Curfew couldn't stop Aaran from his daily incursions. After striking off three nas from the list, Aaran looked at the distant clock tower.
11:23 pm.
He still had forty minutes to spare. He once again opened the list of nas, wondering who was the closest to his location. There was one guy, but Aaran planned on killing him later.
Duke Arag wasn't a simple person to deal with. Not because he was strong, but because killing him without preparation could cause unforeseen complications.
But I could scout the location.
Aaran jumped from rooftop to rooftop, making his way to the warehouse where the duke conducted his illegal dealings. The cold night air bit into his skin, as the town was shrouded in silence.
Only patrolling guards walked the streets, but they didn't have their hearts in the job. Otherwise, they would have noticed a strange man jumping on rooftops.
Unlike the streets, the warehouse was heavily guarded. Even so, for soone who had beco one with darkness, moving past the guards wasn't a big deal.
Eventually, he broke into a balcony, looking inside. What he saw made his blood boil. Countless children huddled together, so barely clothed, others clinging to each other for warmth.
Slave trading.
Slave trading had been abolished a few years back by the Emperor. But since Runedral laws didn't apply in dibi, the duke was using it as the hub of his operation.
Even then, Aaran knew there was nothing he could do about it. If he acted recklessly, he would only alert the Duke and he could go into hiding. That was the last thing he wanted.
However, he made a ntal note to add slave trading to the list of Duke's cris later.
He slowly made his way inside, searching for a safe or a room where they put valuable records. If he got his hands on the ledgers, not only the Duke but those involved in the trade could all be punished simultaneously.
After a few minutes, Aaran found a concealed room tucked away at the back of the warehouse. Inside, he found everything he needed to put the last nail in the Duke's coffin.
Shelves were lined up with ledgers and records of each purchase, along with hundreds of gold coins. As he flipped through the pages, he saw the nas of people involved in human trafficking.
Nobles, rchants, and even high-ranking officials. They were all active participants in the trade. A single ledger was enough to make their circle crumble.
As crucial as those books were, Aaran knew he couldn't take the ledgers with him. The Duke would find out eventually and then the sa problem will repeat itself.
Instead, Aaran morized as many nas as he could to report them to Donovan later.
"This should be enough."
Aaran turned to put the ledger back in place when sothing slipped out from between the pages. It was a folded sheet of paper. At first, he almost ignored it, but sothing about its texture made him pick it up.
And he was glad he did.
The letter had been signed by the beloved head priest. As for the content, it was an order to mobilize the duke's army, or everything about his not-so-legal business would be handed over to the emperor.
It was vague, but Aaran knew what it ant. The Duke and his n were preparing to get rid of a troubleso pest.
Aaran's jaw tightened as he crumbled the paper.
The so-called pest was Aurelia.
It wasn't ntioned by na, but the paper with such texture was manufactured in Aurelia. From the words, it seed the temple Lucien and Amara were forced to create after Aaran's outburst had now beco the base of rebellion.
The temple was planning to overthrow his parents. Since the temples couldn't kill Aaran, given his position, they changed their target to Aurelia. According to the law, the emperor couldn't interfere in the matter, and without his instructions, neither could the Virtues.
The Emperor was in on the sche as well.
Just then, a sharp pain pierced his head. The familiar voice returned, much more intense than before.
"It's ti. There's no need to have split personalities anymore."
Aaran heard the voice, but it wasn't in his head. Those words had co out of his mouth. He was talking to himself… he had always been talking to himself for all those years.
Back when the Emperor tried to brainwash him, Aaran quickly glanced at his revolver, the only reflective surface he had inside his core.
He knew that if he resisted, the Emperor would try sothing else to control him. Maybe even force him.
Aaran didn't want that, and instead of rejecting the emperor's brainwashing, he used the [Hypnotic Gaze] to create two personalities.
The new personality would be the perfect son for the Emperor, keeping most of his mories. Aaran let this version of himself be corrupted so the Emperor wouldn't suspect anything.
anwhile, he sealed his true self away. That hidden self beca the voice in his head, guiding him when things got too hard.
Aaran made sure he would only return to himself under one condition: when his family's safety was at risk. Now that he had discovered the temple's plan, he was done holding back.
Finally, in control of his body, Aaran stretched his neck and used [Hypnotic Gaze] to kill his alternate personality. He turned around, looking at those ledgers.
He no longer cared about the Duke since he was going to burn the entire place down.
"Dread. Darius. It's ti to wake up."
On cue, Darius's spirit appeared behind him and so did Dread, Brute, and Cerbie, even though he hadn't called the latter two.
"It's been a while, little Liege!" Darius exclaid. "I was waiting for this day!"
[Next ti, tell about your plans beforehand. For a mont, I thought you actually forgot about us, boy.]
Brute scoffed, expressing his displeasure while Cerbie just rubbed one of its heads against Aaran.
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry!" Aaran sighed, raising his hand as if surrendering. "Everything happened so quickly that I didn't have the ti to tell you all about it."
Their reunion was cut short when soone walked into the room.
"What's going on here?" the thug asked, not knowing those were his last words.
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