Episode 143- Heartfelt Reunion
Previously: King Erich came over with 2 board members of United West Liasel union. The truth behind the King of Zene’s health was revealed. Massive amount of evidence found at Commander Kal’s residence.
.
.
Everyone exited the carriage and grew solemn straight away. The place they arrived was a plainland right before the closest village to the tribal village. They were encircled by tents for injured persons. It looked as if the injured were refugees seeking refuge even though this was their country. And the irony of it all was this was the country that destroyed their home, tribe, history, everything.
Unlike the people in the capital of Zene, no one smiled. They weren’t able to move on with their life and looked as if they were barely alive. Anyone could tell that these people were suffering. That they were only living for the sake of their loved ones.
A person was heard crying sadly from afar, “What was all this for? Are we in the middle of a war? What was this all for!” Sobs could be heard as he heartbrokenly expressed himself, “Dreams? Power? We never had any of that! We had nothing, but now… we truly have nothing!”
Eugene listened from far away and she couldn’t help but sigh. If only they knew the person behind this incident was the same person who saved them, Commander Kal. If the person asked what this incident was all for, she would say it was because of jealousy.
Because Commander Kal couldn’t get the heart of the person he loves, he committed to destroying whatever Hal was involved in. Because he was enraged that Lea had loved a nobody, undead, annoying bug he could never eliminate, he chose to destroy whatever history Hal was part of. But whatever his reason was, it would never justify what he did to the villagers
The people looked up again as the second carriage arrived. Their eyes were soulless and had no life in them when the door to the carriage opened. In less than 3 seconds, their dead eyes began watering and life restarted once again. The area was quiet with only sounds of happy sobbing. Everyone was emotional seeing the person who came out of the carriage.
The person was dressed in a beautiful Zene-styled white dress and had noticeable fiery red hair. Accompanying her beautiful hair was her soft facial features and curious white eyes without dark contacts. Her white eyes looked around at everyone warily, indicating that she did not recognize any of these people.
Suddenly a voice familiar to Levis and Moniqua was heard shouting, “…Mi… Miss… Miss Lise!” The voice belonged to Gie whom Levis and Moniqua met 2 days ago.
Eugene stared as the man in his forties ran over, tripped, and landed himself in front of the flabbergasted Lise.
“….” This wasn’t supposed to be a fun atmosphere. She almost couldn’t stop herself from snorting.
“Ye, Yes?!” Lise’s hands waved around, not knowing what to do with the stranger who was crying his puppy eyes out. Everyone around her cried with their puppy eyes. The immense pressure from everyone crying made her confused over what to do and she began to panic.
“MISSS!!!” his snot dripped to the floor as he clung onto her legs.
“!!”
“….” Not supposed to be funny. Again, Eugene had to force herself not to laugh.
“GIE!” A lady popped out of nowhere with a stick and was about to hit the man in his forties when her eyes accidentally met Lise’s.
“MISSSS!!” With the same reaction, she ran as quick as she could, tripped over the same rock the man tripped over and landed in front of Lise.
“Missss! You’re … You’re back!!” she cried and clung around Lise’s free leg.
“….” Eugene, Louis, and everyone remained silent as they watched the whole shebang. It was painful trying to hold back their laughers…
5 minutes later…
Lise managed to get both legs back and she asked very nervously, “Where are… my parents?”
Reuniting with her parents was what made her come back. She didn’t dare tell the people who cried happily for her return that she lost her memories because they were already grieving and from the looks of it if she told them, they would be even sadder.
“……” Everyone’s mouths were shut. The lively atmosphere immediately took a dip when she mentioned her parents.
Lise glanced around nervously and turned to Moniqua for help. She didn’t know what their eyes meant and didn’t understand why everyone was looking at her like that.
Gie sighed, “Let’s bring you to Elder Gres. He should be going around the village.” To recover their tribal men’s corpses.
Lise nodded expectantly but when she saw his eyes dimming her eyes dimmed as well. She was given some background information about what to expect when she returns home today yesterday. This included the top-secret information of her late husband, the mastermind behind the incident. Lise had a lot of mixed feelings about her husband, and seeing the tents set up in plainland like this made her feel insanely uncomfortable.
The reason for that was because she had slept, and lived happily with the man who destroyed her home. More than sadness, she felt guilty. Because even if she handed over 100 of her lives, she would never be able to get rid of the sins her ‘husband’ committed to her family, the villagers.
