Chapter 15: The Truth, Quelled Hate

Lemuel walked into the courtyard to find nine men, eight of them in mid tier gear and armed with pulze guns standing around a man in black suit who seemed to be the leader of the unit. As Lemuel entered the courtyard, the man in black suit walked up to him with a huge smile on his face.

"Good day Mr Strider, I'm glad to get to meet a man of your standing in my lifetime, a real living legend, I'm Ramsey Vasquez by the way".

"Nice to meet you,you seem to know a lot about me",Lemuel said shaking Ramsey's outstretched arm, "so to what do I owe the pleasure of a military visit?".

"My men and I really don't want any trouble, we just wish to speak with your son, Brian for a little bit about something important",he said holding out a permit.

"I'm not against you speaking with my son for whatever reason, but it's just that your timing couldn't have been worse, he's a bit under the weather so you're gonna have to do this operation some other time"

"I'm sorry Mr Strider but it's really an urgent matter that needs to be taken care of now"

There's nothing more urgent to me than my son's life, you can leave peacefully and come back Saturday, but of you can't bring yourself to those terms I guess I'd have to show you the way out", Lemuel replied with a hint of anger in his voice.

"T-thats fine, we can hold of till Saturday, t-thank you for your time"

"You're welcome".

After two days I had finally recovered enough to be able to move about at least, but I looked like a mummy walking around the mansion with all the bandages on me. It was Friday but I'd already slept through the day after having breakfast in the morning, currently it's around six pm and I'm out of my room taking a stroll around the mansion, I just felt like being someplace other than my room and having a breath of fresh air. I eventually arrived at the lawn where the gazebo was, I saw my parents having a chat over some wine in the gazebo as I got closer to it, so I decided to turn back but apparently I'd already been spotted.

"Brian my dear, why don't you join us", my mother called out.

I walked slowly into the gazebo and took a seat away from her on the same couch she was sitting, opposite my father.

"Why are you sitting so far away",she said pulling me into a hug so that my head rested on her chest, "do you know how long I've wanted to do this?"

"Ow ow ow, mom you're hurting me"

"Oh sorry about that, I just couldn't hold myself any longer and got carried away", she said as she released me, but she still put my head on her shoulders and started to stroke my hair gently, my father watched with a slim smile on his face which I hadn't seen in a long time.

"What's going on here?, What's up with this treatment!?", I said trying to separate from my mother.

"Just come down son, this is the opportunity I've been waiting for to explain everything". As I calmed myself wondering what he was about to explain, he took a sip at his wine and then a deep breath.

"It started when we confirmed that you were not showing signs of having a pulze ability even though it was strange that you had a high pulze level, as the next heir to the family we had to make sure you were powerful enough to take on the role of protecting the royal family and performing other duties to them. We have to protect our image as a family of powerful knights because it is because of that image that many underground evil organizations have been kept at bay. To that end, the entire family took part in a meeting to decide on another heir, but we didn't want to take away your birth right, abandon you and brand you weak. We decided however to shape you to become worthy of the position. If we didn't have a strong leader to make sure that the family did not lose against our foes, then we need a persevering leader to raise the family up even if it falls down a hundred times. I came up with the plan to ostracize and frustrate you to test your perseverance because I believed in my son,my blood. And you've proved yourself with your marvelous accomplishments, so now there's no doubt that you're who this family needs as it's rightful heir".

"Why?,why?,why did you have to do this father!!?, All this while I've thought you hated me and now...why didn't you just chose Felice or Andy to be heir so that the strength of the family will be sustained!?"

"It's because I love you so much that I could not take that decision even as the head of this family, I couldn't put the family before my love for you and everyone else understood after I spoke with them".

"No, this is not fair, and I've hated you all all this time when you didn't even hate me or have it in your minds to offend me, now where am I supposed to put all this hate!!!?",I asked bursting into tears, which flowed freely like rivers. My father moved over to our side of the gazebo and sat next to me, he took my left hand and looked me in my eyes.

"Just follow the emotions you have deep down in your heart, they are always your true feelings, can you forgive us for what we put you through?", he said with a smile that made me realize how much I've longed for this affection, the strong hate and anger I felt was already gone leaving behind the sorrow and lonelyness.

"Forgiveness is not a problem, but now that I've lost the hate and anger that kept pushing me on, I'm only left with my sad and lonely core", I replied as even more tears began to run down my cheeks.

They both immediately hugged me, with tears in their eyes as well. It felt like my parents had finally returned from a faraway place, it was warm.

"Let's work on it together", my mother replied sobbing...