Then came a day, Olivia was at home, relaxing in a baldachin after doing some warm-ups, and although she performs such rigorous exercises daily, her body is still in a very nice shape and it seems supple.
Andrew walks towards her in an unhurried fashion, Olivia turns to look at him approaching and thought maybe he was off somewhere. But the closer he came towards her, she starts realizing that he was coming towards her direction. ‘What does this brat want this time?’, she thought albeit without a change in her expression. Her eyes continue to watch him as he comes closer, after the little episode at the bank, Andrew hasn’t caused any more trouble unlike Olivia had initially thought and he seems to be calm. Such a change in attitude has eased Olivia a lot and although it did make her astonished, she had wished that it continues like that for a very long while.
But seeing him walking in this fashion gives her a bad vibe. On reaching her, Andrew smiles cutely while sitting next to her. There was a brief silence between them for a while before Olivia who couldn’t hold it in finally asks, “What do you want?”. In reply, Andrew says while smiling broadly, “Can’t I spend some quality time with my mother. We have been apart for so long after all and you almost don’t have any time for me”.
Olivia's eyes narrow dangerously into slits, but she quickly took a deep breath to calm herself before saying, “You can drop the act already, nobody is buying it. What did you come here for? You do know you are disturbing my rest time, right?”. “Don’t you have any time for your son?”, Andrew says with a tone of being wrong, like in the next moment he would burst out in tears.
The way he was behaving right now irritated Olivia the more and finally getting filled up, with a nice speed reached out with a punch which almost lands squarely in the face of Andrew. He was able to dodge it all by a hair’s breadth, but the force from the blow still makes him lose his balance and he slips, but he moves backwards in order to balance himself so as not to fall, it would seem embarrassing if he did.
He didn’t expect such an action from her, but thankfully, he was able to react timely, if not who knew what would have happened to that pretty face of his. “Do you want to kill me?”, he screams at her, he hasn’t done anything which should have gotten her annoyed this time around after all. “You should be thankful that I held back?”, she just says in response with a look of annoyance. She was about to even follow up with another hit if Andrew spoke one more irritating word.
“No fighting in my compound. If you want to fight, find somewhere else”, a voice sounds off at this moment which seems filled with anger, it came from the old madam who was looking at them from the window of the mansion, the force from the punch not only shakes Andrew off balance, but it also destroyed some of the flowers in the compound. “Sorry mom, I was just showing Andrew a new technique”, Olivia apologizes. “Do it outside”, the old madam says without creating any room for argument.
Andrew doesn’t make a single comment during this little conversation of theirs and just stares at Olivia. After the old madam finishes what she wants to say, she doesn’t pay any more attention to them. Olivia turns to face Andrew before saying, “You heard my mom right? We should take it outside, I have been inching to give you a piece of me for a while now. Come on, while at it, let me show you around the kingdom”. Andrew just snorts at her words, while murmuring, “Flaring up so easily, how are you fit to be a general?”. Obviously, with Olivia’s increased senses, she heard what he said clearly, she says, “What are you doing murmuring over there for? Get your ass over here and say it loud enough if you have the guts”. Andrew snorts once again, and he walks up to her before saying, “Think am afraid of you huh?”. Their auras were both brewings strongly as if a fight was about to brew out at any moment, with Andrew coming out weakly from the aura comparison without much discussion. But that doesn’t decrease his intensity of glare which he levels at her, while her eyes were just clear as if she was a teacher who was looking at a rebellious student and knew what tactic to use to get him in place.
It was at this time that a sandal was thrown out to land around them, while a shout followed out, “Don’t make me repeat myself”. Their auras did cause some sort of commotion which disturbed the normally peaceful environment, hence the old madam noticed it immediately.
They both regained their composure and sat down like obedient kids. It seems normal enough for Andrew, but for Olivia who looks to be in her prime, and was an adult, it seems weird. Seeing them this way calms the old madam down once again as she went in.
After a bit of a staring contest by the duo, Andrew finally says, “I want to join the military and hence came to tell you if you could help me go through the necessary paperwork”.
There was an awkward silence which followed suit before a sound escapes Olivia’s mouth, “Pshh.... hahaha hahaha”. “You? Join the military? You that is still obviously going through puberty?”, she laughs for a good while, also saying words that went along that route. She was mocking Andrew, but he watches her with clear determination in his eyes, which eventually gets her out of her mocking attitude.
