Within Merlobasso, basil and human lived peacefully, the only difference between them being scales and the fact one of those races had a tail that usually fell off in comical ways.
Three days had passed since the adventurers departed from the capital. Within those three days, songs were sung, prey was hunted, water from the springs was stored, and everyone lived their dream life in the wilderness.
Reman forests offered enough for everyone, and the playful spirits of those teens was enough entertainment to boot. With the start to their journey being safe and uneventful, everyone forgot about training and instead enjoyed their adventure as much as possible.
On the fourth day, Marco and Aurelio made their way of foot through the forest, running for their lives as water jets were shot at them with no intention to miss. Even with their lives on the line, the two were laughing to their hearts' content. After all, the rewards for their decisions had been worth the danger.
Following them, there was a horde of young women dressed in nothing but towels, charging at the boys as if they were the dinner for that night, and after what they'd done, maybe that option wasn't off the table.
"Marco! Whatever you do, don't tell Gianna about this! Deal?"
"Of course I wouldn't!" the young man answered. "But I wonder what made her skip on taking a bath today. It's not often that you stumble across a perfect hot spring!"
Aurelio wondered the same thing, but fortunately, he shouldn't ever have this subject brought up to him, as the girls following them with bright red faces were too far away to figure out who had been peeking on them.
With an easy heart, Aurelio could run freely, unbothered by the shouts and threats coming from behind. Truly, he was living a life he didn't think could get any better.
However, the world outside of Merlobasso and another couple of big cities was different, yet nobles had little reason to know about the dangers roaming Reman forests.
*****
*Smack*
Sitting with his knees on pinecones, Aurelio could do nothing but accept the punishment his girlfriend was serving him.
"Must be tough, having a girl like this!" a boy laughed while enjoying some freshly cooked fish for the evening, yet his face soon grew weary when Gianna threw him a frosty glance.
"Truly the ice queen," another boy mumbled, referencing the two unique traits of the young lady.
First of all, Gianna was to one day become the queen of Rema. That day was still far from now, but word was spreading around that the royal family had already made the necessary preparations for her and Aurelio to take the throne.
Her other unique trait was less related to her blood and more related to the way she handled energy, for she had a funny way of using water. Instead of keeping the element as it was, Gianna would always transform water to ice. It wasn't that she wished to do so, but water would end up freezing whenever she picked it up. Hence why the name "Ice Queen" was fitting for someone like this lady.
Yet, whenever she was called that, Gianna's cheeks would turn pink.
Today wasn't an exception, so in order to hide her bashfulness, Gianna took Aurelio by the hand and dragged her boyfriend away in the darkness of the night.
Ignoring Aurelio's desperate screams, the woman didn't stop until she reached the edge of a cliff, upon which she threw her boyfriend as if he were a lifeless doll. In turn, Aurelio shook his hands desperately, trying his best not to fall off the cliff and look uncool in front of his lover.
"Aurelio, do you love me?" Gianna asked as she sat next to the man.
"Of course I do!" Aurelio responded instantly, partly because he was scared, but also because that was the bare truth.
"Would you love me even if I wasn't a princess?"
"Of course!"
"Could you love me even if we were to forever stay here in the forest? No throne. No wealth. Nothing of note. Just you and I…"
"No doubt in my heart!"
"Would you stay next to me even if I were to become a queen?"
"Gianna, I would stay with you whatever happens!"
After the burst of probing questions that made little sense for the young man, the Reman girl breathed a sigh of relief. Then her hand suddenly touched his, their palms coming together as both of their hearts started beating faster and faster.
"I'm glad to hear that," she said. "Then, if you truly love me—"
*Smack*
Maybe it was shock that took Aurelio's hearing away at the moment, or maybe it was the loud smack to the head that knocked him out soon after, but the young man never got to hear Gianna's last words.
*****
Although the boy stood silent, terror screamed curses through his eyes, and it was not only Aurelio; all of his friends came back home looking the same.
16 left that day, but only 15 had returned, all of them sons and daughters of important people, but maybe the most important one of the group was the 16th.
"Gianna… is…"
When time came to pass on the news, Aurelio froze up. Yet, even without saying it, the king and queen figured out what had happened. The adventure the youngsters had set on ended in tragedy, and the one girl Aurelio cared about most was taken away by a band of basil mercenaries.
The last he'd seen of her was the awful scene of his sweetheart getting beaten up and dragged across the ground. It made no sense. Why would a band of basil act like that? Why would they hurt the princess? Why did they raid and steal everything from the camp?
The night when disaster struck, the capable Aurelio found himself powerless, quickly understanding that all of his water magic was useless if he couldn't use it in a real fight.
Now, it was too late, for by the time he had finally found it within himself to apologize to the royal family, they threw something on his head that would leave him marked for life. That something was a ring that should have been Aurelio's in a couple of months. It was next to another ring, both of them wrapped around a delicate finger, cut off from the hand he had recognized as being the one he had held last.
