-Four days prior to the competition. 32nd of Zali-
Amongst others there for the sa reason, a group from the Droxxon rcenaries rode into Ferrent through the 3rd ward gate.
Their trip was quite eventful, but it was nothing seventeen trained rcenaries couldn’t handle.
Kaidus was riding at the front of the wagon alongside York who was driving. Another wagon followed them, carrying the other half of their group.
He was silently taking in the familiar atmosphere of the bustling 3rd ward. He smiled, seeing the many people who were out and about, moving through their day.
Their group caught the eyes of a few pedestrians, but many paid no heed to them. It was that ti of the year again. A ti when people ca from all over Darsus to compete in the Arms Competition, for glory and a chance at wealth.
The group slowly made their way through the busy street, moving towards their destination.
“I’ll be getting off here. Thanks for everything, York.” Stopping at the 3rd ward market district, Kaidus got off, taking a single bag of luggage with him.
The inns for the hired helps were in the opposite direction of where he is heading, so he chose this spot to part with them.
“No need. We’re the ones who should be thanking you. Say hi to your parents for alright? It’s going to be busy, but I’ll try and drop by whenever I can. If not before, then after the competition.” York replied.
“Alright.”
He waved them off.
““See ya Kaidus!”” Many of rcenaries called out as the wagons moved away.
His ti with the rcenaries was over after three long years. Having already said his goodbyes, there was nothing else that needed to be said. Picking up his luggage, he made his way through the market district, moving ever closer to ho.
Familiar people looked at him curiously. An instance of recognition here and there, but he could see that many were wondering who he is to have traveled with a band of what looked to be thugs.
He smiled, wondering if he had really changed that much after three years.
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*Knock Knock* Kaidus stood in front of his house, waiting for the door to open. *Knock knock* He knocked once more, uncertain if his mother and sister were ho.
He heard a girl’s voice shouting from inside the house and footsteps moving down the stairs. He sensed the familiarity of Hasen approaching along with soone he missed dearly.
“Can I help you?”
Opening the door was a young girl wearing a frilly hand sewn dress. Her usual dull red hair was flaring up into a fiery red color—illuminated by the afternoon sun—complenting the blue dress nicely. Her puffy cheeks were still there, and two dark eyes looked at him curiously. She was tiny for her age, even smaller than he was when he first entered the academy at seven.
“You’ve grown a lot.” He spoke, smiling at his sister.
Upon realizing who he is, a smile blood on her face. “Kai! Your back!” She jumped onto him, shouting his na happily.
“Did you miss ?” He asked, hugging her and gently patting her head.
“Uhn.” Anise nodded, suppressing her tears.
“You going to let into the house?”
With a grin, she took his hand and led him inside.
The house was practically empty as usual. Troyle was undoubtedly at Lord Varath’s, but Adalina was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s mom?”
“Upstairs.” Anise replied with a wide teething grin.
“Let’s go tell her that I’m ho.” He suggested, walking towards the stairs.
Holding tightly onto his hand, scared that he would disappear again if she lets go, Anise promptly followed.
“Mom?” He called out, knocking on the door to his parent’s bedroom.
“Kaidus, is that you?” A reply ca from inside.
Opening the door, he saw his mother sitting in a chair, holding a bundle gently to her chest.
“Mom is that?” Joy and surprise surged through him.
“Welco back honey. Co et your baby brother.” She beckoned him with a welcoming smile.
‘I have a little brother.’
Picking up Anise, “We have a little brother, Anise. Why didn’t you tell ?” He exclaid joyously, hugging her.
“Hehehe! Mommy said to not tell you. She said it was a surprise.” Anise replied, laughing at suddenly being picked up and hugged.
“What’s his na?” He asked his mother, carrying Anise closer to get a better view of the sleeping baby.
An opening in the bundle revealed a small face sleeping peacefully in Adalina's arms.
Like Anise before him, the baby has two big puffy cheeks. Tufts of dark red hair could be seen poking out of the shawl covering the baby’s head.
“His na is Lance. Lance Zakrus Paltos. Zakrus from the Gveril word aning mighty.” Adalina answered with a sheepish grin.
“It’s a great na, mom.” Setting Anise down, “How co you never ntioned I was getting a brother in your letters?”
“We didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl, and we wanted to surprise you.” Adalina answered with a warm smile.
Grinning, “Anise. He looks just like you when you were a baby.” Kaidus patted his sister’s head. He moved closer to the sleeping baby and softly touched the puffy cheeks. “How old is he?”
