Kuro walked off, ignoring the boy as he followed him into the main road and then to the royal courtyard.

Immediately a guard rushed to safety escort Shiro, who was masquerading with the appearance of the prince.

"Guard, I should have some reward, why don't you throw some coins my way?"

"Here, this should be enough"

He tossed a coin purse and Kuro caught the coins.

He ventured back into town thinking nothing of the boy named Shiro which he had just condemned to live his life.

But little did Kuro know life at home was different than he would ever imagine.

And as he would pass people, they would greet him with the kindest of smiles, saying some things like, "Good morning Shiro, how are you?"

In this world Kuro felt like people weren't judging him, but at the bottom of his heart he knew that he wasn't Shiro.

BUt in the meanwhile Kuro basked in the fact that people weren't always mad an upset at him, even if a lot of times they wanted him to do something for them, Kuro grinned a smile like he thought the boy with the white hair would do.

"Could you give this to your brother, Jiro for me?" Said an older lady as she pulled out an intricate pattern that were on a scarf.

"It's my present for him, an early yule present" She said as she folded it in my hands.

Kuro was too proud and stubborn to ask for directions, but she quickly pointed him in the other direction.

"Jiro's place is that way, Shiro, you should know this by now" She said as her voice trailed away like rising smoke in a campfire.

"Oh, right" Said KUro.

The buildings were made from things like gingerbread and gumdrops, and marshmallows and all.

With sanctioned-magic they were created into building materials.

Kuro spent time looking around, exploring a place where he never had the chance to.

A sense of guilt entered into his thoughts every once in a while, wondering what's happening to that boy named Shiro.

Eventually he gave in and asked around to where he lives.

He was pointed into the direction of a smaller house from the rest, he had a key in his pocket and so he opened the door.

Jiro was sitting down, creating something out of wood.

"This is for you, nii-san"

Kuro gave the scarf to Jiro.

"This is beautiful, who gave it to you?"
"AN older lady, she said that it was an early yule present for you"

"What a nice gift" He said.

"Did you wake up early and wander off to practice magic again? you'll get caught soon enough if you keep using that forest as your training grounds"

"Yeah, uhm, sorry" Said Kuro.

"There's nothing wrong with magic, but if you're going to use it you have to find somewhere super secret" Said Jiro.

He stopped carving the phoenix and said a magical incantation and it turned into a phoenix, with flame burning at its tails , a scarlet red  colour for its feathers.

"A real phoenix!" Said Kuro.

Kuro thought he was much cooler already than that old magi guy his father, the King had sent.

"We have things to do, remember Shiro?"

"LIke what, I hope it's not helping people, because I just ran into like five people who all needed my help"
"What else could it be? that's what we do, remember?"

"Where's our parents" Asked Kuro.

"Shiro, we lost our parents a long time ago..."

He looked to Kuro with a confused face, "Are you sure you're feeling alright? we could go to the apothecary and get you something"

"No, I'm fine, I meant to say where are their gravestones?" Said Kuro.

"Oh, I can show you, I haven't showed you before...that's right, it's about time I show you" Said Jiro.

He walked to a place of beautiful green grass and in the middle was a stone alter that was in the shape of a circle and two statues on top of the circle.

"There they are,  don't forget they turned to stone to protect the land, and to protect us, they never forgot us, Shiro" Said Jiro.