Boooom—!!
A man stood still and unperturbed, even with the whole place destroyed and on fire. He remained still as the hot air blew against him from all directions, silently eyeing the many bodies that had fallen and shattered around him.
“Sir Hanover, we found Mrs. Anfinrud.”
The man didn’t turn to look at the young lady behind him. He hummed lowly in recognition, “How is her condition?”
The lady with two messy braids nodded with a stoic face, “She looked as healthy as she’d never been touched. We took her to the village immediately, just as you wanted.”
“Good job.” The man tilted his head back with a low sigh, looking at the pitch-black sky with no stars, “Those aren’t all, right, Diara?”
The lady, Diara, looked down a little at the scattered bodies with a hardened face before answering, “It appears some of them had fled away secretly sometime before our attack…”
The man huffed, which sounded like a low chuckle to Diara, “Ha, of course, he wouldn't make things easier for anyone, even if everything is revealed to us now.” He brought his gloved hand to calmly take off his black mask, revealing his honeyed eyes that glowed as they reflected the light from the flames all around him, hiding his little smile behind the mask. “We'll just have to entertain him some more, then.”
[https://i.postimg.cc/pXTSYZdL/1.jpg]
----------------------------------------
The Red Flower
Chapter. 31
----------------------------------------
Elois couldn’t bring his fingers to move even for a little under the man’s gaze; he didn’t know why but something was telling him he shouldn’t even think of provoking the stranger with wealthy attire; the man looked nothing but evil as he observed them with that patronizing, unsettling smile. ‘What do we do...? I can't fight in this state, and Ellmer...’ he tossed a glance at the person to his side, standing from a distance and looking as stiff as him. ‘If you look like that, then we're damned for sure.’ He had known Ellmer for less than an hour but could tell the guy was rarely ever fazed or troubled, used to hold the cool image of a collected leader in a good way. So if even Ellmer looked so intimidated in front of this stranger, they must be in really big trouble.
Ellmer narrowed his sharp eyes at the silver-haired man as he reviewed the words in his head, ‘Some blood of his kind... a vampire?’ he stiffened at the discovered fact as he hadn’t expected to run into one that fast after hearing of their existence from his little brother, ‘Is he one of the vampires who had been with Davante in the castle?’ he very slightly frowned at the man.
“Do not take this the wrong way, I’m not here to fight. I do not have anything against any of you kids.” Albern softened his expression and tilted his head slightly, knowing exactly that didn’t help calm the two kids before him at all. He silently chuckled at the frightened faces.
Ellmer wanted so much to scoff at the smiling vampire, but he couldn’t even open his mouth to say something or anything under the menacing aura from the bastard. He thought of moving his hand to his neck and checking his necklace, but he couldn’t feel its power. ‘My weapon doesn’t seem to be working for some reason, and I have to find a way to get both idiots out of here... then... should I distract him? Can I even do that?’ he glanced at Javi lying limp behind the vampire, then at Elois, confirming to himself that he was the only one in their situation who could fight, but he doubted he would stand against the man for one whole minute.
“Though, you both stink a little. Especially you.”
Both friends flinched at the cold, snide remark as the man glared accusingly at a particular orange head.
Stab—!
[https://i.postimg.cc/W35nhBg6/2.jpg]
“Kuh—!”
Ellmer couldn’t react fast; he knew something was coming when the man calmly raised his hand a bit to point suspiciously at Elois. It happened in less than a second. He slowly followed with his eyes the veiny, bloody thing that came out from the gloved finger and straight to Elois’s chest, reaching the ground when it mercilessly pierced through the poor guy’s heart.
Looking at Elois as he had his mouth open in a silent cry with wide eyes, Ellmer slowly widened his eyes as he assimilated the scene before him.
.
.
Gasp—!
