Chapter 73: Sorrow and Hatred ( 3 )
Biyu had never been that much into the study of the different creatures that lived on the continent or even in the other parts of the world. She knew there existed several different races of human, but that was only because she was a chiroukin herself. She had never met someone from another race before. She had met many beasts, and she also heard of other intelligent species from all around the world.
However she wouldn't have thought that her first encounter with one such being would be in a dark alley while spying on an angry kid. And most importantly, she wasn't prepared for whatever that thing in front of her was. It was like...A human shrouded in gas. He had that black gas all around him, and it took Biyu a long time to recognize it. That's when she started to really question some things.
' The little boss is from another race ? Or possibly even another species ?!' She thought. Jian had told her a lot of things and she knew everyone needed their privacy, but this was an important information ! Especially since he knew just how bad her life had been simply because she was a chiroukin. To think he was like her....It wouldn't change the fact that she was going to tear him apart for keeping that information from her, but it did make her somewhat happy. He suddenly became an even closer companion.
Unfortunately, Biyu couldn't stay in her own thoughts for too long, as the gas-man waved his hand in front of her eyes. She stepped back as he chuckled and gave the man behind her a thumbs up.
"She was just lost in her own thoughts, nothing bad. Although I gotta say, girl....This is a grave mistake ? Do you have an habit of spacing out in such grave times ? You could have died ya know ?" The gas-man asked as Biyu glared at him.
She had gotten lost in her own world simply because she didn't feel in danger. This situation surprisingly didn't raise any alarms in her head. The muscular man seemed more like a goofball than anything and the gas-man was...Oddly calming. Nothing about him rang bells for Biyu, as if he was an ally. However she knew what kind of situation she was in, she had a feeling the gas-man was perhaps using an ability to calm her down or something.
She was a trained killer, so she should be able to easily recognize a dangerous situation. But whatever, now that she was discovered, she may as well go on.
She turned around and faced the muscular man, completely ignoring the gas-man.
"You. Why are you following the boy ? " She asked, pointing her daggers at the man who gulped. She couldn't tell how strong he was, but at least his poor stealth abilities told her he wasn't a spy or an assassin. She was well matched against brute type opponents, but facing another assassin would prove difficult.
"Hmm, well....." He stumbled on his own words and fumbled around as if he just didn't know how to answer her question. She then heard a sigh from behind her before a feminine hand was placed on her shoulder.
She turned around in a split second and her brows rose in confusion once she saw-The woman ?- behind her.
"You can talk.....Hmm...I don't even remember you name. But you can talk. She cannot do anything anyway. I have marked her." The woman-Biyu still didn't know-said as a strange tattoo appeared on Biyu's forehead before disappearing. Had Jian been there, he would have recognize this three-paws tattoo, but he was too busy dragging a reluctant Fang with him.
Before Biyu could ask the woman, or whatever this thing was, what she meant, the man began to speak. And weirdly enough, he didn't have a single problem now. It was easy enough for Biyu to understand what he had actually been scared of, or rather who he had been scared of.
"The boy there, his name is Zhao Shu right ? Well i'm a member of the Zhao Warrior tribes. I wasn't born in the tribes but was accepted in one of said tribe because of my feats. I'm currently the bodyguard of an important member of the tribes and she is connected to Zhao Shu...I was merely curious and wondering why those two had the reaction they had when they saw each other. Zhao Shu seems quite angry for some reasons and so do the girl. But they shouldn't be angry at each other...So this is a bizarre situation and I want to shine light on it." The man said as if he was giving a report to a superior. He was obviously trained as a soldier, but maybe a bit too much.
However Biyu wasn't focusing on that. She was focusing on the fact that he had willingly revealed all of this. He could have just said he was curious about Zhao Shu, but he revealed all those informations. It made Biyu understand something. If he was willing to do that after she was 'marked', whatever that mean, then she might be in a worse situation than she thought. You wouldn't reveal such things to a potential enemy, unless you had a guarantee that they simply couldn't reveal a thing.
"You must have gotten the point by now, girl ? Speak a word about this and you're dead. Your head ? Pop ! You had a head, you spoke and suddenly you don't have one anymore." The woman said.
Even her words weren't as unnerving as her appearence. Given that she looked like a man before, Biyu wasn't sure that thing was even a woman, but she sure as hell looked like one..And a terrifying one at that. She had pale eyes just like her, but contrarily to Biyu, the woman didn't move her eyes, they didn't move at all for some reasons. She had eerie white hair and black lips that gave her a creepy aura. Not only that, but her clothes were bizarre too. Biyu had seen those clothes a few days ago. They belonged to a certain group who had been trapped inside the capital and were constantly pushed back inside everytime they tried to escape. According to Uma this was supposed to be some sort of strategy, curtesy of the royal family.
