Part 1

It was a wednesday afternoon, maybe thursday. The sky was turning into that beautiful golden colour that signaled the incoming end of my shift at the wine shop. A gentle veil of white and pink clouds was dancing around lead by the waltzer of the wind. The day was fruitful, many usual customers came to buy the same wine they bought the past days while some new faces looked curiously around the shelves for a wine that would interest their tongues. We cashed a fair amount of money, probably less than what the shop gains during the weekend but still a fair amount. We had the shop all for ourselves that day, me and Lucas, since father was out in Migur West for a new shipment of wine coming from sea. It wasn’t any more difficult than the other days, we both learned how to answer our customers' requests and curiosities over the various qualities of wine. In the end, all their requests were pretty similar so we got used to them.

Since the time to close the shop was coming in about an hour but clients had already stopped coming, both me and Lucas preventively started cleaning the shop. It was no big deal, count the money, check the stock, refill the shelves and clean the floors. As always I was refilling the shelves while Lucas was upstairs refilling the stock. Nothing was out of order and everything was clean. I was already savoring the possible dishes that mother could have prepared for dinner when the melodic tinkling of the bell attached to the doorframe brought me back to the present.

“Good evening sir, this is Bluscale wine shop. How can I help you?”

A short man dressed in fancy clothes crossed the threshold. An unsightly ugly face proceeded to look around the shop with the most judgemental eyes I had ever seen. He was fat to the point where the buttons on his waistcoat seemed like they were about to burst. Rolls of flab were what his neck was composed of and the fat on his cheeks and chin was so much it stretched the skin making it fall downwards. Sticky blonde hairs combed backwards crowned his unproportioned head while a pair of thin short mustache adorned his face, remarking how unsightly that man was. A blue waistcoat covered a light brown shirt and on top of them an amazingly revolting long yellow overcoat covered his shoulders. The lower part of his attire was hilarious. At his feet were the only normal piece of clothing, a pair of fancy light brown shoes, on the lower part of his legs a pair of shiny yellow tights were on proud display and over them, on the upper side of his legs, a pair of white shorts that didn’t even reach his knees. His whole figure gave off such a disgusting yet ridiculous image, but I was taught not to judge by looks, plus he was a customer so I had to display my best behaviour. Yet I was feeling somewhat restless. The reason being for the only words that came into mind at the sight of that man: “nobility”.

“Uh, what was I even expecting from a shop run by peasants! To be even greeted by a mere child...Bha pure nonsense. Run along you filthy kid, call me the master of this shop so that I can at least speak with someone more “civilized”. Make haste filth!”

Upon hearing those words and seeing the disgusted look in his eyes as if he was looking at a smelly stray dog, anger started growing inside me. My blood was speeding through my veins pushed by my angered heart. I wished to strike that man from deep within my stomach.

[Fucking ugly pig! I must remain calm. This guy is probably a noble, I don’t know how rich and influential he is but one wrong move and I might curse my whole family. I have to remain calm...calm!]

“I’m mortified to hear one such as yourself unsatisfied with our modest shop and I’m sorry to inform this sir that the owner of this shop is currently out of town. Nonetheless I’m the son of the owner, Rapha-”

I didn’t even get to finish when a loud smack of the tongue interrupted me followed only by the lousy sound of that man’s voice. The disgusted look on his face turned into a revolting grin. At the same time, Lucas decided to come down the stairs and look inside the main room, intrigued by the voices.

“Why would I care about the name of a filthy dog like you. You reek of poverty! I suppose it’s a miracle that you people were even able to open this shop hehehe! I am Joaquin DeMonte, this is a name one should remember! Not like your... disgusting one...Uhhh I was told this shop was decent but the way things are maybe I should just buy it and have some of my servants work instead of you hahaha”

I could feel my blood boil inside my veins and my body temperature rising to leves that should be impossible for human beings. I was furious, the disrespect that this man was showing towards me was really testing my patience. His grinning face soon turned to resemble one I knew far too well for my own good: Delrick. The grin I was shown at the end of my trial and the one I was now were far too similar for me to keep my integrity. I clenched my fist, trying to supress my raging anger, but the strength I put was too much and my nails started to dive into the flesh, sending shivers of pain throughout my body. I worked far better than expected since I was able to keep myself from jumping at his neck. Lucas was still behind the door frame slightly poking with his head, looking at the situation.

