Under the Veil of Night

"You should have held back a bit," Kanae rubbed her shoulder as she walked with Kevin in hospital. They only trained for a few minutes in the clan to test their newfound power. Thankfully, in terms of overall strength they didn't have that much increase, so they wouldn't have any problem in adjusting their body with their daily activity.

If it increased too much, there was a chance that they would destroy everything that they passed by.

"I thought that you can handle them," Kevin responded truthfully.

Kanae rolled her eyes as they approached the door. Knocking the door lightly, the two of them opened it. "Excuse us."

Inside the room, Taro was sitting on the chair while Charlie was lying on the bed. From his pale face, it was clear that he hadn't recovered fully. It would take much longer if he wanted to fully recover from his condition.

"You're here, Kevin," Taro smiled as he waved his hand cheerfully.

Kevin nodded his head. He looked at Charlie. "How's your condition, Teacher Charlie?"

"I'm still tired," Charlie replied. "There's no need to call me so formally. I resigned from the school a long time ago."

"I heard about it, but it feels rather weird to not call you as teacher, Teacher Charlie," Kanae smiled. She walked closer to Charlie and saw that he was still wearing some items to help with his recovery. They were all medical machines that she didn't know the name of.

"Is there anything that I can help?"

"I need to know the history a bit," Kevin answered. "I want to know more about the first awakened and the twelves founders of this city."

Charlie's eyes widened. "I can't tell you the years for sure because I'm not a walking encyclopedia, but I can tell you the gist of the history. The twelve founders are the real awakened based on the historical record, but there's not much that they say about them. Except for the fact that the clan and group's head are all people who were extremely capable in physical power, there was no detail about their real power.

However, there's a record about some of them. Rather than record, it's more similar to a legend, but I'll still share them. They say that there are three types of power that's known to be the strongest in terms of physical power, which come from Ryukalin, Servo, and Souhon."

"Souhon?" Kanae was stunned. From what she saw, the people in the Souhon Clan were not as strong as the people in Ryukalin Clan.

"As time passed by, it can affect the gene," Charlie replied. "However, I believe that this is rather true since the two of them are the biggest clans in this city."

"Please continue."

"Alright, the twelves of them died on the very same day because of an accident. However, one person's corpse disappeared from the group. They say that the corpses were unidentified, so they didn't know who among the twelves of them that disappeared.

As the person never appeared again, this story was forgotten. What followed was the appearance of the 'first awakened.' He triggered his power by accident and destroyed a lot of places in this city, making people call him a monster. The people joint forces and killed the man in the end."

Kanae raised her hand as if this was a class. "I have a question. How much time has passed from the twelves founder to the first awakening?"

"It should be around one century," Charlie replied. "I'm not sure about the exact year."

He had some notes of them, but he didn't bring his books. His books were left behind in his residence, which he believed might not survive. Recalling the fact that his hard work for years went into drain, he really wanted to cry.

"It's really interesting," Kanae nodded her head. After encountering the woman in the cave, she came to understand that the history of this city was far more complex than what the people said. It was not that weird considering that people were usually lazy to learn history, making it easy for some people to hide the truth of the matter completely.

Charlie nodded his head. "History has always been very interesting. That's the reason why I become a teacher."

"I can see that," Kanae giggled.

"Do you know the history of other cities in this country, Teacher Charlie?" Kevin asked.

"I have some knowledge."

"Can you tell me whether they have awakened people or not?"

Charlie shook his head lightly. "There's no awakened people outside this city. Even if you try to look until the end of the place, you won't find them. To be an awakened, you need some special body's constitution, which was passed down by the twelves founder. Even then, not everyone has the same potential."

"Do you mean that no one can be an awakened if it's not from the twelves of them?"

"I believe so," Charlie expressed his view. "I have a friend outside, but they don't have any kind of system like in this city. I believe that Kanae also has some knowledge about them."

Kanae nodded her head. As her little sister, Laura, has been staying overseas for years, she knew bit by bit about them. There was nothing really remarkable from the people overseas. Even though they have some difference in built, it was not to the point of surpassing normal boundaries.

Only in this city do they have the system to check every newborn baby and the control tower that controls those special people's movements.

"I see. Thank you, Teacher Charlie," Kevin looked at the device by Charlie's side. "You should take care of your health and don't go out of this place for the time being. Your safety is one of the first priorities."

"I know," Charlie pointed to Taro. "He has told me the gist of things that happened while I'm still unconscious. Thank you very much for your help, Ryukalin Clan Head Kevin."

"I'm just doing my job," Kevin replied indifferently. "Let's go back, Kanae."

"Yes!"

Charlie watched as the two of them walked out of the room. He sneaked a glance at Taro. "The situation in the city is not as bad as you say. Even though there are a lot of changes lately, the overall situation is driving us to move forward."

Taro arched his eyebrows. "You should recover quickly and take over the business again. I don't have a knack in business like you."

"I'm afraid that I too don't have any ability for that."

"What do you plan to do after this?" Taro asked curiously.

Charlie pointed to his feet. "I'll just stay in hospital and follow through my rehabilitation. I don't want to drag you down with my weak physical strength, so I can't really help you."

"Nah, I can do things by myself. I'm already a grown up."

"That's good. I entrust the business to you, Taro."

"Why don't you say that you want to get away from every complicated matter, Brother?

"I don't say that."

…

Kanae and Kevin returned back to their car as Kevin pondered about their conversation just now. It seemed that the matter of awakened really only limited to this place with some complicated history that covered the real story.

"What do you think Ferdinand plans to do?"

"He wants to take the information outside this country," Kevin replied. "Since there's no awakened people outside, if they can develop the same medicine, there's a chance that they can grow stronger."

"It'll become like a drug?"

"That's completely plausible," Kevin replied. Even he himself was not sure about the effect of the medicine that Ferdinand had in his hand. What he had seen so far was medicine that affected awakened people and not normal people. If he managed to make one for normal people, it would be a disaster once it spread out.

Kanae frowned. "There will be a lot of people who want power for themselves. Even at the cost of their lives and the risk pertaining to it, there's no guarantee that they won't be tempted."

"That's why this medicine should never see the light. Right now, the technology of this world couldn't match with the medicine's growth. It required more attention."

"It's complicated."

"We'll talk about this later. There's a change of plan for the two representatives."

"There's a change?" Kanae was surprised.

"Jason called me before we came here. The two of them have something that they want to do before returning back home tomorrow."

"Oh…"

"Also, our visit hasn't ended yet."