Chapter 230: GLOWING
Kai stood in an alley, surrounded by a group of older boys, looking down at him with eyes filled with bad intentions.
"What have you got there?" One of them asked him.
"N-nothing." Kai shook his head, clutching the pouch tighter.
"Nothing? Don’t think you can fool us. Hand it over if you don’t want to be dealt with ruthlessly." Another boy threatened menacingly.
"You can’t take my money away. I’ll have nothing left." Kai shook his head again.
The boys around him exchanged glances and laughed. One of them said.
"Is that something we should care about?"
The one that looked to be their leader stepped forward a bit, his hands folded menacingly.
"Since you’ve refused to hand it over on your own, then we’ll get it ourselves." He gestured to the boys with him.
One of the boys stepped forward, but instead of just dragging away the money pouch, he punched Kai in the gut.
"Ah!" Kai groaned in pain and fell to the ground, tears gathering in his eyes.
The notorious boys laughed, joining in the punching, even kicking him.
"He’s so weak, yet so stubborn. Could have just handed over the money and avoided this." One of them said.
When they were satisfied, they took the money and left, laughing cruelly.
Kai laid on the ground in the lonely alley, finally alone. His bag laid on the ground an arms length away from him.
It spread open in a sad state, the things inside it still thankfully inside, though some of the meat had fallen out.
Slowly, he got up and picked up the bag.
"I lost the money. What will I do now?" Tears dropped from his eyes, sobbing quietly.
Something dark flashed across his eyes. Kai felt a dark energy trying to reach his chest.
"No. I won’t let myself be corrupted by dark magic." He shook his head. "Mother said so. If I do, I’d be no different from father."
He sat up, ignoring the pain in his ribs.
The dream changed again.
He was walking in the street, hungry and tired as usual.
He walked to the bread seller’s shop to ask him for bread to eat.
The man refused.
Seeing that he didn’t leave, the man hit him.
The force knocked Kai to the ground.
The man originally felt frustrated about his store’s lack of patrons and channelled that anger to Kai, blaming the boy for his lack of customers.
’I didn’t,’ Kai thought, while covering his body to reduce impact and protect vital parts of his body. ’There’s hardly anyone here whenever I come by.’
The truth was, this wasn’t the first time he had met the man, and he had wandered the streets for quite a long time, barely surviving.
He had asked the man numerous times for bread, but the man always turned him away harshly.
But Kai really had no choice. He could only beg people.
He hadn’t expected that the man would hit him this time, and the man showed no mercy, beating him brutally.
He hadn’t done anything wrong. He just didn’t want to die of hunger.
Why were people treating him badly when when he hadn’t done anything wrong?
Kai felt the darkness reaching into his heart.
’Who would treat you kindly? Stop dreaming! You have been defiled by dark magic!’
He heard an unknown voice in his head. With each beating from the bread man, the voice increased.
Kai covered his head. ’No. I’m not evil.’
’Give in. Accept it and you won’t have to beg for food. You’ll have the power to fight for yourself. No one will be able to hurt you. Just let me in.’
Just as he was about to give in to the darkness spreading inside him and let the darkness consume him, a clear, childish voice rang out, cutting through the intrusive thoughts like a knife.
The man had stopped beating him then.
Kai looked up at the person, seeing it was just a little girl younger than him.
He watched her ooze confidence and anger.
At that moment, Kai was stunned.
’She’s glowing.’ He thought, watching as she shone like a bright light, illuminating his vision and dispelling the darkness that wanted to consume him.
He watched in wonder as she defended him, feeling grateful. But he didn’t have any strength left in him.
As the man with her picked him up like she ordered, he could only mutter. ’Thank you.’
Perhaps it was the relief he felt and the feeling of safety, but his eyes closed tiredly.
When his eyes opened again, he was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.
He blinked and tried to sit up, remembering that he had followed the third princess home after she saved him.
He was about to get up when he caught something from the corner of his eyes.
He looked beside him.
’Princess?’
Question marks literally hung above his head. Why was the princess lying on his bed and sleeping?
Just then, the door opened forcefully with a bang, startling Kai.
An angry Wilson appeared, Catherine, Alaric and Owen behind him.
Wilson stared at his daughter and then at Kai.
They had been looking for Aristia for quite some time.
During that time, Wilson tried to contact Millie, but for some reason, his daemon, Nox, couldn’t reach her.
Nox also couldn’t sense if Aristia was in the mansion.
Panic ensued until someone said that the last place Aristia had been was in Owen’s room where Kai was staying until his room was ready.
It was funny. They had searched every room I the mansion and outside the mansion except for Owen’s room.
Wilson immediately rushed there, only to see his daughter lying on the bed as if she had suddenly fallen asleep.
His brows furrowed and he walked towards her, the others following behind him.
"Tia." He called, tapping her softly.
There was no movement until he tapped again.
Meanwhile, when the dream ended, Aristia was seeing something different.