The Conquerors Path
chapter-257

"Hey, Sonia do you have anything important to do today?"

Clara asked, her eyes twinkling with stars, hearing it Sonia shook her head, it's been just a few weeks since they became friends but to her Clara was like a sister since it was the weekend both of them were at a shopping, relaxing as they took a sip of their drinks,

"No, I am free, why did you ask?"

Cutely tilting her head Sonia spoke, her words caused Clara to start 'twitching' as she 'shyly' looked at the crowd and spoke,

"Well, I need your help"

"What help?"

Sonia asked, ready to head to any battle that Clara wanted to go, Clara 'smiled', as she spoke,

"Well, you see a week from today is a special day for both of us, its the first time we did 'it'"

As soon as Clara's words fell Sonia reacted as her juice flew out of her mouth, coughing up a red tint came to her cheeks as she spoke,

"Cough...cough...so what do you want to do?"

Hearing Sonia's words Clara shyly looked at Sonia,

"Well, you see I want to find something that might fit his taste that day and I know that he keeps a secret diary of his 'wishes' in his meeting room, so I want you to help to sneak into it"

"Re-Really?"

Sonia spoke, her face blushing up, all of this were a lot for the innocent her, she hadn't even had her first kiss much less anything else and she had heard her fair share of Clara's 'experiences' from her mouth and it would always leave her a blushing mess, by now she knew that Clara loved Austin a lot....frighteningly lot.

By now she had already heard about how Austin had saved her and gave her a new life, about how he didn't push her away when she was found to contain 'darkness' and many more, at least one by third of the words that come out from Clara's mouth would be about Austin.

By now Sonia already had a very high evaluation of Austin, not only from Clara's words but from her own observations, just the way his friends behave around him is more than enough for Sonia to know that he was not someone bad or evil, the respect that comes from each of them show how high they hold Austin in their heart.

She would be lying if she said that she wasn't attracted to him a bit but that's all, just a small attraction, in fact, she's sure that a lot of girl students would jump at the chance of being with him, be now he was at the top of the most desired boy in the Academy and she could tell that he was worthy of it.

She was very surprised when she heard that Austin and Clara were a thing but she gave them all her blessings, though she was sad that her friends could not openly talk about her love to the world but from Clara, she knew that she was happy with what she had and Austin did give her a promise to marry her in the future, she knew that Clara had a happy life into the future, she was both happy and envious about it,

"So, will you help me?"

"Sure"

Sonia nodded her head, happy to help her friend, soon an hour later they were sneaking through Austin's room, looking around for anything that might be the book that Clara spoke about, Sonia could feel her heart beating in tension, she was, after all, sneaking around a room without permission, moreover, there was some sort of bizarre feeling filling her heart, telling her to leave but she shook off the words of destiny and kept looking to help her friends,

"Did you find anything?"

Clara whispered but Sonia shook her head, but just as they were searching through the rooms they heard a voice, a very familiar pair of voices to be exact,

"So, what do I owe the pleasure of this meeting to?"

"Yes, I have something important to talk about"

"Really? then why don't we move to my room, it's more private"

Both Clara and Sonia heard Austin's and Leonardo's voices, the sound of them getting closer was ringing in Sonia's chest, looking over she could see that Clara too was surprised,

"Damn it! Austin should be gone for at least an hour more!"

She cursed and seeing her panicked look Sonia knew that trouble was brewing, she hurriedly walked over to Clara and whispered,

"What do we do?"

"First I have to hide you, me being here is not a problem, I could just tell that I was cleaning and Austin would forgive me but he wouldn't like it if he knew you too entered"

"Then what should I do?"

Sonia asked back her voice lased with anxiousness, Clara started to look around and finally, her eyes landed on a huge cupboard, pulling Sonia towards them she whispered back,

"Go...go, hide in them! he won't be looking into them, just wait till they leave and it will be fine"

"Wait! are you sure? won't they notice?"

"No, he doesn't look into them, plus it's our only shot, so get in quick"

Moving with 'anxiousness', Clara pushed Sonia into the cupboard locking her in. Due to her being anxious Sonia didn't notice a magic circle lit up on the cupboard, completely hiding her presence from everybody, if she had waited to think she would also have seen the mischievous smile that came up Clara's face the moment she had locked herself in.

Sadly there's no if and now things were about to play in a wrong way, as soon as Sonia was locked in, the door to the room opened and Austin and Leonardo walked in, seeing Clara Austin reacted with 'surprise',

"Clara, what are you doing here?"

"Nothing, I was just cleaning up"

"But didn't you clean it up in the morning?"

"I was just making s-sure"

Clara replied, a bit 'flustered', seemingly trying to get hold of the situation, Austin looked at her 'suspiciously' but in the end, he shook his head,

"Sigh...fine I will believe you for now but leave, I have something to talk with Leonardo"

"Okay"

Nodding Clara started to walk out but not before giving a comforting look towards the cupboard that had small cut openings, her eyes traced Sonia's seemingly comforting her that things will be all right, Sonia could only cover her mouth and watch as things proceeded, she tried to control her self, as she took deep breaths,

"So what do you want to talk about?"

Hearing Austin's words she focused her eyes on her front, trying her best to stay invisible, even though she was scared a hint of curiousness still filled her heart,

"I came to talk to you about Elda"

But the moments she heard the words from Leonardo she felt her heart squeeze, she held her shelf back as she kept watching,

"Elda? what do you want to talk about her?"

Austin asked, taking a seat opposite to Leonardo,

"Well, I think that she might be in trouble"

Leonard spoke, his eyes focused on Austin, trying to find pieces of evidence but all that he saw was a surprised look on his face as he responded,

"Elda in trouble? that's a nice joke"

"No, I'm not joking"

"The do you have proof?"

"Th-That...no"

Leonardo gave in as he shook his head but deep inside he was just feeling that things might be right, no good brother would be cool about the news of his own sister getting hurt,

"If you are talking about trouble then you better focus on Sonia"

Hearing Austin's words Leonardo's eyes narrowed, for a moment mana rose in his body but he held himself back as she spoke,

"What do you mean?"

"You didn't know?"

Austin asked back his face filled with disbelief, which irked Leonardo,

"What do you mean I don't know?"

But he didn't get an answer, Austin stood up from his seat and he started to pour himself a drink, taking a sip of the fine quality wine he spoke,

"Don't you know about the things that are happening to her?"

"Are you talking about the small bullying then it's nothing"

Leonardo answered back remaining cool,

"Are you saying that bone-breaking, working beyond her own body could, trying her best to keep up with you, facing blood loss, and getting beaten up are small things?"

The moment he said those words Leonardo's eyes widened, he didn't know about any of this, and his heartfelt heavy, just as he was about to reply he saw a smirk coming up Austin's face, soon the memory of what was said to him yesterday played in his mind, his words stuck at his throat as something that he never meant left them,

"So what? she's not much to me"

"....!!...."

His words had unknowingly broken a heart he would never get back.