Laeroth's mutated dragon hand strike the table before him in an intense force which was enough to break the table in half and cause splinters to fly in different directions.

This wasn't the first time he snapped. The times he lost his control cannot be counted in one's fingers anymore and the numbers of furniture we lost due to his temper was in equal numbers.

I did understand his indignation this time. One of the people who possessed the Tokens of Blessing was Ikesha and the only way to obtain this token was to kill the bearer. That meant that sooner or later we will have to take her life and Ikesha had agreed due to her sense of responsibility.

"We just replaced that table..." I murmured and set down my empty cup of tea on the little plate on my lap. Garrison won't be happy once he sees his new masterpiece in smithereens.

The Tokens of Blessing originally belonged to the Higher Order given by the grail to hail them as people who still had the rights to lead, to take control, and to make decisions for the Kingdom in the absence or the incapability of the King. These tokens also held astounding and insurmountable power that distinguished them from other ancients. Because of the war the ancients had lost eight tokens and the tokens as of current were in the possession of various people scattered all over the world.

These people (in hopes that these tokens were something of valuable to us) kept them as a means of bargaining tools to once again take advantage of our race. King Genshi wasn't going to sacrifice his men again for tokens that won't be of much use to other empires anyway. They were valuable to us, yes, but so was our Kingdom and the late King made a choice.

"C'est des Conneries... (This is bullshit)" he seethed and shut his eyes tightly.

He took heavy breaths to calm him and the wrinkles on his face slowly faded away.

"I am begging you Lucius, let us stick to the original plan," he pleaded in a desperate tone.

"We have talked about this. With this new plan we can only take twenty more lives and plus a few if they get in the way but with the old plan?" I scoffed right before continuing. "You are risking thousands. You are once again proposing a war. The lives of innocents are at stake here."

The man narrowed his gaze at me and plopped down on the chair behind him. "When has it never involved the innocent? You are underestimating the Higher Order. Do you really think that the Scums can take them on in a battle? It took thousands of soldiers just to kill eight. With our forces alone we will surely be wiped out. We are betting everything on a fragmentary and half-done plan."

Laeroth didn't even give me a chance to reply back when he reiterated our original strategy.

"We start with the Vosredal Empire; we take in the villages under their ruling and make our way up to conquer the capital."

"This is why this plan will fail. War takes up time, food sources, and more lives. We are never meant for a long duration of battle because once we hit our exhaustion stage we're done for. You underestimate the Vosredal Empire. They made a pact with the Pracia Empire and the Cheborg Empire. Even if we do conquer the Vosredal Empire the other two Empires won't sit around and let us recharge," I explained it to him again.

I didn't know if I should blame the other blood mixed in inside of him but this man's head was as thick as his scales. No matter how many times I explain it to him he can never get it. We did try reaching out to the Republic of Xoba under the hanuman's rule however; they did not want to entertain anyone outside of the borders especially from creatures who they warred with before.

We were ancients that could be useful for their food source but they also had ancients residing behind their walls who were mated with some of them. Food wasn't much of a crisis and they treated their sources magnificently. They only had nuisances whenever catastrophes happened to pass by and destroy their walls and crops and take a lot of lives.

"How can you believe on something that's just thrown at you?" Laeroth questioned in mocking tone.

My encounter with the Wicket was comical for everyone but it was an experience that shed light to this crisis. They can humor me all they want but the Wicket was true and it had yet to show its capabilities to us.

"As a Knight of our empire I was always made to believe that the King's order is what we must obey and strive for until we cease breathing. We fight for our homeland. We keep it safe. We keep it up in order for our children to see and witness its magnificence. I always believed in our King but that is just because I was made to. I forced myself to be blind and I orchestrated the elements and slaughtered in the name of Cludea. I fought in order for our Kingdom to live not knowing that our beautiful empire will fall into its imprisonment..." I spoke before looking up at the ceiling of flowers above us.

"Do you remember the song we sung during the war Laeroth?" I asked him.

He raised his brow at me and crossed his arms. "Why would you ask me about that?"

"After all these years I've forgotten the tune of it. Do you remember singing it with everyone?"

