Kassandra made her way to the areas that her brother had listed. She really had doubts that Amias went here just because. But seeing her brother being upset about it... She couldn't help but feel guilty a little.
Looking at the list, if Kassandra was being honest, she felt like this list was actually her brother's go-to area. Just looking around won't help her look for Amias. Time was valuable to them right now.
"Excuse me" Kassandra began to ask several stalls asking if they had seen Amias and to her dismay, they all said they haven't seen him.
This kept going up till she reached the last area on the list. It was a simple bookstore in the eastern part of the Capital.
Kassandra looked up and down the building before walking in.
"Welcome to the storeeee" a little boy carrying a few books came into Kassandra's view.
"oh uh..." Kassandra doesn't do well with children so she's rather lost on how to interact with him.
"Dad is talking to a customer right now. If you need help looking for a book, just tell me instead. I'm Mark" The little boy, named Mark, introduced himself.
"By any chance, the customer looked like this?" Kassandra took out her phone to open a photo of Amias. She showed it to the boy and the boy looked up at her and frowned.
"N-no! That person isn't here." The little boy stuttered, trying to lie to Kassandra.
"Ah so he is here..." Kassandra looked around and before she could walk a few steps deeper into the building, the boy blocked her way.
"He's not!" The boy held his arms up.
Kassandra just looked at him and thought 'It's not like you'll be able to stop me'
"Lying isn't good you know?" Kassandra tells the boy as she grabs him on the back of his collar and raises him up.
"Put me down, you bully! DAD!"
"yES! What happened?!" A man with glasses and grey hair ran from the backroom to the front. The moment the man saw Kassandra, he immediately bowed down.
"L-lady Kassandra, what brings you here?" The man didn't dare to look up at her.
The kid in her grasp suddenly gasped and looked down. He never knew that this person was Lady Kassandra, and not only that he offended her.
"Amias is here right?"
"Oh Um"
"You do know the penalty of lying to a noble right? Answer me now. Where's Amias?"
"I'm right here, just put Mark down" Amias appeared behind the man and patted his head.
"Get up Allan, I'll talk to her" Amias smiled at the man and the man glanced between the two nobles. It seemed like he was hesitating about something but his son was still in Kassandra's grasps.
Kassandra did put down the kid and the kid ran to his father. She motioned her head towards outside to which Amias responded with a sigh. He turned around to the two and apologized before walking outside. Kassandra followed after him and with her arms crossed she asked him;
"What's your relationship with him?"
"Is that what you think of me? I bang everyone I meet up with?" He turned around glaring at her. Kassandra was at a loss for words. He hit right on the head of the nail. Seeing Kassandra like this made Amias laugh.
"I knew it" he sneered before continuing "Did Yohann tell you about this place?"
"He did" Kassandra finally recovered herself since it was something that involved her brother.
"He recommended this place. Telling me that if I needed to talk to someone I can just go here but the place got converted into a bookstore."
"Is that so then... what was this place back then?" Kassandra asked and Amias replied with a straight face
"A Psychiatrist's office."
Kassandra did not know what else to say. She didn't expect Amias to go to such a place especially when he never really showed any signs of being severely affected.
By all means, she thought he was arrogant and a horrible person for being able to "move on" so quickly. But it turns out, he never did move on. He only knew how to mask.
"Don't you dare pity me because of this alright? Anyways what's up? why did you look for me? As far as I'm concerned, you of all people don't care about me." He took out his phone to check the time and felt a little bit disappointed since it was a little before lunchtime and most of the time he spent right now could have been used for his session with Dr. Allan.
"Yohann wanted to see you today, I was hoping that you would stay there for lunch since I'll be busy"
"You're busy and yet you're here? it doesn't make sense"
"It's because..."
How do you apologize to a person? She wants to apologize but a part of her keeps telling her that she doesn't have to. That Amias was the one at fault so she is not required to apologize.
Amias did not understand Kassandra's antics today but he knew how much of a sucker she was for her brother. So he will assume that she's only here because of her brother, not because of anything else.
"You don't have to answer. You're out of time right? I think I can still teleport us back to the castle. I'll just sleep with someone later" He says those words so casually that it would frustrate a person.
Kassandra must have been spacing out when Amias called for her again.
"Sheesh my hands are clean" He had his hand out for a while already.
"I'm sorry" even if it's like this, she will use this opportunity to apologize.
Amias seemed like he didn't expect to hear an apology from Kassandra so he just stared at her for a while. He grabbed her hand and looked away.
"Just stop assuming things about me" He says before focusing his powers on teleporting the both of them back.
.
.
.
"Those two are certainly taking their time" Azazel says to Yohann.
Yohann only laughed and wrote on his notepad that he was actually happy that Kassandra and Amias were talking now. Azazel shrugged as a reply since those two barely spoke to one another after Yohann's disappearance.
Yohann patted Azazel's shoulder and showed him a few notes.
"If I'll be honest, I feel like I'm a burden to my sister. I don't remember much of what happened to me and when I try to remember it... it hurts. I don't want Kassandra to suffer because of me."
"Yohann... Don't worry you're never a burden to her. She was just worried and thankful that you are back here. By all means, just take your time to recover, no one is rushing you"
Yohann's mouth twitched a little since he was trying to prevent himself from crying. But those tears fell when Amias entered the room.
"I..." Amias was confused about what to do since Yohann suddenly cried the moment he entered the room.
Azazel scratched his cheek and stood up.
"I will stay outside. The both of you need catching up to do" Azazel smiled at the two of them since he already spoke enough with Yohann.
"Are you sure about that?" Amias hesitated and Kassandra took a peek into the room. She looked at Azazel and nodded.
"I'm very sure. Just call for me since Kassandra will be doing some work" Azazel left the room.
Closing the door behind him, he glanced at Kassandra who had a serious expression.
"That face doesn't suit you"
"Was Amias... always like this?" Considering the fact she did try to date him years ago... maybe he was different from how she views him nowadays.
"He changed a lot when Yohann disappeared. But I do hope that his old self would return, that being said" Azazel glanced at Kassandra "let him find himself again"
"Yeah don't worry. We spoke a little earlier, even if it was sloppy I learned a lot" Kassandra took off to greet her returning soldiers. Azazel just watched her disappear into the distance and he snapped his fingers to activate a small privacy array in Yohann's room.
"That should let you two have a heart-to-heart moment" Azazel murmured as he leaned on a wall to wait for them to finish.
.
.
.
"Yohann..." Amias handed Yohann some tissues and he accepted them with a smile.
Amias glanced at the notepad next to Yohann and felt upset. He thought he was healed? how come he couldn't speak?
Yohann looked at where Amias was looking and he takes it to write something;
"No matter how much they healed me, I can't speak"
Amias clenched his fists upon reading that sentence.
'Why did Yohann have to suffer like this? it should have been me'
Yohann grabbed Amias' hand and it brought him back to reality. The other person had been staring at him with sadness. He reached out and began wiping off Amias' tears.
"Oh?" Amias was surprised that he was crying and he tried to move away to wipe it on his own but Yohann refused to let him go.
"I'm fine, Don't worr-" Amias got cut off by Yohann's hand. He was frowning at Amias since he really hated hearing Amias say those words. He opened his mouth and he felt frustrated because no matter how much he tries, he can't speak. So for now, he just mouthed his words.
You're not fine. Don't say that.
Even without hearing, Amias could still hear his voice in his memories.
"Yeah, you're right.... I'm not fine. I'm sorry Yohann"