The Devil's Crown

XXXV The Boy From The Banquet.

“Scarlet,” he called over his shoulder. “We are going to do the job.”

Scarlet stared at West’s broad shoulder. Even though she didn’t see his face she knew that he wasn’t as happy as he she was about this. There must be a reason, she thought. West doesn’t risk the lives of his men – the men that he sees as his family. He wouldn’t push them in the ditch of hell if he didn’t have a plan.

Julian looked back and forth between the two. He could sense the silent conversation that they were having even though West was giving her his back.

“You are sure that this is for the best?” She carefully thought as she made peace with the truth. “This is for the best right?!”

Her voice was almost desperate, a plead to help her convince herself that this was for the best, that this suicide mission was going to make her closer to the truth. She was lost in her own dwelling before she was startled by West as he turned to look at her over his shoulder. His crystal gray eyes were gazing at her hard that for a moment where she felt the blush that was surfacing on her face.

But instead of an answer, he nodded once never breaking their eye contact. The vibe that emitting out of him made it hard for her to not trust him. She has always trusted West in the jobs, he never betrayed or harmed them before there was no reason why he should do that again.

And then he was walking away from her. She stood there watching the back that she always felt comforted seeing amidst the chaos of a battlefield. Though some people might have seen it as something weird - almost a fitch actually…the way he slightly limbed from the bone in his leg that healed a little wrong.

Somehow when she sees that little flaw she feels warmth embrace her like a mother’s hug. Maybe it was because she has been with him for too long that she sees even his little movements as a blessing.

“From earth to scarlet!” Julian waved a hand in front of her which did the trick to bring her out of her trance. “What the hell is this job? I have never heard of it.”

“And you weren’t going to hear about it,”

“Eh?”

“At least not until it was time to make preparations,” she comforted him on being left out.

“And when is that exactly?” Julian raised a brow.

“Soon,” said she. “Gather the crew.”

 ~~~~

“IT HAS BEEN A WHOLE DAY!”

The female’s thin-pitched voice resonated through the office that was furnished with brand names. Roxana was sitting on the couch that was placed in the middle of her father’s office, completely ignoring the fact that they weren’t alone there.

The couple of nobles that were standing around her father’s desk were trying their best to ignore the family talk but it was hard when her voice was so high.

“What are you talking about Anna?” her father said. Duke Robinson Cosmos. He didn’t bother to glance up at his daughter. He knew the never-ending whining that never stops when she wants something. He couldn’t even remember what is it that she wanted this time.

Roxana scoffed in disbelief as she threw herself back against the couch. “I can’t believe you father!” she said. “I have already told you what I want during the banquet.”

“Banquet?” her father quoted before he caught up. “You mean that white-haired boy you saw for a milli-second before he left?”

“So you do remember!?” she scoffed. “And yet you chose to ignore me!”

The Duke sighed in disinterest. He glanced over at the two men standing like disciplined student’s in the corner, he gestured them to leave. Finally sparing them the agony of staying and listen to family quarrels.

They bowed and left. Roxana crossed her hand over her chest as her eyes kept shooting daggers at her father who was paying his full attention to the pile of papers in his hands.

“I didn’t ignore you,” he finally said as he heard the door shut. “I just have a more important matter to attend to other than your obsession over some boy that you spotted at a party, Anna.”

“It’s not an obsession!” she protested. “I have never seen someone like him. I just want to make his acquaintance.” She faked her innocent. But she was indeed genuine about wanting to meet him.

Her father sighed in defeat and she knew that she was going to get what she wants.

“But there is something that I’ve been wondering about,” she said. “Not bragging or anything but I’m famous in social circles and all that yet I’ve never seen him before?! Someone like that…it would be hard to forget him.” she narrowed her eyes as she tried to picture seeing him before but failed.

All she saw back at that banquet was the snow-pale long hair and his golden eyes that seems to be akin to the sun. Looked so much like her own, like watching her own reflection – not that she got that close to him she had no time. By the time she went down to join the crowd, he was nowhere to be seen.

She rolled her eyes as she saw the disinterest in her father’s hum. “There was another boy with him,” she remembered. “Ash brown hair green eyes if I remember correctly.”

“Count Tepes’s adopted son?” his eyes jolted up in what seemed like a hint of interest.

“You knew him from just my description?”  she raised a brow. “How could you know that when you only saw him with me from the second floor?”

The Duke was silent as he set aside some papers. “I might have seen them both when I was chatting with Count Tepes when we arrived,” he couldn’t hide his anxiety about the fact that he hid it from his daughter.

“Father…” she called out surprisingly calm. “You have seen the boy that I’ve been talking to you about since yesterday and you never told me but now!”