Blood Queen Reborn-Chapter 28: Aftermath
The moment Faye, the tall silver-blue haired woman, entered the room, everyone froze. Faye’s hair went down to her waist, and she had a beret on her head. On her waist was her rapier, a beast weapon made using strong crystals.
Faye had a commanding presence, but she was also one of the more approachable members of the military as she had this presence where you could rely on her to get you out of trouble when you needed it. Mono, upon seeing her arrival, deactivated his soul weapon. He knew that she was not to be trifled with as he tried causing trouble last year.
’Damn it, not her,’ Mono thought, ’It was bad enough fighting against that string guy, but to get an actual speed ability user here?’
"Those of you who are injured, go to the doctor’s office to be treated immediately, while the rest of you head to the dorms, and stay inside until you are called out again. Do you understand?" Faye commanded.
Everyone was stunned into silence, not knowing who she was or what was going on. In that moment of silence, Erin got off of Mono and ran over to Quinn’s side. Lifting his arm over her shoulder, she was trying to get him onto his feet
Seeing the movement, Faye ran over to her nearly instantaneously, leaving behind a silver blue blur.
"How’d she get over there so fast?"
"The better question is ’Who is she?’"
"What part of ’I command everyone to halt this instant’ did you not—?" Faye began, before realizing what Erin was doing.
She shot the older woman a cold stare, then helped Quinn stand up. He was heavily leaning on Erin for support.
"I’m taking us both to the doctor’s," Erin said then gestured to her bloodied clothes with her free hand.
Faye shook her head, "Apologies, I spoke too rashly."
—
Once at the doctor’s, Erin was surprised that not many people got hurt in this incident. There were only really a handful of people that needed medical aid with Quinn and Erin having the biggest injuries. Hayley had tended Quinn’s wounds, but it was harder to explain Erin’s lack-there-of.
"I thought you’d be hurt more? Weren’t you the one who got attacked by the second years?" Hayley asked, examining Erin’s bloodied clothes.
"Someone used the healing ability on me," Erin lied, then added "... after I was freed."
"Oh really? How nice of them. They did a good job given the circumstances. By any chance did you see what they looked like? It gets really busy here and having an assistant would help."
"Uh... I dunno what they looked like. I was busy getting attacked."
Hayley sighed, "I’m gonna have to look into finding an assistant soon. This is the second time this week you’ve brought someone in."
Then Hayley scooted her swivel stool over to Quinn, who was holding his badly injured arm. She held her hands over it, causing a soothing warm feeling that Quinn was getting used to.
"And this is the fourth time you’ve gone here too," Hayley added.
Quinn awkwardly chuckled, a touch of bitterness in the tone, "Well if I could help it, I’d like to stay uninjured."
Ever since Erin had seen Quinn get so injured had caused some sort of feeling of worry to form, one that she hadn’t felt since her parents had—
’Are we genuinely becoming friends?’ Erin thought to herself, a little fearful of the answer.
What would happen if Quinn died? Would she be freed from her system? Or would something be irreparably broken? Missing a key component? She didn’t want someone like him to die, but after being stuck with this system, she wasn’t as strong as she used to be.
—
Erin left the doctor’s office after being healed, and returned back to her dorm room. Inside there were her roommates. Layla was sitting on a chair fiddling with her fingers, and her other roommate was laying on her bed, her hands behind her head.
"You’re back!" Layla said, standing up, "...are you alright? You were hurt pretty badly."
"I’m fine..." Erin muttered. Her mind a little preoccupied with something else.
Erin walked over to her bed and laid down. She didn’t say anything, which got Layla worried. Soon after, a private came into the room and Cia’s name was called out. She got up and left.
"They’re taking her for questioning about the whole event," Layla explained, "They did the same thing with me earlier. They’re just asking about what happened to piece together a timeline, so you don’t have to worry about your... y’know...."
Erin glanced over at Layla before staring back at the ceiling.
"...Layla?" Erin whispered.
"Yes?"
"Blood makes me stronger, and I don’t want this to happen again," Erin sat up on her bed, "I need you to do something for me."
Layla nodded, "I’d do anything to help."
"I need you to get me as many different varieties of blood as you can."
Soon, Cia returned from her interrogation, and Erin was called up. She wasn’t the only one who was being questioned though...
—
In one of the interrogation rooms, a large muscular man with arms as thick as thighs was sitting on the opposite side of Mono. This man’s badge showed the rank of General along with his name of Duke King. He was the head of the second year students.
"Of all people to stop us, it had to be Faye," Mono complained, "I did as you asked and now I might pay for it."
"Will you relax? Nothing will come of this I promise you that," Duke replied, "You’re only students, these kinds of things happen, and I will vouch for you."
"Really? So I won’t get punished then?" Mono asked.
Duke got up from his seat and walked behind Mono, whispering into his ear.
"Of course, as long as no one finds out about our little secret," he said with a smile.
Soon after, Mono left and Duke was looking over the report of everything that happened. He was required to by his job. Initially, he was skimming it, until he saw something peculiar. In the report, it was stated that a student by the name of Quinn Talen had thrown a ball made using beast crystals, and that these beast stones were made out of metal. What was the strange thing was that the ball was ever so slightly dented.
They were made using both beast crystals, and galathrium, an incredibly durable metal. It wouldn’t have been easy for a student to make like that, especially without a beast weapon.
Checking over the student’s records, Duke noted that Quinn was only a level 1.1 earth user. Normally, an earth ability user would not have been able to bend metal like that, especially given how weak he was, and so he would’ve assumed it got dented from someone else’s ability.
... Except there was nothing in the report that indicated someone had purposely dented the beast stone.
Duke wouldn’t normally investigate something so benign, but he was always on the lookout for students with strong abilities, and no backing. If his hunch was correct, then someone here had fit his criteria.
—
After the questioning, it was a little surprising how despite being the main victim of the incident, that she wasn’t questioned as much about what happened. Apparently they already had the whole story down of what happened, and they were only asking her as a formality.
She was thankful for that since they didn’t bother to ask why or how she was attacked. Perhaps they thought it was reasonable to happen since it was with a second year with a soul weapon attacking a first year.
On her way back to her dorms, there was something on her mind.
’If Quinn got hurt like that trying to save me, then I need to get stronger,’ Erin said in her mind, ’I won’t let it happen again.’
—
Similarly, Quinn was having very similar thoughts. He was laying down in his bed thinking about his own strength, or lack-there-of. Just because he got an earth ability doesn’t mean that he was going to be automatically strong. Since he was only a level 1.1, he was dependent on his little clump of mud, but maybe he could figure out how to have more earth on him while also keeping it hidden.
’I have to train my ability, I need to be stronger so I can protect my friends," Quinn thought.
It was a funny thought, in a way, to think of Erin as his friend. Not that long ago they had just met and became linked, but something had changed. He wasn’t sure if it was the system at play or not, but there was something deeper going on with their connection.
