A beautiful mansion with intricate black and purple design was illuminated by the lights coming from it's windows. It looked more dominating than beautiful.
Inside the building a man, wearing butler like clothes, took the letter from the bird. He walked quickly through the hallways before coming upon a door and knocking ever so slightly, as to not disturb the person within.
The door opened enough for the bearer to see and take the item delivered by the butler and the door closed once more.
Inside, the bearer was another butler. This one a bit older and looked much more professional than the others. He walked steadily towards the desk filled with papers placed immaculately and coughed.
"COUGH… sir, there's a letter for you."
The man sitting upon the desk, was engrossed in his work to give look to the aged man and only gave a 'Hmm'.
"It's from your son."
"Which one?" He said, appearing indifferent.
"Him again? What is it this time?" The man felt annoyed. "It better not be about this Elisabeth girl again. Read it for me."
"Yes, sir." The butler opened up and before he could fully read it, his brows creased, "Sir… there's a problem."
"What?" The man spoke still uninterested.
"The letter bears the name of your son but it is written by Honzo."
"That's Master Biret's son."
The man seized his writing for the briefest moment, " That Weasel's son? The one who hangs around Gekko… what does he want?" He said a bit curiously as he continued his work.
"Let me see," The butler said as he continued reading it. At one point, the butler's eyes widened in shock and he opened his mouth to speak but stopped. He continued reading the letter before finally saying, "Si- Sir… Young Master Gekko's… dead." Original content can be found at novel fire.net
The pen from the man's hand fell, as he looked up, curiously, "What did you say?" He spoke, not completely believing his most trusted butler's words.
"Master Gecko has been killed."
As if life filled in him with great fury, he spoke loud, "WHO WAS IT!"
"It was Arthur, sir."
"It's the same Arthur that the young master talked about in his letters."
"This is that Arthur… the one about Elisabeth?"
"So that nobody dares to kill my son… who the fuck does he think he is!" The man looked around as if ready to tear Arthur up, "Order our men to find that boy and bring him to me, I will personally bleed him for this."
"There's a problem, sir."
"Fuck those problems, first do what I told you to do!" The man said impatiently.
"It's about that, sir." Hearing him the master gazed up, curiosity and impatience in those angry eyes.
"According to Honzo, young master Gekko had challenged this Arthur boy in a duel to get the lady Elisabeth but the boy deafeated and killed him."
"Damn that boy!" The man slammed his hands on the desk, throwing the papers that were so nicely put, "That kid had to go around, do a duel and get killed in that way, did he even think about his family's honor."
The man's eyes which had turned resilient burned angrily again, "Even if that's so, This Arthur still went too far. I want him and you will bring him to me."
"About that…" The butler turned hesitant as the man asked again.
"It- It's this lady Elisabeth, sir." The butler handed the letter to the man, who took it forcefully and started reading it, "She went to her father about this and Lord Haiel has arranged a Meeting of Honor for this situati-"
"Damn that upright bastard and his whole generation!" The man stood up and cursed. As if already knowing that getting his hands on Arthur would now be close to impossible, he felt the pain of failure coming to him.
"Why did he have to do that! Damn!... now I can't even forcefully take that boy." The man said and fell upon his seat as he breath roughly.
"When did he arrange it?"
"Hmm…" The man fell in deep contemplation as he thought upon a plan, "Arrange the best assassins that you can find and order them to quickly dispose of this Arthur before the meeting."
"Alright master." The butler nodded faithfully and turned to leave but stopped.
The master seeing this, asked, "What?"
"I don't think that would work, master."
"Viscount Haiel had a birthday a few days ago, where there was an assassination plot against him. But it failed and the viscount since then became more defensive. He has tightened the security around his town."
"If I'm right, the viscount also has good ties with the boy and will fear retribution from you. He might have already placed people around him or even put him inside his own castle."
"Even if we hire the assassins and they manage to get inside, it won't be long before they get killed by the guards. If that happens then the viscount will most likely think of you as the one who sent them. If that were to happen-"
"If that happened then my son's justice will be thwarted, huh." The master, fell into deep thought while asking, "Do you really think he'll go so far to protect that boy?"
"I don't know if he'll do that according to his relationship with him. But the viscount is known to dote on his daughter. If it's her then he just might." The butler said and waited for his master's orders.
"Alright… go for now and tomorrow arrange a carriage to Valint."
The butler nodded to his words and left. The master thought as he tapped the signet ring of his family.
His son, Gekko, was far from impressive and may have been just a failure but he was still his son. He couldn't let his son's murderer get away just like that.
As he thought, the man's actions stopped and he spoke, "Do you think if you had the chance to kill him… discreetly, could you kill him?"
A knight of impressive figure walked from his shadow and knelled before him, "Of Course, master."
"Then prepare yourself, we're going to Valint."