.'.'.'.
Blinking, Rua sat up from his once laid form and found himself on a soft, comfortable mattress.
Rubbing his bleary eye, he found himself confused to wear he was, why he was here and where were his family-oh...
Gathering himself into a ball, Rua allowed his tears to fall from his eyes as he cried his heart out.
Choking on his saliva, Rua barely noticed a presence entering the room he was in. He turned to see who it was, to face a tall man, face half covered by a veil, long hair flowing out a turban. Rua noticed three vertical dots on his forehead and was slightly curious about them.
The man continued to face him, standing still, as if he was just there to observe Rua. Then, Rua noticed how he must have looked to the stranger, eyes puffed, cheeks stained by tears, bed hair and wrinkled clothing sprouted by sleep.
Rubbing his eyes to clear away the tears, Rua smiled at the stranger warmly.
" I'm really sorry you had to see that, sir. May I be so rude to ask if you were the one who brought me here? "
" Ithnan. "
The man said, face so stoic it made Rua flinch.
"Ah..I'm Rua." He bowed.
" To answer your question, yes, I carried you here, and I was one of those who destroyed your village," Ithnan answered, adding extra information to see the boy's reaction.
Startled, memories of what happened before he lost conscious flew by Rua's eyes as he shut them tightly, hoping to get rid of those images.
" Why? " Rua questioned.
" Because we had to. "
"Why?" Rua asked again.
" To find a certain person. "
" Who? "
" Your brother. "
Rua flinched when his brother was mentioned.
Wait...does that mean...
He pounced on the older man immediately, attacking him with numerous questions, which Ithnan answered.
"Where is he? "
" In this castle, but you won't be meeting him for a while. "
" But he's my brother!" Rua exclaimed.
" Hmm...Yeah, so? " A frown formed on Ithnan's face as he thought about his own brother.
" I want to see him! "
Ithnan sighed, guessing that he have to bribe his way through this boy's stubborn personality.
" How about this? You show me that you can fight against one of my soldiers and you can visit him. "
Rua hesitated, but nodded for he wanted to see whether or not his younger brother was safe.
He had no confidence in his fighting skills, but he had to take the chance.
But when he said he had no confidence, he did not actually expect to be knocked-out in one blow.
" So, what now? "
Glaring at the other man, Rua huffed as he stalked through the corridors, hoping to catch a glimpse of a tiny baby.
" Hey! I need to do my job or my head will be rolling on the ground! "
Rua paused and turned.
" Y-Your head will roll? "
Ithnan raised an eyebrow at the other's stupidity.
" I mean someone will kill me if I didn't train you properly. "
"Oh..." Rua sighed, relieved.
Rua then slowly walked back to Ithnan's side, tugged his robe, and mumbled, "If that's the case, then at least tell me whether my brother's safe or not. "
Ithnan smiled, how cute.
" Yes, he's safe" (for now) Ithnan did not say. He didn't need his new charge to be distracted when he was ordered to train him by that mad woman.
Relief washed over Rua as he visibly relaxed, laxing his once tense shoulders.
Ithnan noticed the change and sighed. It's going to take some time for the chibi to get used to him, he guessed.
" T-Then, let's go train? Rua supplied helpfully when Ithnan did not looked like he was about to move."
Gazing at the boy, Ithnan was briefly reminded of Setta when he noticed how the boy's hair colour was about the same shade of purple.
Mood darkening once again from the thought of his brother, Ithnan lifted the boy and placed him on his shoulders. Rua was just that small.
" First, we need to train you in values. Value is the start afterall. Ithnan said, fishing out his glasses and placing them on his nosebridge."
" Values?" Rua wondered out loud, hands tempting to touch the strange metal object, but minded his manners.
" Yes. Values. For example, your curiosity of my glasses. " Rua wondered how he knew. "You should be curious. Curious is good, but too much curiosity is bad. For example, if you see a strange looking fruit, would you eat it? " Receiving a shake of head, Ithnan continued, "Yes, if you see a strange looking fruit, you won't eat it. It's basic instinct, but in actual fact, you won't be seeing a strange looking fruit if you broaden your knowledge of fruits. "
" So, for the value of Curiosity, you just have to read up. There are lots of book in the library-" Rua's face brightened when he heard of a library. He could get access to a library! "-that you can read from. I'll test you on the different types of fruits tomorrow so you better read up. Here-" Ithnan threw a scroll towards Rua "-That's the map of this place. Don't lost it. Your room is marked by a red dot, and the rooms you can enter are marked by the blue. Don't ever enter the yellow dotted rooms. Do you understand? "
Trembling under the intense gaze he received, Rua nodded his head hurriedly, jumped off from Ithnan's shoulders and rushed off after saying a farewell to Ithnan.
Once Rua reached the library, he could not believe his eyes.
Books! Thousand of books everywhere!
Rua rushed up to the shelves, wanting to start reading straight away, but he remembered how Ithnan said he would test him on the fruits. So, Rua rushed up to the catalogue and started searching on books related to books.
After searching for them an piling them up in a huge stack, Rua started reading.
He was so absorbed into gaining new knowledge, he did not notice the fluttering of black butterflies around the room as a woman with long blue hair stared at him with a scrutinizing gaze.
