Just out of the occupied territories of the Windsor Kingdom, there lay an unclaimed part of the troposphere- a great forest, the home to thousands of different flora and fauna.

It was surrounded by the Jae Kingdom in the far west and by a mountain range in the north. In the South, lay one of the greatest Empires of that era - the Nirixia Empire. Also nickname the Land Untouched by Greenery.

And along the east border of this great forest ran the borders of several kingdoms, one of them being the Windsor Kingdom ruled by King Alex Windsor.

The central area of all these empires and kingdoms - the Great Forest, as marked by most of the maps, was a diverse land that housed eight different clans of the barbarians.

One of them the Hermann clan, half demolished into ruins and the other half, residing in secret somewhere in this vast vegetation.

Far away from the ruined villages of the Hermann clan, a river flowed, the smooth flowing water glittering under the bright sunlight.

At the banks of a river, a woman damgled her legs into the cool, rythmic stream of this river. Her dark red hairs fluttered in the breeze that sweeped the grass covered fields. The scenario looked like it had been taken straight out of a majestic painting.

"Are you going to sit there all day, darling?" The moment of peace was broken by the thumpings of a pair of feet, who had just jumped down from a tree. His chest heaved from mild exhaustion as this man walked upto the woman and sat beside her.

"You are done too quickly with your hunting, Draven." The woman, Lysandra spoke in a mischievous voice as her face perked up with a sweet smile in the presence of her husband.

"You know me quite well, Lys. I just want to spend as much time possible with you before..."

"...Before the invaders take you away." Lysandra finsihed for him, her cheerful smile converting into a bittersweet one.

"Yeah."

A silence filled the space between them, each of them looking at the river in front of them in a pensive mood. They had so much to talk about, so many memories to recall, even have a future to discuss on...and yet, at that moment, the only language they knew of was dead silence.

With a hesitant sigh, Lysandra broke the tension in the air.

"Hey, Draven...is everything going to be alright? I have this bad omen that something quite bad is going to happen soon."

Draven didn't answer her question. Rather, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rubbed his hands on her head tenderly.

Because both of them knew how bleak the future and survival of their clan looked at that moment. And thus, Draven chose to keep his mouth shut...for better or worse.

"My dear, while the events are all completely out of my hands, I can assure you of one thing." His voice held a firm note, making Lysandra look up from his chest with hopeful eyes.

He continued, "Today won't be the last time we see each other...we shall definitely meet each other again. And I promise you this...one day, somewhere out there, beside the mountains, we will have our own little house...and our family."

His hands slowly traced down her shoulders, then her slender back and finally passed at her stomach...at her baby bump.

In a faint whisper only audible to her, he once again spoke. "Our own family..."

Lysandra's eyes moistened as suddenly she cried out loud. Her tears freely spilled as her hands clung to his clothes. She buried her face in his chest as muffled cries rang out in the fragile nature.

"D-Draven...Draven! Please don't l-leave me. I don't want to be away from you. The baby...and I, we both need you as well." Her voice broke as her words tumbled out in a rush.

Draven didn't speak a single word in response. Instead he just held onto her, his shimmering eyes overlooking the river.

He let her cry out all of her bottled emotions. 'Cry, sweetheart. Cry... because after this, you need to be strong. Have the strength to defend yourself, to protect our child...and most importantly, so that somewhere out there, I can execute my plans in peace.'

His arms strengthened around her, as if being a human shield against all of the atrocities of this strange world.

They remained in that position for some time until the crumpling of sound alerted them.

Lysandra hurriedly got up from her husband's chest, wiping away her dried tears.

But Draven suddenly pulled her into his embrace and whispered in her ears, "Pretend to sleep. Nobody would see your moment of weakness in that way."

Lysandra weakly nodded and shut her eyes. Draven turned back to look at a middle aged woman with light brown hair.

"Is Lady sleep?" Her broken language didn't go unnoticed by him. He felt a bit proud that his clan was getting better in the Common Tongue that was supposedly spoken by people of every kingdom and empire in this world.

"Don't worry about her. I shall safely carry her to her room." Draven's tone vouched no further argument as the light haired woman bowed her head and walked away.

The rest of the day passed away as if the young couple was just experiencing a sweet summer dream.

"Stay safe..." Lysandra's voice cracked a little as Draven was about to go out.

Seeing that, he instantly changed the topic.

"Say darling, would it be wise to leave only ten nameless under your command? I did say you I could gather few named Hermanns as well."

Lysandra's face changed dramatically as she realised what he had done.

'My father used to say that during a crisis, if the leader gets weak in the eyes of their subjects, don't be surprised if your clan is wiped out by your enemies.'

And Draven was always mindful of such wisdom passed by his elders.

A little while later, he had already started walking among the hundreds of trees surrounding their area.

"So you did come. I was wondering you wouldn't have kept the promise."

Draven took a step back as his bow was raised in the air, scrutinizing for any threat.

"Oh, it's you." He relaxed his muscles as a girl of 21 years old appeared from the dense cover of the forest.

Princess Valerie looked at him expressionlessly as she asked, "I hope I have given you enough time to bid your wife a farewell."

In response, Draven nodded with a slight pause. If he eas being honest, no amount of time would probably have been "enough" for him. But still, he needed to be grateful with what he got.

A sudden question struck him. "Wait a minute...why are you here instead of some troops from your side?"

Valerie folded her arms in front of her. In the same emotionless voice, she answered.

"I just wanted to inform you that all three of your clan members have successfully qualified for the Sihapis."

"That's...good. But why are you here?"

"I have a certain question...I can understand why your cohort had that girl as a member. She is strong, abnormally so given the almost non existent talent of light brown individuals in your clan.

What I am curious about is why did you bring that boy in your cohort? And don't think about lying to me. Lysandra was knocked out cold, Thorgar and Bloodaxe loathe him from what I know...

So it was you...who brought him to the cohort?"

A wave of dread washed over a cautious Draven.

'What does she suspect?'

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