The Villain Who Returned Wants to Rest

0: Nobody's Son

Caution!

The following contains dark themes. Self loathing and suicide are present in multiple chapters. This story gets lighter as it progress, but be advised that the beginning is rather dark.(?)

Current chapter has implied violence, implied child abuse. Please be warned. This is mostly fluff, despite the sprinkles of angst.

————————————————————————————————————

Cheerful giggles flew through the air, the golden rays of the sun shining down softly on to the garden.

The Opal Palace's garden, once a beautiful masterpiece, only to fall into neglected abandon. Thousands of years ago, this Palace was the home of the Empress, a woman with beautiful opal colored eyes. When she had suddenly died of unexplained reasons, the Emperor declared the palace to be cursed.

Neglect had woven its vines through the once-pruned rose bushes, and dandelions sprouted defiantly between cobblestones. The grandeur of the palace, once an elegant silhouette against the sky, faded into a ghostly reminder of past glory.

Yet it wasn't entirely abandoned, not anymore. A portion of the garden began to blossom with life once again. A clumsy, but sincere, attempt to fix the garden. New life breathed into the once abandoned garden.

The garden was a charming chaos of colors and scents. Attempts at pruning the roses were far from perfect, resulting in a mix of blossoms in various stages of bloom. Some roses stood tall, their velvety petals unfurling elegantly, while others appeared more like wildflowers, their petals ruffled and untamed.

Stones and paths were placed irregularly, whoever placed them clearly didn't know how to properly landscape. Smalls daisies and marigolds sprouted between the cracks, decorating the stone with its colors.

Tiny handmade decorations littered the garden, some matching, some not. Yet they were placed around with pride. Bigger, much more professional looking decorations were hidden behind the tinier decorations, as if whoever decorated the garden wanted to show the tiny decorations as great masterpieces that needed to be seen by all. Clay figurines of animals and a small boy and man peeked out of bushes, beads strung together hanging from branches, lighting the garden with color and life.

A small vegetable patch was in the garden, neat rows of carrots, lettuces, and tomatoes thriving beautifully. This vegetable patch was also decorated with tiny decorations, filled with love and care, like the rest of the garden.

The garden had flaws, bearing the marks of its caretakers' learning curve. It was in how the techniques and garden slowly seemed to develop, seemed to get better, yet still held so much love and care in it. Its imperfections only added to its charm,

It wasn't a very beautiful garden, neither people who made it were experienced in gardening, but the love was clear in the way the flowers looked so well taken after. How the flowers were carefully planted, or how many of the decorations were obviously handmade.

A small head of white poked out of the flowers, his small figure moving fast through the plants. The small figure only stopped after finding a good bush, crouching down and waiting patiently.

The child was clearly trying to hide, but his white hair made it obvious he was there. Tiny giggles gave away his location easily, anyone who heard it would immediately have found him. Emerald green eyes looking with diligence, as if to make sure he wasn't found. There was a certain level of innocence in the child's eyes, not completely innocent, but slowly healing. A child who was hurt by the world, but was now healing. It had yet to be dimmed by the darkness that would plague him in the years to come.