Episode 100 - Valley of a Hidden Storm 4 ‘Fluff: The 1st Storm‘

Eugene and Aernest floated atop the calm water in peace as they watched various-sized clouds and oddly shaped clouds drift along with the breezy wind.

“I like quiet days…” Eugene softly muttered.

“....”

“I like quiet days…” Eugene repeated.

“....” The child beside Eugene blinked his tired red eyes.

He too, is quite fond of quiet days… sometimes. Especially today’s quiet day when everything prior to this moment now has been nothing but hectic.

The two listened as birdsongs sang sweetly in tune with the slight breeze. It was incredibly sweet, like cotton candy. They idled away and watched as clouds condensed into random forms.

Hearing soft footsteps behind them, they turned around and watched as Euria, Aeselak, and Aedelak walked over.

“Elder sister! Brother! You’re so amazing!” Euria chuckled softly. Her light voice blended in with birds singing in the background.

“I’m not worried anymore!” Euria squatted down as she watched her sister and brother swim over.

Aedelak and Aeslak nodded in agreement. They weren’t worried anymore!

“I want to be able to swim too…” Euria said with a hint of sadness and regret in her voice. “It looks so much fun!” She sighed.

“......” Aernest chuckled. “We can swim together next time!” He laughed.

“Really?” Euria widened her eyes!

“Yes. We can swim as much as you want to. It’s a good form of exercising.” Eugene added.

“Exercising?” Euria brought her hands over to her mouth in surprise.

“Yes.” Eugene nodded. “We can swim instead of running as well.”

Euria’s eyes bulged even more!

“Aeselak and Aedelak should learn to swim too!” Aernest added on the side.

“Yes! Young master!” Aeselak nodded with intense excitement.

“.....” Aedelak’s facial expression froze and paled. She briefly glanced to the lake before quickly moving her gaze back to land. ‘Wha… What do I do?’ She bit her lips as she stared at her hands.

These sets of actions didn’t go past Eugene’s eyes. It was quite obvious that Aedelak is fearful of deep water. However, to be scared of something wasn’t in Aedelak’s character. In the three years that they’ve known each other, Eugene could confidently say that Aedelak was someone who wasn’t afraid of anything. Spiders? She stomps them to death, easily. Ghost under the bed? She’s got that covered. Her’s and Euria’s safety? …. Well, that’s the only thing Aedelak is fearful of.

‘But! Water?’ Eugene scrunched her brows. ‘Why? And How?!’ Aedelak wouldn’t tell her the truth even if she asked. With no other options, Eugene, reluctantly, of course, swam over to the boy with flawless white-grey hair that sparkles under the sun. Only this bro-nemy of hers will have answers to her questions!

“Careful.” Louis nodded to Ramon who asked for his permission to go play with the other brothers.

Suddenly from the corner of his eyes, he saw a big white hairy fish swimming over to him with great speed. The ugly creature, from who knows where slithered underwater in his direction!

Shocked, he stepped back for a brief moment! His hands instinctively reach his waist to grab his sword, only for it not to be there! With no other choice, he prepared to shout to get the attention of Commander Kal only to stop when the ugly hairy creature suddenly looked a bit… familiar.

It was... Familiar!

Incredibly familiar!

“.....” The corner of his lips twitched as the human creature got closer. Sighing, he shook his head.

‘What am I going to do with you...’ He sighed again before reaching his hands underwater to the ugly creature.

Eugene, who was annoyed that her target kept moving away from her, saw that her target finally stood still in place! Seeing his hands reaching out to her, she with no hesitation grabbed it and climbed up to his arms, quite naturally.

Their display of affections was too natural that it was so shocking to the people watching the two from land and out of the land.

“Haa..” Eugene took in a deep breath. Unlike the rest who were shocked frozen, Eugene didn’t feel like anything was out of place.

Louis, too, didn’t feel that anything was out of place. Why? Because he has been carrying Eugene and Euria around everywhere since they were born. Even as they got older, when they got tired of walking, he would naturally carry them around.

Naturally sitting on his arm, Eugene broke the silence. “You…” She mumbled, staring at Louis straight in the eyes.

“Hmm?” He raised his brows as he brought Eugene closer.

Scrunching her brows, Eugene finally dropped the bomb question. “Did you push Aedelak into the water when you guys were younger? Unless it’s because of you, I don’t see how and why she could possibly be afraid of water!” She accused Louis as she placed the crimes of Aedelak’s fears on Louis’s head.

Seeing the accused eyes’s twitch, Eugene's face turned to one of disgust. ‘I knew it! My detective radar is always right!’

Louis stared at Eugene’s facial expression for a long time. A long, long, time.

Finally, after many minutes passed by, he speechlessly questioned her. “... She told you that?” He asked in a voice that was 1 tone higher than his usual tone.

This, Eugene immediately took notice of. And his question to her question, she took it as Louis confirming her suspicions.

