In the magnificent garden, two young children and an older one stood there staring at each other intensely. The youngsters, who they assumed to be a knight and an aide, stood behind Maverick on each side and had an intimidating aura surrounding them.

They swallowed their saliva in nervousness. The two couldn't help but tremble at the threatening and silent atmosphere.

Edwin and Linda felt awkward and looked down from Maverick's piercing gaze and fiddled with their hands together. Taking a deep breath, he decided to break the silence as he looked up.

"You don't need to worry about us. As you can see we are fine even if M-momma is not—isn't present."

He stuttered at the end but ignored the heat that was rising in his cheeks.

Linda, gazing at her brother, also ignored the fear she had before and stepped forward as she let go of her brother's hand. She crossed her arms on top of her chest and calmly stared back.

"Please mind your own business as we will mind ours and continue what we need to do."

Maverick slightly narrowed his eyes but that was for a second before he returned to his calm expression. He nodded his head and walked away to reach his destination.

The knight locked eyes with them for a few seconds with his cold calculating misty grey eyes and turned to leave after the two who had already left.

The twins stood at the same spot as they watched their departing backs. After seeing them finally gone and out of their sight, they fell to the ground on their bottoms. They couldn't help but gasp for more air.

"Ugh..."

Linda felt her chest heavy and grinned at her arms, shaking. She started silently sobbing uncontrollably surprising Edwin. He hesitated and felt his cheeks.

"Whew..."

He sighed in relief, feeling no wet tears on his face. He didn't want to show any weakness in front of anyone. He then turned towards his weeping sister, panicking at the sight of his sister who rarely shows her emotion openly, and reached his hands towards her.

"Linda..."

"I don't get it, why do we have to be here? Why did we have to die? Why? Why? Why?!"

She cried, grabbing him and hugging him tightly.

"...Linda?"

He whispered and hugged her back but couldn't help but tear up as well. It was hard to see his sister finally expressing her emotions after their grandmother passed away.

They had only their aunt who took care of them and was clearly not related to them by blood. It was understandable since she wasn't able to bear her own.

Now their emotions were all jumbled up after coming into this strange phenomenon and having always depended on their aunt for emotional support, they were sure to break one day if they didn't cry it out.

Just being in a strange world that isn't Earth and having your sister suffer the pain of their death and the responsibility of avoiding their upcoming deaths, they couldn't easily accept all this as their new reality.

"I miss Auntie Jay! And Nana as well... I wonder if she's watching us even in this unknown world..."

She muffled, trying to control her cries, and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Hah... Mhmm... I hope Mom and Dad are watching us and are with Nana."

He chuckled softly, agreeing with Linda while thinking about his friends as well. Thinking about it again, he wondered if they even had considered themselves friends and perhaps were like Albert. But first, he needs to warn her.

"We need to be careful of our surroundings, Linda..."

He whispered to her ears. She stopped her wails and composed herself before looking at her surroundings. Seeing no one around the garden, she breathed out in relief.

Linda took her time to calm herself down, releasing the tension in her body and relaxing her shoulders. As she stretched her left hand and wiped her tears away from her face, she looked at Edwin's face and giggled.

"Your face and eyes are completely swollen red!"

She laughed heartily at her pouting brother who couldn't stop his hiccups.

"I'm not the only one..."

He whined at his sister's words and covered his face in embarrassment.

Linda smiled at his childish behavior and thought back. She couldn't help but feel lucky at the twins' reputation that helped them cover their unusual behaviors. She also didn't know if she should laugh or cry at having an unhealthy and unstable relationship with Maverick.

As a second male lead, some readers feel sympathetic for him for not being the main character's partner. He can only be considered as the main character's comfort or someone she will be with when there is a conflict between the male lead and herself.

She also felt pity for Maverick as she read that novel. But after reaching the part about him killing his younger siblings, she felt uncomfortable. Extremely uncomfortable.

Even though they are evil and two-faced, they are still young and are his only blood-related family that was mentioned. Having lost her loved ones, it was reasonable how she held the feature of family dearly.

He should have at least corrected their wrong actions and advised them rather than getting upset and killing them off because they messed with the person he loves. Isn't blood thicker than water?

She sighed and tried to forget about him but couldn't shake off the feelings her body was reacting like fear at the thought of him. She wondered if her brother had felt any reaction that might've happened to his body as well and decided to ask him.

"I did feel conflicted emotions within me that I can't somehow describe..."

He mumbled quietly to have Linda hear his words solely.

Linda got up from the ground and patted the skirt of her yellow floral dress. She stretched her hand to help her brother up as they sat back down on the bench they sat on previously.

"We need to write down all the events and characters that we remember from the novel so we don't forget."

Linda gazed at her brother for confirmation and Edwin nodded in agreement. He heard footsteps walking towards them again and cautiously looked up to see Mira coming in their direction with a tray of desserts and drinks on it.

She placed them onto the bench before turning around and grabbing a table not far from them. She once again grabbed the tray and placed it on the rectangular but small table in front of them.

Looking at the colorful desserts, they couldn't help but drool at the sight. The strong and sweet smell attracted them closer to the table. They sat for a while and finally reached out their hands to the dish.

Their hands were suddenly grabbed from scooping the desserts. They looked up to meet Mira's displeased expression.

"My apologies, but your hands."

""Ah.""

The twins looked at their hands in agony. Mira held two small wet towels and gave them. They curiously looked at it and wiped their hands with it.

She took away the dirty towels and cleaned them again with the bucket of water. They didn't realize that she also brought that equipment with her until now.

She gave the clean wet towels back and they did the same process. After putting the towels away, she gestured to them in approval to eat.

They stared at her blankly. After a moment they turned back to the tray. They couldn't wait any longer and grabbed them and gobbled them up.

Just like that, they try to put everything in the back of their heads for now and enjoy what they have in front of them. They decided to record the information about 'Noble Love of the Hero' later at night.

AKS