(5) Liana and Geraldo

Geraldo ended up calming himself down in one of the faraway places.

"How can I avoid mom and dad? How annoying my life, is life only happy with marriage? I'm happy living alone."

Geraldo muttered and continued to be annoyed at his parents.

It had been almost three months since his brother's wedding and he was always being pestered with weddings too, making his head spin.

Arriving at a simple market, he sat down at a small stall to calm his mind.

"Auntie, I'll have some food." It just so happened that she was dizzy and consequently hungry, so she would fill his stomach first.

Fortunately, Geraldo was disguised and his status as a nobleman's son was not smelled at all, his clothes were all black and closed, he was exactly like a shepherd boy.

"Very well, sir."

Just as Geraldo was about to pick up some coins, he realized that his coin pouch was missing.

"Where's my coin pouch?" His rummaging around.

So suddenly it was gone like this.

"Damn, I could be accused of being a beggar if this happens." He said, quite panicked.

"This is your food, sir."

"Hold on auntie, I'm looking for my coin pouch."

"You lied to me? You're not going to pay?"

"No aunty! I swear I will pay for this food, I-"

"Uncle."

There was a small voice calling him right behind Geraldo.

Geraldo turned his head, there was a little boy calling him.

"Yes?"

"Uncle's coin pouch fell out." The boy said and handed it over.

Geraldo could immediately breathe with relief "finally, thank you little boy."

Geraldo took it, it was a good thing that someone found his coin pouch, otherwise he might be beaten by this shop aunt.

Geraldo took out a gold coin to the boy "This is for you."

The boy's eyes rounded in surprise, for the first time he could come face to face with what a gold coin really looked like, his eyes immediately brightened.

"Wh-what is this?"

"It's for you little one, what's your name?" Geraldo asked and he bowed down to equalize his height with the little boy.

"My name is Derel, uncle."

Derel looked deeply into Geraldo's eyes, he was confirming whether this uncle was lying or not.

Because people who have gold coins are not random people, more precisely, they are rich people.

Geraldo nodded in understanding "Alright Derel, want to accept my gift?" Geraldo bargained once again.

This child is really innocent, Geraldo did not expect that the one who returned his coin bag was a child.

Usually small children do not know anything and also the possibility of the coin bag can be taken because their children are the ones who find it then it will become property.

But not for Derel, he returned the coin pouch.

"Is it okay if you fall into poverty if you give me the gold coin?" Derel asked suddenly.

Geraldo almost choked listening to Derel's words, how could he fall into poverty just because he gave one gold coin to a child.

He had a lot of wealth, this one gold coin if lost would not harm Geraldo.

"Do I look so shabby?" Geraldo asked back.

Is his good looks covered up? Why doesn't this boy realize that he's rich?

Derel paused and assessed Geraldo's appearance from top to bottom.

"But I think that gold coin is more valuable to uncle, just keep it uncle."

Again and again, Geraldo didn't expect those words to come out of Derel's mouth.

Geraldo scratched his itchy head "Never mind, do you want a treat? I'll buy you some food, I happen to be eating alone here with no friends."

Derel looked at this shop, his eyes immediately lit up, this was the shop he had been eyeing for a long time, because the food in this shop was really delicious.

And he has never stopped by this shop before, the price is not bad and he doesn't have much money to be able to just enjoy the cake food in this shop.

"Do you want some, Derel?" Geraldo asked again to make sure.

Without waiting long Derel immediately nodded in agreement "I want! But what's your uncle's name?"

Derel had already told his name to the man in front of him, so it was his turn to want to know this uncle's name too.

He had nothing to lose, later if this uncle acted badly towards him at least he knew who this uncle's name was.

"My name is Geral."

"Geral?"

"Yes, just call me uncle Geral."

"Alright uncle Geral."

Geraldo smiled softly and stroked Derel's hair softly "smart, now let's eat together."

Derel's heart felt like it stopped beating, didn't he see something wrong?

Someone touched his hair affectionately, this was the first time Derel felt.

Like the feeling of a child about the presence of a father, Derel never felt before.

"Derel, why are you daydreaming?"

Derel woke up from his reverie and he developed a smile to Geraldo.

"It's okay uncle, let's eat!"

Geraldo laughed softly, it turned out that Derel was easy to persuade, the proof was that he immediately agreed.

"You seem very vulnerable to being kidnapped, remember never follow the invitation of random people." Geraldo said while giving directions to Derel little by little.

"Of course uncle, I am also picky about people, if that person has a bad face I will not want to come."

----

"Oh my God, where's Derel?!"

Deon was now dizzy looking for his brother's whereabouts.

The three of them, Deon, Daniel and Derel were given the opportunity from Liana to be able to play in this market, there was a game for children, and the three of them were free to play together.

While Liana was talking to one of the traders, more precisely she wanted to find out what great opportunities she could get in this market, basically she was doing market research.

Because Deon was too focused on his game, namely playing fishing, he ended up not focusing anymore if Derel disappeared.

"Brother, I'm just confused why he suddenly disappeared, even though he was next to me." Daniel said also looking at Deon.

"We have to find him, this is not the first time he has disappeared like this, but this time Mama is good, if you know, you will definitely be disappointed with me."

Daniel thought for a moment, that's right. It's quite often Derel goes missing when he's in the market, he likes to secretly look at the place he likes.

