“Joane,” my lady said, her voice softer than she usually preferred when talking to strangers. Her hands moved to my bosom and reassured me, though they lingered there for a tad longer than needed. With a faint blush, she took a step back, and the familiar mage from the interview, Joane, entered the hall, all smiles, despite the gore in the room.

Arabell would have died today of multiple strokes if it wasn’t for my lady’s confident tone in recognizing the newcomer, and that would have been quite a sight to behold. I pushed down the thought and the smile that came up with it and glanced at Joane. Her wrinkles had intensified over the past month, and the dark circles that lined the creases had become more prominent. Not quite an improvement, but she still appeared healthy enough to fight against me should the circumstance necessitate it.

“You’ve grown, Letitia,” she said, and her eyes paused at my lady’s bust. “Not quite there yet.”

“Shut up, old hag!” my lady covered her chest with an aggrieved look and moved closer to me. “Took you long enough to return to the capital. What brings you here?”

“Can’t I say I just wanted to see my beloved granddaughter?” she smiled, ruffling my lady’s hair. Surprisingly, my lady let her touch, making her the first exception apart from her two mates and me.

“You are not,” my lady rolled her eyes. “And don’t give that crappy reason every time you come to meet me.”

“Wait,” I glanced at my lady. “How come I never met her?”

My lady’s smile froze, and she snuggled closer to me. Acting all meek and cute wasn’t getting her anywhere with this undead.

“Don’t tell me you thought I would kill this lady too?” I was actually proud of my lady for thinking that far, despite being only five or six years old at the time.

“That, and she was stationed at Coln soon after her mother’s death. So I didn’t find the need to tell you about her,” my lady said, a tad bit guilty. “We met only twice in the past ten years. Before I had crossed the age of ten. Each time in secrecy. I didn’t trust you back then, Rudolf. Somehow, over the years, I thought I had forgotten about the reason why I didn’t. And her infrequent visits also aided in the same. I should have talked things out with you before burying them within me.”

I pulled her cheek. “Weren’t you a cheeky brat, my lady?”

“Mowgrel!” she slapped my hands away and giggled.

“Stop flirting so blatantly in front of this old mage,” Jonae shook her head in disapproval. “Never thought you’d let anyone else touch you.”

“And neither did I,” I said, staring at Joane for a while. “And we aren’t flirting.”

“He is,” my lady said, holding my hand. “He flirts a lot, Joane.”

“Stop lying, my lady,” I sighed, but she clinked out bracelets.

Joane laughed and pointed at the mess in the room. “I need your help, Letitia. Even yours,” she smiled at me, “but firstly, what should we do about this mess?”

A [Devil eye] materialized before us, smaller than my own, and roamed in the vicinity, scanning for the trouble. I had ascertained she was watching us all the while when I had seen Beth and Casey sleeping. That was [Fatigue], no doubt. But how long was the question. I wasn’t too keen for the answer since my lady wouldn’t let me kill her last surviving family or whatever else this lady was. Sad, but I had to make things work with how they were programmed for me.

“I will burn the bodies,” I said as Arabell got up.

“And this is?” Joane stared at the tear-stained face of the girl with indifference.

“Bitch,” my lady said, which earned her a laugh. “Arabell. My step-sister,” she added soon with much hesitance.

“Rudolf is ruthless,” she laughed, “I will hand it to him.”

Arabell didn’t find our conversation humorous. She was already too scared and weak to walk a step with her bloodstained clothes.

“She needs a change of clothes,” my lady said, eyeing Joane from the corner of her eyes.

“Still asking me to clean the trash,” Joane sighed. “We have a more important matter to tend to, Letitia.”

“What can be more important than escaping gallows, old hag?” my lady asked, not entirely happy with Joane’s triviality.

Joane removed her robe and handed it to my lady. She carried it over to Arabell and draped it around her. “I still hate you, bitch, for all the things you have done to me. But consider this a chance of your lifetime to redeem yourself. You are an heir to the manor, so remain an heir till the end. Or die trying. If your sister wants to steal it, show her who she is facing. If your mother wants to hand it over to her, teach that vile bitch a lesson worth remembering.”

Arabell cried again, and my lady stepped back before the former could touch her. “I don’t and won’t sympathize with you. And I don’t intend to crave a happy family with bitches either. So, you can take your call. Either you get rid of the eyesores in the house, or just join them and become another blemish. [Quagmire], Rudolf. Prohibit her from talking against us.”

“As you wish, my lady,” I smiled as darkness glowed around the periphery of the circle around her and encased her for a second before disappearing into nothingness.

“What about the smell of blood on her?” my lady turned to me.

“How about we ask Beth and Casey to buy her some clothes?” I asked, watching Arabell wiping her eyes. She didn’t resemble my lady, not even in the slightest, so I couldn’t even give the reason to treat her a smidgen better. Her atrocities against my lady might have been brushed off by her, but I didn’t. Letitia had given her one chance, and so would I, for the magnanimous undead I was.

