I Reincarnated to An Chapter 16: Truce… For Now

Chapter 16: Truce... For Now

"Okay." Arthur breaks the silence. "Okay. You said you’re going to share your thoughts. I want to know—why did you do it?"

Theo is caught off guard. "Do what?"

Arthur scoffs. "And here I thought you were being honest, Thea."

"I am being honest," Theo insists.

"Then answer . Why did you do it?" Arthur presses again, his tone firr.

"I have no idea what you’re talking about. Do what?" Theo asks, genuinely confused.

"Stop lying!" Arthur shouts.

Theo is stunned by Arthur’s sudden hostility. His shock is plain in his eyes, and without realizing it, he steps back—straight into a flower bed. Losing his balance, he starts to fall.

Arthur is even more startled than Theo. He catches a flash of genuine surprise, even fear, in his sister’s eyes. And before he can process what he just did, Theo tumbles backward—right toward a snow rose bush, its thorns sharper than any other.

"Thea!" Arthur reflexively grabs Theo’s hand and pulls, catching her in his arms.

He holds her tight. In his mind, the image of Thea’s face as she once fell from the stone cliff—eyes full of accusation—overlaps with the face he just saw now.

Arthur’s heart pounds in his chest.

Pressed against him, Theo can hear it—loud and rapid. He frowns. I’m right. Sothing happened to Thea. Sothing bad. It wasn’t just a simple accident. And apparently, Arthur was there.

"Arthur?" Theo says when Arthur doesn’t let him go. The hug tightens, then slowly loosens.

"Arthur?" Theo asks again, looking up at his brother’s face. It’s drained of color, reminding Theo of an apprentice who once feared losing him to war.

"Arthur?" he repeats a third ti, softer now, almost a whisper.

Arthur exhales, still looking down, not eting Theo’s eyes.

"Hey, Arthur. It’s okay. I’m okay," Theo tries to soothe him, gently moving his hand up and down Arthur’s back.

Arthur scoffs softly. "This is how I know I’ve reached a new low—when you try to calm

down after I almost killed you."

Theo smiles lightly. "Well, what can I say? You’ve grown on ." His smile widens into a full grin.

Arthur laughs, but it’s a bitter sound.

"I’m sorry, Thea. I’m sorry I almost killed you."

Theo realizes Arthur isn’t talking about what just happened, but about sothing in the past. He wants to know what, so he can figure out how to move forward. But he can also feel Arthur’s genuine regret. It’s the perfect chance to probe deeper—if he’s willing to ignore Arthur’s pain.

Theo gently leads Arthur to a nearby garden chair, and they sit together.

"Arthur," he begins. "Look at . I really don’t rember what I did, let alone what you did. I’m serious about everything I told Julian. My mories are like scattered puzzle pieces I can’t put together.

"I can see each piece, but I don’t know where it belongs or what it ans."

Arthur keeps staring at Theo, as if weighing whether he’s telling the truth or still lying. He gulps. "What did you say to Julian?" he asks softly.

This ti, Theo grins. "Co on. Don’t do that. I know you’ve been listening."

Arthur shifts in his seat, clears his throat, and looks forward. "I have. I admit that. But you don’t know since when. So you don’t know what I’ve heard and what I haven’t."

Theo reaches out, holds Arthur’s chin, and turns his face back toward him—still grinning. "Actually, I know you’ve been listening since I said I don’t want you lot tiptoeing around ."

He feels a flicker of satisfaction when Arthur’s eyes widen just a little.

"You knew? How?"

"My dear brother, look around. Nothing here is anywhere close to your height. And your hair doesn’t exactly blend."

There’s a beat—then Arthur laughs. This ti, wholeheartedly.

Theo laughs with him. He can feel Arthur easing up.

When the laughter stops, Arthur looks at Theo and takes a deep breath.

"I never thought about it—that you’d notice us tiptoeing. I guess we were too busy thinking about how to take care of you that we forgot to actually care for you."

"It’s alright. I understand," Theo replies.

"But, Arthur. I don’t rember anything about the accident. And I want to know. Right now, my mories are like a giant jigsaw puzzle, but there’s an area that’s completely blank. I have a feeling it’s about the accident."

Arthur stares at him. "You really have changed. You were never this engaged before. Never this active. You were too quiet, almost always disappearing into the background. And a few months before the accident, you started withdrawing even more. Distancing yourself."

He lifts his hand and ruffles Theo’s hair. "You’ve changed."

Theo swats his hand away. "I guess a near-death experience can do that. But... do you like it? The change. Do you like it?"

Arthur shakes his head. "Honestly, I don’t really know. Haven’t really figured it out."

Theo nods. "Okay. Tell

when you know."

Then he gets up. "But right now—" he yawns widely, "I want to sleep." He starts walking toward the patio door.

"Thea," Arthur calls.

Theo turns around. "Hm?"

"I’ll help you figure out what happened. We’d like to know ourselves."

Theo bobs his head and yawns again. "Okay. See you tomorrow. Good night." He turns and walks into the house.

Arthur watches his back. When Theo disappears inside, he stays there, deep in thought.

------------------------------

Leila moves away from her bedroom’s window. She turns around and walks into the bathroom. She’s doing her night routine in there, absentmindedly.

She just saw Arthur and Theo from her window. She couldn’t hear their conversation, but she could see that her oldest and youngest, have reached so sort of truce. She smiles at the thought of that, and continues with her night routine.

The bedroom door opens and Maurice enters. Carefully. "Darling?" He calls.

"In here." Leila answers.

Maurice enters fully and closes the door. He goes to change into his pajamas, and goes into bathroom to brush his teeth.

He sees Leila putting on... sothing on her face. He kisses her on the lips and goes brush his teeth.

A while later, the two of them are sitting on the bed. Maurice is glued to his tablet, and Leila leans on his shoulder, seems to be thinking.

"What are you thinking about?" Maurice asks. Eyes on the tablet.

"About how our family is finally whole again." Leila smiles.

Maurice kisses the top of her head. "Yeah, it is nice."

"What are we going to do, Honey?"

"About what?" Maurice is confused.

Leila straightens her sitting position and turns to Maurice. "What you an about what? About Thea!"

Maurice puts down his tablet. "What about Thea? Darling." Before Leila can say anything.

"Thea is back. She’s here. Safe. With us. What more do you want?"

"You really think so?" Leila tries to probe her husband.

"Well, yes!" He turns his attention back to his tablet.

"And you don’t want to know what happened?" Leila probes further.

Maurice puts down his tablet again. "Arthur is already investigating. He’ll tell us when he finds sothing."

"But why isn’t he firing that blond boy? We all know what he did." Leila asks.

"Because it’s easier for us to monitor him."

Maurice leans toward Leila and kisses her. "Don’t worry, darling. He’s not getting away. We won’t let us. Not after he almost killed Thea." There’s a glint of anger flashes in his eyes.