Chapter 177

Chapter 177

By the conclusion of my testimony, even the chatty Hiakin Fipellion was at a loss for words. He—like the other clan masters—was aware to some degree just what sort of man Lante was, so there was no way he could refute anything I had said.

Badrisha turned her purple gaze to Jeremy as though she had just realized something critical. From the looks of it, she appeared to finally understand the meaning behind what he had said during their negotiation. Knowing her, she would have no choice but to take pity on us.

I continued, “But even I never thought our father would go so far as to deliver his own children’s corpses to Vertium for the Gold Master to use as test subjects. That’s why... when I saw that puppet parading around in my brother Achille’s body, then heard the details of how he came to be in that state from Noel Vertium himself, I... just...”

As I paused momentarily, I bit my lower lip as though something was threatening to burst out of me. A few pity-filled groans and sighs issued from various corners of the hall.

“Sis, you… You don’t have to say anything else.” The sorrow and fragility of Jeremy’s tone were perfectly in sync with mine.

“No... I must.” I smiled faintly and gently placed my hand over the one he had wrapped around my arm. After taking a deep breath, I continued. “The Gold Master assigned the name ‘Luna’ to me, then demanded that I remain in the Gold lands. When I refused, he used my brother’s puppet as a ploy to convince me to stay, but all the while they tried to poison me. When even that method failed, he told me he would at the very least have my corpse, so openly tried to kill me.”

The gasps of horror and despair sounding off from all around us thickened. The onlookers had still been in the midst of expressing their sympathy for me when my account of Noel’s brutality sent a wave of shock rippling through the congregation.

“If I didn’t have the good fortune of receiving the Blue Heir’s help back then, I may very well have met the same fate as my late brother.”

I glanced at Cassis for good measure. He too was gazing at me with a frozen expression. He was quite familiar with the circumstances surrounding my clan, but I had never told him upfront about them like I was doing now.

Perhaps that was the reason why he appeared more frigid than I had ever seen him be before. Judging from the waves of inexplicably complex emotions undulating across his face, I knew there was so much that he wanted to say to me.

“This... This is just...”

The clan masters seemed unable to find the words to properly conclude the hearing. They couldn’t hide their shocked expressions after not only learning about Agrece’s internal practices but also coming to the realization of just how severe the situation had been in Vertium.

Such was the case for the rest of the clan members in the conference hall. Of course, I’m sure there were still those who still felt skeptical about my account. Even so, I was certain they would still find it difficult to completely ignore everything they had heard with their own ears. That alone would suffice for the time being. It wasn’t as though I could expect to get everything I had hoped for in a day or two.

“Let us... conclude today’s hearing for now.”

The other masters were all in agreement that it was best to have the meeting adjourned for the day. Without the presence of Noel Vertium, it was impossible to continue anyhow. Moreover, chaos and panic had taken hold of the crowd by then.

Once our clan leaders had officially declared the hearing was over, Jeremy escorted me straight to the door while maintaining hold of my hand. Other clan members watched and murmured as we Agreces slowly made our way out of the large hall.

It wasn’t much, but I could feel a slight change in the way everyone who had initially seen us as mere replicas of Lante was looking at us. Thus, it was up to my half-siblings and me to continue reshaping everyone’s impression of the Agreces. That whole ordeal had simply been the first step toward completely cutting off any ties of the current Black clan from our late father. The dirty, troublesome stains across our clan’s crest would eventually be wiped clean, then disappear into the void. I wished the very same fate on the name— No. On the very existence of our father Lante Agrece.

I still had so much left to accomplish, so I took my brother’s hand and walked out the door in the same manner in which I had entered.

* * *

Instead of getting dragged back to his cell immediately, Nix was being held in a waiting room next to the great hall. It had been such a long time since he had seen Noel’s face.

Considering that he had never left his master’s side for such an extended period of time, the longevity of their unplanned separation felt much longer to him than it actually was. Perhaps that was also the reason why his master had appeared so thrilled to see him inside the hall. However, the puppet’s face was anything but bright as he recollected the events that had unfolded just moments ago.

“Nix…? Nix! Where are you taking my Nix this time? Nix is my puppet! Mine! Give... me... back... my... Niiiix!!!”

It was all rather strange. Noel had called out to him so desperately, yet all he had felt toward his master was a deep sense of repulsion. In fact, he hardly recognized the carrot-top when they first saw each other again.

It was normal for the Vertium leader to always appear exhausted and somewhat ghastly whenever he spent a few sleepless nights trying to create a puppet, but to Nix, the way the Gold Master had reached out to him felt more like he was trying to tear his skin clean off from his skeleton rather than embrace him lovingly. In all likelihood, that probably wasn’t far from the truth. Whenever Noel lost his temper, he didn’t hesitate to dismantle his puppets limb by limb. Of course, he had never exhibited such violence toward Nix himself. But that may have also been because he was an irreplaceable puppet.

