The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

202 Something’s Hidden

“Oh.. It’s Marcel’s grandmother, isn’t it? You’re right. She’s a kind woman. I couldn’t bear to see her suffer either.” Rachel said.

“Rachel!” Emma held the girl’s arm with her gaze straight to the front. It wasn’t because she saw anything at the front, but she heard something.

Rachel’s eyebrows shot up. From Emma’s movements, she could tell what was going on, “It’s starting?”

Emma nodded. Then she took out a wireless earphone from her bag and immediately gave it to Rachel. She quickly plugged the small white object into her ear.

There was a sound of the door closing and followed by a commotion. At the same time, they could also hear the sounds of some men’s insignificant conversation with their laughter.

“It’s already started,” Emma said. Rachel then looked at her and nodded with a serious face.

On the other hand,

The old radio room was filled with full core members from Jita Kyoei and Calvin Lee. Ian locked the door of the room which could only be done from the inside. Because of course, they didn’t have the key for the door so they could only install the slot lock which was installed inside. Most importantly, the contents of their meeting were not heard by others.

“Today, we will determine the right time to attack RJC,” Troy said. “Prepare yourselves for the day after tomorrow.”

.....

“Oh, so it’s going to be the day after tomorrow, huh?” Calvin said.

Troy looked at him and nodded, “It is. You mind?”

“The day after tomorrow is the weekend. I think he wants to take Emma out.” Martin laughed. Calvin just glared at him. He didn’t remember since when the two of them had been talking a lot. In fact, Calvin a bit regretted that he could befriend a madman like Martin.

“Don’t listen to that madman. My time is always available to do attack.” Calvin said. Then he continued, “Looks like RJC already knows about our plan to directly attack them. I have no problem with that. But Marcel wouldn’t drag the girls in the line, would he?” he looked worried.

“If he would, I will definitely kill that guy,” Troy replied.

“It seems you don’t need to worry about that, Calvin. As far as I saw, Marcel never brings girls around. They’re just normal friends. Last time, he took Emma and the other girls out to dinner with his grandmother. I’m sure the girls weren’t being taken advantage of for this case.” Frank explained.

“He even took them to see his grandmother? Well.. That’s kind of sus, wasn’t it?” Ian asked.

Nicko nodded, “That was suspicious because he is Marcel Douglas. But with his changed personality now, I think it’s kind of possible. It seems that he’s just a playboy who thirsts for girls’ attention. Or.. there is one of those girls he wants to be close to.”

“Well.. I can see you’re starting to dislike Marcel, Nicko. Haha.. I hope the girl that Marcel is after isn’t Emma Hilland, because there will definitely be a personal war.” Martin said while looking at Calvin with a witty face, “Am I right, Calvin?”

“Quit it.” Calvin glared at him.

“Hey, hey. Why are we even talking about women?” Troy who was standing in front of the whiteboard put his hands on his waists and shook his head in disbelief, “Don’t let women make Jita Kyoei lose its principles, gents. You have to be careful.”

“That’s right,” Ian said with a sigh. Then he looked at Troy, “Is the attack plan still the same as we discussed the last time?”

Troy nodded, “Louis and Frank led a few men to be the bait at the front door. And the rest sneaked in from all the points we marked.” Then he looked at Ian and Calvin alternately, “You two, don’t forget the important job of looking for Marcel right away. We should attack the king so our time wouldn’t be wasted.” He explained to get nods from Ian and Calvin.

“Then what about Black? Do you think he would help them with this case?” Calvin asked. He turned to Frank who was like an information source for the group.

“Oh.. Sorry. It looks like I forgot to tell you the additional information that Louis just got.” Frank got up from his lean, “I recently learned that the reason Black helped RJC to attack the Creeper was to stop their scamming business. It seems the two groups had agreed to cooperate with different goals. RJC wanted to overthrow their main enemy and Black wanted to help the workers in Chingsu District.”

“Just like Mutualism Symbiosis? That was pretty fine of them. I knew that Black was brilliant.” Troy said.

“What’s even more surprising was that I didn’t know you could memorize at least one school lesson.” Martin laughed. But as usual, no one paid attention to him.

“So you could say, even though he had worked with RJC, Black actually did have a good goal.” Nicko smiled.

