Previously...

Both replied at the same time and looked at each other with a look saying — when did you get a stigmata at the same time as me?

"That's great. Please come with me, my grandmother and I will explain to you in private."

***

'This is the person who called me a disaster.'

Deon took off his hood when he arrived inside the palace and looked at the elderly women who was supposed to look at him negatively, this time she was looking at both him and Cruel anxiously and in concern.

"You child..."

The shaman grabbed ahold of Cruel who stood still the whole time. He didn't know a lot, only except that his brother was in grave danger and that he might not ever see him again, thats what the veiled man with white hair similar to Deon told him.

"You have to protect the child of purity! The moment the child of purity is taken, this whole world will collapse!"

"Child of purity...?"

Deon peeked behind from Cruel's back with curiosity. Who the hell is a child of pureness? It couldn't be him, he wasn't a 'pure child' at all.

"Ahem, I'll explain. Colors also have an assigned role to them. Pureness is directly linked to white, when she says child of purity she meant a child with white hair who is the epitome of innocence and they-"

"You- it's you!"

The elderly woman shifted her gaze onto Deon who was still hiding from behind Cruel. Deon was still behind Cruel flinched at the sudden yelling. She wasn't about to call him a disaster right there and then right?

"You mustn't fall into the temptation of those otherworldly disasters!"

'Otherworldy... No way, does she mean Choi-Han and the others?!'

"Ahem... Time to butt in! Sorry we weren't able to prevent them from getting here, we first calculated that they'd arrive at least tomorrow from the progress they were making. This is why we improvised and made a oracle to prevent them from getting near you."

'What if they go to the Demonic Realm?'

"That won't be possible, they all despise demons ever since they found out that the White Star was going to summon the God of Despair."

'Oh that's good... That means only some other kingdoms might accept them in then. The Empire has many enemies so they'd bound to find a place to settle down.'

"That is true, you just have to hope they don't though. Since we did add in the oracle that if you go down the whole world will."

'Wow, that's some top tier lying.'

The God of Death stayed silent as Deon said that. He couldn't actually tell his (self proclaimed) child that this could actually happen. But if he said that his child would curse him out even more! But surely Cruel wouldn't hate him too right?

(Wellll.... about that!)

"I won't." I made my decision long ago, no way am I ever going back to that wretched place that used to be called home.

"Good, good."

Both of the shamans sighed a breath of relief after hearing Deon's answer.

"I will say this one more time. Cruel Hardt, you are the last defense. Please protect him."

Cruel didn't know if he could say it right now but he felt like doing so anyway.

"I will, that's always been my plan ever since."

"Then we will head back now."

The two shamans excused themselves as they returned to the front of the palace.

'Deon in grave danger... So this time it isn't because of Duke Illuster.'

Cruel felt like he had an inkling on who it was. The group earlier he met before returning home definitely seemed out of the ordinary.

'Perhaps they don't mean it literally. That blonde man had pointy ears like a demon and was traveling with two humans as well.'

He concluded that 'otherworldly' meant out of the ordinary. Cruel wasn't sure whether or not if people from another world existed but he decided that the group of three was definitely strange.

"Brother?"

"...Deon.."

Cruel snapped out of his thoughts immediately when Deon called him. He noticed these days Deon rarely used his split personality, he wasn't sure if that was good or bad but times like this when Deon looked up innocently to him, it made him remember their childhood.

If it wasn't for the duke, his brother would have never done these things. He could have been the cheerful Deon Hardt as he always was, the treasure of the Hardt family.

"It's nothing."

It seemed that he's been getting weaker lately, emotionally at least. If he keeps this up Duke Illuster would find out but at the same time, moments like these were rare to come by. His younger brother was always on guard and resulted in his split personality to kick in.

"Count Hardtttttt!!!!!!"

"Allethea- Don't leap at him!"

Elpidius held back the excited Allethea who was just a few seconds away from breaking all of Deon's bones.

"We greet the future of the empire."

