Boom!
And after a while, they ran into Kalian who had just climbed up the stairs.
“Ms. Yuri? Are you alright?”
Kalian recognized Yuri in Lakis’ arms and asked as he hurriedly walked over.
The thought that Kalian might have found her using her abilities if Lakis didn’t come in time flashed in Yuri’s mind and she frowned slightly.
“Don’t move. And don’t bother answering.”
When Yuri turned as Kalian approached and opened her mouth, Lakis spoke with a subdued voice much colder than before. Hearing that, Yuri furrowed her brows, somewhat dissatisfied. But she eventually kept quiet as Lakis asked.
And Kalian unconsciously stopped walking towards Yuri when he heard Lakis’ cold voice ringing in ear right after.
“Step aside; don’t block the way.”
Light blue eyes with a hue like that of a cold winter lake met Kalian’s gaze in the air.
“I’ll take her somewhere safe myself.”
Lakis began moving again and walked past Kalian while throwing him a sharp gaze.
“You’re the hero of the east, you should take care of the other injured inside.”
At that moment, Kalian felt a strange sense of déjà vu crawling up his spine. But before he could even figure out why that was, the man in front of him left with Yuri in his arms.
For a moment, the thought of holding them back sprang in his mind but somehow, there seemed to a strange atmosphere flowing between the two that made it difficult to intrude so he hesitated. And while he did, the two of them swiftly disappeared from his sight.
Kalian blankly stared the afterimage left behind before giving a chase then he soon heard the sound of people groaning and crying not too far away and abruptly came to his senses.
‘Come to think of it, he said there were other injured inside.’
With that, Kalian quickly moved towards where the sounds were coming from.
* * *
“Sh*t, why isn’t he coming out?”
Anne-Marie, Bastian and Damon were waiting for Kalian at the entrance to a crowded street. Damon was running out of patience and swore. The continuous explosions that hurt his ears had come to an end a little while ago.
Some time ago, the rescue party and law enforcement arrived to evacuate the people in the shopping distract and were actively moving towards where the sounds came from to find out the cause of the explosion.[1]
“N-Nothing happened, right?”
“They will be fine.”
Bastian and Anne-Marie were also on pins and needles as they gazed at the shopping district. Then Anne-Marie noticed familiar face in the distance.
“Ah, Ms. Yuri!”
“What? Where? Where did you see her?”
Bastian stretched his neck and looked around. But because he was presbyopic, his eyes were uncomfortable, and he couldn’t find Yuri right away.
‘Anne-Marie?’
Yuri heard the voice calling her as well. So she turned her head and saw Anne-Marie, Bastian and Damon who seemed to have evacuated safely.
Seeing how Anne-Marie looked like she was going to run over at any moment, Yuri spoke to Lakis.
“Mr. Lakis, let’s go that way.”
However, Lakis coldly glanced at where Anne-Marie was, then he ignored what Yuri said and actually went the other way instead. After exiting the building, Lakis continued to walk with Yuri in his arms while remaining so silent that it was frightening.
Fortunately, the explosions had stopped, and the rescue party had come over and began to move the injured people scattered around.
Maybe it was because there were a lot of people around, or maybe it was because he wanted to hide his identity from Yuri till the end, Lakis didn’t climb the roofs like usual, instead he walked on the ground like an ordinary person.
Then as she watched the scenery over Lakis’ shoulders, Yuri suddenly had a profound realization.
‘Ah, is it because all the roofs he can use have collapsed because of the explosion?’
Whichever it was, that was why he came out of the shopping distract in a normal way and they ran into Anne-Marie.
Yuri frowned at Lakis who blatantly ignored her intentions. Then she said to him.
“Mr. Lakis. Why do you keep ignoring me? I’m going to get angry.”
At that, Lakis momentarily flinched.
Following that, his cold eyes moved to Yuri. Lakis looked at Yuri with a gaze that seemed to have a lot of things to say.
“Let’s go over there, it’ll only take a minute. Like this, someone might think Mr. Lakis is kidnapping me or something.”
