[Mummy Is Stronger?]

4-year-old Cile Sparda came running into the room with loud, joyful laughter tracing behind her. She spied her favorite persons sitting quietly on the couches and took no hesitation to make a beeline for the couches, choosing one side and taking a running jump in an instant.

"Daddy, I'm baaaaaack!" Cile screamed her announcement of return even though the occupants of the reading room had already heard the slaps of her footsteps when she had been running towards it.

"You're almost 5 soon." Vergil smiled, having dropped his book in an instant to receive his daughter in her launch towards him. "You shouldn't be jumping on other people; they would not be prepared to receive you and you might fall."

"I don't jump on anyone else, Daddy! I only jump on you and Mummy because you will always catch me no matter what!" Cile declared happily, unaware of the amount of trust in her loving parents that she had revealed with her simple sentence.

"Still, Daddy or Mummy could be busy with their hands when you jump on them and you may still fall either way." Cile's mother spoke up from her position at the desk, smiling serenely at the perfect picture of family in front of her. It was hard to remember the times when her husband was known to the public as a cold and emotionless man; especially since it had been such a long time from the last time she bore witness to that apparent 'coldness'.

"How was your play time with your cousin? Did you bully him?" Vergil asked his daughter carefully, giving Cile a quick visual look-over to find in satisfaction that his daughter had not lost a single strand of hair on her beautiful blonde head and that she still looked as perfect as the day she had been born. It was an understatement to say that Vergil was a changed man ever since the day his daughter was born; he felt as if his life -his real life had only started right at the very moment he laid eyes on Cile being cradled in her mother's arms.

"I didn't bully him, Daddy! He only fell down by himself and cried his eyes out when we were playing with our swords!" Cile answered brightly, and though similar news from their dear daughter was not uncommon, Cile's words motivated a shared look between her parents.

"I know you like playing swords with Illian, but you have to be careful with him, my dear. He will grow up to be the future King. While our family enjoys some tolerance because of your mother, we don't know how Illian will be like when he grows up." Vergil spoke gently, careful in breaking the advice since it could easily be taken as admonishment if he sounded more serious. He had lost count of the number of fully-fledged adults who had lost their wits in front him thinking that he was extremely displeased when all he had done was simply using a serious tone of voice.

"Don't listen to your father, Baby." Cile's mother cut in, enjoying the sight of twin pairs of icy blue eyes staring back at her - one pair in delight at sharing the joyous late afternoon together with her parents, and the other pair in indignance of her subversion of authority. "Illian needs to learn sometimes that crying doesn't get him what he wants. You are the only child of his age that can make him cry without suffering consequence, so continue to make use of that and teach him lessons that he will need to learn as the only prince of our kingdom. If Illian grows up expecting everyone to bend to his will just because of his birthright, then our Kingdom is doomed for failure, and that is not somewhere I want our dear Cile to be living in, am I right?"

"We should hardly be teaching Cile to be a bully." Vergil pointed out with a slight raise of brow. "What if she goes around bullying everyone she meets?"

"Then she will find someone like you to stop her from being the biggest bully in the crowd. Did you forget how much I bullied Elias when we were younger?" Came the amused reply.

"I may have only met you in person when we attended the Academy, but I had already heard news from Dante how much the Princess of our Kingdom was dominating the palace. Let us also not forget the amount of complaints your little brother gave when during the celebratory dinner after we returned from war against the demons. Elias may try to carry himself befitting of his position as King, but in front of you he is simply an abused little brother." Vergil answered evenly.

"You be glad that I dominated the battlefield together with you during that war." Cile's mother advised, resting her pen back down on the table. "And it very much so appears that you are the biggest bully in this room, Grand Duke. There you are reading and having fun with our daughter and leaving all the work to your wife. When my parents entrusted me to you on our wedding day, I remember very clearly them telling you to take good care of me."

"I am taking good care of you. If you were not busy with the paperwork, you would be running out and about getting into trouble at every turn and I would have to solve them for you while taking care of Cile."

"I seem to recall you telling my parents that even if you have to go around solving my troubles, you would only be happy to do so. Are your wedding vows so cheap for the ears, Mr. Grand Duke?" The tease was made with a mischievous smile, to which the well-trained husband knew better than to rise to the occasion.

"Daddy, what were you reading before I came in?" Cile took the conversation pause to start a new topic, stretching her short arms to reach the book resting innocently on the couch beside her father, carelessly discarded there when she had come jumping into his arms.

"Something you would hardly understand, Cile." Vergil deferred, helping his daughter to the source of her curiosity. There was practically no chance that the 4-year-old girl could understand the well-written arguments and analyses for the various battlefield tactics, and since Cile was at the age of recognizing words on any written form, there was honestly no harm.

"Eva...Evalua-shion of war... war tac.. tic..." The young girl struggled in her pronunciation of the big words written on the hardcover, looking up quickly to her father for acknowledgement of her efforts. "What's this about?"

"How to fight big groups of people smartly." He answered honestly and simply. "You will learn to read this book if you choose to follow your mother's footsteps."

"Really?" The bright-eye wonder was beautiful as it shone up on her father. "Mummy, do you know about this book that Daddy is reading?"

"Yes, dear. Mummy and Daddy studied it together on the battlefield during the War back then. The pointers there were useful for your Daddy when he was leading us to victory against the demons."

"Mummy, Illian told me today that if you are his daddy's big sister, then it means that Mummy was a princess before you met Daddy. The princesses in my storybooks all stay in the palace and meet their princes to marry. Why did Mummy join Daddy at the battlefield? Was Daddy a prince before he became Grand Duke?"

"Your father; a prince?" There was light laughter from the young one's mother and chuckles from the man in topic himself. "You should have seen him when we first met at the Academy. Even our teachers thought he was a commoner who accidentally got sent to the nobles class. No, dear, your father, and your uncle for that matter of fact, were not princes at all. And even though Mummy was a princess at that time, Mummy did not want to take the crown at all. So instead of being like the other princesses in your storybooks, your Mummy picked up the sword and sneaked out to learn swordsmanship. When Mummy and Daddy graduated from the Academy, Mummy helped Uncle Elias run the kingdom for a short while and when the old guys wanted to make Mummy the next King, Mummy ran away from the palace to hide at the battlefield where nobody could take her back and make her King."

"Daddy, did you know Mummy was hiding from the palace people at the battlefield?" Cile turned to her father, prompting Vergil's memories of younger days in an instant.

He had only very recently been appointed the General of the Kingdom's army in place of his recently departed father. He had wanted to use the first battlefield to solidify his position within an army that was still reeling from the loss of their favored ex-General; to prove to the Kingdom that though they had lost his father, the Sparda Household still had much to offer. It was right after the first battle that he had returned to find a new 'recruit' looking very suspiciously familiar reporting for duty. Suspecting the new 'recruit' to be a spy from the nobles trying to sabotage his progress at the battlefield, he had kept this said recruit close to ensure monitoring of any funny business.

"Mummy was dressed very well in her disguise, so even though Daddy thought that she was pretty, I didn't know it was Mummy." Vergil answered the abridged version that he was only allowed to give.

