Emma nodded and walked to follow Xion, but a moment later, her steps became unsteady and she staggered. Her body, which was injured after she received the attacks from the rebels earlier, was in pain. Her physical injuries, coupled with the emotional state she experienced when she saw her parents, finally made Emma collapse.

"Emma!" Luckily, Xion was quick to catch her. He had held Emma's body and immediately carried her in his arms.

When he was about to close his eyes and focused his mind to bring them back to the future, Xion suddenly stood still. He took a long deep breath and stared at Emma's pale face as the girl was in his arms.

After they returned to the future, he would have to leave Emma with Therius and went home to the mountains. He would never see them again. His heart hurt too much to see Emma marry Therius.

But in the past ... he could be with Emma. He could hug her, and carry her in his arms like this.

Xion felt his chest tighten. He was so tempted to stay in the past or take Emma to another time, so that they could live together, without Therius in Emma's life. He was sure that Emma would love him if she were given ample time to move on from Haoran's death.

After fighting with himself internally, Xion finally gave up. He kissed Emma on the forehead and sobbed softly. His embrace on Emma's body grew tighter. He really loved this girl and wanted to be with her ...

But he did not want to break his friendship with Therius because they were fighting over Emma. He also couldn't imagine what would happen if he took Emma away from Therius. Maybe Therius would get very angry, and who knows what he would do to vent his anger.

After steeling himself and stopping his tears from falling down, Xion closed his eyes and focused his mind to control time. He and Emma had to go home.

Instantly, their surrounding turned into a time-lapse again. Arreya, Kaoshin, little Therius disappeared, and the atmosphere around them also changed. Slowly, they returned to the future.

***

Once Xion and Emma disappeared, time went back to Akkadia. Arreya and Kaoshin blinked their eyes in confusion. Meanwhile, little Therius was growling in pain. His wounds gave him so much pain and the boy couldn't help but cry.

Arreya, who was stunned because suddenly she no longer saw Emma, ??immediately moved and rushed over to the boy.

"Oh ... poor boy. We will immediately treat you. You will be okay. Uncle Darius has been looking for you everywhere. He will be here soon." She hugged the boy with great affection. A moment later she turned to Kaoshin and frowned in surprise. "General Stardust, did you see the girl just now? Where is she?"

Kaoshin shook his head in surprise. "She was here just now .... Why did she suddenly disappear?"

He walked over to the criminals who were still wrapped by the vines and groaning in the corner of the warehouse.

"Who was that girl? Do you know who she is?" He asked them menacingly. However, the four of them only threw hateful glances at Kaoshin, no one answered. Meanwhile, Arreya stared at them with a sharp gaze.

When she read their minds, her chest was slowly pounding and her head became dizzy.?Her gaze then turned to Kaoshin who was studying the vines that wrapped the four thugs.

Arreya pressed her lips with the back of her hand and slowly tears streamed down her cheeks.

"That girl is a herbomancer," said Kaoshin as he turned his head towards Arreya. He was immediately stunned to see tears streaming down the beautiful woman's face. "Your Highness.. what's wrong?"

Arreya shook her head. Her face turned pale. She stared at Kaoshin without blinking. Her chest was filled with love for the man to the brim, that she almost felt suffocated.

For over ten years, Arreya and Kaoshin had to hide the feelings of love between them because Arreya was engaged to the crown prince, Prince Darius. She was chosen to be his bride since childhood.

Since meeting Kaoshin for the first time at the academy, Arreya felt feelings she had never felt for her fiancé. For the first time, she fell in love and wanted to be with Kaoshin to spend her whole life.

However, she knew that as the fiancee chosen by the Crown Prince, she must not break off the engagement between them and marry another man. Kaoshin would become the enemy of the state, and relations between Akkadia and Taeshi would be damaged.

Based on that consideration, she and Kaoshin decided to keep the love between them a secret. With her heart broken into a million pieces, Arreya chose to separate from Kaoshin and marry Darius. Tonight, their two families were to meet formally before she and Darius were wedded the next day.

Kaoshin accepted Arreya's decision with a big heart. For him, Arreya's happiness was paramount. He knew that if he forced Arreya to marry him, her life would be miserable.

He would also become an enemy of the kingdom and a war may break between the two countries. He couldn't possibly ask the woman he loved to go through all those sufferings to be with him.

That was why Kaoshin decided to serve in the military and devoted himself to the Akkadian empire. He wanted to protect Arreya after she became the queen of Akkadia. And for ten years, never once he opened his heart for another woman.

Because he was focused on his work in the military to get over his love for Arreya, Kaoshin quickly accomplished so much that he rose to become the youngest general in Akkadian history.

