When the moon had started to come up, Ciel and Beelzebub switched to playing Old Maid.
After losing ten rounds to Ciel along the way, Beelzebub laughed. His demeanor was completely like a harmless neighborhood brother when he was not ruining it with a bad version of a sinister smile.
"I like you, such a fun kid. Won't you join us for real? I'll be happy to welcome you into our family."
Ciel's eyebrows twitched.
'The heck is wrong with people in this world? Why are they always trying to be my family?'
"No thank you, I have my own family. Others can join my family but I won't be going into other families."
'Let me be, I just want to have fun on my own with no fetters.'
At least Beelzebub was one of the friendlier executives in Novus Vita, which was why Ciel had humored him instead of just trying to escape.
He was still trying to get away though. In the novel, if the demons were the evil ones, Novus Vita was the unreasonable pure evil. Living up to their name as a terrorist organization, they would randomly choose victims of various arson, poisonings, etc.
And, the organization's intentions had been still unclear even up to the point where Ciel had stopped reading.
Cults were easy to join but hard to leave. Ciel's personality was incredibly whimsical and fun-seeking—unsuited to the long term commitments required in cults.
Thinking about that, Ciel yawned, "You aren't afraid after such a long time, your merchandise has run away?"
"It's not in my jurisdiction anyway. I was just trying to help my big brother out. Ah wait." Beelzebub's dusty pink eyes widened and he paused, as if only noticing how long it had been.
"F*ck I got distracted again! I need to capture the goods!"
"You must be scolded by your big brother a lot with an attention span like yours." Ciel laughed happily. "We've been playing games all night. You think you'll be able to get away? I can already see the reinforcements coming our way."
He was telling the truth. He could have started to hear shouting a long time ago. Beelzebub looked unhappy, but he made no move to leave even when Erin burst into the clearing right behind him.
Seeing Ciel and Beelzebub sitting peacefully across from each other holding playing cards, Erin halted, confused. At some point, the men behind Beelzebub had dissipated into thin air, as if they never existed at all. Recognizing the game they were playing, Erin subconsciously blurted out, "Brother, you're about to take the old maid."
Beelzebub's face darkened as Ciel's hand moved to the side. Seeing this, Ciel quickly moved back, took the original card, and splayed out his cards onto the ground. "I forfeit. You win."
Ciel felt his forehead faintly throbbing, it was the light from the reinforcements. It was becoming as bright as day. He quickly wiped the physiological tears coming out of his eyes.
"Still not leaving? There's no point in fighting us. The goods got away and the whole kingdom will hunt you down if you kidnap the crown prince now."
Novus Vita valued secrecy, and Beelzebub only revealed his face to Ciel because one, he barely used his actual face, and two, it was to show his sincerity in recruiting Ciel.
Too bad Ciel wasn't interested.
Beelzebub looked conflicted as he looked between the approaching lights and at the immobilized Ciel on the ground.
It really was time for him to leave.
"You really don't want to come with me? A peaceful, fun-loving kid like you will be well taken care of." Maybe because of the fact that they had been playing cards for hours, but Beelzebub had apparently forgotten how Ciel had slit his own neck.
Ciel shook his head, still rubbing his eyes.
'Damn this body. Just a bit of bright light can make it cry so much.'
On the side, Erin remembered Ciel's behavior when seeking 'entertainment,' and had confusion in his scarlet eyes. Amusing? Yes. But his brother was anything but peaceful.
Beelzebub made a quick decision. His current mission given by his brothers needed him to stay unknown. His brother's disappointment weighed heavier on his mind than a random kid, even if the kid was interesting. He could also just take the kid now, but with his legs, there would definitely be a blood trail left behind.
He couldn't afford to be caught now.
The reinforcements arrived just as Beelzebub jumped back into the trees. The captain, a burly man with short cropped hair, looked at the small child sitting among the grass before giving an order.
"Chase the kidnapper! Hurry up!"
After giving orders to his men, he himself stopped next to Ciel as his subordinates went after the fleeing figure of Beelzebub. His heart softened when he saw how hard the child was crying. "Are you ok?"
Ciel gave up trying to stop his watering eyes and simply closed them. Thankfully, the light wasn't as bright as sunlight and could be muted by his eyelids.
"I'm fine, it's just that your light's too bright."
Erin thoughtfully handed him a strip of cloth.
