TBATE | Savior

Chapter 9: Home

ARTHUR LEYWIN POV:

It was a strange feeling being more nervous now, meeting my family, more than when I first appointed a king while in the midst of the most powerful people in the world.

"Whew~ let's do this Aeth, Sylvie."

"..Yeah." My brother responded with a word, most of the time, he'd just nod or would act as if he didn't even hear me, which I've gotten used to.

"Kyu" Sylvie responded, my excitement spreading to her.

The dull sound of metal clanging on metal rang surprisingly loudly.

Unexpectedly, I could hear the faint pitter-patter sounds followed by a childish voice. "Coming~!"

A maid opened the door together with a little girl. Immediately upon seeing us, she hid behind the maid.

The maid looks at me curiously, evidently surprised to see us eight-year-olds knocking on the door of a noble's estate.

"Ahem, nice to meet you. My name is Arthur Leywin," I cleared my troat as I looked towards Aeth, "And this is Aethel Leywin, my twin brother. We were informed that our family is currently residing in this manor. Do you mind if I speak to them?" I give a slight bow, Sylvie rocking on my head as Aeth quickly followed me.

Before the confused maid could even respond, I heard an all too familiar sound in the background.

"Eleanor Leywin! There you are! You have got to stop running to the front door every time someone…" My mother stopped mid sentence and dropped a small bowl of what looked to be food for… our sister.

I look down to see the girl with dazzling brown eyes, looking at me us innocent curiosity. Her light ash brown hair shimmered with a much prettier quality than Father's but I knew who she had gotten the color from. Her hair was tied into two pigtails on the side of her head above her ears.

I struggled to peel my eyes away from my little sister and turned to face my mother. My vision going blurry as tears filled my eyes, I said one thing I knew she was waiting to hear.

"H-hi Mom. We're home." I gestured a small, awkward wave, not knowing what to do if she couldn't recognize me.

AETHEL LEYWIN POV:

Our little family reunion continued on. My mother sobbing uncontrollably, embracing both me and Art, and my oblivious little sister crying with her, as my father and I just looked at each other with tears in our eyes, all of us glad that we were finally together.

Eventually, we had all managed to settle down.

We were sitting on a couch, my mother right beside Art with Eleanor on her lap, as I was seated to the other side, alongside me father.

"Are you two okay now? Did you at least eat three meals a day? Both of you slept while dressing warmly everyday right? Oh my babies. Look how big you are now." Tears escaped her eyes as she squinted and smiled.

She was stroking our hair as she planted both me and Art soft kisses on the crown of our heads. "Thank God you two are back. I'm so happy," she whispered, her voice still trembling.

Eleanor was looking curiously at both of us but it seems like Sylvie had captured her attention even more, probably because this is one of her first times seeing a mana beast.

My father was looking at Sylvie with a curious expression but he didn't mention her. Turning his gaze to us, his eyes softened and he kept shaking his head, repeating how big I was now. It must be a pretty fulfilling yet miserable feeling for a parent to see how big his son had gotten but not being there with him the whole time to witness it.