“Huh?”
Hunter was taken aback by Jace’s question. He wondered why Jace had wanted to know Sage’s age.
Jace had sounded serious and sincere. Hunter had no choice but to try his best to recall her age. “I
think ma’am is around… twenty four or twenty-five this year.”
Jace’s eyes shot wide open.
If Sage was indeed twenty-four years old this year, then she would have been fourteen ten years ago.
Could Sage truly have been the girl that had been abducted?
Jace felt his chest tighten. As if struck by lightning, his ears began to ring as memories washed through
him.
Regaining his composure, Jace made a call to Yoel. As soon as Yoel answered, Jace asked bluntly,
“Do you remember the secret mission at Cloud Forest ten years ago?”
Yoel, who was on the other end of the call, had just returned to Riverside City and was in the middle of
a discussion with his father about the horse racing track. At Jace’s question, he was slightly taken
aback.
Pausing, Yoel replied, “You mean the mission where we were sent to save the abducted young girl?”
“Yeah, that.”
Staring at the documents, his vision grew blurry, and his mouth grew dry. Jace asked, “Do you still
remember what the young girl looked like?”
“It’s been so long, how could I remember.”
Trying hard to recall, Yoel said, “I only remember the information that we had been given. The girl was
fourteen. Everything else about her family and her background had been classified information. Damn,
I remember being terrified of not being able to make i tout alive of Cloud Forest. That was quite a risky
mission, wasn’t it? Our opponents were formidable, and I remember that our team had gotten
separated. You had to enter their territory to save the girl, right?”
Despite the years that have passed after his discharge, just the thought of the days spent on the
battlefield was still able to make Yoel’s blood boil.
“But why are you suddenly asking about this?” Yoel asked, puzzled.
Getting to his feet, Jace walked over to the window. He was lost in the past.
He too remembered what an extremely difficult mission it had been. Their enemy had been a group of
international mercenaries who were notorious for their cruelty and ruthlessness. He remembered being
confused as to why they would kidnap a young girl.
A team of ten soldiers including Yoel and him had been sent on a mission to rescue the girl.
Both he and Yoel had just turned twenty. They were at an age when they had been full of vigor, and
they had been fearless.
When the team dispersed, one of his teammates had his back as he entered the enemy’s territory to
save the girl.
He estimated the number of opponents and realized that his chances of survival were low, but he had
no other option apart from having to risk his life. It was a battle of life and death. However, as soon as
he entered the territory, he saw that the girl had already killed one of her kidnappers with a knife.
She had been held hostage for more than twenty days. Her kidnappers had taken her as they had run
across the country. She had looked ragged, and she was all skin and bones. Her body was almost
entirely covered with bruises and bloodstains.
However, the seemingly weak girl had attacked her opponent, swiftly slitting her kidnapper’s throat
open.
She recognized him as someone who had been sent to save her. The first thing she said to him was,
“Give me a gun.”
Right after that, both of them fought alongside each other and wiped out the group of kidnappers.
He had never met such a fearless young girl. Not only was she swift, but she was a good marksman as
well. Just when Jace wanted to praise her, she fell into his arms, looking all exhausted and worn out.
He had then carried her out of the woods. She had lain in his arms weakly, smiled, and asked for his
name. She had then promised him that she would return his kindness.
He told her, “I’m Jace Yuriel. You don’t owe me anything. Just promise me that you’d stay alive, well,
and healthy.”
Underneath the bright sun’s rays, her big and round eyes glimmered.
Jace came back to his senses when Yoel spoke. A flicker flashed across his eyes as he cleared his
throat and said, “What if I told you that Sage was that young girl?”
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda