Chapter 7

The monster had already disappeared into the forest in no less than a second, despite it's huge frame, Jayus could barely find him through the dark. If it had been anyone else chasing after this creature, they would have already lost trace of it. Yet, no doubt, Jayus barely managed to keep up with the monster's slithering tail. Like a smart dog, the creature made all of sharp turns in hopes to get Jayus to lose sight of it, but Jayus was determined.

The Empress instructed me not to kill the monster. Red eyes glared dangerously at the creature's behind as he pondered deeply at his next move. He couldn't just continue to chase it forever without hurting it. Guess I'll have to use that.

The monster, realizing Jayus had decreased the distance between them, started to gain more speed. With this proximity, Jayus could clearly make out it's four, rather lumpy, legs. Jayus raised his second and third finger, whispered a small enchantment before a blazing light shone at the tips. When the light grew to the size of a stone, he aimed it towards the monster's left side and missed, only having it pass through the monster. Seeing how the blast didn't affect him, the monster roared in glee. Thinking that Jayus was no threat, the monster wagged it's tail in hopes to hit the duke following closely behind him and roared once more when it saw Jayus struggle to catch up and try to avoid taking any hits. It had become smug. Lost in it's own delight, unbeknownst to it, a shadow gradually casted upon the monster's face. High above it, a huge tree slowly began to topple down towards the monster. Shocked, it finally dawned on the monster that Jayus had not aimed for it at all as the tree fell towards it. In a split of a second, the monster barely managed to dodged getting pinned by the tree and manoeuvred sharply to it's right. Jayus hadn't cast only a single spell. That spell had been a hook setting off multiple traps following the monster. By the time a the fifth tree fell, blocking the monster's way, the monster had grown agitated as it roared once again. This time, in pure rage. The roar itself caused a loud echo through out the entire forest, shaking the trees and ground in it's wake. It was no surprise that the entire village Hera had been watching over was now wide awake and shaking in fear. Hera had been standing at the entrance of the village this entire time. The moment Jayus had set off to chase after the monster, he had casted a barrier spell to surround the entire village in case the monster were ever to come back, and to reassure everyone's safety. The barrier had grown tall the size of trees, hovering over huts and houses of the entire village, glowing in an iridescent hue, Much like the icy-blue flowers in the midst of a cold spring in Eckleis Empire. Nonetheless, a little magic show is not going to disperse an entire anxious village. Even the Baron, who refused to get up from his bed as he claimed he had been "Too frail and injured" to get up, had also rendezvoused with everyone and gathered by the entrance of the village. Everyone seemed to have the same thought as they stared fixated at the young man who's arm stretched out to cast the barrier spell. The reliable ones should be followed. So they had gathered in silence in hopes Hera could protect them if ever the owner of that loud growl would come back. Even the village chief, with his stick cane in hand, had stared with glaring eyes at Hera. The only person who couldn't stay silent in this situation was Baron Jerudich himself.

"How scary!" The Baron cried. As if Hera had expected this behavior from him, his face had dropped from one of dignity and seriousness to great annoyance. "For how long are we going to stay here and wait before that monster eats us!? If no one does something right now, we'd all be dead before sunrise!" His cries had obviously garnered an unpleasant reaction from the crowd, those who had been silently trying to place their trust in the barrier had grown slightly disturbed. "What could a measly barrier do if what we're dealing with is an unknown entity that could devour as aaaaaaaaall!?" By now, almost everyone had seemed persuaded by the baron's words. Hera couldn't turn away either since he had to hold the barrier together, without having to move away, all he could is to ignore the Baron. In the midst of all the baron's mindless babble and whining, a small child, no older than nine years old, stepped towards the Baron with a displeased look on her face. She had been listening to his whining and crying all this time and she just had about enough of him.

"Hey, Mister! Your slobbing and crying isn't going to help protect us from that monster! It's really disrespectful of you to say those things when that brother is working hard to protect us!" That had caught Hera off guard. Even the Baron seemed thrown off by the kid's sudden confrontation, "Even a big girl like me isn't a frayed of that meany! And tha other brother is taking care of that monster too!" With a determined look in her eyes, she pointed out towards the woods where the monster had gone. Baron Jerudich couldn't believe what he was seeing either. It was like having a tiny squirrel tell on you for stumbling upon its nest. Hera regretted not being able to see the Baron's face at this very moment. The Baron was speechless, and when he regained his composure, he scoffed. His eyes averting everywhere but the girl. A pitiful display. Then, with what dignity he had left, he stared fixatedly at the girl, as if she was nothing more than scum at the bottom of his shoe. "Well they can rest easy because they were born with a god's blessing," He said, as a matter of fact, with his wrists resting on both sides of his hips "They don't have to worry if the barrier breaks because they can defend themselves. But us?! I mean, I understand if the duke ran off to fend that monster but can you even be sure if he's still alive? That was a big monster, after all." Now the tension within the crowd had grown tense with every word out the Baron's mouth. It was like teasing fuel close to a bonfire. One more spark was all it took before it could set off. "After the Duke, it could be us."

