A full week has passed since their clandestine attack on the barista manor.

Shlain had just arrived on a balcony from which he overlooked two youngsters sparring in the arena below.

Shlain stood there for a while until the girl who usually called him Master and whom he had grown to affectionately call the little missie, Shania, took notice of her presence, but for reasons Shlain could easily guess, she pretended not to and continued to train herself with Aryan. As much as he understood the reason for her reaction, it couldn't help but sting his heart.

He remembered the first time he was approached by Little Missie. She was merely a little girl when she first approached them, wishing to learn how to fight like they do.

Back then, Schlain knew very little about that little girl. He just knew that her parents were working for a woman named Mathilda and that she, as their child, also ended up doing so. It was then that, out of nowhere, she approached Schlain with the wish to learn how to fight. Shlain naturally refused since she was neither an aina-user nor motivated by revenge like most members of the brotherhood.

But the girl, maybe because she was at that age where a girl has the most craving for blood, persisted. Over time, she even came to refer to him and his brother as "master", and she ,soon enough, even against her parents' wishes, came to one day earn her own place among them, warmongering monsters.

Slain realized, after seeing her reaction, that his actions a week ago had caused a schism between him and the little missie and the little Aryan, but he held no regrets in regard to what he had done.

"If this is my punishment, I'm fine with it." Shlain thought.

It was at that moment, just as he was about to take his leave, that he was approached by someone.

Though the man no longer had the appearance of one, he was a little brother, Shlain's, Austen.

"Shlain, what were you doing?" Austen asked.

"Nothing, just watching the consequences of my actions,"

Following Shlain's gaze, Austen peered at the arena down below and seemed to immediately understand what Shlain meant.

"And you?"

"Me?... I just came out of a long discussion with "her" and Mathilda."

Because of the nature of her name, most members of the aristocracy referred to her as "the Mother," but also because that was what she represented for most, but Shlain and his brother found it especially difficult to refer to her with that name, most by someone because of her appearance, but also because there was only one person they would accept to call mother, and she was no longer alive.

"Mathilda... when was she back?" Shlain lingered on, for he knew that when he and the others went on their excursion to Barista, Mathilda was away, just like "The Mother." It was by taking advantage of their absences that they carried out the attack on the Barista Manor.

"Yes, since a few days apparently."

"I didn’t know that. What did they say to you? It must have been about me, wasn't it? "

With a nod, his brother confirmed.

"They warned me that for our transgression, a punishment would dawn upon you," Austen informed.

"A punishment, huh?"

"They also asked if I would stand by your side when the time comes for that punishment, as I did for our transgression in the barista manor."

"And what did you answer?"

"You know exactly what I've said," Austen said as he approached Shlain and stood beside him.

"Even with what I did?"

"Even with that." He said with a firm voice. "Always."

Looking straight ahead, Shlain heaved out a sigh and said, "I feel like you should've at least made an exception for this time."

Though he did not regret it, he knew he had messed up big time.

A long silence took place before Austen spoke.

"This sight takes me back." He said, looking at the two children training down below.

"When to?" Slain asked.

"Back when David and I were still living with the Douglas family."

"I see...""

This aspect of his brother's past was something Shlain only heard from stories, for he wasn't there to witness it. With it happening not long after their parents were killed by nobles when they came for Shlain, a child of light, the three brothers had already parted paths, with Shlain being taken by the nobility while the two brothers running away ended up finding refuge in a place belonging to no one else but Mathilda's Douglas family. A family with whom the two would spend several years hidden from the church.

"Mathilda's old man used to make David and Mathilda, like these two, hold sparring matches."

"Oh, what was the result like?"

"Evenly matched. But if I were to choose one, I would say in sparring matches, Mathilda tended to be the one who usually had the upper-hand. But when it comes to real fighting, David will always win. "

"Real fighting?"

"Yeah, the old man, thinking back, was really an asshole. When in the mood, he would often have Brother and Mathilda fight till at the very least one of them passed out, saying that it was to make them understand that there would be no sparring courtesy when the time would come for them to need their fighting skills."

"I cannot agree less, but that sounds very cold."

Reminiscing, Auden sighed.

