This chapter is brought to you by 裸の勇者 by Vaundy.

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Duri hadn't always been the youngest among her siblings.

But after Ten, well...

She was two when they left the village. She hardly remembered her mama and papa. They were distant, hazy memories that lurked in the back of her head and didn't seem all that important.

In their place, it was Toby who held her and Toby who comforted her. Toby was the one who bought her all the pretty dresses and braided her hair.

When she and Tess wanted to join the Saintly Sister with Rasa, it was Toby who gave her a dagger and brought her to the training ground.

Duri hadn't realized how much Toby had sacrificed and given up. He acted so much older and was so very mature for his age. He was like an adult that they all confided in, and he kept their secrets and listened to all their disagreements, and made sure they were happy.

It didn't seem very fair that their village put the burden on Toby. He was, after all, only a boy.

Duri had been eight once, and she felt as helpless as she did when she was six. Could anyone imagine a child of eight fighting in The Arena for a living?

Toby did it. He killed and killed and became Cat, all the while Duri wore her pretty dresses, had her hair braided, and went to her lessons with her siblings.

Cat.

Oh, how Duri hated that name.

She loved Hungri and the others, but she abhorred the monicker more than she hated the name Tobus.

Toby was not a beast, nor a monster, and the very act of calling him by a name that was not his own was like a master naming a pet.

Toby was simply Toby, Duri's older brother.

"Tobus," the Monttevi mutt that was always following Toby had shown up once again to be a pest.

And of all days, it was during their rare outings into the city square.

The mutt hid it well, but Duri knew his hidden intentions.

She despised him so for his audacity.

How dare he think himself Toby's savior?

Duri played with a thin blade in her hand as she watched the mutt bother her brother.

---

Tess remembered when the village burned.

She never told her siblings that, but she remembered. At the age of three, she remembered the flames in the distance, the smoke rising into the air, and holding Duri's hand.

Toby had noticed, because, of course, Toby noticed.

Her memories were expansive, and every single detail from the moment she opened her eyes to this very moment before her, seventeen years after the village was burned, was recorded in her mind.

Rasa had told her she would be a useful asset to the Saintly Sister.

Duri had looked into her face, observing the piercings on either side of her nose bridge and below her lips, the smirk that stretched from ear to ear, and those eyes, vermillion red like that of Lord Calypto, and nodded.

It seemed like destiny, in the end, to stain her hands in blood.

Toby had done it for their sake, and he was special in a way that was not like Tess, but something similar and just as dangerous.

Toby, with his eyes, dulled and dimmed, lacking light while covered in blood.

Tess was scared, not of him, but for him.

She remembered the men in black, and how they took and took, chipping him away.

Then the Calyptos came along and took from him, too.

All the while, Tess watched and remembered, and recorded every single thing into her memory.

She knew Toby was meant for this life, as much as she liked to deny it. He was built for danger and violence.

But she wanted to be a part of her brother's world. The boy she admired the most, and the protector who stayed, she was willing to give up her dreams of a quiet life, if only to be beside him thick and thin.

Just like how it used to be when it was still ten of them.

Tess silently placed her hand over Duri's to stay her blade. It would not do to trouble Toby by starting a brawl.

---

Trei was aware of how forgettable he tended to be, but that was alright.

Being forgettable meant no one would notice him standing in a corner with a blade.

His targets didn't need to be aware of him. They simply needed to die.

Between him and Lief, their parents had always cared more for Lief.

His brother by blood was simply more talkative, his presence larger. He was always more loveable, and so Trei, in comparison, was simply lacking.

Trei was quieter.

He preferred the quiet.

When everything was gone and their home was lost, being quiet didn't seem to matter so much anymore.

Everyone was quieter when it happened, realizing there was nothing left.

Had he even hugged his parents goodbye that day? Both he and Lief thought they would return.

Being under Toby's care was a lot, at first.

Having to rely on Toby, who wasn't even that much older than them, was difficult.

Trei didn't trust him, at first.

He was always busy doing something, trying to make ends meet while working at The Arena. Trei was fed and clothed, but he still didn't trust Toby.

Trei thought, that if he was in Toby's shoes, he would have abandoned them.

It was simply the most logical thing. Why be burdened by a bunch of helpless children?

Who would care if Trei went missing? No one would have noticed, anyway.

Yet, before he could even step past the town gate, Toby appeared before him, his clothes covered in blood from a recent execution, with bruises all over his face and cuts on his arms.

Someone had told him Trei went missing before he went into The Arena.

He was... distracted during the execution.

"Let's go home."

Toby was neither angry nor frustrated. He simply held out a hand and led them back home.

Trei thought he wouldn't have cared. It was one less mouth to feed if he... disappeared.

So why?

It hardly mattered anymore. Toby saw him and cared about him.

That was all Trei needed to know when he took that hand.

"Stand down," Lief hissed into his ear, snatching away the darts that appeared in his hands.

Trei pouted.

He glared at the Monttevi mutt taking up Toby's personal space with disdain.

---

Lief wished his brother wasn't so attached to Toby.

It wasn't obvious, not like Otto and the others.

Trei's attachment was like a shadow.

His younger brother idolized Toby so much to the point he wanted to become a Vesna agent, just like him.

Soon, his dreams would come true. Trei had already become the best of assassin within the Calypto mercenaries, beating even Juno and Quin in the ranks. An invitation letter was merely a formality.

Lief didn't like fighting.

He would feel nauseous at the sight of blood, and fire scared him.

