"Men! assemble!!"
"Yes Sir!"
"Burn down every single house in Springvale! Spare not a single soul!"
"Sir!"
The soldiers ruthlessly marched on the burning grass with no look of sympathy in their faces.
Nothing much was left in Mondstad. Every city had been burned and people were mercilessly slaughtered. Even now as Springvale was being destroyed, children cried and adults watched.
"No! PLEASE! I AM BEGGING YOU! DON'T KILL MY HUSBAND! PLEA-", before the woman could stop speaking, her throat was cut down and the husband was killed with several merciless stabs of spears right in front of her eyes. She sat with her bleeding throat with eyes that were waiting for death.
In the bushes, a woman tightly held her two children. One a little girl of about three and the other a young lad of twelve.
"Jean... run away with the kids", her husband said as he tightly held them all.
"No...What will we ever do without you Diluc!?", Jean cried with devastation.
Diluc looked at his two children and gave a soft smile. "Live... that's all you have to do"
The little girl shivered with fear in her mother's embrace while the brother helplessly watched his parents in despair.
"Dad... mom.. i don't want to stay without you two", the girl said with tears rolling down her face.
Jean's eyes couldn't look at her daughter without her heart hurting. "I am so sorry Barbara... I know its scary... it will end my dear child. Mom and dad... both of us will forever be with you... in your heart."
"No! YOU HAVE TO STAY!", Barbara cried out loud.
"Jean! Listen to me! this is no time to be emotional! These bushes won't hide us even for a few minutes. Please... take the children and run away", Diluc said.
"And what about you Diluc!?", Jean said as she held his hand. "Let's go together! Just like Barbara said..."
"You know just as well as I do... just how fatal that thought is. Please Jean... for the sake of our children..."
Diluc stood up and smiled at the three.
"Live... I love all of you... more than anything and everything"
He went in the midst of the fire and Jean sat there helplessly crying.
But she too stood up and held the hands of her two children. "We need to go as far away as we can"
The three of them ran. In the midst of endless cries and bloody fields, they ran. Until doom struck and they came face to face with a Liyue soldier.
The soldier grinned at the sight of the helpless woman with her children.
"What a rare beauty-", he said and whistled with his spear pointing towards Jean.
Jean slightly whispered- "Run"
The little girl looked at her mother with teary eyes.
The boy stood in front of his mother.
"Ehh? You trying to get in my way?", the soldier said to the boy with an evil grin. He would really stab the boy with the spear but Jean pushed him away.
The soldier caught hold of Jean who yelled at the top of her voice-
"Barbara! Venti! RUN!... Mom loves you two... very much..."
The fire burned and engulfed everything around them.
Venti had two choices. Either to try and save Jean... or run away with Barbara.
With tears in his eyes he got up, held Barbara's hand and ran.
"Thank you so much... Venti... for making the right decision...", Jean said as the soldier restrained her movement. She struggled to free herself and took the spear of the soldier to stab herself.
"You damn woman!", The soldier said and gritted his teeth. "You could've lived as my slave"
"No... there is... only one person who I truly loved. No one else... has the right to touch me", Jean said as the blood flowed out of her at a steady pace. The soldier left her alone surrounded by fire. He left her alone to die.
"Ahh... when Venti was born... I was so happy... and then years later we were again blessed with Barbara... we went to places we loved and lived with happiness... Why did everything... have to end like this...", Jean laid on the ground with her body slowly becoming cold.
"Venti... Barbara... please let my children live... let them find happiness even without us..."
Her voice slowly drowned and her consciousness faded away. All that was left of her turned to ashes in the fire that waved across the grounds of Springvale.
Venti ran. He ran and ran with Barbara on his back. The little girl wouldn't stop crying. But he didn't stop running.
_
The sun rose the next day and shined upon the dead carcass of people.
Venti stood in their midst as he held Barbara's hand.
"Where are mom and dad?", Barbara asked.
"They are here... inside our hearts ", Venti said as tears rolled down his face.
"Forgive me Barbara... for not being able to do anything..", he broke down and fell on the ground with his entire body shivering. "Forgive me Mom... forgive me Dad..."
"Don't ask for forgiveness my dear child", the voice of an old woman spoke.
Venti and Barbara looked back and saw an old woman looking at them with sympathy.
"You kids made the right choice... unlike my son who died to protect me... what am I... an old hag gonna do? He had so much of his life left and yet he chose to give it all away for someone like me who can't even walk properly anymore", she said as her jaws shivered.
"Don't regret anything my dear children... all you can do now is live... live for the sake of your dead parents"
Barbara cried and Venti hugged her with tears. This was their life now...
They had nothing left but each other.
After the war had ended, Liyue had emerged victorious without a single loss. Mondstad on the other hand was utterly destroyed. It had become a unproductive desert. Barren lands with no trees in sight and the water in the lakes mostly dried up.
