in the meantime
snob face was walking back to his mansion, he was recalling the events that happened a few minutes ago and was red in embarrassment
"who the hell is that ugly child, jira?"
jira looked at the young sir in question
" he's the other child of julius, sir''
rosta sneered " hah! how dumb of me, of course a pitiful non mage is julius' other son"
jira nodded " do you want me to take care of them sir?"
jira was the loyal guard of sir rosta, he had been protecting the young man since he was born. he felt indebted to the zelos family who took him in when he was an orphan and would do anything for the young sir even if it's entertaining his sadistic side.
jira has already killed many innocent commeners for sir rosta's entertainment. one or two more kids wouldn't chap away at his conscience
"no, you know father has grounded me last time i gutted a commoner, he said that i'm growing a bad reputation between the big noble families" he scoffed
" it's not like they care about commoners! so i don't know why they play so high and mighty!"
jira nodded in silence, he knew when the young sir was having an anger fit it was better to let his cool off on his own. many servants lost their lives not knowing that.
" anyway, father will cool off eventually. i can then personally pay them a visit" rosta smiled cruely
..
eira sighed and started
" let's first go inside the house, i don't want anyone eavesdropping on the conversation"
they nodded and went inside the house, they walked to the living room and the boys sat next to each other on the couch while eira stayed up.
he turned around not able to look into the eyes of zephyr and stared at the fireplace instead
" before the war, the higher ups in the army noticed some confidential information like the border's scouts' routine being leaked to the empire. because of the mole we lost countless scouts and some of our informants in the empire. they decided to start a secret investigation but they halted it when the war broke out" eira took a deep breath
" you might already know, but our unit is a special 100 men unit. we were one of the few special units hand picked by a commander. julius, or captain blamore, was close to one of the commanders. commander vista took a liking to julius back when he was a foot soldier, so he nurtured him and taught him how to wield a spear like the former. captain loved the commander and respected him deeply, because of the latter and his talent julius quickly became known as the genius newbie of the army. then when he was promoted to captain, julius sweared his loyalty to commander vista.
now back to the war, the army led by general toka was fighting the empire's army, we were outnumbered and the general fell. vista and captain blamore were the only leading figures left and the morale of the men plummered. vista then gave us a mission, the 100 men unit under captain blamore were to go to the battlefield next to us and ask for back up.
he also told us to go a different way from the normal, instead of going straight to the left of the planes we were on he asked us to take a detour and walk through the forest that way we wouldn't be intersected by the enemy.
we realized that if we do so, it will take us a whole day to arrive there and the army would be wiped out by then, julius knew but he trusted vista's judgment wholeheartedly.."
vols closed his eyes, he knew where this is going and didn't like it one bit
"we followed orders and went through the forest, many men doubted vista's command and deserted.. now you need to understand that we were low on fume, we had been on the battlefield for many hours we were being massacrred and now we were walking through unknown beasts' territory
anyway, julius didn't listen to the warnings we gave him and he kept trusting vista until his last breath. we were intercepted by an elite unit of the empire, we fought hard but still we were getting wiped out cause we were too exhausted. we knew that vista set us up because an elite squad like that would never have been waiting around in the forest instead of participating in the war. also, some of us have heard rumors about a mole in the army so everything clicked.
julius on the other hand kept fighting believing in vista's word but he realized that we wouldn't survive any longer so he ordered us to retreat while he kept them busy. julius was an amazing water mage. i will never forget the sight of a man standing his ground against 100 others. he truly was deserving of the title genius newbie.."
eira peeked a glance at the boys, vols was sitting calmly holding his brother's trembling hands while zephyr was looking at his lap crying
" i knew commander vista, he came to visit us once.. he came into the house and had dinner with us, he ruffled my hair and told me i had the same light in my eyes as my father"
zeohyr said quietly, vols' hand tightened in anger
' he dares to come into my house and touch MY FAMILY!'
vols was seeing red, the vein in his temple was visible
" what happened to him?" vols growled
eira was surprised by the kid's tone, but answered
" he died in the war"
zephyr looked up and glared at eira " master why did you leave dad?!"
"w-what?'' eira stuttered at the change of attitude
" i asked you WHY DID YOU LEAVE DAD FIGHTING THESE ELITES ALONE, WHY DIDN'T YOU DRAG HIM OUT OF THE FOREST WHEN YOU FIRST HAD YOUR DOUBTS?!" zephyr stood up and looked at eira with bulging red eyes
vols looked at his brother with a slight frown
' i never saw him this angry'
eira was at a loss for words
" WHY DID MY FATHER HAVE TO DIE FOR YOUR INCOMPETENT COMRADES?! HE TRUSTED ALL OF YOU AND PUT HIS LIFE ON THE LINE FOR YOU YET WHEN HE NEEDED YOU THE MOST YOU UP AND LEFT HIM" he continued yelling
"i- i'm sorry kid, i was scared and i wanted to live. i am indebted to julius and will try my best to redeem myself that is why i moved next to your house-"
" THOSE ARE ALL EXCUSES YOU TELL YOURSELF SO YOU COULD SLEEP AT NIGHT"
zephyr grabbed his father's old spear and rushed at his master
eira didn't move and let zephyr stab his leg
blood dripped on the floor as zephyr yanked the spear out
" YOU LEFT MY FATHER TO DIE ALONE AND BEATEN WHILE YOU RAN FOR YOUR LIVES. GIVE ME A REASON WHY I SHOULD NOT KILL YOU NOW"
he lifted the heavy spear with shaky arms
eira's kneeling form didn't move, he was drowning in guilt and despair ever since the war ended. he knew he should've died next to his old friend, he tried to ease his guilt by teaching zephyr how to wield the spear but it only made him realize how similar the boy was to his father. so he felt even more ashamed every time he looked at the growing boy
he heard zephyr's words and was okay with them. he knew he was living on borrowed time, it felt like death always murmured sweet words to him at night whenever he had nightmares about that day.
