The Kind of Evil-Chapter 435: Unwanted but indispensable.
Aurelia, Astrea, Lenin, Eveline, Thalior, Serena, Marina, Xena, Uriel, Nior, Novia, and Alexander sat at the long table. They gathered in the dining hall and ate their breakfast in silence filled with tension. Alexander was extremely anxious by the silence, and he could pass out if he didn’t keep his mind on the food on his plate.
"The Ravenshroud decided to support Lady Aurelia’s cause?" Eveline broke the silence and stared at Alexander who sat across from Aurelia.
"No, Lady Eveline. I came here not as the representative of the Ravenshroud family," Alexander answered, trying so hard to not tremble in his words. "I came here because I want to help my friend," he added.
"That doesn’t change the fact you’re a Ravenshroud, Alexander. The fact that your parents allow you to be here right now, that alone is enough to tell the world of the Ravenshroud’s support to Lady Aurelia," Thalior explained and took a sip of his water.
Alexander had never felt nervous around people before since he would become the head of the Ravenshroud family. However, at this table, he felt so small, so insignificant that he might get crushed from a mere word coming from any of them.
"Perhaps, but the world doesn’t know yet, so he’s here as Alexander, not as Ravenshroud. He’s planning to keep it that way," Marina responded as she looked at Eveline and Thalior. "Let this young man have his freedom and be selfish for his own desire and interest," she chuckled as she looked at Alexander, winking as if telling him to relax and not worry.
Eveline couldn’t help but chuckle and nodded with understanding. They looked at Marina, one of the twins, the twin sorceresses. Thalior, Uriel, and Xena had fought side by side with her twin, Agnesia, and this time they were going to fight side by side with her.
Alexander could finally breathe easily after everyone’s attention shifted to Marina. Aurelia couldn’t help but tease him with a smile, knowing how it felt.
"Everyone..." Lenin said as she stood up from her chair and looked at everyone at the table. "The time is ticking, the demon forces have finally made their moves. They’re moving fast, and we need a plan to stop them from expanding their territory and gaining more power," she pointed out with a serious expression and hands pressed against the table.
Thalior raised his hand as he looked at Lenin. Lenin nodded and let him speak as she sat down.
"First, there are things that we need to consider," Thalior looked at everyone at the table. "Count Rasmus Blackheart, that man is a variable that we can’t ignore. We need to know everything about him," he said, and then glanced at Serena since she was one of Rasmus’ people.
Everyone’s focus shifted to Serena, but she wasn’t bothered by those judging eyes.
"On our way here, we heard the news that Count Blackheart massacred the royal family during their daughter’s coming of age ceremony. Not only that, he also committed a mass murder, killing everyone in the capital city," Eveline said, finding that news to be unbelievable.
"Is that true, Great Sage?" Thalior asked.
Lenin could answer the question, but she didn’t want to because she felt uncomfortable answering it. She decided to turn to Serena, letting her answer the question to see what kind of relationship she had with Rasmus.
"No, that’s not true," Serena shook her head. "He did plan to kill the royal family, but he didn’t. He didn’t even touch them. He let someone else do it for him because that person also had a deep grudge against them. And for the mass murder, it wasn’t true either. It was wyverns that were controlled by the demons who did it. Rasmus took all the blame for something he didn’t do," she explained.
For Lenin, Thalior, Uriel, Xena, and Astrea, they already knew that was the truth without needing more proof. On the other hand, Eveline and Marina didn’t buy that explanation at all since they had never met Rasmus and were not knowing what kind of a person he was.
"Count Blackheart took all the blame and just let it be? Why?" Eveline asked with her brows furrowed.
"It’s because he doesn’t care," Alexander answered with confidence. "Count Rasmus never cared about what people said about him. He chose to take all the blame because it made him well-known, a figure to recognize. He used that opportunity to be known, but for what reason? I’m not sure," he explained since he remembered Rasmus’ lectures like they were carved into his brain.
Eveline found that kind of move to be something that was unheard of. Nothing would make things better if someone took the blame for such an incident no matter how they wanted to use it to their advantage. She looked around, and to her surprise, nobody found that logic to be questioned and they seemed to agree with Alexander’s explanation.
"The reason? Isn’t that so he has a reason to not save humankind?" Serena asked with a smile on her face, the smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
The hall was already heavy with silence, but the moment Serena revealed the truth in such soft spoken, it was deafening.
