The extra is a fox eyed jester-Chapter 76: Unknown route

"What nonsense are you spouting, why would I touch your maid?"

"Then why did you enter my room without my notice?"

"You were not—"

"It’s common sense to wait if your arrival was not well received."

Azazel’s gaze sharpened into a glare.

"What you just did was trespassing."

Zander felt his eye twitch.

He stared at Azazel coldly.

"You’re forgetting yourself."

Silence descended.

For a moment, everything went still.

Not the wind...

Or the ticks of the clock tower.

Even Elsa’s cigarette smoke lingered midair.

Then Azazel smiled.

It wasn’t a warm smile nor did it hold any particular amusement.

It was the kind of smile an enemy would possess before delivering the final attack.

"Am I?" he asked softly.

The violet hue in his eyes deepened, his aura staining the air with something heavy... something ancient, something wrong.

The faint distortion from earlier returned.

Zander’s brows furrowed ever so slightly, he couldn’t see it, but he felt it, of course he did.

He ranked ninth among the chaos order just a level below Elsa, and by the power standard of the kingdom they were above the white knights.

A single chaos bringer could obliterate an army of the kingdom best knights without exerting their abilities fully.

Yet someone as powerful as him reluctantly took a step back, his instincts whispered what his pride refused to admit.

Danger.

The redhead noble before him was dangerous.

Azazel slowly rose to his feet, then he took a step forward.

Just one step.

But it was enough.

"Shall we go over your list of wrongdoing," he continued with a voice which was eerily calm. "You entered my room, uninvited and unannounced."

The distance between them shrank again.

"You ignored the standard procedures."

Step.

"Now here you are..." His gaze flickered down briefly, then back up as though he was measuring something invisible to others. "... speaking as if you hold any authority over me."

Azazel let his lips curl into a slow, condescending smile when he noticed how Zander’s jaw tightened.

The black haired youth scowled, letting the malice shimmer in his eyes.

"I am a chaos bringer of the order and before that I am the child of Zamira Von Astavore, you will do well to show me some respect, peasant."

Azazel stopped.

The space between them had been reduced to something fragile, like a glass on the verge of shattering.

Outside, the rain had begun.

Its downpour was heavy drowning the lingering traces of noise in a symphony of chatter.

"Hah..." Azazel scoffed after a beat of silence. "Tell me, as a knight of the gray wolf, the chaos bringers, who do you serve."

He paused.

"You serve clan Astavore, and need I remind you whose child you just flaunted your status to."

Zander’s eyes narrowed.

"Our clan recognizes efforts, achievements and talents, not your status, I merely made it a point to remind you that I also hail from the main family branch."

"Yet you came running to me like a cur chasing a stick," Azazel taunted. "tell me Zander, why are you here for me then? If I had to hazard a guess then the elders either want me to join the order since I have no desire to be the family head, or you came because of a certain technique, which by the way, also counts as an achievement."

His gaze darkened.

"Those oldies sent you to push my buttons. To see if I’m still that little arrogant hot headed pushover who they could coax with the promise of joining the chaos order, though I’ve got to say you were rather foolish in your approach, now I really have no desire to listen to you further. Leave!"

The air grew taut, then a pulse.

It wasn’t mana, not entirely.

It was darker.

Vile.

It felt like something that wasn’t supposed to exist.

Zander felt his body stiffen for a fraction of a second, his instincts screaming as an unsealed pressure coiled around his throat.

Elsa felt it once again, her eyes gleamed in amusement as she watched the spectacle unfold.

Her lips curled into a satisfied smile.

’Interesting.’ she mused.

Zander forced a step forward, shattering the invisible hold through sheer will, his own aura flaring instinctively in response.

"How dare—"

"Careful." Azazel warned, his tone dropped a degree colder than it was previously. "Watch what you say next Zander or aunt Zamira might receive an emergency summon from the patriarch."

A heavy silence descended once again.

More oppressive this time.

Elsa exhaled a slow stream of smoke, watching it curl lazily while she enjoyed the show.

"My, my..." she murmured, her voice laced with amusement. "This escalated rather quickly."

Neither of them acknowledged her and she didn’t seem to mind, she merely shrugged then took out another piece of candy.

