With Gregor and Travis’s arrival, Drac's work was cut short. And he liked it very much because now, finally, he could focus on things that he liked. With time on his hands, he started going through the books that Mikaila had, but then he faced a glaring problem. Her books, all seemed to be written in different languages, that he didnt understand.

Did they dupe me? He thought, No.. If they really did, I could still expose those fuckers. The shadow is not foolish enough to fool the only man that is on his side. Something is wrong here.

He would have to talk to mistress, which is why for the evening tea he himself went to Mistress’s room to deliver it. When he entered the room, it was chilly as always, and Mikaila was sitting on her bed looking through a book.

“Mistress, your tea,” he said.

She just gestured towards the table, “Just put it right there,” he nodded.

Before he goes back, he says, “Mistress, I have mentioned your desire to have a ball.” She nodded, “Also, the books that you have, would you like them to be shelved in your lab itself?”

She closed her book and thought for a second and then nodded, “Yeah sure. Do that.”

“Also, your books are in the language, that I cannot understand. Can you help me with that?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I was supposed to give them to you a long time ago,” she said, “The top drawer of my dressing table.” He went and opened the drawer to find three blue orbs lying in there, “These are knowledge orbs. These have the knowledge of the languages that I know. Squeeze them, and drink every drop inside the orb,”

The orbs were of blue color, and felt like jelly, enclosed in a translucent plastic container. He pocketed the orbs and went his own way, excited to learn language via orbs. There was part of him, that wanted to eat the orbs right there and then, but he figured he might as well eat it in the confines of this room.

That night once again, a verbal match took place between Gregor and Mikaila, but the conclusion was drawn soon.

After sliding a plate full of food, to Jina’s dark room, Drac went to his room. He was very eager to witness the marvel of learning a new language via eating. He took one of the orbs and tore it from his canines. Then all that was left was squishing the jelly into his mouth.

The jelly itself was bland, it didnt have any flavor or taste to it. After he was finished, he saw that the translucent covering of the jelly evaporated in thin air.

Even after waiting for a second or so, he couldnt feel any changes. But then it started, it felt as if someone had rammed their car from inside his mind. The pain itself was so agonizing that even his voice got stuck in his hands. Not able to scream, or move, he just lay in his chair, feeling the knowledge of language flowing through his brains.

By the end of the 30-minute mark, his agonizing pain was gone. His body got so tired from the ordeal, that after the event he immediately went to sleep…

When Drac woke up the next morning, he felt like shit. Still, he pushed himself and stood up. From the window of his room, he noticed that there was still some time in dawn. So he immediately got to his training. The lack of a clock in this world means, that he had to guess what exactly the time is. Which was why he had started working on based on fatigue of his body. If the sun was not up, and he was not feeling tired, he would train.

Some advanced calisthenics exercises later, he went outside on a run. Like usual, he went from one hallaway to another, until he reached the main gate of the castle. It was there he saw two soldiers sitting by the main gate. He saw that there was no one up the watch tower, which infuriated him. He immediately ran up to the soldiers, and smack the shit out of one of the soldiers.

The other one, who sleeping in the chair immediately jumped up. “What the fuck are you doing?” he yelled, the soldiers took some time, but soon realized who he was, “If I saw you sleeping again, I will fucking flay you both alive!” they both nodded fearfully.

After tearing the soldiers a new one, he continued to his run. His usual routine had him running four rounds of the hill. That day, as he got out of the castle, he had this weird nagging feeling on the back of his head. He couldnt explain it, but he felt weird. Drac figured that his previous night's action might be responsible for the feeling, but soon he felt a very familiar vibration in the air.

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Abruptly he jumped sideways, and the next second something big landed where he was running. With a flip, he stood up again, his hands in an attacking position. With the rays of the sun just starting to kiss the horizon, he saw a middle-aged man wearing the insignia of the Sumor Family standing in front of him. The man was wearing full armor, his rank was clearly above Greg. Which made him realize, who this person was,

“You must be Harold. Sir Harold, the commander of the 3rd battalion of the Sumor Family,” He had never met the person, as the 3rd battalion was stationed in the capital, along with Gregor. But he did hear yesterday that Harold came to the castle with Gregor.

