69 The boy who lived

Trevor was feeling extremely anxious right now.

After Kurt was called by his father to have dinner at the imperial main house, he quickly received a small call from Sabiri to let him know that he would also be attending.

He was informed by her that things were starting to run out of her control and that it might be time for them to confess to Kurt about their small alliance.

The red-haired boy was sadly not very pleased with this new piece of information.

Sabiri had always kept things hidden from Kurt, things that no mother should keep but was forced to given their delicate situation. But for some reason, the fact that she kept her connection with Trevor a secret from him seemed to have struck him harder.

Trevor was ready to admit everything and assume total blame for the situation, but Kurt wouldn't even look at him to give him a chance to explain himself.

His eyes seemed to be a mix of disgust and fury.

Trevor knew those eyes. It was the same look many of the members of the more powerful dragon families would give whenever they found out he was part of a lower class. The gaze of someone that was looking at something that wasn't worth looking at.

Trevor had gotten used to that gaze. He had long since accepted that some will simply feel they are better than you without even trying to know you.

In his entire life, only a few powerful dragons did not direct that look at him. One of them was the empress Sabiri, the first dragon to offer her hand to him in exchange for his services.

She looked at him and his sister, as well as the rest of his family, not as something that should be ignored, but as living beings with feelings.

To this day he still remembers the first time they met.

The emperor needed help triggering the second forms of some of his children, and in order to do that, he had asked for some of the houses to offer their children as a sacrifice as proof of their loyalty.

Between those, was the older child of the house Bauron, Trevor Bauron.

He had offered himself in order to spare the life of his little sister, Nala Bauron, and was meant to die at the hands of one of the offsprings of Lian Garen, a young girl with wild red hair and wide orange eyes.

Trevor had been ordered to not resist at any moment, and simply remain still as he waited for the child to take his life and help her unleash her inner beast. They were aware of his ability to phase through objects and he had been informed that if he tried to resist for even a second, his entire family would be sent to the forest of crawlers and left there to root, all with the exception of his sister who would simply take his place and engage in combat with Ano Malia Garen.

The kid was dragged into the mansion where the emperor had arranged for Anomalia and her mother to live in and was sent into a wide square-shaped empty room where he was ordered to wait for her to arrive.

With no other choice but to meet his own end with a heavy heart and a soul covered by the fear of death, Trevor began to pray for his life. He was simply five years old at the time. He didn't know who he was praying to, but all that went through his mind at the time was the desire to beg for some sort of superior force to appear and save him from that dreadful situation.

And that was when she showed up. Empress Sabiri. She barged into the room and appeared before him with a cold expression. But he knew she wasn't aiming that coldness towards him. Those were the eyes of someone who had something big planned inside her mind and was looking at another piece she was planning to use.

She looked at him as a living being with feelings... Feelings that could aid her in her goal.

"Do you want to live?" she asked as the boy cowered in all fours on the ground waiting for his executioner to show up.

Trevor looked at her unsure of what he should say. Her image exhibited so much power, so much dignity. She looked like a real-life goddess in his eyes.

"Y- Yes..." he mumbled, "But my family..."

"Will never be the same if they lose you like this" she commented before he could finish, "I've talked with my husband, and convinced him to choose someone else to take your place."

"Someone else? Who?"

"One of the miserable fools that tried to kidnap my son" she explained, "Because of them and their senseless actions, I've been put through a lot of misery... And I want to see them suffer!"

The woman spoke with the same cold eyes as before, but her words now completely changed the way Trevor looked at her. She wasn't there to save him, she was there to make someone pay.

Instead of a goddess, she was more of a demon.

"The choice is yours..." she continued, "You can stay here and die for all I care, I can just ask another of the offers. All that matters to me is that the piece of trash that attempted to steal my son from me dies today."

"Another of the offers?"

"The emperor requested that children from various houses would be offered to help trigger the second form of his kids, and the kid that is going to take your life is someone who I particularly despise... So I'm giving you a choice...

Live for me... Or die for her!"

Trevor froze at that moment as a sudden thought crossed his mind, "If... If I accept... Will the other children-"

"Be killed? Yes... Yes, they will."

"Can't you save them as well?"

"Why?" she asked with a low voice while glaring at him, "Did someone came to save my child when he needed help?"

Trevor had no idea what she was talking about. All he knew was that if he rejected that offer, the empress would pick someone else to kill the one that tried to kidnap her kid, and one other kid would be allowed to live.

All he needed to do was sacrifice himself one more time and he could face his final moments knowing that he saved a life.

"I... I can't..." Trevor whispered while shaking his entire body, "Please make your offer to someone else."

Sabiri looked at him again and bent her knees in order to look closely into his eyes, "You think she will just kill you and that's it?"

"What...?"

"She won't just enter this room and take your life... No... That girl... Or rather... That thing... Is the embodiment of sadism...

