Chapter 110

Chapter 110

“What an utter waste of time,” Roussel grumbled as he stepped out of the meeting.

His son could hardly disagree. The meeting had been called in order for the family leaders to reestablish harmony among their respective clans, but the result from the lengthy discussions had been disappointing, to say the least.

Jeremy, who was looking just as annoyed as the two Pedelians over the seeming lack of purpose in even having the meeting, was preparing for his departure as well.

“Let’s start heading home,” Roussel said to his son rather joylessly just as Cassis noticed someone approaching them.

Right away he could tell that the man was a Vertium. Since their leader Noel loathed attending such meetings, he would usually send one of his men as his stand-in, then read the reports they drafted instead.

As Cassis watched the man quickly bow to them, then quickly continue on his way, he stopped abruptly. “Father, if you’ll excuse me, I have another matter to attend to.”

Roussel stopped as well, then cast a piercing gaze at his son. After a brief moment of hesitation, the Blue Master walked on. Before going too far, he threw a parting comment over his shoulder. “Don’t be too late coming home.”

“Yes, sir.”

By then, the father required no further explanation from his son as he trusted the young man implicitly. The Blue Heir began to make his way toward his next order of business with Isidore close on his heels.

* * *

It didn’t take long for the silver-haired young man to come upon the Vertium man once again. The Gold clan delegate was carrying a sealed letter in his pocket.

As soon as the hurried individual stepped out of the corridor and into the grassy yard, Cassis appeared from behind and struck him down with immense blunt force. Just as with Orka Fipellion, the sudden attack evidently caught the Vertium completely off guard and he collapsed then and there. He made sure to catch his victim just before he met the ground.

“Goodness... So many people just lying about so recklessly lately.”

As the person who had knocked both the White Demon Tamer and an unfortunate Gold clan delegate unconscious, Cassis spoke with a cavalier tone as if he had played no hand in what had just occurred. “How worrisome it is to see so many frail and weak-willed people in the world.”

“‘Frail and weak-willed,’ sir?” Isidore couldn’t bite back the urge to wryly question his leader’s excuses for his actions.

However, the young Pedelian continued to play innocent. “I think the long trip must have tired out this Vertium fellow. If he’s fainted due to all of the energy he expended, then we should get him somewhere comfortable to rest.”

Upon catching on to what his young master was after, Isidore resigned himself to playing along. “Yes, that sounds like a good idea. But, sir, don’t you think the Vertiums will be expecting some sort of report about the important decisions made at the gathering here as soon as possible?”

“Well, in that case...”

His reaction suggested that he agreed with Isidore’s thought process, so he began rifling through the fallen man’s pockets. Upon finding the letter, Cassis tossed the man over to his lieutenant.

The brown-haired man, in turn, slung the unconscious Vertium over his shoulder. “We shall ensure this gets delivered in his stead.”

The Blue Heir then proceeded to lead the way. As they made their way out of the Yggdrasil castle, Isidore quickly unloaded the unfortunate delegate onto some unwitting attendants.

As they seemed to be returning from seeing off the other clan leaders, they did their best not to appear shocked at the hapless victim that had suddenly been thrust into their care. Without so much as a second glance back at the attendants they had incriminated, Cassis and Isidore set out for the Gold estate.

* * *

The day after the failed masquerade ball, Noel made all sorts of preparations in anticipation of meeting with Roxana. However, they too proved fruitless.

“Master Noel, please wake up. It is already past noon.”

“Ugh...”

“Miss Roxana, whom you were so looking forward to seeing, is waiting in the sitting room.”

“Zzz...”

Dante’s efforts to wake his master were futile. Noel had spent too many nights in wide-eyed anticipation of Roxana’s visit and had exerted the last of his strength in disciplining the puppets who had been unfortunate enough to make her ear bleed. Thus, by that point, he was essentially useless.

