Chapter 18: Surprise

"Hah…" I sigh, suddenly feeling tired, dizzy and nauseous. I had sworn I would never use that dagger again, the one I used to kill Eve. But I used it and it ended up saving me when I was pinned down by that caped man. It sucks. I wipe the blood off of that pretty pocket dagger with the frill of my blouse.

"How are you any different from us?" Mayonaka had accused me, to which I replied, "at least I don't ruthlessly murder innocent people." I couldn't stop replaying this conversation in my head.

I'm quite the hypocrite. My hypocrisy knows no bounds. It was really hypocritical of me to claim I don't murder innocent people. I don't, but the first person I ever killed was the most innocent, most sweet and gentle person I had ever known in life.

I still needed to cut his head off to bring it to Maurin—the devil in human form that had turned my life into a nightmare wonderland. So I pulled out another knife I had tied on my waist, a 'kubikiri' (a type of japanese 'tanto' knife. As the name suggests, it was used to behead criminals.)

Why do I have such weapons? I got them Velaris's 'emotional support knife collection' (yes, that is what he calls his collection of weapons.) He simply didn't trust me enough to survive on my own, so he made me carry many weapons. And they did come in handy.

My long hair was annoying me, getting in the way of my vision. I use the hair tie around my wrist to tie my hair up. Then I use the kubikiri to cut off Mayonaka's head. I had no idea on how to cut off an entire head, so I made quite a mess. It was disgusting and now I was fully bathed in blood. I really wanted to just go back to…but go back where? I don't have a home to return to. I guess I just wanna leave this party and go back to that ridiculous mansion where I at least have a room of my own (which was also not actually mine but just some dead person's).

I would lock myself in that room, take a long bath, and then cry myself to sleep. Yea, That would feel liberating. But right now I have to return to that ridiculous party with this head, looking like a zombie.

Now that the fight was over, I had calmed down and the adrenaline rush was gone, I began to feel pain all over my body. My left arm was immovable and soaked in blood thanks to the stab that caped man gave me. And I had many other cuts on my body. At least I could walk just fine. I picked the head by the hair and as I stood up and looked at my surroundings clearly for once. I almost puked at the sight of this bloodbath, I hadn't noticed the grotesque view because I was too busy fighting off death.

But now that I see it,…I…did this? I shed all this blood? A wave of guilt, disgust and fear washed over me. I twisted my ankle trying to take a step forward, and fell to the ground, panting in fear and guilt. The worst part was I couldn't afford the luxury of letting myself cry or rest a bit to make myself feel better. I needed to push through. Move on. So I stood back up as quickly as I fell, walked back to the party, with a head in one hand and my Ken in the other.

As I enter the party hall, all eyes turn to me and the hall starts echoing with whispers and gasps.

"Look over there!"

"Who is that?"

"Who dares ruin the party with such grotesqueries?"

"All that blood!"

"Ahhh look! She's carrying a severed head!"

"What a monster!"

I think I've made the most dramatic entry of my life. A living dead walking through the hall, bathed in crimson blood and carrying a sword and the severed head of an enemy as a trophy. Guards start rushing towards me, to apprehend me.

"Isn't she that slave?" Someone among the crowd speaks.

"Oh! The one Maurin the devil brought along!" Another replies.

"Truly, the devil's partner! " A dramatic man scoffs.

The guards point their rifles at me and yell out, "Stop right there! Who do you think you are to cause a commotion on such a joyous evening?!"

I stand still, unamused. I've gotten used enough to these dramatic events taking place in my life now.

"I'm merely carrying out orders from Maurin." I tell them.

"The man you've murdered is Tabo Mayonaka. He is a very important figure! You think we'd believe that Maurin ordered this!"

"Then ask him yourself." I roll my eyes, unwilling to continue the drama.

And then an authoritative voice calls out, "What's all this commotion about?"

Maurin appears, his hands in his pockets and a serious look on his face. But I know better, he's probably laughing, snickering in excitement at this show he's put on using me.

