Book 7: Chapter 268: Jade (7)

Jade felt like her life was being laid bare. All of the events of the past few days were exposed to her “father”, even her slight stint of madness. Nothing was hidden.“You…” A slap bombarded Jade’s face. “How could you make such a mistake!? It’s already too late! And you actually planned on not telling me about this?!”Jade’s delicate hand covered her face, but she didn’t have much of a reaction. Her eyes had returned from surprise to placid once more.The Clan Head frowned, lines of worry clear on his forehead. There was no precedent for retreating from the line of madness after it had been crossed. It seemed that Jade was still her normal self now, but it was already too late. There were only two options: either to continue and ignore Jade’s plight, or to destroy the connection between her and her manifestation now.However, the second was impossible… They couldn’t afford such a setback now. If they didn’t make use of Jade now, who knew when they would birth another genius of her caliber? Without the help of a True Empath coupled with the abilities of Meiying, the Daiyu wouldn’t be able to find their way to the hidden prison of the entity. They needed Jade now, and only they could resurrect their Clan to the heights they wanted.The Clan Head grit his teeth. “You unfilial daughter! Come, let me show you what kind of stupidity is floating around in that head of yours now.”Over the past few days, the Eostre Clan Head had been monitoring Dyon. It wasn’t because he thought there might be a connection between him and Jade, but rather because such variables were terrible for their plan.If a human came to know of the happenings of the Elvin Kingdom, then the plans of the Daiyu could be exposed ahead of time. If this happened, there would be no recourse.Unfortunately, just when he wanted to eliminate Dyon to get rid of future problems, he and Ri entered the cave Ri’s mother left behind. Everyone knew that without a pure heart, entering that cave was a sentence to death, so they could only pull back.In the end, the matter became even more complex after Dyon was taken under the wing of the Acacia Family and Acacia Academy.Still, even until now, they closely monitored Dyon, planning on eliminating him the moment he left the island. So, as things stood now, the Clan Head knew exactly where Dyon was.At this moment, Ri and Dyon were leisurely chatting with one another as they walked through the Elvin City. Ri had just finished describing the secrets behind Campaigns and why they occurred.“Ah, whatever. I have time to figure all of this out slowly. For now, how about you tell me where you disappeared to for all those days. I was missing you,” Dyon pouted as though he was truly hurt by her absence. Ri rolled her eyes, “Don’t worry about what I do during my free time. That being said, I did promise to take you around the guilds. I’m not familiar with the blacksmithing or alchemy guilds… but the formation guild, I can help with that.”Dyon nodded. He had already made the conscious choice to contribute as much as he could to those guilds so that his army would be the best equipped. He was taking their lives very seriously already. Suddenly, Little Lyla’s voice came from atop Little Black, “Big brother, big sister, I want to go there!” Her little chubby hands pointed towards a tower in the distance. When Dyon realized what he was looking at he chuckled lightly, “It looks like I’ll be treating you today after all,” He said looking at Ri mysteriously. Ri raised an eyebrow, looking towards the restaurant in the distance, “Heaven’s Wine? You’re broke, how could you afford to treat me there? That very well might be the most expensive restaurant on the island… even your original million profound stones wouldn’t be enough. Also, aside from Little Lyla, we’re not dressed nearly formally enough.”Dyon smiled, “Don’t worry about all that, let’s go.”Jade watched through a mirror as Dyon, Ri, Little Black and the pink haired she had met just a few hours ago walked around together like a happy family. The empty feeling in her chest suddenly grew uncontrollably. She couldn’t help but belittle herself for having ever harbored such hope.The scene of Dyon and Ri making their way into Heaven’s Wine and climbing to the top floor remained clear. They happily chatted with one another before finally scrolling through the menu options of the restaurant.Suddenly, Little Lyla called out to Ri. Tears hadn’t fallen from her eyes just yet, but even though her face remained stone cold, one could see that she was fighting an inner turmoil.‘That’s me…’ Jade thought to herself silently. ‘Those emotions she’s feeling, that’s how I felt… Helpless… Alone…’She watched as Ri ordered Ice Petals Dance, a spiritual fruit in the shape of a flower with thousands of petals. Tears fell from her eyes as she described how her mother used to peel this fruit for her, but ever since she disappeared, Ri hadn’t had enough skill to peel it for herself…Jade’s heart was torn to pieces when she saw the caring looking in Dyon’s eyes. ‘Why didn’t he look at me like that when I was feeling the same pain?… Could it be that he doesn’t care about my pain?…’