“I’m terribly sorry,-” I replied. “- but if you need to either order or buy wine I am more than able to help you sir”

“You?! Help me?! How can a kid possibly know more about wine than me?!”

“No sir, I can’t possibly know more about wine than you but I am knowledgeable about the wines currently in the shop. I was taught by my father about them-”

“Stop with your blabbering! I have grown tired of you, it appears that your father has not been hitting you enough to teach you your place. Very well, I shall do an act of charity and teach you some good manners!”

While saying so, the man started putting on his hands a pair of white gloves he was keeping in a pocket of his overcoat. I had a feeling where this was going to go. It’s not unusual for nobility to knock around and abuse other citizens. I wanted to strike this ugly pig down with all myself but I didn’t. It took me all of my will and self restraint I was able to display to not slit this man’s throat.

A heavy slap with his fat left hand hit my right cheek. With that little strength that that man was able to hit me with it barely hurt, it was only able to make my head turn slightly to the right. I heard rustling from behind the door frame, probably Lucas was up to something. I wanted to give him a signal to not intervene but, clearly pissed by my lack of reaction, the grunting pig hit me in the face with a direct punch. I wasn’t ready for it. It wasn’t very strong but I had no time to put strength behind my back and neck muscles. Two knuckles hit my nose, making me fly all the way to the counter.

[My nose is hot...blood?]

Small crimson drops of blood were staining the wooden floor. I looked to my right, behind the restroom door, there, holding his shortsword, was Lucas with clear and pure rage painted on his face. His hand was on the door knob, it was only a second before he would come inside the main room. Luckily enough he looked towards me before opening the door. I shaked my head as vigorously as I could, showering the floor in crimson fluids. I stood up and walked towards the abusive man.

“What is that look supposed to be? You haven't had enough?”

I don’t know what kind of look I had on my face, but a good guess would be that my increasingly raging anger finally found a way to show itself. Of course the noble pig didn’t appreciate it. It took him ten minutes of continuous slaps to finally calm down. He was sweating and his breath was heavy as if he had just stopped running. His face was covered in sweat. He looked even uglier than he was ten minutes prior. I stood there with my cheeks swollen and my nose still slightly bleeding.

“Ha..I hope you...ha... learnt your...ha...lesson you filthy peasant. Next time...ha...I’ll come to this shop...ha...I won’t be so ...forgiving!”

And with those words followed by a refreshing spit on my face, the nobleman left the shop. The sound of my furiously pumping heart was the only sound that could be heard in the room. I stood there, in front of the door for a couple of minutes until the now unarmed Lucas spoke.

“A-are you ok brother?”

“....Let’s close the shop. It’s late”

“Ye-yes but that’s not wha-”

“I’ll clean the floor, mind checking the restroom?”

“...Ok”

In complete silence we resumed what we were previously doing. It didn’t take long, probably around ten or twenty minutes, but for me all those minutes felt like an eternity. The previous scene kept repeating inside my mind. Time and time over until the images started mixing with my memories. The pig’s face soon started to resemble that of Delrik and the other backstabbers. The anger dwelling inside me did nothing but increase until the shop finally closed.

Part 2

“Come on, let's go home brother! Mum will surely know what to do about thatasshole haha...and wait until dad finds out!”

[Shut up...you know nothing!]

We were walking towards home and Lucas for some reason kept pestering me about getting back at that guy and all of that. It was annoying. I just wanted some silence to calm my nerves. I found myself lingering on thoughts about the technology I left in my previous life. An MP3 or something at that time would have been the best. I always used music to calm my nerves before a race.

“I’m not coming for dinner today. Go on by yourself”

While saying those words I turned my back on him and walked off towards the west gates of the city. I had still at least five hours until the gates closed so I had more than enough time for what I was planning to do.

“Wait wait wait, where do you think you are going?”

“Out”

“Out where?!”

“The city”

“And what the fuck are you gonna do out of the city?! At this hour!”

“Oh that’s the first time I hear you swear. You are starting to look like a little more human...brother”

“What the fuck is your problem?!”

“What is my problem? My problem! You really don’t fucking understand do you?”

“No I don’t. Why didn’t you hit him back? Why did you just stand there taking all of his abuse? You are strong, I know it, then why didn’t you use that strength?”

