Silently and slowly, I sipped the coffee in front of .
The taste, the ratio, everything... was perfect.
It was amazing, really.
It could have been one of the best coffees I’ve ever had in my life.
But...
"So... you discovered the Laute Family, but you didn’t inform the kingdom, instead you acted on your own and even dragged Leonard Quie into this ss... Am I right?"
This was not an atmosphere in which I could enjoy this coffee.
"You said nothing wrong."
Prince Lucas couldn’t help frowning and twitching his eyes as he wrinkled his forehead with his fingers.
"Aiden... you are aware of the Laute Family’s place on the planet, right?"
I took another sip of my coffee.
Ah, if only I could drink it in a quieter environnt...
"I am aware."
"Because of what you did, Eshaware Kingdom keep asking for a eting with you, you can guess what they want... right?"
"Yes, I indeed can."
Lucas paused for a mont, squinting, fixing his eyes on .
And then...
"Aiden..."
"Yes, prince?"
"Are you really listening to ?"
"Yes."
"..."
"..."
"Haaaaah..."
He took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes, but... his expression was twitching more and more every second.
"Do you really think that I’m doing bad things for the kingdom, that my actions are putting us at a disadvantage, Prince?" Find adventures on .Côm
He paused at my words, opened his closed eyes and fixed them on .
"...?"
"There are dozens, if not hundreds of lies that could be told about going without informing anyone to destroy the Laute Family. As long as the most plausible and logical of those lies is chosen, it’s not hard to create an environnt in which it would be seen as okay for to go to the Laute Manor without informing Eshaware."
"You want us to lie... to one of the kingdoms that practically controls the course of the entire planet?"
"Isn’t politics a field where the best liar wins?"
I put my coffee on the table, even though I hadn’t finished it yet.
"Even if you have good reasons, it is ’necessary’ to lie, Prince, as long as the outco will be better. Even if the truth will serve us well, if a better result is achieved by lying, then we should not hesitate to lie. That is the essence of politics, ’lying’."
"What... kind of lie do you want to tell, then?"
His question was quite serious.
He was looking at with real curiosity.
"The one that we will get the best out of."
I leaned back slightly in my chair, deliberately making myself comfortable.
"Leave everything to , Prince. Let ... do what I think and plan. You know I am not trying to bring Cevilian down. I am only trying to achieve my own goals for the future, and in doing so aim to make the kingdom the best it can be, since that is where all my friends and relatives live."
He paused for a mont, thought... and continued to think.
"What about... Alysia Laute? What do you plan to do with her?"
"She’s... largely innocent, used by her family. Do you really think she should be punished just because ’Laute’ is the na of the family she is tied to and forced to work for?"
"In short, you intend to leave her as she is, to let her live in the kingdom with the false identity she has..."
"No, that’s wrong. I plan to use her."
The prince paused montarily, his eyebrows raised slightly as a look of understanding suddenly appeared on his face.
"Well, okay. I will try to see what I can do about this, Aiden. No, I will make sure that you, as the leader of the Tenebra Family, are the one who deals with the Laute Family and with Eshaware... You can do whatever you want as long as you discuss that things with ."
"Then let’s make that discussion right here"
The prince stopped abruptly in his tracks.
"Huh? What?"
"Because I will take the first step in a few weeks."
I reached for my coffee on the table again and took a sip.
But... it was quite cold.
What a pity, really...
"I don’t intend to completely erase the na ’Laute’."
I put the coffee back on the table and pushed it gently, not wanting to drink it again.
The prince, anwhile, just ooked at with a blank expression.
"What do you an...?"
"Simply, I’m planinng to make Adri-"
I paused in an instant when the Prince’s eyes suddenly changed focus and his expression beca strange.
"Prince? Is sothing wrong?"
He lifted his hand, then... pointed his finger at my face.
"Your nose is bleeding."
Huh?
I quickly brought my hand to my nose.
It wasn’t hard to feel the warmth of the blood, and the red liquid on my fingers was further proof.
But that wasn’t the real problem.
Because the blood did not stop flowing from my nose.
On the contrary... it intensified.
It wasn’t long before I felt the sa tallic taste in my mouth. And the sa warmth in my throat.
*******
When my eting with the prince was interrupted by the fact that I had to go to the hospital... I didn’t co out of the tests for quite a long ti.
They looked at everything, literally.
They made sure there was nothing they hadn’t checked.
But the result...
"There is... sothing... that is constantly fatiguing and damaging your organs."
I looked blankly at the doctor standing in front of , who had quite a weird expression on his face as if he saw sothing really confusing.