Neron flinched back suddenly at the sight of a screeching spirit pushing its face at him out of nowhere in the dark forest, causing him to lose his footing and fall from the trees to the ground with a suppressed groan. “Ah, hah...” He rolled to the side to push himself up with shaky hands and sat on his knees as he collected his breath with his eyes closed. He moved his slightly trembling hand and managed to cover his left eye with his hair. He took a calm breath, deciding to open his eyes after listening to the spirits’ cries, wails and all kinds of disturbing noises around him. He refrained from closing his eyes again when he caught glimpses of them with his left eye through his hair strands. “What's wrong...?” he carefully asked.
Their sounds grew louder in his ears, and they appeared to be hysterically distressed. He pushed himself to his feet calmly and tried again. “Why are you terrified...?” he observed silently as some of them started hitting their heads against the trees and the ground, some screamed louder in one direction, and some appeared to be cowering in place and looking in fear in another direction.
“Is it coming from there...?” he looked at the place he was heading to seconds ago as he chased the person with the canvas. He turned his head to look in the other direction, the one he came from, when they didn’t give a clear response and kept wailing louder and louder, “Is it there...?” they still didn’t give him any kind of clear reaction. They seemed to grow mad at him with each passing second for not understanding their suffering.
‘...I need to destroy the canvas first.’ He hesitantly turned to the direction he was going but was immediately stopped when impossibly loud shrieks came from the spirits, making him stop in his tracks just as they wanted. He looked at them with a troubled face, “...I'll help you, I promise. Just please let me do one thing first—”
Screaamm!!
He held himself back from closing his eyes shut and covering his ears with his hands as hysteria filled the area around him. He felt a familiar presence close to him, a different one than the spirits and much calmer. He looked down at the small spirit child staring lifelessly up at him, “Vinny?”
“Out.”
“I can't leave this place now...” he looked with apologetic eyes at the blurry child beside him, knowing that wouldn’t please him not the least bit.
“Out.”
“Vinny...” The child’s face looked darker to him even though it remained the same. He hesitantly moved his hand to pat the child’s head, feeling glad when the child didn’t scream at him or turn demonic at him yet.
“Out.”
He recognized that tone immediately, knowing that the child was barely staying calm for his sake. He went down to the child’s level and carefully asked, “...which side is bad?”
[https://i.postimg.cc/zvjVzNh8/3.jpg]
The child, Vinny, stared into his eyes with an alarming, still face. “Vinny...” he tried again. The child slowly grabbed his sleeves with his small hands…
Vinny suddenly shrieked sharply at him with an oddly wide mouth while trying to pull him in the direction he came from in an attempt to leave the forest.
Neron turned his head in the opposite direction, the one the person with the canvas ran into. ‘So, it’s from there...’
.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
.
‘Someone is around...’ Gasha slowly lowered her hands with a stiff face, ‘This feeling... this presence...’ she scanned the area with her eyes, silently calming down her racing heart, ‘My crows hadn't sent me any signal...’ she slowly moved her hand to where she hid her weapon under her suit jacket, she felt with her fingers the chain to the sharp hook and stayed still, ‘Are they dead? No, I would have received a signal immediately if it's the case...’
“Where are you?” she asked aloud, turning cautiously around when no answer came. Her eyes landed on the secret entrance on the ground, ‘The entrance is still closed...’ she wondered for a moment if it was someone other than the person she thought it was, but she clicked her tongue in the next second as she denied the thought immediately. “I know you're here...”
She couldn’t hear or see anyone, but she still could feel the eyes on her, if not getting closer to her. ‘Fucking creep...’
“Are you not gonna do anything to me even here? Or is it because I'll be seeing your real face this time?” she tightened her grip on the hidden weapon as she frowned, “Fucking show yourself.” She felt herself growing angry at the constant silence. ‘He's here. I'm sure. This disturbing aura, it can't be mistaken...’
“Lucas— no, Baldrick Alastair.” She called through gritted teeth.
“Yes?”
She jumped and turned around at the amused voice close to her ear, only to find the place empty, “Shit, hah— you really like to play games, huh?” she calmed her breathing and glanced around her with sharp eyes again.
“I simply came out to welcome my first visitor in so long.” The same voice answered again, sounding playful.