There was no way he or his wife could tell Cile that at the height of his suspicions, he had ordered for the suspicious recruit to stay by him for full 24 hours, including toilet breaks. His wife -then just a suspicious person to him -had somehow taken precious minutes while he studied his notes to escape for bathroom break; but there had been no way to hide her gender when Vergil ordered that they take their bath at the same time.

"When Daddy found out that Mummy was a princess, he wanted to send me packing all the way back home. But Mummy begged to stay and proved herself useful to him so she was allowed to stand beside him in disguise." Cile's mother continued the storytelling, the two sharing a verbal tango as they cut out the sensitive details that were sore for the ears of a young and impressionable girl.

For example, there was no need to tell Young Cile that although Vergil and his wife developed their feelings for each other while at the battlefield, his soldiers had been extremely disgusted that their new General had taken shine to a suspicious 'recruit' who somehow could steal a spot right next to the General despite not having proven himself/herself much. Terrible rumors had gone around the army about the General being a horrible homosexual preying on young recruits, and the princess-in-disguise herself had gone through her fair share of bullying by her comrades due to her favored position.

"How did everyone find out that Mummy was the princess?" Cile's eyes sparkled in delight to learn about the love story of her parents as narrated by the main characters themselves, completely oblivious of the various connotations of reality that came along with the innocent storytelling.

"At one particularly difficult battle, Mummy and a group of soldiers were captured by strong demons and had to wait for help."

"Like the princess waiting in the tower for her prince in my storybooks!" Cile interrupted with glee, happy to find some form of familiarity.

"Yes, like a princess waiting for her prince." Vergil acknowledged with a secret smile shared with his wife. "Daddy was super worried about Mummy but everyone else was tired or injured from the previous battle. So Daddy went alone in the middle of the night to save Mummy. When I saw Mummy was injured and in danger, I got really angry so I used all my powers to defeat the bad guys holding Mummy captive and saved her."

The conclusion of the captive situation was an understatement indeed. 'Using all his power' had actually meant that Vergil had completely lost control and he singlehandedly wiped out a big portion of the demons' army, destroying an entire mountain while in the process of doing so. Cile would probably not understand until a few years later that the story behind the newly-made tourist attraction named Rescue Crater was the very same one that her parents was narrating.

"But you only saved Mummy. How did everyone know she was a princess too?"

"Because of what Daddy did, Uncle Elias found out about what happened. Someone told him that Mummy was involved and so he came down personally to scold Daddy about it. When Uncle Elias came, he told everybody that Mummy was his big sister and the princess. Mummy had to go back to the palace with Uncle Elias." Vergil explained, hardly forgetting the scene.

Vergil's beloved had been bandaged up here and there, ridden with wounds, but still she had stood in the assembly grounds in the middle of the army camp, holding on to Vergil's sword pointed against her own little brother in rebellion against being dragged back to the palace. Elias had been furious that his stubborn sister was still insisting on staying at the battlefield even after having gone through such severe injuries, and the stubbornness of siblings of the royal family had been plain for all to see. Vergil was absolutely sure that if he had not personally stepped in between the siblings with a lousy excuse that he needed her help to 'handle his territory in his brother's stead', Elias would have returned back to the palace badly injured that day.

"Mummy was very angry that Daddy sent me back to the palace, so I kept running away to make Daddy and Uncle Elias worry about me. I teamed up with your Uncle Dante to fake a big illness to make Daddy rush back from the battlefield to see me." Vergil's wife continued the explanation, finally deciding to give up pretending on focusing on the paperwork as she joined the rest of her family at the couch, accepting Cile's hug as the young one reached for her mother's embrace.

Husband and wife shared a casual peck on the lips in which young Cile fought to be a part of. Neither parent of the adorable child could resist planting their own kisses on Cile's cheeks to which the child giggled headily in enjoyment of the affection being shared between them.

Now that his hands were free from the child, Vergil once again picked up the book from his side and flipped quickly back to the page he had been perusing through before the interruption.

"Daddy, don't read your book! You haven't finished telling me how you married Mummy!" Cile interrupted, leaning over her mother's arm to wave her hands in front of the distracted father and grabbing his attention.

"Why are you suddenly so interested in our story today?" Vergil asked, curious at the reason behind his daughter's persistent questioning. Like any 4-year-old, Cile was usually easily distracted with more interesting things to be kept on one topic for too long.

"Because when I was playing with Illian, we saw a pair of boy-girl knights training and the maids said that they were a couple too like Daddy and Mummy. They said the knight couple was inspired by Daddy and Mummy's story but I didn't know what they were talking about so the maids told me to ask you." Cile's answer was honest. "You and Mummy don't tell me many things about yourselves, so I only learn about you two when I go to the palace to play with Illian."

"That's because you just need to know us as Daddy and Mummy and nothing else. Mummy being an ex-princess and Daddy being a Grand Duke is nothing important. You growing up happily and doing whatever you like is the most important thing to us, my dear." The loving speech was paired with another loving peck on the girl's cheek by her mother.

"I know. That's why when I grow up, I also want to be like Mummy and not stay at home and wait for my prince like the princesses in my storybook. I want to use my sword to protect Illian and every one like Mummy." The words were spoken like a true Sparda descendant -the family that had produced generations after generations of swordsmasters who were placed in positions like the General or Knight Commanders.

"You still have a long way to go before you can protect anyone." Vergil cautioned quickly just in case his daughter got too over-enthusiastic and landed herself in trouble. With a daughter who had inherited her mother's stubbornness and bravery, he could never be sure if Cile was going to land herself in trouble while her parents were not cautious.

Though, he supposed that he could have discussed with his brother-in-law more to learn about the shenanigans of his wife while she was Cile's age.

"You are distracting me, Mummy! I want to hear your story to the end!" Cile complained, twisting her body away from the shower of loving kisses that his wife attempted to rain on the adorable child. "Mummy and Uncle Dante made Mummy fake a big illness to make Daddy come back home. What happened?"

"Daddy got angry at me, and at Uncle Dante even more." The honest, understated answer came. Vergil had been positively livid when he found that he had been played by his emotions and had given up his duties to his Kingdom to find that his beloved had been totally fine. "He returned to the battlefield immediately and refused to talk to us."

"I was focusing on regaining time lost at the battlefield while I was absent." Vergil excused.

"Eitherway, Daddy wasn't answering to Mummy's letters, so she decided to go see him instead of asking him to come home. So I put on my soldier uniform again and sneaked back to the battlefield." The daring woman continued with the story, to which their daughter gasped at the audacity of her mother's actions.

"Did you get found out again?"

"Daddy knew it was me immediately and tried to send me home again. But before he could, Uncle Elias sent him a letter. Uncle Elias knew that I really liked Daddy and that I was willing to put myself in danger to be beside him. No matter how many times they worked to drag me back home, I was sure to come sneaking back to the battlefield again to see Daddy. So Uncle Elias told Daddy to take care of me and finish the war quickly so that we could all go home."

Vergil had never told anyone, not even his wife, but there had been more than just the promise of returning home together that the King had provided to Vergil as incentive for finishing the war quickly. It had been the promise of the hand of marriage to a certain princess that had motivated Vergil's intense focus on the battlefield. He had never told his wife about it because... well, he knew his wife would be extremely upset if she knew that her little brother had basically sold her in exchange for Vergil's promise to finish the war quickly.

