Chapter 4: Misery loves company

Tony was looking out of the window near the bed where he laid. He was in a special hospital founded by the First Prince of Meharea himself, Prince Rodson. His Response Corps are the ones who first arrived at the burning building and put out the fire.

They arrived way too late though. The owner of the orphanage has been beheaded. The children inside the orphanage have already been burned.

All except one.

He was just a distance away from the burning house. They quickly gave first aid and sent him to the hospital.

One could say that Prince Rodson admired Cygmund. The latter's combat prowess used to rival that of the prominent headmaster magi from Meharea. He used to have been offered various teaching jobs by various teaching institutions in Meharea and even in Veile. He was even offered to teach magic and combat to the branch house members of the royal family.

However, he declined all those offers and made his orphanage, with reasons he kept to himself. Maybe because of it he grew rusty, but it's all moot now that he's gone.

Prince Rodson went to the hospital as soon as he could. He wanted to meet the boy. He wanted to know more about the children that Cygmund took care of. He never had a chance to visit them, but now that word of Cygmund's death had reached the king's ears he had more time to tend to Cygmund-related cases, especially since the survivor that was found was sent to his hospital.

He entered Tony's room. Rodson looked at the boy and pitied him.

Tony looked back at him. He went near the boy and sat at the wooden stool near the bed where the boy laid.

"Lad, what is your name?"

Rodson asked, as gently as he can.

Tony surveyed him, and then looked away, back to the scene outside his window. He didn't answer the Prince.

Rodson heard that this boy was one who had zero. Yet despite this, he saw something in him. The boy had eyes that refused to cry. The boy had a heart that has been broken but still beating.

He just wanted to be a magus like his savior. He just wanted to have a family. The world curtailed him those things, but in return it gave him something that only few possess.

Rodson saw, and he realized. The boy, Tony, was in ways similar to him.

Rodson was considered an "illegitimate child" even when he's the firstborn. He was born out of the current king's sexual escapades during youth, and the latter didn't marry the former's mother with the reason that he would gain nothing from doing so.

Still, he was graced by his father to live under the same roof as him. But when he discovered that he shared his mother's traits and that he had low magic capability, the king's good treatment went passive aggressive. Rodson could feel the cold eyes when his father looked at him.

He endured it every single day, and even worked hard just to gain his father's approval. His hard work gave him command to his own taskforce, the Response Corps, but his father still gave him the same treatment. Eventually he gave up on that little dream.

Rodson then held out two portrait paintings: One of Cygmund, the other one of his father.

"Do you know who these two are?"

Rodson asked.

Tony reluctantly turned his head towards Rodson. He recognized both portraits. They couldn't be mistaken for anyone else. When his eyes focused more on Cygmund's portrait, his stomach turned. He could still vividly remember the sight he last saw that fateful night.

"This man, he's a great man. If the world's ruling system was simply changed, he could have been a good king," Rodson told Tony with a gentle and longing voice, all while pointing towards the portrait of Cygmund.

"This man is one of the people who were responsible for Cygmund's death," Rodson told Tony boldly while holding a finger up to point at his father's portrait.

"Seeing that you're not up to talking with me yet, I'll leave for now. But I'll come again. And I'll make your reason for existence solid as earth."

Rodson got up from the chair and left.

Tony didn't immediately believe Rodson, but he mentally took note of the portrait of the king and remembered it.

An intense flame seemed to burn from the boy's striking black eyes.

Rodson wants Tony. He believes in the underlying power of even the powerless, because he himself is lacking in power. He wants to collect all the powerless people, and with them he plans on toppling down his father.

They share similarities, Tony and Rodson. What the world has taken from them, they want to take back. If they can't take it back, they want it to suffer the same fate as they did.

Rodson came back after a few days. Tony seems more open to talk now.

"I still believe in justice. That's why they who have many should be taken down towards us who have none."

Rodson's words stirred Tony to action.

This marks the start of the path that Tony took.

He chose the path of equality, justice and mutual destruction.