Chapter 48 - Judas (Part One)

Vladstin drank his blood disinterestedly, and Leron was ignoring him. He finished his cup and sat beside Leron. 

"Let me see your wound again." Vladstin said.

Leron relented, but still looked cranky. A small part of Vladstin found this amusing, this was rare indeed for Leron to show his emotion so blatantly. So he must want something from acting bad-tempered.

"What is it?" Vladstin played along for now. 

"....Nothing."

"It's not nothing if you're looking like that so early in the morning." Vladstin sighed, no breath coming out of his mouth. "What is it?"

"Yesterday....." Leron did not continue and just let out a huff, expecting Vladstin to already understand. 

Lucky for him, Vladstin did understand. "Ah. When I said Sangfroid might get jealous?"

Leron nodded. 

"You're mad because I could have revealed your awareness of his feelings for you?" Vladstin deduced. 

Leron nodded again. 

"Well, I don't care if it did get revealed."

Leron bit his lip. "I already told you before. I'm doing this for him. There must be so much bothering his mind that adding more complications would just....."

"Well, what would you do if he did confess to you directly? What then? This charade won't last forever." Vladstin asked.

"I will..... accept his feelings for his sake. Because he had been a good friend to me, and I don't want him to suffer the pain of rejection—"

"Is that your reasoning behind the kiss as well?" 

Leron blinked. "What....kiss?"

"Your first kiss." Vladstin made a wry expression. "Which is mine as well."

Leron's eyes widened. "How did you..... I thought you have no recollection of your memories. Did you watch it from the Looking Glass?"

"No. I said before that death took most of my memories, but it still left me something. Memories of betrayal last in my dead mind. And ever since I bit you, I get glimpses of your own memory. With the dead, I recall all of them. I know Xiani's life from start to finish, how she felt when she first came to this world and how she felt when she was killed by an Ilvedian soldier. Her dreams of becoming a historian, a cartographer, an explorer, and a renowned writer all at the same time."

Vladstin looked at him. "Once you die and fully turn, I will learn everything about you as well. Your blood is mine, and so is your whole life."

Leron felt the hairs on his arms raised. He doesn't know why he finds it so disturbing yet.... comforting at the same time. He will never truly die, because he will live on in the mind and memory of an immortal being.

But then he realized how much chaos there was in Vladstin's heart for there to be any space for actual feelings and empathy. He carries with him thousands of lives. He can't stop attaining these memories that he may not want because he needs blood, and blood is the only thing that keeps him going. 

"Knowing too much may be a curse than a blessing." Leron muttered to himself.

"I suppose." Vladstin agreed. "Isn't there a story about your Holy Dragon Lord that was quite similar? The Dragon Lord was born human yet completely aware of his fate, and aware that the man who kissed him was actually marking him with a kiss of betrayal."

"Yes, I told some stories about him when we were young, haven't I?" Leron settled down his cup. "There's nothing the Holy Dragon Lord can do. He cannot change his fate, and it's the only way for him to transform into his true divine and powerful self."

"Meanwhile, I didn't transform into anything divine." Vladstin said. "But I do sometimes wish, that even if it's inevitable and I can't change fate, that I can somehow travel back and take over my past self. That way, I would try not to fall in love with you so much knowing you only kissed me for pity and to lower my guard." 

Leron shook his head insistently. "No! That's not all, I did it to—"

"I don't want to hear it from you. I have a more reliable source to give me the full story." Vladstin moved to the Looking Glass. "Show us the time when Leron kissed me in front of a crowd for the whole kingdom to see."

-----------------

"This is your 6th year joining the Crimson Wolf Festival wrestling match, aren't you getting tired of it?"

"No! And if the people haven't got tired of me yet, of course, I will continue for them!" Fifteen-year-old Vladstin hopped over puddles on the pavement, not bothering to go under Leron's umbrella.

"But it's raining today. Can't they postpone it when the storm is over? There's no roof over the wrestling ring and wouldn't it be dangerous for the fighters?" Leron walked around carefully, trying not to get his clothes stained. 

"A real fighter never worries about any rain or storm! I'll be fine, Leron." Vladstin assured him, platinum hair glistening and soaked in the cold summer rain.

Leron wished he could be that carefree. Meanwhile, his stomach is churning from the constant letters he has been receiving from his father lately through the dove, Poel. Doves usually only live for 2 years or so, but the bird lasted until now and had finally been able to send letters back and forth instead of just one way. 

The latest one was the most worrisome. His father had now sent spies all over Crescentia to watch over Leron's movements and to gain intel of the military's weakness.

Since the start of the festival, Leron could only focus on looking around if he could recognize any of these spies or anyone suspicious hiding in plain sight. He had been protective of Vladstin ever since, he knows how much the prince likes to roam about. He even brought a sword today.

".....And after I win, there's something I must tell you.... Leron, are you listening?"

"Huh?" Leron's head was snapped back. 

"Were you looking for someone?" Vladstin frowned, checking the slums where Leron had been staring at intensely.

