BLOODY LOVE'S
Chapter 45's

“You've seen the creature twice—“

“Three."

Rolan turned his head slowly, staring at his bangs with round eyes. “Say Marco—“

“Three,” reset Jose. “I just saw the third time just now.”

Jose took a breath. Actually he did not want to rush to tell about the ghost he saw until things changed more clearly. He still wanted to investigate it alone. But Rolan obviously knew something more than he expected. The man hid a lot of information and was unwilling to share it thinking that Jose was still too naive. It was something that Jose didn't like.

Moreover, telling her about what she saw with Nolan meant also telling her about her activities with the girl. Even if Rolan knows, then Marco knows as well. Marco doesn't like Nolan. What combination is worse than all that?

But Jose felt he had no choice. Rolan has a keen and sharp eye. Jose realizes that if he still insists on keeping his mouth shut about what happened, his uncle won't open up either.

“You just said what? When was the last one?” Rolan stepped a little closer. His hand was clutching Jose's shoulder.

Jose didn't take a single face off from Rolan. His eyes were staring straight like two pieces of gemstones. Dark colored gems. At a glance, Jose looked cold and terrifying, making Rolan subconsciously withdraw his hand.

What was that just now? I think Argent's blood is indeed flowing strongly within him, Rolan thought. The impression he got just now was exactly that of Marco. Unlike Edgar, Marco has a frosty look of the eye as well as an incredible calm. Rolan didn't like that at all. The side that led the dark world to Marco did not seem at all human to Rolan. Everything that is inhumane is a strange thing. Unacceptable.

Rolan was grateful that the children of his older brother, Renata, had no cold Argent blood at all. He especially likes Jose who is agile and always does what only his child's heart wants. Rolan really wished he could maintain the pure side of his nephew.

But he was wrong. Just now, Jose really seemed to have the aura of a real Argent; cold, intimidating, domineering. Only because of one grip on the shoulder.

Rolan gulped. His lips quivered as he asked carefully, “You didn't see wrong? Where to see it?”

“I didn't see wrong,” Jose shook his head. His face turned soft as before. He himself was completely unaware of the fear of his uncle. He was simply unhappy about being treated like a child in a cage and thought to be a coward. Therefore he gave Rolan a rather long silence, hoping to make his uncle realize that the matured response was something he did not want at all at the moment.

“The figure is the same as twice I saw in this house.” Jose stared around the room vigilantly, as if suspecting every corner of the item as a hiding place for the creature. “I saw it in Bjork south of.”

“When? When do we take Nolan? Why didn't you tell me anything?”

“Not.” Jose held up his hand in a blaring pose. “I went there again this afternoon, after lunch. Nolan and I are friends, okay? He wanted to teach me how to fish, so we went to the river in the forest—“

“You went to the river in the southern forest?!” Rolan almost cried out hysterically, but he held back. Instead, he hopped on the spot to express his emotional overflow. His feelings are mixed now. Angry, annoyed, curious, anxious, relieved, everything is stirred into one.

“You!” rolan exclaimed, now out loud, not caring if heard by others outside the room. “You! To there! You saw! Holy hooch! For God's sake, Jose! Why can't you stay home for a while?!”

“Now, Uncle really looks like Uncle Marco,” commented Jose. At first he was still a little horrified to imagine a figure plunging into the river south of Bjork, but his uncle's hysterical reaction made all the horror he experienced to be blurred.

Rolan glared at him angrily, then groped him and plucked Jose's body onto the sofa while he himself sat in his original spot. His body leaned forward, Rolan's eyes were now staring very seriously at his stake. “Tell! Tell me everything that happened!”

Jose recounted obediently, starting from he approached Nolan in the wooden warehouse, their journey to the river for fishing, strange laughter, a suddenly quiet forest, then the appearance of a sniffing ghost, and the appearance of a ghost, then when he ran away with Nolan. Jose also shared that no one believed him about the ghost he saw—Rolan snorted and said, “Of course! Stupid fool!” when Jose got to that part of the house, and Nolan, who also did not see a ghost sniffing across the river. Jose closes his story by saying that the fog is coming down and he has to go.

Despite telling the pattern and sequence of events chronologically, Jose did not recount the contents of his conversation with Nolan. Now, he looked at his uncle with a curious face, trying to guess what Rolan would say related to the ghostly sighting sniffing for the third time. He guessed, Rolan would forbid him to approach Nolan or go to the southern Bjork region next time. Jose was wrong.

The first thing that Rolan asked later was his impression of the ghost.

“You sure it's the same ghost?”

“Uncle already asked that earlier, of course I'm sure.”

“Then it becomes more unlikely that the ghost is Charles's man,” muttered Rolan. “He can't guess you're going fishing with Nolan.”

“Charles who did Uncle mean? Charles Hastings's? Uncle Marco's rival?” search Jose.

Rolan nodded slowly, pondering for a moment whether he would tell Jose everything. Heart refused. Jose better still be left as he is now, but it's good he gave the story from the other side.

“Marco thinks the ghost that came to our house last night was Charles's ninja. According to Marco, this is all just a dirty game between them.”

Jose wrinkled his face, making an expression of disbelief. “Serepot is just for unclear results? If I were Baron Hastings, I'd have burned half the house.”

“Hush,” Rolan said quickly, boasting an amused smile because his mind was the same as Jose's. “Maybe it is true. Who knows? Sometimes we don't know what's in the minds of sneaky people like them.”

“That's silly,” Jose flicked his hand while turning the eyeball. “Even if that is the only answer that comes close to reason, it still feels silly.”

Rolan laughed crisply. He stared at his watch, remembering that there was still work to be done. “Oh yes, I almost forgot,” he said. “I came here to say, your brother might come.”

***