Chapter 185 - The World That Stopped Moving

Episode 178- The world that stopped moving

But seven minutes into the fight, the man appeared to be impatient, and instead of choosing to stay behind, he quietly slipped away. Despite being a coward and leaving his allies behind, his intuition was sharp. 

'Teleportation circle?' Eugene kept her eyes on the man while simultaneously fighting against the children. At first, Eugene had thought that the teleportation circle no longer existed because the man was here. She assumed that the man had come to sacrifice himself in order to kill all of them. However, seeing him flee, the teleportation circle had to be still active because there was no way a man as cowardly as him would not have an escape route.

Eugene's eyes widened immediately. This will be their chance to go after Euria!

Hope began to fill her heart and body up as she fought against the children ruthlessly. Because she fought ruthlessly, and a little bit recklessly, the distance between her and everyone else was far. 

Unlike Eugene, Aernest was more careful. He did not fight recklessly and still kept his ears out to hear his surroundings. Just then, his eyes lit up and she shouted, "Sister! Help is here!" His face was brightly lit up, but because he was behind Eugene, she did not see it. 

Eugene didn't reply and continued to fight. As of this moment, all she could think of was going to Euria as soon as possible and getting rid of the enemies in front of her as soon as possible. She did not keep her ears out and did not notice one child climbing up the tree and waiting to attack however was closest to her. 

WHOOSH!!

Aernest ears twitched and he immediately glanced in Eugene's direction. His face was filled with complete horror, "SISTER!!" He screamed and ran in her direction. 

Eugene furrowed her brows and turned around instinctively. She thought that Aernest was in danger; however, when she saw his panicked eyes aiming at her, her back began to tingle, as if it was warning that an object was heading her way. 

Before she could react, or attempt to hide, her vision turned black. 

No, she did not blackout. But more like, she was in a warm embrace and was being protected. 

WHOOOSH!!

The sound of an arrow could be heard going out. The sound seemed to fly up, sounding as if someone from their side shot an arrow. 

"MOTHER!!" Aernest's screams woke Eugene up. 

'Huh?' She pushed whoever was hugging her and wiggled out of the person's embrace. But what she saw… shocked her. 

Moniqua was on her knees, however, her eyes were gazing into Eugene's. 

Eugene's eyes widened as much as they could as horror filled her eyes. She was terrified. Very terrified. Levis had warned her that Moniqua was incredibly weak due to an injury she suffered in the past. What he didn't warn was that Moniqua should not get hurt. 

The arrow struck itself on Moniqua's stomach. Though these types of injuries weren't light, they would not cause a person to go mia immediately. However, at this moment, Moniqua was incredibly pale. She looked very sick, as though she was struck on her stomach but her heart. 

"Eugen...eia. My child…" Moniqua's reached out to Eugene's face. Her voice was hoarse and almost gone. She rubbed the blood out of Eugene's face and proceeded to raise her lips to smile gently. 

"Y, you are a very kind child." 

Eugene and the knights didn't notice but at this moment, reinforcements had arrived. The knights slashed the enemies and surrounded Eugene, Aernest, and Moniqua to protect them. Everyone was shouting something inaudible and Eugene could not hear it. She could not hear anything, even the sound of the wind. Her senses were slow, and they could only focus on Moniqua.

"W, what? What are you s, saying?" Eugene's voice trembled and she reached for Moniqua's shoulders to stabilize her. Her eyes moved around and finally noticed the back-up. ."H, help is here. You will be safe soon." She stuttered as she tried to reassure Moniqua whose eyes were falling. 

"D, don't close your eyes!" Eugene raised her voice. 

Moniqua inhaled and exhaled hard, affecting Eugene like a domino effect. Slowly but surely, Eugene began to breathe in and out hard as well, as if she couldn't breathe; as if her throat was being squeezed by Moniqua.

Eugene scrunched her face. Moniqua looked like she was… dying and it was scaring her so much. She could not think of any solution, and could not think of anything besides getting Moniqua to open her eyes. Her entire body felt as if it was being crushed to death by rock and her heart felt like it was in the midst of being dug. 

