By the time the eldest Cordia sibling, Noah’s sister, handled all of the work assigned to her, the day had already turned into night. Her healing powers had been squeezed dry, leaving her utterly exhausted self, stumbling on her way to the employee lounge.
Her glassy eyes lit up when she saw the vacant sofa as if seeing a great benefactor. Without further ado, she slumped into the comfy goodness, intending to briefly rest her tired body before hauling herself home. However, as soon as her head touched the sofa, she ended up inadvertently dozing off. When she finally snapped out of it, the time on the wall showed several hours had already passed.
She sat up in a fluster, her abrupt actions making the quilt covering her slide off. In a daze, she gazed towards the soft blanket which she did not remember covering herself with.
Ah, Shaw must have seen her embarrassing state and considerately fetched a blanket. What a mature, thoughtful gentleman! Tsk, unlike her man-child of a fiancé who couldn’t even take care of himself properly, let alone others.
She shook her head helplessly, and solemnly decided not to take any more emergency calls for the time being. She didn’t care if the world was crumbling; let some other Healer hold it up! For crying out loud, she had a wedding to attend to!
She had no intention of putting her own life on hold due to work! Nor making her loved ones worry for her!
She rubbed her red eyes and looked towards the communicator on her wrist that was blinking red.
Sigh~
It only blinked red if there were many missed calls and received messages. She shouldn’t have gotten so caught up in her work! Thinking back on it, she could have at least checked it while she was shoveling lunch and dinner down her throat.
She let out another weary sigh and brought up her light screen interface.
There was indeed a flood of missed calls, messages, emails, and notifications.
Following her usual order of priority, she first checked out the messages left to her by her parents. And then, suddenly, she was covered in cold sweat. Holy shit! Out of the three closest male family members she had, two nearly lost their lives today! How come she didn’t see them on the scene? How come none of her colleagues mentioned it to her??
No, wait! She should have figured it out herself!! The accident happened near where they were supposed to meet up and even at nearly the exact time of the appointment! How did this not occur to her before!?
‘Oh! My pitiful darling little brother!!’
It must have been so painful and traumatizing for her delicate baby brother! He must be putting on a strong front now, but inside he is a trebling little lamb!! Little bro, wait! Your big sis is on the way to give you a big hug!!
As for her fiancé, who was also in the accident… meh, he would be fine. Just how many dangerous peacekeeper raids had he done in the past? And what about the countless assassination attempts he had suffered? At this point, he was treating them like a normal daily occurrence.
She even remembered going to lunch with him one time, noticing how edgy and fidgety he seemed, she had asked him what was wrong. She vividly remembered his response, “I haven’t had an attempt on my life for a while now, I am a bit uncustomed to it…” then he had looked through the window wistfully as if he was hoping a masked ninja assassin would come crashing through it. He had stared at it for a while, and then, seeing as nothing happened, he let out a heavy sigh of disappointment.
Naturally, she remembered that incident clearly because she nearly threw up blood at her fiancé’s stupi– unique hobbies.
Thus, she, justifiably, threw her fiancé to the back of her mind and, with tears in her eyes, hurried to check the messages left to her by her pitiful baby brother.
And then she stood there dumbfounded.
What did she just read?
She double-checked the sender of the message. Huuuh? This tear-jerking essay was actually sent by her baby brother??
…
Did his account get hacked?
How could Levi possibly be hit by this accident hard?!
Softhearted and sensitive?!? Her iceberg of a fiancé?!?
Pitiful and miserable?? Levi who?? Were they talking about the same person?!
In need of comfort?? The last time she showed concern to him over a dangerous incident, he answered her call with “What do you want?” and then treated her like she had brain damage for even considering he might need mental support!
○| ̄|_
Could it be? Her baby brother… he… did… did he hit his head?! 😱
She needed to have him take a head scan ASAP!!!
Bewildered and worried out of her mind for her little bro, but still inexplicably feeling guilty towards her fiancé for reasons unknown, she went to check the message her fiancé left her.
"The engagement is off. I won't marry you. From this moment on, we are over and done in all ways possible.
P.S. I'm changing the bride of the arranged marriage to your brother."
…
Astar Levi’s now ex-fiancée blankly stared at the breakup message for a good couple of minutes.
At first, the shock and disbelief made her eyes widen into saucers, and her heart skip a beat.
