บท 9: I Will Still Try

It was night in the Republic of Calazan, most people were already sleeping peacefully in the upper and lower cities, with the soft glow of the moon coming through the windows and curtains of their homes.

However, there were exceptions, such as people who worked in the underworld and took advantage of the dead of night to stealthily carry out their 'works'. One such case was taking place somewhere in the upscale part of the upper city near the pilot academy, where 5 silhouettes completely dressed in black listened intently to the orders they received from a device that looked like a radio.

''You must keep him under constant surveillance.'' Said a husky male voice that came out of the transmitter.

"Any more orders, sir?" The person holding the transmitter asked, by the thin thickness of the hand and voice, did she appear to be a woman.

"Keep the Landra boy within bounds, and any suspicious action he takes, you must inform me immediately." there was a pause in the man's speech. "And if necessary… eliminate him at any cost."

The transmitter then had its little blue light turned off, which indicated that the connection had been disconnected, signaling that the man passing the orders turned off the device he was using. The 'shadows' that were positioned in tall trees near a dormitory, watched a boy with black hair who was lying in his bed sleeping.

Their mission was to watch the boy constantly, keeping him within limits the client hadn't specified very well. However, the moment the boy demonstrates any action that poses a threat to the client and his family, they would swiftly act by eliminating the boy.

"Let's find another place, it's already dawn." The group leader said, as the shadows headed for another place a little farther from the dorm.

However, the shadows were unable to detect a small drone that was silently watching them, recording everything they had been doing for some time.

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''Something wrong?'' Mary asked, wondering at Quagmire's behavior, who was even more cautious than he already was.

''No, it's okay.''

Quagmire stopped looking around and turned his gaze to Mary, who was standing in front of him. The girl had come to see Quagmire, on the pretext that she wanted to watch him work on his projects.

''So you use this method, huh?'' She lightly touched a glittering piece that Quagmire had just made.

However, Quagmire couldn't fully focus on his work or on his friend in front of him, as the boy had discovered by chance that he was being watched. He already imagined that at some point they would send some kind of message or who knows what, in order to scare him or warn him that they knew who he was, since most of the leaders of the noble houses and the commanders of the Great Noble Houses knew his true identity.

What he failed to predict was that they feared him so much that they would send assassins so soon, to watch him and maybe even at some point erase his existence altogether. Anyhow, this did not concern him, as the boy had already dealt with countless life and death situations, having created a great fame in the republic's underworld because of his deeds. What worried him was that maybe it affected those around him, such as Mary, as well as the thought of him being caught off guard at some point.

"Are you sure everything is ok?" Mary showed a strange concern for Quagmire.

"It's just a personal issue, you don't need to worry." he said, putting his hand to his head as he massaged his forehead.

Mary wanted to say something, but she didn't know Quagmire as well as Alice, as she avoided talking to the boy a lot until a few weeks ago, before the announcement of the mirian competition. She remained silent, just waiting for Quagmire to calm down on his own, watching him in case he got ill or something similar.

"I'll have to go out for a while, feel free to do what you want." The boy spoke, leaving the room still in his lab coat as he had forgotten to take it off.

Quagmire could no longer stand to spend endless nights worrying about this situation, it had been 4 days since he discovered the existence of the 'shadows' that constantly watched him. The boy decided that he would get rid of these snags today, now how would he do that... that was the real problem.

"Target moving down the hallway near the library." There was a low voice over a small transmitter.

The shadows were active even in the morning, following Quagmire wherever he went. They noticed some of the boy's strange behavior, but ignored it as from what they had seen, Quagmire was quite out of the ordinary.

The boy went through the corridors in a lab coat, drawing attention wherever he went, the coat contrasted with his clothes making him more handsome than he normally was. The shadows continued to follow Quagmire, until the boy arrived in a closed room marked 'Laboratory' and they lost sight of him.

The woman who had a star-shaped brooch on the chest of her clothes, ordered the shadows to be ready, just waiting for the moment when the boy left the place.

They stayed there until sunset, with a beautiful view of the event, and the day finally got dark bringing the moon that benefited them immensely, so that their activities had a wider range.

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I think that's fine. Quagmire thought, holding a small, odd-looking device in his hand.

He was the only person in the lab at that time, as the moon had long since risen and people had gone off to sleep. The boy thought that waiting for night to fall was the best option, devising a plan to eliminate the threat from the shadows so that it didn't arouse too many suspicions.

Quagmire then tucked the device into his shirt pocket under his lab coat, and looked at his wristwatch which indicated it was 2 am, 'I still have time to spare,' he thought.

He turned off all the machines and headed towards the exit door, stepping out into the wide hallway that was empty, to go to sleep. At least that's what he wanted the people watching him to think, having made a device that would help him in this endeavor.

He reached his room, where he found Mary lying on the sofa sleeping. Quagmire went to his room, grabbed a blanket and covered her.

Then he went into the bedroom again and lay down, pressing something into the device in his pocket, which made a low click and a constant noise.

"Hope it works." He muttered under his breath, smiling in a haunting way.

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''He is sleeping.''

"He's acting weirder than usual." Commented a shadow.

"If this continues, we may have to eliminate the target." Said the woman with the brooch.

"Kill me?" A voice came from behind the "leader" of the shadows.

The shadows immediately shifted their gaze to the source of the voice, there they saw a boy wearing a long, worn coat. It was Quagmire standing in front of them, like it was no big deal.

''Ah! Sorry you said *eliminate*, forgive my mistake!'' He completed the speech in a mocking tone, as if it were just a funny joke.

''When did you get there? How the hell?" The woman asked confused, as Quagmire was still lying on the bed in his bedroom. However, he was also in front of her, speaking normally.

''You see. I'm actually very smart.'' He said, pointing to his head, smirking mischievously as he looked into the shadows.

A strange scene unfolded in the middle of the night near the Veritas class dorm. A boy was smiling strangely at 5 people dressed completely in black, with several guns pointed menacingly at him.

''So, let's get the party started.''