World After Worlds
Chapter 378: § THAT IS WHY §

Chapter 378: § THAT IS WHY §

Chapter 125

Unexpectedly, that day was not any usual day in the town. The meadow that was filled with laughter, butterflies, and sunshine suddenly became a sight of hell. Children, animals, people were screaming, running, burning, and at worst they were trapped in the fire.

The older people could not pass through the flame that was eradicating the entire meadow and the forest and it was consuming things, livelihood, and houses. It was spreading so fast that everyone was in chaos.

They could not kill the fire or save their lives, mostly the children were all dying. If it was a simple flame, they could extinguish it with water but it was not, even magic and potions had no effect to resist the fire. Some sorcerers said that they had to ’kill’ the one who had caused the fire to stop it but they could not do it. That person was nowhere in sight.

Coincidentally, that very day, Yanarym sneaked out of the house to run and to play with the other kids. Matteo typically would not give any interest in the circumstance but while he was looking for Yanarym he felt Azkin’s presence in the middle of the catastrophe. In addition, the mark he left on Yanarym’s body was signaling him that she was in danger, and her location was on that fire.

When Matteo found out that Yanarym was in the middle of the fire, he stirred the sky and made it rain, the rain was so strong and heavy that the fire immediately perished. Matteo could not feel Azkin’s presence as soon as the fire was gone; he did try to look around but it was gone as well.

Then, he felt Yanarym’s weak life core, as if it was vanishing so he rigorously searched for her. Forgetting about Azkin’s presence, and it did not take long, he found her lying on the grass with three other kids. Two boys, and another girl. Matteo eased when he located her and was finally able to take a look around.

It was a massacre, many children lost their lives, some had major injuries, only four of them had made it safe and sound. If it wasn’t for his protection, Yanarym was meant to die.

Upon investigation, the kids pointed to Kraig as the reason for everything. They said, there was a fight between Kraig and Lyndon for a girl, either they were fighting for Tiana or Yanarym... it was unspecified. The four kids were always together. It was widely known that the four kids were always together if they were given a chance. Most of the time, it was only the three because Yanarym was always forbidden to play outside. It was said that there was a puppy love among them. But who was whose crush? It was hard to guess.

Allegedly, Lyndon hit Kraig, and they fought each other with fists. Everyone thought that it would be a normal fight of little boys so none of the adults were deeply concerned yet when Kraig won...

The ’girl’ ran towards Lyndon and helped him. A fit of simple jealousy sparked, when Kraig tried to force the girl to get away from Lyndon and the girl rejected him, it started the fire. Huge flames sparked out of Kraig’s hands. It was uncontrolled, Kraig could not stop himself.

As soon as Kraig’s outburst, the protection that Matteo gave Yanarym activated. It created a sphere for her and because Lyndon, Kraig, and Tiana were beside her, they were protected as well.

Town’s people were angry, everyone was worried, their sons and daughters died, they wanted retribution, they wanted to execute the cause of their misery, the little boy Kraig.

It was Kraig’s fault, but her mother took all of the blame, and she was hanged in exchange for Kraig’s life. That was the reason for his mother’s death. However, the people weren’t satisfied... They wanted the devil kid’s life, they wanted to kill Kraig too.

Yanarym, who had been comatose for several days, heard the news the moment she had woken, and she begged Matteo to help Kraig. When Matteo didn’t agree, she cried for days and starved for days until Matteo gave up and asked her to promise him one thing, and that promise was to forget about Kraig, Lyndon, Tiana--and everything, and she agreed.

Matteo’s intervention from the past was his first interception of their entangled fate. He altered everyone’s memory and made it look like it never happened before. They made the four kids strangers to one another and he told the authorities to make Kraig live outside the town. Only a few people remembered, it was Yanarym’s mother and Lyndon’s parents as well as Matteo himself.

The first interference... caused them many souls. In exchange for Yanarym’s fate to be untangled, and to be smooth sailing. They had to kill those who were unfortunate and survived the fire but had the evidence on them about the event.

Matteo wiped them out with the blink of an eye with no remorse. That day, Lena, the witch professor, knew how far could Matteo go for her daughter. And if he wasn’t interfering in Yanarym’s business, Lena didn’t think that she should interfere with Yanarym’s business either.

And it was preposterous that after everything that happened when they were young, after cleaning, rebooting, intervening, and creating new memories in these young men’s minds. Here they were again, tying the knot themselves in Yanarym’s life. It was like their fate was already knitted and no matter how much impediment they do, it would all retract to square one. And Yanarym was bound to die in one of these young men’s hands.

"Marcus---no, Matteo, his bride is my daughter, Yanarym," Lena answered nonchalantly. Since it comes to this she would do what she could do to drive away these two young men with facts. "They are bound to end up as lovers. So it is futile for the two of you to win her heart."

"Bride? Lovers? Bound?" Lyndon’s face became distorted.

"What are you saying, Professor? We are only asking why is Marcus taking Yanarym to bathe? She is not in a proper state to be washed and held by a grown man!" Kraig exclaimed but Lena did not get flustered.

"He has every right to Yanarym’s body, even to her soul. So, there is no need to be excited with the situation."

"Excited? Excited?! I am fucking confused with what are you saying!" The more that the professor spoke, the more irritated he was. She was not making sense. Lyndon was losing his wits.

What was going on? Lyndon came here to question Yanarym, but he guessed the thoughts running wild through his head were not as important as the current situation. Everything that was happening was too much, but he can’t even be mad at her! He was too worried for his anger to manifest in his emotion.

Lyndon had been living in this town since he was young and he knew her family ever since. Yanarym was an orphan, so she came from the orphanage where Lena grew up. She was adopted by Lena, and she had an uncle that Lena registered to her family too. Marcus was that uncle---but where did Marcus come from?

Now that he thinks of it, he knew Marcus but for some reason, he never knew anything about him other than his name and his connection with the professor and Yanarym. It was weird that he was conscious of Marcus’ existence since childhood. He knew that there was Marcus in this household but he couldn’t remember his face when they were young. He could not recall any memory of Marcus at all. It was hazy and distant. Even his recollection of his childhood with Yanarym... was not there.

Things that he could only remember were his time with Kraig. Their pleasant memories in childhood and the next thing were how their relationship became astray after the death of Kraig’s mother.

"What are you talking about, Professor?" Kraig creased his brows. "How is Rym his bride, and why are you calling him Matteo? Please explain to us. Everything is too overwhelming for us to absorb it in one go."

Kraig was trying to stay calm and composed as he could be. It was his girlfriend that was going through something. Instead of getting angry from confusion, he felt so useless. She knew everything about him but he did know a thing about her.

"I know Yanarym was in a relationship with you, Kraig, I didn’t know the details and I am not supposed to intercept because Matteo isn’t doing so." Lena uttered, "However since this happened, I think it is wise to let Matteo handle Yanarym."

"Matteo-Matteo isn’t his name Marcus?! Don’t call him Matteo! And why does he matter! Isn’t he, your brother? Why is he marrying his niece?!" Lyndon screamed, he was worried and he was infuriatingly jealous.

"Because she belongs to him, that is why."