But even in a land like that, everyone who survived in the great war still lived. In straw huts or mud houses, people lived their lives full of misery and sufferings.
And years passed away with no change.
-
"So, when will you return the money that you owe me?"
Venti looked at the man sitting in front of him with scared eyes. "Can I please get one more month... I will try to arrange the money somehow..."
The man laughed menacingly.
"Look kid, you cannot ask for another month's time when I've already given you two months extra. Things won't go smoothly for you if you don't pay me back before this month ends."
Venti looked at the man with begging eyes. "The crops... didn't get any rain... and the next harvesting season is months away... if i had the money, I would've paid you back the sum I owed."
The man got up and roughly held Venti's face. "Shut up. If you can't grow crops, sell that little sister of yours"
Venti was frozen. "That's- not possible", he said with a broken voice.
"Not possible you say!?", he slapped Venti which made him fall down and bleed from the corner of his lips. "Then sell yourself! HAHAHAHA-"
Venti's chest felt tight. It was hurting him so much.
"Well, if you do not pay me back before the end of this month, I will take that sister of yours as my personal slave. Sounds good to you? Or would you rather volunteer to be one instead?", The man asked with an evil grin.
Venti stood up and spoke, "I can't allow either of that..."
"Then simply pay me back the money. You took a huge sum. And adding interest to that makes it even more"
"Interest... there was no such thing! you never mentioned that while giving me the money!", Venti yelled.
The man now looked with anger at him. "You dare raise your voice? seems like I need to teach you a lesson."
Venti clenched his fists to suppress his emotions.
"I m sorry... please forgive me", He said.
The man sat down again and spoke harshly. "Go away! Come back to me at the end of this month with the money and ten percent interest. If you fail then you know the consequences"
Venti slowly walked away and out of the hut. He walked with his dead eyes across the cropless fields.
"Brother!", a voice called for Venti with so much love. Barbara ran to him as she saw him coming back home. "Brother you know I made mint stew today! Granny helped me... but I did most of it myself!"
Venti smiled and kept his hand on her head. "Is that so? My little sister now knows to cook mint stew too?"
"Huh... Brother... you don't look too good. Did something happen?"
"No... nothing happened. The crops didn't grow well this time either. So I was just feeling a little disappointed.", Venti said to Barbara.
They lived in a tiny straw hut which barely kept them from the cold winds of the south and north.
The old woman who had first found them six years ago, lived with the two. She came out from the hut and looked stressed. "Barbara, would you mind going inside the hut for a bit?", she said with her old shaky voice.
"Sure granny", Barbara said and obediently went back in.
The old woman went to Venti and kept her hand on his shoulder. "What happened... did they give you more time?", she asked with worry.
Venti remained silent.
She realized that things had not worked out. She immediately teared up and held Venti's hands. "My boy... this old woman's life is worth much... but whatever it is worth... will that suffice?'
"What are you saying granny... Your life is just as precious to me as Barbara's... ", Venti said as he held back his tears.
"You borrowed that huge sum of money to pay for the medicine for Barbara and my sake.", she said and started taking deep breaths.
"Granny... please don't stress yourself. I will... I will arrange that money somehow or the other. You don't have to worry at all", Venti said and tried to force a smile.
"My child... where will you get so much money from...?"
Venti looked at her and spoke in a sad tone, "Liyue..."
"That place is nothing but hell for us from Mondstad...", she said to Venti with tears.
"I have to go to Liyue... its the nation closest to us... I'll... I'll get money there by any means possible. But staying here in Mondstad won't get me anywhere... Granny, while I am gone, Will you please look after Barbara?"
The old woman paused but eventually nodded her head.
"Thank you so much Granny... I promise that no one will have to suffer cause of this. I'll earn as much as I can and return back as soon as possible.", Venti said and wiped the old woman's tears."
"Can you really live without Barbara for so long...?", The old woman spoke with her broken heart.
Venti didn't reply back immediately. "I don't know... but there is no other option", he said at last.
In the middle of the night when Barbara was asleep, he gently kissed her head and took out a paper. He dipped her hands in a red dye and placed them on the piece of paper. With the prints of Barbara's hands, he got up and slowly left the place.
"Here, take this"
"What is this granny?"
"Mora"
"Mora...? where did it come from?..."
"I had saved some for emergency... it is very little... not even enough to buy three meals... but take it with you my child. The journey to Liyue is a long one on foot. You will need it", the old woman said and with her shaky hands, gave it all to Venti.
Venti hugged her and tried very hard to not cry. "Granny... while I am gone... if Barbara asks about me, just tell her that I'll be back with loads of presents for her... loads of them..."
He left Mondstad... leaving behind the one person who he loved more than himself. Leaving behind his homeland. Leaving behind the people closest to his heart.
_________________________________________