Chapter 58: MOURNING HIS SON
The Rascliffe manor, one of the largest houses in the kingdom, the main house of the Rascliffe family, precisely, Alphonse Rascliffe, lies in Arlyn close to its border, the manor is slightly smaller than the Minister's manor himself, a great sign for how important and strong someone as Alphonse Rascliffe is, through the last 20 years, no one was able to level up with him, a person that even helps minister Morgan with some delicate external issues concerning Vidin's trade with the other kingdoms, simply he's the smartest merchant in Vidin and one of the smartest across all of Plistura, his name is known across the ocean to Reldret and over the sky-touching mountains in Legnica and even in the deep mines of Volgast, but what no one knows is that Alphonse is a very dangerous man, not just because his wealth, position and relations, being a hell grade dark caster is even much dangerous, a zealot devoted to the Cragmoore zealots since a long time, worshipping the scarlet demon lord while faking his love for the gods in the public, the practicing of the dark magic is prohibited and anyone using it should be eliminated immediately yet this man is hiding well, he's even close to the minister, just thinking about what Blamore can do using the position of Alphonse is horrible, it's like he's already having the upper hand if he wanted to make drastic changes in his plan to reach Irene.
In the luxurious office of Alphonse in the third floor, a black wooden coffin was in the middle of the office, it was clear that the wood of the coffin was of a fine quality and the design of the coffin was elegant, something suitable for holding the body of the only son of Alphonse, John Rascliffe.
Shisk was standing inside the room with his back to the door so no one could enter, his head was looking at the ground beneath him in shame, he still couldn't forgive himself for failing Alphonse, his right arm was cut due to the clash with Jaxith, the only other person in the room was Alphonse, he was sitting on a chair beside the coffin and his right hand over it, he's so calm, even calmer than usual, he has been in that position for over an hour now, just looking at the face of his son.
"Go out, don't let anyone in for now until the funeral begins, I need to be alone.", Said Alphonse in grief without looking at Shisk who raised his head and looked at Alphonse while thinking.
"Yes, Mr. Alphonse.", Said Shisk politely before opening the door and going out then closing it, he looked at the door, he simply doesn't know the right thing to tell Alphonse, he lost his only son, he was butchered by a savage, Shisk can't forget his stare, the monstrous sadistic look, his eyes are even still haunting his dreams, he placed his left arm over his right shoulder while remembering his injury.
"Never in my life I saw those strange moves, the anger, the hatred and the....., strength, there was nothing to do against him (he started remembering Jaxith's deadly moves between Shisk's men), a human killing machine, that's what he should be called with, I'm sure that we'll meet again, but I need be stronger in order to protect Mr. Alphonse this time, maybe the shard Edward mentioned could help me become stronger?", Thought Shisk while looking angrily at the door before punching the wall beside the door.
"It all happened because I was a weak, unreliable and ungrateful guard, that's not how I repay this family's help.", Thought Shisk before looking back at the door.
"Maybe Mr. Alphonse will give it to me if I asked him.", Thought Shisk.
Alphonse slowly stood up then put his right hand over John's cheek, he smiled sadly.
"Remember that time when you went to the forest alone when you were still a young kid, you were literally addicted to alchemy and tried to get anything from the forest without even knowing what their effects were.", Said Alphonse calmly while smiling.
"When the maids told me that you suddenly disappeared I was afraid, no one saw you and I thought you were kidnapped, two hours and finally one of the guards told me that you were in the forest collecting some herbs and was now down in the first floor, I was enraged and I swear that I was going to hit you hard in front of everyone, but when I saw you safe and sound, I found myself kneeling to hug you tightly and all the rage inside my chest disappeared, just seeing you well was enough to forget all of that even though it was your mistake not to inform me or any of the guards.", Said Alphonse in a sad tone.
"After that day I knew it was right to bring you some private tutors until you age enough then send you to Reldret's alchemy academy, I always wished the best for you, you become better and better and I was proud of you, you even found the woman that loves you without looking at your wealth, but I was selfish.", Said Alphonse before tears gathered in his eyes.
