Chapter 1363 Hope
"Big Sister?" Suddenly, the voice of a little girl caught Jade"s attention. When she looked down, she found a beautiful little doll of a girl. Her face was almost as round as a circle, and the small point of her nose coupled with her large pink, watery eyes made one"s heart flutter. She was too adorable.
Jade was surprised. She suddenly realized that she couldn"t see into the mind of this little girl at all, every time she tried, she saw nothing but a vast empty s.p.a.ce that only emitted two feelings: pity and understanding.
"h.e.l.lo little cutie." Jade bent down, rubbing the girl"s small head. The little girl"s long flowing pink-diamond hair was so soft that Jade felt like she was touching a cloud. "Who was the benefactor that created this orphanage for you all?"
The little girl beamed with pride. "My Big Brother Dyon did it!"
"Dyon?..." Jade mumbled in surprise, a world wind of emotions. .h.i.t her once more.
She didn"t even realize when she left the surroundings of the orphanage and made it to the Holy Land of the Eostre Clan. In the end, she couldn"t help but chuckle to herself bitterly. Even when she took a walk to erase him from her mind, somehow he made his way back in. Why did he have to do that?
"Jade." A stern voice awoke Jade from her thoughts. She found the way to her room blocked by a middle-aged man with long silver hair.
The decorations of the Eostre family were decidedly lackl.u.s.ter. In fact, the entire home was a bland grey.
This was actually done on purpose. The Eostre Clan spent much of their time trying to temper and ignore their own emotions. So, they got rid of everything that could elicit them. It was only in this way that they extended the time they could use their manifestation. Often times, the oldest members of their Clan were the weakest because they made the decision to no longer use their manifestations in order to maintain their sanity.
"Yes, father?" Jade"s eyes remained placid. It didn"t look like she was greeting a father figure because she in fact wasn"t. This man before her wasn"t her father, but she continued to pretend to this day that he was.
"The Clan has come to a decision regarding the matters of the Daiyu Clan. We"ve secured you a position as Second Wife of their young heir Chenglei. How you perform will decide whether our Eostre Clan continues to be tools for this Elvin Kingdom, or if we can set off on our own."
"Okay." Jade didn"t have much of a reaction. She was aware that their Clan purposely asked for the second wife position in order to protect her. If she took first wife, it was possible that she"d have delusions that she had met her true love. This would lead to emotions which would inevitably cripple her.
Jade tried to walk past her father, but she suddenly felt a firm hand clamp on her slender arms.
"There"s a disruption in your soul." The Clan Head"s opal eyes flashed. "What happened to you?"
Before Jade could react, a palm slammed into her forehead, forcibly weeding out all of her secrets.
Jade felt like her life was being laid bare. All of the events of the past few days were exposed to her "father", even her slight stint of madness. Nothing was hidden.
"You…" A slap bombarded Jade"s face. "How could you make such a mistake!? It"s already too late! And you actually planned on not telling me about this?!"
Jade"s delicate hand covered her face, but she didn"t have much of a reaction. Her eyes had returned from surprise to placid once more.
The Clan Head frowned, lines of worry clear on his forehead. There was no precedent for retreating from the line of madness after it had been crossed. It seemed that Jade was still her normal self now, but it was already too late. There were only two options: either to continue and ignore Jade"s plight, or to destroy the connection between her and her manifestation now.
However, the second was impossible… They couldn"t afford such a setback now. If they didn"t make use of Jade now, who knew when they would birth another genius of her caliber? Without the help of a True Empath coupled with the abilities of Meiying, the Daiyu wouldn"t be able to find their way to the hidden prison of the ent.i.ty. They needed Jade now, and only they could resurrect their Clan to the heights they wanted.
The Clan Head grit his teeth. "You unfilial daughter! Come, let me show you what kind of stupidity is floating around in that head of yours now."
Over the past few days, the Eostre Clan Head had been monitoring Dyon. It wasn"t because he thought there might be a connection between him and Jade, but rather because such variables were terrible for their plan.
If a human came to know of the happenings of the Elvin Kingdom, then the plans of the Daiyu could be exposed ahead of time. If this happened, there would be no recourse.
Unfortunately, just when he wanted to eliminate Dyon to get rid of future problems, he and Ri entered the cave Ri"s mother left behind. Everyone knew that without a pure heart, entering that cave was a sentence to death, so they could only pull back.
In the end, the matter became even more complex after Dyon was taken under the wing of the Acacia Family and Acacia Academy.
Still, even until now, they closely monitored Dyon, planning on eliminating him the moment he left the island. So, as things stood now, the Clan Head knew exactly where Dyon was.
At this moment, Ri and Dyon were leisurely chatting with one another as they walked through the Elvin City. Ri had just finished describing the secrets behind Campaigns and why they occurred.
~"Ah, whatever. I have time to figure all of this out slowly. For now, how about you tell me where you disappeared to for all those days. I was missing you," Dyon pouted as though he was truly hurt by her absence.
Ri rolled her eyes, "Don"t worry about what I do during my free time. That being said, I did promise to take you around the guilds. I"m not familiar with the blacksmithing or alchemy guilds… but the formation guild, I can help with that."
Dyon nodded. He had already made the conscious choice to contribute as much as he could to those guilds so that his army would be the best equipped. He was taking their lives very seriously already.
Suddenly, Little Lyla"s voice came from atop Little Black, "Big brother, big sister, I want to go there!" Her little chubby hands pointed towards a tower in the distance.
When Dyon realized what he was looking at he chuckled lightly, "It looks like I"ll be treating you today after all," He said looking at Ri mysteriously.
Ri raised an eyebrow, looking towards the restaurant in the distance, "Heaven"s Wine? You"re broke, how could you afford to treat me there? That very well might be the most expensive restaurant on the island… even your original million profound stones wouldn"t be enough. Also, aside from Little Lyla, we"re not dressed nearly formally enough."
Dyon smiled, "Don"t worry about all that, let"s go."~
Jade watched through a mirror as Dyon, Ri, Little Black and the pink haired she had met just a few hours ago walked around together like a happy family. The empty feeling in her chest suddenly grew uncontrollably. She couldn"t help but belittle herself for having ever harbored such hope.