Runfar Sevilles…Son of Augustus Sevilles…he must die.

The rage within her heart was all consuming; nothing else but revenge mattered, and her desire to end his life then and there was stronger than anything she had ever felt.

Revenge was the only thing had left.

Augustus Sevilles. He took everything away from her, her freedom, her dignity, and even her beloved elder sister, Helea.

Months of torture inside the dungeon, and then they were left to die there, with no food or water.

She remembered desperately pleading for her older sister to wake up, the heavy helmet placed on her damaged face obscuring her vision, but her hand that held her elder sister’s hand could tell the pulse was weakening.

And then, her sister drew her last breath.

After that, everything turned dark. She did not know why she was still alive but the first thing that came to her mind was.

My sister isn’t here, where is she?!

But then, a man wearing a half mask, calling himself Augustus’s son, told her that she was the only surviving elf from the dungeon.

Everyone else was dead. That meant, her sister was dead as well.

Her hands trembled at the thought. Her mind felt like it will collapse any second, the feeling, her lungs felt like they were burning up, her heart beat grew faster and faster till her body felt pain. She felt like she was choking on her own breath.

Clenching her jaw, holding tightly onto the blanket as if she wanted to choke the life out of it, she wailed and screamed her cry of despair.

It was a cry comparable to that of a monster’s roar.

She wanted to stop crying and stop shrieking, but her body simply did not obey her mind, it instead obeyed the cries of her heart.

Why did this happen to us? What have we done to deserve this? Why am I the only one who has lived…why couldn’t it have been her instead?

Her bony fingers dove themselves into the pillow and she promptly ended up tearing into pieces, before punching the bed multiple times, her anger was not quelling. Like an uncontrollable tide of ocean waves, they kept coming forward.

And now, even the one she wanted to take revenge upon is already dead.

Now there is no way of avenging her…

No…there is…he might not be Augustus…but he is of his blood. Blood for blood. He took the only family I had left…Even if his son is innocent…his bloodline must pay for his sins. I must kill him.

She clenched the kitchen knife she managed to snatch when Runfar presented her with food. Luckily he did not notice anything was amiss.

I will wait till midnight, until everyone in the mansion has gone to rest. Then it shall be the moment I strike.

Her resolve was complete. Her anger focused on her goal.

There was one person she had to kill before she dies…and he is just hand’s reach away….

* * *

With the kitchen knife she held in her hand, she proceeded to soundlessly walk towards Runfar’s room. Elves had much lighter physique than a human so walking noiselessly was an easy task.

Rumor of elves being able to walk on snow without sinking were all true. They simply were built differently than humans in that regard.

Luckily, it seems most servants were asleep. She just had to make sure to avoid the maid that was on patrol duty.

He is not Augustus…he was not the one who did this to us. But Augustus is his father. And as his son, he must pay.

She coated the kitchen knife in lightning mana.

He is innocent, but he must pay for his father’s crime. Painless death in his sleep is the only mercy I can give him. I am sorry…

She slowly entered his room.

Room was dimly lit with magical torches with yellow flames.

She carefully closed the door.

Runfar seemed to be sleeping.

Now is the time for me to exact my revenge. With the knife coated in lightning mana, I can plunge it into his heart. His entire body will shut down in an instant. He will not even feel pain.

Now it is time!

She raised her knife to strike him, but now she ended up looking at Runfar’s sleeping body more closely.

He no longer was wearing his mask, his upper body, not covered by blanket was partially exposed.

What she saw made her drop the knife and gasp in horror.

Right side of Runfar’s body was covered entirely by scar tissue. The scarring extended from right half of Runfar’s body, to his hand, up to the right side of his face, which was usually covered by his mask.

Just looking at his scars was painful.

Compared to her, most of whose wounds except for a few scars were miraculously healed; his injuries seemed far more severe.

What in the world happened to him? Why am I hesitating? Why my hand wouldn’t move? I must kill him…I must…I must…if I don’t elder sister will not be avenged!

She grabbed the knife and held it right in front of Runfar’s chest, he was asleep.

It was now or never.

But at the last second, her heart was not strong enough.

She moved the knife away from Runfar’s chest and dropped it on the floor, where it landed with a clank.

Why can’t I do something as simple as killing him? Why can’t I force myself to take his life? I know he is innocent, but he is son Augustus! He is son of that…that monster. But he looks like he already suffered a lot in his life. If I take his life now….I don’t know if I will be able to face elder sister in afterlife.

Without leaving the room, she leaned on the wall, sobbing.

One thing I need to do and I can’t even do it…I am pathetic.

She sat there all night long, without even the slightest clue of Runfar’s wicked smile.

Everything worked exactly as planned~

* * *

She tried to force herself to kill him several times throughout the night, but each time, her hand would give away, her heart simply was not strong enough.

She stayed inside his room until the morning sun rose, she was still crying, even if her eyes dried up.

She didn’t even notice as Runfar, who was supposed to be sleeping, suddenly sat up on his bed.

He calmly looked at her sobbing figure and the knife embedded on the floor and sighed. He seemed to understand what was going on right away.

“I see. You have come to kill me. If that is the case, do not worry, I will not resist. After all, sons do carry the sins of their fathers.”

The way he just accepted his fate, it just did not feel right.

This time, she spoke up against him.

“How can you say that? Do you even value you even value your life even a little?”

