How To Survive A Calamity-Chapter 252: Arslan D. Blank [3]
"How long did you think you could hide it?" Arslan's cold voice dripped into my ears over the sounds of my groaning and screaming, as he dropped to one knee over and pulled up my left arm from underneath.
His hardened grip and unparalleled strength suffered no form of resistance from me in my current state. As Arslan yanked my left hand upward, the strips of bandage wrapped around my arm loosened roughly into the wind.
"That mark on your left arm." Arslan's voice dropped even lower as my palm sizzled in his grip.
His words barely even registered to me until the moment he yanked my trembling left arm and i stirred underneath.
I clenched my teeth and turned to look up at him, but Arslan already looked different.
His silky orange hair fluttered in the wind, parting just enough to reveal a horn curving from his forehead. Red lines pulsed like veins across his face, symbols burning faintly beneath his skin. His eyes glowed—a blood-red fire in place of orange.
The strange marks and characters...looked vaguely familiar somehow.
And as they painted grid symbol across his face, they burned with a reddish orange glow.
"Who are you...?" I gritted my teeth as i barely squeezed the words from my lips.
I recognised the pattern of the strange marks that appeared along Arslan's face, and despite knowing, my thoughts struggled to keep up in the current situation.
Arslan loftly gazed down, grabbing my wrist tightly.
"Someone who's been watching." His lips curled into a cold smile.
His gaze lingered indiscernibly on my palm as he finally let go of my wrist, flinging me aside.
"You're interesting, Cadet 579 Victor Bright."
The glowing markings across Arslan's face receded as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. His parted red hair nestled back over his forehead as the curved horn also vanished and shrunk back without a trace.
"Curious."
In no more than a second, the red-haired Vice Headmaster looked no different than always; mysteriously charming and full of dark allure under the moonlight.
As Arslan's appearance returned back to normal, so did i as my left arm still trembled. The searing agony from my Karma had drastically reduced, but the mere memory was still brutally fresh.
Cradling my left arm close to my chest against my knees, i could still smell the faint scent of burnt flesh.
I stumbled up to my feet, fully guarded when Arslan's cold laughter slipped in from across.
"You should be that wary, but there's also no need to be guarded against me. Not now anyways," he said mysteriously and turned around.
Before i could process the meaning behind his words, Arslan spoke quietly again.
"You have questions. So do i. Don't do anything foolish and come find me tomorrow."
Arslan's voice rode thw wind as it suddenly picked up. I blinked and the last thing i saw was the fine strands of his red hair fluttering before his figure vanished into thin air.
His last words drifting coldly like the breeze against the back of my neck:
"I'll be expecting you, Vic~"
***
"What the fuck just happened?"
By the time i could regain my senses, Arslan D. Blank was gone.
He had vanished into thin air, but the sense of cold dread he filled me with still remained.
I was standing alone in the park like a mad man who broke out of a psychiatric ward, staring at the empty space where Arslan had been like it had personally wronged me in my past life.
Cold beads of sweat streamlined down my pale face, and the trembling in my left arm wouldn't cease.
Every brush of the wind on my skin made me wince and flinch. My head snapped towards every direction almost as if the mysterious red man would reappear with every draft that blew by.
But if course, Arslan never did. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎
"He's...gone."
Yet the echoe of dread still haunted me as my heart thumped behind my chest.
Eventually i took a long, and winding deep breath and slumped down against one of the park benches. My legs seemingly finally gave out on me from tension.
I buried my head into my palms and ran my fingers through my hair, clearly distraught.
"Dammit, what just happened?"
Confusion and horror couldn't even begin to describe what i felt at the moment. Everything that had just happened felt like it was something out of a movie — overwhelming and all at once.
Except it wasn't.
Everything that had happened was real. Arslan, his words, and the chaos running through my head right now was real.
But there was one thought that stood out to me the most.
"Am i fucked?"
Arslan's last words...
'You have questions. So do i. Come find me tomorrow...'
I could still hear them so vividly.
***
It took me some more time to finally regain enough composite to get back on my feet.
Without needing to be said, my mood had been messed up. There was still some time before curfew, but a night walk no longer seemed so appealing anymore.
Instead, i decided to return back to my room so i can properly think through everything that happened. Without even a proper thought, my body moved on autopilot back to the boy's dormitory.
I walked slowly, absentmindedly as my thoughts trailed behind an expression i couldn't quite make out myself.
The bandage around my left arm was still loose, flailing along behind me as i walked but i couldn't care less.
My whole vibe changed the instant I arrived standing before my door, just outside my room.
The absent minded gaze in my eyes hardened as i stared at the door, my expression drawing into dark mask.
At a glance at the scene, nothing seemed strange other than me suddenly stopping and staring at my door. There were no other cadets along the hallway, and everything else seemed in place.
Then i channeled my mana and twisted the door handle as i pushed it open.
The moment I stepped in, my bloodlust surged—greeting the intruder waiting in my room.enter.
