Mavin wondered why Elma pulled Natalya to the drawing. He walked with Derrick along the familiar hallways. The paint on the walls was somewhat new. Even the carpet that was muffling their steps was easy to step on. Along the way, they met with servants and clerks who recognized Mavin.
“Move along!” Little Elea said to them. Her chin raised. Knuckles on her hips. She stood on toes, trying her best to look like an adult.
She noticed Mavin’s stare. “What is it, my dearest...uhm..uncle?”
“Nothing. It’s a shame that I have missed the precious days where I might be able to spoil you.”
“Nonsense!” she puffed her tiny chest. “This lady does not need spoiling!”
Mavin placed a hand in front of his mouth, took a step back, and bowed his head. “Forgive my impudence, dearest lady heiress, I have spoken out line, ignorant of little lady's feelings!”
“N-no, it’s fine,” Elea looked at her father. “D-dada, w-what should I do?”
“Mavin. I think you’re making her wary of you.”
“Nonsense!” Mavin kneeled. It was dramatic enough to startle the little lady. “She clearly does not want me, dearest cousin! So many thoughts had come to me! How should I spoil my dearest niece that I had heard from Old Fred! I think she hates me now! She has grown old without knowing my love!”
“Dada!” her big eyes shook. She alternated her gaze from Derrick to Mavin.
Derrick looked at Mavin, then sighed. “Elea, your big brother has recently gone through tough times,” he went on one knee. “He’s joking, but it has been a long time since he’s been with us, so treat him gently, okay?”
Elea looked at Mavin with her watery gaze. She took a step forward, was about to speak, when she suddenly crossed her arms, planted her feet wide apart.
“D-don’t worry! This lady will let you spoil her!”
“Ohhh! Thank you milady,” Mavin caught her by the side and lifted her easily.
“P-put me down! Dada! This isn’t how a lady should be carried!”
She faced her father, asking for protection. Derrick, who watched this foolishness, couldn’t stop himself from uttering a laugh.
“Got you, Cousin,” Mavin grinned.
Derrick sagged his shoulders.
“It’s been long since I’ve seen you make a fool of yourself like this, Cousin. Too long that I was sure for a moment that you were having a mental breakdown.”
“That’s kind of rude.”
“It is. Especially when you had the face of a stone for far too long.”
“Dada?”
“It’s nothing, my sweetest child,” Derrick patted her head. “Your big brother seemed to have found peace seeing you.”
She looked at Mavin, then did the same pose again. Her nose raised and chin lifted proudly. “Of course! This lady is naturally elegant like Mama!”
“Isn’t it?” Mavin said, patting her fiery redhead. The three continued until they reached the office of the great manor. The little lady was quite mindful as she went to the corner, and took a little book with her.
“She’s adorable, Cousin.”
“Isn’t she? Sadly, there are days where she puts a limit to my patience with her...well you know how she’s acting.”
“Reminds me of Sister Elma when she first came here. Almost, actually, she's like a copy that I wondered if she had been shrunk to this size with some sort of spell.”
Derrick nodded, then he stared at Mavin seriously. “How are you, Mavin?”
Mavin stopped. He looked down. His eyes pointed to the ground.
“I did what I wanted. I managed to do what our ancestors had done.”
“Are you happy?”
“Of course I am. With them gone, I just feel suddenly lost without a proper path.”
“You look like gunpowder to me, Mavin.”
“Gunpowder?”
“A spark could set you off. I know that look. Seen it within the years of my time as a ruler now.”
“I see. Do you want to continue to be Head?”
“Yes,” Derrick said without hesitation. “Years ago I would have hesitated, but when Elea was in my arms. I started to understand that if there is a greater evil threatening my home and family. I would do everything to quell it. I was young. Like you, I wanted freedom when faced with such a wide world. Then things happened. The war came, seven years of it.," he joined his fingers. "I didn’t fight in the frontline, but I saw death when the weapons you were sure would help protect our people and the artillery shoot them down. I really didn’t understand your intentions, but seeing the results of your intentions. I started to understand the vision you might have seen on that hill.”
“Please, I am not that kind to think that this was for the good of our home.”
“Even if it was done with malicious intentions. You did it because you were wounded by your loss. I was too weak back then to understand it. We were unable to pull you from that self-imposed mission.”
“No, don’t think that,” Mavin said with a stern face. “What I did, what I have done, I regret none of them. It is spitting on those who have done SOMETHING for me. Cousin, if you hate me, hate me. Don’t pamper me with kindness. You don’t have to misunderstand what my intentions were. From the beginning, all I have done was for the sake of what I wanted. And that was to kill those demifiends.”
