Chương 85: Chapter 84: Nate

Nearly three years ago, my sister was fortunate enough to get a job as a commoner working at the Temple. It was a huge opportunity that would bring our livelihood to another level. However, she fell seriously ill. Her illness continued for a week, and it showed no signs of letting up. The day she was supposed to appear at the Temple for her first day of work was approaching. Nate had been using that time to prepare himself.

He knew that working at the Temple was a huge opportunity, but it could also end badly with one wrong move. Jeanette not appearing on her first day of work could be the thing that triggered one of those possibilities, making their lives even harder. The day before, Nate had to make the biggest decision of his life. He overheard some people talking as he walked through the marketplace, hiding in the narrow alleyways so he would not be seen. He listened closely.

They seemed to be a group of loan sharks who had come into town, and they were looking for a pair of siblings. After hearing those words, Nate could not stay still, and he ran. As he did, he dropped an item he had bought. The noise startled the people who had been chatting, but it also caught the attention of a few men who had been questioning the butcher about whether he had seen the two individuals. The person who saw Nate run let out a sinister laugh.

"I found you." Nate made it home, walked through the door, and collapsed onto the ground while catching his breath. As he did so, he realized that this was not the time for that. He needed to inform Jeanette of the situation so they could leave. But first, he should prepare a few light bags for them to take with them. As he was preparing the bags, he heard a door creak open. Thinking it was the debt collectors, he quickly hid in a makeshift hiding spot he had created for situations like this.

But instead of the heavy footsteps he expected, he heard gentle footsteps approaching before the hiding spot was opened.

"Brother, what are you doing?" Nate looked up and saw that it was his sister. He quickly hugged her.

"Sis," he said, his voice trembling.

"We need to leave. Dad's debt collectors found out where we are."

"So this is the time period I came back to," she murmured under her breath.

"What?" Nate questioned. But before he could ask further, he remembered that this was not the time.

"Are you okay? Can you move? If you can, we need to go. I already packed your bag. We can just get a couple more things. I don't really need that much, and we'll leave." After packing a bunch of food into his backpack, he zipped it up and put it on. Grabbing her hand, he looked at her and saw that she was still wearing a nightgown. He decided to carry her before bolting toward the back door. Everything happened so quickly that Jeanette, who had been thinking about something, could not even get a word out.

Just as Nate kicked the back door open, he was met with a familiar face: the sub-gang leader. He stepped back, clutching his sister close.

"What are you doing here?" he stated.

"You know damn well we broke ties with that man."

"Well, well," the sub-gang leader stated.

"Aren't you going to invite us in for some tea? It's quite rude to leave a guest standing at the door while talking."

"We have nothing to talk about," Nate stated, gritting his teeth.

"And you know damn well the deal we had was already finished."

"I'm not so sure," the sub-gang leader said. One of her members threw a head onto the ground, where it rolled to a stop. Nate jumped back, shielding his sister to the best of his ability. He was fully prepared for it to be a bomb. But after some time passed, he quietly opened his eyes, realizing that nothing had happened yet, but he was too tense to move. During this time, Jeanette had finished getting her bearings. She quietly tapped Nate, asking him to let her down. He did so almost on reflex.

It was not until his sister was fully on the ground and had stepped away from him, going face-to-face with the sub-gang leader, that Nate realized what he had done. He quickly wanted to grab his sister and put her back in his arms. Just as he was about to do that, he saw his sister's eyes turn red. Her hands stretched out. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Through what Nate thought was an earthquake, he could not understand what was happening or why his sister's eye color had changed from blue to red. But this building could not withstand a quake of this magnitude. Seeing something falling toward her head, he smacked it away. Just as everything returned to normal and there was no immediate danger to his sister, he prepared to carry her once again.

But when he turned back to pick her up and keep her away from the debt collectors, he saw nothing but pools of blood with clothes lying on top of them. He was momentarily confused, but there was no time for that. He checked his sister to ensure that she had not been injured during the tremor. After ensuring that her arms and legs were fine, he turned toward her face to check whether what he had seen was real. Seeing that her eyes were blue, he felt that he had probably imagined it the first time.

After that, he searched the ground to check what the sub-leader had thrown before leaving. Searching around, he found it. It was the head of their father. Nate covered his mouth in horror before staggering back. Jeanette, who seemed to know his next move, quietly supported him while repeatedly patting him on the back. After he had settled down, she grabbed a black bag, zipped the head inside, and tossed it into the garbage.

