Under The Veil of Night

Kanae closed her eyes for a moment, recalling the time when she accepted the mission. She had to stay at the back while Alice stayed by Kevin’s side, staying close to him. There were even dark thoughts emerged inside her mind when she first saw that.

’I really shouldn’t have thought too much.’

"Kanae, are you alright?" Alice peered to Kanae’s face worriedly. She saw that Kanae was absentminded, so she decided to look at her.

"Ah, I’m fine," Kanae snapped back to reality and put a smile on her face. She couldn’t possibly say that she was thinking about Alice, right? "I’m just thinking about the ruckus that happens."

She pointed to the noisy students by the side. They were arguing again because Teacher Charlie has just given them their test paper. Seeing the red mark on their paper, many students were cursing out loudly. They couldn’t accept the fact that Teacher Charlie was extremely harsh.

Alice smiled wryly. "I think this is the norm. This time, I get quite a bad score too."

Kanae nodded her head as she slipped her test paper away. If they found out that she still got 97, she might be skinned alive by them. They wouldn’t stop bothering her to find out how she managed to get a score that high.

Misae was also sitting on her chair as she looked towards the two of them nervously. Her test paper was placed on top of her table, but her attention was not in them at all.

"Is there anything wrong, Misae?" Kanae and Alice noticed that Misae was quiet this time.

Alice looked towards the score on Misae’s paper. "Wow, you manage to get 76. It’s even higher than me."

Misae smiled slightly. "I have been studying harder in the past few weeks."

"You’re amazing," Alice smiled kindly. She was too busy lately with her father told her about many things regarding her new position as Kevin’s fiancée about things that she had to know. They were extremely tiring that she didn’t know what to do anymore.

Thankfully, her lesson was not completely abandoned. Her score was still like before, with mistakes here and there, but not completely bad. For her, they were already more than enough.

Misae nodded her head. She looked at the two of them. "I have something to tell you."

"Yes?" Kanae asked curiously.

"I’ll be going away from this city, so today is the last day I’m going to school," Misae admitted. After hearing the truth about Kanae’s mission to protect her and what her parents did to protect her, she came to a decision. She had to go from this city, away from the mess and built her own strength.

Outside this city, she would meet with numerous new people and experience a lot of things. She wanted to use them all to make her comfortable and able to talk with many people. In addition, she wanted to learn how to become a lawyer, just like her mother.

This city couldn’t provide the best education for her, so the only solution was outside the city. It will be hard for her to leave her friends so suddenly, but she didn’t want to burden them anymore. If she could stand on her ground facing more people, she would be able to face things better.

It might seem like she was running away to other people, but Misae didn’t care. The current her would only drag her friends down because she couldn’t even protect herself. To be always protected was something she didn’t want, so this was the decision she came to.

"Today is the last day?" Alice was shocked. She didn’t expect that Misae would come to this decision so abruptly.

Misae nodded her head. "I’m going to study about law and so on, but in a different city. This city brings too many obstacles for me to study well as I’m not entirely comfortable with people from the underworld."

"Do you perhaps still hate them very much?" Alice asked worriedly.

"No, I’m not," Misae shook her head. "There are good clans too, and I want to be able to face them better even when I know that they belong to the clan. However, I don’t think I can immediately accept them, so I want to start slowly by meeting new people and culture outside this city. Is that weird?"

Kanae smiled. "Not at all, I’m sure that you will be able to accept them well after you learn how to accept different people from different culture. At that time, you will know that you’re different, but we all live in the same city and similar environment."

"Yup," Misae giggled. "So, before I leave, is it fine if we spent the last day together?"

"Sure, let’s ditch school," Kanae stood up. "I’m pretty sure that the teacher won’t mind if we disappear from the class."

Misae rolled her eyes. "That’s only you since you don’t have any problem in the lesson, but not me."

"Before that, I think, it’s better if I tell you something first, Misae," Alice said hesitantly. "I too, belong to a clan."

"I see," Misae nodded her head. It was rather shocking to know that her close friend also belonged to a clan that she hated so much. If it was a few weeks or months ago, she might decide to get away, but now, she didn’t feel the need anymore. Even if Alice belonged to a clan, she is still her best friend for now and forever.

"You don’t mad?"

"No, it’s normal for people from the clan to not tell anything about their background, so I can’t possibly force them to tell me. Besides, it’s not like you place my life in danger."

Alice was startled to hear such acceptance from Misae. She was already prepared herself to endure the harsh treatment Misae might impose because of her hatred to the clan, but none of it appeared. Sense of warmth spread out inside her body as a smile appeared on her doll like face.

Misae giggled. "Do you also have a bomb for me, Kanae?"

Kanae pondered. "I just hope you won’t report to your father that I did get involved in the underworld a bit. I don’t want to get arrested because of my activities."

"No worry, I won’t tell my father," Misae smiled. As she already knew about Kanae’s previous poor condition, she would never tell other people about this kind of matter. Besides, even if Kanae got involved, it should be because of missions or something like that.

She was still unclear about the rule in the underworld and how they worked, but she knew that there was thing called mission for them. Completing this mission would grant them money and the amount will be equivalent with their difficulties.

"Also, thank you, Kanae, for all these times."

Kanae’s eyes widened. She looked back to Misae for a few seconds before smiling lightly. Clara should have told this girl about that mission. "No need to mention them. It’s already in the past."

Misae nodded her head. "Now, let’s ditch school."

As Misae ran to the door, Kanae and Alice followed from the back. Alice glanced towards Kanae. "She changes, isn’t she?"

"Yes. It takes a long time, but she is."

"I’m glad for the change," Alice smiled. "But I hope she can fix her relationship with Mike soon."

Kanae nodded her head. Recalling Mike’s position, she knew that it wouldn’t be easy, but she hoped the best for her best friend.

"I hope so too."