The horse-drawn carriage arrived at a highly decorated bridge over the running river beneath and stopped. Silven and his family walked out quickly meeting with the guests from the other family whose daughter Silven is meant to marry today.
Walking across the path of the bridge i watched from afar as Silven's brother sneaked him around before placing him at the reserved table that i was standing quite close to.
Genuinely concerned for his brother Golen wore a smile trying to lighten Silven's mood. "You okay, Silven? Excited for today?"
"Y-yes, brother Alfell. I'm happy to be getting married to the lady Demian." Still reserving his emotions Silven spoke back dryly, making Golen sad.
"Right um... take care of yourself." Standing up with a sad look across his face Golen left and immediately integrated himself into the crowds enjoying the party atmosphere.
Silven on the other hand only watched from afar. Not even touching the food near him in fear of being shouted at. Looking behind him where he sat the little boy stared right past me gazing at the demolished buildings and the river flowing below.
"He doesn't see you, right?" Thorn inquired with a harsh whisper. "He's been staring for a while now."
"Hello, Silven." Scaring the 12-year-old boy a woman much older than he was greeted him. "It's good to see you again. What are you doing sitting all alone? Why dont you talk with the others?"
"Ah, well..." looking around nervously Silven tried to find an escape from the conversation but couldn't. "I-I'm not really feeling well right now. I-i though i would sit down, lady Demian. For now, at least."
"Hm? Is that so." Looking over the bridge lady Demian eyed up Golen. "Silven."
"Y-yes?"
"Could you tell me whose getting married at this blind wedding on your family?" Speaking affectionately the girl tried to lull Silven to lower his guard. "You see, i really hope it's Golen, and between you and me. I'm the one my family selected for this blind wedding."
Sweat dribbled down Silven's forehead as he struggled to keep his nervousness under control. "R-really? I h-haven't heard much about it. I cant say."
"Oh. How unfortunate." Ceasing her fake act the girl stopped acting friendly and spat on Silven's face before walking away. "Useless."
Watching the pitiful scene as Silven got isolated i directed my voice to the raven on my skull. "Thorn, you want know why Silven is so disregarded by everyone?"
"Kinda."
Rolling my eyes by Thorn's lack of enthusiasm I spoke anyway. "It's because they're jealous. Even with his crippled leg Silven had a natural genius for painting, martial arts, and was chosen as the next head of his family. Even though he has the hatred of a goldfish. Meaning he holds no grudges no matter what you do to him. Only wanting to make others happy no matter what."
"Huh. No wonder he did what he did." Thorn attested. "Bound to reach a breaking point soon."
[skill: astral third eye — detection]
Glancing upwards i looked at the silver knight that was watching the marriage on the bridge unfold from atop a nearby tower. Past his helmet i could see him eyeing the lone boy i was also watching, fully aware of how close i was to him.
"Look who finally arrived." I grinned and Thorn looked up with me. "To think the hero would be this late to his own past."
The knight ignored me knowing i was simply watching. Staying hidden himself on the rooftop as the scenes unfolded before us both.
For the next two hours the wedding continued but the young Silven stayed sat at his table the whole time as the events passed. This time to himself gave him the opportunity to think about his future.
'Do i want to stay here? The bride doesn't even like me, why should i? Wouldn't it be better for her and my brother to get married? Maybe it would just be better if I disappeared. No one wants me anyway. Not even mum or dad. I've done everything they said to make them happy but they don't see me.'
These dark thoughts built upon one another until finally a breaking point emerged and Silven had reasoned himself into his next actions.
Standing up from his chair Silven walked to the edge of the bridge and looked over the side of the fence down at the quick waters flowing down below. "I... need to do this. For brother's happiness."
The young Silven stood right next to me and Thorn on the bridges side and he didn't even realise it as i leant back against the railing comfortably. Sending a thought into Silven's brain i mildly undid the brainwashing of his parents.
He finally asked himself, "But... what do i need for my happiness?"
Silven's parents, when they realised his talent at a young age, tortured their own son with their own idea of brainwashing. Trapping him in a black room and instilling loyalty to the family into him with repeated beatings and forced labour. Treating him almost like a slave. It was no life for a child.
Hopping off my head Thorn leaned close to Silven's ear while still hiding in the void between natural space with me. He whispered, "Jump. Come on, you know you want to jump. So do it."
Silven wasn't even scared of Thorn's whispers. Thinking it was his own subconscious telling him to run away, to escape from this place while he still had the chance.
Looking behind him the prepubescent boy saw his brother watching him nearby. Knowing what was about to happen with a dreading wide gaze.
Silven smiled one last time miming the words "thank you" before attempting to climb over the fence.
Running past everyone at the party. Golen sprinted for Silven to try and grab him as he reached out but was too little too late.
Silven tossed his small body over the bridges fence and dropped into the running waters below. As Golen stopped at the fence he looked over the side as pale as a ghost trying to find any sign of his brother in the flowing river water but saw nothing.
Silven wasn't surfacing, hiding beneath the current trying to get as far as he could before he had to breathe.
"Golen, is something wrong?" Gripping onto Golen's arm lady Demian pressed herself against his body while fluttering her eyes for his attention. Looking at the river she saw nothing before focusing back on Golen's fearful face. "Come on. Everyone is waiting for you, Golen, lets go."
