When Assad finally managed to open his eyes the first thing he was aware of was this persistent noise.

  Beep, beep, beep.

  For a few moments, Assad's mind was blank, but it came back to him back at the training arena; Sévon putting that crushing pressure on him like there was a mountain pinning him to the floor.

  "Right," Assad whispered to himself.

  The sterile white lights above confirmed for him that he was in the medical bay now. Slowly he turned his head from one side to the other to see what was around him.

  While everything seemed very quiet, his eyes settled upon a bed opposite him from where he was lying again. He could see Mya was still asleep with a tranquil and regular breath sound beside her on the medical monitors in a bed beside hers along with their rhythmical beeping sounds.

  Even though Mya had gone through a traumatic experience just five days prior, she is still asleep. It might have been due to being shot by Shuren or because of his actions when they left there. He looked at her for a short while and then breathed out quietly to himself with relief to see that she appeared healthy. Very carefully he pushed himself up and sat on the edge of the cot. His muscles remain very stiff, but it does not appear any of them are broken.

  Just having just sat up, a voice that he recognized was speaking from a place in the room.

  “Yo! You’re awake!”

  Assad turned his head slowly. He could see Sévon standing in the doorframe with his arms crossed, staring at him with the same relaxed look that he always had.

  He jumped off of the bed in a defensive posture.

  “Why do you come back after almost killing me?” Assad continued.

  As Sévon walked toward him, Assad tensed.

  Step. Step. Step.

  Sévon slowly made his way across the medical bay's hard floor, his footsteps light yet purposeful. Assad immediately went into full defense mode by tightening his shoulders and fixating on Sévon as he walked until he reached the end of his bed.

  He had no desire to feel the same extreme pressure on his body again.

  Sévon saw that and, of course, didn't say anything; he continued walking to the end of the bed. Instead of stopping in front of Assad, Sévon walked right past him. The little chair next to the bed made a soft scraping noise as Sévon sat down after sliding it out from under him.

  "...Why are you still on guard?"

  Assad didn’t move his gaze from Sévon.

  “Do you think I wouldn’t?”

  Sévon tilted his head to the side to study Assad.

  “You’re looking at me like I’m going to do something ungentlemanly again.”

  There was a moment of silence between them.

  “Because last time you almost killed me.”

  Sévon sighed softly.

  "Valid argument."

  There was silence in the medical bay. The only sounds were the monitors' constant beeping. While Sévon sat in a chair next to Assad, Assad remained at the ready; no words left them for a while; when Sévon finally spoke, he said:

  "How much did you hear?"

  Assad frowned a little.

  "Hear what?"

  For just an instant, there was a split second when he didn't know what Sévon was referring to until finally, it dawned on him...

  The scrap of paper he had left behind had allowed him to eavesdrop on Sévon and Shuren's conversation. Assad's pupils dilated to the maximum, and by the time he was ready to respond, Sévon had already pulled his scrap of paper out of his own pocket and was holding it between his fingers.

  Assad froze.

  Sévon looked at the scrap of paper and then back at Assad.

  "I'm going to ask again."

  While his tone had remained steady, there was an obvious underlying edge to his voice.

  "How much did you hear?"

  Assad looked down for just a moment; slowly, his eyes turned toward the floor.

  "I heard it all."

  The room became quiet once more. The medical monitor's steady rhythm was the only sound remaining. Sévon said nothing, just stared at him.

  As Sévon moved toward Assad he was frightened but was ready to face the worst. During that time he heard part of an important conversation that he should not have heard, and even though he had gotten caught. The main question that needs to be answered is if Shuren had knowledge of the piece of paper that he had left on his desk. Sévon could not have felt the presence of Assad when he first woke up; from the first day he knew Shuren was a very dangerous entity for any woman.

  Sévon stopped at Assad and looked at him, then out of nowhere he gave him a pat on the head. This surprised Assad for a bit as it caught him off guard. He believed that he was going to be punished for that action. So why was Sévon giving him a pat on the head?

  "It's okay, like they always say curiosity always kills that cat. So it's water under the bridge."

  Assad was filled with confusion on why he was getting the soft treatment even though he was listening on something that did not need his attention.

  Sévon let go of his head and went back to his chair.

  "Okay, so the only reason I scolded you for eavesdropping on Shuren and me was because I already punished you during training so don't stress. We need to chat."

  "Chat about what?" Assad asked cautiously.

  For a brief moment Sévon was still ,gazing upwards into the ceiling with his hands thrust deeply as far as he could shove them into the pockets of his pants before turning to Assad with his typical calm visage.

  "You have talents; however, it appears that due to being nervous about them, you have not been able to show them off completely. So to help you accomplish that I have a fantastic opportunity for you."

