The Ancient Genes

Scarlet House, Ocien.

"Are you serious?" Erina looked at Max with a dumbfounded face.

Max forced a smile on his face. The amount of information that he had passed onto her was already too much to understand all at once, not to mention, it wasn't something that a person could believe so easily on.

Erina sat there holding her head. She felt that the world she had seen all this time was fake. If what Max had said was all true, then what kind of life had she lived until now. She didn't have the slightest clue about the things around her.

The stepmother, which she had always thought of as not so bad of a person, was really bad, while her own mother who had been sick seemed to have fallen victim to some kind of conspiracy.

"What about my father?" Erina suddenly asked as she looked at Max.

"If my mother is in trouble and my stepmother is not a nice person. Does that mean my father is in some kind of trouble as well?" She further asked with a concerned look on her face.

Max didn't know what to say. He hadn't seen the Scarlet Lord from the perspective of a victim until now. He had been thinking of him just as an uninformed person, who had no idea about the true identity of Talia.

After all, the Scarlet Lord according to his theory was most likely forced into a marriage with Talia. And, after that, he had just accepted it and moved on.

But, if he thought about Erina's words then…

Max's expression began to change. Something indeed was off here..

The first day of his arrival, he had definitely seen the Scarlet Lord worrying about Wilson. But, now when Erina returned, he seemed to be angry at them and even disappointed.

A change in his behaviour.

Now the question was why?

Was his change in behavior related to Talia's presence today or Max's presence on the first day?

Either the Lord wanted to show outsiders that he was concerned about his sons. Or, he was acting in front of Erina and Talia, and was being truthful in front of Max.

"We will have to find out about it. But, for now don't do anything rash." Max looked at her. He could clearly see that she was startled by all of this.

Erina looked at Max, and then nodded.

"Good, right now meeting your mother is very important for us. So, help me get to her," Max said with a serious look on his face.

"You can treat her?" Erina looked at him with hope and a bit of excitement. Since Max had told her about so many unbelievable things, she felt that he might even have some miraculous way to treat her mother.

"I can't say anything for sure, but meeting her might lead us somewhere.." Max was putting his hopes on this. After all, too many things had pointed towards Erina's mom. Her illness could be considered to be one of the major points from where things had started to go south.

Max didn't think that it was all just a coincidence.

"Umn.." Erina looked at Max with a bit of hesitation on her face.

"Is there something you want to say?" Max asked her with a smile.

"T-The Engagement.." Erina muttered in a low voice as she slowly clenched her fist.

Max and Naze exchanged a look.

They didn't know what to say. Was this girl still worried?

Wasn't it all obvious with so much of things that they had gone through right now?

There was no way that they were going to let this engagement to happen. This was obviously a part of the enemy's plan.

Even though Max and Naze felt it to be something very obvious, Erina sure wasn't in condition to understand it. She really was tensed, and couldn't think properly in this situation.

"Don't worry, we won't let it happen. And, to be honest, there is someone who won't allow you to go through something like this.." Max forced a smile on his face.

"Who?" Erina suddenly asked with an expectant look on her face. Max had no idea who she was thinking of, but he definitely was talking about the old man, who had already taken Erina as her disciple.

When Erina heard about him, her excitement died down. But, she still nodded with a grateful look on her face for the unfamiliar old man.

A few minutes later, she exited the room promising to find out where her mother was being kept.

"That definitely was weird. Is she in some kind of relationship with Axel?" Naze calmly asked.

"Well, not yet.." Max shook his head.

At this moment, a message popped up in front of Max.

<<Axel: How is everything going on?>>

Talk about coincidence.

<<Fine, What about you guys?>> Max asked him in return.

<<Axel: Well, August is participating this time. The event turned out to be solo desert battle ground.>>

That was indeed surprising, but when Max considered Arthur's ability. He knew that it was the perfect hunting ground for him. It was going to be tough beating him there. They really had thought about how to perfectly put his unique element to use.

<<Axel: By the way, I heard Erina had returned. Did you happen to come across her?>>

'Hmmn…What's with him today?' Max looked at the message with an amused face. He actually hadn't told Axel that he was staying at Scarlet Mansion as he never felt the need to do so.

<<Not yet, I am planning to pay her a visit tomorrow…Why do you ask?>>

Since things were getting interesting, Max wanted to see the bigger picture even if it meant that he had to use little bit of a lie.

<<Axel: Nothing, I just felt something was off. Anyway, tell me if you feel something is wrong with her tomorrow.>>

'Is he worried?' A smile leaked out on Max's face. He could see sparks flying everywhere.

Things were sure to get interesting.

'Hmmn..what do I do now?' Max muttered to himself. Should he give it a bit of push? After thinking for a bit, he decided to do so. After all, being Axel's good friend, he definitely didn't want him to spend his entire life with 2D characters.

Not to mention, it was going to be super fu- I mean it was the right thing to do as a friend. Besides, he would only be giving a light push.. It would only be helpful if there was something between those two, if not, then it would be completely useless.