Side Chapter 1 - Ramon’s Story 5 END 'Deserting the group…3’

“Are you alright?”

A low male voice spoke out from right above Ramon.

‘...what…?’

Chills crawling down Ramon’s spine, his hands unconsciously trembling by his sides. His body for the first time going through inner turmoil, freezing cold from the unexpected encounter.

‘Was it one of the culprits?’

He couldn’t help but think of the worst-case scenario. This wasn’t the voice of someone familiar to him. Yet, before he could try to recover his mental state, and recompose himself, a pair of camouflaged trousers with boots of the same styling walked straight up to him.

Step.

Step…

“NOOO!!!”

He screamed, his danger cells alarming him, his adrenaline pumping like crazy to his small muscles! Without any hesitation, he double rolled to his side, and sprinted as fast as he could, picking up the momentum from the roll!

‘No. No.. NO! Noo NO!!’

“HEY!”

The deep voice shouted after him, heavy footsteps soon following!

“NOOOO!!”

He shrieked for his life, his legs sprinting like crazy! --Those shoes! Those shoes! Danger! Accompolice!-- It was his primary instinct to run away, in this case, to run away with your tail between your legs! Not looking back, he swears to never close his eyes for a moment ever again, and without hesitation this time, he screamed out loud,

“FATHERRRR!!!!”

Crying as tears streamed down his face, he kept screaming out for help all the while shocking the guy who was running right after him, his footsteps sounding closer and closer.

“FATHERRRRR!!!”

“MOTHERRR!!!!

“HELPPP”

“PLEASE HELPPP!!”

Although he swore to never again close his eyes ever again, his eyes still became clouded with his tears. The blurry image of the Imperial Fountainhead poking out from the hedge came to his vision, making him think he was hallucinating. The hedges surrounding the Imperial Garden was taller than Duke Amos Rodriguez who was 2 meters tall, so how was it possible for a fountain to be seen from behind the hedge?!

Yet even if it was all an illusion, he still ran to the open part of the hedge, wanting to enter into the Imperial Garden! If he turned left from inside the hedge and head towards where the fountain was, his parents would without a doubt be there!

‘Just a bit more’

He gritted his teeth, his hands tightly clenched together as he attempted his final sprint!

“FATHHHERRRRRRR!!!”

He screamed even louder, this time, successfully alarming the Great Nobles, the Royal family, and his parents especially; freezing everyone in their spots.

“MOTHERRRR!!!!”

He attempted one last shout! He was almost there, just a left turn! 5 more steps! Just 5 more steps!

Yet before he could even attempt his final steps into the entrance to the Imperial garden bordered by hedges, someone had already stepped out, making Ramon crash into the person; this time without falling.

-CRASHHH!-

Huge strong hands, bigger than Ramon’s face firmly held onto the shoulders of Ramon. However unexpectedly for the person preventing Ramon from falling, he got an incredibly terrifying scream in return.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Ramon attempted to struggle out, rejecting the person in front of him because of the anxiety of being caught. He wanted to deny reality; the reality of failing to get help for everyone.

“Ramon…”

“WHY!! WHYY! WHYYY!!!”

He pushed, kicking the person holding him. Un-willing to look at the person in front of him.

“RAMON!”

An incredibly familiar voice shouted, overpowering Ramon’s breakdown, completely freezing Ramon still.

“... Fa... Father?”

Ramon called out, slowly looking up.... however, whom he thought was his father was only an incredibly familiar looking person.

The huge physique of Duke Amos Rodriguez enlarging in his peripheral vision.

‘Oh..’

Before he could fully process that everyone was going to be in safe hands now, a loud pair of footsteps suddenly stopped a meter behind him, the voice of the man who ran after him speaking out soon after.

“Sir!”

The guy behind him saluted.

Although he understood that he was now safe, Ramon still unconsciously felt scared again from hearing the unfamiliar voice; biting the bottom of his lips until they bled from anxiousness. Trembling, his body soon started twitching uncontrollably like he was having a mental breakdown.

Amos Rodriguez seeing the little child in such a state hugged Ramon closer to his chest, speechless at his sight. Although he never experienced it himself he understood what Ramon was going through. Even he had times when he was at that tipping point of unconsciously losing to his own emotions.

‘What on earth happened?’

“LEAVE!”

Without hesitation seeing Ramon’s state, the Emperor ordered the soldier to leave. Although he didn’t know what could have happened, he instinctively knew it had nothing to do with the soldier, seeing the bewildered look on his face; deducing that the soldier only wanted to stop Ramon from entering the Imperial Garden.

✁✁

What could be so bad for a child to be trembling this much? Especially on a day that was meant to be joyous; the first meeting of their newly born nieces.

Because of the newly born twins, everyone had fun teasing the unmarried Clyde Akler and Earnest Marleigh. Clyde Akler wanting to find the perfect Lady before settling down and Earnest Marleigh being incredibly stoic during the whole conversation.

“Do you hear something?”

Earnest Marleigh who had good hearings suddenly mumbled out of random. Yet because of his words, everyone thought he wanted to divert the conversation to something else.

“No? What are you saying now? Don’t avoid the topic and....--- Wait.” (Irvin Graeme)

“......”

“Father!!!”

