Chapter 22 ~ Otherworldly

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"Break his neck!!!!!!"

"Break his neck!!!"

"Break his neck!!!"

The large crowd cheered and beat drums and made all sort of noise barbarically in unison , enjoying the entertainment as their kingdom's champion had one more opponent left to execute , she had already easily dismantled the other opponents and the last man left didn't stand a chance as he knelt in front of her too weak and injured to fight back . She stood in a wide stance , blood dripping down her hands as she stared coldly at the helpless man in front of her, she needed no weapon to infact snap his neck and give the people what they wanted , she was the weapon.

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Occasionally when the king was bored he would have prisoners the kingdom's military had captured from their enemies be placed in a coliseum to battle against his champion of war, they were never getting out of prison anyways , so telling them that if they survided the king's champion they will earn freedom certainly motivated them to fight their best. The king's champion was not a fan of violence ,she wasn't even a champion of war, at least she didn't know she was.

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But she was rather easy to convince as well by just being made to believe the people she was fighting were the worst of the worst criminals, If she hesitated even after that, reminding her that it was tradition to have the grey lily's holder execute criminals in a public spectacle that also entertained the crowd, could make her feel obligated, if that also didn't work a little pressure from people above her or a little threat of letting down her family lineage , got her to go in there and do her job.

There were many ways to manipulate the young lady to get into the Arena and be the target that at least 30 men motivated by rage and a chance at freedom should simply kill to earn.

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Even with the deaths touch , it was never easy to fight off a horde of people trying to kill you .

But she did it anyways, afterall this wasn't her first time in this . When the girl was just fourteen some years back she was sent in for the first time, to entertain the king and amaze the people, with a display of the power of the kingdom's secret weapon.

The first time she was nervous and afraid ,but her father would simply remind her ,that it was what her family did . He was not referring to them having such a tradition, or being the ones to entertain the king. What he meant was that 'they were the ones who got the blood on their hands'.

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Now she was here for the third time in all her 18 years , with the experience she had from the last two times she had been made to participate in this event, she got through it relatively easy, but she wasn't happy at all, it was starting to look like the king wanted to make this a yearly event , She had no intention to engage in such mindless activities at all , much less annually.

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She stood in the center of the arena ,the crowd was growing restless as the dust that had been kicked up by the chaos settled,one last execution would send everyone home happy, she just killed 35 other people ,what was one more to end the shift and go home.

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The king was having a great time , his court maidens poured him the finest wine which he immediately knocked off the table as she jumped up out of his throne and shouted at his champion to finish the show .

"Snap his neck!!!! Now !!" He yelled,fully drunk and impatient to see the grand finale.

The girl turned and somehow picked the king's face right out if the crowd, she stared him dead in the eyes,his excitement suddenly subsided as he noticed. He sat back in his seat adjusting his robe .

"What is she doing?" He whispered in question to the advisor on his left.

"Why isn't she ending the show?!!" He yelled in annoyance.

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She stood there silently not making any actions, the crowd was starting to get upset, the chants turned into rumbling murmurs and complaints , why was she delaying ending the show?

Soon , someone threw an object into the arena, and then another , objects that probably were of value to some where thrown in , they were upset that their entertainment was halted.

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The champion only grew more disgusted, these were the same people who looked at her and her family like their gift was a curse, like merely talking or associating with them would cause one to drop dead. Now here they were wanting her to entertain them with the same gifts. Why was she doing this anyways? Why was her family making her do this stupid event to entertain a king that had never lifted a finger to get anything done himself, as far as she knew, why were they answering to him? Why were they fighting HIS wars and dying HIS deaths, why were all these people here in the crowd to watch an event that he organized for HIS own entertainment , why did they suddenly share HIS interests.

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She could strike him dead with a single touch and that would be the end of it , why did they want her to mindlessly execute this man ,had they not seen enough deaths and violence for the day? Wasn't he in prison as punishment for whatever crime he committed, why did he deserve a second punishment in name of his life just to entertain the king.

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No matter how she looked at it and no matter what she was told, this was not some noble tradition that had any measure of justification behind it. It was just a bored king watching his puppets do his bidding and entertain him, no better than the jesters in his court. And the people , probably scared or not even bothering to have their own thoughts followed along with the king's interests.

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Again she stared right at the king, he noticed immediately, the cold stare pierced through his chest,

"Who does this girl think she is ,looking at me like that!!!???" He shouted, questioning her insolence.

