There was a place that everyone wanted to explore; many people had dreamed of peaking on the barrier that separates the land of mortal and immortal beings; it was a hidden paradise in a deep valley of high peaks where cabins and cottages were built; it was almost like heaven as people who lived there had such care for nature; the air was always a piece of harmonic music to their ears; and it was called the tribe of Armonia, where beautiful, creative, and powerful people reside.
A tribe that was ruled by a powerful and intelligent leader like no other.
On the peaceful night when the caligo of the darkness had already eaten the sky and all the blanket of stars and the beautiful ethereal crescent-shaped moon-like smiling lips carved from above the wind produced a harmonic psithurism hymn of the leaves that fell from the branches of the trees whenever the breath of the air passed by.
When all of a sudden...
A sonorous voice full of hatred can be heard, screaming at the top of his lungs with a tall figure and blond, shiny hair that was like the sun, fuming in rage while he was standing in front of a wrinkled man who was sitting calmly sipping his tea.
Silence could have been ruling the night, but instead, a crashing sound of things being thrown and hateful words could be heard as they continued to shout at one another.
"Do you think you can keep tying me with your hands?!"
He shouted with a full rage in his voice, tightly gritting his hands and teeth while looking at the man who had such disappointment on his face.
"Rejecting your position for a mere desire, what a fool!!!"
The older guy had shouted as they both faced one another; his words made the boy shake his head in disapproval with a disbelief expression painted on his face.
"It's a human right to be happy and free!! It would never be a mere desire!!!"
He assertively affirmed.
"Do you think I can't leave this place?"
"Ha!"
He sneered.
"I'm done here. I don't want to be your puppet anymore! I will not follow you or any of the officials' orders!"
He shouted as if he had already decided to leave all his power and status for his freedom while looking straight into the eyes of the wrinkled man who was wearing a luxurious-looking fabric paired with a jeweled crown, covering himself with expensive rubies.
"Fool! You're an impudent child who does not know how to repay kindness! I will not keep this conversation for too long, but! remember that you are not the only son I have. If you can't follow your duty, then your brother will do!"
He declared, pointing his index finger at him.
"I'll make sure he will never be someone as weak as you!"
"A FOOL!"
With an acerbic tone of voice, he exclaimed with elegance as he turned his back with such disappointment, but what his son replied had left his blood boiling.
"Pfft…Hahaha, are you sure?"
He laughed as if he were contemptuously mocking his father.
"Dal would soon regret having you as his father!"
*Slap!*
He was hit so hard on the face that it echoed in the room before he could even finish his words.
"Out, get out!"
He furiously pointed at the door with his trembling finger.
"Oh~ right before I forgot, you've never acted like a father in the first place."
He stated, leaving a smirk on his face as he left the room with a furious hostile look in his eyes while he wiped off the blood on his lips as he immediately walked outside the cottage-like palace. Though, he could still hear the lord shouting his name in anger.
"DUKE!"
He threw the vase without even lifting his own hands at the door as soon as he got out.
But his eyes suddenly widen when he notices a six-year-old Dal fidgeting his fingers with both hands, looking at him with a pure innocent look in his aquatic eyes, hiding behind the trees as he runs in a hurry, hugging his brother tightly, which makes Duke form a smile on his lips.
"A-are you leaving?"
Dal stuttered as he spoke.
When he decided to lift his head to look at his brother, that's when he saw a grim expression that he had never even seen before.
Duke didn't hesitate and replied.
"Yes, and I would never be coming back."
It made Dal's eyes tremble in shock, making his galad face turn blue.
"I'm coming with you!"
He shouted, but his brother didn't answer; instead, he took a deep breath and patted his head gently so that Dal could feel the warmth from those touches.
"Dal, promise me one thing."
"You will become too strong and smart to protect yourself."
"Don't do things you don't like, and soon you will find someone who needs your protection."
His brother seemed like a volitient person, and that's when Dal knew that he could never stop his brother from leaving.
"B-but…i-I-"
"Promise me."
Duke spoke as he looked at him with a solemn look in his captivating oceanic eyes. He could feel these feelings of worry in his cold gaze, preventing him from stopping his brother, but even so, he was just a kid, a kid who only knew how to have fun without knowing the harsh truth of reality hiding in this world.
"I-I swear..."
He puts his little pinky finger on his brother's as he gives off a smile while the rest of his face stays still.