Zander’s eyes burned with barely restrained fury.

"You’re getting ahead of yourself, Azazel" he snarled, "You know the rules, I can request a duel with you and put you in your place once again."

Azazel tilted his head slightly.

"Oh, enlighten me then, you never can tell, I might just take you up on that offer."

Zander froze... then he laughed before closing the remaining distance until they stood face to face.

"You’re a Von in name alone," he said quietly. "A mere stain tolerated out of convenience, that’s all you’re worth."

For a second.

Something in Azazel stilled.

The reaction was immediate, but it only lingered for a brief moment.

His hands twitched at his sides.

’The Raven... is restless, it wants to go wild.’ Azazel thought with a frown.

’That’s because it needs its other half, the will is unstable.’ Akathartos explained. ’You need to hatch the egg as soon as possible.’

"...I see." Azazel murmured.

He reached up slowly, his movements lazy then he adjusted his glove.

A small, meaningless action but one nevertheless.

And yet—

Elsa’s smile widened.

Zander didn’t notice, but Elsa did.

That was his mistake.

Azazel was done testing the waters.

His gaze lifted once more causing the violet hue to swallow what remained of the icy blue.

"Let me correct something then," he said. "I don’t need your opinion on my worth, I don’t need you or the elder’s acknowledgement, I’ll only be as benevolent as to say this once."

He exhaled.

"The next time you decide my worth."

He lingered.

"Then I’ll make sure you know exactly who you’re dealing with, and you’ll find out what exactly a Von in name alone is capable of."

The pressure pressed down harder.

"I’ll ask again..." Azazel whispered coldly, "did you touch my maid?"

His eyes flickered to the sleeves of Zander’s shirt stained with blood.

"Ahaha... ok, that’s enough how about we call it a day hmmm, or is it a night, well whatever." Elsa chimed with a chuckle. "Sorry Zander, I’ll take it from here hmmm."

She snapped her fingers and the next second, Zander had disappeared from the spot where he had been standing.

A faint ripple in space lingered, a testament to the chaos mana she had just expended.

"Hah... good grief." She sighed then turned towards Azazel.

Azazel exhaled slowly before asking.

"Why did you help him?"

Elsa shrugged.

"Who knows... did I help him or did I help you?"

"I could have taken care of him."

Her smile slowly disappeared.

"You could have killed him, no doubt. But you wouldn’t have been able to beat him."

Azazel blinked slowly, then he laughed catching Elsa off guard.

"Haha... ha, kill him? Who said I wanted to fight him? I know I’m not up to his level yet but it doesn’t mean I can’t deal with him in other ways."

Elsa scoffed, well it was more of a half laugh than an actual scoff.

"With all that pressure you were stacking down on him? Who wouldn’t think otherwise."

Azazel shrugged.

"Can’t fault you, I do have a nasty aura."

Then he grew serious.

"Elsa, let’s call it a night, I have pressing matters to attend to."

"Hmm, alright then," she said. "Well, it’s not much of a big deal though, the elders wanted to speak with you regarding the new technique but the brother of the former patriarch, elder Rhory wanted you to join the order, just like Leona."

Azazel’s expression faltered.

"W-What did you say?"

"Elder Rhory wanted you to join."

"No, after that."

"Uh... Leona joined the order?"

Azazel took a deep shaky breath.

His thoughts grew frantic, as he pondered.

Leona joining the order wasn’t something that happened within the game, not in any playthrough he was familiar with.

The story was taking on a different route entirely, one he was unfamiliar with, and he didn’t like it one bit.

Without his knowledge, he felt blind.

’That wasn’t supposed to happen!’ he frowned.

And somehow, he suspected that Loki was behind it.

Feeling the headache build up, Azazel sighed—a deep, weary one.

"Fuck this... I need to get some sleep."

Elsa grinned like a cat then carefully inched towards Azazel, before he could ask what she was doing she pulled him into a hug and ruffled his hair wildly.

"You seem confused little Zel, I’ll leave you to your thoughts but... don’t overthink it, just do what you want."

Azazel allowed himself to relax in her embrace.

’Just do what I want... do I even have the luxury of choice?’