EACH ONE'S STRUGGLES

"Tomorrow is finally the day," Rara murmured to herself as she stared at the night skies, she wore a red dress that reached to her knees, the redness made her white complexion stand out more. She leaned her back at the veranda of her room, at the second floor of the inn where she was staying, her hair reached towards her hips, and her thin arms and hands looked like a girl who never wielded a sword.

Rara made a deep sigh, and turned her gaze towards the dimly lit room, where her armor and sword was hanged, just beside a large bed where the memoirs of her father were scattered, from the toys he brought her, to the hairpin she got from him on her birthday, it was a normal hairpin, and it wasn't too extravagant to be given to an imperial princess like her, but the Emperor Hadethius Popannus wasn't a man who cared about these things, he preferred to give his wife, daughters and sons gifts from his adventures, and told stories about where he got it, and why he is giving it to them.

"This hairpin…" Rara touched it as she remembered his father giving it to her with a big smile, "Rara! Happy Birthday! This is from a dryad I met in the forest when I was on a trip to Sagrait! She was very interesting, you know? She told me-" Rara roused from herself from the memories of her father, "He's already… gone," she bit her lip as she spoke the harsh truth, as if it was to convince herself to fight his father. "I should have already accepted it, but why… why am I shaking like this," when she looked at the mirror she could see herself crying with her hands shaking, ".. and why, why the hell am I crying? I'm not the only one who's suffering."

Rara couldn't contain it anymore and cried with all her might, she screamed as the pain finally got to her. For the past days all that she was thinking was her people, whenever she thought about her father she would immediately distract herself so she could forget about it.

Her voice echoed throughout the inn, it was the voice of a young girl crying in pain. The four chief knights who were also renting a room within the inn awakened, they sat in their beds as they looked at each other.

"We shouldn't… let her kill her father should we?" the first chief knight clasped his hands together.

"Yeah, that's all we can do for her, if it comes to it, we should be the ones who should kill the emperor"

"Wipe our own asses… huh?" the third chief knight scratched his head. "It still doesn't feel like it right? It feels like yesterday we were having parties and being drunk till dawn, and now… "

The fourth knight laid back to his bed and murmured with his back turn to his comrades, "You shouldn't be talking like that, we're already lucky enough to be safe, from those freaks. Rest now, we still have so much to do tomorrow," his name was Carle, when he heard the little girl's cry, he was reminded of his childhood friend, "Hadethius, I promised to protect your daughter, but I can't do anything to take away her pain"

…

Andrei couldn't sleep, he looked to his side where the window was, it was where he could see the moon, it gave illumination to his room with a pretty blue color, "looking at it, the moon was this bright when I had that talk with Claire in the garden" then it flashed to his mind, "maybe I could sleep there"

He quickly got up from his bed and fetched the lamp, this time he got his phone from the drawer, and looked at it with his hand, "A glance of that picture might be enough right?" Andrei was trying to save the phone's battery as much as he could, he only opened it on times when he would use the calculator, the recipe book, and some books on Kindle that he downloaded. It was in a history e-book where he referred some knowledge on making the gun, and the strategies and tactics they prepared for during training, although Andrei had been immersed in military knowledge, if it wasn't for the phone, he wouldn't have been able to make his crudely made inventions which were perfected by the world's citizens such as the blacksmiths and Claire.

But this time, Andrei didn't want any information from the phone, he just wanted to look at something that kept his heart calm during hard times. He turned on his phone and went immediately to the images, and looked for the picture he was looking for.

It was his and Ann's graduation pictures, they both wore their school uniform, and had their certificates with them, there were two pictures, one was formal and the other one was where Ann threw herself to him in public for the first time. Even though they were dating the two kept their relationship discreet, because of Andrei's family issues and because of Ann's strict grandparents. This was one of their happiest pictures, where he and she had big smiles on their faces, but it was also like a curse to him, because even after her death, whenever he looked at it, he would cry, even though at the same time it would calm his heart.

As Andrei reminisced, a knock came from the door.

"Andrei, are you there?" It was Claire's boring and flat voice. Andrei quickly wiped off his tears and put back his phone and turned it off, there was still 70% battery left in it.

"Sniff, Who's there?"

"Can't you tell from my voice?"

"Ahh, must be the maid Celeste, come inside" Andrei made a joke as he unintentionally made a sniff, uncertain that Claire heard him crying or not.

"Really?" The voice's tone was the same, but in Andrei's intuition the owner was getting angry.

"Just kidding" Andrei made a sigh and opened the door for her.

"You really do knock huh? Claire? Then how have you been sneaking inside my room the whole time?"

"Nah, you just leave the door open all the time"

"So you're admitting you're sneaking huh?"

Claire didn't step inside but simply held out her hands.

"Want to talk for a bit? I also can't fall asleep" while doing this Claire made a dazzling smile, Claire wore her night clothes which was a black summer dress, which showed her snow-white complexion, that when the moon hit her skin, it was as if she was glowing.

"I thought you'd want to cuddle" Andrei flashed a weak smile.

"Ohhh, did you want that? That was an exception you know? And didn't I tell you to forget about that?" The deadpan voice and retort were enough for Andrei to give up.

"Ahhhhhh… my memories are disappearing…" Andrei acted like he was in pain as he held his head.

"Stop with the nonsense and come with me" Claire reached for Andrei's hand and dragged him with her.