The Ancient Genes

Pleasure Tower, Red Light District, Ishtar.

In a VIP room, Max along with Lear and Anna sat on the couch. A silence enveloped the trio. No one spoke, everyone had something on their mind.

Max finally broke the silence as he asked Lear, "What do you think?"

"Odd..very odd…" Lear's reply was a bit unexpected and Anna raised her head to look at him. She couldn't understand what he meant.

"It is indeed odd…" Max too nodded along with Lear.

"What do you guys mean?" Anna asked.

"There are several things which don't make sense to me…" Max replied.

"Like what? I am not lying, believe me.." Anna said in anguish.

"It's not about that...if I don't believe you, why would I even be sitting here listening to you?" Lear was the one to reply with a calm look.

Max nodded before continuing, "Try to think about it, why was a person from such a high-class society be present at your shop without any bodyguards. He even went ahead and insulted you people. Either he is an idiot or he had some motive…."

"Indeed…" Lear nodded.

"Besides, you yourself said that you are from a common family. The idea that your father and uncle beat that young man is absurd itself. Even if that person hadn't awakened his element at that time, I refuse to believe that he was physically weak." Max said as he turned his head towards Lear for confirmation.

"Yes... it's true...even the lowest of the rung won't be that weak. We are forced to learn martial arts from a young age to make it an instinctual habit. Even if he was weak, I don't believe that he couldn't escape…." Lear replied and confirmed.

The expression on Anna's face changed. She had no idea about Mage and high society. She only came to know about strength when she had received the system. But due to the fact that she had been entrapped, she couldn't even reach the first layer of the Ancient Manual. She had no idea about the elements and mana and even much less about the high class society.

"Besides, there shouldn't be any hatred between you guys. But he still seemed to be targeting you. It doesn't make sense…" Max spoke once again.

"I know that…..I too want to find out what I had done to go through all this…" Anna said as her eyes became teary.

"Do you know which family Will belonged to? It may help us to find something." Lear said seriously.

"I..I..don't know. Will never talked about his family." Anna replied.

"What about his last name?" Lear asked.

"I...don't know.." Anna said as her face began to turn red.

"How much love-struck do you need to be to love someone without knowing about their family background?" Lear said with a sigh.

Max too shook his head. He couldn't understand her too.

"No….its just that he was not very happy with his family and didn't want to talk about them...I remember him mentioning that he had an older sister and nothing else…." Anna muttered in a low voice.

"Do you have any picture of him?" Lear asked.

"No….I only had a red hooded cloak from Will and I lost it too." Anna replied with a depressing look on her face.

"He had inscribed the word "Eternal" with his very own hands on the hood with the promise to stay together forever when he confessed…" She said as a slight smile leaked out on her face for a second.

Anna's words rang a bell in Max's head. He immediately searched through his spirit world and found a red hooded cloak lying around his baggage.

"Is this what you are talking about?" Max asked as he pulled out the cloak from his spirit world.

Anna lifted her head up and her eyes turned bright at the sight of the cloak. She immediately leaped from her seat and snatched the cloak from Max's hand.

Max had got the cloak when he was moving towards the Pleasure Tower earlier. He had only kept it because he felt that the handwriting was familiar.

But it looked like he was wrong. The words were written by Anna's lover.

"Thank you Max, this has always been by my side. It is very important to me. As long as this is by my side, I feel that Will is by my side too." Anna replied with a teary face as she hugged the piece of cloth.

Lear's face twitched. As a person who had never fallen in love, he felt that it was a good thing that he didn't. If it meant seeing people in things like that, it was good that he didn't fall in love.

"Is his boyfriend a rose?" Lear whispered to Max on a second thought.

Max glared at him. But he was curious too. It seemed a bit too much. What was this? A drama.

Anna seemed to have heard the slight whisper. She replied, "It's not just the cloak but the color itself. He might not be a rose. But his hair is red like a rose."

Max suddenly felt a click in his brain and he felt that the pieces had connected all together. His face contorted at this terrifying possibility.

'Nah! What am I thinking? It can't be true….him being a love-struck? What a joke…'

Max shook his head for having an absurd thought.

"..."

"Slam!"

Max slammed his hand on the table frightening both Anna and Lear as he got up.

'F*ck! There has to be a limit to coincidence…..'

'That handwriting seemed familiar…'

'His hair is red….'

'His variant element was lightning….'

'What is wrong with this name 'Will' ….'

'And most importantly Ocien City is the territory of the Scarlet family…'

'How the f*ck am I supposed to ignore this absurd possibility?'

"Tsk.." Max clicked his tongue in madness.

"Have you finally gone insane?" Lear asked as he rolled his eyes.

Max ignored the irritating fellow as he turned his head towards Anna and asked, "Describe him...I want to know about him...his looks, his behavior, his hobbies and habits."

20 minutes later…..

Both Max and Lear's face had turned dark…

'Damn! Just say that your lover is the best man in the world. No…..he is the God...the supreme being…'

Both Max and Lear had this similar thought in their thoughts after Anna had described Will who seemed to be like a fantasy in their mind. If someone came in and heard her describe Will now, they would have though that the girl was having mental problems.

Both of them sighed.

They had come to know one thing after this.

'Love was scary…."

Max suddenly realised something. He immediately pulled out a file from his spirit world. It was the one he asked Lear to get when he visited the Barnes House. It contained the details of everyone who had gone to the Orena field trip during the Arcane disaster. It included pictures of the students too…

"You are still carrying that?" Lear asked in curiosity.

Max turned the pages and ignored Lear. He finally found what he was looking for before looking at Anna. He then turned the file towards her and asked calmly.

"Is this the person you are talking about?"