Gasha remained on alert as the man had yet to show up. She tried to detect the source, but it felt like the man was everywhere around her. She jumped slightly when the sound of the entrance opening came from beside her. She stared at the now-open entrance and the ominous darkness downstairs.
“Go on, dear daughter.” The man said teasingly, still not showing up.
“The fuck you’re calling daughter?” she snapped at the voice, earning a chuckle in the dark. She calmed down and decided to converse with the man since she got caught trespassing anyway. “Father is inside, isn't he?”
“Would you believe what I'm about to say?” the man sang creepily.
She held back from cursing loud at him, “At least you don't lie.” She grimaced at her own words, “The only good trait I've seen after putting up with you all these years, you freak.” She waited for the answer, growing impatient with the silence.
“Hmm, he isn't here if he is dead, right?”
She stopped breathing for a while, barely holding herself back from running downstairs into the secret lab and checking for herself, “......you're joking.” she didn’t like how she sounded weak for a moment, forcing herself to stay calm as she shouldn’t be giving away any opening to the bastard.
“Am I? Who knows. Why don't you take a look inside?” the man quietly chuckled as he invited her again.
“Father isn't dead, otherwise you wouldn't be able to cosplay with his body anymore...” she stated stiffly, sounding unsure even to herself.
“Oh, are those my limits? I didn't know, haha.” The man sounded genuinely surprised yet amused.
“Bastard— Father isn't dead. He isn't.” seething as she tried her best to stay calm, ‘It can't be, no...’ she knew she shouldn’t let her emotions get over her, but she’d done everything she could to save her father, and there was still a chance that her father, Xenos Anfinrud, was indeed dead. She wasn’t sure of the man’s abilities and limits other than that he was a vampire, a supernatural, but she was sure of one thing. The man wasn’t a fighter; he was just a doctor, which means he was probably physically weaker than her father and could mean a different sense of ‘being dead’. He could say a person was dead when in fact, they were alive but in a coma, or the brain doesn’t function anymore, or a paralyzed body or anything twisted like the person is dead if no one knows of them.
She gasped loudly when a cold hand grabbed her arm suddenly, pulling her slowly down the stairs. She widened her eyes in alarm as she finally came face to face with the person, finding him grinning playfully up at her with his round, black glasses on.
“Come in.”
She shuddered at the chilling whisper but quickly stood firmly and pulled back, finding difficulty as the grip was oddly too strong. “Let go, you creep!! Ugh!” she was about to kick the man in the face with all her force before he suddenly let go with a slight frown, still smiling at her as she left enough distance between them.
“Aww, aren’t you here to visit my house at last?” he peeked his head out from the entrance and rested his chin on his arms like a curious child.
“Huff, hah, the heck...” she collected herself and looked at her trembling hand, feeling something odd with it as it was strangely cold and numb like it wasn’t even there. It felt like her body was about to be taken from her in some creepy way, but she was given freedom at the last second. “Did you hold back because you promised mother?”
“A promise?” The doctor raised his eyebrows before chuckling with a shake of his head, “Didn't know you had an innocent view of me.”
“Then why haven't you done anything to us yet? Why only the people around us? Huh?” she wanted to kill the man and be done with this, but his strength when he grabbed her seconds ago wasn’t of a weakling. Right, she realized a vampire doctor isn’t the same as a human doctor. Besides, her task wasn’t to kill the man tonight. She tried to remind herself what she had come for every time the man talked.
“Oh, I just don't like looking at you and your mother.”
She blinked, “Huh?”
“Would you believe if I said I hate you both, dear Gasha?”
She swiftly turned around when the man magically appeared right behind her when he was peeking at her from the basement a second ago.
“Huh—!” she stared at the smiling doctor as she was about to fall down the stairs and into the secret lab when the man pushed her effortlessly.
[https://i.postimg.cc/bwMdN3ZD/4.jpg]
“I’m sure your father and your uncle would be delighted to see you again.” He said while casually getting ready to go down with her, back to his lair.
“My little rascal, daddy is going somewhere tonight and will probably be late, so don't trouble your mama and go sleep in time, okay?”
