Silva’s mum was able to patch up the boys; their wounds were not too bad, but they had to rest for the remainder of the day.
Later that night, the two of them were called down to the living room. Their father, mother, Quin, and Lia were there.
“I want to understand what led to that situation, and I want the truth from both of you,” their father said, his tone serious.
Mike had already started shaking; he knew that if the truth were to spill, he would be the one to receive most of the punishment.
“I was the cause, Father. I started to tease Brother Mike and took it too far. Something I said made him angry, and he hit me out of rage.
And even though I was the cause, I still hit him back after he hit me, rather than just take the punishment for talking too much.
I understand that what I did was wrong, and I should not have even retaliated after being the one to wrong him. So I beg you, don’t take your anger out on him. I’ll bear the punishment,” Silva spoke up and explained the situation.
He had decided that since Mike wanted a war, he would use a method that Mike wouldn’t be able to counter, and that was reverse psychology.
Normally, people would play the victim card to get out of situations, but what Silva was doing was playing the criminal card.
Even though he did this, he would be labeled as the criminal, though he and the person would know that he wasn’t. That person will, in turn, hate this because the person he hates is now saving his neck.
The other thing that will come out of this is another opportunity. If anything should happen around Silva, and it is caused by Mike, or even if Mike was just around when it happens, that becomes the perfect time to merge the victim card and the criminal card.
Creating a whole new level of trickery, because when they are asked about what happened, Silva would just say that it was because he had hurt Mike all those days back, and Mike had taken his revenge.
Then he will plead for them to forgive Mike, and all scores would be settled. At that point, Silva would have won because Mike would face a greater punishment than he was supposed to.
His father will see him as an evil child that couldn’t even forgive his brother after so long.
That was the whole play, a plan that a six-year-old like Mike could not possibly understand.
‘It seems having high intelligence stats and past memories makes me some sort of mastermind. I think the legacy had something to do with this as well,’ Silva thought.
He didn’t have any hate towards Mike, but his pride had been stung by Mike. He felt like he had tried to make peace with Mike, but Mike shoved it away.
When Mike did that, he felt his pride take a hit, and so, he decided to make Mike see how futile it was to fight him. He wanted to make sure Mike knew their difference.
When his father heard what Silva said, a frown appeared on his face, but then it disappeared.
“Even if you are the one that instigated the whole thing, I will give equal punishment. Mike did not just retaliate; he gave you wounds that could have killed you. I can’t allow that to slide.
So starting tomorrow after you check your Magical affinities with your mother, you will both have to split twenty pieces of wood for the next three days,” his father gave his verdict.
Silva didn’t care about this sort of punishment. To him, it was nothing due to his strength, but he could see the dread etched into Mike’s face.
A kid like him splitting twenty pieces of wood every day for three days straight, that was a nightmare in the making.
After the whole thing was settled, his father dismissed them. But he made one mistake—he didn’t ask them to make up with one another.
He forgot to read the lines that were clearly showing; these two were not on good terms, and the longer it took to reconcile, the harder it would get.
Night came, and it was almost time to go to bed. The boys were all in their room, not speaking to each other at all. Quin was fiddling with a wooden sword, Silva was reading a book, and Mike was just at the side, seething with rage.
Even though Silva had saved his neck, he hated it so much, so much that he would have rather told the truth and taken the punishment.
The thought of Silva saving him made his heart cry, but it was far too late to fix it now—the motion had been set.
*Knock, knock.*
The door opened, and Lia walked in. She walked as though she was in a rush, grabbed hold of Silva, and started pulling him out of the room.
“Wa-wait, Lia, what’s going on?” Silva asked.
“I can’t allow you to sleep in the same room with the person that tried to kill you,” she said.
At this point, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Lia.
“Lia, they both hurt each other; you shouldn’t just take Silva’s side,” Quin said.
“You know that’s a lie, Brother Quin. I may not be capable of complex thoughts, but you know Silva would never cause any trouble.
He is always trying to keep to himself, and that’s what I love about him,” Lia said, and then looked at her twin.
All of them knew the meaning of that look—she was blaming Mike for what happened.
Quin didn’t retort after that. He knew as well that it was very difficult for Silva to be the cause of this issue, but since Silva said it was him, what else could he have done?
“Fine, take him,” Quin said, and she dragged Silva out of the room.
Quin looked over at Mike. Mike was about to explode from rage. Quin knew this was just the beginning.