Episode145- Did you elope?

Previous ep: Levis and Moniqua flashback. How they encountered people of different continents and also came to know/save Gie, Gres, and save Elderly Lin.

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“Wait! Wait!” A voice shouted out from afar to stop Moniqua and Levis as they approached the capital city. The voice belonged to the man they had saved earlier on, the man with red hair.

‘Why did he follow us?’ Moniqua and Levis exchanged glances, a puzzled expression shown on their faces. But most importantly, they had no time to deal with the man.

Levis was the one who confronted the man who was running towards them, “Our apologies Sir, but we are in a hurry.” They had to get the elderly woman to a physician as soon as possible and had no extra time to spare for the elderly man!

“No! No! Sir, please wait!” The man continued to shout whilst running after them. But Moniqua and Levis had no choice but to keep running since the most important thing was to get the Elderly woman the aid she required. Hence, they ignored the man running after them.

The red-haired man reached out multiple times as he ran. When he finally couldn’t take it anymore he screamed, “WAITT!!! THAT’S… THAT’S MY WIFE!!”

‘Huh?!’ Moniqua glanced back as she continued to run. The revelation kind of shocked her, however even if the person Levis was holding was the man’s wife, they still couldn’t stop!

“Sir! Keep running! Keep running!”

The red-haired man was at a loss for words and couldn’t react for a while, “...HUH?!” However, he still continued running.

Levis straightened his lips, ‘Why does it appear that we are snatching the wife of an elderly man?' Though he wasn’t able to see the look on the elderly man when Moniqua shouted for him to continue running, he could guess the emotions the man must be going through at this moment.

“... Moniqua.” In the end, Levis couldn’t stand this shit-show anymore and begged her.

“...Fine.”

The two of them… No, the three of them ran without carrying about their outer appearances. Levis ran whilst princess-style carrying the elderly woman and Moniqua ran whilst princess-style carrying the elderly man ran to the nearest hospital in the capital.

“.....” (The elderly man)

After they handed the Elderly woman to the physician, they were finally able to sit face to face with the elderly man who appeared to look very drained.

It was at that time frame where they came to learn of the man’s missing daughter Lise who had run away from home and disappeared for over 5 years. And during these five years, the husband, Gres, had always been away from home to search for his daughter.

Levis furrowed his eyebrows, “You left your wife?” This was the part in the story he could not relate to. Because to him, parting from Moniqua for even one day was terrible. He couldn’t imagine not seeing Moniqua for 5 years. He doubts he could continue on living if that situation were to happen to him.

Gres exhaled deeply and replied in a sad voice, “That’s right.” He nodded and continued, “If it hadn't been for me, Lin would have gone looking for our daughter. We had the option of staying in the village and waiting for our daughter together, or one of us leaving to look for her. The first option was out of the question because it would imply abandoning our daughter. There were no other options besides the second choice, but there was no way I could have let my wife continue searching for our daughter on her own. The danger comes easily with our eyes.” His head hung low and he sighed,

“I wanted her to be safe in our community, where we call home. Yet…”

The room was covered in silence. Both Moniqua and Levis understood what Elder Gres had wanted to say. In actuality, it wasn’t that he couldn’t totally relate to Elder Gres because he in fact had made the same choices recently but with the children instead. He had thought sending the children to Zene was the safest choice, but in reality, it wasn’t.

‘Maybe staying together would’ve made the children safer.’ However, as soon as he had that thought, he swiftly discarded it. His eyes darkened tremendously and he clenched his fists tight.

‘They still wouldn’t have been safe.’

Elder Gres noticed the weird atmosphere and shifted the mood elsewhere, “Thank you. Thank you for saving my wife. I don’t know how I would’ve continued living without my wife. Thank you so much” He bowed to Moniqua and Levis politely.

Moniqua smiled but shook her head. There was no need to express gratitude, and what they did was perfectly normal. It was natural for them to provide assistance if they saw someone in need. If they had simply left, that would have been inhumane.

