(Who’s still alive?)
(Who’s trying to kill Daed and Beeken?)
Tyler wanted to catch up with them to get the full story, but after weighing his options, he decided to first check on the situation in the orchard — he thought he had heard Avril’s voice from there.
The orchard in Ira Village became eerily terrifying at night. Under the pallid moonlight, the twisted branches were like countless venomous snakes hovering in the air, and the mottled shadows on the ground seemed like stealthy ghosts swaying with the wind.
A cold breeze rustled the leaves, causing a soft sound that seemed to whisper…
“Kill… kill…”
Tyler briskly walked toward the faint voices. At this point, the stupid loli in his mind was too frightened to make a sound, a rare silence that allowed Tyler to better pinpoint the origin of the sounds.
Gradually, Tyler started to make out the voices more clearly. He did indeed hear Avril’s voice, and it sounded angry, as if she was reprimanding someone.
He had never seen Avril angry since they met.
“Didn’t I warn you last time?”
“Don’t you know that you could die doing this?!”
The rapid speech and stern tone reminded Tyler of his old schoolmaster. Through rows of fruit trees, he saw Avril harshly chastising three young boys. Her stern demeanor was a stark contrast to the Avril he knew.
The three boys were scared stiff, standing straight with tensed bodies. They lined up, bowed their heads, not daring to retort to Avril’s scolding.
“How many times have I told you!”
“Climbing trees like this is very dangerous!!”
“What if you fall?!!!”
Quietly standing on the side and listening for a while, Tyler understood the situation. It seemed the three boys were caught climbing trees in the orchard by Avril, and that’s why they were being scolded here.
But if that’s all there was to it, then what about Daed and Beeken earlier? What had they seen to make them flee in such panic?
Could it be… there’s something “unclean” in this orchard?
“I’m sorry… Sister Avril… I will never climb trees again, I-I-I promise, if I do it again, I’ll return the ball you gave me…”
“Yes, I promise too… T_T…”
“I…I… (sob sob)… my ball…”
The three boys apologized while bursting into tears, their faces smeared with tears, snot, and saliva. Tyler saw that the children were genuinely regretful and not being insincere. Despite their young age, they seemed to understand Avril’s well-meaning intentions.
“Really promise, huh? When a man makes a promise, he must keep it, right?”
Seeing that the boys had learned their lesson, Avril stopped scolding them. She gently patted each of their heads before crouching down to hug all three of them.
“If you want to eat fruit, you could just tell me. If you act recklessly and… if you die… what am I supposed to do…”
Avril’s voice was filled with sorrow, and as she spoke, she, too, started crying along with the children.
Only those who have lost something significant can understand the value of life. Tyler saw the memories of Avril and her sister in her heart. It turned out that Avril’s sister had met an unfortunate end in the forest after she disregarded advice and went to collect herbs on her own.
Avril’s anger tonight was partly because she saw her sister in these children.
However, the crying of Avril and the children late at night in the orchard could indeed be quite frightening. But this couldn’t be the reason for Daed and Beeken’s panicked escape. Tyler temporarily put Daed and Beeken’s situation to the back of his mind and walked over to greet Avril and the children.
This particular situation presented a perfect opportunity to get closer to Avril.
“Banning, why… why are you here…?”
Avril lowered her head shyly, not having the chance to wipe her tears.
“I heard some noises from the orchard, so I came in.”
Tyler approached Avril, and suddenly, the boys at her side grew excited!
“Wow! It’s the big hero who saved the village!”
“Oh my god! It’s the great hero, Banning!”
“Brother Banning, why are you here!”
Thanks to the children, the atmosphere became lively, and all the focus was on Tyler, which eased Avril’s tension.
Tyler smoothly donned the “friendly big brother” mask and started conversing with the children. The boys quickly opened up to him, revealing that they climbed the tree not to steal fruits but because the adults forbade them from exploring the forest. So, they chose the orchard to play.
Interestingly, Tyler was somewhat responsible for this. The children were pretending to be the great hero, Banning, and the bad bandits in their playtime. 𝗈𝒱𝗅xt.𝗰𝐎𝓂
Tyler quickly got along with the children, and a relaxed Avril started chatting with him too.
“During the day, there’s barely anyone to watch over the children in the village. The adults are busy working, and the children rely on each other for supervision. That’s why something like this happened tonight…”
Avril explained to Tyler why the children were unsupervised, a situation he was familiar with, having grown up in a rural area. His hometown’s condition was worse than Ira village, with young and middle-aged people working away from home, leaving only the elderly and children. Sometimes, even the children had to look after the elderly.
At 16, Avril would still be considered a child in the city, but in a rural area, she was already an adult. This is one of the reasons why Avril and Tyler seemed much more mature than their urban counterparts.
Their unexpectedly similar experiences led to a great conversation between Tyler and Avril. The three boys didn’t understand their conversation and stared at them in confusion. Then, one of the boys suddenly blurted out.
“Brother and sister, you two look like a married couple!”
Upon the boy’s comment, the previously calm atmosphere exploded like a popular author posting a cross-dressing selfie in his NovelFull fan group.
“Yes, yes! My dad and mom also often talk about these hard-to-understand principles.”
“Yeah, my parents too!”
The children chimed in, causing Avril’s face to turn beet-red, standing there clueless. In contrast, Tyler remained unfazed, laughing heartily.
“Hahaha, do you guys know what a married couple is?” Tyler asked the children.
“We know!”
“I…I also know!”
Looking at these little boys eager to prove their intelligence, Tyler knew he couldn’t miss this opportunity.
“So, tell me, what is a married couple?” Tyler continued his questioning.
“A married couple is a man and a woman talking about things that are difficult to understand!”
“Yes, yes! And if they’re a married couple, the man and woman will sleep together at night!”
“That’s right! And they’ll also lock the door and do strange things in their room!”
Although one could say that these three children didn’t understand, they indeed didn’t understand. But if one said they didn’t understand, they actually understood quite a lot.
As for their words, Tyler could easily laugh it off, but Avril…
Avril, RIP, at the age of 16.