CHAPTER 78: ELLA’S PAST 2

Luka lifted his sword and pointed it right at her. The blade shimmered under the light of the sun; his eyes carried a hate filled with pain. "You better leave now, or it won’t be pleasant for you. You no longer belong here."

At this point, everyone knew that Ella had some sort of past tied to the gutters, and it was clearly something painful. They could see from her expression that she wasn’t happy with the situation.

Seeing her like this somehow made Raze angry. He took a step forward, looking Luka right in the eye as he walked. Luka immediately turned the blade to him and barked a warning, "Stand back. Don’t force my hand." Raze looked at the sword for a second and then kept walking.

"Everyone in life is faced with what we call choices, choices to better themselves, choices to learn, to grow, to live life. You and I, we all make choices.

Some hurt, some shatter hearts, but at the end of the day, it’s our personal choices that matter." Raze then stopped right in front of the blade; it was only a few inches away from his throat. Then he smiled.

"I may not know Ella as long as you do, or know what secrets she might have, but I do know something. Ella made a choice to become a person for herself. She loves magic. She desires to learn magic, to the extent she doesn’t stop bothering me to teach her.

I don’t know what her end goal is yet, but I have to tell you, I love the process so far. She is dedicated, curious, always asking so many questions. And why I love that is because she’s like me, a desire to know the unknown.

I don’t know what she did to you, but I can put two and two together and understand that for some reason, she left, and now you hate her for it. You hate her for desiring to chase her dream."

"Shut the hell up! You know nothing about us! You think it’s that easy? You wear your fancy clothes as a noble and lift your shoulders high, blessed with talent and resources, and then you think you can understand the pain of people like me, the struggles that we go through?

In the gutters, there is only one currency that keeps you alive, the only thing people here respect, and that’s loyalty to your family. And Ella broke that. She shattered it. Tsk." Luka said in anger.

Raze slowly turned his head. He looked at Ella, her eyes teary and red, her clenched fists trembling. He slowly shook his head and then looked back at Luka. "Is that the face of someone who wished to abandon you? Is that the face of someone who wanted to break your heart? I might not know the things she did, but she was evidently broken by it.

I’m not trying to make a case for her, nor do I want to stand as her defense, but I know that the Ella I know wouldn’t do something like that. So seriously think about the past, and find out if, in all honesty, she left in the way you remember," Raze said.

Luka frowned. He gritted his teeth hard, then stretched his hand backward. "Cindy, give me what you took."

Cindy walked up to him without hesitation and placed the pouch in his hands. He immediately handed it to Raze. "Here, take it and leave. You claim it’s what you came for, isn’t it?" he said.

Raze looked at the pouch. He collected it and then opened it, taking out the card and two coins, before handing it back to Luka. Luka looked at the pouch. "Are you trying to insult me? Do I look like a beggar to you?" he asked.

"Rule one of life, never refuse free money, as long as there are no strings attached. Don’t allow your pride to cloud your reasoning and stop your benefit. Take it .as a peace offering," Raze said.

Luka looked at the pouch for a few seconds, then drew a sharp breath and snatched it away from Raze, hanging it on his waist.

Raze nodded at him and then turned around.

"Let’s go," he said. Ella’s gaze met Luka’s for a solid five seconds, she had tears in her eyes, and Luka only had pain. After looking at each other for a bit, Luka looked away.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

"Ho ho ho, what a wonderful display of diplomacy and proper conversation." A deep, gruff voice came from the alley that led out of there.

A tall and massive man walked out, muscles bulging like they would rip the shirt he wore. A large one edged blade lay on his shoulder. He had a face that only a mother could love, looking like he had been smashed into one too many walls. One of his eyes was blind, completely white, and the other was as red as blood.

Behind him were three figures: a lanky, disheveled man with a scar on his face, holding two crooked daggers; a third man, average height, pale skinned like he was dead, with sunken eyes and a depraved expression, his gaze darting around, already skinning the bodies of the women with a disgusting look, wielding a short sword that hung from his waist;

And lastly, another man, tall, average build, the only one who seemed slightly normal, yet his presence was far more uncanny and abnormal for some reason.

"Y’all are having a beautiful meet-up here, and you couldn’t even bother to call ol’ Roger here?" the leader said. He let out a smile as he spoke, showing his yellow teeth.

"Roger, what are you doing here? You and your band of crazy people aren’t allowed here," Luka said.

"Hahahaha, not allowed?" Roger burst into laughter, and his three men followed in his laughter.

"That was never the case, kid," Roger said with a grin.