Aeliana sat in the same carriage as her father and Leon while Claud and the twins were in another carriage. She was seated beside the window so she was able to look outside easier. The carriage ride was bumpy but manageable. Lushes trees fleetingly pass by as the carriage moved.

Aeliana had seen this view a couple of times previously so she wasn’t invested in the outside scenery and stayed put silently. She could hear her father and Leon chatting but she didn’t pay attention since it was about the academy.

Every autumn, the academy would open for new students to begin their academics. The earliest a student is allowed to enrol on the academy is when they are at the age of twelve. 

Aeliana had heard them say the name of the academy. Leon was enrolling in Luderth Academy. Luderth Academy is the top number one academy in both the empire and world. The academy only allowed those within the top 100 to enrol in their academy. It was basically tough to get in.

Leon was soon to take the test that is during the second month of summer so he had been preparing himself for the test. Aeliana covered her mouth as a yawn escaped. She had eight years before she needed to worry about the academy and she wasn’t concerned for Leon either since she knew her brother would definitely get accepted.

Why was she so confident? Because she knew how smart her brother was. In her second life, Leon had many achievements under his name and was always the top student in every year.

By the time her father and brother ended their conversation, they reached the town. The carriage stopped close to the centre of the town and with the help of her father, Aeliana got out of the carriage.

Claud, Marius and Darius also got out of the carriage behind them. Cassian glanced at his watch before turning to his coachmen,

“You can come back in a few hours.”

“Yes, Your Grace.” the coachmen bowed their heads before leaving.

“What do you all want to do?” Cassian asked his children with a warm smile.

“Let’s go to the toy store!!” Marius exclaimed, raising his hand as high as he could.

Darius nodded in agreement. Leon glanced around before answering in a calm tone,

“I would like to go to the bookstore. I need more books for my studies.”

“Dad, I want some food!” Claud said in the same tone as Marius.

Aeliana was busy looking around so she didn’t reply to Cassian’s question. She noticed a playground not far from where they were. There were children around her age laughing and having fun.

“Eli?” Cassian called out to her.

“Huh?” 

“I asked what would you like to do?”

“Oh,” Aeliana looked back at the playground before answering, “I want to play over there.”

Cassian gazed at where she had been looking before nodding, “Alright, how about this? First, we stop by the bookstore for Leon then head to the toy store for Marius and Darius then buy some food for Claud and then lastly we go to the playground?”

“I can go to the bookstore myself.” Leon voiced out.

“I can follow brother Leon first then buy some food,” Claud added.

Cassian looked at his two older sons and worriedly replied, “Are you sure?”

Claud swung his arm around Leon and grinned widely, “Yup! Don’t worry about us dad, we can handle ourselves!”

Cassian hesitated before nodding, putting his trust in his two sons.

“Alright, then we will meet back here. Be careful and both of you must stay together at all times.”

Leon and Claud walked in the opposite direction, heading to their destinations in mind. Aeliana and the twins headed to the toy store first as it was only a few shops away from them. The door chimed as they walked inside.

Marius immediately grabbed Darius, whisking him away to one part of the store. Aeliana slowly walked around, looking at each toy.

“Is there anything you want, Eli?” she heard Cassian asking.

She shook her head and replied, “No, I’m fine.”

“Dad come over here and see this!!” Marius’ voice echoed.

Cassian let out a hearty chuckle, “Alright Marius, I’m coming over.”

Aeliana continued walking through each shelf before deciding to wait outside the store since none of the toys caught her interest.

“I should have brought teddy at least..” she muttered to herself, feeling a slight emptiness around her arms.

She looked at the front, watching people pass by. Not far from where she was standing, she saw a group of kids. The older one was taking care of the younger kids, making sure everyone was together. That reminded her of Donghae, Yujin and Sungho. She would always make sure they would stick together so none of them got lost.

Her heart had a stinging feeling as if a needle had pricked it. Even if she tried to keep herself busy, sometimes her thoughts would linger back to her siblings from her first life. Are they eating well? Were they safe and living a good life? Do they still think about her?

Aeliana can’t help but wonder. As she lightly kicked a small pebble away from her, she noticed a shadow casting over her. Looking up, Claud was standing there with a wide grin on his face.

Aeliana nearly physically shuddered at his expression. Why was he here without Leon?

“Why are you outside?” he asked, a grin still plastered on his face.

“...Because I wanted to..” she cautiously replied.

He hummed in response, nodding before grabbing hold of her wrist. Aeliana furrowed her brows together and tried to remove his hand off her but he wouldn’t budge.

“You said you wanted to go to the playground right?” 

“Yes but—”

“I’ll bring you there!!” 

Before Aeliana could answer and say no, he already dragged her further from the toy store. She wasn’t able to fight back as Claud was much stronger than a petite four-year-old. However, Aeliana didn’t want to resign to her fate by being dragged so she couldn’t stop struggling, pulling and even pinching Claud’s hand on her.

“Quit doing that!” Claud snapped, his grip on her wrist tightening until she unconsciously yelped in pain.

Claud seemed to have paused for a second before pulling her once again but Aeliana felt the grip around her wrist to be less tight.

Aeliana was continuously dragged by him. She already knew he wasn’t going to bring her to the playground once she noticed they were growing further away from where the actual destination was.

