Henry. Just. Henry.

Chapter 48|Erasmus

On the 21st May, 2981, my mother, Lorette Mule, was sentenced to execution for a crime she didn’t commit.

Growing up in Rion Kingdom was a luxury, but a struggle. To survive even a week here, you should at least be middle class or better, rich.

Well my mother was neither. We were so poor, I ate three meals a day by splitting one meal into three.

The only reason we were capable of surviving in Rion and didn’t move to somewhere more affordable like Sorden, is because my aunt from my mother’s side gave us a little cash every now and then.

Aunt Naray barely touched the surface of middle class, but she had enough to survive alone. No husband, no children, no pets. I don’t know how she got to spare some for us.

Being so impoverished, you probably imagined I was bullied and shamed all my academic life… but that was never the case.

I was bullied only because I was the weird black kid with no friends. No one was necessarily racist since there were other black students. I was just unfortunate enough to get the sharp end of the sword.

I never mind not having friends anyway. There was only one person I cherished like a rare ruby: my mother.

She was my only friend, my best friend. I could cry to her, laugh with her, even gossip.

Sure, she scolded me a couple times, but she felt more like a best friend to me than a mother, and that’s as close as you can get with your family.

Having no friends also meant I could focus on my grades and I was at the top of my class every time… until I had to drop out at sixteen.

We just couldn’t afford schooling anymore and if we couldn’t do that, then scholarships were out of the question.

For the next year, we scraped by, even stealing once to get a meal. It felt absolutely horrible to take someone’s hard earned food.

Even if they were middle class, everyone works hard to get where they are, and to just take that progress is a bullet to the heart.

Soon enough, we didn’t see it to be sustainable to remain in Rion, so we were about to move to Sorden.

But one night, I was just about to fall asleep, when I heard my mother talking to some people at the door I never heard before. And trust when I say, we know every voice of everyone in each other’s lives.

So I laid in my bed eavesdropping. Though the conversation was muffled through the walls, it was clear enough to know these strangers were a man and a woman, and they were giving my mother a job.

A heavy one if they were willing to pay her so much money she could buy half the palace.

During the night, I peeked out my room a few times to see her shuffling around the house looking stealthy. Wearing black with a gray mask, I already knew this job was trouble, I just wish I knew what the job was.

As she left, I finally slept, and the next morning she was already home and sleeping.

Judging from her empty room and the living room, she didn’t complete the job. Trust me, that was a lot of money so she couldn’t have stored it anywhere I wouldn’t see it. The house is too small for hide and seek.

Then some guards banged on our door, shouting for my mother.

“Lorette Mule! Open the door, now!”

As she did, the guards immediately arrested her.

“What’s going on?” I yelled, watching my mother as she was just as confused as I was.

“Lorette,” the guard said, “you are under arrest for the attempted murder of King Astride and Queen Benadetta of Rion.”

It felt like frost and ice stretched over my body when he said that. My mother let go of all resistance, too baffled to fight against them anymore.

“But…” she said. “I didn’t do it.” A tear slipped from her face. “I didn’t do it!”

As they took her away, I couldn’t move, not even a finger.

“Erasmus, you have to know I didn’t do it! I’m innocent!”

I heard her the first time and believed her, but seeing my only light being taken allowed the dark to invade my heart. She was my saviour, the cliché knight in shining armour.

Well what is done when the knight doesn’t save the princess?

I was internally crashing.

And to add poison to my already infected wound… they announced her execution for such treason in the next three days.

In those days, I sucked up whatever courage I had in me to try and find the real culprits that framed my mother… but I never did.

You can’t expect a seventeen-year-old to become Sherlock Holmes in the next three days.

On the 21st May, I and everyone of the kingdom witnessed her being dragged onto the public stage. She was strapped to a pole where the gunman aimed for the middle of her forehead.

Just before she was gone, she saw me in the crowd, an ocean of tears spewing out and mouthed her final words: “I. Love. You. So. Mu-“

Well, she didn’t get to finish before the bullet flew through her head. The whole was smoking and the blood trail was longer than a wedding dress’ train.

After that day, I might as well be dead too, for I felt like nothing but a living corpse.

No life.

No vitality.

No energy. 

She was my first, last and only friend. My love for my mother transcended God’s love for the Earth.

Soon enough, I left Rion, plotting my revenge.

On the 2nd July, 3000, I raged a war on Rion kingdom. Killing your parents and brother, Henry. And up to this day, I still couldn’t figure out who the real culprits were. If I could only talk to my mother, one last time… I could ask, but alas, I can’t.

I’m forever stuck with this injustice, and the only way to balance it, is to resurrect her by any means necessary, for she didn’t deserve to die.

✧✧✧

Henry squeezed his gut, appalled at the injustice and unfairness Erasmus was put through. He now understood his drive, his conviction to bring back his mother, even at the cost of the whole country.

If someone had accused Miyu or Fallon, even Ezra then executed them… Henry doesn’t know if he’d be able to forgive. Maybe he’d want revenge and justice too.

He searched his mind for a way, any way to help Erasmus without destroying the country.

When he looked up at Cedric, who heard the entire tale, he mouthed something to Henry.

On the first two attempted, Henry didn’t understand a thing… but on the last: “Lake. Memoria”

His eyes bugled.

That’s right! He thought, getting up and running over to Erasmus whose head was bobbed in despair. He stretched out his hand and he looked up.

“I know how I can help you, Erasmus.”

“How?”

“We’re going to Lake Memoria.”

Erasmus took Henry’s hand, getting up and dusting off his clothes. “Who?”