“Welcome back” Aileen sing sang the moment Agnes entered the room. She had just come back from a late dinner with Harvy and Noet. Bertha and Aileen had been missing all day so Agnes was a bit surprised to see her in the room.

“Well, you’re energetic” Agnes noted a bit surprised at the hearty welcome. This was so unlike Aileen.

The usual cheer about Aileen was more than often fake. She always smiled and chuckled but if you knew her you’d be able to know that most of the time she only smiled because she felt she had too.

One of the things Agnes loved about Harvy was his ability to make Aileen laugh. Aileen would end up killing Harvy if they were left alone but with the appropriate distance, they would co-exist just fine.

This was why she felt surprised when she was told they’d slept together even if it was just once. She wished she’d been there to see it.

“Hehe” She flashed a grin feigning mysteriousness.

“What happened?” Agnes asked walking over to her bed, unbuckling her belt.

“Not telling” Aileen sing-sang again.

Agnes raised a brow “You know what? I’m not even curious”

“Ok, wasn’t going to tell you anyways”, Aileen smirked, seemingly satisfied with something.

Agnes shook her head and pulled put out a piece of comfortable clothing from under her bed, swiftly changing out of her jumpsuit.

“Why do you always go shopping dressed for war?” Aileen asked sharpening her wooden spear- it was more of a habit now rather than actually sharpening it. It seemed like she was asking Agnes just for the sake of it not that she actually cared.

“War? No. Battle? Yes. I just don’t feel comfortable without it” Agnes replied absentmindedly.

The room descended into silence as Agnes went about her sleeping rituals; checking her ranks, fighting the air and the only other sound in the room came from the slashing of a sharpening knife on the wooden spear.

Agnes finally lay down staring at the ceiling and waited for her exhaustion to set in. Today had seemed longer than usual to her for some reason.

She turned on her bed facing the older lady and just watched her repetitive motion. Agnes was the youngest in her group being 27. May was 127 (Agnes suspected this wasn’t true), Noet was 72, Aileen was 42, Bertha was 54 and Harvy was 28. Agnes knew that she and Harvy were just kids to them even if they never said it outright.

Her eyes moved to rest of the head of the elf-dwarf. As usual her hair was a beautiful shade of dark blue.

“I do love your hair” Agnes commented in an attempt to make small talk as she sunk her head into the pillow.

“I know” a smile surfaced on Aileen’s face, “You’ve told me before”

“Well, yours looks like the night sky, mine looks like urine” Agnes said, her tone weary but upbeat.

Aileen paused her sharpening and pulled a lock of hair in front of her face. Her hair was cut in a bob and the only long part of it was the gray one,” I don’t think it looks like the sky? Neither do I think your hair looks like urine. That is such an odd description. I’d have said… um sunlight”

“Meh” Agnes drawled. The sharpening repetitions were making her sleepy, “I got this hair from my mother----”

She suddenly froze mid speech, stunned.

Aileen had a stunned expression too but quickly recovered, “Someone’s a bit loose lipped today. Was your mother the high elf or the human?”

Agnes didn’t answer still stunned at what she just said. She never talked about her parents. Ever. She had made it a creed to never do so or else one day she’d slip up without knowing. She had already been found out by Luken and even though he didn’t really care that didn’t mean everyone else was the same.

Aileen shrugged expecting no answer from Agnes and went back to her business. Just like she didn’t know Agnes’ story, Agnes didn’t know hers. It was sort of an unspoken rule in their group not to ask. Well, except to Bertha.

Bertha was very open about how she’d been banged and bagged to the colosseum. Aileen didn’t think that was a story to be open about but that was just Bertha, she didn’t give two fucks about anything most of the time and had repeatedly asked every one of their stories, even if she got no answer.

The mere fact that they were in the colosseum meant they’d been sold to the colosseum by either their own parents or a random person, captured by roaming slave traders or captured by the Marshalls themselves; rare but still happened. What so ever past you had, it always led up to that fact.

Agnes folded up on her bed, resolving to never have a repeat of this little incident. She soon drifted off to sleep with all her troubles manifesting in her dreams like always.

***

In a certain building, there was a hallway that held no sign of living things but was wide enough to accommodate 50 or more people. It was beautifully lit and adorned with silver engravings on the wall. Expensive chandeliers hung from the ceiling but there was an eerie feeling in air that made its emptiness more pronounced.

This hallways had 4 bronze doors-more like gates- leading to 3 different chambers. Two of these doors were 10 feet away from each other and were the only ones with gold lining on their edges.

There was sound coming from within one of these doors. These sounds resembled talking but none of the words could be made out from the outside.

Inside of the room didn’t lose to the outside in terms of the eerie feeling but there were only two people inside this chamber and judging by the furniture, it was a study room. The atmosphere would have felt a bit stifling to an onlooker but the two individuals didn’t seem to care.