Suddenly Moniqua remembered something, her face immediately became apologetic, “Elderly Gres, my apologies for making you run after us for a long time. To be honest, we had noticed Elder following us for a long time already. However, we were in a rush so we didn’t stop.” She bowed to elderly Gres and lifted her head after a few seconds, “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to carry you sooner.” Her eyes shone with sincerity as she looked at Elder Gres.

“......” The corner of Elder Gres’s lips twitched and he gave her a half-ass smile. Ha.Ha.

Levis was about to shake his head in resignation when he saw a man walking in with camouflage clothes. In a flash, he arrived by the man wearing camouflage clothes.

“Duke!!” The soldier's eyes widened as he stared at Levis in shock. His uniform was full of grit and dirt as he stood frozen.

“Hn.” Levis nodded.

“DUKEE!?!” Another soldier walked in carrying an injured tribesman and gasped at the famous… incredibly famous figure of Xenperia. He was so shocked that he almost dropped the injured tribesman.

Moniqua popped out from behind Levis, “I’m here too you know.”

The soldier's eyes almost popped out but before he could say anything, his eyes caught something red and he stared at Levis in shock!

“Duke.. Duke… Your nose..”

Levis furrowed his eyebrows and reached to his nose that had a slight iron smell.

And just like that, they got in touch with Duke Marleigh and Duke Rodriguez’s men who then reported to Duke Marleigh after the children arrived at the Royal Palace.

Flashback end…

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Eugene blinked, “Huh? Why stop now?”

“Ashdk” Levis' hands covered Moniqua's lips, muffling her words.

Levis shook his head, “That’s the end.” He was adamant about ending the flashback now.

“But!” Aernest refuted! He refused to allow this flashback to end with this cliffhanger-like part!

Aernest pouted when his eyes met Louis who shook his head to indicate for Aernest not to go on. Louis’s face showed, ‘Father-is-embarrassed-so-don't-say-no-more’

In the end, Aernest gave up. Adults were always like this. They don't want to say something that will make them look bad or embarrass themselves.

Eugene rolled her eyes at Aernest when something flashed across her mind. She thought deeply before saying, “During that time… Ario must’ve faked his death as well.”

Levis didn’t say anything but nodded to agree.

“Was it… Commander Kal?” Abruptly, a voice sounded out of nowhere, interrupting the family's "meeting". The voice belonged to Ron Graeme, an outsider of the group who hasn’t been active since Louis scared him to death the previous day.

Aernest didn’t understand what Ron meant but nodded very firmly, “Yes it’s the commander. He was the one who faked killing Ario! He was a jealous and petty man! A bad person!”

Eugene blinked. Though she agreed with what Aernest said, she turned to Aernest and looked at him with eyes saying, ‘Brother-you-an-idiot.’

Aernest immediately gasped and was about to fight Eugene when Louis intervened, “Ron is talking about the guy who was able to attack father and wasn’t repelled by Promissum. That the man who attacked father might’ve been Commander Kal.”

Ron paused briefly and stared at the air blankly, ‘... Was that what I meant?’ However, he quickly recovered and nodded to indicate that what Louis said was what he thought.

“You mean that father and Commander Kal fought? The man who father fought was Commander Kal?” Aernest’s eyes were wide as he asked.

But Levis shook his head and denied, “That’s not possible.”

Eugene furrowed her forehead, ‘Why is he confident that that person wasn’t Commander Kal?’ She thought quietly.

“Father. Did you know Commander Kal personally?” Louis asked.

Levis hesitated for a few seconds and turned to Moniqua whose face slightly paled. He sighed before answering Louis,

“Yes but no. Your mother and I briefly traveled with ‘Kal’ and Lea when we were 15.” His revelation shocked everyone until he continued, “But we didn’t know him personally.”

Eugene blinked, a sudden thought flashed across her mind, “15… Did you elope?” If she was right, they married when they were 16… Huh? But Moniqua gave birth to Louis when she was… 16? Right?

Immediately Moniqua blushed. She… She had not expected Eugene to pick this part out from what Levis had said just now.

Eugene turned to Levis, and then to the mini version of him, Louis, “Ah... I see.” Louis must’ve been conceived during this elopement period. Eugene was smiling at Louis who rolled his eyes at her.

