Hunters: The Prequel - Chapter 311

“What was that?” Mane’s muscles tightened in cautiousness when he felt the house tremble. But before he could rise to investigate and understand what exactly was going on, a supple figure fell within his arms.

“Sorry!” Lily quickly apologized as she tried to push herself away from Mane’s strong arms. “It was because of the earthquake! I…I…I lost my balance and fell. Sorry!” Her face was dyed red as she fumbled for words whilst trying to explain how she lost her balance. Because they were seated on the same chair and very close to each other, it was understandable how she ended up in his arms. After all, unlike Mane who had immediately held himself steady when he felt the earth beneath his feet tremble, Lily had no such ability. As an average person, she didn’t have the control and precision required to keep her body unmoved even under a vigorous shaking like this one.

“It’s no problem,” Mane quickly waved his arms and reassured her that everything was okay. Her words made sense and to be honest, that wasn’t his main concern right now.

“But that was no earthquake,” Mane furrowed his brows and said.

“Huh? It wasn’t?” Lily wondered as she tried to pull her mind away from this very distracting thought: Mane’s embrace makes me feel so safe. Thankfully for her, her mind obliged and she was back to herself in no time.

“No it wasn’t. It felt more like a heavy object falling to the ground than the earth itself shaking,” Mane shook his head and explained.

As he was speaking Lam run into the room and asked, “Did you feel that?”

“I did,” Mane replied and continued, “I’m going to check it out right now. Want to come?”

“Yeah,” Lam responded and Mane quickly walked towards the exit with Lam in tow.

“I want to come too,” Lily requested.

Lam was about to reject her when Mane gave him a look that said ‘she is safer with us than in the house alone’, and the older brother consented.

“You can come,” Lam nodded his head and Mane looked at Lily with a smile and nodded his head also. Lily happily run towards the duo and they all walked out of the house to see what exactly was going on. And once they were outside the house, they could see the source of the commotion. The largest building in the village was falling apart. But when they got outside they realised that someone had beat them to it.

“He doesn’t know how to do anything covertly now, does he?” an old man hunched over a cane who had his back to them seemingly said to himself.

“Grandfather?” Lam remarked in surprise seeing the aged figure already outside the house. From what he could remember, his grandfather was in the backyard with him before the entire house started to shake. He, Lam, had run into the room to alert Mane and Lily whilst his grandfather remained in the backyard admiring the night sky, seemingly unperturbed by what was going on. But the man had even gotten here before any of them, and without any of them seeing anything either!

“This old man is not simple,” Mane narrowed his eyes seeing Old Fan already here. The old man had gotten here without alerting any of them which was a grand achievement. There were only two ways to get here from the backyard. One was through the house, a route that they would – or rather should – have seen him take. The other was by the roof, which they should have also discerned because the house was old and rickety and any slight noise made on the roof would have been heard by those inside. Yet the old man was here, like a shadow in the night: indiscernible and definitely untraceable. It didn’t matter which of the options the old man took, for either of them was impressive. Mane decided that he would thoroughly scrutinize Old Fan once the commotion was over. There was no way this old man was as ordinary as he portrayed himself to be.

“Who are you referring to Grandfather?” The only person who wasn’t distracted by her grandfather’s presence here and went on to as a follow-up question concerning the old man’s statement was his granddaughter. Lily inferred from her grandfather’s statement that the older gentleman knew what exactly was causing all the commotion – or rather, who.

“Well someone just attacked and destroyed the residence of the Village Head. Who do you think it is?” Old Fan turned to face the three youngsters with a bitter smile on his face and asked.

“Sir Dan!” Lily and Lam exclaimed at the same time. Lam made this inference based on the killing intent he felt just a few minutes ago. The unmatched power that was contained in that grand aura was something that he would never forget. Added to the fact that Sir Dan was definitely not going to be happy about the attempt on Mane’s life, it made sense that he would storm Village Head Samoa’s place and exact revenge. As for Lily, the only reason she had guessed it was Sir Dan was because there were numerous times her grandfather had told her and her brother that Sir Dan was without an equal in this village. And that even when he, Old Fan, was in his prime he wasn’t a match for the secretive dark skinned man. As individuals who knew the legend of their grandfather, they understood just what his confession of Dan’s strength meant.

As for Mane, he didn’t look so comfortable. He looked like he had been forced to eat an entire bowl of a meal he detested, so much so that he was ready to throw up. And Old Fan saw this.

“Hehe. Don’t worry kid” Old Fan laughed and said. He hit his cane against the ground gently and continued, “He promised to leave them to you. He knew you wouldn’t be comfortable with him dealing with your problems for you so he only left them a small lesson”

“I see,” Mane blushed slightly from being seen through. But he also sighed secretly at how well Dan understood him, and there was someone else here who seemed to agree.

“For someone who has only been with you for a month, he sure understands you as well as those you’ve known for years,” Hildegarde stated, sitting on Mane’s shoulders and swinging her legs happily.

Dan was indeed comparable to Mane’s family and friends when it came to understanding the boy. And that was because of something Mane had realised long ago.

“It’s because we are so similar to each other,” Mane thought to himself. Since he couldn’t speak to Hildegarde with the others here as well, he could only say this to himself. He took a long look at the collapsing building and then resolved himself to leave. After bidding goodnight to the reluctant Lily and the rest of her family, he returned to his residence to prepare for the next day. He hadn’t forgotten that there was a hunt waiting for him – and a secret as well.