With words stuck in his throat, the boy ran away from the castle. He ran back to the mansion he called home, looking for his mother to comfort the bird who'd strayed too far from the nest.
Once in front of the house, he tried to open the door, but the last maid of the mansion called him from outside.
"The missus, she does not welcome you anymore," she said with an apologetic bow.
One after another, the walls holding the shiny roof that was Aurelio collapsed, and the boy was left sleeping outside, hearing as his mother cursed him and complained to every man who would visit her.
"My son? Of course I had to banish him. I couldn't risk having to face the wrath of the crown for his stupid endeavor."
Yet even now, as he slept under the cold sky, hearing his mother's shouts every night, Aurelio repeated one thing to himself.
"I'll take that title, Mother," he said again and again.
"When I become the water representative, please take me back…"
*****
Becoming a representative was no easy task, especially for one left without a house.
Yet, as light would sometimes pass through even when the clouds were thick, Aurelio still had friends to help him.
Now living with Marco, the young man trained from dusk until dawn, only stopping to eat and sleep, and sometimes even forgetting to do that much.
It was then that an assassination attempt took place, and while he was fortunate enough to escape together with Marco and his family without anyone getting hurt, that attack was the final drop that made the cup spill, starting a war between Rema and the neighboring nation of Kron.
Although being nobility, the 15 friends who had failed to protect the crown were drafted and sent to the front—facing something much worse than the mercenary attack they had barely survived.
At the stronghold, they laughed and hung out just like any other day, yet something kept eating at their sanity. It was something nobody dared address, but that something could be read on their faces. All of them were afraid. All of them feared that death may soon find its way to them.
And so it happened. One by one, they gave their lives on the battlefield, with only Aurelio and Marco being left to take part in the final battle.
"Lieutenant Marcelli! Can you hear me?"
That was the last thing their colonel shouted, right before becoming lunch for the starving drakes released by Kron's knights.
"I guess that puts you in command," said Marco jokingly, troubled by his friend's decision to stay hidden in a hole they had dug a day prior instead of helping their comrades push back.
"Not that it matters anymore," Aurelio replied, his voice shaking harder than his hands that could barely hold a rapier. "It's just the two of us left alive!"
Could they have changed the outcome of the battle? With their abilities as aspiring candidates for the water representative position, it wouldn't have been too hard. Marco knew that, but Aurelio refused to fight.
Fear had long overcome the once proud noble. It was a fear that everyone who had experienced war felt at one point, yet not all could fight against it.
"Aurelio, calm down," Marco whispered, his hand grabbing the shoulder of the lieutenant. "When things settle down, we'll get out of here and go back home."
"Yeah…" Aurelio's trembling voice answered. "One final push, and it'll be over…"
As things stood, nobody from their squad was left alive. Whatever happened, the two men couldn't be accused of treason, as there was no proof of it. All they had to do was come up with a believable story and rely on their names to pull them out of trouble.
"Watch out!" Marco shouted out of nowhere, pushing Aurelio aside right as an arrow pierced the ground between them.
A scream from far away was all it took, and a hail of arrows rained down the hole they were hiding in. Thanks to a stroke of genius, Aurelio transformed the walls around him into water, stopping the arrows before they pierced him.
On the other hand, Marco wasn't as lucky.
*****
He could have saved Marco had he made the water layer thinner to only slow down the arrows. Instead, he subconsciously protected himself, forgetting about his friend.
He could have carried the wounded Marco with him through the tunnel he'd made. Instead, he let his dear friend drown as he replaced dirt with water, not caring about anything else but his own survival.
At the very least, he could have listened to his friend's final words before the water, or maybe the arrows silenced him. Instead, he plugged his ears, running as fast as his trembling legs would let him.
But why did Aurelio leave his friend—no, his friends—behind?
"I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna dieIdon'twannadieIdon'twannadie…"
Years later, as a general, this fear still plagued Aurelio's mind. He was afraid of death. He was afraid of the thing that took everyone away from him.
Now, bent over the bleeding corpse of a woman called Sofia, Aurelio grabbed onto his own hair, repeating the same words over and over again.
"I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna die I don't wanna dieIdon'twannadieIdon'twannadie…"
He found the man who had killed his mother, but nothing he'd done to him—no matter how many new methods of torture he'd invent—could bring his mother back.
From a young prodigy to a general, the one called Aurelio had lost, gained, and lost again. He now had the trust of the crown, but he had nobody to congratulate him. He had riches, but nobody to share them with. He had a goal, but no reason to pursue it.
Yet Aurelio continued walking blindly towards the only light on the dark path.
"Water…"
And it was right as he was about to remember his biggest failure that the general called Aurelio, opened his eyes.
The moon lit up the night sky, and the Remans in the camp were lined up, waiting for his order to go to battle.