Chapter 275: Chapter 290: Surender. (Arc Conclusion)

The night was old and the sun was new, slowly rising over cliffs in the east. I couldn’t say why… Maybe on principal… But I couldn’t bring myself to attack my own sister during the night… I wasn’t sure if I could do it during the morning either... In the end, I didn’t get any sleep at all. I wasn’t sure how it would end, but we had already decided the order we would drop out in.

I walked up to the gate of the Golden Bear alone, prepared to break it down… But it opened for me, closing behind me as I walked inside.

‘She gathered this many people together?’ There were dozens of men and women wearing matching clothes and diligently watching, sharpening weapons, polishing blades, or even just warming up their shooting.

“Siyasavide…”

I turned to see a familiar face, probably the last one I expected. “Yamaria…” I said back.

“Follow me.” She said slowly, gesturing towards the keep. When we reached the top there was my sister, sitting down on the floor at a low table, her sword lying next to her.

“Hey sis… It’s been a while…”

I awkwardly sat down. “It’s literally only been a week…”

Her composure suddenly flinched as her cheeks turned slightly red. “I-I guess it just feels like it then… So, have you come to ask for my help?”

I felt my brows push together. “Not exactly…”

“Surely you weren’t defeated, and coming here to say goodbye.”

“No…”

She leaned forward, her demeanor finally returning to that which I remembered. “Airsidh isn’t bullying you is he!”

I chuckled nervously. “Nope… That’s not it either…”

She relaxed again. “So… Why are you here?”

I sighed. “Well… You see… The thing is… Between You, and me… We’re basically the only two guilds left…”

Goosebumps suddenly appeared on her arms. “Already? W-wow… I mean, I only took out 8 or so yesterday, but now all of them are gone? And I guess we have to fight now…” She slowly stood up, picking up her sword and latching it to her back.

“No…” I muttered… ‘Although I am scared about how you’ll react…’ “Sisters don’t fight remember? Especially not with dirty tricks… Or bent rules… And certainly not by getting other family members involved…”

She started moving slower with my every word. “Ok… But we settled that back then, right? It’s still fine to spar, so let’s have a spar. The winner takes all. Your guild is pretty small so this will make things more interesting anyway.”

“I came to tell you I’m surrendering…” Every muscle in her body froze still. I had to blink to make sure time was still moving forward. “I’m not going to fight you… I wouldn’t be able to fight like I mean it anyway… So this is better…”

Her sword hand started to shake as though she were about to draw before she suddenly tensed every muscle in her body. “IDIOT!” She shouted. “WHAT GOOD WILL IT DO ME TO WIN IF IT’S ONLY BECAUSE YOU GAVE UP!”

The deep sorrow inside of me only worsened until I couldn’t move a muscle. “I wouldn’t be able to beat you… Even if we did fight… And I don’t want to hurt you…”

“OR MAYBE YOU JUST DON’T WANT TO GET HURT!” She screamed again, flipping over the table and throwing it into a nearby wall before finally calming down some. “Why not… Why do you still think you couldn’t beat me… You have before…”

My eyes stayed glued to her feet. “There are two reasons mainly… First is that I don’t want to hurt you… I’m terrified of it… Somehow I have full faith you’d never get hurt on a battlefield and it still scares me… So there’s no way I could ever go all out against you from the start…”

She slowed her breath, gritting her teeth as she forced herself to sit back down. “And the second reason…” She growled.

“I can only fight at my absolute best if I feel as though I will die if I lose… And you’re the only person I know won’t kill me…”

“So what if I tried to kill you then…”

I felt chills cover my entire body, tears welling up in my eyes as they widened. “That’s… That’s not funny…”

“What if I said I was always supposed to be the executioner… Would you fight me then?”

I felt my head start to ache as my eyes began to burn and turn not just orange but bright red, my words somehow staying calm. “You’re lying…”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Didn’t mom always tell us lying was bad?”

I almost choked trying to get my next words out, not even sure what I was trying to say. ‘It doesn’t make any sense… Does it? No… Could she? But then why… No…’ “That still… Doesn’t fix the first problem…” I muttered, my voice starting to shake as my longing deepened to fly away, soaring through the sky.

“Why would you be afraid of hurting someone that’s trying to kill you… No one is that stupid. Especially not you.”

“Don’t say that…”

“Fight me… That’s the only way this should end. This isn’t training anymore, and I won’t let you disgrace yourself by surrendering when you should be the champion! I don’t care if I get hurt! I’ll heal eventually anyway!”

“Don’t you mean disgrace the family…” I muttered slowly standing up. ‘Her own words betray her… All she’s doing is talking about me… Doesn’t she know?’

I had thought about fighting her for a moment in rage, but the rage almost instantly vanished. My memory was perfect, and no matter what she said, every time I thought back to the night in the rain, with me holding a blade just inches away from slitting her throat… I only had one thought… I can’t kill this girl… I can’t hurt my sister… My only sister…

I calmly stood up and unfastened my metal arm guard hearing it thunk as it hit the wooden floor underneath us, then I took my sword off my back and it did the same, hitting the ground even heavier. Finally, I removed my leather jacket, revealing every scar on my body not covered by my chest wrap. “This is what it looks like when someone gets hurt…” I raised my arms out to the side, finally raising my eyes and staring directly into hers. “And I won’t do this to you…”

She grabbed her sword again and in rage swung it in full force right at my shoulder, as my red eyes refused to blink, no matter how scared I was of the pain, but her strike never connected. She cut her swing short and dropped it, still shaking as she started to cry.

