Madam Cherry's House
**Recap**: Lyra was invited to the 18th birthday or the coming age of Edric the so-called 'Prince of Combat'. All guests were instructed to wear masks for the celebration as requested by Edric Solaire himself. There was an event in which invited guests who are the disciples of distinguished combat elites were invited to fight it out among themselves. The last one standing would be the winner in which exclusive perks from the highly distinguished House of Solaire would be given. In the final rounds of the arena battle with their mask hiding their faces, Lyra and Edric were matched with each other. Their fight was intense but exhilarating, all eyes were on them as they fight. When their fight reached its peak, Lyra accidentally unmasked Edric which caused such great commotion among the guests, and Edric's personal guards halted the fight. Lyra surprise that she has accidentally hurt the most important person in the event quickly hides her presence and escapes the scene using the great commotion among the guests to the fullest. She is so swift that even elite guards of the Solaire were too late in securing her. On the other hand, the guards were quick enough to go over Edric to attend to the cut on his face. Edric immediately tries to dismiss them in order for him to talk to Lyra only to find out she was nowhere to be seen. **End of Recap**
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Lyra goes back to Madam Cherry's house. She looks up into the night sky full of thoughts. As she reached the familiar streets she slows down and slowly looks at her surroundings, there are definitely changes but most stayed the same as her memories. Lyra smiled a tiny bit unconsciously as she looks at the familiar junkyard. As she reaches the front gate of Madam Cherry's house, all those extremely hard moments she has been through these past 5 years come rushing through her mind. In that moment of silence, Lyra once again shed silent tears in front of Madam Cherry's house.
"I knew, Madam Cherry's house couldn't possibly disappear nor suddenly disappear. I knew I could come back to it. I know all these things, but deep inside I could help be scared to go back once again to find my home suddenly gone." Lyra whispers. She then wipes her tears and takes a deep breath. She finally opens the gate and heads towards Madam Cherry's house.
Reaching the front door, Lyra was about to knock when the door opens up, and there stood Madam Cherry herself. Lyra was stunned and was at a loss what to say, when Madam Cherry smiles at Lyra and said warmly, "Welcome back home Lyra."
Lyra holding her tears vigorously nodded her head and steps inside the house; where both the twins greeted her happily and gave her a warm hug. Nina too was there with a wide grin on her face and happily ushered her to the kitchen to get some food. Lyra could only weakly smile and furiously blink away the tears that threaten to run down her cheeks. Nina seeing Lyra's teary eyes teases, "Still a crybaby I see~" and pats Lyra's head.
After a warm and good meal, Nina tells Lyra to go to sleep since it's actually really late already. Lyra let out a yawn nods her head and immediately heads to her old room. For some reason, Lyra feels really drowsy but not the kind of being super tired drowsy, more like the warm gentle kind. She smiles when that thought entered her mind.
Lyra suddenly stops in front of her old room. She open's the door slowly with nervous anticipation. She then sees her room clean and tidy like the day she left. After closing the door silently behind her, she rushes to her bed and jumps on top of it, and hugs her pillow. Rolling to her back, Lyra stares at the ceiling thinking about how these past years suddenly feel like they were just a bad dream. Those treacherous and hard years. Lyra then closes her eyes as she recalls what she had been through these past 5 years.
In the beginning of her training under Melika, she was often given difficult and tedious tasks such as helping out arms dealer that Melika is acquainted with to clean weapons and do inventory while Lyra was also responsible for making sure she has time to spar with whom Melika chooses as her fighting partner. In most cases, she was against ruthless arrogant newly recognized combat elite. For a month or two Lyra could defeat most of the sparring partners Melika chooses while still remaining calm and sharp in cleaning and keeping a precise inventory. But soon enough Melika herself would spar with Lyra which always ends up with Lyra receiving heavy injuries but was still required by Melika to diligently clean and keep inventory while sparing some time to spar with her. Lyra knew that Melika's way would only make her stronger so she always, with great effort, forces herself to complete her tasks.
After only a year, Lyra overwhelmingly improved her mental and physical capacity. Melika impressed with her improvement, sends her to missions which her senior disciple decline because her senior disciple deemed it "not worth her notice." At first, Lyra's mission wasn't as extreme and deadly. She mostly does a bodyguard job for certain arms dealers as they pass through abandoned places. She went through places certainly away from the bustling city of Blood Cloaked City but not far enough to where several battlefields were active. But soon enough, after finishing an earlier mission faster than expected without casualties, Melika starts to assign a difficult mission which leads her to traverse a different environment and with a mission where the failure rate is high.
She was sent out to missions involving helping small caravans of arms dealers to cross through desserts with limited resources and rogue bandits to look out for. Lyra also once had to face an assassination attempt towards one of the arms dealers she was escorting. Their enemies were well prepared and organized as well as true elites. Lyra was badly injured but took out the leader of the attack. Unfortunately, because she has saved high-tier arm dealers and was treated well by them, most of the other escorts were jealous and on multiple occasions tried to harass Lyra. But Lyra, grit through it all and completed her mission, and politely declined any connection offered by the arms dealers.
She was also sent to assist other combat experts in dealing with another combat expert in uncharted forests. Where she experience great turmoil, for that mission she had to question herself whether the path she chose to be strong was the right one. In the end, after that mission, Lyra's resolve to get stronger no matter what becomes unwavering.
Also, she was even sent out to go across an area where deadly chaotic battlefields are rampant. On that mission, there once again she sees the desperate struggle to survive no matter. Betrayal, death, desperate screams, anguish, and misery was a common sight. Not only did that mission tested Lyra's endurance, strength, intelligence, and resilience, it also tested her humanity. Even with all the difficulty, Lyra faced through this mission Lyra finished her mission calmly and reported back to Melika.
As years pass by, and numerous missions were accomplished Lyra, still feels weak for she still can't accomplish her true desire. To retrieve her uncle's corpse. All through the years even as she goes through life-changing times, the idea of retrieving her uncle's corpse was always on her mind. That, and going back to her second home. Going back to the place where she was able to feel the warmth of a family. The place where she feels once again cherished and loved. Madam Cherry's house, the place she wants to go back home.
Lyra slowly opening her eyes and looks around her room. She smiles and lets out a giddy laugh, it's been years since she laughed. She was smiling as she closes her eyes and let herself truly relax. Then, before sleep claimed her, she whispers:
"I'm finally back home."