Chapter 233: Breaking her Heart

“Stone, do you like it?”

FreshwindElara swayed his arm gently as she spoke, her voice low and playful as she sought his approval. The gesture carried a natural, girlish charm, her coy smile revealing just how much his opinion mattered to her. When she saw the captivated look in his eyes, a bright wave of happiness spread across her beautiful face, impossible to hide.

For a woman, one of the greatest joys was being cherished by the man she loved. Her proudest moment was earning his approval, and the sweetest reward was hearing his praise.

“Mhm. You’ve become an angel.”

Marcus nodded, taking her delicate hand in his and giving her a warm, affectionate smile. He truly had not expected that she had been using a lowered appearance setting all this time.

“Stone…”

If they had not been standing in the middle of a crowded street, FreshwindElara would probably have thrown herself straight into his arms. Instead, she could only lower her head slightly as a blush crept across her cheeks, making her look even more enchanting.

She stood close beside him, her lovely figure softly outlined beneath flowing white robes. A faint, sweet fragrance drifted from her, subtle but unmistakable, wrapping around him with a strangely comforting warmth. What she did not realize was that someone like Marcus had very little resistance when it came to beautiful women. Her playful affection, offered so openly, was a temptation that required real effort for him to ignore.

“Elara, where are you headed?” he asked, deliberately changing the subject before his thoughts wandered too far. He was genuinely worried that if the moment lingered any longer, he might end up kissing her right there in the middle of the street.

Fortunately, the surrounding crowd had already begun to disperse.

After the initial shock of seeing such a beautiful woman appear beside Marcus, most of the onlookers had quickly lost their enthusiasm for staying. Watching the knight they called Stone grow closer and more intimate with her only stirred jealousy and quiet frustration in their hearts. Lingering any longer would only make the scene harder to watch, so one by one, they chose to leave.

“I was leveling with my brother when we ran into Icefall and Firebrand doing a small quest,” FreshwindElara explained, pointing toward a nearby teahouse. “It looked simple, so I decided to help them out, but it turned out to be a lot more troublesome than we expected. It took several hours before we finally finished. We were just about to take a break.”

She looked back at him with bright eyes.

“Stone, what about you? What are you doing right now? We were planning to have some tea. Want to join us?”

The invitation was certainly tempting.

Spending time with FreshwindElara was something he would gladly do, yet the two twins standing beside her were wearing long faces and clearly looked unhappy. Joining them now would only make the atmosphere awkward, and he doubted any real conversation would come from it. It would be far better to spend time with FreshwindElara alone another day.

“Elara, I still have a few things to take care of. Maybe next time.”

A man had to know his limits. A man also had to keep a bit of self-respect.

His first impression of the twins had actually been quite positive. Their nimble coordination and elegant movements while fighting the Ironwood Treants earlier had left a deep impression on him. However, their attitude toward him now was unmistakably cold. They looked irritated the moment they saw him, as if his mere presence annoyed them.

Since that was the case, the best thing he could do was keep his distance. It would spare them the discomfort and save himself from unnecessary awkwardness.

What he could not understand was why they seemed so upset with him. There had not even been a real conflict between them.

“Alright then. Go finish your business,” FreshwindElara said obediently with a small nod. “We’re going to log off and rest after tea anyway, so I won’t keep you. But you have to hang out with me next time, okay?”

“Okay. See you later.”

Marcus waved casually before turning and hurrying back toward his mansion. His inventory was filled with equipment that needed sorting, and he planned to spend some time organizing everything properly.

As they watched his retreating figure disappear down the street, Icefall and Firebrand felt a sharp ache twist in their hearts.

Their pride felt shattered, and the helpless sadness washing over them was something no one else present could truly understand.

After their last encounter at the Old Vine Auction House, they had been furious when they heard their grandfather’s explanation of what had happened. However, contrary to what Old Vine had expected, the sisters had not given up on the matter.

If anything, the opposite had happened.

