Chapter 105
105 The personal vendetta
A knock came from the door of Anne’s bedroom door. The two of them turned their heads and saw Vale standing and staring.
“Hey, your grand uncle almost got into a sword fight with our dear crown prince.” Vale leaning on the doorframe with a grin on his face.
“What happened?” Asked Anne. She was nervous that something serious came to Justice.
“It was fine. They mostly gave glared at each other for most of the time.” Said Vale with a chuckle, he remember the epic scene between the old man and Justice, how the old man still wanted to assert his territorial instinct, while Justice nonchalantly ignore him all the time, He once again looked into Xavier, “However, we never know how bad the situation in Wolgala was? How come you never told us about this grotesque appetite of the Lycans to us?”
Xavier scratches his head. He tried to find the best sentences to Vale’s question. “How should I describe this... The people sacrifice, I never knew it was happening on a much bigger scale than before.”
“What?! so you knew all of their brutality all along?! Xavier!” Anne couldn’t believe what Xavier just confessed to them.
“Wait, listen to me first, I know about lycans’ serious appetite for people’s meat, even Justice’s ancestors knew about it, that’s why they always send the death row convict to the Wolgala.” Xavier tried to explain about the lycans and werewolves to Anne, “It was cruel, yes, but you need to know, lycans already with us from the century, they weren’t easy to eradicate.”
“Do you think by giving them the death row convict it will be less cruel? Are you kidding, Xavier?!” Anne screamed in disbelief, “And now, look at them, they were feasting on innocent people! Clearly, there is no more control from the authority!”
“You’re right, I don’t even know about their grotesque appetite until today.” Said Justice from behind Vale. He enter the room along with Henry, and Vale closed the door to give them some privacy, Justice sat on the bed with his hands clasped between his legs, “You need to trust me, I know about the lycans, but I never know about their annual tradition. If I know it, of course, I will eradicate them long ago.”
.....
“The old man always tried to hide the fact from the outsiders, because he felt that he still have some control over the lycans. He was wrong. The lycans never listened to him in the first place. The matron raised the lycans and makes them into her private soldiers.” Xavier gave another word to Justice, trying to justify his action.
“And you think by keeping it quiet after a long time, it will make it better?” Henry’s snarky comment came with a scoff from his face.
Xavier glared at him. “I will never try to make myself better because of it. Why do you think I was so eager to get into the high-ranked officer? It is so I could get my own army and send it to Wolgala. There are too many of the lycans here.” Said Xavier bitterly, “Whenever my uncle tried openly to fight the lycans, they always lost.”
“Of course, because your uncle was a fool, using open fight will never work because they are more powerful than your race, just like your ancestors wanted to make them as your weapon,” Vale muttered to Xavier while he added more logs to the fireplace.
Shocked by the new information, her eyes then go to Xavier, “Wait, your own species created the lycans?!”
“The lycans were created to become the soldiers of the werewolves, the powerful and obedient soldiers.” Said Henry, his eyes glancing at Xavier, “All of us knew the story.”
“It means they wanted a slave, right?” Anne makes a deduction, “and the slaves now biting the owner’s hand, one by one.”
Xavier let out a sigh. “Exactly what happened. They multiplied because they knew the procedure to make more lycans. As for the werewolves, the pack couldn’t produce pups that easily. Now, there are twenty lycans for one werewolf.”
“Oh my God, that’s too many of them,” Anne was in shock. She tried to ask another question, Xavier, “But could you just... I mean re-educated them?”
Shaking his head, he gave a bittered smile at Anne, “It wasn’t that simple, Anne, this is not about habit, but more of a necessity, they need the people’s flesh to survive every year, if they’re not consumed any people’s flesh in a year, they will dwindle down and madness will be taken their sanity, afterward they will become rabid and thrice powerful than before, it will be harder to kill them after.”
“What about the children? Can we do something for the children?” Asked Anne again.
“Actually, we never know. They begin to shift at the age of sixteen, but before, they just basically just some normal children until they have come of age.” Xavier answered her. This time, he answered her with some assurance in his voice.
Anne suddenly stands up from her sofa, and excitement appears on her face, “That’s it, we can not re-educate the adults, but there’s hope for the children!”
The four gentlemen looked at each other, confused about how Anne could have that kind of opinion. Justice was curious and asked her immediately, “What makes you believe that we could have a chance with the lycan children?”
“Don’t you get it? You said they need to do some kind of ritual to become the lycans. I am almost positive that the children never actually become lycan because the ritual needs to be conducted at a certain age, which is sixteen years.” Anne almost mumbled the words of Justice, just to sum up how excited she was.
“and if they are just being brainwashed, it means it was possible to heal the children completely!” Henry also becomes excited just as much as Anne.
Wearing his thinking face, Justice trying to deduce the best way, “So, you mean, we just need to eradicate the adults but not the children?” His fingers tapping into his chin, “I think maybe we can analyze their blood to the alchemist, compare it with the lycans, just to make sure they are completely clean.”
Vale nodded his head. “Agreed completely! That means we don’t have to kill those innocent children if they really are clean from the lycans influence.” He is also excited about this prospect, knowing that the innocent children will take good care of.
Anne face now turned into Xavier, “So? What do you think?”
He smiled weakly to Anne, “That’s a good plan, truly is, but I don’t know how we could convince my uncle about this plan, his hatred towards the lycans already embedded deep inside his heart.” He chuckles at them, “Why do you think he let us, the innocent yet too young, be abandonment to be inside the orphanage?”
“He had some grand plan from a long time ago, right?” Justice said to Xavier, even smirking at his friend, “From the looks of it, your grand uncle has some personal vendetta against the lycans.”
“The lycans almost eradicate my pack...” Muttering Xavier, everyone looks at him quietly, while he was staring at the fire, “They ambushed us in the middle of the night, and killed most people, they... they killed my parents where they are trying to hide me from the lycans.”
Anne steps in front of Xavier and holds his hands. “Oh, Xavier, I’m so sorry.”
His sad eyes glistened with tears, Xavier then whispered to Anne, “I’ve told you I was a sinful man, right?”
The way he was saying the words, makes Anne taken aback by the way she was crouching in front of Xavier, “No! Xavier, why do you think so? That wasn’t...”
“It was my fault, if only I didn’t come back to the house to pick my stupid toys, they...” He sniffles and then cried on Anne’s shoulder, the only thing that Anne could do is try to calm him, while the other three looks at him with much sympathy in their eyes.
“Should we try to calm him down as well?” Asked Henry to Justice.
Justice saw the scene unfold in front of him, never a fit of jealousy but just sympathy towards his friends. He shook his head and said to Henry, “Let Anne be the one who comforts him.”
“Then, we should go, and let them have some privacy, I am sure Xavier was trying to say something only to Anne.” Said Vale to Henry and Justice.
They decide to leave the room quietly and tried to go back to their bedroom to get some rest. Before they reach the bedroom, Xander appears from the first floor with confusion plastered on his face. Henry grabs his arm to stop him from wandering around the second floor, worried that he might be going to bother Xavier and Anne.
“Hey, stop, why are you in a hurry?” Henry asked Xander with much disdain in his voice.
“Where’s my brother?” Asked Xander panicking.
Justice came along and tried to talk some sense into the young man. “He was busy at the moment. Why do you need to talk to him?”
Xander’s face went pale. “It was my uncle. He wanted to kill the orphanage children immediately! We need to stop him!”