"How dare you break tradition, finish the man!!!!!, do your job!!! Do!!!! Your!!!!!! Job!!!!!!" He screamed at her,the veins popping on his head . His voice was most likely drowned out by the noise of the crowd anyways and she wasn't going to ever hear him, it wouldn't have mattered is she did , she wasn't listening.

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The king clenched his fist, complaining unintelligibly and as he prepared to shout another order at her , a mystic crimson thread flew through the air at break neck speed and shot right through his shoulder, pinning him to his seat. The crowd gasped and went silent in shock. The king panicked , it could have been his head if she wanted . That crimson thread connected to the pointing finger of Liati , was the grey lily's death touch. Far or close , near or far. If you were in her sights she could cut you down. Getting pierced by the thread was fatal and even if it wasn't a fatal hit, it's poison which had no natural remedy will spread until it consumed the body and left you for dead.

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The king sat quietly , pinned to his throne for a few seconds before immediately yelling at the guards to seize her and some others to summon the 'marigold of healing' , one of the other divine flowers who could heal any ailment or disease there was.

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The crowd started barking shouts of treason at the champion ,she just attacked the king afterall.

"What was that?!!!"

"Seize her at once!!!"

"Off with her head!!!"

Many cries for justice flew out of the crowd , some of them almost toppled over into the arena as the place erupted into chaos.

The girl simply stood there,as almost in a split second royal guards , rushed into the arena to arrest her .

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Not moving an inch she maintained a bitter stare dead into the eyes of the king before breaking off the crimson thread connected to his shoulder,he knew and she knew that she had missed on purpose, the guards closed in and jumped at her like she was a grenade about to go off ,but if she wanted him dead she would not have aimed for his shoulder she would have gone for the head.

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"Ugggh.....what a weird dream." Rei groaned and complained as she sat up in the hospital bed, waking up from a short sleep.

"What happened? When did I get here?" She asked ,looking around curiously.

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Her mom, Jana, who was waiting in the room for her to wake up ,rushed over immediately.

The woman who was busy at work in her office was immediately worried when a nurse rushed over to tell her that someone who claimed to be her daughter's classmate had rushed said 'daughter' to the hospital and the girl looked to be in terrible condition.

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"Daughter? I don't have a daugh...." Her words trailed in realization and she rushed over to see who the nurse was talking about .

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Now here she was ,finally, her child had woken up. She was never going to get used to the fact that her son was now also a daughter, but that didn't matter she was just relieved her child was now okay.

"Remi are you okay?" Jana asked as soon as she was next to Rei who sat in the bed still trying to figure out her surroundings.

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*Remi? I thought my name was Rei* she thought to herself upon hearing the woman call her Remi.

"How are you feeling?" Jana asked before she answered the first question, reaching out to take her hand.

"I am ...fine" Rei said, still rather confused, she squinted her eyes at Jana, studying the woman's face properly, she looked familiar, that's right she was the woman from last time who said she was her mother.

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"Mom?" Rei asked , still unsure.

"Yes it's me dear, what happened?" Jana asked still feeling a bit tense.

"I don't know.. I just woke up here all of a sudden, I was with Arloh In some moving room somehow and..." Rei trailed off and suddenly started looking around.

"Arloh? You mean the young man who brought you here? He is waiting outside the room" Jana said and felt Rei's forehead for her temperature.

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Rei jumped out of the bed before Jana could react,and ran to the door of the room.

"Wait , you still need rest!!" Jana shouted and ran after Rei as fast as she could.

As soon as Rei was in the hallway of the hospital outside the room she looked around until she saw Arloh ,seated in one of the waiting areas,next to a charging spot he had found for his phone.

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"Arloh!!!" She shouted in excitement, causing Arloh to look up from what he was doing on his phone.

"Rei? What are you- " before he could finish his words she had already covered the distance and was hugging him tightly.

"Ah I see we have Manic Rei again" He muttered to himself, fully convinced the girl was bipolar as his answer to her strange changing behavior.

"What's manic?" Rei asked looking up at him still refusing to release the hug.

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"How did you even hear that?" Arloh asked as he pried Rei's arms off his body, trying to free himself of her death grip .

"Rem- Rei!! Why did you run out like that?!!" Jana exclaimed as she rushed over to the two from across the hall.

"Hello again ma'am," Arloh greeted.

"Oh you waited for hi- her? You shouldn't have" Jana said , rather surprised that Arloh had not gone home the whole time.

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"Thank you," she added then took a couple seconds to observe Rei paying not much attention to what was going on and focusing on clinging to Arloh, this time she has managed to take his left pinky hostage and was holding on to it with both hands.