After another moment of watching the water Golen dislodged the clog in his throat and muttered. "...i hope you live well from now on, Silven." Turning around Golen took the lady with him back to the party.
Seeing what we wanted Thorn and i left the venue and ran along the river bank with [mach rush] keeping track of Silven as he floated through the water. Slowly drowning as he struggled to swim in his clothes before passing out from exhaustion.
Only a short while later, without any interference from me. Silven's unconscious body drifted past a group of young children washing their dirty clothes in the water before one of them spotted him and shouted.
"Bo-body! In the water! Alice theres someone drowning in the river!"
Leaping off from the makeshift dock a girl dived into the water and grabbed Silven by the waist before attempting to swim back to shore with his unconscious body. The girl tried and tried but it was only until a boy tossed a float to her and she grabbed it that she managed to swim back to shore.
The silver knight wasn't far from where i was also watching the story unfold. From an outsiders perspective this time, the same as when i watched this story the first time and this time.
Silven coughed water out of his lungs after the girl that pulled him from the water karate chopped his chest in an effort to revive him. Which surprisingly worked.
As the boy got acquainted with the people that would soon become his new family Thorn spoke to me. "This really is just a sob story, isn't it?"
Looking over at the ghost raven quietly as i sat at the riverbank on the opposite side. I wondered what Thorn meant.
"I mean, lets be honest. Prodigy capable of placing a mark in history. Parents so desperate for power they try to brainwash their son but instead he tries to kill himself. If thats not a sob story i don't know what is."
"It's only going to get sadder from here, Thorn." Reaching my hand out i scratched the raven's ghostly feathers along his nape. "Thats the tragedy of mortality."
For the rest of Silven's mortal life. Thorn and i watched over him along with the silver knight over the course of his life. Never interfering with any events that happened in young Silven's life when he met his new family after running away from his last one.
The story is quite sorrowful honestly, but also heartwarming.
A young boy that ran away from home found himself a new family among a group of orphans whose parents either died or abandoned them. All sharing the last name; Windrega, to show they were each others new family. Silven included.
Silven and two others were the oldest among the group of twenty or so children. Only being thirteen and eleven years old similarly to Silven. He got convinced by Alice, and her right hand man Jed. To help scavenge supplies for their family for the next few years.
Silven worked hard for the Windrega Gang out of his own free will. Training tirelessly with his martial arts day after day so he would be strong enough to help his new family. And he did just that. There were a few times other gangs of children attacked but they got scared off, and the one time a gang of adults came it was thanks to the traps they had laid that they escaped unscathed.
When Silven was 14 he enlisted for the tournament hosted by what remained of the royal family of England to be their royal guard. Silven won the competition and made friends with the son and daughter of the current king who was sick. But when he returned to the gang Windrega gang, Silven's little cousin. A spiteful little girl, tried to force him back to the family.
Silven killed his own cousin and all her guards. Getting blood on his hands for the first time when his cousin threatened to have Alice and all the other kids burned alive.
He struggled to live with himself for the next few days but Jed and the others helped Silven get back on his feet and trained with him for the next few years until the second round of royal guard tournament began. He won that at the age of sixteen, and was awarded a house for his family to live in under royal protection. Having officially become the crown prince's personal guard in training.
Because of his success, Silven's family realised he was alive and sent his aunts and uncles to try and capture him. Silven met his brother before that who was worse for wear but explained how his mom and dad had basically gone crazy. Later Silven killed his aunt and his uncle who had lured him into a trap unknowingly.
For the next three years until Silven was 19 he trained under his instructor, gaining feelings for the royal princess which Alice and Jed both supported, but Silven focused in his duty as a guard to the royal family.
Once he had been officially appointed as the crown princes guard, Silven returned to his family home and his parents attempted to brainwash him again but failed.
Golen tried to stop his and Silven's parents, but because of their ceaseless yapping that Silven was their property and attempt to kill him, Silven killed them. Giving Golen full control of the family but a deep fear of his own little brother.
Naturally the crown prince became the king a year later and Silven served as his guard and advisor up to the age of 25. Where he had led armies against Irish invaders and conquered new cities under his kings command, beginning an age of prosperity for the apocalyptic world to recover.
He received a strange letter one day though and ignored it. As it was from his brother who had destroyed the family in his own incompetence. Golen took his anger out on Silven as a result of this, thinking it was all his little brothers fault.
In his anger Golen trapped Silven's orphan family in their home and burned it to the ground with them all in it.
Silven returned to find his brother standing outside the burning house. Saying it was all Silven's fault, that he never should of been born, that he should of never been his brother. Silven killed the brother he once loved, but was too late to save anyone from the fire.
All his loved ones, the people he had grown up with in the slums, the smiles that empowered him to become a royal guard were dead. And he was empty because of it.
The princess took this chance to comfort Silven and the king granted Silven the chance to resign as the knight commander, but kept his position as an advisor. Silven gradually recovered but he was never the same as his cheery and loving self.
To end a long and sad life, Silven's best friend the king was murdered. With his sister and Silven framed to be the perpetrators, but through some miracle Silven and the princess found the real killer, Golen's son, and killed him.
However, Silven was grievously wounded in the fight and was only alive long enough to see the princess, his lover, rise to the throne before he went off to die alone in a dark alleyway. Regretting his whole life.
"It really was a sob story, Thorn." I said, watching the culmination of one mans life end for the second time.