"This woman claims you ordered her to carry out an assassination! Is this true? She's murdered Tabo Mayonaka! We'll have trouble dealing with this since BIG BOSS had made it clear he wanted Tabo Mayonaka alive."

Maurin takes an inspecting look at me. He looks at my bloodied state and the severed head I'm carrying and a smile spread on his face, which he forced himself to hide.

"Oh really?! That's odd. I never asked anything of the sort." He mused.

My eyes widened at his claim and an expression of disbelief took over my face. What does he mean he didn't ask anything of the sort?! Is he seriously claiming he did not make me murder him?! Is he putting all the blame on me?!

"What do you mean by that, Maurin?!" I asked him, hostility obvious in my tone.

"YOU ordered me to kill Mayonaka! YOU told me to bring you his severed head and HERE IT IS!"

I throw the head towards him, it rolls and stops by his feet. He lowered his eyes and looked at it and then looked at me.

"How about you be honest and tell us If someone made you do it or if you did it out of spite?" He tilts his head as if to mock me.

"YOU! You ordered this! Why would I even want to murder him? I barely know the dude!" I say, frustrated. And the guards try to get close to me and I swing my sword. "Do NOT touch me!"

"As expected of a slave. They are just nasty old creatures." The whispers in the hall start reverberating again.

"Yea, just look at her! She must have done it for revenge!"

"Even after Maurin and Velaris were kind enough to bring her along."

"They do say, one can never hide his true nature."

"She's bathed in crimson blood! How awful!"

"She's still quite gorgeous. It's a shame she's a slave. Loses all her worth."

"She could very well be known as the 'crimson queen'. Look! she radiates that aura!"

"Crimson queen! HA! What an ironically gorgeous nickname for one such as her!"

This nickname made its way around the crowd and people enjoyed it so much that eventually, I was widely known as "The crimson queen". Just like how Maurin and Velaris were widely known by a nickname, this was mine. But it was more of a mockery because I was just a pathetic slave. And they enjoyed taunting me with this nickname.

One of the guards shoots at me and the bullet grazes my hand making me drop my sword. And they suddenly pounce at me, holding me by my arms so that I fall on my knees.

"Hey! Seriously?!" I let out a painful groan.

"Augh, my arm." It hurts like hell.

And now they have me immobilized. They are treating me as if I were some psychotic killer who needed to be detained this forcefully. I raise my head and look at Maurin watching the show with a look that says he's curious to find out what happens next. My hatred for him grows with every passing second. This narcissistic psychopath finds pleasure in people's miseries.

He sees me staring at him with contempt and he changes his expression to one that says, he's had enough of the show. He's about to say something,

"Fine. I ordere—" He was about to admit that he indeed ordered this but someone cut him mid-sentence.

"I ordered her to do it! Let her go!" A deep and refined voice imposing authority was heard.

And I looked to my side and there he stood. Velaris in his black suit and golden vest. He was wearing a long black coat which had fur around the shoulders which he wasn't wearing earlier. It really made him stand out. He had his shoulder length hair tied in a man-bun now. He did that when he had to work on something that required his focus (which I'm guessing was dealing with Tanaka.) Unlike Maurin, Velaris had a darker complexion which added to his intimidating aura and the scar over this eye was another addition to his beauty.

But right now, he's lying. He did not make me murder Mayonaka. Why was he covering for me?

"I'll handle whatever BIG BOSS has to say about it. Right now I need you to let her go. We're leaving."

"We are?" Maurin asked nonchalantly.

"We are!" Velaris affirmed.

Velaris sounded so done with Maurin's antics.

"So are you going to let her go or do you want me to do something about it?" He said to the guards, sounding fed up with this.

"Better not let the 'ticking time bomb' explode!" Someone among the crowd whispered which made Velaris twitch his eyebrows. He actually hated that nickname.

The guards had finally let me go and we were leaving now. Maurin gives me an inspecting look, as he sees me covered in blood, he says,

"You look gorgeous in red, love. Really brings out your eyes."

