They watched the sunrise through a thick canopy of trees.
"That's out of the blue."
Canute brushed off the snow from his fur cloak.
"..."
"I heard a bit from Johannes. What happened between the two of you?"
After a few minutes of silence, they resumed the march towards the sanctuary of chaos-ridden.
"Ray, Eiran, and I the three of us were from different worlds. Ray belonged to the society of nobles while I was a mere commoner who by fate met those two. Eiran was the child of a prostitute who was abandoned in the slums. He was a child who followed only the law of survival."
"....."
Chaol chuckled.
"One fateful snowy day, I was out on an errand for my brother. While passing through the streets, among a crowd of people I caught a glimpse of a noble's carriage. Inside the carriage sat a Lord with his obedient son. That was my first seeing him in my life. The carriage stopped. While I admired the sight of the luxurious carriage, behind me from the alley I heard desperate cries for help. I ran in the direction where I heard those painful moans. I was alarmed to see a boy of my age helplessly sat there against the wall carrying a bleeding toddler in his arms."
Johannes' voice interrupted them.
"We'll shortly set up a camp at the foot of the mountain. Take a short break and prepare yourselves. We will be reaching our destination within the next two days."
"Yes Sir!"
"That man never gets tired."Canute smiled faintly.
" So, please continue."
"Ahh, yes. The lieutenant gives similar vibes as Eiran did. Even more amusing was how he tried to heal the wounded child despite being in danger himself. I rushed to his rescue giving a blowing kick which those slum rascals deserved. Within a flash, there was someone who gave a blowing kick effective enough to knock those slum rascals out cold."
—"And that would be none other than the ice-cold commander, Lord Raymond. How typical."
Canute thought.
"You guessed it right," Chaol smirked which gave chills to Canute.
"I haven't said a word about it."
Chaol laughed.
"Who else would be there? You joined the dots perfectly."
"Did I?" Canute scratched his head smiling cluelessly.
"We managed to chase them away from those two. Then Lord Adelard entered. He quietly observed the whole situation and smiled. He came forward and patted our shoulders appreciating our courage. But his eyes were focused on Eiran who didn't even bat an eye on us. We stood there in silence until he was done with curing the wounded child. Then the commander knelt down and asked him if he would come with him with his brother.
Eiran was hesitant, but accepted the Commander's offer. This was just the beginning. When Eiran and his self claimed younger brother were taken in by the Count as Ray's adopted brothers, they would often meet up with me in our secret meeting place. Later on, both of them were given a good scolding by the usually gentle countess for running off uninformed. Days went by, we entered our eighteenth year. It was their time to debut in high society. But the two of them never left me out. On the day of their debutant, both of them prioritized me over the nobles who came from the neighboring cities to attend the debutante ball. They were by my side until the estate knights came searching for the two young lords of Adelard. You should've seen the wrath of the countess.
" Yeah, I somewhat can correlate mother and son."Canute smiled awkwardly turning blue.
" At the same time, Eiran was engaged to Ray's younger cousin. Those days were like a dream. But not long before it ended up with a nightmare. That was when it was our first mission out of the city walls. We were teamed up as a three-man team. Luckily it was the three of us. The knight, Ray, the mage me, and finally the healer Eiran. We made a perfect team. During the mission due to our miscalculation, we lost a number of valuable lives and the mission ended up in defeat. Among the dead was the Commander and Eiran who tried to protect us from the beast's grip. Ray who was naive for the first time cried out in his life. We parted ways on the day of the funeral. And not long after The funeral, his beloved fiance and younger brother were found dead near the city walls. Their mana was completely sucked out from their bodies.
Ray was only left with a mother who no longer could look after herself and grieved over her husband and children's death. To the point, she started to blame her own son for their lives. That's how he turned out to be like this. Cold-hearted, but kind enough to lay down his own life for his comrades. So this was the cruel past behind his current situation. His mother still nags him to find a suitable bride. But he refused to meet any other woman. He still grieves over sister Emilia's death."
"Emilia?" Canute raised a brow.
"His fiancee." Chaol smiled faintly.
"She was gorgeous second to our crowned ice princess. Thats my personal opinion though."
Chaol chuckled blushing a little.