<strong>[ FLASHBACK: MAINLAND ]</strong>
"Haha! My friend, can you go easy on me?" Maximus laughed, grinning from ear to ear as he gazed at Abel standing meters from him. "I haven't shot an arrow, and they're already changing my target."
Abel chuckled, putting down the bow and arrow. "You are slow, Maximus."
"I am just not angry," replied Maximus whilst shaking his head. "I didn't know your parent's decision to enter an eternal slumber will anger you."
"It's not anger, Maximus. It's joy." Abel smirked. "I am in tears they would finally enter their eternal slumber."
Maximus kept his smile, studying Abel's side profile as the latter took a stance to shoot. Abel closed one eye, waiting for the people to replace the straw target.
"You were sad." Abel paused, looking back at Maximus after the latter's remarks.
"And why would I feel such an emotion?"
"They were your parents."
"Even if they were, they were nothing but people I was tricked to live with." Abel let out a shallow laugh. "Those people I needed to call my mother and father weren't my mother and father."
Abel peeled his eyes from Maximus at the new straw target from a distance. "Carrying the blood of Grimsbanne… that is the only thing that connects us. We are not family. We are people living in the same abode, wishing each other nothing but death."
"That is the only thing everyone in that household shares aside from this curse," he continued, casting Maximus a knowing look. "Death is the only good thing for us, for we do not die. The chosen ones, I mean. Those two hopes weren't the chosen seeds, and thus, I wish the same."
"They had done their purpose and used their bodies to continue this damned bloodline," Abel added, raising the bow and arrow, and taking a stance to shoot the arrow. "How I wished they hadn't."
<strong>TAK!</strong>
The arrow pierced the straw target's head perfectly, cutting a few straws, which landed on the grass. Abel slowly turned to face Maximus with a smile.
"Even so, I wish their attempt to enter an eternal slumber will succeed. With your help, of course." His lips stretched subtly, his eyes full of emotions that could be barely seen in his current self. "That is my only request and the purpose of my visit."
"You are always so kind, Abel." Maximus smiled back subtly. "I also wished they would get the peace they sought in a few days."
It was no secret in the mainland that the Grimsbanne was akin to gods. Although they weren't being worshiped like an actual god, they were just so powerful everyone respected them. The only reason their existence did not threaten people was that the Grimsbannes weren't greedy, nor did they seek other things than to live peacefully in their home.
If there was one thing the Grimsbanne wanted, that was death. Not power, control, or any worldly materials. For them, death was the only escape from the blood running through their veins. Abel already tried seeking it with the help of the king but to no avail.
He was born to be a holder of the prophecy. His little sister, Mathilda, had also tried because she was stuck on Abel's shoulder that day. Both of them didn't die — although Mathilda didn't consent to the plan because she was too lazy to listen or respond or stop Abel from pushing her to her death.
"We'll see." Abel rocked his head. "My hopes have already gone down the drain, so all I can do is wish them success."
"You're taking this better than I had expected. Though I am concerned about your sister." Maximus watched Abel shoot another arrow before he continued. "She couldn't enter an eternal slumber. I hope she's fine with that."
Abel looked him dead in the eye. "Do you even think she cares?"
"Haha! I'm just worried since she might just be bottling her feelings."
"There's nothing to bottle up." Abel shrugged, taking another arrow. "That sister of mine always worries me, not because she might do something. The root of my worry is actually the opposite of that. She might not do anything at all that root vines will start to grow on her."
Maximus laughed, knowing this sister of Abel was just too slothful to do anything. It was still a surprise Mathilda was getting out of bed, but Maximus assumed that was because her siblings would force her to get up.
"So don't worry about her. The only time she is not alright is when she had to do something or speak for over ten words."
<strong>TAK!</strong>
Another arrow pierced the straw target, but this time, it landed on Maximus's target. Noticing this, Maximus's smile turned upside down.
"You better pick up your arrow, else you'll be buying dinner. I'm so tired of eating eggs every single day," commented Abel, shooting another arrow, determined to have a bountiful dinner as the Grimsbanne were just too poor to have a feast. Or rather, no one in the Grimsbanne can actually cook as they didn't have servants in their home.
Although Maximus was Abel's dearest friend, this would be the fifth day in a row that Abel would be eating in his palace if he won. At this point, all his allowance would be gone, just filling Abel's appetite.
As the two have fierce competition for a 'childish' reason, Conan was watching those two from the window at the top floor of another palace. He was standing in front of the window, his battered hand on the glass.
"Brother…" he called under his breath, his lips mangled and his face bruised from all the beating last night. Yet, unlike his miserable situation, Maximus was having a good time with his friend.
"Why does father favor you so much?" Conan wondered weakly. "Does that Grimsbanne prick know what you truly are?"
<strong>*********************************** BREAK ******************************************</strong>
<strong>[ PRESENT TIME ]</strong>
<strong>BOOOGSH!</strong>
Conan blinked ever so tenderly, hearing an explosion from the inner palace, particularly from where the banquet was being held. His eyes remained on the person he was standing on, lifting his gaze, only to see countless people scattered on the vast expanse with him the only person on his feet.
Blood dripped from the tip of his sword, taking out his metal helm slowly. The moment he did, the full view of the vast expanse within the imperial palace grew clearer.
Carnage.
"I'm done here," Conan said quietly, looking up in a direction only to see Isaiah standing on top of a tower.
The raised scars on the back of Isaiah's hand were glowing, his fingers that were spread trembling. When he clasped his hand, the barrier surrounding the area slowly dissipated, revealing countless royal knights running in every direction. As soon as the barrier disappeared, the stench of blood from this massacre pervaded the air.
"Sir Conan!" A knight snapped Conan's attention from Isaiah, sprinting to Conan, to report about the situation of the Rose Palace. "Our men had gone to the Rose Palace, and Gustav was injured."
Conan's eyes sharpened at the mention of the Rose Palace. "The Marquess?"
"He's gone!" the knight yelled in panic. "The Marquess was gone!"
The second those words rang in Conan's ears, he disappeared without a trace. When the knight looked up, Isaiah had also disappeared from where he was standing.
"The formation was distorted," whispered the knight, only for his lips to curl up as his face slowly changed. His eyes turned to a pair of silver and his hair changed to an auburn color.
"Oh, Haimirich," Javier mused with a sinister laugh, looking at the knights around who were so busy to mind someone who wore the same uniform as them. "So much blood — fun night! It reminds me of that night in Maganti."
Javier grinned from ear to ear, lifting his hand. The back of his hand suddenly showed a magic circle, almost similar to the scar on the back of Isaiah's hand.
"Rise."
And those Conan had slew slowly moved, rising from the ground, a dark shroud coming out of their wounds.
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