Chapter Text
Yuno was a bit worried when he entered the healer's tower. He heard some rumors about Asta getting hurt from training and couldn't ignore it. He and Asta were friends from a very early childhood. They were always together, they did everything together.
Asta got hurt several times before and Yuno was always a bit worried because of that. The member of the Golden Dawn never showed a lot of emotion but some of the situations at some point were different.
"Asta, you're okay?" Yuno asked as soon as Owen finished his work.
"Yuno!" Asta shouted a little too loud. "I didn't expect you here! Is someone in the Golden Dawn also injured?
"Not as far as I know," he said. "I heard a rumors that you are here and I just came to check what trouble you ran into again"
"Hey, I was only training!"
"Training?"
"Yes, with Luck and Magna-senpai! And it only looked pretty bad but It was only a small scratch"
"It wasn't a small scratch," Owen said with irritation.
"You're overreacting, sir Owen"
"I am not" man looked at Yuno. "I'm leaving you with him. I need to look after someone else"
"I understand"
"Good luck, sir Owen!" Asta yelled again.
Then Man left the room, thanking him only with a wave. Yuno glared at his friend in silence, still being a little worried. Asta looked back at him and smiled like he always did.
Asta was always like that. He smiled even if he was beaten up or on ranger. Even if he was fighting powerful opponents he always found a way to smile. And that smile was like Illness. It affected everyone near him. It affected Yuno too.
"I wonder where Finral-senpai went..." He said finally and got up from a chair he was sitting on.
"He bringed you here?" Yuno asked.
"Yes, he did but then he left saying that he wanted to check on someone"
"Someone?"
"I asked him about it but he only smiled" Asta shrugged his arms
"Let's go and look for him"
"Sure!"
They walked out of the room and found themselves in the corridor. Asta took the first steps forward leaving Yuno behind, but a friend ran beside him soon after. Black Bull's member smiled at him.
"Owen said you need to rest!"
They heard someone shouting from one of the rooms. Asta recognized this voice, it was Finral Roulacase, his senpai, user of Spatial Magic, so powerful and rare magic that Finral was using to create portals.
Yuno met him earlier in Kiten when Diamont Kingdom was attacking and then watched his fight against the Golden Dawn vice captain, Langris Vaude, who turned out to be his younger brother. At first their relationship seemed like a cat and dog relationship.
Langris was arrogant and filled with pride looking from above at everyone. He was Vaude, he was powerful enough to get to the Golden Dawn. Everyone expected that. But to be honest, Langris was a child with issues. He thought that he must beat Finral in literally everything so his parents would love him and treat him properly.
But after that war with elves something has changed. Langris became more silent and nice, he was actually trying to bond with the squad despite everyone being afraid of him and his power. But a talk and a few chess games with David were enough to completely change squad opinion on young Vaude.
Yuno's opinion changed too. At first he didn't think much about his vice captain, he even ignored him. But after some time, after what he witnessed he started to think that Langris isn't a bad person. He was just badly raised.
"I don't need to rest!" They heard another scream. It was Langris.
"Langris?" Asta was surprised. "You said that no one on Golden Dawn got hurt"
"I said 'as far as I know'" Yuno said to him. "I didn't know he was here"
"Well he is. And he is with Finral-senpai"
"It's good since they're brothers, right?
"I don't know…" Asta went silent for a while. "Last time when they were together Finral-senpai got hurt really badly"
"But you know, Langris changed"
"Changed?" Asta repeated after him.
"Yes" Yuno nodded. "He started to be nice, even talk to us, his squad, and play a few matches of chess with David. He looked like he's having fun"
"That's good to hear then!"
"You don't have to be here!"
Langris burst the door open with anger. Yuno felt that he was barely controlling his mana, the grimoire in his bag was sparkling a little, but didn't open up. Finral was going after him, closing the door his brother nearly broke.
Langris looked really upset about something, and his brother was very worried. Vice captain of the Golden Dawn stopped for a while trying to calm down a little. Finral touched his shoulder to help him with it but Langris didn't react to it.
"Brother, why are you here, really?" Langris asked finally.
"Because I'm worried about my brother?"
"Don't answer me like that!"
