Aria's Tales - 2.10

The banquet continued with gentle waves and laugher, finally giving everyone a room to breathe. The poor devils had been exposed to too much shock that they all couldn’t sleep. Thankfully their bodies were not like those of humans, or else everyone in the higher class might have had dark circles in the morning after that.

Meanwhile, in a grey tent in the depths of a forest, Brand held a stack of papers with trembling hands. He clenched on them tightly and ripped them apart – tearing them into pieces as if his life depended on it. Then, he panted. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was red from rage. He was truly pissed. Sevianna was taken away by the demon crowned prince!

The papers earlier were actually the reports of his guards’ investigation. The man’s identity who took away Sevianna was on it written very clearly in bold letters. The demon crowned prince Adounis!

Brand was seething in anger. He would have probably been calmer if the man’s identity was much simpler. He really couldn’t believe his bad luck! His nemesis’ son had successfully bewitched his trump card! Curses!

Brand’s chest heaved up and down while his eyes were closed. He was trying to restrain his urge to go insane. Sevianna was too valuable, too precious. He refused to hand her over without a fight!

His eyes sprang open and the glow in them expressed his crazy obsession. He raised his hand and one of his shadow guards silently appeared. “Tell the Marshall we’re heading to Antitheus Kingdom.”

His orders shocked the shadow guard’s heart. Antitheus Kingdom was the heart of the demon’s territory. His master was actually planning to speed up their operations! He felt excited and anxious. He quickly bowed and vanished. He didn’t notice that his master’s expression was not right.

“Brand~” A sweet voice called out from outside the tent. It was Myla.

Brand’s distorted face lightened, but then he frowned. The way Myla had called him somehow reminded him of when Sevianna was still a pure angel. She had the habit to drag her words whenever they talk. There was a restless feeling in his heart. He couldn’t wait to take her back.

Brand didn’t wait for Myla to come in. He roughly swept the tent open, startling Myla who was about to get in, and he swept his penetrating gaze on each of the girls outside. “Pack up. We’re heading to Antitheus.”

The girls simultaneously widened their eyes. Ah? Already? Did they not planned to go there a year after they have made an alliance with Stella Kingdom? Stella hadn’t answered their request but they had confirmed that it has been received. They were just waiting for the answer. What happened?

Everyone looked at each other, then to Diffei. Since Diffei and Brand were both adventurers and have known each other longer than the girls there, she had the senior authority. Before, it had been Sevianna who ranked higher than them.

“Brand, what exactly happened?” Diffei asked while a bit of pride sprouted in her heart. She could finally sit in her rightful position as Brand’s first lady. She waited for Brand’s answer, but he never gave any.

He merely swept another glance, colder this time, and turned back to his tent to start packing.

His cold eyes suddenly brought the girls into Iceland and only felt warm again when he left. Their hearts shook as they thought that something terrible might have happened. Maybe, Stella rejected their request? Or did one of the kingdoms backed out?

They would have never thought that Brand was on edge because he couldn’t wait to get Sevianna back.

The rode to Antitheus Kingdom was gloomy. It was deathly silent and eerie. The girls were not used to such atmosphere and started to “play” with Brand. They all decided to play a game of who could attract his attention first. It was outright seduction play.

Brand didn’t have the time to play with them. So he didn’t react at Diffei’s flying kiss, Sheena’s innocent but coquettish look, and Kinma’s subtle physical touch. But when Myla tried to act cute by making a heart shape with her hands and looking through them while fluttering her eyelashes, he snapped. “Enough!”

The girls were startled and scared. What did they do?

Before they could voice out their grievances, Brand made them sit at the extra carriage that they had taken for storage purposes. They were stunned. But they couldn’t disobey him since he naturally had all of them in control.

Brand had covered his face with both hands in dismay. He hadn’t had the desire to pay attention to them because he was being haunted by the memories he had with Sevianna. Myla’s actions had prompted him to remember his days before he decided to betray Sevianna.

He could still remember the first time they met. It was a bright day, but her bloodcurdling scream had startled the forest awake. When he got there, he saw a white-haired girl looking desperate in keeping her shield. He found it amusing that time that the girl didn’t realize her shield was powerful enough to withstand even a high-class monster’s special attack. And the monster that was attacking her was merely a middle class.

So he focused his attention on the monsters instead and killed them, before turning back to look at the girl. Her eyes were sparkling under the sun’s rays while her cheeks were dyed with the shade of red. His heart had skipped a beat.

Since that day, he would sneak out from his training and look for the girl, who later confessed that she had snuck from her town as well to see him. His heart felt warm. He learned quite a lot about her during their strolls around the forest. She liked furry things, liked to make heart shapes out of anything, and liked to fly, with her beautiful pure white wings, to the tallest tree.

