Uyan's eyes were wide. He lowered his head for a moment, then abruptly jumped up from his chair, crying and screaming:
"DAAAAD!!!
Even though the relationship between the children and their father was somewhat delicate, since they didn't see him often because of his work, the rare moments they spent together were generally unforgettable.
Itoî watched his brother run and cry, but did nothing. No words came out of his mouth. His gaze was frozen, just like the rest of his body. He thought:
Again? But why? Why? What did we do to deserve this?
But he pulled himself together. Deep down, the whole family knew their father was probably dead. However, clumsily, or perhaps out of protective instinct, Itoî looked at his grandfather with hesitation and asked:
"B-But a jaw fragment doesn't prove anything, right?"
Erwin lowered his eyes before pulling a keychain from his shirt pocket: a small wooden bear. It was the one Kaelle and Noémie had made for Silvester for Father's Day.
Seeing it, the young woman burst into tears and fled into the house. Only Erwin, Itoî, and Vars remained at the table.
Itoî looked at Vars, who returned his gaze. Both boys looked devastated: they had wanted this news to be false. Their last hope had just gone up in smoke.
After this tragic event, the boys were only clinging to their father. But fate had decided they would have to part with him too.
Unconsciously, the following words slipped out of Itoî's mouth:
"W-What do we do now, Grandpa, Vars?" he asked, looking at them with a lost expression.
A few seconds of silence settled in. Uyan's screams and cries were becoming unbearable; Erwin and the two other boys were on the verge of breaking too.
Erwin cleared his throat before speaking:
"Boys, I am just as saddened as you by this news. If only I had even five fewer years on me and had known what events were going to strike you, I could have gone to the battlefield."
The children said nothing, and Erwin continued:
"From now on, you are under my protection, but also under my guardianship. I'm going to teach you how to fight before you each start school. We have three months for Vars and four months for Itoî."
The boys raised their heads, tears in their eyes. This announcement seemed to give them a little courage in the middle of the chaos their lives had just been plunged into.
"B-But, Grandpa, I was born on the 4th of Iretas. I can't enter the academy at the next enrollment..."
"We're going to change your age, my boy. You'll now be thirteen instead of twelve, alright? I'll take care of it through the contacts I have."
Itoî nodded, but didn't understand why his grandfather was in such a rush to send him to the elementary academy.
Erwin clapped his hands together and exclaimed:
"Training will last a year! You'll train in the evenings, after school. But don't neglect your studies."
The boys seemed taken aback at first by their grandfather's overflowing energy, but they understood that brooding wouldn't help. After all, they had to become even stronger.
Both boys thought the same thing:
We need to get stronger and take down the assassins.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Uyan, who had curled up into a ball and was still crying, had nevertheless heard what his brothers were telling their grandfather. But he knew deep down that volunteering would be pointless: he didn't have the necessary physical and magical aptitudes.
He got to his knees and pounded the earth with all his might. His gaze was determined, but it faded when he recalled the scene of his mother's head falling in front of him.
Then he started screaming:
"AAAAHHH!!!
And he slammed his head against the ground.
Kaelle, who was crying in the kitchen, saw her little brother scream and hit himself. She pulled herself together immediately, rushed out of the house, and ran to him.
Meanwhile, the two other boys had stood up to check on their brother, but Erwin barked:
"Sit down!"
His tone was harsh, almost aggressive. Then he stood up and looked first at Itoî, then at Vars.
"Boys, this isn't your fight. Let Uyan rebuild himself. He needs to be alone. Kaelle will give him the moral support he needs, but you, stay out of it," he said in a much calmer voice.
Itoî asked his grandfather:
"But why, Grandpa? I unders—"
Erwin cut him off:
"My boy, he's eaten away by a feeling of powerlessness. He watched a cruel scene unfold just a few meters in front of him, not to mention the scene where... you know exactly which one..."
Itoî lowered his eyes and nodded. He who knew so well that feeling of powerlessness couldn't say anything. Least of all when people so close could try to act and hope to change things.
