Chương 81: Book 3; Chapter 80; As much as anyone asks

Long silence followed as Anniet was trying to think what the heck she had just heard right now. Eventually, children with no legs and no arms started to haunt her, and she chose to abandon these thoughts and return to the original question.

"Then, your second half," she said, bravely answering John's original question. Surely this must be right. Couples who love each other are usually very happy and are more friendly than anyone else. So, probably when you learn to love your second half, it becomes difficult not to love other people too.

"The love for your second half will be the strongest and last longest," John said,"But only if you fall in love with that other person that I spoke about, and that person is you yourself. As with anything else, true love can grow only from within and then spread around. The more you love yourself, the more you will be able to love others, and the more you will be able to love your second half.

Sorry that my answer didn't bring any surprise and is very simple, but the thing is that all the greatest mysteries of the world start with the simplest things. It must be so. Otherwise, if it were some mysterious creature that opens a gate to the most wonderful places you could experience, wouldn't it be unfair to those who didn't find that creature? The One doesn't set tasks like this. The One always makes sure you have all that is essential to you. If you want to love others, then fall in love with yourself.

As simple as that. The more restrictive you are to yourself, the more restrictive you will be to others. Love is something you give; you cannot give anything that you don't have. And you don't need to give any other things to love. To love, you need to give only love. Most likely, you might want to give many more things when you love, but those wishes come from love that already exists, which is already given."

"I see," Anniet said, pulling herself out of what she had just heard right now. If she sank into it, she would have too many questions to ask, and it would take her away from the story she just heard. No way she would allow it! Right now, while John was here, she wanted to find out what happened in the past.

"Then why didn't Rainee feel the same way as Angus and Ruffus and go home to see her mother? If she loved her as strongly as others?"

"Love has little to do with it. Love is freeing, not binding. Even from what little Angus said, it was clear that he understood that his mum didn't call him home out of love. He said that mum missed them so much that she made herself sick just to get them back. A loving person would never do it, neither consciously nor unconsciously. Ruffus didn't understand it then, his childlike mind couldn't get that much. But both Angus and Rainee knew it very well. Just both chose a different path to respond to it.

Angus chose to satisfy his mum's need, Rainee chose not to. In the same circumstance, different people will behave differently if they stay true to themselves."

"Then who was loving?" Anniet couldn't understand anymore. All this love concept was not really understandable, and all the rules were not clear at all.

"Why is love so difficult to understand? I certainly don't follow the rules."

"The mind is not capable of love for a reason," John shrugged his shoulders,"it is simply not capable of handling love, as it is too deep for the mind. Love is very simple and the most complicated at the same time. If you feel, then there are no rules, as love doesn't require a single rule. If you think, then there are not enough rules to apply to it, as the mind is not capable of handling it, even if it were working just on it.

If you leave it to the mind, then you will never experience it fully, as the mind will shrink it and make it unrecognisable, and will imprison it in endless rules and restrictions. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. If you feel it, then you don't have to spare it a single thought, you just surrender to it, and love will dictate your actions, and you will know what to do.

And it will never follow a rule of the mind, as the mind cannot reach that deep to understand why, in the same event, there are different outcomes. If you put it in a mind's cage, then Rainee was more loving, as when you love, you don't succumb to somebody's needs. So if you follow just the rules that a person who is highly educated in love knows, then by these rules, Rainee would look more loving."

"But from what you say, it doesn't sound as if you think she was."

"From what I know, you will hardly find a person on Earth at this time being who would be more in tune with love than Prince Angus is, and always was, for as long as I know him. It would be very difficult for him to act unlovingly. He would have to break himself to do so. He has never done it in his life."

"So, then he was loving too. …"

"Yes, he was."

"But then, if Rainee acted one way and Angus acted another way, how can they both be loving?"

"Because the circumstances and the conditions were not the same. Not being an expected heir to the throne, she was free to do whatever she wanted. That freedom didn't come easily, and she relentlessly fought for it, and she achieved it. Angus, on the other hand, was always living in the spotlight of every single person around him. People of the palace were expecting him to be a prince. The King's Army wanted to make him the best leader they could. King's Academy wanted to make him the best student ever.

Other students were in constant competition with him, trying to prove their own worth, or become friends just for his status. People of the Capital were hounding him for attention. Ruffus has always been looking at him as an idol. And his mother was on top of all this pile, as she loved him so dearly that she could hardly stand sharing him with anyone else. Her love may have been very selfish, but still she wasn't capable of any other, and he was the apple of her eye.