“I don’t want to. I couldn’t care less about someone else’s misunderstanding.”
Yuri repeated it but Lakis refused to listen to her till the end. Yuri was a little taken aback by his adamant voice. His side profile was still exuding with a cold aura.
In the end, he didn’t turn to head towards Anne-Marie but started going the other way. So Yuri eventually had to raise her voice to yell at Anne-Marie in the distance.
“Ms. Anne-Marie, I’m fine! I’ll see you later!”
She could see a dusty Damon Salvatore running over but naturally, he couldn’t keep up with Lakis’ speed.
“What the-! Where are you going!”
Eventually, Damon stopped running and panted for breath.
‘Who is that guy now?’
He felt suspicious. He thought Yuri was going to come out with Kalian Crawford, but she appeared with some man he was seeing for the first time. And judging from how she seemed to be following the man of her own will, it was almost certain that they knew each other.
“Thank goodness Ms. Yuri got out safely!”
“But the person she came out with seemed to be carrying her, she didn’t get hurt, did she?”
“She looked okay when I saw her…I’ll go to Ms. Yuri’s house later and check.”
“Right, you do that! Please let me know how she’s doing too. By the way, where is Kalian, that rascal? What is he doing?”
Anne-Marie and Bastian patted their chest in relief once they saw that Yuri seemed fine with no major injuries. And they also had the same questions as Damon. That maybe Kalian hadn’t crossed paths with Yuri.
~
And meanwhile, Kalian was still in the shopping district.
“Gasp, hello, Lord Crawford.”
People from the rescue party and law enforcement recognized Kalian and greeted him.
“There are injured in the right side as well.”
Kalian left after helping them to move the injured people in the building. Then his sharp gaze moved back to the building he just left from.
Unlike the other buildings, the number of casualties in this building was lesser. This was because a white, sturdy material was stopping the ceiling from collapsing.
For some reason, Kalian felt like he had seen it somewhere before. However, he couldn’t remember exactly where or when he had seen it. In the end, he narrowed his eyes and turned around to leave.
* * *
After a while, Yuri and Lakis arrived at home.
Ploof!
Yuri was forcefully placed down on the sofa. It was a little rough but despite the iciness in his expression and gaze, his movements were still gentle. Yuri looked up at Lakis.
“Mr. Lakis.”
And she asked him who still had a cold look on his face:
“Why are you so angry?”
“Why?”
At Yuri’s question, Lakis’ gaze which was glued to her face grew colder.
“Are you asking why?”
A faint laugh left his lips. Of course, it was a cold laugh; you couldn’t exactly call it delighted.
“Of course it’s because I was worried.”
And when Lakis spat out those words as if asking if she really didn’t know, Yuri went silent.
She stared at Lakis’ face without saying a word then her lips parted slightly, and she repeated his words as thought confirming.
“You were worried?”
Lakis narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath like he was trying to manage his emotions. After a few deep breaths, he regained his calm.
A moment later, Lakis lifted his hand and slowly stroked Yuri’s cheek.
“Even if you didn’t know before, I want you to know from now on.”
His voice was as gentle as his caress.
“If something happened to you because of other people.”
However, the next words from Lakis’ mouth were not gentle at all.
“All of those people will die by my hands.”*
The blue eyes gazing into hers glowed with an intense chill. Yuri realized he was truly telling her what he felt right now.
“Whether you wanted to save those people or protect them, I won’t take that into consideration.”
In a way, it was a frightening threat.
But she knew he meant that she should think of her own safety first instead of getting involved in a situation like the one earlier, where danger was unknown.
Which is why after hearing such a threat, she didn’t really feel it was scary or get squeamish.
‘Strange…it’s really strange.’
Only
However, Yuri was feeling a little strange again.
“Also…don’t avoid me.”
And the feeling was amplified as she heard Lakis’ following words.
“If you don’t want to see me go crazy.”
Translator’s Corner:
[1]I translated this to law enforcement but I’m wondering if police might be better.
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