Episode 148 - Child with green eyes

The Imperial Palace of Xenperia

In the midst of the summer wonderland, one room in the Imperial Palace was unusually cold, frozen almost. Levis Veria, Moniqua Veria, Clyde Akler, Earnest Marleigh, Amos Rodriguez, Aedele Graeme, and Irvin Graeme were present for a meeting with the Emperor and Empress of Xenperia. Everyone sat around a round table and they faced each other.

The silence was serious and heavy, but it was only when the Emperor of Xenperia began to speak that the heaviness subsided slightly, “How are the children?”

Levis was looking out the window, admiring the beautiful garden, when he heard the Emperor and replied, “They are in good health.”

Prior to their arrival, Levis and Moniqua had sent a letter back to the Veria estate so that the Veria physician could be on call. And, as soon as they arrived home, he made sure that all of the children had a health check-up; Eugene and Euria receiving special attention. As a parent, he was anxious and luckily as Eugene and Euria still had good fortune, the physician concluded that their bodies were as healthy as they could be.

“Nothing is wrong with Eugene and Euria.” Moniqua smiled as assured Empress Lilithesia and Adele Graeme.

“And what of your house?” Another voice intervened and inquired.

When Levis' gaze met Duke Akler's, his eyes dimmed dramatically. He paused for a second and responded,

“Exactly as I reported. They were unable to gain entry and only damaged the entrance to the mountain.” Meaning, they were stopped at the base of the mountain before they could enter.

Duke Marleigh and Duke Rodriguez frowned, “What house? What mountain?” Duke Rodriguez did not understand where this conversation was going and asked.

The room turned silent for a few seconds before the Emperor replied in a low voice, in Levis’s stead, “There was an attempted break in to the Veria mountain.”

“...WHAT?!” Duke Rodriguez almost jumped up! He turned to Levis with his big eyes and accused, “You never mentioned any of this?!”

Duke Marleigh was just as shocked and he leaned back to his chair slowly as he carefully analyzed Levis and Moniqua’s expression.

“There’s more to this than just attempting to break into the Veria estate isn’t there?” He asked.

Immediately, Moniqua’s expression contorted. She glanced down as her facial expression hardened.

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-Flashback-

The day the children departed to Zene.

Moniqua teared up as she watched the children leave for Zene. Levis was beside her and could only give her assurance by rubbing her back gently.

She turned to Levis wearing puppy eyes, “I already miss them!” No shit, their carriages were still in plain sight!

Levis chuckled and suddenly straightened his lips when Moniqua glared at him. He sighed and reassured her, “They will come back soon. Don’t be too sad.”

Adele Graeme leaned against her husband and held her paper fan to her face, "Hey, husband." she said loudly.

Irvin’s lips crept up creepily as he leaned against her, “Yes, my princess?” He already knew what she was about to do and played with her.

Adele faked fluttering her eyelashes and she asked, with a monotonic and a loud voice, “Do you think the twins will become older siblings soon?”

Moniqua jolted from the sudden poke by the Adele couple and began to blush starting from her ears. She immediately turned around and glared at Adele. But was Adele someone who would stop? The answer was nope!

She smiled evilly and turned to her husband.

Irvin blinked innocently and faked a surprised face, “Of course they will! Don’t you know that this couple is a beast!” He paused and continued, “Beast at night.” He smiled evilly.

Levis rolled his eyes and didn’t respond to their relentless poke.

Adele nodded, “Right?” She gasped and continued, “How could they miss their children so quickly when they know they'll have a good time... day and night?”

Ivrin smirked, “Right.” He nodded, “We haven't even missed our son yet.” His arm reached for Adele’s waist as he gave her a charming smile, “He might even get a younger sibling.”

Adele raised a brow but nodded to play along.

Moniqua’s hands began to tremble in embarrassment. She reached over to Levis’s waist and pinched him! Her face showed for him to do something to stop this couple from speaking!

Levis smiled in resignation and began to appease his wife, “Wife. Let us leave so as to not damage our ears.” He paused and leaned into Moniqua’s ears, his whispers were however very loud, “We know who the real beasts are. We do not need to respond to them.” He said before straightening his back.

Adele and Irvin blinked. Just as they were about to answer, an Imperial knight ran over to them, looking incredibly panicky.

