"If you were as strong as I was at nineteen years of age… then I would gladly accept."
Anthony's words were calm, spoken with an unshaken expression. His tone carried neither jest nor exaggeration, yet it was colored faintly with the quiet calmness of someone who was only stating facts, facts that to him were simply reality.
To Anthony, there was no false pride in his declaration. He was merely recounting truth as naturally as one breathes. And in that moment, as his voice intoned, his thoughts drifted away from the confrontation before him and back to a memory, a memory of Klaus.
Klaus… the man who had first recognized Anthony's true talent upon meeting him only once. He had proposed something similar back then, extending a hand, recognizing greatness in its infancy.
But Anthony had refused him.
At that time, Anthony had rejected the offer without hesitation, not because he doubted Klaus, but because his own path was his own.
