Chapter 125: Chapter 125

KAIST:

Ignis rushed to the place where he could smell the scent of Count Jeteris. If we could see him, perhaps we would be able to know where his men had taken my mother and Lady Livia.

As expected, he was at his manor in the Capital. I treaded quietly, escaping all the guards that were positioned at the gates and the garden. I was even able to evade Count Jeteris’ servants, who walked about all over the place despite it being night time.

At last, I came to the door of his room and found his bed.

Ignis was swift. He wasted no time and pounced on the bed with his burly body.

Unfortunately, the count was not a fool who would fall for such an obvious attack.

The thing that lied under his sheets was someone else – a servant…a woman.

“S-Spare me, please,” she said to me. As expected of the filthy count, he left her here without any clothes on.

Before I could speak, I became aware of the sharp edge of a sword glistening at the left side of my neck. Count Claude Jeteris was aiming it at my veins where the quickest kill would be possible.

“Young pup, I know you are here for me… Now, if you don’t tell me quickly what your purpose is, I’ll make sure you go straight to hell even before you can spell the word ‘kill’.”

The woman beneath my paws was trembling. I can’t possible fight the count when there’s another innocent person who could die if I unleash my powers here.

“Send this woman away first then I’ll talk!”

As I spoke, I motioned for the servant to move away from the bed, but before she could run away safely in a corner, the count clutched her by the hair and aimed the sword at her neck.

“I see you are bold enough to make such demands in my own house, young pup. Start talking, or I will cut off her head in your very eyes.”

Without hesitation, Ignis relinquished the control of our body back to me.

“Let the woman go, Jeteris, or I shall have you thrown to the dungeons for your insolence,” I said as soon as I was back in my human form.

“Ah, Prince Kaist, our Emperor’s pride and joy, what an honor it is to get a visit from you at a night like this,” Count Jeteris said, his eyes turning wild and amused. “To whom do I owe this pleasure?”

“Send the girl away, so we could talk,” I say once more. Jeteris threw the girl at floor. She helplessly picked up the articles of her clothing that were lying about and left unharmed.

“Now Prince Kaist, why the journey at this hour?... Did you not see how… busy I was?”

“Cut the crap. We both know that woman was only ordered to lay down in your bed here so that you could come up with a solid alibi,” I said back sternly at the devil before me.

“My dear lord, and what makes you say that? Do you have any idea where I could have been at this time?”

“We both know you went to the castle tonight and escorted those Blasted Ones inside the king’s chambers!”

“Hah, what a great story, Prince Kaist! First you implicate me with the Falcon Wings and now the Blasted Ones? Tell me, who shall you associate with me next time – the filthy hybrids? Do you think any fool would believe that?”

“I picked your filthy smell in the passageway, Jeteris! Where did you take them?”

“Take whom, Prince Kaist? Be specific so I could at least pretend to jog my memory.”

I lost my temper and grabbed the man by the collar. “Damn it, where did you take my mother and my sister?!”

A look of cruelty flashed in Count Jeteris’ face. “Easy does it, young pup… If you don’t want any rumors to spread, lower your voice. Do you think that servant girl you spared really had disappeared?”

“Tell me where you took them!”

“Prince Kaist… I see you’ve learned something about the past now, didn’t you?... Now you must understand why I needed to send them away, right?”

I clutched the count tighter by the collar intending to choke him, but he just coughed with an amused smile on his face.

“Why? Why did you give them to the Blasted Ones?”

“Prince Kaist, I didn’t give anyone to those filthy things… I was simply returning the queen to her people.”

My eyes widened. “The queen?... My mother is the Apricusian queen?”

“She is no longer your mother. She had died and lost her wolf. She’s a vampire now. You can’t possibly think of her now as the same woman who birthed you!”

“But she is exactly that! And Livia, what about her? Why did you let them take her?”

“As much as I wanted to keep that girl by my side, the Apricusian queen insisted of taking her. How can I say no, eh?”

I threw the man I used to call ‘uncle’ hard against the floor of his own house.

Livia’s words from earlier came back to me. She only said it in passing, but the fear in her face convinced me that she was not lying...

“You! Was it true that you abused Livia? Was it true that you abused her?!”

“Abuse is such a broad term, my lord… I simply kept her in her proper pla-”

I couldn’t help it. I threw an angry fist against the count’s face.

His gaze told me that the old fool wanted to skin me alive after what I just did, but I don’t care.

“How did you keep her in her proper place? Did you do to her what I just did to you, huh? Did you use your fists against her? Did you slap her or kick her,” I continued saying, my eyes dimming in anger, “or did you do more?”

I kicked the helpless count who was still on the ground with every word I spoke. I kicked him another time when he tried to reach for the sword he had lost in his hands before I attacked him.

“Answer me! Did you do something else to my sister?!”

“I. Did. N-nothing,” he said, struggling to breathe as I kick the wind out of his lungs once more. His lips were saying something else, but his eyes told me he did more than he could say out loud.

Count Jeteris treated people like dirt. I was sure that she didn’t make an exception for Livia…

On the contrary, he may have been extra cruel to her if he knew from the very start that she was a Shadow wolf.

“How could you? How could you do that to a child? How could you kill a person and treat her child like she was nothing but trash,” I said as I continued to assault Count Jeteris while he rolled on the floor.

“Hah… That child. That child is. Merlissa’s child. From. That. Monster.”

“What do you mean,” I said, scooping the body of the count from the floor. “What the hell do you mean?!”

“You and Livia. You are not Maurus’ children. You… are children of that bastard!”