Austen was on his way to the arena, where he had been summoned by Mathilda.

The fortress has been quite silent for a few days. To be exact, it started to be silent a few days after Austen's and his brother's intervention at the Barista Manor.

He and Schlain, along with practically everyone else who took part in that expedition, with the exception of Aryan, whose magic is crucial to the aristocracy, were suspended and disallowed from leaving the fortress. That is their punishment.

So Austen, having spent the previous few weeks confined to the fortress, couldn't help but notice the silence left by most of the absence. Schlain was sent on a mission, as was Aryan, and a similar thing for the little Missie, who, along with Mathilda, were, too, out—or so he thought before receiving a summon order on her part.

Austen and his brother, David, have a very long history with Mathilda and her family.

That day, running away from the nobles that attacked their home, the two children, who back then were respectively just five and seven years old, found haven in a domain belonging to the Douglas Family.

It was while surviving and stealing in that domain that the duo were caught and brought to the Domain Lord. It was then and there that Austen and David met her and her brother for the first time.

Despite living the same luxurious lifestyle as a noble, which they were only in name, they were lenient enough to allow the siblings to stay, on one condition. The one to serve the Lord's two children, who happened to be roughly the same age as the two brothers, and also to have the elder one, just like David, revealed while trying to protect his little brother, being an Aina user.

Just like that, Paul and Austen were to serve the two Douglas children: Mathilda, the elder sister, and Paul, the frailer and younger brother. At the Douglas' side, the brother would, aside from some rough treatment through the Douglas family chief spartiate training, live a calm and somewhat peaceful life, until one day, on a day close to his fifteenth birthday, Austen and his elder brother received the visit of someone they thought dead, and thought for years to only avenge, only to realize that he, Schlain, their elder brother, was, in fact, alive and had even come back for them.

That day, the brother left the Douglas siblings’ side, where they had been for more than half their lives. There the brothers’ paths diverged from the Douglas siblings', never to meet again until Austen and his older brother were nearing their thirties.

That reunion took place several years after they had accomplished their revenge quest and a couple of months before what happened to David happened to him.

After what happened, Austen, having cut themselves off from the world to embark on yet another vengeful journey with his brother, didn’t hear anything else from the Douglas until the day things calmed down, only for Austen to learn that, in the meantime, Paul was the one left in charge of their family after their father’s death, while Mathilda went completely missing. As curious as Austen was, he didn’t pursue the matter for fear of what could happen to her if some link were to be made by the one hounding them.

Decades went by when she, out of nowhere, reappeared, and suspiciously fast enough, contacted them to propose to them the plan that the woman all the children of light are referring to as' The Mother’ had come up with.

She had changed, really changed. Compared to the unfeeling monster Austen remembered her to be, she had gotten gentler, less arrogant and, strangely enough, more caring than she used to be, but hadn't the slightest lost her formerly violent and apathetic personality, which became clear to Austen with the plan she proposed.

The prospect of it was unprecedented, a planned carnage that was bound to one way or another change the order of things. Nothing in the past has ever come close to what they proposed to the brothers. The only thing one could think of approaching would be the calamities that unexpectedly occurred some years after their proposal of that plan.

It was madness. It looked impossible, but the existence of the ‘Mother’ suggests that indeed it was feasible.

An unprecedented insanity, that's what it was, but with Mathilda's offers, which included allowing the brothers to have what they had been craving for the past thirty years, they accepted and formed an alliance with Mathilda and the "Mother."

Together, for years now, the Brotherhood has given their support and provided the aristocracy with their precious, rustic, yet unique knowledge of the Church’s activities.

The cooperation between the Brotherhood led by the siblings Schlain and Austen, the scavenger formerly led by "the Mother", and the Mourning Widow led by Mathilda went on very smoothly.

In the span of only a few years, new members and allies joined in the aristocratic endeavor.

Even after the Aristocracy's public announcement made by Mathilda two years ago, no major problems arose until a few weeks before two core members of the Brotherhood were lost in the accomplishment of their mission. Their death being due to the betrayal of someone who had supposedly sworn allegiance to the aristocratic cause, the brotherhood claimed retribution for their fallen brothers, going even against the direct order of the "Mother" by proceeding in their vindictive quest.

Though Austen regretted the unfolding of the events regarding that incident, he didn’t regret the fact that he avenged his two fallen comrades' deaths, for he knew that there was no redemption after death for the likes of them. The best they, the living, could do for their dead was to avenge them.

When Austen got to the arena's entrance, he flung open the door. He entered the room but found no one inside. Instead, he discovered something in the center of the arena that caught his attention.

"What is this doing here?"

Approaching the thing in the middle of the room, he came to realize that it was a sword, not any sword, but his.

