"M-mother..." Keith muttered as he turned to face the figure, whose face had blurred in his consciousness.
His voice has gained a shiver he never knew existed, his gaze turned blurry as he tried to gaze at six people walking towards him, his blurry gaze annoyed him to no end for matters he couldn't understand.
Wiping his eyes roughly, Keith was finally able to rewrite his blurred memories of the people he once held dear.
A brown-haired woman was walking towards him with tear filled light-brown eyes while her hands covered the most of her face's lower-half, while a man with similar but darker shade of hair and eyes walked next to the woman with his arm over her shoulders, supporting his wife.
The woman's name was Joanna Frazier, the man's was Riley Frazier, mother and father of Keith Frazier. Keith's tears streamed out at the sight of his father gazing down at his mother with a concerned look on his face.
Riley Frazier was a broken man who was wasted most of the time in Keith's lifetime as a strongest man, but the man was also the most burdening yet comfortingly responsible link that led Keith to walk the path of a puppet.
After Joanna or Anna died on the [Second World Of Aerith] due to the abrupt changes brought by the Rot, Riley became heartbroken while the thoughts of him being responsible for his wife's death haunted him most of the times, and began to drink in hopes of dying sooner after understanding he was even incapable of taking his own life.
The nobles or the "players" had called Keith "A son of a Coward," but that unofficial title had never disheartened him, instead it had filled him with pride at times because he knew why his father had become like that and hoped to love a woman like his father did, he had loved his wife thinking he was doing great like his father, but turned out he was the worst(est) version of his father in the matters related to pure feelings.
At the reminiscence of those times, a wild grin manifested upon his lips as a thought that was unrelated to his current situation flashed in his consciousness.
'Heh, some "players" they are, I'll show you how to play a game.....'
"Keith!" Caesar exclaimed while holding Keith's shoulders to snap him out of his daze, and Keith did snap in response, but in a different manner than one could expect in their situation.
"What!?" Keith roared as he pushed Caesar back with a strong push on his chest, grabbed his forearms and with an habitual smooth manoeuvre; Keith ended up behind Caesar whose hands were being pulled behind his back as he knelt on the ground, while the former clenched the latter's wrists as he pulled Caesar's arms while pressing his right knee on his back, as if he really intended to pull off Caesar's arms.
"ARGGGGHHHH!!!!" Caesar screamed in anguish, tainting the people around him in fear.
PING.....
PING...PING.....
.....
With subtle low sounds of some kind of soft bell ringing, a kind black-haired man without even a hint of presence being known appeared next to the kneeling Caesar, while Keith's hands grew limp and dangled next to his waist as Caesar's body was pushed to roll on the ground.
"Are you alright, Kid?" The green-eyed man asked in a gentle tone as gazed down at Caesar.
Keith snapped out of his trance upon noticing his arms go numb, his mind immediately went to battle-mode as he jumped back to create distance between him and the latent enemy to understand and analyse before taking reckless actions.
'Did he just block my aura nodes?' Keith pondered as his gaze turned cold before landing on the black-haired figure. His surroundings instantly turned darker as broken swords, spears, and verity of weapons with Aegean-coloured circuit-like patterns moderately adorning their [Mana Pathways] were seen either tossed or stuck all around the battlefield; and Keith stood amidst of hundreds and thousands of amputated bodies adorned in statics crackling, cracked armours with dimly lit, flickering, and mostly broken hexagonal barriers enveloping their already lifeless bodies, which were seen slumped next to [Mana Gun]s and [Mana rifle]s laying on the blood dyed battlefield with bloodless robotic bodies.
Strong gust of wind blew on his face while his gaze landed on the calm black-haired figure standing tall amidst of the blooded battlefield before his vision shifted and a dark brown coloured hard ground came into sight in a brightly lit world.
BAM-!
"Guckh....." Keith groaned in pain as blood trickled out his nostrils, his mind wandered on the battlefield but the strong grip on the back of his head forced him snap back to reality.
"Huh!!!????" The battlefield he was in was no more, as his blurred gaze focused on the dark brown patch of the ground.
'Wha.....'
"Are you alright, Sir Keith?" A gentle voice he recognised sounded as a series of footsteps sounded that halted in front of him.
"Iv.... Your Majesty?" Keith muttered from his nose.
"Nu." Ivan's voice sounded before the grip Keith felt on the back of his head loosened, allowing him to gaze up and around in confusion. He was laying on the ground and the blood trickling down from his nostrils made him understand that his head was slammed to the ground; in front of him was His Majesty Ivan, behind him were his parents, who had turned pale as if they had seen a monster, in between his parents and His Majesty Ivan was Caesar, who was crouching and massaging his shoulders with his gaze frowned at Keith, and behind Keith's parents stood Caesar's parents and their younger daughter with shocked looks on their faces, while Caesar's parents hugged the youngest child in a protective manner.
"Sir Keith's eyes had lost focus after he smiled strangely at his parents." His Majesty Ivan was kind enough to explain what he had observed and understanding dawned upon Keith, who lowered his head as he stood back up.
'Fuck, what is going on!!?' Keith cursed in his mind, not understanding how and why he was acting so strangely.
An involuntary shiver crawled all-over him when he felt His Majesty's gaze in response to which he dared to peek at him and noticed that he had already turned to face Keith's parents, and panic spread in his heart but he didn't dare to move.
"Madam....?" Ivan called out Anna.
"..... Anna, Joanna Frazier." Anna introduced herself in a strange daze and a bright blush with tears still streaming out of her eyes.
"Madam Frazier, nice to meet you." Ivan uttered as he gazed at Keith's father next, who followed after his wife's example and introduced himself.
"Riley Frazier."
"Mister Frazier, nice to meet you. I am Ivan. Ivan Lane. An acquaintance of Sir Frazier." Ivan introduced himself with a straight aristocratic stance which created a certain pressure on his surroundings. The pressure Ivan unknowingly radiated was gentle, dignified, and noble, yet strangely suffocating, which forced a polite bow from the people he was facing.
"Madam Frazier, there is nothing to worry about. It seems that Sir Frazier has been forcing himself to go out to get stronger hastily for reasons only he should be aware, I conclude that all the blood and gore have drained him mentally; he would be alright with a night's rest. Hopefully, my words waned your parental concerns." Ivan explained in a gentle and respectful manner as he smiled gently and put an end to the matter, before turning his back on them before they voiced more of their concerns and thanks, noticing their daze.
TUG....
CRINKLE-!
"!!!!" Keith's eyes widened in surprise at the scene unfolded in front of him, and a strong ambience ripple exploded behind him but was suppressed by His Majesty Ivan, who merely raised his palm at the figure behind Keith.
"Yes, Madam Frazier?" Ivan called out the woman, who had dared to grab hold of Ivan's golden shackles wrapped arm.
That action could easily be considered a sin worthy of death as a commoner had dared to grab hold of a hand that belonged to the most noble being, a King! Keith knew the consequences of his mother's actions, it didn't matter if Ivan was merciful, benevolent, or not, dire consequences followed whenever a noble was involved! Keith was about to rush towards his mother uncaring if his actions could be rude and punishable, he was not ready to lose his mother again in his new lifetime!
But,
Her next choice of words halted him in his steps.
"..... Is that really my son?"