Bryson Coldwater id in his bed inside his room staring up at his ceiling. He wasn’t really thinking, just staring at the pattern painted on the ceiling and allowing time to pass. For the past few days he really hadn’t done much of anything.

  He would just sit and stare or sleep, at least he had been eating properly and cleaning himself at least, his parents guaranteed that he had at least satisfied those needs. It had been a number of days since the incident in the forest and Primrose’s death. After her sacrifice, Coni soon arrived with reinforcements of guards, Sable, and the suit of moving armour. Though all they could do was help Florence and Bryson recover.

  The official story was simply that a demon from the army of darkness broke out and attacked Primrose, which was in fact true, just the more specific details were left out. Bryson and Florence simply managed to intervene in the melee. Vio when messaged about the situation had been tempted to divulge the fact that it was actually Afa behind everything, but Coni warned of the amount of chaos that would cause.

  Besides they cked any actual evidence behind the cim and Afa, at least the idea of the original one is still reveled across the world. She was a being of worship and trying to cim her to be a horrible tyrant would likely cause more problems than solve.

  It didn’t help that Bryson was a Coldwater due to her influences and there was fear of what would happen to the boy if his parents realized he was meant to be a monster in some story. They raised Bryson as their son with the belief of him being something great, how would they feel knowing that he was meant to be some type of ticking time bomb?

  It was a question that everyone didn’t want answered just quite yet. Duke Coldwater’s superstitions were what brought Bryson into the family and they could easily bring Bryson out of it after all.

  While Bryson wasn’t exactly afraid of revealing the truth, his worry came for the others. Florence, the Frosts, Kristal, they all were ‘infected’ by the curse known as Bryson Coldwater, so what might happen to them? For now, they all begrudgingly decided to keep it a secret for just a while longer.

  With this narrative the Coldwater parents were livid at the invasion that somehow went unnoticed with all their detection devices monitoring their territory. But they were thankful for Primrose’s sacrifice in dealing with the demon. What’s more was that the Coldwaters since the event had put more into their budget for demon hunting.

  A result that had already proved to improve the continent, with more adventurers, clergy, and knights roaming around, destroying cults and banishing demons. As this kept up it was likely that Wrabruth would likely be one of the safest areas when it comes to demonic presence.

  In the meantime Primrose had a funeral within the manor and her flower that was left was pnted in a special area of the garden. While Bryson attended the funeral, he said nothing, though he held a look of absolute sorrow during the procession. After that he mostly held himself to his room.

  He heard a knock on his door and a concerned call, it was Li Frost, “Lord Bryson, are you in there?” Bryson gave no reply.

  “You haven’t done much for the st couple of days, I know that your parents gave orders to allow you to be alone for a few days, but everyone is concerned with you.” Li said as she listened in silence for another moment.

  “Uh Lady Sable? What are you doing here?” Li said in surprise.

  Bryson then couldn’t make out what was said, but he recognized the voice to be Sable’s. She also heard footsteps that sounded pretty heavy and fast. Then he heard banging on his door.

  “Wait Lady Sable, Lord Bryson locked the door. I don’t think, huh? What are you doing?” Li said sounding worried about something.

  “Get out of the way.” Sable said as the sound of something heavy seemed to be drawn.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Li asked sounding extremely armed now.

  “Trust me, my stupid brother needs to start moving soon. Seriously! Your stupid sister has been pestering me for information the st few days, he needs to take care of her, he took the responsibility of raising her!” Sable said as it sounded as though she began to back away.

  Bryson at this point had heard enough commotion to cause him to take a break from his stupor and curiously peer over his bed and at the door. Focusing a bit he recognized the mana pattern of Sable’s sword.

  “This is a really bad idea!” Li said in a full-on panic now.

  “It’s my family’s door it will be fine.” Sable shouted back.

  Bryson was about to open his mouth to ask what was happening when his door proceeded to explode as a massive greatsword smashed through it. Bryson immediately jumped out of bed and took a defensive stance as Sable removed her bde and entered his room.

  “Are you insane!” Bryson screamed.

  “Oh finally, a reaction.” Sable said observing Bryson’s shock.

  “What is wrong with you?”

  “What is wrong with you?” Sable countered.

  “What are you talking about? You broke my door!”

  “I only broke down the door because you won’t open it.”

  “Yeah, it’s my door! To my room! You can’t just break it down!” Bryson said getting red hot with rage.

  “Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?” Sable said crossing her arms.

  “You are insane!” Bryson said as he took a very angry step towards her.

  “Good.” Sable said looking satisfied.

  “I beg your pardon?” Bryson said pausing as he now looked at his sister in confusion.

  “It’s good to see an actual expression on your dumb face.”

  “What are you talking about?” Bryson bristled.

  “Ever since Primrose died you closed yourself off.” Sable said in a far more serious tone.

  “It’s just… it’s just that I have had a lot to think about since then. I almost died and everything?” Bryson said looking down at the floor.

  “You feel guilty.” Sable corrected.

  “She shouldn’t have died.” Bryson muttered.

  “But it’s not your fault.”

  “She died because of me, she sacrificed herself to save me. Marsh almost died because of me.” Bryson snapped, “The demon obviously was there for me! How is it not my fault?”

  “Because she chose to save you. Not you, same with Florence, she joined the fight because she chose to. You had no say in the matter did you? They fought for you because they wanted to.” Sable said.

  “Well that doesn’t make me feel much better, they were still there because of me.”

  “Oh please, you aren’t that special Bryson. You aren’t some chosen child of destiny. You’re just my dumb brother that was dug out of a hole in the ground.” Sable scoffed, “You’re just lucky enough that people like you enough to trust you because as annoying as you are, there is an ounce of charisma behind all that short angst.”

  “We’re the same height.” Bryson grumbled.

  “Listen, I didn’t know Primrose as much as you did, but I liked her enough to feel her loss, but I also know enough about her that she probably didn’t want her death to consume you. Am I wrong?”

  “… She did want me to live a happy life.” Bryson said.

  “And are you going to be able to do that moping inside your room all the time?”

  “No, are you done pointing out the obvious?” Bryson said looking annoyed.

  “Just one more thing.”

  Bryson gave an eye roll and Sable fshed a smile, “Don’t forget you are a Coldwater, and Coldwaters don’t sit around and do nothing when someone crosses them. We get our revenge. We get even.”

  Bryson closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “Point made. Now stop bothering me.” He said opening his eyes and began to move past Sable and out of his room through the broken-down door.

  “Where are you off to?”

  “To check up on Pinop and Marsh, I should see if they are doing alright?” Bryson said as he bashfully rubbed his upper lip.

  “Finally choosing to start moving again huh?” Sable said as they heard their mother call from down the halls.

  “Sable? What’s this I hear that you destroyed a door?” A voice eerily calm echoed down the pce.

  “Uh oh.” Sable said face getting pale.

  “Good luck.” Bryson said as he made a hasty retreat.

  “Bryson wait!” Sable called out in panic.