But to Biyu it just looked like they jumped on the occasion and made it so that the sects would fight those people to gain support from the masses, and just end up dying in the end...Dying for nothing at that, since the masses were too busy staying at home and not even daring to peek outside. The situation was truly chaotic, but not everywhere. Those people who were wearing what they called business suits, something that Uma told Biyu she heard from the Queen, were only present in some parts of the city. The other parts were protected by legions of guards patrolling, and the citizens were living normally there...They hadn't been in the beginning, but after so much time passed, they just got used to it.
Anyway Biyu had instantly recognized that woman's suit, even though hers was white and golden for some reasons. The others all had either black or grey suits, but hers was white. Maybe they had different colour based ranking system.
"I think I got it, thanks." Biyu snarled at the woman, getting away from her and following after the man who had used this occasion to continue what he had been previously doing.
Both he and Biyu quickly stopped behind a food stall when they noticed Zhao Shu was sitting on a random bench in the street.
"Kid been sitting there for the whole time we've been talking. He looks more sad than anything now." The man said as he observed Zhao Shu. Biyu had to concede, Zhao Shu looked incredibly depressed, but he still looked quite angry. At least his tightening fists gave her that impression. If he continued, he might even draw blood with how angry he was.
A mix of anger, sadness and disgust for some reasons. This was unusual for Zhao Shu.
"It obviously has something to do with that girl of yours, mind explaining ?" Biyu asked as the man looked down and saw her peeking right under him. They looked like a duo of nosy kids like that, and the merchant who owned the stall was even chuckling at them.
They retreated to another alley not too far away from Zhao Shu and sat down to talk, while the man still kept an eye on Zhao Shu.
"You do know you won't be able to tell a single soul about this, right ?" He asked and got a nod in response. She knew that much, or at least she was willing to believe that freaky woman. Now that she thought about it, that woman wasn't with them anymore.
"Well, here I go. The girl I'm being a bodyguard for is the sister of that boy. I heard her talking about him a bit when we left for the Red Sky continent. She said that a spy of the Zhao tribes had seen Zhao Shu murder a member of the tribes and member of the Indra family, Indra Qiang. Lil girl looked insanely pissed off at that, but she was also worried. She was angry that her brother got into such a messy situation and honestly I can understand. If the zhao warriors weren't so busy bringing chaos to the continent and participating in that war...Zhao Shu would've been killed already. But the lil girl didn't want to see him. I told her we could make stops in the neighbouring countries so she could see him but she refused. I have no idea what's going on between the two, but they don't hate each other. And yet something is preventing them from interacting with each other." The man explained.
Biyu was thoroughly unnerved by this explanation, because this was bringing a problem she hadn't thought of. She had had no problems whatsoever with Zhao Shu because he was effective, cold and didn't have any emotional problems. But now she learned that he actually had those problems. Jian was a kid lost between his desire to do something grand and his desire to just follow his instinct, Uma was getting unwanted attention and still had those past troubles with Jian...And now Zhao Shu. Truly only Fang was still good. Biyu didn't of course forget herself. She had been putting the matter of her family in the back of her head.
However she had confirmed that the family she had visited was indeed hers. But she still couldn't be sure. Because that was simply too easy. She just searched for a Su family and the first she found was hers. The Flies wouldn't have let everything be so easy for her, or else she might have discovered the truth a long time ago. She thought that maybe they devised a plan to make her think she was the long lost member of the Su family, Su Biyu, even though she actually wasn't. That or she was simply paranoid, but her hatred and fear of the Flies just forced her to be like that.
"Guess we can only get the reason their situation is like that from the siblings themselves. " Biyu suddenly said as the man gasped.
"You dumb or something ?! Zhao Shu wasn't able to confirm it was really his sister he saw. I'm sure of that, because he would have been looking for her otherwise. He wouldn't have gone to her directly, but he would've at least tried to spy on her and see what she was doing here. Heck he could've been spying on her just to confirm it was her...But he ain't ! He is in emotional distraut and if you just go and ask him directly...It's gonna bring problems for sure ! I am not dealing with those problems just because you can't be patient. Plus you might even die while talking to him because you said something you shouldn't." The man hurriedly said before Biyu could leave.
When she sat down again, he sighed in relief....That was until Biyu's eyes widened to their very limit and she gasped loudly while pointing at something.
"W-We might not even have to do anything on our o-own !" She exclaimed before getting up and running to the stall once again. The man followed her in panic, but stopped on his tracks.
He was left on the side of the street....Looking in shock as Zhao Ai stared down at her brother...Zhao Shu.