Lucia bit her lips as her eyes turned rebellious, "Then let them return him..."

"Return who?" Lucas raised his brows, feeling confused.

He knew that his sister was not the same anymore. She had been spacing out, not talking to him, not jeering at him, not beating him up.

It was like she had turned into a different person.

After he came home, he saw that the important people he thought had died were alive and well, so he couldn't understand the reason for her lethargic state.

However, Daniuis frowned at Lucia, "You are not to bring up this topic again..."

"Father, at least get your niece to..."

"Stop it, Lucia!"

"Tell them to give back Glyn!" Lucia's shout echoed throughout the hall, her expression clouded in anger with tears partly moistening her eyes.

"Father, what is she talking about? Why are the masked people in possession of Glyn?" Lucas asked with a doubtful expression on his face.

Daniuis couldn't help but frown even more.

======

Lucas returned to his room after the meeting in the hall. He sat and crossed his fingers, placing his it on his chin as his eyes shook.

'Dead? Glyn is dead?' His eyes couldn't help but turn red. He considered Glyn to be his good friend, and on top of that, Glyn was Nina's little brother.

How was he supposed to explain it to her? No, forget about explaining, he was instead told to not reveal the fact that Glyn was dead to Nina!

He couldn't help but feel worse as seconds passed by.

'I shouldn't have got caught!'

All because of him! If he weren't caught, Glyn wouldn't have died in the first place! Neither would have Uncle Gyrus thrown his life away trying to protect him!

Not only Uncle Gyrus died but many people helped him run away! Nevertheless, his cultivation base was less and he easily got caught after some period of time.

Their efforts were all in vain!

From his eyes, a single drop of tear fell on the ground when he suddenly heard a footstep near the door.

He hurriedly wiped his tears away before turning to look at the wall and leaned on the bed as he closed his eyes to show as if he was resting.

The door opened and a figure entered the room with tip-toeing footsteps that sounded joyous.

"Lucas, it's me!"

Suddenly, a feminine voice echoed beside his ears which further let him feel guilty, even pain in his heart. He turned to see her face which undoubtedly told that she was none other than Nina.

"Are you feeling well?" Nina raised her brows as she asked. She was the one who had dressed his wounds a few hours ago.

Lucas sat up and nodded his head, "Hmm, I'm fine."

Seeing the space on the edge of the bed being freed, she sat beside him and turned to look at his side profile with love.

She took his hand and placed his palm on her stomach as she muttered with a smile, "Think of our baby and all the pain will fly away."

Lucas suddenly laughed at her antics. Her stomach wasn't even bulging out, what was there to feel?

Nina's face blossomed a beautiful smile while seeing him turn happy.

Lucas stretched his hand and pinched her cheeks while pulling her back and forth, "You cheeky little..."

Nina enjoyed his touch but she started to act like it hurt, "Oww... Oww..."

She was more than 5 years older than him, however, she wanted to play cute whenever she was in front of him.

'Maybe this is the feeling of being in love...' Nina reflected but he suddenly let her go.

..."We're leaving soon..."

"What? Where?" Nina turned astonished.

'Why are we suddenly leaving when we're being chased? Could it be there's another hideout?' Nina couldn't help but think, 'Maybe my little brother is there as well?'

"Ermm... We're going to the Alstreim Family Territory." Lucas replied without much thought.

Nina widened her eyes in shock. She knew about the existence of the three territories but only came to know about the names of the three territories after joining the Cloud Spring Mercenaries.

She was from nothing but an Earth Grade Power, so her ignorance could be quite understood.

Nevertheless, she turned glad in the next instant.

Wasn't leaving meant that they get to escape from the clutches of the Tripartite Alliance here?

The Alstriem Family Territory is vast, and she was sure that they would survive there if they stayed low, hiding from the eyes of the Tripartite Alliance or the Alstreim Family since the latter wouldn't even bother about them.

She shook Lucas's hand in glee, "Thankfully, we managed to rescue you before leaving!"

Lucas's expression suddenly became sullen, however, the next sentence he heard from her made him feel pale.

"Where is my little brother? Will we regroup with him on the way?" Nina asked with an eager smile, her lips curving into a wide grin.

Lucas tried too hard to control his expression from contorting into sorrow. He suppressed his irregular emotions and spoke, "I don't think so..."

Nina turned stunned but she blinked, "Could it be that he's already here?"

Lucas shook his head, "I don't think so..."

Nina's smile slowly receded, "... You are kidding, right?"

"I don't think so..." Lucas could only say these words continuously. He said it thrice out of fear that he would blurt the truth out. He was not good at lying.

Nina was quite taken aback. She looked at Lucas in disbelief.

There were a few seconds of silence in between them before she suddenly stood up and walked away to the door.

"Where are you going?" Lucas stood up in haste as he extended his hands.

Nina took a side glance at him as her expression turned blank, no longer amiable, "I'm going to search for him outside to see if he came back to this hideout."

Lucas watched her walk out of the room. Her back seemed suddenly lonely or was it just his mind playing tricks on his eyes. He just couldn't tell.

He took a deep breath and sat, his palm closing both of his eyes while he inwardly muttered.

'He is indeed here but only as a corpse in that masked person's spatial ring...'

======

Nina left the cave entrance of their residence as she walked at a fast pace. Her eyes were slowly moistening with tears but she didn't utter a word of complaint or grievance.

Where could she go complaint? Only to her little brother but he was somewhere else!

Although she didn't utter a word of complaint, she was scared, incredibly scared at the thought of leaving her only little brother out in the open.

It wasn't like she hadn't seen what had happened to the members of Cloud Spring Mercenaries who were captured.

Her beloved, Lucas was a prime example...

She was entirely disheartened with his words, but she didn't want to argue or berate him either.

As she walked around the extremely wide cave, her eyes rapidly panned around, trying to find even a silhouette of Glyn.

However, she could only see people walking to and fro, dealing with their own business.

Their expressions differed, with each one of them exhibiting a story with only their faces. They all had more or less fought against the Tripartite Alliance once in their lives and in doing so, lost their loved ones.

Some were smiling, some wore cold expressions, some even looked at her with some envy. She could even feel gazes of lust cast at her.

However, she could care less because no one here would dare to openly make a move, especially when Leader Daniuis was present!