Soft Scarlet | Part 9

"How can you do this!?! " his expression was cold when Gael shouted "What? You never expected that it will come to this?" he smirked making him grit his teeth.

"Have you never truly thought of us as a family? All these years you hated me without giving me a reason why. All those times Mother would cry because you were slowly getting distant because of your rebelling. Gunther, even Father was worried but did not say anything because he wanted to trust you, so how could you do that to him?!" he looked down with clenched hands.

"What went wrong, Gunther?" his hoarse voice cracked "You want to know why I hate you?" Gunther chuckled bitterly "I fucking hate that you're better than me! You could get Mother and Father's praise while all I would hear was do a better job! I grew sick of it that I wanted you out of my life! You never understood me! Not Mother, not Fathee! So you're wondering why I hate you? Because you were born, I hated that you were even born!" he shouted those last lines repeatedly as if wanting him to realize it.

"Good" when Gunther looked at him he trembled seeing Gael eyeing him as if he was prey "I won't be hesitating to kill you" he raised his fist in a position that he was going to attack so Gunther quickly fixed his position and was able to backflip to dodge his attack.

The ground cracked from where he stood earlier from Gael's attack and Gunther knew he was not joking, he was going to kill him. "What?" he darkly chuckled and mockingly stared at Gael.

"I may have to envy you for being better than me but that was years ago. You even stopped swordsmanship because of me, right?" he annoyingly smirked

"So what?" Gael stared coldly at him "I was better and always will be better. You were born weak while I was born powerful, isn't that what you were thinking that's why you hated me?" Gunther stiffened as Gael raised his sword that he took from the ground.

"I may have given up everything for you because I somehow wanted to feed your ego because we were brothers, but what can you do if I was born the strong one?" his words were provoking as he stared at Gunther like he was a dirty pest that's needed to get rid of.

He jumped backward three times to dodge Gael's strong attack before caressing the gold coin on his hand as gold thorns grew from the ground to get in the way of Gael's way.

Gunther always hated Gael's kind nature. Even when they were young Gunther was always the mischievous one while Gael was the silent one with a soft personality. Every time he would cry Gael would always come to coax him making him hate him more.

He could still remember how Gael smiled when he shouted at him saying that he doesn't want to learn swordsmanship with him anymore.

Gael smiled even though he was being unreasonable and nodded understandingly, Gunther hated it. Why was he so kind? How was he able to smile every time he picked a fight with him? He was the older brother so why..?

Gunther grew furious from his thoughts as Gael dodged every golden thorn that grew from the ground.

..Why was Gael so hard to reach?

It was like he was stuck at the end of a staircase while Gael was climbing up, he felt lonely to be by himself at the very end.

Klang!

Their swords collided as their swords clashed together with the wind moving together with their swings. The clashing of their swords could be heard with their fast footsteps as they glared at each other with piercing eyes.

"You know, your personality reminds me of someone" he got pushed back by Gael's sword "What?" they were in the middle of a battle so what the hell is he talking for? "That woman you just fought earlier" the image of that beautiful girl with grey eyes flashed in his mind.

"She's pretty annoying. Her personality doesn't match her innocent appearance. Her words were like a venomous snake that wouldn't hesitate to even hurt you but by the end of the day she still would be the one helping" he didn't understand why he was saying this as Gael looked blankly at him

"You were not the one who poisoned Father, right?" he said that making him stiffen "What kind of bullshit are you spouting?" Gunther looked coldly at him "You were protecting us, right?" Gael asked again ignoring his cold gaze "Where did you even get that idea?!" Gunther scoffed.

"I didn't know you were still naive like before" he mockingly laughed "Big brother" his smirk froze "It was one of the tribe elders, wasn't it? One of them was the one who poisoned Father" Gunther held his chin high "I don't know what you're talking about" he replied as Gael took a step forward.

"I was deceived by you. You felt guilty for what you have done to us, weren't you?"

"I was not"

"You knew one of them poisoned Father but decided to take the blame to get revenge on him, right?"

"You've got it wrong"

"You also didn't expect Father to die earlier, right? That's why you came here when you knew and were planning to kill the tribe elder, right? That's why you glanced at the tribe elders earlier"

"Shut up! You don't know anything!"

"You were planning to make me angry so that I could kill you so that your guilt will disappear with your life"

"I said shut up!"

Gunther's pupils trembled as he glared at him "You do not know a shit about anything, so don't act as if you knew everything that happened!" he shouted in gritted teeth.

"I wouldn't even know that you were deceiving us if it wasn't for Callista," he said and Gunther was baffled, he never saw them talk so how? Just when he was thinking his attention transferred to the blue necklace on his neck and was shocked.

"You. You've been talking since earlier!"

[Flashback]

"Oh, I forgot something" they all stopped walking when Anastasia spoke and turned to see her rummaging in her bag. She took out blue necklaces "Here. All you get one each," she said and handed them to them one by one "Why are you even carrying things like this, Ana?" Ivan asked

"I requested Father to give us these. It will help us communicate when we are in a situation where we're not able to talk to each other" she explained so they all looked at the telepathy necklace in their hand.

