#he has not begun rending and ripping unfortunately

[devotion-between-the-wheat]

nightbringer!asmo is fantastic but he does lose some attractiveness points because he's clearly hasn't given into the bloodlust yet.

[anangelicday-mrwolf]

Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 50 – Yuhyung’s Scheme, and...

“What favor?”

Rael retorted, his posture frozen in poor coordination, a result of being interrupted when he was about to take a major leap towards KSA headquarter.

As he was waiting for Yuhyung’s following words, Rael was met with an unexpected heavy grit of the human’s upper and lower teeth, because of which he shifted his red irises towards the rear.

“What is it?”

The atmosphere perched upon his back turned grave out of blue, and Rael’s voice got graver to match it.

He could not fathom what could make such a hopelessly careless man so solemn without any warning.

“I know this is sudden, but I must ask you not to go to KSA.”

“What? What do you mean by that?”

“Please, could you take us to somewhere else? And I mean right now.”

They had not a second to waste for the QuadraNet project, and Rael could not be more baffled at Yuhyung’s request.

Still, as far as he was concerned, Yuhyung Jang was not the type to speak or behave with no reason, so Rael decided to give him ears.

“There’s someone after us.”

Right then Rael’s blonde hair made a rushed turn towards the speaker.

“What did you say?”

This cannot be.

I am the umbra unmatched, the sharpest steel of Kertias. There’s no way somebody, if anybody, could bypass my senses.

For the mere seconds he spent waiting for Yuhyung’s further details, the storm in Rael’s brain took his cognition towards deepest dread.

Normally he would have begun retracing everything he knows and has done until now, to ultimately and calmly deduce the most likely case that is at work at the moment.

However, he was held back by the barely-made progress of the QuadraNet project and the hardly-improved relation with the Kertia patriarchs.

What if someone did deceive my senses?

What if such qualified enemy is indeed stalking us?

What if I just went ahead and invited such surely-powerful foe to the KSA’s domain AND the country that the Noblesse has made his home?

And what if it turns out I raised the curtains for the sequel of Ignes’s assault on KSA or the trigger of this human’s trauma?

Rael could see the reprimanding faces of patriarchs ghosting within his vision.

His legs would have given out if Yuhyung had not called him once more.

“Uh, allow me to rephrase that. There’s someone after you.”

To me alone?

Does this mean this pursuer has something personal to deal with me, unrelated to Lukedonia or QuadraNet or the Union?

The tremor that was creeping over Rael’s entire shape was relatively gone.

Relatively.

“And I’d like to apologize... This is my fault.”

“What do you mean that it’s your fault?”

“Because this person is a noble just like you.”

“What? What do you...”

“There is this extremely pale man that looks like he’ll collapse if someone pokes him. Do you know him by any chance?”

“Deneb Illiness? Is that who you’re talking about?”

“Oh, that’s right. He called himself Deneb Illiness.”

Rael was aware that their history was not very beautiful.

Or rather, they had no history at all.

But is there a reason for him to chase me?

Above all, why is this human apologizing me regarding him?

Rael was busy rolling his eyes, and Yuhyung feigned guilt by tightening the entire muscles on his face.

“And for duration of my stay at Lukedonia... I served him as his eyes.”

Don’t tell me, muttered Rael in his head.

“He forecast that you’ll rarely separate yourself from me, as you are the Lukedonian ambassador for this project. So he demanded I spy on you for him.”

“...He told you to spy on me?”

“Y-yes... He said he should keep his eyes on you and even eliminate you if he has to, in order to get what he wants.”

Rael was shocked enough that someone has been trailing them from Lukedonia.

His shock was doubled upon finding out it was none other than Deneb Illiness.

Now his head was spinning to know that Yuhyung had been performing espionage behind everyone’s back for the noble with bloodless looks.

That did not mean the growth he had gone through during his strife against Union is entirely gone; despite that it took him a lot of effort to keep his lobes from being fragmented, his brain was slowly but surely whirring in process.

The only scenario he could think of to assign appropriate reason for Deneb to dare dream of watching and killing him, to the latter’s utmost displeasure, was a love triangle that involves Seira.

Though Deneb has never made his obsession with Seira conspicuous in Rael’s presence, the Kertia’s memories unfortunately remained vivid in terms of the nightmarish tea party during which he was relentlessly ripped apart by the non-octaclans.

Now he could see so very well what Deneb intended during the said tea party; it was no task at all for Rael to link the enlightenment to the fact that Deneb was currently on the chase for him.

“So, did he slip that he’ll be coming all the way to Korea for me?”

“No, he warned me that once you depart, he will wait several minutes before he sets off, so that you wouldn’t notice how you have an uninvited guest looking for you. He added that once he gets caught in a battle with you... He will go all out against you, whether I’m there or not, lest you note we have a connection. He was basically telling me that I’m on my own when it comes to my life.”

“He didn’t order you to relay all this to me, did he?”

“No. Consider it my repentance, albeit late, for deceiving you and other nobles and being unable to beat his coercion and...”

Yuhyung deliberately let the end of his speech droop, in order to make taut the bond of faith Rael has attached to him.

He knew how Rael will react after this.

