Chapter 448: Awkward
Elion’s eyes narrowed for half a heartbeat. His wings snapped around him, the sound cracking through the sky like a banner being torn apart by some great force. In the next instant, he vanished from where he stood; all the riders saw was a black blur drop past them.
Mira fell helplessly, her eyes still fixed on the figure descending toward her. The fear should have come, and it should have filled her with dread that maybe she was falling to her death, but strangely, the moment she saw him move, she smiled vibrantly.
’He came back.’
The invisible, heavy weight on her chest all but vanished into nothingness. A second later, his strong arm wrapped around her waist, and the fall stopped.
Mira crashed into his chest, and Elion caught her securely in midair as his wings beat powerfully, scattering the wispy clouds around them and creating a strong gust of wind.
For a moment, neither of them spoke; it was just the wind roaring around them as Mira stared up at him, her eyes wide and sparkling with unshed tears as Elion looked down at her pretty face.
His own face was different, not just his face, but a lot about him had changed. His height, his presence, his eyes, his hair, even the feeling of his body holding her; it was all so different, but there was no doubt in her mind that it was him.
"Elion..." Mira whispered into his face as she brought both trembling, bound hands to his face.
Elion’s expression softened; he looked deeply into her emerald green eyes. "Hello, Mira."
Her lips trembled, "You came back."
"I said I would, didn’t I?"
"You really came back."
The mask she had been wearing until now finally shattered; a single drop of tears spilled from her eyes as she buried her face against his chest.
Elion didn’t say anything; he just held onto her; there were no words needed between the two of them, so for a good half-minute or so, they just enjoyed being in each other’s embrace.
Above them, the riders finally recovered from their shock. Weapons were drawn, and mana began to gather as spells were prepared.
The leading rider’s expression hardened, "Release Lady Mira at once!"
Elion slowly lifted his gaze.
His wings spread wider, beating behind him and casting a shadow across the open sky. His eyes narrowed dangerously, "What did you just say?"
The rider paled as an insurmountable amount of pressure crashed into him from just Elion’s gaze, and for some reason, every beast mount in their entourage trembled at once.
The trained winged beasts seemed to instinctively recognise that the winged human before them was a predator, and they were nothing more than weak prey.
"So," Elion asked, his voice cold, "which one of you bastards tied her up?"
At the same time, with a simple thought, two thin water blades formed beside him, flashing as the strands of rope binding Mira’s wrists and legs were sliced apart cleanly, falling from her hands and ankles.
Mira’s hands came free; she looked down at her wrists for a moment and gave Elion a light kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," she said softly.
As she spoke, she massaged the spots around her wrists where the rope had dug into her skin, making it sore.
Elion’s eyes remained on the riders.
"What does that matter?" the leading rider responded to Elion’s question with one of his own. "Just ret—"
He did not finish as the words he had been about to say literally died in his throat. Under the shocked gazes of everyone present, the man suddenly gurgled; A stream of blood flowed from his mouth.
A moment later, a thin line appeared across his throat, and his head slid from his shoulders, dropping from his body, and falling silently through the sky.
"Ahhhhhh!"
A horrified scream from one of the women pierced the air as the dead rider’s headless body slipped from the winged, serpent-like beast he had been riding.
The beast let out a panicked screech before fleeing into the distance. For a brief moment, no one moved. The riders stared at Elion as though they were looking at a monster. "You insolent bastard heretic!"
The burly Gale, who had been shocked into silence by Elion’s sudden appearance, finally roared in anger as he beckoned his own mount forward.
Elion gave the man a detached look. He could somewhat see the resemblance to Mira, but it was faint at best, and he didn’t really have any words for any father who treated their own daughter like this.
"I suggest you do not respond to my question with another question," he said calmly. "It would not be too difficult to send more heads falling through the sky if that is what you wish."
The threat was spoken casually, and yet, the entire group trembled. Gale’s mount came to a stop from fear; though the burly merchant tried to force the beast forward, it didn’t dare go any further.
The man who had just died had been the strongest among them, and none of them had even seen how he had died. What was stopping Elion from doing the same to the rest of them?
Gale’s face twisted with rage as he gave up on tugging the reins of his stubborn mount. "Do you think you can do whatever you want!? I will send word of your return to the Duke, and you will be the one to lose your head, you bastard!"
He started ranting, asking random questions: Who did Elion think he was, why should they fear him, how Mira was his daughter, and how their family had already suffered enough because of him, and that he should return her immediately and leave their family be or else... So it went.
On and on Gale went, his voice growing louder and more breathless with every sentence that flew out of his mouth.
Spittle also flew from his mouth like a rabid dog as he completely lost himself in anger at being so openly disrespected in front of his own employees.
Elion did not particularly feel like listening. Unfortunately, with his ears as sharp as they were now, it was difficult to ignore the burly man’s furious rant, so he watched with nothing more than a bored expression on his face.
In the end, he looked down at Mira. Mira understood the question in his gaze without him needing to say anything.
She lowered her eyes for a moment, and she sighed softly, "Leave him be," she said. "I do not wish to make my mother a widow, and neither do I wish to be responsible for my own father’s death."
Her voice remained calm, and Elion was briefly surprised by how casually she was treating the whole matter. Did she really not care for her family at all?
’What an odd family dynamic.’ It was a really awkward situation for him, to say the least.
Elion hadn’t grown up in a particularly large or closely knit family; the only family he ever had was his father, so he couldn’t relate, but he knew that oftentimes, people tended to put their family ties above everything else.
But considering how Mira was being handled before he came here, perhaps he should have expected her to lash out a bit more.
"He already disowned me, so as long as he does not involve himself in our affairs anymore, it should be fine," Mira said calmly as she gave her father a disgusted look, as if daring him to do more than what he had already done.
Elion looked at her for a moment and smiled, "Okay." He said simply. With that settled, his wings flapped once, creating a powerful burst of wind, and then he shot away, flying back in the direction of Grimholt with Mira held securely in his arms.
"Hey! Get back here!" Gale’s distant voice echoed behind them as they vanished across the horizon, but they never looked back.