Midnight Droplet

Chapter Two

Stella and Lyla follow Shun as she leads them to the clothing store on the second level of the mountain.

"Okay, the clothing store is over there." Shun nodded towards a building to her left. "I'll walk you two there."

"Oh, we can go ourselves." Stella said. "No need to bother yourself with us any longer."

"No, I insist." Shun said and continued to walk the girls towards the clothing store. Once all three girls are at the entrance, Shun opens the door and allows Stella and Lyla to walk in first. "Here you go."

"Thank you!" Stella and Lyla said at the same time.

"You're welcome." Shun said. "I actually have some business myself."

"Oh, that's why you're here." Stella said, looking at Shun's coat. "Oh, did you buy your coat here? I would like to buy one myself."

"Yeah, that looks nice and warm." Lyla said.

"Mine was especially made for me." Shun said. "But you can buy similar ones here."

"Okay, thanks again!" Stella said.

Shun smiles and looks around the area. She walks to the receptionist who is a young man in his early twenties.

Stella and Lyla watch as Shun talks to the receptionist. They were too far away to be overheard. The receptionist looks surprised and nods his head several times. After a minute or two, Shun walks back to the girls.

"He'll show you guys the coats now." Shun said and left the building.

"Thank you so much!" Stella said. "You have been a great help."

Bruno had followed the guy in the black coat inside a hot spring. The hot spring is located on the second level of the mountain.Once inside, the black coat guy makes several turns to get to the receptionist. The receptionist is a man about thirty-something years old. Both the receptionist and the guy in the black coat start to talk while Bruno listens from several meters behind.

"Hey, Lan!" said the receptionist.

"Hey, bro!" said Lan. "Just here to warm up before I give Zhong his breakfast." he signs his name on the sign-in sheet and walks into one of the hot springs.

Once Lan is gone, Bruno walks to the receptionist. "Hi! I'm here to bathe."

The receptionist looks at Bruno with a confused look. "Here to bathe?"

"Yeah, it's cold outside."

"It's always cold. Are you new here?"

Bruno nods. "Yeah, it's my first time here."

"Anyways, just sign in and pay when you're done."

Bruno signs in with a false name.

The receptionist picks up the sign-in sheet and gives Bruno a confused look. "Your name is Lance?"

"Yeah, it is. Anything wrong?"

"No, it's funny because the previous guy was named Lan. Your name has an extra syllable to it. Anyways, enjoy your stay."

Bruno scans the hot spring and sees several other guys relaxing in the pool. He sees Lan floating with his eyes closed. After undressing himself, Bruno goes into the hot spring and secretly keeps his eyes on Lan.

Following the guy in the blue coat was easy for Harold. The blue coat guy didn't even use any techniques to detect anything.

The pursuit had led Harold to the second middle of the mountain and then to the top mountain.

In order to avoid detection, Harold transformed into his Wolf form using his Natural Therian Construct. This way, if Harold were to be seen, it would only be the Wolf form. He looks around and only sees two buildings. Slowly crawling towards the blue coat guy, Harold can see him knock on the door of the bigger house of the two. After a few knocks, the door finally opened. A young woman appears from the door.

"Morning!" said the blue coat guy. "Shun told me to come here early."

"Oh, Zhong!" said the young woman at the door. "Shun hasn't come back yet. Come in. I'll make tea while you wait for her."

After ten minutes of waiting, Harold sees Shun coming up from the second level. She stops in the center of the area. "You can come out now!"

The door of the big house then swings open and Zhong comes out. "I'm here!"

"Not you!" snapped the young woman. "Looks like someone's here. It seems like you were followed."

Not wanting to fight Shun and Zhong at the same time, Harold decides it is best to retreat for now and jumps down the mountain back onto the second level.

"There!" Shun shouted out. "I knew you were followed! Go after it!"

After picking out coats to keep themselves warm, Stella and Lyla go to the receptionist to pay the check.

The receptionist gives an awkward smile. "Hi! Are you ladies ready?"

"Yes!" said Stella, showing the white coat to him, and then looked at Lyla. "Hihi! Harold and Bruno will be jealous of us!"

Lyla laughs and shows the yellow coat to the receptionist. "How much for them?"

The receptionist gives a price which Stella pays. Of course, it was Harold who had given her the money some time ago.

After about thirty minutes had passed, Lan finally decided to get out of the hot spring tub. Bruno waited for a few seconds before following after Lan.

Lan goes into the clothes changing area down the hall from the hot spring tub. Inside the changing area, Bruno puts on his clothes while observing Lan. After changing back into their regular clothes, Lan leaves the hot spring and Bruno follows behind.

Outside the hot spring, Bruno sees Stella and Lyla walking out of the clothing store. He decides not to catch their attention, so he could go after Lan.

Before he is able to go up the steps onto the top of the mountain, Lan sees a white Wolf running down the steps. He jumps out of the way.

Shun and Zhong immediately appear from the steps.

"Why is there a Wolf here?" Lan asked.

Shun glares at him. "Don't just stand here! Go after it!"