Chapter 7 - Reunion's talk

When Henry gets to the living room, he can see Selena playing with her phone while waiting for him. In front of her are a teapot and two cups already filled with hot tea.

Henry makes his way before sitting beside her and taking a sip of the tea she just made.

"Does it taste good?" Selena asks as she waits for Henry's approval.

"Good? What do you mean good?"

"Huh? Is there anything wro-"

"This tea is excellent!" Henry added to lightly teases Selena with a smile on his face.

"Oh, you! You really make me scared a bit there." Selena says while punching Henry's shoulder lightly.

They then start talking about everything that has happened in the past few years. They have a lot to tell each other as they never had any opportunity before this. Selena tells Henry everything in the most detailed way possible while Henry only tells her the partial truth.

Long before Henry decides to retire, he has decided not to tell his real identity to his family first. Instead, he chooses to reveal it to them as a surprise long after his return.

His identity is now big enough that everyone in Erusea has heard it being talked around at least once. He thinks that to reveal his identity outright his return is somewhat anti-climatic.

He has thought of many ways on how, where and when it will happen, especially on how he will keep his identity a secret.

"How are your life in the army, Henry?" Selena asks him.

"Everything is okay. I had my fun and met a lot of cool friends there. Training is sometimes hard but I still manage to get through it. Plus, I get to be in the Red Crow."

Henry starts his plan with a small lie.

"Wait, for real? That 'Red Crow'?" She asks with a shock on her face before putting her cup down.

"Yeah, for real. The one who had the Red Lieutenant in it."

"Wahhh! That is so great, Henry! How can you join the White Crow?! Tell me-tell me!"

Selena is very excited after hearing that Henry is one of the Red Crow members. She even begs Henry to tell his story with puppy eyes.

Henry chuckled, looking at the cute expression Selena just made before continuing his lie.

"I met him shortly after a few days of joining the army while training with my peers. One day, we were told by our trainer that someone new would be joining and introduce him to us. That same day, he and I were being assigned as a training partner, as I still have yet to have a partner and him being only three years older than me."

"Wait?! He is that young?! I thought he is at least 35 by now!"

"Yeah, he is. Apparently, both of his parents are killed by the rebels. He, who had no relatives to live with, decided to join the army. We both having no parents maybe are the reason why we can be close as we can relate to each other." Henry explained.

"What do you do when you are in the Red Crow? Do you just hunt rebels 24/7?"

"No, not all the time. We sometimes do other missions overseas. Still, other than that, we mainly deployed around the country to get rid of the rebels.

"What about him? Why did he create the team?"

"He creates Red Crow solely because he holds quite a big grudge against them. His parents got killed by them remembers? Even when he first gets his own squad after being ranked as a Sergeant, he mainly accepts missions that are in any way connected to the rebels. His teacher even nicknamed him as Crimson Demon. It does sound kinda silly, and even he himself laughs at it. As time went by, his fame started to be known by nearly everyone inside the army."

"But.. if many people in the army know about him, then why is his identity a secret? Do all the soldiers never tell anyone in their family or friends about him?" Selena asks with a genuine frown, thinking about how Red Lieutenant can keep his identity secret.

Henry seeing her face, already thinks of his plan as a success. He had already managed to trick her. He then starts to continue explaining things to her.

"When I say that his fame is being talked around, I specifically talking about his identity of Crimson Demon and Red Lieutenant. A lot of them know about it from rumours, but they never even met 'him' directly, and by 'him' I meant not him as a person."

"If we are talking about him as a person, then nearly everyone there knows him. He himself always went through his day normally like all other soldiers. He even sometimes joins a conversation about himself just to erase any suspicion. Sure, some people know him like me, but it's only a fragment of a percentage."

Selena can be seen astounded at Red Lieutenant for being able to keep his identity a secret by hiding himself in the crowds.

"Wow.. for him to even hide his identity to this extent. He must have a big reason to hide it."

"I think so too. At first, when his fame is starting to be known by others, I can see him being excited. But suddenly one day, he come to me and say that he wants to hide his identity. When asked why he refused to tell me the reason, so I stop asking."

"So that's how it is. He seems like a humble person."