“Wait, are you serious?”, she seems shocked about the fact that there was clear determination in his eyes. But Andrew doesn’t reply and just keeps on staring at her. She coughs dryly while being stared at by Andrew in this manner, “Alright you can stop the staring contest. Although I am beautiful, you don’t need to be that infatuated. You know am very much older to be your mother, and although you seem cute, I don’t have that fetish for going for way younger boys who are a virgin”. But she notices that after saying those words, Andrew does not flinch one bit.
“Alright, when do you want to register in the military? If you want to register in the military, what’s the need to register in a normal school? The military could teach you all that you want. And although I have some amount of power in the military, it all still comes down to you”, she says. After saying those words, Andrew’s eyes shine brightly at the prospect of being accepted without much hassle, he replies to Olivia by saying, “As soon as am through with what I want to do, I would sign up. As for your second question, well......”, he pauses which got Olivia I’m more curious about what he was about to say. As if seeing that the fish has caught on to the hook, Andrew reels it in by finally completing his statement, “It’s because of fun”.
Processing the reply of Andrew causes veins to pop up on the head of Olivia, she seems to be about to land a punch truly on Andrew’s face. But as if it was a coincidence or if the old madam truly sensed her actions, she appears at the window with a bright light flashing past her eyes, as if she was paying to every tiny bit of information.
On seeing this, Olivia puts a leech in her anger. The old madam also walks out the window, seeing that nothing was about to happen.
“So when would you be through with the little fun of yours?”, she questions him through gritted teeth. She was angry with the fact that Andrew wants to attend school due to fun. “Huh”, he puts on a thoughtful expression as if he was internally dealing with a lot of things. This expression of his left little to say about how appealing it was to land a hit on his face. After a little moment of thoughtful thinking, he answers her question by sticking out two fingers from his right hand. Olivia doesn’t understand what he was saying when he stuck out two of his fingers and an inquisitive look was present on her face. Noticing that she doesn’t seem to understand his little gesture, he says, “Two years at most and I would be through. I also want to make sure the environment is safe for my little sister before leaving her there”.
On hearing “his little sister”, Olivia starts feeling pleased about this little boy once again. But his next words destroy all that, “I do hope you are alive by then though or haven’t been captured alive by the enemy troops”. “Do you think it would ever be possible for such a thing to happen? Get out of here if that’s all you have to say”.
Andrew just smiles and slowly stands up, he has said all that he wanted and saw it as a waste to continue spending time with Olivia. He hasn’t fully come on good terms with this woman in front of him after all, and although she hasn’t done anything worth suspecting, he wasn’t still okay at this moment.
‘I would have found out a way to get you to join even if you hadn’t come to meet me’, Olivia says while watching Andrew walk away, entering the house. ‘I know you wanted me to join the military, but waiting for the time you would be willing to bring up the topic is not something I have the luxury of doing’, Andrew says while stepping into the house. Both of them have different thoughts, but it seems to be in the same line of thinking.
That day passed uneventfully and the next day, the day of the written examination was sent directly to the mansion. On seeing the date, Olivia frowns a bit. The day happens to coincide with the day she wants to leave the town, and she almost questions who was responsible for setting the dates.
But just sighs about the whole issue, she had wanted to watch how he would fare in the examination, but now she wouldn’t be able to.
Andrew also goes through the letter and Marian also gets hold of it. Eve came visiting today, she has truly been missing Andrew a lot and although she has been able to go through her books, any break would have her thinking about him, Marian embraces her on seeing her and even Andrew was all smiles when seeing her.
They reminisced about a lot of stuff and occasional laughter could be heard from them. Marian has now been busy trying to learn the basic stuff with the help of the old madam. Apart from drinking, eating and exercising, Andrew does not interest himself with any other thing and so his days went by. And all of a sudden the day finally came for the exam, which was also the day that Olivia departs for the battlefield.
Olivia was dressed beautifully very early in the morning, with her general band which was wrapped around her arms. The old madam was already awake and the both of them seem to be whispering some stuff. There was unusual warmth in her eyes as she watches her daughter getting prepared to set off for war. Although she is now used to such goodbyes, she still couldn’t stop that shaky feeling which hits her every time from it. Seeming to be on the verge of tears, the old madam leaves Olivia who bows deeply while watching her go. After which she gets on her horse to leave the house.
“Please take care of my mother”, she says while facing the mansion for one last time. From the direction she faced, while saying those words, there was little wonder that she was saying those words to Andrew. He is now the strongest person in the mansion, way much stronger than the guards who have been hired initially.
