Chapter 52

Chapter 52

The Season of Destruction and Rebirth

“Wha... What?” Unable to believe what she had just heard, Sylvia stammered in shock. “What did you just say? What exactly... happened to my brother while he was here?”

Her face had gone as pale as the snow, but as he hadn’t seemed to have noticed, Jeremy answered her in the same careless manner he said everything.

“It’s just like I told you... Your brother’s already dead. My father brought him here years ago, and he was killed within six months of arriving. I heard there weren’t even bones left when they were through with him. That’s why I’m telling you to quit looking for him.”

“How exactly... did he die?”

Jeremy’s description of the events that led to Cassis’ death were beyond gruesome. Sylvia could hardly breathe as she suppressed the need to vomit. What the Agreces had done to her brother was utterly inhuman.

It was true that from the moment she set out in search of her brother, she was aware of the possibility that she would eventually face a truth she couldn’t accept. She thought perhaps that had been her way of bracing herself to hear of his death. But this. This was beyond the scope of even nightmares. Nowhere in her wildest imaginings could she have foreseen how her poor brother actually died.

“Now that I’ve kept up my end, it’s your turn. Promise me that you won’t mingle with those other bastards anymore! Just stay away from them. From that red-eyed asshole especially. Besides, it’s not like you need any more information now.”

Jeremy clasped Sylvia’s hand tightly as he begged her like an unruly, yet naïve, child.

But inside Sylvia’s heart, a dark emotion began to metastasize. It was something she had no idea even existed inside of her until that moment. However, not that it had taken root, it quickly blossomed into a most poisonous flower.

“Shut...”

“What?”

Yank!

Sylvia abruptly whipped her hand away from Jeremy’s grasp. He was at a loss for words as he had never encountered such cold fury from her before.

“Shut... up. Shut up! Shut your dirty, rotten mouth!”

Her rage was almost scary.

It took a moment, but Jeremy eventually realized why she was seething uncontrollably and began to apologize.

“I... I’m sorry, Sylvia. If I had known he was your brother, I wouldn’t have done anything to him. I swear! But honestly, how could I have known? So don’t be mad, okay?”

But Jeremy couldn’t actually wrap his head around why she was so upset. To him a sibling was more a competitor you had to vanquish than someone you mourned the death of. That’s why Sylvia’s years-long search for her lost brother had always seemed so odd to him.

His failure to understand was further evidence that his apology was anything but sincere, and merely an attempt to placate Sylvia. He appeared to suddenly remember something important so continued.

“Oh, yeah! I have a half-sister named Roxana who collects eyeballs. She might have your brother’s. I remember she took quite a liking to them back then. I think I recall seeing eyes much like yours among those in her collection. In fact, I know they were just like yours. If you want, I could bring them to you.”

“Ha... Haha...” Sylvia laughed bitterly as began to recognize what a farce her rescue attempt had been. The ever-clueless Jeremy simply began to smile. He was glad to see that she wasn’t frowning anymore.

Sylvia, however, could no longer stomach the sight of his revolting face. She spoke with ice in her voice as he attempted to reach for her again.

“I’m going to murder you, Jeremy Agrece.”

His hand froze in midair. She watched as his face turned progressively grayer before continuing.

“You... and all your siblings...”

Her heart that had been tread upon and charred black was now dripping with venom. Jeremy looked more innocent and vulnerable than ever before as his face had gone ashen. Yet the sight only made Sylvia want to spit on it. These evildoers had slain the person she held dearest in her heart, and in the most abominable way without showing an ounce of remorse.

“And all the Agreces who played a part in my brother’s death.”

She decided she wouldn’t spare them any remorse either. It would be an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. These Agreces who were worse than wild animals would meet their much-deserved demise.

“I will kill every single one of them with these hands of mine.”

The soft light that had been but a humble flicker inside of Sylvia as she withstood countless hardships until that point, finally blew out that day.

[excerpt from the novel, The Abysmal Flower]

* * *

The whole world appeared to be covered in snow on this particularly harsh winter day.

“Damn it!”

A thoroughly miserable-looking man stepped through a door and into the hallway as he spat out the lone expletive. He was none other than the mid-twenties, black-haired and gray-eyed eldest Agrece sibling, Fontaine Agrece.

At that particular moment, Fontaine was the furthest one could be from being in a good mood as he marched away from his father’s room. The reason being that Deon had received all the credit for their most recent mission, despite the fact that it had actually been a joint effort. Sure, his younger half-brother had made a crucial contribution by ferreting out a few spies who could have ruined their drug deal, but Fontaine had been the one who set up the entire deal in the first place.

For all the honor and glory to go to Deon for simply rounding up a group of spies was beyond unfair in Fontaine’s mind. He had always known that his father was biased towards his second son, but knowing that hardly made it any easier for his first son to accept.

Shatter!

Fontaine crushed the hallway decoration with his steel-like fist as he imagined how satisfying it would have been to crush Deon’s head instead. Unfazed by their young master’s burst of fury, the caretakers began to clean up the debris Fontaine had left in his wake.

* * *

Instead of returning to his own room, Fontaine decided to go outside. He thought that maybe slaughtering a demon monster or two might help to improve his sour mood.

Sure, there were slaves in the dungeons he could have summoned for torture, but that didn’t seem to him like it would be enough to satisfy his amplified bloodlust.

“Master Fontaine, if you’re going outside, should I arrange one of the guards to accom—”

“No. Unless you want one of them to die in place of those demons, leave me alone.”

All at once, the footsteps behind him came to a breaking halt. The guards knew better than anyone that Fontaine was not one who harbored any reservations when it came to doing exactly what he said. Before long he was outside of the Agrece compound boundary and heading for their border.

Whoosh.

An icy breeze bit into his skin. There was definitely a sense of the far north as he looked upon the snowdrifts scattered throughout the forest. Fontaine finally stopped to rest once he reached the northwestern border of the Agrece lands, which was an area the demon monsters had long since made their home.

With his sword out, he was just about to start on his journey again when he heard a sweet voice offer him a soft warning.

“I wouldn’t waste my time going there.”

The voice was very quiet, but still audible enough to cause him to turn around. He couldn’t help feeling that it possessed an odd appeal.

“I’ve already taken care of them all. There aren’t any left now.”

Fontaine soon detected a faint, yet equally sweet scent mixed in with the frigid air of the forest. Suddenly, a woman in a white fur cloak appeared. Her golden tresses spilled out of her hood and glistened against the flurry of snow. She then removed her hood to reveal that her face was nearly as fair as the snowy backdrop. Even while standing with half of her figure hidden by the shadow cast by a nearby tree, there was no denying that she was beautiful beyond words.

Without realizing he had stopped breathing, Fontaine finally caught his breath.

“Roxana? What’re you doing here?”

Indeed, the mystery woman was none other than his half-sister, Roxana Agrece.