The sun's rays, filtering through the light silk curtain of his bedroom, forced Karlen to open his eyes again. As he got up from the bed he was lying in, the rosewood base of it, which contained his mattress, creaked.
The soft warmth of the early morning cradling his cheeks, and the fresh scent of sun — still perfuming his sheet — made him drag his feet a little longer.
"Karlen Mathyas, come downstairs and have breakfast!" his mother shouted, from downstairs.
Getting up, his eyes still half closed and the body not quite awake yet, he headed for the bathroom, where he rinsed his face, tidied up his dishevelled hair and brushed his teeth. He then went into the kitchen, which doubled as the dining room.
His mother was there, clothed in her sundress with an apron over it, busy feeding an infant in a red and white checked dress, who, herself, was patting her little hands on the chair where she had been placed.
"Morning, Mummy!"
"Did you sleep well, sweetheart?" replied the young lady.
"Yeah," Karlen simply answered.
Taking a few slices of bread from the tray next to the toaster, he put them on a plate from the opposite stand on the straw mattress and sat down at the round table centering the room, with the light green tablecloth and white polka dots over it.
Karlen then spread rosebay jam on the slices, which he wolfed down with the rest of his breakfast, taking the time to savour the milk and smell the flowery fragrance of the jam.
'Mooht cow's milk, that's what it's all about!'
putting down his empty bowl, he patted himself on the stomach while smiling.
"This should do the trick," he said as he wiped the milk moustache from his lips.
He then got up and sneakily tried to leave through the small door nearby, that opened onto the back yard, but his mother interrupted him.
"Tut tut! Before you go and play, you must take a shower!"
"But Mum, I'm a—"
"I don't wanna hear about it! And don't give me the big boy excuse! You're twelve now, so you're a big boy, yes. But big boys all take showers before they go out. "
He looked at her, disappointed, and sighed then went back upstairs and did as he was told.
Finally, Karlen emerged fresh and clean, ready to fully embrace the day ahead.
As he came out of his room after dressing, he bumped into his father.
"Ah Karlen! Are you doing great today?
"Y-Yes, Dad! But aren't you supposed to be at work?" asked the young boy.
His father looked at him in surprise and laughed.
"Oh yes! That's right, you didn't know. Today I have to go out of town, to Toka village !" said the man, ruffling his son's hair.
The child grunted a little.
"Toka, huh?! So you're going to bring me back some Novatines?" he said, his face lighting up.
"Of course I am! And everyone else too!"
Karlen smiled.
He was a fan of this juicy, sweet orange citrus fruit. In fact, the first time his father had brought him some, he had practically devoured a whole bag of them on his own. However, after the more or less beneficial excess of energy provided by the fruit, the fatigue and indigestion that followed gave him what could be called a sense of proportion and restraint.
His father patted him on the shoulder and let him go and play. He went outside and headed straight for the square where his friends were waiting for him.
"Yo, Karlen! How are you today?" asked one of his friends.
"Fine! Where are we going to play?"
Each of them suggested something, but they couldn't agree.
"Why don't we go and play in the park," finally suggested one of them.
"Yes, why not! Besides, my dad's bought me a new ball." Another agreed.
"Oh no, not the ball! You're going to shoot me with it!" replied one of the girls.
"But no! We'll be careful!" said Karlen, laughing.
They continued arguing for a while and reached an agreement, then all went to the person who had mentioned the ball to get the toy back.
Once that was done, the little group happily headed for the park, Karlen ahead of the small group and leading the way.
***
The hours had passed and it was already early evening. The sun, already far over the horizon, left the place to the two moons to rise into the sky, where an astral painting with colours ranging from orange to red, and touches of violet, was taking shape.
Karlen, realising that he was well past his playing time, decided to go home, but on the way he noticed that the atmosphere in the area was different, more... gloomy.
The faces of the adults he passed were covered in a range of sorrowful and morbid expressions, each more disturbing than the last.
Surely, there had to be a problem. But the boy paid no further attention.
'Adults are weird sometimes.'
Without worrying too much about the atmosphere, he headed home. Once there, he went straight to the shower, so as not to attract unwanted attention or at least minimise the anger of his mother, who would surely be furious.
'Woah! I've got to hurry, before she finds me here. I've been really late today!'
He finished his shower, slipped discreetly into his room and emerged, fresh and clean, satisfied with his ability to remain unnoticed.