"I only accepted this marriage just because you truly love her, just because I want to sacrifice someone dear to you, I wanted a future for you that you didn't want, your devotion was high but you didn't want to become a dark caster.", Said Alphonse as he started tearing.
"Now look at you.", Said Alphonse as he gradually fell on his knees while crying in a low voice with his forehead on the coffin.
The grief and pain in Alphonse's heart was unbearable, the regret for how the relationship between him and John went worse after the failure of the sacrificial ritual sickened him more, he could have dealt with him in a better parental manner.
"I've been expecting a lot from him, his devotion and faith in our religion was something I've never seen in this young age, since he was a kid he never showed any signs of suspicions in the scarlet army, people like John should have been the leaders of the change.", Said someone in a cold voice from the corner of the room, he suddenly stepped out of the shadow to reveal himself, lord Vex Blamore himself, Alphonse didn't move a muscle and stayed like that even after hearing Blamore who was looking at the broken father.
"I know why you can't forgive yourself, he died thinking that he's the reason for the death of Cristina, he thought that by messing with the marks and failing his sacrificial ritual caused the death, but in fact she was going to die either way, even if he succeeded, and he lived thinking that he's a failure and killed his wife, and you didn't show him any sympathy, I know that I'm the one that ordered you to make him perform the ritual, but I didn't tell you to act that harsh after failing, I was expecting him to bear two blessings, not just a single blessing, his faith reminded me with only a few old dark casters, such a shame his kind heart affected his act this day, but that doesn't mean he was an unfaithful zealot, no, not all of the zealots are dark casters, Alphonse.", Said Blamore while walking towards Alphonse until he was in front of the coffin which is now between them.
"That's why you can't forgive yourself, because he died thinking himself a failure because of you, but let me tell you something, Alphonse, your mistake wasn't in your harsh acts.", Said Blamore, Alphonse gradually raised his head to look at his master silently, the grief completely dominated him.
"If it's not pushing him away from me and making him feel like an unworthy bearer of the Rascliffe name then what could be a worse act for a father?", Said Alphonse while widening his eyes in shock, he really loved John.
"Lying to him was the mistake.", Said Blamore, Alphonse looked strangely at him.
"If he knew that Cristina was going to die then he would have never done it, I didn't have any choice.", Said Alphonse.
"You should have tried to persuade him, if it didn't work I would have tried myself and if he still refused to do it then I wouldn't force him, cause if he had succeeded after lying to him, he would have become another person, you would have seen a completely different John, the son whose father betrayed him, he wouldn't only seek revenge from you with his new blessings, he would seek revenge from all of us, making him a great threat for our cause, he simply could have revealed everything to the government and so making everything difficult.", Said Blamore seriously, In fact, he was talking sense, the impact of such an act on John would have been even harder than failing, he died blaming himself but if he succeeded he would have blamed all of the Cragmoore zealots and turned into a dangerous enemy.
Alphonse was mesmerized, he knew that Blamore was right about every word he said, he could have turned John into a monster, he lowered his head again in more regret.
"I'm not telling you this to blame yourself even more, I'm telling you this to learn, all of us make mistakes, humans are fragile and weak, their tendency to fall in mistakes is high but there's something that makes us special, we learn easily, we can develop ourselves.", Said Blamore before putting his hand over the coffin calmly.
"Raise your head, believer, he died as a man, he refused to say a word about our plans and why the girl is important, you raised a brave man that you should be proud of, his sacrifice won't go in vain, every believer that died for our cause since the creation of this religion won't go in vain, we will avenge him, but with using our minds, don't go berserk.", Said Blamore in a comforting manner, Alphonse raised his head and looked with his face filled with tears at Blamore.
"We fall to rise again, that's the fact of this cruel world, that's what we want to change, we're so close, don't lose hope now.", Said Blamore calmly.
"Fathers shouldn't be the ones to bury their sons, my lord, that's not how it should end.", Said Alphonse in a very sad tone while shaking his head slightly, to see a respectful man in his late forties broken like that is actually heart breaking.
"You didn't know how hard it was for the doctor to stitch his limbs back to cover what happened, he told me that he suffered too much before resting.", Said Alphonse while crying again and still looking at Blamore.