“Are you an idiot or you just like to act like one? Do you not realize that that man was a noble, do you think I could have just attacked him, scare him off and all would be happy and fine? Wake up to reality! You are a noble no more Lucas and neither a fugitive! You are a peasant, just like everyone around you. If a peasant acts against a noble do you really think that noble will let it slide, uh? Think Lucas, think! Your actions do not affect only yourself now but a whole bunch of people around you! Believe me, I could and I would have liked to slice his throat in that exact moment but I endured it because if I hadn't my actions would have had consequences on father, mother you and Julie! If I had hit him he probably would have said I deliberately attacked him and, best case scenario, we both would be now in a cold cell. And what about after that? Do you think the shop would still be ours? Do you think father would have found any work?...I really can’t stand idiots…”

With an open hand lazily stretched just enough to make it look like I was greeting I closed the conversation and quickened my pace towards the gates. Once out of them I finally got what I wanted: silence. Or so I thought. The rhythmic silence of the wind whistling into my ears was constantly being interrupted by the loud stomping of feet coming from a couple meters behind me. Lucas kept following me out of the gates. At first I ignored him. He was just following me, at least he wasn’t talking like before. But of course, after five or so minutes, he had to open his damn mouth to ask me stupid questions.

“Shouldn’t we go back? Mom is probably waiting”

“...”

“Brother, where are you bringing me?”

“...”

“I think we should really go home”

He was so annoying. He was always annoying. I started running in hopes of juking him or outrunning him so I may have some peace. But of course that asshole had a better physique than me so he could keep up with me fairly easily. He was really pissing me off.

“Medium speed boost”

“Eh?”

I started running once again, this time he wasn’t able to catch me, not even get close to me. My aim was my “training ground”, that small green space in the forest where I thought with master before he left.

Finally my anger could be released. That was the reason I went to the training ground at such an hour. The boiling blood was now running through my veins while I forcefully recalled every single slap I received back at the shop. My face had no sign of slaps whatsoever anymore since I applied healing magic during my walk through the city, not that I had much to heal since it was merely swollen.

I closed my eyes, standing in the exact center of the clearing that still had signs of my past fight. All around me appeared the ghosts brought to life by my anger. I recognized them all. Every single face was one I would have never wanted to see again. Surrounded by rage itself. I finally let hold of my anger. I don’t know how much time I spent in that clearing , firing one spell after another, drenching my clothes in sweat, burning the surrounding area and destroying the terrain around me. One, two, three hours? I can’t recollect. For the first time in years I let my soul dance to the melody of my fury, a dance of freedom.

When finally my limbs surrendered I collapsed to the ground back first. It was a beautiful sight. Even though my eyes had a thin film of sweat, I could clearly see the shiny stars. A sky so bright, pristine and untouched by human’s pollution and ominous buildings. In my younger years, back in my past, I liked to look for the constellations when the sky was clear, even now I tried looking for them but without luck. There were certainly constellations but I couldn’t recognize them. The sky was one I was unfamiliar with. Finally my anger had subdued.

“I really did make the right judgement”

“Yes, after I thought about your words I did realize that you had taken the best course possible. I was foolish”

A voice coming from inside the woods. Familiar yet in a tone I had never heard in the past months together. Lucas came out from behind a dark tree with a heavy look on his face. He walked towards me and stopped when he was a couple of meters away from me. It was the actual first time that he had respected my private space.

“I know I was foolish-” He continued “- but still...seeing my brother being slapped around by a-a an asshole like that really made me want to kill him!”

“...”

“I was raised in a noble family so I don’t know how these things work out. I knew nobility had a much higher standing than normal citizens but...I would have never thought that it was this bad! I probably got stuck on the idea that mom was still a noble. Pff how wrong was I. I’m sorry brother, I almost caused huge troubles for our family...and yet I’m supposed to be the big brother and watch over you”

“No one asked you to”

“What?”

“No one asked you to watch over me. I don’t need someone to watch over me, as you have seen I can handle myself just fine without having a babysitter”

“Then...what am I to you?”

“Right now? A nuisance”

I wasn’t looking at him since I had my gaze fixed on the vast blue sky, but I could clearly hear the loud “gasp” and imagine the mixture of sadness and shock on his face. For a brief moment silence fell onto the clearing.

“Oh...I see...sorry”

“‘Cause I’m trying to look at the starts and hear the forest”

“Eh?”

“I said that you are a nuisance right now ‘cause I want to look at the stars in silence...but I guess that peaceful moment is done for.-” I said while raising my back from the ground and sitting with my legs crossed “-Why did you do this?”