After calming down a bit, Nate looked at his sister before heading into the room and getting her something cozy to change into. He then began preparing even more. There was no time or luxury for this. Those people were gone. He did not know when they would come again. He also did not understand why they would leave their clothes behind, but assuming it was some type of teleportation ability, they did not have time to worry about that. Their location had been spotted, and they needed to go.

Just as he was packing, he remembered that his sister was better now. If they left now, they would not only make an enemy of the Temple, but they would also have a bigger problem if the debt collectors ended up working together. He needed to ask his sister because this was her life, and she should get to decide.... It had been a month since they decided to run. When he had talked to his sister about her possibly going to the Temple, he even suggested that he should go in her stead if she was not well enough yet.

He was trying to do so in good faith because she had been under the weather for a week and would need time to recover. But after he finished speaking, it felt as though a monster had been staring down at him. When he looked into his sister's eyes to hear her answer, however, that feeling disappeared. In the end, she convinced him that it was better to go away and that she had a way to protect them. During the month, his sister had been doing a lot of interesting things.

The first time they had stepped outside completely, she had looked at the world with longing, almost as if she had not been outside in a long time. It did make sense. She had been sick for a week. She was still weak, but for some reason, Nate could not put his finger on it. He felt that she looked much rosier than when he had first seen her. There were times when they ran into more of the debt collectors, and their lives were threatened on multiple occasions.

But every time, after a brief tremor, he would see that the people had vanished, leaving their clothes behind once again. At least this time, they did not leave behind a puddle of blood or whatever else had been left before. To be honest, the first time he had seen it, and when he had noticed his sister's red eyes, Nate had a sinking suspicion that his sister had probably killed the people. But he could not believe that his sister would do such a thing. She was way too innocent and too weak.

And if she had possessed this power all along, their father would not have fallen into such a state. So it could not be the case. After he experienced several of those tremors and watched those people disappear without leaving any blood behind, Nate knew that he was most likely misunderstanding things.... Three months since they started running, the strange feeling Nate had been getting from Jeanette had grown deeper. He was unsure if it was because of seeing their father's head that she felt the need to mature.

He clenched his fist. He just wished she could be the sweet, doted-on, spoiled Jeanette again. His eyebrows lowered slightly. At some point during the journey, Jeanette took the lead and stated that they would be going somewhere. Understanding that his sister most likely had a plan, he followed her. He did not know that she would lead them straight into a pub. While he was mesmerized by the place and looking around, his sister went to the counter. After saying a few words, they were escorted by a few people.

But just as they were about to go through the door, Nate was left outside while his sister went inside. Before his sister stepped through the door, she turned and said something to the guards. As Nate looked over the fantastic carvings of the place, he felt a chill on his back. This feeling was similar to when the monster had been looking down on him. Except now, it was weaker. It was as though that monster was not paying attention to him, but to someone else. Nate quickly turned his head, searching for something.

But all he saw was his cute younger sister looking at him with a smile and waving her hand. He subconsciously waved back, smiling. After she left, he noticed one of the guards bringing him some milk and food to eat. Nate frowned, but he grabbed it. The other guard quickly brought over a chair and a table for him to eat at. Nate finished his food and realized that these people were really kind. His sister really knew how to find people who were so nice.

He did not understand how, but he figured his sister was probably doing it for them. After he finished eating, it took some time before his sister came out. After she came out, she told him to go with her, and they quietly left. After they left, Nate was curious and asked her where they would go. Jeanette stated, "Oh, nothing much. Just the second meeting place."

"Why?"

"Oh, because this place is no longer going to exist."

"Oh, I see." At some point while traveling with his sister, Nate understood intuitively that she was quite special. He could not put his finger on it, but he had a feeling that she had some type of magical ability. Maybe an ability to see the future. He shook his head. There was no way. But as he was thinking that while they were in a wagon carrying hay, the other people in it began chatting about how the pub had caught on fire. Luckily, no one was hurt, but it had burned down completely.

As he listened absentmindedly, he was not sure whether that was the pub he and his sister had visited. It was not until they made it to the second location and he saw the same individuals again, this time paying respects to his sister, that he put two and two together. His sister had to have some type of future-seeing ability. And if that was the case, then that monster was something else. Yeah. The monster had to be something else.

After convincing himself of that, Nate's heart, which had always been hanging on, finally let go and relaxed completely. If his sister could see the future, then he would help her every step of the way. If this was what she wanted to do, and this was what she had seen, then it was the only thing he could do.