The Past

"B-brother Dhanu, who is this? Oh my, where does this Sister Goddes come from?" Gundala asked excitedly.

"Hahaha... I didn't expect that! Brother Dhanu's luck with girls are getting better and better." Young Master Wiro chimed in.

"Tell me, tell me! Who is this Sister Goddes? Is she one of the Seven Fairies?" Gundala pressed on.

"No. But, she's my fianceé..." Although a little stiff, but Kamandhanu finally could say those words in a calm manner without giving away any flaws that could be picked by that onlookers or gossipers.

"Wait, what?!! Woahhhh... Brother Dhanu, is that for real? Oh my, I've got a new sister-in-law!" Gundala laughed excitedly.

Not only Gundala, but all the onlookers who spectated the commotion and heard the statement became stunned silly as if they had a hard time to accept the truth, especially the young and blooming girls who had long been infatuated with Kamandhanu. They all had a complicated and various feelings, such as awed, amazed, and even jealous, angry, mad, and some even started to make plans to break this new relationship.

Such an unpredictable heart!

...

A scene that happened a while back when Marissa and Kamandhanu were 'discussing' about what should be their relationship.

"Well, let's pretend to be a couple! I'll be your fianceé from now on." Marissa said seriously.

"What?!!!"

"What are you yelling for? Are you that unwilling to become my boyfriend?" Marissa snorted in annoyed. "You don't have a little sister or big sister. You also don't have a cousin. So, peoples wouldn't believe I'm one of your siblings or relatives. If you say I'm your friend, there would be endless troubles."

"So, becoming my fianceé will prevent you from troubles?" He asked.

"Of course. In the ancient era, harem was a normal thing for every men, especially the rulers or the king. Look at me! If the evil men wanted to have their ways on me, what would happen if I have no status? If I become your fianceé, at least they will think twice and would be so embarrassed to bother me who already had a soon-to-be-husband. What do you think?" Marissa asked while smiling sweetly.

Hearing the word 'Husband' and the sweet smile in front of him, Kamandhanu was lost in thought. It's not until Marissa shook his hand that he woke up and finally responded. "Fine."

And... that's how their relationship came to be!

...

"Come on, let's sit on over there. There are also many food. Come with me, Sister In-law!" Young Master Wiro, without thinking too much, grabbed Marissa's hand and dragged her to the seats where most of the heroes and important figures took their seats.

Arya Kamandhanu who saw Marissa's hand being held by Young Master Wiro was feeling displeased without him realizing it. He wanted to shake that hands off but they were already running so fast from him that he could only fasten his paces to caught up with them.

"Woahhh, Brother Wiro, who is that? Where does this beautiful sister come from?" Aji Bandawasa asked the same question everybody had in their mind.

"This is sister in-law." Gundala, the All-Knowing-Things about gossips replied smugly as if it was supposed to be a proud thing to know.

"Uhh?" Everyone was puzzled.

At this moment, Kamandhanu and other figures who followed to see the commotion, such as Raden Patah, Jaka Sembung, and Jaka Tarub who was being dragged at first by Gundala to follow him, had finally caught up.

"Eh, Brother Dhanu, why are your face so terrible? Are you sick?" Young Master Wiro asked when he saw Kamandhanu appeared beside him.

"Hand..." Kamandhanu said one word and glared at the two hands that were still being entangled. He became even more displeased.

"Uh?" Young Master Wiro was puzzled but the next second a realization came into him. "Oh, hahahaha... Brother Dhanu, don't be mad. I just want to show sister in-law the food here. Hahaha..." He smiled sheepishly and scratched his head that wasn't actually itchy at all. After that, he let Marissa's hand off in a hurry, afraid to invite the wrath of the tiger, no, the dragon, the mad dragon.

Marissa immediately came and stood beside Kamandhanu in which her hand was instantly grabbed and brought to a seat.

Jaka Tingkir, who had good eyes on beauty, finally couldn't sit still and stood to approach the couple. He didn't actually had a bad intention, it's just that, his fiery heart that everytime he sees a beauty, he should at least knew their names, or else, he would feel like he was neglecting the beautiful creation of the God.

"Lady, what's your name?" Jaka Tingkir asked as he gave his most charming and warm smile.