“I thought you felt lonely after what happened so I was hoping to cheer you up, even just a little bit”

“No no, not now! I mean why did you come here, to Migur?”

“Do you still not fully trust me right?”

“Can you blame me?”

“I thought that after those months something had changed”

“Yeah, it changed the fact that I realized that I can’t get rid of you no matter what I do or say. That has changed. My suspicions towards you? They are still standing firm deep inside my mind”

“I told you, my previous family got slaughtered so I had to run here as a fugitive and-”

“No, not that reason. I want the real one”

“Wha-what do you mean?”

“You were a noble. I don’t believe your family didn’t have any allies, and if it didn’t you could still hide in a church where politics couldn’t reach you. I also heard that a late cousin of yours is now living in Lepro. He is from a noble family, you probably could have kept living as you did before, surrounded by riches and maids. Yet you chose to come out here in Migur West to live with a mediocre family as the son of a soldier. I don’t believe you came here only because here lives your true mother. So, what’s the real reason?”

His eyes lost their green color the instant I started talking, his expression stiffened and his hands, now closed in a fist, started shaking. I hit the mark.

“*phuu* you are right. I could have probably lived leisurely in Lepro, even the maid suggested me to go there since the travel route would have been safer, yet I chose to come here. In all truthness I had never had an actual family. I was treated more like a precious painting, locked up somewhere unseen by anyone except for the ones who knew of my existence. I was the only connection through mom’s family and my father’s family. I never had a mother to spoil me nor a father to teach me. I had no brothers. I was lonely in a huge mansion. I-I think I wanted to try and have a real family. The feeling of having someone thinking of you as a son rather than a valuable. I-I wanted to be treated as a human. Hahaha I know it sounds pathetic...a man should not dwell on sentimentalism but...it was something I had always dreamt about. I wanted a taste of love I guess haha!”

I looked intensively at him, trying to spot the signs of a lie yet I could find any. His expression was heavy yet a shy smile was forming on his lips. It was a contorted smile, as if his face muscles knew that it wasn’t the right time to smile, yet his heart was light so the smile was the only means of the heart to express its newfound lightness. He finally told me the truth.

[So in the end you are just like me uh]

“We still have time before the gates close. Why don’t you sit with me, brother?”

Part 3

An hour, at least, passed while laying down in the fresh grass with my newfound brother, talking about nothing in particular, making jokes and comparing our individual capabilities. The more I talked to him the more I realized that my fears and suspicions about him were only self suggested, he was nothing like the picture of him I had in my mind. Probably in that small window of time I came to recognize him as a brother because that same word came out of my mouth increasingly more often and everytime I said it my mind felt a little more at ease.

During our conversation his stomach suddenly started making some really loud noises all of a sudden, resulting in us exploding in laughter.

“Are you seriously that hungry?” I asked.

“Well, what do you expect? I had to follow my damn brother out in the woods and skip dinner!”

“Ohhh and how would that be my fault? Hahaha, should we go back home?”

“Yeah...mom’s gonna be soo angry with us!”

“Haha that’s a given!”

While laughing we both began to stand up and walk towards the entrance of the clearing, only our voices and the sound of our steps were breaking the peaceful silence of the woods. The almost full moon was up in the sky acting as a beacon for our steps. I was at ease even while walking through the small portion of deep trees that separated the clearing from the path home. I had walked under the same trees hundreds of times already plus no monsters had been seen roaming this close to the city in quite a long time. Or so I thought.

Suddenly the ground started rhythmically shaking, every shake had a one second pause before another one came. The birds who were peacefully sleeping in their nests on the trees started flying around like madmans. Sounds of wood cracking and trees falling accompanied the symphony of squeaking and wings flapping of the birds creating an amazingly restricted chaos. In the midst of all that chaos something appeared from deep within the woods, right from where the sounds came from. A huge black head was towering over the tallest of trees, it was difficult not to recognize it’s features. It was a fat head with flabs of black fat skin falling off from it’s cheeks, bored red eyes, the same colour of blood, each of them as big as my head if not bigger, the nose of a pig with what seemed like mucus falling from one of its nostrils and a couple of big sharp ears pointing upwards. It was easy to recognize the species of that thing that was coming towards us, it was an ogre, I had read about them in the library and the description fit it almost perfectly. Almost. The only thing that didn’t fit the description was the height of that thing. An ogre, according to the books, should be around two to three meters at best. Yet this thing in front of us was towering over trees that were ten meters high.

