NOVEL NEXT Chapter 104: Coolest Brother.
Joshua
A few minutes ago
"There's the lanky twat…"
A chilly breeze blew my fox fur coat. The smell of war – smoke and iron still dirtied the air. I couldn't ignore the mess my honourable brother made of my summer retreat. Mana warmed my eyes, and my sight increased. My brother's darkened face was still and contemplative as he watched over his prize. A great day it was for him. But those eyes said otherwise.
The stairway should be around here. I should really learn to fly.
Heckles grew on warm arms and looked up to see demigods at battle.
"Fuck..." I eyed a passing servant. "You there." I flicked the man three gold coins. The man would be ready to swim with sharks if I asked.
"In the knight quarters, a golden knight of the seas rests." The servant paled but still showed his determination. His payment could feed his family well for a good while. "Tell her her prince provoked a fight –"
Like a meteor shower in the sky, the battle shot over the large wall.
"Tell her if she doesn't come, I will kill the prince myself!" I point in her direction. "Now!!"
A burst of lightning, and I was already on my way.
Now.
I pat the dust from my coat. "And then I saved you from execution."
"...What the fuck, Joshua…!"
"Hey, don't give me that look, brother. I was desperate. Plus, I couldn't kill Kryros even if I tr-"
"Shut up." Tarion shook his head with a wiggling smile. "Please." A cough later, and my brother instantly put on a professional face. Stepping forward, Tarion bowed to the elderly knight whose peppered ponytail stayed dry in the rain.
"Dame Aqua. A pleasure. Truly. Used to sleep to tales of your heroism."
The knight bowed back to the duke. "That dull I am?" Hard to tell when she jests with her face marked by her exploits.
"Capsising three pirate ships is anything but dull!" Tarion stood straight. "You were always my favourite of the pantheon. Water is underestimated. With the right master, you can bring the sky down, conjure waves hundreds of thousands of feet high. Even control the blood within another body."
"What caused your quarrel?" Said Aqua, ignoring Tarion's attempt at kissing ass.
Tarion chuckled softly. "His highness insulted my wi-"
"I told the truth, cousin!"
A flash of blue light and a magnificent greatsword appeared, exploding the air. Tarion's cloak flapped with fury. White energy eased off his large body, slowly engulfing his blade as the pantheon encircled their prince, who kiss his teeth on his cloud throne.
Tarion stretched his ear to hear better. "Has anybody got something else to say? Good." Tarion turned back to the nervous water knight. "I need my apology."
A mess of a person dropped beside us, pleading.
"Please! I AM SORRY, I'M SORRY!!" The knight of Agni hung on my brother's breeches. PLEASE FORGIVE—"
Tarion kicked the sad man away. "Pathetic… But a loyal man…" Tarion turned around to the wall where hundreds crowded the wall to see the battle between the bitch prince and the victorious duke. Tarion took a moment to think.
"Dame. I offer the prince a way out of embarrassment." Stepping close to the dame of water, Tarion whispered, and Aqua nodded, making her way to the prince.
What did you say, brother?" I asked a smiling Tarion.
"Oh," Tarion's greatsword was stabbed deep into the soil. "I just asked for a truce."
Kyros burst into childish rage at the other end.
"FINE!" From a hundred metres away, Kyros vanished and appeared in front of us. And a hand adorned with gold jewellery was held out for a handshake. Rune-engraved rings nearly blind me with radiant crystals. Wind projected the prince's voice to the audience.
"What a fun spar, Cousin! We must promise to do this another time, HAHA!" Kyros laughed through gritted teeth and pulled Tarion in for a hug.
Air became thicker as I grabbed my chest, struggling to breathe. Kyros whispered in Tarion's ear, just enough for me to hear.
"Qi has given you false confidence, but you will always be the weak boy who follows me like a little duckling."
He knows qi?!
My body felt heavy under his pressure. Circles spun to their fastest to keep me stable and expand my mana field.
"Give her to me. Hand her over to me, and your little empire you built will stay untouched.
Kyros' mana field disappeared as if it had popped like a giant balloon.
