3 The Eldest son of Valgurid

Arthur was tired after a long journey, he fought huge wyverns on his way home. and even orges.

Apparently the safest route he took, wasn't that safe anymore, although he usually ventured alone without any cartage, so it was fine.

As Arthur reached home, his family greeted him, his children were happy to see him, meanwhile, Zerref was amazed on how he looked like. Tall around 6'5, handsome with black hair and green eyes.

he had a body similar to greek gods. Arthur looked like a stereotypical chad on steroids, just merely hitting late 20s, but he was much older than that.

Arthur Jr and Sylvie's eyes glimmered with admiration, aggressively hugging him as he arrived. Arthur Jr. dashed into father, hurting his stomach a bit.

"ugugkk" eyes popped out, he didn't expect the hug from Arthur Jr to be this strong.

"That hurt you cheeky brat" Arthur said as he rub down on his son's scalp.

"Awoo I'm sorry, I'm sorry father" Arthur Jr moaned, Zeref never expected him to show such a soft side. His father smirked as he stopped. Until Zeref came to his attention.

"Who's that little fella?" Arthur asked.

"Don't pay attention to him" Arthur Jr replied with spite, he was hesitant of introducing his younger brother.

"How rude, that's your brother" Sasha argued, visibly scowling at him.

Everyone walked near Zeref, and Arthur patted him. then he said.

"He looks a bit like me" Arthur said, but it also reminded him of someone he met 40 years ago. A little prodigy which he trained in the past.

"Right? Our son is a genius, he managed to learn mana absorbing technique and even compress techniques" Sasha pulled Zeref into her.

"Wait, WHAT?" Arthur was kinda shocked, these are something only veteran adventurers learn in their battles.

"Don't tell me, is he a reincarnation of Zeref? or is this natural talent? How should we teach our son?..." Arthur mumbled as he got clueless.

"Honey, you should calm down" Sasha was in a comical discomfort.

"Alright son, lets spar" He said with a grin on his face.

"Are you crazy? He's only 6 years old, he doesn't even know to chant or cast spells" Sasha scoffed at him.

"Ah well, thats disappointing, guess my combat training with him could wait" Arthur smiled a bit. Meanwhile, Arthur Jr became envious of Zerref, as he had the glory of getting asked for a combat from him.

Arthur Jr's Pov "Zeref, ever since you were born, all I had was misfortune. you took everything from me, so thats why, I'll kill you, I hope you die a painful death, and then I'll see that bitch in tears".

Arthur Jr. was envious and angry that he really had the intent to behead him, though it had a deep hatred towards his own mother.

Zerref could sense his vanity and anger, then After a huge afternoon meal, he couched on his bed, thinking about Arthur Jr's reaction, and how he loved his father.

In his past life, he did have a father like that, who died or either went missing, either way his father from his past life never came back. Collecting his thoughts Zeref decided to head into Arthur Jr's room.

A month passed, it was night time, Zeref prepared himself, as Arthur Jr was still asleep. He tried to get inside his room, until Celine stopped him.

"Zerref, who told you to check inside, go to your room" ordered Celine. As she had been taking care of him, during his mother's absence.

"I'm sorry sister, but I need to talk to him." Zeref said.

"Why do you have to? He tried to kill you a couple of times, this all started even before he came here. How are you sure that you can defend yourself?" Celine asked a reasonable question.

"If he doesn't like me, I'll confront him, I just need to know why that's happening" Zeref was doubtful about this ordeal, then he said "Alright let's make a small deal, Celine, stay outside the door, meanwhile I'll talk things out of him, if things don't go as planned, try your best to save me" stated Zeref.

Celine agreed to his request "you don't act like someone from you're age, but please don't push yourself. As per your order I'll wait here". Celine was suprised to see how matured he behaved. As Zerref entered the room.

Arthur Jr was sleeping on his big couch. moonlight gleamed on his Silver hair, As Arthur Jr woke up, His complextion changed, with a killer intent. He screamed as he said "WHO LET U TO ENTER MY ROOM, U FUCKING TRASHY EXISTENCE" , all he had in mind was to kill him. Meanwhile, Celine's hand's gripped hard, she tried her best to control herself.

