33 A Magnificent Message (2/2)
Astrid stepped on one of Sebastian's feet and he yelped in pain and cursed at his cousin in anger, something he instantly regretted. She looked at him for a second and he curled up into a ball as if he was a descendant of a pill bug. There'd be a reckoning later, Reed surmised.
”It's not hopeless. Think about it, for thousands of years the empires have successfully kept Mulia safe from Infestation; it speaks volumes about the fighting prowess required to persist that long. What's truly astonishing is how much of a coward you are, Sebastian,” Astrid said.
Her biting words apparently struck a chord with her lowly cousin because after that, he kept his mouth shut and ate Astor's snacks in silence. He looked like he was about to burst into tears.
”Now, now. Let's not get too heated; the only thing we can do is keep calm and handle these new developments carefully. I'm sure that if our circumstances were beyond salvation, even someone like Instructor Axtorius would have broken long ago,” Ophelia stated. ”But he from the way he spoke — the passion in his voice — I'm sure that it's not all doom and gloom as we might think of it.”
Astor suddenly turned towards Reed and said, ”Hey, where's Maya? I thought she'd be with you, buddy. She run off somewhere?” He coyly elbowed Reed as he winked his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.
Reed snorted and said, ”Stop it. How am I supposed to know where she went? When I came around, she was nowhere to be found, so your guess is as good as mine.” He raised his hands in exasperation and shrugged. ”Leave her be. Perhaps she had some urgent matter to take care of? None of our business, in any case.”
The princeling shook his head in disapproval; this fellow wasn't cute in the slightest. He'd seen sea slugs cuter than this guy, for sure.
”What we should really be concerned about is our final mission, you guys,” Horatio said. ”It might sound like a simple task but there's bound to be some danger if we don't take it seriously. Although Instructor Axtorius said that our test area had a low Infested population, it'll be our first time out there in the real field.
Everyone finally got a bit serious, after all, this was an important topic to them. Astor said, ”What do you propose then? Have any ideas on how to get an advantage for our upcoming test? Not like we can go out and scout the area beforehand, or study the Infested ourselves...”
The room went quiet. They all scrambled their brains trying to figure out a way to prepare, but none of them had any particularly bright ideas.
Reed blurted out, ”Why don't we just get the next best thing aside from personally visiting the Outer Reaches ourselves?” It was worth a shot. It wasn't an original idea, but it would probably work. Probably.
”Oh? Did you get an idea? Spill the beans,” said Horatio. Astor, Astrid, and the rest also had their ears perked up in interest.
”It's simple: Why don't we just ask Violett for help? I'm sure if we ask her, she'll teach us everything we'll need to know. When in doubt, rely on someone wiser than you, right?” he replied.
He leaned closer and said, ”It's not against the rules to ask someone for a bit of advice, right? I don't remember hearing the old goat saying that we couldn't ask a more experienced contender for assistance, no?”
”...”
”...”
”...”
Reed smirked and said, ”I'll take your silence as an acknowledgment, yes? I'll get her to come over in a jiffy, just give me a second.” He started writing a message that'd grab her immediate attention as he grinned in delight.
In the span of a couple of seconds he'd written the perfect message; Reed took one last look at it for any errors and then sent it.
Astor felt a dreadful pang of unease in his stomach and hurriedly asked Reed what he had sent to his sister. Something deep in his bones told him that trouble was coming. He knew it was something bad.
”Hm? I told her I was thinking about going out into the Outer Reaches alone for fun. Right now. I'm pretty sure the message will wor-”
A clap of thunder echoed outside of Astor's room as if a flurry lightning bolts had struck the dormitory. Reed looked at Astor and gave him a thumbs-up, almost as if he was proud of what he had done.
Suddenly, a chorus of shrieks and screaming reverberated past the door and a menacing, booming voiced struck everyone's ears.
”Reed! Get the hell out here and explain yourself! You have until the count of three before I fuckin' tear down this door!!”
”ONE!”
Everyone had been frozen in place as turbulent waves of Anima surged throughout the room. Reed, on the other hand, shrugged off the pressure and stared at the door in amusement. It was already too late.
”TWO!”
The room creaked in protest as the surrounding Anima raged wildly; Reed closed his eyes as he waited for the inevitable.
”THREE!”
Astor's room would need some renovations after today, Reed thought to himself as a blinding light broke through the door... His message worked too well, he concluded.
An angry beast had shown up.