Preservation

Kai fell silent after he said those words. He didn't really know what to feel.

Sure, he felt proud of himself that he had figured out the mystery of the forest, all the lore behind it that had been hidden and the relationship between Failure and the past, but he was also quite nervous.

How would Failure react to the fact that Kai knew his true identity? He had gone out of his way to make sure Aldred never spoke it and that there was no clues lying around, but Kai had still figured it out.

Would he be confused? Angry? Upset? Kai had no way to know, at least, not until Failure actually responded.

The forest felt eerily silent after Kai closed his mouth. Even with the constant clanging of blades, shields and armour in the background mixed with the constant cries of different beasts and abominations in the background felt much further than it actually was.

The Mother Tree still did not react.

Kai frowned once more. Was it actually Ethania who was the Mother Tree? Was he just overthinking everything and it led him to the wrong conclusion? Did Failure even have anything to do with-

Suddenly, the dense surface of the Mother Tree rippled as a soft green light started manifesting from its bark. Kai instinctively brought his hands up to shield his eyes from the light. Even though he had just been on fire just a few moments ago, Kai hadn't seen any actual light in a few hours.

A moment later, Kai moved his hand to look at what the light actually was.

Kai winced softly at what he saw.

What came out of the tree was a face. Bathed in the soft green light, Kai was able to see Failure's attractive face once more.

But it didn't have the same charisma as the puppet had.

Failure looked... weak, tired, fragile. He had deep bags under his confident eyes, that didn't look confident at all, and a pained look in those same eyes.

"How... do you know that name?"

Kai couldn't help but feel sorry for the sight before him. He couldn't believe that the Failure he had gotten to know for just under the last month and this fragile thing were one and the same, it pained him.

Failure truly was one incredible actor.

"I found a diary" Kai began. "When Aldred and I went out hunting one time, when we found out there was a spy. I killed that quarter moon abomination, then found a flimsy and tattered diary in a tree hollow.

I snuck it back to The Dome and began to read it over the next few days. I quickly learned that the diary belonged to Princess Ethania.

And no offence, but she had some... expressive language.

She went on about how heartbroken she was that the kingdom chose to give her up after all she had done for them and how she planned to run away.

And that was she mentioned you for the first time, Sir Constance, her loyal knight who left his family to run away with her.

She... wrote about you quite a lot."

Kai stopped speaking for a second, glancing at Failure's pale face to see was there any reaction.

Yet all Kai could see was hollow eyes and a sunken expression, as if he was pained at the memory of the princess.

It was depressing.

"She wrote about all the times you protected her, how happy and grateful she was that you decided to go with her, she also wrote about how guilty she felt about making you abandon your family though."

"She didn't make me abandon them" Failure cut Kai off softly before he could say anything else.

"It was my own choice to leave and protect her, yet I couldn't even do that. I'm sure my family were happy I left, a failure who can't keep his promises-"

"You can't possibly blame yourself!" Kai cried out. "You were up against a literal God! You were destined to lose from the start, it was a miracle you even made it as far away as you did, you should be proud-"

"I still broke my promise to her."

Kai fell silent.

It was then he realised, unlike everyone else, Failure did not view himself as a charismatic leader. Failure did not view himself as a strong mind that led the army. Failure did not see himself as a wise man that helped Kai out many times. Failure did not see himself as a close comrade of Aldred, who was still out there, struggling to face off with the two full moon abominations.

Failure saw himself for what he thought he was, a failure.

His mental state must have been in ruin after Eye of the Moon succeeded in killing the one he had sworn to protect. It was mentioned in the diary that Sir Constance had been with Princess Ethania since they were children, so how must Failure have felt after seeing his childhood friend and the person he was meant to guard taken before his very eyes?

Probably really shitty.

Kai's expression changed softly, his eyes softened as he tried to think of something profound and uplifting to say.

But he couldn't, Kai was not one for inspirational things to say, he was not one who knew how to comfort people. Sure, he could probably make someone on Earth feel better if he tried hard enough, but they would have been going through a break up or something, not... this.

So Kai didn't think about what to say, he just spoke off the top of his head.

"How can you call yourself a failure when you've accomplished so much?

You've raised a full moon wolf from scratch and managed to protect it from a full moon abomination, an evil bastard created directly by Eye of the Moon. That itself is a win, that's one point to you.

You then raised that wolf, creating the one and only Aldred everyone here damn loves. Imagine what would have happened if you didn't save him, think about it. This whole place would have probably been destroyed if not for your intervention, that's two points to you.

Now, I don't know the exact timeline, but you also created this whole entire forest by yourself, that itself is an accomplishment that earns you another point, but it's what you done with the forest that truly matters. I mean, look at all the beasts that live under your care. They have a safe space to live, to repopulate, to enjoy themselves. That's four points to you.

And to top it all off, you done all of that while enduring the heartache of losing Ethania while simultaneously plotting your revenge on that damn perverted bastard of a God! That fact is at least ten points crammed into one single act, so who are you to call yourself a failure with all the damn incredible shit you've accomplished?

You are not a failure, Failure. You are Sir Constance. You are the man who will inevitably rise above and do what you were meant to do.

You have not broken your promise, your promise was to protect Ethania. As long as this forest is still called the Forest of Ethania, you have not failed.

As long as you continue to protect and preserve this whole forest then you have not failed, you have succeeded, now get some damn energy in your system because you have a damn war to win!"

Kai huffed, catching his breath after all that talking. In all honesty, he was quite happy with himself. Maybe Kai was wrong before, maybe Failure had influenced him more than he had known, he didn't think he would be so good at giving speeches.

Some semblance of authority and energy returned to Failure's eyes, but it was quickly snuffed out. It seemed that even Kai's incredible speech was not enough to revive a broken man.

Failure sighed dejectedly as he gazed over at Aldred, who was still putting his heart and soul into delaying the inevitable.

The gray wolf knew that there was no way he could possibly win. Even though he had yet to go all out, there was two full moon abominations on the otherside that had also yet to go all out. Aldred was constantly on the back foot while dancing dangerously along a cliffs edge, a cliff that you could not see the bottom of.

"It's no use" Failure said, a slight crack in his voice. "I broke my promise, I had sworn an oath. Any knight who breaks there promise is killed by the spirit that was involved in the making of the contract.

Yet even when I broke the oath, the spirit did not show up to smite me, it probably deemed that me living was a more fitting punishment for my failure."

Kai frowned. There was spirits involved in making contracts? He wasn't looking forward to that anyway.

But if a contract was so proper, so important that they had to use spirits as executioners for those who fail to stick to the terms, then why was Failure still alive?

"Failure..." Kai swallowed before asking what he wanted to ask. "What exactly was the promise on the oath you signed?"

Failure blinked weakly before answering.

"To preserve Princess Ethnia's will, to make sure it never gets corrupted nor infested-"

"That's it!" Kai exclaimed, ecstatic at the sudden revelation. "Failure, you didn't break your promise, Ethania's will is still preserved."

"No, it's not." Failure mumbled, but just as he was about to say something else, Kai cut him off.

"Yes, it is."

And with that said, Kai summoned a small white bead into his palm, the same bead that had been sitting in his soul, untouched for the last few weeks.