OATH

"Good morning." Anna says to the young man while eating breakfast at the dinner table alone.

"…" The young man stares at Anna in silence, the raging emotions of the day before are currently not present, he however refuses to talk to Anna.

"Still mad about yesterday, huh? You know I'm not all that happy with your presence too, but I did in fact give you my oath yesterday, so until you give us an official response I will have to tolerate your existence." Anna stand up from her seat, revealing a priestess outfit reserved to those of the cosmic church. "Well, I got work to do. They delivered groceries a few hours ago, so treat yourself to some breakfast. Zer usually doesn't wake up until the early afternoon, so find something to entertain yourself with. They delivered some furniture too this morning, why not try your skills at interior design?" Anna walks towards the door, but just before she leaves the room, she stops and turns towards the young man. "When I get home I really would like to know whether to kick you out or not <3, do remember that you choose to stay last night." With those words she leaves the makeshift diningroom.< p>

The young man stands all alone in the diningroom, staring at where Anna just sat. "Atleast clean up your dirty dishes."

He takes her dishes, lightly cleans it with water and puts them in the sink. While at the counter he takes a look around, groceries and kitchen appliances have been thrown wherever there was space, in other words, it is a mess.

"She didn't even bother to put the milk in the fridge." He takes a handful of items from the counter and put them in the fridge, he however stumbles upon a new problem, the fridge isn't connected to an outlet. What's this? Why is it so dusty behind the fridge? Why is the entire house so dusty? How long has it been since these windows have been cleaned? It seems like the young man stumbles upon problem after problem. And so, the morning gets used up cleaning a young couple's new house.

"Wow! You really outdid yourself." Zer looks around the house bewildered. Not only is the entire house cleaned, the young man also took it upon himself to put house's furniture in its rightful place. "Good morning my fair lunar child." Zer greets him with a calm smile.

"Tell me, are you truly his brother."

"Starting the day off with the hard questions, huh?" Zer starts walking towards the kitchen. "Have you eaten anything yet? You haven't, right? Let me cook something up first." He opens the fridge and starts taking some things out here and there. "Luca knows my preferences too well."

After about 30 minutes the table is filled with all kinds of breakfast delicacies and a big pot of tea. "Take whatever you like." As if those words were the sign for himself too, Zer quickly starts filling his plate. He devours his first course, takes the pot of tea and pours the thee in his mouth. While looking at this unique spectacle the boy does not move an inch. "Well go ahead, eat!" Zers words shock the boy for a second, but soon after, he takes up his plate, shoves some food on it and starts eating. "Good, we can't do anything truly productive without a good breakfast." While spouting his wise words, Zer is already preparing his second plate of food, making the best out of all delivered groceries.

Eventually the two young man finish their big breakfast and not soon after that, they've rid the table of any signs of food. No dishwasher has been installed yet, so the dishes must be cleaned with the hand. Zer does the washing and the young boy the cleaning.

"So tell me, you are from the moon aren't you? A lunar citizen of bolive to be exact." Zer hands him a plate.

The young man stops, but after a second he continues drying. "I am. Do you know our story?"

"Well, I'm not from Oviel, so it wasn't reported on much. It should come down to something like: Around 10 years ago a valuable mineral was found on the moons ground. It was said to send Oviel 50 years into the future when it came to computer hardware. To keep up with the demand however they needed the entirety of the moons territory, but the people living on the moon wouldn't budge, they had been living there ever since humanity left its original planet. It took the central government of Oviel months of negotiations to find the right terms. After negotiations finished the people of the moon migrated across Oviel and the central government was able to make huge leaps in technology." Zer hands him a pan.

The young man continues to dry. "Yes, that's how the story goes. I'm suprised the news reached Oxward."

"So how does the true story go? Tell me the sins that Oviel has committed to its lunar inhabitants."

"They killed everyone." He stops drying. "They killed everyone. It's many soldiers invaded our beautiful home. Be it a child, woman or one of the elderly, they were all slaughtered and defiled!" his emotions tstart to overwhelm the boy and he takes a seat at the table. "Its image still burns so brightly in my eyes.."

"…" Zer puts a hand on the young man shoulders. "Let's go outside for a bit."

As they arrive in the garden Zer walks towards a field of high grass and picks up a small ball, just large enough to tightly fit in his hand. "I knew I saw it laying around here yesterday." He throws the ball into the air a few times. "Let's throw it around a bit."

They take a bit of distance from eachother. "Here's how we are gonna do it, say something that frustrates you and then throw the ball." Zer gets ready to throw the ball. "Did you taste the breakfast today? It was delicious, wasn't it? I haven't eaten anything better in my life." He throws the ball towards the young man.