“Elder brother, I don’t understand why you keep letting that vermin live!” an obviously infuriated young lady spoke. Well, she looked young.

“I let so many vermins live. How has this one offended you?” a sickly looking young man replied. He looked ready to fall dead at any moment but his temperament was not that off the sick. It was that of royalty.

“Yes. That is the one of the bad things about you Elder Brother, you keep letting them leave,” the lady sighed massaging her forehead, “He is a failure. Since when did we start keeping failures?”

“Hmm, since 200 years ago?” he chuckled heartily. The laughter did not fit his face at all.

Princess Abigail clicked her tongue in annoyance. She didn’t know what her brother found entertaining at all.

Prince—oh right, Crown Prince— Eliot had always been an eccentric person. He found delight in the oddest things, a complete 180 from the King. Abigail looked at the person who was to become King when the current King passed the kingdom over. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

Because of the hassle involved with royal intrigue and what not, Abigail had given up her rights to the throne when she turned 120 – at least that’s what people thought. She had given up after seeing her eldest sibling volunteer herself be a test subject for the future of the royal family.

She had looked up to the 1st princess and first born child, May Salvador and had come to the realization early in life she could never meet May’s dedication for the Kingdom. On the other hand, Eliot would lay down his life for it, just like May. That kind of ruler was what the Kingdom needed and Abigail’s only wish was to support him.

And, there were only 3 children born to the royal palace so there was not really any competition for the throne if May and Abigail didn’t compete.

Eliot might be dedicated to the Kingdom but Abigail couldn’t help but feel that she was handing over the Kingdom to someone who wasn’t very strong, both literally and figuratively. ‘Handing over’ because both Eliot and Abigail knew that if she truly wanted the throne, it wouldn’t even be a competition. Eliot would be totally eradicated and Abigail would become the new Empress.

One of the reasons the King still ruled was because he was unsure of Eliot’s capability. Eliot was born with a denser diamond than usual meaning his mana cultivation capacity was destined to be close to nil. Even with all the experiments he’d performed on his body, it was just another reason why Abigail felt the need to support him. Otherwise she’d have left the royal palace and found something to do with her life.

“I don’t see what is so fun about him and 200 years is a long time, Elder Brother”, Abigail muttered, giving up on changing his mind. She could immediately squash that vermin like the bug that he was but she usually let Eliot have the final say.

“He thinks he can escape my grasp” his voice sounded a bit empty, “I like it”

Abigail raised a brow, “He’s been trying to escape your grasp even before now and he needs a specific blood dosage to survive so escaping you is impossible. You’d think he’d figure it out after all these years”

“Oh he has figured that out” Eliot smiled ferociously, spinning the wine glass of red wine or was it blood? in his hand…. It looked too light to be blood though.

As to where the glass appeared from and when it appeared, it wasn’t possible to know, “He is looking for a way to get his regular dosage without me” Eliot laughed lightly in spite of himself.

“A futile attempt obviously. He probably has made no progress in that direction since there’s no way to escape your hands. Aren’t you bored?” Abigail yawned. She wasn’t sleepy, just tired of trying to convince him to kill these people. Eliot rarely ever listened.

The prince was silent and only the barely audible slosh sound from spinning the liquid could be heard in the room, “Actually” he paused obviously pondered something, “Actually yes” he paused again.

“Yes. I am bored” he said with a tone of finality.

Abigail’s eyes widened, surprised that her words actually got to him. “Let’s kill him!” she squealed in delight.

She truly just wanted to have that thing removed from her sight. The noble ladies were getting intoxicated with the man and she wouldn’t want Eliot to have to deal with a rebellion or something similar due to some bed warmer that they created.

Her brother didn’t seem to have picked up on the developing situation and she was ready to help him when the time came, if worst came to worst but now that he was all for eradicating the vermin she was all up for it!

“Mildred” Eliot called softly as though talking to someone right next to him. There was nobody there.

“Yes, Sire” a voice, obviously male came from beside Eliot. The two royal children weren’t startled as though the voice was always there.

“Where is Luken? Now that we’re talking of him, I just realized he’s been disappearing lately” Eliot asked.

There was a brief silence before Mildred spoke, “I didn’t monitor his disappearance as he never left the colosseum, Sire. I will definitely find out”

“…Oh” Eliot said his voice monotonic.

Abigail burst into laughter, “How utterly useless. Do you not screen your guards, Elder brother?”

The man in question was completely still like a statue. It was like time had frozen around him.

“I---” Mildred began.

“Shut up”, Eliot spoke icily, only his mouth moving.

Abigail couldn’t wipe the smile on her face, “Mirabelle?”

“Yes, Your Highness?” a lovely female voice replied from the space beside Abigail. There was no indication of a being next to Abigail either.