A scream of a child slowly became audible once the group was still in silence. Moniqua recognized the voice immediately upon listening in, dropped the cup from shock. The sound of cup shattering immediately alarmed everyone, standing up in a union, mutually understanding something was not right with the voice of the child.

“MOTHERR!!!!”

This time, the screams were ear-piercing making Levis and Moniqua instinctively run to the source of the voice in a rush. It was the voice of someone who never once raised his voice, or acted out simply because his manners and behaviors were kept locked; not wanting to behave in a way his brother disapproved.

Everyone’s heart instantly dropped when Amos Rodriguez who was innocently admiring flowering suddenly caught a disheveled boy at bay. Ramon’s face full of cuts entered their visions, looking as if he had run away from some major battlefield. Already a bad premonition lurked up their hearts without even knowing what happened. Seeing the usually shy child acting out of the norm as if afraid of something, forewarned them of something worse to come...

Kneeling beside Ramon and Amos Rodriguez, Moniqua tried to calm her child down all the while rubbing his back and patting him to comfort him.

“We are here Ramon! You are safe!!”

Letting go of Amos Rodriguez Ramon slipped down onto his knees right in front of Moniqua, looking as if he had lost his whole world. Clutching onto the hem of her dress, he heartbreaking muttered,

“Help…”

Breathing in deeply as tears spewed out of his eyes, he continued,

“Everyone… everyone…”

Remembering despair, the dire situation, brother Ron coughing up blood, his brothers and sisters, Ramon bared out the situation with great difficulties,

“Everyone is going to die… Everyone! Father! Mother!! There are bad people!”

Tears not stopping, it was as if his heart was breaking into many pieces remembering the people he left to reach here!

“PLEASE!”

He begged, shaking Moniqua’s dress, looking up to her with eyes full of terror and hurt.

What?

Everyone stared in shock at the child, understanding yet not understanding him at the same time. What happened again?

“Brother Louis, Aernest, Eugeneia, Euria, Aeselak, Aedelak, brother Ren and Ron! Everyone is going to be hurt! Everyone!”

Without waiting for Ramon to finish his story, Levis could no longer continue to stay still, grabbing Ramon, and without so much as even a nod, everyone began running. Many thoughts went through their minds, however, the number one thing they all wished for was for the children to be safe, and for them to not be too late!

“Where are they?”

Amos Rodiguez shouted from closeby.

“The … directions heading to the waiting room!”

Ramon replied, giving the best instruction he could, tightly hugging his father before whispering,

“Father I… I’m scared, what if…”

“No! You did well Ramon! Nothing will happen! You did well!”

Clutching Ramon tightly to his chest, Levis felt his eyes sting. Feeling his hands being held by someone, he looked beside him just to find Moniqua also being in the same emotional state. Shaking his head to get rid of his inner turmoil, he tightly clenched her hands, pulling her with him to run faster.

“Big brother, Brother Ron, Aedelak, and Aeselak are protecting Brother Ren and the children!”

Ramon managed to say, giving all the information he knew to everyone.

“Brother Ron is very hurt, bleeding from his mouth. And... AND! Aeselak… Aeselak... might... might sleep forever….”

He whispered towards the end, however, his whispers didn’t go unheard. In fact, they heard him clearly. There was no need to explain what ‘sleep forever’ meant as everyone knew that it meant death.

With no delays, everyone went off to deal with the emergency situation. Amos Rodriguez sprinted off like a madman to inform the available soldiers at the other end of the palace, and with weapons, sprinted back with everyone to the surrounding area Ramon described, spreading out the soldiers so that no one can escape from the inside. Clyde Akler, and Earnest Marleigh also quickly went the other way to get the Imperial Doctors and have an emergency room set up close by. The rest closely followed behind Levis and Moniqua to where the children were, and the rest… well, you already know.

Back to the Present!

It was late in the evening when Eugene and Euria woke up from their afternoon nap. This was of course the norm for them, especially Eugene whose brain still over fries and overloads on too much information from time to time; her brain not quite being developed to its full capacity as of present.

Only realizing when they woke up that Ramon whom they haven’t seen for the past 2 days secretly snuck into their bed whilst they were asleep; muttering words of apologies and crying at the same time. But what can the two babies do but stare at each other; one wondering if she should wake him up from his nightmares, and the other thinking of ways to get rid of him to spend time alone with the other one.

‘Is he dreaming about that day?’’

Eugene quietly thought, turning around to stare at the sleeping Ramon, not realizing that the younger baby behind her was glaring daggers at her back from her action; however, she controlled herself like nothing ever happened when Moniqua and Levis came to check upon them.

That day, Ramon slept like a log, only waking up the next day to Eugene and Euria laying on top of his face. One pulling on his hair to get rid of him, and the other doing the same... having the same goal. Obviously Ramon was the only one oblivious to the thoughts, thinking the twins wanted to play with him; feeling refreshed seeing the twins first thing in the morning even.

Chuckling, from that day onwards, he played with the twins for a week straight, momentarily forgetting about the goal and commitment he made for himself to get stronger!

His only worry was, OBVIOUSLY NOT LETTING THE TWINS FORGET ABOUT HIM!!!!

Extra:

Question: How did the twins get on top of Ramon’s face in the first place Author?

Answer: Well …. let’s say it was all Euria’s idea.

Ramon Side Story END!