LET'S LIVE A BIT LONGER!!

Chapter 45:

Upon entering the only things Penelope could utter was ..."no this cannot be happening right now...please god."

In front of her was Carlos lying on the bed unconscious, bandaged up. "How long?"

"2 months now." the knight who led them in answered.

"Brother. We must stop those monsters. There must be a way right? Someone must be doing this cause the monsters do not have brains, so someone is controlling them. We must find and finish them. No matter what." Penelope said as she clenched her fist, her eyes stuck on Carlos.

"Everyone is trying their best, bunny." Augustine managed to get that out.

"I know....-"

"Young master! The duke is asking for you." a maid came looking for Augustine.

"I will see. Be safe. Don't, do not leave this tent. Understood?" Augustine asked Penelope before he left, as she gave him a nod.

"I will be right outside then, princess." the knight that accompanied them here, said as he left the tent giving some space to Penelope and Carlos.

"You promised me to not get hurt. Well, deep down I still expected this but still, I thought...making you promise me it would work. It would keep you safe. I am sorry." Penelope as she made her way towards Carlos and took a seat right beside him.

"You will wake up right? I know you can hear me. You don't have to worry about Diana. She isn't on the battlefield; she and the former empress are in charge of evacuating people. I thought everything was getting better for a moment. You know, I found my family, I was happy. I really was. But why is it that the god seems against my happiness? Get well soon please. And I hope this is over soon. I want everything to go back to normal. I can't take this anymore...it hurts Carlos. It really does. Seeing you like this, seeing father and brothers trying to keep a happy face, everyone being in denial, seeing people losing their families...it hurts to see the people I love just trying so hard to survive. And I can't do much. What should I do? Hmm? Tell me...please. Get me out of here Carlos, give me something, something that will put an end to all this. I just want to be with my family and you. Please, why is that so hard?" Penelope said as tears fell unstoppably from her green, emerald eyes. With every word her voice got softer and softer, till she broke down.

She cried and cried letting out her pain, she let herself be defenseless. Unconsciously she held his hand which was tightly in a fist.

"hic..wait...*sniff*...why...why are you holding-?" she muttered as she opened the fist.

"A paper?" she said as she opened the crumbled paper. 

"No, it's a map..." she continued, as a realization hit her. She checked Carlos's other hand, and it was in a fist too. She opened the fist and got the other paper out.

She put the two papers together and found a complete map. "What is the map? Carlos, what did you find?" She muttered, as she took out the last letter he sent from her pocket.

'This will all be over soon.

-carlos.'

She flipped the letter and as expected there was something written, though very small.

'I found him.'

"So there is only one mastermind behind all this. They attacked you as to not let you get the information back to us. Carlos...I love you." Penelope muttered excitedly as she kissed Carlos's head and left in a hurry.

—--------- —------------- -

She excitedly made her way to her father's office. Just to be stopped by annoying pink haired.

"Penelope!" Renold said as he stood in front of Penelope.

"Not now Renold" Penelope said as she tried to get past him.

"Hey! I-"

Penelope pushed Renold, not wanting to hear what he had to say. She had better things to do.

"Father!!" Penelope yelled, interrupting the meeting of the elders as she walked in the tent.

"Yessssssss?~" Austin who was zoning off was brought back from his thoughts by Penelope's voice, said as he leaned back on his chair.

"I found it! Well...technically charlos found it. But I found it! I found the map that leads us to the opposite side's leader." Penelope said as she ignored the stares she got and made her way towards her father.

Silence took over the people as Austin traced his eyes through the map. Looking carefully as Penelope took out the other map, and joined the two bits.

"Haaa...." Austin signed.

"What's wrong?" asked Athan, confused.

"My daughter's too smart. Alright! Gentleman, we have the map and now all we have to do is go and kill some bitches." Austin said as he got up.

"I will go-"

"No. You will stay here and take care of yourself, maybe help in the medical area but not going on the battlefield and that is final." Austin said in a rather stern tone.

"But-"

"No buts. Augustine, escort Penelope to Diana. I will see you later, sunshine." Austin said, as he patted Penelope's head. Augustine then escorted Penelope out of the room and they made their way to Diana, who was helping the citizens evacuate from the area.

"Brother I-"

"We will be back. DOn't worry. I will protect father and Lucas will be here in the defense squad." Augustine as he noticed Penelope's panicked state.

"But I can help!" Penelope said as she stopped in her tracks and faced her brother.

"Penny, sis, you are helping a lot. It is not that we are scared that you are not strong enough, you are strong, and I hate to admit it, but you learned from the strongest in our family, which is lucas. But we just got you back. We got our sister back and that old man finally got his daughter back. We are just scared that we might lose you again. You have no idea how hard the old man searched for you and mom. Basically everywhere. So please, for this one, let us protect you and everyone else properly. Let us do the work. And I promise we will come back." Augustine said as he expressed his worries to penelope.

"But...but what if you don't?" Penelope asked, her head down, staring at the ground blankly as she tried to hide the tears forming in her beautiful eyes.

"Are you kidding? Do you know how strong this brother of yours is in magic? I will be fine.You should be worrying for the old man, not me." Augusitne said with a smirk.

"You think this is funny?-"

"No. I do not think this is funny. But sometimes when there are troubles you just take a step back and relax. Stay here, with Diana, make sure you both stay safe. We will be back soon, I promise." Augusitine said as he interrupted Penelope.

A long silence came over them as the tears Penelope held back poured down and she rushed to hug her brother the last time.

To be continued! ~ 

(chapter was rushed a bit)