That was true. People who could cast mana were only a numbered few. Those who could would be seen as special by the empire, even before the Eckleis Empire. No matter the status, they would receive special treatment. If the Duke failed to apprehend the creature, what would happen to them? After those last words, the little girl's mother came rushing to her side, snatching her away from Baron Jerudich and left to hide within the crowd as she scolded her daughter for her aggressive behaviour towards a baron. Everyone else had gone quiet at this point. No one dared to step up against the Baron.

Someone else from the crowd had also grown increasingly frustrated at the situation, not at the baron, but at someone else. Eventually, after gathering the courage, the village chief stumbled towards the young man, shaking in fear and anger.

"Hey, you!" The village chief screamed, his scrawny finger hardened by calluses from years of hard labour clenched into fists as he glared at Hera whose eyes seemed too focused towards the direction the duke had gone to. When he realized the man had been referring to him, he didn't step away from the barrier still and only accepted the accusing finger pointed. "This creature only started showing up because you guys showed up! All of this is yours fault! You greedy nobles are always bringing trouble to us mere folks..." By now, that finger had started shaking in frustration but that didn't stop the village chief's rant, "You should leave before you get us all in trouble!". The villagers stared in disbelief at their chief's sudden outburst but couldn't do anything in defense. Those men were the reason they were in danger in the first place? If that were true then...

"We've brought misfortune into our village." One villager whispered to the person next to them. In the quiet of the night, a tiny whisp of wind could be heard from a mile radius and everyone's eyes now traced the voice back to a woman at the far end of the crowd. Hera himself seemed to flinch at those words, as if a box buried long ago had been forcefully dug up. But whether it was a trick of a mind or a flicker of a shadow, no one took note of it. At first, she seemed surprised at the sudden attention towards her and merely averted her eyes from everyone's stares. "She's not wrong! We've lived a peaceful life just this morning before those bastards showed up! They 'oughta bring their misfortune back with them!" An elder man spoke up. He jad heard enough from the baron and now the village chief, and he couldn't agree more. One by one, the number of people expressing their opinions came by like a sea of flood and soon, everyone had their own curse to spell out. Hera could merely ignore those angry voices behind him as long as he kept the barrier up. What those people had to say about him didn't matter. He still needed to keep them safe. Just as he did before.

"The crown prince is a scoundrel!" A noble lady flicked her fan.

"Truly." Another agreed, "A disgrace to the Imperial Empress."

"How she gave birth to such a vile man, I will never know." Sighed a Viscount's wife.

It had been the crown prince's twenty-first birthday. A day worth celebrating. A day to be remembered. Yet that had not been the case, for the crown prince was no where to be seen.

The crown prince, Heracles Eckleis, flinched at the stinging pain of ointment being rubbed across his forearm. He had tried to keep still, however, the pain had become so unbearable he had to physically recoil from it. The cotton rubbing ointment against his arm didn't stop either, determined to make sure this wound would heal one way or another. But Hera couldn't take it anymore and he pulled away his arm, yet the hand that held his didn't allow him to do so and only caused more strain against his arm.

"Agghh!" Hera whined, "Please let me go, Felicity."

Felicity had been his most loyal, left hand man. This woman had climbed her way through raw talent in order to become the crown prince's knight. Despite being the only female and commoner in her batch, she took every opportunity to prove to everyone that she would be the crown prince's rightful knight and beat every one in her field. And now she was treating the crown prince's arm as he cried clutching a pillow. Hera had to leave in a secret mission only known between them in order to apprehend another one of the Empress's schemes. That had resulted in Hera's current condition. It had gone so bad to the point that the wound infused with dark magic began eating away at the flesh around it, causing his skin to rot from its edges. A truly disgusting sight, even with Felicity's first-hand experiences, she could vomit with just a smell of it and faint from the sight!When she had been first informed of his plan, she had been so against it. And she was right to be so! Now his highness could barely raise an arm without fighting back tears. Felicity herself had to fight back tears threatening to fall from her own eyes.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Your Highness...sniff... You should have just sent a secret squad to do the mission for you without the Empress knowing! You didn't have to do it yourself." Felicity argued as she wrapped a bandage around Hera's arm. At that time, Hera had laughed at those words in disregard. Until now, Hera would have still laughed if heard such words again. "But I have to do it rather than someone else. If even I got hurt like this, then imagine the casualties that might have happened."

