Chapter 13 - A Tragedy

As soon as my warriors were gone, I marched off to the gathered crowd. By the time I reached there, something big was already happening. There were murmurs among the crowd. Everyone was looking at the scene infront of them. Taking a deep breadth, I pushed forward and made it to the front. 

The sight infront of me was horrible. A warrior, dressed in black wizards robes was leaning on the ground on all his fours as a flying end of a long whip hit him continuously. The wielder of that whip was the evil professor herself. 

“You lazy piece of ! You cost me my card!” She roared as she continued to deliver hits after hits. The warrior’s hood was still up so I could not see his face but I knew that he was in pain. I looked at the other four people who were dressed in the same fashion as him. They were standing behind the Professor, not even blinking at their fallen member. 

“I gave you one job and you couldn’t even do that. I specifically told you not to loose that powerful being. But you let it disappear and now, we have no card to claim. You do know it’s an offence to let a card disappear, right?” The professor yelled, kicking the warrior in the stomach. He fell onto his back due to the force. “Guess what? Someone will have to pay the price for this.” She continued, fishing out a familiar looking pink card out of her pocket. 

“No.” The warrior screamed. I looked at him. His voice seemed very familiar. “Please, master. Not him.” He begged, going on his knees and grabbing onto the lady’s legs. “Please, he’s innocent.” 

I clenched my chest at his begging. It hurts seeing him like this. 

“He’s a dead card, you dumb monster.” She hissed out as she held the card up in the air. “Look, it’s turning grey. Day by day, it’s dying. It’s useless to me. Even if he’s alive, I’m going to make sure he dies today. And the reason will be you. It’s because you defied my orders so in return, this innocent brother of yours will pay the price.” 

No way... she wouldn’t do that. She can’t. Didn’t she say it’s illegal to let a card die or disappear? 

“Mina, would you like to do the honours?” I looked at the said girl. It was Song Mina. Where did she come from? She was smirking at the professor. 

“Absolutely, Professor. It will be my pleasure.” 

Before I could comprehend the situation, a sharp ripping noise reached my ears. I looked at the card that had now been ripped into two pieces. The pink colour vanishing and being replaced by a dull grey. 

“NO!” The warrior made a quick lunge for the card. I saw Mina’s eyes widen in disgust as his hand touched her arm. 

“Eww.. let go of me you little swine.” She screeched, snatching her arm away. The ripped card was still in her hands. In anger, she ripped the card once more producing more pieces than necessary. At this stage, the boy was furious. 

Instead of screaming at her to stop, he attacked her neck in a tight grip. The whole student body gasped in shock as he picked Mina up by . He pinned her against a pole, still keeping her dangling feet high above the ground. Mina, who was now being chocked, struggled to get herself free. 

A blonde boy tried to help her by aiming a fist at the warrior. But to everyone’s shock, the warrior got hold of it and used his fingers to crush the arm with unspeakable strength, snapping all the bones inside it. With a small wave of his hand, the boy was thrown ten feet into the air.  He landed right into the fountain. Everyone took a step back at the unnatural strength of the warrior. 

They all had fear flashing on their faces. No warrior has ever attacked a wielder before. This was a  shock to them. 

“Stop him.” The professor ordered. Soon, a set of four guys from earlier, ambushed the angry warrior and managed to pull him off the female wielder. It took some time but he did let her go when her face was at the point of turning blue. 

“I’m going to kill you, !” He screamed. “You don’t deserve to be a wielder. I will kill you!” 

I was frozen at the sudden outburst. To be honest, a part of me didn’t want him to stop. It made my blood boil when she killed that card. 

I looked at Mina who was coughing and gasping for air. Her friends tried to help her but she pushed them aside. Her crystal eyes only had fury running through them. 

“You piece of ! How dare you attack me? YOU WILL REGRET THIS!” She yelled angrily. She looked at the ripped pieces in her hand. Smirking at the struggling warrior, she continued ripping the card into more pieces. By now, they were so little that it would be hard for anyone to put it all back together. 

The very noise of the tearing made my own heart ache in pain. It was like something important to me was being ripped apart. I don’t know what but it hurts. 

“There. Have fun putting him back together.” She smirked before throwing the pieces into the warrior’s face. The said warrior did nothing but cry. He wailed as he scooped up the pieces together. Unfortunately for him, there was just too many. 

