𝖛𝖎𝖓𝖚𝖒 𝖒𝖆𝖗𝖘 𝖉𝖊𝖈𝖔𝖗 𝖉𝖊𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖚𝖎𝖙 𝖛𝖎𝖗𝖎𝖉𝖎𝖙𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖒 𝖎𝖚𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖚𝖙𝖎𝖘.

•••

The canary starts to sing at the beginning of April. On a white promenade everyone forgets. The permeating silver blue of the unforgiving frost slowly thaws off, and an assortment of bellflowers and snowdrops start blooming at the seasonʼs wake. The Twenty-fifth Bam, however, could not seem to catch even a wink of sleep knowing it would be his first and hopefully, last post-winter without Khun Aguero Agnis. Today would mark the first year prior to his arrival at the Khun Family Estate, and a whole month without his savior attached to his hip.

When the territory welcomed the midwinters, soldiers have begun to disappear within the southern border and the latter had been given the task to investigate the phenomenon along with his seniors and Eduan's retainers. Aguero had promised to achieve results within three days before the elders could muster enough audacity to intervene. Unfortunately, on the way back they were met with a snowstorm which destroyed the warp gate and most of the soldiers either contracted an epidemic due to poor living conditions, while others wound up severely injured or dead during the crossfire between them and the converted that attacked the fort. Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to a month, and a lot had transpired. If they ever send word of delay once the sun rises, Bam had no qualms of using his permit to follow suit.

The last day of winter marked the first year of his second chance at life, but he wasn't feeling festive at all. The peace and tranquility Bam felt almost seemed surreal- like an illusion awaiting its breakage.

"Lord Eduan?"

The brunet was not quite sure, but he heard traces of the ancient tongue added with the voice he was too accustomed with to mistake it for anybody else. The patriarch clad in azure and gray paused then turned to the brunet, a bowl half-full of wine settling dangerously comfortable on the palm of his hand and a flash of recognition painted on his eyes as he smiled in drunken stupor.

"V!"

Khun Eduan exclaimed, prolonging the syllable as his eyes lit in delight when he spotted the supposed brunet approaching him. "You finally came to visit! How dare you take this long to find me! But," the bluenet paused, flashing a lopsided grin. "It's alright. As long as you're beside me, I can pardon anything. Still, I cannot believe it took you several millennia and myself only a few pints of Bloodmadder's gin just for us to cross paths."

"Are you drunk, Lord Eduan?"

'By V, did he mean my father? Wasn't he like, dead? Don't tell me he returned as a ghost?!' Bam, in an inner state of panic, roamed his eyes around frantically then shook his thoughts off before composing himself. Ghost or not, he must prevent the Khun Family Head from sacrificing his dignity over the guilty pleasures of alcohol. Even if it is the last thing he'd live long enough to be able to do.

"Perhaps it would be better if my Lord retires to the main palace?"

"My, my. 'Lord'? I never thought you had your fair share of kinks, V." he snickered which earned a raised brow from the barely eleven-year-old who instinctively staggered a few steps backward from the looming mischief. Much to his despair, the elder pulled the child and forcibly made him settle on the space beside him, sensing his need for escape as he gestured for the latter to pour him the bottle he shoved to his chest with a blissful aure. "Besides, why the rush? This fateful meeting of ours calls for a celebration!"

Truth to be told, there was not a problem with that- no, none at all. Except for the fact that the celebration was for his supposedly deceased parent, and Bam was not his father.

"Even if it is a necessary feat, it is still recommended to get you to somewhere private, Lord Eduan." Bam urged, irate and exhausted as he tried to stand up, yet the strength of a hypothetically growing child can only do so much against a seasoned warrior- however drunk and right down wasted they may appear to be.

"It's not!" Eduan waved away the former's objections, playing with the silvery and still waters of the lake with the soles of his feet as he continued in a daze. "Come on, V! Must you always ruin my fun? I have waited for you for a long time and yet, here you are, depriving me of my joys."

Bam puffed his cheeks before relenting, heaving out a deep breath as he secured his place on the platform next to the family head, silence prevailing between the both of them, glitters of fake stars gracing the moonlit lake. He stared at the vacant porcelain beside the bottle, then to Eduan who sipped on the vermillion cinnabar liquid with a slight hum, wondering if he had ever seen his best friend's father in such a relaxed state before.

"Stop checking me out, I know Iʼm gorgeous."

"My Lord!"

The man let out a boisterous laughter, his wine spilling as his shoulders shook. "You've really gone a long way from the person you were when we first met, V. Not that I'm complaining, but it had rather been amusing trying to tease someone one couldnʼt get a reaction to."

