68 Chapter 24: Get Well Soon, Ethan!

"Who is it?" Emily asked Jai as placed the smartphone into his pocket.

"Oh, it's Yukiko." Jai replied with a smile, "She just telling me you that she just... got back from a quick mission from Earth."

Emily let out a laugh, "Why? I didn't the two of you were that close."

"Oh, about that. It was a mission for the two of us, but I was also instructed to come here. So, she decided to let me go and go on the mission herself." Jai explained while retaining his charming smile.

"I see, what mission is it?" Emily asked once more.

"It's... kind of a secret so..."

Shaking her head, she sighed, "Yeah, got it. You can't tell me, right?"

"Yes." He nodded, "Ah, we are about to reach soon, in a few minutes or so."

The car turned and stopped directly at the entrance of the headquarters, to let them off. The four headed in and into the portal only to be greeted by her mother, the queen.

"Emily." Her mother huffed as she pulled her in for a hug, "It feels like forever since I saw you. I miss you so much."

"Same here." Emily replied as she was too embarrassed to say the same thing her mother said.

"Okay, Emily. Afterwards you should head to the study room, there some things you need to do." Mary said as she walked up behind her.

Emily pulled away from her Mother and looked over to her, "Alright."

"I'll prepare some tea." Jai informed just as he walked away, but was stopped by Emily.

"It's fine. I wanted to give Ethan a visit, before starting my work." She said, smiling.

"Oh, I see. Are you sure you want to see him?" He asked, not knowing whether she was ready to Ethan's state.

"Yeah, can you take me to him?"

"Yes, of course." He bowed, "It's this way."

He guided her up a few flights of stair and then the two made a few turns, before reaching Ethan's room.

Jai then knocked on the door a couple times before peeking in to see if Ethan was awake. "Ethan, the princess is here to see you."

After a few seconds of non-verbal exchange, he whipped his head around to face Emily. "He said you're welcome to come in."

"Okay, thanks Jai." She smiled.

"No need to thank me, I'm just doing my duty." He protested, before leaving to do his own things.

Emily opened to door slightly to take a quick peek of his room, which was obnoxiously neat. It was way WAY neater than hers. She walked in slowly and take a good look around.

"...Wow--" Just as she turned to the bed, she saw Ethan on his knees with his head hung down, "Thank you for visiting me, princess."

She needed to blink a few times, in order to comprehend what the heck he was doing. Once she finally realised, She immediately rushed to him, "Hey! Don't do that. Your wounds are still not healed." She cautiously helped him back to bed.

Once she was done with that, she dragged a nearby stool to his bedside and took a seat.

"Sorry, I'm always causing trouble for you. And I'm also sorry for losing... In the fight." Ethan apologised as he averted his eyes away from her.

"Trouble? You're no trouble. Who cares if you lost in the fight?" Emily questioned as she looked at his wounds, which seemed better than the last time she saw him, "Honestly, I don't care about it myself."

Having his head hung down, he mumbled softly, as if he was saying it to himself, "...but, I do."

Ethan always seemed like a really serious and confident guy, but in reality, that does not seem like the case. He was indeed breakable. However, his uptight image always keep people from differing.

"So what if you lost a match? What are you going to do?" She started in a much more serious tone, "Are you going to stop fighting?"

Ethan was surprised with her tone, but quickly composed himself, "...No."

"If you have already decided on not to give up, then why dwell on this lost? All you need to do is to get stronger and if you lose again, just get stronger and even stronger. Until one day, you're able to beat him and raised to victory. There's obviously a lot of people out there who are much stronger than you, but even so, I don't think you have lost the battle yet. As long as you are willing to keep trying, you'll always be a winner to me."

There was a moment of awkward silence just as she finished, but soon, she started to freak out when finally realised those motivational words came from her mouth.

"Whoaaaaaa... What has gotten into me...? Did I just became a motivational speaker. This. Is. Just. Great." Instinctively, she covered her mouth and looked away from him, "Emily! What the hell were you trying to do? The dude is much experienced in combat than you are, why are you lecturing him?! You're just being plain disrespectful."

Noticing his silence, she starting speaking, "...Sorry. I didn't know what I was blurting all about."

However, to her surprise, Ethan looked up and smiled at her, "Don't be sorry. I want to thank you instead."

To be honest, Emily did not see Ethan's smile before, but when she saw it, it was not that bad. He actually look really good with a smile, as compared to his usual serious face.

Her face flushed with embarrassment when he said her. "W-What are you talking about? It's my responsibility, right? I need to take care of my members, who are my friends, physically and mentally."

Still chuckling at her disorientation, he muttered, "Yeah, I guess you're right about that. Well, I feel so much better after hearing you words. Sorry for being a wimp just now. I was just, you know, upset about the lost."

"No worries, I get it. It's natural. I acted like that once in a while and all I need is a little help from my friends to get back on my feet. So, I figured you needed the same treatment."

Just then, her eyes traced to the clock, causing her to remember about the paperwork she needed to do.

"Ah, I need to go now. I have a couple things to do. I'll come back once I'm free." She stated as she rose to her feet and hurried to the door. But, just before she leave, she reminded, "Oh yeah, if there's some things you want to talk about, feel free to come talk to me, alright?"

For a moment, he was surprised by her kindness, but slowly, his surprise turned into gratefulness.

Giving a genuine smile as he replied, "Yeah, got it."