Meanwhile, after checking in on the children, Val spotted the duke looking around for something desperately.
Ah, right. It was time for the waltz.
He must be looking for a suitable partner. He laughed as Callisto was stuck in the crowd, still searching for someone.
What was he doing? Val chuckled.
He should have just taken the closest person to him and danced with them.
Though it would be quite sad if the duke had a change in mind for the dance.
Haiz. His thinking was so contradictory that he was starting to sound like a love stricken maiden. Even he himself didn't understand the matters in his heart.
…
He had planned on watching Callisto dance as an observer.
But…,
Why was he here on the dance floor with him?
Going back to a few moments ago, Callisto finally found Val and reached out for him. Seeing that Val had no intentions on accepting his request to dance, he pulled him gently onto the dancing floor, in front of him.
Eh? Val was in disbelief that the dance partner Callisto was urgently searching for was him. He cried internally, wishing Callisto had chosen a better partner to dance with him.
Val knew his limits. He wasn't a skilled dancer. The last time he performed was just a fluke; he managed to finish the slow waltz perfectly because the duke covered for his mistakes and he adapted to it fairly well. He was only taking the hard route by trying to teach Val how to dance.
As participants slowly made their way to the marble dance floor, the music began to play. Starting to move, Val followed Callisto's footwork. Having to dance to a slow waltz like this reminded him of his first dance three months ago. It was soothing to listen to a harmonious melody and move his body along to the music.
After casting an illusion barrier around the two of them, Val asked Callisto for permission to act since his single minded decisions might ruin his schemes. "The duke had already made his move. Should I silence his servants or follow them and interfere with their plans?"
"The latter. You might get some useful information. " Follow and interfere. Both choices were a piece of cake for Val, who possessed exceptional abilities.
"Got it."
Callisto requested Val. "Remember to save me if I am in a pinch."
"Are you joking?" Val knew he could get out of trouble easily and even faster if he had the royals looking out for him.
"No."
"Yeah, yeah. I will request Charles for assistance since he would rush for miles in a second just to serve you. At least that's how much loyalty he looked like he had towards you."
"What about you?" Holding him tighter, they held close eye contact once again. Narrowing his eyes, Callisto tried to interrogate answers out of him. "Will you risk your life for me?"
"..." This time, Val hesitated to answer him. "..No, I won't."
He lied.
For Callisto, ever since the beginning of their reunion and even back then, he knew for sure he would do anything for his sake.
Val deduced from Callisto's look of reassurance - though his expression hadn't really changed that much in the eyes of other people - that the duke was asking because he was concerned about his safety in this mission.
Judging from how Elaine was unbothered to care for those goons, that must mean they were fairly weak. He could take care of this with ease.
After roughly getting used to the dance steps in two minutes, he was able to enjoy the flow of the dance and even improvised some steps in between unbeknownst to the audience. Callisto also became bold, playing it by the ear in the second round.
Once the calm and relaxing piece of tune ended, the conductor stopped the orchestra, which smoothly changed their tempo, introducing the Viennese Waltz.
Crap!
Although he memorized the dance steps in the Rotary Waltz from the dance etiquette book, he wasn't prepared to put the theory into practice. It was too different from the slow waltz he was familiarized with after practicing hard for one month.
Seeing Val so indecisive, Callisto lifted him, aligning his feet on top of his. "Hold on tight."
Callisto whispered into his ears as he held Val's waist tighter and guided Val around the room. Though Val was lighter than the average weight of the males, you couldn't say he was light either. Besides, with their pace 2 times faster, containing more complicated steps than the gentle slow waltz, it would be hard for Callisto to dance skillfully while not getting tired.
Feeling sorry for having to perform this routine with twice the weight on top of the duke's feet, Val regretted the fact that he didn't prepare enough for the situation and troubled the duke.
After the dance ended, he asked Callisto, who displayed no signs of weariness, whether he was okay. Callisto, as if wondering why he was asking such an obvious question, answered. "Of course not. You estimate the stamina an average vampire has."
Val replied. "I don't. I just don't want to inconvenience you. Besides…!"
"Yeah, yeah, my dear wife. I got your words." Callisto cut in, patting his head a couple of times before leaving to talk with the royals.
Wife!? Again, his heart was led around by his misleading words.
The places the duke brushed past or touched were burning hot. He was puzzled as to why he had this kind of reaction when this kind of skin ship between friends was normal.
Normal?
Then, could he say his feelings towards Callisto were normal?
His heart would ache whenever Callisto looked sad. He wanted to comfort Callisto whenever he was gloomy. He desired to take away his pain and make him forget about his scars whenever he looked like he was suffering.
Since the start, he was already aware of the true identity of these feelings he buried within.
