Chapter Ninety-Two
 
It was a quiet night. Hyuk-Jun had been sitting in the ward for hours, but there was still no sign of Yuri awakening. Hours ago when Amber came to his office and notified him of Sooyoung and Yoona’s situation, he knew Yuri was going to be badly affected by it, but he didn’t expect it to be this serious.
 
The headmaster sighed and put down the magazine in his hand.
 
Actually, he should have seen this coming. It was just days ago when Tiffany left, Yuri hadn’t even gotten the chance to recover from Tiffany’s departure and Sooyoung was already missing. The only fortunate news is that Yoona was already out of danger. The doctor said Yoona’s condition miraculously stabilized after Yuri fainted. It was as if the unconscious hunter had heard Yuri’s cries and decided to get a hold of herself.
 
“No…”
 
A whimper broke the silence in the room.
 
Hyuk-Jun thought he was hallucinating until he noticed the movement in Yuri’s jaw. Excited, he jumped out from his seat immediately and scooted to his sister, only to find her still unconscious even though her jaw was moving rapidly.
 
“No… no… no…”
 
The bed began to shake as Yuri struggled in her dream. Her eyes had unknowingly squeezed themselves so tightly together that the spot in between her eyebrows was raised due to the impact.
 
Hyuk-Jun was stunned for a moment. He wasn’t prepared to find his sister in this condition.
 
“Yuri, wake up!” The brother held his sister down by pushing his palms on both sides of her shoulders. It, however, did zero assistance to the situation as Yuri’s struggle gradually turned aggressive. “Yuri!”
 
“No! Don’t go!” Yuri’s strength was too strong. Hyuk-Jun lost his balance and fell back to the chair when Yuri broke free from his hold and sat up on the bed, stretching an arm forward as though she was trying to grab someone.
 
The room was back to its silence again, but it was accompanied with the heavy breathing from the siblings who were inside it.
 
“Yuri?” His voice was filled with uncertainty. Hyuk-Jun couldn’t tell if Yuri was awake or was she only sleep-talking.
 
“Where is Yoona?”
 
All he heard was the question with her hoarsely voice. His sister didn’t even spare him a look.
 
“She is in the ward next door––Yuri!” Yuri jumped out of the bed and rushed out of the room as soon as Hyuk-Jun answered her question. “Ugh! Yuri!” Hyuk-Jun growled to himself as he chased after his sister. He shouldn’t have answered Yuri’s question when she was obviously in an unstable state!
 
Fortunately though, he had specifically instructed the nurses to move Yoona into the empty ward next to Yuri’s room after Yoona’s condition stabilized. He had somewhat foresee Yuri to react like this after she woke up.
 
By the time Hyuk-Jun entered Yoona’s ward, Yuri was already standing beside Yoona’s bed, caressing the small gauze pad on her face.
 
“Yuri…” Hyuk-Jun wanted to comfort Yuri, but he couldn’t find suitable words to express his care and concern towards her.
 
“What did the doctor say about her?”
 
Yuri sounded surprisingly calm, considering how she had acted before she lost her conscious at the corridor just in the afternoon.
 
“She is out of danger.”
 
Hyuk-Jun heard a loud sigh of relief after he answered Yuri’s question. But just as he thought it was over, Yuri threw another question at him.
 
“Is there any news on Sooyoung?”
 
That question numbed him from head to toes. Hyuk-Jun didn’t dare to reveal the truth for he was afraid that Yuri would go on a rampage again.
 
“Oppa.” He watched her turned around and looked at her with pleading eyes. “Tell me, please.”
 
As much as Hyuk-Jun wanted to keep the truth from Yuri, he found it almost impossible when his sister looked at him with those eyes. Releasing a soft sigh, he finally replied her, “We haven’t find Sooyoung yet.” He prayed secretly in his heart that Yuri wouldn’t lose control again. He wouldn’t want to hold Yuri down by using force.
 
Silence. None of them spoke after Hyuk-Jun told Yuri the answer. Hyuk-Jun was subconsciously holding his breath, waiting for Yuri to reveal her reaction towards it. Whereas Yuri… the hunter couldn’t even tell what was going through her mind right now.
 
It was as if a century had gone by before someone finally ended the silence in the room.
 
