Chapter 1: "Love" Part 1

"God's love is divided", a 14-year-old Henry Martin mumbled to himself with his eyes crimson red and his blood boiling, his left hand clinging ever so tightly to his little sister and his right hand a rusty dagger he picked up a few days ago while searching for food and clothing.

Henry and his little sister were orphans who fended for themselves after being abandoned by their drunkard father, he wasn't always this way, in fact he was once a Royal knight who served directly under the late King of the Palladius Kingdom.

The reason why a once proud Royal knight such as Victor Martin had fallen from grace was because he blamed himself for the death of his king he was supposed to be protecting, and who could blame him?

The late king, James Darwin Palladius was assassinated by none other than Victors' own wife, mother to Henry and his little sister, who was discovered to be a foreigner from a rival nation that had always been envious of what James Darwin had achieved in his reign as king, no one knew her true identity aside from that fact.

It was speculated that she had been sent to get close to victor in order to assassinate the King, therefore as a knight, Victor was forced to both capture her and execute her for her crimes in front of his own children as punishment by order of the crowned prince.

Victor was then relieved of his duties shortly after, and was banished to live in the slums with his family.

Victor had failed to keep his king safe as per his oath, and he had to kill the love of his life with his own hands, the tears in her eyes as she smiled at him and asked him to take care of their children haunts him.

Who could maintain their sanity after losing everything in such a short amount of time as if it never existed?

He gave himself up to alcohol and a drug called cloud which was said to bring extreme ecstasy but was highly addictive and very expensive, causing Victor to not provide food or clothing for his two children anymore.

He was too far gone, to the point where it would bring shame to his past self to even mention that they are the same person.

Eight months have passed since Henry and his little sister were abandoned by their father, up until five months ago they had received food parcels from the church after hearing about their father abandoning them.

The orphanage was making preparations to take them in, but news of the orphanage and the church offering support to the Martin children reached the crowned prince and he banned them from helping them out of pure animosity for Victor and his late wife.

A classic case of children being punished for the sins of their father.

Henry did everything he could to provide for his little sister, he stole food from merchants and clothes from clothing lines, he became quite notorious as a thief, the people of the slums who could barely make enough to feed themselves finally had enough and they caught him, tied him to a tree and gave him brutal lashings with a barbed wires and sticks.

Even as Henry was being beaten, he did not care about his physical well- being even as they were ruthlessly shaming him and calling him names, so long as his precious little sister with her angelic smile and curly black afro that reminded him of the highest quality of cotton was okay, none of these things mattered to him.

Seeing as how they could not break his spirit, they untied him, Henry looked back and bowed his head, he thanked them for working hard for the things that he had stolen and apologized by saying that one day he would repay all of them.

A few sobs could be heard from within the crowd. Henry bolted back to where he had hidden all the things that he had stolen so he could rush back to his little sister.

He was lucky enough to have stolen a few loaves of bread but that was not the only reason why today was a great haul, he had stolen a jar of honey, when was the last time they had eaten something sweet?

As he thought how adorable his little sister would look when eating something sweet, he couldn't help but let out a child-like giggle befitting a 14- year- old boy.

If the people who were beating him earlier saw him now, their eyes would pop out of their sockets because even as they were beating him, he was expressionless and showed no emotion or signs of pain.

There was a chill in the air, Henry wondered if it was already winter, this made his excitement about his haul die down.

How would he provide for his sister all alone in the bitter cold of winter?

These thoughts only made his hatred for his coward of a father run even deeper, he frowned, even the mightiest of warriors and the bravest of men would be intimidated by the fierce look in his eyes.

As he approached the shack that they live in he noticed that something was wrong, he had always told his little sister to always keep the door locked when it started getting dark and she did just that, so why is it that today was different?

His heart began beating faster, and he heard a scream that sent chills down his spine, it was from his little sister.

He ran as fast as he could and simultaneously pulled out his rusty dagger.

For his precious little sister who was all he had in the whole world he was prepared to spill blood.

As if someone had thrown him inside the shack, Henry charged inside like a wild beast and he found two men with puzzled looks on their faces as they stared at him, one a giant of a man who appeared to have a permanent scowl and the other a slim figured man whose face reminded Henry of a Rat.

They seemed to be quite well-fed and were wearing matching pitch black suits that seemed expensive and reminded him of how his father would dress when the king invited them over for dinner so they were definitely not residents of the slums.

'' What the hell?... oh, it's you what took you so long?"

said the man with the face that is reminiscent to that of a Rat.

Henry did not care for the questions of that man, his eyes were frantically searching for his sister and under the giant man's armpits was where his gaze finally fell.

