Chapter 3410.1: Not a Better One (Part 1)

"Please, don't tell Bodya! I beg you!" Tista said.

"Who are these people?" Solus tried to defuse the situation by changing the topic.

"Nice try." Tyris chuckled. "You should have recognized them either from history books or the group picture."

She pointed at a painting depicting King Valeron in the middle, a short man wearing mottled clothes to his left, a tall man wearing partial armor on his right, and Tessa the Titania and Fyrwal the Hydra on either side.

"Are you telling me the tall guy is Juria Ernas?" Solus was flabbergasted.

"Yes." Tyris had a hard time stifling a laugh. "The painter mistook her for a man due to her armor and tried to make her more manly for posterity."

"Really?" Lith asked. "I've met her spirit. She was no stunner but it was hard mistaking her for a guy."

"That's because at the time of the painting she had her hair short and a fierce glare." Tyris replied. "That plus her height, made people often mistake her for a man It's only after this painting that she grew her hair and learned how to soften her expression.

"Mostly because Oghrom laughed like a madman every time he saw it and never let her hear the end of it. And I mean literally. He had a copy of the painting in his house and mocked Juria about it until the day she died."

"Even on her deathbed?" Lith asked and Tyris nodded. "That's incredibly mean toward a friend and a companion."

'Help me!' Kamila told Solus via a mind link. 'Now Lith is distracted, but once the tour is over he'll still remember my blunder. Do you have any idea how I can make amends with him?'

'The next time you apologize, don't try to justify or explain what you did.' Solus replied. 'It cheapens your words and makes them sound like bullshit. The more you stir it, the more it smells.'

"Juria and Oghrom were indeed companions, but never friends." Tyris shook her head. "They hated each other since the day they met and it never changed. The best they could do was to learn how to respect each other begrudgingly."

"That sounds weird even to me." Lith pondered. "I've befriended people who tried to kill me on our first encounter, after we cleared the initial misunderstanding."

"That's the difference. There was never a misunderstanding between the two of them." A wave of Tyris' hand brought forward two paintings depicting Juria and Oghrom alone.

"By the gods!" The women said in unison while staring at the latter. "They are like water and oil."

Under any other circumstance, they would have pointed out that Oghrom was as beautiful as Juria was plain-looking, but after the Valeron debacle, they didn't want to give Lith more ammo.

Oghrom Gernoff had been a short man, barely 1.5 meters (5') tall. Yet he had a lean and toned physique, ocean blue eyes, curly golden hair, and a smile that could power up the sun or melt the heart of any woman, depending where it was aimed at.

All of that was framed by fair skin and symmetrical features. He looked feminine enough that it was hard to call him handsome but his charms were undeniable.

Juria Ernas, instead, had been a very tall woman, 1.8 meters (5'11") tall. She wore noble clothes in her painting, which accentuated her muscular arms, wide shoulders, and flat chest.

She had long brown hair streaked blue all over that reached the small of her back, hazel eyes, and the suave smile of a disgruntled drill sergeant faced with a particularly disappointing cadet.

Even with the effects of her late Awakening, she was overall plain and the kindest thing anyone could say about her was that she looked graceful.

"More than you can imagine." Tyris sighed. "Their mutual hatred had deep roots that not even Valeron's best efforts could eradicate. Oghrom and Juria had a great relationship with everyone but each other."

"I can see it." Lith looked at Oghrom, gritting his teeth and clenching his hands as though he could feel Oghrom's rage through the sands of time.

"What do you mean?" Kamila stepped forward, taking Lith's hand to calm him down.

"Isn't it obvious?" He asked, obtaining many shaken heads in return. "Oghrom was born poor in a world that makes the current Kingdom look like a utopia. Those looks and that frame must have been a curse to him, not a blessing."

"Indeed." Tyris sighed ruefully. "Oghrom had... a rough childhood and did everything he had to survive. Once he grew up, he became a thief first and then a cat burglar. He didn't become an assassin for the money.

"That came later, when rumors of his wealth spread and a local crime boss tried to rob Oghrom and have him killed. That was his last mistake. Once Oghrom got a taste of blood, he discovered how good he was at killing.

"How stupid and weak everyone else was. With his last shred of humanity gone, Oghrom started killing for money, and if you crossed him, for pleasure. His favorite tactic was to seduce a woman living in the house of his mark to get access and kill them.

"A mother, a wife, a sister, a servant, anyone would do. Oghrom used to say that the quickest way to a person's heart was through the skirt of a woman."

Tyris let her words sink as everyone but Lith looked at the painting with new and repulsed eyes.

"Back in the day, Juria looked at him just like you do now." Tyris said. "She came from a noble household. She was pampered, well-fed, and trained in the way of the knight and honor since the day she could walk. Juria's parents loved her and she grew up following her passions.

"She even learned magic, mastering up to tier three since Lochra had yet to spread her legacy. After Juria joined Valeron's party and she met Oghrom, it was hatred at first sight.

"Juria considered everything that Oghrom was and did an insult to knighthood and the noble ideals that Valeron embodied. Oghrom, in turn, considered Juria a spoiled brat who knew nothing of the real world and basked in her own ignorance only thanks to her parents' money.

"Long story short, Juria called him a bloodthirsty man-whore who had sold his soul for money and Oghrom called her a gold-spooned murderer with a sword for brains who wouldn't have survived a day in the slums.

"No matter how much we tried, nothing Valeron or I did and said changed how they viewed each other. By the end of the war, they stopped arguing and fighting in public but only because they didn't want to ruin the celebrations for Valeron's victories.

"They loved him more than they hated each other. Even that love had limits, though. Juria and Oghrom didn't attend the other's marriage nor did they celebrate any non-shared achievement.

"On the day of Juria's funeral, Oghrom traveled around the Kingdom to weed out Valeron's enemies like any other day. He didn't disrespect her memory for Valeron's sake but didn't honor her either."

"Good gods." Everyone but Sylpha was shocked by that story.