vols looked at the man and child in front of him. he didn't care about eira before and he didn't now either.
but looking at his tenderhearted older brother threaten to kill his own master didn't sit well with him
he thought about his old life for a second and aaked himselfnwhat would william do again. he kmew william wouldn't try to intervene cause it was nome of his business. bit vols was trying to be everything william wasn't so
he got up from the couch and walked towards his brother
he grabbed the latter's hand that was holding rhe spear up eira's lowered head
zephyr pulled the spear from his nrother's grasp to no avail, he then his looked at him and saw, for the first time, sad eyes looking back at him
" let go of me vols!" he yelled as tears streamed down his face " this man deserves to die, he deserves punishment for what he has done to dad!!"
vols nodded " i know he does, but giving him a quick death is exactly what he wants. look at his eyes zephyr and tell me they're not lifeless.. the guilt is eating away at his soul, he will probably kill himself if you don't today so don't taint your hands with the blood of a coward" vols' harsh words cut deeper than any spear would but eira knew what he said was the truth.
zephyr sobbed and let go of the spear. a loud bang hit their eardrums as the spear touched the floor
eira stood up, his leg still bleeding, and walked out of his house.
zephyr's legs gave up on him. his body ahook as he kneeled on the ground in front of his little brother
" w-why would dad xhoose them over us? he had a family ro come back to, they didn't! why did he c-choose them" he sobbed
vols felt extremely awkward, he never saw his brother break down like that and hated the sight of it
" w-why would he choose s-sir eira and t-the others instead o-of me''
" did he hate his life here that much?!"
" weren't w-we eno.. enough" he kept rambling and punching the wooden floor until his knuckles broke and bled
at that moment vols hated julius, he hated him for being the reason why his brother was crying
and more, he hated himself for keeping quiet and staring at his brother. he hated himself for being so helpless, for he had already broken the promise he made to himself on his first birthday. je wanted to help but he knew that whatever he said would not make zephyr feel any better
so the boys stayed in the same position for an hour until their mother opened the front door
zephyr stopped sobbing a while ago but still hadn't moved from his spot, whereas vols was frozen in fear for he waited for his brother to yell at him for not crying too
yuna looked at the blood on the floor and at zephyr kneeling
her heart dropped and she ran towards him
"what happened here?!!!" she yelled at vols
she shivered as vols looked down at her with a cold stare, she never saw his cold stare before
she wondered if they had a fight..
he turned around before she could say anything and went outside
she snapped out of it when she heard zephyr's hoarse voice " just leave him"
his head was still lowered, his fists busted.
he got up and went to his room, he closed the door and went to bed
yuna looked around at the blood then the front door and the boys' room
' this is no normal brother's fight' she thought
' but both were okay.. i didn't see any wound that would leave so much blood'
she was worried about the trouble the kids had gotten themselves into, but she didn't try to talk to them anymore even after vols came back with a small bottle in his hand and walked inside his room
..
after his mother came back vols went outside to clear his mind
' at times like this i miss cigarettes'
the sun soon sat and the blue sky turned black, a white and red light illuminated the streets. vols still couldn't get used to the night's red and white moons
he went to the merchant's district where he looked for a healing potion for small bone injuries. he purchased one with his allowance's money then went back home
the floor was cleaned from the blood and he saw his mother sitting on the couch looking at the fireplace with absent eyes. he didn't know how to explain to her the events of the afternoon, he didn't know if she knew about the nature julius' death so he ignored her for now and went inside his room.
it was average sized, two beds separated by a nightstand, an armoire, a desk and a small window. he saw his brother laying on his bed with his eyes closed
vols sat on the side of bed next to zephyr's arms and opened the potion's flask, he spilled the content on both zephyr's fist after he rook out the wooden blisters. zephyr's knuckles made a cracking noise going back to their normal place. the swollen hand turned to it's natural color.
'damn, these potions are amazing. i really need to learn alchemy'
vols then pulled out a wet cloth je got feom the bathroom and cleaned the dried blood
"thank you" zephyr said
vols was surprised he wasn't asleep but just nodded
after a moment of silence
" not only for now, but for stopping me before" zephyr sat upright and towered over his little brother
vols threw the clorh on the nightstand amd looked at zephyr
" if you hadn't i don't think i would've had a good night sleep"
vols smiled softly " i know, that's why i did it. that look on your face back then didn't suit you. i'm supposed to be the cold blooded one in the family, not you"
zephyr smiled and shook his head " yeah you're right"
vols looked at him dumbfounded " aren't you supposed to say that i'm as warm as a spring's day?"
zephyr laughed and shook his head " gods no! have you seen your glare when you pounce on me with tour sword?! you even scare me sometimes"
vols grumbled and went to his bed.
"we should talk to mom tomorrow" zephyr said
" yeah" vols replied
and the boys went to sleep
..