"So Daddy finished the war quickly and you went home and got married?" Cile summarized excitedly.

"Yes. Daddy and Mummy had our first wedding in a tiny church on the way home from the battlefield, but Uncle Elias and Uncle Dante were not satisfied with that, so they planned another big one for us here in the capital. Uncle Elias gave Daddy the position of Grand Duke to reward him for winning the war and to make Mummy the Grand Duchess because I wasn't the princess anymore. Then our cutest little daughter was born a few years later."

"That's me!" Cile declared proudly, excited to play a part in her parents' story.

"Yes, that's you, our beautiful little darling." The compliment was rewarded with a kiss from the gleeful young one before Cile disengaged herself from her mother's embrace and jumped to the floor before scuttling quickly to the seat at the desk that her mother had abandoned not long ago. "Teach me how to be a Grand Duke, Daddy!"

"Slow down, my dear. You haven't even turned 5 and you already want to be Grand Duke?" Vergil laughed, giving up on his book since his daughter had demanded attention from him. This time, Vergil found his position switched with his wife as he sat himself at the desk, keeping Cile carefully balanced between his laps as he picked up the latest document that his wife had abandoned.

"What's this paper talking about? It's just numbers."

"It tells us how much money we have left to spend." Vergil answered helpfully, correcting a mistake on the budget worksheet that had no doubt been submitted by their Advisor.

"Do we have a lot left?"

"Do you want to buy something?" Vergil deferred the question with another, completely at ease multi-tasking as he checked the remaining numbers mentally.

"It's Daddy's and Uncle Dante's birthday soon. I want to buy you something." Cile answered equally honestly, pointing to the total sum at the bottom of the page. "Is this how much we have left? Tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands... what comes after hundred thousand?"

"Million. We have two million left." Vergil helped, kindly neglecting to let his daughter know that the budget was prepared for the upcoming month, and that their coffers had much more than a mere 2 million.

"Is that a lot of money?" The child who had yet to learn the concept of money questioned curiously.

"Depends. It is a lot of money to buy gifts with, but not a lot of money to run a Dukedom with."

"I have some coins from when I helped Mummy on an errand. I can give it to you to run the Duchy." Cile contributed seriously. "Is that enough?"

"More than enough." Vergil answered with a loving kiss pressed on his amazing daughter's head. "We will be rich with Cile's money."

"Yay!" The young girl probably found staring at numbers boring as she clambered off her father's lap now, running to her corner of the Study where her books and toys had been left. The corner had been set up for either parent to be watching over their young one while working.

And so, distracted in their own affairs, the small family of Sparda enjoyed their silence together.

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Cile Sparda imagined herself as a maid, carefully pouring the (cold) tea into the teacup. When it was almost filled to the brim, Cile carefully pinched the cup and focused on balancing, taking ginger steps back to the dinner table where the Sparda family just had their dinnerware cleared. She was so focused in not allowing a single drop of tea from spilling out the sides of the teacup that she barely heard the words exchanged between her uncle and her parents occurring in the background.

"So, Aria, when are you coming back to the palace to teach the Royal Knights a proper lesson?" Dante was slouched comfortably in his seat after having complained of a tiring day as a Captain of the Royal Knight. The position of Commander had initially been offered to Dante Sparda in recognition of his stellar swordsmanship skills after his sister-in-law had resigned from the position after pregnancy, but the man had rejected the position with the excuse that it was dangerous for the Royal Family for two men from the same family to be heading the Kingdom's army and Royal Knights.

It had been a very humble and noble reason made by Dante Sparda, but behind closed doors the man's twin and sister-in-law both knew that the main reason was less about the stability of the Royal Family, and more about the fact that the man wanted as little responsibility as possible. With his current position as a Captain of a small squad within the Royal Knight, Dante enjoyed his time freely whenever there was no major incident or event, and commanded a salary decent enough to support his carefree, wife-less and child-less days.

"You can teach them a proper lesson anytime you want." Vergil's wife answered, eyes carefully on her daughter's slow but steady progress towards them in tottering and tiny footsteps.

"It's too much of a hassle. Besides, they still talk about you and whisper stories about you. Princess Aria this, Princess Aria that... At this point, I'm beginning to think I need to be a woman before they start listening to me." Dante sighed, leaning heavily against the armrest on one side of the chair. "Vergil, tell your wife swing by the Royal Knights Training Ground when she goes visiting her brother."

"You tell her directly." Vergil deferred quickly, knowing better than to heed the instructions of his twin. They might be born from the same parents and had gone through the same manners and etiquette classes when they were younger, but what Vergil took out of those sessions was very far different from what his twin had learnt.

"Isn't it high time for you to start pulling your weight as a Sparda? Your swordsmanship should be enough to impress them." The woman in topic questioned curiously, having known enough about her brother-in-law's manner of speech to bother being insulted.

"Yeah, but when they've seen you and Vergil spar; whatever I do isn't enough to give them stars in their eyes." Dante dismissed the suggestion with another heavy sigh, eyes finally registering that his adorable niece had made her journey to his side and was sliding the teacup carefully on the table in front of him without spilling a single drop. "Cile, if you have already had the tastiest candy in the world, then if I ask you to try a not-so-tasty candy afterwards, wouldn't you compare?"

"I like any candy." Cile answered simply, her hand stretching out. "You have candy for me?"

Dante's scramble to find something from his pockets worthy of acting as a gift for the child was saved when her mother interrupted.

"No candy for you today, Cile. You had too much sweets during tea today."

"Okay, Mummy." The crestfallen expression would have motivated anyone to have a change of mind instantly, but the child's parents were long immune to its effects. Her uncle, however, was not so immune as he leaned in quickly to the child before she left his side.

"Uncle Dante will bring you a bag full of candy the next time he comes. Promise me you'll open the door for me if I come again?" He whispered quickly, raising a pinkie for a swear.

The young Sparda did not even hesitate before breaking out into a brilliant smile, hooking her pinkie instantly over the much bigger one.

"Promise." She whispered, then ran back to fetch the second cup of tea for her parents as if to feign innocent –as if she had not just made a secret pinkie swear with her uncle in front of her parents.

"I've complained a lot about me. What about you two lovebirds? Anything new?" Dante asked casually because he hadn't actually had anything he wanted to know from his siblings when he dropped by for dinner; just that he had been lazy to decide which restaurant to visit for dinner so he had gone straight to his brother's mansion for a free meal instead.

"Nothing much." Vergil's eyes fixed on Cile starting on her second journey with the teacup carefully. "Business is picking up."

"Yeah, about that. I heard from the Knights that Count Helanus made things difficult for you during the last Ministers Meeting. Something about you being a blood-thirsty war hero who just wanted to plunge the Kingdom back into war for more profits?" The casual, evened way in which Dante repeated the accusations slung upon his brother was very much appreciated, because Cile would have been distracted by an angrier tone of voice and would have undoubtedly innocently questioned her parents what her uncle meant.