I tried to keep my balance at the loud sobs coming from the warrior. His loud cries were tugging at my own heart strings. I moved forward towards him but someone pulled me back. I looked to my side to see the students shoving each other for some reason. 

“Come on, the show’s over. Go back to your dorms. Classes will start at mid-day.” The professor said, shooing all the students away. I stood on my spot in silence. It’s a good thing that I sent the boys home earlier. They wouldn’t have been able to see this. 

“Come on. Back into the card.” She ordered at the crying warrior. He didn’t listen. He just continued to cry loudly, whispering a small name that struck a cord inside me. 

‘Tae’ 

That’s what he kept repeating. The name seemed like a nickname to me. 

“I said, IN. NOW.” She growled. He still didn’t listen. This time she rubbed her sharp nails over the boy’s card, scratching it in the process. Instantly, he let out a loud hiss as a large gash appeared on his right arm. “I’m warning you.” 

He still didn’t listen. He held onto the pieces more tightly. 

At this point, I had my own tears spilling out of my eyes. I wanted to stop this. But I don’t know how. 

“Fine.” The professor growled in anger. She motioned the four warriors beside her to grab onto the crying boy again. They nodded and hooked their arms around the boy from all directions. I watched as they pulled him away from the pieces of the dead card before vanishing in mid-air. 

The professor grumbled before kicking at the dead card with her pointy heels. 

“Be gone you bastard.” She muttered before walking away. 

The person who was thrown into the fountain was also being taken away to the infirmary. 

I looked at the only person who stayed behind. Song Mina. She was eyeing the card weirdly. Does she regret her actions? I hope she does. Because she just killed a warrior. A living, breathing human being. 

I don’t know how long she stood there but soon, her friends came in to take her away. She threw a last glance at the card before walking away. 

This is when I moved in. 

I walked up to the dead card. It was torn into multiple pieces. My own heart ached as I saw the dull greyness of the card. The pink I saw earlier had completely vanished. It was just a dead card now. 

Getting down on my knees, I picked up one of the ripped pieces off the ground. It had a slight bent to it. Infact, it’s the only biggest piece among all the others. It looked like it was from the middle. One side had the dull grey on it; I’m guessing that’s the part where the design is supposed to be. And the other side was blank, meaning the card was unclaimed. 

Sniffing, I slowly gathered up all the pieces into a handkerchief of mine. There were 32 pieces in total. I made sure I didn’t miss any. I quickly tied them in a bundle inside the handkerchief. I will try to put them together. I know it’s a dead card and maybe there’s no saving it. But something inside me told me to be respectful of him. He would want to be buried with all his pieces attached, instead of being left to wither on the ground. 

As I hid the bundle in my jacket’s pocket, a figure walked up to me. It was jee-woo. 

“Where is it?” She shrieked, pushing me backwards. I quickly zipped my jacket’s pocket and wiped away my stray tears. I stood up on my feet to meet her eyes. “Where the hell is my card?” 

“What card?” I teased. “I don’t have any card.” 

“Don’t lie to me, Yoonmi. You were in that circle. That card was there. You claimed it.” She hissed. 

I smirked. 

“Oh, do you mean that fire warrior? Oh yeah, I claimed him. He’s mine now.” I said with a fake shrug. 

“He’s not. He’s mine. Give it back to me!” She shrieked again. “A late bloomer like you doesn’t deserve that card.” 

I sighed at her loud voice. 

“Admit it, jee-woo. I won him fair and square. I don’t care what you do but I’m not giving him to you. He’s mine now so please, bug off.” I said, waving her off like yesterday. That seemed to piss her off more. She moved forward to attack me but someone stopped her. I followed the hand that had grabbed her waist and pulled her back from me. Wook. 

“Jee-woo, don’t. She’s not worth it.” I heard him say to her. 

I watched in amazement as jee-woo stopped struggling and looked at me with fury and hatred in her eyes. I looked at Wook who stared at me with same feelings. He slowly released her from his grip and pushed her behind him. 

“Leave, Yoonmi. Leave now.” He said calmly. 

I looked at his curled fist and bit my lip. Moving back, I turned around and left the scene. 

****** 

As soon as I was back at the house, I vaguely informed the boys about what happened. It upsetted them a bit but nothing too serious. I made sure to leave out the details about the whip and the fact that I brought the torn card with me. I could have told them about it but I just feel like maybe I should wait. 

It’s the first time I feel like hiding something from the boys. And it scared me.