To fight all this away to gain freedom would be an enormous task. A person like Rainee might be able to do so, a person like Angus – no. Many people would say that was because Rainee was stronger in character, but let me reassure you that strength has little to do with it. If anything, staying under such pressure and not succumbing to it required much more strength than chasing everyone away. They both were different people with different characters.

Maybe if they both lived in a demand-free environment, they would develop more similar characters, as deep inside, for those who can see behind the curtains, they are very alike. But it wasn't the case. And while Rainee managed to free herself, Angus didn't. Up until this day. His nature is to look after people, and to make them unhappy is against what he is. Everyone demands a piece of him, and he gives them as much as they ask.

Surprisingly, his soul is so large that he manages to retain himself after all this robbery. He knew very well that his mother made him the purpose of her life, and he allowed it. And against all odds, it didn't destroy him. Well, it didn't make him greater either, and without it, he probably would be the King already. Still, nevertheless he is the only person I know who managed to retain himself to such a high degree under such exceptionally high demands."

What Anniet heard now shed more light on what Rainee was saying about her and Angus's childhood.

"So, they took Angus and Ruffus back home?" she asked.

"Yes."

"And what happened to them?"

"Angus got back to the same lifestyle he had before going travelling, just with much more extensive training."

"And Ruffus? Did he get accepted to the Royal Academy?"

"Accepted he was, but he didn't go. The King said no, and the Royal Academy had to wait for a bit longer."

"Why would the King allow one son to go to training but not another?"

"Ruffus was too little to join the academy. Rainee was right, he would have been too bored in it."

"But didn't you say that he was about the same age as Rainee and Angus?"

"He was in appearance, but as you could gather from his advice to Blake, he grew up not in a normal way. He stretched himself in size, but in his heart, he was still a little toddler, just as on the day when his mum told him that he could not travel."

"And what happened to Blake?"

"Blake? He stayed with his mum, and they moved to a different place."

"So he didn't go travelling?"

"No, Rainee was right in what she said, his mum's actions put a heavy burden on him, making him believe that her happiness depended on his behaviour. And as he loved his mum, he didn't follow his own dreams and did what his mum requested of him. It is not easy to free yourself from such requests."

"Oh, what a shame. He wanted to travel so much! Can you imagine if all four of them weren't stopped then and could go on adventures together?"

"I can imagine," John said, smiling, "and I believe it would make many lives much easier."

"I cannot believe they met at such a young age! And then went their separate ways just to meet again in the future."

"Some rivers are drawn to each other because of the similarities in them, and after merging, even for a short time, their waters get mixed and changed. All four generals of today must have much in common to be brought together at such a young age and sent on a self-discovery journey. Their lives would have taken a different turn if that journey hadn't been stopped by interference and the demands of other people. Later, they had to fight hard to receive again what was so freely and effortlessly given."

"I cannot believe Blake was afraid of his dog!" Anniet laughed to herself. John didn't say anything but smiled together with her.

"That general Jason was a bit scary for some reason, despite not doing anything bad... Is he still around? I have never heard about General Jason, but Rainee said the King has more generals than four. Is he one of them?"

"No," John smiled again, "at that time, Jason was the leading general in the King's Army, but his time came to an end after Rainee and Blake came to power."

"They took his place?" Anniet asked, thinking that it wasn't that nice despite him being a little scary.

"No general is taking another general's place. Everyone has their own place, as they have reached it by different means in different ways, and only they themselves can let go of that place. General Jason was a very commanding person, and, unfortunately, he believed that this was what made him so great. He found it extremely difficult to be commanded by others.

He was alright to be under the King's command, and when Angus was appointed as general and got higher in rank than him, he agreed with it, as Angus was believed to be the future King, so in his eyes it was unavoidable. However, he wasn't able to accept the fact that after the inauguration, Rainee and Blake got higher rankings than him. And he never recovered after that."

"Why?"

"Why? Difficult to say. Not difficult to know, but very difficult to say. Let's say one of the reasons was already mentioned in the story — he couldn't wait until Rainee would join the King's Army to mould her into something he wanted her to be. It became a true obsession for him. On the day when he thought that his dream came true, to find out that she became his commanding officer and completely out of his reach was a proper blow, and he never recovered since."

"So he left?"

"You could say so. When people lose a reason to live, they leave this world for good."

"So he died?"

"Yes."

"Why did he have to die?"