In the quiet café, Aliana and Jaden conversed at their table, while Claire whispered something intriguing. Across the room, Rudia and Melanie observed them from another table.
Even though the peaceful silence spread throughout the café, Melanie couldn't hear what the three were discussing. She spun the fork, wrapping pasta around it.
Rudia saw the drooping face of the little girl in front of her. Aside from rolling pasta around the fork, she had not taken a single bite.
Her blue eyes were hidden behind the bangs of her hair. Rudia slowly leaned her body forward after pushing the plate in front of her aside.
Click
Melanie's eyes became visible since her bangs were being pulled sideways because of the hairclip Rudia had put on her. Rudia smiled, trying to take the fork from Melanie's hand.
"You shouldn't be thinking about something else while eating food."
She put a small ball of pasta in Melanie's mouth. She kept on glancing at Claire, who had put aside her meal to talk with the two sitting at a distance.
Melanie didn't say a word as she chewed the pasta before gulping it down. Rudia smiled lightly while seeing her drink water from the glass kept next to her plate.
'That's right. Kids shouldn't be interested in talks like those.'
Rudia had already caught on to the rumours she came across while moving around the street. Her eyes slowly moved in the direction in which the three were having their conversation.
Jaden had sweat covering his wrinkly forehead. His eyebrows made a frown while he stared at Claire with a clumsy smile on his lips.
'I already know it all. Just leave already!'
He was already annoyed by Claire talking non-stop. Already, Aliana had Jaden's frustration piling up. There was no telling when Jaden would let his anger out.
Aliana was glaring at Claire furiously. It felt to her that Claire had been wasting her time with all the unnecessary talk.
Thud
Claire flinched upon seeing the knife getting stabbed into the table. The rage in Aliana's eyes was quite obvious.
On one side, a fork was standing with its tip buried in the table surface, while the other side had a knife like that. Unlike Jaden, Aliana wasn't the type to suppress her anger.
-[You should probably leave them alone already.]
As the voice in her head was about to finish saying it, Claire stood up in her spot vigorously. She turned around and waved her hand at Melanie, who wasn't even looking at her anymore.
"I-i should go and finish my meal!"
Saying that, Claire rushed away from there. Jaden watched her run away with a blank expression, as if he expected it.
Aliana's sigh fell on his ears, which made him turn around. Soon, another sound followed it, and Jaden felt something brush past his whole body.
Snap
Aliana had put up a barrier so that no one heard what they were talking about. Jaden understood that she was going to talk about something important.
"There's no way of entering the elven forest when guards are patrolling the area."
Obviously, if they were to be caught by the guards, it would turn out to be troublesome for them to solve it without exposing their true identities. And if that were to happen...
"We can't afford to risk exposing our origins here. For the sake of our future."
He had no accurate guess as to what plan Aliana had on her mind. But one thing was certain: revealing their identities would cause more trouble for them.
Aliana continued speaking while pulling out a knife and fork from the table's surface. Jaden gulped down his own saliva.
"Then what will we do...?"
Looking at the situation thoroughly, he noticed that it was a sensitive matter. Such a case where there was no telling what would happen if they acted recklessly.
He couldn't think of all the possible consequences of failing to hide their identity. But there were some obvious ones.
One more reason for keeping it all hidden for as long as they could was because it would lead to national conflicts between the Dragonaria Kingdom and the Agustus Kingdom.
They had already caused them more than enough trouble during the banquet. To top it off, they couldn't bear to lose the good terms they had with the trade centre of the continent.
"We can't get in when the guards are patrolling."
Aliana's serious expression was overwritten by a bright smile. Jaden placed his fingers on his eyes as he felt overwhelmed trying to determine what exactly she was planning.
It seemed like she had already decided to sneak past the patrolling units on the border of the elven forest. Aliana pointed her index finger at Jaden as her white teeth became visible.
"We just need to avoid getting caught."
Well, she wasn't wrong for saying that. No matter how heavy of a crime it was to go against the Emperor's orders, if not proved, they wouldn't be counted as guilty.
Figuring out Aliana's plan, Jaden smiled nervously. He was aware that if they got caught sneaking into the elven forest, it would not turn out well for them.
