Chapter 63

Chapter 63

From the shadows, Deon began to stir. Just as both Roxana and Lante had each instructed, he walked toward the front of the judgment room, but instead of cutting down his younger half-sister, he reached for her hand.

As the full scope of treachery was finally out in the open, Lante realized that it had been the work of his most-trusted son and daughter. He could do no more than stare up at them in utter disbelief.

Thud!

“Hey, sis!” Jeremy suddenly threw open the room’s heavy door and strolled in. “Sorry I’m late. It took a while t—”

Almost as abruptly as he had entered the room, Jeremy suddenly stopped with a menacing frown on his face as he took in the scene before him.

“What... the hell is going on here?”

Feeling a small spark of hope, Lante lifted his gaze toward his younger son. But to his immediate dismay, there wasn’t a hint of concern towards his father in his gaze.

“Deon, you ass! You better get your filthy mitt off Xana. Right or left, the only one who can hold her hands is me!” Jeremy was literally grinding his teeth as he stomped toward his older brother. He did glance down at Lante, but promptly ignored him.

“What a pity, Father. There isn’t a single Agrece who’s on your side.” Roxana smiled acidly at the prone figure of their clan’s defunct leader. She continued to mock him with an even quieter and calm voice that seemed to do more harm to her father than the shrill of a siren.

“But don’t worry. I won’t kill you just yet. That wouldn’t be any fun at all.”

* * *

Whoosh

A gust of wind cut through the thick forest of skeletal, snow-covered trees. It was a bitter northerly that felt sharp enough to slice one through to the bone. As the ominous rays of the red sun had finally disappeared beyond the horizon, night quickly settled upon the forest.

In that quiet darkness, a group of men were biding their time in hiding. They had been surrounding the Agrece compound long before the clan leader had returned from Yggdrasil. Their eyes gleamed like the tails of a comet in righteous anticipation.

“Welcome back, Master.”

The men’s attention only broke to greet their leader upon his arrival. He gave them a small nod in turn as he stepped into view from the darkness. As he approached his troops, he shrugged the sentry he had disposed of on his way off his shoulder to fall to his feet.

The icy ground was already littered with piles of other Agrece guards. Their leader’s cool, golden gaze then fixated on the light shining in the distance.

“What’s the status?”

“There’s been a bit of commotion within the compound since just before your arrival. Shall we move in?”

“Not yet. Stand by for now.”

Isidore, who’d been charged with the troop in Cassis’ absence, obeyed the Blue Heir’s order without question. Cassis returned his cool and calm gaze to the compound as he waited for the perfect moment to strike.

Whoosh

As the frigid wind howled like the shriek of a beast, it relentlessly grazed the ears of the men as they awaited their leader’s order to advance. It was the sort of night that even creatures native to the forest were likely huddled together to share body heat.

The snowy trees quaked with every merciless gust, but the Blue Heir stood firm without stirring even slightly. Despite the northerly blowing across his exposed face and hands, Cassis seemed to take zero notice of its bite. His stony expression gave the impression that he was more like a predator lying in wait before an attack than a young man. His golden eyes were zoned in on the kill, while his men silently readied themselves to act the moment their leader issued the command.

Flecks of white began to float across the dark night from overhead to signal the slowly encroaching snowstorm. A butterfly that looked as if it had lost its way in the inclement weather suddenly fluttered by from out of nowhere only to disappear as abruptly as it had appeared.

There was an icy glint in Cassis’ stare as he finally gave his men the order. They immediately began to move swiftly from their stationary positions in order to settle an old grudge.

* * *

News that Lante Agrece had been usurped after a successful coup spread around the compound with rapid speed. It came as a shock to most since the entire ordeal had occurred in less than one hour since the delegation group had returned from Yggdrasil.

Before long, the entire mansion seemed to be in an even greater uproar once it was revealed that the eldest son Fontaine hadn’t been the one responsible for causing the real trouble.

“Just look at them scurrying to and fro like a bunch of agitated ants.” Grizelda’s commentary dripped with unfeeling mockery as she watched from her terrace with a lazy smile spreading across her face. She was one of the few people at the compound who had known Roxana was the true coup leader. Her younger half-sister had enlisted her help in setting the trap for Lante in the judgment room during his absence. Grizelda Agrece wasn’t known for excelling at many things, but her sorcery and enchantment skills were second to none.

“That Roxana. What a character...”

The day had proven to be exceptionally interesting to the eldest Agrece daughter. She imagined that had she known how amusing her younger sister could be, she may have befriended her much sooner.

