Chapter 88 - A Debt : Part 2

"No matter what happens, don't come out of the wardrobe."

Axel nodded as she watched Adreanna close the wardrobe on him, leaving the boy in complete darkness. There were some clothes around him and some hanging ones on his left and right.

He brought both of his knees up to his face and hugged them. The silence and the darkness overwhelmed the boy, he really hated it.

Then there was a crash sound from the window with a faint thump. Axel felt needles prickling his skin as he noticed where that sound came from.

"Hello, my dear sister!" Kiaran's voice was heard loud and clear by the boy. The voice was too close from where Axel hid, and he could not help but hug his knees tighter.

"Do you know how much I've missed you? Come on, give me a hug." Kiaran playfully spoke. He did not even care to hide the blatant lies in his words.

"Cut the crap, Kiaran. What do you want?" Adreanna retorted back tonelessly.

"As expected of the one and only Adreanna. Cold, unforgiving," Axel could hear Kiaran's mad grin without even seeing the mercenary himself.

"-and emotionless." There was some lingering hatred within Kiaran's statement.

Just hearing his brother's voice made Axel's chest tight. He still remembered the lasting control demon Kiaran did to him just by speaking. His words were sweet, but it was deadly. He could not do anything as the control took over, it was as of he did not own his body anymore.

And somehow, at this moment, Axel felt the same thing all over again despite no one controlling him.

"But it seemed like you have changed, hm?" Kiaran continued, taunting Adreanna even more. Axel knew there was something hidden between their conversation, something obvious yet like some kind of taboo to talk about.

"My dear reliable sister, the number one in the family, has gone soft?" The secondborn Vergessene's voice had turned into a mock, belittling. Almost like he was disgusted.

"Revealing her identity for the youngest, protecting and spoiling Axel." Kiaran darted. The mention of his own name caused the youngest to shiver. The air suffocated him, and he felt like his breath was taken away by the mere statement.

"I thought you have no emotions? Or was I mistaken?" He scoffed, and Axel could feel the dangerous aura outside the wardrobe erupting from the two.

"You didn't even shed a single tear when mother died. What changes?"

Axel could not help but take a little gasp. It felt like his throat was closing off as the aura between his older siblings had become treacherous.

"Oh, I know!" Kiaran let out a brief chuckle. "You must be using Axel as I did! You find it convenient to have someone to kill for you, right? Or just simply fighting for you."

"I'm not using him. He's a human, Kiaran." Adreanna finally said something after letting Kiaran speak for a while. Axel noticed how she did not care that she was getting insulted head-on by her brother, yet she opened her mouth just to defend him.

That eased his shoulders a little. She was protecting him, he shouldn't be scared.

"And so was mother." The playfulness and taunting voice that Kiaran always used had gone cold now. "She was a human too."

"But I don't think that's the case anymore, no?" He spat, pushing Adreanna into the depth as she kept her mouth shut.

"Mother is dead." His voice was surrounded by a concealed wrath. A buried down the anger that Kiaran always contained with his lies. "And Axel is not a human anymore."

"Sooner or later, he probably won't be your 'brother' anymore."

Axel put a hand on his mouth to calm himself down. His body shook violently as the boy tried to control his breathing. He should stay calm, he should stay calm, stay calm, stay calm, stay-

"Anyway, enough of the bluffing around. I think I left some clothes in here, right? Let me just take them real quick." Kiaran had turned into his normal safe again.

He knew, he knew, he knew, he knew-

Footsteps could be heard approaching the wardrobe as it opened slightly, causing light to blind the boy for a moment.

Axel felt his heart stop.

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Kiaran reached his hand to the wardrobe slowly. He did not startle when Adreanna stepped up and grabbed his wrist, gripping it hard.

"Oh? Why did you do that?" Kiaran raised one of his eyebrows and shrugged off his sister's hand.

"Perhaps, you're hiding something from me?" He gave her a sideways smile and two glaring blue eyes. "Know your place, Adreanna."

"No-" Adreanna reached her hand to block Kiaran again, but it was too late.

Kiaran opened it wide, looking at the inside with hidden emotions. "Huh, where do you keep my clothes?"

He observed Adreanna's eyes as she looked inside the wardrobe. There was nothing there except clothes, but Kiaran caught the relief between her emotionless eyes.

"I'll send them to you personally later." She said it flatly, but there was obvious anxiety in between her words.

Kiaran scoffed. She really did become soft.

"Right, I almost forgot." He raised both of his eyebrows and clasped his hands. "Where's Axel? Can you give him back to me now?"

He watched as Adreanna kept staring at his eyes without being swayed at all by his taunt.

"...he left."

"He left, huh." Kiaran eyed the empty spot on the wardrobe and tilted his head to his sister. He grinned, the usual type of grin that showed everyone he had won.

"You remember your debt, right?" Kiaran watched in glee as Adreanna's eyes slightly widened. She sure showed a lot of emotions nowadays. When did his sister actually start to become a human for once?

A pity, really. They weren't born to have humanity within their grasp. She was a killing machine and Kiaran was just a-

He grunted at the sudden thoughts in his mind and focused more on Adreanna that had completely frozen in her place. She diverted her gaze away from him to the wardrobe before looking back to meet his eyes.

"You want me to pay the debt right now?" Her voice almost sounded like a whisper.

Kiaran brought a finger up to his chin. "Let's see." He pretended to think as his lips formed a little smirk. She needed to know her place, after all.

"Nah, it'll be such a waste using it on a boy like him." He brushed it off and waved his hand in front of her.

"I want to use the debt for another reason." He smiled, copying Cain's fake kindness.

"But let's talk another day." He turned around from her, making the down edge of his black trench coat flap a little.

"I want to talk in private with no one to hear our conversation but us." He put a hand up to wave without looking back while walking to the front door.

Kiaran stopped at the door and put his black mask up. "It really is a shame that Axel's not here. His big brother also miss him, you know?" There was a knowing glint in his blue eyes before he finally left.

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Kiaran clicked his tongue as he remembered how Adreanna tried to protect Axel too much. It irritated him in some way.

He currently was lying down on a white table, watching the scientist meddle with her usual work with disinterest. He sighed as he looked at the ceiling with boredom.

Everything had been too quiet lately. He could not do any more mercenary thing to wait for the second big war he had planned to do. If he did any more job, it would ruin the build-up for the final conflict to come.

He really could not wait to watch people's expressions for his grand play.

Though, facing his counterpart was really amusing. He could not wait to meet him again someday. He did not have any plan to meet him, and he believed the other did not have it too. Fate would bring them together anyway.

He would call it a side story of his play.

Now that he mentioned it, he wondered how Valerian had been doing. That lieutenant must have missed him dearly with the usual hatred that always got thrown to him.

It was amusing how Valerian was the only outsider who wasn't afraid of him. He had to admit. The Edelweiss really did make his play much more interesting.

"Old lady, is everything done? I don't really want to waste more time. The story's getting boring." Kiaran whined, and as always, Alea would ignore the boy completely.

"World burn was such a great opening for a conflict, but it's still just the beginning." He sat up and gave her the usual insane grin. The scientist sighed and rolled her eyes at him.

"Let's turn this world into a real hell."