'I am not V, Lord Eduan,' he bit his inner cheek to hold his complaints in and instead turned to stare off unto the water. Bam knew it would be impudent of him to take advantage of the bluenet's moment of weakness, but the child inside him was depraved and dying to know why the Khun Eduan- someone even the books revered and spoke highly of, held his so-called father in the highest possible regard.

"Then, can my Lord tell me how he and V met?"

The latter cast him a confused expression before tuning it out with a sip of alcohol, sighing away like he was reminiscing a favorite memory.

ー • ー

2nd Floor ;
Khun Eduan ;

"I'm bored."

Khun Eduan muttered in a fit of listlessness beneath his breath as he eyed the regulars below him in sheer scrutiny, swinging his dangling feet lazily over the ledge in an inept attempt to somehow end up jumping 40 feet from the ceiling and join the ongoing bloodbath that was unfolding without him.

Nothing was ever more tiring than becoming a mere spectator for something that was ought to bring color and excitement to his tedious days. Khun Eduan was a commander. The world was his battlefield and wars were his personal playground. His parents raised him in pursuit towards an environment that suited his genius- at least, he'd like to think they did- and he would rather rot in hell than be bound to something as bothersome as camaraderie.

"Do you not know how to fucking wait?"

Ha Yurin bared and the bluenet matched her glare with the same intensity. Whoever said it was chivalrous to not fight with a woman definitely had died off in a ditch somewhere not having met enough because god-forbid, he will take this amazona on in any time of day.

"I am waiting, and now I am losing the last bit of nonexistent patience I have left!"

If only he knew that teaming up with these people would be an epitome of a gray-colored climb, he would have left these little shits for dead long ago but alas! He cannot, and now he was stuck waiting until the last round because some stuck-up moron wanted to make a grandiose entrance.

"If you all are going to be so loud, you might as well just slit each other's throats while you're at it!" Jahad, the self-proclaimed team leader from the capital hollered at the both of them which, by the way, was obviously a poor attempt of mediation but he won't be the one telling him that.

"Gods," Eduan groaned sarcastically, flashing a sardonic grimace. "Yes!"

"Stop encouraging that bloodlusting lunatic, Jahad!"

The golden blond placed his hand on his hip as he sighed, pinching his noseline in agitation. 'That's right, Jahad. Fucking suffer.' "Still, Yurin has a fair point, Khun. Even if you had your way you will still feel most probably as miserable as you are right now because as much as I hate to admit it, there is nobody here who can match your strength. So, I politely suggest you to back down, or I shall drag you two down here by the hair and disqualify us altogether. Pick your poison."

Eduan rolled his eyes at him and averted his attention from his teammates, assuring himself that he'd soon get his fun. Don't get him wrong though, he isn't inferior to them in any way possible. It's just that everything so far had been anticlimactic that he had no energy left to give a flying fuck about anything else. If, by some miracle, someone is ought to present something entertaining to his plate, he'd welcome them with open arms, kiss that someone a heartfelt adieu, before granting them the most peaceful death their lowly selves can ever imagine.

Needless to say that as of the moment, the young Khun could not do anything but watch as the game turned more tedious as time passes, the regulars repeatedly undergoing the same cycle of violence without a clear direction of where they were headed like child's play. At this rate, even the Grand Bout back in his estate guaranteed him a satisfying show than this preschool mess.

"Jahad, are you not tired of being in this sad state as well?" Eduan called out, absent-mindedly adding weight on the blond's armor with his hold. "Can't we just go back to the part where we were killing each other?"

Jahad's eye twitched as he shook the spearbearer off of his armor, taking the chance to form a good comeback. "Can't you just go back to the part where your mother never gave birth to you?"

"I thought of that too but she was adamant I be born a month early to get an edge amongst my competitors." The latter chuckled bemusedly, as if the other just uttered something hilarious. Take a good look at how it had turned out and tell him this isn't perfection.

"Ugh."

Eduan laughed then turned to the ravenette who seems to already have a permanent scowl etched on her face the moment he is around and actually running around, alive. "Yurin~"

"It better have some sense this time, or I am feeding you to Headon's eel."

"Aren't they quite adorable, Yurin? They're like little ants my clan's elders were secretly growing underneath the dungeons, behind my father's back." 'Ah, I really want to crush open their tiny, unguarded heads.'

"I thought ants from the northern regions were huge?"

"And stupid." He halted, that shit-eating grin still plastered upon his porcelain face when Yurin lifted up a dagger and pointed it towards him threateningly. "How do you want to die, Khun Eduan?"

