“Pregnant…” Kent said to himself in a low voice as he looked at the same piece of paper that the butler had picked up for him before, at the entrance of the fort. He was looking at it under the dim light of a candle, a half smirk floating on his face.
“Who would’ve thought that the rumors started by His Highness’ Madam were true…” he continued, shaking his head as he looked at the hardly visible lines on the paper. “I wonder how you’ll get out of this one, young lady Bardsley.”
Saying that, from Kent’s finger a small black dot appeared that quickly spread on the paper before disappearing just as fast as it appeared once it covered the paper, which then turned gray and crumbled to dust that was pushed aside to the floor, as if this piece of paper never existed.
He stood up from the chair, extinguishing the flame on the candle with a swift movement of his fingers, leaving the room in a slight darkness that was only cleared by the moonlight coming in from the window. He stood still for a few seconds, staring at the place where the dust particles had fallen before turning around and walking out of the door.
He took only a few short steps outside the candlelit halls of the fort before he saw someone sneakily walking by the corner of the hall. He only saw this figure for but an instant, but he managed to recognize a couple of features on them, their long and fluffy tail as well as a couple of cat ears on top of their head.
“Eden…?” he asked himself in a whisper.
Kent couldn’t help but wonder what this Chaerian might be doing, sneaking in the halls like that, carrying a few things in her hands. He decided to quietly follow along the path that she had been taking. It wasn’t hard for someone like him, who dealt in the shadows and black magic to obscure his shape and silence his movements with the many years of experience as a spy and informant that he had, so with a couple of quick movements around the corners, he finally saw her.
She was standing in front of another room, hesitation on her movements as she looked from one side to another, making sure that nobody was looking at her. Despite her careful inspection, she didn’t notice that Kent had seen her from just around another corner. He waited for a couple of seconds as she softly knocked on the door before he carefully turned again to look around the corner.
She was fidgety, looking down at both the few things she usually carried and the door that remained shut. She knocked again, louder this time and waited.
“Who the fuck is it?!” responded a man’s voice with anger from the other side.
“It’s Eden. Can you open the door, please?” she responded with a loud enough voice to be heard on the other side, but no louder than that.
The door quickly opened and an annoyed Marcus stood on the other side, in front of Eden. “What do you want?”
“Say… can I come in?” she asked in a shy tone of voice.
Kent couldn’t help but have a look of confusion, wondering what this meeting could be about, however, Marcus responded almost instantly to her question. “No. Now fuck off.”
The door was being closed just as quickly as it was opened, but Eden reacted just as fast and stopped the door before it shut completely. “W-wait! Please, don’t leave me out here!” she said with a desperate tone of voice.
“Huh?! And why wouldn’t I? Don’t you have your own room? Go annoy yourself over there and leave me alone,” Marcus responded with the same annoyance he’d had so far, pushing her slightly.
“B-but no! I—I might die if you leave me out here! And you’ll never meet the spirits with great magic if I do!” Eden said with a desperate tone of voice.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Marcus said, opening the door again and looking down at Eden with his chin raised.
“W-well… you see…” she said looking at the side, “The people from the fort don’t really like me… so… they forced me to sleep in the restroom and…”
Marcus scoffed, “What does that have to do with you being killed.”
“W-well… if one of the guards found me in there, in my sleeping clothes, they would do terrible things to me, even kill me!” she said with a pleading expression up at Marcus, pointing at herself, showing her loose and almost revealing clothes.
“And why the fuck would you come here?” Marcus asked, one eyebrow raised.
“W-well… I was thinking about going to Natalia’s room, but when I was getting closer to it, I saw Marie walking in there with Joy and Lyra, so I couldn’t just barge in there as well. And as for Thomas or Kent… they just seem to put up with me… so…” she said, looking up at Marcus with a pleading expression.
Marcus looked down at her, his cheek almost twitching at the way she was looking at him. He looked at her for a couple of seconds before he did a quick sigh. “Fine! You can stay, but you better not fucking annoy me or I’ll throw you out the window! Capeesh?”
“Yay!” she responded with joy, “Don’t you worry I’ll be very—”
“Get in here already! Fuckin’ Kenty’s been listening the whole time and it’s annoying me just as much!” Marcus said as he pulled Eden into the room, and looked exactly in Kent’s direction with a fierce glare.
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Kent jumped back from the corner, hiding his figure as much as he could in the shadows, but a laugh coming from the hall proved that it was in vain. “Still sucking dicks at that whole spying shit, ey?!”
He could help but move out of the corner to reveal himself now. A smirking Marcus looking back at him, and a wide-eyed Eden who was only showing her head from the side of the door, were looking back at him.
“I’m so sorry sir Marcus, I never intended to… ‘spy’. I was just going out on a stroll when I chanced upon this.”
Marcus scoffed. “Sure whatever,” he said before pushing Eden into the room and closing the door.
Kent decided to keep walking down the hall in the direction of the door, slowing down as he was closer to Marcus’ door, which allowed him to hear the muffled voice from Eden. “Um… is it okay for Kent to…”
He could hear Marcus’ laugh coming out of the door, muffled just like Eden’s voice. “Fucker thinks I don’t know he’s standing behind this door listening—”
Kent was taken aback after hearing this, so he started quickly walking down the hall, trying not to incite Marcus’ wrath, however, he wasn’t fast enough as the door opened again from behind him, with Marcus standing just outside the door. Kent quickly turned around. “I-I’m sorry sir Marcus! I—”
“Listen asshole. I know what you’ve been doing, what with that shit with the butler, so if I find out you’ve been doing shit that annoys me, you better believe I’ll make you eat your dick. Alright?” Marcus said, his arms crossed as he looked down at Kent.
