Back at the present day, Emily was earnestly listening to the Night Queen's explanation, no matter how surprised she got, Emily patiently waited for the Night Queen to finish her story.
"You're my Aunt… you killed my mother, why did you even save me, nothing you say makes any sense"
Emily simply couldn't hide her shock any longer, she unloaded her doubts. The woman in front of her had saved her life, yet had openly admitted to orchestrating her mother's death. She was family, yet she was the reason behind her family's problems.
Emily didn't even know if she should hate her or not. The Night Queen had described herself as ruthless and uncaring but she didn't get that impression from her at all, in fact the Night Queen had only been kind to her this whole time, something that Emily had rarely experienced.
"I know that you must be confused right now, there's actually a little more to my story. But first let me ask you a question. Emily do you believe that the soul exists?"
Emily was once again thrown into confusion by the Night Queens seemingly random question, but decided to answer anyway.
"I haven't really thought about it, but there's no proof that it does exist so… I guess not."
Emily replied after thinking about it. After the Night Queen heard her response, she shed some light on why she had asked the question in the first place.
"I never was a spiritual person, even now I can't bring myself to accept it. However, the following is facts, after my sister's heart was transplanted into me, something in me changed, it's like I became a different person. The foods I like, my sense of humour, even my outlook on life, all of them slowly changed."
The Night Queen paused allowing her words to sink in, once she was sure Emily had followed her, she continued speaking.
"The most disturbing thing is when I look at you, it feels like you're my own daughter, I want to protect you and Ren at all costs and let no harm come to you, when I found out Ren had been chased out of the house
.030, it felt like I was being eaten alive. Since the transplant I've been struggling with these emotions but I've finally decided to accept them, they must be punishment for killing my sister, so I will take on their burden."
Emily, was struggling to keep her emotions in check, it felt to unreal to believe but it seemed like the only explanation for these events. Emily remained silent for a long time before finally sorting her feelings and calming down, breaking the silence.
"My Queen, you have given me a lot to think about, as of now I'm not really sure of how I should feel about what you have just told me, but right now my priority is to find my brother, I did something unforgivable to him, the least I can do is try to mend our relationship."
The Night Queen wasn't at all offended, in fact as much as she hated to admit it, she was quite worried about Ren too.
"I hope you can find him, keep the necklace on, that way you will be able to reach me if something similar to today happens, also since we're family you can just call me Aunt Rachel."
Rachel showed a complicated smile, the term family used to be so foreign to her, every member of her old family was dead, now Ren and Emily were her only living blood relatives.
"Alright Aunt Rachel, I'll be taking my leave now, thank you for everything."
Emily just decided to act the way the Night Queen wanted. Honestly, she wasn't sure she could trust her. On one hand the Night Queen was the root cause behind her suffering, she had plotted her mother's death which in turn caused her father to act the way he does now.
On the other hand, if what she was saying was true, her soul is being influenced by her dead mother, she could be the key to turning her father back into the man he was previously.
"Shit, why does stuff have to get so damn complicated."
Emily thought to herself, letting Rachel show her out.
***
"Around a hundred years ago, the former nation of Huxia was free from the clutches of the elemental dynasty, for decades on end they were locked in a stalemate, trying to preserve their freedom. Alas, the dynasty's strength was too overwhelming and the last king could only submit himself. The dynasty robbed the nation of their culture, language and even renamed it to fit with the other vassal kingdoms. The nation of Huxia became the kingdom of Wind and at long last every human civilization served under the dynasty."
Li Hongji narrated the story of the kingdom of wind to the uninterested Ren and the more than eager Olivia.
"Who asked, because it wasn't me."
Ren stated coldly, Olivia made a closed fist and thumped Ren on the head.
"Come on, we've been here a month now and it looks like we will be here for a bit longer, it won't hurt to learn a bit more about the kingdoms history."
Olivia scolded, she wasn't lying, a month truly had passed since they had entered the Ventus kingdom. The day after the banquet Roxy had disappeared again, leaving behind a note and a bag of money, the note said she had found a new lead and would be gone for a while, if they needed to contact her, Ren would no how. Thirty days later and there was still no sign of her, when Olivia asked Ren about her whereabout, he simply replied that she was busy.
During the past month Ren kept himself busy by training like a maniac, before Roxy had left, she had taught him a new spell that he immediately started practicing. Other then that, he would spar occasionally with Yang Chen and go to the music shop every other day.
Most Importantly, Ren had finally accumulated enough Aether to break into the condensation stage and had become a High-Tier, Rank 1 Breaker. Ren didn't let the success go to his head and continued to cultivate diligently, he had goals and this little amount of strength was nothing for him to be proud of.
"I'm going to my room."
Ren said standing up, he much rather spend his time on something useful then sit and listen to the dull history of the kingdom. Olivia stopped him by placing a hand on his chest and forced him to sit back down.
"Not today you're not, remember we have plans."
The plans she was referring to, was a small tour of the various restaurants the kingdom had to offer. Since she had come to the kingdom, Olivia had fallen in love with the local cuisine and had selfishly forced her desires onto Ren and Li Hongji.
"Don't let me get in the way of your date."
Ren said pointing at Li Hongji, before walking out of the room, his words made Olivia turn bright red as she immediately got up and chased after him.
"Wait Ren, its not like that, who told you that"
Olivia shouted following Ren into the other room. Ren sat down in his meditation pose before responding.
"Miss Zi X, said that I should leave the two of you alone so you can enjoy your youth, she mentioned something about the birds and the bees, budding romance and other stuff."