"Thanks." Ciel paused, before adding. "Good job."
"What about me?" Cedric's chirpy voice broke through Ciel's thoughts.
"You also did a good job." Ciel smiled, not bothering to activate his mana senses. His nine year old body was tired from playing all night.
However, his plans to go back and sleep were shattered when he heard Jadiel's rough voice.
"You brat! I told you to take the crown prince and his friend for a tour! Not for you guys to get kidnapped!"
Ciel shrugged, "I did give a tour. And isn't everyone fine? I also found new clients. You'll have to search the mountain for them though."
Ciel felt himself being picked up, and a familiar gunpowder smell filled his senses. "Fine? Then why are your pants wet with blood? The stench is killing my nose."
Magic was very complicated. This was because each soul had their own specialties that would subconsciously influence a mage's spell. Two people who had the same affinity level for the same attribute could produce vastly different results depending on their general differences. But mostly, there were only minute differences because if two people had the same affinity, that meant their souls were similar.
Ciel's blood affinity only allowed him to only redraw his blood back into his body if he had been manipulating it before it had flowed out. In other words, he had only been able to withdraw part of his spilled blood.
In simple terms, because he hadn't expected two holes to appear on each of his legs, he couldn't do anything about that small pool of blood he had been sitting in for the past few hours. At most, he could stop himself from bleeding out to death.
However, that didn't prevent Ciel from running his mouth off. "You're mistaken. This isn't blood. This is from when I peed my pants in fear."
"You sound very calm for someone who just peed their pants. You think my nose is useless?"
"It's not my blood."
Hearing that, Jadiel examined the boy closely before sighing in relief. He found no fresh blood, so although there seemed to be a few bruises and cuts, none seemed too deep.
Trying hard to follow Ciel's train of thought, Jadiel frowned.
"I don't do take-backs. Do you think your position will be taken away just because you got injured?"
"The fact that I got injured on my first day of work and lost the clients is a sign of incompetence."
In his past life, no mistakes were tolerated, whether you worked at a casino or worked as a soldier in the army. That was how Ciel gained the skill of multitasking—giving himself some entertainment as he worked.
Jadiel roughly ruffled Ciel's wavy black hair, "Why didn't I find you this honest before when you were causing trouble left and right during the past week? I think the entire gray area in the capital knows about that one shortie running around the gambling halls. I don't know how people haven't marched to our doorstep yet."
Ciel puffed up with rare pride.
'That's because I don't lose and I know their bottom lines.'
"I was bored. You didn't give me anything to do."
"You—ha, we'll talk about this at home. I trust your highness won't have any issues with that?"
The last sentence was directed at Dominic, who had also arrived at some time. With unknown thoughts in his mind, he stared at Ciel's pale face, particularly at his blindfold, which was a bit wet from Ciel's residual tears.
"..I have no issues with that. We need to head back as well. Other things can be discussed tomorrow."
In his comfy position in Jadiel's arms, Ciel shifted his head towards Dominic's direction.
'Hmm? That doesn't sound like something the third fish would say. Doesn't he like to wrap things up as fast as possible? The guards that went after Beelzebub aren't even back yet.'
But before he could start up his mana senses to see what was going on, Jadiel started walking away.
'Oh well. We'll meet tomorrow anyway.' Ciel turned his head back. The tiredness he had pushed back had come in at full force now, and he slowly drifted to sleep.
He didn't notice that as his consciousness drifted off, his blood manipulation magic was slowly loosening before completely disappearing, letting his blood run freely.
Walking down the mountain, Jadiel sniffed the air, "Erin, do you smell blood?"
Erin, who was trotting next to Jadiel, paused, and stuck his forked tongue out, "I think it's coming from you?"
Jadiel stilled, Ciel's blood had finally penetrated his clothes, and he felt his shirt quickly become wet with blood.
He looked down, barely stopping himself from cursing, before grabbing Erin by the back of his clothes and speeding up.
"We need to get to Lilian. Quickly."
The boy in his arms who seemed to be fine earlier was suddenly bleeding heavily.
Mini Theater:
Beelzebub: Our family(cult) is very friendly, and we welcome talented kids like you (b`▿´)b.
Ciel: Sorry, long term commitment is not my thing, I'd rather stay in Fatalite.
Jadiel: So you mean Fatalite's not a long term commitment? (￢_￢)
Ciel: Um… _(:зゝ∠)_