Descendants of Gibbous
Chapter 36: A welcome warmer than hell

Chapter 36: A welcome warmer than hell

Damien watched Kingston disappear into the black portal. He took a deep breath and waved to Charles and the rest of the staff.

"See you later, guys," he said, stepping into the portal after the wolf with Ahara following closely behind him.

Unlike what he was expecting, his foot stepped on hard ground on the other side where a crowd of Gibbits was stationed in a systematic order. They were forming queues aligning with portals that led into a large stone wall surrounding the academy. It extended high up into the skies, and when Damien raised his head to look where it reached, his eyes were burned by the sun’s rays before he saw the walls top.

Rubbing his eyes, he decided to focus on the school later and looked around him instead. Everywhere his eyes reached, Damien could see teens around his age standing with their parents, waiting for their chance to enter the school’s walls.

Grateful to Kingston for his fake family idea, he glanced at the other families around them.

To his left was a family positioned around a very short girl. A redhead with bangs, she looked the most relaxed among the anxious lot of students; a ray of blinding innocence that outshined the gloomy darkness surrounding her. And it wasn’t just her. Her parents oozed the same pure energy as she did, a stark contrast to the family on Damien’s right.

They were a scary bunch. Both the parents and their son—a beefy, tall guy with a deadly serious expression on his face. He must have sensed Damien staring because he glanced at the boy from the corner of his eyes, making Damien look behind him instinctively; towards the most supportive family among the lot.

They kept patting the back of a plump boy who was biting his nails and glancing at the portals ahead nervously.

"It’s going to be okay, you’re not a Rogue Troy," his mother soothed him, tugging the hand he was biting away from his mouth.

Damien watched as the boy stopped shaking for a second, before he picked it up again, glancing at the portals once again.

"But what if they say I’m not pure? I don’t want to enroll at the school back home. The guys there are bullies," the plump boy whined, on the verge of tears.

"They won’t say anything if the gates don’t detect eroded aura in you, which you don’t have because you’ve never devoured a human," the father was the one who answered this time, rubbing his head. "So stop worrying and focus on getting in first okay?"

Watching the scared boy nervously nod made Damien relax a bit. At least he wasn’t the odd one out amongst his soon-to-be peers. They all looked like they didn’t know what to expect behind the walls, just like him. A rather favorable situation for him who wasn’t raised in Gibbous.

Turning his head, Damien bent himself closer to Ahara and whispered:

"So, what’s this thing about corroded aura, hmm?"

"Nothing you need to be worried about. The gates have aura-detecting gems. If you ever dared to taste human flesh or blood, your aura gets a tiny bit corroded, and that’s ground enough to get disqualified at Gibforge, or worse, be annihilated by the professors."

"Oh," Damien nodded at his sister, rubbing his hands together to ward off the cold as he glanced at the peculiar family in front of them.

Two women and a man. The man and one of the women dressed in the flashiest clothes amongst the bunch were standing to the left, holding on to the shoulders of a blonde-haired boy, whilst the other woman—dressed in a calm elegant pink floral dress—was standing to the right, her hands on the shoulders of yet another blonde—a girl.

When the girl turned her head to the side, Damien immediately recognized her face.

’What was her name again?.’

He brooded in his head, staring at her so hard, that it was a surprise she hadn’t felt his intense gaze yet.

’Aha! Ambrose.’

Suddenly, he recognized the woman holding her shoulders. She was the ballerina who told him about the flow state, Ambrose’s mother.

"Wanna go say hi?" Ahara asked as the queue moved closer to the portal.

Damien didn’t even think twice. "Why not?" He replied, already stretching his hand and tapping the Ballerina’s back.

She flinched and snapped her head behind her, her brown eyes darting around before they landed on Damien. The boy noticed how puffy they were, and how red the whites in her eyes had turned, unlike the last time they met.

"Ah, young master Damien," the woman smiled tiredly at him, Ambrose flipping her head at the mention of her nemesis’s name.

The other three turned their heads too, the butler’s face immediately scrunching when he noticed Damien. However, when his eyes landed on Kingston who was standing next to the boy, looking between him and the other family, Damien noticed how his expression immediately changed to a much more relaxed one.

"Long time no see," the boy beamed at her, half beating himself for bothering the woman. She looked tired already.

"You guys met before?" Ahara interjected.

"Yes, at the palace—"

"Don’t!" Ambrose hissed before Damien could finish.

Her eyes glanced around them quietly as though she was afraid someone would overhear them. Then she took a step toward Damien and was all over his face the next moment, her expression serious.

"Unless you want the other students to hate you for getting accepted at Gibforge using connections—which seems like you did by the way—don’t talk about the palace so casually."

With her eyes still on him, Ambrose returned to her mother’s embrace just when the line moved again, and flipped herself around.