I promptly started to gather mana on my hands, ready to cast a spell if needed but the sheer stature of that monster gave me the chills. Suddenly I got my wrist grabbed tightly. I looked towards my left and there was Lucas looking at me with the scariest face I had ever seen. He was pale and sweating all over his face, in his eyes I could clearly read pure and simple fear. He pulled my wrist and ran deeper inside the woods until he found a rock big enough to hide us both.

“Lay behind the rock, don’t move a muscle, not even one! Don’t breathe! If we are lucky we’ll get out of here with our lives!”

I didn’t have the guts to debate nor to ask questions, I simply followed his lead. A feeling deep in my core was telling me that he knew what that thing was and, while I didn’t, he knew how screwed we could have been if that thing found us. So I laid down, as close to the rock as possible, with both hands close to my mouth to limit the sound of breathing coming from it. I relaxed my muscles and waited. From where we were hiding we could clearly see the clearing and, before I expected, that thing appeared right in the middle of the clearing.

Fear struck my whole body. Deeper and stronger than any fear I had ever come in contact with. My throat was on fire, my legs petrified and cold sweat started dripping from everywhere in my body. Lucas was similar except for the fact that he kept his eyes shit sealed the whole time. I couldn't. My curiosity was overwhelming.

It was huge. It looked like a human with a pig head. I only then noticed that his skin was indeed as black as the darkness but he also had blood-red tattoos all over his body creating an intricate system of straight lines and forms that looked like thunders. He was wearing something like a kilt made out of a strange kind of pelt. It was only when I focused on it that I realized that it was a kilt made out of human skin. I felt puke coming up from my stomach but repulsed it downwards in order not to make any noise or smell. He was also wearing a belt made out of a huge rope, the kind that is used to fix the boats in the harbours, and dangling from it was an enormous silverish club, so long that it was almost scraping the ground. His belly was as fat as his face. He reminded me of the fat noble from the shop. Crossing his belly was a red scar that created a sickle like shape. To end things, on his nipples two huge gold-like rings were hanging.

He stood there, in the middle of the clearing for a couple of minutes that seemed eternal, doing nothing other than looking at the sky and smelling the air. Once it was satisfied he scratched his bald head, scratched his ass, smelled his hands and with a disgusted face he left the clearing directed towards the west, further away from the city.

It took us several minutes to finally regain our composure, especially for Lucas who was still heavily shaken by that encounter. After that we started running in the opposite direction of the ogre, towards the city gates. Initially no one spoke a word until my curiosity got the best of me.

“Lucas, what the hell was that thing?!”

He looked at me dead in the eye while still running at full speed.

“That...that is something we have nothing to do about, got it?”

“Yeah yeah whatever, but tell me what the fuck waas that! I know you know what it was!”

“Yes, I know it! That was the “Black Ogre Demigod” and it’s something completely out of our reach! I don’t even know why was it here and what was it doing but that doesn’t concern us in the slightest! Got it?”

“Ok ok, but shouldn’t we tell the guards or something? That thing is extremely close to the city!”

“Do you not understand what I just said? That doesn’t concern us! We didn’t see it, we didn’t know it was here and we weren’t even close to that clearing! Raphael that is a fucking demigod...do you undestand what it means?!”

“Honestly no!”

“It’s strong, illogically strong. I only heard stories while I was in the mansion but there are supposed to be others like that roaming the world and they wake up only to either cause chaos or to choose the net “Ogre God”. If we tell people in the city that we saw something like that, chaos is gonna explode not only inside Migur but in the whole region! Trust me on this one ok? Don’t say a word about it”

“You seem serious...I don’t know if you are telling me the truth or you are just exaggerating things, but if you are asking me to keep my mouth shut about it then that’s what I’ll do”

He didn’t answer, he just nodded. From there on we kept endlessly running towards the city only to stop in front of the gates, just half an hour before the closing time. Apparently none of the guards saw anything about what happened inside the woods. From the gates it only took ten minutes to reach the door of our house where mother was waiting in front, clearly angry.

“Do you think this is the time to come back?! Where have the two of you rascals been?!”

Me and Lucas looked at each other for a brief moment before he answered while lowering his head.

“We have been confirming our brotherhood”

“Huuuuhh?!”

Needless to say we spent the next hours on our knees inside the kitchen listening to mother lecturing us while screaming and crying at the same time. Neither of us ate dinner that night.