Hope - To fight back

"What are you talking about!? I did nothing"

Glaring at him, you take a step back, Donatello has always been picking on you but this time he is crossing the line, accusing you of something that you didn't do.

"You are still pretending to be oblivious?" Donatello scoffs at your pathetic retort, extending his hand to the side in a dramatic fashion.

You hear some whispers of approval around, the old nobles are praising about how your Second Brother has the bearing of the royalty, some of them are also degrading you with their words; but you don't care that much, you are more worried about why are they here, the accusations must have some sort of evidence if all of them were summoned to deal with your exile.

"Son" your father raises his voice with a quiet but imposing exclamation, he calls for you with his serious face, the one that he uses to announce something that will be detrimental to you.

The first time he used it was when you and your mother were delegated to the lower class rooms, the second one was when your mother died, the third one was when your resources were severely cut thanks to your 'thrash' potential and now, he must have come to terms with your exile.

You don't hate him at all, none of that things were his fault, maybe marrying with your mother was his biggest mistake; his two first sons, despite coming from the Second Mother, have an even nobler heritage they have 3 generations of nobility behind them and their maternal family holds great influence with the kingdom. Your mother is a woman of humble birth, despite that she rose in the ranks with her exploits and exceptional talents, that was until she fell ill with a strange disease.

The king is a man with a strong semblance and a confident posture, his shoulder length brown hair and brown beard are neatly trimmed, his broad shoulders and tall stature make him seem like a titan that could sweep the battlefield. Despite his external appearance, he is tied by the politics, he is not strong enough even if he is the strongest in the kingdom, he doesn't hold control of the hearts of the population despite him fighting for the people.

He is more of a puppet than a king, he is more of a joke than a ruler. Yet your mother loved him, yet he is your father, yet he holds your life in his hands.

"Enough!" he just advances as he shouts to quiet down the noblemen, they oblige but their eyes that look like they are here for some amusement remains "Exerux, my son, your own bodyguard Geronimo and my son Donatello have been witnesses of a robbery, a robbery involving a precious material. Had you happen to know something about that said robbery?"

He looks at your eyes with soundness, you think that he is trying to give you a hint, a leeway or at least a rope to hang from; but you are not the best at thinking, it was always hard for you to take the problems with eloquence, you are a guy that personally prefers to take things head on.

Despite that, you know that now it is not the right moment to let yourself get overwhelmed by the words of the opposition, you can't just tell your truth and expect them to believe you. You bite your lips in anxiousness.

"You see? Hahaha he is feeling guilty! That is a face of a criminal that just got caught!" Donatello laughs out laugh while pointing at you.

"I am not the criminal! I don't feel guilty at all!" you only manage to spat the first thing that comes into your head.

"Heeeeh, then you are not guilty of your crimes?" he just extends a laugh while shaking his head "Pathetic"

"You are not listening to me!"

"Enough both of you" the king scolds his sons, even when you are not in the wrong "Let Exerux answer to my questions Donatello"

"Yes, my father" Donatello relents with a slight bow, smiling sinisterly at you.

You close your eyes trying to think about something, you feel more freshened than ever thanks to the 'blessing' of X, so you look into the facts but there is not enough information to discern anything at all.

"First of all, what are the charges? What was the thing that was robbed and where was it? How would I know about something I didn't commit? Please enlighten me" you squint your eyes with some spirit, they won't bring you down.

Donatello frowns in surprise at your gaze, your reaction is different than the one he expected, if you didn't have some confidence in yourself you would usually just deny it until they believe in you; but now you know that everything could go in the worst way as X told you, so you will stand up.

"Hmp" Geronimo scoffs at you "There is no mistake, young master, you came last night to the royal treasury and stole the Pyrowyn eye from it"

The Pyrowyn is a descent of the dragonkin, he has only legs and wings without any kind of arms, he resides in places where the Fire attributed Qi is the dominant one; they are also the enhanced version of a Emberwyn being of a higher stage of Monster Cultivation.

"As you know" Donatello continues, walking to the center of the hall as he raises his hands to the audience "Only member that has some blood connection to the royal family can enter to the royal treasury, not even the royal guards can enter, only the King and his descendants can enter. All thanks to the efforts of the Jazmin family for contributing with that splendid Formation"

He directs a bow to a dark skinned bald man, the same man expresses his gratitude to the bow with another one, smiling smugly to the rest of the nobles. They don't dare to show any sign of displeasure; as the greatest Formation of the kingdom he has the right to be arrogant.

"Not only that, Geronimo, as your bodyguard, watched you coming late from the outside. And so did I" he smirks at you "You are a very clumsy person my brother, you stole something so precious, and yet, you left so many hints"

"It is my grief to say this, but what the Second young master said is the truth. Third young master don't think that it is me that is betraying you, before being a bodyguard I am a loyal servant to the Greydarth family and its kingdom" Geronimo fakes a sorrowful expression as he corroborates Donatello's statements.

So this is the so called painting the black with white and the white with black? Huh, they are pushing into you all of the blame and trying to be the righteous party. Despicable, your fists tremble in rage, you want to pounce at them but you would only dig a deeper grave by doing that.