Laeroth's scrunched up face softened and a saddened smile spread across his lips as he remembered.

"How can I forget? We were young and despite marching through the hatch of bloodshed without knowing if we'll even make it out, we were all singing like a bunch of idiots waiting to be ambushed."

I shut my eyes to recount the memories that I've kept inside my mind. It was minimally faded but it was still there.

War wasn't always pain and suffering. You gain something yet you lose not just a bit but a whole lot of yourself. There was not just a trickle of blood but an entire lake. Tears were shed but not just drops. Screams were summoned in an unsynchronized rhythm. Some of our comrades  turned and some of them didn't and I wished they just died and remained unmoving instead of dying yet rising with unknown purpose.

I was a Knight that knew how to silence the voices of life but not the ones from the dead. I didn't know how to help them.

They have lost their honor and I couldn't save them from that.

"All hail the Fatherland, we shall march to a hopeless land... " Laeroth sung in low spirits as he rummaged through his memory but I already got the second line ready for him.

"We shall torch them with our blazing fire and may the ashes of their comrades make them cower make them cower..."

Slowly the voices of our deceased comrades joined us in my mind and I couldn't help but miss the camaraderie we had.

We will hail the North winds and bring  the blizzards to thee!

Let this march summon the rage of the mighty earth and cause a rampage

Ohh~

Various laughters ruptured as we realized how out of sync we all were.

The voices faded once I shut off the memory before looking sternly at Laeroth.

"I don't want Lucian to witness it. I just opened the world for him to see and if war sparks—"

"He is not a child anymore Lucius. He is not the child you left eighteen years ago. Sooner or later he will witness war with or without you and it would be better if he would witness it with your guidance," Laeroth cut me off. "That boy had been through his own war and you know it. He had been a captive for so long until you came. You can teach him how to live but in order to do that you must also teach him how to survive because the weak don't get to live in a world dominated by the strong."

I pursed my lips and held tightly on my cup. "You won't always be there for him you know? You may think you will but you won't. That's not how the world works. Don't turn him into a prey but don't turn him into a predator either."

"I'm doing the best that I can. I'll do anything to make up for the lost time but..."

The door slammed open and a perturbed member entered swiftly that screamed urgency.

"Lord Lucius, your brother!"

My heart dropped to my stomach and my cup rolled out of my lap. I instantly sprung to my feet and ran to my brother's bedroom with Laeroth in tail.

What happened to him? Dear God why? I just got him out. I promised that I'll protect him from now on.

Please don't let anything happen to my baby brother...

Once we got closer we heard loud commotions and growls inside of the room with some ancients going in and out. There was a basket filled with snacks lying on the floor and I barged inside seeing a man drenched in blood with a few ancients lying unconscious on the ground with their skin ashen gray and green spots emerging in some areas.

"Monster! He's a monster! He did this to me! He made me do it!" he screamed.

My eyes widened as I instantly recognized him.

How?

He was already dead.

Fenris was being held up in the air with green vines while Lucian was merely...staring up with no other motion. The werewolf continued to struggle in a raving appearance with seething resent towards the man before him. I ran towards my brother's side and shook him. He did not even spare me a glance.

Laeroth charged ahead to the blood-covered intruder with distorted features. His left ankle was twisted and his right arm was dislocated from its joint. Needles protruded out of Iltut's bare skin and Laeroth rolled to the side before he could get shot.

"Lucius get your brother!" Ikesha barked out.

A gush of air followed her and Aramastus appeared and sliced the vines restraining Fenris. His freedom almost allowed him to maul Iltut's leg but fortunately wasn't able to when Ikesha froze his whole body in place.

If Fenris was to bite down on him, I didn't think he'll be able to survive. Iltut's specialties were venom and acid. He had created various poisons with no known cure and killed a whole battalion of enemy soldiers when they have drank from a lake that he had poisoned.

He was never good with close combat however; who said that physical power always won wars?

Aramastus proceeded into slicing his arms and then his legs in swift and flawless motion with his long and slim sword. A pained wail pierced through Iltut's throat which didn't even made Lucian flinch or even react by looking.