In Uyan's case, there was nothing he could do: he was still just a young boy who wasn't even a teenager yet.
"We'll start tomorrow, boys. Take today to breathe and put your minds back in order," Erwin said, standing up from the table and holding his back.
"Aargh... This damn back, I swear..." he grumbled as he walked toward the house.
Itoî stood up, eyes lowered, and asked his brother:
"Did you talk about this earlier?"
Vars nodded.
Meanwhile, after Kaelle had held Uyan in her arms for a while, the child calmed down. The young woman called out:
"Itoî! Bring your little brother a glass of water!"
Hearing this, Itoî nodded and ran to bring them a glass of water. He handed it to Uyan.
The boy violently knocked the glass out of his hand with his fist. It shattered, and Uyan's hand started bleeding.
Itoî yelled:
"Fuck, what are you doing?! Look at your hand—"
Uyan shot Itoî a look full of hatred and screamed:
"Why do you get to train and not me?! Why can't I do anything?! Why am I the useless one in this story, when all of this is your fucking fault! If Mom hadn't had to save your a—"
Kaelle slapped her little brother.
Itoî didn't know what to say anymore, stunned by everyone's reactions.
"Stop saying nonsense! It's nobody's fault! Now get up! We're going to bandage your wound and you're going to take your meds," she said, pulling Uyan by his right arm and dragging him toward the house until he agreed to walk.
Itoî walked for a moment before looking at the horizon. They were indeed near the ocean; just below lay a small isolated village called Itar.
Itoî placed a hand on the railing built by his grandfather and kept staring at the horizon.
"You not bored being by yourself?" a voice asked.
It was Vars. He appeared two seconds later, smiling, then leaned against the railing next to Itoî, eyes turned toward the ocean.
"I don't know. It's... It's complicated, everything that's happening to us. I don't know what to do anymore," Itoî said without taking his eyes off the horizon.
"You don't have much to do, Itoî. We follow Grandpa's training, then we get strong. And if you're talking about Uyan, don't take his words too seriously. He was inevitably hit even harder than us. He's always been more sensitive, and rightfully so this time. He had a front-row seat when everything happened. Even I wouldn't have been able to handle such a shock at his age. Look at my hands, Itoî."
Vars's hands were shaking. He too was still suffering from their father's death, and it reminded him of the painful scene of their mother's assassination.
Itoî lowered his eyes and gave a slight nod.
"Yeah, you're right. It's complicated for all of us..."
"Did you know that originally, the place where Grandpa's house stands was nothing but rock?"
Itoî looked at his brother, a bit thrown off by this topic unrelated to their discussion, but he played along.
"I... I didn't know that."
"Grandpa and Grandma started bringing soil little by little, carrying it from both forests. The Tortured Forest was a beautiful place, about thirty years ago. Then Grandma, who mastered the Water element, and Grandpa, who mastered Earth, started watering the ground and planting plants and flowers. And here's the result. They met at eighteen, got married at nineteen, and moved here at twenty. A rocky, barren place turned into an incredible little meadow. It's fantastic!" Vars said, eyes shining.
Itoî frowned and said, looking embarrassed and exhausted:
"I-I don't get why we're talking about this, honestly, Vars. I really don't have the head for this right now..."
"It's because with time and effort, you can accomplish great things, Itoî. That's what I'm trying to say. It might sound silly, but it's true. You always end up getting results if you put in the work. And now, Grandpa is going to train us. Plus, we're not alone: we have Kaelle and Uyan, and there are two of us training. You'll see, it's gonna be cool," Vars said, smiling and gently patting Itoî's back.
His big brother's little speech did the trick. Itoî regained some spirit and already felt better than he had a few minutes ago.
He kept looking at the horizon, but this time with a smile, and thought with determination:
Vars is right. We're going to get stronger—strong enough to make sure this never happens again. And we'll take down those bastards who ruined our lives!