"Nah, mate." Tarion patted a prince's back like an old friend. "I thought kids learn not to touch what is not theirs. But it seems princes don't get taught proper manners." Tarion pulled away from Kyros' grip. "I will get that apology." A kick to the blade dug it from the soil, spinning into my brother's hand to disappear in a blue flash. "But don't worry, Your Highness; I am in no rush."
That was fucking cool… Cool? Where did I hear that word?
"Apologies for what, may I ask?"
A kind voice turned every head to her illuminating beauty. And I was supposed to many this dame? She would have been wasted on a man like me. By the duchess's side, a white horse huffed while she healed Agni with a shield of mana saving her from the cold rain.My brother rushed to her, bowing to kiss her hand. Whistles from horny men and swooning gals came from up high on the wall.
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"I will tell on the way back to our bed." A sharp turn to the prince and a quick bow. "Your higness..." Kyros waved with huff and we could leave. Nodding to the water knight who held a tired Agni and we leave under her rain in the dark night. The faint sound of cheers in the distance and boiling rage at our back, my brother asked me a dumb, bewildering question.
"The prince and I. Good friends were we?"
My mouth opened in surprise. "Are you toying with me, Tarion?"
"Great friends?"
"Don't make me bloody laugh! Hahaha, Friends!?! HAHAHAHA!!" I laughed aloud as we walked out of the prince's reported 400-metre mana field reach. I watched behind us. And droplets of water float upwards to the dark sky. "Bully"
I looked at my confused brother. "Victim", Tarion said nothing else, scratching his beard in deep thought.
"Are you sure the battles haven't rung your bell too much?"
Tarion
Vanessa shuddered in disgust, unclasping her back buttons with mana tethers. "And that's our prince… if he became king i fear for the country. No i fear for the world. How can such have terrible man in position of such power?"
I shrugged. "Becuase this is the way of this world. Of every world. Some ancestor took land by blood; now they're god-anointed rulers for eternity. And now we have to deel.woth the incest-riddled, crayon-eating, evil pricks."
Vanessa's clothes dropped to the ground. "Until they are ousted," she said.
I smiled widely on the bed with nothing but underwear on. "Until they're ousted," I repeated with joy in my voice. "Say… I rest on my head, waiting to see her voluptuous form. "Would you like to be a queen one day?"
"So the divorce came through…"
I sighed. "It matters not."
"You say so. But I heard it spread among the troops, among our servants. I see it in their eyes…" Vanessa took a seat at a powder table she rarely used, looking at herself. "Rumours of my true origins are already top news. This could—"
"It matters not. To me, and it shouldn't matter to you." I jumped out of the bed, meeting her where she sobbed about like a sad puppy. "Tell me if anyone treats you differently. Any change in their demeanour or language, and they're fired. Any disrespect, and I will meet them personally. No matter your origin, your position now is by my side."
"And I yours…" She blushed under the candlelight and my heart beat for her.
I hugged her from behind, smelling her sweet scent. "I almost killed royalty in your name." My lips found her pale neck, and she shook from my touch.
"I didn't ask for… it." She jerked up as I grabbed a breast, kneading a sensitive spot.
"Should I stop…" I went lower and lower, feeling slick wetness on my fingers. "Ah, you didn't ask." Before I could stand straight, I was pulled toward full, soft lips.
"Cheeky bastard…" My love whispered softly in my ear, and we continued our tryst all night.
Dawn of a new day.
My duchess rested in bed, deep in her slumber from a tiring day. I left her warmth to feel the morning air. Half the city, in my view, I sat, legs folded, enjoying a cup of hot brew. Birds tweet, commoners begin their day as if a war didn't happen, and an Umbra landed quietly on the balcony's gothic-styled stone balustrade. I placed down the red sealed envelope with a list of possible traitors, ne'er-do-wells and fiends.
"Good work, Keaton." The head of Maize's Ubra spy unit nodded in respect. "Tonight. Report."
"Smarter than the usual assassins, these lot. Few in number but tight in the movement. Managed to escape before we dealt them deadly blows." I saw the evidence of combat all over his dark clothes.
"Prince?" I asked.
"Possible, Your Grace, but given your recent business. I suggest you may need to watch for those whose pockets you've messed with."
Placed my cup down. "Merchants? What makes you say so and not say a grieving relative of the late Wolfburn Duke or an annoyed prince?"