"Sorry. She’s just nervous about the enrollment today," the ballerina apologized, raising her palm for Ahara to shake, which, thankfully, she accepted despite Ambrose’s outrage at Damien.

"I’m Diana Rodante, and this is my daughter Ambrose."

"Ahara Amaris," Damien’s sister replied, releasing Diana’s hand after they shook. "It’s understandable that she’s nervous. I’m pretty sure everyone around here is too."

"I’m not," the blonde-haired boy cut their conversation, proudly holding his head up high. Damien was immediately annoyed by his faux elegant British accent.

"And who might you be?" Ahara asked, matching her brother’s annoyed expression.

Before the ballerina could reply, the woman standing next to the butler cut her.

"He’s my son. Brandon Rodante. A ray of sunshine he is, and very strong too," she blurted out, stroking her son’s hair and beaming at him, all whilst Ambrose rolled her eyes at the boy.

Damien pieced the bits of information he had together and came out with a rather bitter conclusion.

The butler had two wives.

"Oh, lucky you then," Ahara replied in a sarcastic voice, her eyes widening a little.

"And this is my husband, Arthur. We came to enroll our son," the woman continued, ignoring the expression on Ahara’s face.

Ahara didn’t answer her this time, just nudged Damien’s arm and bit her bottom lip. The boy snorted but stopped when the butler glared at him.

"I don’t suppose you came here to enroll him, did you? Not after the shitty aura I felt coming from him last week," Arthur coldly glanced at Damien, making sure he got the message behind his words.

He was weak.

"We did come to enroll him actually, and his aura is just fine if you ask me," Kingston finally replied. "I don’t suppose you think my judgment is half-assed do you?"

Damien was quick to notice the small blush creeping up his sister’s face. He wanted to judge her so badly, but he couldn’t. The fuzzy feeling of being defended had attacked him too.

"Not in the least, Mister Kingston. I was just worried about him and the challenges that await him inside the school," Arthur was quick to correct himself, laughing dismissively.

"I’d rather have you waste that energy on your daughter. Isn’t she enrolling at Gibforge too?"

At this, the three members to the left side of the Rodante family stilled. Their eyes landed on the mother and daughter duo to their right, a glimmer of something Damien didn’t like one bit flashing in their eyes.

"Oh, but she is, even against my will."

"Good for her, I’d hate to live with a control freak too," Damien blurted out before he could stop himself.

Ambrose snapped her head to face him, her eyes wider than he had ever seen her open before. However, they weren’t the same rage-filled ones Damien was used to being given. They were surprised. Genuine surprise that almost made her look cute for a moment.

But then Ahara slapped Damien’s back and disturbed his view. She managed to bring Ambrose back to reality, and the girl immediately turned her gaze away. Although, Damien noticed her lips rise into a smile before she did.

"You foul-mouthed idiot," Ahara hissed, slapping his back again. "Please forgive him, he didn’t mean what he said."

But even as she said it, Damien noticed her clenched jaw. She was trying her best to not laugh.

As for Arthur and his family, they just turned their attention back to the portals, which were closer now. Damien glanced between the two families, his eyes landing on Brandon the most. Between the two siblings, there was no doubt he was the most spoilt, which for some reason, bugged Damien.

’I don’t know how, but I’ll watch him crumble first.’

"Next family please," a woman standing next to the portal shouted.

Everything on her body was on fire, from the hair to the dress. Damien backed away a little when he felt the heat radiate from her. She looked angry, another person Damien put in his not-to-piss-off list in his head.

The Rodante family stepped ahead, the three on the left moving ahead first. However, before they stepped in, the blazing woman placed a hand in front of the portal and glared at them.

"The lady and girl first," she ordered, not in the least looking like she’d compromise.

’Yep, I like her,’ Damien thought in his head, watching as Ambrose and her mother walked in first before the last of the family members followed in.

"Next!"

Damien, Ahara, and Kingston followed.

"And what are you doing here if I may ask, mister Kingston?"

"Sending off the boy," he pointed at Damien, who let his sister pass through the portal first after the fiery woman glared at him.

"Very well then. I’ll see you inside soon," the woman replied to Kingston.

Damien stepped inside the portal, relieved he had escaped her glare before she rebuked him. But before he could pass to the other side, his body was repelled by what felt like a magnetic force, lunging him out of the portal into the ground he had almost left behind.

A loud sound akin to that of a siren immediately blared from somewhere, and before Damien knew what was happening, a fire erupted him.

"Would you look at that? A young boy like you is already a rogue, huh?" The fiery woman from before hissed, the flames surrounding Damien leaving her body as she stood amongst them.

"How about I give you a welcome warmer than the place humans call hell?"

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