Chapter 194

Chapter 194

On the night she had freed Cassis Pedelian from his captivity in the Agrece lands three years prior, Roxana had said the same thing to the man who had come to her room in the dead of night shortly after. At the time, Deon had busied himself with hunting down the Blue Heir, but at present, he was set on going after the blond puppet who had just fled.

She had always felt confident that she knew her half-brother better than anyone else. Thus, it wasn’t all that difficult for her to guess what he was thinking at that moment. Things had always been that way. Without him uttering a single word, she always managed to see through him as clearly as glass.

Perhaps it was a side effect of claiming him as her property. Of course, there was never a single moment when she had willingly admitted such a thing to herself. Once again, the memory of the warmth from the hand that had grabbed her reignited deep within her skin. Even as blood continued to drip from the remnants of Deon’s left arm, her red eyes appeared to glimmer.

Current events had slowly begun to climb over the fading memories of her past.

“...you and I both know that you can’t kill me.”

She reflected on the night they had met in the rose garden after he had made his presence known at Yggdrasil castle.

“Even so, that doesn’t mean you can go around killing people at random either. At least... not without my permission.”

She had said those exact words that rainy evening.

“You know better than anyone... how fragile and easily the string that binds us can snap.”

Thus, he had, at last, found the answer to what she had asked him right before his eyes. The current circumstances were entirely different from the two previous transgressions he had committed without her permission. Of course, he still held the belief that he had only done what he thought she would have wanted him to do.

Then a thin smile spread across his lips.

Even to Roxana, such a smile was unfamiliar. She couldn’t help becoming transfixed by it and staring at him in silent confusion.

“I always thought that woman’s words were absolute nonsense, but now I know that I was... wrong.”

He had finally felt compelled to open his heavily sealed lips to speak through his odd smile. The combination of his narrow voice and the light reflecting off of the broken glass shards mingled in the air to create a dizzying effect.

Try as she might, Roxana could not fathom what he was referring to.

“Well, no matter. This sort of ending always suited me better.” A breeze flowed through her disheveled hair like a whisper as Roxana stared on. “It’s just like you and that woman said! No matter what... I just can’t seem to kill you!”

Their twin crimson gazes seemed to collide and intertwine in midair. However, in the same moment that their eyes met, they sensed the dissolution of their bond like the lighting of a fuse at the end of a stick of dynamite.

“I guess I’ll just have to find another way to end all this.”

Clink.

As if by mistake, the sound of shackles coming undone reverberated throughout the ruins surrounding them. Deon decided there was no point in lingering any longer and turned to leave. Try as she might, Roxana could not hold onto him—she could see she lost hold of her mutt’s leash.

“Gold Master!”

“What in the name of—?!”

Cries of shock and horror rang out from overhead as more clan members and attendants arrived in the remains of the glass passageway and discovered Noel Vertium’s body still bleeding from where he had been slashed to ribbons. Even in the midst of the chaos, the Gold Master had managed not to fall but had only barely moved himself onto the last remaining panel of the glass floor near the center of the corridor instead. As more people gathered to move him from the precarious location, they collectively shouted.

“He’s still alive! He’s still alive!”

For a moment, Roxana could do nothing but gaze at the space Deon had just abandoned—staring as if time had stopped altogether. But before long, she turned away to ignore the view of his absence entirely. As she turned toward Cassis, her scarlet eyes quivered subtly as an assortment of emotions began to overwhelm her.

His golden eyes peered into hers, then turned to stare after the bloodstains where her half-brother had just been standing, as well as the direction he had disappeared in. He then clenched his jaw gently.

Meanwhile, Jeremy could be seen frantically making his way down through the ruins, then hurriedly racing toward his sister. By then, there was far less noise in the air compared to the cacophony of chaos that thundered over the Yggdrasil castle grounds not all that long ago. Of course, that was only made possible due to the remaining clan members having successfully learned how to take control of the invading puppets.

After that massive storm of destruction had passed, all that remained of the peaceful territory’s monument of unity were the remnants of the residential wings. On that day, not one but two beasts had severed their own leashes in an act of defiance against their masters.

The Last Turning Point May Be a Comedy... Or a Tragedy

Silence overtook Yggdrasil far more pervasively than it had earlier that day. Although the chaos had long since settled down, circumstances had yet to be resolved.

There was still a great deal to do after such an unprecedented catastrophe. Cleaning up the areas in which the puppets had swept through was troublesome in itself, but the need to find and recover the countless corpses the invaders had left strewn about the grounds and in the streets only proved all the more complicated since they were mixed in with the remains of the destroyed puppets.

Many who were hard at work couldn’t fight back the need to pause their efforts in order to vomit as they shuffled through the gruesome graveyard Yggdrasil had been reduced to.

