Episode 228- Terrified of the man exploding and possibly killing them on the spot.
"... Damn it." She cussed. No wonder people didn't recognize her! She thought that it was because of her short hair that was… slightly bloodied, but it was also because of her eyes!
"Tsk." The sleazy man snickered. He had been scared for nothing.
Eugene didn't care about the sleazy man and turned to the younger knight. "Pour water on me." She pointed to the water surrounding them.
"Y, Yes?!" The knight turned to Eugene with widened eyes. Despite everyone questioning her words, Eugene could see that he was the only knight who believed in her. And as to why he believed her… Well, she didn't know either. Maybe because she looked confident?
'P, pour water? How dare I…' The eyes of the knight shook as he stared into Eugene's red eyes.
"Pour water on me. This is not my hair color." Eugene spoke loudly. Her words could be heard by everyone in the arena which caused many people to doubt again. No one said anything, but everyone looked at the knight to follow her words. They wanted to see if the child on the podium was lying or telling them the truth.
'B, but… Pouring water on a noble.' He really didn't want to do it. It didn't take long before the knight collapsed under pressure and he walked to the bed of water sadly when suddenly, he realized something.
He turned to Eugene and then turned to the audience. With his head scratched, he asked, "... How?" How was he supposed to bring water?
"...." Eugene and the audience turned quiet immediately as they stared at the knight blankly. The silence lasted a full minute, reducing the amount of time Eugene could be conscious of. She found herself unable to kneel anymore so she fell a bit, leaning most of her weight on her arms. Though it was a humiliating position, this was the best position to ease her heavy and tired body.
"Here." A low voice said in the midst of silence.
'Huh?' The knight turned to the person who spoke when his head was hit with something that came flying his way.
"...." Commander Guang looked at the useless knight who couldn't catch his gourd of water.
The young knight rubbed his aching head. He didn't dare cry in pain, so he sucked it up and filled Commander Guang's water guard with water before walking over and handing the gourd of water to Eugene.
"... You do it." Her voice was weak as if she had no strength.
Seeing the younger knight hesitate so much, the sleazy knight snatched the water gourd from the knight's hand and poured the water on Eugene's head without hesitation.
Everyone could see a brownish-red color dripping from Eugene's head and pooling on the ground as soon as the water was poured. Though they didn't see any grey or white hair, this allowed everyone to see that the brownish-red on her hair was not her real hair color.
One water gourd wasn't enough, so the young knight repeated the process about five times before a light grey color peeked through from beyond the red and brown hair color. Her grey hair was very light, light enough to be overlooked as white hair.
"... No way." The sleazy knight who was first to pour water on Eugene's head stepped back from shock and fear.
"But her eyes…" The same knight who questioned the authenticity of her claims pointed Eugene's eyes out.
"I will try to stay awake for 20 full seconds, so please don't look away," Eugene said suddenly. Her voice was loud and clear, giving the knights and soldiers a bad premonition.
The execution arena was silent as everyone stared at her in eagerness. To be honest, even if she did not continue to prove herself, her light hair was already a symbol that she was from the Veria household which was already enough proof. And even though they did not believe that the girl in front of them was Eugeneia Veria, they did believe that she was someone from the Veria household.
Eugene moved slowly and switched positions. She crossed her legs to make her body comfortable, looking very un-noble-like. But was looking like a noble really important right now? The answer was f-ck no.
She propped herself steady with her hands on the side as she closed her eyes and wished, 'Change my eye color back.'
The moment she commanded her blood, Eugene felt nothing horrible. She felt as if her soul and her body did not co-exist as one, as if her body was rejecting everything and wanted nothing but to go into a sleep coma. Her entire face was sweating, and though people couldn't see that she was sweating, they could tell from her facial expression that something was wrong with her.
Eugene steadied her breath and opened her eyes very slowly. Her vision was completely black and she was unable to see anything. However, despite that, she was holding herself and her mentality from collapsing into the darkness.
Another round of gasps could be heard. Eugene's ears were still working so she could hear a big thud of someone falling beside her.
"G, grey…" The moment Eugene heard the color 'grey' she felt incredibly relieved.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" A loud shout could be heard at this moment! The shout echoed across the execution arena, frightening everyone back to their seats.
Eugene's ears perked up as she glanced in the direction of the voice. Though she couldn't see anything, the familiar voice brought up intense emotions from her as she couldn't believe who had come.
Her eyes slowly closed as she knew that she wouldn't need to keep them open anymore. Her lips slowly curved up and she whispered, "... You're here."
Just before her body could hit the cold hard ground, she fell on a warm chest.
"Eugeneia?" A voice called out her name however didn't get a response no matter how long he waited.
His hands traveled to her neck to feel her pulse and only breathed out in relief when he could feel her slow heartbeats.
"What did you do to her?" There was nothing but furiosity in his eyes. Everyone could see the pulsating veins on the man's forehead that peered through his grey hair, as he hugged the girl to his chest.
The air in the execution arena thinned and everyone became unable to breathe, not to mention utter a single word or excuse. They were terrified of the man exploding and possibly killing them on the spot. Even though they were much older than the man who appeared, they could feel the young man's eyes showing that he was on the verge of ripping through everyone here.
"I asked." The man's voice was low, "What did you do to my sister." There was nothing but threat in Louis's voice as he glanced around the execution arena slowly as if embedding everyone's face into his memories.
.
.
.
It was just a normal day. It was a normal day until he received news that the Duchess of Veria had been stabbed and passed away.
People approached him to express their condolences and inquired if the rumors were true, but he was unconcerned until he received a letter from Ron. He hadn't gotten any letters about the incident from his family, and it was only through Ron's letter that he learned that something had happened at home, that Euria had been kidnapped, and that Eugene had gone out to save her.
And so for the first time in his life, he ditched school. When he arrived home, he found his father about to leave home. There he found out that Euria had been saved and was recuperating in Zene, whilst Eugene had gone missing. And so for the past 14 days, he had been all over Xenperia in search of Eugene.
He was returning to Raden for the third time when he learned from the knight that Eugene was about to be executed. No one was able to understand what he felt at that moment. Despair wasn't the right word. Shocked wasn't the right word either.
His sister hadn't been kidnapped by the enemies but had been captured by the people of her own country. Everything felt like a joke until he encountered Eugene's state. Her eyes no longer had the sparkles in them and she looked as if she couldn't see the world. As if she was broken. These eyes almost caused him to almost lose all rational thinking as his anger flowed out. He wanted to murder every single human here who dared treat his sister as an object.
His sister was someone who loved being clean. And the blood and grit on her body, as well as the pool of filthy water all over Eugene and pooling beneath her, did nothing to calm him down.
"I asked. What did you do to my sister." Intense anger could be felt by everyone as cold sweat dripped down from their forehead.. No one dared to utter a single word, as they prepared to arrive in hell.