Free and Unfettered 77 Discrepancies

"Seyton, I found where they kept your lover," Nine informed him gently. She patted Mephisto, who had received information from its subordinates. Mephisto rubbed her head on her Master's finger, feeling pleased with herself.

Seyton didn't give any overt signs that he was affected, but being a Vampire, she could hear his usually steady heartbeat pick up. Honestly, having Vampiric hearing was such a godsend. It was so useful. With the combination of Magic Sight, she was almost infallible when coming to dealing with people.

She gently sent him a voice transmission that allowed her to show him some of her thoughts.

Seyton nodded, his expression softer than before. Compared to his usual look, it was about a tenth softer, but it seemed a lot more genuine as compared to the forced smile he usually put on when he had to deal with people.

"Let's go," Nine said.

She simply teleported the three of them as close as possible. They landed on the far end of the Night Tide continent, far inland.

City Trivade contained the second oldest Royal Vampire to date. Unlike other Vampires, this particular Royal was happy to go years without sleeping. He never seemed bored, and liked to travel the world, seeking out new playthings and people to spirit away.

In his castle, there were over three hundred of those he whisked away from their homes. There were all varieties of people. Not only human and Vampire, there also contained Elves, Werepeople, Merpeople, and more.

If they existed, the Prince had them. Prince Jasper Lacroix was second in line to the throne, but he had no interest in the politics that came with the seat. Instead, he delighted in collecting what he wasn't 'allowed' to. For that reason, his collection was wide and diverse. When he bored of them, he simply… disposed of them.

Luckily for them, Seyton's lover was still within the Prince's castle, and had been there since she had been 'acquired' from his mansion.

Nine's expression was a little strange when she received the news from Mephisto. Now that she had the news, she finally knew what had been bugging her all this time.

Seyton's lover, who was at the time a human, wasn't considered a beauty. Though she was cute, she only contained a sort of girl-next-door charm. This description of her didn't fit Jasper Lacroix's tastes in any way, where he preferred world-shaking beauties in every sense of the word.

Nine silently glanced at Nocturne, thinking that this was probably the kind of looks the vain prince preferred.

The moment Nocturne heard about this, his expression was dark. If he could, he would have stopped Nine from going there, where the perverted Vampire Prince resided, but he knew that once Nine decided on something, in a very fitting way of the title he held, would never be dissuaded.

Nocturne sighed gently.

"Do you know why your lover was abducted by Jasper Lacroix in the first place?" Nine asked, wondering if there was any information that he had left out.

Seyton was also confused. He had run through the same thoughts in his mind over and over again. If it wasn't because he had tried countless times to steal into the castle to no avail, he wouldn't have tried to come up with another plan.

Furthermore, every time he tried to break in, Seyton was greeted with the smirking face of the Prince, which made him feel like slamming a fist into his face. Unfortunately for him, Prince Jasper was a Ninth Tier magician, and Seyton couldn't beat him in a fight whenever he tried. Perhaps he might have a chance had the Prince not been on his home ground, but it was like he was simply waiting for him to come by each time.

"I don't know," Seyton confessed. "Truthfully speaking, I know that Helena isn't the type of woman that he's interested in, so I really have no idea why he's taken her. We used to be friends before, but after doing what he did, I have no other communication with him."

Nine furrowed her brows. Something wasn't adding up here.

According to the information Mephisto received, Helena, Seyton's lover, wasn't in eternal sleep at all. She was currently working as Jasper's servant and moving about the castle freely.

She got a bad feeling that she didn't want to confirm. Could it be? The Truth was telling her that her intuition was correct.

Nine kept silent, unable to break the news to Seyton. She didn't think that he would believe her anyhow. He would want to see with his own eyes, but every bad premonition from when she saw the painting back at Seyton's mansion was ringing true.

Sometimes, she hated being right.

"Helena isn't under the curse of eternal sleep, Seyton," she said, wanting to prepare him even slightly.

Seyton flinched like he'd been struck. The quiet unease that had been lurking deep within his heart seemed to have been provoked by a simple sentence uttered from his Master. He clenched his fist before letting it unclench weakly.

He just couldn't bring himself to believe without proof. For what reason had he struggled alone all these centuries? Could it be that their love had been a lie?

Nocturne watched Seyton with complicated feelings. He treated the other man like a friend. They sparred sometimes and chatted whenever Nine was busy. He heard all about the lover Seyton had ripped away. At that time, the slight discrepancies had unnerved him, but he never knew whether or not he had been overthinking it by himself.

Nine dispelled the heavy gloom over them as her eyes cooled. "Enough talking. Won't we know after we beat it out of the Prince?" she said.

Seyton looked at his Master and felt like he had never been as valiant and domineering as he had been right now. The sight made him feel like only his Master would ever be fit to sit on the throne. Even the Vampire King couldn't compare to a single hair on his Master.

"Let's go," Nine said.

"Right now?" Seyton said, silently alarmed. Were they going to charge in without any planning whatsoever? This was a Ninth Tier magician's castle they were going to break into! Prince Jasper wasn't like the incompetent Alixia Lacroix, who had only been born in the past couple of centuries.

"That's right," Nine said, staring straight into Seyton's eyes. "Doesn't this feel better than sneaking around?"

Seyton's lips could help but break into a smile at his Master's consideration for him. Going through the front doors showed that there was nothing wrong with that they were doing, and at the same time, helped vent whatever feelings he had for Jasper's betrayal.

Seyton thought that his loyalty for his Master could go no higher, but today he proved himself wrong. There was only endless loyalty and devotion that filled his heart whenever he looked at his Master.

Nine charged up a Tenth Tier spell.

Chapter end