Clyde Akler, who was sitting on the sidelines enjoying this drama play, stepped up and frowned,  “What’s wrong?”

“Blessings to His Highness Emperor and Empress of Xenperia. Greetings to Dukes and Commander! Something bad has happened!” The knight didn’t wait for anyone's greetings and quickly announced,

“Reporting! A suspicious attempt to enter the Veria mountain has occurred! The Veria guard didn't want to delay the news, and requested that I pass this message as soon as possible!” The delay he was talking about was the full-body check he would have to do before entering the Imperial Palace.

“What?” Everyone's expression changed to one of seriousness. Levis' and Irvin's arms left their wives' waists, respectively, and their faces were solemn.

Before the knight could respond, 2 men running in their direction could be seen. These two were the guards who asked the Imperial knight to pass the message to the Dukes. They were able to quickly complete the body check and had been running around like a madman to find the Duke.

“Blessings to His High-”

Before the guards could finish speaking, the Emperor cut them off, “Skip it!”

The guard wasted no time and reported, “A group of 3 armed men attempted to break into the Veria mountain. They have been successfully removed, however, there was some damage…”

Levis frowned, “What is it?”

The other guard gulped and said carefully, “They splashed buckets of pigs’ blood everywhere and left a message.”

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‘Do you think this is the end?’

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Levis furrowed his eyebrows and repeated, “Do you think this is the … end?”

The guards nodded.

Moniqua was silent for a second before her eyes slightly widened, “Is this about criminal Aiya who was executed?”

The Emperor frowned and was in deep thoughts when Irvin Graeme spoke up, “I have a feeling it’s not .” He dismissed Moniqua’s words.

“Why?”

Irvin Graeme turned to Moniqua and responded, “If it was related, they would have done something yesterday. Not today.”

“Then what is this about?” Adele frowned.

No no spoke and was silent for a good minute.

“You should go to the sight. Perhaps there is more to this than just being a bad prank.”

Levis glanced at the Emperor who just spoke. He nodded, bowed, and quickly left with Moniqua. But, as fate would have it, they were attacked by a group on their way to the Veria estate. A group of three men.

“Who are you?” Moniqua jumped behind Levis as she pointed the sword to one of the men.

The group didn’t speak and only attacked Levis and Moniqua. Their sword handling was near perfection and each attack contained a lot of weight. But of course, Levis and Moniqua did not lose to them and defended seriously when a surprise attack was pulled from Moniqua’s right side.

She wasted no time and using her left hand, she pulled out her scabbard and quickly defended her right waist. If she had been a second late, she would have been injured.

Levis furrowed his brow and swung his sword widely so that the three enemies would fall back. He wasted no time and pulled Moniqua to stand beside him.

“Are you alright?” he asked, not taking his eyes off of the three enemies.

“Le...Levis.” She sounded speechless and terrified as she called his name.

“You’re hurt?!” His voice was raised with concern as he turned to Moniqua and scanned her from head to toe. When his eyes returned to her face, he noticed something wrong with her facial expression and slowly followed her gaze to where she was staring at.

“...” Levis's face went from one of daze, to speechlessness and to one that would send shivers down someone's spine if they came across him. His stomach felt uncomfortable as he stared at the person to their right. The person, no, the child’s facial expression was blank as he stared at Moniqua with his sword pointed at her.

As Levis stared at the young boy with green eyes, he was faced with a great realization. The reason why the organization has never been found was because they were located in a country that no one knows of. A country that... shouldn’t exist. The reason why he concluded that from watching the young boy was because of his unique green eyes. According to his knowledge of the world, there was no ethnic group with green eyes of this color. That is, there is a country that no one has ever explored or is aware of.

The child with green eyes appeared to have no thoughts or emotions as he rushed forward and continued to attack Moniqua. However, before he could reach Moniqua, he was stopped by Levis who blocked the attack and pushed the young boy back with just one attack.

“?” Levis scrunched his forehead as he looked at the boy in shock. He had intended to make the young boy fly away but the result was the boy moving only 2 meters away. He was so taken aback that he didn't notice the young boy pulling a mechanism on his sword that cut off a section and transformed his sword into a dagger.

