Applause resounded through the hall again. A nonchalant Sévon applauded too, but no longer focused on the stage. His attention was directed toward a person in the crowd.
A slight smile crept onto Sévon's face.
"Hmmm,would you look at that?"Sévon said,
Assad looked at him and immediately saw that something had changed.
"What?" said Assad.
Sévon's gaze remained on the person.
"I just saw someone familiar, that's all," Sévon said.
Vonessia looked in the direction of Sévon's gaze, her face immediately taking on a more serious expression.
"Familiar? Care to elaborate?"
Sévon exhaled softly, still smiling a little.
"I'm going to go and greet them." He sounded casual, but it was evident there was tension behind that voice. Sévon then looked at Vonessia.
"You'll be alright to manage alone right Ms.V?"
Assad looked at Vonessia but she remained silent and had no response. Sévon noticed this and his grin widened.
"That…won't…work.I need Assad to um, check out each of the various areas in an effort to keep the place safe from any and or all suspicious activity,, Sévon stated
Since she had to agree with Sévon's statement and allow Assad to leave the auction hall, Vonessia did what Sévon said to do. Another grin appeared on Sévon and he turned to walk toward the auction hall.
'Sévon told me to look into the building but this is literally the first time I come here.''
"The other rooms in this building will be the best places for you to look for any suspicious activity according to Sévon," Vonessia told Assad.
Assad didn't understand why Vonessia would say that and then remembered that Vonessia could hear his thoughts.
After walking ahead of Vonessia, Assad turned toward the other side of the building as Nicla saw him leave and thought it would be fun to talk to Vonessia. However, Vonessia surprisingly began to talk back to her too.
Assad kept walking down the hallway until he finally found a door that opened into what he thought might have been an empty room, but upon entering, he realized that it was anything but, and he needed to pay special attention to not get lost in it or he could get into more trouble than he's already in; his only job is to check this place out and return.
When Assad entered the room, he found many items that he had no idea would ever go to auction and could not be more clearly a direct reflection of who owns them by their style and make-up.
In the exhibit cases, Assad encountered some unique items:
A Kind Clock – A small but very elegant clock with the second hand that shows moving backwards.
A Berserk Dagger – a jagged edge, totally suspended in the air, displaying slight movement of its edge as if it were taking a breath.
A Lasso of Despair – a coiled rope that had been thrown on top of itself and is standing upright in its case.
As Assad made to leave, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He stopped in his tracks. Rested in one of the glass cabinets a little ways from all the rest was a pair of gloves. They were solid black.
Made of a smooth, and almost unnatural leather. Golden lines that looked thin and almost like gold leaf danced all over the gloves, each line interwoven with a long squiggly line that formed a dragon beginning at the wrist to the tips.
Somehow, these gloves stood out above and beyond everything else in the entire room. Assad stepped over to get a closer look. As he reached the glass case he looked down at the label below the glass.
Melodic Demon.
He blinked.
"That's a weird name."
When he thought of the name of the gloves, he could only think of how peaceful and soulfully sounding it was for something that looked like this. There was no denying it.
His eyes shifted quickly through the room to the left, right, and behind him. There was no one. Without hesitation he opened the glass cabinet. The instant his fingers brushed against the gloves he had a tingle-like feeling crawl up his arm. He hesitated for only a half-second.
And then he grabbed them.
Assad's body isn't really his. He is in a third party's body. He has taken control of a gangster's body, therefore he is experienced at stealing.
Slipping on the gloves, they fit perfectly on his hands, like they had been custom designed for him. He flexed his fingers slowly and felt the black leather tighten naturally around his hands as the golden like dragon patterns traced their way along his movements.
"Unreal," he said to himself.
He lowered his hands and took one last look around the room before stepping back out into the hallway. Time to hurry up before he could shop or do anything. His job was simply to search for any signs of suspicious activity at this location; nothing more. So he moved throughout the corridors, taking steady strides while keeping a close watch on every corner, shadow, and door he passed.
So far he had found nothing unusual; no one moving around out of place; no signs of trouble at all. It was just an ordinary auction company, but that was even worse than finding anything out of the ordinary. He felt the tension growing between his eyebrows.
What could cause Sévon to urge him to go check out the location of where he happened to be? This does not seem to be like him. But even more importantly, where did Sévon go? He had mentioned previously seeing someone he was familiar with, and did so while smiling a very condescending smile.
'Is it possible the person Sévon recognized was his girlfriend?'
That could not possibly be true, but then again… it could be.
Assad quickly dismissed these thoughts as they were meaningless, yet they intrigued him enough that he wondered if he could ask Sévon about them or just spy on him before returning to Vonessia.
The excitement of discovering Sévon's true nature caused a smirk to spread across Assad's face. He continued walking down the hallway, his footsteps light and perfectly controlled until they abruptly stopped when he spotted a guard.
The guard stood at the other end of the hallway, perfectly still like a statue, watching and studying everything before him. Immediately, Assad's eyes sharpened in response to the guard. Without hesitation, he moved behind the nearest pillar, pressing his back against the cold wall.
'Damn...that was too close. If that guard saw me, I'd be in serious trouble.'
Assad slowed his breathing and carefully peeked to see where the guard was. For the moment, his body was still but began to twitch when he realized that he had not yet checked on the guard's location.
'What the hell...?' he thought before his body did not respond to his command to be still and stepped out from behind the pillar. Assad's eyes widened in surprise.
"What are you doing?!" he whispered to himself.
Assad tried to retract from where he had stepped, but his body did not comply with his mind's request.
He made an effort to withdraw yet again, yet his muscles remained rigid until at last they would begin walking toward the officer. Assad's breathing became erratic.
"No, no, no, no."
He tried using mental control and physical restraint to halt his feet yet it was no use, for his body kept propelling itself ahead. As soon as he came into sight, the officer turned to face him. Assad's smirk was unnatural as the corners of his mouth stretched beyond normal limits.
"Purpose?" he said quietly.
As he did this, he tilted his head to the left.
"None of your business."
The officer scowled.
"..I'd watch your tone."
Assad let out a soft laugh.
"Or what?, you'll waddle over here and apprehend me?"
He took another step toward the officer, making the muscles in his face tighten.
"Just take a look at your physique; it appears that you eat more than your guards eat." He continued speaking softly and even smiled a little.
Then was the long pause.
"I guess that is a family trait?"
The guard lunged ahead, his furious expression making it obvious that Assad had pushed the guard too far. Assad's smile grew even more.
"I guess that hit too close to home?"
With the guard ready to bring his hand down to hit Assad, Assad looked down. His smile was still intact:
He lifted his head up again and something had changed; the guard suddenly stopped in mid-swing. There was definitely something wrong…no, actually, something very seriously wrong. Behind Assad there was the most massive hand that he had ever seen in his entire life…within that hand was something even stranger; there was a glowing single red eye staring right at the guard.
The guard couldn't get his breath. His hand tremblingly came to rest upon the floor in front of him. He felt as if something very large was pushing him down into the ground.
"Ghk!"
The force of his knees hitting the floor caused a flood of blood to come up into his mouth. He violently coughed. His vision blurred; however, that eye remained completely still, staring down at the guard.
Everything seemed as normal as it was supposed to be in the auction hall. But out of nowhere pressure hit with a huge, crushing weight. Arnid was first to respond in a flash, he lost his confident smile in a second and his entire body went rigid, then buckled in on itself.
"Ghk!"
He dropped to one knee next to the podium, then began to violently cough and expel blood from his mouth. All Hell broke loose in the auction hall.
"What is going on?! Is someone attacking us?!"