The blond had despised humans from the moment he awoke inside Achille’s body through the Vertium sorcery. The hatred felt like an inexplicable inflammation that ached whenever he simply laid eyes on them. On top of that, the realization that he was also an incomplete being composed of human flesh left a sickening taste in his mouth.

Hence he made a habit of harassing the young clan leader under the pretense of playing games, which ultimately caused Dante to grow weary of him. Even so, the green-eyed youth was far too naïve to realize the hatred radiating off of his most cherished puppet throughout their daily encounters.

But seriously... Why was he so off earlier? He felt his stomach churn as he recalled the unhinged look in his master’s green eyes. And why wasn’t Dante with him?!

“Get up, puppet.”

The knights assigned to keep watch over him yanked at his chains to signal it was time for him to go. It was clear that they had received some sort of message from elsewhere instructing them to move him. And based on the direction they were heading he soon realized that he was being taken back to his cell.

He felt an odd sense of relief, yet still frowned as he considered the state he was in.

“Hey, would you slow down?!”

He growled at the guards ahead of him as if to rectify how embarrassed he still felt for cowering away from Noel back in the hall. But his complaint fell on unfeeling ears. Once again he found himself under the cold surveillance of the Pedelian forces.

He had already noted that the guards who volunteered to watch him from the other clans were always far more accommodating of his demands, but the Blue knights seemed to have ice coursing through their veins which made them unmoving about even the slightest thing. He couldn’t do anything but furrow his brow out of frustration. As they walked further away from the hall he noticed a man standing at the end of the hallway whose very presence left his expression without a trace of his initial false bravado.

His heart felt as though it was slowly sinking down to his feet as it pounded against his chest with an odd rhythm. Is this yet another hallucination?

But it wasn’t. Standing silently in plain sight like a firm, black birch tree was Deon Agrece. His sharply focused crimson eyes stared directly at the puppet.

Nix stopped dead in his tracks.

“What is it now, puppet?!” The irritated Pedelian turned around to yank at his chain, but the blond refused to budge. It was as if his feet were suddenly nailed to the floor. A chill slinked down his spine giving him the sensation that all the blood throughout his body was draining away.

Without realizing his breathing had become irregular, the sound of it was soundly loud and echoed roughly in his ears to the point of making him feel dizzy. Once again, the puppet found himself feeling helpless and trembling, like the sort of feeble prey he would often toy with as he faced that smothering red gaze.

“Nix.”

If she hadn’t appeared at that exact moment to disrupt the overwhelming atmosphere, the doll felt certain he would have suffocated.

The light footsteps approaching him belonged to none other than Roxana Agrece. He only just realized that the black gown she was wearing seemed to be of the same material as the man before him. As he met her gaze, Nix noted that she was staring at him with her own cold, scarlet gaze. However, to him, it felt as though he had just tasted his first drop of rainwater in the midst of a desert after having just been under the blistering intensity of the sun. Her eyes seemed to glance past him to the man who seemed to be waiting for his arrival. The tension in the air between the twin pairs of red eyes was almost palpable. Then to Nix’s surprise, the stiff man’s expression appeared to start showing signs of uneasiness as he continued to stare at the puppet.

Deon stood motionless for a moment longer before finally disappearing into the shadows around him.

“Why are you trembling?” Roxana stared silently at the space her older half-brother had just vacated, before returning her attention to Nix. Her face remained emotionless and frigid, while her voice was equally void of feeling as it fell on his ears. “Why do you fear him?”

Indeed, she both acknowledged his distress, yet offered no sympathy to him as she spoke. In a way, he could have interrupted her words as slight encouragement not to fear Deon Agrece, but he wasn’t fool enough to believe her words held any such compassion.

“Make no mistake, Nix,” she said. “That emotion is not yours.”

The manner in which she denied his fear was cold enough to frost over and then shatter the puppet’s artificial heart. Even he was surprised that her words had managed to pierce him far deeper and more painfully than anything else she had said to him in the past.

“Don’t you ever pretend to be Achille in front of me again.”

Upon hearing her warning, he stared into her face more vacantly than he had when she first arrived.

“You make me f*cking sick,” she spat.

How... strange. Noel had certainly seemed less familiar to the puppet, but in that moment he felt himself a stranger in his own skin. From a certain point, his insides had begun to ache whenever he thought of the Agrece woman who bore so many resemblances to himself. Of course, he still couldn’t place his finger on why that was.

The Pedelian knight who had been standing by in silence during their conversation tugged at the puppet’s chains once more. The blond teen turned to stagger away behind him. He dared not look back at her for fear that his insides would reignite more aggressively with pain.