Aspiration to the Heavens: Becoming the Supreme Mage Vol 2- Descent of Darkness

Episode 100: A Kingdom in Crisis

*Sarah*

[Past]

"Fan! Are you here?" big brother yelled as we stood at the entrance of a small brick building. "We got someone who would like to stay."

"Ahh, Prince Qing-Yuan," a woman with gray hair said as she walked out of the kitchen with several kids in tow.

"Qing!" several of them yelled, rushing to hug my brother.

"Princess Sarah is here too," a little girl in a red dress said as she tackled me.

"Hey there Scarlet," I said, hugging the four-year-old tightly.

Fan glanced at Natania. "Hello dear, I take it that you're the one the prince spoke of?"

Natania who was hiding behind me nodded. "Y-yes. I want to stay here. I want to have a family again."

The wrinkly woman smiled. "No worries, dear. You can stay here. Though it can get rather rowdy at times."

"That's an understatement," a young man said as he carried a crying baby while multiple other kids followed him from behind.

"It's the princess and prince!" one of the new arrivals yelled.

"Several of the kids began to pull on my brother's arms.

"Let's go play!" one of them yelled.

"I've gotten better at dribbling the ball in my head!" another boy said.

"I would love to see, but right now I can't," Qing-Yuan said. "Sarah and I need to be at the palace."

"You can afford the time to play with them," a familiar voice called out. We looked up at the stairs and saw a woman descend down the stairs. Her wavy white hair bounced up and down as she walked down the stairs with a grace which would make many gawk with disbelief that she was raised in an orphanage.

"Mom," I said.

"What are you doing here?" Qing asked.

"I decided to pay the kids a visit of course. I was helping my brother and sister out."

The young man from before laughed. "I'm honored that you still consider us your siblings."

"Of course I do, Neil. Like I told you on my wedding day, you'll always be my adorable little brother," she said, patting him on the head.

"All these kids are orphans?" Nia asked.

"Yeah. Most of them are the children of parents who fell victim to the Haki epidemic," brother said, eyes cast to the ground.

"Haki? I've heard that name before..." Nia said, tilting her head.

"It's a drug," Fan said, closing her eyes. "A horrible one. It's awfully addictive. The more one takes it, the less they can breathe. At the end their lungs collapse in on themselves... It's already destroyed numerous lives in both Sera and neighboring Sefa. There have been over seventy-thousand deaths in Sera in each of the last two years alone."

"Each?" Nia asked. "So that means that..."

"Yeah, over one-hundred-and-forty-thousand people have perished in the last two years alone," brother said.

"Seemed many wanted to numb the pain of life away," mother said, sighing. "Ironically their death were anything but painless..."

Nia frowned. "That's... so sad."