CHAPTER 106 - Awakening

"So..." Walking alongside Cristopher, who was looking at the multiple stalls surrounding them in a summer festival while eating a bar of chocolate, Angelica called up to him. "I've been thinking hard. Like, really hard~"

"About what?" He said while looking around.

"Hey~ Look at me~" She said, grabbing his face and turning it to look at her. "What are you looking for so intently?" She pouted. "Is it that you're afraid someone is going to look at you walking with me~?"

"Pfft… As if." He just shook his head. "It's just that I can't find the stall that sells beer, or any alcohol at that… Aren't those, like, super common in these festivals?"

"Hahahahaha~" She just laughed at him. "Come on sweetie~ I think I know where we can find it. Why didn't you tell me before~? I could have helped you look for it~"

She took his hand and started leading them through the streets of the small local festival.

"Well, I didn't think it would be that hard." He shrugged.

"They're usually well hidden~ After all, a lot of kids come to these festivals." She said with a smile, guiding him.

"Right, right..." He just nodded. "So, what was it that you were thinking about so hard?"

"Well, you know..." She slowed down. "It's about that tattoo of yours~"

"Mm? You know that I don't like to talk about it." Cristopher rolled his eyes.

"Yes, yes~" She said, before suddenly pointing at one stall. "There it is!"

"Oh, you're right. Haha, thanks, you're really good at finding things." He smirked, following her towards the stall.

"A couple of beers please~" Angelica said leaning on the counter.

"Coming right up!" The attendant smiled while turning to look for the beers, before stopping with a flinch and looking back at them. "Right! IDs? I can't sell alcohol to minors."

At the awkward smile of the attendant, both Angelica and Cristopher took out their IDs. Checking that everything was fine. The attendant finally went to look for the beer and gave it to them.

"Here~ Have a good festival and drink responsibly!" The attendant smiled as she tried to give the beers to Cristopher, but was stopped by Angelica, who took the beers from her hands.

"Thank you~" Angelica smiled at the attendant, who flinched.

"Come on, Angelica. Leave her alone, she's just doing her job." With a chuckle, Cristopher rolled his eyes and led Angelica away from the stall.

"I don't know what you're talking about~" Angelica smiled as she gave the beer to Cristopher. "Anyway~ Cheers~"

After cheering, they started to walk, looking at the stalls and everything, talking about all the stuff they looked around.

"So~" Once again, Angelica looked at him directly. "Going back to your tattoo~"

"Haha… Really? How many times should I tell you that I won't speak about it?" He rolled his eyes at her, before looking for a food stall.

"I'm not asking you, dummy~ I'm just going to try and guess. Or what? Are you going to forbid me guessing~?" She said with a pout.

"Pfft… Sure, go ahead." He shrugged.

"Well~!" She started, raising one finger. "First~! You made it because of something really, really bad."

"And what makes you think so?" He just sipped at his beer, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, it's obvious isn't it~? You don't want to talk about it. It must be something really bad for you not to do so."

"Not necessarily." He shrugged. "Could be something really personal."

"Nope~ You don't feel like the kind of guy that would make a tattoo for personal stuff." She shook her head with a smirk. "Even less when it's something so flamboyant~"

"Mhm." He just nodded.

"Aren't you going to confirm it?"

"No. You have the right to guess, and I have the right to keep my mouth shut. I don't have my lawyer around, after all." He shrugged with a smirk.

"Not fair~" She crossed her arms under her chest with a pout. Before suddenly smiling again. "Oh well. Second~! It's not really a tattoo is it~?"

"Who knows~?" He just smiled while looking at a fried chicken stall.

"Oh come on! I've seen it!" She said, before following him to the stall.

"Mm? What do you mean?"

"Your tattoo~" She said, pointing at his arm. "It shines. Sometimes."

"Nah, are you sure you didn't see things?"

"Nope~" She said while shaking her head. "I've seen it clearly more than once. It shines, mostly when you're having nightmares."

"I don't have nightmares."

"If you say so~ But I've seen you closely, sweetie~ I know you suffer from nightmares~" She smiled at him. "It worries me, you know? When that blood-red color starts to shine on your arm… It makes me feel suffocated. Afraid. I don't know how to explain it…"

She looked up at him. Looking into his eyes.

"Cr-"

"But I know… That it doesn't feel suffocating because of fear or sadness… It's something else… It's as if I'm in the center of a volcano..." Her lips trembled. "Feeling surrounded by hatred and wrath… Burning around me like hot lava…"

"Cris-"

She looked down, chuckling a little bit.

"I know… I must sound crazy..." She spoke before looking up at him, with sadness in her eyes. "What is it that you hate so much? What makes you so angry?"

"CRISTOPHER!"

An urgent voice woke him up from his trance. The sad-looking Angelica being replaced by frowning Hajin.

"Are you awake now?" He asked.

Cristopher just nodded at him. The rest of the cadets surrounded him, looking at him with wary eyes, except for Rachel, who looked worried.