"Langris, I am worried," Finral said with a serious look on his face. "You started to bleed out of the blue, you frightened your squad member!"
"David overreacted to it!"
"No, he did not" Finral sighed and then he finally noticed Yuno and Asta. "Oh, Asta, Yuno! Sorry for that…"
Asta and Yuno were listening to their argument in silence trying to figure out about what's going on on their own.
Langris looked ashamed as soon as he saw them. He refused to speak and even started to ignore them by looking in different directions. Yuno spotted that his mana was calmer and also that his grimoire stopped to sparkle and stayed in normal state.
"Finral-senpai, is your brother a person you wanted to check on?"
"Yes, he is" Finral nodded. "Langris got a few injuries and didn't came to healer, but today he started to bleeding from his nose and someone finally decided to bring him here"
"As I said, David overreacted it, everyone did"
"No they didn't. Please, don't argue with me"
"You're the one who's trying to provoke an argument"
Roulacase sighed and then said his goodbye to brother. He leaves the hearlers tower with Asta who said a very loud goodbye to his rival and vice captain of the Golden Dawn. Yuno only waved at him, but Langris did nothing.
Yuno then looked at Langris. He was looking a bit upset but beside that everything seemed to be fine. But then Yuno discovered a bandage on his hand. Finral said that he got a few injuries and then started to bleed through his nose.
"You okay?" Yuno asked.
"Yes, I am" Langris sounded irritated. "Why are you all making such a big deal about it?"
"You started to bleed"
"It was a small accident, nothing that I can't handle"
"Then why did you end up here?"
"Because everyone overreacted"
"If you ended up here it means that it was serious enough" Yuno said with a serious look on his face.
"Really why are you all like this all of the sudden?"
Langris asked that but didn't give Yuno time to answer. He walked away from him, swearing quietly. Yuno sighed. Sometimes he couldn't understand the true nature of his vice captain.
"He's right!" he heard Bell's voice. "Why are you so upset with him?"
The wind spirit was floating in front of his face with a serious look on her face. She still didn't like Langris, she thought he was too proud, even if he changed.
"I'm not upset," Yuno responded. "I was only trying to find out what happend"
"You sounded enough upset to me"
"But I wasn't"
"Say what you want to say, Yuno!" She looked irritated. "I know the thing or two about you"
Yuno ignored her, eventually focusing on that feeling he had when he talked to Langris about how he feels. Was he really upset?
–
Finral fell onto a sofa and sighed loudly. He looked at the ceiling and then closed his eyes. Sometimes he didn't know how to talk to his brother. Their relationship may have changed a bit but still it wasn't enough.
"Hey Finral!" He heard Vanessa's voice. "What's up? Is Asta okay now?"
Roulacase opened his eyes to see a witch with a glass of wine in her hand. She was again only dressed in her underwear with a Black Bulls cape beside her arms. She sat on the sofa and handed him a wine bottle.
"He's just fine" he answered and grabbed wine from her.
He never though about drinking with this witch but when he saw that bottle he began to think that he just nedeed some kind of distraction. Alcohol maybe wasn't the best option but it was the only thing he head near him.
"Then why do you look so upset?"
"I do?" Spatial mage looked surprised. Vanessa only nodded. "Oh, well…"
"It's because of your brother, isn't it?" She asked immediately.
"How did you know?" He asked loudly.
"I guessed!" The women laughed. "But it's true?"
"It is" Finral took a sip of wine. "He got hurt again"
"Like the last time?" Enoteca grabbed the bottle from him.
"Yes" he nodded. "And this time he started to bleed from his nose. I'm worried"
"Even I'm starting to get worried," she shrugged. "What did Owen say about it?"
"He said that he's worried about Langris' condition. He also said that he needs to rest a lot and maybe give himself a break from the missions in dungeons"
"It'll be difficult"
"It will" Finral sighed. "I wish I could have someone in Golden Dawn to look after him"
Vanessa only touched his arms seeing how worried he was. Langris started to get small injuries all of the sudden and at first he ignored it but later they started to cause more and more trouble, he even started to bleed through his nose or cough with blood. But he didn't wanted to worry anyone, he thought he could handle it.
But he couldn't.