As things stood, Roxana, Deon and Jeremy were in total control of the Agrece clan. Rumor had it that Deon was the coup leader, which tickled Grizelda all the more in knowing that Roxana was controlling everything in the shadows. It was evident that for the time being the entire mansion was at her command. Even the mercenaries Fontaine had enlisted were never truly under his control.

Everything and everyone who mattered, including Grizelda, had been at Roxana’s beck and call from the start in an effort to oust Lante. Grizelda had in truth only become involved due simply to her taste for adventure. And while she acknowledged that it came at the expense of betraying her own father, it was not something she felt particularly guilty about.

In truth, he never exactly merited any sort of loyalty from them. He was always just as merciless and willing to kill his own children if it suited his needs. And no one could deny that he had in fact “disposed of” some of his own children in the past, so the reverse only seemed fitting.

With everyone, including Grizelda, having grown up in such a ruthless environment, the fact that there was hardly any familial love between the clan members wasn’t all that surprising. Since birth their lives were literally an ongoing survival-of-the-fittest test that always required them to best everyone else. So with such ruthlessness ingrained in their minds from a young age, none of Lante’s children felt particularly sorry or guilty for not coming to their father’s rescue as he met his fate.

In truth, they had been shocked and confused at first to hear that the undisputed clan leader had been overthrown, but once most of their siblings accepted the unimaginable, they all seemed to consider the whole ordeal rather amusing. Lante’s wives were the only immediate family members who appeared to remain in a state of confusion. Having been blessed with one of the more brilliant minds in the clan, Grizelda knew that all the chaos wouldn’t amount to much in the end.

“Perhaps tonight we can expect the grandest revelry yet.”

She then laughed heartily as she returned to her room from the terrace.

* * *

Creak.

After bowing to the new arrivals to the judgment room, the guard opened the door. The odor that filled the inside of the room was the result of years of bloodshed and various force-fed concoctions.

In the center of the room, Lante was hog-tied on the floor. Just as he had done to countless others he had hunted down and dragged back to the Agrece mansion in the past, he had finally fallen prey to his own family’s merciless abuse.

Click, clack.

Roxana rose from her father’s former throne and walked over to look down at him from up close.

“Roxana, how... how could you?” Lante’s voice rasped with bloody rage.

She relaxed her eerily stern expression into a smile that in no way corresponded with what was taking place in the room.

“But, Father, you finally look just as pathetic as I’ve always known you to be.”

Clang.

“Kegh!”

“To tell the truth, I’ve been looking forward to this moment of getting to witness your downfall for quite some time.” Roxana lightly stomped down on the chain connected to Lante’s neck for added measure, which caused his face to almost knock into the floor. Lante thrashed this way and that in an attempt to get out of the humiliating posture, but to no avail. “Do you know what I thought about whenever I had to see your revolting face?”

His daughter’s soft and languid voice seemed to float all around the otherwise silent room.

“What would be the best way to kill you that would ensure you experience the maximum amount of shame and despair? Is there a way to make you suffer a fate worse than death?”

Her words were like a curse that she had kept hidden deep in her heart for ages. It was a curse Lante would have never imagined if he had been granted a millennium to do so.

Lante huffed as if to speak, but with his face finally forced to meet the cold, porcelain floor, he barely managed to grunt as his daughter goaded him.

“I even thought watching you get eaten alive by my butterflies might be amusing, but...”

Flutter, flutter.

As if beckoned by Roxana’s mere thought, a crimson butterfly appeared out of thin air and settled on Lante. It seemed to have purposefully gone directly to a rather meaty part of his flesh before starting to munch away at him.

“But I imagine the thing you could not and would not ever accept happening to you, and what you fear more than anything else in this world is probably something far more entertaining to inflict on you.”

As Roxana continued to ruminate aloud, a few more butterflies appeared and began to nibble on her father’s flesh. He, however, had gritted his teeth and decided to bear the torture without making the slightest sound. But as the fluttering sounds grew louder in his ears and the walls in the room took on a deeper crimson hue due to the increasing number of the winged monsters, Lante’s complexion slowly went ashen.

“For once, I’m glad you’re an Agrece. It’s a comfort to know that you won’t die easily no matter which method I decide to use.” Then a wistful smile spread across her face. “So I beg you, Father, please endure for as long as you can.”

Despite the playfulness of her grin, the flame behind her dark, scarlet eyes was brimming with cruel malice.

“I intend to repay you for everything you ever inflicted on me.”

Then like the prelude to a symphony, an inhuman scream ripped through the silence of the judgment room.

* * *

“Hey, have you heard? Apparently Father’s in the judgment room.”