I wasn’t sure if she would let me or not, but I quickly gave her a hug and sure enough she didn’t push me away, crying onto my shoulder and holding on tightly to my chest wrap as if desperately trying to find something to hold onto. All I could do was gently stroke her hair. ‘Maybe I am the older sister after all…’

My body suddenly stiffened. ‘But… What kind of example am I setting undressing in front of everyone like this?’ I shuddered. “Uh… Lu… Don’t pull too hard ok? Or it might come undone…”

She groaned, her tears already slowing to a stop. “So you won’t fight me, but you won’t comfort me either? Some sister you are…”

I loosened my grip on her, suddenly afraid of backing away to grab my jacket. “That’s really not fair… And weren’t you just saying you would try to kill me?”

She tugged on it slightly harder, making me stay glued to her. “That was all hypothetical… I really wasn’t lying, I was just asking questions, you can’t lie if it’s a question.”

“Lu… If You expose me in front of all of these people I’ll kill you…”

Her voice suddenly became almost playful. “Oh, so all I have to do is pull this off and You’ll fight me?”

I froze, biting my tongue. ‘Fairy dust… She… Wouldn’t actually would she? But she does seem really upset… And a little unhinged… And also seems to lack the most common sense. She might not even think it’s a big deal…’ “You’re joking, right? You… wouldn’t really do that…”

She tugged harder, giving me a feeling of electricity shooting through me. “But what if I did? Serves you right for surrendering.”

“O-oh that… I thought we got over that already…”

She looked down at me and her wry smile instantly changed before she let me go. “If you were that worried about it you should have just fought back… I left myself wide open, you could have at least broken my grip if you were really so worried…”

‘Is that true?’ I paused again after putting my armor back on. “You might be right about that… Then again… If I did try that, the chances are things end up much worse out of accident If nothing else… Trusting you was the safer option…”

She growled as if I had somehow insulted her. “Arn’t you going to ask about all that stuff I said…”

“Why would I? You were just asking a question.” I smiled back, making her turn away this time.

“Well yeah but…”

“Like I said, you were lying. And I forgive you, but like you said, Mom taught us that lying is bad. It really doesn’t suit you either, I’m supposed to be the trouble child, and you're like a perfect little fairy, so just keep being you… Maybe… With a little more anger management though.”

She took a slow deep breath. “Get out of my castle…”

I looked back to see her smiling as I finished fastening my armor and turned to leave. ‘That was a rollercoaster… Time to head back and take down our flags I guess.’

The gates opened up and everyone around me cheered, loudly singing my praises, but giving me space at the same time like I was some kind of revered deity… “What’s going on…”

Bear simply uncrossed his arms, pointing back at the keep before crossing them again. When I stepped away from the walls and turned back I could see that our flag was raised instead of hers… “Mo, you didn’t–”

“Wasn’t me. You’re the leader, no one would dare act without your order.”

‘So it was her then…’

“I WON’T LET YOU BEAT ME SO EASILY SIYA!” Lu shouted. And I couldn’t help but wonder if she knew how stupid she sounded. It was enough to finally make me laugh, chasing away the sorrow I felt and finally making my eyes change back to white.

The final rankings were as follows.

1: Undead Kracken.

2: Golden Bear.

3: Kodokan.

4: Mafia.

5: Dragons Tallon.

The dragons Tallon performed admirably… But by the end of it, most of their members couldn’t even lift a weapon… So when I ordered them to surrender, they decided to go first and give the Mafia a higher place. Of course, my brother took third, deciding to stay out of any fight between us sisters, and you already know how that turned out.

“All in all… Not bad.” I said calmly, staring at the board in the grand hall.

“Not bad at all…” Mo said, mimicking me and folding her arms with a rare smile of her own.

“Yeah… But we probably just pissed off even more people didn’t we?” Isy whined timidly.

Bear’s heavy footsteps landed right behind me as he placed a hand on my head. “Good job Little Lizard… I guess maybe I should call you something else now. Baby dragon maybe? No… What is it people call you? Spitfire dragon? Yeah… That’s not bad.”

I furrowed my brow and puffed out my cheeks as I turned up to him, staring in silence, hoping he would catch on.

“Enraged chipmunk?”

Mo snickered.

“Has a nice ring to it don’t you think?”

I whined. “Please don’t change it… I like the name you gave me… Just keep calling me that…”

His neck moved back slightly, his mouth opening before he suddenly turned his head to the side. “Right… Ok then, I won’t…”

I took a large step back, to calmly make some distance between us. “Should we get going?”

They all nodded and off we went. It was a long time coming, but finally, we were ready to start our actual school life. Over the next few days, we moved from the temporary housing to the main two towers which housed the faculty and staff, as well as everything we would ever need, including indoor riding facilities and large enough fields to conduct a mock battle with over 500 people. Instead of relying on our family's money, we were each given an allowance by the school, uniforms, and a small room with a stove and running water. If I was being honest though, the thing I was most excited about was the working lock on the doors, most notably the bathroom door… If for no other reason than peace of mind. After a while, we found out that the rogues practically made all the first-year girls afraid of using the bathroom, which resulted in Isy not being the only one to have problems… Thankfully that wasn’t something anyone had to deal with anymore.

‘When I become king… The list of things I have to change is getting pretty long…’ I sighed, opening the window on the first day of class, getting ready an hour early because of my nerves. ‘In this place the only thing that matters is strength… So rather than education, my goal here is to become stronger than my teacher, that’s the next step.’