One thing he learned while living in the Calypto Estate, fires were the easiest way to get rid of evidence.

Watching almost all his siblings join the Calypto mercenaries or become an agent of Vesna had made him... ashamed.

Of himself.

Being the only non-combatant meant Lief stayed in the safety of Vesna. He didn't have to face danger, and he needed only to wait for his siblings to come home.

While everyone else wanted to be assassins and spies and the like, Lief wanted to be a blacksmith, like his father.

When he was fifteen, he told Toby that and prepared himself for disappointment.

But Toby had said nothing of it. He nodded and accepted his choices and brought him to the training ground to look at weapons.

Then he brought over a blacksmith who worked for the Calypto Family and had him apprentice under her.

It was so quick and easy to get what he wanted, and it made Lief realize how much Toby cared.

When he looked at him in disbelief, Toby's eyes had merely softened with affection and patted him on the back.

"Your first weapon. Give it to me."

Lief forgot how much Toby cared amidst his own insecurities.

It was ridiculous for him to think Toby would hate him for choosing a safe career.

He made a pair of daggers to replace the ones Toby had since he was twelve.

The blades weren't perfectly shaped, and one was smaller than the other, but Lief made sure the blade was sharp enough to cut parchment.

"I found these during a solo mission, and I thought you might like them." The mutt from the Monttevi House handed Toby a box.

Lief saw a flash of a blade, and he nearly brought out the hammer he kept in his pocket.

How dare he--

"Okay, now you need to calm down," Rasa said from behind him.

Lief didn't say anything. His entire focus was honed in on the box with a pair of knives that were as good as kitchen knives because how dare the mutt give his brother such inferior weapons?

He heard Rasa sigh. "Geez, and I thought you were the nice one. You know Tobus only uses weapons made by you, so stop glaring at Bel like you want him dead. See? He just rejected it."

Indeed, Toby had handed the knives back without a word.

The mutt looked dejected, but Lief had no sympathy for a man like that.

He hoped he burned in the eternal fires of the Forge God once he died a painful and violent death.

---

Should Bel be thankful that it was only the younger half of Tobus' extensive brood hanging out near the fountains, today?

The less of Tobus' "kittens" laying witness to giving him a gift, the better.

They were possessive little shits, and Bel cared a lot about his friendship with Tobus.

Even if it meant life and death--it was children raised by Tobus to adulthood, enough said--, Bel was willing to put his life on the line.

Tobus mattered to him.

A lot.

In spite of all the violent brawls and duels and missions, and their House rivalry.

A gift returned to him hardly hurt his pride, and Bel accepted the box back without argument.

If Tobus didn't like blades, he would give him something else.

At least he knew that daggers, surprisingly, didn't interest him.

Bel tucked the box back into his coat, and something seemed to have caught Tobus' eyes.

"What's that?"

He followed his eyes to the trinket tucked on his belt. It was a puzzle toy of some sort with a locking mechanism. Bel had gotten it for Rowan.

His cousin was absolute shit at puzzle toys and hated the fact that Bel only ever brought back puzzle toys for him.

"You should learn from Tobus," Rowan taunted, showing the gold trinket he got from Tobus that he was fidgeting with.

Bel got him a six-sided configuration cube after that conversation...

"May I?" Tobus asked, pointing at the lock puzzle. He was a little too blunt after rejecting his gift, but Bel didn't care.

It was Tobus, and he rarely ever wanted anything.

Bel gave him Rowan's souvenir.

Tobus solved it within five minutes and held the treasure inside the puzzle, a small marble made from a crystal, in his palm.

He looked at it in awe.

"Can I keep it?"

"Yes," Bel said, instantly.

Rowan was too old for toys, anyway.

He pretended not to notice the stares of death piercing into his back as he spoke with Tobus some more.

Some things were worth it, after all.

---

[One year ago]

His twenty-fourth birthday ball was one that was filled with more dancing than ever before.

Nine was aware he had suitors. He was aware that the institution of marriage was very important in this world. He was even aware of the fact that there were many who wanted him wed as soon as possible and... procreating.

But expectations from all those around him were for naught. Nine had heirs. Eight of them, in fact.

So he didn't acknowledge the touching, the flirting, and the dancing.

He stuck close to his kittens and interacted with off-duty agents and mercenaries, and he stayed far away from anyone who looked at him in a strange sort of way filled with expectations of love and marriage.

He was not "husband-material," despite what his Lady Aunt would often claim.

"Tobus," Belwyn approached him just as he was about to reject another lady's request to dance.

The man got in between them and made up an excuse, inviting Nine to dance instead.

Nine thankfully used the excuse to leave.

They didn't dance.

It was, after all, a poorly timed excuse.

Nine went out to the garden to get some air and Belwyn followed him.

"Lord Eartha wanted you there was an emergency for the next mission. The date moved up and we need to leave by morning if we want to make it in time," Belwyn said.

Nine accepted the information and gave him a grateful smile.

Belwyn blinked in surprise.

"Puppy," Nine said, which got a reaction out of him.

"Stop calling me that!" There was mirth in Belwyn's eyes even though he protested at the name.

Nine shook his head.

"Bel."

Blue eyes met his own.

It was quiet in the garden, and they stood face-to-face with each other.

Nine wondered if Belwyn even knew what he was doing.

---

The author has something to say:

Don't worry, the rest of the children will get their POVs in the next chapter soon. Nine, why did you adopt so many kids???