24.

Just for tonight, pretend you are no one

A cool wind blew in from the coast, enveloping Dominic and filling the office with the scent of salt. He had let his hair down and loosened his robes, and they flowed with the breeze as he leaned against the open window.

Aster glanced up warily from the ledge he was perched on.

“Are you okay, brother?” he asked. “…You’ve been really quiet since you got back from visiting the countess.”

Dominic looked out towards the coast, the fog obscuring everything like a blanket. The waves rolled and crashed rhythmically in the background. The roar of the stadium still rang in his ears.

“I guess I’m just tired of noise,” he replied.

Aster shifted from foot to foot awkwardly, then hopped off the ledge and returned to his demon form.

“Brother…” he said, hesitating for a moment, “…at the arena, what happened?”

“You followed me there?” he asked. The boy shouldn’t have been able to. They had warped to the arena.

“I got worried when you and the countess disappeared,” Aster answered, “so I followed the scent of blood.”

“How much did you see?”

He shook his head.

“Not much. The trail ended in the room where they kept the corpses, so I couldn’t tell what was going on above.”

“That’s not ‘not much,’” Dominic replied, frowning. What kind of 16-year-old didn’t mind being in a room full of dead bodies?

“Either way, I didn’t go up to see the fighting,” Aster said. He pursed his lips and glanced away. “I don’t think I would’ve wanted to either.”

Dominic looked back out the window, the lights of the city flickering within the darkness of the summer night.

“It wasn’t worth seeing,” he said.

“What was the countess like?” Aster asked.

“A bit like the former viscount,” Dominic replied. “But stronger. And…”

He thought back, remembering the wide smile that took over her face when she saw blood.

“…deeply passionate."

“That sounds terrifying.”

“It was hard to breathe without wanting to vomit.”

Dominic glanced at Aster, who was rubbing his arms as if cold at the very thought of the countess. Ian wasn’t all that much younger, and their circumstances hadn’t been wildly different either. Yet one casually flew in and out of the lord’s office as if he lived there, and one killed just to see another day. How twisted their fates had become.

Dominic ruffled Aster’s hair out of the blue. The boy looked up at him in surprise.

“Wh-what is this? Are you really not feeling okay today, brother?”

“I was just thinking about something,” he replied, lifting his hand. “Don’t mind it.”

Aster touched his head, slightly bashful.

“I didn’t mind. You’re just acting a little weird.”

“What would you think of having another sibling?”

“Eh?”

“I met a kid at the arena,” Dominic said, “but he’s messed up.”

“Does he…fight there?” Aster asked warily.

“Yeah.”

“Oh, gods…How old is he?”

“Thirteen.”

His mouth was open in shock.

“Thirteen?! Thirteen is…fuck, no way.”

He almost looked like he was going to cry. His sisters were probably only a year or two younger than that. To have someone that small kill for entertainment hit Aster especially hard.

“I…don’t know if we can get along,” the boy answered honestly. “If he’s been living there, he’s probably really different.”

Dominic nodded in agreement.

“He chose to stay at the arena even after I freed him.”

“Why didn’t you just bring him back anyway?”

“That would’ve been a bit dangerous,” he said. “Letting him free with no attachments would have been fine, but if the countess found out I had brought him back to Helwin, that…”

He frowned.

“The more I favor him, the more she’ll want to see him bleed.”

Aster grimaced.

“Besides,” Dominic said, “a life like that can’t be cured with just a little bit of kindness. Even if I brought him back…”

He still remembered it. The way Ian had taken 76’s heart without hesitation. Those piercing green eyes, the blood soaking his skin in swathes, a look of determination through a veil of crimson gore. His willingness to do anything.

“…comfortable clothes and good food can’t fix that.”

Newfound fortune could help anyone, but this wasn’t a fairytale. Ian had killed without remorse at age thirteen. He wouldn’t instantly morph into a well adjusted little kid just because the world suddenly started to be nice to him.

“But you want to help him, don’t you, brother?” Aster said.

Dominic hesitated, unsure of his own answer.

“…I don’t know.”

He looked out the window, back over the glowing city. He had never gone out of his way to save anyone before. All that had mattered back in Vaine had been surviving, melting quietly into the backdrop, living like a shadow on the wall. Thinking of himself as a kind, giving person now felt like a farce. That wasn’t who he had become just by waking up here one day. He was the same as he had always been.

“I’ll just do what I need to,” Dominic said.

Aster nodded. His expression was solemn. Ian was only thirteen. It hadn’t been too long ago that he had been that age too.

Dominic reached up and ruffled his hair again.

“You really are acting weird today, brother,” he said.

Dominic smiled weakly.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I know.”

∞

Thelo appeared briefly, organizing a few things in his office before rushing off again. He was always busy with tea parties and dinner invitations these days, giving it his all to wriggle his way into the nobles’ inner circles. Dominic only managed to get a single “I’ll look into it” out of him when he suggested investigating Ian’s past. Something about it didn’t add up. He didn’t smell like someone who would have sold himself to a fight ring.