The lovely child was much too young to understand the sentiments of the traditional nobles who still could not understand how a mere General of the Kingdom's Army could be awarded a title as prestigious as a Grand Duke. To the nobles, Vergil simply came from a family who knew nothing except how to use swords and could not be expected to fulfil his other administrative duties to manage his territories. The accusation was not fully wrong; Vergil had indeed come from the Sparda family, the family that had focused their childhood education on the usage of swords and weapons, and thereafter the art of military tactics. Managing resources for the betterment of the lives of his territory had been something Vergil had first learnt in the Academy, and back then he had barely scraped a passing mark for those classes.

But that had all been in the past, and that had been before he had fallen for Aria. As the ex-princess, Aria had the opposite form of education -she could restructure a region's economy even while asleep. After their marriage and the bestowing of a Ducal territory from King Elias, Vergil had stayed up sleepless nights studying and learning all he could about territorial management. With his wife as a mentor, Vergil had picked up the necessary skills as fast as he had picked up the sword and the results had been shown in the way of healthy and consistent tax returns.

Positive results were threats to nobles who were never really impressed with the Sparda family; a family that had historically been in the positions of Counts at the most. Thus, a general distrust of Vergil as an administrator of a land had been formed amongst the traditional nobles and this distrust was easily made worse when his position and favor as the King's brother-in-law was taken in consideration.

"It was nothing." Vergil answered his brother with a quick warning glare, subtly gesturing to his impressionable young daughter who was carefully serving the second cup of tea, thankfully too focused to tune into the conversation at hand. "Cile started her swordsman training just a week ago, and she's showing her potential as a Sparda."

"Already?" Dante was ill at ease following the abrupt change in conversation topic.

"She is the daughter of the Kingdom's strongest swordsman. That's nothing to be surprised about." Aria bragged happily, shifting her attention to the young girl in topic who had successfully delivered the second cup to her father. "Right, Cile?"

"Yes, Cile is going to be a great swordsman like Daddy!"

"You should be a great swordsman like Mummy instead. She has better posture and grace." Vergil corrected.

"But Daddy is stronger. I've seen Mummy and Daddy fight before, and Daddy won." Cile argued, to which the person who made the strongest reaction was neither of her parents but her uncle instead.

Dante gasped aloud, hands covering his mouth as he stared wide eyes at his brother and sister-in-law, both of whom looked confused.

"The two of you fought again? Did you two slice up another piece of our Kingdom to make a new island?" Dante accused quickly. "Does our Kingdom's map need to be updated again?"

"Stop bringing that up, Dante. It was an accident. Besides, we never fought in front of Cile." Aria rushed to say, but blushed all the same in reminder of what had happened previously when she and Vergil had decided to give it their all in a fight against each other to decide –once and for all –who was the stronger one.

The question of whether Aria or Vergil was the stronger and more skilled between the two legendary-level swordsmen had been something that the both of them had needed to find the answer to before they could agree to be married to each other for life.

Unfortunately, in the search for the answer to that question, the two of them had used so much power that a portion of the seaside cliff that they had been sparring at had been sliced clean off the continent, dropped into the sea and floated a short distance away from land to form its own island.

After witnessing the terrible fuss that Aria's brother had caused in his distress to find out that the two of them had literally changed the map of the Kingdom, the two of them had made a solemn swear in front of the King and in front of Vergil's father's grave that they would never fight each other again –not even for the purposes of casual sparring.

"Mummy, you're lying! You and Daddy fought against each other before! I saw it!" Cile defended herself hotly, refusing to be called a liar.

"That can't be, my dear." Vergil made sure his voice was soft in order to appeal to his stubborn daughter. "Daddy and Mummy really haven't fought each other ever since we swore in front of Uncle Elias and before Grandaddy's grave not to do so. Whatever you saw, it must not have been us fighting."

"I saw it!" Cile stomped her feet in stubbornness. "Maybe you two weren't using your swords, but you were fighting! I saw you push Mummy down, and she was groaning in pain!"

"I did?" Vergil repeated in surprise, having absolutely no recollection of the last time he had even attempted to face his wife off.

"Yes." Cile crossed her arm in confidence. "You grabbed Mummy's shoulders and were doing something to her with your legs that I couldn't see. She was lying down and telling you to stop because she was out of breath, but you wouldn't listen. You bullied Mummy just because you were stronger!"

"Cile..." There was strong hesitation as the adults shared looks with each other, but as the girl's mother, Aria decided to brave it. "Did you see Daddy and Mummy fight in our bedroom?"

"Yes. You must have not wanted Cile to know, but I saw it! I don't know why you weren't cold when you were fighting without your clothes on, but Daddy was sweating."

"That was..." Aria's face was fully red by now as she desperately tried to fan herself. Vergil, on the other hand, glared hard at his twin brother who seemed to be having an extremely hard time holding back his laughter even with hands slapped over his lips.

"That wasn't a fight, Cile." Vergil did his best to sound evened in his tone. "Daddy and Mummy were doing something else."

"That wasn't a fight? But you held Mummy down-"

"No, it wasn't. You mistook us." Vergil interrupted quickly before more could be said, getting the strong feeling that his twin brother was steadily reaching the limit of holding back his laughter.

"Then what were you and Mummy doing on the bed?"

Dante could not take it anymore.

"They were making another younger sibling for you!" Dante burst.

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"I'm done with my lessons! Happy Birthday, Mummy!" Cile once more announced her arrival with a loud happy yell, bursting into the room.

"Thank you, Cile." Aria smiled happily at her bundle of joy despite the fact that it was probably already the tenth time that the young girl had wished her a happy birthday. "Did you behave yourself at class today?"

"Yes, I did! I wanted to go out to do swords training but I remembered that it was your birthday today so I didn't want to upset you by skipping class." Her daughter's honest reply made Aria chuckle. Like her father, Cile found it hard to lie to the people she cared about even if it meant that she would be revealing her secret intentions in the act of doing so.

"Then it should be my birthday everyday you have classes." Aria decided that it was a good time to take a break from her work as the Grand Duchess and actually enjoy the rest of her birthday as she started to arrange the documents on the desk. "Do you want to have tea with Mummy in the garden while we wait for Daddy to come back from the palace?"

"Okay!" Cile was nothing if not elated to have the chance to have sweet treats together with tea. "I'll go tell Stanley to prepare desserts!"

There was absolutely no suspicion of anything that may have occurred on such a beautiful day when Aria finished packing the office free of the mess, and moved towards the main door to meet her daughter before stepping out to the garden together. The weather was good and the late afternoon sun shone brightly in the sky. There was no cloud that hung the threat of rain, and Aria looked forward to her birthday dinner that she would be spending with her closest family. Even her brother had promised to clean his schedule to attend the dinner with his little prince, and Aria looked forward to seeing how much the Young Prince Illian had grown since she last caught sight of him.

Cile was nowhere to be found when Aria reached the bottom of the stairs leading to the front doors, but her venture to look for what was occupying her daughter was interrupted with hurried knocks on the door. Waving the family butler away who had appeared quickly to attend to the visitor, Aria opened the door.

"Elias? Isn't it a little too early to be here for dinner?" Aria asked in confusion at the sight of her little brother standing in front of her, cheeks red from the horse ride. A short distance behind her was the royal steed; a beautiful white horse with mane and fur so elegant that sunlight almost emanated from the animal.

"Where is Cile?" The breathless question from the normally-calm King was a very good indicator that something was going wrong, and Aria did not spend the time questioning her brother who knew better than to play a prank on her like this.

