perhaps unfolding these events would help us discover more about Isaiah Walls, not that we already knew a lot about him via divinations, police forces and underground reports. 

"Shock and peril! 

A factory explosion on Countince road went off a few days ago within the craftsman shop, rendering 2 dead and 3 wounded."

"Did Oboro say anything about another person dying? Perhaps he wasn't an employee and was instead in the blast zone at the wrong place at the wrong time."

I flipped over a page and began to read information regarding the people who died. 

Name: Shouta Aizawa

Age: 31

Gender: Male

Occupation: Steelworker

He died in the explosion.

I flipped the page again.

Name: Isaiah Walls

Age: 62

Gender: Male

Occupation: Baker

He died in the explosion.

My eyes widened after I read the report. I pushed the book away in shock and fear as I began to rapidly think about the current situation. 

"Isaiah Walls is dead, how is he up and moving around at this moment? How could Aaron have orchestrated Oboro's shooting? How could he want to take over Anthony's mind?"

My mind began to race so much to the point where I had a headache. My head began to pound like a drum as the thoughts continued to circle through my mind like a typhoon. My ears began to ring and my nose was already leaking crimson blood.

Then my eyelids dropped close and I fell into a bleak and short state of unconsciousness. When I woke up I was still at the desk, and my heart leaped out of my chest when I saw Raymond in the library with me. He was leaning against the bookshelf with a calm and collected expression, but something within his emerald eyes I could sense something else. 

"Is something wrong, Apocalypse?"

He asked, looking at the tiny pool of blood that leaked out of my nose. I shook my head in a daze and looked back up at Raymond, nodding.

"Yeah, take a look at this."

I pushed the Cornick District Log in his direction. He took the book and read the page in his head, before throwing it back into the table. 

"So, that old geezer's dead, huh."

He said in an overly exaggerated tone as he rolled his eyes and chuckled in annoyance and amusement. He suddenly looked towards me, and his eyes lit up with an inscrutable feeling, a sly smile toying with the corners of his lips. 

"How funny."

My heart dropped. Raymond's voice didn't belong to him, it wasn't even his voice to begin with. It was the voice of Isaiah Walls, the dead man.