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53/Reality and Childhood
🕑 Added 2023-03-08 03:08:13 +0000 UTCBea body was untied by Eva and placed on the luxurious white bed in the room. Around it was the entire group. Except for Maïli who had momentarily left them before returning with Zem and closing the door. For a long moment there was a heavy and mortuary silence.
"All this would never have happened if they hadn't forced her to do such a thing!" Eva angrily declared breaking the silence.
"It's not surprising, I haven't been able to sleep a wink since then, I've just been shaking like a leaf in my bed." Said Beth, looking down at her still shaking hands.
"At least you didn't do the irreparable." Replied Marine, taking her in his arms to comfort her.
"We all suffered a lot we can all say. The memories and faces of these children haunt us and will haunt us forever." Attested Karine, her face tense.
"Unfortunately, Bea she couldn't live with that." Expressed Eléonore with a sad face as she looked at her lifeless body.
"It's not everyone who can endure this kind of thing and we can't blame Bea for having cracked, I've thought about it too to tell the truth." (Karine)
There was then a brief silence signifying that she was not the only one who had such dark thoughts.
"I beg your forgiveness to all of you! If you had not been summoned here none of this would have happened!" Zem declared as he lay down on the ground.
There was again a brief silence as all eyes turned to Zem who had sunk lower than the ground to apologize.
"Please stand up, you are the only one who was always correct with us, you didn't just train us mechanically. You were always supporting us, with your advice and kindness." Corrected Maïli immediately.
"She's right Zem, don't compare yourself to the others here." Added Karine.
He could then raise his head and body helped by them with kindness, in no way they had blamed him, not even for a second.
"I know it's still hard for everyone and that is quite normal, but we need to think immediately about what comes next." (Maïli)
"Do we have a choice anyway?" (Eva)
"You already know the answer." (Maïli)
"I wanted to be sure." (Eva)
"Zem can we have a summary of the little meeting you had with the king?" (Maïli)
"He was planning to eliminate the undesirables and those who were no longer useful to them." (Zem)
"How amazing." Says Eléonore not surprised like everyone else.
"So, can we know if we are sentenced to death?" (Eva)
"No, it was not easy, but none of you will have to face this kind of fate." (Zem)
"So what's next for us from now on?" (Marine)
"For Max and Dan it has been decided that they will leave the Blacksmiths and Alchemists guild. Then, Eléonore, Karine and Eva you will join the royal knights of Sigma that I command." (Zem)
"So I'll have to serve that bastard king! No way! I want to get out of here!" Eva declared madly.
"It's the only option I have found, I'm sorry and you're way too talented, they won't let you go like that." (Zem)
"If I have to do horrible things like kill children again it will be without me!" (Eva)
"I'll make sure you do as little of that as possible." (Zem)
"No even if..." (Eva)
"Eva!" Maïli shouted.
The two were now looking at each other Maïli taking the floor on her own.
"Do you think we have a choice? Do you think I'm happy about this? No, from now on this is our reality and there is nothing we can do about it. We'll have to bend to it or else only death awaits us. And believe me, I don't want to be forced to kill you like they did to us with those poor children. "(Maïli)
A shiver ran through them, they had not even thought of such a horrible possibility.
"So please Zem fought for us, don't waste his efforts" (Maïli)
She then looked at everyone in the room:
"We have no choice, now the only thing we have left to do is to endure and become stronger. So that when the time comes we can free ourselves from our chains and make them pay!" (Maïli)
Eléonore moved closer to Eva and put her hand on her shoulders.
"She's right, this is all we can do for now so let's do it!" She said with a determined look.
"Alright." She replied as resigned as she was determined.
"What about the ones that didn't make the cut?" (Beth)
"For the others, he didn't want you in the Royal knights so you will leave the royal palace. You can become an adventurer, as soon as you get out of here join the adventurers guild. You will earn money and it will be a very good way to gain maturity and experience." (Zem)
"So everything is decided?" (Marine)
"Yes, in a week everyone will be asked to do what they have to do, leave the castle, the royal knights and the hero group." Zem nodded.