"Cile! Come to Mummy if you hear me!" Aria raised her voice, sending her brother a warning look to let him know that he was in danger if he was just joking around before turning towards the doorway that lead to the kitchen.

"I'm coming!" The child's happy and eager response answered somewhere in the house and it did not take long to see the bright beaming round button face appearing and running towards her awaiting mother. Aria did her best to not her worry show on her face as she scooped Cile up in her arms easily, planting a gentle greeting kiss on the soft cheek before turning back to her brother.

"Uncle Elias, you are here early! Did you wish Mummy a happy birthday first?" Cile observed in welcome surprise, waving.

"Not yet, but we have urgent adult things to discuss. Can you be a dear and wait for Mummy in your room? Go get your butler to keep you company; I will send Illian to come play with you after we are done and he can stay until after dinner." Elias answered sweetly.

"Is something wrong? You look red." Cile asked carefully, refusing to leave her mother's side even though she had been set back on her feet.

"No, it's alright-"

"Cile! Are you okay? Did anybody do anything to you?" The intruding demand interrupted the King's words, and Aria and Cile watched with increasing concern as Dante appeared in view on a galloping horse, very dangerously preparing himself to dismount while rushing over.

"Uncle Dante, you are here early too! Did you wish Mummy a happy birthday yet?" Cile answered with a wide grin, but Aria's concerns were all but assuaged.

"What is this about?" Aria could no longer wait before she demanded. "What is so urgent that not only you came rushing here on your fastest horse, but also Dante?"

"It's your husband." Was all the King could say before Dante had reached their side. Turning to the Captain of the Royal Knight's 2nd Squad, Elias resumed his kingly, calm aura. "Dante, has there been any updates? Have your knights located him?"

"No, but we found evidence of a lot of Mox used where he was ambushed, so it is very likely he was seriously drugged before they left the place. We found Cile's hairband, so I was worried whether something really happened to her and came rushing here. My men are combing the surroundings to find more clues." Dante reported studiously.

"Ambushed? Seriously drugged with Mox?" Aria repeated. It was not hard at all to connect the dots. "Where is Vergil?"

"Calm down, Aria. You need to think about Cile before you do anything." Elias definitely knew of his older sister's impulsivity because he turned back to her immediately to address her.

"I'll calm down if you tell me what happened to Vergil!" Aria fumed. "Where is he? Why and how was he taken?"

"We finished the Minister Meeting without a hitch, but shortly after everyone left the palace, I was informed that Vergil had been kidnapped. You know he doesn't travel with a big entourage because he trusts himself, but one of his men managed to escape after he created an opening for his guy to come seeking for help. Apparently he was ambushed by some suspicious looking people, and they claimed that they had Cile kidnapped. They had some of Cile's belongings to prove the point, so Vergil agreed to go with them to handle whatever ransom they wanted." Elias explained carefully.

"Why was he taken? Cile is safe here with us, so their goal must have been him."

"You're not gonna like it..." Dante was the one who answered, offering a piece of paper together with a sword that looked terrifyingly familiar. It was Vergil's sword; a weapon that went wherever the man went. The sword was so normalized in Vergil's daily appearance that it was practically an accessory in his everyday outfit... and the fact that the man had allowed it away from his side meant that he had to be completely unconscious when he had been taken.

Grabbing both items with no genteel, Vergil's wife feasted her eyes on the demand written on the piece of paper.

"DIVORCE?" Aria repeated in disbelief. "They captured my husband and want me to divorce him to save him? Just because they think a Sparda is not cut out for a Grand Duchy?"

"I have the entire Royal Knights searching the entire kingdom for him now, Aria. It's not a joke for me if I let out news that the Grand Duke -much less the General of our Army who won us the War against the demons -was captured and held ransom. We will settle this in time for your birthday dinner, don't worry." Elias did his best to calm his sister down, having taken a quick glance at the piece of paper that Dante had passed, but both brother-and-brother-in-law could see that Aria's emotions were working up... and they were both scared at the actions that she would take when she actually lost control. "Nothing is going to happen to him. Vergil being the Kingdom's best swordsman aside, you have trained the Royal Knights yourself. You know how capable they are."

"There was the use of Mox. If they could drug Vergil unconscious, nothing is stopping them from keeping him drugged the entire time so that he isn't awake enough to retaliate. And we all know that prolonged usage of Mox is going to create permanent effect. The longer it takes to find him, the worse the effect will be. By the time you find him, he could be completely vegetative from overdose." The anxious wife answered, fingers tightened over her husband's sword in her grip.

"We know, and we have everyone we can spare working on it. Besides, you have literally spent time with him at the battlefield, Aria. You know your husband can survive more than just Mox poisoning and kidnapping." The King rushed to say, putting his hands up between them as if the simple gesture could stop his elder sister from rushing off.

"That doesn't mean that he will hurt less than anyone else!" She frowned. She had always disagreed with this assumption that many had made upon her husband –the fact that he had managed to survive all sorts of wounds and injuries during the war seemed to have made everyone assume that he was immune to pain. But him having gone through the war had not made Vergil less of a man. It did not make him feel less hurt than everyone else did to any injuries; did not make him less susceptible to being injured or drugged.

"We know, and we are doing everything we can. But for now, we have to make sure that you and Cile are secured. If his kidnappers find that you have no intention of obeying their demands, we don't know what else they may have planned. I have faith in you to protect Cile, but if we're talking about Mox that managed to down the General of my Army, I'm not taking any chances with his wife and my niece. Please trust me and -wait a minute. Where is Cile? Did you see her go in?"

The adults checked their immediate surroundings to confirm that the young girl was nowhere to be seen, exchanging worried glances.

"Cile should be obedient enough to have gone back to her room after you asked." Aria responded, curling her fingers over her husband's trusty sword in determination as the shock and worry began to dissipate throughout her system, and her rational faculties once more fixed back into place.

"You stay here and watch over Cile and send my butler to fetch Illian here to keep her occupied. I'll go get Cile her father back in time for dinner." Aria instructed in her no-nonsense tone that had been a staple back when she had been reigning the temporary regent before her brother had been crowned and ready for the throne.

Princess Aria might have stepped down from her position as a temporary ruler of the kingdom, but becoming the Grand Duchess Sparda had clearly not made her less of a force. Worse; she had become a much stronger and determined force now that her husband was in danger and her daughter's safety was in threat.

"Aria, you need to-"

"Save it, and take care of Cile. I don't know what Vergil and I may do if we come back and Cile is missing." Aria did not even care that she had not changed out of her indoor dress into any outfit suitable for riding or fighting.

All she knew was that in her hand was Vergil's sword, and she needed to return it to him -a conscious version of him.

"Sis, you should-" Dante, for his role as a brother-in-law, made a shallow effort to stop her and knew enough to swallow the rest of his sentence when she paused beside the Royal Steed to give him a silent, wordless look.

"If you catch the mastermind behind this mess, you keep them alive." She said, not needing any help to jump up on the horse's saddle. The calm steed did not find bother at the unfamiliar weight on its back, nor the steadiness of the rider's grip on its reigns. "Keep them alive so that I can show them what it means to piss me off. Nobody plays around with Vergil or Cile and gets away with it."

