Chapter 126 - Holiday In Romania

When Fae arrived home, Ren was waiting for her in the living room. She was surprised to see that her husband was already home. Usually, at such time Ren would still in the office.

"What happened on campus earlier? Why did you throw away your cellphone?" Ren asked as soon as he saw Fae enter the door.

"How did you know I threw away my cell phone?" asked Fae.

"I can find out by tracking your cell phone," replied Ren. "I tried calling you many times, but you didn't pick up. I had to track your phone down."

"Oh ..." Fae looked at Ren with rounded eyes. As it turned out, there were so many things about her husband that she didn't know, even though they had been married for a year.

She didn't even know that Ren could send his men to attack Hendrik Mile and break his legs ...

And now he could also track Fae's whereabouts and send Amelia quickly to help her at the police station.

Her husband took out a new cell phone from the table next to his chair and handed it to Fae. "Here's a replacement phone for you."

Fae took the cell phone reluctantly. "Thank you."

"Why did you throw away your cell phone?" asked Ren again. He could guess why, but he needed to hear it from Fae's own lips. 

The girl took a deep breath and finally began to tell her story. "I was approached by three girls who were with Hendrik Milne when they were eating at Magnolia Cafe and harassed me. I remembered one of them threatened me by saying that Hendrik was the mayor's son. When Hendrik was attacked, they thought I was involved because Hendrik recognized Karl as one of his attackers ... They quickly thought it was involved because back then you told Hendrik I am your wife. So, they accused me of being the mistress of someone important because I dared to assault a mayor's son."

Fae's face looked irritated and tired. It made Ren felt sympathy for her. He took Fae's hand and pulled her closer. "I'm sorry you had to go through it."

"Apparently they already called the police and then they tried to hit me. When I was about to leave, two police cars had arrived at the campus. I was worried they would search me and find your contact on my cell phone," said Fae in a trembling voice. "If they find out who you are ... your reputation could be tarnished. That's why I threw away my cellphone, so you wouldn't get involved ..."

"You ... did it to ... protect me?" asked Ren with a look of amazement. "Honey, you don't have to do that. I can take care of myself."

Fae pursed her lips. "I was only doing what I could. In my mind, all I could think about was how I could avoid getting you into a scandal."

Ren smiled and nodded. For a moment, he was speechless. His face looked touched as he took a deep breath.

"Silly girl ... you should think of yourself," he muttered softly.

"How can I think of myself?" asked Fae. "You are my husband, of course, I have to think about you."

Ren stared at Fae for a long time and finally nodded. "Thank you."

He touched Fae's chin and moved his face close and kissed Fae on the lips tenderly.

At times like these, Fae sometimes wondered if Ren actually loved her. Even though he said he was aromantic, Fae often felt that deep down Ren actually loved her, because she could feel it.

"Let's forget about those useless people ..." whispered Ren. "Let's focus on our vacation tomorrow. I will take you to beautiful places to celebrate our first wedding anniversary."

When Ren kissed her, Fae seemed to be able to forget her frustration over what happened at the campus and the police station. She could even forgive Ren for sending Amelia to help her. Reflexively Fae hugged Ren's neck and returned her husband's kiss.

"Mmm ... I agree," said Fae softly. She looked Ren earnestly. "We'll forget all this for the next two weeks. I'm so tired ..."

Fae was tired of their secret relationship and tired of the fact that Ren was always close to Amelia, even though it was in a professional capacity. She was tired of feeling jealous and had to stay hidden, without being able to take part in her husband's life in public. She was also tired of people who treated her badly just because she was poor and came from the village. 

"I'll make up for it in the next two weeks," said Ren. He touched his nose to Fae's and closed his eyes. "Thank you for thinking about protecting me more than yourself."

He then hugged Fae very tightly.

***

Ren and Fae left for Romania for a holiday, celebrating their first wedding anniversary. Ren kept his promise to spoil Fae and make up for all of her sacrifices in the past year. They stayed in Bucharest for three days and strolled through the beautiful city which still preserved the architecture from the medieval era.

After Bucharest, Ren took the Fae on a road trip across The Transfăgărășan in the south of the Carpathian which was considered the most thrilling highway in the world. The highway was shaped like many huge letter S and crossed hilly areas, which was very thrilling to pass.

It was Fae's first experience in a car with Ren driving them himself. Usually, he always had a driver to take them everywhere, but especially for their holiday this time, he had the driver and bodyguards follow them from behind.

"I want to spend some quality time, just the two of us," said Ren, while explaining his decision. 

"I really like this," said Fae happily. She was so happy that she got to spend so much time with her husband, 24 hours a day for those two weeks. She was so happy that she even hummed during the whole trip while Ren was driving.

They spent three days in Transylvania and walked around to admire the old city which was famous for the Dracula story. They also made time to visit Bran Castle, which was considered the inspiration for the castle in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

"Actually the Dracula character is not a human-vampire who bit human and drank their blood," Ren explained as they strolled hand in hand in the center of Transylvania's Old Town area. "The person known as Dracula in many legends is actually Prince Vlad Dracul. Dracul is his family name, which means 'Dragon'. He was sent to Turkey as a child with his younger brother as hostages to the Ottoman empire to make sure that his father would stay loyal to the Turkish. While being a hostage, Vlad was educated to become a puppet king when he grew up and succeeded his father. The Turks failed to influence him, though. After Vlad returned to Transylvania, he rebelled against the Turks and killed their envoy."

"Oh, so ... Dracula is actually a real person, huh?" asked Fae, interested. "I didn't know that."

"That's right. When the Turkey Emperor sent troops to arrest Vlad, he set a trap for them. The enemy soldiers who had been captured would be impaled by him. Impalement is a method of torture and execution. It is done by penetrating a human by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by the complete or partial perforation of the torso. Thousands of those impaled soldiers were exhibited along the road to his palace so that the enemy troops became horrified. People who were tortured by impalement would die slowly until days later. This strategy was so horrifying, and it was enough to make the enemy troops scared to death and dared not attack. Vlad became known as Vlad The Impaler. His cruelty is what made him famous today."

Fae swallowed hard. What a dark history Transylvania had, she thought. Even though the city looked very beautiful, behind it was a very terrible story.

"I understand why Vlad did it," commented Fae, shaking her head. "He only did what he knew to defend himself and his kingdom from enemy attacks. People say, 'all is fair in love and war'. Humans can justify any means in war and love."

"That's right. If Vlad was not cruel, his country would be colonized by The Ottoman again. Turkish soldiers were no less cruel to their enemy. In this world ... war is cruel," said Ren.

"I hate war so much," murmured Fae. She remembered that her father really hated war because it brought out the worst in humankind.

Wait ... hadn't there been a war in this world for a long time? Which war did my father hate? Fae was pensive.

.

.

>>>>>>

From the author:

It's always fascinating to read about people from the past. "Vlad the Impaler" story is what makes me want to visit Transylvania someday. I hope someday I could go. I have a certain fascination for Romania after reading Vlad's story and also because I have a friend from Romania and she kept posting pictures of her beautiful hometown, Targu Mures.

That's why this story (and the prequel) has some settings in Targu Mures. If you read the prequel, you will know that Targu Mures is Elios Linden's 'hometown' (he is Vega's father).. That's why Fae/Vega can speak Romanian fluently because she spent so much time there.