"You like it so much? Then perhaps next time I'll make it so it will be you bathed in red and not me." I reply, also fed up with his antics.

We were standing in the empty hallway waiting for the attendant to bring us our cloaks.

"Oh damn! Your arm, adrenaline! You're bleeding." Maurin says.

I look at him and wonder, is he actually dumb or does he do it on purpose?

"Oh My God! I had NOT noticed my arm bleeding a waterfall of blood for the past entire DRAMA you put up there! Thanks a LOT for reminding me, Maurin!" I shake my head at him.

"You're welcome." He replies, completely satisfied with himself. And then he whispers to Velaris, "You think she's actually grateful or is she just being sarcastic?"

His whisper was loud enough for me to hear it and I simply rolled my eyes. And Velaris shakes his head in frustration.

***

We got out of that hell of a party in our cloaks and then when we were sitting in Maurin's mustang.

Velaris initiated a conversation, "So you gonna tell us what all that was about? Why'd you have Mayonaka killed? You know we'll get in trouble with the Big Boss. And why you dumped it on her, you know she is useful. We can't have her die on us."

"Alright let me clear it up, first of all. I wasn't dumping it on Adrenaline to get her killed. I was going to tell them that I actually did order her to kill Mayonnaise dude. But you, Vel, had to play 'knight in shining armor' and eventually didn't give me the chance to clear up that mess."

"Uh huh, yea I'm not buying that. Why'd you even create the mess in the first place?" I asked him.

"Cause I was bored." Maurin replied, making both Velaris and I look at him like he just said something stupid. Because he did.

"I was just going to make the party a bit entertaining. It was just a joke. I was going to clear it up. Just didn't get the chance to!" He smiled.

"THAT WAS A JOKE?!" Velaris and I yelled out at the same time.

"I almost died trying to get the mission down and if that wasn't enough I would have died at the hands of those guards, thanks to you!" I yell.

"Hey chill, all's well that ends well." Maurin says, nonchalantly.

"Oh! if that's what a good end is in your dictionary, I do NOT want to know what a bad end would be." I tell him.

"You're alive though. You're breathing. I think that's a happy ending."

"Right, I guess as long as I'm breathing, I'll be fine." I murmured to myself.

'As long as there is life there's hope.' Eve used to say that a lot. It was her favorite proverb and I heard it so much from her, it became mine too.

"If you are done with your bickering, mind telling us how you plan on dealing with the consequences?" Velaris finally interrupts.

"I'm sure we can handle Big Boss, we always have." Maurin's confidence has no limit.

"Mind filling me in on who this 'Big Boss' is and why you were not supposed to kill Mayonaka but you did anyways?" I asked them.

"Well, the Big Boss is the man at the top of this organization. He owns it all and runs it as he pleases. Quite a pain in the ass. He wanted Mayonnaise alive so he could probably make a deal or truce with the Japanese to gain some kind of benefit, probably money and connections. But I desired to kill him because he caused us quite some loss. He killed my mates in Japan and I wasn't going to let that slide." Maurin explains.

"Quite the familiar love you have for your mates, huh." I mock him. "Well then, if you wanted revenge, you should have done so yourself."

"I can get the job done without having to get my hands dirty. It's more convenient." He says.

I hate how he talks about wanting revenge for his friends while he killed mine too. And here I am, getting myself used by the man who murdered Eve.

"So you're gonna get in trouble with that Big Boss now? I'd like to see that." I say.

"Nah. Vel and I'll manage. After all, he is Velaris's father."

My jaw drops. Did he just say that THE BIG BOSS was Velaris's father?! I had absolutely no idea Velaris was the son of the mastermind behind this criminal organization.

"Although people do say it'd make more sense for him to have been my father. Because unlike Velaris, his father's got a similar personality to mine, just worse."

"Welp, so he's a greater monster than even you, huh."

"Oh! You have no idea." Velaris speaks up.