________________________________________________________________________________

Aria wiped the blood and dirt on the hem of her dress that was unsalvageable at this point. She took a quick moment to consider her options, then made a decisive swing of her husband's sword blade across a good length of her dress hem, freeing her lower legs from the offending material. The tattered rag fell to the dirty floor and Aria finally felt fully ready.

She had a husband to save.

After a hard ride of her brother's royal steed and carefully following the route between the palace and the Grand Duchy, Aria had eventually found the site of the crime by evidence of a whole gathering all 5 Royal Knight squads still investigating the area. If Aria was not so worried about her husband, she would have been glad that her brother had actually cared enough to activate the entire platoon of Royal Knights just to search and save the Grand Duke. Unfortunately, Aria was not in her best mood when she burst into the crime scene, ignoring the pleas of the Royal Knights who begged her to return home, to stay safe and to trust them to find Vergil for her.

But for all that she had taught the Royal Knights, there was one very important factor that none of them had that she had when it came to the Grand Duke.

She had been on the battlefield with him before.

And thus, although the hint that Vergil had left was superbly hidden and missed out by the well-trained knights and even his own brother, Aria saw it immediately when she spied the way the bushes had been bent a short distance away from the crime scene. Quick questioning had revealed that none of the Royal Knights had disturbed that particular bush because it had been in the direction of the Palace, and no kidnapper in the right mind would be dragging the kidnapped Grand Duke back to the palace.

But Aria knew her husband, and she knew the signal they had agreed with each other when they had both been on the battlefield, when they could never be sure if they could return on their own two legs whenever they left camp.

Aria was off again on her horse before she could even think of explaining herself, and while she rode her suspicions began to get stronger.

She already knew that the real culprits behind the kidnapping of her husband was the noble faction who were extremely displeased with Vergil having gained -and retained -his title as a Grand Duke despite being a mere Sparda. This was a faction that was apparently willing to capture the man so that she, as the ex-Princess, would divorce him in the hopes of prompting the King to find Vergil a lacking individual somehow and eventually remove him from the post. If this group was foolish enough to commission foreign mercenaries to handle the kidnapping, then they could definitely be bold enough to target more than just Vergil. After all, they had to have some form of back-up plan.

And since the King himself had left the palace to rush to bring her the news, there was only one other target who had been forgotten in this mess, who also happened to be staying in a place that was the in the same direction that Vergil had left his trail before he went completely unconscious.

Aria began to pick up more signs as she neared the quarters of the Crown Prince. The place was empty and there were no guards at the gate. Aria found no issues climbing and vaulting over the gate and was not surprised when there were no alarms raised at her unconventional intrusion. Her rational thoughts to run towards the main building was derailed when she spotted a hint of familiar pink out the corner of her eyes.

Switching directions immediately at the hint of movement and sign of life within the Crown Prince's quarters, but unsheathing her husband's sword just to be safe, Aria turned her focus to round the side of the building. It was the direction towards where the Crown Prince's attendant stayed in his own little cabin a short distance away from the main building, allowing the attendant quick access to his master if Illian required any emergency help.

It was clear that the suspicious kidnappers were as surprised to see Aria as she was to see them when she popped up around the corner, and there was no need for clarifications of their intentions when they charged at her with their weapons raised. Aria made short work of the group, standing alone in the bloody mess now as she took a careful visual sweep around, trying to find more hints on where she should be charging towards.

"Mummy!" A sudden familiar shout shocked Aria as she spun immediately to the sound of the call, spying her daughter running towards her; one hand holding onto her wooden training sword and one hand clamped on the wrist and dragging a poor and stumbling Crown Prince who still had his hands tied together with coarse ropes and a gag stuffed in his mouth.

"Behind me, Mummy! Save us!" Cile screamed now that she had her mother's attention, and Aria focused immediately on the similarly-suspiciously dressed individuals chasing after her fleeing daughter and nephew.

Now that her dress had been cut short, Aria moved much easier and faster as she dodged strikes and blocked blows aimed at the children hiding behind her. She parried with the hopes of cutting down the numbers of the group that had descended upon them all of a sudden, trying her best not to dwell too much on how her daughter had appeared in the middle of this mess and had –somehow –saved the Crown Prince from an obvious attempt at kidnapping.

Crown Prince Illian trembled in the middle of the mess, his eyes streaming with tears as he looked left and right while his aunt covered them. The poor boy startled when a few stray blows came dangerously close to the children, but the stray strikes were always pushed back by a fearless Cile who watched her mother fight carefully, throwing stabs that although did not catch anyone, threw many attackers off their balance.

The group that young Cile and Illian had led to Aria was surprisingly large, but it did not mean that Aria was daunted at the numbers. What worried her all throughout the fight, however, was how much the young Crown Prince seemed to be trembling – very sure that this incident would be branded in the poor boy's mind for a long time to come.

Although Aria and Vergil had been very loving and protective parents over Cile, they had made sure to not allow her to grow up as a completely sheltered child. Cile had watched her parents fight and train their duchy's knights, had watched as the Grand Duke punished some bandits that had been daring enough to attempt to pillage a village within the duchy. In fact, Young Cile had even had the misfortune to stumble across the leftover of a serial killer's rampage, and though that particular incident had made Cile wake up screaming and crying in the middle of the night for a few weeks from her nightmares, Aria knew that while her innocent girl would definitely have nightmares about today's incident for a few weeks, they would not be as lasting as they would be on poor Prince Illian.

Really, Elias had pampered his son a little too much in this aspect.

"Mummy, quick! The bad guys are going to set fire to the stables, and Daddy is unconscious there!" Aria had managed to cut down a good number of the mess before her daughter exclaimed, one hand still protectively clamped over the Prince's wrists while the other swung her training sword heavily onto the forearm of a stray arm that had been trying to grab Illian.

"I can't leave you and Illian here with the bad guys, honey!" Aria shouted back, spying –true to her daughter's words –one of the black-clad figures carrying a torch escaping from behind the crowd of attackers.

"You don't have to leave us here! Nobody captures and harms Daddy and Illian and gets away from us. We go together!" Cile declared strongly and though it was honestly no place for a mother's pride, Aria's heart filled with warmth at the fierce declaration and determined glint in her daughter's eyes as Cile finally decided that her training sword wasn't enough.

"Be careful with that!" Aria instructed when she spied her daughter dropping the wooden sword to the floor, then picking up a proper sword that had been dropped by one of their downed assailants.

"I will, Mummy! I promise not to do anything dangerous, so let's go save Daddy!"

Aria swallowed words at how brave yet fearless her daughter was being, saved precious braincells from wondering how Cile had managed to come to the Crown Prince's quarters to save Illian and find her unconscious father, and charged towards the direction of the stables, hacking at the thinning number of assailants who were clearly beginning to have second thoughts about dealing with 'only a woman saddled with two children'.

Aria made mental note of a few deserters as she –together with Cile and a helpless Illian who was unfortunately still tied and gagged –rushed towards the stables. A glow entered her eyes when they rounded the Main Building, and she felt an instant twist in her guts when she saw the blaze chewing at the stables.

"DADDY!" Cile screamed, trying to dash forwards closer to the blaze but Aria grabbed her daughter's shoulder.

