From Hell, We Bring Hope! (2)
As Lou slowly opened his eyes, a wave of confusion washed over him. He found himself lying on a mat next to a crackling campfire, with the carriage parked nearby. The night was upon him, adding to his disorientation.
As Lou sat up, he realized a dense forest surrounded him, its towering trees creating a natural barrier—the small clearing where the camp seemed to be the only break in the wilderness. He lifted his body slowly and walked towards the carriage. The darkness made it difficult to see anything; without the campfire, even making out anything else would have been impossible.
As he made his way onto the carriage, he saw a figure of a person sitting in the driver's seat. The darkness made it impossible even to see that a person was just sitting there.
“Where…where am I?” Lou's voice trembled with uncertainty as he gazed at the figure, a flicker of recognition crossing his mind. Could it be his carriage driver? His heart raced with a mix of confusion and fear. Instead, the figure rose and stepped down from the carriage. He began to advance towards Lou, each step sending a chill down Lou's spine, filling him with a growing sense of dread.
He scurried back, his heart pounding in his chest, and ran toward the forest, his fear driving him forward.
“Stop!” A man's gruff voice emanated from behind, and Lou stopped in his tracks.
He immediately stopped running, his breath coming in ragged gasps, and with an almost crazed expression, he faced the man who called at him.
“Father?”
His voice, thick with disbelief and undisguised anger, echoed through the clearing. "Father?"
The lowly carriage driver who escorted the fallen prince of the kingdom was the most glorious king in the kingdom's history. What a sick joke! The young prince, who was only interested in reading books and spent most of his time lazing around, became a convict and was exiled from his kingdom. This sudden shift in his life was too much for this young prince. With this revelation, he felt he was getting played to death by everyone around him.
His father, however, did not respond at all, and instead, he silently walked towards the campfire, his face slowly revealed by the flickering flames.
As he settled down near the campsite, the father, with a patient look, called out to Lou, “Would you mind sitting next to me?”
Lou fought a silent battle within himself, his face still bearing the marks of anger. He gritted his teeth and reluctantly moved towards the campfire, sitting opposite his father. There was no point in not listening, and he desperately tried to find answers to all that he had experienced tonight.
For a few minutes, a palpable tension hung in the air. Lou seemed distracted, struggling to contain his rising rage, while his father, his gaze fixed on Lou, was equally silent. The unease was evident, making it difficult for either to initiate the first conversation.
Then, in a sudden and unexpected turn, the King, who had been intensely staring, broke into a smile. This small smile gradually transformed into a full-blown smirk, a surprising and intriguing sight.
“You have your mother's face, little man. Your eyes are so small, and your nose is so long. The only thing you have inherited from me is your red hair,” King Marcus, a father who was both proud and disappointed, roared with a strange smile.
Lou, taken aback by his father's uncharacteristic casual talk, remained silent, his surprise evident in his wide eyes.
His father, however, did not mind this and continued, “I remember the last time I met her, she was-”
Lou's sudden, fierce shout abruptly shut his father, “No!”.
He had reached his limit with the unanswered questions, and his defiance was palpable. In the royal palace, such behavior would have been met with harsh punishments, but as an exile, he felt invincible.
Unperturbed by the outburst, his father kept smiling at him and showed no signs of anger.
“Okay, I’ll stop. I do not want to fight with you today.” His father told him after realizing that he had maybe pushed his son to the extreme and did not want to antagonize him further.
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Lou slowly sat down and stared intently at his father, determined to lash out at him if he pushed him further.
Understanding his son’s intent, King Marcus sighed and shook his head. He continued, “How much do you know about our kingdom, my son?”
Lou could not believe his father's nerves. He was not still answering any of his questions and was now just randomly spouting out nonsense.
“Our history began long ago when we, as a merchant family, earned a noble title and became one of the richest noble houses in the continent, all thanks to our vast transcontinental trade.” With an expression of grandeur that seemed to fill the room, his father recounted their family's rise to power. Lou could feel the pride mixed in his father’s words and the weight of their legacy.
“We became so rich that our Kingdom could not function without us. We slowly accumulated power and struck the royal family who ruled us when they slowly declined, securing our right to rule.”
