Chapter 67 67 Scruple

He had expected a philosophical question or something harder to answer after seeing the way Frederick had been acting.

"EXACTLY~" Frederick chimed as a huge smile covered half his face.

It was then that Raisman felt that he had fallen into a trap woven by his father.

"You see…the female fire mage that he brought with him was at least a C rank mage. Given that she beat our man, who was a D rank mage, within ten seconds without a single scratch, she might even be closer to jumping into the B rank. So consider this…if his subordinate is either a high C rank mage or a B rank mage in the early reaches, what would be the rank of that dark mage then? Can it be lower than his subordinate?" Frederick explained the reason why he hadn't tried to antagonize Zach.

"No…he is probably a B rank mage." Raisman responded without thinking. He understood the Frederick's line of thought completely since he had been the one to endorse the same earlier when he replied to Frederick's question.

"Yes, the same rank as me." Frederick replied as a helpless sigh escaped his mouth. He ignored Raisman as he took one last glance at the place where Zach and Luna had vanished before turning back towards his mansion. With slow and steady steps he headed back towards his room where he could contemplate on today's encounter with some peace of mind.

Raisman didn't seem satisfied as he too turned back and followed after his father from a few steps back. He couldn't help but notice the proud back of his father was slightly bent after the encounter today.

Frederick being the strongest mage of the Sosis family was only a B rank mage whose strength probably lay between the lower or middle reaches of the rank.

Despite being sure of his decisions, Frederick could not help but think back on all the choices he had made today. He needed to think about the alternatives if he wanted to improve. He needed to calculate the opportunity cost for all the alternatives that he had skipped on and for that he needed to approximate the strength of his opponents.

He assumed Luna to be close to becoming a B rank mage so there was no way she could have willingly become his subordinate if Zach wasn't already considerably stronger than her. And that placed Zach's strength in the middle to higher reaches of the B rank at the very least or even higher than that.

Frederick calculated his chances of success in a duel between him and Frederick and found that the odds of him winning the duel were very lacking. The lack of information regarding Zach, the terrible flexibility and unorthodox means of the dark magic and his unknown true strength made Zach a truly terrifying opponent for Frederick. Zach was not only cunning and devious but he was also an enigma that Frederick couldn't explain without careful research.

Not to mention the heavy psychological pressure of such a fight could lead to Frederick's demise easily. He could almost see it happening when he imagined fighting that dark mage in his mind.

Frederick fantasized a little more and even assumed that he won the duel and ended up in a position where he could easily get rid of Zach. Even then he didn't dare to take the life of the greatest irregularity he had ever encountered in his tenure as the head of the Sosis family.

The reason was that he couldn't be more wary of the forces behind Zach. The forces that could give rise to a dark mage as terrifying as Zach were bound to be extremely powerful, the kind that he couldn't afford to offend even by staking the entire power of his Sosis family. He couldn't handle the revenge of such forces after getting rid of Zach. He might even have to live a life on the run in case the ones behind Zach decided on targeting him.

"I can't even target the Luther family any longer since they are under that man's protection and the forces behind him. The Luther family of today cannot be compared to the one we were easily able to suppress. I need to have further reassurance before I can even think of laying hands on them again. Why won't that cripple let me rest at ease?" Frederick almost ripped his scalp in frustration but he had to keep up appearances in front of his household especially after that defeat.

Frederick stopped in his steps as he turned around steadily and came face to face with his son Raisman who had been following after him.

"Listen to me carefully, no matter what kind of impulses you are having at the moment, CONTAIN THEM. We cannot interfere with the Luther family until we have resolved that man. Don't think about that BITCH if you can't control yourself. We can't afford to earn that man's ire in our current situation." Frederick snapped at his son. He couldn't control the irritation as if an infernal claw kept scratching his heart on the inside.

And then in an extremely low voice that only he and Raisman were able to hear, he said, "Admit defeat for now. We can't give more opportunities to those vultures that are waiting to prey upon our flesh. We would be doing exactly that if a conflict between the Sosis family and the Luther family was to arise. All those vultures circling around us in the Elizabeth city would swoop in and take what we have in our hands already. DON'T give them a single point of entry."

"BUT…" Before Raisman could register his disapproval of his father's actions, he was cut off by Frederick mid-sentence.

Raisman still wanted to protest because this wasn't his father's modus operandi. He was definitely not one to take it lying down. He felt that the meeting with that man changes something within his father. He had lost his confidence and his cunning. Raisman would have easily agreed had someone suggested mental or psychological manipulation as the probable cause at that moment. But deep down, Raisman knew that the reason his father was acting this way was fear.

"I know you can't swallow such disgrace; after all, you are MY son. My blood runs through your veins. So I will promise you something in exchange." Frederick's brows narrowed and then stiffened in place as his eyes turned into that of a snake about to attack its prey. His whole aura took a one eighty degrees turn; from prey to a predator.

Raisman felt the presence of his father; his true self under all the gloomy and weak fa?ade.

"I promise that I will find a way to get rid of that bastard and the wet and crippled dog he is sheltering. Once that happens, that lowlife bitch will be yours to play with but this time she won't be coming to this house as your wife but as your bitch. You can play with her as you like then." Frederick seemed to be oozing dark miasma as he portrayed the future he was planning to his son.

A smile broke apart the gloom and depression that had been clouding Raisman's face. Life returned to his eyes as he nodded vigorously in response to the plan that his father had carefully charted out.

Raisman couldn't help but be excited about stealing Diana from Zach. Thinking back, he wasn't as excited even when his engagement with Diana had been finalized. The pleasure of stealing her from someone as strong as Zach and treating her like a bitch turned him on even more.

"Raisman, you are like an open book. I could tell that the man was able to read you without even looking at you. You need to keep your emotions in check. Only show your true emotions to yourself and no one else or someone will use them against you. Even though you aren't kind by nature, you are too predictable. You need to learn to be more insidious and cunning if you want to compete with the heirs of the other families when you take the reins after me." Frederick felt he needed to advise his son regarding his weakness especially after he saw his performance in front of Zach today. He had a feeling that Raisman's personality had the potential to become the chains that might drag down Sosis family in the future.

…

Somewhere in Elizabeth city along the path that led from the Sosis family estate to the Luther family mansion, a tall and muscular man with dark black hair and a smile on his face was travelling along with a hooded figure that was slightly shorter in height. Everything about this companion was hidden beneath the oversized cloak except for the sparks of flame that appeared in the hands of the hooded figure from time to time.

Sometimes the color of the flames was crimson red like the blood and sometimes it was blue like the light of some stars. And sometimes the flame would alternate between the two as if a multicolored flame was flickering in the dawning grey dusk.

Of course the tall man with a toned body was Zach while the excessively hidden figure who was constantly playing around with the flames was Luna who had just defeated the subordinate water mage of the Sosis family head and was now heading home towards Luther family mansion along with Zach.

"Did you see me take care of him so easily? I still can't forget the shock on that animal's face that kept ogling me throughout. Hehehe~" Her laughter brightened the dreary atmosphere of the night and her voice was soothing like the wind chimes in Zach's ears.