"Cile, don't!" Aria cried, the tears already having turned on as her guts rolled an extremely sour feeling in her stomach.

"Daddy is inside! LET ME GO!" Cile struggled, but Aria could only fall to her knees. The tears could no longer stop as Vergil's sword tumbled from her fingers, and all she could do was to pull Cile into her embrace.

"We can still save him, Mummy! Don't give up on Daddy!" Cile wailed, but Aria refused to let go.

If her husband was gone... then it was up to her to keep Cile safe. She could not afford to lose their daughter together with Vergil... She had to keep Cile safe.

The sight of the stable's crumbled roof burning a bright orange was branded in Aria's retinas as she sobbed in unison with her wailing daughter, ignorant of the heat that was burning her arms at the proximity that they were standing towards the rubble. At some point, even Crown Prince Illian joined their wailing group as they huddled together, unable to do anything but cry.

Of course, I will be back early. It's your birthday today; I would not miss a single minute of it more than I have to. Besides, Cile will make me wish you happy birthday a few hundred times more if I come back late.

That had been the last words from Vergil before he left their house earlier in the morning, sending Aria a farewell kiss on her forehead when she had seen him off. There had been no indications that it would be his last words... that she could never feel his touch and love anymore.

Despite the fire and burns that the blaze gave her at their proximity, Aria felt much colder than she had ever felt. Even when they had been on the battlefield; even when the danger of their death had been hanging over them every day, Aria had not felt like this. Back then, they had been ready to be separated from each other every day. Every time they stepped out of camp, they had treated it as if it was the last time that they would see each other. Every time either of them returned to camp, they had reunited with nothing but love and gratitude to each other for having made it back alive.

But this time had been different. Vergil had promised to come back early. They had not treated their separation as if Vergil was not coming back.

But it was the truth from this day forth.

Vergil was not coming back.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Nineteen year old Cile Sparda alighted from the carriage without any help from the carriage-hand, sighing deeply in her soul when she spied a figure having already arrived before her. Behind her, another sigh mimicked hers as the Crown Prince also found his feet on the ground, a hand landing in comfort on her shoulder as if to give her strength.

Although Cile was only a few months older than Illian in terms of age, Illian was still a boy and thus had grown up to be a fine young man much taller than her now as his hand found her shoulder with ease.

"Chin up and take a deep breath." Illian advised, and even though they usually shared a familial-teasing relationship, Cile did not rebut as she took the advice seriously, steeling herself for what was to come for at least the next few minutes.

"Thanks for coming along." She responded, taking the offered strength from the Crown Prince as she straightened her back and smoothed out her Royal Knight uniform. At her hip, from her belt, hung her father's sword. She had received that sword from her mother the day she had been knighted by her uncle the King, but Cile had never dared to unsheathe the sword even once since being entrusted to it.

"Even if you didn't ask, I would still come. Uncle Vergil is my family too." Illian answered, completely forgiving of the out-of-character words of Cile Sparda.

Them having grown up and even attended the Royal Academy together, Cile and Illian had always been competitive and playful with each other. Their conversations with each other were usually light and teasing –except when they were serious in their studies, political discussions or trainings. But on the same day every year, Cile would be out-of-character in her gentle, weak and resigned tone of voice. On this day every year, Cile would revert back to being a small helpless child.

"If you're ready, let's go." Illian prompted and was answered with a nod.

Together, the two of them stepped into the garden full of blooming flowers. There was no trace of the previous carnage that had been here 15 years ago. If Illian did not know better, the sight of the beautiful garden might have tricked him into believing that it had been maintained for as long as the Palace was built.

But it could not be the furthest away from the truth. A carnage of blackened mess of a burnt stable once sat here.

"Mummy." Cile greeted when they neared the figure who sat underneath the largest tree that had been planted in the middle of the garden.

"Auntie Aria." Illian followed suit, watching as the figure roused at their intrusion.

The sunken cheeks were a sore contrast of the previous beauty that Illian remembered, the dead-set eyes were a ghost of their previous brilliance. Lips that used to be full and at times carry beautiful red gloss was now thin and pale as they pressed into a tiny smile in response to their greeting.

"It's cold today, Mummy." Cile shrugged off Illian's comforting hand on her shoulder together with her uniform coat, wrapping it quickly around the thin woman who looked as if a strong gust of wind could knock her down. "You're going to catch a terrible cold if you stay out here without anything to block the wind."

"I'll be fine." The answer was made in a tone so soft it could be a whisper, and Illian could not help but compare it to his memories –when he had heard the same voice singling lullabies to both him and Cile beautifully.

Because Illian's mother had passed away while giving birth to him and King Elias had refused to remarry, Illian often treated his Auntie Aria as a close mother figure as well. Since Cile and Illian were of the same age, they had spent most of their childhood together, and that also meant sometimes sharing the motherly affection that Aria gave generously.

But all of this also meant that Illian suffered together with Cile watching Aria's life drain away slowly as the years passed. It had all begun on this day, 15 years ago. Auntie Aria's life had started to lose light at this very spot, on this very day.

Illian was silent as he watched his Auntie's tears roll down her cheeks, the lifeless eyes pinned on the name written in stone. She had obviously been the first to arrive at this grave that his father had helped to erect 15 years ago, and had obviously cleaned up the place as usual. Then, like it had always happened the past 15 years, Auntie Aria would always be transported back to that day in silence. Sometimes, Cile and Illian were automatically transported back together with her, and they would all cry together.

Cile's shoulders began to tremble –as they always did on this day, in front of this grave –and the youngest woman to ever become a Royal Knight of the Kingdom sank to her knees, her hands covering her face as she sobbed. With his guts twisting in sour pain and an unexplainable tightness clenching over his heart, Illian lowered himself to his knees together beside Cile. His eyes stung a little bit, but the years had helped learn to him hold the tears back.

It was silent except the chirping of cheery birds who had made their home in this little piece of garden within the palace walls. The years had made the women of the Sparda Family cry in their respective silence, and they no longer made any sounds as they sobbed in unison, in pain. Illian unconsciously had his hands clenched into tight fists as he witnessed the gut-wrenching scene unfold in front of him the same way it had all 14 times before this.

The years had really not made anything better, but Illian could only hope. Every year, Illian could only watch in pain and hope that one day, something could change. He hoped and prayed fervently that one day, a fated man would come along and comfort Cile. He hoped that this man could be the one to accompany Cile to this grave on this day every year, and that this yet-unnamed man could wrap his arms around Illian's cousin and let Cile cry against his shoulders.

While Illian knew better than to hope for the same for his Auntie, Illian prayed for something else in behalf of Aria. He knew not if miracles could really happen, but still he prayed that his Auntie could one day wake up from her nightmare and accept that his Uncle Vergil was gone. He prayed that she could stop lying to herself that he was out on a battlefield somewhere, fighting to win an imaginary war before he could come back to her. The lies had been the only way his Auntie could continue to live and wake up every day, but all that waiting for a man who would never return ever again had done nothing but drain away her life.

Illian knew that somewhere within her, Aria knew and understood the fact that her husband was dead. He knew and remembered that his Auntie –once having been a Princess who had been so capable that she had even led the Kingdom before Illian's father had learnt how to be a King –had an ounce of rational thought inside her that had come to acknowledge and accept the fact that Uncle Vergil had died.

