Chapter 18: Red Spear

Six years later….

Neo was already sixteen years old now and was going to be turning seventeen sometime in the months ahead but he still wasn't in the Academy yet.

Well, there was a simple explanation for that, for some reason, last year's entrance examination was canceled so he was going to be taking it next year instead.

However, at the the moment, he didn't seem to be thinking about any of that as he was enjoying a nice New Year feast with his family including the maids and the two male guards because according to him they were family too, but they weren't the only ones present for the feast, Henry invited some other guests.

The sun was long gone and it was snowing outside with everywhere already covered in snow while everyone was inside having the time of their life.

Everyone was asked to let loose but someone took that a bit too seriously.

"Hey, Neo." Aina drawled just after stopping in front of Neo who was sitting on the couch at the moment.

Her head was constantly rocking back and forth sideways like she was fighting to keep it in one place, she was also struggling to keep her eyes open and the same could be said for her mouth while her face was a bit on the red side.

The cause of her current situation was in her hand, a bottle of wine which was just about done.

"Hey, is that the scarf I gave you?" She burped before crashing beside him on the couch. "It is it." Her expression brightened just after touching the green scarf around Neo's neck."

"Yeah, but I think you've already seen it on me today," Neo remarked with an awkward expression on his face.

'Why am I only finding out today that she's a lightweight? I could have tried a lot of interesting stuff.'

"I've seen it? Well, I certainly don't remember that." She said before slurping a bit of the little still left in the bottle.

After that, she leaned closer and brought the bottle closer to his face along with her face.

"Want a sip?"

"Hmmm, I don't know…."

"It has my lips over it you know." She drawled, going around the bottle tip with her finger.

'Well, that is an interesting offer.'

It looked like he was about to take the bottle from her for a moment there until a hand grabbed it from above.

He looked up at that moment to see Nicole standing there, giving him quite a stern look.

"Hey, Nicole, what's your problem?" Aina snapped with her drowsy voice before reaching for the bottle but a simple grab was all it took to stop her. "I told you not to drink it."

"She's acting like a completely different person," Emilia commented from the side.

"Yeah, that's what happens when someone gets drunk," Nicole remarked, pulling Aina off the couch while handing Emilia the bottle of wine. "Their delusions take over."

"Still, it's hard to think Aina could ever act this way."

"I know." She replied before shifting her gaze to Neo. "And you, don't go accepting drinks because someone said they had their lips over it."

"I would have taken it in a heartbeat if it was you, I wonder what your drunk version would be like." He remarked with his hand on his chin.

"Yeah, not happening."

After that, she turned and began to walk away, dragging Aina along with her.

He watched them leave the room with a subtle smile on his face.

Now that they were gone, it was just him along with four more people.

Everyone who was invited to the feast had already left so he knew everyone in the room.

His father seemed to be discussing something with the guards on the left corner of the room near the staircase and then there was his mother who was standing opposite him near the fireplace.

He seemed to be staring at his father and the guards at the moment trying to get a grasp on what they were talking about and after focusing hard enough without understanding anything, he just turned away with a sigh.

His gaze shifted to Luna at that moment, and as soon as they made eye contact, a soft smile appeared on her face.

"Hmmm." He muttered with a smile of his.

'It's been a while since I've seen her smile like that.'

That was something he noticed just after he turned twelve, his mother who was always so lively, smiled a lot and loved making jokes, stopped smiling as much, and even when she did smile, he could tell she was forcing it.

She stopped bickering with Aina which was something she loved to do daily and started giving straight boring responses to questions she would have otherwise made a joke out of first before even thinking of answering.

He would be lying if he said he wasn't worried and when he spoke to her about it, she said she was okay.

Well, they've come this far since then and although she was still tame and boring as he would describe it, nothing terrible had happened.

He was going to be turning seventeen in a couple of months and his family was in one piece with a wonderful relationship holding all of them together which wasn't something he could boast of in his former life.

After a while, the smile on Luna's face disappeared before she turned to the door and made her way outside.

'I wish she would just tell me what's bothering her, it's obvious something's bothering her.' He said inwardly before turning to his father. 'He's not any use getting answers out of her either.'

He got up on his feet and quickly made his way upstairs, returning just a few minutes later with a brown beanie on his head.

The few minutes he was in his room upstairs was all the time needed for the room to go empty as he could see now.

"Where did they go?" He muttered as he made his way downstairs.

He turned to the door to see that his mother was still outside, watching the snow fall but everyone else was nowhere in sight.

"Hmmm."

He made his way to the door, and just after stepping outside, he asked. "Where did everyone go?"

"Well, you were there when the girls left, I think your father headed to the storehouse with the boys." She responded.

"Oh, I see."

He moved closer until he was standing just beside her and after that, the area fell into a state of silence.

It stayed like that for quite a while until Neo started feeling bored.

"It's snowing a lot this year." He remarked, breaking the silence.

"Yes, I like it when it snows a lot, it paints a cold image of the world that I like."

"A cold image, huh."

"And also…."

"Also what?" He asked, turning her.

"It's nothing." She shook her head.

"Oh, okay."

There was a few seconds of silence between them before she decided to ask him a question.

"Hey, Pookie." She called.

"Huh?"

"How do you think you would feel if you had an older sibling? You know, like a big sister."

"How would I feel if I had an older sibling? Well, unless I've been lied to, I'm quite sure I'm your first and only child so far and even if I did have an older sibling, I think I would have gotten accustomed to it from day one. We would be best buddies, probably."

"Probably?" She said with a little chuckle. "What about a younger sibling?"

"Oh, now you're talking, we'll definitely be best buds and I'll make sure anyone who tries to hurt him or her gets what's coming for them." He remarked quite enthusiastically.

"You're already overprotective of a younger sibling you don't have yet." She uttered before bursting into a feat of laughter.

And while she was doing that, Neo stared at her with a puzzled look on his face.

'Is that really all it takes to get her to laugh? I haven't seen her laugh like this for a while.'

"You said yet."

"Huh?"

She stopped laughing at that moment to turn to him.

"You said yet, which means it can still happen, right?" He asked, his gaze shifting to her stomach.

"Oh…"

She struggled to find a response for that, and after not being able to find one, she turned away from him.

The mood went from fun and lively back to mellow and gloomy as Neo would put it.

"If only." She muttered.

Those were the last words that left her lips before Neo's ears caught something, something breaking through the wind and heading toward them at an intense speed.

"Huh." He gasped.

Before he could react, he found what he was looking for, a long spear, completely red like it was made out of blood but it looked like he wasn't the target.

The spear zoomed past him, the wind it generated hitting his face and the next thing he heard was a piercing sound.

It pierced right through Luna from the chest going all the way in and out.

"No." She muttered, scrunching her face in pain.

Neo couldn't believe it, his face sunk in terror and despair as he watched his mother barely hanging on while her blood slowly dropped down to the floor.

It had been a while since he had felt so much pain and terror in his heart and adding that along with the confusion this time, his heart was burning.

'No, no, no!' He screamed inwardly. 'This can't be happening.'

"Neo," Luna called with a weak voice before crashing down on her knees.

"Mom."

He tried to reach for her but he was denied that luxury at that moment as numerous red spears came flying straight toward them.