54 Chapter 54. Leila’s parents?

A lengthy wide undeveloped dirt road windingly trailed into an old oak-wood gate that seemed to be almost completely worn down. It was the only entrance to the small village of Solara that was surrounded by a barrage of wooden logs tied up standing vertically acting as a wall.

At the entrance, a pair of girls and a boy appeared. Their appearance was very simple yet both had a unique elegant air about them. Their clothes did not resemble nobility but something more complex and mysterious.

Upon arrival, Leila took the lead took them to her parents' house while giving them a quiet tour of all the places that they walked past around the village and they ended up on a quiet and empty street. As they walked, they caught the stares of many villagers who all seemed to recognize Leila.

She took them around for a minute and then she seemed to stop right in front of a small plot of land. Anyone could tell that a house used to stand there in that small plot but now it looked like it had been struck by a huge explosion. the strange thing here was that this house was the only one that was destroyed and all the other houses around it were not harmed in the slightest, there was not even a hint of damage to them.

Tears began welling up in Leila's eyes as she felt her legs grow weak and she slowly fell to her knees. She started shaking in sadness as she began loudly crying in complete sorrow.

Lex and Aurora froze for a minute, they were quite affected by this scene, Lex found it harder to relate, had heard from his brother about what happened to their parents so he could somewhat relate to Leila.

Aurora's thoughts began filling with anger and frustration. She herself experienced the destruction of an innocent village first hand and knew about the emotions that Leila would be going through right now all too well.

She decided to leave Leila alone right now and walked forward to examine the house.

The walls had crumbled badly and everything was in disarray, nothing in order in any particular pattern, indicating that it was done through a single attack. She then searched around the rubble and debris but to a stroke of confusing hope, she did not find any bodies around. Finally, judging from the temperature of the place and the objects that were lingering around, she could tell that the damage had been done not that many days ago.

"You should not have come back," a careful voice sounded as a young man about twenty years of age appeared from the other end of the street. He was wearing tattered clothes and had dirty black hair that had specks of mud on it. He looked at Leila with an extremely angry and vengeful expression as he approached Leila.

The young man stopped in front of Leila who was still crying, he took a glance at Aurora and Lex and coldly spoke to Leila, "Just because you got some backing doesn't mean that you are still protected. The Golden Wrath Sect offered us a prize of five silver coins to bring you to them you know."

The man seemed to forcefully restrain himself from acting physically as Aurora and Lex seemed to intimidate him and he spoke with a pained expression, "Look around you… All this happened because of you. If you had just gone with them then they wouldn't have attacked the village. You might not have realized it but they attacked the village elder because of you. My father is currently very gravely injured and is half a step through death's door."

Hearing this, Leila's crying grew more got louder and more remorseful and she started painfully screaming in regret, "Why!? Why didn't I just go with them? If I had just gone with them, then mom and dad and the village elder wouldn't have gotten hurt. I'm so sorry, uncle Clyde. Please forgive me."

"Shut up! Just shut up! If it weren't for you, my dad wouldn't have his life gravely injured, now we are going to take you back to the sect and take the money prize to pay for my father's medicine," the man shouted at her as he lost control and reached out to grab her.

Just as he was about to grab her hand, Lex had blocked him and stood in front of Leila, putting her behind him.

"Now that's not a way for any adult to behave," Aurora commented expressionlessly as she walked back from the house.

"What are you doing? Do you know who you are offending?" the man immediately spoke out in confusion and fear as he tried to yank his arm free but to no avail, his arm would not budge. This shook him as the person who had grabbed his arm was a kid around the same age as Leila. Immediately at this instant, he realized that these people were not to be messed with.

"L-Le-let me go," he panicked in fear.

"I found no remains of bodies in the house or in the village. Where are her parents?" Aurora's cold voice asked out intimidatingly as she approached the man. Her voice was extremely cold and contained her unrestrained killing intent that she received from her destruction of the Aranea sect and the lives of the sect disciples that she took from that attack.

It seemed like the killing intent was effecting as Clyde began shaking more vigorously from fear as he truthfully replied immediately, "They- we-were taken by the members of the sect in case Leila returned. So-So that she would still end up in their possession."

"Wh-what? M-My pa-pa-parents are still alive?" Leila suddenly asked out in surprise as she forced her tears to a stop as she suddenly gained a minuscule source of hope.

"I don't know! Th-They were taken by the sect members s-so I don't know what happened to th-them," Clyde said shakily as the only thought on his mind was fear that was because of a twelve-year-old girl.

"Hmph. I see. Ok, point us in the direction of the sect. We are going to pay them a visit," spoke Aurora nonchalantly as she retrieved her killing aura.

A silence descended, Clyde could not believe his ears, 'my goodness, what did I just hear? Did she really just say that? Just these three?'

Nevertheless, he could still not afford to offend them and decided that the best way to make them learn was for both parties to meet each other.

"Ahem. Indeed madam. It's about a hundred kilometers in that direction," spoke Clyde as he pointed south-westwards.

"Thank you," replied Aurora as her aura changed and she gave him a warm happy smile.

"Here, this should be enough to pay for your father's medicine and to fix the damages that the sect caused," said Aurora as she pulled out a pouch containing fifty silver coins and handed it to Clyde.

"Lex, Leila, let's go," said Aurora as she started walking towards the direction that Clyde had pointed.

Leila simply stood up and left, running after Aurora, not having the courage to face Clyde. While Lex took his grip off Clyde's arm and left Clyde with a single message, "Don't make choices in anger. It wasn't her fault, put yourself in her shoes. Mistakes made during anger are most difficult to fix."