"Enough, enough! No need to be formal, we're friends right?"

"I-"

"I will excuse myself."

"Ah yes, goodbye Sir Cruel!

Cruel quickly left, leaving betrayed Deon behind with the two royals. But as always, this was a misunderstanding, Cruel thought that; some friends around his age could help. So when he saw Elpidius and Allethea enter he left.

***

'No! I did everything in order to avoid them, not have tea with them!'

Deon sat in the middle between Allethea and Elpidius in the imperial garden. He felt awkward sitting between two people who were acting like they liked him.

"Count Hardt, please try this!"

Allethea handed over a piece of cake to Deon. Luckily she didn't shove it into his mouth right away or else another accident would have happened.

Deon took a bite out of the cake that Allethea handed over to him. He didn't want to admit it but it was really good. It felt like he was floating on cloud nine when he first took a bite.

"..It's good." Food is surely the best.

The two siblings brightened at Deon's answer. They were making loads of progress, at first Deon had said nothing for a long amount of time, now he was answering them although it was short talk, it was progress to them.

"I heard from his majesty that the second prince has been pursuing you Count Hardt."

'What the fuck?! When did that spread out?!'

"Yes... had I stayed longer he'd probably... force me to marry him." That sounds so horrible just talking about it, I pray that I will never see that crazy lunatic again. He might be worse than Clopeh..

"Please be careful Count Hardt, we wouldn't like it if another kingdom took our most prized hero. That'd be a shame."

"That's right! He isn't worth it you deserve someone better Count Hardt."

Deon said nothing and drank the tea that was poured for him. It's not like it mattered which kingdom he was tied down to since he will definitely run away when he ever gets a chance to. Just give him some time to find a perfect moment to run off.

'Fuck, reading about his plans is already horrible enough. I don't want to hear it in person.'

"Your Highness, may I excuse myself for a moment?"

"Huh? Oh, go ahead."

"Thank you."

Deon quickly got up and headed back into the palace. The siblings sat there smiling, it seemed that they had caused their dear hero to run away.

"But all of this is for the Empire. Uncle needs someone to be on his side who would cut down anyone in his path, even if it is royalty."

"That's right, this is why we're coaxing him to join our side right?"

"Of course brother, we don't want anything happening to our Uncle. Even if it meant that we'd die."

***

"This place is too big for my wellbeing."

Deon walked through the empty hall. He thought about Choi-Han and Eruhaben who were the ones who probably suggested traveling dimensions to find his reincarnation. Had he not known about everything he probably would have been taken away already.

'Just thinking about it makes me uneasy. They're way stronger than most of the people in this Empire.'

'It should be here, right? Where is that person?'

Deon had briefly read the description of each place in the novel and so far this hallway matched the description the most. He saw a servant sneaking out from the door with a stack of papers in his arms.

'There he is.'

That was the 'servant' who would accidentally show the Emperor's important and secret paperwork about staging a war. Normally he wouldn't care but he doesn't want Duke Illuster to win anything at all.

"You, what do you think you're doing?"

"U-uh-"

The 'servant' stumbled back upon seeing Deon walk up to him. He couldn't get caught by the third hero right now! He tried so hard to get these papers and failed numerous amounts of times!

"Die!"

Deon dodged the attack from the 'servant' and avoided being stabbed. However, he didn't anticipate that the 'servant' would stab him in the chest next.

'Fuck that hurts so much!'

Deon immediately coughed up blood from the stab wound right in his chest. He miscalculated and thought that the 'servant' would only try to attack him to get away, not stab him right in the fucking chest.

'I rely too much on the novel, I should probably also think of other possibilities. I also did this as Cale Henituse. But thanks to the Heart of Vitality, the stab wound healed immediately.'

Just as Deon was about to apprehend the 'servant', Cruel ran in with messy hair and held the 'servant' by the neck. He seemed to be in a horrible state since his eyes were widened at the sight of Deon.

