On a bright morning, Tai stood before the gate of the Duke's palace, his soul heavy and thick with internal fog. He had no idea that the destinies he had buried with his own hands would return to manifest before him, with faces unchanged despite the passage of years.
The moment he saw the Duke and his wife standing at the entrance, time froze inside him.
His eyes sharpened, his chest tightened, and a grim aura began to creep out around him, like black smoke rising from the depths of his heart. The air grew heavy. The cold he felt was not the cold of winter, but the frost of caged rage.
He whispered furiously to himself, his voice barely audible:
"Why? Why are they still here? Didn't I kill them?... How are they before me again? Move, body... Damn you, move!"
But his body remained motionless, resisting the volcano raging within.
The light around him flickered. Diablo, Draculina, and Sebastian appeared before him and behind the Duke, their expressions taut, as if witnessing a side of their master they had never seen.
Diablo spoke via a furious telepathic link:
(You fool! This is the second time your aura has erupted! Control yourself immediately! He is a Duke—is this the time for exposure?)
Draculina responded with cold sharpness:
(Respect your Master, Diablo. Do not exceed your bounds!)
Tai placed his hand on his forehead with deadly calm and said:
"It's alright, Draculina... he is right. Rage serves no purpose here, not now. If I lose control this time... no one will survive."
He forced himself to breathe slowly, and the aura gradually subsided, vanishing into nothingness.
The Princess approached him with hesitant steps, asking in a hushed tone:
"Yutaro... what's wrong?"
He offered a vacant smile:
"Nothing... a simple dizzy spell. It happens when I stand too long without moving... Come, let's go inside."
They entered the palace.
The place was luxurious, yet it reeked of hated memories. The smell of perfumes, the color of the walls—everything resurrected images he wished were buried forever.
Diablo spoke telepathically again:
(Who exactly is this Duke?)
Tai replied with a faint voice heavy with suppressed hatred:
"He is my mother's husband..."
Diablo paused for a moment, then asked:
(And that means—)
Tai finished the thought:
"Yes... she is my mother, unfortunately."
The Duke stood before them with a formal smile and said:
"Welcome, welcome to our palace. Please come in, your presence honors us."
But Tai did not reply, scrutinizing every detail of the Duke's face. The same features... the same look that had stirred his urge to kill back then.
He leaned slightly towards the Princess and asked in a barely audible whisper:
"Shouldn't his daughter be the one receiving us?"
She whispered back:
"He wrote the invitation, but she was the one who sent the message."
It was then that Tai realized something... something that made his blood boil in his veins. He leaned into the shadows and whispered to his subordinates through the link:
"Diablo, Draculina, Sebastian... The new version of the plan starts now. Be ready for my orders."
They replied in a sharp, unified voice:
"Understood, Master."
The Duke led them on a long tour, talking about his history, his glory, and the days that made him a Duke. But Tai heard nothing. All he heard was the sound of the earth groaning from the blood this man had spilled.
When the tour ended, the Duke smiled and said:
"Excuse me, I have some duties to attend to. Please make yourselves comfortable in my home."
He left, and the Princess remained.
The Princess looked at the Duke's wife and said:
"You go ahead, Tai. I will follow you later; I have matters to discuss with the Duke's wife."
Then the Duke's daughter approached Tai, her gaze mysterious, her smile unreadable. She said:
"Come with me, I want to show you something."
He walked behind her silently, not knowing where she was leading him. Until she opened her room door and invited him in.
Tai hesitated for a moment and asked in a composed tone:
"Why your room?"
She approached him with slow steps until there was only a breath between them, and she said:
"For this."
Then she drew closer... there was no room to escape.
Time vanished, his mind went blank, and everything happened in a dense silence that felt more like a struggle than desire. There was no warmth in it, but something like revenge wrapped in affection... something Tai didn't understand even after her breathing settled on his chest, and she slept as if she had not committed a sin moments ago.
Tai sat there, still, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. He felt nothing but a new emptiness added to his core. For a moment, he felt something akin to nausea... it wasn't regret, but a realization that the line separating him from those he hated was beginning to blur. But he quickly buried it, because revenge knows no weakness.
He opened the telepathic link and spoke in a low, sharp voice:
"Diablo... listen well."
"I am with you, Master."
"The next phase begins now. Sebastian, you and Diablo will kill the Prince. After that, Sebastian, you will possess his body to extract his memory and take control of his position. As for you, Draculina... come to me tonight. We will finish the Princess, and you will impersonate her, just as Sebastian will. Then, we will rule the kingdom from the shadows. The rest... tomorrow."
He then closed the link, and cast a sideways glance at the girl sleeping beside him. He muttered wearily, as if speaking to himself:
"Even the tool I use... is not innocent."
And the light went out.
(End of Chapter Nine)