CAERA DENOIR
"Why hello there, Caera. I've been waiting for you."
My body tenses up as I draw my sword from my dimension ring.
"Who are you? What are you doing in my room? Have you come to kidnap me, Agrona?" I spit, assuming this must be a personal visit.
"Perhaps I have," the figure says, standing to reveal a hooded form wearing a mask with a blue streak over the left eye. "You can call me Note. I'm here to ask you a few questions."
I don't even respond and instead swing my sword at him. He reaches an arm up to block it, but doesn't even use mana to reinforce himself. He just lets my blade sail right through his arm. His left arm falls to the floor with a resounding thud.
"Well that wasn't very nice, Miss Denoir. What am I supposed to do now?" he asks playfully, as if I didn't just cut his arm off.
Just as I begin to bring my sword back around to swing again, he puts up another arm to block my sword, still not using mana. His left arm falls to the floor with a resounding thud.
Wait, it does?
I take a quick glance at the two left arms at my feet. My eyes go wide as I turn back to my assailant, but I'm met with a different man than I was expecting.
Here I was expecting to see huge elk-like horns with red eyes and black hair. But before me is a handsome man with wheat-blonde hair and piercing golden eyes.
"I missed you, Caera," he says.
"G-Grey?!" I shout as he hurries to cover my mouth with his left hand.
"Not so loud, dummy. I'm a wanted criminal here!" he whispers loudly in front of me.
My face begins to heat up at his presence. I can feel his breath hitting my face as he stares into my eyes with his golden irises. He seems to be oblivious of how this scene would look to an observer.
"Grey, what are you doing?" I hear from my left.
Who the hell it that?
I turn to see a woman with gunmetal hair and radiant teal eyes. Her elven ears point towards the corners of the doorframe she's standing in. The beautiful seafoam green runic tattoos on her exposed arms glowing ever so slightly in the darkness of my apartment.
It's her...
"Wahs schee doi heer?" I mumble with Grey's hand still over my mouth.
"Oh, sorry. Can you repeat that?" Grey apologizes, removing his hand.
"What's she doing here?" I reiterate.
"Oh, I need your help real quick. Other than that I'm in town for a while to visit you and get a few things. Not that I can go outside, so it's now your job to get said things," Grey says.
I roll my eyes not once, but twice and let out an exasperated sigh.
It's only been two minutes since I got home, and now I have more shit to do....
"Don't worry, Caera. It isn't very time sensitive. Oh also, I don't have anywhere to stay so..." he trails off.
"Yeah sure, whatever, fuck it. Stay here. You're sleeping on the floor for the shit you pulled though," I demand. "I thought I was going to be kidnapped, and now I have two more mouths to feed and two left arms on my floor!"
Despite my anger I pull Grey into a hug, heaving out one final sigh.
"I missed you, too, Grey."
----------------------
Grey has been staying in my apartment for a few days now. The girl he brought with him, Cecilia, is incredible. Ever since I imbued mana into her core restrictor to make it release, Grey has been teaching her mana theory. In just three days, she's proficient enough to use mana to cast wind, water, and fire spells well enough to clean my apartment and wash my clothes. Interesting use for godlike powers.
"Thanks, again, Cecilia. It's been really nice to not have to do many chores, but you don't have to do all of them." I say.
"You're letting us stay here free of charge. It's the least I can do. Plus, it helps me get better at mana manipulation!" she says with a huge smile.
"'Get better at mana manipulation.' As if you aren't already leagues above every other mage in Alacrya and Dicathen in just three days." I blurt with a scoff.
"Play nice, Caera. I can't break up a fight between you too. You know... a gentleman never hits a woman," I hear from over my shoulder.
"Since when were you a gentleman, Grey?" I ask.
"Whenever I gave you that locket around your neck that you seem to have forgotten to ask me about," he says.
Fuck. He's right. I completely forgot. But I can't admit that!
"I was just waiting for you to bring it up, Sir Grey," I tease.
"Sure, horny. That's what I'd say too if I forgot," I hear as an unwelcomed purple and black wolf decides to pop out of Grey's chest and chime in.
"Regis, you're supposed to be on my side!" I yell.
"I'm not on either side this time. He's been thinking nonstop about when you're gong to ask him about it that it's driving me insane. This is for my own well being, MY side," he spits before receding back into Grey's chest.
