Side Chapter 1 - Ramon’s Story 3 'Deserting the group...'

Assassination at the Royal Palace Flashback

On a screeching hot afternoon, where heat licked at his sweaty face, the worst possible situation is depicting right in front of him.

Aeselak’s teary eyes and non-stop coughs brought an unfamiliar feeling to him, and an unpleasant one at that. During the run, Eugeneia and Euria’s playmate had protected him and Aernest from the man however, the result was her coming out of it looking harmed! He worriedly inspected her up and down and found a large purple like bruising forming around her neck, just like when Euria had been stung by a Bee a few weeks prior.

Yet even when she was looking like that, she was still protecting him and Aernest behind her back. Her small trembling bodyguarding the two of them away from the scary man deeply reminded him of his elder brother’s and father’s back.

“What should I do”

He heard Aeselak whispering in front of him, followed by tightly gripping down a handful of grasses by both her sides.

Sensing something wrong with her, he was about to call out to her, when he saw that she suddenly bit her lips hard; blood flowing out from the bite!

Staring at her in surprise, Ramon shouted,

“Calm down!”

Slapping both his palms on her lips in an attempt to make her stop biting herself.

But him stopping her made her very stiff, feeling what he thought was shock through his palms, he suddenly realized that his actions were incredibly rude, yet, he was unable to take his palms off her in case she didn’t stop biting herself.

Diverting his eyes from hers, he focused his attention on Aernest whose attention was focused elsewhere; on his elder brother.

‘Thank heavens he is not crying’

Although he did not understand why Aernest wasn’t throwing a tantrum and was daydreaming instead, he was incredibly relieved. When his thoughts started to successfully wander was when his hands were suddenly gripped and pulled down, bringing back his full attention to the person in front of him.

“Young master!”

She whispered, her eyes staring at his own in determination, her body ceased trembling.

Moving closer to his ears, she whispered again; this time the most shocking thing he has ever heard in his entire life.

“Younger master, if you see the chance, run! You have to get help!”

His eyes changing to horror the second he heard her,

“What are you saying”

He whispered back staring at her in shock. Run? He will be caught in an instant! Not to mention, he will probably be hit by that old man.

More importantly, how could he leave Aernest and her behind? Thinking of everyone, he quickly rejected the idea,

‘I can’t do that!’

Attempting to pry her tightly gripped hands away from his, which resulted in a futile attempt.

‘I have a plan young master’

She replied, quickly glancing at the man and then quickly looking back towards him again.

‘I am not able to run young master, I can’t carry young master and youngest master Aernest whilst successfully getting away. I’m not strong enough.”

Her eyes started watering up again, yet she continued,

“However, it’s possible for me to stall the man. I don’t know for how long, nonetheless enough for young-master to run away and get help! Please, young-master! You’re the only one who can do this! If young-master can't more bad things will happen!”

Aeselak convinced him, at the end resorted to begging him.

“But what about Aernest?”

He asked, glancing beside him, worried if he can run fast while holding Aernest with him.

Unable to answer him at first, Aeselak then thought back to the time where she hid an entire plate of food under her dress so that she did not have to eat, Resolutely answering him,

“He will be safe with me! I can hide him under my dress!”

She then looked around to see anyone was looking before grabbing Aernest and putting him in her stomach under her dress. It looked quite obvious however they both mutually understood that this was the best solution for Aernest for now.

“Young master, when you run don’t look back no matter what! You just have to run forward to Master and Madam. You can’t trust anyone else, not even the guards. We don’t know who the bad people are”

After saying that, she gently smiled at him to reassure him once more.

“The man isn’t paying attention to us right now so everything will be alright.”

At the end of her persuasion, he froze, understanding that this was what he must do for everyone. Sweat started dripping down from his forehead due to being nervous.

“But...you”

He trailed off, if she was going to prevent the man from following him, then she must be in great danger.

“I will be alright!”

Aeselak smiled one last time as this was the only thing she could do to not make Ramon worried for her.