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* Jim Yosef & Anna Yvette - Linked [NCS Release] *

"That girl… she seemed familiar," said the young soul weaver while dashing out of the battlefield. Glowing cyan aura swirled around him. "But it can\'t be…"

*Sigh*

The air was particularly cool and rich, yet it stinked of the smell of death. Fluttering in this air was his dark hair.

The edgy expression didn\'t leave his face until he had reached home. 

"Zeru, you\'re back!" A happy young feminine voice called out. The girl was about to try and sit up in her bed when Zeru approached her quickly and tapped her shoulder instead.

"Aella, please don\'t do that on your own," he muttered with a sad face. "You need to move as little as possible, remember? But here, I\'ll help you."

"Pfft! And who says that? My cute little brother who is always exerting his body even though he has the same disease as me? Humph!" Aella scoffed even though deep inside, she really appreciated every gesture of kindness her younger brother showed. 

"... I am sorry, but I can hold on for a little bit longer, you know, someone needs to protect the city… and you." Zeru said while taking a deep breath. "Your body isn\'t as strong as… *sigh* as it used to be.

"I am sorry, but I promise you, Aella, I\'ll find a way to heal us both. You won\'t need to sit still for days, nor will you have to hold on your passion for cooking or anything else for that matter." He said with a determined expression that Aella almost believed every word he said.

Zeru closed his eyes and slightly lowered his head on instinct as Aella started patting his head. "You\'re so cute, Zeru… I\'m really lucky to have you, you know?"

"Stop it, please," he whined helplessly. "I\'m not a little kid anymore…"

"Hm, coming from my little brother who\'s actually young and as tall as 157cm … not so convincing, I\'ll tell you that much hahaha!" Aella laughed.

Seeing her laugh was so precious that Zeru suddenly didn\'t mind being treated as a kid anymore.

"Anyway, tell me, what has happened since you left?" She asked.

"The common folks were starting the festival, but apparently a bunch of monsters attacked all of a sudden."

"Oh, that\'s unfortunate… did you have to interfere as usual?" Aella asked curiously.

"Not exactly…" Zeru hesitated. "There were some good people actually, probably foreigners coming for the festival.

"Anyway, some of them were really good and were able to hold their own against the monsters.

"That is until they were being overwhelmed. And that\'s when I had to hop in or maybe they would have been heavily injured, to say the least." He finished.

"Hm…" Aella contemplated to herself while looking down at her covered legs.. "You have to stop at some point though, don\'t you agree? 

"If you keep protecting them like you do now, they\'ll get used to someone always backing them up, which will mean that they would not have to find another way to protect themselves.

"In addition, don\'t kid yourself… you\'re not better than me in terms of disease progression." Alella bit her lower lip in regret while her eyes started to water up. "I wish I could give you a hand at least, I\'m sick of being so useless…"

Breaking down, she started crying. Suddenly, Aella found her little brother\'s arms wrap around her in a warm hug. 

In his embrace, she\'s always felt safe, happy, and at home. But, she knew that this embrace will not last for long if he continues on with helping the common folks. \'Why did this stupid disease decide to wash over me? And not only that, but stupid me also infected my adorable little brother… I\'m such a useless piece of trash!\'

Letting her cry on his shoulder for a while, he could feel her fragile body shake with every breath she took and every tear she shed.

"Are you alright now?" He asked after she had calmed down for a minute. He wasn\'t the best at interacting with others, so he didn\'t know how to comfort Aella even though he wanted to, badly.

"Uhm," she nodded. "I\'m sorry, I didn\'t mean to break down like this. Guess I\'m not really mature yet, hehe!" She tried to laugh it out even though her eyes were still sparking from the tears running down.

"No it\'s alright," Zeru reassured. "What am I if not the shoulder you cry on?" He asked while releasing her.

At his words, Aella could not help but feel so grateful for him. He was always the one taking care of her even though she was actually years older than him.

His condition was as bad as hers. Yet she wasn\'t able to use her body like he did. She couldn\'t stand the pain suffocating her at night, nor was she able to hold her cries like he did.

Unlike her, he was always strong and responsible. \'I wonder if I could ever repay you for this, Zeru…\'

"Can you please stop? I need to go make some food," Zeru said with his head down and eyes closed as Aella has been petting him nonstop.

"Ah, hehe, sorry I spaced out," she apologized and retracted her hand to her side.

Standing up, Zeru approached her and kissed her forehead, which made her smile in appreciation. "It\'s ok, you can pat me some more after I bring you your food, how does that sound?"

"Perfect!" She said with a weak clap.

Smiling, which was something he rarely did, Zeru walked into the kitchen and started making his sister and himself some breakfast.

***

"Hm, is that so?" Raven stroked her chin subconsciously while thinking back to what the mayor had just told them.

Zeru and his sister Aella have only moved here about thirteen years ago, according to him.

At the time, they both were good and felt nothing special as they were really young.

The only thing that stood out was the fact that the siblings lived alone with no parents. The sister was fifteen at the time while the brother was five.

However, even though they were really young, they acted as anything but. They both seemed like mature adults trapped in young bodies.

As they got to know them better with the years, the locals started to realise that Zeru was the silent kid that would throw glares all the time. However, when a threat shows up, he\'d be the first to protect everyone.

Despite his hostile attitude, everyone got used to him and learned to love him.

The girl on the other hand was just as pure as she looked. She would always smile and greet others. She\'d almost always apologize for Zeru\'s attitude whenever she was around.

The two had opened a bakery a few years back. The sister was a master chef and the bakery became a hybrid restaurant after a while. 

The project was rather successful at first. however, due to their conditions, the restaurant was shut down.

Apparently, the two siblings had a rare disease that has never been heard of. 

As a matter of fact, the doctors or even top healers never knew what was wrong with their bodies. On the outside, they both seemed just fine, but their subjective symptoms proved otherwise.

From that point onwards and after the closure of the restaurant, the locals had decided to repay the siblings for always keeping them safe.

As such, they prepared a quota that every capable person would pay in order to buy food and other essentials for them.

Even though the siblings had refused to accept such a thing, the locals stood their ground and expressed their gratitude by taking care of them.

It wasn\'t anything special, it was just a "thank you" for always keeping their city safe.

However, after a while, especially after the recent portal incident, people watched in horror as Zeru almost died, fighting off against the monsters that had assaulted their city.

But luck was on his side it appears, his body was just a little bit stronger than the disease at the time and he\'d survived.

The common folks understood after a while that the siblings viewed protecting the city as their job, since they were receiving their food as a contribution from their goodwill.

"That of course wasn\'t the case…" the mayor sighed. "We\'re still debating. Some people want to stop the donations in order to free the siblings of their own assigned duty. 

"However, most people know that any alternative would be harsher on them. It is a dilemma that we\'ve been trying to find answers for for a while now…" the mayor sighed as a sad expression painted his face.

Similar expressions were apparently on the faces of people who listened to the story. It was obvious that everyone here loved the siblings and appreciated their good intentions.

Furthermore, they all wanted the best for them but didn\'t know how to achieve that.

As a matter of fact, the plan for the first night of the festival was to take as many pictures as possible of the lit up lakes with the lanterns. 

They were supposed to make a massive collection then write gratitude messages and share them with Zeru and Aella.

They understood that it was hard for them to make it to the festival, but nothing prevented the festival from coming to them.