Frank nodded, “And now, since both parties’ goals have been achieved. It’s said they no longer have anything to do with each other. The two of them were only using each other for a mission. There doesn’t seem to be any special relationship between them.”

“Glad to hear that,” Calvin heaved a sigh of relief. He thought that Black had joined RJC for real. Fighting against someone you’ve fought together with was no fun. He realized that Black was not a bad person. Therefore, Calvin’s heart would feel heavy if, in the end, he had to fight against the person who once helped him overthrow the Hell Gate.

Ian suddenly thought of one thing, “But.. If Black really had such good intentions, don’t you think that he should have been mind because of knowing RJC’s business?” his face looked thoughtful.

Clavin snapped his fingers, “That’s right. Won’t he know that the Undergr..”

Suddenly, the earphone in Rachel’s ear was unplugged. She immediately turned around in surprise because she felt a hand quickly take off the object from her ear.

“Is the song that nice? You guys look so serious,” Kathy said by putting the object into her ear.

Emma who saw it was also surprised. Her face stared in horror at Kathy and Poppy who were already standing beside them.

“Y-you girls.. How long have you been here?” Emma asked while taking off her earphones.

“Didn’t you two say you were going to the mall near here?” Rachel added as she continued to stare at the earphone that was currently in Kathy’s ear.

Emma immediately reached into her bag and turned off the connection of the eavesdropper which was controlled by an application on her cellphone. Her heartbeat quickened when she saw Kathy’s confused face. “Oh.. Looks like we shouldn’t be chatting here. I’m in the mood for coffee. How about we wait for class to start at the café?” she asked with a little laugh as she got up from the bench against the short wall that fenced the oak tree behind her.

Then Emma held her hand out to Kathy, “Sorry I turned that off first. The Bluetooth connection on that thing is a bit poor, so if we walk too far apart it might get cut.”

Kathy looked at Emma’s hand which was still floating in front of her. Then she removed the earphone and placed it in the hand of the girl who was still smiling awkwardly at her.

“Okay.. Let’s go,” Emma glanced at Rachel and tilted her head slightly to the side.

Rachel nodded, “Sure.” Her smile was no less awkward than Emma’s.

“Did something happen? You guys look weird.” Poppy said on their way to the cafe.

“Weird? What’s weird? Haha.. it seems like it’s just your feelings, Poppy.” Emma answered.

“I don’t know why I feel like you two are being awkward,” Poppy said while looking at Emma and Rachel in turn.

“Oh, why don’t you guys go to the mall?” Rachel tried to divert the conversation.

Poppy let out a long sigh, “I heard from a friend earlier that the discount shoes I saw in the advertisement are sold out. Luckily, I haven’t gotten there when I heard the news. Otherwise, our time would have been wasted.” Then she asked Emma and Rachel again, “Then why are you guys outside? I thought you said you wanted to do some homework at the library?”

“Oh.. that..” Emma thought hard, “We wanted to do it, but I realized that I had left my flash drive at home. Coincidentally, the book that Rachel wanted was also not available because someone else had borrowed it. Because of that, our plan failed and we both ended up having some nice air at that place.”

“That’s a shame. But it was a pretty unique coincidence because you two could have problems at the same time.” Poppy laughed.

“Well.. Looks like our lucks are running low.” Emma laughed too.

Arriving at the cafe, they sat at the table they usually occupied, which was near the big window. Each ordered their favourite drink and chatted as they waited for the ballet class to start.

However, there was something different about the atmosphere in their midst. Poppy was clearly aware of this. Then she immediately said, “Kathy, did something happen? Why have you been quiet all this time?”

“Huh? Me?” Kathy pointed to her own chest.

Poppy nodded, “You don’t seem to be in a good mood, do you? It’s odd because you were still cheerful like fifteen minutes ago,”

Poppy’s question made Emma and Rachel glance at each other. It wasn’t that they unaware that Kathy had been silent all this time and had looked at them both suspiciously several times. But they tried to ignore it so as not to provoke Kathy to ask questions.

Kathy laughed as she waved her hand in front of her nose, “What are you talking about, Poppy? Of course, I’m in a good mood. I’m just thinking about something that I found surprisingly weird.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Poppy laughed. It seemed that it was a truly astonishing thing that even could make someone like Kathy silent.

“It is. And actually, I wanted to ask Emma and Rachel something because I feel like you two are hiding something from us.” she looked at the two girls who looked surprised.