Way of the Knights

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Luna stopped caring, she ran and threw herself into Raven's embrace. She wrapped her slender arms around his waist and buried her face on his neck.

It was quite complicated to explain what exactly she was feeling right now. She was relieved, guilty, happy, nervous, and contented all at the same time if that was even possible.

Raven was stunned briefly as he felt Luna's embrace, needless to say a smile crept up towards his lips as he opened his arms and returned the hug. He gently patted her back, caressing her silky smooth hair and taking a whiff of her scent. He could feel her deep and forceful breaths on his neck and her subtle shaking.

She hugged him even tighter, it almost seems that this was her own way of verifying if he was truly awake and fine. When she felt her gentle hands caressing her hair and back, a great sense of comfort washed all over her body. Even though she had no reason to be worried about his previous situation, she just couldn't help it. She didn't want to lose another one. She didn't want to lose him.

"Do I get this every time I wake up?" Raven said in a chuckle, making him receive a punch on his chest. He reeled back for a bit and winced, making Luna shocked and immediately regret her actions.

"I'm so sorry! I- "

"Haha, I'm kidding." Raven gave her a victory sign using his fingers which made Luna grimace.

"Meanie…" She whispered.

"Have you eaten yet?" Raven asked as he continued munching on some food. He had long since lost count on how many servings of meat he ate, he just decided to continue eating until he was satisfied.

Luna nodded her head and asked him a question. "How are you feeling?"

"Incredibly well." Raven replied after he finished swallowing his food. He cleaned his mouth and continued; "Even better than before. I'm just about ready to make a breakthrough to Warrior Realm, I only needed Director's permission."

"I don't think you have to worry about that." Luna replied, making Raven raise his brow. He was about to ask her what she means when a loud voice interrupted them.

"Hey Champ! You awake now!?" A bald guy with a huge body came rushing towards the door with a wide grin on his face. Raven didn't even managed to reply when his a roar erupted from this guy.

"HEY BOSS! MRS. BOSS! CHAMP'S AWAKE!" The bald guy Malik, roared on top of his lungs that echoed across the entire office.

Raven and Luna could only shake their heads and laugh wryly with his brash attitude. Almost immediately after that, two blurs appeared in the entrance of Raven's room and it was none other than his parents who had anxious faces as they searched for him.

Raven chuckled and raised his hand, he waved at them and said: "Good Morning!" With a cheerful tone.

Eva and Luis didn't care about anything any longer and flew beside Raven and encased him in a hug. Eva sobbed while hugging him, Luis hugged them both and cried tears of joy. Raven chuckled and returned the hug as well, this warmth was something that could never be bought with any amount of money.

The family became a little emotional so the guests decided to leave them be for a while.

***

Raven could only laugh dryly with the attitude of his mother.

Who said that just because he was awake, means that he's also safe from the admonishment of his mom? On the contrary, it seems that she rehearsed her lines during the times when he was unconscious, Raven couldn't even say anything back at all. Luis was awfully quiet, it was painfully obvious that he didn't want to be included in this since he had his share already.

Eva wasn't really asking much, she understood that her son walked the path of Knighthood, of course there's bound to be dangers but what she disagrees with is his recklessness. Not even his father had anything to retort with that since he agrees as well.

His parents knew that he was extremely capable. So capable to the fact that even with his young age, he already surpassed most of what people could do. But no one could really blame them for worrying about their only child, right?

After calming both of them down. Eva excused herself and told them that she's going to cook for her child, while Luis stood up and allowed other visitors in to meet Raven.

Even with Luis' usually calm demeanor, he couldn't help but be stunned on how many influential people came to visit his son.

His friends; Paul, Mark, Ellen, Anne, and Luna. Their parents were there too along with Richard, Jacob, Jackson, Victor, Old Lee, Morel, Leona and even the Crown Prince himself. Amongst these people, which of them didn't come from an impressive background? It truly makes one wonder how on earth did Raven managed to get acquainted with these people.

"I told you guys, he won't stay down for long." Paul cackled as he patted Raven's shoulders.

"Seriously, so damn reckless." Mark greeted with a grin on his face, obviously happy that his best friend is now awake.

They then take turns greeting him, Raven was a bit gobsmacked. Just a moment ago he woke up alone and then suddenly, his room his now full of people.

"Damn, you guys are making me feel so special. Is there really need for you guys be here all at once?" Raven said in a whiny yet laughing manner. Of course, his guests knew that he was just jesting.

"That's rich, coming from Mr. Popular himself." Ellen jeered on the side.

Raven raised his brow clearly expressing his confusion, it was Anne who clarified everything for him.

"You're famous as heck, Big Bro." She chuckled, "You're heroic act captured the hearts of many people. You're like a living legend in their hearts now. You should know that people just won't stop talking about you, your face is even one the front-page of many newspapers circulating around, some were even making sculptures of you."

"Oh, no." Hearing her say this made Raven pale from fright. In truth, he should've seen this coming since he was the one who placed that damned Ruler's Vision, yet he was so focused on revealing the ugly truth to people that the chances of people misunderstanding his actions went over his head.

"Too late for regrets Dude. The dye has been cast, there's no turning it back." Paul said in an almost dreamy tone. This caused Raven to throw water on his face and say…

"Who the hell are you and what did you do to my friend? He will never say words that he himself couldn't understand! You must be fake!"

"Fake my ass! Damn you!" Paul retorted back, making everyone laugh at their antics.

After the situation calmed down, Raven's expression turned somewhat serious. He said: "Yael and Zelor escaped, no?"

No one spoke, a sigh escaped from Old Lee's mouth as he took it to himself to answer his question. "That, they did."

"Figures." Raven sighed as well. "I kind of saw them escaped, but I'm too far to stop them."

"There you go again, blaming yourself and all." Paul frowned and interjected. "You've done enough Dude. Stop it."

The rest of the people inside the room agreed with him. Raven smiled and said: "Alright, I'll stop. It doesn't matter anyway. They won't have a good time in the enemy base, especially after the fact that the 'Pale Bastard' is injured."

"Pale Bastard?" Old Lee frowned as he nor anyone in the room, knows who Raven was referring to.

"Oh, uh…" Raven was caught in an awkward position, he just now realized that he spoke carelessly, and it doesn't look like he could lie his way out of this one, so he sighed and revealed a critical information with them.

"This… might sound wrong. But the person you guys refer to as Alastair… is no more."

A long and uncomfortable silence followed that. That information set waves of confusion specially on the part of the Golden Knights here who clearly knew this person more than they want to admit.

"Could you… elaborate more on this?" It was Balmung who asked this question.

Raven sighed once again and said: "I've always been different in your eyes. I'll tell you why. It's because I've inherited a lifetime's worth of memories from an expert. All these knowledge didn't come from me, but from that expert. If it weren't for the fact that I swore to continue his will, I wouldn't be here."

He closed his eyes and opened them slowly, everyone's breath was taken away when they saw how his eyes changed. It was completely golden with a mysterious rune on the center.

"My eyes see things a bit different." Raven said, "I could see irregularities on a person's body."

"This person, Alastair as you guys call him. Is not the owner of his body anymore. His soul had been devoured probably for quite sometime now. The one who stole his body, is ancient enemy that once almost driven our people to the brink of extinction."

"The child of a human and a Dragon.. Vit'hum the Scaleless Drake."