"Oh, no! I just didn't hear you because of the rain and got distracted." Leron reasoned out. "What were you saying? Also, you should really use an umbrella, you might get a cold."

"Nah, a cold is nothing. And I consider this as the gods showering me their blessing for the match. So I must fully accept it!" Vladstin jumped about and did many twirls in the rain, like a jolly madman. "Haha, you should try it! It's actually really fun and refreshing to play in the rain!"

"At this age? We're grown men already, Vladstin. Queen Vanesda had told us to be more civilized." Leron's eyes still nervously flitted from left to right for any hooded people that could be assailants.

"I'm about to do something uncivilized to her anyway." Vladstin grinned and took off his shirt once they were near the platform that serves as the ring. "Wish me luck!"

Leron chuckled and caught the shirt from him. "You know you don't need it. You always win anyway."

"AHHHHHH!!!! IT'S THE CRIMSON WOLF!!!!!!!! YOU CAN DO IT, CRIMSON WOLF! GO FOR YOUR 5TH WINNING STREAK!" 

"And you already have hundreds of maidens to wish you luck too," Leron added as he heard all the Vladstin fanatics arrive the same a battalion would and shake the ground beneath them.

"I know! But it's like my ritual to hear you say good luck! You're my lucky charm, you know!" Vladstin yelled back, golden eyes glinting whenever he flirts.

The shrieks grew louder because the girls thought he was talking to them, and Leron was almost squashed by the stampede if he hadn't dodged sooner. He covered his ear and shouted. "Alright then, good luck!"

It was drowned out by the girls' cheers. "GOOD LUCK, CRIMSON WOLF!!!!"

"Thank you!" Vladstin yelled back, before taking on his first opponent with the golden sash on his forehead.

It somehow made Leron's heart do unexplainable things whenever Vladstin would show affection to him out of all the people who loved and adored him. He doesn't think it's love or infatuation, but rather an addiction in a sense. Vladstin is an endless fountain of everything good and beautiful, and he was pouring it all just for him. He was special.

While his father sees him as useless and disposable, warning him that if he cannot kill the prince, he will do it himself, make him watch, then kill him too.

Leron clenched his fist. He surveyed the crowd and found three more suspicious personalities. There was, of course, the former wrestler Lion Fangs who was always hooded, but Leron recognized him because of Eltorre Freudiel who was always beside him cracking some jokes and elbowing him. After all these years of their retirement, he never saw the hooded wrestler laugh from those jokes. Yet Eltorre kept on going anyway, like it was another bet they have with each other. Leron found their relationship very strange indeed.

But on the left was a man with a lazuli dragon pendant hanging over his neck. And 50 meters ahead, a man with a very large navy blue hat was holding a spyglass watching form over the buildings. Of course, they could be average spectators and many people had worn hoods and shawls or any article of clothing because of the rain, but Leron couldn't shake off his paranoia. Instead of watching Vladstin's matches, he observed these two closely.

Though they know who will win already, most wrestlers still kept fighting not for the fame or recognition, but for the prize money. Participation would already give you three gold coins, and every win multiplies that five times. So even if they knew there's no way to win against Vladstin, they still joined the matches just for the sake of it.

Which made the competitive Prince Vladstin bored.

He does not care for the prize money, he ends up throwing those coins into the crowd anyway, ultimately making him the people's beloved. The only wrestler who could match his vigor is Indigo. They seem to have replaced the two legends Falcon Eyes and Lion Fangs. Vladstin is a wild and brutal wolf, while Indigo is like a perceptive and sharp-eyed cat. Over the years, Indigo never wins and barely gives Vladstin any damage.

Or perhaps he has been doing it on purpose, satisfied with being able to gain enough coins to buy his daughter's dresses.

But Vladstin had taunted Indigo this time. He was dissatisfied with his weak-willed opponents and yelled. "Come on, big guy! Give it all you got, I'll even double the prize money if you defeat me!"

Hearing this, Indigo's cautiousness lessen a bit. Magenta is going to school soon. If he could get double the prize, then they would be settled for life!

Indigo attacked more ferociously and Vladstin's heart soared. Being attacked gives him a thrill that nobody else would understand. A thrill of being pursued, of being assailed, of being hunted. The crowd cheered and was excited along with him. He searched around while sidestepping Indigo's tree-trunk thick arms for Leron's reaction to this excellent show he has been giving.

But Leron's eyes seem unfocused to him, looking at someone else. This made Vladstin's adrenaline rush go to a halt and jealous rage replaced it. 'What's the point of this if he isn't looking anyway?'

He sulked and defeated Indigo half-heartedly, slamming him to the ground in one hand.

"AHHHHHH!!!!! THAT'S OUR PRINCE FOR YOU!"

"CRIMSON WOLF! CRIMSON WOLF!" The crowd chanted.

He won, yet Crimson Wolf's face was very disinterested. He raised his hand to stop the people from cheering for him, and everyone went quiet. 

Vladstin scowled and shouted. "Leron the 8th of Ilvedia!"