"There's always a reason why a person would do that. Both of you are my sons and you are brothers"

Anastasia's eyebrows furrowed when she heard that 'Doesn't that mean Gunther is not the one who poisoned him?' she thought.

'I think so too. And I don't think there are traces of dark magic considering Callista hasn't sneezed yet' Ivan also thought 'That's why it felt like something was wrong' Callista finally realized 'Then why is my brother doing this then?' Gael can't help but ask while he stared at his Father's weak face.

'We'll have to find out and see' Denovan answered so when Gunther appeared they all noticed how he glanced in the tribe elders' direction 'Did you see that?' Anastasia excitedly squealed.

'Dirty bastard. Mourning for their leader but they' re the ones who made it happen' Ivan scoffed 'I think he'll be making a scene though' Ignis commented seeing how Gunther didn't come here to grieve 'How about you let me take care of this?' Callista said.

'But isn't the plan to challenge him to a duel?' Gael asked 'Are you in the right mind to challenge him? You' re thinking of killing him right?' Gael was silent as what she said was right 'Don't worry. I won't be the one getting the final attack' she smirked 'What do you mean?' Gael asked 'You'll see' she chuckled.

When Ignis and Callista looked at each other as Ivan teleported Trek to safety 'We' re thinking about the same thing, right?' she raised a brow.

'How would I know what your thinking?' he asked back making her smile 'We both know what to do then' she said as they both nodded to each other. Callista provoked Gunther for Ignis to take Layla and told Gael the plan by using telepathy.

[Present]

He was speechless.

He couldn't believe that he was deceived by his brother and his friends. He watched him as he kneeled "Brother, you don't have to do this anymore. I'm here to help you even Mother will be willing" he said.

"How are you sure about that?" he asked back and looked at Gael as if he was stupid "Do you think all will be fine after what I've done? Gael, I know how kind are you but you're stupid" he hissed.

"Because we're your family" Gael simply answered stunning Gunther "If you're guilty about what you did then help us fix this and you'll be punished fairly," he said and stood up and reached out his hand.

Gunther stared at it as Gael waited but he only turned away making him disappointed. He turned around and convinced himself that not all people can change.

"I can stand by myself. I don't need your help" he looked back at him with wide eyes "Really?" his eyes sparkled as he leaned forward towards him "Don't get close to me" Gunther complained as he stepped away "I'm only here for the punishment" he said making Gael smile.

"Are you a sadist or something? What's with the punishment?" they turned around to see Callista smirking at them "Who are you?" Gunther seriously asked "That attack you did earlier... How do you know it?" he asked referring to how Callista cracked the ground with her hand.

"That kind of attack is only taught in our tribe. It's the first thing we learn before we wield a sword" he said.

All of the tribe children were taught that move for two years before they were able to train with a sword, that's how all of the tribe members have the same fighting style. Where the wind follows the movement of the sword, that fighting style has been passed down from generation to generation.

That's why he was baffled as to why Callista knew something that only they were taught. Gael didn't know about this as he didn't continue training because of what happened in their childhood, he only thought that it was a simple attack, although he was also taught with this move when he was young he had already forgotten their lessons that's why even though many years had passed he was able to adapt to their fighting style by nature.

"I travelled with your Father before" she simply replied.

"What's your relationship with him?" Gunther asked so she smiled at him "Oh, dear. I'm the reason why he was able to bring back home an alchemist book. You don't know how hard it is to search for a forgotten race" she said

"You what? Why didn't I know about this?" Gael was also surprised "Because you never asked, dumbo" she rolled her eyes "Then that must mean you also took part in getting the Soft Scarlet" Gunther said making her eyes move to crescents.

"How smart" she sarcastically said "Brother, which tribe elder was the one who poisoned Father?" Gael asked "It was Sei" he replied and his eyes widened "What? Sei? Are you sure? Brother, he had served our family for generations! He even took care of Father when he was young! Maybe you were mistaken" Gael was doubting.

"I was not mistaken, Gael" he glared "If he did care then he should've investigated Father's poisoning or even taken action to dethrone me but why didn't he?" he stiffened.

"But still..! He wouldn't do that! Sei, he..." he argued not wanting to believe him "If that was the case then we shouldn't be here right now" Gunther retorted as Gael looked down and reminisce his moments with the old man.

He was Trek's trusted man and was in charge of their training since young. He always remembered how Sei comforted him whenever he fought with Gunther. So how come Sei, who he had treated as a grandfather, poisoned his Father?

Callista looked at the siblings before looking around "Wendy" she called out as Wendy appeared by her shoulder catching the attention of the two men "Bring me Sei" she said as Wendy fluttered her wings as she landed on top of Gael's head.

"How would she know which one is Sei?" Gael confusedly asked and glanced at the butterfly on top of him "She will" she said as she reached out to Wendy who flew towards her and landed at her finger.

"Red Butterflies can track their targets by going through a person's memory with a single touch" she smiled "And that memory will be shared with me" Gunther and Gael felt as if they had seen it wrong but her eyes changed color in a fast pace. With just a blink of an eye, it disappeared.

"Wendy, bring him to me. Alive"

Wendy flew away followed by numerous red butterflies flying up from Callista's back like a flock of birds. Gunther couldn't help but tremble.

She was dangerous.