Chapter 17: Vancouv

In the Land of Werewolves, the northwestern part of the Meadow Kingdom. The land got its name due to the large number of packs living in the area in the ancient times. With it protecting the land, people never got the chance to reform it and use its beautiful landscape.

The land could be a perfect place to live in, with it having a large forest area; it's an ideal place to build an underground safe place for residents to hide in case of a war. And with that in mind, after the Meadow Kingdom was established, the first King ordered his men to eliminate some packs to scare off the wolves. Thus, in recent times, they can now be seen lurking around the northern forest, away from their original habitat.

Not soon after, some nobles were the first to receive information of his Majesty's plans and immediately offered tons of gold to secure a land in the northwest. As Vancouv had already secured its place in the castle as the commander of the Royal Knights, with the suggestion of his wife, he asked his Highness to secure them a land.

Claudio Vancouv was not just given a land, he was also awarded a status of a noble and became a part of the council. His wits and intelligence were the backbone of his hard-earned success. And since he is being trusted by the first King, he wanted his kin to follow his path. And so his first heir was Aththan Vancouv, the first female heir in the whole Kingdom. As Claudio's first son was born 17 years after Aththan.

Even though she was the ensured a place in the royal knights, by the time her brother, Almio is in legal age, and if he graduates his class with high honors, he will be taking his father's role with his sister by his side. And so for eighteen years of taking her father's position, Aththan was demoted to being the captain of the Royal Knights. This angered a group of elite knights that was under her command and has learned to adapt her harsh but effective training regime.

Generations after generations, the cycle of having the first born son of the Vancouv heir were to train hard to take over the position and this went on for long until Dash Vancouv came to the picture.

A chateau in the middle of the Land of Werewolves has a construction going on as they were planning on expanding again for their growing family. As the former commander, Keen Vancouv was blessed with three sons; George, Kami, and Jean.

George Vancouv, his eldest, graduated the Royal Knights Academy with high honors and after a year of supervising his son's duty, he appointed George the new commander of the Royal Knights. Now that he is the commander, George poured all of his time in going through all the papers and studying every rule and changes his father has made, alongside the previous commanders up to the very first, their ancestor, Claudio.

He noticed the knights never belonged in the ranking of the kingdom's association, now known as the guild. Because of that discovery, he arranged a meeting with his father and they had a discussion with a plan on putting the knights in the ranking system.

George presented the proposal to the King with the councils to have the knights become part of the system since there are times they would be given quests arranged by the guild. The committee approved of his suggestion and established a rank higher than others: the Jade Rank.

Jade Rank consists of three units: The first unit; royal knights, they are all assigned around the castle with George Vancouv as their commander. Second unit was the Investigating Unit; they are all responsible for confidential cases that are not entrusted with the continent's military forces. The last, and third unit, the garrison; they are the ones who guard the kingdom's borders. And within their unit, if necessary, they will be called to guard an envoy formed from the first unit.

These changes caused uproar with the adventurer but after the King announced the Jade rank will not partake with the C to A rank missions, and would only be given A+ and S rank missions, the opposition subsided.

George Vancouv was praised by the King so much that he had expected his first born son, Lance to take over his position and become a commander of the Royal Knights. This word traveled through the ears of the whole Vancouv family and celebrated his achievements. Lance was just 1 year old at that time.

With the party going on until late at night, the only child of Jean, Dash overheard his grandfather talking to a crib with a baby sleeping peacefully in it.

"You had already proven your intellect and curiosity at a young age; I saw how you would force yourself to speak. You have already given too much pride the moment you were born, Lance," the elder caressed the baby's face, "you have my father's looks. And I know you will do great and will surpass all of us."

The eleven year old Dash trembled in envy; his grandfather has never talked to him in a gentle manner. Most especially, he has never heard praises from him, nor from his father. He only wanted to be seen. To be acknowledged. In his heart, he has a lot of questions; why are they obsessing over a baby? Why can't they entrust the position with him when he's much older than Lance?

Years later, Dash became close with his little cousin and would always come find him every time he came home in the manor. Lance is now eight years old and would soon attend the Royal Knights Academy to prepare him with the position; he was all excited.

"Cousin, cousin!" The child ran through the hallway, screaming for his cousin. He's searching for him all over the mansion with one thing in mind; he wants to read the letter he received from the academy with Dash.

He found him in the library, reading.

"Hey, woe. Woe!" Dash said when he saw Lance running towards him.

"Cousin, cousin!" he was waving the envelope in his hand.

Dash squinted his eyes and noticed the golden seal. It can only mean one thing, that letter is from the academy.

He grunted. That seal reminded him of what happened seven years ago.

"I'm sorry Lance, I am tired from my training today." He stood, "might we read it together later?"

Lance pouted, "But I need to show it to my father later."

"I'm sorry, kid." He put a hand on his head and left the library bringing the book he's reading with him.

"Liar. You didn't have training today." Lance muttered under his breath, watching his older cousin's back.

Dash never let anyone know about his one-sided loathing towards Lance. He always acted like the caring older cousin he is to him and even their other two cousins, Kami's children, never suspected him. To all of them, he was the best older cousin who prioritized them.

When Lyssa was born, Lance's younger sister, he spent less and less time with Dash to help his mother take care of her. Every time Lance comes home from training and classes, he would tell her his day and read her stories after. An innocent and pure action became a threat to Dash. If they would learn of how much of a good brother Lance is to his sister, his image as the best cousin would get taken from him.

It scares him.

Dash became very obsessed with Lance and did everything to separate him and Lyssa. Every time he saw the two together, he would make up stories to get Lance's attention away from his sister and give him his time, completely ignoring Lyssa. But those tactics would fail in an instant as Lance wants to stick with his sister all the time.

