Homesick

"I'm sorry," Aiden said and gave a deep bow.

"No, no. It wasn't like you could have known them." Kaiser said before turning to Remi, "It was her who was supposed to stop you."

Remi stood beside her mother, her eyes staring down. Tears were ready to flood her eyes, but she didn't say anything.

"It's a good thing that only the slaves were hurt. If Aiden had attacked the youngsters of the Archid family, that old son of a bitch, Archid, would never have let it go. And now that the situation is like this... "

As soon as his eyes met Aiden, Jewel chose not to continue with his words. "Don't worry about that. If that old Archid comes, I'm going to take care of it." Jewel said.

"That's why I'm so angry." Kaiser erupted again, "She knew they were from the Archid family, but she attacked them first. She's an adult, yet she's acting like a child. She should have…"

"I did this because they said... They said..." She didn't know how to say it. All she could do was stare at her father in anger.

"What did they say? Maybe they just teased you a little, and you attacked them. Are you a kid or something?"

"You don't know anything about it. You don't know what they were saying." Her angry voice was resounding through the room. Tears and snot made her face a mess.

Yet she kept screaming, not caring whether others could understand it or not. And all of this ended up with "I hate you."

Declaring her final verdict, she stormed out of the room, leaving a suffocating silence.

Looking at the situation, Aiden couldn't help him sigh. He wasn't sure whether or not he was supposed to say it, but he chose to say it anyway.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to say it or not ... But let me tell you that those words weren't a good thing to hear. And if I had been in her shoe, I would have done the same thing."

"And the important point is that if I wanted to do something, do you think someone like her could stop me?" After spilling his mind, Aiden bowed and walked away.

After closing the door behind him, Aiden took a deep breath. 'What the hell were you thinking?' Aiden wanted to ask himself. Yet he didn't know the answer himself.

Although he always tried to remain calm, he didn't know why he had attacked the slave without realizing. Aiden was sorry. He regretted it as soon as he attacked the slave, yet...

When he saw her happy face, he didn't think about it anymore. Aiden didn't know for sure why, but looking at Remi, who was stubbornly trying to protect the dignity of her parents, he was reminded of his elder sister, Arya.

Masked with an angry outburst, Kaiser's concern for her daughter reminded Aiden of his stubborn father. Seeing that Remi could seek the support of her mother when her father scolded her, he realized how much he missed his mother.

"Maybe I'm just homesick," Aiden mumbled under his breath. He took a few breaths while looking at the roof, fearing that he might not be able to control his emotions.

However, something else attracted his attention before he could clear his mind. Somewhere, Remi was crying. It wasn't close, but due to his sensitive hearing, Aiden could hear her loud and clear.

For once, Aiden hoped that he didn't have such ability. Even if Aiden didn't want to do that, his body moved to find the source. He soon found her on the roof.

To his surprise, there was no direct path to the roof. Looking at the tree near the house, Aiden understood how she got there.

Aiden appeared on the roof with the [Blink] and said, "If you wanted to cry, you should have cried in your room. Why do you need to demonstrate your acrobatic abilities?

"Who?" Remi was surprised by his sudden appearance. But as soon as she realized he was there, she was quick to hide her face.

Aiden had no intention of forcing her. Aiden just ignored her action as he sat down. Soon the awkward silence followed.

"Other than my parent, I have an older sister and a younger brother."

'What are you talking about here?' Remi couldn't help but take another look at the boy next to him.

Aiden, on the other hand, kept ignore her. "My elder sister used to hate me because I forced our parents to share the love that was rightfully her. Yet she was always the one who protected me. Even our parents wouldn't dare to scold me before her."

'Are you bragging that you have a sister?' She felt more irritated thinking about it. She said, "Aren't you from the western mountain tribe? Don't they take the child away as soon as they're born?"

It was like Aiden didn't hear her words at all. He went on to say, "I want to go home. I just want to meet them."

"What are you talking about here?" Remi scolded. She had thought that Aiden had come to listen to her. Yet he kept talking about himself. With a little rage, she said, "If you miss them so much, just go back to them."

"I can't." Aiden sighed.

"What are you talking about? It will take at most one or two months."

"You know how much I hate you right now?"