He was just lying down, staring blankly, and looking deathly pale. If I hadn't checked his pulse I would have thought that he was dead.

We were just lucky that Iltut was already weakened as he was or else we wouldn't be able to bring him down this easily.

But his resurfacing evidently brought a lot of damage and reopened wounds that just closed up.

Ikesha froze the ends where the limbs once were and also sealed Iltut's mouth with ice. "Bring him to the cell," she ordered.

Aramastus nodded obediently and disappeared with the agonized Iltut. Ikesha turned around and looked at the poisoned ancients.

"I need to test their blood for the kind of poison he instilled. I may be able to develop an antidote," she said before releasing Fenris from his frozen state by punching the ice and cracking It open. "And someone get people to clean this up before it melts and turns into lava."

I took Lucian into my arms and gazed at his empty eyes. They were back from were they were when I first met him after eighteen years and I didn't know if this was worse. I moved him out from his room and into a new one and Fenris followed us out.

I laid my brother on the bed and cleaned the stains of blood on his skin with a wet towel before changing him into a fresh set of clothes.

Fenris sat opposite of me and did not move from his spot. His eyes never left Lucian and he would occasionally nudge his hand with his nose with a soft whimper.

"Lucian..." I whispered. It hurt me seeing him like this.

He had progressed so much since we left and with that mere reunion everything just went... Nothing. He was robbed again. He was left empty.

And where was I again? Where was I in all his pain? What did I do to stop it?

What did I do...

"Come back to me... Come back to me otouto..." I whispered with an inviting and comforting beam on my face as I grasped his hand lovingly.

"Big brother is here. I'm here Lucian," I assured him as my voice got shakier by the second.

Someone started to fill the room with audible cries and it didn't sound nice at all. It hurt my ears and stung my eyes and it was laughable. Who was this man and why was he ruining this for me?

This wasn't the time to show such feeble portrait. My brother needed a positive environment and with this guy up here weeping up a storm how can Lucian get better?

Who was... He?

My eyes got even more clouded and my cheeks dampened. It was then I realized that... it was me all along.

The one being a pathetic creature near my brother was me.

"Lucian talk to me... Talk to me! Tell me what's going on in your head! I need you to help me help you... I need you to tell me... Please tell me..."

I picked up my brother and held his head against my chest. I cradled him as tightly and as closely as I can as I was racked with sobs.

"Sweet little flower you fear the setting of the sun

When the skies grow dark and the moons shines its gentle dawn

You shun the night in fear of the dark

You frown when it's time for a sleep that should be sought

Good night good night
Sweet dreams and let your dreams take aflight
It's a short trip you'll regret missing
And it's always different every night

Shut your eyes now little flower for it is a quick wander

Frown no more for the moon means no harm

It has guided us through the darkness we sleep upon

And soon the moon will say another goodbye

And you won't even be able to see it off like we do with the sun

But the moon is always there day and night

We just don't see it in the sun's bright light

Perhaps it worries for a sudden pitch black

For a day its little flower will be lost in track

Good night, sweet dreams
I'll kiss your eyes shut and perhaps you'll dream of me
Tell me about it once you wake
I'll hear all about it I can't wait...

"But onii-chan you're leaving tomorrow aren't you?"

I turned around and found two beautiful pools of blue eyes staring at me in wonderment.

"Yes I will. I'll be home before you know it."

"But... How will I tell you my dream if you aren't there?"

I pursed my lips but didn't dare to drop my smile.

"I'll hear of it once I return. So just write them down for me and you can read it to me! Alright? You can see me off tomorrow. "

There was a glimpse of sadness in his eyes but he covered it up with a nod and a small smile.

"Okay... Onii-chan. Good night."

Never once did I see him complain.

Never once did I see him lack consideration for others.

Never once did I see him throw tantrums.

But I wished at that time.... I wished he did. I wished he became a selfish brat. I wished he thrashed around and caused a scene.

Perhaps then... I could have stayed.

Now we were back to where we started.

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A/N: Ahhh my eyes and nose uuuugh all of them are runny.