Claud then walked into a bustling crowd. She had to manoeuvre herself through the crowd but then she suddenly felt the hold around her wrist disappearing. This alarmed her greatly.

“Brother!” she shouted but got no response as she was swept away by the large crowd.

Aeliana was able to get out of it after trial and error. She was glad nothing worse happened like being kidnapped and so on. 

She looked around her surroundings. There was barely anyone in sight. 

‘Did…did I just got stranded..’ 

She could feel her heart dropping and her stomach becoming queasy by the thought. She began frantically walking around, trying to find any place that looked familiar to her but there was none.

‘Let’s..let’s stay calm! Dad will look for me!’ Aeliana thought positively but it soon deflated quickly once she noticed the sun was starting to set.

Aeliana sat at the side of the street. The bottom of her dress was dirtied but she continued to sit with her knees up to her chest. Her face was buried into her arms.

It was eerily quiet which amplified her thoughts even louder. Maybe they decided not to find and leave her, especially her brothers.

‘They must be happy right now.’

‘Why wouldn’t they be? The person they find a nuisance is gone.’

Aeliana felt her nose stinging and her eyes becoming hot. She wiped her tears on her sleeves and sniffled. She thought this life, she could fix her mistakes and regrets.

Did her father forget about her too? Was he secretly glad that she was gone now? Aeliana couldn’t tell, she wasn’t a mind reader after all.

‘I really want to cry out loud now..’

As Aeliana was being preoccupied with her thoughts, she didn’t hear footsteps heading towards her.

“Aeliana!” 

She lifted her up to see Marius and Darius running towards her. Their faces were filled with worry and she noticed the corner of their eyes were red.

“..Brother?” she muttered before her body was pulled in for a hug by Darius.

“We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Marius yelled, panting heavily as sweat dripped down his forehead.

“You were looking for me?”

“Of course! When we called out for you at the toy store, you didn’t respond! Next thing we knew, you were gone!” Marius aggressively replied making weird hand gestures as he spoke.

Aeliana licked her dry lips, “...Why?”

Darius furrowed his brows at Aeliana’s words, “What do you mean why?”

She pushed him away and took a step back. She gripped her sleeve tightly as she spoke, “Don’t..don’t you hate me? Isn’t it better if you never found me?”

“Aeliana what are you talking about?” Darius asked, taking a step closer.

Aeliana had a self-deprecating smile and laughed, “I know you all hate me so why bother trying to find me?”

“That—”

“You’re only doing this because of our dad isn’t that right?”

Darius shook his head, a hurt expression plastered on his face as he replied, “No Aeliana..we’re doing this because we were worried and wanted to do it.”

Marius who was watching from the side walked up to Aeliana and pinched her cheeks. She yelped in pain, hitting him on the hands in hopes of getting him to stop pinching.

“Listen here, little sister. We have been running around trying to find you and this is how you repay us? Stop trying to act tough.”

Darius elbowed his twin at the side and scolded, “You’re the one to talk. Who was the one blaming themselves for losing her?”

“Darius I told you not to say anything!”

Aeliana stared at the twins with her cheeks stinging from the pain. Her lips quivered and her eyes began to blur with tears. A warm hand then rested on her head, stroking it gently.

“Let’s go back home, Aeliana.” Darius softly spoke with a small smile on his face.

Marius had his arms folded, grumbling to himself but his eyes were on her. She stared at both of them before nodding. Darius grabbed hold of her hand. He made eye contact with Marius and after a quiet battle with their eyes, Marius let out an exasperated sigh and grabbed her other hand.

“Let’s…let’s go home.” he muttered, looking straight ahead.

Aeliana stared at the ground and nodded once more, “Okay..”

As they headed back to where the others were, their father rushed to her in a frenzy. His eyes were filled with worry and fear. He embraced her tightly, muttering softly,

“Thank god you are safe.”

Aeliana silently made note to never have second thoughts about her father’s love for her.

Then she heard another set of footsteps heading towards her. She pulled herself away from her father to see Claud running over to her. His cheeks were flushed red and his hair was sticking to his forehead.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and twirled her around. She heard a soft sigh escaping his mouth before he spoke in a rude manner,

“Thought you were dead.”

“Claud!” their father shouted before flicking him on the forehead, “Don’t say that.”

Claud whined in pain, holding his forehead. Aeliana wondered if she was hallucinating when she saw a relieved look briefly plastered on his face before a frown took over his expression.

In the end, Aeliana didn’t get to go to the playground and returned back home in the carriage together with the twins. As she sat opposite of them, silence wrapped around them. It was tittering between the line of comfortable and awkward.

Then she heard a loud scoff that almost sounded like an old man’s cough instead.

“You’re lucky to have been found by us.” Marius started, his arms folded across his chest.

He lifted his nose slightly up creating a cocky attitude as he added on, “You would have been lost longer than that.”

Aeliana didn’t reply to him, bringing her gaze over to Darius who in return showed a defeated smile on his face. He poked Marius’ on the arm before turning to her,

“What he meant was that he’s glad we found you.”

“Darius— that is not what I meant!!”

“Sounds like it to me Marius.”

“You— hmph!”

“Whose side you on?” Marius quietly grumbled, sulking away.

Aeliana stared at her brothers that were two years older than her before letting out a quiet laugh. 

“Thank you,” she muttered with a genuine smile.

The twins looked at her and said nothing however she didn’t mind. Now the silence that fell over them was comfortable.