Dominic laid down on the bed in his room, a hand over his eyes. Too much had happened in just a single day, and it wouldn’t get any less exhausting from here. That was to be expected. Getting the king’s attention would never be an easy task. He had picked this for himself.

He sighed. He didn't know how long he could stand being near the countess. And although he had gotten her approval, it was disheartening the more he thought about it. There was only so much he could gain just by being close to her. No matter how interesting of a demon he made Lio seem, there were things he was sure she would never tell him. And those were the secrets he needed.

“Ugh…”

Dominic rubbed his eyes. He hadn’t the slightest clue how politics or the legal system worked in Hesia, so there was only so much he could even do. Thelo would have to take care of most of it. He trusted in the demon’s abilities, but it felt stifling to only sit around and laugh along with a noble lady that made him want to retch within a thirty foot radius. In truth, he already had a good idea what was going on behind the scenes, and Thelo probably did too. There was really only one option.

Human trafficking. The type of slavery the countess used was legal because it was an ‘exchange’ and not ‘coercion.’ Because the slaves agreed to serve her in return for the healing seal of their own will, there wasn’t anything they could do to penalize it. But it was impossible that every single person she owned had been obtained completely legally. When people became commodities, then there would obviously be underground, illicit trading of them as well. Beggars disappearing from the slums mysteriously. Kidnapping talents who might sell for a high price. Capturing those who were coveted by nobles but didn’t want to be owned. Whether or not what the countess was doing was legal, whether or not the slaves in her mansion and arena willingly put themselves there, the entire fiasco was only opening an avenue for perverse people to do whatever they wanted with others’ lives.

Why the king didn’t have the power or motivation to figure it out and right it on his own, Dominic had no idea. But the reality remained the same. He had no evidence of it yet. Thelo might’ve been a little further, considering his widening web of connections, but it was hard to say they were close to anything. And Dominic was exhausted.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was starting to doubt that staying close to the countess would even get him anywhere. Despite her huge collection of slaves, he was actually fairly sure she didn’t participate in any human trafficking herself. She wasn’t stupid. She knew the king probably had her under watch. She wouldn’t risk something that deeply illegal, at least not without a way out.

“Fuck,” Dominic mumbled.

He really had no options. Doing something as reckless as breaking in and stealing account books recording slave acquisitions was out of the question. He couldn’t even read, and once they found that it was missing, everyone would go on high alert, knowing that they were being investigated. Doing something as thoughtless as freeing all the slaves behind her back would accomplish nothing in the long run either. And if they had gone to her of their own volition, then they might not even accept his help to begin with. Every single fighter he had seen at Maylia Arena had gone up to the ring willingly, without needing to be dragged or threatened. Even Ian.

All he could do was watch and wait, and leave all the real digging to Thelo and his expanding network of naive noble sons.

Dominic pushed himself heavily up from the bed. How vexing. How exhausting it was to have to put on an act.

In the mirror across the room, he caught his own reflection. Long, black hair that fell to the bed, straight and sleek. Two horns rising tall and glinting black in the low lamplight. The white robes of a scholar, crumpled and loose after having laid down to rest. The image of an educated, sophisticated noble after a long day. Dominic drew a hand through his hair and then clenched it, a twinge of pain going through his scalp.

“I’m sick of this look,” he mumbled.

It took all of his will just to stop himself from taking a thread out from his glove and cutting it on the spot. He wanted it gone. He didn’t want to see Lio in the mirror. And why was he holding himself back anyway? Being Lio had yielded nothing. There was no proof that being Lio would help at all in the future either. He should just get rid of it now, cut off all ties, pretend he had never masqueraded as anyone else. Why did it matter? What was the point? Why was he stopping himself from going back to Maylia Arena and freeing everyone from their cells and holding pens? So what if it erased what he’d worked for until now? Why not do it? Maybe he should just abandon this route entirely. There were probably other ways to get the attention of the king. He didn’t have to put up with it. He could just go down there and end everything, and then try again elsewhere.

From outside the open window, Uliana glimmered like a crystal in the sky. Dominic bit his lip, lifted his hand from his head, and fell back onto the bed.

He was free in Hesia. No one knew him; there were no real records of his existence. He could do whatever he wanted, no matter how reckless, at least for now. But he didn’t want to waste it on something he’d regret.

The sound of wings flapping came through the window, and a crow landed on the bed beside him. Aster stalked over brazenly, sitting down and then rolling over, pressing himself into Dominic’s side. He snuggled closer, settling in. Dominic smiled weakly. Aster usually spent his time at the house Thelo had gotten him and his siblings, but he escaped to take a break from their antics every once in a while. He deserved a rest from having to be their surrogate parent.

Dominic slowly relaxed, and closed his eyes.

Yeah.

Let’s rest for today.