Historia (Etrian Odyssey Fanfiction)

Chapter 30

There was a large tankard clutched between Verin's hands, filled to the top with alcohol, his second glass, maybe his third, he couldn't remember and he didn't really care. All he wanted was for this stupid glass to empty into his throat so he could get so drunk he passed out. He couldn't stop seeing it, the Kuyutha darting so unexpectedly from the trees, literally breaking through them as it shot towards Naylin and Maya, crashing into his younger sister like a boulder.

He remembered the sound of crunching bones and tearing flesh, she didn't even scream, he could only hope she hadn't felt any of the pain; dead on impact, a shattered smear on the grass. Her legs and arms had been broken and twisted, her chest crushed and the side of her skull cracked and smashed in, eyes completely empty, blood crusted at the corners of her mouth.

What was Verin supposed to do? Stay there and die alongside her? Bullshit. The only reason he'd accepted Kei into their guild was because Maya wanted him to join, but with Maya gone, there was literally nothing else keeping him tied to that highlander. So, he shed his coat, draped it over his sister's broken form, and while the Kuyutha was distracted by Naylin, he lifted the small body into his arms and turned, walking off slowly.

He didn't care about the fate of Historia or Kei back then, and he still didn't care about what had happened, though he did feel a sense of bitterness that Kei and Naylin were both still alive while Maya was buried six feet down below the dirt. Verin did his part, running into the Guardians and telling them a guild was in trouble. That was more than Kei should have expected, because Verin had never cared about him.

The only reason he didn't complain about Kei joining Bayard was because Maya had insisted, and Verin could never say no to her. She had been ten years younger than him, just a baby by the time he started to train. He remembered when Maya was just starting to walk, she would toddle after him, even when he was training.

The loud noises of his gun going off never seemed to bother her, she always wanted to be with Verin and their father when they were training. Then their parents were both killed in the labyrinth, and Verin was left with a toddler to raise on his own. Maya was all he ever cared about, the baby sister who idolized him, who he raised all on his own.

Maya was the one who found Kei, taking him by the hand and essentially dragging him against his will to the inn where Verin was, "Look at him, Ver, he needs us." Verin said okay, he and Maya both invited the younger man to join their guild, and after a few weeks, Maya asked Kei to take over as guild leader, just to give the highlander a reason to stay with them. Now? Now Maya was dead, and after a brutal exchange of curses and angry snarls, guild Bayard had officially broken up.

Kei was a part of guild Historia now, sharing a bed with that war magus he was so fond of, and Verin was slowly on his way to becoming the town's most notorious drunk. But he didn't care. Whenever he was drunk, his mind was fuzzy, and he could easily remember his life when he was younger, when Maya was still just a tiny kid, and all they had was each other. Good memories. Maya grew up into such a brilliant young woman; Verin just regretted he couldn't watch her grow any more.

He... hated Kei; he hated Naylin. He wanted revenge. He wanted them to feel this pain, but he was too lost in his own self-pity to even attempt that revenge he longed for. Maya's death was Naylin's fault, for distracting the dark hunter so that she didn't even notice the Kuyutha attacking. Her death was Kei's fault, because Kei was the reason Bayard was in the labyrinth that day in the first place, because he was obsessed with Naylin and wanted to get into his bed.

It was his own fault for not noticing that Kei was leading them down a dangerous path, his own fault for not hearing the Kuyutha in time, for not yelling at Maya to get out of the way; for not protecting her like he swore he would. His only family was gone now, and as each tankard of alcohol disappeared, he sank deeper and deeper into his consuming self-pity and anger. He wanted Kei to suffer.