[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
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"Father, will we be okay...?" Victor Hugkil asked his father during dinner that evening, after they had received a letter from the capital that day.
"Stop that, Victor... Talk to your father about it later." Carina Hugkil, the wife and mother of the two boys at the table, said.
"Your mother is right, Victor, we'll talk about this later, okay?" Meril Hugkil said, though he did not seem displeased with his son's concern during dinner.
"..." Luk, the younger son, was looking on with interest, while keeping his thoughts to himself.
After dinner, Meril invited both sons to a meeting and they went to his solar.
"As you know... we are about to enter a war against an army from the south. Our family is in one of the southern regions and we are monitoring the area," Meril began. "And all the scouts indicate that the black army is splitting in two, while one passes through the north of Toussaint heading straight for Angren, another part will act in the southwest, while we will have to be careful with our lands to the southeast of the kingdom, since there are mountains separating us between the north and the south." He started while his sons paid attention.
"I am going to war as you know... but I need you to stay here and watch the mountains for me." Lord Hugkil spoke while his sons nodded, they would divide, while he would accompany Calanthe in the war,
While the queen also asked him to leave a group of men to take care of that southern region, since it was a common strategy, given that the black soldiers could use the mountains to surprise them while they fought in the southern gorge, a strategy like Madara had created in the fight in the east of Cintra.
This was also a way to protect the villages and the people living in the area. Lord Hugkil continued talking about other things, like organizing the soldiers and taking care of the farm's resources. In the end, he looked at the two with a loving father's tone.
"With that, I'm counting on you, Victor and Luk," he said, approaching and giving his sons a hug before leaving to spend the rest of the evening with his wife.
Victor remained silent, watching his father leave. He did not have the same sparkle in his eye, seemingly because he was not confident he would return after this war and wondered if it would be the last time they could see each other.
His gaze fell on his younger brother beside him, someone he had been looking at quite a bit in recent years, Victor blamed Madara for this. After all, after his words when the Uchiha had visited the property more than 5 years ago, he first did not believe it and mocked, thinking that Madara planned discord among the family, even though he had saved him and his father.
However, Madara's words still echoed in his mind and he personally began to observe his younger brother's behavior over the last years and, to his surprise, his brother really acted suspiciously.
He saw him mistreating employees and asking one of the guards to beat people up in front of him like a sadistic lunatic. Victor immediately became furious and went to talk to his brother, reprimanding him.
Luk seemed quite remorseful for his actions and Victor did not see him doing that kind of thing anymore, he even avoided telling his father, but he still had an impression that Luk continued with the same behavior, though he no longer made it as visible with these strange activities.
Luk also demonstrated a look with a glint of malice while looking at his father and him, he still remembered when he said he was happy that none of them died in that fight against that monster, but if he were to analyze his memories, he would say that Luk was lying.
Victor would be lying if he said he wasn't afraid of his brother, after all he also saw him several times talking to himself and cursing Madara, saying that he was stealing everything that should be his.
It was strange, this hatred his brother had for the boy who had become the hero of the kingdom in recent years, and who fought alongside Victor and his father in the battle of the east. He even wanted to ask about it, but he lacked the courage to speak with Madara at the meetings in the capital.
His father also told him to befriend Madara, after all, he said the queen had great plans for him with the proximity he had with the princess, and when his father mentioned such things during dinner, the glare of hatred from his brother was more visible than ever.
His brother noticed the look from his older brother and Luk turned to Victor with an unpleasant glare; there was a gleam of malice and Victor wondered what he was planning, while having to be somewhat cautious around the boy.
"It seems we'll have to handle things, brother. I hope to serve you well during these dark times," Luk commented with a tone that matched his words, but the malice still glinted in his eyes.
"I'm counting on you, Luk..." Victor commented, though he was trying hard to maintain a firm tone.
After that, both went to their rooms, while the next day, their father prepared all the available troops from their lands to join the army of Cintra in the frontal attack.
"Now it's up to you, Victor, you are my heir and if I don't return from this fight... take care of your mother and brother," Meril approached Victor, who nodded.
"Will do, father," Victor said as his father nodded and bid farewell to the rest of the family before he left.
