Chapter Seventy Two

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When Wang Bao heard Wang Lei clear his throat, a sense of unease washed over his body. He forced the feeling away though, since he knew talking things out with his brother was best, despite thinking this, he couldn't stop from sitting up a little straighter thanks to the anxiety. Before either of them could back out from speaking, Wang Lei cleared his throat once more, then started talking calmly, his dark eyes focused on Wang Bao's tense expression.

"Before talking about Mother and Father, I want to give you some context. Almost 15 years ago now, Father sent me and a handful of my private team to Dwarf Country. Father had received a distress call; one of their mines had collapsed, and they needed help getting their miners out without disturbing the beasts that resided in the mountains. I thought we had been the only team to be called in, but when I arrived with my group, we ran into Nakai's group. That's how I met Nera for the first time. Just like now, Nakai and I had a hard time getting along, and Nera did most of the communicating between us. At the beginning on my side there were no romantic feelings towards Nera, but later on he told me it was love at first sight for him...How embarrassing."

Wang Bao didn't know how to react to such information, but when he looked at Wang Lei, he could see his brother was just as embarrassed as he was. After taking a sip of his coffee, Wang Lei continued speaking.

"After that mission, it seemed like fate was trying to force us together since whenever my private team would be sent out for a mission, we would bump into Nera and Nakai. Sometimes they were with their own troops, and other times it was just the two of them. After two years of these mysterious encounters and Nera hounding me to meet up with him privately, I finally agreed to seeing him outside of missions. Most of the time he would choose a small town somewhere in Man Country, or he would come visit me when I was on a private hunting trip. There were only a handful of times where we would meet each other outside of Man Country. Now fast forward to Father's murder...I had no idea what was happening or going to happen. After seeing Mother kill our Father, my entire world was turned on its head, and I had no idea who I could and couldn't trust within the palace. Mother was quick to start removing the royal advisors while I prepared Father's funeral, and she made sure to personally replace them as well. After burying Father, I stopped talking to Nera for a long time. I didn't know if Mother had found out about our relationship, or if she was going to murder you, and I lived in constant fear for two years."

It was only after saying the last few words that Wang Lei understood how his brother had felt everyday of his life, causing his next words to become stuck in his throat. Looking at his brother had also suddenly become harder for Wang Lei, and he forced himself to take another swig of coffee in order to force the large lump out of his throat before he started speaking again.

"After a couple years of constant calling and messages, I decided to finally answer Nera's call and agreed to meet with him. During my two year depression, Mother had also forbid me from leaving the palace, most likely out of fear of me ratting on her or running away, but I was able to convince her to let me go on a hunting trip since it was bad luck for the royals to go without hunting for long periods of time. As soon as I told Nera and Nakai everything that had happened, Nera came up with the plan to set up a decoy war between our countries. As you had heard, Father's murderer had been a hired shooter who was yet to be found, because of this, it made it easy to forge a false bullet analysis and blame the Giants. In the early developments of the plan, I had been able to convince Mother to allow you to come with me, as a way to toughen you up, but a few days before we were scheduled to leave she told me to leave you behind. I didn't want to leave you, Bao. I really wanted to fight her decision, but ever since seeing her shoot Father, I would tremble as soon as her cold eyes landed on me, and she used my fear to twist my decisions to suit herself.

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