"Well, assassins like these are just a bit too expensive for the likes of normal nobles, and they despise royalty."
I leaned forward. "Daggerfellows… I will send you some gold and a madam with a smart mouth. Best to settle with them bastards; I have enough shit to deal with."
"Your knowledge of the underground is commendable, Your Grace," Keaton said with respect in his husky voice.
"Platitudes? Please, ahaha. Go and rest, Elder. Thank you for your fine work."
Within a silver goatee, the Branch family member smiled. "The children are dying to meet the new, revitalised duke. We have to spar next time I am up north. Maybe I can haggle for a raise?"
"Rest." I returned to my tea, hiding my smile as Keaton left like a fading shadow.
"Why up so early – wow, it's cold!" Said my love, wrapping a nearby robe around her.
"Just thinking to myself."
Vanessa followed the line of sight to the city beyond us. "Decided?"
"Yes…" I placed my cup, stood up and rested my arm on the stone wall. My love warmed me on my right
"Not satisfied in the slightest?"
"You know me. If I think I can do better. I will make it mine." My fist balled tight until Vanessa held it.
"So, what's next, Tarion? The summer solstice tournament?" She asked as she hugged me close.
"That will be many stages ahead. I thinking of what I can do now. This city… This duchy. It's time to settle it and make it mine. Truly."
"Dissidents must be found."
I turned to her, stunned. "Lands above! I've tainted the great saintess with my tyranny, haha! I wonder how the designer with feel about that."
"No." She said, staring into the waking city. "You help me be what I really am. With no shame."
I watched her for a minute, working through my mind as to how I was lucky enough to be with a woman like this. A woman so fun.
"Tarion… You're staring like you want part two of last night."
I held up a letter Keaton left me. "Want to go on a date?"
**************************
Two months later…
The Duke
After Battle with Goblins…
Darkness filled the cloudless sky as my duchess and I travelled the long road back from bloodshed.
"They are remnants of the old ways." While a carriage bumped me along. I washed blood with bubbling water on my fingertips. Vanessa relaxed on a seat opposite me, tired after a day of healing villagers hurt by the goblins.
"Those goblins were Wolfburn men?" Vanessa asked.
"No, an opposing faction of sorts. They found the same way here that the shaved and bandits did. And had been using it to disturb the towns and villagers far from the city's reach. The Wolfburns, tired of the many complaints by his serfs, made a deal that the goblins were to limit their activities in exchange; some of the kidnapped meant for sacrifices would be given to them."
"Dirty business…", Vanessa said, taken by sadness. "I talked to some of the villagers… The elders spoke of their people being taken by the monsters since they were young. It had always been a part of life in the Vioden Farmland. So in hearing that their children and grandchildren were taken, they responded not with shock and anger but with coldness."
"They are farmers who are worked to the bone by an unforgiving duke," I said. "Children are tools to work the land and handle the load. So when some of the tools go missing, they can always make new ones. Life goes on." Fire flickered on my finger, and I inspected my blade.
"People are not automatons, Tarion! You didn't see the endless vigils, mourning the many lost over the years. So many names. Too many candles still lit by loved ones…!"
I breathed softly and controlled my emotions. "Then why did they do nothing?"
"You think they should have gone into the forest with hoes and scythes to kill beings knights would have trouble with."
"If it's love…" I turned to Vanessa. "They should have tried everything."
A bump in the road shook us from our seats, and the conversation was dead until we reached the old Wolfburn Castle. The carriage door opens, but my wife stayed in her seat.
"You say if it's love, they would do anything." She looked at me sternly with disappointment on her face. "But for love, they stayed to protect and feed the family they had left. Not everyone can bring lightning from the sky, lift the earth with a thought or fly like a bird in the clouds. Not everyone can risk it all like we can. Don't disrespect those who do what they can."
Huh…
I leaned forward, massaging between my eyebrows. "I am sorry… I didn't mean to—"
Her arms around my head, Vanessa kissed my forehead. "Busy, stressful days. Ungrateful people, I get it. Come, let's go rest. We've got an even busier day ahead," she says, pulling me to the door, not knowing it will be a special day for her too.