Chapter 67 A Fateful Meeting
The first thing Zero did after getting out of the bath was to go and check the footage of Elle and Anna to find out where they went.
However, a surprised expression comes on his face as he finds the footage missing. There was no footage including the parts of the battle that took place at Lake Bryxton.
'Is it Mark Leeway? Or is it someone from the Rose family? I did ask Mark Leeway to erase parts of the footage from the battle… did he take another step and erase the traces of Anna's escape too?' Zero thought as he went over everything inside his mind.
'This is a bit troubling… but since Elle is still in the white dimension, indicates they are still alive or at least Elle is,' Zero thought before sighing as he then wondered if there was a way to locate them.
"Guess I need to thoroughly search for them tonight," he sighed before moving towards the training room.
This hotel didn't have as great a training room as the previous one, so he had to change his ways of training by doing more strenuous motion, keeping his limits in his mind.
After a few more hours of training, he went out to eat in a nearby hotel. Taking a high-quality cab, he soon reaches a 5-star hotel where good quality food would be available.
Getting out of the cab, wearing formal jeans over a black T-shirt, his green eyes looked at the hotel in front of him. Moving inside the hotel, he chose a table at the corner before ordering specific dishes. He also gave the waiter a list containing a set of instructions on how he wants his food.
A few moments later, 3 girls enter the hotel wearing luxurious dresses. The others couldn't help but turn to look at them. Even Zero looked at those girls with a dumbfounded expression.
One of those girls, with silver long hair and blue eyes, scanned around for a seat before narrowing her eyes at an empty seat just the opposite to where Zero was sitting.
She then pointed there before all the three girls began walking towards those seats. However…
One of them stopped halfway as she looked in the direction where Zero was before a surprised expression came over her face. With her white hair up to the shoulder length, complimenting her white top that she wore over her grey long skirt, she stood there like a statue. Her blue eyes stared deep into Zero's eyes before she began moving like nothing happened.
Though it was a bit too late, because Annabeth was already staring intently at the place where Zero was. Her expression was half horrified, half shocked, she stood there frozen for a brief moment before she changed her expression into a smile and then acted as if nothing had happened.
"Hey! What are you both doing?"Confused at their sudden stoppage, the black-haired girl, Elizabeth, turned around and looked at both Eliza and Annabeth with an odd expression that wanted to know what they were doing.
"Ah! Nothing, let's go!" spoke Annabeth with a hurried expression, and Eliza also nodded at her before they both looked at each other with a slightly questioning gaze before moving towards the seat.
For the next few moments, Zero waited for the food to come as he tried to understand the whole situation.
'Was it a coincidence? Or did Eliza know these two… or perhaps… Ah! Of course! How can I miss that… Lucia! But how? Did she end up watching me removing the curse or something? Hmmmm… all right, let's break the problems into pieces first,' thought Zero as he calculated the whole situation.
First, he wondered if the situation was good or bad? If looked at the point that they were both with Lucia and Eliza, then it's actually a good thing. Since both Eliza and Cristine knew the importance of Reaper, they will take care of the sisters as if they were taking care of Zero. As for Lucia… it's a bit difficult to think what exactly she is planning here, but for convenience's sake let's assume that she needs something from them so she won't harm them either.
'Hmmm… most probably it's about the curse removal of the demonification process,' thought Zero as he looked at those three beauties, who were, for some reason, intently staring at him.
As soon as he turned his head towards them, they turned their head back as if nothing happened.
A wry expression forms on his face as he looks at those three idiots' pathetic acting.
'I can understand Eliza since I arrived in front of her as Zero. About Anna…hmmm did she see me in the demon dimension? Well… that would more or less explain the expression of fear she showed when she first saw me… what about Elle?' Thinking that he turned his head away before peeking through the corner of his eyes and saw the girls once again intently looking at him.
-Sigh
A long sigh escapes Zero's mouth before he watches the waiter coming towards him. Looking at the food, a smile forms on his face, while the girls also intently look at the food. Zero turned towards Elle, who was eyeing his food before she turned to Zero and watching him looking directly at her, she immediately turned her head to the other side and began whistling as if nothing had happened.
A smile forms on Zero's face before he stands up and then looks at the waiter before speaking,"Bring it here." and proceeded to move towards the girls.
Watching Zero coming towards them, the girls shrieked a bit before turning to him with an awkward smile. Zero smiled,"Ladies, may I sit here?" he asked as he turned to Annabeth, who was sitting on her own, and after a short pause, she gave some space for him to sit.
The waiter intently looked at Zero, surprised at his bold move, and secretly admired his ways of doing things before looking at him and winking at him, then moving away from there right after he finished placing the dishes.
'Well… Let's pretend that I saw nothing,' thought Zero before he observed the girls and thought for a brief moment,' the second thing that I need to know is, whether this is all a plan of Lucia's or they knew each other from before. Because if they did so, then it makes things much more complicated.'
For the next few moments, nobody spoke a single word and then all of a sudden Elle started staring intently at the face of Zero as a sudden realisation dawned on her and she almost shouted,"YOU ARE REA-MMPPHH MM Cough Cough.." before she could finish the sentence Zero covered her mouth immediately.
The other people looked in their direction with a curious look before Zero apologised for Elle's rude behaviour and the others smiled before getting back to their own work. Meanwhile, Elle had a shocked expression as her eyes glistened and she looked at Zero with an amazed look.
"Are you really him?" in a hushed voice Elle asked after removing Zero's hand from her mouth and observing his face, however Zero ignored her and looked at Annabeth and asked,"where did you take her last night? I was searching for you."
Annabeth looked at Zero with a firm gaze before asking,"Why? Why did you save us?"
Zero pondered a bit before speaking,"That I can't tell you. I have a mission which, in this dimension, only I know of. It's kind of important for me to save you." he then proceeded to eat the food with a blush on his face.
"Why did you kill him?" she asked again as she looked at Zero with a questioning gaze, her eyes staring at him with a complicated expression that wanted to understand him but failed to do so.
"Because he was a hindrance to my plans. Well… let me ask you this first. Did you see it?" Zero asked as he looked at Annabeth with a meaningful gaze. By seeing it, he meant whatever happened in the demon dimension.
"Yeah. I was there," she replied with a slightly scared expression. Looking at her sacred expression, Eliza and Elle couldn't help but get curious about what happened.
"Sigh… all right. I will tell you why I killed him, but let me ask you this first: what are you doing here in the first place? Shouldn't you be somewhere in a safer location? You aren't really safe right now. Don't you know that?" Zero spoke with a questioning gaze as he took a few sips of his drink and ate a bit more, smiling a bit more as he enjoyed the food with every bite. After surviving the apocalypse over so many years, good food was a rare delicacy for him so he couldn't help but savour each and every bite.
"Well, we are here to meet someone-"
"Excuse me sir, looks like you are sitting in the wrong place," spoke a man standing right beside Zero as he looked intently at him. Zero turned to look at him, only to find another familiar face.
A black-haired man with specs over his blue eyes who looked almost 25 years old was standing there. The black suit he was wearing looked good complementing his toned body as he stood there with his hands in his pocket.
The elder brother of Elizabeth and Annabeth, Isaac Rose, was standing right beside Zero.