Chapter 31: Past
After some moments of incredulity and surprise ,Merry looked at Max with a narrowed eyes and pouted her lips to give him a sullen look. Max tried not to laugh at her annoyance.
"You t-took advantage of m-my allowance.." Merry berated at him in embarrassment.
"Sorry my furious wife..I have already told you that I am a greedy kind of person..I couldn't control when I got such a chance to fulfill my wish." Max said with a grin.He started petting her head while looking at her with affectionate smile.
Not getting disoriented by his words and actions, Merry stood up and walked towards the horse.
"Am I not allowed to kiss you? If you don't like it I won't, I promise." Max walked towards Merry and said it with a dejected face.
"I-I didn't mean th-that... actually I like it.." Merry responded quickly when she heard his words coming out with such a downcast but then realised what she just spurted out.
Max tried to suppress his chuckles at his wife's incalculable declaration.
"Is that so?" Max insisted further in course to make himself happier to know how she really feels.
"No!" Merry exclaimed in her feeling's dilemma.
"I see... I think we should head back, it's getting late.." Max tried to change the topic to avoid the awkwardness she was in.
He moved toward the horse , but just then Merry grabbed back of his sleeve's cuff.
Max turned and looked at her in confusion.
"What happened dear?" Max asked kindly in puzzled manner.
"A-Are you disgruntled w-with me? " Merry asked him with hesitation.
"Why would I be? I think you are the one who's mad with me for real dear." Max replied with a smile.
"No! I'm n-not." Merry denied and shock her head.
"Really?" Max asked , Merry nodded quickly.
Merry looked at his lips which had a minor cut on its left side.She then realised that it would had happened because of her.
Merry approached and touched his lips with her hand gently.Max started blushing off.
"S-Sorry for being so clumsy..." Merry apologized with concerned look.Just when Max about to respond, Merry stretched and struggled on her toes to place a kiss on his lips.
Max widened his eyes in surprise due to an unexpected kiss from Merry.She pulled back after few seconds.
"I guess I'm fond of clumsiness then." Max said while trying to hide his flustered face.
********
They reached half of their way back but due to sudden heavy snowfall,they had to take shelter under a tall hemlock tree.
"Merry, Look over there!" Max told her to look towards the pair of deer, who were in between the forest closer to the path.
"How lo-lovely they are! Oh! there are three more."
" Did you like coming along with me?" Max asked for assurance.
"Ofcourse! " Merry responded cheerfully.
"Then, we can travel like this together time to time ." Max said.
"I w-would love to." Merry replied.
'He always tries to find out what I like ....But I can't even find a single clue about his likes and dislikes....and whatever I was told about Max ,he is completely different from that...then why they say he's stone hearted.. bad people.' Merry thought for a while.
"What happened?" While resting his back on the tree, Max asked Merry when he didn't hear anything from her for a while.
"Max, if y-you don't mind, can I a-ask you something?" Merry asked hesitatingly when something clicked her mind.
"Anything." Max replied.
"Y-You told me that...you came here w-with your grandfather...so you s-spent your childhood with him" Merry preferred not ask that time but when her thoughts made her approach him automatically ,she couldn't help.
"I despised him so much.." Max said with chilling voice.Merry could no longer ask him further.He noticed that she again got silent.
"What happened? Wanna know something else?" Max asked being perplexed.
"S-Sorry..If I a-asked too much....I just wanted to know a-about your past life..." Merry said with low pitch.
"You're free to ask me anything...You are my wife not any stranger dear..... haven't you heard about me by others?" Max queried.
"I h-have..but I wanted to k-know about you through your words....not others.." Merry asserted.
Max was astounded by knowing that for the first time someone yearned to know about him through his words not by judgement and opinions of others.
"You will hate me Merry...." Max feared.He never cared what anyone thought about him but now he was scared to be hated by someone he really wanted not to feel hatred towards of him.
"The day I was born, for my parents it was a woeful day... but they were a little delighted to have their another twin son on the other hand.." Max told with a smirk.
"Y-You have a twin brother!" Merry didn't know about that too.She asked in puzzled tone.
"Unfortunately, yes I have "Max stated.Merry gulped before asking.
"W-Why they were like th-that towards you?" Merry asked.
"A priest....told them that I was a misfortune for them..and my facial features were completely different from their race and matched with a long lost wild race who were their opponents.....and were killed on large number through the hands of my so-called grandfather in the name of war....He made sure no one of that race existed." Max asserted with a hatred in his eyes.
Merry had the idea about how cruel some people had and still treated anyone having any suspicious identity.In name of war they had taken away millions of innocent people lives especially on the basis of their origin.
"Grandfather decided to end my life on the same day... but for the first and last time my mother's sympathy saved me that day....they gave me to a servent whose wife could not have a child.They raised me like their own child however, after seven years... father and grandfather took me to a place far away from the castle....here..and gave me to church knights who lived here." Max told. Merry now understood why Max had come here before with his grandfather.
" They told me that my presence in the castle was enough for their inauspiciousness ....Here the priest sold me to a slave trader as per my grandfather's command when I was twelve but their bad luck, master saved me from those slave traders....that time, he was away from his home for the negotiation related to war with the church." Max told with a expressionless look on his face. Merry couldn't imagine how anyone especially someone's parents could do that to their child.
"I have lot of respect for him not because he saved me but because he never abandoned me like my parents...he gave me a rank in knighthood...trained me and gave me education too..more than that he listened to me just like you..." Max felt his heartbeats being surprisingly beating harder.
"Y-You are really brave Max ...you have struggled w-way more th-than anyone else.." Merry said with disheartened voice.
"You are too." Max replied back while petting back of her head..
"hmm?" Merry didn't understand what Max meant.
" I saw you on your 11th birthday ..I came to the castle with master Masin with other knights on your birthday celebration."Max said.
"Wh-What? " Merry was surprised that they met before but she could not remember.
"I remember..not clearly..but you were crying
while hiding yourself behind the curtains...I approached you..but you started crying even more ha ha...and not knowing what to do that time I started sobbing too....master started laughing off and tried to calm both of us down." Max told her while reminiscing.
"I think I've al-always been a stupid.." Merry didn't remember what was the reason behind her crying and the fact that Max came to stop her from crying.
" I think that day I cried after a long time..it was nice as I felt my heart light.....After that I kept on asking your father about you.He must have gotten irritated by my nagging but never complaint....".Max continued.
"Th-Thank you Max for a-always looking after me...and sorry." Merry told him not knowing how to feel.
"Sorry? Why?" Max asked perplexedly.
"You've al-always been here f-for me and I could do nothing for you all these years.." Merry told with lot of regret.
"How can you...You are the reason I can live for with peace in my heart now...how can you say you did nothing for me...when I first saw you after those years..I felt I finally found my lost treasure. ." Max replied with a buoyant mood while petting Merry's head.
"The snowing has become slower,we should head back now." Max affirmed while getting up holding Merry's hand and moved forward to leave.
"Wh-What happened after that?" Merry asked impatiently before leaving, as her mind and soul had been stuck in between Max's past.
"I fought multiple wars along master and master trained me daily for hours....and I gained recognition....but after 4 years, returning from war in South eastern front..my parents sent people to kill me just to secure his loved son's succession...but unfortunately, I was unharmed..." Max said with a smirk.
"Wh-What did y-you do then?" Merry asked hesitantly.
"What else? I killed my parents." Darting his eyes on Merry, Max stated with a tormented look on his face and an eyes filled with blankness.
🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️🖌️
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone