Chapter 29: Chapter 28: Apathy and Agony.

"Did I win?" Emmy asked as she looked around with her blurred vision, feeling it slowly adjust and with that— her being able to see.

"No! How did you even pass me? I was right there and was just about to reach! Why?" Lynx said as he marched toward Emmy but was blocked by Sebastian who was waiting for her by the tree, on the side of the bridge.

In Emmy's view, he looked quite broken from that, as he clenched his clothes and roughly handled them, making them wrinkly.

Lynx had no other choice but to complain at the other side of the wall that blocked him from his competitor. After a while, he reigned in his emotions and donned his mask of indifference once more. He looked at Emmy seriously, asking her.

"How did you do it?"

"I'm just built different," Emmy said seriously looking for a reaction from Lynx. He looked like he was about to cry and shout to the sky, poor guy.

"Hah~ Okay, I lost! You want me to apologize right? Then watch me do it, but I'll be back for my revenge," Lynx said as he motioned his friends to come along with him but only a few came, noticing this he laughed.

"Oh? You want to leave?" He asked as he looked at the five boys and two girls, who left. The remaining 2 boys and 1 girl stay at his side. Though a few still held a difficult expression.

"Lynx, look it isn't as if we hate you or anything but you have gone down the wrong path," the boy said as he scratched his head, Emmy touched her nose as she watched the drama.

"Hey, you lead us astray man!" The others weren't as delicate with their language as the first and quickly began accusing him of wrongs, shifting all the blame onto him.

"Yeah!"

Emmy looked at the chaos and winced wondering how Lynx was feeling after he was suddenly annexed by most of his friends, and it seemed that he was pretty calm.

Too calm.

Looking closer it seemed as if he suddenly lost a large chunk of himself and he just stood there, looking on as his former friends threw all these accusations. He didn't argue against them for some reason, but that did not mean that others were not going to.

His friends came to his defense, and one girl who seemed especially motivated and angry to argue spoke first, "I can't believe you guys after all you did, the least you could do was take responsibility!" She looked at Lynx and then continued, "Bro Lynx, why don't you tell them, they abandoned us, abandoned yo—"

"Lynn!" Lynx spoke, his voice coldly piercing through the surroundings like a knife, he looked at Emmy, and unlike most of those who shivered, she smiled. She was quite interested in what he had to say, after all—It looked like he still had some fight in him.

'Is he gonna go back on his bet, it would only cause him to get a reputation as a liar and someone who didn't keep their word,' Emmy leaned back against a tree, looking at Lynx with interest.

Would he go back on his word or would he keep it?

Lynx lifted his eyes at his former friends and the rest of the kids who showed up at the race, they were all at the bridge surrounding him. Emmy spotted the rest of the gang heading toward her and she nodded at them.

Andre sat down beside her, "Boss has it started yet?" Emmy shook her head as a shadow came by her side, it was Harlin and he was awfully quiet.

Noelle who she hadn't noticed earlier was also behind him, grimly looking a the current scene and Emmy looked back to see what was happening. None of them spoke, they just watched the show play out before them.

Lynx opened his mouth, "You are no longer my friends," he stared at them and turned toward the crowd, "But! You still have to apologize."

"Why? I don't see you apologizing, why don't you do it huh?" the same boy from before said, shouting as he pointed at Lynx's face. His hand was slapped away by Lynn, who now looked like she could eat somebody.

"You guys are so despicable! Dirty liars and backstabbing, cornish!" Lynn heaved and Lynx looked quite surprised before he re-assumed his previous expression.

"Why don't you do it huh? If you can't then stop barking!"

"Ugh!"

"Enough! I'll apologize and you all should as well," Lynx said as he walked over to one of the kids on the bridge, expression tight he bowed his head and said the dreaded words, "I'm sorry for all that I have done to you."

Emmy tilted her head as she looked at the once proud Lynx, now defeated before her. She however strangely didn't feel that happy about it, looking over at the others, even Andre— the one who wanted to pummel Lynx looked dazed.

'What is going on? Why does this feel. . . So wrong?' Emmy thought as she looked at the scene again, this time it was the one arguing with line who apologized.

"I'm sorry for all that I have done to you!"

"I'm sorry for all that I have—"

"I'm sorry for all—"

"I'm sorry—"

Emmy closed her eyes as she looked at Lynx, his former friends and current friends apologized nicely, there wasn't anything wrong after all. She was just imagining things, there wasn't possibly anything that could go wrong—.

Splash—

"Hmm?" Emmy opened her eyes as she looked at the now soaked Lynx, his originally vibrant light-brown hair now looked darker and soggy, with his pink eyes turning a dull peach. Emmy felt that something was wrong but couldn't pinpoint exactly what.

He was soaked obviously but she didn't say that anyone could bring things to throw at him. He was only eligible to apologize to them, why is he taking such treatment? That's not part of the promise.

Emmy looked on as another person dashed the boy with water, her mind was a mess and she didn't process what would happen next quickly enough. Thus a disaster happened right in front of her eyes, it was only in a brief moment that she saw what a kid brought with him.

You are reading story Emmy in Teyvat at novel35.com

Was that a bottle?

Shatter—

Emmy's eyes opened wide in shock as his jaws dropped. She heard Fischl and Noelle gasp as Sebastian and Harlin dashed to the scene to stop anything else from happening. Before they got there though, another kid punched Lynx in the face and sent him back a few steps.

Splash—

Lynx fell into the river and Harlin dived in after him. Emmy's mind was finally together with her body and when she "awoke" she found herself restraining the two kids. A "kind" smile on her face as she held them by their shoulders in a headlock.

"We should talk about this yeah?" Emmy said as she patted their faces, both laced with a bit of terror, "Why don't we talk about this together, hmm?" Emmy said, looking at all the other kids.

Soon enough Emmy had accounted for all the kids and prevented the guards from knowing what was happening, thankfully Sebastian and Aries aborted the guard recruiting plan. Otherwise, they would have something on their hands that they couldn't handle.

They had planned to get some payback on Lynx for what he had done to them. Emmy couldn't blame them but the lengths they went to and what they were willing to do were unforgivable.

They practically tried to kill him!

Do they even know what would happen to them? Their reputation, the nightmares, and the trauma that Emmy read from all those books in her free time. Her parents also affirmed that killing a human for the first time could scar a person, depending on how they're raised.

And no! Emmy wasn't just angry at the little sheep who trembled at her every word and the consequences she outlined. She was most angry at that stupid snake for taking it all, why did he do that?

Emmy couldn't understand him. She only asked him to apologize, she didn't say to bow but her words tricked him into doing so. For that, she would take the blame but everything else was his idea, it wasn't part of the deal to take such treatment right?

She sent all the other children home including Lynx's friends, but Lynn stayed because she wanted to see if her friend was safe. Emmy had to hand it to her, she was loyal and protective, and she wondered why even bother about that bully.

'Everyone deserves love I guess,' Emmy shrugged.

Though she did find it suspicious she was so protective of him, wasn't he just a bully? Emmy was a sucker for mysteries, which was why she didn't read Inazuma light novels anymore.

They were dry.

And repetitive.

"Ugh!" Lynx muttered as he was placed on the tree where Emmy was sitting a while ago. Lynn rushed over to him and scanned his body with extreme efficiency as if she had done it a thousand times before.

"So, Why did you take all of those blows from them?" Emmy asked as Lynx now looked to be fine, jumping straight to the chase.

"I felt like I deserved it," His reply bored Emmy tremendously but she still carried on.

"Oh? What did you do to deserve almost having your skull broken, almost being stabbed, and almost drowning? Notice that you almost died three times, three!"

Emmy lost interest in Lynx entirely after he didn't reply to her, scoffing she got up and signaled aloof to them to leave with her, leaving Lynx to lie there with his, possibly only friend left.

"Where are you going!" Lynx shouted his voice hoarse from the water that was previously down his throat, "I haven't finished yet, why are you leaving."

Emmy sighed and turned toward him, her indifferent gaze made him breathless and his anger dissipated slowly, he bowed his head and asked, brokenly;

"Why?"

"A sinking ship isn't interesting, nor is it worth the time and effort needed to save. Simply put, I'm done with you."

Emmy turned back as she clenched her fist waiting for him to shout back at her, to do anything but he never responded. She left her fist to go and started walking away, looking at the morning sun, a bitter taste in her mouth as she left the area with mixed feelings.

"Boss..." Harlin muttered as they walked back, the eyes of her friends told millions of stories yet Emmy wasn't willing to entertain them at this moment.

She shook her head and they let it go, for the time being, she strode forward acutely aware of the complicated emotions within the group.

To Emmy this wasn't a moment to be proud of, rather it was a moment that left her with a disturbing amount of apathy for another person's well being and she couldn't stand the feeling of not being able to muster, the emotion.

It was clear that only a little was enough but she was trapped behind that little mask she had.

The group silently walked through the gates; contemplating why victory didn't seem so appealing.

Emmy thought that triumph was supposed to feel uplifting but looking at the state her former "enemy" was in it didn't leave him with those sweet tastes often in those novels she read, the taste was different.

It tasted bittersweet.

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