“He was born the 3rd of Zali, so almost a turn old. Do you want to hold him?”
“No, it’s okay. He’s sleeping so serenely, I fear I’d wake him up.”
Adalina smiled. She got up and moved to the bedside. “Have you eaten yet? You must be hungry.” She asked, setting the baby down on the bed.
“I had a snack while we waited for permission to enter Ferrent, but nothing substantial.”
Adalina walked over to him and gave him a heartwarming hug. “Since Lance is sleeping, how about I heat up the leftovers from this morning and we have an early lunch?”
Adalina’s cooking; he was ho. “Sounds perfect.” Kaidus replied with a smile.
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“…about you for the past two turns after I told her that you’d be coming back.”
“Mommy, no! Don’t tell Kai!” An embarrassed Anise ran to her mother, trying stop the stories.
They were in the living room talking about their ti apart.
He’d already spent a good deal of the afternoon telling them about his three years: about his training with the Captain and the various other rcs, the minor jobs he’d assisted with, what he’d learned about survival from many of them, and about learning archery from the rcenary rangers.
He also shared how his healing abilities benefited the rcenaries greatly, and about his many sparring sessions with the others; especially Dalzak and the Captain.
Although the mbers of the Droxxon rcenaries have seen him using magic for various occasions, he’d hidden the bulk of his powers, using only what was required. Never anything extravagant, and nothing that would link him to the mage that the Captain and so of the others t in that forest years ago. He stuck mostly to healing the injured; keeping his overwhelming strength and Zion in check.
Currently, Adalina was telling him about Anise’s excitent upon hearing that he would be returning ho.
She’d already told him about how Anise was using his na as a threat to those whom she deed were causing trouble—whenever they were out shopping.
How Anise would yell at the other kids who were playing ‘knights’, breaking up their gas because she thought they were hurting each other.
About sotis catching her just talking to the ring that is Hasen, and many other childish monts.
He couldn’t help but laugh at the plentiful stories of his adorable little sister.
Three long years, and their only form of communication was through letters. It was refreshing to hear his mother and sister’s cheerful voices again, just talking about mundane everyday happenings.
“She’s also been reading your books, trying to start a collection of her own.” Adalina added with a smile. Turning to Anise. “Don’t you want to show Kaidus what you’ve been reading?”
“I wanted to tell Kaidus that, mommy!” Anise pouted. “!” Her pouting face instantly vanished and she quickly left the living room, rushing upstairs.
“Ever since she heard about the baby, she’s been reading a lot. Sotis I’d co into the living room and she’d be sitting by the window in that sa spot you’d always use, silently reading.” Adalina explained with a smile. “She’s trying to copy you, you know? She wants to be a good big sister for Lance as you were with her.”
Kaidus smiled and looked at the window. At the spot where he’d spent a good portion of his days lazily flipping through the pages, absorbing the contents of his books whether they were interesting or not.
“I just realized sothing. She’s no longer talking in third person.” He chuckled.
“She stopped the year after we left you with the rcenaries. I kept pestering her about it, and she eventually grew out of it.” Adalina giggled.
As quickly as she disappeared upstairs, Anise was back. Carrying a few books in her arms, she laid them out onto the table.
“What’s this?” Kaidus asked, picking them up and reading the titles.
‘The Princess’ Song’, ‘Wandering Phraes of Lizur Woods’, ‘The Woeful Blade’.
The books were geared towards older kids.
He didn’t know what the ‘The Princess’ Song’ was about, but the second book was a story about the haunted Lizur woods of Southern Unotus, and a knight’s adventure to retrieve a lost treasure from its depths. The third book was a cook’s tale about coming across a crying sword that was separated from its creator, begging him to return it.
“Are you reading these Anise?” He asked his sister.
“Uh huh. These are my books that mommy bought for .” Anise replied cheerfully.
“Did you like them?” Kaidus asked.
“Yea! I like the Princess book. I like it when she beat up the bad mage with her singing.” Anise grinned. “I’m reading this one right now,” She pointed to ‘The Woeful Blade’. “And I don’t like this one. Spirits are nice. They wouldn’t do that to the knight.” She answered, patting her chest.
It took Kaidus a mont to realize she was patting Hasen. “I haven’t read it yet, but what happens in that book?” He pointed to The Princess’ Song.
Anise began regaling it excitedly.
It was about a princess who lost her voice because of an evil sorceress, and was on a quest to find it. The evil sorceress was using the princess’ beautiful voice to lure and trick forest animals and travelers to do her biddings. Another mage tead up with the princess thinking she was just a regular girl to help her out. They eventually unsealed her voice; which was then used to defeat and undo the spells of the evil sorceress.