“I could never hate you, Cousin.”
“That’s why it kind of hurts that you are so accepting of me. I haven’t shown my mug to you for years and now I come back home, after spending time killing people and giving the world a weapon that could destroy thousands of lives in the blink of an eye. Cousin, I came home because I became tired,” Mavin felt like saying this to him.
Among the many people in the world. There was only one person that he would let see him at his weakest. That was his Cousin.
“My legs were just so heavy. I still had something to do in the Capital. I was suppose to help my friends, but I ran here after fulfilling what I wanted the most for the past decade.”
“Who doesn’t get tired?”
“I…”
“Cousin, I could never hate you. I thought of trying to do so, but if it was your plan to make me forgive you by acting like a fool awhile ago, then you have succeeded in doing so.”
“That was my true intention...damn it. I’m sure that I have more words to say when it comes to you. But, fuck, shit,” Mavin felt his vision blur. “I had wronged you, Cousin. I placed such a fucking burden on you. I feel fucking shameless coming here.”
“Dada!?” Elea shouted. She ran in front of Mavin and held up a finger to her father. “Did you bully big brother?” she looked at Mavin, fished out her handkerchief, stood on her tiptoes, and wiped his eyes. “It’s okay big brother, Dada is scary sometimes. I understand. Goodness, big brother seems to be a crybaby!”
“Isn’t he?” Derrick said.
“Dada! Don’t bully, okay?”
“No, no,” Mavin said, forcing a smile. “I am merely...well...a bit happy, little Elea.”
She looked at Mavin then at her father with a raised brow. “Okay, no crying okay? The uncles will scold you if you are found crying!. You wouldn't look handsome and cool if your eyes are red!”
She went back to her spot. Her eyes were still on them.
Mavin looked at little Elea for a while then snorted.
“Sorry about that Cousin.”
“Please, it’s fine. Mavin, I have ears in the Capital, and the Hounds told me of everything that had happened. From what you have done with them, and how many people you have sent to help our home," he leaned back. "Thinking about it rationally, your sin, it’s more of a help to us. The demifiends had long been our enemies. Our ancestors had left our true homeland because of these fiends. And after many years we had done what our ancestors had failed to do. We can even boldly say that Lazon is Greater now. It makes me feel that I had been living on the foundations that you had made," he stared at Mavin with seriousness. "In the end, I think you were right, that I should have the burden of rule. If I hadn’t agreed back then, do you think that you would have done everything you wanted to do before coming back home?”
Mavin shook his head. There were just too many things that he had to do. It was impossible for him to handle the burden of rule, the management of Lazon and completion of his plans without tearing himself apart. He needed the freedom to act on his plan, and that was why he had arranged it this way. To make Derrick rule while he works on the stuff that he needed to do.
“Cousin,” Derrick said, “even if you want the right to rule back for yourself. I’m afraid that I won't be able to let go of it now. Like I said, I am now the Patriarch of Lazon, the Marcher Lord of the People of Greater Lazon. And for the years that have passed, I have understood that in this era of change. Where iron giants walk the streets, where metal birds fly the skies, where a nation could drop a small sun at any moment at their hated enemies. I need to be the Ruler of our Home to feel safe. I understand the need for us to be strong now. Greater Lazon must be ready for anything that is coming. And although you feel weak at the moment, tired, and restless. I’m afraid that I cannot let you halt your steps and mope around.”
Mavin looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“I need your help, Cousin. You are a Tomas. You and I share the same bloodline. I have many trusted subordinates. People that would gladly offer their lives to our family. But you and me, we’re the only ones who still have the bloodline of the Strongarm Clans. I needed the Cousin who gave us hope, the person who laid the foundations of making Lazon strong as it is right now. I need the Cousin who fought in the war, and the Cousin who wiped our hated enemy from our lands and dropped a portion of the sun in them. If you have no purpose, if you have no path, then Cousin please allow me to show you.”
“Heh, quite cruel of you, Derrick. Asking me to continue this path.”
“Perhaps, but the moment you put me into this seat of power. The moment you became the Enforcer of the Hounds. This was the role that you could possibly have when you returned.”
“I see.”
Mavin sat upright. “So what do you want me to do, Cousin?”
“Do what you think is right. I still need your help in keeping the family safe. I need the Ghost of Dinia watching our backs.”
