Paula was sent to her father's office to look for a toy.
Since her new little sister had been born, she needed toys, so she asked her father if he still kept any. He told her:
"In my office there should be some, be careful."
She entered and began to search the place, she found nothing until she found a very old chest hidden by a pile of papers.
She checked it, there were old documents, but among them she found something strange.
It was an envelope that, despite being covered in dust, still had its seal intact unlike the other documents.
She broke the seal and a yellow letter in perfect condition came out.
Paula could read perfectly thanks to the books they bought a few months ago, but the handwriting was ancient.
The language was the same, but there were many unknown letters and vowels.
It was written in an extinct language that combined the language of that time with the current one.
With the little she understood, she began to read the letter.
◇◇◇
It was a cold night due to the current weather, heavy rains shook the roof of his house.
Beside him was a wax lamp illuminating the darkness of his home.
An old man was at his desk and, using an eagle feather pen, began to write on a sheet of paper.
"I leave this message for my future descendants. This message tells the story of a certain man."
He proceeded to narrate the life of that man, but it was written in the ancient language, so what he was saying was unintelligible.
"That man once dominated the world with his power. He could rule it or destroy everything, but he chose not to."
"Because his only goal was to find a place to plant a seed."
"The seed for a special world, was what he said."
"But... unfortunately an unexpected tragedy occurred."
"That man was betrayed by his best friend. The one to whom he had entrusted his back so many times in the past."
"The one whose life he had saved and who said he was eternally grateful to him."
"That man stabbed him in the back."
"His best friend always laughed like a jester, so he never saw him as a threat. Instead, what hurt him the most was that they did it."
"The ruby-eyed people. They destroyed his ship and the man had to flee from the place he called the perfect place."
"They conspired against him because they envied what that man called home."
"We don't know where he ended up, but no one could find him."
"But there is something we do know. That man had a secret son and that son kept the truth of his father within and fled with his mother abroad."
"Both mother and son wanted revenge, that's why they spent the following years of their lives planning to return home and recover what was lost through their vengeance."
"But they did not succeed, both knew that their life expectancy would not allow it."
"Therefore, he entrusted that revenge to his son. And that son passed it to his grandson."
"The torch of revenge was passed from father to son for so many generations that the revenge had diluted... until now."
"The son of that man's son finally found it. The land that was once his and now belonged to others."
"The son had to bite his tongue in disgrace knowing that the name his home had was removed by another."
"The anger, the shame, the vengeance he felt was so great that he had to swallow them like his proud name."
"He earned merits in the war and the usurper gave him lands and a name as a reward."
"Finally we had recovered something, but it is not enough."
"All of this belongs to us."
"But possibly they know it, we have one trait more than anyone else in the world has."
"They sent me to a place far from the capital and others, it's an imaginary border, the place."
"There is nothing around and surely they will watch me for a while, but they will undoubtedly erase my name because they do not consider us a threat, but they also have no interest in it."
"We are like worms to whom they give land to work. Since no one else wants this place, they gave it to us. But it's fine."
"I educated my children with our will. The will of my father, of his father, of his father's father and so—"
The man mentioned a name that history erased for some reason.
"Until reaching our founder. The will of Rugel."
"As his children, we must not forget it. They stole from us what our ancestor had defined as the promised land, a perfect place to live. But those traitors stabbed him and he had to flee."
"We have come this far by the will of Rugel, which transcended the centuries to this moment."
"Be strong, my children, because a day will come when we will claim what is ours."
"Especially because our father had an enemy that made the world shake."
"Only Rugel could defeat him and, therefore, we, his children, in case he appears again, must defeat him."
"Because Rugel could not do it alone, the traitors joined him because that enemy was so powerful that it was impossible to defeat him alone."
"Especially that woman, the one who possessed hair white as the moon and golden eyes like the sun."
"The promised day will come and with it we will not only take our home and…"
◇◇◇
"We will also fight for the dark future that will come."
Paula had finished reading the letter left by someone mysterious.
She read the last line that was blurred on purpose.
"Signed by Brad Van— it's blurry."
"What could this be? A meaningless old letter."
"It's very strange."
"Paula, did you find it yet?"
"No, but I'll keep looking."
Her father was calling her, she put the letter back exactly as it was and left it in the chest.
But she did not notice that the envelope containing that letter said the man's full name.
"Brad Van Bradford."
Paula had discovered a secret that could shake the country from its foundations, from its very establishment.
Who exactly are the Bradfords and why does their ancestor suggest that they are the legitimate rulers of the kingdom?
Is there an unexplored void in history?
That is something that one day, perhaps will be known or not.
_________________
Rudel is related to the enigmatic man named Rugel whom Ixion seeks to discover.
But at the same time, his family has a lineage unknown to everyone.
The destiny of the kingdom is increasingly gloomy, but Ixion's dream of taking over the world seems closer if he knew that.
The last fanservice is for our boy Rudel: https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/6696224?q=hikigaya_hachiman+