However, something wasn't quite right.
The house was far too quiet, even allowing for his father's absence. His little sister was probably sleeping, as he couldn't hear her usual cries or screams, so that was another explanation.
But there was this feeling of unease that he couldn't quite explain or comprehend.
Giving up on the unsettling thought, he went downstairs to see his mother, who was sitting alone in the living room, next to a radio emitting noises.
[...concerning the Negacion's rampage in Toka village, our authorities—]
When Karlen touched her shoulder, she jumped up and faced him, her face showing deep concern.
"K-Karli! You scared me!" The woman sighed, while turning down the radio.
The young boy saw his mother's worried face and sat down next to her.
"Is something wrong, Mum?
She looked at him intensely, then sighed. Finally, she forced a smile to reassure her son.
"No, don't worry! I was just thinking about something."
She ruffled Karlen's hair as she stood up, a forced smile on her lips, and stared at the oven.
"Dinner will be ready soon! Tonight you get your favourite dish!"
Hearing this, Karlen also stood up, and gave his mother a hug.
"Great! Thanks Mum!"
She looked at him, her eyes still clouded with sadness and concern.
***
Later that evening, Karlen was sitting at the table, his little sister next to him in her dining chair.
The round table in the kitchen/dining room was set with a number of trays and tureens containing pastas, vegetable broth and potato gratin. Another tray contained pieces of glider deer meat, and a carafe of Eliapomme juice sat next to it.
In short, a real feast.
Karlen's mother had just finished serving her son, when someone knocked, quite loudly, on the door.
Surprised at first, the mother put the plate down on the table and cleaned her hands on her apron, then quickly fixed her dark brown hair and headed for the door.
"Who is it?"
The person behind the door answered.
"Suzan... it's Leon'el! I... I have something urgent to tell you!"
"Something urgent?!" she replied, her anxiety resurfacing.
As she opened the door to let the man in, he stepped through, and lowered the hat he was wearing.
His gaze sweeping over the room, he nodded to the young Karlen, who was already busy devouring his meal. The man wore a morbid expression on his face, as if he were the bearer of news of the end of the world.
When Suzan saw his face, she realised the seriousness of what he had to say. So, she discreetly pulled him towards the living room, where she offered him a seat.
As he took his seat, she returned to the kitchen and filled a glass with water, then turned back to the living room.
She bent down to put the glass on the table, but Leon'el stopped her.
Motioning a refusal with his head, he furrowed his brows and slightly raised a hand. Suzan immediately straightened.
"I-I've got bad news!" he said, his voice trembling and showing reminiscences of a deep, suppressed, sadness.
Suzan's look turned sombre, almost as if she knew what was coming. But still, she tried to listen to what came next.
"Y-You heard what happened.... in Toka, didn't you?" said Leon'el.
A shiver ran down her spine and she froze... But for a moment only.
Suzan's whole body then shook, trying its best to anticipate whatever outcome this conversation would have.
"Yes... but I'm sure he—"
"His body was... found among the victims." Leon'el breathed, cutting her from any attempt to veil herself from the harsh, indubitable truth, his own face twisted in deep sadness.
At that moment, the glass of water that Suzan was holding slipped from her hand, her body having no strength left.
It fell and shattered into a hundred tiny splinters, her body itself falling like a stone and turning ghostly pale, as if all life were drained from it. Her knees came into contact with the shards of glass and blood spurted out in places, yet she felt nothing.
At the time, it even seemed as if she was no longer present in consciousness, but only physically, her body reacting like a simple mass of inanimate flesh, with no will of its own.
When she collapsed, Leon'el took her arm and shook it, shouting her name.
Karlen, alerted by the sound of the crash and the man's screams, rushed into the living room where he saw his mother on the floor, blood dripping from her knees and legs, and a blank, distant look on her face.
He shook her, panicking because he didn't know what was wrong with his mother.
"M-Mister! What's the matter? Why is Mum in such a state?!"
The question stuck like a dagger in Leon'el's chest, and a lump of stress and sadness formed in his throat.
'Poor boy... how can I tell him?'
He sat up and took his face in his hands.
Tears had begun to roll down his cheeks and he didn't know what to say.
"M-My boy! You are now the man of this house!" he finally breathed.
"Huh? What do you mean?" asked Karlen, who still didn't understand what was going on.