"The b-birds and the… THAT WENCH. How dare she corrupt your innocence like that. I better pay her a visit."
Olivia's expression slowly darkened as she thought of all the ways she could get back at the owner of the inn. As she went to give Zi Xi a piece of her mind, Ren called out to her
"If you want to go on a date to the farm, leave me out of it. Miss Zi Xi told me that I shouldn't third wheel."
"And since when did that wenches opinion matter, stay here while I… Wait a second, the farm. What does that have to do anything… Could it be you… Ren, what do you think a date is?"
Olivia aske feeling a slight ray of hope. Ren pondered the question for a while, before coming up with an answer.
"My sister told me that a date is when you spend time with someone you like."
"Alright, what does liking someone mean?"
Olivia asked, to confirm her suspicions. Ren was confused by the question since it was so vague but still did his best to answer.
"Liking someone means that, you want to spend time with them. Which is why you date someone you like."
Ren answered her, causing Olivia to sigh in relief.
"Safe."
She muttered under her breath, it seemed that Ren had no idea about the world of adults, which is why he associate the phrase birds and the bees, with a farm. Still, Olivia didn't appreciate the owner's actions, it had been close.
"Don't worry Ren, visiting those restaurants isn't a date, so you can join us. Ill come back in a little bit. First I need to have a talk with that wen- I mean Miss Zi Xi."
Olivia said with a cheerful tone and a somewhat scary expression on her face. Ren just nodded his head as she left the room. Now he was finally alone, Ren started cultivating.
He had recently broken through to the condensation stage, from the accumulation stage. The goal of this stage was to compress your Aether, until it transforms into a stronger energy source, able to support breakers of the second rank.
As Ren meditated, he could feel his aether become stronger and more vivid. It went without saying that the more compressed his Aether got, the stronger his spells would be. So now he got stronger with every meditation session.
Time flew by as Ren cultivated, he only stopped when he heard two soft knocks at the door. Before he got up to answer it, the door swung wide open revealing the smiling Olivia.
***
"That was heavenly"
Olivia exclaimed, as the trio exited a multi-story building, which was a notorious restaurant in the area.
"It was alright, not worth the money though."
Li Hongi sighed as he held up an empty coin purse and shook it, the resulting sounds were depressingly quiet.
"Its fine, you don't get the chance to live off someone's goodwill often, so why not."
Olivia said cheerfully, while skipping ahead. Li Hongji saw the direction she was headed and his expression changed, immediately he started chasing after her.
"wait don't go there you'll get lost."
He said while frantically running after her. Olivia had mindlessly entered a dark alleyway, that led to god knows where. When she heard Li Hongji shouting, she stopped and turned around.
"Don't be so scared, we got our little body guard. Wait a sec, where the hell did, he go."
***
"Where the hell did, they go"
Ren thought to himself while looking around helplessly, he had taken his eyes off them for a second because a waiter came out of the restaurant holding the bag Olivia had left behind. In that short time frame, they had completely disappeared.
After searching for a bit longer he came across a dark alleyway. Ren sighed, he could guess what had happened. Olivia was a free spirit and had the annoying habit of running off without regard for others.
Ren cursed under his breath as he entered the alleyway, there were no lights and it was already evening so the visibility was terrible, still Ren's eyesight was good enough to make out five silhouettes in the distance, two of which shared the same height as Olivia and Li Hongji.
Ren started running towards them, he had no idea what was going on, but it didn't look good. He covered the distance in a matter of seconds, before reaching Olivia and Li Hongji's side.
"Ren, thank god you're here, I was so scared."
Olivia exclaimed happily when saw a familiar back in front of her. Ren ignored her; he was busy eyeing the three menacing figures that were steadily approaching them.
"Tsk, where did this kid come from."
"That doesn't matter, the mission doesn't change. Kill the kid and the girl, we can't risk leaving witnesses."
"Ai, sure thing boss."
The cloaked men started talking amongst themselves. Ren glanced back, from their discussion, it seemed that these men were after Li Hongji. He would ask him about that later but first these men needed to be taken care of.
Ren didn't know how strong they were, even if they were weaker than him, he still had to worry about protecting the others, additionally he couldn't tell them to run away because he didn't know if the masked men had accomplices lying in wait.
Ren sighed, as much as he didn't like leaving loose ends, he would have to scare them away. This would only work if the other party was weaker than him but he had to take that risk.
Ren wrapped himself in shadows, vanishing into the darkness. The three men were startled and they backed away slowly.
"Boss he's a Breaker we need to run."
"Shut up, the mission takes priority."
"I didn't sign up for this shit, I'm leaving."
One of the men made a break for it, running as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Ren left him alone, hoping that the others would follow his lead once they saw he had escaped safely…. And they did. Losing a teammate shot their confidence and they soon ran away.
Ren sighed in relief, although he couldn't chase after them and leave the others alone, there was something else he had to do. Ren's eyes turned cold as he walked towards Li Hongji.
"Explain."
Ren said in a scary voice, Li Hongji looked down at the ground.
"It's a long story. I'll tell you when we get home."
"I'm not waiting around for that, Explain yourself now."
Ren said threateningly, drawing Night-fall out of his sheath. Olivia could tell that the situation was getting out of hand, she placed a hand on Ren's shoulder and tried to calm him down.
"Let's go back first, I'm sure he has an explanation for this."
Olivia said soothingly, the warm sensation on his shoulder, brought Ren back to his senses. He was still angry at Li Hongji for putting them in danger, but for now the best move would be going to the safety of the inn.
"Fine"
Ren said, while still staring daggers at Li Hongji.