“Look, Brother Ciel! The maple leaves are in full bloom again. It is the best time of the year to walk around. Come on and walk with me.” A sweet voice pulled Cielo from the abyss he was in. He opened his charred eyes with great difficulty, no matter how painful it was to peel his eyelids apart. The color of ash that filled Cielo’s vision did not dim the sparkle within his little sister’s eyes as she carefully lifted his body from the bed. Her movements were precise, a telltale sign that she was used to lifting him up from the bed onto the wheelchair. “I heard that you scared my friends again.” Shiela groaned playfully as she placed a blanket on his lap before guiding the wheelchair he was seated on to the shared balcony of the complex. “Brother Ciel, you can’t keep on scaring them. How can I work if I will worry about you all the time? What will we eat then? And what about your medicine?” ‘Shiela, you should leave me to die. You do not deserve a brother like me,’ Cielo could only
The first thing Cielo thought was about the harsh light penetrating through his tightly closed eyelids. With much difficulty, he opened his eyes and saw the clear blue sky.'Blue sky?'His eyes snapped open when realization dawned upon him. 'When is the light time I could differentiate colors aside from gray and black?'Reaching his right hand to the sky, his attention was pulled onto his smooth arm. "What is happening?"Still not recovering from the shock he was in, he was now touching his throat, feeling his neck for any discrepancy. "Now, I am a hundred percent sure I am dead.'The vast greenery around him was the telltale sign that he was out of the old apartment he was in. Remembering the events that happened before he died, he haphazardly stood. "Shiela!"Knowing Shiela died before him, his heart was filled with hope that his younger sister was with him. "Shiela!" He screamed once more."Shut it!" A child-like voice of a boy screamed behind Cielo.Turning around, he was met by a
“Ma! Ma! Whews bwother, Ma?”Kriza Regalia turned around only to see her youngest child still clad in her pink pajamas while hugging a plush pillow. Hiding the worry on her face, she scooped Shiela into a hug. “Brother Cielo is out to meet your father.”Shiela’s eyes sparkled at the mention of her father. “Papa? Will Papa see Shiela?”Biting the insides of her cheeks, Kriza changed the topic. “Why don’t you let Mama cook your favorite food, hmm? Does my little angel want that, hmm?” Tickling her by repeatedly kissing her chubby cheeks, Kriza successfully averted Shiela’s question.“Yes!”“Alright, let’s go.”A servant rushed in. Her wrinkled forehead was sweating as her eyes looked elsewhere but Kriza. “M-Madam, you have a visitor.”“Lead the way.” Kriza did not need to know who it was. Only two people would dare to come to the second-largest mansion in the estate. With a grim expression, Kriza cradled her six-year-old daughter.“Madam Kriza!” The sweet, innocent voice of Raella Ruen
“Hand me the guardian beast! Hand it to me right now!”Jun Regalia’s anger-filled voice announced his presence before his plump stature barged into the wooden gates of Cielo’s residence.“Papa!” A smiling six-year-old Shiela welcomed her father with open arms and a big grin when she was swatted to the side like a fly.Kriza Regalia saw this exact scene and released a cry. “Don’t hurt my daughter!” She dropped the basket filled with clothes and ran toward her sniffling youngest child. Right before she could scoop her brave bundle of joy, Raella Ruen kicked Shiela away from her way, making the latter cry.“Psh! What a crybaby! How did your mother raise you?” “Shiela!” A tear-stricken Kriza scooped her crying daughter, burying Shiela’s face on her chest while lightly caressing her heaving back.“I-Is Shiela a bwad baby?” Shiela hiccupped into her mother’s embrace.“Absolutely not true, Shiela,” said a voice behind Jun Regalia.“Here you are! Now, come on and—”Cielo walked past his fath
“Again!”The child-like voice of Rito became increasingly irritating for the heaving and kneeling Cielo Regalia. His limbs were trembling, and his energy was close to none.“Damn this!” Cielo muttered under his breath as he struggled to stand up. His spending black uniform as an official heir was drenched with sweat. His slick black hair was now disheveled. And his once sharp onyx eyes flickered a bright blue color every once in a while.Rito, who was squatting atop Cielo’s head, scoffed. “What? You are going to give up, boy?”“Never!” Not minding the added weight of the child on his head, he spread his knees, clasped his fists together, and closed his eyes. “I would rather die again than give up now.”“That’s the spirit!” Cielo hummed in approval. He formed a triangle shape through his clasped fingers and closed his eyes as he spoke. “Now, use the God’s Eyes again and focus! Until you find my domain, we will not stop this practice!”Cold sweat trickled down Cielo’s nose. The moment h
“YOUNG MASTER REGALIA, I WISH TO ASK YOU ONE THING.”Cielo glanced down. There was no hint of surprise in his eyes. “Speak.”‘Your detached tone did not change. I can still remember the back of the woman who stopped the assassins from chasing me and Shiela,’ Cielo thought as they trudged the empty corridors of the auction house.“Are you a hero or a villain?”“The young lady is funny. How did you think I made it here in the gathering if I did not defy my father?” A sarcastic smile cracked on his face as he kept pushing the wheelchair.“A villain.”Cielo glanced at Shiela who was holding the edge of his pants while holding Rito. “I rather become a villain who can destroy the world for the sake of what’s important to me than be the hero who will sacrifice everything for the good of the many.”Velicia Aberon remained silent, her small hands placed on her lap with her straight back against the wheelchair.Standing side by side, two guards who were wearing samurai black clothes opened the
Cielo watched the retreating figures of Levon Satova and Amyr Ruen from the room.Sighing, he finally looked at the silent Velicia Aberon. To crack the gnawing silence between them, he spoke the moment he stood. “I can’t believe that the longest series of words I ever heard from you is because you are defending me.” He scooped Velicia’s petite body swiftly before he stopped midway to the wheelchair. Looking down at her, he gave her a smile. “I never know that Aberon’s heir held me in such high regard.”Instead of shying away from his teasing, Velicia Aberon placed her palm atop his shoulder, making him flinch visibly, earning him a giggle from the latter. “You have a question.”“You know of the God’s Eyes,” Cielo answered back her statement with another. For him, there were too many coincidental meetings with Velicia Aberon—in this lifetime and the other. He did not know why she was sticking for him when every clan of the four great hidden families regarded the Regalia Clan as nothing
Standing at the foot of a steep mountain located at the borders between the free city and the Regalia Clan’s territory, Cielo adjusted his camper’s bag before he looked down at the little boy beside him. “You sure you want to stick with that form?”A pair of bright blue eyes rolled at Cielo. “And what? Give you an opportunity to ride on my back? Dream on, cheater.”“I did not cheat. Simply hiring a cab is not cheating. It absolutely got nothing to do with merging my core.”Rito scoffed. “I told you countless times, stamina will help you in this, or else you will suffer more than death itself.” He waved his chubby hand. “No more point crying over spilled milk. The moment we step into the moment, there will be an imbalance between our roles. I will be the boss until you can merge your core with mine. No matter what I say, you must abide by it. Understand?”Jumping a meter away from Cielo, Rito faced the latter. “Meet me at the peak of the mountain within an hour. Failure to do so and I