I know I haven't been the best person my whole life. Actually I have led a really shitty life until recently. I have been a street urchin in my childhood. Being an orphan, I stole food and other petty crimes just to fill my belly. Became a thug when I became a teenager and did more nasty things. Got thrown in jail after I killed an asshole who deserved it. Signed in for the army to escape execution. Learned how to kill things better than the others enough to deserve a promotion. Killed, raped, and plundered my way to where I am now.

Even when I married my wife, I remained doing nasty things. Even cheating on her multiple times. I just hated the world so much that the only thing that can make me happy is to cause as much grief unto others. Everything changed when she came to my life. My daughter. Anna.

When Anna was born and I looked into her eyes for the very first time, I felt something inside me changed. Her eyes so pure that it pierces into my soul. How could a vile person such as me produce someone with such a pure soul? I felt so unworthy that I wouldn't even dare touch her lest I stain her with these bloody hands of mine. Every time I hear her cry it crushes my heart and every time I hear her laugh it fills my heart with warmth and happiness that I have never felt since I was a child. Ever since then I dedicated myself to become a better man. A better father for her.

I started by becoming a good husband to Neera who thought I was making fun off her and needed a lot of time to win over. But even a castle wall can be brought down with a hammer with enough effort. We soon fell in love with each other for real this time and we got married a second time, renewing my vows of loving her and our child until my last breath. I then settled all of my past grudges, which was the hardest part since I made a lot of enemies in the past. I tie all of my loose ends and parted with my gang, which earned the ire of my men causing them to attack me and left me no choice to wipe them out in order to prevent anyone and anything that might endanger my family.

Now there is nothing that will bother us. Life is perfect for once. Or so I thought. After five years of bliss, disaster striked.

Everything went down the sewer when the King was killed by his idiot son Reginald, threw out his brother Arthur out of the capital, and started calling himself Kaizer. For god's sake, the king is so old that he only need to wait a few more years to succeed him and he can't do even that?

Just as expected, nobles and generals alike gathered their armies to exact justice on the kingslayer. The Merryweathers are among those who are loyal to the former King, so they started to raise levies to march towards the capital. I was among those who were drafted and after seeing Neera cry and my sweet Anna question where I was going as I march off to battle made me afraid for the first time. Me, who never backed down in a fight. Me who was always the first to charge to the enemy line to meet my enemy. Me who was dubbed the Reaper, am afraid. Afraid that I might die and leave behind my wife and child, alone in this cruel world.

For countless nights I was sleepless. My mind always wondering what my family is doing, are they eating enough, or if they are alright. All the time we were marching, my mind and my heart is aching to go home. To stay with my family and be happy for the rest of our lives. But on the other hand, I have no choice but to follow the Merryweathers. For not only I would be hung for desertion, my family will also be executed with me if they catch me. So with a heavy heart I marched.

After a few days we arrived in front of the high walls of Krishna Castle. I looked around and see countless of soldiers in formation. Seeing all of the warriors in display, my heart let out a sigh of relief. Surely with this many, not even the Krishna Castle could stay standing. I imagined the sight of a hundred thousand strong army flooding the walls and taking it down in the field of glorious battle, but I quickly quashed my growing bloodlust for battle.

When I saw a single man came out of the gates I thought that the battle is already won. That the usurper is about to surrender after seeing the sea of weapons and armor surrounding his castle. Boy was I wrong.

The nobles used mana infused voice to demand surrender of the town and bring them Kaizer as proof of good will. But the man just laughed. He declared himself as the one they called Kaizer and told the nobles to stick their demand up their asses. All present can also hear him taunt the nobles on how he killed the king and how he will crush our army like ants. The nobles' pride wouldn't stand for it and they charged at the man with our whole army. Then the unthinkable happened.

At first I can't believe what I was seeing. The man who calls himself Kaizer flew towards the sky so fast that the other mages who flew after him was left in the dust. In a blink of an eye, countless arrows and magic spells flew towards him but all the arrows fell before reaching him and the magic spells bounced back at the casters leaving him unharmed it was unbelievable. But what he did next was a thing no human should be able to do. He raised his hand and in an instant, a ball as large as the very sun was on his hand. He called it, Emperor Sun. The heat coming from it was so intense, that I who was near the back end of the army feel my body getting cook even from kilometers away. He then threw the giant ball of death and in an instant over half of our army was reduced to dust.

How can he be Prince Reginald? Prince Reginald is a swordsman so great none could challenge him except for his younger brother Arthurius. How did he get so much power that it even rival the gods?