"Yes, he was a really ruthless man, even towards his own children."

" What about you? Did he have you through this too?"

"Since their matches involved using aina, not really, I most of the time watched their matches unfold from the sidelines. But even then, despite not being Aina-users, Mathilda's brother and I weren't spared from all that. "

A strange expression took over his face.

"Did he have you and Paul fight?" Shlain asked, noticing his expression.

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"No, we did have to fight from time to time, but nothing that could be considered truly a fight, more like just sparring. Besides, Paul and I were back then, just like Mathilda and David, a sort, brother in misery. "

Unconsciously, Austen reached out to the reminiscent scars on his nose.

"It was against Mathilda that he would, from time to time, ask me to fight. And back then, she, as her father's little princess , just like how she wasn’t holding back on David, wasn’t holding on to either me or Paul. "

"That scar… was it her?"

"Yes, more than fifty years, and I have yet to forget that day."

As bitter as it sounded, just looking at him, Shlain didn’t see bitterness in his face.

"Paul?" Shlain asked, knowing how protective his brother used to be.

"The first time I received that treatment, Paul was easily restrained by one of the Douglas Fortress servants. She was quite a monster from her time." A subtle glance from Austen toward the little girl below revealed to Shlain who that person could be.

"But at the time, I must say we got used to it. But so you’d know, even though the old man made us all go through it for Mathilda and Paul, I believe that he did, somewhere, even if it was a little bit, he made us go through that to make us understand what was waiting for us out there on the path we were setting ourselves upon," Austen sighed.

Even though separated for more than a decade, three brothers, Shlain, David, and Austen, after that which split them apart, shared and nourished the same desire, which was to meet up again somewhere and avenge their parents. wish, which only decades later became reality.

It was only as young men that the three brothers, who had been separated as children, met again to, together, form the Erweins Brotherhood, an organization whose sole purpose was to seek retribution on those who had wronged them. A task which, for the next two decades, the three brothers, along with the members they acquired along the way, endavourously dedicated themselves vicariously to. So much that one day, it cost them a price the brothers weren’t ready to pay.

"Don’t you regret it? Having chosen this path?" Shlain asked.

Austen didn’t answer; he simply stared emptily ahead.

Shlain knew that had he not taken that path, he would’ve lived a normal and happy life, especially with the positive relationship he already held with the Douglas family.

Had he taken another path, their brother, Shlain’s little brother, Austen's big brother, would still be alive today.

"I might praise him more than he’s worth praising, but I think the old man meant for me to understand my big brother won't always be there for me and David, for me. As much as we liked it, we wouldn't always be there for each other... as much as it pains me to confess, as it was that day... the day we lost him. "

To these words Shlain reminisced about the day that, just as he thought he had finally dawned upon all the bastards that deserved punishment, he lost his brother.

"Soon I promise I will make him pay for what he did to our brother," Shlain promised.

Austen nodded silently.

Reaching his shoulder, "Patience, I wi-" Shlain started, yet midway he came to a realization.

"What is it, Shlain?"

"I've just come to realize that all I can offer you is revenge. Nothing more, nothing less. " Shlain, with a derisory smile, remarked.

In fact, it was just that he had come to a realization. Shlain also realized that it was the only thing he could ever promise anyone; his men, his brother, revenge; that’s all he had given them.

Looking at Shlain straight in the eyes, "Maybe because besides each other and ourselves, revenge is the only thing that we have to offer." Austen concluded with a grim finality.

***

Just as he was about to knock at the door, a girl who didn’t seem any older than little Missy emerged from the room.

"Sorry, Sir," she immediately apologized.

"It’s nothing," Shlain immediately reassured.

He did not recognize the girl, but he did notice that she, from the corner of her eyes, threw him a strange glance before resuming her journey.

After knocking on the door a few times and finally receiving a response, Shlain got inside the room. Behind the desk, he saw a woman almost as old as he was, and standing next to her was another woman equally old.

"Shlain, please take a seat," Mathilda said, motioning for Schlain to take a seat across from her desk.

Shlain approached her but didn’t, as she invited him to take a seat.