She was instantly reminded of the last time she’d been with her father before he went to the abandoned lab, and a stranger came back instead.
“No matter what, don't go inside. Understand?”
Then the memory of her boss warning her many times not to get to the basement.
Yes, she agreed with the doctor; she would be happy to see her father and her uncle Ral again. She missed them dearly, after all. However, she quickly brought her two fingers to her lips and whistled.
A group of crows came flying at her whistle and instantly brought her up and away from the entrance, causing the doctor to step back quickly and look at the scene with astonished eyes as she was slowly and gently let down on her feet from a distance.
She glared at him with her crows surrounding them in a circle.
“Oh, my~ You don't give up at all, do you? Ah, you've no fear, like daughter like father, I suppose.” The doctor tilted his head back in a laugh and clapped calmly.
“Tell me, who planned for the meeting?” she was getting impatient, but she wasn’t stupid to fight an enemy she knew nothing about.
“Meeting?” the doctor looked confused for a moment, “Aaah, you mean the meeting with my two esteemed guests that night?” he hummed with a playful nod at her cold glare, “What you need is confirmation, not an answer, hm?”
“Just answer.”
“What you are thinking is right.” He smiled at the stunned and hurt look on her face, even as she tried to look unfazed. He shrugged, “Families could be worse than your worst enemies sometimes, you see.”
She quickly brushed off her hurt feelings and glared hard at him, “The deal was to kill them, am I right?”
“Hmm, maybe yes? Maybe not?” he tilted his head to the side with a puzzled look, “I didn't accept any deal, after all.”
“What...?” she slightly widened her eyes at the playful doctor, and he smiled while shaking his head in disbelief.
“How cute of you to think I'd go with people's whims as they wish, hahahaha.”
“What do you mean? Then how did they plan everything with you…?” she knows the man could’ve stabbed them in the back right after accepting a deal with them, but he wouldn’t lie; he didn’t look like he was lying even. And her relatives weren’t stupid to go through an uncertain plan with someone who hadn’t even agreed to begin with. She frowned; then again, was the bastard lying after all? Or did he control them in some way…?
He mocked her with a smile of disappointment, “You're smarter than this, honey. Think about it, are any of them still alive?”
“......” she couldn’t deny that all the bastards had died one after another, even on her uncle’s side. The possibility of them being controlled is there, but she doubted it as the bastards weren’t even better than the doctor in front of her and had been acting the same even after her father’s change.
The doctor sighed, looking bored with the game they were playing. “Let me satisfy your curiosity a bit.” He clapped his hands.
She was instantly given the signal from her two crows and was shown the image of her father and uncle lying still with their eyes closed as if they were in a deep sleep. “Ah…” She wanted to call out to them, but she couldn’t, not now. But they looked so pale…
The image was immediately cut off, and cold hands on her shoulders kept her in place. She didn’t have time to wonder when the man had moved behind her as she froze at the whisper that came to her ear, “Now guess, are they dead or asleep?”
“......”
“After all, didn't your boss destroy the two organizations by now? What use do I have of those two men now, yeah?”
“And do not listen to him.”
The warnings of her boss kept repeating in her head. ‘Father and uncle are sleeping, right...?’
“Do not listen to him.”
The words were getting louder as she repeatedly replayed the image of her father and uncle in her head, ‘They looked dead...’
“Understood?”
Remembering her boss’s face as he warned her yet still trusted her for the mission even when knowing how dear those two men had been to her. He trusted her, even though she knew he was using her in some way because the doctor never really harmed her or her mother. She clicked her tongue as she snapped out of it, ‘Right, I confirmed their location. I have to retreat now—’ however, she realized too late that she had fallen into the trap already. ‘I can't move... shit...’ her whole body became numb, wondering if this was the same method the doctor used on her father and uncle to move around looking exactly like them.
“I have use for you, however.” The doctor whispered again.
“......”
“Your boss is getting a little bit annoying after all.”
“......”
“He seems fond of you, so you’re a perfect choice for now.”
