Three Days Grace [Oracle/open] [Finished]

[Oracle]

Oracle looked at her rather disturbed. With the way she looked at him, he could have sworn she was trying to make him feel sorry for what happened.

But, once again, Oracle did not care about Hilde's glare.

"I do not think you are at the liberty to ask about my personal affairs, Hilde," he mentioned with the folding of his arms. "You are my apprentice, Hilde, not my conscience. Whatever I do is none of your business. Do I make myself clear?"

[Hilde]

Hilde absorbed everything Oracle said and nodded her head. She lowered it slowly. What was she thinking? Blatantly asking her teacher something that wasn't her business. And plus, they didn't even know each other on a personal level to make her qualify to ask that question in the first place. She looked at Oracle with somewhat of a confident-looking facial expression.

"Yes, Mr. Oracle," she said.

[Oracle]

Oracle cleared his throat. He immediately went back into his regular form and put on his hood on his head.

"I suggest you go back to the Faerie Realm until your services are needed again," Oracle informed her. "I'm on a very important mission that should not involve someone such as yourself."

[Hilde]

"But..." she hesitated, trying to decide to stand up to prove her worth to Oracle or do as he suggested and not to meddle. But if she was to achieve her goal and have Oracle have the most upright respect for her, she had to do whatever it took to get it.

"But I can help!" she said. "What about everything I proved to you during our fight in Paris? How can I ever be of any use to you if you don't give me a chance to prove myself to you? Don't you have any faith in me?!"

[Oracle]

Oracle chuckled under his breath as he took hold of his pole with both hands. He shook his head and looked at Hilde's direction.

"Hilde, Hilde, Hilde," he began. "You haven't the slightest clue how much faith I have in you."

He walked toward her and placed his right hand on her shoulder. He used his staff to lift her face so that he could see her eyes.

"The day will come when I will give you the chance to prove yourself to me," Oracle cooed. "But this quest of mine; this mission, is not the time."

He sighed.

"I am on Heavenly assignment to locate Abbadon Hakaisha," he told her. "My king, Kouzetsu Gin, requires him to right some of the wrongs I have done in the past. Once I find Abbadon, my loyalty to Heaven will be proved to him. Then, and only then will my plans for the future fall underway. Now do you see why this task for me to take alone?"

[Hilde]

Hilde almost fainted when she felt Oracle's gentle touch on her shoulder. And the way he was talking to her! It was enough to make her want to embrace him right then and there. But, instead she stayed attentive to his words, eating every single crumb he left her for her supper. The fact that he made sense at the same time he spoke so delicately to her made her even more mesmerized by his presence.

"I see, Mr. Oracle," she said. "You have a great deal to handle. It would be foolish to get in the way of your work. I'll wait at home until you need me."

[Oracle]

Oracle smiled as he took the hand he rested on her shoulder and caressed her cheek. "That's my girl," he said.

With that, Oracle headed toward the back of the restaurant. But not without looking at the card that Aika left for him. The number was legitimate; he could tell just by looking at it. The smell assured him as well. Her intoxicating scent fused with the air around him so that there was no possible way of forgetting her face.

Then he disappeared, continuing his mission and keeping Aika the only good memory of his visits to the Mortal Realm so far.