The woman, from her seat, simply and silently peered at him, not commenting on the fact that he had refused her invitation. Shlain's gaze swept across the room, but there was no sign of the other woman he expected to see.

"If you are looking for ‘the mother’, she’s not here. There’s only the three of us," Mathida remarked.

"What did you summon me for?"

"I didn't summon you; I just invited you to talk, and here you are," she said, motioning to the seat across from her, adding, "You came here willingly; it's all up to you, White Ghost."

A heavy silence fell upon the room for a moment before Shlain decided, despite his earlier reticence, to take a seat.

"So, what did you call me to talk about? You already spoke to Austen. What do you want personally from me?"

"Oh, he told you that I spoke with him."

"Yes, he did."

"That discussion was meant to be confidentially between him and I."

"Yet he did, and it wasn’t all that he told me."

"Oh, what else?"

"He told me about what you and your family did to him and David as children."

Mathilda looked a bit confused as to what Schlain was referring to, but as his gaze wandered to the woman standing next to her, she, as the woman herself, seemed to have understood what he was referring to.

"Ah, that... Since it is an old story, I was not expecting him to still remember it. Does he still hold resentment against me for that?"

"I doubt he holds any resentment against you, but you did leave him with a scar. I don’t see him or anyone else forgetting something like that, which was always craved upon him."

"I see... fair enough. I admit never having never apologized for that."

"I don’t think he even needs that anymore."

"Still, I would like to apologize. After all, I wouldn’t like to become one of your brotherhood’s revenge. " She said, with blatant sarcasm in her voice.

"So will you tell me what you want to talk to me about?" Shlain urged, her previous sentence having instilled in him irritation.

"What do you think it is?"

"Our expedition to the Barista Manor."

"Indeed," she said solemnly, "what you did was meant to, eventually be done, and certainly not in that way."

"I do not regret what I did,

"Not even a bit? Even knowing the consequences of what you did?"

"Not even a bit. If it had to be done, I would do it again and again. That family betrayed us, and they got what they deserved."

"But was it yours to decide, Shlain?" She asked rhetorically, before making it clear, "In case you did not register, it was not."

By the time Mathilda’s words ended, keen eyes would have noticed the little change occurring around Shlain, testifying to Shlain's overall mood.

Both women took notice of his reaction but didn’t display any strong reaction to it.

It was only then that Lidya, who had been silent so far, approached Mathilda to hand her an envelope. Mathilda didn’t immediately take the handed envelope and, instead, calmly said, "After having given up on our original plan of forcefully taking over the church by brute force, to achieve ‘The Mother’ objective with as little bloodshed as possible is a hopeful aspiration, which Mother and I, despite its dream-like nature, aspire to. I don’t know if you can understand us, White Ghost."

Shlain finally gathered himself and clarified, "I joined you and your ‘Mother’ in your quest against the church not because I believed in your aspiration, nor do I, like the scavengers, pledge her undying loyalty, but rather-"

"-because you thought you could, through us, get to the one you two brothers for so long wished to exact revenge upon, wasn’t it?"

"It was the contract." Shlain confirmed.

It was only then that Mathilda accepted the letter that was handed to her.

"Indeed, it was the contract between your brotherhood and us. I understand, and as we have agreed, we will grant you our help to get your "revenge," but first, we need your help on something." She said, handing him the envelope.

"What is this?"

"Our intel has gotten word of something very specific happening in the location indicated inside that envelope, and since Raziel is away on a mission, there is no one better suited for this than you."

"Something you would’ve sent Raziel for?" Shlain muttered, glancing suspiciously at both Mathilda and Lidy, before proceeding to open the envelope.

He didn't know what the mission was about yet, but Shlain could tell from Raziel, who was the equivalent of a leader for the scavenger to be considered to be sent for it, that this was not a simple mission in comparison to the one he and his brotherhood had been sent to as of late.

Shlain frowned, upon reading the said location, "Who is this person we are supposed to apprehend?"

"Consider that person necessary for the well-unfolding of the future, including the one where we honor the contract we both agreed upon. Consider this mission: punishment and restitution for your actions behind our backs at the Barista Manor. I wish you good luck, Shlain. "