Yuri, seemingly, trying to hide her face from her brother, turned to her unconscious dong-saeng and breathed out softly, “Can you leave me alone?” The restrain in her voice was implying something. Hyuk-Jun couldn’t help but felt an aching feeling on his chest when he witnessed this side of his sister.
 
He took a quick glance at Yoona before averting his gaze back to Yuri again. “Okay.” He agreed to her request hesitantly. Hopefully Yuri wouldn’t go violent again when Yoona was in the room with her.
 
As Hyuk-Jun stepped out of the ward, he spun around and took one last look at Yuri.
She thought he wouldn’t know, but who is he? He is her brother. Of course he knew his sister was tearing badly behind him.
 
Hyuk-Jun could only sigh and close the door for her.
 
*
 
Sunny was sitting in her laboratory room, staring at the two big floating screens before her. The screens showed the blueprint of Aurales headquarters, with many blue and red dots constantly moving through the spaces between the walls.
 
About forty percent of the dots were in blue, while the rest were in red. But the blue dots were slowly changing into red color, increasing its percentage into a higher level.
 
Those dots actually represented the people who were in Aurales now. The blue ones were the normal ones, while the red ones were the people who had Tranz in their body.
 
Meaning to say, Narsha’s plan went better than what they expected initially.
 
“What are you looking at?”
 
A familiar voice broke the silence of the room. Sunny twirled in her seat and looked at the man who had just walked into the room.
 
She shrugged nonchalantly and pointed at the screen, “Nothing. I’m just checking on the progress of unnie’s plan.”
 
“How is it going?” Nickhun asked, as he slipped his hands into the pockets and examined the screens.
 
Sunny turned back to the screen as well. “As you can see, these dots represent the people in Aurales now.” She hit a few keys on the keyboard and the red dots started to blink. “These red ones are the people who had Tranz implanted in their bodies.”
 
Nickhun was surprised at the amount of redness on the screen. He exclaimed, “That’s a lot!”
 
“Yeah.” Sunny hit a button and the blinking dots reverted to their original states. “Unnie didn’t think her plan would be a success, but I guess whoever that got threatened by her, is too easy to be manipulated.”
 
“Right.” Nickhun agreed with her. “That person may come in handy too if there’s any unexpected situation.”
 
Sunny pondered for a second before agreeing with Nickhun, “True. I shall tell unnie about that after she wakes up. By the way, where are the herbals I told you to crush?”
 
“I left them in a bowl. Do you want me to take it to Jonghyun now?”
 
“Yes.” Sunny got up from the seat and approached the door. “Those herbals are good for healing wound. We should apply it on him as soon as possible.”
 
“I see.” Nickhun followed Sunny out of the room. “I’ll grab the medicine then. You should go to Jonghyun first.”
 
The two sorcerers went separate ways with Nickhun heading towards the kitchen, and Sunny towards Jonghyun’s room. The latter came to a stop upon reaching Jonghyun’s room as the door was closed.
 
Strange… I remembered I leave it open before I left. Did Nickhun close the door?
 
Sunny thought to herself as she reached for the door knob––“Ah!” She let out a short cry and extracted her hand away from the knob out of reflex. She was taken aback by the coldness of the steel. She swore it was colder than ice.
 
“Sunny?” The surprised sorceress turned to her fellow mate and found him standing next to her with the bowl of medicine in his hand. “I heard you screaming. What’s wrong?” Nickhun asked when he noticed the frown on his friend’s face.
 
“Did you––” Sunny was about to ask Nickhun if he had entered the room earlier when a loud scream from inside the room interrupted her.
 
“AHHHHHHH!”
 
Both of their eyes widened in unison.
 
Ignoring the coldness of the steel, Sunny reached for the knob again as fast as she could, attempting to open the door, but the turning of the knob was stopped after she merely made a small twist.
 
Sunny felt as though the blood in her body had sunk to its lowest point when her simple attempt failed. Why is the door locked? She didn’t remember locking it before she left the room. Besides, Jonghyun was supposedly to be unconscious! Why is he letting out that kind of painful cry out of the sudden?
 
“Jonghyun!” The sorceress began to kick and slam the door as hard as she could, but the door didn’t even budge.
 
Nickhun, who was standing aside all these while, finally realized what was going on. He passed the bowl to Sunny and pulled her aside. “Let me do it.” He began to throw himself at the door, creating a loud ‘bong’ whenever his body collided with it. However, just as Nickhun threw himself at the door for the third time, the door glowed brightly and threw him away instead.
 
