The end of his plan

Unlike attributes themselves, affinity for them was something that wasn't decided at the time of birth. It slowly developed based on the type of environment in which the person had lived for the longest.

If one were to say, it was all about what kind of life the person had led so far. The harder it was, the stronger the affinity for the respective attribute grew.

There are a total of nine attributes: wind, fire, water, lightning, ice, nature, space, holy, and dark. There were other types of magic that didn't fall under attributes.

The most common attributes were wind, fire, water, and lightning. Nature and space were the rarest of all. Holy and dark were a bit common compared to the former two.

The holy attribute was one of its own kind, allowing the person to heal the most severe of the injuries. The only condition for possessing an affinity for the said attribute was having a pure and kind heart.

Contrary to that, possessing an affinity for dark attributes required nothing but negative emotions. Hatred, envy, wrath, regret, sadness, and so on.

And whoever possessed affinity for such a sinister attribute never led an easy life. The path in front of him would always be full of thorns.

Mostly it was nobles who had mana, while the commoners possessing it was a rare sight. All of this was what every person throughout the continent was aware of.

The fire attribute, tangled with the dark attribute, made the black flames combust. Their skin could feel the high temperature devouring the sweat on it.

"Why did you both do that all...?"

As the words fell on their ears, drops of blood dripped down their mouths, nostrils, and ears. The weight of the air around them had increased a thousandfold.

They wanted to speak, but no words came out. Adrienne's cold grip tightened around Calan's neck steadily.

"It doesn't matter, I suppose..."

He muttered as the black glow in his eyes had a tint of red. To him, the two people in front of him were nothing more than the murderers of his parents.

Killing them was the only thing on his mind. The killing intent directed at the two made Emilia's vision blurry. That made her bite her own lips to stay conscious.

"I-i will speak! I-it wasn't o-our plan...!"

Her voice kept breaking while she forced an answer out to stop him from strangling Calan to death. Did she even have any other options?

If Calan or Emilia were smart, they would've never needed to murder the former rulers. With their capabilities, it was impossible for the two of them to pull that off.

The puddle of blood on the floor disappeared as the flames moved closer to the three people standing. Emilia shivered while stuttering to speak.

"T-they asked us to e-eliminate you a-and t-take over the throne to h-help them with s-something..."

For a while, Adrienne couldn't trust her words. Simply because they had said so didn't mean it was the truth. What if it were a lie again?

Adrienne's eyes tried to discern the validity of those words by observing their expressions. The two were too weak to do something on their own.

"W-we are telling the truth!"

Calan struggled to free himself from the grasps of the boy despite being overwhelmed by fear. Soon, it came to an end since he let Calan fall to the ground.

He coughed continuously, grasping for air. The murderous air that surrounded his throat a while ago was still there.

Adrienne saw the couple grovel near his feet in pain. He smiled coldly, reminiscing about how he was being hit and tormented by the same woman who was trembling within his sight.

The tears were still flowing down his face as he realised how grave a mistake he had made. He was regretting having been thinking of them like they meant him his whole world.

Those very people had destroyed Adrienne's world. He brushed the tears aside with his hand while covering his face under his palms. There was one thing he felt like asking about.

"Who are they...? And what's their goal...?"

A ray of hope appeared to the two in that dire situation. If they answered what Adrienne asked them, he might be willing to let them go.

The people behind his real parent's death and the suffering he had to go through were definitely his enemies. His eyebrows frowned with an unsettling rage, thinking about it.

The moment he finds out their identity, he will kill them without any shred of mercy. No matter who they were, he wouldn't hesitate to cut them down.

Adrienne would've surely done that. But only if he found out about them, that is.

"W-we don't know w-who-!"

The words had just come out of Emilia's mouth, but it didn't take her a moment to get lifted above the ground. Adrienne was strangling her.

"Hah...? Are you kidding me...?"

His eyes looked down at Calan, who had just barely collected himself together. The grip tightened around Emilia's throat, making her vision slowly fade.

Calan shivered and trembled at the sight. He grabbed onto Adrienne's legs, begging to spare Emilia, but he didn't care what he said.

As he was about to see the end of Emilia's life, Calan remembered the other half of Adrienne's question. Answering it had the possibility of changing something about their current situation.

"I KNOW THEIR GOAL! THEY WEREN'T AFTER YOU! THEIR GOAL IS TO KILL THE WORLD TREE HIDING IN THE ELEVEN FOREST!"

The existence of the world tree was a legend that had nothing to prove its validity. There was no way some humans would actually be able to know such facts.

At the moment, Adrienne felt as if he was hallucinating. But no, that was the reality. The last person he considered precious to himself was in danger too.

The chemical reactions within his brain took place at a tremendous speed as he tried to calculate possible outcomes. His body stiffened with an overwhelming emotion running wild in his heart.

"Die... Her...?"

The flames that were just dwindling around the three began approaching closer. Adrienne's rage from earlier had reached its limits.