“Oh, but I'll teach you how to piss him off.”
“Heh...” she couldn’t help but laugh at the memory of her boss openly showing her his rare cold-blooded smile.
“Just bring up the novel I told you about.”
“Because he knows your pathetic life from that book?” she asked with a taunting smirk.
“......”
Thinking clearly, she suddenly felt that the doctor behind her was, in fact, a pathetic man in anger. She could understand a little why her boss would have those pity eyes whenever he talked about Baldrick Alastair. “Better luck next time. I guess you need it in order to kill someone like Armand Hanover.” She couldn’t hide her satisfaction at the silence she was met with, knowing that the doctor could be provoked by bringing up Armand’s name only. Well, it felt good to talk about her competent boss to someone else at last.
“Oh, right. How did he survive? Hear out my theory—”
“Who cares about your damn theories?” she frowned, and her smile was washed away at the sound of the entertained doctor behind her, wasn’t he upset a second ago? Or was he trying to hide his anger? The cold hands playfully swayed her body a little from side to side. It honestly was scary to her, feeling like a mere doll in his hands, like she was seeing the scene as a third party. “Let go—”
“It's not someone from Cavalon but maybe from Anfinrud, hmm~ it must have been someone watching the Shadow for a while, hmm hmm...” he stopped swaying her and turned her around to meet her face with an excited smile like a child finally getting the correct answer. “Is it my dear son Ellmer?”
She gritted her teeth and wanted so badly to move her arms to punch that face away, only for her body to become more numb. “Fucking bastard!! Let go!”
“Ah, so I'm right~” he laughed at the obvious reaction he got. He got close to whisper again, “Were you trying to provoke me? You cute little thing—”
Thud—
The doctor stopped and looked with a straight face at the suddenly fallen crows all around them.
“Huh?!” Gasha stared wide-eyed at her precious crows, looking extremely upset. She glared back at the perplexed doctor.
“Oh, I didn't do that.” The doctor denied the blatant accusation with a blank face.
She flailed her arms weakly to push away the hands from her; she was too upset to notice that she was starting to regain control over her body. “I'll fucking split your—!”
“Wah, goodness, His Imperial Majesty is here... no wonder the forest felt odd tonight.” the doctor suddenly let go of her, and she lost her balance before falling to the ground on her butt.
“Huh?” she looked up at the sighing doctor, trying to understand what even was going on anymore.
“Haa, so much is happening in one night. Everyone sure is lively.”
“The hell are you…” she stared at the doctor as he walked casually back to his lab.
He walked down the stairs but stopped midway before peeking out his head to look at her again with a friendly smile like they weren’t enemies a moment ago, “Well, send my regards to your boss.”
“Wha...”
“Good luck making it out of here safely~”
And with that, she was left alone with the entrance closed and magically meshing well with the ground like there wasn’t an entrance to start with, unlike how it looked when she found it first. Dumbfounded, “What...? Huh? Did he just... run away...?” she slowly looked in the direction the doctor had looked at with a troubled face moments ago. “...who is this 'Majesty' who even scared Baldrick Alastair...?”
She felt a strong urge to meet the one person who could scare the bastard off…
.
.
Bren remained still for a long minute, staring at Gasha Anfinrud before letting out a sigh of relief. “...good thing I didn't have to make my presence known... I should be thankful to His Imperial Majesty.” He put down his gun and looked to where he assumed Albern Verick was.
“It's been thousands of years... what made him show up now? And in this place...” he tried to look at what was happening using his eyes’ ability, but he couldn’t, as expected from the emperor’s powers, he thought.
“As long as... there are no vampires around, he wouldn't go berserk… I suppose.” He contemplated for a minute if he should rush into the forest to help stop the chaos…
He shrugged when he recalled that the redhead and the purple head dashed into the forest a long while before, so it should be fine. He could trust them to fix the whole situation somehow, and he could trust the emperor not to flip everything over.
He stared blankly at the forest for a while in complete silence before a slow nod.
“Yeah... hopefully.”
----------------------------------------
The End of CH. 31