Those words made Felicity snap her head towards the young prince, although she didn't have the words to argue, she was still against his principles and beliefs, "Those villagers don't even know how much you suffered to save them from the Empress's experiments. And yet they still sing praises of your mother while they drag your name on the dirt...!" Even though it had been cutting close to winter, for some reason, a blaze of fire radiated from the young knight in anger. Hera could only shake his head, as if this girl before him had just said a silly joke not worth laughing about.

"They have no idea that they're targeted as my mother's lab rats. Just leave them be, so long as they're safe, isn't it my duty as crown prince to maintain that peace?" Felicity couldn't say anything to that. Regardless of his highness suffering, he'd put his people first before himself. But that wasn't fair! Why does the crown prince have to shoulder all that without acknowledgement? While the person trying to harm her own people was sitting on the throne accepting everyone's sympathy of having a brat of a child? It just wasn't fair! Before Felicity could come up with any words to say, the door sounded with a click and revealed a child, no older than ten year's old came bouncing inside Hera's room fully dressed in royal robes. Suna Eckleis, the second prince of the Eckleis Empire. Suna's long hair had been braided and twisted into a pretzel on the back of his head, he always wore it in the way he liked and if he received another hairstyle, he'd throw a fit. His eyes scanned the room before he spotted his older brother and his knight by his bed and he soared in glee. Suna, Hera's beloved little brother, was a spitting image of their mother, The Empress.

"Brother!" Suna cheered, showing off his bunny like teeth in his smile as he pounced on Hera. Felicity shreeked and was about to pull off the giggling ball in royal robes when Hera motioned for her to not interfere. By now, Hera's wound had already been bandaged and hidden underneath his sleeve, along with the other injuries he'd obtained. It amazed Felicity how this man, crying and throwing tantrums just earlier because of his rotting wounds had mustered the courage to bite back every pain he felt as he wrapped his arms around Suna. She could only stand back and leave the room to give the two of them some space. God knows how much the crown prince needed it.

"Happy Birthday, Brother! You're one step closer from being able to own your own personal bridge!" Suna praised, his tiny hands clapping together in congratulations. "A bridge, huh?" Hera repeated. Bridges were pathways used by the world to reach a realm. So far only two bridges reached the needed requirements to physically own one. Maganaya Falls, the realm of ocean skies and land of seas. And The Bishop, the highest form of personification of a god. However, these were no mere bridges but magical connections. For a bridge to form, one had to create a powerful enough land enough for it to act as a world of it's own, another where you had to reach a certain age to legally own one, and lastly, you had to be of the highest authority and official figure in your land. The Eckleis Empire had been big enough for it to be considered a world of its own, however, the current empress lacked a certain bit of power before she could attain a bridge. But the Empress had never been interested in those Bridges. Hera himself only needed to own the Eckleis Empire for him to form a bridge of his own, but with the current situation, it seemed like the Empress had no interest in passing down the crown to him. Nor did he ever had eyes for the throne in the first place. But Suna...

"Suna seems to really like thise Bridges, eh?" Hera placed Suna on his leg, away from the injuries from the rest of his body. The giddy boy could only nod hysterically, "I only ever heard of them from stories, I want to see one someday! I heard it's like a whole different world out there! Have you ever been to one?" Suna asked. "Hmmm...let me think," Hera jokingly pondered on the question for a moment before Suna smacked his chest, right where the unhealed wound had been. The smack had provoked a gasp from Hera and he quickly played it off as a joke. "I know you have already! You told me a long time ago,"

"I...I did?" Hera gave a small laugh as the pain on his chest swelled. "You did! You went to Maganaya Falls with that other big brother from the oceans!" As if struck by a sudden realisation, Hera pretended it to be as it was. "That's right! The King of the seas became my friend and invited me to his realm. I remember now!"