“Is that an order from the family head?”
“Yes it is. It’s your fault that you made me hold on this role for too long, Cousin. Do you accept the same role? I asked this because it is you, Cousin.”
“Of course I do,” Mavin said. “If this is your way of punishing me for acting selfishly, then let it be so.”
Derrick bit his lower lips. “I’m sorry. I need you to handle some of the things in the dark. I need to do what you think might be helpful to Lazon.”
Mavin was somewhat relieved. “Understand, I accept the role. No take backs okay?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” Mavin let out a very long sigh. “I was actually worried that you’d tell me to rule.”
“I had my thoughts for a moment. But then I realized that I cannot possibly hand it to you now. Cousin, you made me do this! After all, isn't it tradition for the men of Lazon to take the blow for their family? To become a spiky wall that could defend and harm those who'd dare to put their hands on us?”
"You're right."
Mavin smiled inwardly. Although Derrick made it sound like he needed someone to do the dirty business for him. Mavin felt that it was nothing more than his odd way of placing a purpose in front of him. A purpose, an anchor, and a reminder of why he had done what he did in the first place. There are some things that Mavin needed to do. Things that he needed to do before he could find that peace. So until then he could only let go and 'accept' this purpose again.
Mavin sighed. His Cousin truly had too much of a good heart. Even the burden of rule, the war, and the bomb dropping down on the demifiends nest didn’t stir that heart of his.
“Cousin,” Mavin said from the bottom of his heart. “I really am glad to see you again.”
“Please, you aren’t going to cry and rub your snot on me, right?”
Mavin grinned. He planted both of his knees on the floor and started bawling like a fool. “Cousin………..Please forgive me! Sob, UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”
“Dada!” Little Elea hurriedly went in front of Derrick, arms spread to protect Mavin from her dearest father. “I said no bullying! This lady hates bullies!”
“B-but, I,” Derrick wanted to explain. But with the sternness of her daughter, and the crocodile tears that Mavin was letting out, he felt like giving up. Mavin grinned behind little Elea's back.
The two of them sat on the floor while the little lady started teaching them about how one should be kind to others.
So when the ladies of the family entered, they were rather confused on why two grown men were being lectured by a rather righteous little girl.
Mavin wondered why Elma pulled Natalya to the drawing. He walked with Derrick along the familiar hallways. The paint on the walls was somewhat new. Even the carpet that was muffling their steps was easy to step on. Along the way, they met with servants and clerks who recognized Mavin.
“Move along!” Little Elea said to them. Her chin raised. Knuckles on her hips. She stood on toes, trying her best to look like an adult.
She noticed Mavin’s stare. “What is it, my dearest...uhm..uncle?”
“Nothing. It’s a shame that I have missed the precious days where I might be able to spoil you.”
“Nonsense!” she puffed her tiny chest. “This lady does not need spoiling!”
Mavin placed a hand in front of his mouth, took a step back, and bowed his head. “Forgive my impudence, dearest lady heiress, I have spoken out line, ignorant of little lady's feelings!”
“N-no, it’s fine,” Elea looked at her father. “D-dada, w-what should I do?”
“Mavin. I think you’re making her wary of you.”
“Nonsense!” Mavin kneeled. It was dramatic enough to startle the little lady. “She clearly does not want me, dearest cousin! So many thoughts had come to me! How should I spoil my dearest niece that I had heard from Old Fred! I think she hates me now! She has grown old without knowing my love!”
“Dada!” her big eyes shook. She alternated her gaze from Derrick to Mavin.
Derrick looked at Mavin, then sighed. “Elea, your big brother has recently gone through tough times,” he went on one knee. “He’s joking, but it has been a long time since he’s been with us, so treat him gently, okay?”
Elea looked at Mavin with her watery gaze. She took a step forward, was about to speak, when she suddenly crossed her arms, planted her feet wide apart.
“D-don’t worry! This lady will let you spoil her!”
“Ohhh! Thank you milady,” Mavin caught her by the side and lifted her easily.
“P-put me down! Dada! This isn’t how a lady should be carried!”
She faced her father, asking for protection. Derrick, who watched this foolishness, couldn’t stop himself from uttering a laugh.
“Got you, Cousin,” Mavin grinned.
Derrick sagged his shoulders.
“It’s been long since I’ve seen you make a fool of yourself like this, Cousin. Too long that I was sure for a moment that you were having a mental breakdown.”
“That’s kind of rude.”