"D, don't sleep… Please don't sleep." She begged, seeing Moniqua leaning closer and closer to her as if she couldn't muster up any strength. 

"Please... don't sleep," Eugene begged again, this time her voice was completely soft. A voice no one has heard from Eugene. 

Moniqua's lips were still curved up. She tried to listen to Eugene and keep her eyes from closing, "Eu...Neia… I'm not...a...angry at you. I hope you… know that." Moniqua breathed in between every word, trying to convey her words even if it was hard. 

Eugene exhaled sharply and she clutched Moniqua's shoulders tightly. 

"Mother! Mother! Please! Help is here! Please don't close your eyes!" Aernest begged frantically from the side. In fact, he had been beside them since the moment Moniqua fell and had been begging along with Eugene. 

"A...ernest." Moniqua did not have the strength to reach for him. 

"Mother! Please!"

Moniqua shook her head as her body continued to lean forward on Eugene. "I…" 

"M...Mother?" Aernest hands... reached for Moniqua's lifeless body. Her body slipped before she could say what she wanted to say. 

Eugene's eyes stared at the crown of Moniqua's head. Her hands began to tremble slowly as she lightly shook Moniqua's shoulder. 

"D… Duchess?" 

"....."

All oxygen was cut off as Eugene's eyes began to turn red. "M… Moniqua?" 

There was no reply. As if the world has gone silent. One tear slipped from Eugene's eyes as coldness descended Eugene's heart, "M...mother?" Another tear slipped out from Eugene's eyes and landed on Moniqua's red hair. It was her first time addressing Moniqua as 'Mother' but no one seemed to realize it, even herself. 

Slowly, she began to fall on her knees with Moniqua's body still clung to her and hugged her body tightly to hers. As if wanting to transfer some of her body heat to Moniqua's body that had gone cold. 

The knights were shouting trying to get help, while Aernest was screaming his heart and soul out as he shook Eugene violently. Eugene did not respond to anything. She did not respond to Aernest, or to the people who rushed over trying to communicate something. It wasn't that she didn't want to respond, but that she couldn't hear anything. Because at this moment, her world has gone completely cold and grey. 

Her heart, which Moniqua dug out and squeezed felt so incredibly painful that all that's left of it was a feeling of numbness. Slowly but surely, she could feel herself cracking.

.

.

The world did not stop and continued on its way. Everyone around Eugene was moving quickly in a bid to save the Duchess of Veria. Everywhere and everything was in chaos as if their world was spinning around. As everyone was in a frenzy, only Eugene's world was on a pause. 

She has since gotten some of her senses back. Ever since someone had slapped her to let go of Moniqua, she could feel her surroundings moving very fast, as if everyone was put on speed. Just that, it was everyone but her who was moving very fast. 

To describe what she was feeling was near-impossible. She no longer felt despair. She no longer felt scared. Maybe empty? Maybe empty was the only word to describe what she was feeling. But it was no wonder because everything she thought she didn't care about had been taken away without mercy. 

Her emotions were strange but familiar. 

Many people had come up to her and asked her many things; however, she was still unable to respond. Her head was blank and they couldn't come up with anything. Even when she saw Levis's face filled with pain and saw his hands trembling as they reached for her shoulder. Or even when he brought her to his embrace, she could not think of anything. She felt unaccustomed and weird. As if everyone was an unfamiliar stranger to her. 

Aernest was long gone. He could not stand the pressure from the workers pressing him to take care of his injuries. Eugene was the only one left, sitting outside the door to the room where the doctor was operating on Moniqua. Levis built this room a long time ago so that the family doctor could perform surgery in a sanitary room at any time without having to transfer or waste time transferring people who were injured to a hospital. 

Levis was by Eugene's side an hour ago, but he has since left to deal with the incident. Currently, all the Great Nobles were assembled inside the house of Veria.. Everyone was at the Imperial Palace when the incident happened and was notified at the same time by the messenger bird.