“Nickhun!”
 
Sunny approached to the fallen sorcerer immediately and helped him up. What the hell just happened?
 
“What is going on here?” Narsha, who was being put to sleep by Nickhun, was awakened by the loud commotion outside her room. She had momentarily forgotten what happened in the morning, and was surprised to find Sunny and Nickhun on the ground. “Why are the both of you sitting on floor?”
 
“Unnie!” After helping Nickhun up from the ground, the petite sorceress rushed to Narsha hastily and tried to explain the situation to her. “Unnie! Jonghyun––” 
 
“Narsha, Nickhun, Sunny.”
 
An extremely cold and familiar voice rang from the other side of the locked door. The mentioned three froze upon the call as they recognized the owner of the voice almost immediately.
 
The Princess!
 
They dropped their knees to the ground in unison and bowed towards the door.
 
“How much longer are you going to take to complete your given task?” Sunny noticed there was a tinge difference in the Princess’s voice today. It was still cold, but there was also a slight form of angst within it… Crap! The Princess must be angry with their slow progression!
 
“Princess,” Sunny responded to the question immediately. “We’re now left with the people in Aurales. Narsha unnie had already spread the Tranz among them. Within days, we should be able to mutate the majority of them.” Sunny didn’t dare to say they could mutate all the Aurales’ people in a single go. She was pretty sure that not everyone had taken the so-called chocolates since there might be people who detest chocolates.
 
The room went into silence state after Sunny’s report. The three of them were holding on to their breaths unconsciously as they waited fearfully for the Princess’s reaction. They were all afraid that Jonghyun would be punished because of them.
 
“Three weeks.” The Princess finally spoke after the short, but frightening quietness. However, neither of them was relieved because of that. “I’m expecting a result within three weeks, or else your family and friends will be the ones who become the mutants. Do you understand me?”
 
“Yes, Princess!” Obviously, there was a lacking of confidence in their tones, but there was nothing else they could do. They couldn’t reject the Princess’s order when she threatened them with their families and friends.
 
“Before I forgot, bring those elite hunters to the ruins.” The sudden order sent them into confusion. “It is optional who you want to bring, but those without the Tranz implanted in their bodies is a must.” There was a slight pause before the Princess left one more sentence behind, “And do not hurt them.”
 
This instruction only made the three sorcerers to be even more puzzled. The Princess sounded like she wanted to protect the (elite) hunters, rather than mutating them.
 
The door to Jonghyun’s room opened suddenly. The sorcerers looked at one another with suspicion in their eyes.
 
“She is gone.” Nickhun, who was kneeling directly opposite from the door, announced after he observed the situation in the room.
 
Other than Jonghyun, no one else was in the room.
 
Sunny got up from the ground immediately and rushed into the room. She ran straight to Jonghyun and checked on his wound.
 
“What the…” Sunny muttered in an unbelievable tone.
 
Narsha and Nickhun were following right behind her. Both of them heard Sunny’s exclamation clearly even though the latter had kept her voice low.
 
“How is Jonghyun? Did the Princess harm him?” That was the only thought that came into Narsha’s mind when she noticed those bandages, which were wrapped around Jonghyun’s torso, were tainted with blood.
 
Sunny didn’t answer her. Instead, she started to remove the bandages from Jonghyun.
 
“Sunny?”
 
The younger sorceress let out a sigh and stood up. “Take a look yourself.” She gestured them to look at Jonghyun before stepping aside.
 
Except for some dried blood stain, Jonghyun’s torso was perfectly in great shape. There was no scar and obviously no wound.
 
“The Princess healed him.” Sunny explained when she saw the shocking expression on their faces.
 
Narsha turned to Sunny, “Why did she do that?”
 
Sunny shrugged restlessly, “Beats me.” She hadn’t even figure out why the Princess said to bring the elite hunters, especially those without the Tranz in their bodies, to the ruins. She thought they were supposed to mutate all of them. “Unnie, Jonghyun should be fine now. Let’s leave him alone and go outside. I’m sure he will wake up soon.” Sunny said as she took one last look at the unconscious sorcerer.
 
Healing Jonghyun huh? Perhaps, the Princess wasn’t as bad as what they thought initially.