Guild Wars

You can guard against a thief for ninety-nine days, but make a mistake and lose your vigilance for one day, and it would be enough for the fellow to make off with all your belongings, even your anime body pillow!

Nicholas was often out, quelling unrest that emerged from the conflict between the lineages that seemed to affect the mortal governments of the world, a worldwide conflict starting to brew.

Naturally, the then United Nations were aware of the lineages and had operated under their thumbs since after World War 2, with the Lineages as shadow rulers. However, seeing that the lineages had been severely weakened to the point where they could barely maintain their own internal operation, many became restless.

Who would like to be under someone else's control for long?

You lying there in your bed, didn't you praise the lords for being able to graduate from school because your teachers were always there to dictate how you were to live your life?

If so, then why not these 'leaders'?

Scathach had duties to take care of as a member of the council and even with her aloof nature, there were some meetings she couldn't avoid. However, both she and Nicholas were still cognizant of the danger Adelaide faced, so Scathach put up a powerful semi 10th Order Ward around their estate that would prevent even Ao Jiantian from causing trouble without them knowing.

Not to mention, Adelaide was a lineage member with not a very small purity, so she was not a helpless child. It was these factors that gave this Morrigan Lineage scum a chance to effect his cruel scheme.

Every member of the Morrigan Lineage had been strapped with explosives in their bodies, ready to take the enemy down even if they died. Since this fellow was alive, his explosives were naturally unused, and remained dormant within him, but he needed to be able to activate them.

As it were, even eating required Adelaide's help, so he was more than helpless. Days passed with him being nursed gently, while watching Adelaide play with the infant Mary by the side, creating a homely scene that would have even made Satan waver.

There were people out there who could be abused day and night by their captors, eventually falling in love with them. So for someone who was treated with utmost kindness, even by their enemy, it was more likely for them to feel positive emotions within them.

However, the Morrigan Lineage was different. They were exactly like edgelord Draco, once the hatred was formed, it would take herculean efforts to quell it, and it was so pure and biased that it refused to see the truth.

To him, every mouthful of food fed by Adelaide was as if eating feces, and every smile from her was like a knife being stabbed into his wounds, mocking him for his weakness in allowing the member of an enemy lineage to see his weak state. Even the cries of Mary that were filled with infantile joy were like the screeches of an evil banshee, making his eyes water with tears of hate.

So the moment he regained a little bit of strength, he knew that his time had come. His biggest hurdle was making sure that his ploy was achieved in one fell swoop and that Adelaide was unable to react to his sudden attack.

If she threw up a psychic barrier of any sort or had some special tool to protect her body, his attempt would be a waste and would achieve nothing.

And so, to make that happen, he decided to exploit the very kindness that guaranteed him his life.

One day, when he was feeling particularly strong, he asked Adelaide in a weak voice to help him take a shower. Adelaide initially spoke against this, as his body was too weak to do much and she could simply ask either Nicholas to use a cleaning spell or do it herself.

However, the fellow begged with tears in his eyes, claiming that he wanted to feel normal again. This was true, as he wanted to feel somewhat like a normal, strong warrior of the Morrigan lineage before he died and took out his hated enemy.

Seeing this, Adelaide wavered as she was already a soft-hearted person filled with kindness. She placed an arm of his over her shoulder and helped him walk toward the bathroom step by step, encouraging him with every falter.

However, the fellow's eyes became red because he could no longer maintain his sanity. Being so close to this wretched woman and hearing her 'encourage' him after every mistake as if she actually cared and was not mocking him was too much for him to bear.

In the end, he couldn't wait and lowered his head, activating the explosives immediately to turn everything here into ashes!

Unfortunately for Adelaide, it was at this exact moment that Mary crawled over to her feet and tugged at her skirt, wanting to be held. Smiling, the mother reached out her other hand to grasp her baby, and this was exactly when the explosion went off, catching her as the moment her guard was at its lowest.

BOOM!

The entire estate shook, a fire reached the sky as a shockwave tore down all the other fixtures.

Another unfortunate mishap occurred, and that was the fact that Scathach's barrier activated at this time, preventing the fire and shockwave from escaping, causing them to be compressed within the area of the estate, rebounding back and forth.

Of course, the consequence of this mishap was later rectified by Scathach and became her first 10th Order spell, being akin to a good thing that came out of a tragedy.

Naturally, Scathach returned in mere seconds, her face changing greatly as she removed the barrier and let the forces escape, blowing her long purple hair behind her. The scene would be majestic if not for the expression of sheer fury and shock on her face as she casually used a 9th Order spell to dispel the flames.

The famous Shadowy One who hated dirt and uncleanliness as much as death, dove into the rubble and dug out with a mixture of her hands and her magic, two bodies that were severely burned but not beyond recognition.

"No…" Scathach could only say, her face falling into utter despair.

In her lifetime, she had suffered multiple blows and witnessed countless cruelties with a cold face, but this one was probably the one that hit her hardest. As she remained on her knees in shock, unable to quell her grief, she heard a set of familiar footsteps rushing over, causing her face to change greatly.

No, Nicholas!

