Chapter 1872: Found Penelope? Part-2

"What the hell do you want? Didn’t you hear me?"

The door opened, revealing an old lady wearing reasonably good clothes compared to the people outside. Her face twisted into an annoyed, furious expression as she glared at the two intruders.

"I said this belongs to Governor Zeta!"

!!

Young Aether’s eyes widened when he saw her.

For a brief moment, his expression changed completely.

Lily pushed the old lady aside and entered the wooden house without hesitation.

"Where is she?"

The old lady stumbled backwards before immediately regaining her balance. She frowned deeply as she clenched her fist.

"OI! If you don’t leave now, I will inform the soldiers! This place belongs to Governor Zeta! No one is allowed to enter without the Governor’s permission. Leave before I call the soldiers!"

Lily didn’t care.

"I don’t give a fuck... Just tell me where she is."

She looked around the small wooden house.

There was almost nothing inside other than a single bed, a small bathroom, and a lantern hanging against the wall. The furniture was old, but unlike the rest of the settlement, it was maintained reasonably well.

There were no personal belongings scattered around.

Nothing that suggested someone actually lived here.

Lily’s eyes moved from one corner of the room to another as she searched carefully, her expression becoming increasingly serious.

Young Aether blinked in confusion; he slowly turned his gaze toward the old lady, who was still standing near the doorway, fuming with anger.

’Does she not know?’ Young Aether wondered before shaking his head, still confused himself.

After all, the woman standing before them was... none other than Allen’s grandmother.

Why would Allen’s grandmother be here?

Lily looked at the old lady and asked coldly, "I know she is here... Where is she, old hag?!"

"..." Young Aether blinked.

The old lady gave Lily a disgusted look. "Who are you calling an old hag? Your grandmother is an old hag!"

"..." Young Aether blinked again.

’They’re acting very well... aren’t they?’ he thought.

He honestly believed this was nothing more than an act.

After all, how could Allen’s only family member not be known to Lily?

He sighed. Honestly, he didn’t care about any of this. He was only wondering what his stepfather could possibly do next to break him even further.

Lily snorted. "Tell me where she is. Otherwise..." Suddenly, Lily pulled a knife from her boot and pointed it toward the old lady.

Young Aether raised his eyebrows.

Now he was curious to see how she was going to react to this.

The old lady gulped as she stepped backwards. "I am the only one who lives here... Please leave." Her tone had noticeably softened.

Lily clenched the knife tightly. "Don’t trick me, old hag. I know they talked to someone else... I know there is someone with you. Where is she?"

She slowly inched the blade closer to the old lady’s neck.

The old lady gulped as she hesitated. "I-I don’t know what you’re talking about, and if you don’t leave... I will inform the soldiers!"

Young Aether sighed as he placed a hand on Lily’s shoulder.

Even though he knew this was all fabricated by her father and his stepfather, he didn’t want her to actually kill her own grandmother.

"Lily... Calm dow—"

"There is someone below, darling," Lia muttered quietly in her bat form.

Her two crimson eyes glowed as she stared down at the wooden floor. She sat quietly behind his collarbone, peeking through the opening of his cloak as she carefully observed the room.

Young Aether halted.

His gaze slowly lowered toward the wooden floor.

He tapped his foot against the surface.

Duth! Duth!

The sound was different from the rest of the wooden floor.

It produced a dull, hollow sound, as though there was an empty space hidden beneath it.

Young Aether’s eyes narrowed slightly.

The old lady suddenly flinched when she noticed one of the cloaked figures staring down at that particular section of the floor and examining it.

"G-Get out!"

She stepped forward and was about to push him away when a single glare from Lia made the old lady’s entire body flinch.

The colour slowly drained from her eyes.

Her expression became completely blank.

It was as though invisible strings had suddenly been attached to her body, turning her movements into those of a puppet controlled by someone else.

"Open the floor," Lia said coldly.

The old lady nodded quietly.

Without saying another word, she walked over to the bed.

"What’s going on here?" Lily asked in confusion, watching as the old lady silently sat down on the edge of the bed. She twisted one of the wooden bed legs two times to the left before turning it fully to the right.

Click!

Suddenly, something clicked beneath them.

In the next second, the wooden floor parted and slid open, revealing a hidden staircase descending into darkness.

Lily’s face brightened as she immediately stepped toward the staircase.

"See? I knew I wasn’t wrong!" she said as she grabbed Young Aether and pulled him along.

As they entered the staircase,

"It’s so dark..." Lily muttered. "Wait. I’ll bring the lantern."

She turned back as she remembered the lantern.

Meanwhile, "Go straight, darling..." Lia mumbled.

Her crimson eyes could see through the darkness with ease. Unlike Lily and Aether, she could clearly see the figure sitting quietly at the end of the passage.

The person wasn’t moving.

There was no reaction.

They simply sat there, calm and motionless, as though they had been expecting them.

’Something is wrong...’ Lia thought.

There was no way someone could remain this calm after having their secret discovered. Even if they managed to control their expression and hide their emotions, Lia could still see the subtle movements of their blood pumping and how their heart beat faster.

But this one...

Their heart was beating steadily.

Calmly.

There was no rapid heartbeat, no sudden increase in breathing, and no blood flow evidence of fear.

That meant...

Lia’s expression became serious.

"Darling... I think we are trapped," she muttered in a dangerous voice.