Gie brought everyone to what ‘used’ to be their village. Since early morning, all of the smoke had dissipated, giving everyone a clear view of the destroyed village. What used to be homes were now mere pebbles and boulders. Any tree, any flower they had were all gone leaving maybe only a few inches of tree bark that didn’t completely burn. It was a devastating sight that brought only pain and sadness when seen in real life.
The Veria children and Ron wore handkerchiefs around their noses so that they did not breathe in the residue of the fire, however, even with their handkerchiefs, their noses still stung a lot.
“Is Elder Gres not here…?” Gie turned to a tribesman who was about to walk past them. This man was looking around, searching the area to look for anything that might not be destroyed by the fire. The devastated look on his face however showed them that he could not find anything.
The tribesman shook his head and replied, “Elder Gres just went back.”
Gie muttered an ‘Oh’ and was about to bring everyone to Elder Gres when Louis suddenly stopped walking.
Ron stopped walking as well, “What’s wrong?” He turned to Louis and looked around.
Louis didn’t reply and continued to stare at something on the ground. Specifically, something underneath the boulder that was peaking out.
Levis did not wait for Louis to say anything and took his sword and tugged on the object. The object was a dead bird with an odd appearance and color. The bird was covered in a not-so-pleasant fluff that was turquoise and black.
Aernest, Ramon, Ron, Lise, and Aeselak immediately took measures stepping away. The bird… creature looked unpleasant and … disgusting… to the eyes.
“What is… that.” Even Eugene hesitated as she stared at the creature.
Gie’s face flashed with astonishment and bewilderment and hesitated, “… This… I’ve never seen this creature before.”
Ron rubbed his chin and thought deeply. He turned to Gie and asked, “Is this not a local bird?”
Gie shook his head, “I’ve never seen something like this in my entire life.”
Levis frowned and turned the odd-looking bird over, “This is a messenger bird but there is no message…”
The silent Euria suddenly spoke out and pointed at the bird, “Maybe the message is inside the bird?”
Eugene turned to Euria and showed a startled face, “Inside? How is that possible?” It’s a creative way of hiding a message but would the message not be digested? Such a childish way of thinking. She shook her head and sighed softly.
However not long after Eugene spoke, Levis moved his body in a way to cover the bird and a slicing sound could be heard.
“There’s a message.”
“Huh?” Eugene stared at Levis’s back, she was completely speechless. She then slowly turned to Euria and looked at her with a ‘You’re-a-genius’ expression on her face.
Moniqua walked to Levis and asked, “What is written-”
She paused when she saw Levis’s expression turning very dark. Everyone could feel murderous intent worse than Commander Kal’s as they watched him crumble the message in his fist. Everyone’s core shook from Levis’s coldness and no one dared look him in the eye.
“Why? What’s written on the note?” Moniqua asked again, this time with a worried voice.
“….” Levis did not reply and turned to look at his children behind him before turning back to Moniqua. Nothing more was said between the two which means that whatever content was in the note, was very secretive.
Levis relaxed himself and the children were finally able to move or breathe again.
Immediately, Eugene turned to Aernest and secretly motioned him with her eyes, ‘Keep-your-ears-out-at-all-times.-Make-sure-to-listen-in-and-report-it-to-me.’
Aernest raised a brow at Eugene and communicated using only his eyes, ‘You-didn’t-appreciate-it-the-other-time.-Why-would-I-help-you-again?’
“…….” Eugene’s mouth twitched. She wanted to roll her eyes but she decided not to and asked him, “What do you want?” There was a limit to communicating with the eyes only and this was as far as it goes.
Aernest thought for a bit before replying, “The true answer. Whatever sister comes up with.” What he meant was, whatever theory Eugene comes up with after learning what the message meant must be told to him.
Eugene’s lips twitched again, “….Fine.”
.
.
.
“Elder… Gres?” Gie called out to a man who sat with his back hunched beside a bed. The person in front of the hunched-back man was sleeping and dressed in bandages. Elder Lin was the individual in question.
Eugene and the others were escorted to a little wooden cottage by Gie. This mini-house was in the middle of a plainland, appearing completely out of place. It appeared hurriedly constructed but also appeared to be quite solid and sturdy as if it could withstand anything that will come its way.
‘Is that the… man?’ Lise glanced at Moniqua, who nodded at her in return.
Lise breathed in and courageously took a small step forward toward the man who had his back facing her. She hesitated a little bit on her second step but was able to take two more steps. Her heart was pounding with fear, eagerness, and stress at this moment. She didn’t know what to do and she didn’t know what reaction the man in front of her would have. Just as her cowardice had taken over her heart, the man abruptly turned towards her and met her eyes.