'*smirk* No he's not.'

Henry starts to laugh inside after hearing Selena praising him for something he doesn't even mean to do but stops himself after remembering something.

"By the way, Aunt. Ummm, how do I ask this? Uhhh.."

Henry can be seen fidgeting with his hand, trying to ask a question.

"What is it, Henry? Just say it."

Henry takes a deep breath before asking the question.

"Umm, why did you not reply to any of my letters?" Henry drops the question.

The reason why he have a lot to tell to his family is because he never had any opportunities before this. If they write a letter back to Henry six years ago, then he will never even think of having this secret identity game with his family as he will already tells them long before. But, fortunately for his little secret, they didn't reply the letters.

"..."

Selena looks into Henry's eyes before answering him.

"Henry. We've read your letter and felt relieved after knowing that you are safe. Each of us then decide to write a letter for you, but then we realised something. You did not put any address or any ways for us to contact you."

"What? Really?" Henry is shocked by Selena's answer.

He then remembered the time when he wrote his letter for them. He must have forgotten to put the address on the envelope after he was done crying and just gave it to Dani.

'Damn.. How can I miss that?' Henry thought to himself before laughing inside.

He thought they had already forgotten about him while he was in the army. He didn't know he had lost his way of communicating with them because of a small mistake.

"We have done many things to send you the letter. We even come to the local E.D.F. building to send it to you but even them say that there is no one in their military database name Henry Whitlock. After that we just give up and just wait until you sends a second letter."

"Andd?" Henry asks as he waits for Selena to continue talking.

"And what? You never sent anything after that. So, we think that maybe you are busy in the army and dont have time to send any more letter."

"Huh?! What do yo mean? I sent multiple letter after 3 months not getting anything back. And in those letter, Im pretty sure I include our base address."

"Are you sure? Because we've got nothing even after waiting for a long time."

"Yeah, Im sure."

Both of them turn quiet, thinking about what happened to those letters. It's weird to say that all of the letters have gone missing. Even if one of those letters accidentally goes missing at the mail centres, it is impossible for all of them to be the same.

"Now that's weird.. How about we just forget about those letters. The important thing now is that you are back."

Selena tells him to forget about it and just appreciates that he is back at his home now. No use thinking of something that doesn't mean anything anymore.

"Yeah, you're right. By the way, where are Morgan and Sera?" Henry asks.

While on his way to his room a while ago, he walks around the house to see if there is anything new. But, even after walking around, he still does not see any of them. It looks like they are not home yet.

"My husband is always coming back from work late, and sometimes he even sleeps in the company building. After you went missing, the company started getting bigger and bigger and has become one of the biggest companies in Sainttish, so he started getting a lot of work. As for Sera, today she is out with her friends." Selena explain.

"I.. understand. I can't wait to meet them after they are back."

Henry can look downcast after knowing he may not meet them today.

"Oh! And by the way, look at this!"

Henry starts showing his leg, and on the leg on which he uses a prosthetic, there is a prosthetic leg which is not the one Selena gets for him.

"The military gives this to me. After they saw my potential in combat, they gave me a better prosthetic leg that is more durable and suited for fighting. Now, I can walk as if I have a real leg; plus, this thing shoots bullets."

"..."

Selena turns quiet after hearing Henry's last sentence.

"It is not loaded, Selena. You don't need to worry." Henry seeing Selena looking kind of worried, assure her that nothing is going to happen.

"Thank god, I thought it is loaded. I don't want it to suddenly malfunction and shoot bullet everywhere."

*Ding- ding* The grandfather clock chimes loudly, taking both of their attention. It is now 7 pm.

"You want to eat dinner, Henry? I think they will not be back today so it will just be the two of us." Selena asks Henry.

"Thats fine with me. Its been a long time since I ate your food anyway. I want to see how much you have improve."

"Yes, chef Gordon! I will not dissapoint you." Selena pocks fun at Henry.

She then walks to the kitchen to cook dinner while Henry sets up the table. After they finish eating dinner and conversing a bit more, they return to each room to sleep. Tomorrow will be a new day for Henry, and maybe he can meet Sera and Morgan.