Soulless Swordsman-Chapter 53: Settling In

"Crazy town, right?" Kion heard a voice join him on the balcony.

"I now see why you ran away." He turned, facing Lila. "Dealing with this must have been horrible."

Lila turned to the horizon. "Oh this?" She gestured at the thick mist surrounding the bay, "this was just a recent development."

Her eyes glossed over the sunset, their rose-tinted glow a sharp contrast to the light of the sun.

"They’ve always been like this, you know. If anything, it’s the attacks that are keeping them at bay. I’m talking about the townsfolk by the way."

"Oh." Kion exclaimed. He had never had a good perspective of the residents of Port Tabara but the little interactions he’d had recently held a broken kind of tension within them, like the people were about to snap all at once and lose their minds.

He had thought it an indirect consequence of the Greitor attack, but it seemed that that was how they’d always been.

Monsters.

"My father’s the worst of them." Lila said after a moment of silence. "Don’t trust him if he tells you otherwise. I only got back here because of you, and that’s that. I can already sense him scheming up all the ways he could claw his way back into my life."

"Take it from me," Kion said, "keep being you. Sooner or later he’ll see that and have to accept it."

"Good idea. Except sometimes I don’t know who the fuck I am." Lila teased with a breathless laugh.

The duo chuckled.

"It’s tough being in these shoes. I’m sure you have some idea what it’s like, having to have so much expectations on you. You might think it’s just in here with my father, but it’s the same with Sacrilax. I am their leader afterall."

"I understand fully, Lila." Kion responded. Even now, when it seemed he was free, there were still forces that expected a lot from him. From the goddess, Thea to his own father, Aurelius, he wast free from expectations either.

"Anyway. Enough rambling. I have to escort my father to his quarters for a long chat. He hasn’t still forgiven me for disappearing all these years but I’ll get around to him, at least for the time being. You and your royal squad should go find Trinket. He’ll take you to the manor."

Lila began to walks back to her father’s office, her short pink hair bouncing ever so slightly with each step she took.

"Ta-tah, prince." She entered Fergio’s office and shut the door from behind.

"She really is something isn’t she?" Kion glimpsed Kai round the corner just as she had vanished from view.

"How long have you been there?" Kion asked probingly.

"Not longer than you’ve been staring that’s for sure." Kai answered with a coy smile. Kion’s cheeks flushed red.

"I never believed that my cold, stony-hearted half brother was ever capable of falling in love. Heck, I wasn’t sure you even knew what it is." Kai continued in a teasing tone.

"Keep shut, Kai. Only you would know what you’re rambling about." Kion said sternly.

"Oh is that so? Okay then. I’ll just ignore that for now, since you insist that you don’t love her. That must mean then that you hate her, but are just disguising it as something similar to fondness or affection."

Kion opened his mouth to speak, as if I’m retaliation. Kai smiled at the sight. He had gotten the reaction he wanted.

"What are you here for? Or was your only goal to harass me at a time like this?" The red-haired prince complained, growing tired of Kai’s antics.

"Well," Kai said, "I actually just wanted to find out a few things."

"I’m not in love with Lila, and no, it will not compromise our mission. I know better than to do that." Kion clapped back with so much conviction that Kai clutched his chest in mock surprise.

"I never questioned you yet, so why assume such? I don’t care much for your love life if that’s what you think. No, what I want to know is more personal. Between us."

"Us?" Kion was confused. Nevertheless, he chose to see where this was going.

"Go on." He urged.

"I actually wanted to thank you for saving my skin back there, in the forest with the Egovore. After you dozed off I had a feeling that it was all some crazy circus act we were living in. That none of it was real, and that the Egovore was still alive. But it was too little too late. By the time I turned around, there was an animated tree standing right there. It had hunger in its eyes unlike anything I had ever seen." Kai explained.

"It’s okay, brother. I actually barely made it out of there. If I didn’t have a storm-pill on me, we both would’ve visited the grave." Kion reassured

"My..." Kai exclaimed. "It’s hard enough being on a deadly mission but an SSS-class monster...? You’re a beast, man. You now have my respect."

"I’ll never have your respect, even if I slay a dragon." Kion teased.

"That’s true." Kai said, and both brothers laughed.

"I wonder. What ever happened to the beast’s soul core?"

Kion felt his heart drop.

How would he explain this?

"A soul core? I actually didn’t see one. Just a bare pile of sticks that reeked of wood-mancy magic."

Kai frowned. A hint of doubt flashing across his face. "You sure?" He asked. "Only very low-class monsters have a chance of not getting a soul core, but the high-class ones usually possess them."

"Yes I’m aware of that. I suppose we were unlucky today. I read somewhere that there’s an extremely low chance of a monster not having one and I guess that low chance is all we got." Kion added.

"I suppose that’s true," Kai mused, "but you saved my life, and I’m grateful for that. A soul core wouldn’t matter much to me if I was dead, so thank you, once again."

"It’s no problem. You are my half brother, afterall." Kion said, as he watched his brother smile at his words. He couldn’t believe how far they had come in terms of their relationship. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Within the mere span of a month and some weeks, they had gone from blood rivals to teammates. They weren’t quite there in terms of family yet, but progress was progress.

Kion and Kai began to seem more like actual brothers than strangers.

"We need to go find Trinket. He will take us to Fergio’s manor. That is where we will take refuge for the night." Kion explained to Kai what Lila had told him.

"Refuge for the night? Don’t tell me you actually plan on sleeping." Kai said with a judgemental tone. Kion flashed a confused look.

"What else am I going to do? We need the rest. It’s been a long journey here and you know it." He said after a while.

"I know, I know. But don’t you think it’s best we get a lay of the land first? Know the hotspots for Greitors? Know more about the townsfolk and their businesses? What do you think?"

"It’s risky." Kion replied with an absolute sense of confidence around him. It made Kai falter in his demands.

"We are not going anywhere." He added. "We’ve almost died on two occasions, one of them being your fault. And now you want to parade unarmed and unready once again without any concern or whatsoever on the situation of the town? Go train or something."

"Fine." Kai grumbled. "I’ll gather the others. Let’s go find Trinket."