"What?" He asked. "I know I'm quite good-looking, but I'm not going to sign any autographs."

"Pfft… As if someone would want an autograph from you..." Olivia said with an awkward smile. "Hehe… He..."

"Right, whatever. Let's go." He shrugged with a smirk, before stopping. "Hey, weren't you going to look for some clothes, dude?"

"..." Hajin looked at him.

"What?" He smirked. "Hey man, you are scaring me. I don't play on that side."

"Master-" Rachel tried to speak. But was interrupted.

"Your arm." Shin Jonghak spoke first, frowning while ignoring a frowning Rachel's stare.

"..." Cristopher just stopped.

A blood-red color shined on his Stigma like crimson fire. A hot sensation could be felt from it just by looking at it.

"Are you alright?" Rachel asked. Looking at him worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about." Cristopher smiled at her. But she was still looking at his arm.

"But your tattoo..." She tried to speak, but couldn't finish her words.

"Don't worry. It's alright, it will calm down in a minute. Relax."

"Can you please do something with your eyes? They freak me out" Shin Jonghak spoke again with a frown.

"What? Do you have a problem with someone else having a more chuuni Gift than you do?" Cristopher smirked.

He knew his eyes turned into a dragon's eyes.

"*Tch...*" Jonghak just clicked his tongue and averted his eyes.

"That's quite a peculiar Gift." Kim Suho spoke with an awkward smile.

"Yeah..." Chae Nayun also smiled awkwardly. "You look weird."

"Whatever. We should really go back as fast as possible" Cristopher sighed. "So! What if you all go to look for some clothes? That way it would be faster, right? Hey Hajin, just pay for them and I'll transfer you."

"..." Kim Hajin looked at him for a moment, before sighing. "Sure. Let's go."

After nodding at everyone, he started to walk out of the room.

"No, I'll stay. I don't want to buy clothes for this guy." Chae Nayun tried to stay but was quickly pulled from the neck by Kim Suho.

"Come on, let's go."

"Hey! Wait!" She tried to resist but was finally dragged out, leaving just two persons in the room.

"So? Aren't you going with them?" Cristopher asked as he sat down on the bed, the bars made out of Lilith's power nowhere to be seen.

"..." Rachel looked at him. "I want to stay beside you. You don't-"

"I'm fine." Cristopher interrupted her, laying down on the bed and closing his eyes, sighing. "I'm just a little bit tired."

Rachel looked at him, stealing some glances at his arms from time to time.

"Does it hurt?" She asked.

"What?"

"Your arm…"

"Not really." He said, opening his eyes again to look at the ceiling. "You should go with them. You still can reach them."

"But I-" She tried to refuse.

"Rachel. Please, leave." He finally said.

"..." After a few seconds, she slightly nodded, before walking towards the exit, only to stop at the room's door. "Was she your… Girlfriend?"

"No." He answered shortly.

"It seemed like that..." She answered softly.

"But it wasn't. She was just a friend."

"..." She nodded and left. Leaving him alone.

"..." He just laid there on the bed. Not moving an inch. The Stigma shining fiercely on his arm.

"Less than a year for the first one. Three years or so for another one." He muttered, before sitting up, looking at the floor. "Four years at least for a few of them."

Standing up, he looked around the room, finding his smartwatch and putting it on his wrist.

"No… Two years at least, for some of them to appear." He muttered while frowning. "Who knows. There's also the chance for it to be less. I can't take out the affinity from the equation. It can't be just a simple adaptation from the monsters of this world. There's more to it. And that list has the key."

Turning on his smartwatch, he looked through the apps on his Laptop, one app, in particular, the Devil's List app.

[1. ???

…

Duke Zepar/???/???/Enemy

…

King Asmodeus/???/???/???

…

???

King Viné/???/???/???

???

…

Lilith/???/???/Friendly

???

???]

"Friendly, huh..." He muttered. "Such a useless line. I'm going to kill them all, why would I start differentiating if they're friends or foes?"

After looking at the list he just turned off the smartwatch, and went to the bed, sitting on the border again.

"I have to update that thing. I know most of the 72 demons of the Ars Goetia, but apart from Lilith, the other eight are a complete mystery." He rubbed his chin. "Oh, wait. There's Satan too. If I'm not mistaken there's even a Djinn organization called Satan's Servants. He's probably one of the eight."

A smirk appeared on his face.

"Woah! Look at that! Who would say..." Stretching his arms and neck, Cristopher looked up at the ceiling. "I have a goal now."

The Stigma on his arm shone more brightly for a moment, before going back to its usual black color.

***

"So… It was a Djinn, huh..." Kim Soohyuk nodded his head while looking at the cadets standing in front of him.

"Yes, sir. We have reasons to believe that it was a partner of Yun Hyun..." Kim Suho said.

"That guy huh... " Kim Soohyuk nodded. "Why would you say that?"

"Well..."

"I was part of the group responsible for catching Yun Hyun." Cristopher said before sipping from a cup of hot chocolate "I may have inflicted a little bit of damage to the bastard too."