“Then slowly, we expanded and expanded, reaching the pinnacle of power, and by my generation, we have finally conquered the continent." His father stood up by this point and clutched his fingers tightly, his pride in their family's achievements palpable.
Lou, however, couldn't shake off the feeling of loss, as the shadow of being exiled never left his heart, and his sense of belonging to his heritage was almost shattered, a deep emotional wound that he now carried with him.
“How does this matter to me? An exile.” Lou asked his father with a somewhat irritable face.
“It does matter, my son; bear with me, will you?” King Marcus continued his patient and understanding tone, a reassuring presence amid Lou's confusion.
“See, my son, people only remember the achievements and always forget about the path it took to reach the destination. A famous painter is only remembered for his paintings but not for his hours of practice or sacrifices.” His father said with a solemn face, his words carrying the weight of wisdom.
“Our family's earliest accounts suggest that we began as fishermen who later became sailors and merchants. But is it ever mentioned everywhere in our glorious history?” King Marcus posed, his voice carrying a hint of mystery.
“Our family has sacrificed a lot to reach where we are and have lost many precious things in pursuit of that. It is also because we have dared to do things others fear.”
He then walked forward, sat near his, and asked, “How do you think a small fisherman family can become the ruler of the continent so easily?”
Lou felt confused and looked at his father in utter bewilderment. He did not understand where his father was going with this.
After a deep breath, King Marcus looked at him and said meekly, “How much do you know about sorcerers?”
This question dumbfounded Lou. After speaking about his family history and glory, he did not expect his father to say such a thing.
He suppressed the urge not to answer but replied, “I have read about them in stories and heard tales about them. They are the stuff of legends anyways.”
The continent had a lot of stories about sorcerers and other magical creatures. They were wielders of magic and makers of wonders, but the entire notion of their existence was still considered folklore. The scholars disdained even entertaining talks of their existence, and the common folk viewed them with a mix of fear and awe.
As a scholar, Lou also believed that sorcerers never existed. But his father's following sentence shattered that understanding.
“Our family was blessed to get the protection of a sorcerer long ago, and he is the sole reason the family stands out from all others.” The weight of these words hit Lou like a thunderbolt, shattering his understanding of his family's history.
The revelation left Lou in a state of profound shock, his mouth agape and his face a canvas of extreme disbelief. His mind was a whirlwind of confusion, his heart aching with the weight of this newfound knowledge. How could he, a scholar, have been so blind to the truth? The very foundation of his beliefs was shaken, and he struggled to come to terms with this new reality.
Upon seeing this, his father had a grin plastered on his face. He said, “Did you think that your father just coincidentally conquered the continent? Only with his assistance did we achieve anything; his mercy granted us this dominion.
Lou had a strange expression and asked his father seriously, “Father, why did you bring me here?”
Then Marcus put his hand on his son's shoulder and said to him seriously, “Lou, my dear child, you were never exiled. You were chosen by the great sorcerer as his apprentice and were brought here to begin your apprenticeship.”
Thud!
Lou fell to the ground and lifelessly kneeled on the ground. Tears were streaming down his face, and he felt his body paralyzed. This was too much for him to handle in a day. No, this was too much for anyone to experience.
Marcus kneeled and hugged his son almost immediately. Tears also started to flow from his eyes as well.
“I never wanted this, my child, but for the family, you must do this. This is an unbelievable opportunity for you!”
“The sorcerer you will meet is someone with unbelievable powers; someday, you can also possess such powers.” He said beggingly to his son, trying to reassure him with his words.
“I…I never asked for this. I only wanted a place to sleep and spend my days reading.” Lou said shakily.
“I have never hurt a thing, been greedy for wealth, nor competed with my brothers for the throne. All I ever wanted was to spend my days in peace.”
“Or is that too much to hope for?” Lou said with a sad whimper.
Marcus slowly helped him and asked, “Do you remember the motto of our family, my son?”
Lou, still reeling from the impact of the revelation, declined to answer, but his father did not mind and whispered into his ear.
“From hell, we bring hope!”
That was the last thing he heard before he felt his body slip and the rush of air, the feeling of weightlessness engulfing him in a disorienting manner.