The Power of a White Lotus!

Chapter 22 - Misunderstanding Resolved

The next morning, Elias greeted Flynn with dark circles under his eyes. Even when he dug into his first decent meal since his arrival, his absentmindedness almost caused him to stuff an omelet up his nose.

At this point, Flynn had given up on reminding Alois to stay in character, luckily not very many people know him very well to begin with. What's more is that... part of the reason why Alois stayed awake all night was due to something that Flynn said the night before.

"One of the reasons why you visited the manor was to break off the engagement with Elias? How will you deal with the future events then? What do you mean by just stay as friends? Do you not understand that no matter how good of a friend the two of you came to be, it won't affect your future engagement? The reason why Elias chose this solution is because this is the best way to protect you, which do you think is more reliable? A single son of the Wisteria Family or the entire family including the duke himself? Listen, don't break up the engagement for now, just think of it as temporary measure...."

Alois could not retaliate at all. After all, it's true that the additional identity of a future family member of a duke is more effective than being a friend of the duke's son.

But still, his conscience! Can anyone understand? He who had never been in a relationship nor even held a girl's hand is now engaged to a boy who would be in elementary school back in their original world!

And he needs to act like the original Alois who hides and tears up every now and then in front of that boy! (no offense of course)

Where can he find so much tears! Can the god of acting please endow upon him the gift of acting and extra tear ducts? He won't ask for too much, just around half of his senior's......

And so the boy thought throughout the night...

As Alois recalled his wish, a servant walked in and approached the duke sitting at the front of dining table, bringing along with him the message that Luke and Elias had arrived early and are approaching the front door.

It's quite apparent that the servant's steps are much slower than that of those two brothers because the second his sentence ended, two figures appeared at the entrance of the dining room.

'Already!?' Alois, who did not prepare at all, thought.

On the other hand, Flynn, who sat besides his little sister and before Alois lowered his head and put down his utensils. When the two brothers approached, he looked upon them with a gaze filled with 40% anxiousness, 30% anticipation, 25% happiness and 5% excitement. 

After Luke and Elias greeted their father, and patted their little sister on her head, they turned towards the boy who had his eyes on them this entire time.

"Flynn-" They both started. But when the two brothers realized that they messed up the timing, they looked at each other and signaled the other to speak first. Luke lost the silent fight so he spoke first.

"Ahem, Flynn, so... are you feeling alright?" Luke said as he scratched his head awkwardly.

"As you can see, I have practically healed, Brother Luke, thank you for your concern." Flynn replied politely.

"I see...Well, we also brought back some healing herbs for you, so take it for just in case."

Flynn looked at the small pouch Luke handed over and held it carefully as though it is a priceless treasure. The ends of his eyes reddened slightly, portraying the flawless image of a younger sibling who received the care and consideration which he longed for.

"Thank you, Brother Luke, I will treasure this herb."

"What do you mean by treasure? You need to take this as soon as possible!"

"You- you're right." Flynn blushed in embarrassment,  yet a small smile formed on his lips as he relished this moment.

"Ahem." Elias who was standing behind them finally made a sound.

This sound startled Flynn and snapped him out of his trance.

"Brother Elias?"

The dark haired older boy did not say a word. Instead, he reached out a hand and gently rubbed the top of Flynn's fluffy hair.

Flynn appeared to enjoy this action very much, as he even raised his hands to touch where Elias patted him and laughed.

"Brother Elias! Me too!" Adianne pipped in, wanting to join in the fun.

Meanwhile, Alois took the time to move his seat farther from those siblings to avoid that bubbly pink atmosphere.

Unfortunately for him, his movement only brought him to the eldest sibling's attention.

"Good morning." Elias greeted politely. "How have you been?"

"Ah- yes, good morning, and it's been fine, thank you." Alois also greeted with a slight nod.

'Phew, luckily this eldest son does not talk much, or else I might have given myself away if he asked more questions..."

At this time, Luke brought up the contents of the letter he had received from the duke.

"So Flynn, I heard that you have regained control over your mana? That's splendid news!"

"Watch your words. While the fact itself is an occasion to celebrate, it was only resolved from the danger he was put under." The Duke spoke sternly.

"Right...sorry."

"It's fine, brother, in fact, It felt as though everything I went through was a blessing in disguise. No one was hurt very much, and..." Flynn's words started to get choked up.

"I finally do not have to worry about hurting anyone again...I'm sorry... for all the trouble I brought, I'm sorry... so please don't avoid me again..."

And tears started to fall agin...

Alois would like to state that even he who knew that his senior is acting can't help but be deceived...

But in truth, Bai Lian is only expressing all the thoughts Flynn had wanted to say but never mustered the courage to. After spending less than a day with this family, he can tell that this family cared for Flynn more than the boy had anticipated. No, Flynn knew how much his family loved him... at the point of his death that is, which was one of the reasons why his regret was so intense.

And as expected, Luke consoled him:

"It's not your fault. It's true that I was frightened after the incident, but I never blamed you, and did not want you to blame yourself either. I only stayed away because I wanted to gain enough abilities to protect myself so you'll no longer have to worry about hurting us. Isn't that right, Elias?"

Elias nodded. Then figured that he should at least speak a little to sound convincing:

"In fact, that was the reason why me and Luke became adventurers shortly after the incident."

"And that's also why Adianne started focusing her efforts on learning healing magic." The duke said.

"Daddy!" Adianne shouted, her face blushing red.

Flynn's watery eyes gleamed with happiness. He hurriedly wiped away his tears and smiled widely.

"Father, sister, brother Elias, and Brother Luke."

"I love you all."

These were perhaps the words that the original Flynn had wanted to convey the most...