Chapter 91: William's time at the academy (1)
The world always likes to do things that are opposite to people's thoughts. The two who were once brothers, became rivals. As said in stories, the cause behind this was a girl, a beautiful junior who joined the academy two years later, Serenna Siren.
She was considered an absolute beauty that everyone tried to get. Even these two who were considered Battle Maniacs were no better than other boys.
Although she was beautiful, it was not her beauty that attracted them but her prowess. She was the top ranker of their year. Like them, she spent most of her time training, unlike other girls.
Most of the girls that attend the academy forget about training and spend time choosing a good man for themselves to settle down. There are very few who continue to strive to reach higher stages. After settling with someone that they like, it was the duty of that person to make sure that she would reach the next rank.
It was not easy, especially as they reached higher ranks, but that didn't matter much to them anyway.
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At first, it was a friendship between the three as they all loved fighting, but later both of them fell in love with her.
It was difficult for Serenna to choose because either decision could hurt one of her friends but in the end, she chose Adus. They got married and had a child, Magnus Frostwolf, grandfather of the present-day Magnus, his namesake.
Serenna and Adus disappeared and are said to have died on an expedition when Magnus was young. Later when his son Joseph had grown up, he went looking for his parents' whereabouts. Though he wanted to do so for years, he had many things to take care of.
Magnus lost his wife when Joseph was a child. So he had to take care of their child and couldn't do things as he wanted to. Moreover, there is the viscount that needs him.
So he waited for Joseph to reach the right age to take over his title. After handing over his title and territory to Joseph, he disappeared too after that, never to be heard again. To this day, Joseph has no idea what happened to his father and grandparents.
Even though he wanted to know, he decided to push the issue to the back of his mind. He has a viscounty to rule. Due to his father and grandparents' sudden disappearance, a lot of unstable factors started to appear in the family.
He stayed behind and when the time came for him to hear about them, then he would hear about it. Until then he decided not to leave. He had a feeling that if he left, the family might crumble. This was something he wouldn't like to happen. If his father had seen those cracks in the family, he might have not left, searching for his parents either.
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Samuel on the other hand, couldn't get the girl and lost the brother he found in the academy. He couldn't really hate Adus for getting the girl and couldn't blame that girl for choosing Adus over him.
Adus was from the line of nobles, who were descended from the Battle Tribes. These tribes loved violence more than anything. Many of these tribes were destroyed because of their excessive fighting.
They made many enemies and after a lot of battles, very few tribes survived. Even after centuries of taming, didn't totally clean out their fighting charm from them.
Many of the Frostwolf family belong to fighting professions. Due to this, they remained moderate in the kingdom. Even though fighters are the mainstay, most of the wealth would be concentrated around professions like alchemists and blacksmiths.
They would control the entire economy of a nation, not these fighters.
Rutgurd on the other hand has a good number of those professionals, making it richer than the Frostwolf family.
Anyway, after Serenna married Adus, Samuel married Wellna Aster. It was supposed to be a good ending but it was not.
Samuel couldn't forget Serenna and failed to do his duty as a husband. Though he sired children with her, he was not 100% present for her. This angered Wellna but she couldn't do anything at that time.
After Adus and Serenna disappeared, Samuel also lost the will to live. He died a few years after their disappearance. This was because, when Serenna chose Adus, Samuel didn't accept the result. He attacked Adus, injuring him heavily.
Though there was no life threat, due to the injury, Adus couldn't progress forward. They both disappeared while looking for a cure for that injury. With the injury, he wouldn't be able to contribute to the family. So Adus made his son the head and left the family.
Others may not know the reason why they left home but Samuel did and he blamed himself. In the end, when he was in bed, he always words asking for forgiveness, mostly from those two but also from his wife.
Wellna forgave her husband and pushed the blame onto the two families, Frostwolf and Siren.
Time went by, but a piece of small news caused a storm in the Rutgurd House.
Lady Wellna got news about Elisha Siren, who looks exactly as Serenna and she was engaged to Magnus Frostwolf. She wanted revenge. The Frostwolf and Siren families are the reason why she couldn't be a wife of her husband.
She always hated those two families for depriving her of her husband. So a plan was hatched and her great grandson, William would play a major role in this plan.