‘Then wouldn’t you love it if you went to my original time.’ Thought Virus with a smirk.
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A few hours passed just like that as the golden beauty packed everything they had brought with themselves to this Earth.
Right now, the sky had long gotten dark and Virus was currently sitting on a chair while looking at the dried up fruit in his grasp, ‘Finally… I can take the next step.’
“Master, it’s already dark outside… should we leave now?” With some stars shining in her eyes, the golden beauty questioned.
“Let’s wait for Astes to arrive…” Virus replied.
“Un…” Nodding her head, the golden beauty agreed.
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Knock~ knock~ knock~
One more hour passed when finally, the door of their room was knocked in a very weak manner.
Opening the door, the golden beauty realized it was Astes, “Oh, Astes, you’re finally here…”
Hearing the golden beauty call her by her name alone, Astes didn’t show any kind of reaction since she had long gotten used to it and instead uttered with a smile, “Yep, I’m here Bella… are you two leaving right now or…”
“Yes, we were just waiting for you.” Replying with a smile, she turned around and continued, “Master… since she’s here…”
“Yeah, let’s go.” Standing up, Virus proclaimed as the two began walking outside the pagoda.
“Master, are we going to walk outside the pagoda and board our spaceship or are we going to leave outside first?” As they were walking outside the pagoda though, remembering something, the golden beauty came beside Virus as she asked in a low voice so Astes wouldn’t be able to hear.
“Of course we will leave outside first, imagine how shocked she would be if we get on our spaceship in front of her and leave off to the distant horizon, haha…” Letting out a small laugh of amusement, Virus whispered into her ears.
“Oh, okay…” Agreeing with a chuckle, she rushed beside Astes once again as they began mumbling something to each other.
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A while passed when finally, the trio arrived at the entrance of the sect, “Halt!”
Since commuting inside or outside the perimeter of the sect was tightly controlled by the sect itself, just as expected, as they got closer to the entrance, they were stopped by someone.
“Where are you three leaving to? And when will you be back…? Urgh… senior sister Astes… it’s you…”
“Only the two of us leaving, she will be back in a moment.” Replied Virus while pointing at Astes.
“I see, have you two accepted a mission that requires you to leave the sect?” Seeing it was only the two of them leaving, that disciple who didn’t have the time to watch the Martial Contest previously questioned.
“No.”
“Then you can’t leave the sect.” That Normal section disciple said before continuing, “Inferior and Normal disciples can’t leave the sect without permission… only the superior disciples or above are free to leave the sect whenever they want after telling us some general information about their leave.”
‘They look rather young, even if they are geniuses, they must be at most from the Normal section like me.’ In the meantime, he thought to himself.
“Then it’s okay for both of us to leave… since I’m a Superior disciple myself, and she’s not a disciple of the sect at all… she’s just a family member of mine who followed me to the sect.” Reaching his hand to pat the golden beauty’s head, Virus stated.
‘Ah, master…’ In the meantime, the golden beauty was enjoying her master’s pat with a bit of blush.
“Sup… Superior disciple… ahh, forgive my negligent eyes senior apprentice-brother, I had no idea…” Startled by his reply, that disciple’s attitude went through a 180-degree transformation as he stuttered with a shaky tone.
“It’s okay, write my general information down anyway, my name is Vee.”
“I see… Vee, hmm, let me write it down… wait a moment, why does your name sound so familiar… I feel like… ohhh.” Abruptly remembering that the champion of the Martial Contest was someone called Vee, he was greatly dumbfounded as he yelled, “That VEE? Are you that Senior brother Vee… the champion of today’s Martial Contest?!?”
“Yeah, we’re in a hurry, so would you mind hastening the process?” With a bit of frown appearing on his forehead, Virus uttered in an annoyed tone.
“Uh, I’m sorry senior brother… I shall do that… so first, where are you leaving to?” Gushed the disciple in respect.
“Outside.” Virus replied casually.
“Outside…?! Umm, senior brother, could you be more specific? Outside what?” The disciple questioned awkwardly with some beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.
‘Outside the sect, outside the continent, outside the planet, outside the galaxy, outside the universe… whatever outside you can think of…’ This notion popped into his head in annoyance as he vocalized, “Does it matter really? You said general information… just write outside the sect and be done with it!”
‘Isn’t it obvious that you’re leaving outside the sect? Sigh, this Senior brother of mine is definitely not nice…’ Seeing him annoyed by his question easily, a little afraid that he might offend or leave a bad impression on the champion, he complied, “Uh… okay, I’ll do that then.”
“For how long is Senior brother going to leave? I mean… when will Senior brother return?” He then threw the next question on his list.
“Hmm, days, months, years… or maybe centuries… who knows… write that down.” In a very relaxed manner, Virus provided the general answer to the next question.
‘Fuck, can’t you be more freaking specific! I know we only need general information… but not this general!’ By now, beads of sweat were rolling down the poor disciple’s face as he thought, ‘I’m so going to be punished if an elder happens to check the general information related to his leave.’
However, he displayed the utmost respect externally as he responded, “Yes, then I shall write that down… hmm, days… months… years… or maybe centuries, who knows… done, you can go now Senior brother, have a nice trip.”
‘You didn’t need to write the ‘who knows’ part, but whatever…’ As this sentence went through his mind, he looked at Astes and uttered, “Apprentice-sister… we can leave from here onwards… how about you return and…”
However, before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by her somewhat loud and nervous voice, “No! I want to walk with you for a little while more…”
“Ah, okay then, let’s go.”
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The trio walked for a few minutes as the sect was no longer in their view when Virus stopped once again, “It’s enough if you accompany us to this point, we’ll leave now… Astes… you can go back.”
Seeing them stop once again, Astes herself knew it was the time to separate, however, for some reason, just the thought of separating was making her extremely sad and reluctant. It felt like she was losing something very important to her. She was feeling so reluctant and nervous that she didn’t even realize Virus had addressed her directly by her calling her ‘Astes’.
“Junior brother… will I see you again?” So as her head was down, with an unseeable expression, she threw a question which she was dying to know the answer to.
Listening to her question, reaching his hand out, he grabbed her snowy white and extremely delicate hand as he replied while gazing into her eyes, “Sigh… we… we will… if fate wills it.”
Listening to his response, for the very first time, Astes could no longer control her red eyes as tears of grief began to gather and roll down her beautiful face as she finally threw herself into his embrace and started wailing, “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa…”
