by Max Jager
"Well, what can I say?" he said as he shrugged, "I am who I am…you are who you are…and hot chocolate is what hot chocolate is: delicious. Besides, Ruby…you liked it when I used my smart mouth on you as a teenager."
"Oh, did I?" asked Ruby, intrigued by her son's proposition.
She watched as her pride got two teacups out from the dishwasher, and smiled as she watched her joy get two packets of hot chocolate mix from the pantry.
He really was a wonderful kid…
"Of course you did," asserted Bandit with a bright smile as he poured the hot chocolate mix into the teacups, "Think about it. It would have been no fun for you to raise a perfect child, right? So, with that being said, my having a smart mouth gave your life a sense of…excitement and wonder."
Feeling her cheeks get a bit hot, Ruby looked down as she cleared her throat, and Bandit observed her cheeks turning slight pink.
"Aw," he said to her as though she was a baby who had just done something adorable, "You're blushing."
"N… N-No, I'm not…" Ruby denied.
"Oh, really?" he asked, amused by her behavior, "Okay, then if you're not blushing, look at me and speak."
Bandit lifted her chin a bit with his finger to make her face him, but all she could do was stutter.
"I… You… Uh…"
Unfortunately for her, this was not the first time her son had managed to make her blush with slight embarrassment.
Figuring that he had put her through enough teasing, Bandit kissed her forehead, making her gasp in surprise. She looked at him in shock, for he often did not express his feelings in such a way, but became more comfortable with his actions when he looked at her and smiled.
This kid, she thought as she returned his smile.
The red-haired man on the deck of the caravel was still looking up at the night sky, when one of his associates, a tall and muscular old man with pale skin, short, brown hair, and green eyes named Sar Nasu, walked onto the deck and over to him. Sar had quite a noticeable appearance, for his teeth were jagged, his skin was rough, and his eyes were quite small, but the most noticeable trait Sar possessed was the sheathed golden longsword strapped to his waist.
The same golden longsword Zor had used against Bandit in Vast Expanse.
That golden longsword.
The red-haired man remained silent as Sar stood beside him.
"What…are you looking at?" he asked, confused that his associate was looking up at the night sky.
Apathetic, the red-haired man did not respond to his inquiry, so Sar looked up at the sky in an attempt to observe whatever his associate was looking at. He quickly realized, however, that there was nothing in the sky to be looked at, nothing worth noticing at the very least. He looked at his associate from the corner of his eye as he lowered his head.
This kid…he thought, slightly irritated.
Sar grunted and crossed his arms as he looked straight ahead, for want of a place to look other than the starry sky and his associate's cold demeanor. As he looked ahead, he raised an eyebrow when he saw a small speck a number of miles away.
Wha…? What is…that? he thought as he squinted to get a better look.
The red-haired man, who noticed that Sar was looking at something, lowered his head and looked in the same direction he was.
"Hey," said Sar as his mind began to process what it was he was looking at, "I think that's…"
Sar squinted even more in order to get a better view of the speck before him, but unlike him, the red-haired man did not need to squint to know what the speck was: land.
"Yes," continued Sar, "I think it is. Red, it looks like the Ice Lands are-."
Before he could finish his sentence, however, Red took a powerful leap from the caravel without uttering a single word, and Sar watched as he soared through the air and towards the speck of land that lied before them.
"…just ahead…" finished Sar, awkwardly.
Why do I even bother?
The kettle Bandit had set on the stove began to make a sound signaling that the water had finished boiling, so Bandit whistled as he proceeded to quickly take two packets of hot chocolate mix from the pantry, poured them into teacups, and took the kettle off the stove so he could pour the water into the cups.
Ruby was still smiling as she watched her son make them hot chocolate, and her smile widened as she thought of all he had done. Her son had saved the people of Vast Expanse from oppression, and had rescued the people of the Ice Lands from the same.
Unfortunately, she could not help but feel a certain guilt and sadness in her heart. Yes, her son was a hero, but he would not have gotten himself involved in all of the dangers he had been through the past few years had he lacked the initial goal he had possessed at the start of it all: obtaining lots of money for their family.
Her dream had been to open up a wonderful restaurant, one that specialized in cooking the greatest cuisines the world had ever known, but at the time, she had not had the money to fund such dreams, so she had decided to start out small and open up a small diner, the diner she currently owned. Unfortunately, when her business first opened, she did not have many customers, for she lacked the marketing knowledge needed for her to effectively and successfully promote her business, so for a good amount of time, her diner did not receive many customers, and that had caused her and her son to experience financial difficulties. She had not wanted Bandit to know of the problem, but he eventually caught on to the issue, and took matters into his own hands by going to the mercenary guild and asking if he could join them on the highest paying job that had been available at the time. She had not wanted him to go, to leave on such a dangerous mission, but Bandit had been adamant in his decision, and had secretly left with Abe and the others after going out for a smoke.