“Whether I care or not if I die is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is, you want to take revenge upon my late father, and I don’t blame you for that. But my father is already dead, so the only one you can take your justice upon is me, his son.” He proceeded to stand up from his bed.

It seemed like he was resigning himself to his fate.

“But that is not right! I hate Augustus! If he was still standing here, I would have killed him over and over again! But you…you have done nothing wrong. You’re innocent…but I just….I just don’t know what to do anymore!” she struck the floor with a blast of lightning, it was a weak spell that only shocks what it touches, but it was enough to scorch the carpet a little.

Her silver eyes were dyed red from the intensity of her tears and her despair echoed in her voice. It was obvious that she was conflicted.

She no longer knew what she needed to do. Her resolve was faltering; as did her desire to live…she just wished that someone would just get this over with and kill her. At least then, she would be able to reunite with her sister.

“We can start with a proper introduction. Since I don’t even know your name for that matter, how about we introduce ourselves? You already know mine though.”

“Alua…Malekis.” She hesitantly answered.

“Well then, Alua, if you are still planning to kill me, what were you going to do next?”

“I was going to kill myself after killing you. But it seems that is no longer an option, at least not for me.” She clutched her trembling hand.

“Ok, then, what are you going to do now? Do you have a place you can go to or home to return to? Relatives perhaps?”

“My village no longer exists, it was raided by human mercenaries, all of the villagers were pillaged, killed, and those who survived were enslaved. As for family, I only had my elder sister left. But now….”

Her expression betrayed just how broken she was.

“I have nothing, I have none left waiting for me, not a family, not a relative, not a friend, not a single soul. I have nowhere to come back to, and now, not even someone I could take revenge upon. In the end I am alone, with none left to love, with none left to hate. Lord Runfar, please take mercy upon me and kill this foolish elf who dared to raise a knife against you. I am sure you would agree, I deserve such fate for attempting to take your life.”

She held up the knife and gave it to Runfar, waiting for him to strike her down.

But instead, with a mighty flick of his right wrist, he threw the knife into the ceiling, where it ended up stuck.

“I am not going to do it. You have not harmed me; I see no reason to bear a grudge against you.”

“Why wouldn’t you just kill me?!” she got on her knees. It was as if she was begging him to finish her off.

“Don’t you see? I have none left, I can’t go back home, and if I go anywhere, I will be enslaved again. Death is far better fate. Please give me a suitable punishment; after all, I did try to kill you.”

“Very well, but you will have to promise me, promise me that you will accept any punishment I give you.”

“I give my word.” She whispered something in some strange tongue, Runfar was sure it was a way of making her promise irreversible, some kind of a personal unbreakable vow spell.

“Then, my punishment is for you to live.”

“Huh? What?” For someone who wanted to die, this was an ultimate insult. For a moment she couldn’t comprehend what he just said, but then the true meaning of his words sunk in.

“You already gave your word, so abide by it.”

“Lord Runfar, you’re cruel. Even if I am forced to live due to my vow, where would I even go?”

“I don’t mind if you stay here.”

“You would invite someone like me, an elf who tried to take your life in your own chambers, into your own house?”

“It is not exactly easy on you either, considering I am the son of the man who took so much away from you. But for what is worth, I apologize on my father’s behalf.” He bowed his head to her.

Her eyes opened wide.

He might be of Augustus’s blood, but he is not like Augustus, not at all. He is different.

“As such, I would like to hire you to work in this mansion. That is, if you are ok with it.”

Wiping her tears away, she gave her reply.

“I can see that lord Runfar is indeed nothing like Augustus. I can see that clearly now.” She hesitated for a moment before replying.

“Very well, I accept.”

“Then I welcome you to my estate, Alua Malekis.”

Runfar and Alua shook hands.

Interesting, I somehow managed to resolve this through talking to her. This worked much better than expected. In the last loop, I managed to find out it was her who killed me. Then, I ended up getting into a fight which ended with my gruesome death. Elf magic, it is no joke. Plus, I did not have my crystal dagger nearby.

This time I had Camilla attach fake scarred skin made with earth magic attached to the entirety of my right side. The illusion of injuries was enough for her to lose her resolve, and then it was just a matter of subtle manipulations. To think that words could have such power, I really need to take this into account.

For the sake of caution, this time, I had crystal knife hidden within my pillow.

But had she chosen to strike me down, I would have killed her on the spot, however, I wanted to find out to what extent I could influence her thoughts and feelings…regardless, this experiment was success.

* * *

Alua Malekis exited Runfar’s room, but near then she came face to face with the butler, Camil, standing right next to the door.

He must have overheard them.

He looked like a tall man with slitted eyes, no facial hair, he looked quite androgynous combined with his butler uniform gave off an interesting masculine aura.

Camil looked into Alua’s silver eyes with his own slitted yellow eyes.

“I will ask of you not to cause harm to young master; he already suffered enough. Please heed my words.”

Alua could feel killing intent slip through, this was clearly a warning. This butler, Camil, he seems to know about the extent of Runfar’s injuries. They must be close.

Elf’s expression turned towards the ground.

She saw the extent of Runfar’s injuries, but he still smiled and told her to live.

How can someone so wonderful be born of someone so vile?

“I understand, I shall never cause Master Runfar harm again.”

She bowed to Camil in acknowledgment and proceeded to go back to the room she was in originally.

Runfar said that the head maid will call her later, but until then, she should rest.

Aside from the appearance, the apple sure has fallen far from the tree, huh…