Under The Veil of Night

Kale Company

Kevin went to the office earlier than usual. It has been some time since the last time he needed to go early because of the fighting on the street. By his side, Neo yawned because he was the one who had to drive the car when they came.

"Can you be the one who drives?" he complained to Mike.

Mike shook his head lightly. "I already drove us back to the city last night, so it’s now your turn."

"I know."

Kevin looked towards the television. Some of the employees turned on the television in the office to make sure that they would get the latest news about the fighting on the street. Some of the employees didn’t even dare to come and submitted that as their reason to not come today.

"The number of employees today is really low," Neo frowned. If things kept going like this, they were not going to finish any work and the company might suffer a lot of losses.

"They are afraid to get out. Only those who don’t come from ordinary families dare to come," Mike said.

Kevin didn’t pay attention to them as his eyes locked on the television. Some of the reporters were still out there, risking their lives to get the latest news. Many of them had to do this because they wouldn’t be able to get any good scoops if they didn’t. At this moment, there was a reporter filming the fight at their school.

"With that much damage, it’s certain that we won’t need to go to school tomorrow."

"Boss, what are you looking at?" Mike only saw the school, but he didn’t understand why Kevin stared at the television intently.

"Neo, prepare the car."

"President, is there anything....?" Neo wanted to ask, but seeing the solemn eyes on Kevin’s face, he swallowed the words he was going to say, "Aye, I will be going now."

With that, Neo sprinted to the basement where the car was parked.

Mike shifted his eyes towards the television. He didn’t understand why Kevin would tell them to go to school during this kind of day. Besides, what kind of idiot student would stay in the school at this time of chaos?

The television provided the answer. He could faintly see a student who wore their school uniform walking across the field at high speed. With that, he could easily guess who that person was. The lower part of the uniform was a skirt, so it was a girl, and the only girl their president would willing to take care of was only one person, the Student Council Vice President, Kanae.

"President, the car is ready. Do you want to go by yourself or...?" Neo asked.

Kevin cut him, "Mike, you drive the car and Neo, you stay here and finish the work. In addition, make sure our members stay away from the areas of conflict. I don’t want to hear a report about them being wounded when I return."

"Wait, what?" Neo was startled. The amount of work here was not small; there was no way he could finish it by himself. As for the other request, he felt like crying. The street was already in chaos, and having none of the members of their clan get hurt was simply impossible.

On the other hand, Mike immediately jumped in and started the car while Kevin got into the back seat. It didn’t take long for the two of them to disappear from view, and Neo could only sigh in exasperation. He needed to work hard and finish as much as he could during this time.

Mike drove as fast as he could and avoided the citizens along the way. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw the serious expression on Kevin’s face.

"She is going to be alright."

"You saw it too?" Kevin was still expressionless, but his eyes were full of worry.

Mike nodded, "I did. She is stupid for going to school at this time, but I don’t think you need to worry about her so much. You should know that she already lived alone for a long time, right, Boss?"

"Indeed," living alone in this city where crimes were common was indeed an extraordinary feat. Yet, Kevin still felt worried for her to get caught up in the middle of a battle. She would surely find it hard to get out alone.

"President, don’t you need to maintain your distance with her?" Mike asked carefully.

"I already do that," Kevin answered immediately.

"..." in my view, you were getting close with her. Mike sighed to himself; there was no way he could explain it to Kevin, but he hoped that Kevin was going to be fine with this move.

...

Nolen School C

From the moment Kanae saw the announcement in front of the school, she already got a bad feeling. And her feeling turned out to be correct. The school would be closed down for a couple of days because there was a clan’s battle. The content of this announcement really irked her to no end.

Turning her body, she was about to sprint and disappear when she stopped. There was a camera nearby and she knew that she couldn’t be fast enough to avoid it completely. Even if she specialized in speed, it was hard to go unnoticed when she was wearing her uniform like this.

Covering her face was easy, but if they wanted to check people with the same build as her, it would prove to be very troublesome. In her mind, she quickly thought of various ways to get out of the school normally.

"Too late," Kanae gritted her teeth. The people from the clans already came and made a ruckus near the school. There was no guarantee that they would not come inside to fight, so Kanae needed to make an escape, and fast.

Glancing at the camera, she thought of the places she could go to without the camera capturing her. However, there was no way unless she broke into the school, which she couldn’t possibly do or the people would suspect something if she were missing.

"The courage of the reporters in this city sure cannot be underestimated," as they were even brave enough to stay within a few meters’ distance from the battle.

As she scanned the area, Kanae’s eyes caught sight of an abandoned storage room. There shouldn’t be anyone who locked the door, and she could stay there until the situation got better.

Stepping away from the front gate, Kanae ran towards the door. Her speed was quite fast, but it still didn’t reach an abnormal one. The camera would surely catch her, and she could only hope that there would not be any news regarding a stupid student who came to school during a clan’s internal battle.

Making sure that her surroundings were safe, Kanae slipped into the storage room. The room was dirty because no one had used it for a long time. Kanae wiped the dust off a crate before making sure that she could sit comfortably.

"Whatever, it’s not like I can go fight in this situation," Kanae leaned back and sighed. She didn’t want to get involved in the internal battle of the Souhon Clan if it was not necessary.

The sound of gunshots and the clanging of weapons could be heard loudly. The reporter who hid in the bush would surely do something to make sure that he was not hit, or his life would be over. That was one of the hardest things to do when reporters wanted to capture news during this kind of hectic time.

Her hand touched the special phone she always kept her side, and it immediately connected to the others.

"Rei, is there anything wrong?"

"Oro, why didn’t you inform me about the internal battle in the Souhon Clan?"

"I thought you already knew about that. It started last night, and the television reported on it continuously."

"I don’t have a television," Kanae frowned.

"Anyway, do you want us to participate in the battle?"

"No."

"Are you sure?" Jason asked skeptically. After all, Jay was Kanae’s friend and there was no way this girl didn’t want to help out.

"Proceed with the plan we agreed on," Kanae answered. "There’s no need to get involved if they don’t offer us anything."

"Alright, I understand, Captain."

Kanae turned off the communication device. She closed her eyes lightly. For this battle, ’Rei’ couldn’t appear because there were too many reporters around. It was not the right time to show off what she looked like.