  Assad remained quiet while Sévon continued to speak.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I'm not sure if you are aware of this but there is going to be an auction in two weeks and Ms. V was invited.She will require security at the auction because in Yorna she's viewed as very influential , whether through politics or nobility, and, thus , requires assistance."

  Despite his desire to be as far away from Sévon as possible, Assad couldn't help but become even more intrigued by what seemed to be an upcoming auction.

  "You don't need me to go into detail, I'm assuming you already know what I'm going to tell you?"

  Standing tall, Assad was seriously considering taking him up on the offer. Being a bodyguard and attending a charity auction are pretty appealing opportunities as far as I'm concerned. A random question popped into his mind.

  "Hey, I've got a question?"

  When Sévon smiled at Assad, he assumed that he was going to ask something related to money (as many people do).

  "Who's Ms. V?"

  The atmosphere in the room went completely dead and uncomfortable, extremely uncomfortable. Confused, Assad tilted his head to question why Sévon wasn't replying. His question may have sounded stupid or too difficult to answer.

  With a sigh, Sévon grabbed his nose and chuckled.

  "Sorry, I said that name without telling you what it meant; my fault. Ms. V is the boss if that wasn’t obvious.”

  ‘Okay I can see that for sure, but how does he know her by that name?’

  “A long story; not really sure about that one.”

  Assad froze again and slapped his forehead; again the dumb flaw, always forgetting the obvious. Sévon noticed this and smirked a bit.

  “One of my flaws is if I use my abilities too much, I lose something important.”

  Assad hadn’t expected Sévon to say anything like this just now. Why is Sévon just throwing this stuff out there?

  "Uh... so what are you gonna do, tell me or what...?"

  "Oops sorry. "

  Assad then became quiet and stared up at the ceiling like Sévon had previously done.

  Upon seeing this, Sévon tilted his head as if to say, "What? Why is he copying that? Is it even cool to do this?"

  Assad then looked down and sighed deeply. He looked directly at Sévon, staring almost into his soul; and then mumbled the words, "I accept".

  Since Sévon never heard it, he asked Assad to repeat his answer. He repeated but was slightly louder. Sévon smiled, stood up from his chair and gave Assad another pat on the head.

  "Great, now try and pull yourself together. I will go see Ms. V now..."

  Assad nodded.

  Sévon's smile grew a little bit bigger as he began to leave the medical bay.

  As Assad looked at the figure of Sévon walking away from him, he looked at his hand as he thought about how he was about to become Vonessia's bodyguard, and it was an incredible thought. Also, the fact that her boss is someone who is respected so highly in Yorna is pretty amazing.

  His reason for being in Kurayamiya is still a mystery to him.

  He has so many unanswered questions right now, it is almost overwhelming. But he really needs to focus on preparing over the next two weeks since the auction is going to be happening. In his previous life as a Toon Horst, he witnessed a bad auction where everything went wrong and got a little bit shady, but then again, the specified auction house was raided because of police action, which would lend credence to that line of thought.

  Assad turns his right eye toward where Mya had been asleep.

  "I know you are awake, so do not play that game."

  Mya slowly opened her eyes, and saw him. She relaxed seeing him. Assad looked down and smiled at her.

  "Welcome back sleeping beauty. How was your very long nap?"

  Mya was at a loss for words and did not have a clue what would be the best way to say something to him. However, she needed to say something, no matter how small that something might be.

  "How…long…have I… been asleep?"

  Assad's eyes grew wide. The sound of Mya's voice was totally different from what he had expected. The one he recognized from before, was the voice of a girl who had just gone through puberty, while this voice sounded like she was 16 years old. He was unable to explain it since she was 10 years old when they went looking for her sisters and back at the Hot Swan.

  "Assad, is something wrong?"

  Assad had no idea how to respond to her and just stood there in amazement and confused. The look of confusion that crossed Mya's face was clear when she heard the question was directed to her from out of the blue.

  "Assad, are you alright?"

  "Who are you? I'm only asking once more and no more."

  "Mya, the same girl who was with you last time, the same girl you tried to save, the same girl who you murdered her twin sister."

  Assad could feel even more confusion in the eyes of the girl that he was speaking to at that moment, and didn't know if the girl you were speaking to was really the former Mya or still the unknown one.

  ‘Recovering from being a True Failure? This has to be the only explanation right?’

  "Why do you think that? A True Failure's effects are not what you're thinking they're like."

  Assad didn't move.

  "Wait...what did you just say?"

  "Didn't you hear me? The effects of being a True Failure are not how you think of them."

  Assad stuttered, but there was a flash of light in his eyes and fell back to the floor. Mya was blowing on her fingers as if to get the heat out of her hand.

  "Wow, it's a good thing I didn't get caught. They call them monsters for their abilities in fighting and thinking; I almost got caught. Regardless of what happened, I will take this information and use it to create havoc. Praise the one who gives all answers.

  After that, Mya resumed falling asleep like nothing occurred at all.