“You will have no issues with me, sir Marcus. Nothing to worry about,” Kent quickly responded.
“Go on then,” Marcus said to Kent with a move of his head, pointing with his chin in the direction that Kent should be going.
Kent nodded and started quickly and quietly moving down the hall, away from Marcus’ room, but he could still hear Eden’s voice as he was getting away. “Don’t you think you were being a bit too harsh? I think Mister Kent didn’t mean—”
“And you!” Marcus shouted, stopping Kent on his step and quieting Eden again.
“Don’t you think I didn’t notice you either, you cunt!” Marcus said, making Kent turn around, wondering if he was talking to him only to be wide-eyed himself as a stunned Thomas was standing on the other side of the hall being pointed at by Marcus.
“What? Why are you screaming at me, Lord Marcus? I was just—”
“Fuck off already,” Marcus said to Thomas.
“Alright, alright…” Thomas responded with a confused expression on his face, leaving in the same direction that he had come in.
“Jeez…” Marcus said as he turned around and loudly closed the door behind him.
Kent stood absentmindedly in his spot, staring at the already leaving Thomas and wondering for what reason he had also shown up in this hall, at this same time, but he couldn’t stay for much longer as he remembered clearly that Marcus was very much capable of getting rid of him if he didn’t leave, so he quickly started leaving, going straight for the restroom as he had intended do when he came out of his room.
* * *
A couple of guards were walking down the halls of the fort, they seemed to be leisurely going as a smirk was drawn on their faces. One of the guards turned to the other, this one with a more excited face. “What kind of face do you think she’ll make?”
“I don’t know, I don’t care. All I know is that she’s really hot, despite being a dirty animal,” responded the other one with the same smirk.
The first one laughed in response, turning to look forward again. “That’s true, but if she wasn’t one, we wouldn’t be able to get away with this. Every other woman that comes into this place is always important, and touching the maids… that would get us executed. This is the perfect opportunity!”
“That it is, that it is,” said the other guard, nodding along. “We’re here.”
They were now standing in front of a door, a sign on the side displaying the name of the place, however, it was written in the empire’s language, but judging by the few things close to the door, this place was the restroom.
“How do we go about this? Do we both go in together?” asked the first one, his face flushed red with excitement.
“No, no, it could get us in trouble if someone else comes in here and makes a loud mess outside. One of us should stay out while the other one has his fun,” responded the other one, his smirk still on his face. "I'll go first."
This guard was about to burst open the door when the other one stopped him by placing his hand on the guard's shoulder, making the guard glare at him. “Wait, I heard that these people are very physically strong. Maybe it’s a better idea to go in at the same time and make sure she doesn’t get away,” said the excited guard.
The other guard considered the words for a moment, before nodding. “Alright, let's get this done quickly.”
Inside the restroom stood someone else. They could hear the words coming from the guards outside, but they didn’t move nor panic at what they were saying, so this person waited for the guards to burst open the door, which didn’t take long as it was pushed aside loudly.
“Sorry to intrude like this! This is the restroom after all and we didn’t expect anyone to be in here!” said the excited guard, even before he took a look inside the restroom to see who was inside or even if anyone was inside.
“But now that we’re in here, how about we—”
“I can hardly believe that Eden was right about her worries,” said Kent from deeper inside the restroom, “I can’t help but wonder if she saw it coming or if it was just sheer luck.”
“What the—who are you? Where is the Chaerian wench?” asked the other guard, a frown replacing the smirk he carried when he burst open the door.
“This is a restroom. Why would there be a Chaerian in this place?” Kent asked back, acting confused as he tilted his head slightly to the side.
The guard who asked the question scoffed as he looked down on Kent. “Don’t act stupid, we know that that animal was placed here to rest—in the place that she deserves—so she shouldn’t be anywhere else.”
“Are you protecting that thing? Don’t you know that those things deal with demons?” quickly followed up the other guard who had now lost the excitement from his face.
Kent nodded with his eyes closed towards the guards. “I’m well aware of the kind of deals that Chaerians make with Drokanians, yes. However, the girl is just not here.”
“And where is she?” asked one of the guards, threatening as he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword.
Kent looked back at the guards, their faces getting colder as they looked back at him. He considered for a moment as he hummed before answering, “And… why would I tell you?”
“So that’s how it’s going to be,” said the other guard, pulling the sword out, followed shortly after by the other one. “Maybe a few cuts will make you change your mind?”
Kent laughed, shrugging as he answered. “Gentlemen, please, you’re in the Count’s fort, surely you can tell that I’m no ordinary guest here.”
“Yeah, but you’re protecting a Chaerian suspected of dealing with demons. We’re in the right as the Count’s soldiers to ensure that that criminal is given its proper justice, and you’re getting in the way of it, so…” the guard smirked again while looking at the unarmed Kent, “I think we would be forgiven for doing what’s the best for the empire.”
A chuckle escaped from Kent, shaking his head in a dismissive way towards the guards. “Very well… then come show me ‘the best’ that you can do for the empire.”