Chapter 42 - Reunion

Once again, Ian and Robin ended up reaching the island they were headed to far more quicker than any other means of transportation in this world. And now Ian had reached the place his feeling was pointing him towards. And the feeling became even stronger…

When he reached the dock, he told Robin to stop her training for now as they had reached the island.

If one would compare the Robin of now to the one of before, one would notice that she had become even more beautiful. Her skin became glossier and more pristine. Her looks and features turned younger as if she had regressed in age.

The reason for this is that Ian had did the same thing he did towards ray and Shakky. Of course she was the one who told him to do so.

"You can stop training for now, we need to visit our first island in the new world" Ian said with a grin.

A grin that was soon shared by Robin. The both of them were excited for this. And no one can blame them. Every person had a sense of adventure in them.

"Okay, Ian, I was getting a bit tired anyway" Robin said.

She did as he asked. At any rate she still had a lot of training to do before she masters the gun. And she had time for that later. Now was the time to explore the island.

When the both of them got off the ship, they noticed that there were many pirates' sh.i.p.s on the dock, but no marine's ones. Immediately Ian knew the reason. Or at least guessed what the most likely reason is for that.

There was no marines here, because this was one of the few islands one will enter the new world from. When I was said like that, one would think that precisely for that reason why the marines should have a base there.

But if they did, the combined wrath they will face from the four emperors, when they can barely deal with one, would destroy them.

Ian turned towards his ship, and after thinking for a bit decided to store it in the ring. Of course he did it only after sensing for any presence around.

Once he did so he resumed walking with Robin.

At this time he was still dressing casually like before. Wearing just shorts and a shirt with sandals on his feet.

The same was for Robin who was wearing a fit blue shirt and black jeans with short heeled shoes.

After a bit of walking around amidst the people of this island, Ian felt something was wrong. He couldn't get his head around it.

The island was pretty big, so they had been walking around from store to store for a while before they reached the end of the tourist part of the place.

Just like many islands similar to this one. This too, had a tourist part, a hotel part, a place to get food and so on…

Ian still couldn't relax even after almost two hours when they finished the trip. Robin finally noticed something wrong is going on and asked him.

"What is it, are you not feeling good?" Robin said.

"I just feel something is wrong about this island, that's all." Ian said, and turned his head to look at a certain direction.

He beckoned Robin to follow before he started walking towards there.

Half an hour later, they had already entered into the forest and had now reached a tree clearing where a camp with tents, was apparent.

In front of Ian's and Robin's eyes were three people.

Two beautiful girls, and one lion mink person. One of the girls appears to be young around 16-17, meanwhile the other was 19-20. As for the mink person one wouldn't be able to tell…

They were, Stella, Elene, and Bert.

What made Ian stand shocked in his place however was not the younger girl or the mink guy. But the other person. It was impossible for her to be here… but he didn't care about that now…

"Marie…" he whispered.

When the girl noticed him she too stood up and was shocked in her place.

Ian vanished from his place only to appear near her. But the mink person perhaps misunderstood and stepped up to protect her. But just as he reached near them and yelled…

"Hey step bac…" his words were cut by a kick thrown at him.

He was not able to see it coming at all and ended up being thrown backwards to the trees violently.

The other girl took her daggers out and got in a stance to attack but Ian just waved his hands in her direction and the girl suffered from an impact that threw her hands to the back and made her release the daggers.

Now with no more disturbances in the way, Ian got near enough to hold one of the girls hands.

"Are you Marie?" He asked her. One could detect how Ian's voice trembled at the mention of the name.

Tears were streaming on the girl's face as she nodded her head yes.

"Mn" she couldn't do anything or say something else.

Ian hugged her close and finally let tears fall down his face.

'At that time if I just let those guys take what they wanted and didn't try to plat strong, none of that would have happened. I was rash. And resulted in us both dying. I don't know if she'll ever forgive me… I know I didn't forgive myself even now…' Ian thought to his self as he continued hugging her.

Since then, he had a reason to get strong. So that he will never be in that situation again. So that he could protect the ones he love.

But now the reason for all this is in front of him.

'Is this also because of that mysterious entity? If so I thank you from all my heart.'

The younger girl who felt her hands were numb by the impact, finally got her bearings back, and witnessed the scene of the two hugging. She finally understood that this was the one they were waiting for.

Although she thought so at first too, but when he suddenly vanished she was alerted the same with Bert. The mink person.

After a few seconds Bert too came back. However unlike the young girl. He was holding his left arm, and winced in pain each time he moved. Apparently that one kick had resulted in him getting inured quite badly. Which was understandable as Ian had been emotional then, and didn't control himself. Truth be told he was quite lucky. As if Ian had used all his strength he may have died…

He looked at the two people hugging and realized that he was mistaken earlier and s went and sat back on the log and tried to assess his injuries.

"Marie… it was all my fault back then, if I hadn't…" his words were stopped by a finger placed on his lips by Marie.

"Don't blame yourself Ian, such things are destined to happen, if not then we wouldn't be meeting now in this place don't you think? Besides… all is in the past… you should think about now Ian" Marie/Elene said.

When Ian heard that Marie doesn't blame him, he felt that a burden was lifted off him. He gave a nod, as he closed his eyes and continued to hug her in silence.

He never thought this will happen ever. He only ever dreamed of this moment, but now it had become real. So he just enjoyed the moment in silence.