After shrugging, he focused on his cup of chocolate.

"..." Kim Suho and the rest looked at them.

"By the way, this is good. Where did you get it?" He asked Kim Hajin.

"Do you know that store that's been quite popular?" But the one to answer was Olivia with stars in her eyes. "It has a lot of great desserts! And it's popular for its chocolate."

"Great. We should go there after this." He sipped from his cup of hot chocolate.

"*Cough, cough*" A frowning instructor coughed to get their attention. "So you were also part of that group, huh… That would explain things… If they were contracted by the same-"

"Lillith." Cristopher said. "The bitch they were contracted to was Lilith."

"Lillith huh... That sounds like a troublesome Devil..." Kim Soohyuk nodded with a deeper frown, before letting out a sigh. "Either way, great job there. You stopped a Djinn and saved your comrade. About the introductions. Well, you'll have time for that later. You can leave now, don't worry about classes for today."

Walking out of the classroom after reporting the incident, they all started to walk somewhere else.

"Well! We have free time now!" Chae Nayun shouted. "Shouldn't we go to have some fun!?"

"Haha." Jonghak chuckled. "I know a great restaurant we could go to, Nayun."

"Mm? Restaurant." She tilted her head. "No, I don't want to eat. I want to move my body, let's go play some soccer!"

"O-Oh, right..." Jonghak nodded.

"Sounds fun." Suho smiled at her proposal, before turning to the rest. "What do you say, guys?"

"Sorry. I'm occupied." Cristopher quickly said, finishing his cup of hot chocolate and throwing it towards a trash bin that was a few meters away from them. "Going to the Training Center."

"Mm? Are you going to train at this hour?" Olivia tilted her head. "Are you sick?"

"You shouldn't exert yourself..." Hajin also said with a frown.

"Oh, come on. Just shut up." With a shrug, Cristopher started to go towards the Training Center.

"Oh well, the wacko's out of the plan then, let's go, everyone!" Chae Nayun said before walking towards the soccer fields that were inside Cube.

"I have things to do." Rachel shortly said, nodding to everyone before following Cristopher.

"Well, I'm sorry. I also have things to do." With an awkward smile, Hajin followed her.

"Well, bye-bye ~" Olivia smiled, said goodbye, and went behind them.

"..." The dumbfounded Chae Nayun stood there, looking at the departing figures. "W-Well… We can still play by ourselves… Right…?"

"Leave them be. Let's go." Shin Jonghak just snorted, before turning to Suho with a smirk. "You should go with them, you're a commoner like them, after all."

***

"What is it?" Cristopher asked while going into the Training Center.

"I want to train too." Rachel said. "Can't I, master?"

"Of course you can. But right now, I want to train by myself. We can train after I finish in the Gravity Room."

"It's okay. I can also train by myself while you finish there." Rachel nodded with a smile, before walking towards some of the lifting machines.

Once inside the Gravity Room, Cristopher started to set up the difficulty.

"So? What is it about?" Kim Hajin asked, walking towards him.

"What do you mean?" Cristopher asked, not even turning to look at him.

"What happened today… With Angelica, it-" Kim Hajin started but was interrupted.

"It's okay." Cristopher quickly shut him up. "There wasn't anything that could be done."

"..." Hajin looked at him. "Is there a reason why you're so eager to train now?"

"Yes." Cristopher nodded. Starting the Gravity Room. "You see. I discovered something funny."

"What is it?"

"Devils are going to come here at one point or another. Right? Lilith told me so."

"What…? You talked with her?" Hajin asked.

"It was a brief conversation." He answered. "But I understood something. She's coming to this world. And just like her. Other Devils may come too."

"..." Hajin frowned. "This is bad."

"You sure? Because I just know that there are 80 pieces of shit waiting to die by my hands in the future."

"Wha-!?" Hajin turned to him. "It wasn't supposed to happen like that..."

"Like what? All eighty of them coming at the same time?" He stood at the training space. "Probably not at the same time. But I have the feeling they will all come, at one point or another. Wasn't that supposed to happen in your novel?"

"No… I don't know… I didn't think that far ahead..." Hajin sighed. "I don't think we'll be able to win..."

"If you have the time to be that pessimistic, you better start training harder." Cristopher said, before taking out his training sword. "Now leave. I want to focus here."

"..." Hajin looked at Cristopher, he knew that there was something different about him. But he decided it was better not to ask, so he just sighed before leaving the room.

Once outside, Olivia was stretching, really to go into another Gravity Room.

"So? Did you ask what you wanted to know?" She asked him.

"Yeah." With a nod, Hajin just went to the treadmill. "Couldn't take out much from him. Oh well, guess I'll take the chance to train."

"Well thought." Olivia said as she walked towards the Gravity Room. Only to stop at the entrance, looking at Hajin. "Relax. He's going to be fine. That guy is going to be laughing at someone's face sooner rather than later."

"..." He thought for a moment, before nodding. "Let's see. Hope you're right."