房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

It started with a slightly deeper shade of darkness outlining the corpse – then slowly but surely, a tenth of an inch or less every few seconds, the body began sinking into the floor without making any additional sound.

It honestly was good stealth – a body getting pulled into the darkness all of a sudden would end up stirring up the air and alarming the witnesses, in this case, a single witness, that something was wrong – but the solution taken by whoever was extracting the dead magician from the site was still not optimal.

*WHOOOSH* *WHAM*

Up until that point, Zoemi was sitting cross-legged with his arms crossed and his eyes closed – then in a split second, he was already by the corpse, tearing it up with claws that his fingernails turned into, extracting the corpse and slamming it against the opposite wall.

Unfortunately what the boy was hoping for didn\'t happen – whoever was attempting to get the body of their comrade wasn\'t actually pulling it down physically but rather letting it sink at its own peace, so no one emerged from the darkness after the body was thrown around.

But!

The much darker spot remained in place which meant there was still a connection between the room Zoemi was staying in and whenever the other darkness magician was operating.

If they were concentrating enough, they could both hear and listen to what was going on in there.

"I don\'t know if you are loyal to your little friends or just stupid."

Knowing that the black-haired boy scoffed shaking his head in annoyance.

"I don\'t mind it either way because both traits can be useful. It\'s too late for the bisected guy, but the one who lost their arms can be healed up. Go look for the girl with the healer attribute"

He casually grabbed the bleeding arms off the floor and strolled towards the edge of the puddle of darkness where he dropped them after a moment of consideration.

"Quit this job. You must be told it will be an easy task, killing one weak kid that disrespected a few people, but as you already realized – you have been fooled. I am not going to give up my life and will not hesitate to dish out the punishment for those who try to compromise that."

After dropping the limbs that began sinking into the darkness, Zoemi continued the stroll around the room and grabbed the corpse he has thrown around earlier.

He took and dragged it towards the puddle too.

"I believe that you were hired to get rid of me so I will not hold a grudge if you quit now. Everybody has to earn a living somehow."

Zoemi added, watching the body and the limbs disappear into the spell.

"...you are a scary kid, anybody told you that already...?"

Suddenly the surface of the darkness was disturbed by something akin to a gust of wind and a voice that Zoemi was unfamiliar with resounded thorough his room.

"It\'s like my third time when I\'m aware of it, what else would you expect?"

"...huh...?"

Zoemi rolled his eyes and let out a heavy sigh, leaving the darkness magician talking to him in an even more awkward situation.

"The healing magician isn\'t a joke, by the way. Law of Aquarius."

*haaaa*

Zoemi added before using the star power to cleanse the shadow gate spell out of existence, dispersing it and causing the disappearing man to release a sigh similar to a person breathing out in relief.

The moment he did so...

*WHOOSH*

He never deactivated all the star powers that he used to augment his body so he broke into a dash, rushing off the building and running off in a seemingly random direction.

It took him mere seconds to leave the village behind.

He was also leaving his wolf, but that wasn\'t of much concern – Cat could find him easily as on top of her excellent smell, they share a connection because of the law of Leo.

At that moment Zoemi didn\'t care about how much attention his mad run would bring – he was focused on one thing and one thing only...

-----

It was a quiet and peaceful night. The blond-haired Burushi was peacefully sleeping in a cozy bed in her small room.

The armored wolf that usually would sleep right beneath the bed got in trouble with the girl\'s mother by bringing the carcass of the monster it hunted into the house so it was spending the night outside.

Similarly, the bed on the other side of the already small room was also empty.

A girl with no traces of color in her body would be there usually, but she and Burushi ended up in an argument the other day, and she was sulking in the other room.

That was exactly why when the darkness spilled from under Burushi\'s bed and climbed up encompassing her bed, there was no one to warn the girl who always slept like a rock.

With the faint light of the stars shining through the window, a pair of hands emerged from the darkness, and softly wrapped around the girl\'s face.

Funnily enough, that did not stir the blond-haired child awake at all...!

Maybe because of that, the darkness magician grabbing her felt a bit more calm and confident enough to fully show themselves while lifting up the sleeping girl.

By doing that the darkness magician revealed themselves to be a woman in their late twenties wearing a rather bothered expression.

"Healthy kid. Wish I could sleep that dip."

While the woman was holding the blissfully unaware and drooling Burushi, another person emerged from the darkness.

This one was a tall but skinny man who still had a cloth covering most of his face.

Well, it would be hard for him to remove it casually, considering that his arms were cut off and the stumps were covered in layers of thick bandages to stop the bleeding.

Interestingly, the man had what looked like his missing arms on him – handing over his shoulder as if it was just a normal thing.

Nothing in the tone of his voice suggested that he go so severely wounded mere hours earlier.