Chapter 78: Mother And Daughter

Evan walked out of the guard office with Lia, with Elena following beside them.

"When are you going to contact your family?" Evan asked as they walked away from the guard office.

"I am tired from all the earlier ruckus and traveling all day..." Elena said with a sigh. "I really don’t have the energy to explain everything to them about why I ran away and all those things. I will contact them tomorrow after a good night’s rest."

"I see." Evan nodded and asked, "So, where are you planning to go now?"

Before Elena could answer, Lia spoke.

"Of course, she will come with us. After all, now she is part of my organization."

Elena’s mouth twitched slightly at Lia’s words.

But Lia didn’t give her a chance to refuse.

"This is an order from your vice leader, and you can’t refuse it."

Elena sighed after hearing this and nodded.

"All right. I was planning to stay at an inn, but since the vice leader wants me to come to her home, I can’t refuse, right?"

Lia nodded in satisfaction upon hearing this and started leading the way toward her home.

As they walked, she pointed toward some shops from time to time, telling Evan and Elena which shops had the best candy.

After what happened earlier, the fear in her heart about being sold had reduced considerably, and she was lively once again.

Evan was also looking around curiously because it was his first time visiting another city as he had spent most of his childhood training and had only visited Rivo City a few times.

Soon, they left the market district of Sky Pearl City, where most of the shops and stalls were located, and entered the residential district where most of the city’s people lived.

Lia started walking faster and faster after entering the residential district, and Evan and Elena followed closely behind her.

Soon, Lia stopped in front of a lovely-looking, medium-sized house.

Just like the shops in the market area, the houses in the residential district also had a medieval style.

Lia stood in front of the house, her eyes becoming teary.

"I am finally back..." She muttered in a faint voice, wiping her eyes, which had already started to become moist.

Evan and Elena didn’t say anything and simply watched her from behind.

Lia hurried toward the door of the house, and unknowingly, tears had already started flowing down her cheeks.

She stopped in front of the door and raised her trembling hand, knocking lightly on it.

Knock! Knock!

A nervous look appeared on her face as she waited.

"Coming."

After some time, they heard a woman’s voice from inside.

The voice sounded a bit listless and tired, but when Lia heard it, her body couldn’t help but shudder.

This was the voice she had wanted to hear ever since the moment she was captured by those slave traders.

Every night when she slept, she imagined that when she woke up, she would be able to hear her mother’s voice again and escape from those slave traders.

But whenever she opened her eyes, she only saw those slave traders beating and torturing her and the other children.

No matter what they did, they couldn’t escape from them.

The hope in her heart of ever hearing her mother’s voice slowly began to fade.

But everything changed after she was rescued from those people.

The hope of returning home and seeing her family, which had already become blurred, once again became clear.

And now, after such a long time, she was finally hearing her mother’s voice again.

Her eyes became red, and the tears she had stopped with so much effort once again began to flow as she stared at the door in front of her.

Soon, she heard the sound of footsteps coming from inside.

To Lia, each footstep felt as if it were resonating with her heartbeat.

Click!

Finally, a clicking sound echoed, and the door opened.

Lia looked through her teary eyes and saw a woman in her late twenties standing at the door.

The woman was wearing a simple green dress, and her long black hair was tied into a ponytail. However, there were faint dark circles under her eyes that stood out against her otherwise beautiful face.

As the door opened and Marie saw who was standing outside, she immediately froze.

"M-Mom..." Lia called out in a trembling voice.

She tried to stop her tears, but they continued to flow down her face.

When Marie saw her daughter standing in front of her, for a moment, she thought it was a dream and that she was hallucinating because of her lack of sleep.

It had been more than a month since her daughter had disappeared, and even the guards hadn’t found anything about her.

Even her husband had gradually lost hope of finding their daughter.

So, when Marie suddenly saw a girl who looked exactly like her daughter standing outside while crying, her mind simply stopped working, and she remained frozen at the entrance.

"M-Mom..." But when Marie heard that trembling voice again, she finally realized she wasn’t dreaming.

Her daughter was really standing in front of her.

Her body moved faster than her thoughts, and before she even realized what she was doing, she had already rushed forward and hugged Lia tightly.

Her eyes also became red as she sobbed.

"This isn’t a dream, right? You really came back safely, right?"

Lia didn’t answer as the moment her mother hugged her, she finally broke down and started crying loudly.

Hearing Lia’s crying voice, Marie finally confirmed that it wasn’t a hallucination and hugged her even more tightly, as if she were afraid Lia would disappear again.

But as Lia’s crying gradually became louder, Marie loosened her grip slightly and patted her back, speaking in a choked voice.

"It’s fine now. Mom is here. I won’t let anything happen to you again."

Lia didn’t say anything and cried for a long time before eventually falling asleep in her mother’s arms.

Marie looked at her daughter’s tear-streaked face with pained eyes.

Seeing her crying like this, she couldn’t even imagine how much pain she must have endured during the time she had been missing.

She silently looked at Lia, who had already fallen asleep while crying.

"Those damn slave traders... I will wipe out every single one of them once I become powerful," Elena muttered in a low voice as she looked at the crying Lia.

Evan remained silent, but his disgust toward slave traders increased even more after seeing this scene.

Just then, Marie finally noticed that someone else was standing at the door.

She had been so focused on Lia that she hadn’t even realized there were two more people standing outside.

"You are..." She wiped her tears and stood up while carrying Lia in her arms.

"Hello, Auntie. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Lia talked a lot about you on the way."

When Marie heard his words, she immediately understood.

"Are you the one who helped her?"

Evan nodded, and before he could say anything, Marie bowed to him and spoke in a choked voice.

"Thank you... Thank you so much for bringing her back."

Evan immediately stopped her from falling to her knees and shook his head.

"You don’t need to thank me..." He said. "My grandparents already considered her their granddaughter, so in a sense, she is like a sister to me."

Marie didn’t quite understand what Evan meant by saying that, but she still nodded and invited them inside.

"Please, come inside."