Now he was back where he belonged, but he had undoubtedly suffered, and it had all been for her sake.
Having finished making the hot chocolate, Bandit smiled as he picked the teacups up and turned to place them on the counter where Ruby sat.
"Okay!" he said enthusiastically, not noticing Ruby's saddened expression, "Here we go! Enjoy! I know you'll like it!"
Unwilling to put her son in a position where he would feel sad because of her own sadness, Ruby quickly rubbed her tears out of her eyes, and put on a smile as she looked at her son's culinary concoction.
"It looks…" she began.
Her throat felt a bit tight, so she cleared her throat, and tried to speak again.
"It looks wonderful," she said earnestly.
Bandit smiled as he looked at her, but as he did so, he noticed that something was off about his mother, for her eyes looked slightly red and puffy.
"Hey," he said with concern as he looked into her eyes, "Are you okay?"
"Huh?" asked Ruby, secretly anxious that Bandit had caught on to her inner feelings, "Oh, yeah, I'm okay. I'm just a little…tired, that's all,"
She picked up the teacup Bandit had set down before her, and Bandit watched closely as she took a sip of it.
"It's great," she said with a smile.
He, however, was unconvinced about what she had set about her tiredness being the reason her eyes were red and puffy, and Ruby looked at him nervously as he continued to scan her face.
"Uh…" she began, "…What are you doing, Car…?"
After scanning her face for a few more seconds, Bandit put his hand on her shoulder as he spoke.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, "You look similar to what a sad person would look like, and I wouldn't want you to look like that."
Ruby chuckled as she placed her hand over the hand Bandit had on her shoulder.
"I'm fine," she lied, "I promise. I…just feel really sleepy. That's all"
Bandit raised one of his eyebrows, and Ruby smiled as she looked at him.
"What, you don't believe me?" she asked.
"No, I don't," he said matter-of-factly, "However, knowing you, it would be best for me not to push this. Just remember something, Ruby: I'
m never going to leave you again, okay? I will always be here for you. Always. I need you to believe that, okay?"
"…Yeah," she responded, nearly speechless that he knew what had been on her mind.
Bandit smiled as he took his hand off her shoulder, and walked around to the other side of the counter so he could sit next to her. He picked up his own cup of hot chocolate, took a sip of it, and sighed with pleasure as he set it down.
"Now you see, Ruby?" he asked, "This is how a man makes hot chocolate. Ah, you still have a lot to learn…"
Ruby giggled as she playfully nudged him, and smiled as she watched him take another sip of his drink.
This kid… she thought in amusement, What am I going to do with him?
Meanwhile, a group of friends walked out of a bar on the south side of the city. A few of them were a bit tipsy, but one of them, Dante, was particularly drunk. With that being the case, two of his friends, Miles and Yuri, held his arms over their shoulders in order for them to carry him with ease. Dante groaned, and Miles sighed as he looked at his foolish friend from the corner of his eye.
"Man, what's wrong with you?" he asked as he furrowed his eyebrows, "This is the third time this week we've had to carry your ass out of a bar, and this time, it looks like it's about to rain! Damn it, man! When are you gonna learn to show some restraint?"
"Right?" asked Yuri as he shook his head, "I mean, how many times are you going to pee in your bedroom before you realize your limit?"
The only response the two got from Dante was a groan, along with the drool than ran down his chin. Miles and Yuri exchanged a look, and Yuri smiled when he heard Miles's attempt to stifle his laughter.
He may be a pain in the ass…he thought as he closed his eyes, but I can't deny that the stupid shit he does when he's drunk never gets old! This week alone, he has already peed in his closet, the bottom drawer of his dresser, next to his bed, and, as of last night, on the door of his room! I mean, how do you get up and walk over to your door, and yet not open it and go to the bathroom? Hehehe… The motherfucker…
Shit… thought Dante as he lazily looked down at the sidewalk while his friends carried him along, I'm so…fucking…wasted… What…the fuck…? I hear someone laughing… Are they laughing at me? They better not be laughing at me… The fuckermothers…
Dante slowly raised his head in order to see if his friends were laughing, and groaned as he did so.
Goddammit… My…head is…so heavy… Shit…
Despite the issue he had raising his head, however, he continued to try, and after thirty seconds, he finally managed to look up at Miles, who possessed a huge smirk on his face.
Oh, you little…twitch…! thought Dante as he hiccupped.