“It is. Especially when you had the face of a stone for far too long.”
“Dada?”
“It’s nothing, my sweetest child,” Derrick patted her head. “Your big brother seemed to have found peace seeing you.”
She looked at Mavin, then did the same pose again. Her nose raised and chin lifted proudly. “Of course! This lady is naturally elegant like Mama!”
“Isn’t it?” Mavin said, patting her fiery redhead. The three continued until they reached the office of the great manor. The little lady was quite mindful as she went to the corner, and took a little book with her.
“She’s adorable, Cousin.”
“Isn’t she? Sadly, there are days where she puts a limit to my patience with her...well you know how she’s acting.”
“Reminds me of Sister Elma when she first came here. Almost, actually, she's like a copy that I wondered if she had been shrunk to this size with some sort of spell.”
Derrick nodded, then he stared at Mavin seriously. “How are you, Mavin?”
Mavin stopped. He looked down. His eyes pointed to the ground.
“I did what I wanted. I managed to do what our ancestors had done.”
“Are you happy?”
“Of course I am. With them gone, I just feel suddenly lost without a proper path.”
“You look like gunpowder to me, Mavin.”
“Gunpowder?”
“A spark could set you off. I know that look. Seen it within the years of my time as a ruler now.”
“I see. Do you want to continue to be Head?”
“Yes,” Derrick said without hesitation. “Years ago I would have hesitated, but when Elea was in my arms. I started to understand that if there is a greater evil threatening my home and family. I would do everything to quell it. I was young. Like you, I wanted freedom when faced with such a wide world. Then things happened. The war came, seven years of it.," he joined his fingers. "I didn’t fight in the frontline, but I saw death when the weapons you were sure would help protect our people and the artillery shoot them down. I really didn’t understand your intentions, but seeing the results of your intentions. I started to understand the vision you might have seen on that hill.”
“Please, I am not that kind to think that this was for the good of our home.”
“Even if it was done with malicious intentions. You did it because you were wounded by your loss. I was too weak back then to understand it. We were unable to pull you from that self-imposed mission.”
“No, don’t think that,” Mavin said with a stern face. “What I did, what I have done, I regret none of them. It is spitting on those who have done SOMETHING for me. Cousin, if you hate me, hate me. Don’t pamper me with kindness. You don’t have to misunderstand what my intentions were. From the beginning, all I have done was for the sake of what I wanted. And that was to kill those demifiends.”
“I could never hate you, Cousin.”
“That’s why it kind of hurts that you are so accepting of me. I haven’t shown my mug to you for years and now I come back home, after spending time killing people and giving the world a weapon that could destroy thousands of lives in the blink of an eye. Cousin, I came home because I became tired,” Mavin felt like saying this to him.
Among the many people in the world. There was only one person that he would let see him at his weakest. That was his Cousin.
“My legs were just so heavy. I still had something to do in the Capital. I was suppose to help my friends, but I ran here after fulfilling what I wanted the most for the past decade.”
“Who doesn’t get tired?”
“I…”
“Cousin, I could never hate you. I thought of trying to do so, but if it was your plan to make me forgive you by acting like a fool awhile ago, then you have succeeded in doing so.”
“That was my true intention...damn it. I’m sure that I have more words to say when it comes to you. But, fuck, shit,” Mavin felt his vision blur. “I had wronged you, Cousin. I placed such a fucking burden on you. I feel fucking shameless coming here.”
“Dada!?” Elea shouted. She ran in front of Mavin and held up a finger to her father. “Did you bully big brother?” she looked at Mavin, fished out her handkerchief, stood on her tiptoes, and wiped his eyes. “It’s okay big brother, Dada is scary sometimes. I understand. Goodness, big brother seems to be a crybaby!”
“Isn’t he?” Derrick said.
“Dada! Don’t bully, okay?”
“No, no,” Mavin said, forcing a smile. “I am merely...well...a bit happy, little Elea.”
She looked at Mavin then at her father with a raised brow. “Okay, no crying okay? The uncles will scold you if you are found crying!. You wouldn't look handsome and cool if your eyes are red!”
She went back to her spot. Her eyes were still on them.
Mavin looked at little Elea for a while then snorted.
“Sorry about that Cousin.”
