"Ah, yes, Madeleine!" James replied nervously after responding to Madeleine's call.
"What happened? I mean, why are we at home and not at old man Herbert's shop?" Madeleine asked as she walked towards the Her dress and the matching bag on her waist.
"Ah! How should we say it! You suddenly fainted at old man Herbert's shop, so I carried you back here!" James lied, looked at Xiaobing, and continued: "And while I was carrying you... Xiaobing took care of carrying all the packages and purchases! Isn't that right?"
'Is this another performance for deception? Then I must excel in acting in front of her again!' Under the gaze of James and Madeleine, Xiaobing finished his bite of jam cake and said: "Yes, that's right! You were looking at fabrics and suddenly fell, and if it weren't for James's intervention, you would have gotten bruises from falling on the floor at that moment! Believe me, he was like a noble knight with a rose in his mouth when he caught you!" After finishing his words, Xiaobing looked at James's shocked expression, indifferent to it.
'This Bing guy again! And his devilish way of weaving stories! But why do I find this... wait! Damn you!' James was internally surprised and realized Xiaobing had spun another devilish story, but this time he took half of it from that embroidered image on the large carpet in the hall.
"Really? Is that what happened?" Madeleine said, unbelieving, but when she focused on Xiaobing's indifferent and unsuspicious expression... she felt at ease about what happened when she fainted and imagined the moment... Soon her face turned red and she went back to her room, closing the door firmly behind her.
'Tch, she actually believed me, what a farce!' Xiaobing said to himself, looking at the firmly closed door.
"What were you thinking?" James suddenly asked.
"Nothing, just supporting my partner!" Xiaobing replied quickly.
"Oh, really? Thank you, but you should insult openly, not in a veiled way!" James said mockingly.
"Tsk! What do you mean? It's just support without any insult!" Xiaobing replied, denying.
"Then what did you mean by 'the knight with a rose in his mouth'?" James asked nervously.
'Of course you, you fool!' He thought and said: "Man... I was just trying to fix your image in my lady Madeleine's mind, believe me, there's no insult in that!" Xiaobing replied in a friendly manner, hiding his previous coldness.
"Hmmm... okay, I still don't believe it wasn't an insult, but thanks again!" James said while standing up, looked at Steaky and said: "Didn't the packages arrive? I'm sure I put them in the same place as my glasses!"
"Yes, they arrived, but I put some in the storeroom and the others in Madeleine's room!" Steaky said calmly.
"Aha, good!" James said while bending down to pat Steaky's head, but the latter avoided his hand and jumped onto the shoulder of the seated Xiaobing.
Xiaobing looked at Steaky and said nothing, continuing to eat the cream and jam cakes.
James looked at Xiaobing, remembered everything that happened to them today together, and it finally made him feel the huge difference from all the days he spent with Madeleine, but he didn't feel this way now. Having someone contradictory to your personality is something exciting from James's perspective.
"What are you looking at? Are you a pervert?" Xiaobing asked with an unexpected expression.
"Wow! No, and what makes you conclude that?" James asked while taking a step back.
"Your looks showed something towards me, and they were stronger than what you show Madeleine! Doesn't that mean you're a pervert? Of course not, so don't worry, I was just testing you!" Xiaobing said while gesturing with his eyes towards the door of Madeleine's room, where a blue eye was peeking from behind the door, and then the door closed again.
'Madeleine! When and how did he notice she was peeking?' James was surprised by Xiaobing's precise observation of Madeleine, as he hadn't even noticed her.
"James, I want to go to the bathroom, so make way!" Xiaobing stood up after making Steaky jump onto the table, walked towards James, and passed by his side.
"Go ahead!" James moved further away and looked at Xiaobing, who quickly made his way to the bathroom door, then closed it behind him.
"What a strange person!" Steaky suddenly said in the living room, looking at James.
"No... the best word to describe him is: mysterious!" James replied while walking towards his room door and said: "I'm going to get another hat for him, so sit and watch him very carefully!"
"Okay!" Steaky quickly replied and stood on the table, his gaze directed towards the bathroom door.
...
Inside the bathroom, in front of the mirror, Xiaobing looked at his reflection and held his head in pain, but this time not from the effects of using his powers, but from the side effects of carrying the Abyss Pistol.
Although the pain wasn't as strong as the pain he receives from using his power, it was still painful enough to make an adult cry... But Xiaobing clenched his teeth tightly and endured the pain. The pain lasted a little and went away, but that wasn't all.
Because Xiaobing heard strange whispers inside his head, so he focused to activate his ability despite the physical pain he was also suffering, looked in the mirror, and saw a deformed shadow creature twisted around his head, while its three mouths were in Xiaobing's ears... in a terrifying scene.
Suddenly, he felt he was in an endless dark world, and those strange whispers continued in his head... while he suddenly felt he was drowning in that darkness, he tried to resist first and swim upwards but to no avail.
He would have lost hope if he hadn't seen that radiant light shining on his face with a glimmer of hope, and if it weren't for that, it would have been just a small light.
Xiaobing adjusted himself and swam towards that light with all his strength and speed, erasing the thought of surrender from his mind... and when he rose up and tried to jump towards that white beam...
Thousands of dark hands suddenly extended and grabbed him by his foot, waist, head, and covered his left eye, and he could only see with his right eye, in that radiant white light.
Xiaobing never wanted to surrender, so he tried to pull those hands, break free from them, and launch towards that light.
But suddenly, a group of dark hands launched towards that light, and strangely, that light did not reject or resist those dark hands, which merged with it and rose high in the air, in front of Xiaobing's eyes, and those hands stopped holding him and also launched towards the sky.
Suddenly, that light gathered with the darkness left by those dark hands, in the form of a winged person with 900 dark wings on the right dark part, and 900 radiant white wings on the left illuminated part.
A giant ring of light and darkness formed on the head of that giant winged person. One of his eyes was black with a point of light inside it, and the other was an eye of light with a black point inside it.
And more terrifying than his contradictory form were the two swords that radiated darkness and bright light in Xiaobing's eyes.
"The Winged Knight!" Xiaobing said in a surprised voice at what he saw, because that is the projection of the peak of the path of the Black Abyss Pistol and the Silver Torch.
That Winged Knight opened his mouth, which resembled a black hole, and began to say strange words incomprehensible to Xiaobing.
'What language is this? Could it be the ancient Alythion language? So I can't understand it?' Xiaobing thought to himself and looked at that giant Winged Knight before him with great reverence... and showed great respect for this Knight and didn't know why, but he believed it was because it was at the peak of his path... but he wasn't satisfied with this, and said loudly: "O Winged Knight! What are you saying? I don't understand you!"
That Winged Knight did not respond to him, but flapped his huge wings, causing Xiaobing to be thrown far away in that dark dimension... but he gave Xiaobing a cautious look, then that Winged Knight raised his dark sword and sent it towards Xiaobing.
Trying to regain his balance, Xiaobing looked at that huge sword radiating darkness and his eyes showed great shock, because that huge sword had shrunk in size but reached before him in a moment and pierced his body and passed through the back with tremendous speed, leaving Xiaobing looking at that sword from behind, then falling from the air heading towards that darkness resembling a deep black sea at speed.
….
End of Chapter ~ To be continued.