Chapter 43 – Rift between Brothers

Third person POV

 In the office, Hertzel was shocked to see Lloyd again. "Nate?"

 "Yes, that'll be me," Lloyd responded back briefly and calmly.

His Undead animal subordinates are angry and hostile at the arrogant hero.

 "Calm down, you guys," Lloyd said to them. "No fighting."

Then, Hertzel makes fun of him for being a leader. "You gotta be kidding me. You're the leader of this country?"

 "Yeah, can you tell by the office here?"

But Hertzel laughed at that, showing his arrogant nature and lack of respect of those who are in authority.

 "Anyhow," Lloyd said to him. "What are you doing here? And what do you want?"

Hertzel then stopped laughing and became serious again. "Where's Gretchel-chan? I know you have her."

Lloyd kept his cool up, while his subordinates started to growl like animals. The only Undead animal who managed to keep his cool is Zeke.

 "She's here, but I won't give her to you," Lloyd said to him. "And plus, I'm not Nate Wole anymore. My name is Lloyd Lewole, village chieftain of Wooda."

Hertzel was angry at him for being complacent and for changing his name. "You disgraceful bastard! I'm your older brother!"

 "But we are in different positions now," responded Lloyd back, "and still no."

Meanwhile, Marsa was with Gretchel in the school, hiding at Maria's office.

 Back at Lloyd's office, Hertzel kept on demanding Lloyd to hand over Gretchel to him, even threatening to report this to the king of Langton.

 "Oh, give me a break," Lloyd replied back in annoyance. "I'm over with Langton now. I'm not doing it. Stop it and leave."

 "You disrespectful brat!" Hertzel insulted in response. "Father will kill you for this!"

 "I don't care, just shut it."

 "How dare you disrespect me even though I am a hero?"

 "Oh, you are? Hero or not, you're still a human."

The Undead animals watches their back-and-forth argument.

 Because Lloyd refused to budge in, Hertzel calls his country trash, pissing off the Undead animals. Taking that as a final straw, Lloyd ordered to have Hertzel kicked out for disrespecting him and his country.

The Undead animal guards who were with Hertzel did so and dragged Hertzel out of the office as he hurled insults to Lloyd for being a disgrace to the family.

 Outside of the capital gates, Hertzel was thrown out, alongside his two guards, before the Undead animal guards shut the gate on them while telling them not to come back. Getting up, Hertzel cursed Wooda for being disrespectful towards him, a hero, and orders his guards to retreat. His guards did so, and the three of them mounted on their horses and left, storming off.

 When that was over, Lloyd gave a message of green light to Marsa to let Gretchel come home via Zeke. Marsa did so, and she and Gretchel went to the main administrative house. There Gretchel ran to her older half-brother. "Big brother! Are you okay? Did elder brother hurt you or something?"

 "Yes, I'm fine," replied Lloyd back positively with assurance. "He didn't hurt me or something, just insults."

To that Gretchel sighed in relief.

 "I can't believe that guy would be that rude than I had ever imagined," Sati commented.

 "Yeah, he's so disrespectful," Laura added.

 "I really want to shoot him with my poisonous arrows!" Hale exclaimed.

 "Hale, that's too much," Zeke responded to this.

 "Yeah, like, that's murder," Lloyd added as well.

 "But he did is so disrespectful!" Hale tried to reason out.

 "Yeah, but he's just a human being," Lloyd replied back. "If we did something harmful to him, then Langton would declare war against us."

Hale gets what her leader had said and regretted what she had said.

After that, Gretchel expressed to Lloyd how she wanted to keep him safe. But, Lloyd declines her offer, saying that she was a bit too young, and that he will be alright. Gretchel accepts this since she was too young and still learning.