"Victor, let's go to the solar, we need to talk about managing the estate," Carina, who had more experience than her son, nodded as they went inside.
Luk saw this and his gaze fell on one of the knights, who nodded at him as he approached and discreetly handed him a paper. Luk took it and returned inside the mansion while opening the paper in his room.
"It seems the spy is here," he murmured, opening a sadistic smile.
'Finally... I'll be close to my goal... I'll prove to everyone that I will be greater than all of them...' Luk thought with an excited smile.
Since he was 7 years old, he had one thought on his mind; he didn't want to become just a second son of a noble, after all, he met some children at that age who mocked him, while they were heirs to their own lands, he would just be a second son.
His brother saw this and defended him on that occasion, but it marked him forever and since then he had been working on a way to change his destiny and this led him to develop a villainous personality, by 10 years old, he wished death on his father and older brother, even thought it happened, but then Madara appeared saving them from certain death with a stupid decision of his father wanting to hunt a monster in the forest.
Despite his frustration, he still couldn't assume the lands at 10 years old, so he waited to become an adult, where he could really assume the lands as heir.
One thing he could do, after all he turned 15 more than a year ago, and with their death, he would assume it through the line of succession, but he still hadn't achieved it until the Nilfgaard Empire itself began moving troops from the south, he somehow got in touch with them and made a proposal, where they began a negotiation in recent months and now the spy was in the city that his family controls outside the castle.
'Finally... I will show everyone, especially you, Madara Uchiha...' The boy thought with a tone of anger in the end, his great plan was not just to assume the name of his family, but also to take over the kingdom itself as king by marrying the princess.
He had fallen in love with her as a child, and tried to place Madara as his soldier in this endeavor, but was scorned by him, those red eyes when he threatened him marked him, more than when he had been scorned by the noble children.
'He will pay... I will see him die!' This was his first thought seeing Madara going away, but in the following years, his name began to be known throughout the kingdom, not just as someone who was said to be a ghost fighting for the queen in the capital, or even the boy who danced with the princess at noble balls, with no one else achieving that feat.
He became a minor noble, something Luk despised, then his father and brother went to the war in the east, which ended up giving even greater reputation to Madara, making him a great noble of the kingdom and giving power and influence to someone who should have been a commoner.
'He stole everything that should have been mine... I should be called a hero! I should be the fiancé of the princess!!' For Luk, it was hateful to think that Madara was destined to marry the princess of the kingdom, as the rumors said, after all the princess never left his side and had no contact with anyone else of the opposite sex.
Luk was thinking about this for hours like a lunatic, until he realized it was night, while deciding to go out, he called a guard, sneaking out, they went to the city a moment later while meeting the spy in one of the warehouses he used for some of his hobbies, which were torturing people, he had bought this place by diverting resources from his family without them noticing and was now meeting with the Nilfgaardian man who also spoke the northern language.
"What I want is quite simple, I want to take over my father's lands and marry the princess, we will be a kingdom at the service of Nilfgaard," he said at the end after talking with his man.
"We can do that as long as this operation is a success, after all, your majesty, the emperor, will be quite generous to those who help him conquer the entire north," the spy said with a smile.
"That's great, all of Hugkil's soldiers are under my control without my brother knowing, after all, they have two choices, either ally with the enemy who will attack fiercely or follow my orders and survive," Luk commented.
"Remember, the queen must not know about the troops passing through the mountains," the spy said, since at that moment thousands of soldiers were secretly entering Cintra to surprise them as soon as they were at war.
"You can be sure that I will take care of that," Luk said confidently and began to leave after that, heading for the castle.
"Marrying the princess... fool... you will at most have a quick death for such audacity with the emperor's daughter," the spy said in a dark tone.
Meanwhile, Victor called the head of the guard, who was the master of arms of the castle.
"You called me, my lord?" he asked respectfully.
"Yes, pass these orders to the soldiers and I want constant surveillance in the south," Victor said as the man nodded, taking the parchment.
He left the solar and a guard approached. "Sir. Lord Luk is summoning you," the man said.
The knight went to meet with Luk while the 16-year-old boy stood by a window, his gaze fell on the knight. "Let's begin," he said with a smile, as the knight simply crumpled Victor's orders while nodding.