Hero's Dead Brother

25. Happiness

Caleb's graduation was, for me, like having the first seat at a Beatles concert. She was a real star! Reading the book, I didn't really think about it but she had all the skills necessary to become a White Eagle like my brother.

Her being on the villain's side, that idea never crossed my mind! Imagining her in a white uniform, surrounded by the Empire's most powerful people made my heart beat faster. She'd be so great!

When asked what she wanted to do, she gave the same answer as my brother.

"I'm willing to serve the Crown, His Majesty the King Ragnor, the Crown Princess Caroline Ragnor and the royal blood. I'm dedicating my life to Justice and the Great Light of our Empire."

Ok, a new angel was introduced to my collection. She's way too cool.

She's gonna serve the Empire alongside with Mika, Joy and Greg. They were like the Musketeers! I felt like in Alexandre Duma's novel.

I felt so happy the whole day.

Then I thought about the not-so-villain. He didn't join the White Eagles but the Tower of magicians, an independent organization that doesn't always follow the King's orders.

At that age, he didn't think about marrying the Princess. I remember that her older brother would be accused of treason later.

I hope that now Kevin will think about joining the White Eagles, too. Though it'll be harder, now that he was a tower mage for years.

Tea huh? Were guys supposed to invite each other for tea? Seemed fishy.

I wanted my guardian angel to be with me but every thought of Greg and Kevin in the same room made me scared. Better not play with fire.

I sighed and got down. The carriage left and I felt like I was abandoned on an island full of snakes. 'Come back!'

I did this to myself. Sorry but I was way too curious to see the villain with a cup of tea.

"Please follow me, young duke Amiel."

My brother is a young duke, not me. I'm a tree branch cutter.

I was surprised to see that the villain's domain wasn't like Dracula's but more like a normal Lord's mansion.

Pretty nice.

"Mister Leonheart, let's sit down"

At least he didn't call me minus.

As we were sitting in silence I did my best to contain my laughter. To put it simply, it looked as if a giant dragon was sitting on a chair and drinking tea, as if it was completely normal.

What was he planning? Was this a trick to make me put my guard down by looking adorable? Won't work on me, sir. I have a whole family of angels at home.

I was sure that he called me to ask about how I knew about the bodies.

"I didn't call you to ask about how you knew about the bodies."

I flinched. Crazy bastard.

"That day you told me not to ask you about the source of information and I agreed. Since you kept all your promises, I'll keep mine."

Oh. Yeah, I'm glad I had enough oxygen left in my brain to be able to say that.

"I called you to ask why exactly you helped me?" Dammit "I don't see how you gained anything from it."

I had to find an excuse. Just pretend that I'm such a nice guy wouldn't work on this sceptic-paranoid.

I told the truth.

"Well my brother likes Her Highness the Crown Princess and if you wanted to take his place for your revenge, it would be troublesome."

Well, not the entire truth.

He laughed. That demonic laugh again.

"I see, minus. You're slier than you look like." He suddenly stopped laughing. "But you see, I still want to take his place."

I almost choked for the second time because of him. He looked at me sadisticly long until he thought he had enough.

"I'm just joking."

"Ha... haha. Hehehe" crazy bastard!

You can imagine that going back home, I was exhausted. No more energy left, he sucked it all.

To my biggest delight, all the boys were there. Well, I wouldn't consider them as boys anymore. Mika and Joy were Knights now, like my brother and he was already engaged to the Princess.

Yeah, imagine the amount of beautiful smiles in the house the day he told us about the engagement. I almost had an overdose.

And Caleb had already graduated, at such a young age!

I never felt so happy though I was quite useless now. Things seemed to slowly change inside of me and Noah's life was getting blurrier to be replaced by this happy one.

Thank You, whoever gave me this blessing.

I'll do my best to be a good friend, son and brother.

End of part 1

Thank you for reading !
I'm very happy to see that people want to read my story. I never thought I'd ever share it but now I'm happy I did.
You're all awesome!

The second part will be a little different and darker. I want to talk deeply about anxiety and PTSD.

I hope I do it respectfully, and right. I don't want to make it seem like no big deal or even worse, make it romanticized.

Love you,

Ayorty