Then she couldn’t help but rub her eyes vigorously, but when she put her hands down, the message was still the same.
She eyed her light screen skeptically, then slapped herself. Ouch! …definitely awake.
The slap stung, but at least it made her fully wake up. The stalled cogs in her head started to function properly again. Her eyelid started twitching, and she grabbed her head in misery.
So that’s why her little brother made a big deal in his message!
Her man-child of a fiancé was throwing a tantrum again!! And she was nowhere to be found, leaving her pitiful baby brother to handle her unreasonable man-child of a future husband! No wonder she felt that the message her baby brother had left her was filled with outrage and indignation! No wonder her baby brother so pitifully and desperately encouraged her to “hurry back home to comfort her hubby”!
Oh, her pitiful baby brother!! Not only did he have a terrible accident, but he had even been left all alone to deal with this unexpected catastrophe that was Astar Levi! QAQ
And what was her fiancé unhappy about this time? The fact that she didn’t rush to him when he asked to see her earlier? Or the fact that she “stood him up” on that lunch appointment?
She should have seen it coming! She had forgotten how self-absorbed her fiancé could be!
Astar Levi had trouble empathizing with people and always put his own needs before the needs of others. If one inconvenienced him or did him wrong, he wouldn’t magnanimously shrug it off. No, he'd throw a tantrum and most certainly get payback. An adult man in a position of power, yet as petty as a child! ಥ‿ಥ
And the worst thing about it– stifling helplessness rose up in her chest –was that she could do nothing about it!
Astar Levi couldn’t be reasoned with while in the middle of a tantrum. The only course of action anyone, including herself, could take was to leave him to cool off by himself.
Now she couldn’t even go back home knowing that one wild Levi was waiting for her there! If she came back now, before he had the time to sleep off his grouchiness and get over his tantrum, she’d just be asking for abuse. And not only would she not help her bro in any way, but she’d even curse everyone in the manor to be unable to have a good night’s rest!
Noah’s sister let out a bitter smile, looking very wretched.
‘Sigh~ When you get yourself a husband, you are not actually becoming a wife but a mother…’ 〒▽〒
The precious daughter of the city lord stood in the empty employee lounge, with unshed tears in her eyes, looking forlorn.
She bitterly gazed down at the sofa.
‘Hello, sofa. We meet again.’ ಥ‿ಥ
‘Thanks, Shaw, for the blanket… 👍 I owe you one…’
Noah’s sister wasn't the only one who had trouble falling asleep that night. Somewhere in Concordia, there was a dimly lit room with all of its window sills shut tight in an attempt to keep the proceedings inside private. A futile effort since neither the tightly shut windows nor the thick door could keep the loud and agitated bits and pieces of the conversation from leaking out."How is he fine and well?!?""…don't know!""Didn't you say… estimated power… SS-rank Soother?!?""I told you… results… unpredictable!""Didn't… increase the doze?! How is… Astar Levi… fucking fine?!?""Differences in mental power? Differences in the level of… abilities? For all we know… soothing power …increasing…""So we are fucking training the enemy to counter our plans better?! Is that it?!?"A sharp sound of glass breaking could be heard from within.
