"Sora, I'm glad you're here..." Clarc began.
"What are you doing here, dad?" Sora asked with a blank voice.
"I-I, I, I came to see my, my friend Mike" Clarc stammered.
Mike knew he would be embarrassed seeing Sora again after everything that had happened between them, but didn't imagine it would be this bad.
"Okay" Sora just replied. "So Mr. Mike, what flavor do you want for the candy? I have orange and apple. I also have strawberry but these I keep for myself, hehe"
It was as if he had erased Clarc from his view of the world.
"Sora, I'm sorry for everything..." Clarc said, with tears in his eyes. "Forgive me, I promise that I will spend more time with you and that I will never do anything that could hurt you again. I just want us to be a family again"
Sora was silent for a moment before speaking words colder than anything Mike could have imagined coming from a child under the age of ten.
"So you don't want any candy today?" he said to Mike. "In that case, do you at least want me to take out the trash next to you?"
Meanwhile, Clarc had started to shake. He lost his balance and was caught at the last minute by Mike, who was struggling under his weight, easily 90 kilos. He Imagined a chair and managed as best he could to place Clarc on it.
"Sora, I know your father hurt you a lot but please try to understand him. He was at the end of his rope and he really blames himself. Just give him a chance, will you?"
Sora looked at Mike with a sad expression, as if he had just been stabbed in the back, and simply said:
"No, sorry Mr. Mike"
After that, he ran out of the room, leaving Mike and Clarc all alone.
"I'm sorry Clarc, I should have insisted more and-"
"No, it's my fault" the captain of the guard replied, getting up despite his trembling legs. "I shouldn't have thought he was going to forgive me with just an 'I'm sorry'. Thanks for trying Mike."
It was nothing. And don't worry, I'm sure everything will end well. I'll do anything for this, and if you want to cry, my shoulder is free.
Mike said this while patting Clarc on the shoulder.
"Thank you Mike, and although I don't know exactly what you've gotten yourself into, I also hope with all my heart that you have your happy ending with your friends. I… I just want everything to end well"
Clarc, his legs trembling more and more, held on to Mike to stay upright. Mike patted him on the back because he started crying. After a few minutes, slowly pulled away from Mike.
"Sorry, I'm a little heavy, is that okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, don't worry, I always liked cuddles anyway" Mike replied. "My shoulder is just a little wet, so haha"
"Pfahaha, we've known each other since yesterday but you're already friendlier to me than all the other people I've met in this castle, or even elsewhere" Clarc said.
"Which makes me think… Are you really from this world?"
Mike winced when he heard the question but pretended nothing:
"Well no obviously! At the same time, there aren't that many people born in this castle, are they?" Mike tried.
"I wasn't talking about "this world" in that sense, Mike" Clarc replied. "I am speaking in the global sense. Your name, the fact that the king considers you a precious guest, and even this strange ability that allows you to make incredible things appear out of nowhere. Of all the worlds I have seen, none had anyone like you"
"Is that a compliment I hear?" Mike asked, trying to joke to avoid having to answer.
However, he saw the intimidating look Clarc was giving him and changed his expression. He tended to quickly forget it, but Clarc remained the captain of the guard, so not someone with whom he could allow himself to make jokes in a serious situation.
"Well... I guess I don't have a choice anymore" Mike said before finally confessing everything.
Half an hour later, when Mike had finished his story, Clarc looked at him with a stunned expression.
"Ah… so that's what happened?" Clarc said. "It's quite shocking"
Mike understood it a little because he had been there too.
"Well at least you can say I have a flair for finding people interesting, says Clarc. I don't regret having dug so hard on you"
This was quite strange wording for Mike. Clarc noticed this and hastened to correct himself:
"I mean, I don't regret going to meet you" he added.
But too late, Mike had already started putting the pieces together.
"Clarc, remind me, why did you pretend to attack me again?"
Clarc saw in Mike's eyes that he understood:
"Um, actually, um, it was so that you forget your depression and…"
Mike interrupted:
"However, you told me it was to wake me up because I seemed to be in a daze" he retorted.
