Under The Veil of Night

’A scar can’t heal overnight.’

Everyone has their own pace to heal from the wounds that they sustained. In the matter of mental scar, it was much harder because the medicine couldn’t be used. Mental scar and all needed time to heal and how long it took depended on the person.

Knowing Misae’s personality, Kanae knew that this girl still couldn’t get over the incident. She was not totally sure what had happened in that place, but she knew that it was something that made Misae afraid of clans terribly.

For an innocent girl, facing something so drastically cruel would only destroy them. And restoring shattered pieces to its former condition would take a long time and long process.

"Laura, can you help Misae to the infirmary? I’ll take her work from the Student Council," Kanae quickly asked Laura.

"Sure. Can you walk, Misae?"

Misae nodded her head slightly. Her eyes darted around to Kanae. "Do you also know about it? They’re from a clan?"

"I know," Kanae answered truthfully. She didn’t want to hide this from Misae, especially because she knew that it would only make things worse. There were still many things that this girl shouldn’t know, but this was not included in them.

"How? Why?"

"Their name gives it away as they’re quite famous."

"Why don’t you tell me?"

"If I tell you, won’t you react the same way as you are right now?"

When she thought about that, Misae fell silent. She couldn’t refute that. It was the truth that she still couldn’t accept the people from the clan. Her reaction might be worse if this was the past as she couldn’t even stand the thought of staying near them.

Even for the incident with Jay, the young master of Souhon Clan and also her friend in the past, it took her a long time to accept the fact. After the revelation, she had never gotten close to him again as she was simply unable to.

Laura helped Misae to walk away as her eyes watched her sister’s reaction. She didn’t expect her own sister to get close with people from the clan too. After all, they lost their parents because of a clan.

’Maybe, they’re unrelated.’

There were numerous clans in this city and Laura always tried to not be too prejudicing about them. Although she didn’t like them, she still mostly treated them well as she didn’t know who the one responsible for her parents’ death was.

But when she found them, she would surely drag them to hell!

Her eyes glinted with ruthlessness for a split second at the thought of that. The pain the two of them experienced all these years were simply too much. Countless sleepless night, pressure from all over the place, a humiliation in front of numerous people. Everything was pushed down to the two of them with her sister standing at the forefront, bearing the heaviest brunt and protected her all the time.

"How about you two, are you from a clan?" Misae asked before Laura dragged her away.

"No, I’m not part of a clan," Kanae answered immediately.

Laura returned back from her thought when she heard Misae’s question. She shook her head lightly. "I’m not from a clan. I live oversea too for the past two years or so."

"I see."

As Misae walked away, Kanae turned her head towards Alice. "Shall we take the things she needs for the work now?"

They made their way to the Student Council room. All the way, Alice was feeling somewhat troubled as she raised her head and lowered them again continuously. Kanae waited patiently until she heard Alice called.

"Kanae."

"What is it, Alice?"

"Do... Do you think she should know the truth about her friends?" Alice asked hesitantly.

Kanae shrugged. "I may not know what the best for her is, but you’re only going to aggravate the situation if you tell her that you’re part of a clan. In my own opinion, it’s pointless to tell that to her right now."

"I see..." Alice nodded her head when she realized the content of Kanae’s words. "Wait, you know?" that I come from a clan.

The second part of her sentence never came out as she couldn’t bring herself to say it. It might be a glorious thing for other people to be part of a clan, but for her, it was nothing more than a burden. Unable to get out because of her position, she was forced to stay in the clan forever.

It was especially true because of her body’s condition. She has been a sickly person from a child and only recently turned better. This body was unsuitable to fight, making her the target for many people that hated their clan.

This was the reason her father never allowed her to go too far. Except for school, she had to go home quickly as he was worried for her safety.

"Kind of since you seem to be troubled whenever we mention about it," Kanae answered. She was not sure about it as she didn’t bother trying to check about Alice. She was not interested in the matter of the clans, so she didn’t want to involve herself in their matter.

"It’s weird that a clan member can’t fight, isn’t it?" Alice smiled wryly.

Kanae shook her head. "It’s normal that everyone has something they’re good at and bad at. I can only give an example of myself. As you know, I’m good at the lesson, but bad at cooking. You can’t possibly expect me to be a chef, right?"

Imagining Kanae as a chef caused Alice to burst in laughter. It was simply a far etched dream as she could feel that Kanae was completely unsuitable to be a chef. With her extremely low aptitude in cooking, it would be a miracle for her to cook a decent meal, much less a good meal.

Rather than cooking a decent meal, she would just poison them all with the poor meal she made.

"You’re right, it’ll be hilarious."

Kanae laughed. "You look much better with a smile. Try not to think too much about your background and just enjoy your life here. After all, you only live once."

There were a lot of things that tied her back in the clan, restraining her movement. Even though her background made her timid, and she didn’t dare to report the bullying to her father, she knew that she has got genuine friends in school.

No matter what her background was, Kanae would accept her. This thought made her felt much lighter.

"Thank you for being so accepting," Alice smiled brightly. This was the first time she met someone who didn’t feel anything unusual about her being part of a clan. Somehow, it was very refreshing and relieving.

Kanae nodded her head. She learned to accept others because she knew that she herself was not perfect. She also has her own secret that she couldn’t share to others, so she knew the feeling very well.

"There’ll be others who will accept you well in the future, I’m sure about this," Kanae showed a bright smile.

"You’re really kind, Kanae."

"You flatter me."

The two of them laughed as they gathered the material for the event.