The Extra of The Lunerra

Chapter 426 - 59: Family History

Laute…

It’s a name I’ve never heard in my life.

But Aiden said it in such an emphatic, important tone that my attention was immediately drawn to it.

"What the hell is Laute?"

Aiden began fiddling with his cane, then simply answered my question as he continued to move his eyes around the office.

"A family of elves. Quite a famous one, in fact, so even though it’s not surprising that you hadn’t heard of them considering ’you’, I expected the name to at least sound familiar."

I pushed my memory even harder, wondering if I had ever heard of them before, at least once, or not...

"No... it doesn’t sound familiar. It just... resembles Alice’s last name, that’s all."

Aiden stopped his eyes on a certain painting. Then he seemed to point at it with his eyes.

The painting he was looking at... was a woman. Continue your saga on NovelBin.Côm

An old woman with sky-blue eyes and silver hair like mine. She was an elf, but she was also... beautiful, even though she was obviously old.

"She is your grandmother, Mylenia Laute."

He took his eyes off the painting, but I... I couldn’t do it for a while.

My grandmother, huh...

"Let’s get this straight first, Adrian. I’m going to tell you a few things about your family, and you’re... not going to like it. Not at all. So don’t expect to hear good things from me, prepare yourself for the opposite. Do you understand?"

I couldn’t stop my whole body from shaking involuntarily.

It was scary, what he was saying.

Still... I nodded my head up and down in approval.

And Aiden... stopped fiddling with his cane. He leaned it against the table to steady it, then told me to sit across from him.

He was so serious that I didn’t argue or question what he said. I simply sat down in the single guest armchair across the table from him, trying to prepare myself for what I was about to hear... even if I failed a little at that as I had no idea what it was.

"First of all... let’s start with your grandfather."

He simply tapped his finger on the table.

And, suddenly, a holographic screen opened in front of us.

Aiden performed a quick operation on this screen that I couldn’t quite understand. Then a photograph of someone appeared between us.

An old and charismatic-looking man with the same eyes and hair color as me.

"This is your grandfather, Rian Laute. Your father’s father."

My mind went back in time for a brief moment. To a... story. A story my father told me, a story I had seen in a dream.

My father... he must not have been on very good terms with my grandfather. I guessed as much from that dream.

But what I didn’t guess...

"The most powerful elf on Lunerra, leader of the Laute Family, a noble family known as the guardians of the Kingdom of Eshaware until forty years ago... and one of the most wanted criminals on the planet at the moment."

"A... criminal?"

"Eshaware, as you know, is a kingdom ruled by elves. And, forty years ago, Rian Laute... had a disagreement with the king over a certain issue. Then he left the kingdom with his family and followers to flee to Cevilian. But Cevilian didn’t accept them, they joined forces with the Eshaware. So Rian Laute... fled again, slaughtering many elves and humans in his pursuit. He is thought to be hiding somewhere within the borders of Cevilian, but where that is has never been found."

I just remembered what he called this place...

Laute Manor.

"Is this... where they’re hiding?"

"Exactly."

Both he and I paused for a brief moment, as if he was giving me... time to digest what I had heard. And I gladly took that time.

"So... I come from a family of elven nobility, but this family is hiding from the entire planet, seen as criminals... is that correct?"

"It is. But, at the same time... don’t think their only crime is running away. They’re into some pretty messy stuff, too. They keep in touch with Saligia, for example... and they help each other."

After what he said, I suddenly realized why he thought I wouldn’t like what he had to say.

Because... I didn’t, really.

Although I had occasionally wondered about my family’s origins, I had never felt an intense need to know about it.

I didn’t... care, really.

But... to think that they were someone like that...

Involuntarily, it made me disgusted with the people I had learned were my family.

Not my parents, of course... although I didn’t know how ’guilty’ they were.

Still, when I thought of my father fighting with my grandfather and even having to run away from him... I couldn’t think of them as bad people.

"Go on, Aiden."

And he did.

"Rian Laute’s... wife, your grandmother, died shortly after the birth of their first child. So Rian and his son, Ethil Laute, were left alone."

