房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

The door to the dining room opened and two young men entered. An earth magician and a black-haired martial artist with obsidian eyes.

Xeonith Zarble Derizno and Zoemi Benevi Banemor

Well, technically there three men entered – Zoemi was dragging an armless and legless torso of a beaten-up man with a vacant expression, leaving a trail of blood like some sort of demonic slug.

"!!!"

At first, Aedlier stared between two Zoemis but soon enough her full attention focused on the mutilated man.

It was the head of the Derizno family, the very person who was behind the assassination of her parents and who later fooled her into surrendering the Galamroze territory to him...

"Young lady Galamroze."

Xeonith bowed his head to the amaranth-haired girl and spoke out.

"My father's schemes escaped my attention for far too long. Please accept this small token of good will on top of this."

The brown-haired young man moved his hand, presenting whatever was left of his father's body, before reaching inside his clothes and pulling out a few loose pages of parchment.

"...?"

Aedlier managed to tear her eyes away from lord Derizno, just enough to glare at young lord Derizno and the documents in his hands.

Taking it as a sign, Xeonith walked to the table and placed the documents in front of the amaranth-haired girl.

"This is...!"

Aedlier looked at the first page and her eyes widened as she gasped in shock and hurriedly went through the whole stack.

"The Galamroze territory is returned to you. Every single coin that the Derizno family earned through it will be returned to your treasury, also the Derizno family vows to pay the reimbursement for putting you through a such hard time... On behalf of my family, I apologize for what you have gone through."

The heir to one of the great noble families of the kingdom said and kneeled before the young fallen noble who until a few moments ago had no official status.

"I'm also sorry."

"?!?!"

Previously silent Zoemi dragging the duke said and lowered his head about an inch, shocking Aedlier to no end.

"The documents that you worked so hard to obtain will be used and the trial will be made public, but for now just that, and dealing a final blow to this trash, must be enough for you. The war is about to start and the last thing we need is an internal struggle that will happen. Sadly, but this trash was pretty good at making allies... even though he betrayed his nation."

"...ghh...!"

Zoemi said, raising his hand presenting the beaten-up duke Derizno and shaking him a bit which caused a pained gasp to leave the busted lips of the treacherous man.

"Here." *thump*

"...ghaagh...!

The black-haired young man nodded to Aedier and threw the duke in front of the table.

"..."

The amaranth-haired girl put one hand to her mouth – it might have looked as if it was a gesture of disgust, but in fact, she was simply using her unusually pointy fang to puncture the skin on the tip of her index finger.

As she did, she flicked the droplet of blood that emerged, lobbing it at the puddle of blood that formed around the mangled man.

As the droplet got mixed in with the puddle, something peculiar happened with duke Derizno's blood.

It started moving around and flowing in a rather unusual pattern – and it wasn't just the puddle.

The trail of blood that was left by Zoemi dragging him to the meeting room began acting up and flowing back to the body.

Or rather under the body.

"...what do you have to say to me...?"

Aedlier, pale as a ghost, gulped down her saliva and asked, glaring coldly at the perpetrator of the wretched tragedy that befell her and her family.

"...p-please... s-spare me... I... I beg... you... fo... forgive me... show... show... mercy..."

"!!!"

The duke struggled to move or speak but he managed to lift his head just a bit so that he could meet the hateful eyes of the amaranth-haired girl... and had the audacity to actually beg for his life.

*WHAM*

"YOU WANT MERCY?! MY PARENTS WERE MURDERED BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO PROFIT OUT OF OUR MINES AND YOU WANT MERCY?!"

That was too much for Aedlier – the amaranth-haired girl slammed her hands on the table, standing up and shouted, baing her sharp fangs in the show of boundless hatred.

"...forgive... me..."

The duke pleaded with tears streaming down his beaten-up face.

"...beg my parents for forgiveness in the afterlife... not that you will meet them in the place that you are going to..."

Aedlier bit her lips, shaking her head in disgust.

"...plea..."

"IMPALER!"

Duke Derizno tired one more time, but it was too much for Aedlier to handle – she raised her hand sharply and called out.

*SQUELCH*

At her command, all the blood gathered and contained under the mutilated man transformed into a crimson stake and pierced right through his body as if the former head of the Derizno family was a pitiful bug tormented by a cruel child.

"...aghhh..."

Duke let out his last final breath and his torso went limp as his head dropped down and the light left his eyes.

*sob*

Two Zoemis and Xeonith watched the body ins silence as the blood stake slowly lost its shape and returned back into a puddle when the quiet cry interrupted the silence.

Aedlier sat down and was hiding her face in her hands, her shoulders were trembling.

"...mommy... daddy..."

The girl sobbed as a huge wave of relief washed over her body and was a bit too much for her to handle.

"..."

Xeonith glanced over at Zoemis but both of them shook their head and gave him a long blink to reassure him that it was okay.

Then, the Zoemi standing by Xeonith's side patted his shoulder and motioned at the door with his chin.

The two of them left the meeting room - after all, they still had to submit the written promise of the Derizno family to the Galamroze family to the king.

"Will things go smoothly on your part?"

The black-haired young man asked as they walked down the hallway.

"With the succession, you mean? Yes. I will have to find my mother some cozy place to retire, preferably as far away as possible so she could not try to plot anything. You wouldn't know of some nice monastery or something...?"

"Actually..."

Xeonith raised his brow and grinned to which Zoemi snickered.