Chapter 25 –– Relinquishment

Yara pulled her arrow and aimed it at Yamato at point-blank range. Within this distance, there was no way that she could miss the attack. Yamato closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands, terrified by what Yara was about to do to him.

"Enough!"

Right when Yara was about to release it, her father shouted to stop them.

Yara stopped and canceled her attack.

"Yara, are you not ashamed of yourself?" Yatou said to her.

"Of what? Of having my bow taken away from me!?" Yara talked back to him.

"That is not your bow!!!" Yatou shouted even louder.

His voice echoed through the whole area of their house. Everyone was silenced.

"That bow is our family's treasure passed down from our ancestors. You were entrusted with it because I lent it to you, before we could find a member with the fyx skill. Now that we found one, you have to hand it over to him. That's the tradition, Yara."

Even though Yara was mad, she knew that her father was right. It was never her bow to begin with. She merely borrowed it until someone worthy of the bow came along and took it from her as its rightful owner.

However, she was not mad because the bow was legendary and because it could give her immense strength. She could care less about that. She was mad because the bow was the only thing that reminded her of her journey as an archer, trained by her father. No matter how much she said that she hated training with her father, she still remembered the joy she felt when she first received it on her 6th birthday. She associated it with her father entrusting her with something as important as that. It was a symbol of the love-hate relationship between her and her father. Now that it was taken away from her, she felt like she had no choice but to accept that she lost the only thing her father ever gave to her.

Yara lowered her gaze. She stared at her bow, which was no longer hers.

She then snapped.

"You know what, I'm done."

Yara dropped the bow she was currently holding and let it fall to the ground.

"I am no longer part of this family."

Everybody gasped after hearing what she just said. Yara then walked out of the scene, going into her room. She packed up her things and got ready to leave.

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"Big sis, are you really leaving?"

"Will you come visit us again?"

At the front gate, Yara's siblings tried to stop her. They didn't want her to leave.

"Of course, I'll come visit you again."

Yara pated them on the head and kissed them on the cheek, saying her goodbye to her younger siblings.

"Yanagi, please take care of your brothers and sisters."

Yara entrusted her younger siblings to the second child, Yanagi. He was still in the academy, the same age as Yamato.

Yara then left her ancestral house, saying goodbye to it for good.

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Since Yara already booked a ticket back to the capital city later at night, she couldn't go home immediately. She then went to the beach, to clear her mind off.

It was currently almost sunset. The sun was shining beautifully. Yara sat down at the beach with sand in her feet, staring at the sea. There was nobody else but her there. She chose the least known beach since she wanted to be alone. She then started contemplating. Tears dripped down her face as she recalled about what happened earlier today.

While Yara was crying, suddenly, someone approached her and sat down next to her. Yara could smell a familiar scent coming from the person sitting next to her.

"Meixia?" Yara exclaimed, as she wiped her tears.

Meixia was sitting next to her, accompanying her.

"How did you––"

"Shh."

Meixia stopped her from talking. The two of them watched the sunset together on the beach, sitting next to each other. Yara then put her head on Meixia's shoulder, leaning on her. Suddenly, Yara started crying even more loudly. Without asking any question, Meixia then hugged her, trying to calm her down.

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A day earlier, after hearing that Yara was coming home, Meixia decided to also take a leave to follow her. Since Yara was one of her top suspects on the list, she wanted to make sure that she did not go to scheme another evil plan for a terror attack.

Meixia then found out that Yara did come home. She also heard the fight between her and her family earlier this morning, which made her just as disheartened as Yara was. She then saw that Yara was going somewhere after she left her house. Meixia thought she was going back immediately to the capital. Turned out, she went to the beach.

Meixia then finally concluded that Yara was officially crossed out from her list of suspects. After hearing the whole fight between Yara and her father and cousin, Meixia didn't think that Yara would do such a thing to the Premier. In fact, Meixia believed that she must have done her best at that time, since it was her opportunity to redeem herself after losing the tournament to a newcomer in order to make her family proud of her. She had always done her best to make her family proud, which was never enough for them.

Meixia then caressed Yara on her head, trying to calm her down. The sun was setting, and the two of them were feeling emotional.

Seeing how beautiful Yara was, even when she was crying, Meixia gazed at her lips. The two of them stared at each other, having an intense eye contact. Yara then leaned in on her, and touched her lips with Meixia's.

The two of them kissed, under the sunset on the beach.

After spending a few hours on the beach, the sky got dark. Since it was almost time for Yara to return back to the capital, Meixia came along with her. The two of them then returned to the Temple, together.

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