At first, his face was filled with nothing but tiredness and blankness, however, the more his eyes began to focus on her, his expression altered with every second. Once a minute had gone by, his face slowly scrunched up into one of disbelief, and tears fell from his eyes. His face broke out into an incredibly heartbreaking yet happy expression.
“Welcome home.”
He said only these two words.
However, everyone in the room understood that these two words meant more than just that. Some children who were unaware of the circumstances surrounding Lise’s parent’s desperate search for their daughter could sense the emotions that this elderly man had for his daughter. It was sad but filled with happiness.
Lise was slightly taken aback by the fact that her father was older than she had anticipated, but she could see the similarities between her and him. Lise’s mind, which had been filled with fear, cleared up when she heard those two words from her father’s mouth, and she choked. She burst into sobs as the two words awakened the buried hardship she had kept inside of her; her child, whom she thought died at stillbirth but was later massacred.
Lise cried her soul out to the man in front of her. She looked like a child who now understands her wrongdoing and was admitting her mistakes. The minute she had burst into tears, the man stood abruptly, ignoring the chair that had fallen over, and rushed to her with open arms. Like his daughter, the man also began crying his soul out for his missing daughter that had now returned home.
Eugene and the rest stood at the side and gave them the privacy and space needed. It was an emotional reconciliation and reunion that touched everyone and something they didn’t want to intrude on. They glanced at each other before deciding to step out when they found themselves being surrounded by the tribal people who were looking at them with curiosity.
As they cautiously stood around, their white fascinated eyes scanned Eugene and everyone.
Gie sighed and motioned for the people to go away with his hand, “Hey Hey! You are scaring our guests!”
Another tribesman, who had bandages wrapped over his head, pointed to Gie and said, accusingly, “And they’re not afraid of you?”
Gie smirked and snorted, “Why would they? We are friends.” He smacked his chest with pride.
Levis and Moniqua only laughed as they looked around.
Eugene blinked, ‘Friends? When did this development occur?’
Suddenly, most of the tribal people who surrounded them bowed down, greatly stunning Eugene and everyone. Before they could comprehend the situation, the tribal people expressed their heartfelt thanks.
“Thank you! Thank you so much for bringing our Miss back!”
“Thank you, Lord!”
“Thank you!”
These people had tears in their eyes as they thanked them repeatedly.
“It’s nothing. We only brought her home.” Moniqua shook her head as she tried to dismiss their bowing.
“No!” The bandage guy refused Moniqua’s words. He didn’t dare to look her in the eyes, but his determined gaze made it clear that he didn’t want Moniqua to think her efforts were insignificant. What she did was something that the tribesmen will never be able to thank her enough!
“If Lords, our savior did not bring our Miss back, Elder… Elder Gres would most probably give up…” The man was in tears as he explained.
Gie snapped his head towards the bandaged guy. His eyes filled with a warning, however, the bandaged guy refused and continued,
“Our Elders have been through a lot. Whether it be Elder Lin who is his wife, or Elder Gres himself. It has been 5 years since our miss went missing and we never knew whether our Miss was alive or had… passed away. 5 years is a long time, especially for Elder Gres who had been searching for Miss Lise since day 1. But… But… Due to the incident from yesterday, his wife is now in a coma.” He choked and continued,
“There is no way of knowing when she would be awake and if she had not… If she had not made it through the critical period last night Elder Gres.” Tears slipped out of his eyes as he continued, “… Elder Gres would not be here right now.” His last words made the atmosphere incredibly heavy.
Eugene and the rest were silent as watched the man break out into sobs. They remained this way even after Gie and the tribal people had left to give them space.
According to the bandaged man, Elder Gres had gone crazy yesterday whilst in search of his wife who had not escaped with the tribal people. During his search, he was given false hope by a random ‘couple’ who said that his wife had already been rescued, only to discover that she wasn’t. The bandaged man said that no one could face Elder Gres who had been struck with complete despair from the couple’s lies. They also were unable to stop him from going back to their burning village to search for his wife and the random couple with red and silver hair whom he wanted to butcher. They were also told that the only reason why Elder Gres was sane at the moment was that Elder Lin was still fighting for her life.
Eugene was first to break the silence that had continued for 5 minutes since the tribes’ people left,
“Silver and Red hair?” She turned to Levis and Moniqua with a brow raised.
“Ha.. Ha..” Moniqua’s laugh was fake and she didn’t dare look Eugene in the eye.
.
.
