PoV Darius

Today, my children must return. After hearing that Nick had died, Kyle immediately decided to return. When he came home he immediately went up to my office and asked me

-Father! I received your letter, everything that is written there, is it true?

-Yes. I've already invited a priest. He should come this evening or tomorrow morning.

-Okay. We didn't expect to hear this. When Emilia heard this, she ... now she is grieving very much. She needs time

-I expected it... what's going on with her marriage?

-So far I haven't managed to find a suitable groom, but be sure soon I'll fi…

-Stop it. You'll start looking later. She will not be in the mood for this in the near future.

-But Father! We need to do this before her 18th birthday! How am I supposed to find a fiance so quickly if she *will not be in the mood* for a year? I'll have too little time then! And also the rumors

-Enough! Understand her, she was very close to Nick. Rumors are not so important. And as you say, she needs time

-...Fine. - Kyle said with a displeased face. -I'll listen to you this time.

-Just this once... she needs time to accept it. Do you have any ideas about what you want to add to the coffin?

-Yes. I'll go collect it when I'm done with my business.

-Alright. -I watched Kyle go. When he left the room, I sighed.

The nobles have a tradition of funerals. First, they prepare a room with a coffin and call it the farewell room. Relatives and close friends have the right to go there in turn and talk to him for the last time in the presence of the priest. He sends all the words spoken in the room to heaven. No one living outside the room will ever know what the loved ones said to the dead.

I don't know if the messages really get to the dead, but the priests always keep their mouths shut as dead. There were only a couple of cases when the priests told the conversation to someone else, but these are only unimportant conversations, nothing important.

A person close to the dead also has the right to put something in the coffin. Most often, relatives put small knives or papers with the achievements of the dead person there. The head of the family then checks everything and removes everything that he considers unsuitable.

…

The priest arrived tonight. I greeted him and let him prepare everything in the farewell room. After half an hour of waiting, he said that it was time to start.

I decided to go first. After me, there will be Kyle, then Emilia.

When I entered the room, I saw the priest and the coffin. Nick's body was never found, so his photo is lying instead. It was drawn by a local artist 3 years ago. The priest nodded and closed his eyes, raised his hand with the cross and it glowed faintly. This means you can start

Putting my hand on the coffin, I began to speak

-When I was young, I was able to win the heart of one beautiful lady and she gave me a magnificent son, Kyle.

At that time, I was very happy. On one of the days when I was returning from hunting, I saw a young lady. She was nonetheless beautiful and had a bright mind. I immediately fell in love with her and took her as a concubine. However, my wife didn't like it, she left this border town to her family, taking Kyle with her. Later, my concubine, Elena gave birth to Emilia.

A few years later, I managed to persuade my wife to return here. Life was slowly getting better. And one day I found out that both of my beloved ones got pregnant. The birth was supposed to take place at about one time. I have hired experienced doctors for this. First, a child was to be born from his wife.

However...

“This day flashed into my head. I was nervously waiting for the birth of a child. The doctor left the room and bowing his head said

* I'm sorry, my lord. Your wife is dead. She couldn't stand the birth. We were unable to save the child.* ”

...however, she died with the child. There was no limit to my grief. Only Elena's gentle words helped me recover quickly. However, after that, I began to fear the birth of Elena. They were supposed to take place next month.

I have hired other experienced doctors for this day. I was more nervous than ever that day. Unfortunately, my fears have come true. The doctor came out of the room and bowed his head and said to me: *I'm sorry, My Lord. She couldn't stand the birth. But, we managed to save your child. This is a boy*.

Your birth was the least of my worries back then. The one who has become my support for all these years has died. Since then, the world has lost its luster. For a long time, I couldn't accept it. To believe that they are dead. Instead of coming together and accepting everything, I acted like a coward. I ran away from reality. He refused to accept all this. I was looking for the culprit. *Sigh*... and blamed everything on you.

Nick. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I never celebrated your birthday. I'm sorry that I've never praised you, only scolded. I'm sorry couldn't love you and I couldn't be a good father to you. I can understand if you hate me. I deserved it.