“Hmmph.” She folded her arms and turned her head away.

“..... She told you?” Louis asked again.

“No.” Eugene shook her head. “She didn’t. Intuition told me.” She pursed her lips in displeasure and stared at him in a face that bragged that it was because of her detective skills that she found out about his dirty crimes.

“.....” Louis stared at Eugene, blankly.

‘Let’s see if you can still put up this font when we get back to Xenperia.’ His eyes glinted with a murderous aura but quickly dissipated without Eugene’s notice.

“-Cough-” Without noticing Louis’s reaction, she changed the subject to the people gathering around in a circle from a distance away.

Pointing to the crowd, she asked. “What are they doing?”

Louis turned to look at the group before replying. “Looking for treasures.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Treasures?” Her eyebrows instinctively raised.

“Hmm.” Louis hummed. “Knights occasionally find bits of gold in water. Possibly because the lake is connected to the Royal Lake.” He replied nonchalantly.

“Hmm..” Eugene tapped her chin with her index finger. She glanced at the sky for a second as if in deep thoughts before jumping off of Louis’s hold.

“I am in need of money.”

Was Eugene’s last words before skillfully diving underwater. Not knowing that the boy who stood frozen from her words as she left concluded that she’s finally gone mad; she left him behind as shocking as she came to him earlier on.

Eugene + money always becomes an odd combination. When such a topic comes up, Eugene becomes a different person entirely. Why does she react so desperately when she’s born into money? If she needed money, all she needed to do was ask. Does she not know that everyone knew that she was the leader behind Euria and Aernest looting money now and then? Did she not know that everyone knew she kept her treasures under her bed? This was something Louis wanted to question her all along. Just, he felt that it might hurt the little pride she has, left.

“Haa..” Louis sighed as he shook his head. Towards this naive-greedy-idiotic-sometimes smart-sister of his, he really didn’t know what to do.

Blinking his eyes, he unconsciously mumbled. “Twit..” You deserve this name as well...

Meanwhile, ‘twit’ Eugene who was diving underwater stared wide-eyed at the unfathomable number of tiny cute fishes swimming around here and there. Towards Louis’s unspoken thoughts, she naturally had no idea, of course. And if she did, the little pride she carried around might possibly be crushed into fine powder; Louis’s thoughts becoming a reality.

‘Aernest and Euria would love this.’ Naive-little- Eugene thought as she uncovered mini crabs hiding underneath big boulders.

‘Hmm.’ Eugene glanced left and right with her eyes wide open. Naturally, she knew that bacteria exist and that she shouldn’t keep her eyes open underwater without protection, but what can she do?! No one gave her no goggles!

‘Diamond. Where art thou?’ She mumbled in her head as she dove underwater. It was only until she ran out of breath that she swam up to the surface.

“Haaa!” Eugene breathed in as she turned to look around.

“......” Louis blinked at Eugene who popped out from afar.

“.....” Eugene blinked at Louis who was staring at her with eyes that pitied her.

Frowning at him, she inhaled as much oxygen as she could before going back under. Although she didn’t understand why he was staring at her with those eyes, she quickly forgot about it as she watched groups of fish swimming past her.

Diving underwater whilst searching for treasures was an activity she’s unfamiliar with. However, towards this mini activity, she could wholeheartedly say that this was incredibly exciting! This new activity might as well become her future hobby!

‘I should also go treasure hunting in the Veria river!’ Eugene slowly swam as her heart beat with excitement.

‘Diamonds & Gold!’ She chanted and repeated.

Finally, after 10 consecutive times of diving up for air, she discovered something incredibly shiny underwater.

‘Diamond? Art thou my Diamond?’ She excitedly shouted in her head.

With a wide grin on her face, she quietly swam towards the shiny object. Her eyes, incredibly focused, as she one mindedly swam to her target.

‘It’s so shiny!’ Eugene reached the target as she stared at the beautiful shine in happiness.

After admiring the object for 2 seconds, she finally noticed that her desired object was covered in stone, like cement. And because her desired object was covered in hardened cement, her beautiful object wasn’t budging out at all!

“.....” Damn! She inwardly cussed.

Eugene pouted as she scratched around the surface of the stone in an attempt to figure out what her desired object was.

Ring? Diamond ring?!

It’s a diamond ring!

Seeing a small bit of gold-like-metal holding the diamond, she with no hesitation, reached for the hardened cement with both of her hands. ‘If I can’t bring the diamond, I'll bring the whole thing!’ She thought, as she forcefully shook and pulled the hardened cement in front of her.

‘It’s stuck. Really stuck.’ She tilted her head, using her hands to desperately move the branches that were holding back the hardened cement.

Finally, after uncovering the deeply entangled branches, the hardened cement as big as her face came out as a whole.

‘Mehehe~’ She chucked happily as she turned the hardened cement around.

