The chirping of birds entered my ears.
The gentle autumn breeze caressed my hair.
The warm light of the sun shone directly on my face.
It was perhaps one of my favorite monts, one of the tis when I would find myself most comfortable. And, normally, I would have put aside everything I was going to do, everything I was thinking, and just enjoyed the mont.
But I didn’t.
Or rather... I couldn’t.
Because there was always a thought in the back of my mind, eating away at my comfort and everything else.
"Since you were part of a terrorist attack... I have no choice but to apprehend you."
Those were Adrian’s last words before he knocked out.
But when I woke up, I didn’t find myself in a police station, in a torture chamber, being interrogated, surrounded by people all many tis more powerful than .
On the contrary, I just... woke up on a gurney and was discharged quite quickly because I had no injuries.
I heard nothing from Adrian, nor from anyone in the kingdom, nor from anyone in Laute.
I was just... left to my own devices.
Like I didn’t exist at all.
"Haaaah..."
I closed my eyes. Knowing full well that I didn’t have much peaceful ti, I was going to try to savor this mont sohow.
And I tried.
And... I did.
For minutes, all I did was... rest with my eyes closed in this peace.
~ding! ~dong!
But then... the shrill sound of the doorbell echoed through my room and all the peace I had was gone.
I stood up with a deep sigh, squinting at the door.
There is no one to co and visit in my room. Unless the person who cos has sothing to do with , at least.
And... the people who might have sothing to do with are obvious.
Either soone from Laute ca to take away, Adrian finally told the academy who I was and the security guards were at my door, or anything like that.
Either way... I didn’t expect my peace to end so soon.
I took a deep breath, prepared myself for what I was about to encounter, and walked slowly to the door.
Under normal circumstances, I would have taken every precaution, checked who the person at the door was, and prepared accordingly. But this ti... I didn’t even care. I simply pulled the door towards and looked for the person who would destroy my peace forever.
And...
"Huh...?"
The person I found in front of ... was one of the people I did not expect to see at all.
He looked at calmly, coldly with his gray eyes. Then, he took his gaze away from , ignoring my presence, walked inside with his cane, and went behind . He walked a little further, but stopped in the hallway without entering any of the rooms.
I turned slowly toward him, narrowing my eyes at the sa ti.
"What... are you doing here?"
But... he didn’t even answer. He turned his eyes indifferently to the door and said a single word in his cold, heavy voice.
"Close it."
Normally... I would have shooed him out of the room with a frown. Just like I did the few tis he tried to approach .
But... this ti, I couldn’t.
His gaze was so sharp, his expression so cold, and... he seed so calm that his re presence made completely hesitant.
I didn’t know what he was going to do, but compared to past... he seed quite serious.
Did he know sothing?
Why... was he so different from who he had always been?
I swallowed involuntarily, closed the door gently, and leaned my back against it... as far away from Aiden as possible.
"What do you want...?"
He continued to stand where he was in silence. His gray eyes grew even emptier as he narrowed them. His flat lips parted so he could finally say sothing, but his tone...
"Alice, no... Alysia."
It was still the sa, it still made shiver.
So much so that... I couldn’t even focus on him saying my real na. I found myself unable to do anything but just, simply... look into his eyes.
I was locked in place.
"You hate the Laute family to the core, don’t you?"
And... that’s when I realized sothing.
He was... giving the sa look. The sa look as the people at Laute Manor, my grandfather, Adrian...
Exactly the sa look.
"You want to destroy the family and everything connected with it, you loathe them all... don’t you?"
His eyes narrowed even more as he raised his cane slightly, with a tiny, low sound, and touched it back to the ground.
And then again.
And again.
"I’m going to make you do this, Alysia. I will make you accomplish what you want."
With each word, I felt more and more locked in, unable to move. Everything else slowly beca insignificant, almost non-existent.
"I will destroy the Laute Family."
The walls seed to be closing in on . I could hardly breathe, my vision was blurring and voices were blurring together.
And yet... what he said stuck in my mind, I could understand what he was saying.
And with the last thing he said... I was completely frozen in place.