“Where has he been disappearing to?” she asked.

“The underground, your highness” Mirabelle replied respectfully.

Abigail furrowed her brow turning to Eliot, “You gave him access to that?”

“No” his stature like posture finally moved and he relaxed in their seat. Judging from Abigail’s reaction, or lack of, Eliot probably became a ‘statue’ often enough.

“Then…?” Abigail looked at the space beside her as though looking someone in the eye.

“He has been visiting a savage underground, Your Highness. I didn’t mean to be vague” this time, Mirabelle’s voice was a bit shaky.

“I thought you meant the lab!” Abigail barked, her smiling expression completely wiped from her face.

“I’m sorry Your Highness”, the voice was completely shaking with fear at this point.

Abigail didn’t seem to notice her fear, “Wait. A savage?”

Eliot perked up at that, “What is he doing with a savage?”

“That…” Mirabelle began but paused a bit reluctant to continue. The fear a second ago was completely gone from her voice oddly enough.

“He’s fucking one? Oh now that’s interesting” Abigail’s face perked up obviously intrigued. She waved her hand elegantly and whispered, “Incinerate”.

The side of the room where Mildred’s voice had come from caught on fire and the horrid stench of burning flesh spread through the room. The cloak spell Mildred had cast was broken by the sudden attack revealing a middle aged looking man burning to crisps.

There is no change in the expression on Abigail’s face and she didn’t even look at where he burned.

“For Bermia’s sake, Abigail, stop burning up my guards” Eliot sighed tiredly, “That’s the 50th one this year and it’s just Farahe (4th month), by Tibeth (12th month), who knows how many that’ll be?”

“Uh…” She cleared her throat and acted like he said nothing “Isn’t it interesting? That vermin is fucking a semi!… it’s a semi, right?”

“Yes” Mirabelle answered quietly.

“A semi! We set him to have an instinctual repulsion to semis but it would seem that part of the control mechanism failed. You did a great thing by letting him live, Elder Brother!” she praised truly excited.

“It’s the 50th one. Do you think dual users grow on trees?” Eliot deadpanned, completely ignoring her comment.

Abigail had to laugh, “OK. I won’t do it again if you get reliable ones”

“That’s what you said last time” Eliot raised a brow.

Abigail guiltily scratched her head, “I’ll give you one?”

“No” Eliot refused firmly.

Abigail just sighed expecting this, “Then 3 chances?”

Eliot took a while to mull it over and a small smile found itself to his face, “Perfect”

“So?”

“Hmm?” Eliot tiled his head at that, confused.

“Luken. His control mechanism seems to be a bit faulty. It’s the first one to fail in centuries, this might lead to breakthrough in our research” Abigail spoke animatedly, “I always thought it just didn’t set well which was why he keeps trying to escape from us but it’s simply not working well!”

In the creation of a puppet, if the control system doesn’t set well before puppet activation, the puppet will be given the instinctual desire to get away from the maker. No one knew exactly why it worked that way. Dark magic always had oddities to it.

Eliot shook his head, “No, his control mechanism has always been a bit faulty”

Abigail’s expression was full of surprise. She hadn’t been there for the creation of Luken but why would Eliot leave someone with a faulty control?

“I needed to test something. I did set for the instinctual repulsion but it wasn’t a full setting. If the incomplete mechanism completely fused with his body, his full set of emotions from his time as a human should come back instead of making him a mindless puppet BUT he would still be under my control was the hypothesis” Eliot explained.

“No wonder” Abigail mumbled. Luken had always been odd. For a puppet, his emotional range was too wide, “So the hypothesis is proven? We should retrieve the mechanism from his body and study it, right? It could be replicable”

“No” Eliot shook his head, “He barely got his emotional range back. Just recently he retrieved his ability to like somebody so he began the relationship with the savage girl BUT he’s been getting much more rebellious than we programmed him to be meaning the control mechanism is slowly losing effect.

As for the study, we could do it. I was planning to allow it sometime so he could get some more emotions but he’s reaching the end of his lifespan anyway so i guess we can end it”

Abigail opened her mouth to reply but the words got stuck in her throat. She stared incredulously at Eliot, “You were playing dumb?”

Eliot smirked, “I liked seeing Elder Sister in action”

Abigail opened her mouth dumbfounded, “You’re angry?”

“Yes”

“Wow, I suddenly feel sorry for Mildred,” Abigail smiled ferociously. She obviously felt nothing for the dead man.

“You’re not going to ask why?”

“I know why. ‘Elder Brother’” Abigail chuckled, elegantly leaning back on her chair, her eyes twinkled, more than impressed. She was fooled, and spectacularly so.

Eliot grit his teeth, “Who is your elder brother?” then he added with an aggrieved mumble, “I’m sure I was born after you”