70- ROUND TWO

Mikael was forced to fight this time around.

After the attacks he received a formal letter stating intent. Seth would be joining the war, meaning he had to join the war. They were battling for their Kingdoms, not just their land this time.

Mikael sighed as he and his daughters, and adopted son, stayed in the back. Osiris insisted they stayed out of the fight for now. Mikael was against it, but as he sat and watched his son fight on screen, he realized he worried for nothing.

He and a lot of others thought everything said during the War of Dogs was exaggerated, but as he watched his men follow his son’s lead he realized that it wasn’t. Osiris didn’t care for their men in battle.

If they were in the way, they were in the way.

He’s watched his son kill just as many of his men as the enemies were. Those who fought in the last war gave him ample room, including his son’s own men. Mikael summoned Bishop.

“Yes, my King?”

“Send a message out to avoid my son during all battles. If I don’t do it now, we’ll lose our men before we can even move.”

Bishop smiled, eyes shining with mirth.

“As you wish.”

Mikael went back to watching his son.

He was stronger than he and his mother were combined. Claudia is a fool to think his son would ever be manageable.

Mikael’s lips pursed.

He didn’t know what to do about his wife.

He thought he hated her. He thought he only tolerated her for the Kingdom, but now.

She’s showing interest in Osiris.

And he doesn’t mean the grief and hate he’s seen her watch him with before. Ever since he saved Mercedes, she no longer looks at him with just hate. It…. It made his heart ache. Osiris was denied a mother twice. After Kina’s overdose he hoped and prayed Claudia would just be there for the boy.

Not love him, not hurt him, but just…. She refused and got nasty. That fucking contract kept him from killing her on the spot.

Then his other children started to join.

Mikael rubbed his eyes and looked over to Luella.

She was going over the funds and biting her nails. She was amazing with money. She would have been crowned if not for Axel’s political power, and now he was the only one that had ground other than Mikael himself.

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He loved all his children, but Osiris was special.

He was born out of pure love. There was no fighting, no arguing, it just was.

Mikael looked back at his documents.

Maybe he….did a lot of things after Kina’s passing. He treated his son coldly, forcing him to adhere to royal dictum, and when he didn’t he….he treated his son like a criminal. It was clear Osiris was gay after he returned from the war. He never saw signs when he was a child other than that incident, but his open ogling and comments of men made it quite clear.

Mikael sometimes wonders if he is the cause for it. Surely doing what he did right after what happened must have…. Mikael tried staying in solitary after his son was released by Lambert.

He only lasted seven days.

Mikael felt his throat and eyes ache.

Unlike his son, he could leave whenever he wanted to. He thought a month had passed.

He looked at his small mana screen.

Osiris looked like he was laughing maniacally as he pissed off a local fey nest.

Fighting on elven land means everything becomes hostile to you. Accidentally stepping on ants can lead to setting off all the local wildlife.

Osiris was setting them off on purpose.

This round the creatures and beings were A, B, and a few S Ranks. Osiris scoffed when a little fairy egged him on. He faked them out and let an enemy crush them to death.

That set all of them off.

The entire tree shook and Osiris could hear the man being eaten alive. It sounded like music to his ears.

They were winning.

They still had quite a ways to go for Nox’s farmlands, but they were gaining ground fast. Thanks to Osiris, the war was moving at a steady speed. The Lux Kingdom’s only goal was to cripple them enough to get them to back off. Even Mikael knows taking the King head on will kill him.

He looked at his son who came to steal more potions. As far as Mikael knows, he actually uses them when he needs to. Mikael rubbed his chest. He worries he’ll do the same thing his mother did.

“You need to have Kou make more instant meal pill things.”

“Already have more on the way.”

He went back to looking over his stash.

He had poisons and remedies and a plethora of things. His son only grabbed the healing potions.

“….”

As a child, he would get into their cabinets at their cabin and drink every potion he could find. They had to start hiding them from him.

Mikael moved back to his desk.

Just another week and they’ll be out of elven land and into dragon. They have two islands they can use as bases if they needed to that were just off of the coast.

His son left without saying goodbye.

Osiris could see the dragon lands beyond the treeline.

He was gitty.

He’s been searching for Seth, but the man was a ghost. If he was honest, he wasn’t looking that hard, but he was having fun again. It was just like the last war, only with stronger men, now at the front.

Osiris still felt like he was being underestimated but-

Something shiny in the sky caught his attention.

It was a bead.

Osiris snickered and slid into the field. He looked up. It was another creature feature. Seth probably caught-