Aiden... not only knows that I’m connected to the Laute Family and my real na... he thinks he can destroy it.
No... he doesn’t.
He’s sure he will.
I curled my lips upwards slightly, even a little trembling.
"How... do you think you’ll... do it?"
He could be a war hero, he could be noble, he could have a lot of connections.
But he still shouldn’t be too confident.
There’s a reason the Lautes haven’t been caught so far, after all.
Does he think he can just ask for help and do whatever he wants...?
What makes him think I’d help him in the first place? Just because he knows who I am...?
As usual, he’s just naive... and overconfident.
"Alysia... you must have misunderstood sothing."
I paused for a mont.
The slight smile on my face quickly disappeared as my eyes gradually widened. My whole body trembled violently for a mont, and then I felt a trendous pressure on .
"I don’t want anything from you, I’m not saying I want you to help ."
My lungs refused to breathe into them.
My heart slowed down, as if afraid to beat.
I felt the drops of sweat forming all over my body, every single one.
"You will help , because you have no choice."
As he kept his gray eyes on ... he slowly took a step toward , the sound of his cane echoing first in the room and then in my ears.
I realized that I was shivering non-stop... and many other things.
"You will give what I want, because that’s what you are."
That I couldn’t do anything, that how strong the person in front of was.
"Soone who has to submit to anyone stronger than her, but can never be too strong."
How insignificant, how weak I was in front of him.
"Soone who won’t even survive unless she obeys orders."
And he knows that very well.
"Soone who has no choice but to cling like a parasite to the one who can give her what she needs."
He ca right in front of , stopped. My eyes were wide open as he took his cane in both hands. My body... was refusing to do so many things that I felt like fainting.
No... I was dying.
"You’re a bit smart, you know the way this world works, and... you’re talented. That’s how you’ve beco soone even the Lautes could use, as opposed to them wiping you out. But... that’s it, Alysia. You are no more than that, but rather... lower than that."
I lowered my head weakly, trying not to look at his face. Anything would have happened, everything was okay...
But I didn’t want to look into his eyes.
"You’re weak, sick, even. As a half-elf, unlike Adrian, you are a flawed product. And you will remain so forever."
And yet, he reached for my head, pushed my chin up with his finger, and lifted my head. He made look into his eyes. His terrifying eyes that seed empty, seemingly devoid of any emotion.
"You will help find them, whether you want to or not. And I will give you what you want in return, no matter what you decide. I will be your new host, Alysia, as you’re a parasite. And it doesn’t matter what you want to do about it. Do you understand ?"
He stepped back slightly, letting go of my chin as he tore his gaze from .
But I... I just stood paralyzed where I was, unable to put my head back down, unable to even flinch.
"Do you understand, Alysia?"
I... couldn’t answer. I couldn’t even move my lips.
But Aiden... didn’t expect to answer from the beginning.
"Good."
After that, he just turned around and walked out onto my balcony. And then... he just disappeared.
And... it was the only way I could finally breathe properly.
I got down on my knees, bent down, and started coughing, trying to force my heart to beat again as I sucked oxygen in and out of my lungs.
But it didn’t really matter at that mont. It was just...
"H- he knows..."
Everything from my true identity to being a half-elf... everything.
Did Adrian tell him what he saw instead of going to the kingdom?
No... he knows so much more. Adrian had no idea that I belonged to the Laute Family, he didn’t know my real na... he couldn’t have heard it from him.
Finally, when I stopped coughing and relaxed, I stopped kneeling and just let myself fall to the cold floor.
"Parasite..."
I am, really... right?
He didn’t say anything wrong.
"Soone who has to submit to anyone stronger than her, but can never be too strong."
"Tch..."
Damn it...
If he could really bring down Laute Manor... I would gladly help him. If he could actually make it happen, I wouldn’t care whose parasite I was or wasn’t as a result.
But... when I have a mana contract with them, when I would die the mont I betrayed them... what does he expect to do?
How does he expect to help when the only dicine that calms my disease is in their hands?
"Idiot..."
He will just... get killed.
Just as I expected, even though I didn’t think it would be him coming to my room, he did nothing but disturb my peace...
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