Prologue Part 2 - Chapter 2

Sebastian paused and thought for a moment. "...Yes, it in fact does but nevermind that. I just want to ask you one more thing before I leave."

"Yes of course, what might that be?"

Sebastian proceeded to walk up close to Fearter, gently slamming his hand on his shoulder, and bending over and squatting down a bit to bring his glaring, menacing eyes to Fearter's level. His voice deeper and rougher than usual, he asked, "What were you doing last night, Fearter?"

"W-what was I doing l-last night…?" Fearter sheepishly tweeted like an injured pigeon, before he paused. "Is that what you asked?"

"Did i stutter?"

"O-oh, uh, right, i was just, um… i didn't really do anything i just… slept…" Fearter once again paused, waiting for confirmation that his answer was satisfactory, but he didn't receive such confirmation. All he received were cold and sharp, icy blue, darting eyes. "I did have some trouble sleeping. So i kinda walked around the guest living quarter's hallway for a bit. That was all. Was there something i did wrong, or something that happened that has gotten you so… suspicious?"

"Other than your nervousness, no. Nothing you need to know of at least. All I would say is that it would be a grave mistake to consider leaving this city any time soon, and i'm not saying that because of the upcoming wedding."

"Right, and i assume you wouldn't be able to tell me why?"

"Great, your learning."Sebastin ruffled Fearter's balding head like a dog, turned around and walked away down the hallway. "Oh and by the way, if i see you treat a single other working girl in this city like you have today again; then i'll have you hung in the street before the sun sets."

Fearter felt his heart skip a beat by the statement. His housecarls eyes widened with surprise and smiled to themselves. "Hung!? I didn't do anything that bad to them! It was just a bit of fun! You can't hang me for that! Right!?"

"Well, it depends on if that's the only thing you've done…" Sebastian said, gritting his teeth.

*

Sebastian left the brothel and walked back into the palace to meet with Nihilvid Withered, the Duke of Furoecthra. He found him inside an empty spare room, the only things contained within it being three training dummy stands and Nihilvid sparring with his housecarls, all of them wearing black plate armor. Nihilvid was tall and well-built, the same height and size as Sebastian. His pupils were pure black, his protruding eyebrow ridges prevented any light from reflecting any highlights in his enshadowed eyes... His face was also, wrinkled and rough, despite being the same age as Sebastian whose face was clear and smooth.

Nihilvid had four housecarls. Two of them were sparring against each other with training swords, they were called Fiora and Oscar. Whereas the other two were tag-teaming Nihilvid, and they were called Kyle and Gunther. They were sweating, groggy, and gasping for air as they passionately sparred Nihilvid, despite their exhaustion. However, Nihilvid was coolly and calmly dodging and parrying their attacks until he began to feel irritated with the ease of the sparring and proceeded to swiftly disarm them both, sending their swords flying to the floor which smashed against it with a rattling bang. "Just because we're sparring it doesn't mean you get to slack! I'm never going to get stronger if I keep sparring with weaklings like you two all the time!"

"Well, now that you're in the capital, maybe you will get the opportunity of sparring with someone your own size," Sebastian said. "Unless you're just pretending to want to do so."

Nihilvid scowled at Sebastian as he noticed him enter, appearing more irritated with him than he did with his housecarls. "What do you want?" Nihilvid snarled as he glared at Sebastian and gestured for Kyle and Gunther to continue sparring without him.

"Mary has fallen ill, so we've postponed the wedding ceremony until further notice," Sebastian said.

"I'll be willing to wait a maximum of a week before I head back home. So if the Ilios family wants me around for it they better get that girl to hurry up with her recovery."

"Why are you so anxious to leave? Running from something?"

"Why do you ask?" Nihilvid inquired with a cheeky and cocky smirk as he picked his training sword back up from the floor and started hitting the training dummy. "Is there a supposedly morally grey decision we'll have to encounter in this city that involves the life or death of irredeemable criminals that you think we should run from? Sorry, but it's only you that's afraid of such things. I, however, welcome and thrive in them. Rabid dogs should get put down, it's only common sense"

Sebastian, disappointed with the weakness of the insult shook his head. "You may thrive in difficult dilemmas, Nihilvid, but women… women are evidently a different story. Especially since the last one you were with got so sick of you that she eventually lost interest in guys entirely."

Sebastian struck a nerve and Nihilvid stopped hitting the training doll becoming once again filled with anger. "Idiot, you know full well she loved me! After so much time have you still not figured that out!?" he shouted.

Sebastian chuckled "Is that why she went out of her way to fuck the Queen instead of you?"

"You trust the Ilios family way too much, Sebastian. The Queen manipulated her into doing it. If it was about love then why did they send assassins to kill her!?"

"I know the Ilios family much better than you do, Nihilvid. There was no manipulation, they're not capable of such a thing. Giving some nutcase a couple of gold coins to kill some girl protected by an irate and envious imbecile on the other hand?"

"They sure did hire a nutcase a couple of Gold coins. I mean, you have to be off in the head to kill my innocent girlfriend in cold blood and then at the same time call yourself the Hero of Fos." Nihilvid said sarcastically as he began hitting the training doll again.

Sebastian's cocky smirk dropped into a frown. "I didn't kill her."