As a respected general, he was invited to attend major royal events. That was why, tonight he could be present at the royal palace to attend the party to celebrate Princess Arreya and Prince Darius's upcoming nuptials.

Tonight was the saddest night in Kaoshin's life. He must give up the woman he loved to marry another man. However, he steeled his heart and came anyway.

Seeing the man she loved looking at her with a confused face, Arreya's tears flowed even more profusely.

She is a herbomancer too ...

Arreya already read the thugs' minds. She found out that the girl who beat them up was a multiple-element mage. She fought them with pyromancy and electromancy. Arreya could also confirm that the mysterious girl was also using telemancy to ask for help.

So, she is an electromancer, pyromancer, and telemancer ... like Arreya herself.

And she's a herbomancer too ....

Like Kaoshin.

Like her father.

"Your Highness? Are you unwell?" Kaoshin moved towards Arreya with a worried face. He had never seen Arreya behave like this. What the hell happened?

Arreya didn't have time to answer, because suddenly they heard footsteps and people entered the warehouse,

"Kaoshin ... where is Prince Licht?" A man with a serious face and a neat appearance immediately appeared, followed by several officers. His gaze looked worried. As soon as he saw Therius who was sitting on the floor with his body full of injuries, he immediately approached the boy and checked his condition. His face winced in anger. "Bastards!!! Who dare do this to General Wolfland's son? They're courting death!"

"Leon ... the evil people are over there, but they have been beaten to a pulp. Don't worry about them. Now, you just focus on healing Prince Licht," said Kaoshin in a firm voice. He immediately turned his attention to Arreya who still looked shocked. "Your Highness... you better sit down and rest. You look unwell."

"I-I'm fine ..." said Arreya in a halting voice. But her body staggered about to fall. Luckily Kaoshin was very alert. He had caught the beautiful woman's body and carried her to a clean place. Very carefully he sat Arreya on a chair.

'Kaoshin ... that girl is our child.' Arreya looked at the general with teary eyes. She was overflown by her love for this man, and she could no longer hold back her feelings. She talked to him using telemancy with great difficulty, as her mind was in a mess. 'I read her mind right before she disappeared. She is our daughter...'

Kaoshin was stunned by Arreya's words. For a moment his mind couldn't work.

Their daughter? His and Arreya's? How was it possible?

Tomorrow, Arreya would marry Prince Darius.

'Do you see how beautiful our child is? She is a multiple-element mage. She is a telemancer, pyromancer, electromancer and.. a herbomancer like you," said Arreya. Tears were flowing down her cheeks incessantly.

When Kaoshin finally could digest what Arreya said, his eyes were filled with tears too. He loved this woman very much and he had always devoted his life to Arreya. Now, listening to this shocking revelation, his heart was filled with conflicting emotions.

He and Arreya had a daughter?

No wonder he had thought that mysterious girl looked so familiar.

'I cannot marry Darius. If I marry him ... our child will not be born,' said Arreya a few moments later.

Kaoshin felt his chest tighten. What did Arreya say just now?

'You ... want to cancel the wedding?' Kaoshin asked with a longing expression.

If only he was alone with Arreya in the warehouse, he would have embraced that woman and vented his longing for her.

But unfortunately, there were many witnesses here.

'We have to go,' said Arreya firmly. 'I don't want anything to happen to our child.'

.

.

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From the author:

Now, we have come in a full circle. Apparently, the reason why Arreya and Kaoshin suddenly decided to leave Akkadia and elope, was because they saw their daughter. They were originally set to live a different life. Arreya would marry Darius and become the queen of Akkadia, while Kaoshin served the country in the military.

However, they immediately changed their mind because they knew they had to go and be together, otherwise, their daughter could not be born.

Do you remember, how Arreya kept telling little Emma 'not to be sad' before they left her on earth? This is what she meant. When she saw her daughter in the past, Arreya couldn't forget how sad Emma looked.

At that time, she didn't know that Emma was devastated because of their deaths in the future. But, when she was faced with the decision to kill herself in order to save Emma, Arreya immediately understood what happened.

She finally understood why Emma looked so sad when she came to see them in the past. Emma was mourning for them.

Kaoshin already passed away and Arreya would die soon, and Emma would go to the past. That's why she didn't hesitate to kill herself, so everything could happen.

Arreya knew she had to die, so Emma could come to the past and meet her and Kaoshin, on the night before the wedding. And that's why she recognized Xion as the Time Master when they met for the first time in the Aguilar Wilderness.

Kaoshin and Arreya eloped, so Emma could be born. And Emma went to the past, to see her parents, so they would leave Akkadia. Time traveling is a fascinating thing, and even though this story is fiction, I really love the time-traveling aspect in this story. The what-ifs are very interesting.