It was at that moment that Austen heard the sound of a door being opened from the second entrance to the arena. It was from that entrance that Austen saw Mathilda entering the arena, and behind her loyal servant, Lidya, who, along with Mathilda and Paul, Austen had old shared memories with.

Both women were dressed in outfits he had never seen them in before—or at the very least, long since they were last seen in. While, in their stride, she, Lidy, was walking behind Mathilda, she was carrying something in her hand hidden beneath a towel, before stopping at a distance from Austen and his sword.

"Mathilda, what’s the meaning of this?" Austen asked.

Mathilda didn’t answer Austen's question and instead said, "Don’t you think it’s nostalgic?"

"What?"

Looking around, she said, "This arena doesn't bring you old memories. You, I, Lidy, Paul and…"

"David."

"Yes," she said, closing her eyes, as if to clearly visualize nostalgic memories, "So many years have passed since that time. I heard you still remember it clearly. "

Instinctively, Austen’s hand went to the scar on his face.

"Mathilda. What’s all of this for?" Austen once again asked, as his glance ventured back to his sword.

Once again, she didn’t immediately answer.

"Having seen what happened because of the calamity, I realized how weak and frail I've become. As you can see, the passing years didn’t spare me, for I, seeing the sight left by the calamities, realized that I would not be able to live with the guilt of bringing the mother's plan to reality. I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with it, which is why I proceeded to request "the mother" to change her wish. "

"I, just like her, nourish a wish to create a new order, not one built on blood like the one we originally envisioned, but one built atop a solid foundation," she said, looking at Austen with a fierce and familiar gaze, "I was the one who came up with this wish. It is up to me that it behooves the duty to not allow this new order to be built on such shallow things such as blood and revenge. "

It was at that moment that Lidy, behind Mathilda, stepped forward, finally revealing what she was holding beneath the blanket.

"Which is why, since I ask you, Austen, is your answer the same?"

Two sabres.

That was what was beneath the blanket.

Slowly realizing what was going on, Austen asked with a concerned expression, "Where is my brother?"

"I have, as promised, given him that which he wished for, an opportunity for revenge. Whether he can grasp it or not, regardless of the outcome, what has been decided will be done, which is why I ask again, is your answer still the same?"

It was at that moment that, from a distance, Austen saw the girl, who he referred to as the little missie, standing on a podium with a strange expression on her face, and standing next to her was a girl of roughly the same age who he had seen wandering around as of late, but wasn’t sure of her identity.

Austen ventured a slow glance at the blade next to him, before asking, "Before I answer, may I ask? Will it be Raziel?"

"No, it will not be him."

"I see…"

The one who spoke next wasn’t Mathilda or Austen, but Lidy, who has been silent so far. "You used to be a gentle child. You and your brother had another path laid ahead of you before you took out this path of revenge you walked in. It is not-"

"Yet it was the one we walked into. We both knew, as Lord Douglas warned us, what it would entail, yet it was the path we chose to walk in. " At that moment, Austen reached out for his blade, unsheathed it, and said, "My answer remains unchanging. If you intend to say that it is not too late to change course, I'm sorry but it is already," before throwing away its scabbard," I apologize if I have let you down with this answer."

Understanding, Mathilda answered, "Not at all. I was expecting this answer. For you three brothers, it was to be expected."

"Your brothers' path is yours, was it?"

"David?"

"Yes, those were his words." Reaching out for the sword Lidy handed her, Mathilda unsheathed her, and so did Lidy too, with the other. "His very last one."

To a sight reminiscing Austen of their younger selves, stancing, both women bare their fangs.

"Two Aina-users against me, isn't it a little too unfair?" Austen mumbled to himself, but still, nonetheless, he too stanced himself before charging onto them.

He first swung his blade at her, Lydia, but she, using aina, with no great difficulty, deflected the blade, just like she used to in his memories. But still taking advantage of the distance separating them, Austen thrust a knee out at Lidy, but what she did next caught him off guard. As far as he remembered, she, who always fought and wielded her blade elegantly, simply received the blow to her stomach and embraced his sworded arm in a tight embrace. It was at that moment, taking advantage of the momentum, that Mathilda finally leapt into action, thrusting her sword into Austen's chest.

Despite the pain, from where the Little Missie was Austen heard a cry.

"I am sorry." Both Mathilda and Lydia murmured before backing away from Austen.

As Mathilda's sword was unsheathed from where it pierced through, blood gushing profusely out of his wound, Austen fell on his knee.

"In the end, even after all these years,... I remain the helpless and unchanging little brother that knows but cries." Austen mumbled, looking at the blood pooling on the ground.

Knowing what fate awaited him, Austen requested of Mathilda and Lydia, "When it will be done, take me where I belong," before mustering all his strength to stand up and shout at them, "Do it!"

At these words, Mathilda and Lydia leaped at him, swinging their swords.