"Brother, I came here to talk" before he could say anything Arthur Jr. hoared a vase near him. Zeref tried telekinesis with his mana, kept the vase at the same position. unfortunately Arthur Jr. ghastly approached him and kicked on his stomach.

Zeref flew with great speeds, to prevent himself from crashing, he accidently used the wind magic to compensate, it was an odd luck he gambled, Celine stepped in and punched Arthur Jr's face brutually. as she scowled at him, her eyes were filled with disgust towards him. it's as if she could kill him anytime.

From that punch alone Arthur Jr was highly injured, his mouth was bleeding and he lost one tooth, even his jaw fractured, and in pain, Arthur Jr started crying.

Zeref approached him, in his sorry state, he whiped his tears and said

"I'm sorry, I should have never been born, if I'm the reason of your demise, then I'll gladly let you kill me. Without this family, I'm nothing, I'm not someone who's that talented as you, so I should..." Zerref tried to comfort him.

"Leave me the fuck alone, you psycho" Arthur Jr said.

"That's enough, he almost killed you, see Arthur Jr had always been Insane, so there's no point in talking out to him" Celine made quite sense although Zeref found his soft spot.

"No, I still have a way" said Zeref, just as he said that, he heard his brother murmuring

"Please don't tell mom, please don't tell mom, please don't tell mom, please don't tell mom....." repeating the same words, his legs were shaking. The fear he had was unnerving for Zeref. he wanted to know what happened between them, and Arthur Jr's behaviour was abnormal, as if he had endless torture from her.

"What happened between you and mom?" Zeref asked.

"Mom? that devil is our MOM, I had to go through hell, all because of you" said Arthur Jr, Zerref was baffled, he never thought this would be his answer. and then he asked

"Celine can you leave us for now, it's over, he can't fight me" Zeref requested.

"Master you're just a child, I won't let you..."

"As the youngest son of Valgurid, I order you, leave us alone, and about everything that happened here, don't even let a single word go out, and don't check in here, I can sense you" Zeref ordered her sternly. At the same time, Arthur Jr was baffled, he never expected Zeref out of all people to be this strong willed to boss around her. Celine left the door immeadiately as she cried outside.

"Idiot, if you die, how could I bear such sight" She was in tears for being just a maid, thinking that she's not good enough for Zeref, she walked around the corrider and wipped off all her tears. Meanwhile on Arthur Jr's room.

"Why is he trying to help me, is he scheming something?" Arthur Jr. thought to himself,

"I really want to know what happened between you and mom, I don't trust her as much as you, since we're brothers" Zeref said this truthfully, his eyes glittered as he said it.

"Can I trust you?" whimpered Arthur Jr. He doesn't know if he's whether he's scheming something.

"Ofcourse" Zeref used healing on Arthur Jr, His bruised face disappeared, and the bleeding stopped, fixing his jaw, as well as restoring his vitality.

As he got healed, Arthur Jr burst in tears. His teary green eyes, he showed more uselessness than yesterday, for days zeref watched him practice his way of sword, constantly bottling up his emotions, it was first time that Zeref witnessed him cry. Someone who seemed mature was still a young child who yearned for a normal life, Arthur Jr whiped his tears as he tried to explain his situation.

"2 years ago, I enrolled in a magic school, there was a girl that I had a crush on, and I tried making moves on her, but I was an idiot who was captivated by her"

"Her name is Jillian Geld, she was the one who ruined my life. At first I thought gossiping about me was romantic. But she went too far, far enough to humilate me, infront of everyone else. One day, After getting beaten up by her butler. She pulled my body in front of school. And then undressed me in front of everyone". hearing that Zeref got pissed off about her.

"That's outrageous, how could they humiliate my brother like this, she's the worst scum" said Zerref, Arthur Jr was suprised, he couldn't believe how Zeref was immune to this curse. Then he continued.

"Maybe around 9 months, I snapped, I didn't know what actually happened. when she bullied me as usual, tying me up and beating me naked on a secluded place, I screamed my lungs out, which dragged attention from students as well as teachers, saying all possible cuss words at her, before I passed out, then she laughed at me and said "even a pig can do much better than that", something inside me got angry."

