It was okay

"yo..b..t..."

"...Barto... young Bartolemeo.."

"Are you okay?"

Offering his hand, the white haired, middle-aged man, asked with a worried tone. He seemed to be concerned, well, anyone would be if their fellow comrade just kept lying on the ground without even batting a eye.

'Katrine, that fucker... he was already enough.'

'And now... even you...'

Looking at the somewhat old and scarred hand, Bartolomeo expression wasn't a happy one. He was showing a extreme disgust, and despite the fact he only showed it for a brief second, the one looking at him flinched in shock.

But as old and experienced as he was, in mere seconds, he also had concealead his surprise as if it never happened.

"Haah~ Yes, I'm okay sir Albaran, thank you for the heartily concern."

"Oh... Grahahah, don't worry Barto, it's my job as an elder to look out for the younger generation!!"

Right after helping Bartolemeo to rise, Albaran continued to laugh warmly and patted him on the shoulder.

"Ahh.. I don't know what to do sir Albaran, you're too kind!"

Bartolemeo said with a happy and genuine smile... yet what no one saw, was that behind this happy facade, his blue eyes weren't smiling at the old knight.

Tap~ Tap~

'Hahaaha... Amusing...'

'Yes... you sure did look out for all of us... if you can call causing our deaths a good thing...'

Getting the dirt out of his white clothes, seeing that the old knight smiled warmly towards him, he felt completely disgusted.

'Haah...'

'How amusing, Baldaxias..! Showing me faces of the past...'

"Show yourself, cowardly demon..."

He muttered with an extremely cold voice, after all, he was really mad, what was the point of showing him these hateful people?

If he wanted to scare him, why put a lot of unknown faces in the crowd, couldn't the might lord of hell do a better job!?

"..."

But as no demon appeared before him, or even answered, there was only an awkward and embarrassing silence.

"... so... is this how you want to do things, you pile of shit!?"

Getting annoyed he asked to the air... just to be ignored again.

"Hmm?"

"Did you say something young Barto?"

Albaran asked visibly confused.

"Haah~"

"No... I was just wondering, what you're doing here sir?"

'Ugh, why I'm even answering him... he must be just a mindless puppet.'

"Hnm? Are you okay young Barto?"

"Don't you remember? You're the one who called me."

Albaran said scratching his head.

"I'm sorry sir, I'm not sure about t-"

Before Bartolomeo could even finish his phrase, a rude man interrupted him speaking hastily.

"Hmph! What do you mean with that!?"

"Did you forget it!?"

"You're the one who challenged me to a duel!"

The rude man, also know as Katrine, spoke loudly with an irritated face.

"Duel?"

'Hmm, what is he talking ab-'

"Ahh, don't tell me... could it be you hit your head!?"

"By the gods..."

While he said that, Katrine's voice quivered slightly and his expression was one of worry, he seemed really concerned.

'Ohh, this time he seems really worried about m-'

"Tch!"

"Damn!! I can't believe! Did... did you forget about our bet too!?"

Visibly upset and totally unconcerned for the health of his younger brother, he started to complain.

'Yeah, I thought so... this fake Katrine is the same as the original..'

"Well.. if you forgot about it, I can always just force you to do it anyways... so don't you dare to forget it you pi-"

Pig...

The final of his phrase was kept incomplete, he stopped talking when he remembered that his hero, Albaran, was also there.

"Anyways, it's better that you remember it!!"

'Ahh, in the course of years I had almost forgot how irritating this guy was...'

He thought simply annoyed.

"And don't you dare to feign a memory loss, Bartolemeo! You're the one who asked for this duel!!"

In the moment he heard that, Bartolomeo remembered why this particular space seemed so familiar...

...

..

.

[TAAK!]

[In the same moment he lost his sword, without any mercy, he got hit again.]

["Ugh!"]

[After receiving a strike in the head, he didn't remember much, just falling down and fainting.]

["You lost, Bartolomeo..."]

[After everyone left the infirmary, Katrine uttered coldly, without even batting a eye.]

[B-But b-brother!]

[From the start, he knew there's was nothing he could do... but even so! He could only blame his own uselessness.]

["And don't you dare to feign a memory loss Bartolomeo, you're the one who asked for this duel.]

[After that day, a living hell started on his life... and deeply down, he started to think that this was what he deserved...]

[And also... he wouldn't ever tell anyone, but...]

[But in the back of his mind, he wondered why a useless being like him was even born...]

...

..

.

"Tch!"

'These useless memories...'

'Does that mean... I'm inside in a type of a dream? Or maybe even an illusion!?'

"What was that for!!?"

For a brief moment his thoughts were stopped by a shout, but he ignored it.

"..."

"Haanh!? .A...y....I...m...p.b...!!??"

Katrine blabbered something about not respecting him or something, but Bartolomeo paid no attention to it.

'If this is really a illusion, the devil must be wanting some type of reaction from me...'

'Hmm... hehe, I wonder what I should do to annoy him.'

'Ah!! I think I got a good one~'

"Bartolomeo! Bartolomeo!!"

"You dare to ignore a great person like me!!?"

Katrine shouted, almost red from anger.

"Haaah~"

"Haha, you sure know how to jest older brother! I wasn't ignoring you..."

"I was merely saddened by the fact I lost, so I kept thinking on what I could have done to change it."

"But this doesn't concern, the 'great' and powerful you!"

He said with a small smile.

"Also... you wouldn't mind something as trivial as being ignored, right?"

Bartolemeo continued with an ironic tone, yet his expression was still a sincere one.

"Bart-"

Heh!

Pfft~ haahhahehe!

Hehe!

Hahaha hah!!

Suddenly the crowd of soldiers bursted in laughter... Katrine's face had got even more redder than before.

Everything had started when one of them, seeing the red face, couldn't supress it anymore and chuckled, and in the same moment he did it, almost everyone started to laugh together.

"Y-YOU ALL, HOW DO YOU DARE!!"

"L-LAUGHING AT YOUR SUPERIOR!!!"

"BAND OF FOOLS! I WILL PUNISH EVERY ONE OF YOU!!"

Lost in his fury, he started to leak to the world more of his shitty personality, blabbering about incomprehensible things about his superiority, punishments and etc...

"Calm down, big brother!"

"They must be laughing at me, so please don't be so angry!"

Bartolemeo said with a feigned worry, he even had a small forced smile in his face.

"Y-YOU...PI- BARTOLOMEO!! YOU'RE LAUGHING AT ME TOO!!"

"AH!! W-WAIT BROTHER!"

Completely lost on his anger, Katrine raised his sword and was prepared to swing it at any moment towards Bartolemeo, his fellow comrade and brother...

And when everyone saw this scene.

None of them laughed...