But for all that Illian knew, he could not say a single word, because the only way he could see his Auntie continuing to live every day, was only if she continued to lie to herself.

A cold wind blew through the garden, chilling Illian to the bone even though they bathed in the evening glow of the setting sun. Hours had passed as the trio remained in silence, sitting around the grave that had been erected for the late Grand Duke. Illian's legs were almost numb when his cousin finally stirred from whatever dream she had escaped into, blinking as if surprised to find herself back to reality, back in her body.

"It's late." She announced, her voice hoarse despite the fact that none of them had spoken much since their arrival. "We should go."

Illian was not surprised at all to find that his Auntie had already fallen asleep leaning against the stone grave after having cried herself exhausted. Wordlessly, Illian took on the role of gathering his Auntie into his arms, heart wrenching at the tear tracks that had stained their way down her cheeks. Aria instinctively moved towards the warm body that had picked her up, and even through his shirt, Illian could feel how cold her hands had become.

It was a silent affair as they returned to the carriage that would take the three of them back to the Main Palace, and the sun had almost lost its light by the time they started on their short way home.

"Every year I wonder." Cile started the conversation suddenly, motivating Illian to turn his melancholic gaze from the view outside to his cousin, whose eyes were pinned on her sleeping mother's head resting on her lap. "If I insisted on saving Daddy instead of trusting him to hold back the people who were chasing after us, would he still be around, or would Mummy be visiting two more graves every year?"

"Uncle Vergil would not have wanted you to do so." Illian answered, though there was honestly no use in playing 'what-ifs' at this point. "If there is only one thing I remember of him, then it is how much he loved and cherished you and Auntie Aria. Even if you had tried to stay in the stables to help him, he would have pushed the both of us out."

"We knew that they were using Mox." Cile sighed heavily. "Why did we innocently believe that nobody else would have Mox on them at that time?"

"We were young. Back then Uncle Vergil was the strongest person I knew, and he was even strong enough to shake the effect of Mox to protect us. It was understandable that we would never have imagined that he could be struck down." Illian reasoned.

"I remembered Mummy always told people that even if Daddy was the Hero General who saved us all from a war with the demons, he was still a man who could get injured and would hurt no less than anyone else. At the end of the day, it was still us, the people closest to him, who stupidly tried to believe that he was untouchable." Cile gently smoothed her mother's hair, pushing the unruly strands out of Aria's face.

"We were young." Illian repeated, because there was honestly no other excuse he could give to make himself or Cile feel better. Repeating the only justification he could make was the only way he could live with himself – the fact that he had been too young to consider about the well-being of his Uncle Vergil when they had been escaping the stables. All he had known back then was that Cile had somehow managed to find where he and his unconscious uncle had been kept, and that they had accidentally alerted their captors. His Uncle Vergil had roused from the Mox sedation at one point, but immediately jumped into action to stop their captors from catching Cile and Illian, instructing them to run.

They could never have imagined that their captors would sedate the man again with more Mox, then set the stables on fire with the drugged man still in it to distract everyone from their escape.

"Uncle Dante has been doing well by himself." Illian was secretly glad that a new topic of conversation came up after a long pause. At least Cile was no longer reminiscing about her father.

"The way he behaves is still hardly befitting of a Grand Duke, but both Father and I have long come to accept that the Grand Duchy of Sparda is going to be in that state until he either gets himself a woman who can put their foot at the square of his back and force him to sit at his office table, or you resign from your position as Royal Knight to be the new Duke." Illian answered, easier with his words now that the conversation was on safe territory.

"If I become the next Duke, you will have your hands even fuller dealing with me." Cile answered honestly with a small twitch at the corner of her lips, her mood clearly lifting slightly. "Are you not afraid that your nobles will side with me and try to make me King instead of you?"

"Yes, but you will side with me, so they will side with me as well." The Crown Prince answered honestly and confidently. The two of them might tease, prank and insult each other like old childhood friends, but Illian was confident that the one woman in the entire Kingdom that he could trust to never switch sides was the one sitting across him in the royal carriage.

"Better that I side you as your Royal Knight than your Duke." Cile concluded, looking out the window. "We're here."

This time, since they were in front of palace servants, Cile refused to allow them to the sight of the Crown Prince carrying her mother as she gathered Aria in her arms with no problems.

"Vergil..." Aria stirred at the small jostle.

"Daddy's always with you, Mummy. In your heart." Cile whispered quietly as she made her way to their quarters, bidding Illian a quick farewell.

________________________________________________________________________________

This day had been coming for years, and despite all the mental and emotional preparation that Cile had made, she was still overwhelmed with tears and emotions as she knelt by the bedside. Still, she refused to let the tears interfere as she held on to the limp, thin hand that could barely move any longer.

"Mummy." Cile whispered with tears streaming from her eyes. Behind her stood her silent husband who knew that it was no place for him to interfere with the situation, and on the other side of the bed, kneeling and crying in the same ugly fashion, was King Illian. There was nobody else in the room –the doctor and servants had been sent outside to allow Aria's closest family to send her off.

"Cile..." Aria labored to breathe, the faintest hint of a smile appearing on the haggard, sunken face as lightless eyes landed Cile. "My baby..."

"Mummy... I don't want you to go..." Cile could not help but revert to her childish self in response to the situation, desperately clutching onto the hand that could no longer move much.

"My baby, you are a grown woman." Aria answered, turning her head with much effort to look at the silently sobbing man kneeling on the other side of the bed. "As are you, King Illian. You shouldn't cry for me."

"Auntie, you're like a mother to me. Please let me cry for you at the very least." Illian begged, and Aria took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly as if trying to sigh.

"Alright, you can cry but only for so long. A King should not show his tears easily." Aria relented, turning her head back to Cile with another bout of effort.

"Khalid, you must take care of my baby. If you make her cry, not only will I come for you. Her father will haunt you until the end of worlds." Aria's eyes fixed upon Cile's silently observing husband, receiving a studious nod in response.

"You cannot go! If you are not around, then nobody will know if anyone has made me cry." Cile protested between sobs, but Aria only did her best to smile more.

"You don't cry easily, my baby." Aria paused to drag another breath. "You are like your father."

"If you're not with me, I'll cry every day!"

"You shouldn't. Khalid will not like a crybaby like you." Aria made effort to close her weak fingers over Cile's hand. "You have to let me go..."

"I don't want to! You can't go!"

"I'm sorry, my baby... I have to... Your father is waiting for me."

"No!" Cile begged, but there was more weakness now, because she knew inside how much her mother had been waiting for this moment. Aria had in fact smiled when she had first found out from the doctors that she only had a few months left to live, and the sole reason for that was the prospect of being with Cile's father again in the afterlife after almost thirty years of separation.

"How I have missed him... the first smile that he gave me... the moment I knew he was meant to be mine..."

"Mummy..." Cile cried helplessly, watching through the tears as Aria's already lightless eyes fade even more, her gaze turning up to the ceiling with a faraway look of happy peacefulness.

"Vergil..." Aria's lips barely parted now; her breath so shallow that her chest barely moved. "I'm coming."

Aria faded away, never to open her eyes again.

Aria faded away, to the embrace of her husband.