Chapter 209 - Emblem

"So you were the reason for Yuki becoming like this?!" Avila asked in an angry voice. 

"Come on, I wasn't the one who started the feud. I was just doing my best to end it as quickly as possible. Plus, it's not like he's the only victim here. I almost died in the final battle. I would've died if it wasn't for Jing. Oh my, I forgot about Jing," said Scar in a concerned voice. 

"Who's Jing? Is he someone important to Scar?" Avila asked Scar. 

"I guess you're done with praising me. I'll have to get used to just being Scar instead of being big brother Scar. Anyway, he shouldn't be that problematic. I've actually made sure to watch over him for quite a while. I told him to not escape from the kingdom which I placed him in but he didn't listen. It would've been too much work to hunt him down and kill him let alone place him back in the kingdom so I just made someone incharge of monitoring his movements every once in a while," Scar replied. 

"Oh is that so? How is he doing then? He must be an old friend of yours," said Avila. 

"Well, I wouldn't call it friendship. It's more of an acquaintance. We met while I was manipulating the kingdom to capture Yuki. He was a representative from a neighboring kingdom. Even though he had that task, more than anything, he was sad and moppy all the time. It was honestly depressing to look at. However, after the battle with Yuki. After we both survived, he seemed a lot more resilient. Although I didn't understand what brought on the sudden change, I wasn't about to complain," said Scar. 

"Then why did you trap him in a kingdom? If you were so happy for him, why not let him do as he pleases?" Avila asked. 

"That's simple. He wasn't half bad as a person. He was pretty smart and now that he had the will to never back down, he would be a formidable foe. It was much like when Yuki learned about my existence. He wanted to kill me because I would be a threat to his future plans. Just like that, I assumed that Jing would also be a threat. However, unlike Yuki, I couldn't eliminate him on the spot so instead I decided to let him live. Don't get me wrong though, if Jing grows to be too much of a threat, he'll be instantly eliminated," Scar replied to Avila. 

"Can I go now? I'm tired, I want to get some sleep before I go on my next quest," said Yuki as he tried to pass through Avila and tried to head for his room. 

"Oh no you don't! You're going to eat everything on your plate before you can go to sleep," Avila harshly replied. 

"Wow, you sound like a mother taking care of her child," said Scar as he saw Avila's interaction with Yuki. 

"Don't make this weirder than it has to be," Yuki said as he continued to eat what was on his plate. Once eating though, Yuki left the dining wonder and headed straight for his bedroom so he could sleep while holding on to his stomach as he had eaten too much food for his own good. 

...

"I guess you fed him well," Scar made a sarcastic remark at Avila. 

"Will you stop that?! Anyway, what are your plans from now on? I mean from the looks of it, you don't seem to have a dream. All you do is follow Yuki from the back, not that there's anything wrong with that but isn't there anything you would rather do than be a simple follower?" Avila asked. 

"If you're wondering what my future goals are, I don't have any right now. You know, at the beginning of this world, I always dreamed that I would be some rich guy who would relax in his large mansion and have wealth to spread out to many generations in his family line. When that dream had to come to an end, I was pretty sad but I was more excited about hunting down Yuki. I mean I managed to stay focused on that one goal for a whole year. However, now that I'm on his side instead, it feels better because I don't have to worry about a single thing," said Scar. 

"What do you mean that you don't have to worry about a single thing?! We still have to look out for each other and ourselves as well. You can't say that you don't have anything to worry about when you have us to take care of!" Avila yelled at Scar. 

"Of course, that's not what I meant at all. I was referring to not having goals of my own to worry about. I'm more free than before. Seriously Avila, you should try to live a free life. Stop stressing about everything for a single day and just let go of everything. Whatever is holding you back, completely erase it from your memory and you'll find yourself much happier than you ever felt," Scar told Avila. 

"Well, I guess that would make sense but I'm not ready to take a break. Especially in the state I'm in now. If I don't continue training every single day, I'll just hold you and Yuki back. There's nothing in this world I would rather not do than that. I don't want to ever be a burden, especially to the people who have taken me in after everyone else abandoned me," Avila replied. 

"Then it's settled. I'll continue to help you to grow so that you stop feeling like a set back to our team. Instead, you'll. be a valuable asset," said Scar with a genuine smile on his face. 

...

The next morning, Yuki got up early as he had slept the first out of the 3 of them. He didn't bother to wake them up as he had no reason to. To Yuki, it seemed like the two of them had decided to team up and wouldn't need him for quite some time. 

"I hope they can get a lot of training done as well," said Yuki as he put on his shoes before leaving the house and headed towards the castle-like building which was located right in the middle of the kingdom. For some reason, even though it was pretty early, there seemed to be more attention on the building than usual. 

...

"What's going on here? Can you move out of the way? What happened?" Yuki asked only to be ignored by the crowd as they seemed to be mesmerized by something which they all seemed to be getting the attention of everyone there. 

After sliding through the many people who were gathered outside the castle-like building, Yuki finally arrived at the front of the entrance at which almost nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. However after closer inspection, Yuki found a small emblem of a fist in red paint as it was surrounded with a white circle outerior. 

The emblem itself looked pretty small yet it was enough to capture the attention of everyone who was present there. 

"Oh, is that you Yuki? I'm glad you're here. I was going to come searching for you if you didn't show up," said Arthur as he greeted Yuki with a smile and a wave. 

"What?! That kid had connections with the clan leader?! We better move out of his way. If we end up disrespecting him, we might end up getting killed," said the crowd of people as they allowed Yuki to finally have some space for himself which he could breathe in.

Seeing as he could move as he wanted, Yuki decided to walk up to Arthur as he needed to ask the clan leader some questions. 

"Hey Arthur, what's the deal with all these people? And what's with that emblem?" Yuki asked the clan leader as he was confused. 

"The two of them are actually related. Why don't you follow me inside and we can talk about it," said Arthur as he led Yuki towards the room where the clan leader along with the top 5 of the clan spent the majority of their time. 

"So do you want to explain to me why all those people were standing outside like a flock of birds? Additionally what's with the fist emblem?" Yuki asked once more with a confused and curious face. 

"What we have on our hands is a clan war. The emblem is the symbol of a clan. Having it stuck on another clan's entrance is a declaration of war. They must be pretty brave if they think that we'll be easy to take on," said Arthur. 

"But aren't you the leader of the strongest clan in the world? Why would anyone pick a fight with you? They must be prettu stupid if they think they can take you down," Yuki remarked. 

"No Yuki, they know full well about my strength. They challenged me with that knowledge. Judging from their emblem, there's only 1 clan who would do something like this," said Arthur as he got serious.