Jacob x Raphael (2)

"Get out."

Jacob listened to astrid speak and took a deep breath, he left Grace hiding behind the door and opened the door.

Looking into each other's eyes, Jacob and astrid stared at each other and he spoke:

"What do you want?"

"Hm, even though I can't feel your presence, I can feel the presence of someone in there."

"And that matters?"

"It matters when it's a familiar presence."

She tried to walk through the door and into the room, but Jacob stopped her by putting his arm in front of her as he said coldly:

"No."

Astrid would give jacob's arm a look and said:

"Do you want me to break your arm?"

"You can try." Jacob was responding as if it was a threat and a tension was created between the two.

Astrid released her aura and the floor and the wall began to crack, but to her surprise, Jacob was unaffected and continued to stare at her coldly.

When a person releases his aura, there is a release of his own magical power into the world, and the living beings nearby are affected because their mana comes into contact with that release of magical power, causing a collision between them. If you do not have enough mana to protect yourself against that release, you will begin to experience symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and some internal wounds. But for jacob who has no mana and has very high resistance against magical power, that release of magical power did not affect him.

"Hm, was that meant to hurt me?" Jacob spoke as he looked at the blue magic power that was manifesting around astrid.

Seeing that she couldn't affect Jacob, Astrid increased the power and released all her aura and the whole building where they were, started to shake and the residents that weren't strong enough, started to fall fainted on the floor.

Even with all that power, Astrid couldn't hurt Jacob or at least make him lose his posture, but she managed to affect a person who was inside Jacob's room...

Suddenly Grace appeared at the door and started vomiting blood, that pressure exerted by Astrid, was turning her internal organs.

Astrid stopped releasing her aura and said mentally upon seeing that girl:

'Hm, she is no one important to raphael.... If I'm not mistaken, her name was Grace, is it?'

Jacob looked at Grace's state and sighed tiredly, he then crouched down and asked:

"Can you stand up?"

"Cough-cough, yes..." She replied as she groaned in pain and used all her strength to stand.

"Sigh.... satisfied?" Jacob spoke to Astrid and she ignored his question and spoke sternly to grace:

"Go back to your room and get ready for the banquet that will take place in an hour."

"Yes, Miss Astrid."

Grace stood up disgruntled because she couldn't talk to jacob, but decided that she could talk to him at the banquet. So she started walking toward her room.

After grace left, jacob quickly tried to go back to his room, he was no longer able to bear to look at a certain girl's face, but to his misfortune, astrid spoke interrupting him:

"When you mysteriously appeared, I started researching about you and one person in particular, said something about you..."

Jacob didn't answer her and just stared at her without sketching any reaction and she said again:

"Erick draco, he told me something interesting.... He told me that the first time he saw you, he used to see a person who had sparkles in his eyes, a gleam of life and hope. But after his little interrogation, that boy full of hope was never the same."

"No one would ever remain the same..." Jacob replied calmly as he denied with his head. But Astrid who thought she had managed to hurt him somehow, continued saying:

"He told me that the interrogation used to be by rounds and amazingly enough, you managed to break all records by holding out until the incredible 1580 rounds before you escaped..."

Jacob stared at her with a lost look, it was as if he was daydreaming, only to suddenly snap back to reality and respond to the point:

"I also did some research about you... When you were a child, you used to live in a small village. You had a mother, father, sister, friends... you lived a happy life until you heard a trumpet and an army of demons coming, but since you didn't have horses, you knew it was too late to escape. so the adults took a drastic action, they hid the children in a basement and waited for the demons to arrive to kill them."

Suddenly, astrid's eyes widened and a few tears started to fall as she remembered those scenes.

"You, along with other children, stayed hidden and all you could hear, were screams of men being killed and swords cutting human flesh. But after a while, the screams stopped and all you could hear were the sounds of footsteps coming towards the cellar, and then the cellar door opened and another killing took place... they spared only the women, didn't they? So you survived, but soon after that the demons started raping all the women and just when you were going to be raped, the cavalry arrived riding horses and saved you."

"How do you know that?!" Astrid asked in shock as tears fell from her eyes and Jacob continued speaking:

"Your mother was raped and killed with a stab wound to the head, your father was stabbed in the heart and your sister was raped and survived, but the next day she killed herself by hanging in front of you.... But the question is, were you able to continue being the same person after all that?"

Astrid became angry and started to release her magic and all her tears froze and just as she was about to attack Jacob, Raphael suddenly appeared at the corner of the hall and spoke:

"That's enough, Astrid."

Astrid would stop manifesting her magic at the same instant and reply:

"What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you, but the question is.... What are you doing? I thought you wouldn't try to attack him in this realm."

"Sigh... Come back Raphael."

"Astrid!"

"Okay!"

Astrid sighed in defeat and started walking to Raphael, she didn't want him to hate her and reflected:

'He needs to be killed.... He has already changed our future too much, but unfortunately you haven't matured enough, yet.... But when Anna awakens and recognizes you as her owner, you will start to become the Raphael of the future.'

Astrid wiped away some recent tears and stopped beside Raphael and spoke:

"Cough-cough, let's go?"

"Wait." He then started walking to Jacob and when he stopped at a reasonable distance, he said as he extended his hand:

"Pleasure, my name is Raphael."

Jacob looked at that friendly attitude from Raphael and began to laugh as he spoke:

"Haha, I don't like you." He spoke laughing and prepared to enter the room, but Raphael interrupted him saying:

"Why? As far as I know, I haven't done anything that would make you hate me."

"Haha, you really haven't done anything, but I still don't like you."

"May I know why?"

"No."

After giving that harsh answer, Jacob walked into the room laughing and shut the door in his face.

"You see, tell me he doesn't deserve a good spanking!" Astrid crossed her arms and spoke angrily, but Raphael just sighed and said:

"Let's hurry, I need to get ready for the banquet..."

.

.

.

Inside the room, Jacob laughed a few times and sat down on the bed, but soon his expression changed and his face looked serious and cold.

Jacob closed his eyes and suddenly, he began to hear the sounds of blades cutting human flesh and skin and soon after he heard desperate screams. But it didn't stop there, he began to have psychological disturbances in his mind and Jacob felt as if he was the one being cut.

His heartbeat started to accelerate and Jacob was completely immersed in that terrifying feeling, but even with all this, he kept calm and opened his eyes. As he opened his eyes, he came back to reality and stopped hearing and feeling everything he was feeling before, but that feeling still remained.

Suddenly, Freki stepped out of Jacob's shadow and stopped in front of him. She sat up and made a worried expression as she cried.

"Have I told you before? I'm fine... That's just an insignificant experience I had earlier."

Hearing Jacob's response, She made sad sounds as if she knew he was lying.

"Don't make that face, I already said I'm fine. But it's good that I remember all that, so that I never forget who the Jacob voss was and always remember who the Jacob of now is."

She was still sad anyway, but Jacob really had nothing to do about it, so he lay down while closing his eyes and whispered:

"One hour..."

[...]

Author's note:

Freki did not go out to help Jacob before, because she first and foremost was a soldier obeying orders, so if Jacob had told her not to reveal herself, she would not reveal herself, but that ends in case Jacob's life was in danger.

Astrid is extremely unhappy with Jacob, she thinks he is the biggest threat to her and Raphael, because of all the enemies she has ever faced, she considers Jacob the most unpredictable. One moment he is serious as a lion ready for battle, but the next he is randomly laughing at meaningless things.

The battle, Jacob vs. Raphael, will take place in the next chapters and the outcome of the fight will mark the end of the first volume.