He was about to try to speak, when he saw something in the sky from the corner of his eye.
What the…? he thought as he turned his head to get a better look at the unidentified flying object.
He was very drunk, extremely drunk in fact, but despite that particular impairment, he could have sworn he saw a man flying through the sky above.
Wha…? What…? What the…?
He was about to become extremely disconcerted, or he would have, had he not been so incredibly inebriated. Instead, he thought what he was seeing was an element of his drunken stupor, so he simply lowered his head and closed his eyes.
Okay…it's official… he thought as he rapidly blinked his eyes, I…need…
…a bitch to fuck…
No one else in the entirety of the Ice Lands had seen the unidentified flying object Dante had observed, and because Dante was too intoxicated to realize that what he had seen was real, unfortunately, no one would be prepared for what was about to happen.
For unbeknownst to all, this day, August 15, 1854, was about to become a day no one would ever forget, a day that Dante would truly regret in death, and a day that would destroy Bandit Lane's heart, mind, and body.
The unidentified object that soared above the capital city of the Ice Lands was none other than the red-haired man from the caravel. His leap had been powerful enough to launch himself a number of miles through the air and towards the arctic expanse with relative ease.
As the man descended from the sky, he raised an eyebrow when he heard the sound of thunder come from the clouds above. He looked up at the clouds from the corner of his eye, and took notice of the lightning that was causing the thunder.
Perfect, he thought as he looked back down and identified a building he could land on safely, This…is my most powerful technique. It will rob me of a great amount of energy, so it will be easier for me to perform it when there's already lightning in the sky.
Back on the caravel, Sar crossed his arms as he thought about what his associate was going to do.
Fool… He knows that using that technique will drain him of a lot of power. It's not just that, though… Does he really…?
Does he really think doing such a thing to Lax is completely necessary?
Once the crimson-haired man landed on the two-story building he had identified, he silently observed the capital city for a moment, and grunted as he remembered what the city had looked like when he had last seen it.
Lax… It has actually changed quite a bit since I last saw it… If only…
The man's thoughts uncontrollably shifted to another subject, and as he thought about this particular subject, he slowly found himself become filled with a mixture of emotions.
Mom… he thought as he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes in bitterness.
Dad… he thought as he balled up his fists so incredibly tight in fury.
He gasped when he realized he was on the verge of losing it, and grunted as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. Once he did so, he opened his eyes, and looked up at the sky as it began to rain.
I…will not allow the people of this land to suffer…the way I have suffered… he thought as he raised his hands into the air, As of now…
…the Ice Lands will be protected by me!
Dozens of inconceivably large bolts of lightning rained down from the clouds above and struck the capital city of Lax with incomparable, relentless force, and the ground itself shook as the event took place.
A large number of buildings came crashing down, causing a great number of unfortunate deaths and injuries, while a vast majority of the streets were obliterated by the malevolent electricity in a matter of seconds.
Dirt, dust, and smoke flew throughout the air as the people of Lax screamed in terror.
It seemed like their whole world was falling apart and unluckily for them, there was nothing they could do to save themselves.
Nothing.
Ruins now replaced every inch of what used to be the diner known as Lane's.
All life seemed to have been extinguished, but in the midst of all the wreckage, there was one sole person, a twenty-two year old man, moving about, or to be more specific, trying to move about. He struggled to get a large stone off his body.
Shit…! he thought, What the…? What the hell just happened…?
He groaned as he struggled to get the stone off his lower body, and gritted his teeth as he slowly managed to lift it off him bit by bit. After a few moments, he managed to get the stone completely off himself, and used his remaining strength to throw it aside.
He slowly sat up, and panted as he rubbed his eyes, for dirt had gotten into them when the building had come crashing to the ground. He rubbed his eyes for about fifteen seconds before he slowly opened his now slightly teary eyes.
He saw a figure lying before him, but he or she was not initially clearly visible to him because of his teary eyes. As his vision slowly cleared up, however, the man recognized the person lying unconscious before him, but it took him slightly longer to register what had happened to her, for he was still awfully dazed.
His eyes slowly widened as he slowly realized that his mother was the one lying unconscious, bruised, and covered in blood before him, and he looked at her motionless bo
dy with his mouth agape as he remembered using his body as a shield to protect her when the diner had fallen to the ground.
"Ruby…" he said with an emotional and soft tone of voice, "…Ruby…"
Unfortunately, despite his effort to wake her up, Ruby was completely out of it, and thus, completely unable to respond.
More tears welled up in his eyes as he looked at her, and he became incomprehensibly morose as the reality of the situation began to sink in. His breathing increased as he began to tremble, and his eyes widened when he saw that he had her blood all over his arms.