Noah’s eyes were wide and watery, every inch of his skin red, and his “natural” facial expression anything but natural. He attempted to meet Levi’s eyes because avoiding the other’s gaze would make him look guilty, but his poor acting nearly made Levi’s very good acting fall apart! He just looked like a trembling little rabbit trying to look brave and lock eyes with the wolf, only to falter and look down shyly. But then remember he was supposed to be brave, so look up again, but ah! Can’t look in the eyes! So embarrassed, ah! (/≧ω\) ‘Oh, for the love of…!! Baby, that’s a foul!!’ Levi’s heart melted into a puddle from the overwhelming cuteness attack he had been subjected to. The corner of his mouth twitched imperceptibly, and he swallowed hard, the knot on his throat bobbing up and down. Thankfully for him, his acting was still passable, either due to his naturally thick face or the fact that his facial expressions were naturally less expressive than most pe
Levi ground his teeth, “Thanks…”Noah’s now empty hand gave him a thumbs up, “You are welcome.” ╰(*°▽°*)╯Levi, “…”‘Sigh~ At least he is cute…’ Levi comforted his broken heart while putting his clothes on, ‘Mn, so very cute.’Soon enough, Levi came out of the room, fully clothed, much to Noah’s visible relief.Levi eyed his cute little kitten and then sighed, “…I’ll be right back; I need to talk to your sister. Wait for me to have breakfast together.” Sure, he did break off the engagement last night, but that was one-sided, and he had yet to hear his ex-fiancée’s agreement. Not to mention, there were still several marriage-related matters that needed to be settled.Noah nodded very understandingly, and thus Levi set off on his martyrdom. With an overbearing manner, he strutted through t
Cordia mommy’s eyelid twitched again; she tried very hard to block out Levi’s form from her peripheral vision and concentrate on the conversation, “Then why did you give me that exasperated look earlier? You think they shouldn't have gotten married?”“How would I know whether they should have gotten married or not? I haven't watched this drama,” Noah shrugged again.“Then why the look? The look!”“It's because the setting is a bit… hmm… how should I put this…” Noah licked his lips, “From the setting, it would seem like the two were unwilling but had no choice but to get married. And I think that where there is a will, there is a way. If they were really against getting married, they would have found a way out of it.” Noah once again wore that same exasperated look, “The scriptwriters were just lazy and wanted them together for the plot.”Cordia mommy w
Cordia mommy put down the cracker she had been nibbling on, no longer having any appetite. “Haha, son-in-law, don’t bully your little wife too much, or he’ll run away!” She teased with a hard-to-define undertone that had a bit of a subtle sharpness to it.In response to this outrageous title of a little wife that had just been placed on his head, Noah’s eyes widened in indignant shock. ‘Mother! Aren’t your jokes today a bit too much?!? First you ask me such a tricky question with no right answer, and now that I’ve answered it, you… you… you! What little wife?! I would clearly be a little husband, ok?!?’Blackie felt metaphorical blood rise up his non-existent throat, ‘Host, you are focusing on the wrong thing again!!!’Unfortunately for Blackie’s sanity, his host’s other half focused on the wrong thing too!“Mother is right,” when face
The city lord of Concordia stood there awkwardly, realizing that all his plans were an exercise in futility. Yet, the only thing that popped up in his mind at that moment was, ‘That’s what?! Two-three days sleeping together unsupervised?!’ 😱Cordia daddy nearly toppled over on the spot; the imagined article headlines he would be forced to deal with in the coming days made his head spin.Noticing his father’s face that was turning green, Noah figured he was embarrassed. Not wanting to make the awkward situation even more awkward, Noah acted to disperse the crowd. He gently pushed Levi in the direction of the room the butler had prepared for him yesterday. The luggage Astar mommy sent for him yesterday would come in very handy for today’s trip.Levi’s thoughts were instantly redirected from the embarrassment that was his father-in-law to the fact that his baby was initiating physical contact with him. Ah, ah, baby touching his
Hearing her brother’s tone that seemed to hold genuine happiness, this sister didn’t know what to say. Her throat, for some reason, felt really tight, so she pressed the glass of water back to her lips, sipping it slowly to calm her nerves.Meanwhile, her little brother continued, “Brother-in-law is really easy to get along with!” – Noah remembered the last few days and how, whenever he suggested they go somewhere, the only response he had gotten from his brother-in-law was immediate agreement – “Not picky about food or places where to go or anything really! So very agreeable and accommodating! Ah, brother-in-law is so good!”Noah’s speech was interrupted by the sound of spitting, followed by intense coughing coming from the other side, “Sis? Are you alright??”Sister, who had tears rolling down her cheeks from how hard she had just choked on her water: ‘What. The. Fuck?! Agreeable? Acco
Hearing that familiar voice using such an unfamiliar tone, the bad kind of chills shot up the poor woman’s spine, and before her brain could even register what was happening, her gut reflex had already pressed the hang-up button.Noah’s sister clutched at her chest, cold sweat rolling down the sides of her face, ‘What the fuck was that?!?’Well, obviously, that was her fiancé. Asking a very mundane question. The problem was his tone! ‘How come– how come his tone sounded… sounded…! Sounded so’ – cold shivers once again traveled down her body – ‘pampering??’She must have heard it wrong!!…though that did explain why her soul nearly leaped out of her body in fright back then. Who wouldn’t crap their pants in horror if a ferocious, bloodthirsty shark suddenly started to smile?!? The image was the stuff of nightmares!