“Just what sort of sick bastard would even devise such a heartless scheme?!”

The clan masters had chosen to gather for an emergency discussion about the indescribable attack.

“To think such a young man was hiding such vile, cruel, and ruthless intentions... He must have been out of his mind! I don’t care what anyone else says, Noel Vertium must surely pay for what he has done today!” Hiakin Fipellion roared as he pounded his fists down on the table positioned between himself and the remaining three clan leaders.

After allowing the eldest clan leader to vent his rage, Badrisha Castro chimed in more calmly. “I agree with your last point, White Master. However, have not the Fipellions been hiding your own ‘vile, cruel, and ruthless intentions’ as well?”

The White clan leader’s expression stiffened.

“I only mean to say that for you to hide from all of us the fact that you could summon demon monsters inside Yggdrasil leaves much to be desired...”

The Red Master’s violet eyes flashed sharply toward the elder Fipellion. Hiding his power over the demon monsters wasn’t the only issue she wished to rebuke the White clan over.

“But let’s pretend for a moment that such an act was not as problematic as I’m sure we all found it to be... Why didn’t you summon those monsters of yours sooner?!”

The White Master’s demons had certainly played a significant role in halting the puppets’ attempted all-out massacre, but it was indeed problematic just how late their contribution had come in.

“If you hadn’t so stubbornly tried to keep your secret hidden, the death toll could have been less than half of what it is now.”

Such words stung his Hiakin’s quite harshly. The majority of those who had been brave enough to step forward and fight during the initial swarm were Castros, thus the Red clan had suffered the most casualties.

“I... can offer no excuse for that.”

Although he accepted the Red Master’s reprimanding, the White Master was not the sort of man to back down without putting up any sort of fight.

“You know, I happened to hear that something rather dangerous was also discovered during the catastrophe among the belongings of one of your clan members.”

This time Badrisha’s lips snapped shut.

“Smuggling drugs into Yggdrasil castle? What an absurdly preposterous thing to do. How would you have handled the matter had someone from another clan gotten a hold of such contraband while mingling with you Castros?”

It was inevitable that some of the drugs within the Red clan’s chambers had been exposed during all the chaos. Thus, in that instance, all the assistance the Agreces had provided by covering up the Castros’ shame after the fire incident coincidentally went up in flames as well.

“And don’t think your clan is in the clear either, Black Master.” Hiakin had evidently determined it was time for the Black clan to receive their own share of critiques. “I was in the garden and saw with my own two eyes how you and your siblings responded. Why was it that you all had a cache of hidden weapons? Have you all forgotten Yggdrasil’s policy of zero tolerance for any sort of lethal arms? It seems the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree when it comes to Lante Agrece’s children. Not one of you is any less treacherous than your father was.”

Jeremy responded calmly as he met the elder leader’s gaze. “I’d argue they were more of shoddy, personal items than weapons. My siblings are actually rather anxious, so they prepared those items purely for a sense of security in the case of an emergency. Of course, it became quite clear during the disaster that their preparations were far more beneficial to you Fipellions since your demon monster was the only salvation you could offer them.”

The White Master’s dark eyes appeared to go ablaze as he watched the young clan leader act as though he too had learned something new and valuable that proved useful for mocking the aged man.

“And don’t forget that my siblings did their best to protect the weak and injured throughout that spontaneous crisis. And if we take into consideration what the White Heir was up to all that while, I really don’t think you as their clan leader should feel you have any right to reproach us.”

Hiakin grit his teeth as the young man went on.

“Come to think of it, weren’t the White knights the ones who were supposed to be keeping guard around the castle today? I can’t help suspecting that they were ordered to withdraw so your nephew could put his horrendous plan into action.”

With that, the Fipellion leader’s face twisted even further. Even Badrisha Castro couldn’t suppress her frown. Despite the blatant instigation, she did not attempt to speak up any further. In the end, the clans’ impromptu spring gathering had left just about all of its attendees irrevocably scarred and traumatized in some way or another. The only clan that remained above reproach was the Blue Pedelian, but before long, the White Master finally reclined deep into his seat while contorting his lips.

“How frightful. At this rate, I might receive the same punishment as the Blue Heir and his knights dealt Lante.”

He had suddenly chosen to bring up the clash from that past winter between the Blue and Black clans despite having initially allowed the topic to blow past him. He had originally deemed it irrelevant to the Fipellions as it had no negative impact on them, but now that it offered him a sliver of hope in turning the other leaders’ attention away from him, he took it.

“I think you’re... gravely mistaken.” Roussel Pedelian stared into the White Master’s face with his own cold, unflinching expression. “We Pedelians have never once boasted about what took place last winter.”

His heavy, sunken voice still managed to cut through the air sharply and sting the ears of those sitting across from him at the table.