Today marked the sixteenth birthday of the Terrace twin brother but neither of them was present!
One of them was currently studying at the Elderglow Academy, a grand academy for elites located in an entirely different location while the other was declared…dead!
Yes. Damien was declared dead to the world as well as the family themselves. The fact that he’d simply been exiled to the Forest of Twin Disasters was more than enough reason to believe he was dead. After all, which weakling could’ve survived the forest this long? Even veterans failed.
There was currently a birthday celebration
A small one being hosted in the absence of Damon who’s the only one whose existence was still certain by the family.
The party consisted of family members—brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, and aunties. The maids and warriors of the family were also given freedom for the day but as they all seem to love and respect the new heir of the Terrace family, they’d decided to partake in the ceremony.
All but one individual was present. Lady Danyel, the mother of the twins as well as the wife of the family Lord.
She stood at the balcony of her room dressed in celebratory wears but she certainly wasn’t celebrating. Her gaze was into the distant, nowhere in particular but somehow longing for something.
She longed to see her son. She wanted to hear his voice. She wanted to see him smile again. She wanted to see Damien again!
She could still remember it vividly like it was just a day before. The night she’d found out about Damien’s exile.
Lord Osbourne, as she like to address him playfully, had returned from somewhere and was feeling gloomy and when she asked why had happened, he’d explained everything to her anouyt how they’d gone behind her to send Damien to exile knowing fully well that she would definitely be against it no matter what crimes Damien was said to have committed.
Osbourne explained how he’d been the one to carry out the mission and in her fury, she slapped him when he mentioned that he was heading out to perform a burial for Damien whom he had declared dead. The weapon he’d given to Damien for protection had remained in one place which led him to conclude so.
She didn’t like it and so, Osbourne had been slapped out of her fury. “You don’t get to kill my child, my first son, and still decide that you’re worthy of holding a burial ceremony for him.”
Without waiting to hear anymore words from her brother-in-law, she stormed out angrily and headed toward her husband’s private rooms to challenge him.
It was a heated conversation that had led to a fight between the couple.
“Did you even consider the pain of childbirth I had to go through to birth that child? You didn’t! You simply sent him to his certain death because you believed he was a threat to your own power. Your own son for the sake of the gods!”
Her husband had tried to calm her down but she wasn’t having any of it. Then he’d gone ahead to claim that Damien was basically useless to the family after awakening an E-Rank talent and he’d simply done the whole family a favour of doing away with such a failure.
That statement had triggered her and she’d snapped, destroying his room within seconds. Her A-Ranked talent as a Great Mage wasn’t just for show after all. All it took her to decimate the whole room was a single spell.
She didn’t think to end there but when she moved again for a second attack, her brother-in-law Osbourne had suddenly arrived to stop her. He had sensed the explosion and first believed it was an attack on the estate but then, he remembered there were very few who could openly attack them and they all lived quite far away.
Identifying the cause of the explosion with seconds, Osbourne had arrived to stop her, pleading with her to not make matters worse by going against her husband.
Fighting him wouldn’t bring back her deceased son and she knew so but she also couldn’t just go after him into the forest with proper planning. To begin with, there were mana beasts within that were just as powerful as she wasn’t as some even stronger. It would be plain suicide.
She’d calmed down…at least for the moment. Along with Osbourne, they’d done a makeshift funeral for her exiled son who was presumed dead but she hadn’t stopped there. She gathered a few of the army and prepared to head out to the Forest Of Twin Disasters to at least retrieve her son’s corpse but she ended up being locked up for it.
The fact that she’d decided to go after her exiled son was an act of disobedience that infuriated Lord Ashbourne. However, he’d only detained her till she “calmed down” and decided not to chase after Damien’s dead body.
When she was finally free, she mourned he son for weeks and was barely seen by even the other members of the family. Her husband included.
Still dressed in her celebratory attire, Lady Danyel made her way to the bed where a picture frame of her and her twin sons stood atop a small drawer.
She fell flat on the bed facing up and a sigh escaped her mouth as she thought about the loss of her son once more with her eyes closed.
“Happy Birthday to both children of mine, Damien and Damon. Mother will continue to love you both equally.” A small smile formed on her lips and then her eyes snapped open.
“A birthday gift, huh?” She muttered to herself and then rose into a sitting position on the bed. “What would I have given you for your sixteenth birthday as a gift?”
An idea crossed her mind and her smile deepened. “Yes, that’s it!” She declared as she rose to her feet, exiting the room headed to a different part of the building. The family’s treasury.