Naturally, Lante’s children were the most interested in the events taking place after their father’s return. The news that their father had not only lost his leadership but was being held captive inside his own room of torture, reached the ears of each Agrece sibling at lightning speed.

“What? Seriously? You sure you didn’t just overhear someone incorrectly?”

A different child had mentioned something of the sort earlier, but they had assumed it was a joke. After all, no one could have imagined something like a coup actually taking place within the Black clan. But once the news was confirmed, the siblings had gathered together to express their shock.

“Of course it’s true. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Jeremy!”

Their clan’s youngest new leader approached the group covered in blood.

“Where... have you been?”

But before they could question him further, Jeremy tossed an object over to them as if he were passing them a ball. Most of the young Agreces couldn’t help but gawk at the mass he’d thrown toward them. They watched wide eyes as the object rolled about their feet leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

“W-What have you done? Doesn’t that head belong to one of our trainers? You actually killed him?”

They continued stared in shock at the head they all recognized as it rolled into their respective view. In truth, the most shocking event of the day remained Lante's downfall and confinement in the judgment room. However, the children had only heard about those events. They suddenly paled in comparison to having the head of an individual they all knew tossed over to them and left to roll about between their feet.

On top of that, Jeremy’s casual demeanor only added to the unbelievable reality of the situation in the mansion. The atmosphere in the room almost felt as if it had frozen solid.

“Haa... I had been dreaming of the day I’d get to kill this bastard.” Jeremy had hated that particular man as he had been in charge of training and assessing his progress per Lante’s orders. Thus, it was only natural that the impish Agrece had decided to do away with him first.

His siblings looked at each other utterly speechless as some were clearly struggling to believe what they were hearing.

“You idiot! Have you gone mad?! Are you trying to get disposed of?”

“‘Disposed of’? By who? How do you suppose that old man groveling on the floor of the judgment room would do that?” Upon hearing their half-brother’s unabashed confidence, the commotion and commentary in the room returned to thorough shock.

Jeremy, who had gotten blood spattered all over himself, smiled hideously at his tongue-tied younger siblings.

“By the way... I hear the door to the judgment room is open, so anyone can stop by. I, for one, plan to go see what sort of shape Father’s in now. But before that...” His quiet voice tickled their ears like the tongue of a treacherous snake. “...any of you care to join me in disposing of the remaining trainers and proctors?”

It was an act every Agrece child had dreamt of carrying out at one time or another. Being set free from the stifling control of the adults who held their lives in their clutches was something they had each undoubtedly imagined. But, like most things, the sentiment weakened with the passage of time. Then one by one, it eventually disappeared altogether in, and in its place acceptance of their duty to the clan and fate to obey.

But suddenly... it was okay to kill their overseers. Suddenly, there was nothing stopping them. When it came to the Agreces, every clan member knew and accepted that only the strong survived. Yet as it were, their oppressive leader Lante was currently locked up in a room utterly defeated. With their master unseated, the children only needed to ask themselves if they shouldn’t remove their father’s loyal mutts from power as well?

In the end, the answer washed over the group like a cold shower. Their eyes gleamed like those of venomous creatures as their despicable glee seemed almost palpable. Without a moment’s delay, the spritely group shot out of the room like arrows. A passerby might have imagined they had been given a silent signal to race one another out of it.

There wasn’t a trace of hesitation in their movements for, despite their initial disbelief, the day they had all dreamed of had finally arrived.

* * *

“What? Are you sure?”

Sierra was doing her best to remain calm, but her heart simply would not cooperate. What her servant had just told her was nothing short of incredible.

It isn’t all that unbelievable. Has Deon truly deposed and incarcerated our clan’s absolute monarch?

She had a nagging feeling that her daughter had somehow played a hand in the entire affair. After anxiously pacing about her room for a short while, Sierra came to a conclusion.

“I must go see Xana.”

But upon hearing her mistress’s sudden declaration, Beth implored her to wait. “My Lady, it’s chaos out there right now. I think you should wait until things have had a chance to calm down, then perhap—”

Knock, knock.

The two women stood frozen in place as the sound of someone rapping at the door diverted their attention. As she was standing slightly closer to the door, Sierra yanked it open. Upon seeing who the newcomer was, she hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“You’re...”

The woman outside of Sierra’s door offered her a deep and respectful bow before speaking. “I hope you have been well, Madame.”

Roxana’s personal aide and living shadow, Emily, stood before her as if in the midst of carrying out a mission. Without waiting for a response from her master’s mother, she continued to address her, “I am here on Lady Roxana’s orders.”