The bluenet raised his hands in mock surrender, moving the sharp tip of the blade away from his face with his finger and pointed it below them, where he sensed a slight shift in the battlefield's atmosphere. Much to their surprise, the swarm of regulars who entered the third round were petrified- figuratively speaking- as if a new prey had entered the hunting grounds. "Did something happen? Why are they not moving?"

The woman grinned sarcastically as she replied, "Maybe they caught your horrid stench from above and forgot how to breathe?"

The former clicked his tongue before turning to the source of the commotion- two people of almost the same stature appeared and drew all of their attention like a centerpiece. The woman with straight hair darker than Yurin's stood atop the pedestal, holding the golden crown on her right hand as she presented it to the agitated crowd.

"Are you satisfied?"

Her voice reverberated through the walls of the arena and pierced through the silence. "Are you satisfied with merely playing along those administrators' games with our lives on the line?"

Her companion held her hand as she climbed to the throne, sitting on the armrest with her legs crossed as she spun the crown with the palm of her hands. "Are you content with becoming a mere tool for someone else's ambitions?"

"Stop this nonsense and give us that crown, woman!" some creature from the swarm roared before charging towards the throne, aiming for the ravenette's head. However, betraying everyone's expectations, her companion, as delicate and fragile as he seemed, swiftly appeared in between them and in a flick of a hand swept half of them with a shinsu barrier. At first, Eduan thought they were just thrown off-guard and could have immediately regained their balance, but a shinsu tension similar to the barrier could be sensed from the mysterious force that kept the regulars frozen to the ground.

"Do you not have an ambition of your own to fulfill? Your own raison d'être? The wish you originally had when you were chosen to climb the Tower of God?" The guy created a portion of the field for her to pass through, yet the creature who interrupted the young lady before remained at standstill, with the latter kneeling until their sights were leveled as she lifted his chin with the tip of the crown. "Instead of needlessly fighting each other, why donʼt we free ourselves from this silly game and conquer the tower together? Join us, because we have the means to bring your wishes to reality."

'How fascinating.' Eduan whistled, his attention completely hooked on the wavecontroller in the making. He was certain, the latter had more talents than what his scrawny looking body could handle.

"Join me, and I shall show you a way where we can all get what we want."

With a brief gesture to his companions, the bluenet waved his hand and leaped, disregarding the opposing remarks his team yelled out in response and landed rather disgracefully for his palate, toppling over the youth clad in monochrome colors, with the most deceiving weakest presence he had ever encountered, as he plastered up a lopsided smile. The dullness clouding his cobalt orbs long gone and now replaced with an expression so alive it was as if he was kissed awake from a fairytale curse.

"Name."

The stranger trembled for a moment, yet collected himself despite the fact that he was imprisoned between Eduan's arms. "Pardon me?"

"You," the latter poked his cheek with his free hand after transferring the weight. "What are you called?"

"A human. Now, move."

Eduan ignored his hostility. "I like you."

"And I'm at a loss for words."

"You have piqued my interest," the bluenet declared, shifting his position to help the guy up to which he accepted gratefully. However, Eduan's demeanor changed when he held the stranger's hand, grasping it firmly and pulling him rigorously until their faces were close in proximity. An intense glimpse of purple amethyst projecting behind the thick fringes of semi-dyed ebony.

"Team up with me."

ー • ー

Bam awoke, a rare quality coat made of arctic bear skin draped all over him until it covered the tips of his toes from being rendered completely frozen. Unlike his expectations, he wasn't at that lakeside anymore, and the Khun family head was nowhere to be seen, yet the image and emotional aftermath of last night's conversation remained vividly in his memories.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." The brunet hummed in satisfaction as the newcomer kissed his forehead before pulling him to a familiarly warm embrace. "Did I disturb your sleep?"

Bam shook his head, tightening his hold around the bluenet's waist. "I missed you too, Aguero."

"You seem awfully cuddly despite the coming of spring," Khun chuckled, yet patted the stray locks of hair sticking out from Bam's head. "I am?"

"Yeah. What did you do?"

"I am mortally wounded that you are doubting my restrained, patient, and disciplined demeanor, Aguero."

Khun knocked his temple lightly, earning a small pout from the younger which only made him roll his eyes with mirth. "You being patient never goes well in the same sentence, Bam. Now, will you be honest and tell me or I shall find out for myself?"

"It's really nothing! Well, this time." he frowned. "It's just that, I think Lord Eduan might have hidden a lot of regrets in his long life.

And I believe that most of it is probably related to my father."

•••

updating because i’m graduating. happy pride month everyone! keep slaying~