Chapter 357 - Meeting Elaina Once Again - Part 1!
Oliver walked through a corridor leading to the secret basement room with his disciples, Elaina, and Melinda, who were walking behind him silently.
They were brought to the entrance of this corridor by a soldier after being released from the \'guest room,\' who then instructed them to walk to the end of it where King Danny would be waiting for them.
The secret passageway that they were walking on was dilapidated; it was humid and smelled of mold. Fortunately, they didn\'t have to walk for long and soon arrived at the end of the corridor, where the gate to the basement was already wide open for them to enter.
Alter, the three climbed the ladder to the exit the corridor; they saw a room filled with miscellaneous objects such as paintings, worn-out books, some tools used for cleaning, and weapon racks that didn\'t seem to hold any weapons.
They saw a man standing in the middle of that mess, and besides a clean long table and chairs for four people to sit.
"Mister Oliver, Miss Elaina, Miss Melinda, how was your night? I hope you didn\'t face any inconvenience while sleeping in the prison room." Sparrow came forward and greeted the three guests, and when he saw their eyes looking at the place of meeting, and said, Ah, please come don\'t mind the mess. We didn\'t have time to clean this room. Come, have a seat. King Danny would be arriving here shortly in a while. Please have something to drink and eat while you wait."
"No, we actually had much better sleep here than the camp before the battle. Also, we don\'t mind this at all. We are cultivators, after all. Also, thank you for stopping that Lady that night from killing me. If you had not arrived in time, she might really have taken my head off. Not that I blame her, she didn\'t know me. Fortunately, luck was on my side, and a past acquaintance to a young boy living tens of thousands of leagues away from this place, would save my life." Oliver replied quickly to the man speaking in the manner of an aristocrat\'s butler. He, of course, recognized Sparrow from that dreadful night in the forest.
"Yes, fate works in a mysterious way. A good karma always saves you when you need it the most." The Sparrow replied. He then asked them once again to have a seat and then called the maids waiting outside the gates with a clap of his hands.
Clap, Clap
The door opened, and three maids brought some refreshment, spirit wine for Oliver, and juice for the ladies.
"I will leave for now and wait for the King\'s arrival outside the gates. If you need anything or have anything to ask, please don\'t to call my name," and with that, the puppet walked out of the basement, giving the three a little privacy.
Oliver couldn\'t help but pour himself a glass of Spirit Wine and take a drink it whole in a few gulps.
"Do you have any questions before he arrives?" He said, breaking the unnatural silence around the table.
"Master, how are we going to return to our Clan after this? I mean, if the second prince really won\'t leave Elaina alone, then even if we go back, he will still come again to get revenge on her. And I think the Clan… won\'t stop him from doing harm to her. The Clan didn\'t say anything when Uncle Willy was ruthlessly killed in the middle of the streets by those bastards." Melinda spoke first. She also looked at Elaina when she spoke the last sentence about her late father. Fortunately or not, this time, she didn\'t let her emotions to get heavy on her mind. She only sat beside her with her head down, looking blankly at the table.
Oliver was ridden with guilt and self-blame when he looked at her ambitious disciple\'s state after that incident. Only if he hadn\'t gone to that island and brought her back to the Clan, maybe she wouldn\'t have lost her father. Perhaps she would have done better in cultivation and life knowing that young man and living on the island under his rule.
"Melinda, I… don\'t know what to say. I can\'t promise that the second prince won\'t have any evil thoughts and do her harm yet again in the premises of the Clan. Sometimes blood relation does not matter when the interest of a clan and their relation with the Royal family is at stake. I thought the current clan patriarch would protect the last line of the Eberhart Patriarch before his father, but it seems I was too naïve at that time. If only I had trained harder, maybe I wouldn\'t be so helpless. I never felt so powerless in my life." Oliver seemed to really tear up at any moment.
"Master, I don\'t blame you. I can never blame you because you always had thought good of us. Let\'s talk about what we should do from now on," Elaina said, lifting her head.
\'The only one that is be blamed is that bastard of a prince,\' thought Elaina.
"Elaina is right, Master. We really need to think about the future now. Elaina and her mother can\'t stay in the Clan anymore. We need to get them somewhere safe. . . Maybe, Elaina can stay here, and we could go and fetch her mother and live in this kingdom. I don\'t think the second prince and the Clan would stretch their hands here." Melinda suggested. She was but an orphan child in the Clan who Oliver had adopted and trained under him since childhood. She doesn\'t have much feeling about the Clan or has any fetters with the Armen Kingdom that she cannot break. After getting to know them and spending her time living together, she only cares about Oliver and Elaina, and Lady Brenna. That\'s why it was easy for her to suggest leaving the Clan.
Oliver flinched and looked at Melinda for a moment and then at Elaina, who had yet again lowered her head, and God knows what is currently going on in her head.
"I… it\'s not that simple, my child. We cannot… at least I cannot leave the Clan. We would be declared traitors, and when the Clan and the Kingdomcan\'tt find or reach us, they will definitely deal with the ones I had close relations with within the Clan. It\'s not easy for me to leave, but you are also right. Elaina and Brenna need to leave the Clan, and you too. You all need to move to some place safe. Here is also good," Oliver said."But Master, why me, I won\'t leave you. "Melinda shook her head and tried to object, but she was interrupted in between.
"I\'m Peak stage Dantian Formation Realm Cultivator. I might break through to the Elemental Gathering realm in a few years. The Clan has invested a lot in me; it won\'t do anything to me unless I betray them. But you are different. Your strength hasn\'t reached anywhere near where the Clan cannot afford to lose you. Therefore, you have to go with Elaina and her mother. It\'s my order Melinda; you can\'t stay with me. Also, Elaina needs you more than me." Oliver said with his majesty of an adoptive father and Teacher. But her disciple returned a face full of defiance. Fortunately, after mentioning Elaina\'s name, the defiance in her eyes became somewhat lesser.
Oliver then turned to face the seventeen-year-old girl, whose eyes had turned red and tears seemingly about to burst out.
"As for the retainers of the Yandell Family, staying inside the Clan\'s territories, I\'m not sure if we can move them from there. It would bring too much attention, and someone might try to create problems in between. . ."
"I cannot leave even one of them behind. Tell me, who should I throw when they all are loyal to my father and mother? That\'s why they came all the way to this place from their original home. I can\'t do that. . . I can\'t kill that murderer, I can\'t run away without leaving those people that my family was responsible for protecting, and I can\'t even die. I can\'t do anything but cry. . ."The visage of a strong girl that the young girl had tried to erect all the time suddenly broke apart as tears started trailing down her cheeks and before she burst into crying.
It was then that the door to the basement was pushed open by a joyous-looking young man as he barged inside without knocking, only to stop in his track after seeing the tearful face of a familiar-looking girl.
Listening to the mournful and heartbroken sound of her wails seemed to cause the whole world to turn a darker shade of grey. Anyone would have a heartache seeing the young girl\'s beautiful face becoming tear-ridden.
Alex seemed to have forgotten all that raunchy sex that he had with two hot women. He suddenly had the urge to know why and what could have caused a girl like Elaina to cry her eyes out.
But Alex didn\'t forget his current persona, so he quickly got into his character.
"Did I come at the wrong time?" Danny couldn\'t help but say when he noticed how awkward the atmosphere had become because of his sudden entrance.
---(Read Authors Note: Important)
Authors Note: My new Novel \'\'The Wolf of Aragnar\'\'is out and iit\'svery exciting. Please do give it a read after finishing this chapter. You can find the new Novels link in the synopsis or just search the name.. Be sure to add it to your library; I will start updating it in a few days.