BLACK MASK [MxM]

6. Interrogation

The next day Lavi wakes up at noon. Looking aside, he couldn't find Arsen's presence there even though that guy hadn't let him go alone since yesterday. He realized that he had a blend of prescribed herbs near his bed. Lavi sighed and turned his sleep position onto his back.

His strength wasn't fully recovered yet and he still felt dizzy from time to time. If he remembers correctly, the poison in his body have no harmful composition and have no lasting effect. How long would he have to take this the herbs which has that terrible smell? The herbs seems to have only healed his wound, but his strength still hasn't returned at all.

Suddenly the door of his room slides slowly, and he sees half of Arsen's body poking in, his mouth still talking to someone outside, and the next moment he finally enters. The blonde guy looked handsome in an ordinary cloth with a random picture that fulfilled his motive.

Lavi glanced at him with a sleepy face.

"You're awake now," Arsen approached and sat down on the floor. "My old man wants to meet you."

Lavi's frowned.

Four days of rest made him forget that he had to do morning training and lead regular palace aide exercises. Master must want to reprimand him for being so negligent.

But then he heard Arsen continue to say, "I think you should see them too."

"Them?"

"The three elders."

His heart soon beat rapidly, as though beat with wood. Then he would rush to his feet and stumble over his thick blanket. If Arsen doesn't catch his body at the right time, otherwise he might reopen the wound.

"Why are you in such a hurry?!"

Arsen's hand holding Lavi's arm quickly giving out, suddenly calmed down and sat back down on the floor.

"Are you okay?"

"Why didn't you wake me up early?" Lavi responded with another question, completely uncaring how Arsen's forehead had contracted so deeply that it caused some wrinkles in his eyes. "I must give special training to soldiers. I'm never late."

Lavi finds his sentence so intimidating and Arsen doesn't deserve it, and then he shuts up.

"So what if you're late? You can give them a reason that you're still hurt."

Lavi muttered, responding uninterested. Especially on the sentence that he was still wounded. Lavi doesn't like to be thought of as weak. So he pulled one dark blue clothes and pants from the dresser and simply took it off what he wore and threw it in the basket. Arsen held his breath, surprised to see Lavi's back.

"What happened to your back?"

Lavi wasn't aware that arsen was still here, making him show the scar on his back. What a terrible wound.

He turned immediately, his face stiffened. "It's nothing."

Arsen didn't believe it. The wound looks long and terrible, extending from his right shoulder to his left waist, but it appears to have dried and probably not hurt anymore.

"But the wound looks very severe," Arsen retorted.

"It's not as bad as you think, and can you stop talking?"

The room was small, but everything was neatly arranged and well organized. The sight was so narrow, the wound on his back seemed so obvious. How could Arsen do nothing without asking?

The Arsen stood up, pulling Lavi's shoulders back until the guy looked at him. This time Arsen realized he was even taller than the raven guy.

"Tell me, Lavi, who hurt you?"

Lavi just gave him a snide look, he immediately passed over as if there was nothing for them to argue over. Just as he was about to open the door, his hand was pulled back by Arsen.

"What is it again? I'm already late."

The tone emanating from the thin lips was acute. Although Arsen wasn't at all afraid, and he couldn't be, but he also didn't want to make the guy angry.

"You think I'd let you train?" Arsen asked coldly, even he couldn't actually agree to let him meet the damn elders.

He had been trying to make Lavi get away from a meeting, especially since he learned that one of the inmates who escaped from his clan prison was Lavi's brother, Karna Adikara.

"I don't need any permission from you."

Before arsen could answer, lavi had come out of his room with a long, yanking stride. He massaged his throbbing forehead and uttered it in his heart if he had to be careful with the blonde man because of his abusive attitude. The man can reveal his secrets to the others sooner or later.

Arriving at the practice field, Lavi saw how many sword masters of the four clans were gathering there. Neatly lined from end to end with upright swords perched on their backs. Lavi went through the edge of the line, nobody looked at him as if he were just a transparent dust in the air. Then he saw Rory from a distance waving at him.