The boy was fast and quickly stabbed his dagger to Levis’s blind spot when he was stopped by Moniqua’s sword, whose arm went around Levis.

Moniqua and Levis quickly moved away from the young boy and the three men. The three adults whispered to each other before pulling the young boy back and quickly escaping.

Moniqua breathed out in relief and turned to Levis, “Do you think he can catch them?” She was talking about Levis’s hidden guard who followed after the attackers in secrecy.

Levis was silent and he shook his head. He was sure that his hidden guard would be unable to catch them.

The reason why he thought so was because of the criminal’s confident nature. The criminals choose to intercept them on their way to the Veria estate instead of running away. What else did this mean other than them having a lot of confidence to be able to escape later on?

Moniqua sighed before she froze. Her face turned into one of horror as she tugged on Levis’s arm, “And who… Who was that? You saw who I saw right?” She was referring to the child with the ability to block Levis’s sword.

Levis’s facial expression darkened again. His fists were clenched tight as he remembered the blank look the boy had.

The look on the young boy’s face reminded him of Eugene when she was first born but colder. As if the boy wasn’t a … human being. Comparing them together brought him shivers down his spine.

Eugene was one of a kind. A frank genius in a world of her own. Her intellect was on point and increases the more she grows. She understood almost everything, and though she was childish at times, is mature when it comes to decision making. Her fighting power isn’t one someone can look down upon as she absorbs these skills as though she was breathing in air, and continuously focuses on it by practicing constantly. Her attitude towards learning was something some adults wouldn’t bother to do.

And the young boy appeared to be as disciplined as Eugene, if not more. There was no doubt that the young boy went through hell and more to get to where he was. His fighting ability was good, good enough to block Levis’s attack. And what frightens Levis a lot was the boy’s potential and future.

“Levis?” Moniqua shook Levis’s arms.

Levis didn’t respond and only hugged her closer to him. For the first time in a long time, he was afraid. Afraid that he would be too powerless to protect the children in the future.

-Flashback end-

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Duke Marleigh and Duke Rodriguez were silent. They both knew that Levis did not investigate the people who attacked him because he would soon be headed to Zene around that time frame.

Duke Marleigh turned to Irvin Graeme and asked, “Did you find anything?”

Irvin Graeme replied, “There are traces of 3 adults and 1 child leaving Xenperia via the port. However, they disappeared halfway to their intended destination.”

Duke Marleigh furrowed his eyebrows, “As though they were never there from the start.” He was in deep thoughts as he tried to piece everything together. The more he thought of the incident, the more he connected it to Zene.

‘Young boy?’ The answer lit up in Duke Marleigh’s head in an instant.

“Commander Kal’s children. Young boy. Experiment. Manipulation. War soldiers without emotions. No longer human.”

His words were sudden and didn’t register into anyone’s ears when one by one, they began to connect the dots.

“You think...” Clyde Akler didn’t dare to start as horror filled his eyes.

Everyone’s face turned cold.

“Ario. Ario must’ve been the one manipulating Commander Kal’s experiment from behind the scenes. He might have also been the one who introduced him to hypnosis and kept him close so he could learn the results of the research studies.” Irvin Graeme hypothesized.

“Do you think there will be more problems over ‘hypnotism’ in the future?” asked Moniqua who stared at him with anxiety-filled in her eyes.

“Commander Kal’s hypnotism base is from music and if it was that easy, there would have been more incidents by now.”

“Right.” Moniqua exhaled in relief but before she could relax, she remembered something important!

“Did you find the soldier Ramon encountered?” There was a hint of panic in her voice as she asked. The soldier she was talking about was the soldier Ramon had encountered 3 years ago at the Imperial Palace.

“.... No and yes,” Duke Marleigh replied in Irvin Graeme’s stead.

Moniqua furrowed her brows, “What do you mean?”

Duke Marleigh and Irvin Graeme wore complicated faces. The incident had occurred three years ago, and more importantly…

“That batch of soldiers were relocated to Serv.”

Moniqua and Levis froze.

Duke Marleigh pursed his lips and added, “I have sent the Commander a letter.” He only added this sentence. He didn't continue because it was up to the Commander to make the final decision. He couldn’t intervene, let alone the Emperor, who had delegated full command of the military to the Commander.