"You better have!" Suna said, then his eyes widened in realization as he quickly pulled something from the back of his pocket, a smile evident on his radiant face, "I made you something!" The tiny box that had been in his little hands before had now been shoved into Hera's own hands. Blue eyes stared fixatedly on it in surprise before he opened the lid. It had been a tiny wood carved bridge. Obviously, it couldn't have been carved by Suna himself, the detail had been too intricate.

"I had Minnie go outside the palace to get it for you! It even has your name on it!" Suna then proceeded to point at Hera's name on the arch of the bridge before he turned the bridge upside down where another name had been carved, "....And mine also." Hera couldn't but let out a genuine laugh at that, but that joy died down when a dawning realization came creeping at the back of his throat, and he couldn't help but ask. "Suna, is mother still ignoring you?"

That question had left both the boys in petrified silence. One in shame and disappointment, the other in sheer horror and guilt. "I went to visit her earlier in regards of your birthday and... At least, she didn't hit me this time!" Suna grinned. That answer had meant Suna had gotten Hera's gift from his own savings, not from the Empire itself, but from spare changes and the occasional coins he'd find in palace grounds. For the longest time, the Empress had disregarded Suna after she realized she couldn't make use of him. Suna had been a healthy young boy when the Empress had high expectations of him, to her dismay, Suna had been anything but a success. Failing at almost anything he could lay his hands on- Music, academics, politics and anything. The worse only came when she started beating Suna out of anger. It was unbearable for Hera. At that time, there was nothing he could do to help Suna physically, he could only do better than he did before to bait his mother's attention to only him. And in that way, she would have to leave Suna alone. That was fine, Hera could bear that. But as time went on, Hera came to a dawning realization of his wrong decisions. Regardless of no matter what role he tried to fill for Suna, it would never be enough. What he could do for Suna would never be enough so long as they were both stuck in this Empire. Tiny warm hands seemed to snap him out of his thoughts as light brown eyes stared at him, worried. "Brother...are you okay? Your face is pale."

At this very moment, what kind of face did Hera make?

It was only then did he feel the sweat drops on his face. It must have been the infected wounds starting to take a toll on his body. He needed to rest. As if reading his mind, Felicity came knocking on the door before she let herself in.

In an apologetic smile, she walked towards the two brothers and said "Your Highness, I think you need to get some rest."

Surprised, Suna exclaimed "What!? But the party hasn't started yet!" But Felicity had picked him up from the crown prince, ignoring all protests from the tiny prince as she walked out the door while carrying him. Hera could only wave his hand as they both disappeared into the corridor. That day, Hera had stayed in his room the entire time, writhing in pain on his bed till nightfall. And with nightfall, came another set of unpleasant talks.

"To think the Empress would throw a grand party as such and yet, the crown prince still hasn't shown up!" One lady said behind a gold rimmed fan.

"Not even once?" Another lady asked.

"Not even if I were to drop dead this instant!" Replied another. Many had come to the Empress side after that, each giving their own versions of sympathy for the Crown Prince's lack of consideration. All while the Empress faked the act of an understanding mother.

Before midnight came, the party had already been over. Fortunately, so had Hera's sufferings. It seemed throughout the day the dark magic had casted aside as a temporary effect, leaving only those physical wounds to heal with time and treatment. That night, Hera had stayed inside the second prince's room as a means to make up for not spending his celebration with him, but as a child, Suna had already been alseep by the eighth. Felicity watched the image of two young princes dimmed only with the light of a single lit candle in this room. With Hera's hand continuously patting Suna's head as he sat beside the sleeping boy.

"I actually wanted to celebrate my twenty-first birthday, you know? Out of all birthdays, Your coming of age birthday seems to be one of the most important ones so I wanted to celebrate it but..." The sudden statement from Hera had startled Felicity into reality. " It doesn't matter. Suna's safe and that's all that matters," Hera shook his head. A moment ago he had this look of pure calmness, like an ocean of warmness had flooded over him. Now staring at Felicity with such seriousness, it made her doubt if that man a second ago even existed in the first place. "Suna's the only good thing my mother has ever given me. I don't mind whatever hell I'll have to go through, Felicity. Whether people call me the heartless prince, or if I have to suffer from protecting thise exact people, I could bear all that. But what's important to me is if Suna's safe. He just needs to be healthy and happy, that's all I ask. I'll do anything in my power to have that." So long as they don't take Suna away from me.

From that moment on, Felicity swore to die following the prince she served and to die protecting the younger prince. That had been a moment lost in history along with the empire almost eight years ago before the Great War had happened.