Without any hesitation, his legs coiled up like a spring, and he lunged forward with frightening speed. He aimed for the man's elbow, stabbing and tearing into his flesh as he attempted to retrieve his little sister, who had fallen to the floor. However, instead of bellowing in pain, the man seemed rather curious instead.

Henry grabbed his little sister who was still crying and made an attempt to escape but the man with the "Rat-face" had the door blocked.

Henry's panting echoed within the confines of the shack, his gasps for air a testament to his fear. Yet, despite the trembling of his limbs and the racing of his heart, he knew he had to muster courage for the sake of his little sister.

"..Wh-who are you people and what is it that you want? We have nothing to give you".

Henry stuttered, unable conceal his fear.

"You are quite scary for a boy your age, I cannot remember the last time David bled" Rat-face exclaimed.

"You said you had nothing to give us? Do not make me laugh as if we would rob filthy creatures like you. You two have been sold to us as slaves."

"God's love is divided." Henry muttered.

"mm? what was that?"

"Take me, spare my little sister please I can do all kinds of work and-"

"No big brother please! Don't leave me!"

Hearing his little sister cry was more painful to him than one would imagine being impaled by a sword through the heart repeatedly felt like.

Why is it that they had to suffer like this while other children had a loving family and warm food every day to fill their stomachs, while they had to scavenge?

Did God's love not reach them? Or did he simply despise them? Rather did he even exist at all?

Henry's thoughts were ended abruptly by a loud voice.

"Enough! Initially the plan was to take the both of you but seeing as how you, Henry have too many scars on your body I do not imagine you will fetch a good price, we will be taking your little sister alone."

"She is too young please!"

"I am afraid that is none of my concern, I too have to keep myself fed, do not hate us too much we are just doing our jobs."

His words sounded sincerely empathetic, but what Henry saw on the man's face was an evil smirk.

Henry could not believe that anyone could be this evil, Henry was livid, he felt like throwing up at the mere sight of these men.

He prepared himself for another assault and clenched the tilt of the rusty dagger and decided that if today was the day that he died he would do so protecting his little sister and one of these men would die with him.

Henry had taken a few sword combat lessons from his father Victor before and was hoping they would be of some use to him at this very moment, he picked David as his target by instinct and lunged!

But despite his size David was quite fast, he used his sheathed sword and parried Henry's attack with an astonished look on his face.

Without any wasted motion he struck Henry with a bone shattering blow to his abdomen.

Henry gasped for air desperately and waved his hands as if he was trying to grab the air itself and insert it into his lungs, as soon as he was able to inhale once more, instead of exhaling, he coughed up blood.

Rat-face smirked at the sight of Henry on the floor.

"Wow David, you are a ruthless bastard can you not see that you are fighting a child? Hehe."

David responded with a dumbfounded expression:

"This is no mere child. I'm actually frightened. When he first injured me, I paid it no mind because I thought it was because I let my guard down but after parrying his second attack I now know, this boy is a monster. If it was the me from ten years ago fighting this child, I would have probably lost an arm with that first attack."

A cold sweat ran through Rat-face's back, he probably did not see what he meant because he had no fighting experience or skills whatsoever, but he trusted the words of his partner David.

Thinking back ten years ago, David was feared by many as a powerful warrior, just a mention of his name could make veteran warriors quiver, so how could this mere child be compared to the David from back then?

After pondering to himself whilst giving a bloodied Henry a terrified look he came to a decision, Henry had to be killed.

The strength of a warrior was determined by ranks, F-rank being the lowest and weakest, and SS-rank being the highest.

David, ten years ago was a D-rank warrior. So, without much training or experience Henry had the skill of a high D-rank warrior.

Most would consider him a prodigy but in the eyes of Rat-face he was a true monster.

"David, I thought we could just leave him be but after hearing your words I have a feeling if we let this child live, he could pose a threat to the Scorpion guild in the near future, exterminate him."

"Understood."

The room fell silent, even Henry's little sister who had been crying was sent into shock after hearing that her beloved big brother was about to be killed.

David took a few steps towards Henry who could barely breathe let alone move, David grabbed his sheathed sword and hit Henry hard on his forehead with the tilt of his sword, the result was a large crackle similar to the sound of wall nut shells being crushed.

Henry's eyes rolled to the back of his head and blood started to run down his nose, his sister let out a screech reminiscent to that of a banshee, her mouth began foaming and she fainted.

David carried her on his shoulders and off they went with Henry's irreplaceable treasure, his little sister to become the plaything of nobles in the capital.

Henry's vision was blurry, in his heart he prayed to anyone that would listen.

God, mythological deities he once read about and even the Devil himself, but there was no response.

He felt cold and wondered if the next breath he took would be his last, he cursed himself for lacking the strength to protect the most important thing to him in the whole world.