It was best for Callisto to never reciprocate his feelings. It would only cause the duke further trouble. Besides, he had already broken his heart once.
He'd rather these flimsy feelings would never resurface again for his and the duke's sake. This much distance between them was adequate. They could newly start over their relationship as friends at this moment where they had little memories of the other.
Telling Val they had something to tell him, the twins dragged Val from the dancing floor into the nearest balcony, whispering their findings into Val's ears. They pointed out at the two men they could smell drugs from. They were the 2 butlers of the mansion, working busily to serve the nobles.
"Are you sure?"
It wasn't that he didn't believe in his children, but rather there would be a problem with Duke Lecter, who would make use of any people's weaknesses to drag them down. The same went for Callisto who was in a higher rank than him in terms of status or abilities.
"Yes." Raul nodded.
He asked more questions to test whether their senses were accurate or whether someone spiked the drinks or food to confuse their senses. They showed no symptoms of anything even after a few minutes passed and the children felt nothing wrong with their senses, both before and after consuming a meal.
"Thank you for telling me." He knelt down on the ground with one knee, at equal eye level with Raul and Rune. "What would you like for a reward?"
Raul made his request first. "Can you retract your condition for us to protect you or participate in any guild activities until the age of fifteen to ten? I can confirm that both of us have grown in strength and this year, we will surely awaken."
"How are you so…?" Val was surprised Raul would make this kind of request.
"As half bloods, you know our circumstances to awakening is 'special' compared to the normal breeds. But ma, we aren't being reckless. We are old enough to know our body well."
Val thought it over. His children were childish, playful but he knew they would be mature and sensible when taking care of important matters. He could only trust them on one condition, which was their abilities. They wouldn't be able to survive in the Valerian Empire alone.
"If you don't awaken your abilities some time this year, I will retract this promise and your wish. Or else, this wish, I can grant it to you."
"Yah!" Rune exclaimed in excitement as she high-fived Raul. "Mum, they're on the move now. Shouldn't you go after them?"
Rune was pointing at the 2 men walking away from the banquet hall.
"I will get going as soon as I leave you guys with someone trustworthy."
"You mean the duke?"
"No," Val replied as he sped up the pace after seeing the two servants nearly exiting the room, "you will be staying with Sister Elaine."
He handed over a bottle of pepper spray and some herbs the children had knowledge of into their pockets for self defense. "If anything happens, use this to perform a first aid before you call Charles or Riley. Or call for Elaine if she is near you."
He requested Elaine to keep an eye for other suspicious characters leaving the ball on the spur of moment or record their movements from a safe distance and send them to him later.
Leaving the children in the hands of Elaine, only giving her a brief explanation, Val rushed off in leaping, light steps to follow the men his children smelled drugs from. Callisto had ensured that the supply of drugs into the country was eradicated and even enforced the law to prevent vampires from using it.
If word came out that the drugs were still circulating within the Valerian Empire, his reputation would probably hit rock bottom. While his people might not lose their trust in the duke, a small sprout of doubt will surely be planted deep in their minds that the duke might be secretly stashing drugs for himself to get stronger.
The reason why the enhancement drugs, which allowed the supplier to do their bidding, wasn't as popular in Valerian Empire as it was in Regalia - werewolves' territory, was because nobles were proud of the fact that they were stronger than commoners since birth.
Needless to say, those condescending ones didn't think an enhancement drugs could really make a difference. 'Commoners would never get stronger than their birth given talent' was their general thought. The fact that common vampires could get stronger than them with this drug never reached their ears due to the royals burying this secret under the rug.
If someone were to even spread one word about it, it would cause unrest and anxiety from both the nobles and the commoners within their kingdom. It would form cracks in the kingdom which both races can easily writhe into.
Thanks to the law royals came up with - harming any person regardless of status will warrant a heavy punishment according to the weight of the crimes, the nobles were dissatisfied but had nothing to say since the king's word was absolute. Although no nobles physically abused their servants, that didn't mean they treated the servants any better.
Instead the servants would be treated based on their whims - humiliated until they could never appear in society or rising to the highest status a servant could possibly given - just for entertainment. But, that didn't mean there wasn't good nobles.
Some had a sharp tongue but a soft heart for the servants, some would be satisfied as long as the servants minded their own business and do their pay's worth, while a few others regarded them as equals and would even take the initiative to help them out.
After Callisto made an example of slaughtering corrupt nobles, who were involved in acts of embezzlement, rape, sexual harassment, leaking secret information about the country to anyone else, the nobles laid low in their illegal activities lest they see that monstrous duke arrive at their home, only to raze it down to nothingness.