Lance was completely smitten with baby Lyssa.

The siblings grew up close and if Lyssa would break something accidentally due to her curious nature, Lance would always take the blame. During the time the three year old girl dented the frame of the new family portrait, her brother was still out with his father to introduce him the work George was handling.

By the time they got home, they found Dash hugging Lyssa who seemed mortified and had red patches on her hands. Keen was standing in front of them.

"Lyssa!" Lance ran towards Lyssa and pushed Dash away from her, "what happened?"

"Grandfather," she sobbed, "the frame."

"Father, why is my daughter crying?" George asked, rubbing the back of his daughter.

"I'm sorry," he sighed, "I should have controlled my anger. It was just a frame."

"Frame?"

George went over to the new family portrait and saw a small dent at the edge of the frame.

"You hit her for that?" George asked and walked back towards the kids.

Keen sighed, and kneeled to level his only granddaughter, "my child."

Everyone, especially Dash, was surprised by the tone he used. It was the same gentle tone he used to talk to a one year old Lance sleeping in his crib.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that to you," he tried to lean in and put out his hand.

"It's okay Lyssa, brother's here." Lance nodded to his sister.

When she saw her brother's reassuring face, she turned to face their grandfather and touched his hand. As soon as her fingers touched Keen's palm, the elder smiled. This is the first time they saw their strict grandfather act like that. He becomes soft when it comes to Lyssa.

This action angered Dash even more. George's children are the only ones who can soften their firm grandfather.

After that incident, nothing happened inside the Vancouv manor again. Everything was peaceful until they decided to expand their home for the nth time.

Two groups of Royal Knights were dispatched towards the Vancouv household; they seem to be in a rush. Something has happened at their home.

By the time the knights arrived, they could hear a teenager screaming.

"I could never do that to my sister!" Lance reasoned out.

"Then who did this to her?!" George pointed at his daughter who was covered in bruises and scratches.

Lance shakes his head, "I have no idea."

"I found her back at the construction area, uncle." Dash informed them.

Lyssa refuses to say something; she is obviously scared of something or someone. She wouldn't take her hands off her face, her hair and dress was in disorder.

"Lyssa, my baby!" Lance's mother, Hera ran towards her daughter and hugged her, trying to calm her down.

"Mother," Lance called for her but when her mother faced him, something formed in his stomach. His own mother refused to believe him as she looked at him with hatred in her eyes.

"Mother—"

Hera brought Lyssa upstairs to dress and to let her rest. She does not want to put any more stress on her daughter as they wait for the doctors.

"Tell us what you did to her!" Keen shouted.

"Grandfather," a tear finally escaped from Lance's eye, "nothing."

"What's this then?" George showed a silver stick with emerald on its handle.

The stick Lance gifted Lyssa since she can't reach her light switch.

"You used this to hurt your sister!" George pressed.

"I DID NOT! I LOVE MY SISTER. I LOVE LYSSA!" Lance finally broke down, "I could never do that to my own sister."

The knight's leader finally entered the house, he knew Lance. He would sometimes supervise his training and for the years of being acquainted with him, he is the kind of a brother who is very fond of his sister. He doesn't want to hear this young boy being accused of something he could never do, and although it is disrespectful, he opened the door and announced the knight's arrival.

He bowed a little and saluted, "my apologies for my discourtesy, my lords."

"Ah, Neon," Dash recognized him, they trained together, but the knight never liked him.

"The knights have come, my lords."

"Take this humiliating creature away from my house!" Keen shouted, "make sure he would never come back!"

Neon pressed his eyes close and nodded, "yes, my lord."

Lance could not believe what he was hearing. He felt his whole world turn upside down, everything around him seems fuzzy, he doesn't know what to do; he froze, trembling in fear.

'What would happen to me now?'

"Lance," Neon tapped his shoulder. This gentle method angered both Keen and George.

"DRAG HIM AWAY!"

The rest of the knights behind Neon moved and dragged Lance out of the house, feeling sorry. They don't want to do this to him but his father is still the commander of the Royal Knights.

As Lance was being dragged, he saw Dash grinning at him. With that, he had a feeling it was him to hurt his beloved sister. He has no idea how and why Dash would do that, to him, Dash is a very good older brother to all of them.

Lance refused to accept the ideas his mind is putting together. They grew up together, and they would always play and fool around together. He's never shown a single hint of suspicious behavior.

The fourteen year old Lance arrived in the capital with the help of Neon, and there, he joined the guild.

But when Dash rose to power and when he heard he became a commander of J.I at the age of twenty-seven, the same time he became a ruby ranked adventurer, he would often hear stories about the new commander's bad temper. And how he would use his noble name and rank to belittle them.

He had no idea it was Dash at first but when he accidentally saw him one time and with everyone's description of him in their stories, he found out it was Dash.

That was when Lance had thoughts that he used Lyssa to kick him out of the house. And he didn't like what his brain had puzzled up: to become the heir.

"Lance, you're both Vancouv?" Verin asked.

"Unfortunately."

"We're cousins," Dash smiled and it creeped out everyone in the room.

"He was my Uncle Jean's only kin," Lance looked at Verin, "you know."

"Jean Vancouv, the former J.I commander?" Verin asked and Lance just nodded.

"Who's the Royal Knight's commander now?" Lance asked Dash.

"Cathan."

Lance scoffed, "good for him."

Cathan Vancouv, the second born of Kami Vancouv, is the second person to break the cycle. Not only was Cathan the second born but his father is also not in line in becoming the next commander of the unit. But since he showed both Keen and George an array of impressive reports from his teachers, they sent him to Royal Knights Academy where he graduated on top of his class and with high honors.

The once timid child became the commander of the most esteemed unit in the jade rank.