Grey's face goes flush. What could be in here that would make him blush like that?
"Alright, fine then. I'll ask," I state. "Grey, would you please open this locket for me?" I ask, giving him my best puppy-dog eyes.
He sighs.
"Yeah, Caera. I'll open it," he says, walking over to me with a slightly gloomy face. "Though, whenever I do, can you go and look at what's inside in your room? I don't really want to watch you while you check it out," he tells me while taking the locket into one hand and turning the other hand counter-clockwise.
"I mean... I guess so, Grey. Why? Is it that embarrassing?" I tease.
"Y-yeah, Caera. It kind of is," he replies, face going flush as he scratches the back of his neck.
"O-oh. Okay," I mutter, not sure what to think of the current situation. What could make him that flustered?
Grey turns around and goes back to the kitchen where he pours a glass of water and proceeds to stare at the wall, presumably waiting for me to go and open the locket in my room. I readily comply. Standing up, I motion to open my door when I notice Cecilia giving me two thumbs up and a huge, supportive smile. Interesting.
I open my door and take a seat on the bed.
I unclasp the locket from my neck and take a quick glance at it. The light purple glow is gone.
I begin to fidget with the clasp that keeps both halves of the locket closed. Once open, all I see is a small clear crystal. Is this a diamond? What does this mean? Is he proposing?
"Yes, Grey! I will!" I yell at my still cracked door.
"What?" he asks, peeking his head in the door.
"What do you mean 'What?'' I ask. "I said yes, I'll marry you."
His face becomes as red as a sunset.
"T-thank you very much for that, Caera, but you obviously didn't see or read the note in there as well." he mutters, pulling his head out of my room and closing the door.
I tilt my head in confusion.
"Huh?" I mutter to my self.
I reopen the locket to see that there is indeed a piece of paper nestled into the half that I flipped over. I didn't see it because it was on the other side.
Pulling the paper from the locket, I unfurl it into a palm sized note.
'Hey, Caera. If you're reading this, I somehow made it out of the Victoriad alive. Additionally, I made my way back to you, the first person to accept me in this world without knowing a damn thing about me. Thank you for that. The months I spent delving through the Relictombs with you were some of the most enjoyable times of my life as I look back on them. You helped me when I was truly at my darkest hour. I told myself mentally that starting from the moment I gave you that locket, I was going to tell you everything. So, shine some light through the diamond and see my whole story.'
I hurriedly do as the note says, pulling a light artifact from my drawer and placing it so that the image would appear on a blank wall on the wall opposite side of my bed.
The resulting image read:
'I was born on a place called, Earth. I never knew my birth parents. They died or gave me away, I'm not sure which. I was sent to an orphanage where I met a friend, Nico. He and I were best friends and did everything together. It's because of him that I was able to regain my smile after getting to that orphanage. The headmaster there also treated us as if we were her own flesh and blood. Her name was Headmaster Willbeck. She was my mother figure, I guess. I don't think she had children of her own so we filled that role.
After a few years, a girl was brought into the orphanage. She was our age. She had light brown hair and almond shaped eyes. Her name was Cecilia. The only issue was, Cecilia had a ki core that was so big that she was prone to have seizures and damage the building with outbursts of ki. (Think of Ki as mana.) Headmaster Willbeck asked us to be her friend and bring her out of her shell. Nico readily agreed for us because he immediately fell for her.
Over the course of months, Nico and I would talk with Cecilia regularly so that we could get closer to her. We finally got a smile, and then a laugh, and then SHE would start to initiate conversation. We became three best friends.
However, Cecilia still had these outburst of ki. She would shake and convulse, and we had no way to calm her down. Or so we thought. Nico was pretty damn smart, so he ended up tinkering around with some spare parts and made a glove that was able to absorb ki. I took the glove from him and ran into the room where Cecilia was having her outburst. After crawling on the floor and nearly dying, I donned the glove and placed it Cecilia, draining her ki from her core and calming her down. Ever since that day, we had a way to help.
Life went normal for a while until we were attacked by a few men in an alleyway. They were trying to kidnap her while continuously calling her "The Legacy." I always had freakish reflexes, so whenever the man tried to harm us, I dodged and got everyone away. I even shoved a rusty nail through one of the attackers' eyes.
