Fraction-12

**Location Near Santarum City**

The weather was quite unpleasant today, isn't it?" one of the receptionists from Mace Publisher said, her left hand placed on her left cheek, neck slightly bent.

"Hehhh! I can't go out for shopping, and here I have been planning this for a long time. What a bummer. Boo! I thought I could just go shopping the whole day, enjoy my day with my boyfriend. We had a perfect date planned. Curse this rain," receptionist Emma's colleague complained.

"Oh, come on, Merry. Don't be sad. Why don't you tell her something, Emma?" Another receptionist, Emma's co-worker, consoled Merry.

"Are you listening to me, Emma?"

But her words didn't affect Emma; her continuous stare was fixed on the upper floor door.

"What is taking them this long for?" Emma expressed quietly, biting her nail.

"Emma!"

"Huh? W-what?"

"What is it? Are you listening to anything I have been telling you all along?"

"Huh?"

"Eh, about that."

"Ah, you found out that he was having an affair with the waitress off the road. Let me talk to him; how dare him? Cheating my friend, huh!"

Merry was shocked; her face turned pale and started to cry.

"What the hell have you been spouting nonsense? Didn't I tell you not to let her know? She's sensitive. Oh, there, there. Don't worry; we will talk to him about this. Just don't cry now. Hmmm," she glared at Emma while making her eyes bigger.

"Ah, what shall I do now?" Emma talked to herself while her hands were desperately moving from her fixed place. She was also roaming here and there, making an uneasy expression.

"Will you give me a hand here, or are you going to stare the whole day at that door?"

"Ha- no, I'm coming; wait there." Emma went to help the other receptionist calm Merry.

At the top floor of that place, through the few numbers of ladders, there was a door continuously glared at by Emma. In that room, there was the presence of people. They were Miles and the lolly girl, discussing matters that were unpleasant to Miles. Both were sitting opposite each other on their couch.

"And what did you say again that you are here for?"

"You."

"Huh! Me, but why?"

"Because you are my priority."

"Priority, you say." Miles looked at the girl in a confused face. He was still clueless about why the lolly girl was there and what she was trying to do.

"Ahh!" He exhaled, but Jessica didn't flicker. She was constantly watching him while keeping her guard up.

"So, what do you expect to do then?"

"Watch."

"Heh! My priority is you. I must watch you and not let your side go away even for a second. So, that's why from now on, wherever you go, I'm coming with you." She said while trying to make her cute face serious.

"What? That's not going to happen. First of all, tell me who you are."

"Oh, shall I introduce then." She stood up from her couch; her appearance was quiet because of the black cloak. "I am Jessica Drew. I have been tasked to be your side."

"Side, you mean, like a helper or something."

"You can say that."

"Then by whom were you tasked with this job? Hmmm."

"That's not really important now. You only have to know this much that something big is going to happen." She said in a serious face.

He looked at Jessica. She was standing with her glared sharp eyes, but her small body and her dimple face made her look cute. He was glaring for a moment, then.

"I don't get it. What are you trying to accomplish by doing this sort of act?"

"But you should go home; your parents must be worried about you. And like this, if your parents came along, then I am definitely going to be charged as a kidnapper."

"Huuh! Then that would be a serious issue." He thought.

"I'm not a child, you know." Jessica said while pouting. "Hmpf! You may not know anything about me, how capable a person I am. You should be grateful that I have been tasked to be your bodyguard."

He was placing his head a little down. He was slowly directing his head with a questioned face toward Jessica.

"Yeh, yeh, what bodyguard...?"

Glass from the window facelessly broke into pieces. The broken glass headed toward the inner site of the room, while a quarter of a second later, from the window near them on the left, a huge blast came along. When Miles was watching that huge abomination near him in a slowly flickering way.

A small glass piece directly headed towards Miles, nearing his distance. It was headed to his eyes. With the passing of time, the distance shortened bit by bit. Miles also acknowledged that, but the actions were so quick that his reflexes wouldn't come together, even if he tried his best. His body was shivering in fear; sweat was overflowing through his skin. Eyes became bigger because of the overflowed rushed adrenaline in his body. He was in such a state that he was pressing his body to move even an inch, but the distance didn't seem to be furthering any near. Instead, it was moving nearer to him.

When the glass was about to touch his pupil, two pairs of fingers came along to capture that rushed glass. Along with those fingers, short hands from behind pressured him to kneel down on his foot. Then, a cloak covering his whole body, along with the person whose hand was pressing him, came along in front of the explosive window.

The blast overtook the whole room with an enormous sound and debris. It also took almost all walls and the roof. The floor was damaged but not fully gone down. The thrust also affected the nearby area. The only remaining thing was the stable floor near Miles, to where his foot placed; it didn't even seem like anything happened there. The covered area of the cloak was untouched.

The blast made a huge commotion around. Buildings nearby were also heavily affected by that blast.

"People, get out from here!" Receptionist Emma said while rushing towards the upper floor ladder, but the ladder was totally broken in pieces, and some debris were also coming along.

"Watch out!" A voice along with hands pulling Emma came along. It was her co-workers.

"Where do you think you are going? We should get out of here."

"B-but what about Miles?"

"I don't know what happened there, but it doesn't seem right. First, we should head out and make sure everyone is safe because I don't know how long this floor can handle."

The floor started to make cracking sounds and a huge wooden piece near them.

"Let's go, hurry!" Emma's co-workers said those words while pulling her out, but Emma was stunned by the situation, so she didn't resist much. All the people came out and stared to look up toward the smoke. The upper floor was fully covered by smoke, while the rain was still continuously pouring.

Miles was scared to death. When his curtain of eyes opened, at first, there was nothing but smoke all over the place, but a moment later, when the cloak moved from his body and revealed its wearer. She was Jessica.

Before when the impact was about to hit Miles, she was the one who saved him.

"Well, isn't it too soon that we got company," she said like her calculation went wrong.

But Miles couldn't comprehend the situation because a moment before, he was near death, and now the whole surrounding was in a mess. All those things happened in only a few seconds.

His whole face was worn out. Even covered by the cloak, he was messed in dust, but the continuously pouring rain made him soak.

"Ahh, Jessica," he made a noise in frustration.

She swung her left side of the cloak upwards. The air pressure from that cloak removed all the smoke around them, disappearing in an instant.

After that, Miles' eyes became bigger than ever. When he discovered that the room was vanished from every portion. He was in fear but wasn't able to produce sound.

"Well, isn't it great, sis, that our target didn't vanish from only a mere attack. Hehehe!"

A sly laugh with words came from the right side, the barely stable corner. Jessica looked around and made her guard up.

The voice was coming from a skinny man with long height, his back bended nearly half. Long black hair with a scarf on his neck suited in mercenary attire. Blades were placed in the upper half of his body, while he was licking one short-handed blade with his tongue in a sly face and a scary smile.

"Now, come on, brother Carl. If they had done so quickly, then how were we supposed to have fun. Fufufufu!"

A girl with mercenary attire, long black hair with a red magical hat on her head, sitting on a magical broom while hovering a little higher than the other. Along with a magical stick on her hand and big red lips.

"Well, yes. That's you got the point. Hehehe!" Carl was agreeing with his sister. Along with them, there were also people in white robes covering their faces, standing by behind them.

"Get yourself hold, Miles; we got a problem," Jessica said to Miles, but Miles was in deader shock and was also unable to perform any comprehensible task.

Who were they? What purpose do they seek? Why are they trying to seek Miles?