Descendants of Gibbous
Chapter 60: Master

Chapter 60: Master

"You’re making it worse," Damien rebuked his sister, turning away from them as he headed for the changing room.

Neither of the two adults replied to him. He figured they were probably too embarrassed to do so anyway. With how they treated him back in the human world, they must have thought the boy was too slow to catch up to their shenanigans.

"It’s not what you think," Ahara tried to shy away from the topic, but Damien wasn’t having none of it.

"Then what is it?" He asked, stopping by the purple curtain and turning to face his sister.

She opened her mouth to speak but then closed it. Damien’s eyes were set on her, unwavering. After watching his sister struggle to find the right words to explain her relationship with Kingston, he let out an exhausted sigh.

"I don’t know what you think of me but I’m not a saint sis. I’m like every other curious sixteen-year-old out there—too curious for their own good...just thought I’d let you know I knew about you two for quite some time now."

Ahara’s face turned a deeper shade of red. Any more blushing and she might actually have had a nosebleed. She darted her eyes around looking for a distraction and lucky enough, she found it—a disturbing one at that.

Her eyes widened and she pointed at the burnt curtain. "How did that happen?"

Kingston shifted his head in the direction she was pointing at and his eyes widened too.

"It was a thief," Eden explained before Damien could speak. "He came in here whilst Damien was changing, but no one saw his face."

Kingston gently placed the suitcase down and walked towards the crime scene. To Damien’s surprise, he grabbed the burnt end of the curtain and sniffed it. Once, twice, and by the third time, he scrunched his brows.

"I can’t smell any corrupt aura from the Gibbits remnants," he said, pulling the curtain to look inside the room.

Damien couldn’t believe it. That boy wasn’t a rogue? Then what was he? How did he know about the gem or that Damien used it before?

"Hmm, now I have his scent etched in my head. I’ll inform Fangpeak’s police before leaving," Kingston cut the boy’s thoughts, stepping out of the room and checking the scene once again.

"You guys got your uniforms and clothes right?" Ahara asked, concerned eyes darting around as if the thief would pop into the shop again.

"We only got the uniforms, we’re left with trying the rest of our gear," Eden replied.

"And it’s all here," the tailor interjected, popping out from nowhere with Eden’s and Damien’s uniforms in each of his hands. "These are for the princess and these are for the boy."

"Good, go try them on you guys and see if they fit. We can’t stay in the shopping center any longer," Ahara commanded as Damien and Eden received their uniforms from the old man and headed into their respective changing room.

However, now that he’d seen his sister’s reaction, Damien knew he had to tell her about the boy. This wasn’t something he could handle on his own and keeping it a secret would only make his life worse later—just in case his stalker was skilled enough to follow his trail everywhere.

*****

"That’ll be everything on the list," Ahara scanned the paper in her hands before looking at Damien who was standing by the large black suitcase, picking up anything his sister would call out just to make sure they’d brought it.

They had left the shop a long time ago, leaving Kingston to take the princess back to the palace before he returned home. Turns out he and Ahara had really solved whatever was making them drift apart, but from what Damien could make out after the group was about to split—Ahara hadn’t fully forgiven the wolf yet, and he knew it. However, that was good enough for the boy. As long as Ahara wouldn’t be lonely whilst he was gone at Gibforge, he was fine with anyone who’d keep her company.

The sound of metal rattling somewhere in the suitcase as Damien rummaged through the clothes caught his attention, so he grabbed the whole bunch of them and took them out of it. To his surprise, there was a large silver cage inside.

"Wait, why’d I need a cage? I don’t have a pet."

Ahara rolled the paper in her hand and placed it on the small table next to the couch she was sitting on.

"Oh, but you do. Silky."

"He’s not—"

"I told you before Damien, a beast dies when its master dies. If it doesn’t, that means it already had a new master before its original and it’ll follow them everywhere. As you already know, Silky’s original master died, but he’s still alive—and he won’t let go of you. I’ve taken care of him since before you were born, but not once has he ever given me attention the same way he does with you.

What’s more, he won’t leave this house to look for his master meaning one of us has to be the new master—and between the two of us, you’re the one he likes. If that isn’t proof enough that you’re his new master, then tell me who else qualifies hun."

Damien could only blink at his sister, overwhelmed by what she’d said.

"Take him with you and attend the beast taming classes. Who knows, he might be your trump card to not being the odd one out at school."

Damien simply nodded at Ahara, taking the cage out before returning his school equipment inside the suitcase.

"That’s a good boy. If you manage to tame Silky, you’ll soon discover he’ll be of great importance to you in so many ways, for example, if he were with you today and you’d tamed him, we’d have been able to see that thief."

’Shit, the thief!’

Damien immediately let go of the clothes he was folding and rushed in Ahara’s direction, hurriedly sitting beside her on the two-seater couch.

"He wasn’t a thief. He was a stalker—and he knew about me using the Gem of Memento Mori," the boy told his sister, whose eyes widened at his confession.

However, she soon relaxed her expression and grabbed Damien’s neck before pulling him so he could lie on her lap.

"Don’t worry, Kingston said he wasn’t a rogue. It’s probably one of the paparazzi maniacs who have strong connections and wanted to milk information from you so they could publish an article about you and the Gem."

Damien felt his sister’s fingers stroking his hair as he mulled her words inside his head. She could be right about the boy being part of the paparazzi, but what if she wasn’t? The boy’s manner of speaking hadn’t settled well with Damien at all, but if Ahara believed so then he didn’t want to stress her further.

"Hmm, if you say so," the boy replied, closing his eyes as he let his sister pet him.

But even as he tried to relax, the thought of having a stalker didn’t comfort Damien at all—especially one that was stronger than him.