He mustn't come here, he mustn't see this!Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Scathach was about to cast illusion magic to hide the two corpses, but she had forgotten that she had trained Nicholas to not be a pure mage, but also use his magic to perform knightly abilities. As such, his physical abilities were strong, and he arrived behind Scathach before she could finish the spell.

"Nanna?! What's going on?! Is Adelaide… safe…" Nicholas asked with a solemn expression, slowing down to a stop when he saw what lay before Scathach.

Scathach turned to look at Nicholas, her eyes misting with tears as she had never looked more vulnerable in her life. She could only stand there helplessly and look at her beloved great-grandson with a look of shame, uttering one word softly.

"Nicholas…"

Nicholas simply looked on in a daze, feeling as if countless explosions were erupting in his body, causing his chest to ache.

No, that was his heart beating so strongly that it almost exploded, pounding in his chest with each second. He walked forward with a dazed look, coming before the significantly burned corpses of his gentle wife and half-year-old daughter, holding the two in his arms.

Nicholas' lips trembled, yet he didn't shout to the sky or roar out his grief, because despite his pounding heart, his body felt weaker with each circulation, to the point where he even lacked the energy to speak. He simply held the two bodies close, lamenting and regretting everything, hating himself for creating the circumstances that allowed this to happen due to his kindness.

Never again.

At that moment, his heart seemed to calm down as his strong feelings began to submerge themselves. His eyes, which were usually filled with strong ambition due to his bloodline, playfulness due to his youth, and kindness due to his nanna, became significantly empty.

When he looked up, he had the same look as the modern Nicholas, a semi-lidded state that made it seem like he never took anything seriously, easily approachable, and completely uncaring. He stood up with the two bodies in hand and turned to Scathach, who was unable to say anything due to her guilt.

"Nanna, let's bury Addy and Mary." Nicholas said softly.

Scathach nodded and assisted Nicholas in manually digging a grave for the two near the back of the estate, where Cu Chulainn and Nicholas' parents were also buried.

After this, the lineage was informed, and they were shocked by this. Hector, Walter, and Edward dropped everything to rush to their brother, who was likely hurting, but what they found made them feel like their worlds had collapsed.

Nicholas, who was usually sporting a smarmy grin and ready to lighten up their days, was now silently seated in a courtyard, gazing into the sky with nothing in arm. His eyes were half-lidded, and his decadent demeanor was nothing like the man they knew or grew up with.

Nicholas turned to them and smiled softly. "Yo."

A familiar greeting, but the intention and meaning were worlds apart.

After this, Nicholas became distant from everyone, but he still came for the Sublime naming ceremony and felt a great stirring in his heart when Walter and Genevieve named her Mary. Looking at baby Sublime, who cutely giggled and reached out to grab his nose as he held her, Nicholas felt something stirring that he thought he had long lost.

In the end, he stayed in the lineage for two years, idling around and playing with Mary, who developed to be quite innocently stupid, enough that Nicholas felt worried about her future. However, after Mary met Eva, Nicholas felt it was time to leave since she was in good hands now, signing up for the English SAS.

With his background, his entry was fast-tracked, and he was sent as a recruit into the unit he would later lead under the alias 'Rum Lord'. As a rookie right now, he was seated in the APC heading towards their first deployment in the Netherlands, staring into the air as his comrades chatted actively.

Eventually, one guy, seeing that Nicholas was so glum, patted him on the back and began chatting with him. Nicholas snapped out of his stupor and smiled softly, chatting back somewhat normally, but his heart wasn't into it.

"Kid, you look like you've seen shit. I know that thousand-yard stare where your body is present, but your mind is living in a different world," the senior combatant said knowingly.

This caught Nicholas' attention and he glanced at the fellow hesitantly. "How… do you normally deal with it?"

"Some hurts you can't deal with. They say time heals all, but that's bullshit. Someone with eyes like yours might end up taking their own life in a year or two."

The comrade pulled out a flask and opened it, giving it to Nicholas. "But thankfully, God Almighty created the all-purpose cure for such problems."

Nicholas took the flask and sniffed, realizing it was rum. He glanced emptily into the flask and thought about how he slapped one such bottle from the hands of Hector back then, claiming that he was above such a filthy thing.

Nicholas gritted his teeth and downed more than half the flask at once, causing the one who gave it to him to be alarmed.

"Uh kid, that might be a bit much. It's quite strong, you see…"

However, he was forced to stop when he saw Nicholas smile and burp. His smile right now was genuine, even as he began to waver in his seat, looking unsteady. After all, for the first time in weeks, that scene that played itself over and over in his head had become blurry.

Soon, their CO came over and checked on them. Seeing Nicholas like this, he did not say anything since he knew that this was a 'superhuman' who would likely live even if they all died, but he did talk to Nicholas head-on.

"Nicholas Spencley, in this unit, everyone has a codename to prevent the enemy from ascertaining our origins since our missions are not exactly sanctioned and above ground. What will yours be?"

Nicholas burped again and glanced into the flask to see if there was more as his superior physical body began to recover from the drunk state.

"Misery. Just call me Misery."