R-16 (Scenes may contain an insinuation of R@PE, caution is advised to the reader)
For a moment Darius closed his eyes and allowed himself to remember those good, sweet days with the younger brothers.
Deep in the memories, he didn't notice the presence of a man entering the room. The man wearing finely cut clothes and rich fabrics interrupted the servant who was going to warn, but since he was already a constant presence in Duke Leon's mansion, the poor servant only withdrew with a polite nod.
"Darius, you should rest more" the man spoke with a cut tone, but you could feel the mockery at the end of the sentence.
"Cousin Peter, what brings you here?" Darius said without turning to the man and not inviting him to sit down.
"I just came for a little visit," Peter said in a carefree tone, sitting in a chair uninvited.
"I'm going back to work now," Darius said nonchalantly picking up a bell calling for the maids to clean up the dining room.
"How long are you going to keep running away from me?" Peter said mockingly as he followed Darius up the stairs.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Darius said without looking back up the stairs, but when he reached the fourth step his wrist was caught hard making him look with disgust at the man holding him.
"It's not that hard to spread your legs for me, dear cousin... I even promised the support of my family members for you to remain the Archduke's heir"
Peter spoke pulling Darius to himself, eyes with uncontrollable desire, that was the future Archduke, one of the most powerful nobles of the Aurore Empire, it would not be fun to ride such a noble.
Peter Darcy was part of the branch Darcy family who held the title of Earl within the territory of Archduke Leon. Within the archduchy, there are five counts, eight viscounts, and ten barons.
The titles of Marqueses, Dukes, and Archdukes can only be granted by the Emperor, as well as titles of princesses and princes outside the royal family. Higher nobles can give away part of their territory and grant titles up to Earl level.
"Lord Peter, I believe it's time for you to leave" a woman's soft voice sounded behind the man, they hadn't felt the woman's presence until then.
This leads to Darius who is a fourth-class wizard (Master Wizard), and Peter being a Knight of the fourth sword.
"Leonora," Darius said with happy in his voice.
Leonora Darcy is Darius' cousin and is a knight who is Darius' guard, generally, she would be training the knights who served Darius, as inside the mansion should be considered safe.
However, the butler George who directly serves Darius called her hastily upon learning that Peter was alone with their master.
Leonora is a ten sword knight one step closer to Sword Master, strong, beautiful, and intelligent, so wearing the armor of a heavy silver alloy she looked like one of those ancient Valkyries on her mighty white horse, with her red hair burning like fire.
Many were surprised that a woman was so powerful and that by refusing to marry she chose to be a knight.
She, being the daughter of an earl of the Darcy family branch, would not lack men to marry her, but she would have to give up the love of the sword after all a man would not want a rude woman.
Too bad, she preferred the sword to men.
Peter was outraged at being expelled by a woman like Leonora, but he was much weaker than she was either physically or in sword techniques.
"This conversation is not over dear cousin," Peter said with a smile trying to be polite, and released Darius, followed by Leonora's sharp gaze.
A servant appeared to escort Peter out of the mansion, finally, Darius breathed a sigh of relief massaging where his cousin had pressed, he would have a purple mark.
"I'm going to call Doctor Harry to apply a cream to reduce the swelling," Leonora said seeing her young master in pain.
"No need, I have this kind of cream in the office"
They went up to the office, in the hallway George butler was waiting with a trolley with tea and snacks as if he knew they were going to go upstairs at that moment.
Butler George was trained by Louis as well, so he was highly efficient, only less violent, and less threatened with his short stature and gentle, chubby features on his face.
"Tsk, the cousin knows that bastard shouldn't keep talking about this matter," Leonora said angrily as she closed the office door.
"Miss Leonora is right. The young master should just record what this useless man says and have him arrested," the butler George said, taking some white porcelain cups with beautiful leaf designs engraved in gold from the food cart. He served the chamomile tea mixed with a little passion fruit juice to calm the tempers, after another "attack" by Peter.
It wasn't Peter Darcy's first time trying to get into Darius's bed, which would be scandalous if this were discovered by the family and other nobles. They didn't know the reason for such an obsession that Peter had with Darius that he would risk sullying the Darcy Family name.
