an unfortunate change in genre

Part 10

This wasn't exactly what he'd expected.

Cale's suffocatingly tight hug allowed Roksu to feel every tremble as his brother let out a shuddering sound that sounded suspiciously like a sob.

Roksu gulped, squirming in the grip of his brother and Cale only hugging him tighter in response.

He hadn't been hugged like this since Count Deruth had seen him after the kidnapping.

No, this was even less composed. Was there even relief in it? He could feel the cloying worry coming off of Cale in waves.

"You idiot!" Cale's voice shook as hard as his body. None of his normal grace or composure, just hugging Roksu as though he thought that loosening his grip would mean losing him. "Why are you always like this?!"

"Uh–"

"Shut up!" Ah, there was some of the anger he was more familiar with. Roksu's heart was slamming in his chest with worry that something terrible had happened while he was out cold. Cale was far too distressed. "I told you–I told you to stop!"

The village was eerily quiet when they arrived.

Cale had never liked Harris Village, even after learning about the massacre that occurred in his late teens it had always been difficult for him to hold any fondness for the place or grieve its loss.

To him, it had always been the place where his mother lost her life.

He'd always wondered how it was possible that a healthy woman such as her left for the village and then returned at the brink of death. An irrational and angry part of him had deduced that the villagers must have done something.

He hated the place and he hated everyone that lived there.

All the same, he was forced to accept rationality in his second life and acknowledge that the innocent people living there probably had absolutely nothing to do with his mothers death. That they were civilians of the Henituse territory and he would need to protect them as well from the tragedy to come.

Just a tiny village on the edge of the Forest of Darkness that had died quietly without even one survivor to let the territory lord know what happened. Apparently the bodies weren't found for months.

It was a location that Cale would always associate with death.

Still, it was strange to him to actually find the place to be so silent and somber. It was just a normal village, wasn't it?

Roksu noticed before he did.

The suffocating atmosphere of fear that weighed the place down.

It wasn't long before the reason presented itself. The few survivors were too scared to even scream as they ran for their lives.

"Ahahaha!"

That laughter would haunt Cale's nightmares.

They arrived in the village just in time to watch a madman raze it to the ground in flames.

Why? Harris Village wasn't supposed to be attacked for years to come?

Cale didn't have the time to ponder the death or messed up order of events. He didn't have the time to do anything.

The demented mage had apparently decided in the instance that he saw Cale that the boy was interesting enough to drag into the Forest of Darkness.

Roksu's hand reached out, patting Cale's back awkwardly in hopes of calming him down.

Cale wasn't like this. It was really disconcerting to see him like this. Roksu tried to get a glimpse of his face but Cale's trembling arms wouldn't let him move an inch.