"Why… Why are you like this?"
He paused as he spoke, but his voice was unusually calm.
This bothered Arthur quite a bit, even if Aries didn't care for him like he did his parents. Even if he didn't care at all, He would at least have a reaction to his current state. The other children didn't know him at all, and probably didn't care for him as a person, but they at least had a reaction to his deplorable state.
Aries didn't react out of care and worry for him, nor did he react in disgust. In fact, he didn't even seem to react at all.
Sigh…
Despite this, Arthur still decided to answer.
"I… I'm not quite sure… I actually came looking for you, but after a while, I got dizzy— Cough, cough… When I came to, I was like this— Cough, cough."
Aries stood silent, then turned to the children.
"Leave, quickly."
The purple-haired girl, bewildered, responded.
"What? Why?"
Meeting her gaze, Aries spoke:
"I have reason to believe that something big is about to happen, something dangerous."
Hearing his explanation, the children nodded and quickly left. Aries watched them leave, and as they left his vision, he turned back to Arthur, who seemed confused.
"How do you know that something is about to happen?" He asked.
Instead of answering, Aries walked up to him and helped him stand.
"We're going back home."
"Are you sure?"
Aries nodded.
"It's better for you to rest somewhere familiar and comfortable than on the side of the road."
"I see…
What about Marisa and Alice?"
"Isn't it better for them to see you and worry than for something to happen and they never see you again?"
This time, Arthur stayed silent. Aries did not add anything either and simply began walking with him.
***
After walking for a fair amount of time, Aries eventually reached the house. He rested Arthur on the wall, then knocked on the door. Instead of waiting for an answer, he knocked once more before walking.
Then he paused and turned to Arthur.
"I'll be back, I'm going to do something."
Arthur seemed to want to say something, but he had gotten too weak, so Aries simply turned around and walked away.
After leaving Arthur at the house, Aries ran back through to town and towards the park.
Just as before, he noticed once again that there were fewer people than usual, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment. Thus, he focused on what he could do something about.
Making a few turns, he eventually reached the park. The park, for the most part, was the same as before, albeit no one was there.
After reaching the park, he decided to slow down. He walked through the park, scanning its expanse methodically. As he made his way closer to the forest area, a pungent smell reached his nostrils, making him recoil.
The scent reminded him of decaying corpses, along with a foul odor he couldn't describe, made all the worse by his enhanced sense of smell. Luckily, he had his disguise active, or else he would not have been able to handle the stench.
At the same time, the stench was a good sign, as it meant he would find something, even if it wasn't what he was looking for. Thus, he covered his nose and trekked his way into the forest.
After walking through the forest, he eventually reached the place where he had buried the Ore seeds. Unlike before, though, they didn't seem very buried anymore. In fact, they didn't seem like seeds anymore.
The small dirt mound he had made so he could find them again should the situation call for it had been dug out into a hole big enough for him to comfortably rest in it. The seeds were completely lightless now, no different from a regular stone on the side of the road.
What intrigued Aries, was not that the seeds had been dug up, no. What intrigued him was the fact that they were still here. The process of absorbing chi into one's body is dangerous due to the body becoming unstable, thus leaving them defenceless as they consolidate their powers to stablize their body. It was for this same reason why an individual should wait a week before using their abilities fully or trying to advance again— however unlikely it is to gather enough power in such a short amount of time.
Even in the case that they were confident in their safety, absorbing the seeds as they are would be a waste as it would be better to steal them and grow them into ores before absorbing them for maximum chi gain.
But the person did none of that, absorbing the seeds as they were, right were they were. More than that, how did they absorb the seeds without Aries noticing? There were six seeds, meaning it would have taken multiple days to absorb them and they would be too preoccupied with absorbing the seeds to hide themselves, so how did he not see them in all the times he had passed through the area? Even if he did hide, Aries still should have notice the fluctuations of chi when he passed.
'So many questions, so little answers.'
Since he most likely wouldn't find anything more here, Aries decided to continue moving forward, towards the scent.
As he got closer, the smell became more unbearable, even with his nose covered. Soon, he started to see splatters of crimson on the grass. He walked thoughtfully, making sure to follow the trail of crimson as his sense of smell had become useless due to how overbearing the scent had become.
His feet pressed down on the grass, crushing the foliage, but at the same time, a squelching sound reached his ears. It was a sound grass was never meant to make. When he lifted his foot, crimson liquid, along with a thick white-yellowish, was stuck to his shoe.
Each step he took from that point forward resounded with the same squelching sound, along with the two liquids.
At some point, the air had become so thick with the stench that his vision was beginning to be affected. He didn't want to waste chi using his abilities to see, so he relented to being blinded. This did not matter too much, as he still had his sense of touch and hearing, so he wasn't completely crippled. And if worst comes, he could release his disguise to sense heat and vibrations as a serpent would, although that would leave him even more susceptible to the stench.
He had eventually reached something, as a mass of red appeared in his blurry vision.