Putting aside their common threat, the enemies could make use of the cracks' weakness and drop the bomb it at any timing. If bombed at the wrong time, it would cause enough damage to prevent the empire from thriving once again.
The consequences were so great that the royal pure bloods would probably torture the duke before letting him die in peace. Val didn't think Duke Lecter, known as the most powerless duke in the whole empire, would be blinded with greed when the consequences and the backlash against him would be so enormous.
Was he gambling his life when carrying out this plan or was he just following the orders of someone else?
Or maybe he was blinded by his desire to powerful?
Considering his cautious personality ever since he fell to the last rank, it was highly unlikely that he came up with such a risky plan. Those two servants seemed like the type to spill the beans as long as their survival could be guaranteed. But according to his deduction, they probably wouldn't be informed of any plans nor could they hint at the mastermind whom they believe.
Setting his phone ringer to silent mode, allowing Rune's laptop and Raul's phone to check on his location, he kept his distance and followed the two servants out of Duke Lecter's mansion, who were heading to Callisto's mansion. Val managed to keep up with them without them discovering a whisp of his presence nearby.
Bored of the silence in the dense, bright forest, one of the male servants on the left started talking to the person adjacent to him.
"Dean, why did you even get into this line of work?" He hesitantly spoke up.
Val was fascinated by the fact that they could still have a conversation at the rapid pace they were running at the same time, each carrying in their arms, a heavy looking wooden crate.
"What kind of work? Framing others? Or do you mean obeying every sickening command that person gives us?"
Unusual. Whoever "that person' he was referring to, it was definitely not the duke. It seemed that his guess that there was a mastermind behind this was right.
"But our master now is the duke, brother."
Unlike the hot tempered one who was talking now, the other one was meek and naive. They certainly didn't resemble each other. Two opposite personalities working together for a task. Could the mission even go smoothly?
"That rotten duke? If not for the master's orders, I would curse him to rot in hell. Look at the atrocities he caused. Not only one life was broken, but several people like us ... were played around in his hands." He clenched his teeth as if truly grieving their deaths. "We are originally already broken in the head so it's fine but… they didn't deserve such treatment."
At the mention of those people, the meek one lowered his head, his eyes narrowed, wallowing in slight remorse. He only mustered out a mumble. "You are right, brother."
"Syn, don't you feel regretful that we didn't manage to save the newly hired servants there?"
"It's not that I don't. I just….realized the limits of our abilities without our master."
Dean was visibly shocked that Syn felt this way about their situation, but... "You couldn't be thinking of asking Josep....no, our master for help." Seeing Syn nod his head, Dean shouted. "Don't joke around! He thinks of everyone as tools except for the person beside the blue mermaid. You know how he's overly sensitive when it comes to matters concerning, what was his name again? Ca…Callisto?"
Syn shut his brother's mouth. "It's not okay to divulge our master's personal information out in the open."
"He may be your master, but he's certainly not mine." Seeing Syn's cute glare, he chuckled. "Even if you look at me like that, you can't stop me."
Syn changed his strategy to soothing Dean. "Brother, I think you should tone it down. If our master heard of what you said right now, he would probably behead you at the spot."
Ehhh? So he wasn't reassuring Dean, but threatening him to shut his mouth. Val didn't know Syn would be the dom in this relationship.
"He wouldn't. He would bring up the hostages first before daring me to cut off my head and threatening to do the same to the rest of our comrades."
Oh, ho. So he was doing as he was told because of the hostages.
"Don't dig your own grave!" Syn warned him.
"I won't. There is no one following us right now." Dean shrugged off his little brother's worries.
Wrong. There was one. Right behind you. Val objected to his statement in his mind.
Dean resumed his declaration. "Besides, if there was someone listening just now, we can just silence them." As soon as Dean sensed a slight presence around them, he immediately threw a dagger towards Val's way, which was stuck tight on the tree.
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "That's weird."
"Brother, you scared me. What are you doing all of a sudden?"
"Nothing." He answered, all the while moving faster towards Callisto's less guarded mansion. Syn followed him with ease.
It was close! Val, who was holding in his breath, heaved a sigh of relief as he narrowly dodged the black shining dagger by a breadth of his hair. How did the kid perceive his presence even when he was about 2.5 kilometers away?
Never mind that.
Leaving the dagger as it was, he decided to hasten his retrieval of the crates, which contained the drugs inside, lest Duke Lecter noticed something was amiss. Standing far enough that they wouldn't hear his call, he asked Charles for assistance in looking around for other suspicious looking substances and cleaning up any traces of drugs inside Duke Callisto's mansion.
He ordered a secret command for Charles only in the language of vampires, Rufeis since werewolves find it hard to understand this language.