.'.'.'.'.
The next day found Rua asleep on the library's reading table, head buried under books.
He was shaken awake by a soft hand which he thought belonged to his mother. Of course, he was embarrassed when he called the woman infront of him mother when he awoke.
" I-I'm sorry ma'am!" Rua apologised, flustered, bowing his head down to the pretty lady infront of him.
A chuckle was heard as the woman told Rua to lift his head.
Lifting his head and getting a clear look of the lady made Rua feel embarrassed, inferior for the lady infront of him was garnished in beautiful robes, hair decorated extravagantly, compared to his one piece white robe, hair still ruffled from sleep.
" Hello, what is your name, little one?" The pretty lady asked.
" R-Rua... " he answered with a red face.
" Hello Rua, I am named Gyokuen Ren, it's a pleasure to meet you." The lady bowed slightly as she gave him a radiant smile.
" Ah..I-It's nice to meet you too... "
" What were you doing here Rua? Reading books till you fall asleep isn't good for your health." The smile was still on her face.
Slightly uncomfortable for no apparent reason, Rua played with his fingers as he answered her.
"I was reading up materials for Ithnan-sama's test. "
"Oh, Ithnan's? Then I better not bother you! Ithnan is rather strict in his conduct. Well, I hope to see you soon. " Gyokuen bowed again as she left. Before she left the room, she called out to Rua.
" You don't have to return me the blanket! "
Blanket?
Rua then noticed himself being wrapped in a warm think blanket.
'No wonder I slept so well...' Rua thought.
Hugging the warm blanket to himself, Rua made himself comfortable in the blanket as he thought about how his mother would always tuck him in bed, how his father would always tell him stories, how he would tell the stories to his unborn brother, and lastly, how the pretty lady was not only beautiful, but also really kind.
" Gyokuen Ren-sama... " Rua muttered as he continued to bury his head into the books.
Of course, he didn't notice the smirk the empress had hidden under her sleeves as he exited the room.
.'.'.'.'.
" ...and...time's up! " Ithnan announced as he took the paper from the purple head.
" Ah...but I haven't- "
" You pass. " Ithnan said after his eyes roamed through the question sheet.
" Huh? " was Rua's intelligent reply.
" I said you pass. "
" I-I know, but why? "
" Because I said so, now eat this. " Tossing a fruit towards Rua, Ithnan smirked when Rua, instead of blindly following his instructions, started to inspect the fruit.
" Erm...Ithnan-sama, what is this? "
However, Ithnan was not a patient person, so he gave the other male a glare to make him eat it.
Still, Rua didn't eat it. He did not recognise it and he did not want to get a tummy ache from food poisoning.
" Just eat it, it's for your own good. " Ithnan was regretting ever giving a warning to Rua to not eat weird fruits.
When Ithnan put it like that, Rua could only gulp and taste the weird looking food.
Then, a sudden feeling of exhaustion washed all over him as he staggered to get himself standing.
" Resist the poison of the fruit, that's the second test. "
"There were more than one test?"
"Yes, there were, now resist it and take this test. "
Shoving a stack of paper in front of the other boy, Ithnan gave Rua one last look before turning around and walked out of the room, not before announcing that he wanted the stack paper to be filled in two hours.
Rua, with half-lidded eyes, struggled to project the image into his brain as he tried to pick up the quill with his wobbling fingers.
In due time, he collapsed, barely completing the paper.
.'.'.'.
" Ithnan-sama, what was that fruit?" Rua asked curiously.
" A fruit I grew in my garden. "
" Oh! Can I see your garden?" Rua asked pleadingly, eyes shining.
Ithnan answered him in a curt 'no' before sighing and saying, "When you're older. "
"Promise?"
"Promise." Ithnan assured.
Nodding in satisfaction, Rua climbed up to his bed as Ithnan tucked him in(after being begged for two hours straight).
Rua then asked for a bedtime story in which Ithnan quickly rejected and escaped from.
Rua pouted at the retreating man as he thought about how he wanted to quickly complete this training to see his younger brother.
What Rua didn't know was that it was going to take a while to see his brother again, nor did he know that the promise wouldn't have kept itself.
.'.'.'.
End of chapter
This chapter included lots and lots of dialogues. It's to bond the two males more and have anyone noticed how Rua is reminded of his mother when he sees Gyokuen? He might just call her his mother again. What is Gyokuen planning? You will find out soon enough.*Winkwink*
I hope Ithnan is not too OOC, I've never watched the anime so I'm a bit worried. Is he too cheerful to be Ithnan OAO?
Replies to Reviews~ (Thanks a lot for reviewing!)
Guest- the pairings aren't really decided, but the main would be KouhaxOmc. There would be many possible pairings and I might just hint some and add some in.
SmileRen-He sure would get a huge shock when he sees the black rukh surrounding his brother. No, he won't be thrown into Baal's dungeon, I just mentioned it since Baal's dungeon was the first dungeon rose, and after much calculations on my part, Rua have to be around 14 when the dungeon is summoned by Yunan, and since I don't want to change the plot too much, I won't make Rua enter the first dungeon, but the many that comes after. And to answer your question, no I have no beta.
.'.'.
There would be a Time skip the next chapter~
Hope you have enjoyed.