When Noah got back inside from his bath, wearing his pajamas, he took a seat in the living room to wait for his father. After waiting for a bit, his mother came in with his father close behind. His mother went to the kitchen to put away the dishes she had just cleaned. His father came into the living room, set his spear down, and walked over to Noah, saying, "So, where do you want to do this?"
"Let's talk in my room." Noah responded, looking over at the kitchen.
"Alright then." Sean responded, went over and grabbed his spear. Noah got up and headed towards the staircase, looking over to see if Sean was ready. Sean gave a swift nod to Noah, and Noah began to head up the stairs with his father following behind him.
When they got into Noah's room, Noah set his spear down with his father setting his spear next to Noah's. Noah went over and sat on his bed, and his father went and grabbed Noah's desk chair and asked, "So where do you want to start?"
"I want to know why William acted the way he did." Noah said with a sigh, "I know that his father got killed by Nightmare, but I still don't understand why he gets so furious that he doesn't think clearly."
"Let me start this by asking a question." Sean said after a short pause, "How would you feel if I got killed by Nightmare?"
After thinking for a little bit Noah said, "I would be furious and want revenge. I would probably do anything to get that revenge."
"So do you have a bit more understanding now?" Sean asked.
"Yeah, I do. However, I'm still confused on why William just seemed so angry. It just doesn't make sense." Noah responded.
"Well, imagine not having a father for four years, living in a region that is ruled by his killer and not being able to do anything about it. But when you finally start on your goal of revenge, your biggest rival has a very supportive father in a high position. That, and watching the other kids who have their fathers enjoying their time with them, probably ate him alive." Sean explained.
Noah nodded in response, and, after thinking for a bit, said, "That makes sense. If I had to be in that position, I probably would've acted the same."
"It's good that you understand his position now." Sean said, "However, I do have to say that he is blinded by revenge. He's not thinking about how he'll get his revenge, he's only thinking about getting it as soon as possible. I'm afraid he's going to get himself killed because of it."
Noah nodded in response and said, "I kinda understand what you're saying. However, there's not much that can be done, if anything. He'll probably reach Nightmare's lair by the time anyone we send will get to the foot of the mountain. We just have to hope for the best case scenario."
Sean chuckled to himself after Noah finished and responded by saying, "I don't need a teenager to tell me that." He finished with a laugh, "Sorry if you find that mean, but I know the situation. It's frustrating to think about the fact that I can't do anything to help fix this situation, and I can only wait for what happens. I hate having my only option be to sit and wait while a teenager with so much potential goes and throws their life away. I can't help but have this feeling that I've failed him. I delayed his graduation exam to dissuade him from trying something like this, but look at what that caused."
"Dad, calm down." Noah firmly said, slightly raising his voice. He knew how much his father cared about the guard apprentices. He spent a lot of time making sure each apprentice gets the best mentor for them, and he spent even more time making sure that they would grow into good people. "You didn't fail him, at least I don't think you did. The only thing I think you failed was your approach to him."
"What do you mean?" Sean asked, confused.
"Knowing you, you probably tried to deter William from getting his revenge, correct?" Noah confidently asked.
"That would be correct, that is what I did." Sean answered.
"That is where you went wrong. You should've used his desire for revenge as motivation to become a good guard." Noah advised.
"But what concerns about that approach, is the possibility of him being too caught up in his revenge to worry about anything else." Sean responded after thinking for a bit.
"The problem would most likely solve itself. You have to take it slow and get to know him in order to do it correctly." Noah knowledgeably said.
"But what if that doesn't work? What if he's too obsessed with revenge to change?" Sean worriedly asked.
"Then you can kick him out. A guard shouldn't be obsessed with revenge, their priority should be to protect what they care about." Noah firmly said.
"But then it would look like I had given up on him. That I didn't do my best to help him" Sean emotionally said.
"Who cares about how it would look? What matters is that he isn't fit to be a guard. People would care more that you let someone who doesn't care about protecting people be a guard than if you kicked someone out." Noah quickly responded.
"But that doesn't change the fact that I would've failed him." Sean depressingly said.
"But you wouldn't fail him. You would've done your best, and he would've failed himself. You can't force people to change, they will only change if they want to." Noah firmly responded.
After thinking for a small while, Sean said, "Thank you for this conversation, it has helped me sort out how I feel quite a bit."
"No problem dad, as your son I am here for you to talk to anytime I am available." Noah responded with a smile on his face.
"Thank you." Sean said with a nod. He then got up from where he was sitting, put the chair back where it was, and walked over to the door. Before he opened the door and left the room, he said, "I'll see you tomorrow. You can sleep in, I'm not going to have you work tomorrow. Good night."
"Good night." Noah responded as Sean excited the room. After he had left, Noah sat deep in thought about the conversation that had just taken place for a while before going to sleep.
* * *
Noah woke up the next morning as the sun was rising. He didn't sleep in as he was used to waking up at this time, so he just laid in his bed for a while before getting up. Once he got up, he quickly stretched, and got dressed. After he got dressed, he looked out the window to see what the time was, and he saw that the sun was about a third of the way up in the sky. He sighed before heading out of his room and downstairs.
Once he got into the living room, he saw his mother in the kitchen preparing breakfast. He walked over into kitchen and said, "Good morning."
"Oh! Good morning, I didn't notice that you came down here." His mother said, a bit shocked.
"Well, I just got down here so I don't blame you for not noticing." Noah responded with a small smile.
"Well it doesn't matter when you got here, come sit down, I'm almost done making breakfast." His mother said. Noah nodded and sat down where he normally sat. After a little bit, his mother came over to the table with two plates of scrambled eggs. She set one down in front of Noah and set the other one on the table across from him. She then went over to a drawer, opened it, and grabbed two forks out of it before sitting down at the table.
They ate in relative silence for a small while as Noah was very focused on eating as he was quite hungry. Once he was halfway done with his plate, Noah began to eat slower. Once Noah began to eat slower, Lucia asked, "So how did your adventure go?" Noah stopped eating once he heard this, and he sighed, putting his head down into his hand. "Oh, I'm sorry." Lucia said, seeing what Noah did. "Was it a bad question?"
Noah sighed again before moving his hand down and looking up at his mother. "No, it wasn't a bad question." He said, shaking his head. "Where do I begin?"
* * *
It took about half an hour for Noah to tell his adventure. As he got to the end of his story, his tone became darker and darker. When he finished, Luicia got up from her seat, came around the table, and enveloped Noah in a hug. Noah's eyes were wide with shock as he was not expecting for something like this to happen. After a bit, Lucia let Noah go and took a step back, saying "I can only imagine how hard that was for you. But now that you're here I am going to do everything I can to make your life as peaceful and relaxing as possible until you start feeling better." Noah was nearly standing completely still in shock after hearing this, but he managed to nod his head in thanks.