She was uninhibited. A free soul who did not mind the stench of darkness in this world.

But when one of the opposing factions schemed and killed his parents, his sanity broke. The opponents this time were disciples from the dark temple.

His grim mind had overshadowed his precious memories, and the way he looked at Sevianna had changed. He knew she was powerful. She just didn’t know it. She was powerful enough to fight against the high levelled disciples.

He hesitated. Then when one of the disciples had ambushed him on his way to the forest, almost taking his life, he decided. He saw her running towards him worriedly, and all he could say that time before he lost consciousness was, “Help me … revenge.”

In a moment of anger, Sevianna had quickly healed the unconscious Brand and chased the disciple all the way to his temple. There, Sevianna went berserk. It was a fight between light and dark magic. Although it looked as if the disciples had the advantage in quality and quantity, Sevianna was more than enough to wreak havoc in their territory.

Brand had gotten there on time to see her fingers swiftly chop off the last disciple’s head. His heart had sunk, but when he saw the piles of dead bodies of his enemies, it was filled with joy. When he glanced back at Sevianna, he saw her cold gaze turned to gentle and found that what reflected of them was him.

She smiled sweetly, and though she was covered in blood, she still had that bright aura around her. “Brand~! I did it~!”

He had a moment of happiness. Before he saw that the light aura around Sevianna had dimmed, and out came a black fog, it was a dark attribute. And to his horror, her beautiful white wings was rapidly being tainted with black.

Until it completely engulfed Sevianna’s white wings, Brand was rooted in the same spot. But things had not ended. Half of Sevianna’s white hair had also turned black, and since her emotions right at that moment was intense, her pale blue eyes glowed red.

Brand literally saw the transformation of an angel to a fallen.

He had not expected this. He was also aware of their strength, history, and appearance. He knew that they were even rarer than the rarest treasure in the world. His heart was beating with excitement. But before he could say anything, he saw Sevianna’s horrified face.

She was cautiously holding her hair with the black part in her right and the white part on her left. Then, when she dropped her wings in despair, she finally saw its pitch-black colour.

She abruptly looked at Brand in terror and disbelief. He had made her like this. He was the reason why she turned into this. Sevianna didn’t want to believe it. Yet, Brand’s greedy eyes as he watched her had given the truth away.

She was dismayed. She spanned her black-coloured wings and beat the air. She didn’t listen to Brand’s call and flew away.

Brand was anxious. Where was she going? What if other people saw her? What if those bastards saw her?! He immediately broke off into a run, chasing her to no end. He finally stopped on a cliff and watched as she headed towards the horizon. Who knows where she was heading.

The obsession was there. In his heart, it had already taken root and a bud had formed. He was determined to get her.

Brand was both an adventurer, and a blacksmith. His father had taught him the basics, and he had surpassed him by the time he met Sevianna. He then racked his brain, coming up with different ways to make sure she wouldn’t leave him anymore.

The first time he went to the slave market, he was hit with a wave of inspiration.

He worked on the slavery collar for years, all the while searching for Sevianna’s whereabouts. He learned that she had been disowned, but he was too busy to care. Finally, he was able to finish the slavery collar, and his attention shifted to the search for Sevianna.

Along the way, he had met Diffei. She had helped him in defeating a dragon who was blocking their path. He didn’t know how they got together, but when he met Myla next, she had already taken on the title of being his “lover”.

He really didn’t care about those things. He was more focused on looking for Sevianna and making her his.

Long after he finally got a clue of Sevianna’s whereabouts, Diffei, Myla, Kinma, and Sheena had taken on the title of being his “lovers”. But he would like to confess, he had never touched any of them. If helping them get down the carriage or encouraging them as a gentleman would, was the way to enter a relationship, then he should have thousands of lovers in this world.

On a bright day, the same as they had first met, Brand finally found Sevianna. But what he saw was Sevianna standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down on molten lava. She took one step.

And he reached for her as if the world was ending.

He successfully got her to step back. He turned her around and started to scold her. What was she doing?! That was molten lava! Even the immortals fear it yet she was actually planning to jump to it?! Does she not know what she was doing?!

Sevianna only looked at him dully. Her face looked a bit annoyed at that fact that she had been interrupted. Brand was angered at her expression. She still had the nerve to look annoyed when she had almost killed herself?!

He decisively placed the slavery collar on her neck. And with a bit of magic in his voice, he made his first order, “you are not allowed to kill yourself!”

Sevianna’s face paled then. Her dull look shattered as she looked at him in disbelief, and with shaking hands, she touched the collar.

“Brand you bastard! What is this!” Her face was red with anger.

Brand sighed in relief. At long last, the restlessness in his heart dissipated. He looked straight into Sevianna’s raging eyes. “You are mine.”

And after years of looking cold, he finally smiled.

~#~#~#~#~#~

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