Everyone who watched this scene just shook their head and smiled wryly, because they already got used to the habit of this young master. He even teased Princess Rumbu, the daughter of the Emperor when he first saw her. What's more when he saw a more beautiful one at this moment, of course, he should at least made a 'small' move, right?

If not because he saw Kamandhanu grabbed Marissa's hand and the word 'Sister in-law' uttered by Gundala, Jaka Tingkir would make many other 'small' moves until it became a 'big' move.

"Senja..." Marissa smiled in a friendly way. It wasn't a sweet smile that had a hint of flirting when she usually teased Kamandhanu, but it's more like a polite and graceful smile. Nevertheless, when those onlookers saw this, they became so captivated by it. Even Jaka Tingkir fell into daze.

"Oh, so it's Lady Senja. What a beautiful name." Jaka Tingkir praised as he nodded his head.

'Senja' was the name Marissa thought at this moment, because he just saw it a moment ago. It had a meaning 'twilight'. She always love the scenery when the sun was on it's way to settle down at the feet of the horizon in order to get rest before the arrival of the night.

The beautiful scene always successful to captivate her heart, that's why the word 'twilight' had been occupying her mind since a long time ago. So, when someone asked her name now, this word automatically came to her mind.

...

Meanwhile...

Arya Dwipangga, who had been eyeing the whole situation, feeling a burst of anger bubbling up inside his heart. Why? Why did his younger brother always capable to get many good things and even a lots of beautiful women into his arm? Why didn't he, the elder brother, possess a good aptitude to study martial art? Why should Ling'er, his fianceé at that time, saved the little devil, his younger brother, when he was drown into the river? Just why?!

At that time, Dwipangga, in truth already knew the real situation. At that time, his younger brother was smothered by a mysterious man whose identity wasn't revealed yet even until now. That man brought little Dhanu to the nearby forest. Over there, a big river was streaming down from the big mountain. It was a very deep river. That man for unknown reason, threw Kamandhanu to the river. who was at that time only seven years old.

Ling'er, his fianceé who was fourteen years old at that moment, one year younger than him, a beautiful girl whose grandfather originated from Huaxia Continent but already lived for a few decades in Nusantara, and had been betrothed to him since he was only six, was seeing all the situation. So, she followed the mysterious man and little Dhanu to the river.

Little Dhanu, who was still in a conscious state wanted to cry but his mouth was covered thightly by a piece of clothes. He forcefully tore the clothes and cried for help when he was still inside the river, but no one heard him. He tried to swim back to the bank of the river when he saw the man had disappeared.

Suddenly, he saw her supposed to be sister-in-law was running toward him in order to save him, but she was got attacked from the back. The mysterious man actually never got away, he still there and he appeared abruptly to attack Ling'er when he saw her coming toward the river.

The man threw Ling'er as well to the river after he attack her. Little Dhanu hurriedly got to save his sister in-law when he was attacked by that man once again using a secret technique. The technique of that man made him fell unconscious. When he woke up, he already back to their house.

Elder Hanggareksa, their father, asked him what happened. He told the story from the beginning until he lost conscious.

Hearing that narration, Arya Dwipangga couldn't accept it and didn't want to believe it. From that moment, his warm personality changed. He hated his little brother. If not for him, Ling'er wouldn't go to the river, and she wouldn't die. Little Dhanu felt so guilty and accepted all the things that his elder brother did to him. He wouldn't retaliate no matter how badly his elder brother treated him.

Even when he was several times almost being killed by his elder brother's hired men or underlings, and the two women he was supposed to marry were snatched from him, he just endured it and never took revenge. It's not until half a year ago, when he knew that his elder brother even implicate his father and Ling'er's grandfather, because he felt they were biased and often spoiled him, so he started to hate them, too. He sent two assassins to kill the both of them. Fortunately, Kamandhanu saw that incidents and saved both of the old men.

Kamandhanu asked his elder brother why he did that to their father and Grandpa Ling, but he only smiled deviously and said 'They deserved it'. This answer made Kamandhanu so mad and he started to argue with his elder brother, but it made him even angrier to him because of the words he said.

Since then, he stopped talking to his elder brother, because he couldn't stand his elder brother's behaviour anymore. No one know about this story and that assassination attempt except the four of them. He, his elder brother Dwipangga, father, and Grandpa Ling. His father said not to let anyone knew because it will gave the enemies some space to create more troubles in the future.

