??Chapter 909: Chapter 897: People Leave, the Place is Empty
Chapter 909: Chapter 897: People Leave, the Place is Empty
As he grew older and gained more life experience, Aeolus gradually beca aware of the irrationality of the events occurring around him.
However, realizing this irrationality did not change the fact that these events would still take place. Moreover, each coincidence brought benefits to Aeolus.
Therefore, Aeolus did not feel strongly inclined to alter this seemingly pre-arranged course of his life. He simply wished to uncover the truth behind these coincidences. Why did they occur?
When Aeolus reviewed everyone he knew, suspicion imdiately fell on his seemingly ordinary father. Only his father, whose strength appeared unfathomable, could possibly make such arrangents.
But suspicion was all it was; he had no direct evidence. So he planned to go ho during his next holiday to see his father and ask him if all this was his doing.
…
“Dad, Mom, I’m back!” As usual, Aeolus carried a kind of expectation as he pushed open the door. However, the scene he anticipated did not unfold; instead, a pungent sll of dust rushed into his nostrils.
“…” Aeolus let go of the door and stood there slightly stunned, gazing at the empty room. A layer of gloomy dust covered the floor and every piece of furniture, indicating the house had not been lived in for a long ti.
Aeolus, looking at his empty ho, pursed his lips and then turned to knock on the neighbor’s door. A kind and friendly woman opened the door,
“It’s Little Ai! You big figure, why did you co ho and knock on Auntie’s door without checking your own house first? Could you have mistaken the door?”
“Aunt Liao, there’s no one at my place!” Aeolus said, sowhat bewildered by the situation. “Do you know where my parents and my sister have gone?”
“Eh, your parents aren’t ho?” The auntie living next door to Aeolus was taken aback, “But what’s this about a sister? When did you get a sister? How co I don’t know about it?”
“You don’t know I have a sister?” Aeolus was struck as if by lightning, completely stunned. How was that possible? He had three sisters; how could his neighbor not know about them?
“Gladys, Tiffany, Ketiya, three adorable five-year-old girls. Haven’t you seen them?” Aeolus asked again, unwilling to give up hope.
“I haven’t seen any of the sisters you’re talking about!” The neighbor, seeing the look on Aeolus’s face, imdiately sensed that sothing was out of the ordinary.
“How have you not seen them?” Aeolus stepped back a few paces. His three adorable triplet sisters were of school age and would normally be seen when going out, so it was impossible for his neighbor not to have noticed them.
“What’s happening?” At that mont, a deep voice ca from behind Aunt Liao, followed by the sound of heavy footsteps, and a broad-shouldered, bear-like man appeared before Aeolus.
“Uncle Emon!” Aeolus’s eyes lit up when he saw the man and stepped forward eagerly.
“It’s Little Ai! You’re such a big boy now, why do you still look so panicked?” Emon chuckled upon seeing Aeolus, the young man he’d watched grow up, “What’s wrong? Tell Uncle all about it!”
“Uncle, have you ever seen three little girls like this…” Aeolus, feeling a mix of emotions, hastily described his three sisters to Uncle Emon.
“Well…” After listening to Aeolus and seeing his anxious expression, the middle-aged Uncle Emon scratched his head with hair like steel needles and said helplessly,
“Although I want to tell you that I’ve seen them, in truth, I haven’t seen any of the adorable little girls you ntioned in the past few years?”
“How is that possible?” Aeolus’s face fell, his neighbors had apparently never seen his three sisters, as if they didn’t exist.
“Wait, you’ve not seen my sisters, but what about my parents?” Aeolus looked at the neighborly couple with hopeful yet uneasy eyes.
“I’ve definitely seen your parents. However, most of our interaction was when you were in elentary school. After you went to junior high, we seldom t. I rember after you started high school, I never saw your parents again!”
The burly man furrowed his brows as he carefully reminisced and then seriously answered Aeolus’s question.
“After I started high school, I never saw my parents again!” Aeolus had a flash of insight, as if grabbing onto sothing. He unconsciously moved his hands, where two rings on them were now faintly heating up, seemingly reminding him of sothing.