Rather, he was hoping he knew correctly.

Actually, there was no need to hope; he was already confident that his knowledge will be as true as it can be.

He remembered how that pallid noble admitted himself that his competence in combat cannot be even dubbed competence, compared to what Rael could exercise.

He even specified that he would last less than 3 seconds given that the Kertia pulls out something called soul weapon.

Yet Yuhyung knew that now Rael will recalibrate his destination so that he could settle this quietly by himself.

Based on what he had picked up during his business at Lukedonia, Rael Kertia is fatally conscious of himself.

Though Yuhyung had not the faintest idea who could make him so self-conscious, there was no doubt they were influential enough to make THE head of the Kertias fear his own word and action.

And Rael was severely afraid of providing them with reason to give him a heart-rending lecture, which Yuhyung assumed will be in effect whether he is within or beyond Lukedonian boundaries.

Which gave Yuhyung conclusion that he would not want to cause any trouble in Korea, no matter how brief or small it is.

Therefore, if he is to cast an idea that he must deal with Deneb by himself without anybody else’s awareness, Rael would not be able to walk away from such option.

“Are you going to be okay? I feel like we’re about to have a skirmish with your own kind. Uh, but I’m not questioning your fighting capabilities! They have already been deemed worthy during your struggle against the topmost modified humans from the Union.”

Rael’s lips remained zipped as he listened.

“B-but still... Forgive me for being nosy, but I’m worried you might get caught in trouble once your people find out that you had a physical issue with your own kind during your mission related to the QuadraNet project, though you’re not the cause...”

With the bait out in open, Yuhyung expected Rael to take a bite; and the noble did, by exhibiting awfully dense fear.

Rael’s face was invisible from Yuhyung’s angle; nevertheless, he could see what Rael was going through, thanks to the shiver Rael’s backside delivered to his chest, which was certainly not there before.

“...Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he will not lay his hands on you. And... I must ask you not to spill this to any other soul.”

“Oh, don’t you worry, sir! I happen to be going against my boss’s order to come back as soon as possible.”

“...Now, I shall take you there.”

“There...? What there?”

“I’m terribly sorry I must take you there, but... That’s the only place in this country that comes with an empty space big enough so I wouldn’t have to mind my surroundings during brawl.”

Rael said no more, and Yuhyung, having foreseen this, simply nodded to show his consent.

The spot that bloody chaos took place due to Lunark, Zarga, Urokai, and 8th Elder remains as a concrete desert that looks like a crater created by a gigantic meteor.

To Yuhyung, it is the birthplace of everything that had ever happened to him.

‘As much as I’m still unpleasant to even near that place, I suppose it’s only logical that I finish everything there.’

Rael told him once more to hold on tight, and Yuhyung followed suit, as his lips shrunk in infinitesimal rate.

I’m almost there.

Just a little bit more, and I’m gonna make it.

*****

Meanwhile, somewhere across the sea

Pow! Thud!

Pow!!!

The blue-black surface was being bombarded with an array of deafening noise and aquatic pillars humongous enough to swallow an apartment at least twelve stories high.

Faster... Faster! Come on, don’t fail me now, my legs!

Lunark had been mercilessly kicking across the sea ever since she had passed the shorelines of Korea.

During her race, the wrinkles rooted to her forehead and corners of her lips did not fade a bit.

She could only come up with the worst of the worst-case scenarios regarding what the definitely-to-shred-into-pieces man who repaid her beloved’s hospitality with betrayal would be up to at this very moment, which got renewed and worsened every second.

Which is why she could catch the silhouette of Frankenstein’s island much faster than usual.

She could soon behold the island’s face, and that was when her own face began to shift.

‘...Did my eyes choose to go on a strike because of the recent series of business trips I booked myself in a series? That island shouldn’t look like that.’

Lunark closed the distance with the island that had obviously gotten monochromatic in overall, and she found herself in stupefaction.

“What in the...?”

The heavenly sight that almost rid her of her purpose of visit during her introduction to the place was nowhere to be seen.

Everything – emerald-hued leaves and bushes, petals of thousand colors waltzing in the wind, and horde of butterflies flashing their mesmerizing natural dyes – were all gone, as if telling her that they were all her imaginations.

She was instead met with the aftermath of the scent from something burned and the concrete debris that had been flung to the corners of the island.

‘Did they put up a round while I was on my way?’

After a pregnant gulp, Lunark forced her half-petrified legs to move.

Before she could even take good several steps towards the building, she gasped at the mind-numbing, creepy feeling grasping her from head to toe.

It was, according to Lunark’s personal impression, what one would feel if death is made compatible with sixth sense.

And the only time she could ever feel like this happened when Frankenstein summoned the cursed weapon to brandish his cursed power.

Her mind already surmising that there was at least a bloodshed in this place, Lunark hurriedly ran, her cloak flying about behind her, until her eyes caught a figure ahead.

‘Is that him...?!’

(next chapter)

At the moment I happen to be composing chapters that feature battle scenes, but the chapters I’m posting didn’t even get started yet lol. Which reminded me that as much as I’m moving on to the highlight of this fic, I still have a long way to go until the finale. XD