What followed his attack was utter chaos. When he raised his hand again, I knew what was coming. The thought of not seeing my family flashed in my mind and I ran away as fast as I could. The other survivors felt the same and we all ran in every direction as Meteors fall down the sky to wipe out us remaining soldiers. I avoid going towards large groups of people as the meteors tend to land on them first so I just headed towards the woods as fast as I can.

I continued to run even though I don't hear anymore explosion and only stopped when I was sure I am safe. That is when my strength left me and I fell to the ground, dead tired. Good thing I brought food and water with me for I don't want to go back towards the camp to gather my belongings since Kaizer might attack there as well. After taking a well needed rest I continued to run, to survive. I don't care if I don't have enough food with me. I will just scavenge as I go and I will continue to run as fast as I can and go back home alive. Back to my family.

After a few weeks I was able to come back home. When little Anna saw me as she was sitting near the window, she quickly ran towards me. When I saw her running towards me, I was quite ashamed at first to hug her since I haven't taken a bath for so long, but seeing her cry tears of joy, my heart gave in and I hold her in my arms and also let my tears flow. My wife Neera then appeared to see what is happening and when she saw me, I quickly wrapped my arms around her and we turned into a big warm family hug.

Finally we reunited. I'm finally back where I belong. I'm back home.

But I knew it won't last long. The news of the death of the Merryweathers spread and reached the ears of the one they exiled from long ago. The Ice Queen Minerva.

Minerva Merryweather, the illegitimate daughter of the Lord Lucius Merryweather with a peasant girl when he was young was sent to exile by his wife after she found out of his unfaithful past.

Although Lady Merryweather doesn't bear love to her family who exiled her, her pride can't take the shame of her family and their army getting wiped out by a single magic user and sought to challenge him herself on a magic duel.

Fearing that I may get drafted once more, I quickly got my family out of the city with as much clothes and food as we needed to travel towards the forest in the border of the Elven Kingdom. There we could live off the land without entering the land of the territorial Elves and away from the chaos in the Kingdom of Krishna.

Alas, karma has finally caught up to me. After a few months of camping in the wilds, we were caught by the rebels and brought to their base. Other refugees were also there but were quickly released after the mages read their memories and found no ties to Kaizer's army. After reading the memory of my daughter and wife, they finally came to me. They found out that I was once a part of the Merryweather army and threw me in jail as a suspected spy. I don't really mind getting imprisoned as long as they leave my wife and daughter alone, but they both insisted they want to stay with me, share the hardship as a family.

My thoughts was disturbed when Cloud came back from his daily check-up with the Arch Mage Eleazar and my daughter quickly greets him.

"Hiya Cloud… Mr. Potato was so lonely when you were away since he got no one to play with. Wanna play tea party with us?" Anna said as she holds the potato that they drew face and stuck some sticks to make it seem like a person.

"Not today sweetie…" Cloud answered, his hands still behind him. Clearly he is hiding something.

"Awww…" my heart is almost breaking hearing the sad cry of my daughter.

For the past few days Cloud and Anna became close. Anna wanted someone to play with other than her mother and I, and Cloud was happy to oblige. He looks like he is genuinely good with children. He play whatever games Anna wanted to play, however childish. I hear him singing songs I have never heard before but my daughter seem to like it, even forcing Cloud to teach her so that they can sing the songs together.

"Now now… don't be sad little girl. I have a gift for you." Anna quickly got excited when she heard of a present. "Here…" He then showed a large food basket full of freshly cooked meat, vegetables, wine and even fruit juice. "General Romulus gave this to me and said I can share these delicious food to you and your mother only."

"Wow… so many food… but how about father? Won't you give him some too?" Anna pouted.

I already knew why he isn't allowed to give me food. So I quickly interjected. "Don't worry my pretty little angel. Go ahead and eat with Cloud and your mother. Don't worry about me. I am already full from eating the leftover bread earlier."

"Daddy, lying is bad. If you won't eat with us, then I won't eat either." Although she said that, I can see her eyeing the food basket that Cloud is unpacking.

"Now child, don't be stubborn and eat with Cloud. Your father and I will be all right. We will just eat some bread later." Neera added.

Before Anna could argue, Cloud chimed in. "The generous General Romulus said I could share these food with you and your mother." He pushed the majority of the food towards Anna. "Now that I have shared it, do with it as you see fit." He said as he winked towards Anna.

I see… so that's what he intent to do… Clever boy.

I quickly grasped what Cloud was hinting but stayed quiet and let my daughter figure it out.

Confusion is clear in the face of my daughter as she tries to grasp what Cloud was saying. He repeated what he said for a few times before Anna got the meaning.

