Chapter 1550: Golds’ Letters (Part 1)
Later that night, in the Gold’s Villa, the family members—at least those who were nearby— congregated in the living room.
This was Zaol, his wife, Hilda, Olga, and Otto.
The rest of the family was out doing business. Honda, on the other hand, had extracurricular activities in school and took extra music classes with his friends.
(It was said that a person was the culmination of the friends they made, and it was obvious their Honda was surrounded by good kids.)
Anyway, they were all sitting there and staring at a letter held by the patriarch.
"The letter is here... finally..." Zaol said, shakily holding the letter a guard sent them. It had just arrived from the Post Office, and it was a letter from Hassen City.
Since finding out his sister was alive, how could he not find a way to contact her?
However, he and the family were too well-known in the area—particularly with Octavia’s marriage to their heir—to go themselves. So Zaol sent Silva there instead.
He left even before Alterra became a Town, but they were aware that Alterra was upgrading soon, and getting a Post Office was an obvious choice upon upgrading, so they did not worry too much about communication.
In the Post Office, one simply had to choose from the list of territories with a Post Office, and then write down the real name of the recipient for it to send properly.
If there was someone who shared the same name, any more clues or indications were to be placed on the envelope itself. As for whether the letter would reach the actual target would depend on the efficiency and the safety practiced in the receiving territory, which wasn’t a problem in Alterra, which had a lot of set-ups in place.
In this case, Silva addressed the letter to one of the Alterran guards instead, and they spoke in vague terms that might not be too clear even when one read closely, but at the same time would not trigger much suspicion at all.
There were so many letters going in and out of a City that it was unlikely for the Lord or their assigned people to notice anything amiss unless they specifically watched out for letters from specific people. For example, the Golds
.Anyway, he asked Silva to be as low-key as possible. In the end, his sister lived there and it wouldn’t be easy to pull them from right under the Lord’s nose. If the bastard there determined they had contact, then he’d definitely make Zinnia’s life more miserable.
So, after a few months of settling there, Silva finally sent them news.
/I am finally with your friends in the City. It seems like things are as usual. The Flower is wilting but strong, and the youngest seed has sprouted well./
Translation: He has managed to enter the palace, and Lady Zinnia is in his sight. She is understandably weak, but she is holding on, while her son grew up admirably.
Zaol shook and held back tears, covering his face. Gaia sighed and patted his back, while his children left to give him space.
Their father was still a man, after all, and he would rather not show weakness in front of his children.
The moment the children disappeared from the room, the tears finally fell.
Gaia smiled gently, placing her chin on his shoulder.
Zaol wouldn’t lift his head for a long time after that.
...
Later that night, the old couple lay in their large bed, unable to sleep.
"There are so many questions in my mind," Zaol said, sighing. His eyes were still red from crying.
"If I had gone to see her body for myself... would I have seen it?"
The lingering guilt would always be there, not until he could ensure she was living well.
It didn’t matter if seeing her corpse was not easy, and it didn’t matter what his circumstances were at the time.
At the time, he was still young and suddenly had the fate of the family thrust on his shoulders. It was not an option for him to leave, especially when he had allegedly missed her funeral already.
His family and brothers had killed each other; he was the only heir left. He was pushed into a world he was absolutely not prepared for at all, and he could not even properly process the loss of his beloved sister.
The Golds, after all those decades of infighting, were a bit of a mess. There were too many things to fix, too many people to handle, and he was too weak to be able to do it alone.
It did not help that their own Lord—though this was something he found much later—had been fuelling the conflicts from behind. He was even supporting other families to trip them down, just to control the already growing influence of the family, slowly taking some back bit by bit.
It took him more than a decade to properly get a hold of the reins.
And this was already with Gaia’s help. Without it, it was estimated he’d have taken longer.
However, it was not an excuse.
Even if life was hard, at least he was relatively free—at least most of his choices, after becoming patriarch, were his.
His sister, on the other hand—
How much did she have to suffer because of his incompetence?
Gaia felt he was spiraling and wrapped her arms around him. "It is their fault—those two evil Lords—not yours."
"I was so careless... that was decades, Gaia," he said, voice cracking. "Zinnia suffered for decades."
"She would’ve married anyway; we could not control everything," Gaia said, tone stern. She turned to him and patted his chest. "All you can do now is hope to give her a better life for the latter half of her life."
Their lifespans were long. Although Zinnia’s level probably hadn’t been raised too much as a neglected wife, her remaining lifespan should still be relatively long. They could just aim to erase those sufferings for the future her.
"Go to sleep, my husband, you have a lot to do to make up for it."