The priest came over and gently patted me on the shoulder.

-Don't blame yourself. God teaches everyone mercy. Perhaps in the next world, he forgave you.

I couldn't say anything to that. Instead, I changed the subject.

-Father Lennard, there is no need to say anything. I hope all my words will reach my son.

-Of course.

I took a piece of paper out of my pocket, carefully opened it, and put it in the coffin. It was a picture of Elena.

After that, I had no reason to stay and turned around and left the room.

…

PoV Kyle

In the evening, I returned home with a bouquet of flowers. All the types that I just found. But during these few hours, I have collected only those that have not bloomed. I enter the farewell room and looked at the coffin. The Priest nodded and raised his hand with the cross

-Brother. All these years I believed that you are like these flowers. Just haven't yet bloomed and haven't shown your potential to others. I've often been hard on you, but I did it in the hope that it would help you become a better person. With hope, it makes a true nobleman out of you. Confident with a firm posture. Ready to fight for the honor and dignity of himself and his family.

I wished to see in one day when I back home after a long journey, you will meet me and look into my eyes with a smile and say: Hello Brother. You must be tired of this road. Come on in, let's have a chat. I'm sure you have a lot to say

And I want you to say it firmly. Without turning away his gaze, without bowing the head. Alas, such a day will never come. I'm really sad that this happened. You are like these flowers, torn from the ground and will never bloom again With a heavy heart I will tell you. Goodbye, brother.

I put the flowers in the coffin and left the farewell room.

…

After it, I went to my sister. Nick's death was a heavy blow for her. We don't have the best relationship.

- *Knock* * Knock* -I knocked weakly on the door of her room.

- Come in. -A voice came from outside the door. When I opened the room, I saw my sister writing something. Her hands were shaking a little.

-What are you doing?

-I write poems of farewell. I also collected all my poems that were about Nick.

-You'd better hurry, the priest will be gone by morning.

-Don't worry about it.

-After you're done, will you let me see it?

She looked at me in surprise?

-I thought you didn't like him much. Why do you suddenly want to read?

-He's my brother. How can I hate him? All I wanted is just for him to become more confident in himself.

-You shouldn't have picked on him all the time then.

-But if I hadn't, he probably wouldn't have tried to get better.

-It just made it worse. Over the years, he only became more withdrawn and insecure.

-It's true? - I looked at her with surprise

-You... Really? I understand why you were ignoring me, because I am the daughter of a concubine and I am more a commoner than a nobleman, and you probably will expel me as only you become the head, but you did not pay attention to Nick so much?

I began to wonder. When did I talk to him? In most cases, I just found fault with him. We rarely talked for a long time and most often just exchanged a couple of phrases.

Affairs with the nobility and territorial problems have been occupying all my attention for more than a year. It seems that because of all these cases, I couldn't pay enough attention to Nick. And not only to Nick but also to ...

-Yes. Indeed, I am a bad brother.

-That's right. Now leave the room... please- Noticing that I was still looking at her, she asked a little irritably -What else?

-I just wanted to tell you I'm Sorry.

-What!? - She looked at me as if she saw something incredible. -You said... I'm sorry?

- Yes. I'm sorry I wanted to get rid of you. Over the years, I have become stale and colder in the noble society. Because of all this, I was very afraid that various rumors about you could damage the reputation of our family. However, now I realized that family is more important than reputation. My father told me to stop looking for a suitable groom for a while. I thought about it and decided to listen to him. I'm will not pressure you more, now the choice is yours. When I become the head of the family, know that this place will always be your home.

Emilia was still looking at me with extreme surprise. After a short pause, she said

-Who are you? Someone replaced my brother and now I'm talking with the imposter?

-No, it's just that all these events have changed my outlook on life.

-Uh... okay... I suppose?

-I have to go now. I'll leave you alone, Sister. - Turning, I opened the door and left the room. Just before the door closed, I heard my sister's voice.

- I wish you good luck