Aernest was the normal child so he asked, “What is elope?”

“.....” The atmosphere took on another silence. At this moment, everyone turned to Eugene who could no longer smile.

Levis looked at Eugene in bewilderment. Was his child not three? Why were her dull eyes that looked at him just now seemed as if she knew the in and outs of the adult world? Who… Who was teaching her these things?!?

Eugene’s lips were flat. She had not expected this conversation to be too rated for Aernest. But before Eugene could play it off, Louis cut her off,

“So that man was not Commander Kal.”

“...” Eugene stared at Louis blankly, ‘How can I ever explain myself now?!’

Levis nodded, “I would have known if it was him.”

Eugene sighed and thought deeply about the whole situation. If the man was not commander Kal, didn’t this mean that that man was from another group? But who?

‘At that time… Ario’s fake death occurred…’

“Ario?” Eugene half muttered, half-whispered.

Louis agreed with Eugene, “It was possible that the man father fought with was from Ario’s group.”

‘Right…’ She nodded in return but paused, ‘Wait.’ She felt that she had forgotten something very important. Something important Ario had said before he exploded and she fainted.

“Like that wench Aiya, you won’t find anything! Crown Prince Ren? Don’t make me laugh!”

“!!!” Eugene’s jaw almost dropped to the ground! ‘WHAT THE FLIP!!’ How could she have forgotten something this important!!

“ARIO WAS APART OF THE INCIDENT 3 YEARS AGO!?!?!” she practically shouted as she questioned Levis and Moniqua! ‘What in heaven is going on!?!?!’

“....” Eugene's remark caused Moniqua and Levis' complexions to darken instantly.

It wasn’t that they weren’t shocked by what Ario had confessed the other day, but that everything happened so suddenly that they were not able to react in time. Ario exploded, Eugene fainted, and Euria’s condition was also not good.

There was no time to fully process what Ario had said because their priorities at that time were Eugene and later on Euria. They had been running around all night searching for physicians for Eugene who had fainted. This proved to be incredibly difficult due to the incident at the capital city earlier on, which made finding good physicians quite tough.

And when Eugene was finally diagnosed, they were stunned silly at their inability to detect her terrible condition. They were told that Eugene had fainted due to blood loss, accumulated fatigue, and possibly visual shock from Ario’s head exploding. Both Levis and Moniqua had known from the start that Eugene was an introvert and that she wasn’t someone who would say if she was hurt or if there was something wrong with her so it was their basic duty to notice these things for her. Yes, they did ask Eugene if she was hurt and trusted Eugene when she said that she was fine. However, they should have known better; that Eugene was someone who would’ve played down her injuries.

As for Euria’s case, they didn’t want to be parents who failed their children a second time, hence forced Euria, who had a nosebleed at the time of Ario exploding, to get a check-up. And it was then when they learned that Euria was bleeding internally.

Unlike Eugene whose condition was explainable, no one could diagnose Euria’s condition. All the physicians they gathered said the same thing,

“My apologies, this one is not knowledgeable enough.”

“This one does not know where she is bleeding from.”

No one knew why or could tell where Euria was bleeding from internally. All the physicians know from feeling her pulse was that there was an abnormal flow of blood in her system which indicates internal bleeding.

When asked if Euria had fallen, or hit her body against something, Euria denied it. Naturally, Levis and Moniqua learned from their mistakes not to take their children’s words as final, hence they had Euria’s hidden guard report. Euria’s hidden guard confirmed Euria’s story; that she did not encounter anyone during her observation at the chicken coop, nor did she fall or hit against something.

Still, Euria’s internal bleeding was a mystery hence, she was examined again this early morning when both Moniqua and Levis were told that her internal bleeding had stopped and that her internal body was completely healthy.  And like Euria, when Eugene came down to get her pulse checked again, she was completely healthy except for her external injury on her palm.

Both Euria and Eugene’s health flustered, shocked, and flabbergasted them so much that they did not have time to ponder upon Ario’s words until now...