"Sothing? What does that an?"
He almost looked like he was about to panic, yet he answered my question properly.
"The checks did not find anything in your body that could cause this. We’re sorry, Mr. Tenebra..."
Normally... I would have asked them to run more tests.
And actually I was going to tell them to do that.
But, a mont after I opened my mouth to do that, I paused.
"Oh..."
Sothing ca to my mind in an instant.
"You can go... at least if there’s nothing else we’re going to do."
The doctor left the room while constantly apologizing.
I didn’t pay much attention to him.
Sothing that constantly exhausts my organs, even damages them.
Sothing that wouldn’t show up on any test.
Isn’t it simple, really?
I have just such a thing, sothing I use quite often.
Caora.
I’m a half wiera. In short, part of my body and soul is still ’human’.
And caora... is sothing that plays with the sanity of even full wieras, even shortening their lifespan.
What about ?
I’m not even a full wiera.
Caora is more harmful to than normal wieras.
It directly damages every ti I use it, even.
In short...
Every ti I use caora, I’m basically consuming my own lifespan...
*******
As I simply laid there in my couch... I simply thought of one thing.
The sight I saw when I turned around after Prince Lucas ca to us.
The sight of the huge manor burning brightly, engulfed in blue and purple flas.
I felt so many things.
Happiness, excitent, peace...
It was my dream to see that house burn, after all.
But now... lying where I was, for no reason at all, all I could feel was... nothing.
There was simply emptiness inside .
I had always... thought that when I reached my goal, it would all be over.
That wasn’t the case at all.
Nothing was over.
In fact, on the contrary...
It was just beginning, actually.
~ding!
When I heard the sound I had been waiting for minutes, I took a deep breath and got up from my couch. I didn’t rush, but I didn’t wait either. I was calm as I made my way to the door of my room, I wasn’t excited.
Not even after I opened the door and saw the person in front of .
He... was excited a bit, though.
"Uh... hi...?"
He looked extrely nervous.
Normal, I guess.
I moved slightly to the side so he could co in. Adrian... simply waited for a while and only moved after realizing that he had stayed where he was for a long ti.
He went into the living room and sat down on an armchair. I closed the door and stood opposite him.
And...
Silence.
That was it.
For a long ti.
"Did you know...?"
I paused for a mont at the sudden question.
"That I was your brother, when you were on that street?"
I too fell silent for a brief mont before answering.
Was it better to be honest or to lie?
...
"Yes, I knew."
And I continued without letting him react.
"But I only accepted that you had to die because I had no other way to survive."
Actually...
I didn’t really care.
His existence was a surprising truth, yes.
He was even annoying a bit.
I even hated him, because he was so perfect and strong despite we were both half elves.
I had no problem with him dying.
But, if I really had another way... I would have wanted him alive.
Not because he was my brother, but because I had questions.
"Still... I’m sorry, I guess."
A simple apology isn’t enough, I know.
And frankly... it doesn’t really matter.
But... there’s nothing better I can do.
"It’s fine."
My lips curled upward involuntarily at his sentence echoing in my ear.
Yeah...
That’s the kind of person he is.
"What was he like?"
I didn’t need to specify who he was, his face instantly filled with understanding as his expression turned a little serious.
"He was a good father, even if I found out he wasn’t a very good man himself."
I don’t expect anyone who cos out of the Laute Family to be good, anyway. Especially soone who grew up in that house with ’him’.
But a good father, huh...
I... can’t imagine that.
"I’m a carbon copy of him in regards of appearance, though. There’s very little difference between us."
Oh...
I focused on his face, this ti.
I especially studied it.
My father... So he was like this, huh...
"How was... my mother?"
Adrian paused this ti, as if he couldn’t find the words to say.
After a while, though...
"Our mothers are different, Alice. It’s impossible to know what your mother... was like. Our grandfather... managed to kill her, unlike our father."
Ah...
"But my father once told a story about your mother. She had black hair and black eyes, as far as I know. And she was a researcher. Oh, she was also quite cold. She was barely even interested in our father at first, completely focusing on her research."
He paused, then couldn’t help smiling slightly.
"I don’t know about looks, but... you actually seem to be a copy of your mother."
I didn’t react to what he said, whether it was true or not.
"Can you tell ?"
"About what?"
"Our father, his life, your life after he and your mother died..."
I sighed lightly, looked into his eyes seriously.
"Everything, in short. I want to know... everything."
His lips curved upward. And, for the first ti, he smiled sincerely and widely, without nervousness or excitent.
"Sure."
And then... he began a rather long story.
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