Actra closed the book after picking it up on the floor and all this while— his eyes were on Kai. His hands moved with muscle memory, as he slid the book to the side.
"Please, do come in," he said, in a flat voice.
He gestured vaguely towards a worn leather chair across from his desk.
Kai stepped deep into the room. Aged paper and an unusual odour filled his nostrils. It was the same scent he sensed whenever Actra was around.
His eyes didn't leave the Mage as he took the seat. He let them drift casually towards the scattered scrolls and books, then at the cup of tea on the desk that had just been finished.
Smiling, he raised them and looked at the Mage.
"I'm sorry to bother you," he said, trying to keep his voice fairly neutral. "Were you in between your research?"
"I was. As you know, you aren't a proper Mage if you find things easily when you are researching spells. Well, now that I think about it, you wouldn't know that saying since you haven't gone through formal training as a Mage," he replied, not hiding the displeasure in his voice. "Is that the reason you are here? Wanting formal training from me—"
"No." Kai shook his head.
Actra cleared his throat, coughing in the end due to his abrupt refusal. He straightened in his chair, "Then, I imagine you're here about the unfortunate casualties we suffered during the end of the expedition," he said, staring at him, trying to find something.
"No, that's not it either."
Kai almost felt like he saw Actra frowning for a second before his expression turned normal. "I expected you to come to meet me and apologise for the behaviour of your knight and your words afterwards, but it seemed like you had forgotten respect after somehow stumbling upon your inheritance."
It was the second time Actra had talked about it, but it seemed like he had connected his awakening as a Mage and spells to his family's inheritance.
It didn't make sense to Kai since Arzan had clearly lost the seat of Duke to his brother. Why would he get the inheritance?
Ignoring the questions, he frowned.
"I haven't forgotten respect. I only learned who to give it to." Actra's face fell as he spoke. Since the man had brought it out, he might as well give it to him. "I'm very aware of the fact that you seem to not care about the lives of brave men who sacrificed everything for our safety. And that is something I can't teach you, nor do I want to. It makes my blood boil. But much to my displeasure, I don't have any jurisdiction to punish you for that."
Kai paused. He waited until the Mage absorbed his carefully threaded words.
"However," Kai continued— a hint of amusement creeping into his voice. "I had a few questions. I wanted the answers from you."
"Do ask, Arzan. You've all the rights to do so."
"How about we start from the time you started to serve me?"
A snort escaped Actra's mouth as he shook his head. "I'm not serving you. I'm not bound to. My service is loyal to your father for the time being, who put you out here. Respectfully, to answer your question, I don't even serve him as it's a temporary service. I'm still a Mage of the Archine Tower."
Kai nodded. His mind shifted to one thing he said. The Archine Tower. He had read about it, but he refused to show anything— his neutral face that he always presented to Actra apart from times he angered him to the core on display.
"If that's the case," Kai's voice was gentle, slow and thoughtful, "under whose orders did you try to kill me with a silly ritual? Was it my father or the Archine Tower?"
Actra's gaze sharpened. This was it. The conversation they had both been dancing around for the longest time, the elephant in the dusty, book-filled room.
"My loyalty has never been in question, Lord Arzan," Actra said, something unusual shimmering in his voice. "The ritual was… necessary." He stressed the word, probably hoping it would ring true. "It was necessary for you to awaken as a Mage. Isn't that what we both wanted?"
Kai's gaze held a steely glint. "Do you truly believe that, Actra? Or are you simply clinging to that narrative?"
Actra faltered at the accusations. "Why won't I? You asked for it yourself; you wanted that ritual to escape your mortal shell, finally getting a chance to become a Mage."
"Why won't you tell me the truth? We both know the ritual wasn't for that," Kai pressed, his voice low and intense. "Are you not curious how I actually became a Mage? Or are you content to keep living this… ruse? I thought you would be curious to know how I lived through your trap."
Actra looked like a cornered animal, his gaze darting around the room before landing back on Kai.
The question hung heavy in the air. He knew he was playing with fire when it came to confronting Actra, but he didn't want to delay it anymore.
He had already gotten glimpses of his powers back in the cave and although he might have a few tricks he didn't know of, Kai had no qualms about dealing with him. Even if the fire burned, he was going to extinguish it today.
Finally, after a few seconds, Actra swallowed hard, a desperate glint flickering in his eyes.
"I did it for you, Arzan," he croaked, his voice barely a whisper. "For your own good. The ritual… it unlocked your potential. You might think otherwise, but you were only able to be a Mage because of me being loyal to you."
