Lola was used to seeing Izu and his team training. They often trained even back in Novera. It was the reason they got that kind of punishment before. So even when she saw them training here, even more intensively, she wasn’t surprised.
But tonight, something was off.
Lola quietly approached Izu, studying him from head to toe.
Izu wrestled with the dummy, and once he was on top, he punched its head repeatedly. Every jab was stronger than the last until its neck almost snapped.
"Hah!" he exhaled sharply as he threw one final punch, eyes burning, teeth clenched. His head was still filled with the mockery he endured earlier, and he vented it all on the dummy.
But his anger quickly subsided the moment he noticed a figure from the corner of his eye. Snapping out of his thoughts, he turned, and flinched when he saw Lola.
"Izu?" she called gently, tilting her head to the side. "Something... wrong?"
"Madam." He scrambled to his feet immediately, lowering his head before subtly checking if Atlas was nearby.
Seeing his reaction, she smiled. "Atlas is inside," she said warmly. "I was looking for the twins."
"Oh." He snapped his eyes back to her. "About the Young Master and the Young Miss—they were in the greenhouse with Haji and Sir Slater."
"The greenhouse, huh?" she hummed, rocking her head. "I see."
But Lola didn’t leave. Instead, she smiled and clasped her hands behind her back, walking playfully toward him with her upper body tilted to the side.
"Are you okay?" she asked with a soft smile. "You seem upset."
Izu pressed his lips into a tight line. "I am alright, Madam. Just a little tired from training."
"If that dummy were a person, I’d say it’s overkill," she quipped. "Look at its neck."
He glanced at the training dummy, only now realizing how completely he had wrecked it. He shifted his attention back to her and let out a quiet sigh.
"I was just training," he said simply. "I’ll have another round of running with the team. I’ll excuse myself first."
With that, Izu walked away after giving her a short bow. Lola watched him leave with her arms crossed under her chest.
"Something is bothering him," she murmured, pouting a little. "I wonder why people’s moods have been odd lately."
Earlier, it was Slater whose mood was off. Now, it was Izu. But clearly, Izu was keeping something from her, which she understood.
Since Lola was already used to Izu, Atlas had given him and his team the special task of looking after her temporarily. For Atlas, Lola would adjust better if she were surrounded by familiar people.
She understood him because when Atlas arrived here, everything had been new to him.
If not for Allen, he wouldn’t have known anyone in this foreign place far from home.
In the middle of her thoughts, Lola suddenly heard Chacha yelling from a distance.
"Mommy~!"
Lola turned toward the direction instinctively, only to see a huge black creature sprinting straight at her.
"Huh?" Her brows knitted as it barreled toward her. After a beat, her breath hitched as she caught sight of a pair of golden eyes glinting in the dark.
A black panther.
"Shit," she breathed, her mind screaming at her to run and hide, but her body wouldn’t move.
After trying to survive all these years, she thought. Am I just going to die here?
Where did this thing even come from?
"!!!!"
Holy... shit...
VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The Billionaire Twins Need A New Mommy!