"Very well." (Marine)
"While everyone is here, Zem, I wanted to ask you something when we were studying, we heard in a class about your brother's heroic action. A man who by his own will prevented a city from being completely wiped out by monsters. But why did you choose not to discriminate against other races? We would really like to hear your story or rather your story. (Maïli)
POV Zem
My brother and I were just the humble sons of peasants farming on the outskirts of the kingdom. Our parents had a small piece of land to cultivate, they were loving parents and took very good care of us and not only.
When we were about 5 years old, they also took in a beast man about our age who had been injured on our land. Instead of hunting him or doing anything to him, they cared for him and raised him as their own son without any discrimination. And of course we also welcomed him into our family, we were now 3 brothers.
It was a good life in the fields, and we loved to cultivate the fields with our parents. It was tiring because the sun was always shining, but we got a lot of satisfaction from the manual work, while relieving our parents. For our 7th birthday, our parents bought us wooden swords. At that time, we started to fight more than we should. Sometimes all three of us would come home covered in bruises from the many blows we were throwing at each other. My mother would reprimand us every time this happened, yet the next day we would come home with more and more bruises.
Our nights had always been spent together in a narrow bed where we barely fit. But that didn't matter as long as we were together, laughing and telling stories and dreams. Nevertheless, we were horrified when our third brother Veid told us how he had ended up here. The story of his entire family being enslaved and the atrocities he had seen, he could not help but cry telling his story.
It was at that moment that we took him in our arms, we did not understand why such things could be committed. We were different, but there was no justification for such barbaric acts. The only thing we knew for sure was that there was nothing right and that it was wrong.
The story of our brother, then filled us with a great feeling of injustice. A feeling that gave birth to the exact opposite of that, a desire for justice and equality filling us.
Our wise parents, however, told us not to act recklessly. For this kind of thinking could bring great misfortune. They did not worship the goddess because they found her teachings and her law devoid of empathy and morality. Of what some called humanism and respect for others. Their work taught them patience, rigor, courage and humility. Values that we have perfectly understood and integrated understanding their value.
Every time we went to town with our cart and horses. We took great care to make Veid look like a slave, even though we didn't like it very much. So our days were spent working, fighting, playing and selling the crops. It was a life of hard work, but also peaceful and rewarding.
The older we got, the more we began to dream of action and adventure. When we were about 12 years old, I was the first to awaken my element. Water had magically sprung from my wooden sword that had aged over time. We were all amazed when this happened.
"How did you do it?" Hélias asked excitedly.
"I don't know, I felt an energy run through my body and I released it." I replied.
"That energy you felt is what we call mana, I studied it in my village." (Veid)
"If you studied it you must know how to use it right? " (Zem)
"I'm not very good at it actually." (Veid)
"Well then, let's all three of us learn by ourselves." (Zem)
Then with great excitement we started to train hard. I was good with the fire element, Helias with the water element. Veid, as he had said, was not very good and struggled to use his wind element.
However, there was only mutual help between us and we encouraged and trained together. When we were 15 years old, our thirst for adventure pushed us to become adventurers.
In addition to helping our parents, we started to do missions for the guild. Hunting and subduing monsters proved to be exciting for the three of us. We were a trio that helped each other out and filled in the gaps of the others.
After 2 exciting years of adventures and fights, we had reached the rank of C adventurers. The money we didn't need we gave to our parents so they could develop their land and take on employees.
By the time we were 18, we were B-rank adventurers, and we were even called The Three Elements. We hardly lacked anything and our reputation preceded us, with a string of subjugations and dungeons of all kinds.
"We had put the reality of this world aside, but when you put reality aside it always ends up catching up with you. I still remember as if it were yesterday the pain of losing a brother." (Zem)