"I heard those words clearly, even though I passed out, but this anger I had, I wasn't the only one feeling that way, or so I wasn't alone, it felt like something beneath the shadows was staring at me, but then I came back to my senses, Although, everything around me looked grimm, my hands were stained in blood. As her forehead was bleeding, with broken bones throughout her body"

"A friend of mind who was a victim to Jill's bullying, saw this incident, She even helped me before, whenever she was there, she pulled me out of those situations, but at that moment, she called me a monster. The teachers were afraid of me, and everyone in school were shaking in fear"

"Then suddenly, the king came to make a scene, with his presence alone everyone on this school stayed put, and he ordered a mage to put a curse on me, which made me unable to explain the gruesome torture I endured from her."

"with the help of his mage, he made everyone else forget about the scene, except me. The king looked at me with his glaring eyes, he was, satisfied, as he smiled viciously, it was as if he enjoyed watching me suffer"

"As I tried to explain this situation to my mother, she gave look of disgust, I passed out because of her death stare, when I woke up, I was inside a prison, tied in chains, and then celine who had arrived from Sasha's order and judged me for not being able to control my power. So from my mother's order's she gave me punishment, the maids who raised me kept torturing, Celine didn't do anything but she didn't bother to help me, I had to endure this for 2 months" Arthur Jr explained.

Zeref felt sad, he needed a way to undo this curse. but he felt something strange about this incident.

"Darn it, this is complicated, already we have too much political enemies trying to backstab us, just as much as we want to. if a word goes out then, wouldn't that make us marginalized, wait hold the fuck up" Zeref started collecting his thoughts.

"Why did the king smile at you?" Zerref thought, as it was a bit confusing.

"What is it brother" clueless about what his brother was thinking about. Arthur Jr looked at him curiously.

"Brother, there's something I have to ask you. did you know why the king smiled? I might be overthinking too much, but I have a feeling that our family is in danger" Zeref said.

"Danger?" Arthur Jr. was clueless to his statement, yet curious, but he understood his suspicions, and then he said.

"Well, honestly, I don't know why he did that, his daughter was injured, shouldn't he get furious instead, it kinda looked suspicious to me" Arthur Jr had a point, since a good father would care about their childern, not bait them into issues.

"Right! , what if it was all planned?, since there's too many political enemies to shun down our family, but no matter how you look at it, it's evident that they were targeting us" Then Zerref explained about the political situation of our family, the history of Jehovich and the Beast empire. From A to Z, Arthur Jr. payed close attention to all the details.

"That makes sense, btw where did you get this knowledge from" asked Arthur Jr

"History books, it explained some of our family origins" Zerref said.

"Strange, or maybe it's because, Ahh I have no clue, why does the school textbooks don't mention them" Arthur Jr said, both of them stayed silent for a while.

Zeref became paranoid, in his past life he had been dwelling too much into conspiracies, but he shrugged them and kept his best to stay cool.

Zeref and Arthur Jr talked to each, as they started getting along well, as time passed away.

"Darn, why is life so cruel to him. Although he feels like, a mirror image of myself" Zerref thought, lying on his couch.

"I'm sorry Zerref, I shouldn't have done that, even being at a young age, you could comprehend something like this" Arthur Jr. apologised to him.

This made Zeref ashamed and then he said "Brother, it's fine, don't humble yourself, you have gone through alot more than me, I'm glad that your strong enough to be alive, look at you, a prodigy swordsman".

Arthur Jr. realized something, his family was in a vulnerable state, because of him, although he was still furious, about the curse they put on him, and not to mention, bullying, and even the king's smile. More than ever, he wanted to take revenge on them.

Zeref hugged him, to make him relieve his pain.

"Brother you're not a monster, and I believe in you, from now on, I'll make sure no one gets to mess with you" Zeref comfort him, rubbing his head with his small arms.

"ugh...sob..sob"

"Thank you.." Arthur Jr hugged him as tears flowed by, now Zerref is the only person he could trust.

"I'll get you out of this mess as soon as possible" Zeref thought. As he massaged his brother's head, Arthur Jr suddenly reposed himself.

Meanwhile Zeref was lost in his world, he has to do something about this curse. He had too many questions about this world, especially about his parents background.

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