"Mr. Rory," said Lavi, letting his eyes wander the crowded square. "What's going on?"

Rory smiled and replied, "Master has deployed several swordsmen and fighters from all over the clan to convey the strategy for Nero's capture."

At that moment lavi's stomach felt as if hit by a blunt object and made him lose his breath for three seconds.

"Then what are you doing here? Aren't you injured?"

"I'm fine. Master has asked me to come forward."

Rory immediately pointed to one of the halls in the corner of the palace. "He's in the hall room with the elders. It should have been yesterday that you were asked to come forward, but the young master said that you were badly injured and couldn't get up. So they postponed your interrogation."

Interrogation?

There's a subtle change of expression on Lavi's face. But Rory didn't realize it, because Lavi quickly turned around and headed for the meeting room after saying good-bye to him. On the way, he met Arsen again and made his feelings worse.

"Why are you in the field, my old man is in the conference room," said Arsen as they go marching to the hall.

Lavi simply answered, "I already know."

"Then why were you in the field?" Arsen raised his eyebrows tantalizingly. Lavi must have mistakenly assumed that davion was in the field.

"I wanna do the morning roll."

"Have you taken the morning roll then?"

Lavi hated the seductive tone of the guy next to him. Lavi immediately stopped and gave him a cynical look that often frightened his opponent. But he was wrong, Arsen didn't listen, the blonde guy may have played with his emotions on purpose.

Arsen was a real danger to him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Then Lavi folded his arms across his chest. Meant to let the man feel guilty.

Arsen who understood the question, grunting. "Didn't you run away before I told you?"

"Why didn't you stop me?" Lavi asked back.

"Aren't you the one who doesn't want to hear me speak? Are you so disgusted with me?" Arsen grinned with pride. As for lavi, he has not spoken.

Rather than be disgusted, it is more fitting to say that Lavi would very much like to distance himself from Arsen.

"Next time you don't have to be so stubborn on me. Have you forgotten, your secret is in my hands?"

That's true.

This is exactly what Arsen was looking for, and he likely would use it to bring him down some day. Superb. Lavi was completely speechless because of that blonde man. He was forced to have no other choice.

The hall has been filled with people as Lavi enters it with nervousness. Davion and three elders looked at him with a stripped gaze. Lavi doesn't know why he was asked to attend the meeting. He's not as important as Arsen, the guy next to him now.

It seemed strange when he learned that arsen would become the Lord of the four clans in Davion's stead. The blonde guy had a deep impression and great charisma. Lavi had even seen him so firmly on a serious topic and for some reason he looked so handsome and adorable all at once.

"I heard you got injured, are you okay?" Nituna started their discussion with a cliche question.

"I'm fine," Lavi responded curtly.

Nituna smiled slightly and changed the position of her seat while watching the raven guy with an intimidating stare. "I think you're waiting patiently for me to get right to the heart of the matter, so I'll be quick to explain why we all invited you here."

Lavi fell silent and felt how his back tightened. This was the first time he faced the elder directly, his feelings mixed between nervous and angry. Something hard to explain. Incidentally, right across the hall is the elderly. Whereas Davion was on the other side.

Nituna glanced at the man in yellow for a while and his forehead twitched. "What are you in this meeting for, Young master?"

Who were asked questions only chuckled. "Pretend I'm not there. I just want to monitor my servant."

The corners of the old woman's lips were twitching more and more. Since his last yell in Arsen, she suspected that this time too wouldn't succeed to do the same. So she chose to ignore that selfish young master first and looked at Lavi.

"I'd like to ask you a few questions. I was hoping you could give us the information we needed," Nituna taps her five fingers at the table. "So, did you get hurt in the fight with Nero?"

It took Lavi a few seconds to launch his reply, "It's true."

Nituna intertwined her hands. "Then did you wound Nero's arm?"