If it were him a few weeks ago, he would've definitely rejected a plan like Aliana was suggesting. Given how reckless it sounded, he was certain of it. But this time he had no choice other than blindly trusting Aliana.
Everything aside, there has been something else bothering him for a while. He was hesitating to ask Aliana, but finally managed to muster up the courage.
"What kind of person is the emperor?"
Aliana had mentioned that she had met him quite a few times. Jaden couldn't help but be curious about what she would say about him.
Aliana sat on her chair again, slowly. She drank the whole glass of water kept for her. She put it down on the table with a bit of force, making a 'thud' sound.
Slowly, her lips curled up, forming a tensed smile. She spoke in a cold voice. Jaden could feel the chills on his body just by being near her.
"He is a crazy son of b*tch."
----------------------
- 6 hours later-
Drip drip
The red liquid dripped down the tip of the sword. The red carpet had gotten wet thanks to the liquid. Nothing was visible properly under the dim lights of the candles lit in the room.
"Heh."
The man snickered as his face reflected lightly on the surface of the sword. The pitch-black darkness in his eyes seemed as eerie as ever.
The red drops flowed down his ominous black hair. The only one within the room was the man, whose presence was more than enough to make even the air itself tremble with fear.
His left hand gripped onto the sword and hung down the bathtub filled with red, which he was laying his body into. His fangs dug into the black glove on his right hand.
He pulled the glove, adjusting it on his hand properly. His gaze fell on the unbuttoned shirt, which made his muscular body dipped under the liquid barely visible.
"Likes of you wish to cut off my head?"
The maniacal, dry laughter devoured the silence in the air. His gaze smoothly moved towards the floor.
The air was turning slowly cold, along with his pitch-black eyes. Not a slight glow was visible on his iris. The only thing clear in them was madness.
Slowly, he poked his sword at something lying down on the ground. He spoke in a cold tone while glaring at the things that lay on the floor right beside the bathtub.
"Guess the dead people can't speak."
His devilish grin became visible as his eyes got covered under his bangs. The cold air throughout the room was being emanated by this very man.
The dead bodies laying here and there around the room had grown cold. But not colder than the dry laughter of the man.
The man was the very embodiment of madness, displaying erratic behaviour and chaotic conduct. His thirst for blood had led to the current condition of people lying lifeless on the floor.
The grotesque image was reflected in the man's eyes as he stood up and stepped out of the tub. His wet clothes—the white shirt and the black pants—sticked to his body.
There was a mirror within the room that reflected his physique amidst the darkness. The flickering candles made his well-defined muscles on his abdomen cast faint shadows across it.
He unbuttoned his shirt completely and took it off. The scars on his bulky body became clearly visible. He grinned at the amusement he was experiencing at the moment.
"To think they would send these weaklings after my neck again..."
Tormenting people wasn't a hobby of his. Soon, the grin faded away. He walked while wobbling to the door that led him to his bedroom.
As he approached the bed, he let his body fall freely on it. He pulled himself up and laid on his back. Staring at the darkness that covered the ceiling, he put his left arm on his eyes.
"What is the point of having the power?"
He murmured alone within the dead, silent room. The moonlight made his black hair glisten serenely.
The man was the lone person within the huge building. No one could hear whatever he said to himself.
"What is the point of becoming the emperor?"
He bit his lips while his nails dug tight into his palms. The smell of blood in the air became intense.
The man lying on the bed was none other than the emperor of the Agustus Kingdom himself. Adrienne Agustus, age 25, is the last member of the Agustus royal family.
Killing people throughout the day and night—that's how he spent his life till now. He kept on killing his enemies, but they never seemed to decrease. It was an endless cycle he had gone through since he turned 10.
Thanks to his genius, he has managed to survive until now. He not only defeated all the assassins sent after him but also managed to devour their skills and make them his own.
He had been living on a battlefield without even a war taking place. As the rumours related to his bloodthirst spread throughout the kingdom, people started to fear him and chose to keep a distance from him.
"Have they arrived there?"
He muttered to himself as if he were expecting something. His voice echoed throughout his room as he peered through the gap between his fingers at the ceiling.
His right eye glowed golden in the dark. He smiled lightly as something reflected in his eyes. He spoke while shutting his eyes.
"It's just like 'that person' had said..."