'Oh, that's the budget. I'll take that, no documents for you Illuster!'

Deon secretly picked up the document that held the budget for an upcoming war before Duke Illuster had entered. He couldn't afford to let Duke Illuster see this. But either way, he'd probably still go forward with his plan. But if he hides the budget he might not know how much to deploy for an assault and how much he'd lose or win.

'It's at least halfway to the part where the war starts. I need to prepare.'

He needed to prepare for the upcoming war; from the assassins he found out that were going to be deployed around his new birthday from the butterflies who helped him, to the future. Since he doesn't have all of the knowledge about the novel he needs to be even more vigilant.

"Oh my, Honorary Count Hardt."

"Duke Illuster."

Deon greeted Starbe who was coincidentally walking around after he met with the Emperor. Yeah, coincidentally his fucking ass. It was probably planned.

'Oh shit, my leg is asleep-'

Deon tried standing up but fell over. However he was caught by Cruel and Starbe.

'What the actual fuck.'

Deon was horrified at what just happened to him. It wasn't about his older brother but Duke Illuster. Did Duke Illuster just catch him with his bare arms?!

"Count Hardt, are you okay? You shouldn't move since you have a stab wound."

Starbe said with concern. His face seemed to be deeply worried for Deon, if it weren't for the fact that he had tried to kill him so many times already.

"I'm fine."

Deon didn't want to talk to Duke Illuster any longer and decided to fake cough, due to blood still in his mouth it made it more believable than it already was.

"Oh dear, this isn't good. We can't have our third hero suffer from a stab wound, Cruel take him to a physician."

"Yes."

Cruel lifted up Deon into his arms by Starbe's command. He would have done so anyways even if the duke hadn't order him to since Deon is his younger brother but he couldn't let the duke know that.

***

Bang!

"W-who is it- hik!"

The physician jumped out of his seat immediately, intimidated by the sight of an angry Cruel and bloody Deon.

"I need to use this room for a second."

"P-pardon?! Isn't there a patient in your arms?!"

The physician was bewildered, why did the hero Cruel Hardt need this room for? Wouldn't it be better to get Deon Hardt checked?

However Cruel's gaze became even angrier in the physician's eyes and scared him off, running out of the room immediately.

'Wow... he's so scary.'

Deon couldn't get used to his brothers angry face. It was really, really, really scary and he meant it with every being in his body.

Cruel sat Deon down on the bed. He didn't really know if it'd work but it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. He took Deon's hands and tried channeling divine power through or whatever that nutcase told him in his dreams.

(A/N): GoD getting hated on by the hardt siblings is honestly hilarious bc what did u do for cruel to hate you...

Cruel could notice a pure light appear, surrounding Deon's body and dissipated soon after as if nothing was ever there.

Deon watched this with sparkling eyes. Was it because it was his brother? It looked even cooler than when others used their divine powers. Maybe he was just biased but when other people used it he didn't think it was anything special.

(a/n: Yes you are biased Cale but it's okay because it's Cruel we're talking about and that's understandable)

'It worked, I guess that veiled nutcrack was right after all.'

Cruel thought about the veiled man he met in his dream a few days ago before Deon had returned to the Empire. The veiled man talked about the method of using the divine powers and what he could do with it. The only thing was, he kept calling him his child.

'Oh, my hands aren't stinging anymore.'

Deon looked at his hands which were stinging a while ago from the impact of the ground, they weren't stinging anymore. Back then this treatment was common but it lacked warmth, especially with what was going on at that time. But could you really expect anything warm in a locked up room?

***

Umm I didn't think I'd get 8k reads but THANK YOU!!! I made this because no one was writing about a Cale!Deon fic and I needed to share this really cool awesome insane (really really cool btw) idea 🔥🔥🔥

I also forced myself to post this bc I was scared of getting bullied.... a little BUT IT WORKED OUT IN THE END 😇

shout out to mt best bro for helpinf me create this photo 🙏🙏🙏 Jingrenn