CH 38 ~ Missing

"ELLEEEEE!!!"

Alexander jolted up from his sleep as his hands were extended to hold something, with his blue eyes widened with fear.

He couldn't come back to his senses as he just stayed just the way he woke up abruptly from his sleep and finally fisted his extended hand into a ball as he gulped down his saliva to dry his throat.

The moonlight coming from the window told him that it was midnight and he only had a nightmare.

'But it felt too real to be a nightmare…'

'Am I really protecting her in a wrong way?'

'And who was those people in my dream?'

Alexander thinks as his breathing becomes heavier as he withdraws his hands to run them into his silver hair with frustration.

His jewel blue eyes were full of fear and… fear

It's been so many days but she still hasn't woken up, what if she has gone back to the people he saw in his dream?

"No… This can't be…"

He murmurs as he rubs his hands on his face and tries to calm down.

"No one can take her away from me… no one…"

She is all that he has in this world.

He became a duke at the early age of fifteen after his father died in a carriage incident, then his mother also passed away in the same year because of grief.

Despite hearing people's mockery about how the Dalton's will lose their grace at the hands of a teenager, he proved them wrong with his capability.

Then he found his true love at the age of seventeen, and he didn't even hesitate to take the blood oath in return of his lifetime loyalty to the imperial family.

But he lost her too.

And this circle of losing his loved one made him extremely careful with his daughter's safety so much that he never realized when he walked away so far from her in the name of protection.

Forget about how his daughter was only six at that time, needed parental love and he deprived her from it to protect her; only to end up with causing her more harm.

"As long as she is alive and in front of my eyes… that's all mattered to me"

Alexander murmured in a low voice as his eyes held unspeakable pain.

"But I was really wrong Lia… because that was what mattered to me, not to her."

"She just wanted her father, someone who will extend a hand and pull her up from this mess… She needs that person and I just kept pushing her away."

His voice becomes painful as he felt his eyes turning wet.

"I was so wrong Lia… Am I too late to fix my mistakes?"

He buries his face between his palms as he keeps murmuring in a low sobbing voice.

The thought of giving her back to someone, his Lia's regret about leaving her with him, and his daughter's question in his dream was stabbing his heart again and again with pain.

'Why didn't you saved your princess papa?'

Her cold lifeless voice again rings in his ears and a helpless smile appears on his face along with a gloomy expression.

"Thank you for making me realizes my mistake, Lia… I will protect our princess-"

But he couldn't complete his word as his bedroom door was suddenly burst open and his eyes widens with shock as only one thing can explain this audacity of the knights.

Sir Rayon was panting heavily as he stood at the door along with a tear faced Maria and their words made his biggest fear come true.

"THE PRINCESS IS MISSING, YOUR GRACE!!"

…

In the dark Ally~

A teenage girl was hiding in a corner of a food stall as she bites her lips to not make a sound.

Her whole body was trembling because of the scene in front of her and there was only one thing that was running in her mind.

She needs to escape soon.

It won't be good if she gets caught here by them.

She knew that the guys who were beating the dark blue haired boy wasn't good but this three young people in front of her was making her feel more afraid.

Something was telling her that they are more dangerous than those people.

Especially the teenage boy with black hair.

He didn't even shed a single blood and those men couldn't even scream in pain.

He was so fast into twisting their neck that they didn't even know how they died.

She knew it because of the blue mark on their neck which she has seen before during her stay in the village, where the village doctor had once examined a patient whose neck was twisted like them.

She had lived in that village till the age of eight before they sent her to the orphanage.

Her life can't go on by sleeping in a small cottage and help everyone for a piece of bread.

She knows that they had no ill intention, otherwise they wouldn't have sheltered her for the past eight years and knew nothing about how double faced this orphanage authorities are.

They seem to appear friendly at first but then they show their true colors.

'I am sure they will sell me once I turn 18 just like my sister.'

'I can't get caught by them and die here… I need to save Jena… She is waiting for me to save her… Oh, God… please help-'

Liana paused on her praying as suddenly a pair of grey eyes was looking straight into her caramel brown eyes and for a moment she stopped breathing before yelling out loudly.

"AHHHH!!!"

"AHHHH!!!"

Noah screamed at the same time as Liana's scream made him surprised all of a sudden and then suddenly his head was smacked by someone.

"STOP YELLING LIKE SOME KID!"

Cathain glares at Noah dangerously, who was holding the tiny bump on his head with a pout on his face and the next moment, another voice echoes from behind them.

"Well, he is practically a kid… You dickhead."

Eleanora looks at them with a frustrated look before she shakes her head with disappointment because of their behavior and continues to heal Dominic.

She doesn't know how she is doing it but this power seems to be come out from her naturally.

Where Liana was still terrified of them.

'This is why I should have listened to my sister's advice to run fast in danger instead of trying to help alone!'

The shabby cloak on her head tilts a little as a few curls of her light blonde hair covers her face, which she hurriedly tries to fix but unknowingly, Noah furrows his brows as he felt something strange in her and takes a step toward her which she mistakes as he was trying to harm her.

"DON'T COME NEAR ME!!"

Liana yells all of a sudden as she puts her hands before her face as self defense, which became a habit of hers as she was often beaten up at the orphanage.

But to Noah's horror, his body seems to be automatically freeze as he couldn't even take a step towards her anymore and his grey eyes widens with surprise as he points her with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"W-Who… WHO ARE YOU?!"