Many peoples possessed their own sad stories, perhaps, including you, but it shouldn't makes you have the right to put the blame on others and force them to feel the same pain as you've been through, because it would makes you no more human, but devil. Heh, even devil could be sometimes cute!

...

"How come I never knew that my little brother has a fianceé once again? My little brother really had a short feeling." Arya Dwipangga suddenly said.

What Arya Dwipangga said was to implied that Arya Kamandhanu was a petty and vengeful person, because no one knew about the assassination incident, so some peoples may deemed Kamandhanu to hold grudge even for his family members. As for the second sentence, Dwipangga implied that Kamandhanu wasn't a loyal person and he could flirt with any girls he wanted at any time. This sentence was directed at Marissa, because he wanted her to feel disappointed and broke with Kamandhanu immediately.

Hearing that sentences, Marissa curled her lips and sneered, but she immediately adjusted her smile into a friendly and harmless one. "Hahaha Young Master Dwipangga is surely likes to joke. Brother Dhanu actually had told you before but you were too busy to spoil Sister Nari. You were also a bit drunk at that time, so you probably didn't hear what Brother Dhanu said."

"After that, I was away for a period of time to study under Teacher. Today I just came back because I shouldn't at least miss the Big Feast held by our generous Emperor. So, this is the only time we met again after that period of time..."

"As for Brother Dhanu's feeling. I knew he was sincere to me. Big Sister Nari was his childhood friend and was betrothed to him since they were very small, of course there was bound to be a feeling, but Brother Dhanu told me it was a feeling between brother and sister. As for Sister Mei Shin, she was very pitiful actually, she had no one to rely on. Brother Dhanu who had a warm and soft hard, so he couldn't bear to see it..."

"...At first he only wanted to protect her, so he get closed to her, but it wouldn't be good for the reputation of Sister Mei shin, so he decided to protect her by marrying her. But who would expect that Young Master Dwipangga was so capable to melt the heart of Sister Mei Shin as well. So that was how everything have ended into this state."

Marissa bare her teeth, smiling innocently like her story was so normal and there's nothing wrong with that. Through her explanation, she implied that everything happened because Arya Dwipangga was very 'capable' to pull everything from behind but acted like an innocent afterward, blaming Kamandhanu for everything where in truth he was the one at fault.

"I didn't know that Sister in-law is so eloquent in words." Arya Dwipangga smiled coldly.

"I'm flattered. Thank you." Marissa responded indifferently.

"If Lady Senja knew that I'm the elder brother of little Dhanu, why don't you call me Brother in-law?" Arya Dwipangga asked sharply.

"Ah?!" Marissa was feigning surprised as she had just realized it. "My apologize, Brother in-law. That was the fault of this sister in-law. I beg for your forgiveness. Because this is the first time I and Brother in-law met, I forgot about my etiquette." She said in a humble tone.

Arya Dwipangga could only gritted his teeth in annoyed and responded unwillingly. "Fine. I will forgive you this time. But, why do you let your hand being grabbed by this rascal when you are already the fianceé of Kamandhanu?"

'This ba*tard. He intentionally to embarrass me in front of the crowd.' Marissa cursed.

Just as she wanted to answered, the crowd once again made a ruckus. They were running out of the feast and find a way to escape.

"Help! The evil warriors from the Devil Mountain are coming again. They killed many peoples!"

"Help! My brother was killed!"

"Arghhh, my sister was kidnapped by those devils!"

Peoples were screaming and yelling on top of their lungs. Everything suddenly fell into chaos. Some were crying and even fainted because of too scared. Whereas many peoples were running on the streets, yelling for help. Meanwhile, lots of the properties on the feast had been destroyed by the intruders.

Arya Kamandhanu instantly stood up, followed by Marissa and the other members of the 'Thirteen Heroes' as well as the many warriors who presented at this time. Together, they were marching to find out what happened.

Quizz:

Who are the evil warriors from the Devil Mountain?

A. The subordinates of Master Tong Bajil

B. The subordinates of the mysterious man from the past who had attempt to assassinate Kamandhanu when he was still seven years old

C. The members of some new factions

D. Nothing. They were just a bunch of soldiers ordered by the Emperor to create chaos in ordered to enable him to do his own plan

E. No one above are correct