"You've grown a lot."
Duke stated, but this time his tone became sweeter as if it were coated in sugar, leaving a luciform smile on his face as he hugged his brother back, gently caressing his hair.
As soon as he let go of his embrace, Duke turned his back without looking at Dal, leaving him in the pitch-black of the night, shouting and begging for his brother to stay while he was being held by the knights with water glistening in his eyes, streaming down his cheek, making his face turn pink.
"Brother, don't go!" *Hic* I will be stronger and smarter, I promise! ...so *Hic* p-please come back! "
That night Dal suffered in great sorrow, wishing that all that had happened would turn into a dream hanging on his brother's word without a hint of its meaning. He was still young and naïve, and even though he knew that his brother would never be back, he still waited for him just like how the stars wait for the moon. Though......Duke never comes back.
Many seasons have passed; it was just summer that turned to autumn, the season his brother left, and the season he reaches the age of seventeen, still waiting for his brother, and when the shortfall turns into winter and spring, waiting for news and hope to come, but none of them happened.
Dal Valene grew up as a strong and smart kid in their tribe who was not like the others; he was famous for his looks and talent. He always works hard and burns himself down, hoping to be praised by his brother the day he comes back. But no one knows when that day will be.
"Woah! Dal, you've already learned how to perform calliope; I'm so jealous~"
The boy beside him expressed in envy.
"Yeah, Dal is so talented, a born genius. I'm so sick of my parents comparing me to you!"
"Hahaha, it was nothing; I'm sure you guys can do it too."
He laughs, but he knows that it was all an act for them to get closer to him and form a relationship out of toxicity and power.
"Ha~ it's easier to say than being done."
The other kid whimpered as he laid himself on the ground.
Suddenly, a boy stood towards them, wearing a furious look on his face.
"Tssk, it was just a basic skill, and all of you are already head over heels for him, showering him with compliments—a bunch of losers!"
He affirmed as if he were better than Dal.
"Ehh? Basic? You're just jealous that you're not as talented as him."
Dal didn't respond and let them argue with each other without caring about the situation.
"Yeah, right."
All of them responded by looking at him with such disgust in their eyes that they left the guy unspoken while his face turned red like a tomato, stomping his feet as he ran out of the scene.
Just when Dal had decided to walk straight towards his room after an early dismissal from his swordsmanship class, he had overheard a lady and his father talking unexpectedly about his brother, which lit up his face and made him want to eavesdrop more on the situation, thinking that his brother would be coming back. But then, the more he listens, the more he finds his face turning bleak as he stands there behind the tree.
"Milord, the whereabouts of the first prince, Duke Valene, have been tracked."
She stopped and hesitated to speak, but the Niteo looked at him in the eyes.
"His Highness Duke has gone wild and acted like a completely different person, and just now he has killed three of our people."
She spoke as she gave off a hint of fright.
"Scroundel! Gather all the talented mages and execute him!"
He declared with his croaky voice, without much thought, which made Dal, who was eavesdropping, turn pale as snow.
Dal didn't have the thought that their father could do such a thing; it made him so furious that he didn't think twice about stealing the map from his comrades' father and immediately escaping from the tribe.
He passes through trees and jumps on the branches, expecting that he could be the one to find his brother. A sleepless night comes where seconds turn into hours, and it even took days to reach the forest that was marked on the map. With pure luck, Dal saw a man with long blond hair like him sway in the air, standing in front of the spring, which made his heart continuously pound.
"B-Brother!"
He hesitated as he shouted. He was so excited that he couldn't understand what he was feeling right now. He was drawn by his emotions without knowing anything that had happened to Duke.
When he was about to go near him, Dal's feet were left glued to the ground. Instead of facing the surreal-like beauty of the face of his bother, what he was facing right now was a hideous-looking monster without eyes that turned his face pale white as if his soul had left its body.
He was facing a monster rather than his brother. The kind gesture of Duke, his sweet, soothing voice and appearance like an angel and a caring brother to Dal he once knew, was gone and had turned into a bloodthirsty demon that devoured people's flesh, standing in front of him, ripping all their knight's corpses without hesitation.
"B-brother, pull yourself together."
Dal retreats and is about to leave the place when he hears a voice—a begging of a familiar voice he once knew had spoken—it makes him flinch.