Ethil... Laute.

He got my father’s name right, even though I never told him that.

And even though I thought he had never lied... this proved to me once again that what I had heard was true.

"Rian raised his son with great care. He realized that he wasn’t as talented or as full of potential as he was, but he didn’t mind too much. Because he was still a lot, and I really mean a lot, talented. Just not as much as he was."

My father... he was actually more powerful than I thought, huh...

"Ethil Laute grew up into his twenties without any problems. He learned the family business, of course... and this may upset you a bit, but even though he knew what he was doing was not ’good’, he didn’t mind it too much. In short, he had no problem inheriting the family as it was."

I squinted, and the image of my father came to me. And... what a good father he was, actually.

And yet... someone who was willing to take over a family of criminals, and even had no problem with it?

Aiden... was absolutely right that I wouldn’t like what I was about to hear...

"But then Rian started asking his son to get married. Ethil’s view on marriage was not as warm as his father’s. So, one day, they had a fight about it. And Ethil ran away from home, hiding his identity from his father for a while."

Ah, this...

"And while living anonymously, he encountered a low-level dungeon. Then there was a dungeon break, and Ethil Laute managed to rescue one of the people who came to investigate the dungeon. And this person is... a human woman of his own age."

That’s exactly what my father told me in that dream.

"Ethil... was not interested in marriage, but he started spending time with this woman and became close to her. Around this time, he went back to his father. He was able to discuss and come to an agreement with him not to bother him about the marriage, and the matter was postponed. In the meantime, Ethil continued to meet the woman in secret. But he couldn’t keep the relationship secret forever. His father found out about her and that she was a ’human’."

Completely the same, even...

"You know that children of elves and humans are often born with genetic defects because of racial differences. That’s why such relationships are frowned upon by the world. And that’s why Rian Laute went mad and had a huge fight with his son. As a result... Ethil ran away from home once again."

…

"He continues the relationship. In fact, he gets so close to this woman... that one day he finds out she’s pregnant. Maybe you remember I told you that you have an older sister. This child... is your sister. And miraculously, she was born without any extreme genetic defects, only with a disease that requires her to take a certain medication for the rest of her life. It also severely limits her potential to be stronger, though. But that didn’t matter much to the family."

"What mattered... was that Rian found them..."

Aiden paused for a moment, raising his eyebrows at me as if he didn’t expect me to continue the story.

"Yes, he did. He decided that his son was no longer the son he knew. So, first, he killed his daughter-in-law, then he attacked his son and granddaughter. Ethil survived with very serious injuries but lost his memory. After the fight with his father, his body was never found, but he actually managed to escape. But his daughter, your sister... was left in the hands of Rian Laute."

So... doesn’t this mean that she is probably dead?

"Ethil woke up with amnesia and wandered around aimlessly for a while. Then he was found by a farming family and even came to live with them. During this time, he also became close to the daughter of the farmers’ family, had an affair with her while he was still amnesiac, and got her pregnant. He then marries her and takes her last name because he can’t remember his own."

"Caleo..."

"The farming family was quite old, so they passed away peacefully shortly after the marriage of their daughter and Ethil. After their death, though, Ethil slowly began to regain his memories. Sometime later, when their son, you, was born, he was able to remember everything. Fearing they would be found, and not wanting to see his new family destroyed like before, he left the farm and settled with them in a rather secret place in a forest."

Aiden sighed deeply, leaned back in his chair, and narrowed his eyes. He switched the photo of my grandfather on the table, pressed something again, and did something.

And then...

"And that’s the house where you lived with them until you were nine."

A photograph of that house hidden in the forest suddenly appeared in front of us.

I just stared at it, not saying anything, not even reacting.

But... there was a detail I realized.

Why was this photo of this house... here?

Neither Aiden nor I said a word in the silence that lasted for seconds.

And then...

"Yes, Adrian. You guessed right."

I gritted my teeth, trying hard not to break my fist on the table.

Because...

"It was your grandfather who gave the order to kill your father... although he didn’t know you and your mother existed."