"These demonic creatures have been increasing in number and size lately, haven't they?"
Elijah's voice came from the bed. He sat hunched forward, topless.Swiping his jet black hair back, his eyes scanned the document. Next to him, on the bedside, were a handful of documents. Finally looking up, his star-shaped pupils glimmered faintly, irises coloured yellow with a star shaped pupil in them, locked onto the white haired boy across the room.
The white haired boy's eyes quickly moved to Elijah, his ruby red irises with a black cross to them. Elijah always thought his eyes were strange but what's so strange about having strange eyes? Right?
Azreal finished drinking from a glass of water before responding.
"Usual time. The three of them will be done training soon."
He set the glass down and walked toward Elijah. "And you should sit still for this mission."
Without warning, Azreal sat beside him and poked Elijah's left shoulder, right where the bandages wrapped around his bare torso.
"Ow! Azreal! Don't poke me there! It hurts."
"So you know it hurts."
Azreal raised an eyebrow.
"It's not my fault an arrow was being fired at you! At least I got you out of the way." Elijah muttered defensively. "My body normally regenerates fast anyway,it's fine."
Azreal stared at him with an unimpressed, silent judgment.
Elijah had gotten this injury from a mission. The mission was about clearing a bandit group who had been smuggling artifacts, robbing banks etc. during the mission, an arrow, laced with mana and poison, was shot forwards Azreal, noticing this, Elijah quickly dashed forward and tried to get Azreal out of the way, getting his shoulder pierced.
"It's not just this incident Elijah, you've gotten injured so much times in just this year." Azreal said. "Just because you have an oddly good regeneration ability doesnt mean you should get injured. It still hurts after all, doesn't it? Not only that, what if the wound is life-dangering? Have you considered that?"
Azreal let his body fall back onto the bed beside Elijah.
Elijah's eye twitched.
"Hey. You know this is my bed. Right? Your bed is over there."
Elijah pointed at the bed on the other side of the room. This room had 3 beds, one at each side of the room with the door being on the final side of the room. Though this sounded cramped, it was better than those bunk beds they had in the orphanage, and the room was pretty spacious too
"Sharing is caring." Azreal rolled onto his side, casually using his elbow as a pillow. "I used to wear your shirts when we were younger. This is nothing. Anyway,about that new mission. You're sitting out, right?"
"No way."
Elijah grinned smugly and flexed his right bicep . "It's just an injury on my shoulder, not even the one I usually use! I'm stronger than you think." (He means it's not in his dominant arm)
"I'm not stronger than you," Azreal shot back. "But I also haven't been in multiple life threatening situations, have I?."
"…"
"You got me there," Elijah admitted quietly, unable to refute it.
"Alright. Back to the point." Azreal tapped the stack of documents and teased. "Read it and summarize it, leader"
Elijah glared at Azreal. He wasn't particularly fond of being the leader, too much responsibilities. He wasn't even the most knowledgeable in paperwork either so he often struggled to write reports. According to him the reason he had been given the position "leader" is because he was the "most skilled"
'Whatever'
Pushing that thought aside,Elijah cleared his throat, lifted the papers, and gave Azreal a light smack on the forehead with them.
"We're heading to a countryside village, one near here. Increased sightings of demonic creatures and demonic-affiliated beings since last year,though the villagers have only reported it recently. Our assignment is to exterminate them, investigate the cause, and gather intel for both the authorities and the demonic research division. It's not that big of a mission so they gave us about a month stay there, though I doubt we'd need that much time"
Azreal blinked slowly, as if pondering something
"Was the smack really necessary?"
"Yes."
Before Azreal could retaliate, the front door opened in the living room.
"Looks like they're home," Elijah said. "I'll brief them after they shower."
Azreal sat up, snatching the documents from his hands.
"No. Sit with them. I'll do the briefing."
He paused by the door, giving Elijah a pointed look. "Also, wear a shirt."
Then he closed the door behind him.
Elijah let out a long sigh, stretched, and pulled a tank top over his bandages. When he walked toward the mirror, he tugged the fabric down and frowned.
'This tank top is getting too small.'
On his back, barely hidden by the cloth, a faint golden star glowed. People often dismissed it as some strange birthmark, but no birthmark covered half a person's back and shimmered like starlight.
'Guess I need to buy XL clothes soon.'
He grabbed his jacket and headed out.
***
The Living Room
"Another mission?" Saoirse asked, brows knitting. "Elijah still hasn't fully recovered. Can't we leave him behind?"
Serena didn't bother looking up from where she sat on the couch. "We tried that last time. He snuck out, found us in the middle of the forest, and nearly got everyone killed."
"It was just an one time incident…." Elijah muttered as he entered.
Kevin, already sprawled across the couch, lifted his blue head, dragged Elijah to sit down next to him and slowly slumped it onto Elijah's non-injured shoulder with dramatic flair.
"What should we do~" Kevin wailed, "when our poor, overworked Elijah is being forced into another mission?"
Elijah absentmindedly patted his head like he was comforting a giant, muscular puppy.
Serena stared at the scene, disgust and amusement mixing on her face. She ran a hand through Saoirse's brown hair,the girl's head was resting comfortably on her lap,and put on a mock-tragic voice:
"Is it really overworking if he volunteers? Overworking is what they do to Saoirse. Besides, he leaves all the paperwork to us 2, do you know how much paperwork we've filed this past year?."
"Mmh," Saoirse murmured, adjusting her position without opening her eyes.
Azreal massaged the bridge of his nose.
"Enough. You people aren't even couples. Stop claiming people."
He pointed toward the hallway.
"We're leaving tomorrow morning. Pack your essentials today."
Just as he turned, he clicked his tongue and looked directly at Elijah.
"Oh,and pack your stuff into our bags instead of carrying your own. You're injured. No heavy lifting."
Elijah groaned, pushing Kevin's head off him and slumping back into the couch.
"Tch. Treating me like a baby…"
****
######
Once again, I awoke from my slumber
Clenching my aching head, I sat up
A village… southeastern forests…
The hero is there.
I adjusted the pendant around my neck, pulling it under my shirt.
My jacket settled neatly over my shoulders. I tucked in my shirt and checked the surroundings one last time.
From my jacket's pocket, I fiddled with a "pocket watch"
I stepped out of the sanctuary shared with the people who saved me long ago.
The air was crisp. The forest quiet. Time, ever faithful, flowed steadily around me.
'The last mission begins.
I need to find the hero in the southeast.'