-Badum- Her heart pumped with excitement.

‘Mehe~… he… h-’ She stopped. Eugene froze still in place as she stared at the thing she was holding.

-Badum-

‘No way... Ay… It’s not real.” Eugene shook her head as her smiling lips lowered slightly. She barely managed to hold back in the oxygen that wanted to escape from shock!

-Badum-

‘Right?’ Eugene stared at the object she was holding again. And finally, her curved lips became a straight line.

Her sweet happiness of discovering a great treasure immediately died down and was replaced with the emotions of eating a mouthful of cardboard. It tasted more bitter than when the one-year-old Euria shoved down papers in her mouth.

Her excited heart turned dull and slowly dropped into the pits of her stomach. No longer was she excited, no more did she feel that today was a good day. Chemicals flooded into her brain, telling her to escape. Telling her to swim away to safety. Yet, she remained still.

She reminded herself that whatever she was currently feeling was clouding her judgment. Temporarily calming down the adrenaline rush, she asked her ‘character’ what she would normally do. And after carefully analyzing this current situation, she shoved the object back into the entangled branches.

Hiding it so that no one would discover it.

After hiding the object, her adrenaline-pumped and surged back so fast that she almost wanted to vomit. Although she was underwater, she could feel cold sweat trickling down her spine.

Now, she can run away.

With no hesitation, Eugene swam away in the direction of Louis. The warm water that was heated up by the sun felt really cold. As if she was swimming in frozen water.

‘Louis. Louis!’

She was depleted of oxygen, yet her body was still moving desperately to find safety.

‘HMPHH!’ She swallowed in a mouthful of water as she reached his legs. She scratched him as she hurriedly tried to crawl up for air.

“!!” Noticing the commotion underwater, Louis hurriedly pulled her up.

“-COUGH- -COUGH-” Eugene coughed and she vomited out all the water she drank! Her lungs desperately sucked in air, as tears threatened to fall out of her eyes.

Louis patted her back and frowned. “Be more careful.” He sternly warned, slapping her back to cough out all the water she drank.

“......” Eugene wanted to tell him that she was careful, but it was all because of the thing that she found that she rushed back!

Staring at his wet hair, she suddenly realized something.

‘Ah..’ Why was the first person I thought of, Louis? And why am I so relieved now that he’s here?

She stared at him with complicated emotions. Never in her life did she think of herself as someone capable of this emotion. Yet, judging from the situation, and a script, she acted in, in her past life, this emotion was called trust.

Trust…

Relying on someone you trust.

Feeling warmth rushing up to her heart, she instantly snapped out of her daze! In shock, her eyes moved around trying to look to see if anyone was watching her. Though she didn’t understand why she felt this way, the only thing she felt right now was that nobody should find her suspicious!

Especially someone from Zene!

Noticing her odd behavior, he frowned. “What’s wr-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Eugene cut him off by one-sidedly hugging him. Her arms held Louis tight around his neck!

Someone who didn’t know Eugene or Louis would look upon this situation as a normal sibling moment. That a sister choked underwater, and that the sister’s brother was comforting her.

However, to the people who knew Eugene and Louis, this situation was not right. Eugene wasn’t someone who needed to be comforted. To them, it looked as if she was hiding away from someone or something. And seeing that, they instinctively knew to pretend to look away.

To pretend as if nothing was wrong.

“Sorry.” Eugene apologized, knowing that Louis might be uncomfortable that she was a bit too close.

She had no other choice! What if someone knows how to read lips? What if they can hear her? She wasn’t willing to take that chance.

“.....” Louis stared at Eugene’s crown and didn’t reply. His face showed no emotions and only his hands were still patting her back.

Pulling Louis closer, Eugene whispered.

“I… I saw a decapitated hand.” On the inside, the bone still fully intact...

“....... what?” Louis' eyebrows twitched. For a second he thought she was joking, however, he quickly dismissed that thought.

“Where?” He whispered.

“Underwater, hidden behind branches.”

“How?” How did you find it?

“I found a diamond ring. However, upon careful inspection, the ring was on a hand. The wrist was cleanly cut, and most likely…” Eugene paused.

“A real hand,” Louis answered for her.

“Where is it now?” He asked again.

“I hid it,” Eugene replied, quickly.

Pausing for a second, he then pulled Eugene away from him. Sighing, he whispered, “You did well.”

After that, he carried Eugene to land. Aeselak and Aedelak didn’t ask anything. They smiled and welcomed her return. Even Euria was quiet.

Aernest however, heard everything. He met Eugene’s eyes and immediately understood.

‘Louis will take care of it.’ Eugene eyed Aernest.

Nodding that he understands, he quickly went to stand on her side.

Soon after Eugene and Louis got out of the water, everyone came back to land. They first went back to the training base to change before leaving for their respective lodge.

Promising to meet later on in the afternoon at the capital of Zene.