Young Aether bluntly replied, "I know..."

His answer was so calm that Lia momentarily froze.

It was almost as though he had known this was a trap all along.

Lia stared at him in surprise.

Was her son willingly walking into a trap?

Why?

Young Aether continued forward, his expression remaining empty beneath the hood.

"I want to see what could possibly be there to surprise me... or break me," he mumbled in a dead voice as he walked straight toward the figure in the darkness.

Thuck!

Suddenly, his foot struck something.

He halted.

For a moment, he simply stared into the darkness before him.

He knew there was someone sitting right in front of him, yet the person still hadn’t moved.

Not even slightly.

"I am here... What are you waiting for?" Young Aether muttered emotionlessly.

Maybe his stepfather had prepared some grand entrance.

Maybe his so-called friends were waiting for the perfect moment to surprise him by killing him.

Maybe... This was really Penelope, and she was about to kill him.

What could possibly be waiting for him in this darkness?

"Come on... Do it."

Young Aether reached forward and touched the person sitting before him.

He could feel the fabric of some kind of cloak beneath his fingers.

Yet there was no response.

No movement.

Not even a flinch.

The person simply remained there in complete silence.

Even Lia was surprised.

She could still see the person’s heartbeat.

It was exactly the same as before.

Calm.

Far too calm for someone who had just been discovered.

Lia’s crimson eyes narrowed as she stared at the motionless figure.

Something about this person was deeply wrong.

"Here I come." Lily’s voice echoed from behind as she held the lantern and entered the staircase, its warm light gently pushing back the darkness.

Young Aether glanced over his shoulder. ’Hmm... She didn’t leave?’ he thought.

He honestly expected her to have been caught by the old lady after all... their plan to trap him was already done, right?

Yet here she was, walking toward him without a single sign that anything had gone wrong.

"Where are you...?" Lily asked.

"I am here."

Following the direction of his voice, she walked toward him. As she came closer, the lantern gradually illuminated the narrow passage and finally revealed Young Aether.

"I told you to wait there..." Lily said, but her words faded when she noticed the person standing directly in front of him.

She raised the lantern higher.

"Is that... her?" Lily asked as she stepped beside him.

Young Aether stared at the figure with dull eyes. Under the lantern’s faint light, he could finally make out the details that the darkness had concealed.

The figure was wearing a dark cloak that completely covered her body.

Her head remained lowered. She looked utterly motionless.

Almost lifeless!

"Penelope?"

Lily called her name.

The woman didn’t lift her head.

Lily frowned before inching closer and gently nudging her shoulder.

"Penelope?"

Still, there was no answer.

Lily glanced at him. "Come on, what are you waiting for? Isn’t she the Penelope you’ve been searching for? Talk to her."

Young Aether sighed.

Talk to her?

The thought almost felt absurd.

He was almost certain that the moment he called her name, she would suddenly leap up and surprise the motherfucker out of him, shouting before killing him on the spot.

Maybe she would finally give him the heart-wrenching pain he had been expecting.

And honestly...

That would have been worth it.

But...

He had been angry.

He had been betrayed.

He had been abandoned.

He took innocent lives.

The feeling had become so distant..

’Might as well see...’ he thought.

"Penelope... It’s Aether."

His voice was blunt and almost emotionless.

Suddenly, the cloaked figure flinched.

For the first time, she moved.

Slowly, almost painfully slowly, she lifted her head.

Just like what he thought... she was reacting just like what he imagined.

Next what?

Kill him?

The thick veil still covered most of her face, revealing only... A pair of deep blue eyes staring directly at him.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BA-DUMP!!!

Young Aether’s ice-blue pupils widened.

His heart, which had felt dead and silent for so long, suddenly skipped a beat.

Just one beat!

But that single beat was enough to destroy everything he thought he had become.

Thud!

His knees went weak.

His breath caught inside his throat, then returned in short, ragged breaths as though his lungs had suddenly forgotten how to function.

His fingers trembled.

His blood seemed to freeze inside his veins.

His entire body became rigid, yet his heart continued pounding harder, each beat painfully loud inside his chest.

He stared at those eyes.

Those familiar eyes.

Eyes he had once looked into without fear.

Eyes he had once searched for whenever he needed somewhere to belong.

Eyes he had believed he would never see again!

And suddenly, memories he had buried beneath layers of anger and emptiness began clawing their way back into his mind.

A voice.

A smile.

A warm embrace.

A hand resting gently against his head.

A woman who had once held his hand and... took it back!

His throat tightened.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, something had pierced through the emptiness inside him.

Lily’s expression turned serious as she looked between them.

"Is it her? Penelope, right? I told you my father didn’t betray—"

"M-Mom?"

The weak and broken voice that escaped Young Aether barely sounded like his own.

The single word trembled through the darkness.

"What?" Lily turned toward him in shock.

Her eyes widened as she looked at Young Aether, then back toward the woman beneath the veil.

"!!!"

Lia’s crimson eyes widened.

For the first time, even she seemed unable to immediately process what she was seeing.

She stared at the woman beneath the veil as though she had just discovered a rival she had never, in all her existence, expected to encounter.

But what truly unsettled Lia wasn’t the woman’s identity.

It was the way Young Aether was looking at her.

That dead, empty gaze that Lia had seen was gone.

For the first time... There was something alive inside his eyes.

And... It reflected the image of that woman! [Imgincmt]