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Back to Rin's past
...
Opening her heavy eyelids she saw the familiar designed ceiling, she turned her head sideways seeing the familiar-looking curtains too, she was feeling weird, 'I'm not supposed to be asleep by this time of the day, no one even came to wake me up for home lessons, there's no way dad and mom would allow tha...' Amid her thought a flood of memories came like a wave plunging her into an abyss of misery.
"M-mom d-dad, wuuuuu! wuuu!" Tears came flooding out of her eyes as she recollected that her parents were no more.
Thud!
The door was pushed open by Nanny Folander who came rushing in after hearing the loud sound of cries. It was early in the evening so Rin had already been unconscious for almost the day. Nanny Folander wished she would sleep more so she could at least escape from the torture of reality.
Nanny Folander walked to the bed and sat beside Rin who was still crying loudly. She pulled Rin into her embrace without saying a word, not minding all the salty water and snot staining her garment.
'Poor girl, losing her parents on the day of her birthday, I can't imagine how she must be feeling,' Nanny Folander thought in pity.
They stayed in this position for more than an hour until Rin calmed down.
"Nanny!" Rin called out while pulling herself out of the embrace.
"Yes dear," Nanny Folander replied.
"I want to know what happened," Rin asked with a shaky voice, obviously she was still struggling to accept reality.
Nanny Folander just nodded while Rin sat up to listen properly.
"According to their workers on isoka island, your parents had finished doing the business they had there and decided to return to Ritler city, unfortunately after taking off with the Zimo carriage, they were attacked by a flying sea creature and were dragged into the ocean. The authorities sent a rescue team and they were found at the bottom of the ocean..... dead. They died of drowning and since they were not cultivators they couldn't save themselves, the guards with them all perished while engaging the creature," Before nanny Folander finished speaking Rin's eyes were already filled with tears again.
"Mo-ther, Fa-ther," she said amidst tears.
Nanny Folander held her and said, "You have to be strong,"
Nanny Folander knew just how much Rin loved her parents. Even though she was still eleven years old it would be impossible for her to get over this anytime soon. Nanny Folander wondered why the heavens had to be so cruel to take her parents on her birthday. It was supposed to be a day of celebration but now it was the opposite.
After some time of crying Nanny, Folander got a nerve soothing herb and forced Rin to take it. Rin fell asleep after that again.
"Sigh! why do the heavens have to be so cruel, they were good people," Nanny Folander said while staring with a look of pity at Rin who was now fast asleep. Even in her sleep she still had a sorrowful look.
Nanny Folander used the blankets to cover Rin up properly and left the room.
-
Hours later at night Rin woke up feeling thirsty, she stood up from the bed and walked out of the room in slow steps like that of a zombie.
Originally there should have been a guard outside her room but it seemed they had been instructed by someone not to stay there.
She had a lifeless look on her face as she strolled through the corridor, the light from the lanterns illuminated the corridors but not too much.
Rin turned wanted to turn left at an intersection in the corridor but she heard voices that brought her out of her zombie-like state. She could recall that these voices belonged to two of the guards that weren'tt around when her parents left so she believed they should have gone with her parents.
'Didn't nanny Folander say that they were all dead?' she thought feeling puzzled.
She hid by the side of the wall and decided to listen in on their conversation. The guards who stood in the middle of the corridor were talking in low voices. Rin was straining her ear but could only hear bits like 'this night', she decided to move closer but so as not to alert them she thought of how she could do it while still being in the shadows. Suddenly her eyes narrowed down on a large flower vase that was about ten feet away, if she kept moving forward and decided not to turn left she would arrive at the vase.
Rin stared at them to make sure they were not looking in her direction. She tipped toed silently passing the intersection and arriving at the other side. Luckily the guards didn't notice her, she moved towards the vase which was taller than her by a few centimeters with big yellowish looking flowers poking out from the top.
The vase wasn't heavy so Rin was able to push it but when she got to back to the intersection, it made a little creaking sound which made Rin pause in her tracks.
"Hmm? did you hear something?" The guard with a dark red goatee asked.
"No, did you?" The other one with long dragon-shaped earrings replied with a question.
"Not really, someone's probably snoring," The guard with a goatee just decided to ignore it.
Rin was faced with a dilemma. 'How do I move the vase closer to them without making a sound,' but just as she was thinking about it she saw the glow of a palm at the top and another at the middle corner of the vase with weird lines circulating the vase just around where both palms were. At first, Rin was scared and took a step back thinking she had been found out and maybe one of the guards wanted to attack her with their source but on proper observation, she noticed that the guards were still discussing without an ounce of suspicion.
She also sensed a familiar feeling from the glow.
She raised her right arm first, placing her palm on the top glow and her left palm on the middle glow and she immediately understood what she had to do.
Rin started pushing the vase in a circular motion, making it move forward without making a sound. The guards didn't even notice that there was a vase moving towards their direction.
Rin stopped pushing the vase when she was about four meters away from them. At this point, she could hear them speak properly.
"Why is Folander wasting so much time? she should be done with the mission by now,"
"Maybe she has chickened out and decided to run,"
"She can't do that, the management will not let her off,"
"Then why isn't she here yet?"
"Who knows, but she can't run since she already knows too much, they will not let her off, Since she already knows that the management wants to get rid of that brat,"
Rin could hear the dialogue between the two guards clearly which puzzled her, 'What business do they have with nanny?'
As she was still wondering, the sound of footsteps echoed across the corridor, making the guards turn around to look at who was approaching.
"Finally, what took you so long?" One of the guards asked the person who was arriving from the opposite direction of where Rin was positioned.
The person who arrived was none other than nanny Folander. She stopped, standing opposite both of them.
"It is done," She said in a low voice. If they could see her face properly they would notice the look of guilt.
'What's she doing here? and what does she mean by it's done?' The confusion in Rin's mind was increasing by the second.
"Good, now that brat should be fast asleep, there should be no problem in transporting her," The guard with a dark red goatee said with obvious gloating for whoever he was referring to.
"Wait, why do you people have to do this to her? she just lost her parents, can't you let her off the hook?" Nanny Folander said with a pleading look.
On hearing this, Rin understood that she was the brat in question that they were referring to but she was still feeling confused, 'What did nanny Folander do? What do they want to do to me?'
"That's not up to me to decide, and she didn't just lose her parents," The guard spoke while grinning evilly, "We killed them, hahaha,"
'My parents were Killed? They didn't drown?' Rin's felt like her mind was given another huge blow, 'How? Why? they were supposed to be guarding them,' She was dumbfounded about the new development, she just stood there looking like she had lost her soul.