"I know where he is." Daniel said, his brain had started thinking and found something about Derel.

Deon looked at his brother "What?"

"He must be at the shop around here or at the tavern, because he likes to look around the places he likes."

Deon thought for a moment and tried to digest Daniel's words.

"That's right, let's go find him."

Daniel nodded "yes brother."

After that they both immediately looked for Derel's whereabouts.

It didn't take long for Deon and Daniel to find his brother.

"Look at that brother, Derel is eating with a strange man." Daniel pointed to one of the big shops which was definitely a place to eat people who had a lot of wealth.

"Oh my." Deon couldn't stop thinking about his younger brother, how could he eat together with a foreign man, if his brother was poisoned how?

Deon immediately ran to the shop where Derel was eating there with a stranger.

"Derel, what are you doing here? Daniel and I have been looking for you."

Deon came around while scolding Derel's behavior, his second brother who managed to make him dizzy.

Derel turned around and he glared in surprise, he didn't remember telling his two older brothers that he was eating together with Geraldo.

"Brother, I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you."

Derel immediately ran to his brother, he was actually very afraid of being scolded by his two brothers, but he had to explain everything.

Deon looked at his brother with warning eyes, he looked angry now at Derel.

Deon clutched his chest "Hurry up and go home."

"Wait, what's going on?"

Finally Geraldo approached the three of them who seemed to be talking seriously.

Seeing Geraldo coming made Deon immediately hide Derel behind him.

"Uncle, don't kidnap my brother, he doesn't have any talent to be proud of, you will only lose if you kidnap him." Said Deon who was a little bit demonizing Derel.

But this according to Deon was for the good of his brother too.

"Sorry, I have no intention of kidnapping a child, I'm not a bad person." Geraldo assured them.

"Earlier my coin bag fell and there were many coins in it, then Derel found the bag and gave it back to me, as a form of gratitude I invited him to eat."

"If you don't mind, it's okay to go home first, but you can pack the food."

Deon and Daniel looked at each other, after that they both looked at Derel, "is it true Derel?"

Derel nodded in response "It's true big brother, earlier when I was playing I accidentally saw uncle Geral's wallet fall, so I delivered it back."

Fortunately, Geraldo helped Derel in explaining the real incident to Deon and Daniel.

If not, they would probably think the strangest things.

"Alright then, have you finished eating?"

Immediately Derel nodded "already brother."

"You guys don't want to eat too?" Geraldo offered.

"Wait, you're triplets?"

Geraldo had just realized the situation, where the faces of the three of them were similar, the most visible difference was only the hair color, the rest was almost all the same.

Daniel nodded "yes uncle, we are triplets."

Geraldo chuckled "What a great father you have." He said unconsciously.

"We don't have a father." Deon answered openly.

Geraldo was silent for a moment and then nodded slowly "Then your mother?"

"We have a mother, but we call her Mama."

Geraldo nodded understanding "well I understand, before you leave, you can wrap the food that is here, free to choose anything, this is an order."

Deon and Daniel looked skeptical, but they were reassured by Geraldo.

"My name is Geral, and Derel has also eaten with me, so you can also go with food."

Because they were tempted and hungry when they saw the appetizing food on display, they agreed.

"If uncle wants it, we want it too."

"Alright, let's choose the food ourselves, you can also choose." Geraldo said, looking at Derel.

"Yeyy!" Derel happily followed his two brothers in choosing the food.

The three of them ended up choosing a lot of food, on Geraldo's orders as well.

"Thank you Uncle Geral, you've made it so our mom won't be tired of cooking because there's already food." Deon said with two big bags.

Geraldo nodded "Where's your mom-"

"Deon! Daniel! Derel!"

There was someone calling the three children from afar.

They turned their heads together, it was their mom who was looking at them worriedly.

Liana ran over to the three of them "Where are you? I was so worried looking for you guys not at the playground."

Liana normalized her breathing first because she was quite tired from running all this time.

Deon voiced "sorry mama, later we will tell the story at home, the point is Derel helped this uncle find the coin bag."

Liana breathed a sigh of relief, "You guys just make me worry."

Then Liana looked at Geraldo.

"Forgive my children for disturbing you."

Liana didn't know the nature of the man in front of her, but she had to apologize first so that she and her children could be safe.

Geraldo shook his head slowly "no, don't apologize. Your kids are really nice. My name is Geral."

Out of nowhere, Geraldo suddenly asked Liana to introduce herself and shake hands first.

In his entire life, he had never shaken hands and extended his hand first to a woman, except for his mother.

But now it was different.

Because nothing felt strange so Liana shook hands with Geraldo "I am Liana, the mother of Deon, Daniel and Derel."

Geraldo smiled softly "Nice to meet you."

Liana began to feel strange. "It's nice to meet you too." She replied immediately and removed her hand from Geraldo's grip.

"If you'll excuse me, thank you very much for looking after my children."

"Thank you uncle!"

Liana immediately dragged her three children out of Geraldo's presence.

"Remember kids, don't be easily persuaded by strangers."

"But mama, Uncle Geral gave me a gold coin."

"WHAT?!"

While at Geraldo's side he stared at Liana's departure as she led her children away.

"Looks like she thinks I'm a bad person." Geraldo muttered softly, he could read the look of fear on Liana's face.