"HE WAS BUTCHERED LIKE A LAMB BY THIS WRETCHED HUNTER.", Shouted Alphonse angrily, his face expressions were a mix between grief and agony, Blamore let him say whatever he wants as he knew that keeping all this grief without talking to someone will make it worse, especially after losing Edward too and so no one knowing the truth will be there to support him.
"Alphonse, he will pay with blood, what you need to do now is to gather your strength and give your son a proper funeral, all the important people will be there including the minister, be stronger for him, John doesn't want to see you like this, it's done, my faithful believer, we can't change the past.", Said Blamore calmly, Alphonse stayed silent like that before looking at the balcony while still sitting on the ground.
"How did he find this shard?", Asked Alphonse without looking at Blamore.
"He wouldn't have dared to face the hunter if he didn't have it, he thought he will be stronger than him with it but it was still unstable, but how?", Said Alphonse.
"I'm the one that should be asking you this question, how did he reach the experimental shards I've given to you? Although what happened benefitted our research and already I know how to stabilize them further for the human use, but I didn't want John to be the one trying it.", Said Blamore.
"I don't know how he reached them, he knows nothing about those shards, no one knows about them and their place except me and Edward in this manor.", Said Alphonse.
"That's yours to discover.", Said Blamore who in fact was lying, he gave the shard to John in case he faced any danger, he took one of the shards he gave Alphonse before from his office and gave it to John, he didn't expect him to face Jaxith of course but he was also trying to experiment further.
"In Edward's message, he stated that there was a woman that witnessed what happened there, she was the one that John kidnapped to poison the hunter, Vossler didn't find her in the village, she could impose a great threat if she talked.", Said Alphonse while looking back at Blamore.
"Don't worry, Vossler is already in Bernia now, he will finish everything.", Said Blamore seriously before turning.
"Alphonse, I repeat what I always tell you, John and every important person in this matter, don't face the hunter under any circumstances, your thirst for revenge may blind you but let me tell you something, this hunter might be more than just a normal former assassin in the Corvus brotherhood in Legnica as we expected, he might be who was called 8 years ago with the ghost of the Corvus, someone who emerged and disappeared without any trace, leaving behind trails of blood and bodies, a dark knight that no one knows about him, even battalions from the Legnican army couldn't deal with him or even know about his identity, that's why he was called the ghost, silent, invisible and deadly, even in large crowds, keep away from him until I know more about him.", Said Blamore seriously, Alphonse was surprised by what he heard.
"I need to hear it from you, I don't want another Rascliffe dead.", Said Blamore seriously.
"Y-yes master, although I can't promise for how long, the fire inside my heart is unbearable.", Said Alphonse angrily while standing up.
"It won't take long, but we can't rush anything, keep playing behind the shadows, the more aware becomes the king the more dangerous the situation becomes.", Said Blamore.
Bernia, the home of Emelia and her husband Troy, the town was known for its various shops for different goods.
At one of the narrow alleys, a hooded person was walking, he was trying to always be away from the eyes of the people, that was Vossler! He's already in the town to get rid of Emelia!
Inside one of the houses, Emelia was doing some changes to her house after Miller's death, everything was quiet, Troy was checking something in the bedroom before someone knocked on the front door.
"That must be one of the neighbors, they want to show their condolences.", Said Troy, Emelia, whose eyes were swelled from crying, looked at the front door.
"I'll check it Troy.", Said Emelia, her voice was so weak from crying too much, her steps were weak too.
Emelia slowly opened the door to find someone wearing a silver coat with blue stripes, his face was looking at the other side.
"Hello? Are you a friend of Troy? Cause if it's about my shop then sorry I'm not opening these days because my father died yesterday.", Said Emelia weakly, the man slowly turned around revealing his face, captain Adam Aravos is here too!
"Emelia, who's at the door?", Said Troy before appearing behind Emelia and opening the door wider.
"I don't know, a friend of yours?", Said Emelia, Troy inspected the silent man before noticing something about his uniform.
"By the gods!", Said Troy in surprise before Adam smiled calmly.
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darkash
darkash I'll leave the discord server link if anyone wanted to learn more about the novel, I have just made it as a way to narrow the distance between me and the readers:
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