Aurelius tries to fight me as I drag him through the house and into the welcoming room but with his weakness and my strength, I don’t notice besides his indignant mutters. I throw him onto one of the couches before undoing the restraints around his wrist and ankles. Then I untie the cloth gag in his mouth, holding it at one of its ends with pinched fingers, trying not to think too hard about where I pulled it from as I toss it aside.

“You…” His voice trails off as drool drips from his mouth. He clumsily wipes it away with a sleeve. I can see him battling the effects of whatever my wife gave him, forcing himself to focus. “You…won’t get away—"

“I don’t know what to do with you,” I say, raising my voice to speak over his continued mutters. “Let me tell you what I would like to happen. I would like to throw you out of this house and never see or hear from you again. Just erase you from my life. And you know what? I even want you to go down to the elven continent and find yourself your perfect elf. I want you to be happy because, if you are, I won’t have to worry about you being a pain in my ass. But you aren’t going to do that, are you?”

I don’t need Talia to tell me what he’s thinking. He may be a crazy man but he’s a stubborn one. One with a concerning lack of instincts related to self-preservation.

I’m…not angry anymore. I’m tired. He is the last thing I want to deal with, but I don’t have a choice. Aurelius is in my house. I made a grand speech about justifying our assault on him as roughing up a trespasser, but I doubt it’ll hold up to scrutiny. Especially not coming from a wanted woman accusing a respected master caster. As annoying as Aurelius is, he is not a criminal or a particularly bad person. An impartial judge is likely to side with him.

If he leaves and runs his mouth, it’ll cause problems. If he disappears, it will cause problems. People know he came to my house and knowledge of our animosity is common. I’ve got too many problems already so I’d really prefer it if he didn’t become another.

As much as it annoys me, I’m willing to negotiate. Though willing might be too strong as a word.

If only there was a shred of a chance that Aurelius will go away peacefully.

“I need you to understand my position,” I say to the angry man. “You have been harassing my family since we came here. You made yourself a threat, looking for any opportunity to sabotage me. I’d be dead if you could have gotten away with it.” Don’t doubt it for a moment. “You threatened me in my own home. Surely, you can understand my actions.”

He says nothing. I push on.

“Despite all of that, I’m willing to let this go. Let any animosity between us die. And all I need from you is a promise that you will leave us alone. Don’t talk to us, don’t talk about us, and do everything you can to avoid being anywhere near us. Do that and this ends right here. Amicably.”

Aurelius stares at me as he takes long, deep breaths. Then he lowers his gaze. “Fine.”

“He’s lying.”

His head snaps up and he stares at Talia with wide eyes, his expression a cross between shock, panic, and indignation. “You cannot do that!”

“Do what?” she questions.

“Use the mental affinity on me!”

“I didn’t.” She smiles. Noticeably, which means she must be pretty happy. “It’s interesting how the mental casters of the kingdom are so focused on using their magic on others when the benefits of using it on ourselves are infinite. I do not need to reach inside for your thoughts if I fine tune my ability to read your…emissions. You are projecting so much anger and disdain, I would have to be magically blind myself to miss it.”

“You are blind! No, that doesn’t matter. You’re as bad as her, maybe worse. Forget the Hall. A rogue interrogator won’t be allowed to live. They’ll drag you back to the capital and execute you.”

“…you truly are insane. If these were better circumstances, I would be interested in studying you, but you have sealed your fate.”

“What are you talking about?”

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What is she talking about? Maybe that he’s made it impossible for me to release him? Haha, saints damn it all. He’s right. What I’ve done is bad but the worst I fear is being banned by the Hall.

If he leverages accusations of Talia abusing the mental affinity, she’ll be executed. While those claims are bogus, I don’t think that will matter. Not with the king trying to monopolize the mental affinity. Whether Aurelius is lying won’t matter. It’s a perfect excuse to detain Talia for questioning. And once they have her, he can have her forcefully interrogated. Something that will reveal things I don’t want the king, who is really going out of his way to piss me off, to know.

And there’s another big concern. Aurelius’ just extended our conflict to someone close to me. Say I let him go. Who else will he involve? The rest of my family?