"Oh! um yes! That's it, you looked dizzy and..."
"I lied, you really told me it was to forget my depression. Are you lost in your false excuses?"
The unconvincing explanation, the fact that Clarc had come to see him suddenly, that he was so friendly, that he insisted on knowing everything... everything made sense now.
Clarc opened his mouth, but immediately closed it, and looked down. Even he realized that there was no point in lying anymore.
"It's true, I admit it" Clarc said. "I provoked you on purpose to see if you had anything in particular to make the king interested in you"
Mike was already expecting these words, but he still felt like he was being stabbed in the back.
"But I swear I wasn't lying when I said I had poor control of my strength!" Clarc added. "I really didn't mean to hurt you, and I really felt guilty after that. I promise you that I have not said a word to the king about everything I have learned, and that I will not tell him anything even under torture"
"In the end, Sora was right to stay away from you"
Mike blurted out these words without meaning to. For a moment he hesitated to apologize but didn't, given the situation. He was a little afraid of Clarc's reaction, was he going to want to hit him? Mike knew that if Clarc wanted to, he could easily beat him up.
But nothing happened, and Clarc simply left the room, leaving Mike alone. He fell asleep, and time simply passed until morning.
After that, the days went by. Mike continued to practice fighting with Clarc, but decided to continue working on his "secret game plan" to beat Shinki on his own. During training, they didn't talk to each other at all,not exchanging when Clarc gave Mike instructions to improve.
In truth, neither of them really wanted this situation: Clarc had been deeply hurt by what Mike had said but didn't blame him too much, given that his anger was justified. And Mike himself, although he had become suspicious, was also ready to forgive him.
The real reason they couldn't break the ice again was because neither of them could bring up the subject first. It was stupid, but they couldn't take the initiative, even knowing that it could fix everything.
To make the situation even worse, Soradidn't return to Mike only once since this incident, making his loneliness as heavy as when he arrived at the palace. The only thing that allowed Mike to sleep well at night was the exhaustion from the draconian training he underwent every day, making him fall asleep the exact moment he got into bed. It was the only reason why Mike continued to go to training with Clarc, despite everything.
The situation lasted for several weeks, and in the meantime Mike received a message from Shinki indicating that the games would resume soon.
This situation could have dragged on until the games resumed, had it not been for a particular event that disrupted this depressing routine: one day, as they were about to finish their training, one of the guards suddenly approached and pushed Mike, sending him flying two meters before he landed on the hard ground. Fortunately, Mike had in the meantime learned to land himself, and therefore did not get injured, but the situation could have ended really badly for him otherwise.
"What's wrong with you?" Mike asked.
"What's wrong with me? Bastard, because of your defeats, there are hundreds of worlds that have disappeared and that's all you have to say?" the guard asked.
Mike, hearing this, felt guilty, until the guard added:
"There was my favorite world in the lot. Where am I supposed to go on vacation now?"
Mike was shocked by these words:
"Your king is genocide of hundreds of worlds and that's all it matters to you?"
Mike understood now why Clarc found these people insensitive.
"What, is that a problem for you?" the guard asked, raising his fist. "Well, take that as an apology!"
He tried to swing his fist at Mike's face, but his arm was blocked by a large hand:
"Enough is enough, you've already done enough stupid things as it is, apologize and leave now, or you will be punished" Clarc threatened.
Mike couldn't help but be happy that Clarc take his defense, even if he was still a little angry with him.
"Apologize and leave? Of course, there goes my apologize" the guard scoffed.
And immediately afterwards, he spat in Clarc's face.
Mike was outraged and thought the other guards were going to scold him, but they just burst out laughing.
"Well, captain, do you have a problem? taunted the guard. Oh come on, I'm sure you do worse at night... with your new boyfriend, ahahaha! It must be said that you two go really well together, when is the wedding?"
The laughter intensified. Mike, furious at the guard, was about to get back up and tear the guard into pieces with what he had learned over the past few weeks. However, he didn't even have the time, because with one hand, Clarc had just lifted the guard from the ground by the collar and the latter, no matter how much he struggled, could not extricate himself from the captain's grip.