“Old hag. Wake them up,” my lady said while the old mage just shook her head. “Then why did you put them to sleep?!”

“”Should we just throw her into the gallows?” Joane asked, already impatient for whatever task she had us lined up.

“Please,’ Arbell got down on her knees again, prostrating before my lady. “Please don’t abandon me, Letitia.”

I reveled in the satisfaction the strange action brought me. Everyone should genuflect before my villainess, in fear and in misery. I had groomed her, so I deserved this much at the bare minimum.

“Just get into the carriage then,” my lady scowled. “I’m not your maidservant to tend to your every need, bitch. Scarm!”

Standing on her feet took effort, but she rushed past us, pausing briefly at the two figures at the entrance before she wobbled through the corridor.

“She might not reach the manor,” Joane said.

“That’s not my problem,” my lady said. “Why should I even care?”

[Hell fire] swathed the bodies in a violent glow as I set them on fire one after the other. However, I couldn’t do much about the blood, so I decided to set the building on fire. I wasn’t worried about getting caught. My lady was still weak, and that would be my only concern inside the gallows which would become a bloodstained graveyard.

“I will set the building on fire,” I pointed at the blood as smoke filled the room, the stench forcing my lady to cover her nose with her sleeves. “Sometimes, it’s better to brew some uneasiness in the kingdom.”

“I am up for it,” Joane said in haste. “Get this done fast, Rudolf.”

And we did. After Letitia’s two friends had woken up. They didn’t get to see the bodies, and somehow, Casey appeared relieved at the thought. I couldn’t understand why these mortals didn’t appreciate blood and gore. The absolute thrill comes from the process itself, and torture was just the final icing.

We walked out of Platique Entalt, which wouldn’t be standing all majestic from this usual chilly day. It didn’t long for the building to go up in flames either, and people ran outside, pushing each other, tramping over the fallen, almost killing them in their frenzied dash. Shouts, cries, howls, the erratic ambiance even attracted the attention of the commoner strolling the streets in silence, and their faces changed color when they noticed the largest building in the vicinity go up in flames.

I even saw Miesei, Elert, and a few familiar faces from the Academy. Not Gladiata. The world might have saved her again, trying to push her away from early doom. I had never expected killing her to be all bread and soup. The world was probably the most malicious opponent I have ever fought, and my urge to destroy it hadn’t died down since my initial days. If the realm didn’t mend its way, that is. After all, going against this overpowered undead was no easy feat.

“See?” I pointed at swarming mortals. “That’s what humans are in the end. Rotten to the core, selfishness rooted in their blood, slaughterers. They killed that maid by tramping over her and that boy by pushing him down the stairs. The flames were slow, hardly enough to kill anyone.”

“True,” Joane chimed in. “I have seen worse, so I don’t dare to call myself a good person.”

“Glad I hadn’t chosen the wrong side,” Beth shivered at the thought and rubbed her shoulders.

“We chose the wrong side, Beth,” Casey giggled, unaffected by the horrendous sight before her. She was probably the most adaptive human I had ever seen. Around an hour ago, she wasn’t ready to accept my words, but it seemed she had come to terms with her thoughts in a short while. Despite her apparent innocuous bearing, she was the most ferocious of all three of them. An ideal candidate to sit on the throne should we succeed in overthrowing the royal family because she could win over the masses, concealing all her intentions, whether for the better or the worst. For now, she was just a young maiden, budding into a poisonous flower that looked beautiful inside out.

“Wrong or not,” my lady said after a while, “the safe side is the one beside my mongrel.”

“Beside you, Letitia,” I said, and she just wrapped her fingers around mine discreetly.

“Flirt,” she mumbled under her breath. I heard her, despite all the noise, and I freed my hand, earning a pout instead of admonishment. That action was too intimate for this undead. More than her kisses or hickeys.

We scurried away from the place, parting ways at the entrance, Joane leading us to her home. Her eyes scanned the locale restlessly, a common practice of mages subjected to multiple assassinations in the past. Something told me she wasn’t all wrinkles and dark circles. And my hunches were never wrong, so I was eager to see her secret stash spilled open before us. Whether it contained bread or alcohol needed careful scrutiny. Nonetheless, it was bread since my lady was elated. Her commendation letter was almost within reach after the aimless search of about a month.

“I’ll go ahead,” Joane said when we almost reached the central plaza. “I am under house arrest, so it’s better if you don’t get seen with me in broad daylight. Letitia knows the way to my manor. Don’t you, baby?”

My lady scowled at her. “I’m a woman, old hag!”

I decided not to tell her the inherent meaning of the world. She might force me to call her ‘baby’ instead of her usual address. Though, I felt amused when I thought about her blush at the address and almost laughed on my own like typical undead.

Yes, we did laugh alone. What else do you think we did in our spare time? Meditate for two millennia like those fake sages? No, thank you.