In another situation, if I had not been with these Knights during my service, I know they would not obey me even if I was the highest in command. The soldiers’ ultimate mission was to protect the Arameth’s king, even if it meant defying my command. But they still followed me because for them, I was not just a king. And they were not just soldiers for me, too.
Inside the camp, I had a taste of freedom. I was nobody’s puppet back there. In the camp, it did not matter whether I was the prince or not. In the camp, social rankings were not important. The rest of the soldiers and I treated each other like brothers there. We may have had different personalities and statuses but we worked well together. And no brother of mine shall die today all because of my family’s seventy-seven year old debt.
I stared at Crono when he jumped off from his black horse. Its head was on fire and so was its feet and tail. Even if I grew up in the magic realm, everything that I was seeing today about Crono was still new to me. Even his face was unfamiliar to me. It was my first time to see him in person. But I had seen his photo many times on the list of the people who were punished and were thrown outside the Arameth.
Living outside our kingdom made the man appear older that was why he was not easy to recognize now. His hair was all gray now which usually happens to all the people living in the human realm. But the rage in Crono’s eyes was easy to identify.
Every single day, my Mother and the rest of our relatives would offer flowers, candles, and prayers to Crono and his family. Crono was our biggest and darkest family secret. He was the reason why my Mother weep almost every night. And I knew she would continue to weep for as long as she was alive.
“You… you could have been my godson, you know, just like what Ageddon and I promised to each other,” Crono said, referring to my father. His voice mellowed. A bitter smile curved on his lips. “We promised to stay by each other’s side come what may even if our social rankings were poles apart. He was the king then. And I was just the chief of his thousands of soldiers. But that did not matter. We remained loyal to each other’s promise until the day he fell in love. Before that, he made a vow that he would become the second father of my children and I promised the same thing. But your father broke his promise.
“And I… I could have forgiven him for not accomplishing his role as my children’s second father. He was my best friend, after all. I could always forgive him for many things. Your father knew that so well. But do you know what I could not forgive, Alexandros?” Crono’s voice cracked. His chest heaved as if he was only letting these things out of his chest now after so many decades.
“It was the fact that he led my wife and my children to death! While my children were being punished for a crime they did not commit, all the ever respectable and noble King could do was just to look at me with tears in his eyes… as if those tears could revive my family! And that scene replays in my head day and night. The mind could be extremely cruel, too, you see. Even if you don’t like it, even if it hurts you so much, even if you almost go crazy, your mind will still remind you the things you are afraid of. It taught me a very important lesson. That sometimes, a person could only survive through remembering the hard and painful times. Those things could become someone’s biggest motivation, you know.”
Crono’s tears fell as he laughed hysterically. “But that was not the worst thing that your father and your relatives did to me. Their biggest mistake… was the fact that they allowed me to live. For the past years, knowing that you are all here, safe and breathing, tortures me so much. Do you even know that?”
Instead of answering, I looked straight in Crono’s eyes. His eyes were burning with wrath. He had no one with him. But there was this purple vibe around him that was giving off a creepy feeling. And for us, that kind of power was the darkest and the most dangerous of all.
But this afternoon, I did not see a trace of a traitor that the Armethians talked about. What I could see instead was a victim, a brokenhearted husband who had lost his wife, a father who had to bury his three adorable children all by his self, and a peace-loving citizen who had been tagged as a criminal by his own countrymen that he used to protect so much. Crono and his entire family were the ones who paid for my family’s sins.
Since Crono was my father’s only best friend, he was the first to know about what my father did, about how he violated the laws in the Arameth. Because my father fell in love with a human woman and brought her to Arameth along with her relatives that were being chased by the other humans at that time.

“W-WE were just ordinary citizens living in the mortal world before, son. We had a simple but happy life there. Your grandparents were both retired teachers, I was a promising singer, while your Uncle Jin Woo was a driver of a very influential business tycoon in South Korea, one of the countries in the mortal world.” My Mother’s words suddenly rang in my ears as she tell me her life story for the first time. Her hands were trembling and so was her voice. “But our world fell apart when the business tycoon suddenly died one day and everyone accused your Uncle as his murderer. We knew that he was innocent. He was a godly person. He could never do something like that."