What Was Worth A Heart

Chapter 41 - Tracking A Certain Chinese

The rain had already stopped for some time now, but there were signs of it pouring again, maybe even worse than before. In any case, it was autumn now, so naturally the temperature would be low. The sky had gone dark for a few hours now, who knows how long it would take them to find one person in such a big forest.

Charles tied a white ribbon onto a low branch of the decaying tree in front of him. This had been the third ribbon he had tied, one for every 10 meters or so. Unlike others who tend to follow some paths or the most probable way for a person to walk, Charles went straight deeper and deeper.

Godfreg had said before that Shao Long started off exactly where he started just now. Others decided to split up and look around bit by bit. Leon went to look at the library with Felix accompanying him. Gion was with Livio. They headed west where a path was leading, the most probable place for Shao Long to go. While others went in pairs, Evan went alone so he could search faster. And there was no way Xueyang would go with any if them. That left Charles alone too. But that did not bother him the slightest. Evan was speaking the truth. The lesser, the better. 

But as before, Godfreg said that Shao Long walked into the forest in a daze. And in truth, any normal person who was walking in a daze would walk straight no matter what. And that would be the reason why only he was walking straight despite the long grass reaching his knees before him.

Charles doubt that he'd find Shao Long just a few tens of metres from his starting point so he walked fast without looking around him. If what Gion said was true about Nubis attacking Shao Long, then there would only be a few possibilities. One, Shao Long is dead. Two, he escaped Nubis which made him lost. Three, he was still hiding from Nubis, probably injured. That being said, so far, he hadn't gotten any sign of a fight anywhere. That would mean up until this point, Shao Long still hadn't reached Nubis.

And heck, Nubis was smart. If he wanted to attack a person, why would he risk letting Shao Long return to the academy safely? Surely, he would attack him deeper in the forest so he'd have a better chance of finding him before Shao Long made it back to the academy, in case things didn't go his way.

Charles didn't look for footprints. The rain would've washed them away. He wouldn't waste his time for something futile. If it was true that Shao Long was attacked, wouldn't that mean he was in danger? Scratch that, being in a forest at night all alone itself was already dangerous as it is, the attack was one other thing to worry about.

"In the end, you still got into trouble for associating with him, huh?" Charles rolled his eyes at the irony. Not that he wasn't aware that Shao Long wasn't the victim Nubis targeted, but still, wasn't it all because of Nubis too?

So Shao Long was bullied a long time ago, and there's Nubis helping him out. And to repay his 'kindness', Shao Long went and came to Momos Academy. Charles being there was a thing, giving out favors for Nubis was another. For Shao Long, it would probably seem like hitting two birds with one stone, but for Nubis, it was playing marionette.

If Shao Long had never met Nubis, none of this would happen, no?

"Well, can't really blame you, can I?"

Of course, the reason Shao Long ever met Nubis was because of Nubis himself, not Shao Long. Nubis needed a lackey, and he knew how to find one. Being a prince was also an advantage for him.

Charles tied another white ribbon on a branch as he walked deeper into the forest.

But one question couldn't help but pop in his mind. Why was he so into helping this youth out? They weren't friends. They never were. And to say the least, he hated Shao Long.

He had thought that it was only a natural reaction for him to help others, but.....

Why the hell didn't he say anything about going straight and not to look for footprints and such when they first started, especially to Xueyang? Why was it that he wanted to be the one to save him and not the rest? Why was it that he thought about this kinds of things as if......