"Your father... Doctor Mathyas.... Your father is .... Your father has left us... He's dead!" the man finally said with a Herculean effort.
Upon hearing this, Karlen felt his heart skip two beats. His legs started shaking uncontrollably, and tears welled up in his eyes without even him realising. The blood flowing in his veins froze and all he could feel was the cold, dark breath of despair sending a shiver through his entire body.
The news sounded like a massive slap in the face, to Karlen, who also let himself fall, his legs completely devoid of any strength.
In fact, the shock was so intense for the young boy that he fainted.
When he woke up, it was already the following day.
The sun's rays were still streaming through his window, but they no longer had the distinct warmth of the day before. Even the sky was devoid of colour, arboring a bland, disgusting grey.
Karlen struggled to his feet and mechanically made his way down the stairs. He even missed one of them and fell face first to the ground, but as if anaesthetised, he didn't really feel the pain and got back to his feet.
He trotted like a vagabond down the corridor and into the kitchen. There he found his mother leaning over the empty table, wearing the same dress as the day before.
In fact, it didn't seem that she had changed or even take a shower. The food from the eve was still on the table, but had turn into an open paradise for flies and other bugs who crawled into and out of it. Even the light was still on, flickering occasionally as if to announce it's also coming death.
Karlen sat silently beside his mother and looked at her, unable to say a word.
She was not sleeping, but just laid there, with traces of tears still marking her cheeks.
They stayed like that for quite a while, before Karlen finally decided to get up and go out into the backyard.
Out there, the air was cold and there was a smell of wet earth in the air. It was bound to rain eventually, but that wasn't his problem at this point.
He sat down on the already muddy ground, and looked at his mother's little garden, where rosebays, tomatillos and ochre squash were growing.
For the first time, the young boy felt empty. Raising his head to the sky, a drop began to trickle down his left cheek, then another, until it became a continuous stream, cascading down his cheeks. The liquid touched the leaves in the vegetable patch, then the grass, and spread to the whole neighbourhood.
His tears joined the rain, which had now decided not to hold back any longer at accompanying him in his mourning.
A few years later, Karlen and his family had finally recovered from this event, and thanks to the support of the members of the small community, they were now coping. Especially since her mother had become one of the cathedral's most faithful servants.
In fact, the priest who had worked the miracle of pulling her out of depression was the man who would later become the cathedral's bishop.
One day, however, Karlen went out for a walk with his friends, and this time they set themselves the goal of exploring the woods on the edge of town. Of course, the gang's parents had told them that it was a place full of wild, dangerous animals. But the teenagers thought these were tales meant to frighten small children, and they ignored the adults' warning.
Karlen and his group set off into the woods, but just when things should have been going well, another fateful event occurred.
About thirty minutes after entering, the group realised that Milly, their friend, had become separated from the rest of them, and they set off to find her in the woods.
Karlen, who was still looking for his friend, got a bit annoyed, as he was getting hungry and it was already past lunchtime.
'Where could that idiot have gone?'
He used a heavy branch to move through the woods, shouting his friend's name.
"Milly? Can you hear me?"
No answer. He moved deeper into the forest, continuing to call out to the girl, who still didn't answer.
Eventually he came across another of his friends, with whom he decided to search.
Suddenly, they heard a scream not far away, to the east of where they were.
They ran over and saw the girl hanging by her leg, her feet wrapped by the tail of a titan viper, and blood running down her thigh.
When Karlen saw the monster, his whole body froze and he panicked at the sight of the animal's long, knife-sharp fangs.
He didn't know yet, that he was fated to be associated to this animal.
The reptile, the size of an adult woman, was about to fully opened his mouth and bite the teenage girl, but a stone it him in the left eye.
"Let her go!" screamed the other boy, while he was preparing his next throw.
The viper hissed then let its prey go, intending to take care of his new enemy. But another stone, larger, hit its smaller right eye and the other teenagers where starting to gather, circling around it with branches and stones.
Although armed with a huge branch, more than enough to scare the beast, Karlen, however, took to his heels and ran off without looking back — tears flowing out his eyes — leaving the girl and his friends at the mercy of the animal and the forest.
Once back in town, he went to warn the locals, who hurried to fetch everyone, but instead of accompanying them to where the others were, he chose to lock himself in his room.
Fortunately, Milly, and the others, returned mostly unharmed. She was only affected by the creature's bite, whose venom was immediately removed and the wound healed by applying Kilith.
