Chapter 120: Chapter 120
KAIST:
I was a child, but my young mind was able to process what happened so far.
My mother must have been a Shadow Rune wolf… Why else would she have a spirit stone? And that child, Dahlia, the one whom Duke Jeteris always took with him in the palace, was given my mother’s spirit stone.
I couldn’t imagine how that could happen back then, but I knew that Dahlia was in trouble…
I didn’t know what happened next. I was sure I was staying very quiet under my father’s table. Maybe I had accidentally touched his boot, which caused him to retract his feet a little bit and peer at me from underneath.
Our eyes met. I remained frozen on the spot.
He then started to speak. “We won’t be able to stop it all will… A weed, when left unattended, will surely become a bother.”
He was talking about Dahlia, right?...
“Then what do you propose I do? Do you want me to extract it from her? You know what the repercussions might be,” the worried voice of Duke Hurst trailed off.
“What if that child puts us in grave danger and The Blasted Ones discover its existence? We could all die,” my father replied.
“T-Then I’ll keep her… I’ll keep her away from anything and everything,”
“Make sure to keep it well, Jude. Put it in a bottle, or seal it away – I don’t care… But make sure no one will know of its existence, or one of us could end up dead,” were my father’s final parting words.
I understood it. The words were not just meant for the adults, but also for me.
He had meant to say that if I failed to protect Dahlia and her secret, she will die…
Perhaps, this is what started it all. Out of sympathy, I became close to the shy, little girl who always played with me in the palace. I readily accepted her powers when she decided to tell me about it. Before long, I had fallen in love with her too…
Now it seemed that Lady Livia knew of this deadly secret as well…
“Alright… Stay here. We will meet with the king in the evening time.”
I asked Pelle to serve dinner to Lady Livia in the guest room while I stayed in my own room. By now, I would have normally taken my dinner, but I was not in the mood.
What will Lady Livia say? Just how far does he know about Dahlia and her involvement with the Shadow Rune Pack?
As the clock struck nine, I took a candle and went on my own without any guards back into Lady Livia’s room.
Lady Livia was sitting by the fireplace, her dark cloak drawn over to her face.
“Let’s go,” I said quietly.
By now, my father would have been all alone in his bed chamber. Protected by fierce lycan magic that were used to build the palace, his room would be impenetrable to intruders bearing ill wills at this time.
My main concern, which I shared with Lady Livia, was that her father will be beside the king at that time.
She didn’t take the news too well. Frankly, I don’t like Count Jeteris too, and I don’t like the idea that Lady Livia might become privy to my father’s addiction after tonight. However, we’ve got no choice.
If we were lucky, Count Jeteris would have already left father by himself.
I blew out the light from our candlestick as we neared his bedchamber. I cautioned Lady Jeteris to stay quiet. She nodded her head, and we proceeded to my father’s chamber in silence and in utmost secrecy.
It was a good thing we were quiet. My father was unfortunately not alone. I can feel the presence of someone else in his chamber even before we entered.
I motioned Lady Livia to wait outside while I investigated.
As I slipped inside the door, I heard a raspy, old voice speak. “It’s about time we meet, Maurus. It has been a long time, hasn’t it?”
I was hiding in a pillar overlooking his bed. I can’t see the person’s face in front of him as he was dressed in a dark robe much like what Lady Livia was wearing.
“I-It can’t be! It’s impossible!”
“Is it really? When you asked Claude to discard me, you should have made sure I was dead… Now, I have come back to take what’s mine!”
“Y-You’re wrong… I didn’t ask him to throw you away… H-He said he could save you! H-He said he could definitely save you!”
“And you believed him like the fool that you are, Maurus! He hated me ever since I had been kidnapped… Did you really think he will save someone like me?”
“Y-Yes! H-He saved my Kaist! He saved our baby. I was sure he could save you too!”
My heart beat stopped. Did I hear my father correctly? He said ‘our baby…’
What the hell was going on?
“Well, he did not save me, Maurus. He killed me. He left me to die after ripping my body open, but guess what, I am back from the dead to come kill you!”
“No!” My own screams were caught in my throat as I hear a female voice shout from the back.
I spun around to find Lady Livia running towards my father’s bed. She was holding a dagger in her hand.
I acted fast to stop her. If she will so much as raise her hand with intent to harm the king in this room, she will surely be stuck dead!
I thought I had acted fast, but I guess I was not fast enough.
Whoever was the person who planned to kill my father had gotten to Lady Livia’s side in a much quicker pace. She clutched her by the neck with one hand.
Judging by the slender arms and elongated nails, my father’s persecutor was a woman, and she was also a vampire.
“Let her go,” I threatened. Whoever that woman was, I had no intentions of getting soft with her.
She did not stir. She only tightened the grip around Lady Livia’s neck.
“Let the lady go,” I roared again, this time transforming myself into a half wolf. Lady Livia thrashed about, making the hood of her robe fall away from her face.
It was only by then that the woman let Livia go with a gasp. I caught Livia in my arms just in time. She landed on my chest, while we went on a soft thud against the marbled floor.
My eyes fell in contact with the woman’s gaze inside her hood. She immediately lifted the thing obscuring her face completely away, and I too had to gasp.
Before me was someone who looked exactly like Livia Jeteris… except that she had the blood–red eyes of a vampire.