Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Hello and Goodbye (Part 1)

Vale and Xavier, looking at Anne, and the tense atmosphere is coming back. Both of them weren’t even tried to answer Anne’s question. Instead, they handed Anne a glass of Aggrus, a fermented grape kind fruit, a delicacy drink in this world.

“Oh, so, we are going to play it like that, huh?! Alright, I’ll play along, for now.” Anne said it with a bit of a warning to Xavier and Vale.

“Look, Anne, it wasn’t like that.” Answered Xavier, his eyes shifted to Vale, “Hey, say something, will you!”

Vale let out a sigh and tried to reason with Anne, “We were hunting, already told your parents and I believe you were present at the time?”

“Yes, that’s the reason that you gave to us.”

“Then, what else do you need to hear from the four of us?” He drank his Aggrus, and put the empty glass on the table, “Look, we are telling you the truth, and please for the love of God, stop.”

Anne could see there was something different on them, they were nervous. She couldn’t figure out, what exactly make the two of them so nervous over a simple question. She took a deep breath and tried to smile.

.....

“I’m sorry, I may pry into something that wasn’t my problem, my sincere apology to both of you.”

Vale and Xavier stared at Anne in disbelief. Her manner is something that you rarely see in a teenager, especially in a low-born.

“It’s alright, Anne, of course, you have the right to ask us all of those questions, we are strangers in your village after all.” Xavier took Anne’s hand and gleefully smiled at her.

The smile that Xavier gave to Anne, warm her heart immediately, and she reciprocate the kind gesture. Vale tried to lighten up the mood by asking many questions about the area’s local customs. She was happy to answer every question, it will take her mind from her the excessive curiosity that she had.

“Oh, we also have a festival in four days from now, the Viora village festival.”

“Awesome, oh I do hope Henry will be sick for more than a week.” Said Xavier, playfully.

Vale and Anne then laughed at him.

Vale bitterly smiled at Anne, “Sadly we were going away in three days from now.”

“Oh, so soon? Henry’s wound is a bit severe, I don’t think it will be ideal for him to ride a horse.” Anne asked Vale, a bit disappointed.

“Justice was already messaging Henry’s household, the carriage will be here in three days.”

“Oh, I see, yes, if it’s inside a carriage, Henry will be able to rest.”

Awkwardly, Anne gulping the aggrus a little bit too much, the two men shouted to warn her, she felt a burn on her throat. Coughed and searched for water, her eyes tearing up, and the burned sensation couldn’t disappear in an instant. Vale goes to her side, his left hand tried to ease her body, while his right hand gave her a glass of water. Anne drink the water in a hurry.

“For the love of God, are you okay?” Asked Vale.

“Yes, I’m alright, actually this is the first time I drink aggrus.” Answered Anne, with an embarrassing laugh coming from her mouth.

Xavier tilted his head, “Why? Aggrus is available everywhere?”

Anne turns at Xavier and smiles at him, “Well, I never knew that wine is not considered a forbidden drink for a teenager, in this world.”

Vale’s eyes go to Anne, immediately, “In this world?”

“Oh... I mean, err... well, I have amnesia when I was a ten-year-old, always thought everything in this world as a new world, for me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that, Anne, it must be devastated for your parents.” Xavier, with her golden puppy eyes, looks into Anne, feeling pity for her.

She hides the fact about Martha and Ed as her adopted parents, and just thankfully smiled at Xavier. She can sense how Vale’s instinct already felt that was something odd about her. for Anne, hiding the truth about her arrival into this world, is better for her. But then, in the back of her mind, she felt a force, a powerful force that grabs her into this world.

The reason for her to be in this new world, Anne needs to figure out, what’s the purpose of her presence, and maybe, an anomaly caused by her presence in this world. For her, anything happened for a reason.

Before she go home with Clarice, Vale hold her hand and asked her to have a private conversation, they settled on one of the chairs, below the lush tree on the grassland. Admiring the beautiful noon sun, with a wispy long golden grass, Vale begins to talk.

“Look, I owe you an apology.”

Anne tilted her head, looking confused at Vale, “Why do you owe me an apology?”

“Last night... I... I said something inappropriate to a young girl, I was ashamed, that’s why I somehow... well, you know...”

“Avoiding me? Yes, I’ve noticed.”

Vale’s rubbing the back of his neck, embarrassed by his action. Anne knew, perfectly well, about the words that he blatantly said to her. She agreed, that the words, were inappropriate for a teenage girl, at least in her old world it was. Anne never knew how old Vale was, but he is definitely older than her in this world.

“I really am sorry, Anne. Maybe you don’t know the meaning of the words. Hell, you even already forget about it, but I do feel the need to apologize, no matter what.”

Anne chuckles at how valiant Vale sound right now, just like a knight, she took his hand and shakes it several times, “Apology accepted!”

They awkwardly stare at each other and burst into laughter. Finally, they could have a comfortable conversation together. On the way back to the clinic, Anne saw Vale and Xavier, riding close to their carriage. They guarded the carriage all the way back to the clinic. They arrived at the clinic exactly after lunchtime.

Vale and Xavier excused themselves. They wanted to take some rest and said her thanks, and in a hurry to put on her medical apron, she told Martha and Ed to take some rest. There was no emergency patient, for now, so the only thing that she need to do is to take a look at the overnight patients, including Henry, who seems preoccupied with a book in his hand.

He takes a peaked from the side of the book, and smiles at Anne, “Hello miss healer, where are you? I was looking for you this whole morning?”

“Hello, it seems you feel better, that was fast, seems like magic,” Anne said to Henry while checking on his condition.

It was true, she was impressed to see how healthy Henry is, yesterday he was in a critical condition. Although their medicine helps tremendously, for this rapid and fast pace healing, the only answer was magic. They have a similar case, a few years ago, a magic knight was brought after he fought with a Hobboar, the same critical condition, and after three days, the magic knight was ready to go home, and took a rest at his own home.

Henry put his book in the patient’s drawer beside him, he then pokes at Anne’s arm, “Hey, what are you doing, daydreaming in front of the patient?”

“Oh, my apology, do you need anything else?”

“Yes, I need you.” Said Henry, smiling at her.

Anne rolled her eyes, “Oh please, all of you already teased me so much, I will not be fooled by it, anymore.”

Henry got a chuckle after hearing her complain, “Guess, you’re already getting used to it, make me sad though.”

“See, ugh, the four of you are incorrigible.” Gruntled Anne, before she excused herself to Henry.

But then a hand grabbed Anne’s arm, it was Henry, this time, there was no smile on his face, “Actually, I do need to talk to you.”

“What’s the matter?” Asked Anne, full of concern.

What happened to Henry?