"No."

Quick answer, Nituna smiled slightly. She quickly drew to the conclusion of the two questions. A tentative assumption: Nero used a weapon other than his wooden stick. This can be seen from the report of Lavi's injury—the wound was clearly caused by sharp objects. However, it was also that brought to the mind another question, "Did Nero use a dagger to harm you?"

"Yes, Nero used the dagger of one of the guardians."

Nituna nodded. She had one more question and again came to Lavi's attention. "One more question, why did you go into the forest that night?"

These questions have a lot more time to answer. Lavi seems to be thinking of something. Nituna gestured for him to respond quickly.

"I went after Nero. He ran into the woods."

"Of course the forest!" Nituna exclaims as if she has just won the lottery, massaging her temples. "Davion, did you send your men to observe the forest? The boy must live in the woods."

"The team did, but nothing was found." Davion answered.

"Make another search, lest there be any gaps. If I could have burned down the forest, I would have. I'm really excited right now. Nituna grinned.

"Nituna, do you think that Nero might be some kind of demon?" said another man, who had pale skin and snake-like eyes—Hebil.

Nituna stared at the man lazily. "Why not? This jerk is worse than a demon, so to speak."

"So, he's a monster?" Hebil said, chuckling.

"Please be serious, old man!" she retorted without caring about the man next to her calling out an unacceptable sentence. "I admit, Nero is a shrewd and cunning fugitive. But I swear, whoever is behind Nero's mask, I shall put him to death with my own hands. In my whole life, no one has ever f****d up a village like this. Nero developed a wide range of strategies for each attack. The boy clearly has the potential to destroy this village."

"—or not?"

Nituna's attention was back split and she's looking at Hebil.

"I thought it was meant to be, but first he gathered some prisoners of the clan to gather strength. Smarter than you'd think, right? I think the boy is interesting enough," he added.

Penn, who had been silent for a long time, finally declared, "The entire clan leaders had other plans to arrest Nero. Why don't we see what they can do?"

Those there listened with curiosity, especially Lavi.

"The clan leaders are also concerned about a conspiracy between the escaped prisoners and the masked man, they have the results of the meeting held here yesterday. So their first decision would be to mobilize an army to capture the prisoners who had escaped first, and—"

"But that would be a waste of time, wouldn't it?" Nituna cuts out his sentence.

"Of course, nothing happens so easily, everything takes a process. So we better speed up the search for escaped prisoners to all four villages first and take them back to the holding cells. Alive or dead. Then Nero will be taken seriously."

Nituna sighed. "I think I agree. Yeah—I can't help but think of a plan that would make sense right now."

"You're right, for that we can call in some great swordsmen like Lavi arutala," Hebil finally agreed with Penn's opinion, he intercepted a thin act of surprise from Lavi. "What do you think about it, Lavi?"

As Lavi looked up, he found the elders staring at him in question. He glanced at Davion right next to him, had also looked at him. Then he heard Davion said, "Many of the sword masters from the four clans we had gathered this morning on the main field, so you won't be working alone. We'll wait for you to recover, if at all possible. But I hope you make a speedy recovery for the accomplishment of this plan, Lavi."

"Lavi will recover quickly, if he will just listen to me. I'll take care of him." Arsen had long been a spectator, grinning.

Of course, Nituna Bumara quickly gave him a furious look.

Meanwhile, Lavi could only shut his mouth because his whole mind was branching off, until he heard the sound of the table across the room knocked down by the only woman in that place.

"That's it. We're done with you, Lavi. You can go back to your room and get some rest. Get well so you can do your job back."

Lavi's mouth was about to open something but it was as if there were a large seed which pushed his sound down deep. Seeing Davion's last smile, finally the raven bowed and left the room with a slow step. He didn't even refuse when Arsen gripped his shoulder.

There was an uneasy feeling that came over him after the conversation and he would not be able to reveal it—to anyone.

tbc.