Chapter 30: Andromeda wants to take revenge on Daemon!?
Daemon woke up with a start.
His heart was pounding wildly. Cold sweats ran down the back of his neck, soaking his pillow.
All the memories of the massacre came back to him. The blood spurting on his face. The bodies collapsing. And that strange sensation... That lack of interest while watching his enemies suffer.
An atrocious nausea seized him. He turned on his side, grabbed a basin placed on the bedside table, and vomited.
He vomited again and again, until he had nothing left to expel.
His hands were shaking. He looked at them. They were clean, and... normal. But he could still feel the sticky blood on his skin. He could still feel the warmth of the torn flesh under his claws.
’I am a monster,’ he thought.
The nurses rushed over.
"Young master!" exclaimed the first one.
"Young master Daemon is awake!" said the second one as she hurried towards the door. "Bring him some water!"
The first nurse approached the bed, a glass in hand. Daemon took the glass, drank a small sip, and almost immediately spat it out. The water had a metallic taste, like blood.
He looked at the glass for a long moment, then placed it on the bedside table.
"Young master, are you okay?" asked the nurse, worried.
’Am I a monster?’ he thought. ’Is that what I have become?’
Daemon did not answer right away. His eyes were fixed, turned inward. He was seeing again the faces of the men he had killed. Their pleading eyes...
"Is that what Dorian meant? Am I becoming that calamity?"
He closed his eyes. He breathed deeply.
’No,’ he thought. ’Being predisposed to something does not mean you will necessarily become it. I am not yet a monster. I just have to... take precautions in the future.’
He opened his eyes again. The nurse was looking at him nervously.
"Young master..."
"Ah..." Daemon blinked. "I am fine. Apart from atrocious pain throughout my body, I am fine."
The nurse sighed with relief. She grabbed a clipboard hanging at the foot of the bed and scanned the doctors’ notes.
"Well, young master, the damage was not light." she said. "But you have an out-of-norm recovery." She looked up at him. "It may be due to your colossal chi. Your right arm, for example, healed instantly."
Daemon felt his heart stop for a moment. He looked at his right arm. It was not bandaged, unlike the rest of his body. The skin was intact and normal. No claws, no tattoo or the 999 mark.
’She did not see anything,’ he thought, relieved. "Thank the heavens, she did not see anything."
"Hmm, that’s good. But the arm is still painful." He grimaced to pretend to be in pain. "I think I should also put bandages on it."
The nurse nodded, grabbed a roll of gauze, and started bandaging Daemon’s arm.
"How long was I unconscious?" asked Daemon.
"About a week, young master."
"A week?" Daemon whistled. He looked around him. "And where is Luna? Your young master just woke up, and you were not there."
He clicked his tongue in exasperation.
The nurse stepped back, surprised by the change in tone. "I... I do not know, young master. She did not come to the infirmary."
Daemon pushed back the covers. His legs were shaking, and his back was throbbing with every movement, but he got up.
"I am going to get some air." he said.
"Young master, you are not in any state to..."
"That will not be necessary." Daemon interrupted her. He grabbed a clean shirt placed on a chair, slipped it on over his bandages, and headed towards the door.
He walked slowly, limping, one hand on the wall for support. His entire body was nothing but one continuous pain, from the top of his skull to the tips of his toes.
...
The Spring Domain was different from the Winter Domain. Where the latter was cold and austere, the Spring Domain was gentle, luminous, with flowered gardens and paths lined with fruit trees. Daemon knew this place quite well, he had spent part of his childhood there.
He asked the servants he met. "Have you seen my personal servant? A young woman with white hair and red eyes?"
But the answer was always negative.
And so he headed towards Kristian’s personal manor. He took the path that ran along the stream, and arrived at a small stone bridge that spanned the water.
And he saw them a few meters away.
Kristian stood with his hands behind his back, his blond hair shining under the moonlight. He wore an impeccable light blue tunic, and his face was calm.
At his side stood Luna. Her face was marked by a few residual bruises, traces of her torture at Markus’s, her red eyes fixed on Kristian.
...
"How have you been since... well, you know." said Kristian.
"Do not worry, Lord Kristian." replied Luna. Her voice was neutral, polite. "I am doing wonderfully."
"That is good..."
An awkward silence settled. Kristian seemed to be searching for his words.
"Uh... Lord Kristian?" Luna finally said. "You had called me to tell me something important... right?"
"Hum..." Kristian took a deep breath. "Indeed."
He turned towards her.
"Do you remember that day, in the desert?" he asked. "Where you saved me. I never got to thank you."
Luna blinked. "Huh? Save you?"
"It was several years ago. I was only twelve at the time." Kristian smiled, a nostalgic smile.
Luna looked at him, perplexed. She pretended to think, but her expression clearly said that she did not remember saving a twelve-year-old boy.
’Thank the heavens...’ she thought. ’He has not discovered that I am Blood Moon. He just wants to talk about some random story in a desert.’
"It is true that I was part of the Yak tribe." she said slowly. "But I do not remember meeting you in the desert." She shrugged. "You may have mistaken me for someone else."
Kristian remained frozen.
The woman he dreamed of every night... The one with ruby eyes who had obsessed him for years. The one who had given him the strength to train, to progress, to become stronger. And she did not even remember him?
’She does not remember... She does not remember me.’
He lowered his head.
"It seems I did indeed mistake you for someone else... I apologize for this misunderstanding." he finally said, too embarrassed to tell the truth.
But as he was about to say something else, he saw Luna looking elsewhere. He turned his head in that direction.
"I apologize, Lord Kristian. It seems my young master has woken up."
She walked away without waiting for a response.
Daemon shook his head in disapproval.
"Ah, Luna." he said. "Your young master is in a bad state, and you still find time to try to flirt with the Sword Clan heir?"
Luna put her hands on her hips. "Young master, the lashes were not deep enough for you to spout so much nonsense?"
Daemon gently pulled her cheek. "I should have left Lord Markus to torture you for a few more days. Your tongue is still too sharp."
Luna pushed his hand away. "And you are still too much of an idiot to be left unsupervised."
"You are talking to your master?"
"I am talking to an idiot."
Luna pushed his hand away and as they continued their teasing, Kristian felt more and more wronged.
"Oh, Kristian. Do you want to walk us back? I will offer you a drink." Daemon suddenly asked.
"No... It’s fine. I intend to sleep early today..."
Kristian watched their backs as they left with a pang in his heart that for a reason he did not know made him terribly uneasy.
They continued teasing each other as they walked away, their voices gradually fading into the night.
’Why did she become his servant?’ he thought. ’Why would a woman do everything to get close to a man whose mother personally killed her entire family?’
"Andromeda wants to take revenge on Daemon!?"