Calan and Emilia grabbed onto each other while trying to figure out a way out from there. That was all for nothing.

"STOP IT! I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WOULD LET US LIVE IF WE TOLD YOU EVERYTHING!"

The shouts and screams made Adrienne snap back to his senses. The flames were engulfing his feet, but he didn't feel any pain.

His lips and eyes adjusted themselves to form a cold smile. The steps he took backwards made his face hide behind the wall of the black fire.

"Now, did I?"

The agonising screams of the two burning within the hellish phenomenon spread throughout the prison. They kept on begging for mercy.

"STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURTS!"

But Adrienne never stopped. The flames grew even stronger as he witnessed them turn to ashes.

Did they hesitate when they killed his parents? Did they felt guilt for making Adrienne suffer for all those years? No.

There was no reason for Adrienne to sympathise with them. He could simply find the details related to that group later.

In the end, no ashes or traces of fire remained. The flames had devoured the noise and disappeared along with their sources.

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

There was supposed to be silence spreading across the place now that the nuisances were eliminated, but the sounds of the child crying were clear. Adrienne flinched at the sound of someone falling to the ground.

Leaving the cell, he found himself walking in the direction where the sound came from. The amount of mana he had was barely one-fifth of his total mana at the moment.

His wobbling steps came to a stop when he found a familiar figure trembling in the darkness. The tears in his terrified green eyes flowed non-stop.

His caramel brown hair became visible under the dim light falling through the small opening on the wall. Adrienne knew the identity of this person.

Caleb Agustus, son of the couple he had just burned to death. The boy had witnessed everything, but who let him walk in?

Well, that didn't matter. Adrienne was certain that leaving him alive meant just an increase in the count of his enemies. His hand stretched forward towards him.

As the flames were about to touch the boy, they were repelled by an unknown force. There was something invisible surrounding the petrified child.

"My, my... You've ruined my plans, boy..."

The person snickered while still lurking behind the shadows. It was a woman. Her black veil covered her eyes but not her smiling lips.

The movement of her hand wasn't visible to Adrienne while she held Caleb's body in her hand. He had passed out from the hit he received from her on his nape.

"Now I need to wait another ten years..."

The figures of the two people became unclear to him. It was Adrienne, whose mana deviation was about to end since he ran out of mana. The last line Adrienne heard before collapsing was puzzling.

"May thee soul find salvation."

-Present-

"After that, I went around finding more clues..."

Adrienne spoke while stirring the spoon in the cup of milk tea on the table. The story he had told them had left everyone in awe.

Once the treasure hidden within the elven forest was taken away by Aliana, their power had greatly declined. To save the elves and Sierra from being attacked by the said group of people, Adrienne had no choice but to act as their enemy.

Sierra was trying her best to hold back the water in her eyes. Claire and Eleanor, too. The only people listening to this without feeling anything were Blaise and Jaden.

These two were busy eating cookies along with the milk tea Sierra had provided for them. Given the time they spent sitting in one place and listening to all that, it was natural that they were feeling bored.

Diona had no expression on her face in the meantime. She was listening to Adrienne while paying her full attention, but there still remained a question.

"Then, who are the people targeting our mother?"

The world tree was considered their mother by all the elves. Diona was referring to her when she said mother.

Adrienne had never said a thing about the people who were planning to kill Sierra. The only thing clear at the moment was their goal and a few bits of information.

Aliana was sitting with her eyes closed all the time. She had already figured out a few things that even Adrienne didn't know yet.

Eleanor and Claire were eagerly awaiting an answer from Adrienne when he stood and walked towards a window. He spoke while glaring at his own reflection.

"I don't know their name yet... But..."

He placed the palm on the glass of the window and wrapped it in a fist. His words were continued by Aliana, which made him flinch and turn around.

"Caleb is on their side, huh..."

It was clear that the anonymous woman who appeared at that time was the one related to those people. If she had taken away Caleb, then that meant he would come back for revenge someday.

Everyone in the room was shocked to hear that from Aliana. Adrienne's eyebrows furrowed with a light smile on his lips.

"Spare me from your insight..."

He let out a sigh. They had met about two or three times at some banquets in other nations a few years ago. And all of their meetings would leave him bewildered.

"You have an idea as to who they are, don't you?"

He asked while trying to suppress his anger. He was curious to know who they were, so that he could rush to their location and kill them all.

Aliana didn't say a word but smiled lightly before standing up from her seat. She approached the door while silence graced the whole room.

The only sound that was heard was her opening the door without any trouble. The door wasn't supposed to open until Sierra wanted it to.

Jaden couldn't help but get goosebumps seeing Aliana's nonchalant smile. Her words sounded troublesome to Blaise and Claire too.

"I'll tell you about that sometime later. For now..."

Thudddddd

The huge sound vibrated the floor beneath their feet. It kept getting stronger with every breath. Aliana's words continued.

"It's about time for him to reach here..."