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Chapter 30: Rumors

Bradley ran back to the Defenders headquarters after hearing what had happened during the census gathering today.

He rushed to his brother\'s quarters and started knocking on the door. When he got no response, he used his ability to go through the wooden door, dropping his shoes outside.

He landed inside and was finally relieved to see his brother sleeping carelessly in his own bed.

He sighed in relief and walked up to Stanley to nudge him awake.

Stanley woke up with a sleepy mind that could barely understand what was going on. He yawned for a moment and finally saw his brother standing next to him.

"Brother? Is it time to train already?" he asked.

"Train? Do you think it\'s morning right now?" Bradley asked.

"Hmm? Is it not?" he asked while rubbing his eyes. He slowly remembered what had happened and came to realize that he had slept after coming back from his first day working as a Defender today.

"Are you okay? I heard you guys were attacked today," Bradley said.

"Oh yeah," Stanley replied. "There were a bunch of men living in some old folk\'s house, and they got smoked out when we went around to gather census."

"I see. Nobody got hurt right?" Bradley asked.

"Mm… no, everyone was alright," Stanley said. "I did have to fight a guy with ice powers that was quite strong, but I managed to beat him in the end."

Bradley was about to ask his brother to go on and explain more when he paused. "Wait… you won a fight?" he asked.

"Yes," Stanley said.

"A serious one? One where you could\'ve gotten hurt?" Bradley asked.

"I could\'ve died if I wasn\'t careful," Stanley said. He lifted his left arm and showed a small blue mark on the otherwise fair skin of his left hand. "He had ice powers. His frosted metal touched me for a second and now I have this wound. I can\'t imagine what would\'ve happened if he had gotten a hold of me."

Bradley was surprised to hear that. His brother really had been through a tough battle. "And you weren\'t affected by that feeling during the fight?" he asked.

"I was," Stanley said. "But with how dangerous the fight was, I couldn\'t focus on the feeling. I think if I can learn how to ignore the feeling, I won\'t have to worry much. Although, I will need to practice a lot more with it."

"Forget about that, tell me more about what happened," Bradley asked.

Stanley went on to explain what had happened in detail. Bradley heard everything and frowned when his brother mentioned that the person he had fought was a Defender trainee that had failed during the last test.

"Bastard! There are many people like him, and they don\'t fall to becoming a criminal just because they failed," Bradley said. "Defenders training lasts 3 years at most. By the end of it, you\'re not even 20 years old. Saying that you can do nothing else is bullshit. He just didn\'t try hard enough."

Stanley nodded since he agreed. "Even so, why do you think they failed him? His powers were quite strong and could\'ve been very helpful against the Crawlers," he said. "Especially if he manages to touch them, he could easily turn any fight around."

Bradley shrugged. "I don\'t know. It\'s just how it is," he said. "If someone fails once, they fail forever," he said.

"Why not give them another chance? Maybe they just got unlucky the first time around," Stanley said.

"Maybe," Bradley said. "But that doesn\'t change the fact that they failed. Luck is a relevant factor in someone\'s life after all. If you got unlucky, then you have to deal with it yourself."

Stanley didn\'t agree with what his brother said, but he didn\'t say it out loud. He simply nodded and let the topic change.

"Right, let\'s go eat. You can sleep again afterward," Bradley said and took his brother to the dining area.

It had gotten dark already outside, but the streets were alight with lamps that covered most of the roads. The dark alleyways were still dark, but the proper roads were all covered.

There was still a bustle of people around the streets with many going from one place to another.

Stanley and Bradley entered the dining area which was filled to the brim already. They struggled to find a place for themselves and had to wait outside and wait for alongside the rest that waited for some people to leave.

Bradley joined a conversation between these people and Stanley stood behind him simply listening.

"Man I don\'t like this at all," one of them said. "We don\'t have nearly as many people to work during the nights too."

"But we have to if we\'re ordered to," another person standing there said.

"What\'s going on?" Bradley asked.

"Some people have claimed that they were attacked during the night when no one was around," one of them said. "The seniors are planning to add more Defenders to the night patrol to keep the streets safe."

"They should know themselves that if they make us work this hard, we will soon stop functioning completely," the first man said. "We are going to implode on ourselves."

"Wait, people are being attacked during the night?" Bradley asked. "Is anyone hurt?"

"Yes, a little," one of them said. "It\'s usually some scratches or cuts. They say the person attacks them in the dark and runs away after a bit."

"Where did this happen?" Bradley asked.

"By the 4th Quadrant," one person answered.

"Hey, do you think it has anything to do with that resistance stuff? They are still going around right?" one of them asked.

"No way, not this one," Bradley said. "This sounds way too open to be those rebels. They hide so well that we don\'t even know where they operate from, let alone who they are."

"Also, isn\'t the resistance dying? The mayor announced that after the Census was complete, he would send more Dulls to work on the farm. If that happens, will there be any more reason for the resistance?"

The group nodded after they thought about it.

"Then," Bradley continued. "This person must be someone completely unrelated to the resistance. Either way, we have to find them and stop it all before the conflict escalates."