“Please, it’s fine. Mavin, I have ears in the Capital, and the Hounds told me of everything that had happened. From what you have done with them, and how many people you have sent to help our home," he leaned back. "Thinking about it rationally, your sin, it’s more of a help to us. The demifiends had long been our enemies. Our ancestors had left our true homeland because of these fiends. And after many years we had done what our ancestors had failed to do. We can even boldly say that Lazon is Greater now. It makes me feel that I had been living on the foundations that you had made," he stared at Mavin with seriousness. "In the end, I think you were right, that I should have the burden of rule. If I hadn’t agreed back then, do you think that you would have done everything you wanted to do before coming back home?”
Mavin shook his head. There were just too many things that he had to do. It was impossible for him to handle the burden of rule, the management of Lazon and completion of his plans without tearing himself apart. He needed the freedom to act on his plan, and that was why he had arranged it this way. To make Derrick rule while he works on the stuff that he needed to do.
“Cousin,” Derrick said, “even if you want the right to rule back for yourself. I’m afraid that I won't be able to let go of it now. Like I said, I am now the Patriarch of Lazon, the Marcher Lord of the People of Greater Lazon. And for the years that have passed, I have understood that in this era of change. Where iron giants walk the streets, where metal birds fly the skies, where a nation could drop a small sun at any moment at their hated enemies. I need to be the Ruler of our Home to feel safe. I understand the need for us to be strong now. Greater Lazon must be ready for anything that is coming. And although you feel weak at the moment, tired, and restless. I’m afraid that I cannot let you halt your steps and mope around.”
Mavin looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“I need your help, Cousin. You are a Tomas. You and I share the same bloodline. I have many trusted subordinates. People that would gladly offer their lives to our family. But you and me, we’re the only ones who still have the bloodline of the Strongarm Clans. I needed the Cousin who gave us hope, the person who laid the foundations of making Lazon strong as it is right now. I need the Cousin who fought in the war, and the Cousin who wiped our hated enemy from our lands and dropped a portion of the sun in them. If you have no purpose, if you have no path, then Cousin please allow me to show you.”
“Heh, quite cruel of you, Derrick. Asking me to continue this path.”
“Perhaps, but the moment you put me into this seat of power. The moment you became the Enforcer of the Hounds. This was the role that you could possibly have when you returned.”
“I see.”
Mavin sat upright. “So what do you want me to do, Cousin?”
“Do what you think is right. I still need your help in keeping the family safe. I need the Ghost of Dinia watching our backs.”
“Is that an order from the family head?”
“Yes it is. It’s your fault that you made me hold on this role for too long, Cousin. Do you accept the same role? I asked this because it is you, Cousin.”
“Of course I do,” Mavin said. “If this is your way of punishing me for acting selfishly, then let it be so.”
Derrick bit his lower lips. “I’m sorry. I need you to handle some of the things in the dark. I need to do what you think might be helpful to Lazon.”
Mavin was somewhat relieved. “Understand, I accept the role. No take backs okay?”
“Yes.”
“Good,” Mavin let out a very long sigh. “I was actually worried that you’d tell me to rule.”
“I had my thoughts for a moment. But then I realized that I cannot possibly hand it to you now. Cousin, you made me do this! After all, isn't it tradition for the men of Lazon to take the blow for their family? To become a spiky wall that could defend and harm those who'd dare to put their hands on us?”
"You're right."
Mavin smiled inwardly. Although Derrick made it sound like he needed someone to do the dirty business for him. Mavin felt that it was nothing more than his odd way of placing a purpose in front of him. A purpose, an anchor, and a reminder of why he had done what he did in the first place. There are some things that Mavin needed to do. Things that he needed to do before he could find that peace. So until then he could only let go and 'accept' this purpose again.
Mavin sighed. His Cousin truly had too much of a good heart. Even the burden of rule, the war, and the bomb dropping down on the demifiends nest didn’t stir that heart of his.
“Cousin,” Mavin said from the bottom of his heart. “I really am glad to see you again.”
“Please, you aren’t going to cry and rub your snot on me, right?”
Mavin grinned. He planted both of his knees on the floor and started bawling like a fool. “Cousin………..Please forgive me! Sob, UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”
“Dada!” Little Elea hurriedly went in front of Derrick, arms spread to protect Mavin from her dearest father. “I said no bullying! This lady hates bullies!”
“B-but, I,” Derrick wanted to explain. But with the sternness of her daughter, and the crocodile tears that Mavin was letting out, he felt like giving up. Mavin grinned behind little Elea's back.
The two of them sat on the floor while the little lady started teaching them about how one should be kind to others.
So when the ladies of the family entered, they were rather confused on why two grown men were being lectured by a rather righteous little girl.