After a few more months, Nico, Cecilia, and I were told by the Headmaster that we could go to school so that we could be successful in life after the orphanage. Nico and I were exhilarated. We hurriedly all went to the nearest store and bought supplies so that we could attend school. One issue, when we returned to the orphanage, it was in flames, and Headmaster Willbeck was being carried away, dead. My life turned upside down.
Instead of going to school, I chose to enroll in the military academy so that one day, I could become king and get revenge on the bastards who killed Headmaster Willbeck. I was hellbent on vengeance. I told Cecilia and Nico to go to school and not follow me, but they insisted. While in the academny, I met a woman by the name of Lady Vera. She saw potential in me due to my agility and inhuman reaction speed. She offered to become my mentor and make sure I'd be able to enter the King's Crown Tournament.
The Tournament was held whenever the King was either killed in a duel or ruled unfit to fight in further duels. Over the course of years, I became so engrossed in training that I completely detached myself from Cecilia and Nico. I began to never talk to them. One day, I got a call from Nico, he told me that his now fiancé, Cecilia, had been kidnapped by that group of thugs that would call her "The Legacy." Apparently it had been days, and he was worried. He asked me to help him find her, but I refused because I was too busy with my training. I regret that.
I kept training, and eventually, the day of the King's Crown Tournament came around. I clawed my way to the final where I would be matched up with none other than Cecilia, herself. It ate at me to have to fight her, but I remembered a saying Lady Vera always told me. "Having people to protect only serves to hinder you from making the optimal and most rational decisions." I decided that she was right and pressed on even after Nico came and found me in disguise. He begged me not to fight her, and instead go along with some elaborate plan he had to get Cecilia back. He wanted us to flee to some other country, but I'd come too close to my goal of becoming king to turn back now.
When the final round began, we were face-to-face in an arena, the then king watching over us, his two successor candidates.
Our battle was a one-sided beating.
Cecilia had far too potent ki and way more of it than I had. This was all courtesy of her being "The Legacy." Just as she was about to strike what could have been the final blow on me, she instead threw herself on my sword. It went straight through her heart. In her final moments, she whispered to me and told me that this was the only way to make Nico not get himself killed trying to save her.
I hated myself for simply holding a sword in the air. I had killed my childhood friend. To make matters even worse, the arena became flooded with people looking to take Cecilia away amidst the chaos of the explosion that had just happened. But... that wasn't even the worst part. Glaring at me from the stands, Nico gave me the most hateful gaze I have ever received to this day. He was just as hellbent on revenge against me as I was to avenge Headmaster Willbeck.
After the events of the tournament, I was thrust into a challenge with the then King and defeated him in a duel, making me the new King. With one swing of my sword, I secured the goal I had dreamed of for a while now, but the job wasn't finished. I had to avenge the Headmaster. The culprit was the group that kept trying to take Cecilia and eventually succeeded. They were a nation known as Trayden. The end goal was to raze that whole country to the ground.
Over the course of dozens of duels against their pitiful Kings and over 15 years of slaughter against that country, I had finally done it. I exterminated Trayden like the rats they were. After it was all over, my goal achieved, I told the council that actually governed the country that I was stepping down. That night, I went to my room, gazed out at the city I had brought from the ashes into a constant state of war, and went to sleep. I never woke back up as King Grey.
Ask me about the rest.'
The message ended, but my tears didn't. How? It can't be made up... it's too vivid. My tears fell to my lap as I silently cried.
That may be the most heartbreaking and gut-wrenching existence I could imagine. A life built on nothing on revenge. Is that really the same Grey?
I stand up, and walk to my door opening it.
"Grey, I'm here to ask about the rest," I say, tears still constantly dripping from my eyes.
"Alright, Caera. Now it's time for the story of Arthur Leywin," he replies.
A/N: Oh man that felt good to get out. I don't know if I got every detail correct about Grey's backstory, but if something is wrong, then it's just my head-canon and thus the canon of this story. ALSO... Thanks so much for 1k views! We just crested 1.2k as I finish writing this, but we were at 900 when I started. It's only been a few hours! Thank you guys so much for all of the love and support. It means the absolute world to me. You guys make the effort worth it.
ALRIGHT, enough sappy talk.
Naz, out!