Chapter 10: Terrified Seraphine
Usually, Aurora would be inside the house wearing either shorts or trousers and a t-shirt or a sports jacket, different from how she dressed for work.
In truth, whenever she dressed up like this, he found her very hot and commanding. She was beautiful from the start, and with her cold look, it suited her perfectly.
Seeing her, he couldn't help but have a small smile on his face.
"I am back, big sis. I am sorry for worrying you all."
Aurora felt relieved to see Kael come back. All her worry washed away right after seeing his face once again. She would have never been able to forgive herself if something had happened. She had only one little brother, and if she couldn't even protect him, she would have considered herself a failure as his sister.
She had reached back home just half an hour ago when she had received a call from mother that Kael had sent a message—he was safe and would be coming back home as soon as he could. She came back home and stopped the search operation for him.
But she was curious to know where he had been. Her whole guild wasn't able to find him even when they had searched the whole city. It was considered a failure to her that her guild wasn't able to find him.
"Come inside first. Then we can talk more, Kael."
"Big sis is upset with you, and with myself for letting this happen."
She even noticed how Kael seemed to have awakened too, which made her quite happy inside. She would like to hear about this too.
Kael couldn't keep his face up and couldn't meet her eyes, knowing how much trouble he had caused.
Her icy cold eyes now turned to the green-haired woman beside him, who was shaking nervously. If looks could kill, Seraphine would have died then and there.
Right now, Seraphine only saw a piercing icy gaze locked into her eyes with intensity and a different level of coldness from before. If the previous level was 1, this would break the scale of 10.
Aurora knew the young lady in front of her at first glance, but she liked to hear it from her.
"Who might you be?"
Seraphine's legs shook. She felt she could fall at any moment. At first, she only felt she had seen her somewhere, but after a few seconds of watching her, she remembered where she had seen this light blue-haired majestic woman with eyes cold as a snowstorm.
'My luck. The guild leader of the new mysterious guild that emerged, attracting quite a lot of attention due to being backed by one of the Thirteen Sovereign, and climbing the ranking ladder and reaching the top 10 in only a few years.'
'I had seen her face in newspapers and news a couple of times, because of how hot of a topic it had been for quite some time. The hype had died down a bit now, as they had secured the top 10 for quite some time. Ranking battles weren't happening because of their solid position.'
The very same guild's Legendary Leader was standing in front of her. The pressure from her body was enough to tell she could kill her any second. Seraphine was terrified.
'I can't remember the name of the guild because of my lack of interest in these things, but she is terrifying.'
"Are you not going to answer me?" Her voice was much chillier than before. The only reason Aurora was using words was because she came along with Kael. If he wasn't here right now, she would have made her talk whether she liked it or not.
'Shit! I lost myself in thought.'
"I-I am S-Seraphine Lys C-Calen, a s-student of The Sovereign's Academy, s-second year, c-currently just entered B rank as a h-hunter." Seraphine hated using her surname, but this wasn't a situation where she had a choice. She felt if she didn't tell the truth, the woman in front of her was going to assassinate her once she got out of here.
Her imagination was a bit wild, but it wasn't far from the truth. If Aurora heard her trying to hide her identity, she would have kidnapped her and tortured her a bit to find out why she was close to her brother while hiding her identity.
But hearing everything which matched with her information, Aurora felt she was wise enough to understand her situation.
Kael looked at Seraphine, who was stuttering a bit for some reason, and didn't know if she was nervous or sick.
He looked at her and asked her in worry, "Sera, you are stuttering, and your body is also shaking. Are you sick? If you are nervous, don't be. Don't judge big sis Aurora on her appearance. No matter how cold she appears, she is nice and kind inside."
Aurora, hearing Kael's words, couldn't help but feel warm inside. It had been a long time since she had heard him say something about her. She had thought her inability to show emotions had caused him to be scared of her, but it didn't seem that way.
This revelation was big enough for her to ignore the fact he had called her Sera by a nickname, but only for a few seconds.
'Sera, huh. If I find you have taken advantage of innocent Kael, you are dead no matter who you are.'
Seraphine couldn't help but show a nervous smile on her face, despite being terrified inside, because the glint she had seen in the Guild Leader's eyes just now made her realize she was in more mortal danger than she thought.
'She doesn't like Kael calling me Sera. I do like how he was calling me by nickname, but the timing couldn't be any worse. Can't he see she hates her?'
Aurora now made way for Kael and mentioned Seraphine.
"Come inside, Kael, and you too, Sera. You can't just walk away when you've come this far."
Seraphine's breath hitched hearing her words. She was going to answer her by saying she had to go back to academy for some work—a lie—but before she could say anything, Kael's voice sounded in both their ears.
"You don't have to ask her, big sis. She insisted she wanted to meet Aunt Sel, and I accepted her request, so she will come too."
'Just execute me already.'
She wasn't foolish enough not to connect the dots to realize who Aunt Sel might be.
'She was one of the Thirteen Sovereign. The feeling of being watched as prey was still there. Even my mother won't be able to save me now.'
She felt like crying while hitting the floor with both hands in frustration.
'Why did I have to be such a flirt and try to meet his family on the first day, especially on such a bad occasion?'
"Oh! She requested to meet mother, so she should come." Her voice was laced with icy chill and a bit of madness hidden within, as she knew now Sera was after her innocent little brother.
This past 12 hours, the atmosphere inside the house had been so dry. Even when they had breakfast together with mother, the atmosphere was so somber, as if the house had lost all its light. Without Kael, the house felt so empty.
She had to take much better care of her little brother from now on.
Kael entered the house. Aurora grabbed Seraphine's hand with questionable force and dragged her inside, shutting the door.