Chapter 81: Uninvited

Scar went to the Third District, Maroon, looking for Hazem. The old man had done two things Scar hadn’t forgotten.

He performed some mysterious martial arts technique that kept Scar alive after he fought Adisa, then walked into the Supreme Council and spoke on his behalf, pulling him back from execution. He owed the man more than he could easily say. But Hazem wasn’t there.

He walked the streets, asked a few people, and got nothing. No one knew a Hazem. And without knowing what the man looked like, there was only so much he could do. He didn’t drag it out.

Hours in the residential area and nothing to show for it. The day was running thin, but Scar wasn’t ready to let it bleed out completely. He’d make something good out of what was left.

One thing the Supreme Council’s punishment had going for it was that leaving the academy grounds was simple now. He’d lied about searching for income, and no one had questioned it. The obvious assumption was that the Rover family would take care of him. They wouldn’t, but no one needed to know that.

A chance to see Haven Velanora, and the clock wasn’t exactly on his side, they might all be dead soon enough. But that wasn’t the only reason. There were personal reasons too. There had always been personal reasons.

During Scar’s fight with Adisa, Haven had been dealing with Robin. Purple’s account was hard to picture. Haven had torn off his arm and leg completely and still somehow gone down before the job was done. And Robin, missing two limbs, had still found a way out.

Not once since then. She hadn’t come when he woke up, hadn’t checked in, nothing. Haven had gone distant before, so it wasn’t new. But this time it didn’t feel like distance. It felt like something else entirely.

He sat with it for a moment, then made up his mind. From Durban to Paramount, all the way to the Moon Killers’ base six.

“Hm… that’s strange. Why is everyone staring at me? Don’t students usually come here?” He muttered beneath his breath.

He knew the place. Knew Haven would be among the four sentinels. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the eyes in every direction, unrelenting. At one point, he’d genuinely checked himself, half convinced he’d shit his pants.

But there wasn’t any disgust on their faces. Wasn’t envy either. Confusion, mostly. And some he couldn’t read at all, staring at him like he was something they hadn’t quite figured out yet.

Tsk.

His nerves were fraying. Too many eyes, too much of it directed at him. Scar had never been built for this kind of attention.

The space around the sentinel felt different at night. It was wider somehow, quieter. The thirty-foot wall still loomed the same as before, still had that particular talent for making him feel locked in rather than kept out. But beyond that, it could have been any stretch of the academy grounds.

His eyes moved through the crowd of Moon Killers, searching for Haven or anyone who might point him in the right direction, when a voice came from behind and pulled him out of it.

“So this is the Scar Rover Haven speaks so highly of. I see she wasn’t exaggerating—you’re even more beautiful than she described.”

Scar turned. The man wore the same red banner as every other Moon Killer, but the black barracks cap was different. That alone was enough to tell Scar what he was. He was a captain.

Leonard’s was too weird for Scar to make anything out of it but he tried his best.

“I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at, but you’re certainly not my type.”

A brief furrow of confusion crossed Leonard’s brow before it gave way to a soft chuckle.

“You’re rather amusing, aren’t you?”

Scar shrugged, though not entirely willingly. Leonard was the captain, the most direct path to Haven, but there was something in the man’s aura that made casual conversation feel like a risk. Like a blade hovering just at his throat.

He noted it, filed it away, and moved past it. Leonard’s presence wasn’t something he particularly cared about.

“It seems this isn’t the appropriate time for honesty. Forgive my arrogance.”

Leonard giggled softly.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. You were only speaking the truth.”

There was clearly more where that came from. Leonard had the look of a man with a full speech ready. Scar didn’t give him the chance.

“Can you do me a favor and tell Haven I’d like to speak with her?”

The smile left Leonard’s face all at once, and what replaced it was serious, the kind that came naturally to someone used to being obeyed.

“I’m afraid that isn’t possible. By Karl Velanora’s order, you will stay away from her.”

Scar frowned. Huh? What was the bastard saying?

He studied Leonard for a moment, looking for any sign that this was something other than what it appeared. There wasn’t one. Scar wanted to impose, but the position wasn’t his to impose on. Leonard was a captain, and more importantly, Scar wasn’t supposed to be here at all. This was the Moon Killer territory.

’Seriously, who does he think he is, telling me I can’t talk to her? Is he trying to take her away from me?’

Scar sneered. Haven’s father saying something like that, sure. Easy enough to believe, given what she put herself through on a regular basis. But Haven just went along with it, no pushback, no questions? That didn’t sound like her at all. She was mostly cold and demanding.

’Tch. So this bastard’s got his eyes on Haven too… shit. This is going to be trouble.’

A few moments passed. Scar glared, cursed Leonard thoroughly in the privacy of his own mind, and then spoke:

“This is quite unprecedented, but would you do me the favor of telling her I came by? That alone should be enough for her to understand my intentions.”

Leonard didn’t move an inch. There was something almost devotional about it, like a man who had made a personal oath and had no interest in breaking it.

“No, that won’t do. Stay away from Haven. That’s the only thing that matters.”

The arrogance of it. Scar clicked his tongue, let a few sarcastic parting words do the work, and started walking.

Inside the sentinel, Haven stood at the window. She watched him leave without a word, without a step toward the door, without anything.

“This is for the best. Father said I must stay away from him if I want Scar to one day stand beside me and protect this world. He’s strong, but every time he fights, I worry. This distance will make us both stronger. Until then… we can’t see each other.”

Her father hadn’t said it quite like that. It was quite the contrary. The words were hers, her own reading of what he’d meant. But the effect was the same. Her heart had gone to steel, and her focus had narrowed to a single point: defeating a Hostile-level Threat Scarlet Kin.

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