The play was about a Colonel, a mountain of a man, who was betrayed by his superiors. The same men who sold their souls to the demons and prepared a stage of destruction for the Empire.

The Colonel, stationed in an important border city, then had to deal with an army ten times greater than his for days because he lost communications with the outside world due to those superiors.

Worse, half of his battalion abandoned and left the city.

If that city had fallen, almost half a million people residing there would be dead and a massive weakness would have opened in the Empire's defences against the demons.

The stakes were high, but the Colonel, despite being on the weaker and disadvantaged side, fought with tactics and his army of five thousand men against an army of a hundred thousand demons of all ranks.

As days went by, their numbers began to dwindle until only the Colonel remained defending the city. He stood like the mountain he was and defended the city till his last breath. Even as he was dying, he didn't let the enemies get past him.

His sacrifice, along with many others, bought enough time for the Empire to notice the anomaly and bring reinforcements.

The demons were repelled and the city saved at the expense of five thousand brave soldiers and the Colonel, who was said to have been born with a talent rivaling the Emperor himself.

The human domain lost him as well.

The play had many more scenes which highlighted the Colonel's life in the city while he changed slowly and gave up everything for the citizens.

It was a heartbreaking story filled with blood-pumping moments and great fights that made the audience almost jump out of their seats.

The sound, the visuals, the acting—everything was just perfect.

Aegon watched everything solemnly, his eyes calmly staring at the man who played the Colonel's role. He couldn't help but admire him.

At first, he had been excited and drawn into the play so he didn't notice, but now he knew very well that the play was based on a real story. He even knew the Colonel very well.

Hearing soft sniffing beside him, Aegon turned to find Luna shedding tears while holding hands with Xavier, who also had wet eyes but didn't let any tears fall.

"I respect them. I really do." Cali mumbled as she bowed her head toward the stage. "They are true warriors."

"Do you think he was betrayed because of his talent?" Xavier asked.

"No, the demons had simply prepared it for years," Aegon shook his head, understanding his meaning.

"You seem so certain." Cali said.

"I know him, the one whose story they took as a basis for this play," Aegon said, his voice low and solemn. "Noah Augustus, younger brother of Arnold Augustus."

"He's Gramp's younger brother?" Xavier's surprise was clear in his voice and face.

"Yes, he became a Colonel at just the age of twenty," Aegon explained. "But the Siege of Bellona took his life. The play exaggerated a few things while undermining others, but it was a hopeless situation. If they had lost that city, then the Empire would have suffered immense losses."

He took a deep breath and continued, "But it's still pretty good. I didn't think they could show his life like this. At least it will motivate the youths to defend their home, I guess. From what I know about him, he would have liked this."

"I'll be surprised if it didn't," Luna said, wiping away her tears.

"They got something wrong though," Aegon said with a sad smile. "The Empire didn't save that city, not at all. By the time they reached there, it was already secured."

"What do you mean?" Cali asked in confusion.

"Where do you think Opa got his title of White Death?" Aegon sighed. "He was the first to notice the abnormalities and went to check on his brother himself, but he couldn't make it in time. Granduncle was already taking his last breaths and there were still a few days before the Empire could do anything."

"Then..." Cali could already guess what he was going to say.

"Yes, that day, Opa slaughtered fifty thousand demons all alone, painting many kilometres of land with their white blood." Aegon said, still feeling chills as he remembered Xiu telling him tales of Arnold. "But I guess they don't want to paint the Empire in a bad light. Quite understandable."

The room was silent for a while as everyone processed the information. Aegon could relate to how they felt because he had felt the same when he heard it the first time.

It was simply ridiculous to think a kind old man like Arnold could be such a terrifying being. But it was one of the many acts done by Augustus to secure the safety of the Empire.

"This is the reason why Augustus always have the lowest number of people despite being one of the most prominent houses of the Empire," Aegon said, still staring at the man as the whole cast bowed toward the audience. "They never managed to live past their youth."

As they heard his words, they realised it was indeed true. Even currently, there were only five Augustus alive, that was way too small for a giant house like Augustus.

It truly was a family of martyrs.

They didn't have any words to say, as they knew whatever they said wouldn't mean much. So, they simply did what they thought was the only worthy thing here.

All of them stood up from their seats and began clapping. Previously, only the ground-floor audience was clapping for the staff, but with their cue, the whole gallery buzzed with the sound of applause.

So many people gave a standing ovation, making the staff emotional as they once again bowed and thanked everyone for everything.

"It was a good play," Aegon said with a smile as they left their exclusive room.

"Yes, I told you it'd be worth it. They make great plays," Luna was finally smiling again.

Xavier noticed Cali being silent as she contiued to stare at her hand, so he patted her shoulder and whispered softly, "Don't think about it."

"I'm not. I can never be like them," Cali shook her head at his words.

While they were passing by a corridor, they overheard a conversation which made them stop in their tracks.

"Did you hear that the cursed child of Augustus is back in the Empire?"

"Shh! Speak carefully, but yes, I did hear about that. He really is talented."

"What's the point of that when you're cursed?"

"Why do you call him cursed?"

"You don't know? The day he was born, a Valerian died and that's a bad omen. Not to mention his parents had a divorce soon after because of him. He became the curse that broke his family apart."

"Now that you say it like that, he's indeed cursed. He broke a family like Augustus completely and even took General Arnold out of the Empire."

"I'm gonna kill them!" Xavier rolled up his sleeves as his eyes burned brighter than fire itself.

Cali had also taken out her gauntlets, giving silent confirmation to Xavier's idea. Even Luna didn't say anything as she just stared coldly at the room where the voices had come from.

Of all people, she knew she shouldn't be impulsive at the moment, and Cali was the same but there were moments where one's mind would be clouded by intense emotions.

"Stop!"

All of them halted at Aegon's voice. Xavier clicked his tongue as he already knew this was going to happen while Cali sighed and threw the gauntlets back into her storage ring.

"You really want to let them go after they insulted you like that?" Luna asked.

"It's just random rambling of random people. Why should I concern myself with their shitty opinion?" Aegon shrugged without a care. "You three of all should understand this better."

The more popular you were, the more people would envy you, which would turn into hate, and then those haters would badmouth and spread rumours just to satisfy their little egos.

Aegon had seen that happen a lot on social media, so he understood it very well.

"Their opinion on me is just as meaningless as they are meaningless to me," Aegon said as he began walking again. "Give them the attention they want and they'll draw you to their level. It's pointless."

"Yeah yeah, you'll lose nothing and gain nothing because of them. I already know that," Xavier grumbled, but still followed him.

Aegon smiled and ruffled his hair, making him even more irritated like a cat. He could understand them because he knew he was no different than they were.

Didn't he react when his family was insulted back in the stadium? They were the same, they couldn't handle someone insulting their family.

He felt blessed to have such good friends who would get angry on his behalf. He turned toward Cali, who still gave hostile glances at the door of that room.

"Cali! Let's go! I want to have a talk with the manager here."

Of course, the one he had to stop before anyone else was his own shadow.

[Boss, I promise nobody will even know. Just once!]

'Forget it. It isn't worth dirtying your hands.'

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.