Death's Door

Runfar"s half faced expression betrayed his fright. He was obviously not up for this task.

"Young master, it is for your own health. Please at least finish it half way."

Facing the young master of Sevilles household was a bowl of vegetable soup. It was made with onions, peppers, cabbage, lettuce, spices, and cream, all together mashed into a salad, before putting water on top of it, turning the salad into a soup. It was a home-made recipe, and Elian claimed it was one of her specialties.

The taste of it was something else…Not in a good way.

Apparently it has good health benefits like aiding in digestion and preventing the eater from gaining weight, thus allowing them to live longer. It was good for health but not much else.

Runfar, who was half undead, no longer required eating, but in order to keep up the appearances, he ate three times a day, making sure none grew suspicious of his actions. Normal human beings eat in order to survive, and the role he was playing now required him to not only look the part but play it as well.

But the problem was that Elian was insistent that he add vegetables into his diet. Apparently she thought that Runfar"s diet was not healthy and needed to change,

After the incident with Warlow, Elian had treated Runfar far gentler than before, being very concerned with his well-being and general health. While the gesture was nice on its own, Runfar found himself in a tricky dilemma.

He could tell her this dish is abominable, but that would ruin his reputation as the kind master he spent so much time and effort to cultivate. Elian was one of the few people in the mansion who had a good impression of him, the other maids were still frightened of him, he could not afford to lose her support.

But eating this dread was another horror on its own.

Hesitantly, Runfar used his fork in order to get small parts of the vegetables out of the soup and tasted them. He looked like he was about to choke.

Such sourness mixed in with spiciness, topped off with hint of cream…who came up with this nightmare for a dish?

Then he turned his attention to the cook who made this dish…

"Young master, please use spoon, it will make it easier to scoop the soup along with the vegetables."

Are you kidding me? More of this horror? I can"t take it!

Runfar gulped before dipping his spoon in soup and brought it closer to his mouth. Considering the right side of his face had no lips, he had to make sure to get the spoon on the left side, making sure not to spill anything from the opening on the right side of his face.

It is much easier to do so with solid food, but with liquid food it is much trickier. Making sure that the content would not spill out of his skull, he forced himself to eat.

The taste itself made Runfar involuntarily cry out of his sole red left eye. He wanted to vomit but held himself back with all the willpower he could muster. Is this soup"s recipe that bad or is the cook a little scatterbrained?

"How in the world is this thing healthy?"

"Vegetables are a part of balanced diet. Young master cannot expect to live long on a diet of only meat and solid food, a variety is a must, if young master wants to remain healthy till old age."

"You do realize I am still young, right? I have a while before I need to worry about any health issues."

"Indeed, but considering you are in your twenties, any habit that you build now will be the ones you will keep by the time young master is elderly."

Of course, she did not know Runfar was technically only sixteen. Part of the lie he concocted in the construction of his ident.i.ty as Runfar Sevilles was that he was in his twenties, twenty two to be exact. Having his lie catch up to him in such a weird way was humiliating to say the least.

It was so much less ha.s.sle when she used to be scared of him; her caring about him is so much scarier.

Runfar took a spoonful of vegetable soup and proceeded to consume the contents.

The repulsive taste made him nauseous. Too much spices, too much vegetable"s aftertaste, the smell of excess spices traveled up his nose, and his head started to feel fuzzy.

Soon, he noticed that his vision was a little unsteady.

Hardest part was not pa.s.sing out on the table, in fact, had it not been for the sake of maintaining his cover, he would have gladly vomited on the floor and then dropped on the floor.

"It"s tasty~" Runfar said with a hesitant fake smile, his face greenish from struggling to not throw up.

"Young master." Elian pinched his left cheek. "I understand that as someone who does not eat many vegetables, you might find the taste to be rather strange, but please bear with me."

She took a spoon full of soup and proceeded to feed him, their faces up close. It was a distance close enough for a kiss.

Runfar had no issues with a woman being close to him, in fact, it was rather pleasant.

Elian, for some reason, smelled like strawberries, he was sure it was not a perfume, maybe his nose was playing tricks on him, but he had to admit, the aroma she emitted was rather pleasant.

With another spoonful of dread stuffed into his mouth, Dark Lord faced the biggest challenge since he ended up in this world of about nine hundred years in the past, finishing a bowl of vegetable soup.

It took a few minutes, but Runfar finally managed to gulp the contents of that soup from h.e.l.l.