As soon as she finished the exhilarating tale, she started taking deep breaths, having been too excited.
“Look at you. Soon you’ll have a whole shelf of your own books.” He gave her a big grin, seeing how enthusiastic she was about the book.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.It reminded him of his younger self, excitedly talking about the contents of his books with Adalina. Although his books were more informative and theoretical, involving various philosophies about the natural world instead of re story books, the excitent was the sa. He couldn’t help but cheer on his little sister.
“Kai, can we read this together?” Anise picked up the book ‘The Woeful Blade’.
“Sure.”
Anise got up. Holding the book, she struggled to move her chair next to his. Kaidus got up to help her.
“I’ll go get dinner started. Your father should be ho soon.” Adalina told them and left for the kitchen, leaving them with a loving smile.
A short while after, the door opened and a man walked in.
“Daddy!” Anise jumped up and rrily ran over to welco Troyle ho.
“What’s this? You’re in a good- oh.” Troyle smiled, seeing the reason. “Did you just get back?” He called out to Kaidus, picking up Anise and walking towards the living room.
“We arrived this afternoon. Busy as usual?” Kaidus asked, knowing that this ti of the year was usually quite hectic. With the arms competition and the lord’s attendance, guarding him amongst thousands of strangers was always sothing that had to be carefully planned and coordinated.
“A little. We’ve doubled the guards, so I’ve been busy teaching the new additions to stand in formations and be on alert.”
“Double the guards?”
“Only until after the day of the competition. The whole Varath family is attending the event this year so we’ve had to increase the security.” Troyle replied with a tired smile.
“Really?” He was surprised. He’d never seen Sylvia or Jillian at the competition with Lord Varath.
“Where’s your mom?”
“Lance was crying. She just went upstairs to check on him.” Kaidus replied as Anise ca back to sit beside him.
“I see, so you’ve t your little brother.” Troyle gave a delighted grin.
“Yea.”
“Well? What do you think of his na?”
“I like it. It sounds sharp and strong.”
“That’s good.”
“Daddy picked it.” Anise interjected happily.
“That I did.” Troyle confird with a proud grin. “Were you surprised when you saw him?”
“I was. You guys never ntioned a baby in the letters.”
“We wanted you to find out for yourself.” Troyle gave a mischievous smile, taking a seat across from them. “How about you? Let’s hear all about the last three years.”
The sound of footsteps ca down the stairs.
“If you two are going to talk, how about holding Lance while I set the table?” Adalina called out from the stairs with Lance in her arms.
“Well then, bring my son.” Troyle ushered. A wide smile on his face.
With Anise and Adalina both in the kitchen setting up the table and Troyle listening attentively—with lance in his arms.
Kaidus began recapping his three years.
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Her eyes were wide open. She couldn’t sleep.
Today was one of the happiest days of her life. Her amazing older brother whom she adored was finally back, and he was still the sa person who left them three years ago. His warm smile was the sa, his ever calming voice had changed a bit, but it soothed her as it always had. Just having him pat her head filled her with glee.
She sat up and got out of her bed, moving to the door. She was unable to go to sleep, afraid that when she wakes up, her brother would be gone again.
Silently leaving her room, she moved to the door across from hers.
*Knock* *Knock* without waiting for an answer, she opened the door. “Kai? Are you in here?” She ekly asked, scared that he was gone already.
“Anise?” A little glowing orb manifested, lighting up the dark room.
“Ca-Can I sleep with you tonight?” She pleaded.
“Is everything alright?” Her brother asked, sitting up on his bed.
“Uhn, but I…” she fiddled with her hands, rubbing them back and forth afraid he would refuse.
“You wanna sleep together?” Her brother questioned.
“Please?” she asked again, pleading with her eyes.
She saw his kind smile.
“Alright. Co here.” He lifted up his blanket and moved to the side of the bed to make room for her.
Without delay, she quickly jumped in. With a big smile, she grabbed onto his arm and hugged it as she closed her eyes.
Lying next to her beloved brother, sleep soon overtook her.
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“Hah…” He sighed. “Why did this happen?” Kaidus asked himself, walking up onto the stage. His na had just been called.
It was the day of the arms competition.
Troyle, Anise, Lord Varath, and Lady Reanne—along with eight guards—were all standing behind him, waving him off with smiles and cheers. Adalina was staying ho to look after Lance, saying it was too loud of an environnt for the baby.
