With blood bleeding from my eyes, I blindly swing my blade into the enemies throat.
It's over.
The field is quiet, but not peaceful. Bodies of my comrades lie dead. Burned. Crushed.
We won, but at what cost?
Zeiren drops to his knees, lamenting the souls of the fallen. After a moment, he picks up the flag from the ground and slowly walks towards the main post.
As he tried to unfurl it, he could hear the sound of horns echoing.
Zeiren turns.
Thousands of soldiers are marching towards the castle.
"Wasn't Theo supposed to hold them back?"
His voice quivers, "Did he...fail?"
But before he could move, a blade pierces his chest.
He turns his head just enough to see the knight behind him.
It's Erbecius, one of Theoron's loyal men.
Zeiren stares ahead blankly, at the flag, blood pouring from his body, surrounded by the dead silence of his once-lively comrades.
'It's almost as if all those efforts were a lie'
As the knight severs his head in clean slash, Zeiren's eyes were already lifeless, as if he had died before the blade even reached him.
__________
A soldier's son inherits his father's teachings. A knight's son gets to go to academy. A noble's child has access to multiple techniques and vast resources. Royalty gets the highest quality of techniques.
Born to a poor family, my potential was already crushed in half. No matter how talented one was, there was only how far one could go. Especially if the biggest obstacle in front of you, was wishing you don't sleep on an empty stomach.
Would my life have been different if I'd been born into a noble or a knight's family? No... even a soldier's?
If only...
*******
"It hurts" With pale face and full of tears, a young boy, bruised, cries as he barely holds the wooden stick.
Jules stares at Julian coldly, seeing the pathetic, crybaby face but he feels no emotion and continues swinging the sword until sunset.
Jules didn't blink an eye as he stares at Julian watching how weak he was.
"That will be all for today" Barely satisfied, Jules says it in a rough voice.
Julian falls unconscious, at Jules's snap, a maid arrives and takes him to his room, where a group of healers quickly began treating him.
Julian's health only got worse, his face grew pale and purple, with tears overflowing. He was slowly losing consciousness. Just then, a grin appeared from the shadows.
All the maids started panicking and weren't sure if they should contact the Lord or not. But before they could process everything, an old man walked in.
"Grand Priest, you came at the right time. Young master Julian, his body is..."
The grand priest raises his hand as if to say he's already aware. He gets on his knees and inspects Julian. Without saying a word, he just sighs and turns back to the door.
All the healers were anxious.
"He is just sleeping."
As the priest gets out of the room, he sees Jules standing in the darkness. After a brief silence, the priest just smiles and walks away.
_______
It was a bright blue sky. Birds chirped outside the window. A gentle wind moved the curtains, carrying the fresh smell of flowers and morning air.
Zeiren immediately wakes up in panic, in a cold sweat, with bruises all over his body.
"Where am I?" Zeiren looks around, touching his body all over in disbelief, especially his chest. He could still feel the pain vividly, as if it were just yesterday.
As he tries to stand up, his mind feels heavy, like he's hallucinating, as if drugged and starts vomiting blood. Just then, a jolt of lighting crashes through his head and he falls unconscious.
"Mother, I have something to show" an innocent child with a bright smile says, holding a piece of paper behind his hands.
"Look, its all of us, I even drew the lake you like"
The woman immediately rips it apart.
"I dont have time for this right now. Go play with your brothers"
The second elder brother always forced him to weild a sword, striking until the kid's hands were worn out.
The eldest brother doesn't even talk to him.
Meanwhile, the father always stares at him with intimidation, as if he's some kind of bug.
Julian had everything, mentors, vast resources, an abundance of techniques, yet he had nothing at all. Neither the talent nor the affection.
He was just a kid, who had far too much on his mind. Living a miserable childhood, finally he can say goodbye to all of it, and just like that Zeiren wakes up.
Vomit mixed with blood covered all over his clothes and the floor. Maids rushed in, carrying him back to bed, while healers ran from the hallway.
As the maids were tensed and worried, Zeiren raises his right hand. "Silence. All of you, leave"
"But young master, the blood..."
"It's nothing serious" Zeiren says, nonchalantly wiping the blood from his mouth with a handkerchief and taking the medicine in front of him.
Seeing him calm, with a firm grip on the glass, they all left quietly. "We will be taking our leave then."
They even had to stop the healers from barging in, after all.
This was the first time they had ever seen Julian take medicines by himself, or talk back to someone with a calm voice. It was both odd and affirming.
