Kei stared up at the starry night sky, drowning himself in its majestic beauty. There had been people in his castle who had claimed to have the ability to tell the futures from the starts. The name eluded him, but it wasn’t really important, what was important was the small fact that Rose, beside him was telling him his future with it right now. He had to get that ridiculous theory out of her.
“And that’s the Circle of Argus.” Rose pointed to a circular formation of stars. She took another bite of her apple he had given her when they arrived at Hilda’s. Her teeth sank deep into its depths and came out with a huge chunk. “I’ve never been on a rooftop.” Rose snuggled in closer to Kei. “What if I fall?”
“Then I’ll catch you.” Kei ran his hand through her hair. “Rose, enough with the stars. They can’t tell the future.”
Rose crossed her arms over her chest and pursed her lips. “How do you know? It’s not like you can tell the future. It might be right.” Kei shifted his weight, and shook his head. First off he could tell the future, and second, all they had to do was wait for the time to pass to realize the predictions were wrong. Hence the reason so many of the start watchers—that was the title—had been hung for giving false information to the king. Idiots.
“And that one there is the Council of Champions.” Rose directed his attention back to her in an instant as he basically fell off the roof.
“W-what did you just say?”
“The Council of Champions.”
“Tell me everything you know about the Council of Champions,” Kei demanded, looking desperately into her eyes. Maybe she had the answers to the questions which have haunted him since the first mention of him being a Champion.
Rose looked slightly frightened, but she complied. “All I know is what my Grandpa taught me.” She began to shake, and fearing he had scared her Kei pulled her in for a hug and kissed her forehead.
“I’m sorry Rose, if you don’t want to-”
Rose looked up at him, her big green eyes brimming with determination. “Papa wouldn’t cry. So I won’t either.” Pride spread throughout his body, but it was better to remain silent. “Each Goddess is allowed to choose a single champion. Those champions each are allowed a single part of their respective Goddess.” She lifted a finger and pretended to poke five stars in a row.” Those show that there are five different champions, each with a separate…um.” Rose scratched her leg and yawned. “I can’t remember.”
“It’s okay. Thanks sweetie.” Kei kissed her cheek and she giggled. They wished each other a good night, and Hilda came and carried Rose back inside.
Hilda came back to his place on the roof and sat down next to him, her blonde hair whipping him in the face.
“You know, I still can’t believe you have a daughter.” Hilda whacked him on the back of the head. Really freaking hard too. Kei yelped in protest, and leaped to his feat. Why the Abyss did she hit him for?
“Hey, it was that or kill her. I stand by the choice I made.”
“So you didn’t…” Hilda made a gesture which if done by anyone else would have rude, but done by her was just hilarious. She just didn’t have the features of a prostitute. She was way more homely and pretty. Well, until she began to fight. Then the first thing he would do if he could was high tail the Abyss out of there.
“No way.” He slapped his knee while chuckling at her. It was amazing how one moment he could be wary of her and the next his guard would be completely down and he would be laughing.
Two shadows sprung up from the shadows and converged on either side of Hilda, stabbing her until she was covered with holes. One turned around and drew a short sword, and charged at Kei shouting at the other, “Get the girl. All of them need to be dead.”
Hilda’s dead. The thought coursed through his body and simply circled itself inside his head. Vaguely he noticed the attacker burry a sword in his chest, and felt a warm liquid down his chest. And now Rose was going to die as well…
The world spun and twisted into different shapes until it bulged and Kei found himself moments before the attack back to his conversation with Hilda.
She eyed him from her place, unmoving. As he signaled silently to her left, it seemed like she immediately understood his warning and had come to the conclusion that he had seen something. Whether or not she knew of his ability was something else.
Hilda cocked her head to the left, and Kei positioned himself to attack the right. Although they did this, neither of them revealed any malicious intent, and would appear to onlookers as simply watching the stars.
A movement to the right, and then a flash of silver to the left. Kei dashed to her right and slid down the roof. As he slid down, a black shadow leaped up and their cloak whipped against his face. Kei grabbed the material and pulled down as hard as he could. The son of a bitch would pay for what they had been planning to do.
The roof left him and he was in mid-air, grappling with a shrouded figure. The perfect way he wanted to be falling off a two story building. The moonlight shone onto the attackers face and Kei noticed that the he was actually a she. She had cold, emotionless eyes, and was beyond his help. It also helped that her strength was lacking compared to his, so that when they fell through the air, he was able to overpower her. Kei twisted his body so that she was now underneath him and when they landed, her spine broke like a twig. She might have lived had it only been her, but with his weight on top, she was squashed like a potato. Just as an extra measure in case she was faking somehow, Kei drew a short sword from the corpse’s belt, and removed her head. A little extreme, but no one threatened the only people who cared even a bit about him.
He chucked her short sword into a puddle of water nearby, and pushed his hair out of his eyes. It was time he cut it. Kei ran out the wall and pushed off of it, the momentum of the push giving him the ability to reach the second floor window. Thanks to the vision he didn’t feel out all worried about Hilda. If she had the advantage of surprise, the attacker stood no chance.
But when he climbed back onto the roof, the attacker was dead, but Hilda was injured and leaning against a wall.
Rose stood next to the dead corpse of the guy, a bloodied sword in her hand. She looked up at Kei and cocked her head to the side slightly.
“Papa, he’s dead now.”
Rose sat naked in a bucket of cold water, which was slowly turning a deeper red. Kei rubbed her hair with water, cleansing it of any blood. Unbelievable. Rose was already beginning to enter his world. Part of him was proud and thrilled, but another part was sad. Rose was his connection to the world of innocence.
Remembering what she had been through basically her entire life, Kei realized he had just been fooling himself. If Rose were to survive in this world then she would need to learn how to fight. She was only four summers old, so no training. He made up his mind that he would train her starting on her sixth birthday. That was when his father had begun to train him.
He cursed himself. If Rose had been brought to a normal family instead of to Vraik she could have escaped this life. No. That’s wrong. There is no way she could escape this life with Zellock abusing her and her parents being killed by the same man. The best thing he could do his to be her father and teach her to protect herself.
“Papa, I did a good job right?” Rose grabbed his arm, tears in her eyes. “Is papa mad at me for hurting the bad man?”
“No princess. Papa’s very proud of you.” Kei smiled and continued to scrub all the blood out of her hair.
“Kei, come here for a second,” Hilda shouted, her stamping and voice signaling to him that she was on the roof. Her injury had been small, only a graze. It was the fact that the attacker had dropped dead in mid strike that had shocked her. And then Rose behind him had basically given her a heart attack.
He pulled Rose’s blankets onto her, and kissed her forehead. Hilda called for him again, but he didn’t answer. Rose was sleeping so there was no way in the Abyss he would wake her up. Not after the day she had. Instead he shut her door and walked over to a window, opening it to its max. It was a tight fit, but he managed to exit through the smallest window and climb to the roof.
“What is it Hilda?”
“Take a look at this.” She held up the cloak of the guy Rose had killed and showed him the insignia. Two swords crossed, both penetrating a heart with a crack through its middle.
Killera.