"Help me, Dal. I was being controlled by a monster!"
He pleaded with such grief in his eyes, which seemed to bewitch Dal and made him carelessly walk slowly towards him without knowing that the brother he was facing was a demon who was acting in pity but deep inside smirking on his lips as he maliciously schemed.
"Bro-brother..."
When he was about to hug the demon who was reaching his arms in the form of his brother, a passel of talented mages started to land and attack Duke.
"Graaar!"
His brother snarled in pain, looking furiously at the mages.
"Your Highness, what are you doing here?! It was dangerous for you to be here!"
They continue to land an attack as the knights tightly hold him in their arms, using magic to paralyze Dal, which could prevent him from coming near his brother.
"NO! Stop! B-brother. You are hurting my brother!"
He shouted, feeling his throat being parched. That must be the cause of being starved and dehydrated for days, but all of these things were nothing compared to what the mage had responded, which gave him a chill on his spine.
"He wasn't your brother! Your Highness, your brother, had been eaten by a verendus monster!"
One of his father's comrades had stated that it made his world crumble; he was left speechless, and all he could think was his brother's smile, without knowing that it was a smile of good-bye.
As he watched his brother fight the knights and groan in pain, his looks were soulless.
*Hisss*
But then it suddenly changed into a frown when he saw how the black smoke came out of Duke's body, watching him turn into ashes that followed along the wind. Dal didn't know what happened next, but he was sure that he felt his brother's warm embrace before he became unconscious.
Weeks had passed before he gained consciousness; it wasn't that long, but it made him boil in rage as if he wanted to turn back the time when he had missed all the information he needed. Dal could feel his heart tightening as if he were choking that day he found out that his brother Duke Valene had been defeated, leaving him alone in this world.
"How could you easily turn your back on your son?!"
He grinds his teeth in anger as he barges into his father's room, only to find him sitting quietly, sipping his tea.
"Happiness and freedom are what he wanted, and now he has them. He chooses it!"
He stated with nothing but remiss in the tone of his voice.
"How could you?!-"
"It was his fault that he was a weak and foolish child."
His father bluntly responded, cutting off his words as he spared a glance at Dal, who was enraged.
"Even so, he is my brother! AND YOUR SON!"
It made Dal reply furiously.
"Son?...* Sip* I don't have an impudent child like him; you are the only child I have, Dal. I hope you don't be like your brother, so stop splitting hairs over such nonsense."
The look in his eyes was cold; that was enough to make him quiver.
But before he could even speak up, a promise he had made with his brother flashed right before his eyes.
'Ha, do not worry, brother; I would be stronger and smarter than all the people in this world so that I would never be... like you.'
His face turns mirk as he walks out of the room.
He had worked so hard with such elbow grease performance and become undefeatable and competitive.
Dal became the most ingenious person who owned such great power of polesis and achieved his goals, but still, he always felt a sting piercing his heart—a feeling of wanting something he knew he could never have.
"You've done well, Dal!"
A voice rang in his head that made him lose his focus.
'Brother!'
Even though he had become known as the only Niteo who had shined brighter than any other star, we all know that even a star could fade its light, right?
"The full moon is coming, your majesty. His Highness Dal may have been possessed by a curse."
The voice of a lady echoed in the room.
"Nonsense! I would not believe it until I saw it with my own eyes!"
He affirmed coldly.
'Dal is the only heir of the throne that I have; I can't lose such great treasure! '
Years swiftly passed, and Dal Valene had turned in the age of twenty-one, finding himself standing in front of a wooden figurine, catching up his breath, and was about to land his sword when a voice came ringing in his ears that made his head about to explode.
'They killed your brother Dal, your beloved brother."
The playful voice whispered leaving him with a crestfallen expression on his face.
"Who are you?! Come out and show yourself!"
He shouted tightly, holding his hair tie, which turned into a long, sharpened sword.
'I'm not anywhere, Dal; I'm right here. I.N.S.I.D.E. Y.O.U.R.H.E.A.D, and soon you will also become a demon like your brother~"
The voice replied, which made him shudder in terror. The demon words had left him with nightmares every night, making him always cover his ears.
It made him restless; he didn't know if everything that happened was just a dream or a pure hallucination. But on the day the winter came, when the moon bloomed beautifully from above, instead of joy, it gave chaos and terror to the Armonia tribe as the wrinkled guy watched a teen-looking man with a tall figure transform under the fully bloomed moonlight.