"Hehehe…" you smile in anxiousness, trying to be positive "It is not that I believe in your words my Brother, but a single statement of someone who has shown displeasure to me shouldn't be enough before finding the so called Pyrowyn eyes"

"Yes, it is not" Donatello nods to your dismay "At the 5 in the morning most of our maids heard some shouts of pain coming from your room my brother. As you should know, forcefully absorbing a higher tier material into your body is a slow and painful process that not every man can handle. As I see you seem to be faring pretty well, so congratulations for enduring the pain!" he smiles at you with a 'sincere' praise.

Your face goes completely pale, last night your body went into that painful process of destruction and construction; and it came back to bite your ass. You want to shout internally to deny that you were shouting in pain last night, but it is not the truth. This coincidence is just burying you deeper and deeper, making you feel as if you were drowning in the earth at your feet, just more and more dirt suffocating you as your brother talks and talks.

"You see!? This is the face of a guilty person!" Donatello has his eyes wide open while pointing at you once again, his grin is so big that you think that he would rip his mouth "There is no mistake, just look at his pale countenance and trembling legs, the joke that is my brother is just guilty! Guilty I said!"

The whispers around you just increase exponentially, they got you, even if it wasn't in their plans they must have been keeping an eye on you so you wouldn't go out at night and expose all of their farce. Maybe you should just give up, getting exiled shouldn't be that bad, you have some backing in the form of your new body. But…

"If you have no strength, just endure in silence. If you have strength, just endure in silence. But if you have something to defend, defend if with all that you got" these were the words that your mother told you the day before she died.

Now, do you have something to defend? Is there anything you have to cling on?

Yes, your mother and her heritage. She fought for this country, this is your home. They can't just simply kick you out! Even if they do they must pay a price.

The whispers continue as Donatello stands with both arms extended to the sides, he is clearly relishing in his victory as praises of his quick wits and righteousness shower him, also enjoying the insults and denigration that is getting poured at you

"Then, where is it?" you calmly question your brother.

"What?" he stops smiling and looks at you.

"Where is the eye? Can I hide it in my room? I mean, if you were keeping an eye on me there is no way I could got it outside, and even if you weren't watching me. I have absorbed it, right? Prove it. I am prepared to help with the searching. You can inspect aaaaaaaaaaall of my body. Dear. Brother"

You smile with confident, yes, at the face of darkness you have to respond with a smile. That was what your mother did. You silently high-five yourself for your cleverness; even so now that you think more deeply about it the arguments of your brother are not that sound, they are full of loopholes. Maybe it helped you that he stated that you absorbed the eye, if he didn't he could just have accused of having a partner or something like that.

"How do you dare to talk back at me? Do I have to teach you your pl…?" Donatello raises his hand ready to hit you, but he gets interrupted by the king.

"Donatello, my son, please don't change the subject" he glares at him with a complex facial expression, a conflict between happiness and powerlessness.

"I… I don't… we… I didn't watch you closely, neither did Geronimo, we couldn't believe it at first so we held our doubts until the guards and the king came to look-out for the eye" he nervously fidgets his fingers as he glares at you "Maybe you failed at absorbing the eye! Yes, then you colluded with one of the maids or even a thief!!! You disgrace to the royal name!!" he points at you regaining his wits, pinning once again the blame on you.

"…" you look back at him without breaking eye contact, deflating his momentum as he contorts his face in indignation "What does a Pyrowyn eye does? What are the effects if someone fails at absorbing one?"

The hall falls into silence. They should know, and they must have seen the implications of your words.

You don't.

You are seriously completely oblivious of what does the eye do. You are a dung when it comes about alchemy and wild life knowledge, you were only looking for something to grab on to. You hit jackpot.

The king realize that you are completely oblivious about the questions that you asked, so instead of letting Donatello realize of that he just pushes forward the conversation.

"Sir Hugginton. Make me the favor to answer the question to all of the present ones here; so this way they could know what my son is implying" looking to the side he orders a man wearing a greasy black robe with some sort of herbal smell.

He is the royal alchemist, despite not caring for his appearance and having a long white beard he is someone with high status, only second to your father. However, he is someone righteous with a clean history of never going back on his word or lying to someone, that is why he has so much power; the Greydarth family can trust him.

"Yes, your majesty. As most of you should know they Pyrowyn is a Beast with a cultivation that is at least at the 4th Stage, the Calvary Stage, this one was at the 8th rank, so we can say that it was a level 38 Beast. Not only that, as a descendent of the dragonkin his blood and organs are more abrasive than normal beast, coupled with the destructive Fire Attribute it is not an easy feat to absorb the eye. Failure without outside help would bring certain death to even someone that is at the Foundation Stage"

The hall goes completely silent as they process the implications of the Alchemist's words. The arguments of Donatello are faulty at best, a lie at worst. No one here is such a fool to keep believing him.

"H-he must have it in his room then! S-search SEARCH!" he points at you with his face going completely red from red, his hand trembling.

"As I said, I will cooperate" you frown "So don't worry brother, if someone stole the eye we must only search for it! We will bring the culprit to justice"

You smile at him, trying not to embarrass him anymore, after all he is your brother. Maybe he saw the opportunity to bring you down, as he always does, but you won't do the same thing; maybe you could forge a strong bond with him after this incident passes.

But you were wrong, he only felt as if your words were full of mockery.

"Why you!!!?" he can't stop himself from going into rampage, his eyes full of hatred.

And he punches your face.