I don’t much care about Uncle Jackal, but Matty, the best of us, is another story. And what about Jac? She won’t be with me forever. Eventually, she’ll return to her quest to sail across the sea to the Tome family’s motherland. Will there be an insane master caster waiting in the shadows, ready to hurt her to hurt me? She doesn’t deserve that. Neither do I.

Geneva’s words suddenly come back to me. Her accusation that my father died because of my inattention echoes in my head. An egregious accusation, I’m not responsible for an Abyss-tainted voidspawn crawling through reality and unleashing a wave of death no one could have stopped, but there is one mote of truth in her words.

I couldn’t have foreseen or stopped the lurker, but I could have restrained my father. It wouldn’t have been right to strip him of his freedom, the only way to guarantee his safety, but I could have done it. Just as I can stop this right now. End Aurelius before he has a chance to become a pain instead of an annoyance. There will be consequences, but what decision doesn’t have them?

The question is, if I must have regrets, what do I want to regret? Brazen action or no action?

I already know the answer.

Really, this was always going to end this way. We were destined for this moment since the first time I saw that fanatical desire in his eyes. Our fates were sealed the moment I threw that first punch.

He knows. His eyes don’t glow with channeled mana and there’s no way he could construct a spell with his mind still impaired by the poisons in his system. But he knows. I can see it in his face, right before my fist punches through it.

There is no other sound besides the twin beating of hearts, Talia’s significantly slower than my own, for several long moments before I slowly pull my fist out of the fleshy hole it created. A ball of feelings churn in my gut; disgust seeing the blood mixed with brain matter coating my hand, satisfaction having finally eliminated the annoying bastard, and a gnawing dread.

I’m not worried about the Hall’s reaction. They’ll never find Aurelius and I don’t think Dunwayne will come after us unless he’s forced into it. The Harvest Hero might be a hero but he must know that Aurelius was a dangerous man. His behavior toward has been disgusting and unhinged. I can’t imagine a sensible man wagering lives, including his own, to avenge someone like that. Though I’ve pretty much ensured I’ll never be an acolyte again.

No, the source of my dread is my reaction. That I’m glad he’s dead and I killed him. Killing bandits is one thing. They’re a menace to society. Dispatching them is a service, as there is no telling how many victims my actions saved. The hunters were out of necessity. If they hadn’t kidnapped Howie or forced me into that March with their stupid challenge, I’d have never raised a hand against them.

Aurelius, for all his faults, wasn’t a menace to society. He might have hurt the people closest to me, but I don’t have proof he had any such plan. His accusation against Talia could have amounted to nothing, just like when he tried to do the same to me. And Talia’s patron, the head interrogator, could have protected her.

There were other options besides killing him. Better or worse, I’ll never know for sure. I put him down because I think it’s the most hassle-free option, at least in the long run. I killed him for no other reason than to make my life easier.

And I’m satisfied.

“Earl.”

“Yes, my lady?” my steward says a breath after I call for him, appearing at my side with the grace of a shadow slipping through the night. His attention is solely focused on me, not sparing the corpse bleeding onto the floor so much as a glance.

Guilt bites my heart with small jaws. A boy shouldn’t be seeing this…but he probably saw much worse before I took him under my wing. I wonder if that’s what I was looking for on the King’s Road that day. People more tragic than me. All my servants certainly have their issues.

“Clean this up. Make sure there’s nothing left of him. Nothing.”

“It will be done.”

I motion to Talia and she falls in step with me, again naturally linking our arms. “He didn’t give you a choice,” she says as we walk.

“I know.”

“Thank you.”

“…why?”

“Part of the reason you acted was to protect me. Thank you, Lou.”

My lips twitch upwards into a weak smile. “That’s my role in our agreement, yes? You are my delicate, accommodating flower and I take care of you. I make the hard decisions and do the dirty deeds that keeps people safe.”

“That is our deal.”

“Do you ever regret it?”

“No. I am still convinced that my interest is best served at your side. While the succubi are a good first step, I find myself interested in how beings of other realms use my magic. You will help me explore this and Kii will give me the time to do so.”

How wonderfully simple her vision is. If it aids her, she keeps it close. If it doesn’t, she disposes of it. “Never change, Talia.”

“We all change but some things will always remain the same.”

“Hopefully, the important things. You will ride with me to the city. There is something else you can help me with.”