"Well, you wanted to know about Rasmus and his so-called mind. There, that’s one thing you have found. He’s not planning to help us in fighting the demons, and that’s the truth," Serena said and took a sip of her water.
Eveline finally found out what kind of a person Rasmus was. However, she remembered that her niece, Monica, looked up to Rasmus and his teaching. She didn’t want to believe that someone who taught her niece how to rule and think. Not to mention, he could make Moriganne the Saint love Monica like a mother should.
Marina had heard from her twin sister, Agnesia about Rasmus and what kind of a person he was. She remembered how Agnesia told her that Rasmus was both a dangerous and intriguing person she had ever met. Marina could finally understand what her sister had said about Rasmus.
"Wait a moment..." Eveline raised her hand, still confused and a bit shocked. "Great Sage, you gave us information related to those cults from Count Blackheart. He was right about it, and we had confirmed it as well. So, why does someone like him who doesn’t want to save humankind do something that’s so contradicting with what he doesn’t want to do by helping us?" She looked at Lenin with a disturbed expression.
"Why? Because he’s the one who controls the chessboard while we are just chess pieces. He doesn’t help us out of sympathy but out of necessity. He wants to see humankind fall, but he doesn’t want it to fall abruptly, without his will in a way..." Astrea answered with a blank expression, staring at the spot on the wall. "We are the white pieces and the demons are the black pieces in the board. He doesn’t fit in either side, and he doesn’t want to be on either side," she continued and looked at everyone in the room, staring at him with a stiff and serious expression.
"Do we need him? No, but that’s not the truth. One way or another, we will rely on him whether we like it or not. Because in the end, he gave us the best outcome and took all the responsibilities to himself, and we have seen that many times," Astrea said, staring at Thalior and Lenin. "We tried to hate him for what he did, for everything he did. But the most painful truth is that hatred makes us hypocrites. The reason why he’s still out there and do things as he pleases is because we are not hypocrites," she added and then looked at Eveline.
Eveline turned to look at Lenin, a Great Sage who had vowed and sworn to protect humankind from any threats. However, when Lenin looked back at Eveline, she didn’t try to deny or admit Astrea’s words. Eveline was devastated, not because of Rasmus but because of those powerful figures around her, they all failed to break the silence, or perhaps they never planned to break that silence to reflect on Astrea’s words that felt so true it was painful to admit or deny.
"Is this the truth of what’s happening in Neva? Everyone tends to falter by this man," Eveline asked in disbelief. "Is this why there are factions in this continent, disunity, knives on each other’s throats, and even to the point they let each other die by the hands of the demons?" She asked, her voice filled with a bit of disgust and discomfort by the truth.
"We fought for our lives in the North, hoping that the rest of the world could overcome this crisis and join hand with us, but what I found here..." Eveline paused as she shook her head. "What I found here is nothing but chaos that the demons are feasting on..." She added with her eyes narrowed, staring at each one of them in the eyes.
Everyone stayed quiet even after Eveline accused them of being incapable of uniting and fighting the true enemy of humankind.
"The peace is fragile, it has always been," Aurelia muttered as she looked down. "The peace is based on lies. Count Rasmus knew that, and he exploited it, slowly revealing it to the world. You’re right, Lady Eveline, we are the worst, and that’s why everyone here failed to stop him," she added, realizing that this whole time, her teacher, Rasmus, he wasn’t evil, it was the world that was rotten from the inside, not him.
"That’s why we are here, Lady Eveline. We are trying to make a new world where we can be like the North. The reason why the Magic Tower and I chose to support Aurelia was because she was the only one who could make it happen," Lenin said with her head lowered and stared at the spot on the table. "We want to rebuild this world, we want a world where someone like Rasmus isn’t necessary," she slowly lifted her head to look at Eveline.
Everyone closed their eyes, agreeing with what Lenin said, leaving only Eveline who could stare back at Lenin.
"Then I want to meet him, Count Blackheart. Where can I find him?" Eveline asked.
"We don’t know," Lenin shook her head. "But it’s better that we focus on the war first, Lady Eveline. I believe, he will show himself during that time, and we will have our moment with him. I can promise you that," she answered with certainty in her words.
Eveline took a deep breath before she finally closed her eyes and rubbed her nose bridge. She slowly nodded with understanding and decided to let it go for now and focus on the matter in front of them.
"Let’s begin the discussion of our future moves, together," Lenin said with a serious expression as she looked at everyone.
They all nodded in agreement.