He had only agreed to go to bed early the prior evening at Nix’s urging, so the steward was somewhat at a loss to find his leader still so deep in slumber and snoring away as if there were no tomorrow.

“Master? Master Noel?”

But the orange-haired leader was visibly far from ready to open his eyes. Finally losing his patience, Dante’s irritation flared up. “Oh, get up already, you ass!”

“Nyom, nyom...”

* * *

“So that is why I’m here,” Nix concluded his explanation to Roxana in the sitting room.

She merely stared at his smiling face with a tepid gaze.

Dante had been openly unhappy to hear the puppet’s offer to play host to their leader’s abandoned guest, but the blond youth insisted that he had been instructed to fulfill that duty by their master on his behalf. Thus, the gray-haired steward had no choice but to let him meet with the Agrece woman. Normally, Dante would not have given much heed to the puppet’s claims but having heard from Noel himself about how important Nix’s role was with regard to Roxana, he decided to oblige.

“I fear you are wasting your time. I have nothing to say to you.” Roxana made to leave, but Nix’s voice, which resounded in her ears as Achille’s familiar voice, stopped her in her tracks.

“Is that so? I actually thought we could talk more openly without Noel here.”

Roxana’s scarlet gaze settled back on the puppet who was staring at her calmly. “Are you implying that you can be more upfront without him around?”

Her voice came out in a low, almost hushed, tone.

“I’m saying that because of who I am, you may find the information I have relevant to yourself.” He smiled at her yet again as she returned to the sofa and carefully measured his words.

Her gaze remained cold, but no longer held the same dismissive air. Taking her silence as an agreement to hear him out, Nix continued, “I wasn’t sure what you’d like, so I’ve prepared the best tea the Vertiums have to offer.”

He then proceeded to serve her himself. His movements were so natural that she could tell he had a great deal of practice doing that very task, yet he did not appear to be a slave nor a servant like so many of the other puppets. At the very least, neither his attire nor the way he carried himself suggested that he was.

In fact, he seemed completely at home at the manor. There wasn’t the slightest hint of subservience in his demeanor. Roxana eyed the puppet’s right hand as he set down his teacup. It was the hand that bore the tell-tale scar.

“Do you by any chance like sweets? I very much hope you do.” Nix proceeded to lay out an assortment of pastries and dainty-looking cakes on the table before them. Everything appeared to be exceptionally delicious. “Try one. I made them all myself, so I guarantee they’re quite tasty.”

Roxana looked at the pastry Nix happened to be pointing at with a puzzled expression. “You made all this... yourself?”

“Yes, well... I started learning this sort of thing while living here.” He then sat in a seat directly across from hers. “I know Noel should be the one sitting here, but with things turning out how they are...”

He smiled somewhat more sheepishly at her this time as if to imply their current circumstances were out of their hands. There was something rather strange in that smile. Unlike the other puppets she had seen, his smile felt genuine—almost human.

However, she supposed that she only harbored such a thought since she was being subconsciously reminded of Achille as they spoke. After taking another sip from her teacup, she determined to address the impostor more sharply.

“This tea is full of sugar, and your cakes are nothing but more sugar. This is all actually quite terrible.”

Nix’s eyes widened at hearing such harsh words about his food. “You think so? I do apologize. I simply imagined that you enjoyed sweet things. I guess I was wrong.”

“I can’t imagine what would have given you that impression, but you were obviously wrong.”

“So it seems.”

Roxana continued to drink the tea while admitting to herself that Nix did have a way of making her remember things. At that moment, she recalled a memory from her childhood.

For generations, it had been commonplace for every Agrece child to consume various poisons in order to develop an immunity to them. However, rather than make her swallow the poison directly, her mother and Achille would always add dabs of the toxins to sweet cakes or drinks to mask the noxious flavors.

Thus, despite her agitation, she had Nix to thank for such a sweet memory suddenly coming back to her. She felt a slight pang in her bosom, but it soon passed. After all, she knew better than anyone that Nix was Nix, and Achille was still gone.