She will torment you, play with you, make you scream, make you beg... You are afraid of dying right now, after a few minutes in the same room as her you will WISH you were dead... And if you're unlucky, she will finally finish you off. If not, she might just fix you up with the gift she received from her father, and just drag this on until she gets bored!"

All color began to vanish from the five-year-old's face. Tears started to come out as he kept imagining the things that she mentioned.

"The amount of pain you will suffer in her hands, is the amount of pain no child should ever suffer at anyone's hands. You think it might be a small price to pay for saving a life, but trust me, it's not!"

"I... I..."

"Say that you want to live... Say that you want to see your family again... Say that you want to be saved!" she ordered while showing her open palm towards him.

Trevor began to cry with more intensity. he had prepared himself to never see his sister, his parents, uncles, aunts, or cousins ever again. He had prepared for a quick sacrifice for the imperial family's satisfaction. And even now, he had prepared himself to let someone else take his place and be saved by the empress.

But she wanted him. She wanted his life to be saved. And at that moment, he dared to think he deserved to live even after coming all this way and giving up on everything.

"I don't want to die!!" he cried, "Please!! I want to see my family again!! I want to go home!!"

He placed both palms above the empress's hands and aimed his gaze towards the floor to avoid letting his tears fall on her.

Once things were settled, he was removed from the room alongside Sabiri as they marched outside of the mansion.

But before he left he observed the girl the empress had talked about. An eight-year-old girl with wild red hair and a piercing gaze who suddenly started to smile after spotting him.

She began to lift the corners of her mouth once they crossed paths and whispered, "Play?"

Sabiri instantly pulled Trevor away from her before he could even process her words, "Not today!"

Her arms were shaking, her breathing was getting heavier, and she was doing everything she could to not look directly into that girl's eyes.

"Aaaww..."

The woman kept dragging the boy by the hand as the girl continued to stare at them. She even began to slowly wave at him while blushing as they went through the exit doors.

"See you later..." she mumbled.

Years passed and the Bauron family had become eternally grateful for Sabiri's act of kindness. They swore their allegiance to her... And only to her, from that day forward.

Trevor soon ended up hearing about the other houses that were sacrificed. On that day, two young kids and one kidnapper ended up dying.

This was the weight he had to forever carry from now on. The empress needed someone she could trust, and she picked him instead of those two. They died so he could live, and for that, he had to do everything he could to make sure their deaths weren't in vain.

What he didn't expect, was that the empress' wish would be much simpler than he imagined.

She needed eyes on her son. Someone by his side during the times she could not be. Someone with the power to allow him to escape through any place in case he needed to run, or the power to take any attack for him as his living shield.

For the empress that saved him, for the children that died, and for his family that was spared, it was Trevor's life mission to take care of that boy, and make sure no harm would fall on him.

But what was most shocking of all, was that years later when they finally met, the boy himself would be the second one to not look at him with eyes of disgust.

Kurt's eyes were kind and warm. Not just towards Trevor, but to anyone he encountered. He had the eyes of someone who had nothing to hide and was ready to accept every aspect of whoever he looked at.

At first, he looked at Gaby with anger, but soon began to look at her with sympathy, as if he understood everything about her, or as if he wanted to try and understand everything about her.

Same thing with Saramin. At first, they seemed to be enemies, but soon became friends as well.

And of course, towards Trevor, he could feel there was some distance between them, but also that Kurt was trying to slowly learn how to accept him.

Or at least... He used to be, until he found out that they were lying to him.

For Kurt, the night where it was revealed that every action he took was just an act planned by the empress, Trevor had become a traitor, someone he could no longer trust, and he had no idea how he could possibly fix that situation.

After his secret was revealed and the young prince stormed out of his room, Trevor and his sister were ordered to hold guard outside and make sure to keep an eye out in case someone tried to attack the mansion.

When Trevor asked who would be insane enough to attack a house filled with some of the most powerful dragons on the empire, one of the butlers simply whispered something about a metal guest.

Trevor knew exactly what they were referring to as his own sister ended up rescuing Kurt from this guest not too long ago, and it wouldn't be strange if she tried to make another move that night.

For his luck, nothing ended up happening, and he was allowed to focus once again on his priority one, Kurt.

Trevor had no idea how he was going to face the boy on the following days, but he knew that no matter what happened, he would not stop guarding him with his life.

That was the fate he chose, the mission he can never escape from. For those who lived, for those who died, Trevor needed to make sure the empress and her son would get the happy ending they both deserved.

And today was finally the day these two would meet once again.

Trevor was standing in the front gates of the academy and letting all the other students go through him as he kept waiting for his master to arrive.

He knew the encounter would not be comfortable, but he knew it would be a necessary one.

The only question was, how would Kurt look at him once their eyes met?

"Hey, Trevor!"