"It's impossible; it can't be!"
Dal was bewildered and petrified by what was happening to his own body. He always thought that he would never be like his brother, but still, he couldn't avoid such a fate that was bound to happen.
Right now, Dal was kneeling right in front of his father with such disappointment and disgust in his eyes.
"F-fa-father I-I"
Dal trembled as he began to stutter.
"Father?, I never had a monster as my child! Get that thing out of my sight!"
He exclaimed, which made Dal's eyes tremble in shock.
'T-thing? '
His face gloomed after hearing the cold rejection from his father.
"T-thing?...PFT...Hahahaha a thing?!"
Dal chuckled as he faced the ground.
"Ha~ now I know why brother despised you! because you have never been such a good father!.. all that matters to you is power and status! You are such a despicable person! and I regretted so much that you have become my father than the way you regret me being born as your child!-
*SLAP!*
Before he could even finish his words, he was hardly slapped by his father in front of the crowded people who were watching the scene and murmuring acidic things at one another.
"Tsssk! I'm sure mother would feel the same way if she were still living."
His words had left his father unspoken, and before he was dragged away by the knights, he furiously slapped their hands as he looked at the wrinkled man who was standing in front of him with such hatred and hostility in Dal's eyes.
"Let go. I'm leaving by myself."
He coldly stated, but before he turned his back, he stopped.
"I'm not taking back the words I have said; remember that."
He wipes off the blood on his chin and starts to walk outside the tribe of Armonia while the star-like shape falls from above. It was cold and plain in white, but he couldn't care less about it at all, because that freezing season is nothing compared to being left and thrown away by his own family on such a winter night when he didn't have anything except for the people's acidic whispering and gossip that even the people who had treated him well have looked at him with disgust.
"Don't come near that man; he was cursed."
He heard the lady whisper, covering her child as if they were about to be eaten.
"Ha!- cursed with that innocent face? I would not ever wonder if he deceived people with his look!"
The other stated as they shook their heads in disappointment.
"Yeah, he's a sly fox, a pretender."
The other added, looking at his face while he walked past them.
"He's a poison in our tribe! So lucky to have him banished."
Grin by the others as he continues to walk facing the ground that was completely eaten by their words.
"-a monster..."
"Kyah! Even his stare is so scary!"
All those words echoed in his head that even if he tried to cover his ears and keep on shouting, they would just keep ringing, even though he begged them to stop.
"N-no, stop. S-shut up. SHUT UP!"
He shouted as he opened his eyes.
*Gasp!*
He was surprised to find himself in the familiar face of a child holding him gently while he was lying on his lap.
Dal looks at him in complete shock as water streams down on his eyes, making his vision clouded by those tears that drip like a broken faucet.
*Hic*
"I'm sorry!"
He apologetically stated as he sniffed like a child while Khalid gently patted his head, expecting him to give off a luciform smile on his lips, but then he just gave up when he knew that Dal was in a state of blue and that all he could do was make him feel better as if he felt a thorn piercing through his heart after hearing such a pitiful word come out of his mouth in his sleep, watching all of those memories by himself after eating the demon inside his body.
Khalid then sighed before he began to speak.
"Dal, the choices are from yourself; people only help us to build courage and learn lessons from the mistakes we've made, but remember that it's not for them to choose who you want to be."
Khalid affirmed as Dal continued to apologize while his face was wet from crying.
"Hissss, what a cry, baby."
The voice of a cold young lady had spoken as she watched the two dramatic acts, leaving him with a frown as she elegantly sipped her tea while riding along with them, sitting comfortably as if she owned the carriage.
"*SNIFF*
"W-who are you?"
Dal asks out of curiosity as he stares at the little girl, who was the same height as Khalid, elegantly sitting like a noble with blue-vert colored eyes that were like forest beside the cold blue-ish ocean that paired with her mesmerizing bob-cut white hair that was white as snow.
She didn't respond, but instead, she just elegantly put down her cup as she glared at Khalid with a menacing look in her eyes.
'*Sigh~*
'I almost forgot about her existence.'
Khalid had thought as he peaked outside the window of the carriage, avoiding the grave look of the girl in front of them, while Dal left confused as if his neck was about to fall out if he continued to glance at the both of them at the same time.