The Ancient Genes

"We are here," Kel said with a light smile as she looked at the door ahead.

Erina's body froze for a second as she turned her head, and looked ahead. The next instant, she quickened her footsteps and hurriedly entered the room.

As soon as she got in there, she scanned the whole place looking for the familiar face. It was then that her gaze fell on the sick looking woman on the bed. Her face was pale and thing. She had her eyes closed, and seemed to be asleep.

This woman had brown dark black hairs, and a thin face which most likely had resulted from her degrading health. Even though the sickness seemed to have affected her appearance a lot, one could still vividly make out the former glory of her beauty from her current state.

"Mom," Erina muttered in a low voice as she slowly walked up to the sick lady.

The woman's eye's slowly opened on hearing the familiar voice as she looked at the girl in front of her.

"Erina?"

A feeble voice came out of her mouth, and Erina immediately burst into tears as she slowly grabbed her mother's hands.

"You are here. I have been waiting for you." The lady said with a smile as she slowly tried to get herself up. But, one could clearly see that she didn't even have strength to push herself up. She was in completely bedridden condition.

"Stop pushing yourself, Sis, let me help you up." Kel shook her head as she helped Erina's mother to sit.

"Mom.." Erina finally couldn't control herself any longer, and embraced her mother. She could clearly see that her mother's condition had turned worse in the time she hadn't seen her.

The lady slowly placed her hands around her daughter and embraced Erina as she gently rubbed the back of her head.

Kel looked at the pair of mother and daughter with a sweet smile on her face, and then slowly backed away to let them have their time.

…

Erina spent a few hours with her mother. She had a lot to talk to her about. Some matters were related to ordinary things, while somewhere about this new revelation that she had got to know about recently.

"Mom, is your sickness natural?" Erina suddenly asked as she looked at her mother.

"Why are you asking such a thing?" Erina's mother asked with a hint of surprise in her eyes.

Erina didn't say that it was Max who had given her this lead. There originally wasn't any concrete proof behind this reasoning, but now for some reason, Erina was starting to believe in Max's suspicions.

"I am no longer a child. I can say that things are not simple with all of this happening. Is someone behind all of this, mom? Did the father really marry another woman because of his own choice?"

Her mother's expression began to change, but she still tried to play it down.

"I heard from Aunt Kel that we are a Matriarchal family, with the woman in true power. I don't think that father would be able to marry another woman of his own choice." She further cornered her mother into answering her.

As soon as Aunt Kel's name was brought up, Erina's mother turned her head to look at her, and Kel could only look away, pretending not to know.

How could she have known that the girl was smart enough to deduce so much from a little information?

They were actually only trying to introduce Erina to these new things, and then slowly let her onto more as she matured while being trained as the wielder of the Artifact. They clearly had no intentions of allowing her to know about the current situation, and that their enemies were already around and very close to her.

This was a matter that the adults would deal with.

But, never in their dreams they had imagined that she was already aware of all of it. And, that her friendship with Max was not as shallow as they had been thinking about. She was no longer just Max's friend's sister, but a part of the team now.

The Old man Sun had made the same mistake. To be honest, he couldn't be blamed for it. Max had never shown Erina to him as a person close to him or his other friends. He had only shown her as a person whom he had come across by chance, and then discovered her ability to wield the artifact.

"Cough! Cough!"

As Erina was still trying to force answers out of her mother, she began to cough vigorously. This immediately made her worried, and a nurse came into the room. It was obvious that she wasn't to be stressed in her current situation.

Upon hearing that from the nurse, Erina could only give up on trying to get any answers from her mother.

A bit later, she bid farewell to her mother.

They hadn't come here for a long time, had to return before the sunrise. And, her mother also needed to rest.

Erina met with her father outside. For some reason, he didn't enter the room to meet his mother, and just stood there.

"Let's go, it's time to leave. You will have an opportunity to come back here later." His voice was calm, and before Erina could say anything to him, he already walked ahead.

When Kel saw this scene, she could only sigh. She understood her brother very well. He had to live surrounded by his enemies every day. The same people who had hurt his family, and yet he could only helplessly watch them without being able to do anything, instead he even had to follow their directions.

But, that was the only option left for him to save her Erina's mother as well as to find the identities of the enemies hidden in the skin of allies.

And now if he went and saw his wife's condition, only god knew what he would do if he lost himself in anger. After all, even though he was a calm guy, he was Erina and Wilson's father. It was impossible for the seeds to fall much far away from the tree.

If the children had such tempers, it must mean the parents were not too different in their early days.

Hence, the Scarlet Lord just turned away from the door.

Because, right now, he needed to stay calm.

His situation was just like that of a volcano which was waiting to erupt. When the day of disaster would come, only God knew what would happen…