Bride of the Crimson Beast

Chapter 9: The Twilight Town of the Twilight Academy

The next two days went on normally. Itbaki, however, was feeling out of sorts and barely left his room.

Lily came by trying to get him out, but he simply said he was super tired from his studies and turned her away.

She still made him open the door a few times to give him breakfast, lunch and dinner. She happened to catch a glimpse of his eyes.

They had bags under them. The poor thing was tired.

Around the morning of the third day he finally came out with a happy grin.

"It's good to see you smiling," said Lily.

"I'm going into town," he said.

"Which one?" asked Aria.

"It's the one where Jacob will study at in a few months."

Jacob looked up. "Oh, could I come?" he asked hopefully.

Aria flicked her tail. "No. You're behind on your studying. We should work on finishing it."

"Aw, okay," Jacob said, a bit disappointed. He turned to Itbaki and Lily. "Bring us back something, okay?"

Itbaki was dressed in a tux and held an extendable cane. He beckoned Lily to the doorway.

She went to his side. "Is there anything I could change into? Will we be taking a carriage?"

"Worry not, little flower," said Itbaki. He then rang a doorbell that was inside the castle, puzzling Lily.

Lily then felt something inside the castle move, seeing colors from the windows change. Itbaki opened the door to nothing but blackness, then held out his hand to Lily.

Lily was wary, but took his hand and stepped through.

After feeling like she was going through a very long tunnel, she found herself exiting a small house on a long street alone. Her clothes had somehow changed to a short dress with some sandals, along with a straw hat decorated with flowers.

As she went around to look for Itbaki, she saw a man standing beside her. He had blonde hair and peachy skin with a mole on his left cheek. She didn't recognize him at first, but then she looked carefully into his eyes.

The man laughed. "Is this a pretty convincing human disguise?"

They started walking down the street and stopped beside a post with a huge magical torch on it.

Itbaki reached into his pocket and handed Lily some money. "I'll be back."

"Wait, I'll have to be alone? I'm not sure I-" Lily started.

"Don't worry. If anything tries to hurt you, I'll know about it," Itbaki said. After a quick pause, he vanished from sight.

Now alone, Lily decided to wander the city. She felt like she should be mad at Itbaki, but she wasn't. For some reason, she trusted him, especially in this situation.

Lily looked at the money Itbaki had given her. It was a good sum.

The streets were pretty crowded, making it a bit hard to navigate, but she managed. While walking, she noticed something she had never seen before in her entire life. There were hundreds of spirits of many different animal types all around. They were dressed very similarly to humans, unlike normally. Usually they dress like the elements of the earth and sky.

As she continued on her way, a magpie man flew overhead. After looking up, she spotted a bakery nearby. As she went towards it, she heard a familiar voice and turned to see her younger sister. They happily embraced each other.

"What are you doing here?" asked Lily.

"We all arrived here a week ago to work for the bakery so we can get a place to stay here," her sister responded. "How are you?"

Lily told her a half truth about a kind of noble who took her in.

"Are you engaged?" her sister immediately asked.

"No," Lily responded, then realized there was a ring on her finger. Looking at it more closely, she realized it was just an illusion. "I'm still working it out, but I'm happy so far."

"And I'm happy for you! You should come visit us sometime."

"Why not now?"

"Well, the thing is, the villagers from our village may still be hunting us. So it's probably best not to be too involved, just in case."

Lily nodded understandingly and hugged her sister one last time.

"Thanks for seeing me," Lily said, saying goodbye to her sister and heading back the way she came.

On her way, she stopped and turned to look at a hill at the very top of town. A huge building stood out at the top like a castle with a beautiful stained glass window visible even from far away.

Lily continued on, but her thoughts were interrupted when she accidentally bumped into someone, making them drop a few books they were carrying. She looked up to see a wolf as blue as the sky.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Lily said, picking up the books.

"You shouldn't worry yourself," the wolf said, but Lily reassured him and handed him the books.

"Thank you," he said. As he left, Lily wondered why he had a mask covering his face.

Chapter 9 End