But for Karlen, this was the beginning of his ordeal as the "coward in charge" as his was the chief of his friend group, and the one who had suggested going to the forest.
Another time, he fell again into trouble and the name "coward in charge" resurfaced. On one fateful day, him and some of his friends — excluding Milly and two others — ran into a gang of troublesome kids from Toka village, who were looting the stores of Stravagon at night.
Karlen slapped the chieftain of the assumed the band, who happened to be a young Aleone, and got immediately corrected, as him and his friends were wrong about the person, loosing both honour and authority.
But rather than owning up to his mistake and trying to calm things down, he pulled out a knife, furious and sure to be right, and tried to stab the girl, who had her back turned, but ended up hitting another young man, who collapsed, bleeding out. Faced with its crime, he fled.
Fortunately, it was more frightening than serious, and the victim was able to be evacuated and treated and didn't press charges against him, but the cowardly nature of his act permanently marked the notion of the coward in charge.
Later, during his university studies, another incident occurred. Milly, who had finally forgiven him, had become his girlfriend.
However, one day, as he was leaving a party with friends, men armed with knives and other weapons and claiming to be from Toka village, attacked them in an alleyway. Once again, Karlen let himself be overcome by fear, abandoning the young lady to her fate, and fled tail between his legs.
News of Milly's rape and Karlen's cowardice spread throughout the small city, and of course the young man found himself ostracised by everyone — Including his own mother and sister.
As if that wasn't enough, Milly who couldn't live with the stain she had been cursed with, decided to take her own life, but failed and as a result ended up in a vegetative state, unable to express herself and condemned to carry the weight of her misfortune, as well as being perceived by some as a burden on the community.
That series of events was put under the sole responsibility of the young man and his real name was now overshardowed by his official title: "the coward in charge".
The term 'coward in charge' was not meaningless, as he was the head of his university's student council.
He obviously felt terrible about it all, but what people didn't know was that his cowardly behaviour stemmed not only from fear or irresponsibility alone, but also from his father's death.
At his father's funeral, survivors of the Toka disaster came to pay their respects, saying that it was thanks to the man's courage and sacrifice that they were alive. This news, instead of reinforcing the image of a hero in the boy's mind, gave rise to resentment.
'He should have run away.'
'We needed him here!'
'What's the point of saving others if you can't save yourself?'
'Ah... I see! He abandoned us!'
'He was just a fool!'
"Fleeing was only right !"
'I'll never end up like him!'
And later again, when he became mayor and married Aleone — who despite being much younger, was more daring and assertive — the coward label increased tenfold, as civilians started to spread rumours that it was only thanks to some shady means from the part of his wife, known as the queen of vipers, that he ended up there.
From then on, he was nothing more than a coward, manipulator, and traitor who let his wife do his dirty work.
One day, as he sat in his office, he thought about his life up to that point.
'I'll show them I'm not a coward!'
Thinking about this, he closed his eyes and let himself daydream, his mind wandering in the meanders of his imagination.
***
The guard who had seen the scene picked up the whistle attached to a rope around his neck, into which he emptied all the air in his lungs.
The shrill sound of the accessory echoed throughout the municipal courtyard, sounding the alarm for those inside the residence, and he drew his sword, ready to charge at the attackers.
However, before he could take even one step, a flash of white light appeared above him and he felt as if he was no longer in control of his movements. It was a strange sensation, as if he no longer had control of his body, but was a kind of puppet who had to obey the strings controlling it.
His arm rose - as he struggled to regain control of his limbs - and braced itself horizontally. The tip of his rapier was now glued to his chest, right at heart level.
Realising what was happening, the guard tried to beg the monks not to do anything. But he couldn't even finish his sentence when his own sword pierced him and he fell dead.
The bishop sighed.
"What a waste! Well, that'll teach them!"
He turned to his followers.
"Gentlemen, it's time to fulfil the prophecy foretold by the gods. Search the house of this sinner and bring me the heart of the angel, even if it means corrupting your hands with the blood of the godless who dwell there!"
The religious, as if under the effect of a drug, let out a war cry in unison.
The bishop struck the ground with his sceptre and held it out, giving his followers permission to storm the town hall.
The faithful rushed into the courtyard.
Suddenly, Yugo appeared, closely held by Aleone, who was pointing a dagger at his neck.
"I've been waiting for you, your highness!" she said.