Remi wanted to say something, but one sentence from Aiden silenced the night. Remi was speechless. It was like her brain was stopped working. However, Aiden continued.

"You can fight with your parent; you can make them worry. They might be angry with you or scold you; still, they will come to protect you, but I..." Aiden didn't know how to end his words. He said, "I'm envious of you."

She was so angry that she had even planned to push Aiden out of the roof. However, looking at his lonely eyes, she didn't know how to respond. Even in the middle of her anger, she couldn't help but feel sad about Aiden.

"Could it be that you are thrown out of the tribe?" Remi asked with all seriousness yet Aiden broke into laughter.

"Tribe?" Aiden shook his head. As he stood up, he said with a smile, "Don't worry about me. Just makeup with your parents."

"Huh?" Remi frowned. Her cooled down anger erupted again, "why should I listen to you? If anything, you should be the one who should be apologizing. Yet I am the one who's being scolded."

"I am sorry." His straight-forward attitude startled Remi. Before she could say anything, Aiden said, "I am just a guest for two days. Why you should fight your parents for someone like me?"

"Think it was my fault and makeup with your family." Aiden's smile never left his lips.

"I didn't mean it..." Before she could say Aiden disappeared from the roof, leaving behind dazed Remi alone in the slightly chilly night.

**************

*15 days till the end of task period*

"I have already prepared a list of 5,379 people for the first batch." The lord of Oracle pushed a thick notebook towards the lord of the city.

"Only 5,379?" Looking at the book she asked, "Out of 70,000 people, did you choose only five thousand?"

The old man sighed before answering, "These people have the greatest chance of survival in this disaster. And they're all young."

"So where are they going?" she asked with a sad face.

"Ogaitnas. If they can survive the harsh weather of the mountain, they will reach Ogaitnas, the town in the heart of the Sedna Mountains."

"It's not just the weather, mana beasts will be there, too."

"Whatever the outcome may be, we need to send them out of the city within two days."

As she gave conformation, the old man continued, "This is the food provision for the group. You should read it carefully.

However, she received it and put it on the side, "Uncle, what about those? Will you be able to complete them?"

With a light smile on his head, the old man nodded, "Those two will be completed by the end of the week."

"The mana shield and the mana circle?"

Listening to her, the old man's smile dampened a little. He said, "It won't be any problem, but the amount of mana stone is not enough. We have to wait until they bring us more."

"Uncle, are you sure that lord Arcid can do the work? The entire plan depends on the result of that expedition." The city lord was visibly anxious.

Instead of giving a satisfactory answer, the lord of Oracle shook his head. Looking at the old man's face, her heart clenched. She was going to say something but…

"But he's the only person we can use right now."

"Would it not be better to send the guards? They're far more efficient than a bunch of slaves and slave traders."

"It would be better not to enter the mana mine at this time."

"Why?" As soon as she realized that her face had turned white in fear. "Could there have been an anomaly?"

She took the old man's silence as confirmation. "At a time like this..." she couldn't help cursing, "How strong it is?"

"Far too strong."

The old man's words are like a death sentence for her. Anger, rage and frustration made her breathing ragged. However, the old man spoke again. "We don't need to think about it. It won't be able to leave the mine."

She couldn't believe the old man, but now she could understand why he'd been so persistent about sending others rather than city lord guards. But still, she felt it would have been better if he hadn't chosen that man.

The old man smiled as he could understand her thinking. He said, "Lord Arcid may not be trusted, but he has one weakness. Money. He could do anything as long as we can give him enough of it."

"Don't you know he was the first leader of the Skull forest bandit group. Don't you know how many were killed by them?"

The old man shook his head, "It doesn't matter what his past is. As long as he can complete the quota, it won't be a problem. He has the most chance of success. And..."

'But what happens if they are unable to extract enough mana stone? What happens if they fight with each other?' There were too many questions in her mind, but the old man didn't answer any of them.

"He is the one whose fate is most entangled with him."

"Him? The man with the scar?" She frowned.

She had tried to find the man in the database but had failed to find any detail of a man with a scar on his chest. She knew there is no way that a simple man could help them. However, somewhere inside her heart, there was an 'if'.

"Do you think he could help us?"

"I don't know." That was all the old man could say.