With no clues besides this portrait and the weird words that he could somehow understand, Sangfroid left the archives distraught.
"It's alright, Sangfroid. Perhaps we need more time to think." Prince Leron tried to cheer him up.
"We do not have the luxury of time, Your Highness. The full moon is within three days." Sangfroid laid on his floor mattress, glaring at the air.
"I trust on you Noble Huntsmen." Prince Leron tried to strengthen his creased eyebrow with his thumb. "I have read the papers and evaluation for the military defense. Though I wish I could have been more involved in it, I can see that our people are doing the best they can."
"I must be disappointed, Your Highness. That's all." He took the Prince's hand that was trying to lighten his face. Sangfroid gave a small smile, very uncharacteristic of him. "I was expecting that our trip to the Santimieda Chapel would be more fruitful than this."
"Purple eyes, huh?" Prince Leron looked at him from the bed above. "What a coincidence that your eyes are purple as well."
"I'm sure there's no relevance." Sangfroid suddenly went back to his neutral expression.
"I say it must have relevance if purple eyes are so rare." Prince Leron said. "I have never met someone with that color of iris other than you. Was the man in the portrait an ancestor, perhaps? Who is he?"
"I don't know either." Sangfroid let Prince Leron's hand go. "It is time for you to sleep, Your Highness."
He turned around, obviously upset with something.
Prince Leron sighed. "Sangfroid.... I know I'm stepping over my boundaries here but.... Do you despise your family that much?"
"I love my family very much, Your Highness. The Chapel orphans and our Father had been good to me."
"I meant your.... the people who gave birth to you. The people related to you by blood." Prince Leron played with the hem of his shirt. "Do you know them?"
Sangfroid didn't answer for a while, then sighed. "I didn't.... I was found in a basket by the front steps of the Chapel with my name written on it."
Prince Leron's eyes widened. "Has nobody seen who left it?"
"No." Sangfroid said. "Your Highness.... Have you ever wondered why I cover half of my face with my hair?"
Prince Leron was stunned. He was right, he had been styling his hair that way since he was a child. He never wondered about it, he thought that Sangfroid was just shy and preferred to hide his face through his hair. But now that he thought about it....
Sangfroid never allowed him to see it, not even once.
"Sangfroid.... what's wrong with your face?" Prince Leron left his bed and sat beside Sangfroid whose back was facing him. "Why do you always hide it?"
"It's because I'm hideous, Your Highness." No emotion could be discerned from Sangfroid's voice, like he was just stating a fact.
"I am sure you're not!" Prince Leron wanted to take that long fringe and put it away to see his friend's face. "You have good features...."
For the first time, he heard Sangfroid laugh. It was short, and bitter, like a schadenfreude. But he was not laughing at someone else, it was like he was laughing at himself. Prince Leron shivered when he heard it, wishing he had never heard such a sound of pure self-inflicted disgust from a friend he cares about.
"Your Highness, go to sleep. Let us not discuss it anymore." Sangfroid said, still facing away from him.
He can hear a small hint of desperation from his voice.
But Prince Leron couldn't let it go. He needed to know now. He needed to know how such a man could see himself as hideous, how he came to hide half of his face his whole life.
"Sangfroid.... Can I?" Prince Leron asked ambiguously.
Sangfroid knows exactly what Prince Leron was pertaining to, and wanted to stab himself for causing the prince's curiosity. He brought this upon himself when he asked if the prince ever wondered what his hidden face looks like. He had been wrestling with himself for days whether to tell him or not to tell him, ever since they met again and reconnected through this crisis.
No, even as a child, he wanted to trust the prince with his secret that his Father warned him about.
The Bishop told him: "The Heavenly Father, his Child, the Holy Mothers, and all the angels and saints are kind, Sangfroid. But the world is cruel. They judge through appearances, not acts. If you show the right side of your face, they might harm you. I do not want that to happen to my children. Do you understand?"
He nodded, but when he met the Royal Highness of Ilvedia, his first friend, he wanted to disobey his Father's wishes.
But he was also in fear, especially when he realized his special feelings for His Highness. Will he ever love him back if he saw how ugly he was? Prince Leron has been kind to him and everyone, but would he judge him too? He's also only human after all.
A part of him also wanted it to be done with, he wanted to know his reaction that's why he asked the question. If the prince gets disgusted by his appearance....
He would push these feelings aside. He would continue to serve him, but his heart would be severely damaged.
It was now or never. Will he or will he not?
"....Alright." Sangfroid slowly pushed away the hair covering half his face. "This is the face I had been hiding, Your Highness."
Prince Leron gasped in shock.
Three long slashes reached from above his eyelid to the side of his chin. The damaged eye was scarred too, the sclera and the iris mixing and becoming blurry, with dried blood making it darker. It seems to have been done by the claws of a wild animal ever since he was young, and dug through his skin so deeply that even now the flesh was not healed.
"I was sent to the doorstep with these scars." Sangfroid said. "The nun said I had a demon eye, and must have recently escaped through Hell."
"Sangfroid...." Prince Leron touched his cheek, the coolness of his fingers making his eyes sting, he wanted to cry but it has been so long since he had and it doesn't feel right to do so anymore.
"It is honestly not that bad."
"What?" Sangfroid said disbelievingly.
"Of course I pity you for having such injuries while you were young. I couldn't help it. My heart aches just from seeing your scars." Prince Leron said. "But you're not hideous. You're a victim of an attack from a very young age. The nun is wrong, you do not look like you came from hell. I think hell is already around us and we suffer in it each day. All of us humans are the real demons, especially the ones who harm those who don't deserve it."
Sangfroid was visibly moved by the Prince's words. His eyes went misty and he eventually gave up on stopping himself from crying, laying his head on the prince's shoulder. "Thank you...."
"There is no need to thank me. I should be the one to thank you for trusting me." Prince Leron patted the back of his head. "I know how difficult it must have been. You didn't have to tell me anything, yet you chose to do so."
The two remained embracing on the mattress on the floor. Sangfroid felt like he was happier than he had ever been in his life. The prince does not find him revolting, he doesn't despise him. He held Prince Leron close in his arms, thanking the Heavenly Father for making him love a very kind man who is unlike what the Bishop had told him.
A raven watched the scene from the window, its round black eyes a little more reflective than usual.
"Ah, how touching." Vladstin sneered, his fangs protruding from his mouth. "It's about time that Hunter revealed his stupid little secret to the prince. He doesn't even look that horrible with those scars, it just made him more appealing to those who like the rugged type. The next one would be a confession, I wager."
He was sitting on a charred, blackened throne. Around him were rubble and ruins, what was left of the grand Crescentian palace where he was born and killed. There was nothing left of the rooftops and the moon shone through him like a spotlight, his figure crossed legged with his chin resting by his hand in a smug manner.
"He better say it soon though, or I might steal his prince from him before he even gets a chance. Wouldn't that be too evil?" Vladstin, the prince of the vampires, cackled all alone throwing his head back.
Surrounded by his army of corpses, his hysterical laughter resonated through the chaotic winds, becoming an ominous sound to those who can hear it.
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