"Wow, after all of these years you've still not realized the error in your ways? Just because the citizenship thinks you're a hero, it doesn't mean you don't have to make an effort to get rid of the many skeletons filling up your closet. You owe it to the people that've took a look around that messed up room of yours, and therefore know you for what you really are."

"In all honesty, I have begun to acknowledge that I made some minor mistakes. So I am making an effort, to atone, unlike you."

"Oh? So you have changed then? I was worried that after all of these years you'd stay just as you were back then; a naive and closed-minded village runt."

"I have changed, I agree. However, I haven't changed so much that I would delude myself into thinking that I murdered her." Sebastian said. "Because, I fucking didn't, It was the assassin that killed her and the Queen that hired him!" He began to exclaim.

"The Queen hired the assassin, yes. The assassin killed Isabella, yes. But then who was it that stopped me from killing the assassin after I initially stopped him from killing her?"

Sebastian looked away and hesitated to respond. ".... me."

"See? You're no different than the prison guards that were bribed to help the assassin escape from the city's dungeons! Who, I, by the way, decapitated! Why your heads still on your shoulders is a question and an issue yet to be answered and resolved." Nihilvid began to shout.

"My situation was very different from the bribed guard's situatio-"

"You're just saying that!" Nihilvid interrupted with a roar, pausing his slashing of the training dummy and throwing his sword to the ground, causing a sudden and violent smacking sound as it smashed onto the hard marble floor. "You're just lying to yourself so you don't have to feel so guilty! You're the problem and you always have been, and I think you know that to be the truth deep down! You're always trying to be pure, always conceptualizing scenarios in moral black and whites, but no. Life isn't that simple. Sometimes you need to make the hard decisions, Sebastian, but you didn't, did you? And now she's dead!"

Sebastian hesitated to respond. "... look…." he said. "I don't have the time to be getting into this right now."

"You could just admit that I'm right."

"No, we can talk about this later. I just want to ask you one thing." Sebastian said as he walked up closer towards Nihilvid, staring deep into his eyes with a wild and menacing stare. "Have you grown up yet? Or do you still carry all of that envious hatred towards the Queen for giving your girlfriend what she wanted?"

"What she wanted? A slow and painful death?" Nihilvid sneered as the distance between both of their faces shortened till they're barely a hand apart.

"That was only after you started making petulant threats, accusations, and generally escalatory remarks as a result of your childish envy. It was only after they showed you how serious they were, that you did finally learn your place and behaved peacefully. The only difference between you and them is that they made the first move. Which makes it ridiculous that you then want to still play the victim card!"

"Why wouldn't I play the victim card!?" Nihilvid exclaimed. "They killed her god damn it!"

"You still haven't answered my question. Do you continue to bare hatred towards the Queen for giving your girlfriend what she wanted? What are you planning, since I swear, you're the most suspicious scumbag in the entire city!"

"Hahaha" Nihilvid giggled. "Well, you could say I… love them, but you could also say I hate them. It depends on your level of interpretation. Why do you ask? Are you getting worried about your pretty little princess? Worried I'll try and get vengeance against the Queen by going after her? She's always been a dreadfully incompetent, timid and sheltered little girl. Perfect for an indecisive and pathetic excuse of a hero like you."

"Shut your mouth!" Sebastian roared as he snapped and grabbed Nihilvid; slamming him into a nearby wall. "Tell me what you're planning, asshole, and I might just show you some mercy!"

"I know all about your mercy, Sebastian. So why don't you just skip to the end and get your hands off of me? Yeah, sure, most people you get angry at like this would be quivering in their boots, but I'm not them. I know you for what you are. You're just some little village boy that suddenly rose to too high of a position too fast, and now you're here. You have no idea what you're doing, It's too complicated for you, It's too morally grey for you and In comparison to your life on the farms of Nothrotita, where life was simple; this is impossible!"

Sebastian let go of Nihilvid and walked back, "So you think I'm just some village boy, huh? Do you not know why I've got to where I am now? Haven't you heard of my powers?"

"Your powers? You mean the powers that you have according to the outlandish tales told about you by tired drunks in run-down village taverns? Tales so fantastical that a five-year-old kid could make them up in a daydream? Sorry, but you're gonna need a little bit more than that to frighten me."

Sebastian then turned around and stared at Nihilvid; holding his arm out, as if he was gesturing for Nihilvid to hand him something. "You wanna test that claim?"

"Finally!" Nihilvid said as his mouth spread wide with an excited but menacing smile. "Time to wipe that sorry little smirk off of your face!" Nihilvid continued, grabbing another training sword from out of his bag and chucking it at Sebastian, who caught it with ease.

"We'll see about that," Sebastian said. "I'm not called a hero for nothing!" Sebastian passionately exclaimed as his cocky smirk dropped into a fierce scowl. Nihilvid darted towards Sebastian like an arrow, whilst Sebastian stood still, watching Nihilvid zoom towards him, his grip on his sword slackening and his eyes slowly closing until he could see nothing, only being able to hear the loud but rapid stomping coming closer and closer, faster and faster, until Sebastian began to slightly open his mouth, whispering; "Kalosummonitores sta plasiain moumihi oi exousiaquod touautem oi anapnoispiritum…" Sebastian opened his eyes again, but also this time his mouth. Both his eyes and the inside of his mouth glowed a bright yellow.