“And you must be the infamous genius butler that everything had been talking about,” the man said. Then the man pointed towards his hands, who were still up in case a fight broke out, “Do you really think that you can defeat a person like me, with just hand-to-hand combat?”

“Won't know for sure, If I dont try,”

“That is the spirit boy. I wish my son had a spirit like you,”

Angry, he put his hand down and asked, “What is the meaning of this Harold? Why did you attack me,”

“That is Sir Harold for you boy, never forget that,” he said.

Drac let out a fake chuckle, “Is that supposed to be a joke?” he asked, “You are not very funny Harold… Also, respect is earned. Not given out of fear or something. And as far as you are concerned, if you dont explain to me why is it that you are attacking me, you and I gonna have a problem,”

“Well, I just attacked to see your reaction. After all, I would want to know more about the person with whom I will be living with, for the next month,”

“Nice to meet you, Harold. I hope, that we will never meet again,” he said and with that, he continued his running. As far as the attack was concerned, he didnt know what it was. But in no way or form was it just a greeting. That man didnt deviate from his path, and he would have really killed him if he wasn't so fast. Now the question was, what the hell was going on here…

***

Rupert looked at the board before him and contemplated about how he got there. The board was full of names of the Sumor Family and their servants. He had been looking at the board for quite some time now, and couldnt really get what the hell was happening with that family.

About a year ago, some inquisitors of the Church of Itab came to the kingdom, in order to slay a Dark Mage. After they had completed the mission, they came to visit his mother, the queen of the Alanor Kingdom, Charlotte. They told her, in his presence that they were not able to determine what the mage wanted to do in this place. But they suspected that the mage probably wanted to make this island her base of operation, as it is one of the remotest places in the world of Pandora. In the end, they warned them to be vigilant and to report them if something shady things started happening in the kingdom.

Rupert thought that this would be the end of it, until he received a report about a week ago that there had been a magical beast attack. He knew that as those sort of beast had gone extinct, surely there was no chance of it being present on the island. As the crown prince, he was worried whether this was the ploy that the inquisitors were talking about. So he went to investigate the matter himself, and he didnt get the results that he was hoping for.

He had a feeling that there was something wrong with the castle. His feeling only intensified when he laid his eyes on the butler of the castle. That fucker was bad news.

Rupert still remembers as if it was the other day when the butler greeted him, he saw the true nature of the man’s soul, with the help of his Blood Magic.

That man’s soul was of a murderer. He knew it in that instance. As far as how many people that person had killed, he didnt know. But from what he could tell that man had at least killed thousands, he could tell from his soul.

Not all murderers were bad people. Like his mother, he himself and the commander of the Royal Army have a similar aura to the man. But their souls also felt like a gentle breeze, which meant that they were not inherently evil people.

But that butler, his soul felt like a well from hell. Dark, and full of blood. Also, the fact that this man had killed so many people, despite being this young also surprised him.

Mikaila was a killer as well, and from the looks of it, she had at least killed 500 people. But he couldnt tell from looking at them was, whether they were responsible for killing the poor workers. And they were fabricating the story of there being a magical beast. But then everything he knew about the butler changed.

During his subtle interrogation, Mikaila started becoming angry. He figured that this would happen, but she couldnt do anything as he was the crown prince. But then he felt it, from the side of the room. A gaze, a feeling that made a chill run down his spine. He felt as if the devil himself had laid its foul eyes on him. He felt true terror. The feeling vanished within seconds, but he knew it in his heart. The gaze came from the butler.

When he asked the butler for his name, he introduced himself as Drac. There was a high chance, that this man was the one that helped the inquisitors. Connecting the dots, he came up with an absurd theory. According to the inquisitors, they didnt know anything about the Dark Mage's age or sex, they just followed the foul stench of her soul to follow her.

What if, the woman that they burned wasn't the dark mage? What if the person that helped them, was the Dark Mage from the start?

That gaze, that feeling, it still haunts him. Which is why he figured, he should check for himself whether this butler was really who he was. Or whether he was a Dark Mage all along.

Which was why, he sent his spy in the Sumor Family, Harold, to ascertain the man’s identity…