"Trevor, come out!" Julian called out with rugged voice ⚠️
A man in full suit and glasses on, stepped out from behind the door.
[Julian's Personal Butler]
[Trevor Drewell]
"Did you call for me, young master?" Trevor immediately bows his head.
'Pretty quick to respond' Zeiren thinks, noting the butler's excellent stance.
"Carry the medince and follow me to the dinning hall at once" Zeiran says, getting up from the bed and slolwy walking outside.
Trevor wasted no time and immediately takes all the medicine.
A large dining table sat in the middle of the spacious dining hall. Only five people were at the table. On the right side were Jules and two sisters; On the left, the fourth brother and the youngest sister. At the centre sat their mother, glaring at Julian.
"You're awfully late, Julian."
"I'm sorry, Mother. I slept bit too long" Zeiren says, bowing his head and calmly sitting at the table to the left.
It was a cold breakfast, no one talked. Even the kids, much younger than Julian were all eating quietly, though their eyes kept peaking at him. He gave off a very odd vibe, unlike his usual self.
Julian was a total crybaby, with an innocent baby face, very tense movements, and weak eyes that never even dared look at the other kids.
Zeiren thinks about the past as he calmly takes a mouthful of steak, wiping away the dirt from his mouth.
"Don't you think Brother Julian is acting wierd today?" one of the youngest slowly whispers to the younger brother.
After breakfast, one by one, everyone left. As Julian stood to leave, he bowed to his mother before walking off.
As he walked inside a room, he found shelves lined with hundreds of thousands of books. Despite having the former owner's memories, Zeiren was still very impressed.
After snapping out of the shock, Julian immediately threw book after book toward Trevor.
In an instant, more than 80 books were piled up in Trevor's hands. "Tell the maids to send these to my room."
"As you wish, young master."
Julian picked up a book and flipped through the first few pages: Downfall of the Lyres House.
"After Zeiren's death, the battle continued for two more years. The brave warrior Theoron forced the Herness Army to retreat, reclaiming all the lost lands. The king awarded him the title of Duke for his great contribution against the Empire."
"Absolute bullshit," Julian mutters, slamming the book down in disappointment.
Trevor rushed in from the sudden noise. "Is everything okay, young master?"
"Lets head to the training hall" he said, ignoring Trevor's question and walking outside.
Inside the training hall, Jules was swinging his sword with violent strength. Yellow mana glowed from his body, every time he hit the dummies, they bend like papers.
'So much damage, even after suppressing his physical strength with mana?' Julian was visibly impressed, though he kept a calm demeanor.
"Its not time for your training. Go back," Jules said, sensing Julian's presence from far away, without even looking.
Julian quietly picked up a wooden sword and walked into the training ground. Jules said nothing and raised his sword, ready to spar.
One of the most talented youngsters of this generation, Jules Emberson. It is said that by the age of twelve, he defeated an orge all by himself. Currently, he is the youngest elite of the Seron Knight Academy, at just 14.
'As monstrous as he may be, he still lacks a few things; experience, tactics, and most importantly, complete sword techniques.'
Julian took a deep breath before he tightening his grip on the sword, taking a defensive stance.
Jules started with the usual basic attacks. Julian defended them all without flinching, even though his hands were worn and fragile.
In an instant, Jules charged toward him and pushed him aside.
Although weak and slow, Julian precisely deflected the incoming attack and stepped back twice to return to his defensive stance.
Jules wasted no time and swung his sword toward Julian's stomach. As soon as Julian dodged, Jules landed a kick to his unbalanced position, but in that instant, Julian twisted his body.
Jules seemed surpirsed by Julian's sudden change. Although he clearly was suppressing most of his power, Julian shouldn't have been able to even last this much against Jules's attacks.
Jules got into a straight stance and chanted "Heavenly Ember, First Form: Fireborne." There wasn't any real fire in the wooden stick, but Jules's movements were just a perfect imitation, with no substance.
Julian, aware of what was coming, got into counter stance. As the strike hits him, he was able to neutralize most of it, but not all. Julian collapses to his knees before Jules, extremely tired and weak, and soon fell unconscious.
By the time he woke up, he found himself bandaged in his room, with empty bottles of healing potions scattered everywhere.
As Julian slowly got up, a healer approached him, glancing around nervously before secretly handing him a piece of paper.
Julian was baffled, not knowing what this was all about.
"The Grand Priest is dead. Before his dead he told me to send this to you, no matter what"
As Julian opens the paper, his eyes widened.
"Someone wants you dead"