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"It seems you two are quite close?" Jana inquired, observing how comfortable Rei seemed with Arloh.

"Well we get along sometimes but I'm not sure she would consider me a friend" Arloh chuckled nervously,scratching his head.

Jana took a few more seconds wondering if she should 'approve of their friendship and if Arloh already knew about Remi's condition for them to be this close '

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But before she could ask her next question, Arloh beat her to it ,having curiousities of his own.

"So you must be Rei's mother right? She said her mom worked here when we were on the way and when we got here I think she managed to mention your name to the nurses."

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"I did?" Rei asked ,busy twiddling Arloh's fingers , not remembering doing any of what was mentioned.

"Well, ye- yes" Jana answered with uncertainty, unsure of if that answer could comeback to bite in the future.

It wasted no time to do so, "oh that's nice , so you must also know Remi's family," Arloh asked scratching his head,unsure if he should have asked such a question.

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"Or course I do ,he is my son" Jana answered with a smile,

*Why is this kid asking about Remi? Does he probably know something and is trying to put the pieces together?*

she quickly came up with the perfect answer to prevent the situation from escalating or revealing anything unnecessary to Arloh .

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"He is your son? We were told he and Rei are cousins not siblings." Arloh asked, putting his thinking cap on, which would have surely annoyed anyone, but Jana answered quickly..

"Ah you see ....Remi is my son and Rei is his cousin but she is basically my daughter with how close our families are with each other " she answered and laughed nervously.

Arloh pondered for a moment ,not saying anything.

*What's with this kid , is he a detective or something.* Jana thought to herself as she started to feel tense by Arloh's silence, maybe he wasn't buying it?

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"Ah I understand now, she must've been confused cos of how she was feeling ,nothing crazy that she would call an aunt mom" Arloh said finally, breaking his silence.

"Ah ..wait." Rei said suddenly, causing Jana and Arloh to turn their attention to her.

"So if she's my aunt, then why does she call me..."

"Rei dear!!! Let's get you back to your bed, you clearly need rest" Jana cut in immediately, baring her teeth in a forced smile at Arloh as she cupped Rei's mouth with hand to keep her quiet.

"Thank you so much, umm what's your name dear?" She asked Arloh as she pulled Rei into a side hug, still covering her mouth with her free hand.

"It's Arloh ma'am "

"Well Arloh you've been a great help today with my so- daugh- niece..NIECE, here, she still seems out of sorts so I'll take her back to rest"

Jana said , truly grateful that Arloh had helped her child.

"I'll make it up to you somehow, but you should probably head home now, your parents might be looking for you by this time".

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"Ah you're right..my parents" Arloh muttered,realizing it was quite late .

No one would look for him though,he was already living alone and taking care of himself at this point, his mother checked in rarely and the other adults in his family had no reason to check his whereabouts unless it was to nag him about his future in the family business.

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"Well since she is now with a trusted guardian , I will take my leave , goodbye Rei's aunty" Arloh said and waved goodbye to Rei and headed towards the hospital exit.

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"He's a sweet kid.." Jana said as she watched the boy leave. "...and you .." she added looking down at Rei who was still trapped all confused in her side hug.

"You really need to get some rest, you're coming home with me today young man...lady.." she stuttered and sighed then gently led Rei back to her room in the hospital to rest further.

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Rei just followed confused, she thought this was her mother, now she is her aunt? What was going on. But she wasn't worried , even though she wasn't quite sure who this woman was to her, she felt safe and trusted her.

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Arloh slowed his steps as he finally exited the hospital building, it was a long day, but he felt happy that he helped and somewhat reconciled with Rei if you could call it that.

He sighed , looking around he thought of his next action just before he caught himself smiling .

"Hey,Why am I so happy? I just helped a classmate is all." He said to himself as if scolding whatever thoughts he had in mind.

"Rei is annoying anyways, I'm glad I'm finally free after having to spend almost an entire day with her" he gave an excuse to a question nobody asked .

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But as he stood in front of the hospital and the autumn sky slowly transitioned into the first snowfall of the year , his mind couldn't help but think about how Rei felt similar to the weather with how she kept changing, it was almost like it was two different people .

He was sure of it now, no one could tell him he hadn't figured it out,obviously Rei was simply bipolar and no one had noticed in their class except him , maybe she didn't want to tell anyone?

He decided he would be more understanding of her mood swings from now on and be a nicer classmate.

Now though he had to get home quickly before it started to get cold outside.

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