Kyle walked back to where the team was standing, his face and eyes were back with his normal all cold and serious look.

“Did you get the box?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah we did, but where were you and why did it take you so long?” Maria said.

“I did not know how long it would take for you guys to get it, so I stalled her for as long as I could,” Kyle replied.

“Bro, we have been waiting here for more than an hour by now, seriously what did you do to her?” Liam said.

“Nothing special, it was super awkward, I swear. Luckily, I managed to keep her busy long enough, you don’t know how many times she wanted to leave.” Kyle said.

“Ok whatever, let's get out of here before someone might find out that something just went missing” Luna said.

They all headed out, but before that, Kyle did look back at Alena for one last time, and Alena did manage to see him too, they both shared one last look at each other and one last smile.

“So it was super awkward huh?” Liam said, he caught that look on Kyle's face.

“We will never speak of that again” Kyle said. “I don't know how we could stop not talking about what I just saw, Kyle,” Liam replied.

The next morning, the team went to the destination where the woman told them to meet her. And when they got there, the woman was already there waiting for them. But she looked different, yes she didn’t look too healthy before, but now she really looked ill, she was even skinnier than when they first met and her skin tone was much paler now.

“Here is the jewel box, just like you wanted,” Liam said.

The elder woman opened the box right in front of them and inside there were two notebooks. Liam reached in and opened one of them.

“This is a diary of Alena, from when she was 7 years old,” Liam said. “Why do you want to have these notebooks ?”

“This meant more to me than you can imagine,” the woman said.

“Are you Alena’s birth mother ?” Maria asked. Everyone looked stunned at what Maria just said. “I noticed the eyes color of Alena and your eyes are the same, purple, while her parents eyes were blue and red, they can’t possibly have a daughter that have purple eyes''

“Yes that is right” the woman said with tears in her eyes as she read through the pages of Alena’s diaries.

“So that's why she said she always felt lonely and didn't belong,” Kyle said out loud, though it was still relatively whispered, it still caught the ears of both Luna and Allan who were standing next to him.

“I was very poor then and I am still now, my husband died when I was still carrying her. In order to give her a better life, I decided to give her away to the Turner family. Back then, the Turner was not as rich as they are now, they were just middle class, but they were kind so I decided so. And ever since Alena was adopted by them, their luck and fortune skyrocketed, she was considered as their goodluck charm, they loved her and considered her as their own.” The woman said.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“So why now? Why did you want her diaries now?” Liam asked.

“I don’t have that long to live now, maybe a week or two at best” the woman answered “I have missed so many memories with her, her first words, her first step, her first crush maybe, at least this way I could share some of those memories with her.” . Their heart skipped a beat at that moment, tears starting to sneak up on them.

Tears dropped down the woman's skinny face as she read through the pages of her own daughter's handwriting. “I am sorry I lied to you, I have no money to give and even if I do, I don’t know how I could reward you more than what this notebooks value to me” she said.

“Don’t worry, it is just 2 notebooks we couldn’t charge you for only that” Kyle said. “And one more thing, I have talked to your daughter and all I could say to you is that you don't have to worry, the Turner family really raised her well, she has become a beautiful and smart woman now and she is living a happy life.”

“Hidden quest completed” that is what the party saw in their eyes, “REP +1 to all, STH +1 for Luna and Allan, CHR + 2 for Kyle”.

“Thank you young man, I could never repay you for what you did for me and for what you have said.” The woman said “ Let me give you a piece of advice in return, if you ever find someone you truly love, try your best never to let go, because it will hurt you for the rest of your life.”

“And don’t you feel sorry for this old lady, I have lived long enough and maybe if I am lucky, I could still see the wedding of the decade before I die.” the woman said with a smile.

“What is that?” Kyle asked. “The wedding between the eldest son of the head family of the Lion guide, Alexander Leon and the eldest daughter of the Blackburn guide Miss Rose Blackburn. Those are the two of the biggest guides in this city, their wedding would mean a merging and a creation of the biggest guide of the city so their wedding must be very nice to see” the woman said.

“What Rose is getting married?” Allan spoke. And then both Allan and Luna recalled what they just heard yesterday, the Red Wedding.

“Oh no, I think Rose is gonna get killed in her own wedding.” Luna said.

“What did you just say?” Maria, Liam and Kyle reponsed.

Getting back to their renting place, Allan and Luna explained to the other what they heard from yesterday. Two people, obviously one from the Lion guide while the other worked for the city’s government, talked about their plan of murdering someone, who they now knew was Rose.

“We can’t let this happen” Allan stood up and told everyone.

“Ok, hold your horse cowboy, we can’t just jump straight to conclusion here” Kyle replied, he signalled Allan to sit back down.

“What is there to talk about, Rose is clearly in danger, we need to do something about it” Allan aggressively said.

“And we need to know if we could actually help her at all or are we just heading to our death for nothing.” Kyle said.

“So you mean you want us to do nothing and let her die? Is that it” Allan asked.

“Yes, that is exactly what I want us to do, we should not intervene with this war, we can not defeat the whole Lion guide and the city government all by ourselves and not to mention no one would believe us even if we told them so. Have you already forgotten that in order to get the invitation letter for the last mission we had to blackmail the Blackburn family?” Kyle said.

Allan stood up again and shouted at Kyle:” How could you know that we will fail, we haven’t even tried, how could you say that?”.

Kyle stood up and stared straight at Allan “I know so and I say so, and that is final. Sorry Romeo, but I am not gonna risk the team's well being for the life of a random girl that we have just met.” Anger could be felt in every single word that came out of Kyle's mouth.

“Why can’t we at least do some recon, gather some info first then decide on what to do ?” Allan said.

"Oh yeah? And then who is gonna do all the heavy lifting, coming up with all the plans, you?. Without my help you can't do shit. So just sit down…" Kyle was speaking.

"Enough !" Liam spoke up. " Allan, Luna, Maria could you step outside for a while? I need a few moments with Kyle".

Maria and Luna took Allan with them and headed out of the room.

"Again, what the hell was that all about?" Liam was furious at Kyle.

“The final decision, that's what” Kyle said. “There is no way we’re going to risk our life just for a girl we just met”.