"Thank you, Elian."

"I am glad to be of service, young master."

"Call me Runfar, from now on, I insist."

"As you wish, master Runfar."

"I suppose that"s a start." Runfar put a handkerchief on his mouth, pretending to wipe off the remains of the soup, while in actuality suppressing his desire to regurgitate the contents of his stomach.

Funnily enough, even though he only had one lung and kidney, considering all the essential organs on the right side were gone, his stomach was still intact, and it was not happy.

"So it was true, those two really are together~" a sound of giggling transmitted itself through the closed door.

Standing up, Runfar proceeded to open the door, only for three maids and Landon to fall down; apparently they were leaning on the door in order to overhear what was going on inside the room.

"Young Master! Please don"t misunderstand, we were here simply to observe…I mean spy….I mean stalk….I mean…." Landon was terrible at lying; his statements only seemed to incriminate him even more.

"We are sorry, young master, but it sounded too juicy for us to ignore~" Leirin, a maid with blonde hair answered, apparently she was a big fan of romance, according to Camilla, she has a hidden stash of many romance related books hidden under her bed within her room.

"Young master, it is our fault for overstepping our boundaries, please give us any punishment you see fit." Meriam, the medic with dark blue hair, talked rather stoically. It seems like behind her no-nonsense personality, she hides the heart of young woman. She was twenty one years old, so it was not uncommon to see someone of her age be interested in things like this.

The third maid looked panicked, but said nothing. Runfar recalled that her name was Song, she always looked at him in fear no matter what he tried, what could he have done to frighten her that much?

"I see. All right then. In that case, you four wouldn"t mind having a bowl of this dread…delicious soup, would you?"

"Young master~" Landon ended up muttering.

"We would love to!" Three maids cried out loud.

Originally it was supposed to be a punishment, but it ended up looking like a typical family breakfast. Every one of them was enjoying eating the vegetable soup, apparently they were used to the taste, and some even liked it.

Nothing goes the way it is supposed to~

Runfar could only silently sigh as some of his servants finished their bowls and asked for seconds.

* * *

Runfar Sevilles had only three personal possessions that he brought with himself when he inherited the Sevilles Estate. First was a mysterious black ring he always wore on his left hand"s ring finger. Second, was a piece of red scales kept folded within a hollow medallion he kept in his breast pocket. Third was the crystal dagger, which he made sure none in the mansion knew of its existence.

As such, when he was playing his role as Runfar, the crystal dagger was hidden away in his chambers within a secret s.p.a.ce rendered invisible by Camilla"s magic. Camilla was by far the only one Runfar trusted enough to let in on most of his secrets.

However, not even Camilla knew the purpose of the ring and the medallion.

Those two objects were given to him by creatures beyond most mortal"s understanding.

One by a red dragon and the other by G.o.d of Death.

They were a memento of his time in this world, and the reminder that everything was not just some kind of a dream, but reality.

While the ring and the medallion were not conspicuous, they could be hidden in plain sight, anyone who saw them would think they were just ordinary items; crystal dagger was not such an item.

For one, it was too big to be concealed, while it was not as long as a sword, it was at least two and half times longer than a knife. So, keeping it within sleeves or within a coat was not a viable option, and keeping it strapped to his belt would attract too much attention.

Such was the case, which is why Dark Lord chose to forgo the crystal dagger while he was in his Runfar persona.

He did not have anything to fear, after all, not even death can save him from this curse.

Nay, had he a choice between this curse and death, he would have chosen death without a second thought….

Maybe he made a mistake in not taking Olim"s hand, but it is too late for that….

* * *

Dragged by his hand, Runfar walked with a certain red haired maid. It was a trip to buy some products, but it also was an opportunity to view the territories outside the mansion.

Considering what happened last time when she went out alone to get products, this time Runfar volunteered to go with her.

Despite the protests of his staff, he insisted, and this was how he ended up in this situation.

Well this will help me boost my image as a kind master, so it is not too bad…

Elian seemed to be more excited than usual, holding Runfar"s left hand with her own; her joyous smile made everyone who looked at her have their hearts beat faster.

He made sure she did not grab his right hand; his left hand was the only normal human hand he had left.

No matter who saw them, it looked like a couple on a date.

To Dark Lord, all human beings, even females looked the same, in all complete honesty; he did not have a standard for beauty. All he knew was that this girl had a strange power; her presence had a soothing effect on people.