They’d had the misfortune of running into the Varath couple earlier that morning. After so talks between lord Varath and his father, it ended up with his na being entered as a contestant. He had an inkling the “coincidental eting” as Lord Varath put it, had nothing to do with coincidences.
Troyle reasoned with the desire to see how far he’d co after three years, and the Varath’s instantly latched onto it. Even Anise enthusiastically begged him to participate after Troyle and the Varath couple managed to coerce her to their side.
With his arms tied and his na already entered, he unwillingly agreed to it.
“A tyke like ya dares ta cross blades with Arbaile, titan of Katilik?!” His opponent roared as they stood face to face with each other.
The man was quite tall—almost twice his own height—and wielded a wooden twin headed battle-axe. Although his opponent was not all that muscular, the way the man was easily handling the axe showed that he knew how to use it.
“Best ya giv’up before yer hurting all over, boy.” The man warned.
Kaidus bowed as a sign of respect to his opponent before taking a step back and lowering his stance.
He stretched out his left leg and his right bent low like a spring, taking a low aggressive posture. He bent his upper body forward and dropped his left sword onto the stage, bringing his left hand up to his face. His right sword was pointed up towards the sky, resting along his right arm behind his back in a reverse grip.
Kaidus calmly watched the man in front of him.
“Shoulda stayed ho, boy.” The man smiled, warning him once more.
“Begin!” The stage 2 announcer called out after seeing their readiness.
“Guh-!”
The instant the call ca, the tall man was blown sideways. Moaning and groaning, the man was holding his side, gasping for air and unable to get up. The wooden axe was dropped onto the stage. The announcer stood between them and announced the winner.
Kaidus picked up his sword. He bowed to the man once more before turning to walk away as the crowd went up into a storm of cheers and applauses.
The instant the signal was given, his right leg sprang into action, kicking his body into motion—propelling him forward. Twisting his body with the backhand swing, his sword went straight into the man’s left side.
His speed had caught the unsuspecting man off guard. The power in his swing smashed into the man’s ribs, pushing the man off balance and onto the floor. He made sure the attack was non-lethal, but there were undoubtedly a few broken ribs along with a shattered pride.
Kaidus walked off the stage, moving to where his father and sister—along with Lord and Lady Varath—were waiting for him.
Although an unwilling participant, he was still a participant. Especially because his father and sister were watching, there was no other choice but to go for the win.
“Well done,” Troyle spoke as he approached. “A single strike with a single sword huh? The captain’s taught you well.” Troyle stated with a wide grin.
“Kai!” Anise called out cheerfully, latching onto his arm as he joined them.
“Nothing less from Troyle's son,” Lord Varath added with grin. “Magic and sword huh? I fear for the man who dares to incur your wrath.”
An embarrassed smile crept on his face at the complints, but catching the Lord’s festive eyes, Kaidus could see that Lord Varath was already plotting sothing.
“Way to go, boy!” People shouted around them.
Surrounded by the eight guards, none dared approach them but he could feel the eyes of the audience looking their way.
“Mother?” A voice called out from behind them, breaking through the guards.
Turning to the newcor, “Sylvia?” Lady Reanne answered.
Turning around, Kaidus saw a young lady with long dark blue hair wearing a plain beige dress. The girl had beautiful light blue eyes and fair skin that seed to sparkle in the light, contrasting her dark blue hair. A wiry fra could be gauged through the plain dress and her long hair was tied to the side in a stylish manner.
“Sylvia, why’d you run off?” Soone else questioned, breaking through the guards.
“Mom? Dad?” Followed by another.
Two older girls.
One with light brown hair tied into a tail. The girl was not wearing a dress, but light leather armor and what looked to be traveling pants, boots, and a long sleeved shirt underneath.
The other was a beauty like her mother—Lady Reanne. She had long dark blue hair and wore a cerulean outing dress.
Jillian was as beautiful as ever, but Sylvia was slowly growing into a beauty in her own.
He knew at once who the two dark haired girls were, but was uncertain about the other.
“What are you girls doing here?” Lady Reanne inquired.
“Sylvia took off on her own. We were just following her.” The girl with brown hair answered, looking around and watching him cautiously.
“Is that so?” Lady Reanne’s lip curved into a smile.
“K-Kaidus?” Sylvia stuttered, gazing at him.
“Wha-?” the brown haired girl’s face contorted with surprise.
“…” Jillian was silently looking at him. Her face was calm, but he could see the surprise in her eyes.
“Hi Sylvia.” He smiled back. Still clutching his arm, Anise’s face was beaming with delight.
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