"It's not like he's going to get anything... I don't want a family scandal... Besides, Emery seems to be coming home" Darius said trying to sound indifferent, but Leonora knew how Darius loved his younger brother, of course, she didn't know their love wasn't so brotherly anymore.
"Is the third young master coming back? This is wonderful... Wait if he's coming back then will he compete for the title of the heir?" butler George was happy for a moment, he who had grown up with the Darcy brothers saw Emery as a close relative.
"That seems pretty obvious. Cousin Emery can only return if Uncle Arthur so chooses, so clearly, his return must be for that purpose. You know how your uncle likes to cause chaos…" Leonora started to speak ill of Archduke Leon, but Darius interrupts her.
"The Duchess Margareth is sick," Darius said that putting an end to the possible reasons why his father had called Emery back.
"I understand"
The butler George spoke and Leonora was silent, everyone knew how Archduke Leon loved his wife and indulged her every wish.
The only time he didn't do what the Duchess wanted was when he decided to send Emery to boarding school in the capital's abbey.
It wasn't entirely Archduke Leon's fault, but seeing the two children having a kind of illicit, incestuous relationship, what else could he do?
It didn't matter if Darius wasn't his biological son, but for all society, Darius and Emery were biological brothers.
Darius was once again disturbed by the thought of the past.
Going back to Giovanni and Mattias who were talking about the daily life of the abbey, they had never talked to each other, so there was a lot to talk about.
Giovanni was not so intimidated by a young man of the same age and he was content to talk to another person without commitment and without having to watch himself to avoid being punished.
It was at that moment that Rutger arrived with Dante seeing Giovanni smiling contentedly with another young man, which caused him a feeling of deep jealousy.
He could give himself to Bishop Darcy and he could smile like that at others, but for himself, there were only tears and contempt.
In Rutger's troubled mind, he approached Giovanni first and he should be the one deserving of these beautiful feelings, forgetting that he caused the most pain in the other person.
Wasn't that a way to show his love and adoration?
Wasn't it satisfying for him to be under him like the bitch he was?
Many of the thoughts in these thoughts referred to Giovanni and Rutger himself who could not forgive the weak young man who had been exploited by Levi in the past.
As he could not admit this hatred for himself, he directed this hatred towards others, even the noblest of feelings, like love, became ill and became a mad obsession with possession and desire over Giovanni.
Which is a subtle way reminded Rutger of himself in the past, powerless and weak in the face of others' malice.
Of course, this wasn't something Rutger could think of himself, he was blinded by self-deception and not seeing himself as a victim back then.
"Oh, dear brother Giovanni what a coincidence" Rutger spoke, interrupting Mattias and the young novice's cheerful conversation.
"Father Rutger" the two young men greeted politely getting up, the friendly atmosphere was shattered and it became tense.
"Father Bernardi" once again greeted the young people, feeling a little less tense because there was another figure there.
Dante Bernardi, who just wanted to say hello and leave, didn't expect Rutger to suddenly hug Giovanni, not even Bao and Giovanni had expected such a brazen attitude from this priest.
"I couldn't do this before because of so many people, but my condolences for the loss of your friend," Rutger said out loud making everyone feel awkward.
Giovanni's body tensed and trembled, he seemed to feel a phantom pain in the rib that had been broken by Rutger that night and healed the next day by Emery.
He couldn't move and pull Rutger away from himself, fear made him cold and sweat ran down his back, sticky and disgusting like that sad, terrifying night.
He couldn't move and pull Rutger away from himself, fear made him cold and sweat ran down his back, sticky and disgusting like that sad, terrifying night.
When Rutger's lips touched his, panic formed in his chest and he tried to push the priest away, but a madman was stronger than a young man.
Bao didn't know what to do, he should show up in front of everyone and attack the priest or he should bark loudly for many to come and see what was going on.
In the end, Bao decided to set Rutger's outfit on fire, the blue fire looking too bright to Dante's eyes who quickly pulled the priest who was acting too brazenly away.