Kai leaned back in his chair, a hint of a no-nonsense smile playing on his lips. "Loyalty, is it? That's a curious way to describe telling me to stab myself in the guise of a ritual for a measly ten thousand gold."
Actra flinched at the mention of the sum. "It was a rare ritual," he said defensively. "Blood and soul rituals are like that. They need a little sacrifice. You see, it produced results!"
Kai sighed a weary sound that echoed in the dusty room. He felt like a man navigating a minefield, each step fraught with the potential for detonation. "Indeed," he said, his voice low. "And I imagine it took considerable effort to acquire such a potent ritual."
Actra straightened slightly. "Yes, It wasn't easy."
"Easy enough to plot with the Tradeheart Merchant Company to saddle me with debt, I presume— probably me losing my territory in the end, was the goal?" Kai asked, his voice devoid of emotion.
Actra's bravado sputtered. "That's a bold claim, Lord Arzan," he stammered, a nervous twitch developing at the corner of his eye.
Kai didn't reply.
Instead, he reached under his robe and placed a stack of papers in front of Actra.
He frowned, not knowing what they were.
Kai pushed it forward so that Actra could take a proper glance at them and soon he saw how Actra's gaze flickered between the pages and Kai.
They were the records of his communication with the Tradeheart company. He was sure most of them had been destroyed, but their main agreement was intact where Actra had been given more than a few rare resources in exchange for making sure that Kai gets in the position of needing a lot of money.
It wasn't a bad plan.
Actra uses Arzan's desire to become a Mage to sell him a rare ritual which would kill him. At the same time, contacting Tradeheart who had been eyeing the farmlands and getting resources from them in exchange for creating an opportunity for them to saddle him with debt.
He had even gotten away with the gold coins Arzan had used to get the ritual from him.
It was a win-win situation.
Kai hadn't found any agreement in the Tradeheart office, meaning they had destroyed it. Fortunately, Actra hadn't bothered to, probably never thinking about a possibility where his plot would be revealed. A rookie mistake.
Also, there were also letters exchanged with the Archine Tower, and the notes where it was mentioned that they were keeping a close eye on him— another thing for him to be concerned about.
For a moment, silence reigned supreme, broken only by Actra's ragged breaths. He stared at the documents, his face a mask of conflicting emotions— shock, anger, and a simmering fear.
"How… how did you get these?" he finally croaked, his voice hoarse with disbelief.
Kai's reply was a chilling smile. "A simple perusal of your belongings while you were… away. You do remember I'm the lord of the place and my reputation among the maids who clean the rooms is pretty good these days. A simple order is what it took."
Realization dawned on Actra, his features contorting in fury. "You went through the wards I made!" he roared, his voice laced with a desperate edge.
"They were easy enough to dispel," Kai said nonchalantly.
The box containing the documents he had been given by the maid was warded, but an hour of deconstructing the spells was enough to open them.
Actra lunged forward, a torrent of accusations spilling from his lips. "Who are you? Arzan could never learn to dispel my wards in a million years. You are an impostor?!"
Kai met his gaze unflinchingly. "Who I am is irrelevant," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "But what is relevant is that you'll answer for your crimes."
A flicker sparked in Actra's eyes as he raised his head, trying to build up a spell structure. Mana surged around him, but suddenly his eyes narrowed.
He lowered his raised hand. "You… What did you do to me?!"
"Nothing."
"Why can't I call up my mana?" He screamed, his eyes boring daggers at Kai.
"I really wondered how you survived being a Mage for so long. You shouldn't just drink anything. Though, I guess your senses aren't strong enough to sense Mana Bane," he said, his eyes moving towards the cup of tea. "Well, it was a very small portion of it and simply meant to render you useless. Your veins would be blocked for a few hours, but it would return to normal soon enough. By then, you would be in the cells."
Actra smashed his hand onto the teacup as Kai finished his explanation. For a second, it felt like he was going to overturn the desk as various emotions flashed through his eyes.
But out of nowhere, he pulled out a small vial with a few drops of black liquid inside.
Without wasting a single second, Actra drank it up and threw the vial on the floor.
"What's that? An antidote? It would take a while to—"
Kai stopped mid-sentence as he noticed something strange. A vicious smile suddenly appeared on Actra's face as his body started to warp.
A strange surge of mana erupted out of him and he clearly felt it. It was extremely different from the usual mana Actra used and was a bit murkier. It was also familiar to Kai.
"Dead mana…"
His eyes widened as black spots appeared on Actra's arms and his eyes turned red, the vicious smile stretching more and more.
"I told you before Arzan. You should have respected me more before."
-
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