Strength is Everything
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* * * * *
(Strength is everything huh...)
Dhrtarastra sighed.
After Sakra's fall, presumably at the hands of Lucius, one would think that the gandharva's former King of the East would resent the Silver Knight.
And Dhrtarastra did. He did hate Lucius. With all his heart.
But he was a survivor. And more than just his own survival, he had to protect Visayah - now self-renamed to be Stefan - his sister's son.
What did it matter how much he hated the man? Perhaps another more noble, more righteous person would put vengeance above all else... Dhrtarastra? He was not one of those.
He himself was a product of nepotism and favouritism... His position gained through scheming and family relations. Well he was talented, but certainly not the top talent. And he was hardworking, but not any more so than any other government servant.
It certainly helped having a sister as Queen.
Dhrtarastra shrugged; trying to comfort himself and not think about his own lost loved ones.
He told himself that those values meant nothing to him, he just wanted to survive. And to protect Stefan.
To do that, he needed power.
The same type of power Lucius wielded - power that exceeded even his source of divine bestowal, Sakra.
He had cultivated once again from the beginning - made much easier by the fact that his body, cells and bloodstream energy pathways were already in place - only damaged and devoid of power.
Until he had cultivated waves, and climbed back up from level 1 to level 18 in less than 2 months.
(Well, okay... I *was* the youngest semi-divine deva among all the deva races...) He gave a self-deprecating smile.
He sighed; thinking about his lost family, and Stefan's dead mother.
He knew all along Stefan was an oddball among the gandharva, unconventional and more interested in the "puny human's" ways and magics.
In this complicated world that had experienced countless collapses of civilisation, technology was relegated to being called "Ancient" magic. Of course, apart from for the gandharva people who had weathered through the last few upheavals.
He sighed. Yet they had fallen before the next major catastrophe even came...
Finally, having resolved his heart with the path he had chosen and committed himself to; together with his nephew, he also resolved one thing:- to discover the mastermind before his people's destruction; and unearth the hidden hand behind the curtains leading to his nation's fall.
(It just seems... Too coincidental for all this to have happened together. Almost as if, apart from the players on the board right now; there's an invisible hand guiding the path of history...)
"Mr, are you ok...?" A kind passerby leaned down to help the gandharva up - he was still lying in the middle of Maine street after all...
Belatedly the old blind man realised that, if stares could kill, he would died a thousand deaths - countless people cursed at him as they squeezed by the man who was blocking traffic while thinking about mysteries and plots...
"Ahem, y-yeah, I'm fine." Dhrtarastra stood up and sped off into the distance - to hide his embarrassment.
* * * * *
"Alright Sam, so, what have you learned...?" A patient grandfather, handsome and still as straight as an oak asked his 145cm tall granddaughter. He looked slightly weary; covering his face with a hand and kneading his brows.
"Strength is everything!"
Face-palming himself, Lucius sighed... Then sighed again. And then breathed deep to keep his blood pressure from rising.
"That..." He tried to continue, but when he saw Sam's innocent and cute radiant smile, he couldn't bear to raise his voice at her.
Just like any grandpa, he doted on his adorable granddaughter.
She was honest, pure, direct, friendly. She was also caring and always helping out in the house.
Only... She was, how should he put it... A little...
Slow.
Let's recap what happened.
[5 minutes earlier]
"Grandpa grandpa grandpa!" Sam jumped and leaped through the courtyard, apparently satisfied with playing with the new guests.
"Yes, Sam?" Lucius put down his research papers on psychology and psychic powers, called "Mob 100 Psycho", beaming warmly to his favorite (only) grandchild.
"I want to go to school and, and, and learn to fight!" She stood in a "punching" pose, right fist and right leg forward.
Blinking several times to understand her latest outburst, Lucius asked, "Why fighting...?"
"Because... It's fun! Boom! Pow!" She mimicked the actions of kicking and punching, aiming at the air.
(Mmm... Has she gotten addicted to the adrenaline and rush of combat...? That's concerning for someone so young... Better check further.)
The grey-haired man queried further; "And, is there any other reason...?"
Sam went through the motions of shadow-boxing and kicking for a moment; making a casual bystander think that she had not heard the question; or ignored it.
But Lucius knew that she was just thinking. In her own way.
About 8 seconds later; she froze in a palm-strike position and answered, "Because strength is everything!"
Lucius smiled; used to her antics and way of thinking. He took off his reading glasses (which then vanished) and spoke.
"My girl; my darling little girl... Strength isn't everything. It only matters when you have something; or someone; to protect." He stood up, walking closer - but keeping a little distance so as not to get punched accidentally.
"What truly matters are the people around you; the people you care about and the things they cherish too."
"Like me...?" The girl was still whoosh-ing and jumping around with her pretend-fighting.
Despite the lack of explanation, Lucius understood what she meant. "Yes, my dear, just like how you are important to me."
"So, strength is only as important as the things you want to protect; and the things you want to protect..." He grew quiet; pensive. Then whispered out the last words; "...Are the people you love."
It was a pleasant scene from any normal home; a grandfather leaning against the edge of the kitchen table while talking to his granddaughter who pirouetted through the air with her self-created moves.
Regaining his clarity, Lucius spoke once more. "Well, Sam, does that change what you think...?"
The 10-year old girl stopped moving; then drew back her arms and stood straight.
She looked up at her guardian and opened her mouth to speak.
3 seconds...
5 seconds...
10 seconds...
As the saliva began to build up; Lucius had to resist the urge to wipe it off her mouth - (She's a big girl now right... I can't always baby her...)
13 seconds... Her face lit up; her answer more enthusiastic than before!
"Strength is everything!"
[...5 minutes later]
Lucius tried another approach.
"Sam, why do you say that strength is everything...?"
5 seconds...
15 seconds...
"Becaush--" She paused to wipe her saliva on her ragged sleeve; "Because if I'm level 30, you'll tell me why mama and papa are gone...?"
For a moment; it was quiet; so quiet that you could hear the sounds of running water from the far-off shrine; the relatively unpopular Britannian place of worship as compared to the temple district.
Then, the sound of a drop of water falling to the ground.
"Oh, Sam..." Lucius held the young girl tight; very tight.
Sam, clueless, hugged him back; then patted the back of the weeping, old man.
Curiously, right now, the 198cm tall man hugging her felt very, very small.
* * * * *
After some time; Lucius had calmed down and sat on his self-made rocking chair. At his side, sat a little girl on a kitchen stool she had dragged over to the study, to sit by the fireplace.
"Grandpa...?"
Lucius smiled.
"So..." She had a perplexed look on her face as she asked:
"Strength is everything... Right?"