Free Web NovelChapter 191: The Noble Thing
"What do you think we should do about our home?"
Yari turned her gaze away from the contest between three siblings that had yet to officially start.
In her lap, she held the large seed that would mark a new turn for her future.
"Hm? I think my darling’s place is big enough, don’t you think? I’m sure the baby will be quite comfortable."
"Erm... No, sister, that’s not what I meant."
"You want to live with us?" Yari couldn’t withhold her surprise.
"For the love of Muria, how does someone so incredibly bright have the dumbest moments possible??" Giselle huffed. "I’m talking about this place, Sunseed. Our actual home, the place we were born."
Somehow, Yari suddenly seemed much less interested.
"...I haven’t considered this place to be my home for a very long time."
Giselle leaned over to place her hand on her sister’s shoulder. She gently traced the criminal brandings that had haunted her for the last twenty years of her life.
"...I can wager a guess what it must have been like for you. To live here under all of that scrutiny... I know what you were attempting to do to earn marks like these. It’s not hard to think about how people would have reacted."
Yari brought her unborn child closer to her chest. She curled into a ball, as if to close off the entire world.
Her eyes never left the comforting image of Solomon’s broad back. Even if it was in flames.
"I don’t want to talk about this..."
"I know it must be uncomfortable, sister, but our parents... they left this place to us, and Raidis has conspired to ruin it at literally every turn! Should we not try to pick things up out of the ground and-"
"Raidis didn’t make our people treat me like an animal. They made that choice on their own. I don’t care what happens to the people of Ilim anymore, Giselle."
Giselle stared at her sister hard. It was evident that she was deciding on whether or not to say something potentially inflammatory.
"...I think you’re being unfair."
"Excuse me?"
"Our people are rudderless right now; they don’t know the truth of how they’ve been manipulated, and they are no doubt terrified out of their minds because they don’t know what was done to rescue us! Together we can help them! Do not think about those who don’t deserve it, hold in your heart those who do!"
Yari rolled her eyes to herself. "Your optimism is most painful."
"And yet you have not opened your mouth to deny anything that I have said."
"There is no need. If you want to run off and play queen of the dogs, then you should do that. You don’t need my participation for that."
"There is most certainly a need. I can’t do this without you, I never could."
Giselle suddenly grabbed her sister by both of her hands.
"Please, sister... I am asking you to help me pick up the pieces of our realm together... As a family."
Yari pulled her hands away, seemingly no more affected by her sister’s words than she had been when the conversation first began.
Instead, she cradled the seed in her lap more affectionately, even going as far as planting a kiss on it.
She stared at the back of Solomon with unbridled affection.
"Do you see your father there, little one...? He is the warmest man I have ever known. Together with your mother, we’re going to take you somewhere beautiful and quiet, where there’s plenty of water and sunshine. Somewhere that you can run and play for as long as you like with no fear of danger..."
Giselle realized that the conversation was over. Though it was undeniable that she was disappointed with the outcome.
She stood up after dusting herself off, no longer in the mood to sit and watch the heated spectacle before her.
"...I honestly had never taken you for someone willing to discard her heritage. I thought that when my sister saw problems, she set herself on the path of fixing them. That truly was my mistake."
As Giselle began to walk away, her final, scathing words would go on to affect Yari for the rest of her life.
"I hope that when your child asks you about the place that you come from, you can live with only telling her stories instead of taking her to see the thing you created with your own hands."
Long after Yari could no longer hear the sound of Giselle’s footsteps, she continued to hear her last words in her head.
She stared down at the seed in her lap, her expression one of profound hurt.
"...Tell me, my baby. What do you want mommy to do...?
-
Solomon and Nila felt it as soon as the man placed his hand on his weapon.
Raizel was like nothing they had ever faced before.
In unison, the siblings drew their weapons. They never waited for him to come to them first.
Moving together, both inhuman siblings lunged in the air with their swords raised overhead.
Roaring, they prepared to strike at their close ally without any regard for his safety.
Finally, Raizel started to pull his sword from his scabbard.
He hadn’t even drawn his full blade when an explosion of wind pressure burst from the young swordsman’s body, flinging back the children of the outer dark with disgusting ease.
In the air, Nila and Dakota were so stunned they couldn’t tell what had happened.
They sprouted wings from their bodies to help steady themselves before Raizel came on the offensive. However, there was never any need.
Raizel wasn’t the kind of man who liked attacking someone off guard.
He needed his opponents to see just how exceptional he was up close and personal.
"Don’t blink, kiddies, or you might just miss it!!"
Nila and Solomon roared at Raizel defiantly. This only seemed to make him smile wider.
He swung his blade in a full, wide arc, and an ensuing tidal wave of white-hot energy cleared every cloud in the sky within a 100-mile radius. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
For the first time, Solomon saw the full weight of his brother’s lived experience firsthand.
And he’d gotten a glimpse of just how powerful he used to be.
Both things terrified him to his core.