Instead of letting the issue drop, they became even more determined to see Marcus again and confront him face to face. For several days they waited at the auction house, hoping he would appear, yet he never once showed up.

With nothing else to do, Icefall and Firebrand eventually contacted FreshwindElara, asking her to join them for a quest. Their real purpose, however, had been to find an excuse to meet Marcus again.

What they had not expected was that FreshwindElara would not be with him, leaving their plan completely pointless.

Now that they had finally run into him again, everything had ended before it even began. Before either of them could react, before they could say a single word, he had already turned around and left.

Seeing how close he seemed with FreshwindElara only made the bitterness in their hearts grow stronger.

They could not understand it.

Why did Stonehaven treat them with such distant indifference, as if he barely noticed them at all? Were they truly so unpleasant that he would rather leave than spend even a moment in their presence?

“Stone, you bastard!”

Firebrand could not hold back any longer.

Neither she nor her sister had ever cared this much about any man before. Yet this knight, Stonehaven, not only ignored them completely but seemed determined to avoid them altogether, breaking their hearts again and again without even realizing it.

—

“Firebrand, what’s wrong? Did someone bully you? Tell Grandpa.”

Old Vine had been busy preparing for the next evening’s auction when everything suddenly turned chaotic.

Not long ago, he had released a system announcement revealing that another Guild Creation Token would be up for auction, along with several pieces of top-tier level 30 blue equipment. Within minutes of the announcement going live, the Old Vine Auction House was flooded with players. Guild leaders from all over the region arrived personally to inquire about the details.

The place had become so crowded and noisy that he could barely accomplish anything.

Left with no choice, Old Vine finally logged out of the game, leaving the system clerks to handle the situation for the time being. His plan had been simple: wait until the frenzy settled down before logging back in to manage the rest.

However, just as he returned to the real world, a servant approached him with an unusual report. Both Icefall and Firebrand had logged out of the game looking extremely unhappy, and they had been in that state for nearly an hour.

Concerned, Old Vine immediately went to their room.

When he stepped inside, he saw Icefall sitting quietly beside the bed. Her expression remained calm and frosty as always, revealing almost nothing about her thoughts. Firebrand, however, was lying face down on the mattress, her brows tightly furrowed as if trying to hold back a storm of emotions.

Faint tear marks were still visible on her cheeks. She had clearly been crying.

“Grandpa, it’s all Stone’s fault! He bullied me!”

The moment she saw him, Firebrand’s composure collapsed again. Tears spilled down her face as she sat up and began pouring out her grievances in a rush of words. In her mind, there was nothing her grandfather could not solve.

“Grandpa, who is this knight, Stonehaven? Do you know him? You have to teach him a lesson for me.”

Old Vine looked at his two granddaughters in silence for a moment.

He already understood.

Both Icefall and Firebrand had fallen for the same man, that knight, Stonehaven.

Icefall’s face remained calm, as it always did. Her inner thoughts were difficult for anyone to read, even for someone as close to her as Old Vine. Yet the bond between the sisters was deep. Firebrand’s emotional outburst was rarely hers alone. More often than not, it reflected feelings that Icefall kept buried beneath her cold exterior.

At the very least, it meant Icefall did not dislike Stonehaven.

’Stonehaven… what kind of person are you really?’

Old Vine could not help recalling the knight he had observed within the game. Marcus appeared lazy and unmotivated most of the time, yet he possessed an unusually sharp mind and a frightening amount of luck. He was the kind of person who always seemed impossible to fully understand or predict.

Looking at the sorrow written across his granddaughters’ faces, Old Vine let out a quiet sigh.

In order to keep them from becoming involved with Marcus, he had secretly tried to sabotage things from the shadows, hoping to prevent any contact between them. Instead, his actions had only made matters worse.

Not only had his plan failed, it had backfired completely.

Now the situation had become a tangled mess, leaving Icefall and Firebrand unable to even speak properly with Marcus, while his two granddaughters were left sitting here with broken hearts.

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