"Yeah, it was good. Everything on this planet is of the highest quality." He throws the ball back.

A back and forth ensues.

"Something as delicious as that is of such abundance on this planet, and yet, if you move a few planets away from the capital, you will find so many people starving."

"Yes, billions of people live in poverty, all because they were born in the wrong place, and nobody here cares, worse even, they're barely aware of people's life outside of this planet."

"Disgusting. Even if they knew, they wouldn't care. So long as they can defend their own little reality, they will ignore any crime."

"I don't agree. It's all the CBP's fault. No piece of information exists without their permission. If the people of this planet, those closest to Oviel's government were to see the atrocities committed on other planets, then surely this country could change."

"Then what about my brother? Did he not show the people the atrocities created by the evil of this universe? Was he not utterly ignored by the masses?"

"He was. But was it not also the four central governments banding together to circulate rampant propaganda about Oziel and the messages he was spreading. We can change these people. We can change them with truth."

"Yeah? Well I don't agree. Humanity is sick." Zer throws the ball as hard as he can, flying far past the young boy at a tremendous speed. "Looks like we couldn't come to an agreement completely there. But one thing is clear. The CBP must be destroyed."

the two young men continue talking about grievances for hours on end. Their game of throwing the ball around has been paused and they have now moved on to decorating the front of the backyard.

The young man has given himself the task of cutting the down the tall grass. "tell me, why are you of all people so friendly with Anna. She... your brother."

Zer - who is currently occupying himself with planting a variety of flowers - looks up at the young man. "hmm, I guess we can't truly move on if I don't explain this first. well let's confirm two things. yes, she did kill my brother. yes, we are married."

"Then why.."

"I forgive her for killing my brother."

Across these few hours, no matter how much these two disagreed it always felt like they could keep a form of shared understanding between eachother, this however seems to be the one thing the young man can't accept.

the young man walks up to Zer and grips him by his shirt. "Forgive her?! She killed your brother! She should be burned at the stake!"

Zer takes hold of the young man's hand currently holding Zer's shirt up, his voice remains calm. "You can throw as many insults as you want, but please don't direct them at her, if anything throw them towards my direction. It was me that saved that her that day." The young man removes his hand and takes a step back. Zer sighs. "I understand why you're mad, if anything, I would have been disappointed if you weren't." He continues planting the flowers. "Let me explain a bit of her history, I hope that will clear things up. Within our galaxy it's not abnormal for people of extraordinary talent to be born, and yet among these people, Anna stands at the top. She was born to be humanity's salvation, a hero who fulfills every request of those in misery. Unfortunately, she was born with a fatal flaw, she is unable to distinguish between people, we might as well be lifeless puppets to her. A request from the universe's greatest criminal or saint made no difference, and so she adhered to whatever request she received first. infuriatingly so, Anna was not born in an impoverished area, she was born amongst the top of society. Forced to do their bidding, she eventually became the universal hero. Surely you must understand what it feels like to be used by the upper echelon of society? thus, I must ask you, please forgive her." Zer has at this point set the flowers aside again (Never having actually planted anything during his story.), he has walked up to the young man and taken him by his shoulders. 

"Zer, then what is she now? Is she still but a mere tool?"

"Did she look like that to you? you don't have to worry she will never obey their words ever again. I made sure of that when I-"

"Zer." Anna looks at them from the gardens doorway. "Shall we leave it at that? I would like to keep the details as a lovers secret <3." Anna walks up to the two young man. "Just trust me when I say will never obey anyone but myself from now on." She boys down "So once again, please forgive me." < p>

The boy looks conflicted.

"there... were those among us who sold themselves out to the central goverment, they tried to convince us that leaving the moon was for the best of all of us. Eventually they sold us out. For the longest time I hated them.. Yet nowadays I understand that surely they did it because they were scared for their own family. I wish to forgive them. I just can't get it in me to resent the pawns in this big game. I see now that Anna was also one of those pawns. I want to forgive her."

He gives her a hug. "I understand your truth now." Letting go of his embrace, he takes a step back. 

"Annechien Sylst and Zeroän Sunti, I, Maxwell L. Hovenir accept your heartfelt oath! together we will achieve justice! we shall fell the Central bureau of peace!"

"Hahaha!" Anna laughs proudly. "Good! We are glad to help, Max."

"Yes." Zer smiles at the two people proudly standing in the garden. "shall we go inside? It should be about dinner time."

They all walk inside as the sun sets upon their figure. Soon to trust themselves upon a chaotic event, now they will simply enjoy a meal together.

(mention that the parrtying has died down at the beginning of the chapter)