"Ohhh… Now I see… Cloud really is smart… Thank you so much for sharing the food with me!" Anna then grabbed the food with her tiny arms as my wife helped her. "These are the food Cloud shared with me. Now that it is mine, I will share some with you daddy." She said as she smiles happily.

The guard behind tried to stop her but Cloud quickly stops him. "Hey now… What do you think you are doing?"

"What do you think I am doing? Even though you are viewed as a hero by the people here, that doesn't excuse you from following order. The General clearly stated that you are not to share your food with the traitor Vash and you blatantly disregard his word. How shameless of you "Hero"." Anger is evident in the guards face as he once again tries to open the cell door.

"Wait a god damned minute." Once again Cloud stopped him. "I followed your General's word to the letter. I shared the food to Anna here so the food is now hers and not mine. That means technically, she can share the food she now owes to anyone she wants and yes, that means I kept my word."

Very shrewd indeed. The guard can't seem to find an answer. "You win this time "Hero". Savor this moment for I will report this insubordination to the general." The guard then quickly stormed off.

This young man. I can't predict what he is thinking. One moment he is happily playing with my daughter. The next he will be moping by himself in the corner. Another moment he happily sings songs, the other he will stare blankly at the wall like he is bored out of his mind. Granted he does that when my daughter is too tired and falls asleep.

"Thanks Cloud. Thank you for everything." I bowed to him to show my appreciation.

"No need to thank me Vash. Think of it as payment for the apple little Anna here game me when I first got here. After all I was getting tired of eating nothing but bread and they gave me so much food that I can't possibly eat all by myself. So instead of letting it go to waste, I would like to share these with you." I can see in his eyes that he speaks thruth.

"How about me? Give me some of that meat" Alfaro, the man is staying on the other cell said. He was put here since they say he lost his memory thus the mages can't read his past memories. Unsure whether he is a spy or not, they threw him in here with the rest of us.

"You don't get shit Alfaro, you grumpy old man. You always ruin our fun when we are singing." Cloud replied while biting on a steak.

"Greedy bastard, that is because you always disturb my sleep!" He replied angrily.

"Don't worry Mr. A. I will share you some of mine." Anna gave him a piece of an Apple pie. "This is my favorite, but I will give it to you."

"Shitty brat. I don't want pie. Give me a big piece of meat and that bottle of wine." Alfaro swatted the pie from my Anna's hand. Seeing tears swell up on my daughter's eye as she stares at the pie on the floor, my temper began to flare. I quickly grabbed his hard and pulled, causing his body to hit the bars of our cell.

"You worthless scum! Not only do you not accept the kindness shown to you but you also have the audacity to lay your filthy hands on my Anna? I will rip out your arms!!!" That bastard! How dare he make my daughter cry? I'll kill him!!!

"Ahhhh!!! Stop it!!! It hurts, please STOP!!!" His shouts of pain was music to my ear. Scream more you bastard. I will make you regret ever laying your hand on my daughter.

"Vash stop! You're killing him!" My wife speaks some word that I can barely hear in my rage. I feel Neera's arm wrap around mine to try and stop me but I don't mind. This fucker must pay!

Then a tiny tug on my shirt and a tiny voice breaks me out of my blinding rage.

"Daddy" I turned around and saw Anna, tears filled her eyes. "Please stop… I am not hurt see? It is just a pie daddy. Cloud gave me his so I am ok now." With just a few words from my daughter, the raging fire within my soul died down. I let go of the bastard's arm and hugged my daughter and wife.

"You crazy shit… try to kill be for a pie? You bastard." Alfaro grumbled but quickly stopped when I glared at him.

"Wow… that was intense. Remind me not to win so much on rock, paper, scissor against your daughter and make her cry ok?" Cloud joked and handed another piece of pie for Neera and we continued eating.

A few minutes later a group of guards headed by Pariston entered the room. "Sorry to interrupt your meal. But we are here for the traitor Vash. Someone wishes to speak with you." He then turned towards me. "Don't resist and nothing bad will happen to you. This I swear on my life."

I look at my wife Neera, she then hugged me. "Just stay safe and come back to us ok?" She said.

"Don't worry. I won't do anything stupid. I will always come back to you my love." Anna tugged at my legs. "And you too my little angel." I then turned towards Cloud. "Please take care of my wife and daughter while I'm gone."

"No worries brother, and don't be so dramatic. You are just going for a talk. Not like you will be gone for long, and don't worry, we will leave some food for you when you get back." I really admired Cloud. Even in face of danger he can still crack a joke.

"Thanks." I bowed at him once again and then the guards escorted me out.

Don't worry Neera, Anna. I will come back no matter what. We will always be together. I promise.