Chapter Text
Cadel looked up at the moon and felt the familiar pain in his chest as the memory overtook him once again.
‘Kunra’
He missed the Scarlet dragon more than he could have ever imagined. He missed his ridiculously overwhelming presence. He missed his long red hair that shone like fire. He missed the large body that dwarfed him and felt larger than life. He missed his annoying overconfidence and the way he believed himself better than everyone else and how he called him halfling and strutted like he was some kind of god to be worshiped.
Well maybe he didn’t exactly miss that, but technically Kunra was the only true god of this world, so Cadel supposed he was entitled to act like an oversized brat sometimes.
He missed having someone who knew everything and liked him anyway. Someone who didn’t judge him for who, and more accurately what, he was.
A steadfast friend who knew all of his secrets and acted as if they were trivial. Someone he could rely on more than any in this world.
His subordinates would probably cry if he ever said that last bit out loud. Or perhaps they might try their hands at dragon slaying once again in their jealousy. But, that didn’t change the fact that it was true. Who could really blame him for trusting the god who saved him? The one who knew everything, some even better than he did.
He missed that on a night like tonight. Kunra could have backed him up for what was planned.
Just knowng he was watching would have given Cadel some confidence, something Cadel was sorely lacking.
Cadel gripped his hands tightly as a wave of anxiety crashed over him. Today was the day. He told them to meet at the mountains of silence at Kunra’s cave. It was the one year anniversary of Kunra’s second disappearance after they saved Garuel. All he had told his men was that he had something important to tell them all. They probably thought it had to do with the dragon.
He wished.
How would they react to the truth? The whole truth? How would they react to his identity? Knowing their world was being toyed with by some god- and that Cadel had been brought here as that gods plaything? That he knew and didn’t tell them.
Would they hate him? Would they feel hurt?
Van knew, at least some. He would probably be smug, but that was now.
When Van first learned… it was bad. It had broken something in him. Van nearly died, the truth that he wasn’t the real Cadel Lytos nearly destroyed their relationship forever. It nearly destroyed Cadel too. Losing Van that day felt like ripping out his own heart from his chest. Maybe he had been lucky the demon had reduced him into a splatter of broken bones right after, he wasn’t sure which would have hurt more.
Van would be ok now, but he had confessed to Van years ago. It had been so much longer he had deceived most of the others.
He always had an excuse. First it was the war. He had to save the world, anything else had to wait. He told himself that if they hated him after it would be ok, because at least they would be alive to hate him.
It could never be ok.
When the war was over… well there was his illness, then acclimating to this world, then raising Kunra and rescuing Garuel. He always told himself just one more thing then he would tell them.
But Garuel had been rescued a year ago and he had long since runout of excuses.
If he were being honest, he was scared.
He had lied to them for so long. Too long. He should not have put this off. He should have told them sooner. Right after the war at least.
They would feel hurt right?
What if… what if someone left him. What if they stopped loving him?
Garuel told him he was crazy to think that way. His subordinates were all obsessed with him to the point where Garuel wondered if he wasn’t the only one with demon blood sometimes. Cadel could admit sometimes they were each a bit possessive, but Cadel couldn’t help but worry.
To Cadel they were all precious people, even if one of them had a hobby of murdering people for fun and the other was a haughty noble young master with trust issues and another was a slightly homicidal but lovable unhinged fairy king.
Garuel probably expected what tonight was about. He could see how much this secret had been eating at Cadel. He had been encouraging him to come clean almost for as long as he was back. It was one of his favorite subjects when they were alone.
At least when he wasn’t too distracted by much more passionate displays and they were in a state to just talk. Garuel’s appetites were somehow more voracious than even his other men, something Cadel previously thought impossible, especially given the fairy with inhuman stamina that already could go for hours.
Garuel was the one next to Kunra who knew the most. He had practically grilled Cadel on details right after he was rescued. He had been itching for details.
But it wasnt like Kunra. The Scarlet Dragon actually fought the invading god. He was the one who helped separate Cadel Lytos’s soul from his own. He understood things even Cadel hadn’t, he had helped Cadel understand.
But Kunra was gone. Today was the one year anniversary of his disappearance. Cadel didn’t know if they would ever meet again. That too could be blamed on him. Just another thing for him to blame himself for.
Cadel took a deep breath and headed into the cave where his subordinates were waiting.