Ai stood there with the kids and so did the rest of the villagers. Although it was early in the morning, no one was sleepy after witnessing this. Leko had done almost everyone some favors so it was quite expected to see all of them have a sad expressions on their face.
Taking advantage of the situation, Ai asked Nova to take care of the kids for a few minutes. She had to go and call someone.
She was thinking about calling someone reliable so that Leo could be accompanied and knew the right person for the task. Though, she seemed a bit hesitant.
Nova nodded his head and Enma also let Ai's hands go after which, Ai slowly walked away from the place.
The villagers didn't mind her going since they were too sad while looking at Leko. They had no idea how to react as it seemed too sudden. Just a day earlier, they had seen him smiling and talking and now, after a night passed, he was dead.
Thanks to the black clothing on his body, they couldn't see the marks and injuries. But of course, they could still see the blood on his body which the clothing had soaked as well.
Ai soon arrived in front of a hut that was almost at the edge of the village. The hut wasn't that big and did seem fairly old.
Ai stood in front of the door and lifted her right hand to knock on the door. She was hesitant. Yes, she couldn't bring herself to knock for some reason.
However, she couldn't waste the entire day here. She hesitantly knocked quite a few times after which a man walked outside while raising his voice.
"Who is banging the door so early in the morning!?"
A person with brown hair and a little mustache opened the wooden door. The moment Ai saw him, she was flustered for a second and blushed.
He wasn't wearing any shirt and his six-pack abs were clearly seen. The only thing that he wore was a white towel which replaced his pants right now. He was a man in his mid-thirties, just like Ai.
He had a green glass bottle of alcohol in his right hand and seemed a bit drunk.
When he opened the door, he was a bit surprised to find Ai.
"Did the sunrise from the west today? How come my darling decided to visit me?", he asked as he chuckled and tried to flirt with her.
Ai continued to blush for a minute or so after which her saddened expression returned as she recalled what had happened.
The reason why she was blushing was that she and the man had some relationship in the past.
The person's name was Darion, a well-known playboy, and drunkard! But he wasn't always like that.
.
.
.
He arrived at the village when he was just twenty-one and without the village chief's approval, built a hut on his own. No one disputed as they didn't want to bother with him as he seemed like a drunkard – he was a drunkard since the start.
When he visited the village, he saw Ai and it was love at first sight. He spent time with her and loved seeing her smile. When he was finally twenty-four, that is, after spending two to three years being in love with Ai, he decided to propose to her.
He went to her house to propose to her only to find her parents agreeing to marry her to someone else. She had no say in the matter so she just stood smiling.
Darion didn't propose to her on this day and returned with a wounded heart. Although he loved her, he didn't want to ruin her smile.
He remained on the sidelines and controlled his feelings while seeing her marry.
It was four months later when he found that Ai was pregnant. Ai was the one who approached him and announced it with a smile.
"Darion! Darion! Good news! Open the door!", she knocked on his door early in the morning.
"Uh, I knew it…"
"It was you Ai, who else would come and wake me so early in the morning!", Darion tried to scold her but in a sarcastic way. He enjoyed talking to her and teasing her.
"Leave that Darion, listen, I brought some good news.", she said with a smile.
"Good news?", Darion was excited to hear what it was.
"A kid…", she said.
"A kid?", Darion didn't understand.
"I'm expecting a kid, hehe. I'm pregnant.", she said with a smile.
But this was thunderous to Darion who felt that he lost her woman to some other man.
Yes, after seeing her smile and marry, he didn't think much because he wanted her to be happy. But after hearing that she had s*x with some other man and was happy about getting pregnant with someone else's child, he lost his willpower.
What did he expect anyway? She would return after marrying? This wasn't willpower or hope. Rather, he was just delusional for thinking all that.
He had a lot of alcohol the previous day and after hearing this, he immediately dashed inside his room and drank much more.
Ai was surprised to see him drink an entire bottle of alcohol in a minute.
Earlier, Ai had asked Darion to stop drinking alcohol for her sake. She didn't exactly forbid him but asked him to drink only on certain occasions like the moments when he was happy or during some celebrations.
After seeing him dash inside and drink the alcohol that was placed on the table, she thought chuckled and said, "Haha, you are so happy that you couldn't control yourself?"
Darion stopped when he heard her say that.
"But still Darion, you shouldn't drink that much alcohol in a single breath. It is harmful…", she said.
After hearing all that, Darion could no longer control himself.
He ended up screaming at her and telling her everything about his feelings and how he had been suffering for the past four months.
*drip*
After listening to all his thoughts, a drop of tear broke out of her eye.
She just said one thing, "I wish you had told me a bit earlier…"
"…"