“Hehe, Little Ai, you don’t have to worry too much. You’ve noticed it too, haven’t you? Our city is completely different from other cities! In our city, old monsters who live hidden among us are a di a dozen!”
“Your parents might just be two of them! So it’s pretty normal that you can’t find them for now, they probably took your sister out for so fun in the mountains and water,” the Aunt said.
“Emon, you scoundrel, how can you call others monsters when you’re one yourself?” the neighbor, Aunt Liao, clapped Emon’s arm, which was as thick as a normal person’s thigh.
“Hehe, don’t talk nonsense. The reason why monsters are called monsters is that they’re completely different from most normal creatures, but when a monster lives among a group of other monsters, then that monster is normal, ordinary!” Emon argued.
“Hmm?” Aeolus suddenly lifted his head upon hearing Uncle Emon’s words, “Uncle, you actually consider yourself an ordinary person, so why do you call my father a monster?”
“In my eyes, he is a monster!” Emon, trying to put Aeolus’ mind at ease, couldn’t help but express his opinions about Muria,
“When I just moved here and beca neighbors with your family, I felt a pressure upon seeing your father for the first ti. But in my investigations, your father was just an ordinary person. Isn’t that a joke? Where does Holy Fla City get ordinary people from?
Then, in the subsequent interactions, I noticed more strangeness. Your parents rarely participate in the gatherings we have among the neighbors. Even if they did attend, they would just sit in a corner and hardly speak!
At first, I thought your parents were just reclusive and didn’t want to interact with other strangers. But besides that, I figured out another possibility.”
“What possibility?” Aeolus couldn’t help but ask imdiately.
“Do you think a Giant Dragon soaring above in the Sky would converse with ants on the ground?”
“…” Hearing Uncle Emon’s question, Aeolus was stunned, speechless. He had understood the insinuation in Uncle Emon’s words.
“Your father is the Giant Dragon soaring in the Sky! And to him, we are just ants underground. Maybe he would stoop to talk with us for your sake, but once you were gone, they wouldn’t deign to speak with us anymore.”
“Uncle Emon, you’re overthinking it!” Aeolus tried to refute the uncle’s speculative remarks subconsciously, as he felt it was too exaggerated.
“These are my speculations, without evidence to prove it. Just listen to them!” Seeing Aeolus’ rebuttal, Emon laughed. As Muria’s neighbor, he surely knew how terrifying Muria could be. It wasn’t necessary to feel his real strength; just from the everyday actions and words, one could observe a lot.
“Hmm!” Aeolus nodded, “Uncle Emon, Aunt Liao, since my parents aren’t ho, I’ll take my leave now!”
“Little Ai!” Watching Aeolus get ready to turn and leave, Emon called out to him.
“Uncle, is there sothing else?” Aeolus forced out a sowhat stiff smile, his feelings complicated.
“You don’t need to worry about the safety of your parents and your three sisters. They might be enjoying life even more than you right now.”
“I know that!” Aeolus nodded at the uncle’s reminder and was about to leave when he heard Uncle Emon’s voice again from behind him,
“I know you still want to inquire about your parents’ whereabouts. I won’t stop you, but rember, after you’re done, co over to my place for dinner. Your aunt cooked more food today, and it’s just enough for one more person!”
“No need, I will…”
“If you don’t co, the food will go to waste!”
“Alright, I’ll co over for dinner in a bit!” Aeolus turned and walked towards another neighbor’s house, his eyes slightly red and moist.
“This child…sigh!” Watching Aeolus knock on another ho’s door, Emon sighed and shook his head as he went back into his room. He had no right to judge a being stronger and with a broader view than himself on how they treat their children.
…With a heart full of reluctance, Aeolus asked around the several households on his street, only to receive nearly uniform answers; they had all seen his parents, but nobody had seen his sisters. It seed that to the people of this city, his sisters didn’t exist at all.
Then Aeolus went to the city lord’s mansion and found the official in charge of the household register, requesting help to pull up his family’s record. After he showed the badge of the Dragon Clan Academy, the originally impatient official respectfully fetched the information Aeolus wanted.
And what was both disappointing but also expected happened; the city’s household registration records clearly listed his parents’ nas, but under his parents’ nas, there was only one son, with no ntion of three sisters.
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