Maybe by normal people standards, she wouldn"t be considered beautiful, but lovely instead.

Runfar was so distracted by his thoughts, that he was caught off guard by Elian"s voice.

"It"s beautiful, isn"t it?"

They were on top of a hill, overlooking the villagers within the Sevilles estate. The mansion was not too far away from the places the villagers lived in. Recently, many villagers started to move here, the reason was obvious, the taxes.

Runfar lowering taxes on the residents of the villagers in his estate by 90% was the cause of such a change. Everyone wanted a better life and if there was an opportunity, they will take it.

"I suppose it is."

"I could never get enough of seeing the beauty of the range, the river, the fields, and the mountains I imagined that were beyond…." Her gaze wondered before settling down somewhat.

"At night, I used to often sneak out of the mansion in order to see things for myself. When your father was the head of the estate, leaving the mansion without an order was a no-no, but I just couldn"t help myself…Even if it was night, I wanted to see what was beyond."

That would explain why she was so familiar with this territory.

Now both of them sat down near a flowing river, gazing at it, Elian even plucked a stone and made it skip five times before it sunk.

"Elian, how did you end up working at Sevilles estate? In fact, how did everyone end up working in that place? From what I can tell, my father did not exactly have a good reputation, so I am very perplexed."

"Master, your father was…a very frightening person. To be completely honest, it was a mistake for me to end up working for him in the first place, but by the time I realized it, it was too late. You se…When I was born, my mother left me in an orphanage. By the time I was old enough to think, I wanted to change my life, I did not wish to spend the rest of my days in that cold place. So, I decided to find a job, but sadly, none wanted to hire an eight year old child with no skills or experience, but then I was hired by your father. Back then I was naïve and foolish, I did not know what kind of a man he was until it was too late. After signing the contract, I could no longer leave."

Master-Slave contract, a contract that bound a person to a master, with master retaining the authority over the enslaved party. There was only one way of being free of that contract, master had to free the slave. But masters usually never do that.

Her expression momentarily darkened before returning to normal.

"But there was big sister Mira, she taught me everything I know about the household and tasks, she even took her time to teach me how to read and write. Whenever I was at fault, she defended me and everyone else within the mansion, but because of that she was hurt the most. I owe her so much that I can never pay her back."

"I see, so that is why out of all the servants, she was the one who received the most injuries." After examining Mira"s body, it was obvious that she was the one whom Augustus took out all his anger upon. Not just the visible injuries, several of her bones were once broken, with Morphus"s vision he could clearly see the full extent of her injuries.

"Yes." A single tear streamed down her face.

"To be completely honest, I do not know what started the cycle of cruelty in the first place. I only know that cruelty creates more cruelty and it"s not going to stop soon. I once thought that everything would be fine and that I could stop the spread of that monstrosity. But while trying to beat that monster, I fear I became exactly what I hated in the first place. But it couldn"t be helped, such is life."

He continued.

"I once thought that if I acted out against the rules, I would be able to save everyone. No, I did not want to play a hero that was never my goal. In the end, however, I had to change, and not for the better. Such a cruel man I am, am I not?"

Runfar felt a squeeze on his left hand. Apparently his words struck a chord in Elian"s heart.

"Master, when your father pa.s.sed away, all of us, frankly, were overjoyed, our nightmare of a life was finally going to end. But then, his farewell gift; the last clause of his contract, it made our hopes turn to dust. For all we knew, he had groomed a successor who was just like him. It was just like being sent from one prison cell to another. But we did not have a choice but to obey, lest risk losing our lives."

She continued.

"But then, young master came. Appearance-wise, you were indeed of his blood, but at heart, you couldn"t be more different. I thought it was some kind of a cruel act, meant to make us lower our guard before tormenting us yet again. But the torment never came; instead you chose to try to mend what was broken. You cared for us, unlike our previous master who saw us as his tools to use, break, and discard, and you even risked your life to protect my worthless self…."

Holding his left hand, she smiled at him.

"…That is why; please don"t call yourself cruel, young master, because you are not cruel, not by a long shot."

Runfar didn"t know what to say. It seems like his disguise as n.o.bleman was too good; none would suspect him of being the Dark Lord now. But having someone as pure hearted as Elian believe him to be a kind master was rather vexing.

If she only knew…

As he looked into her warm yellow eyes, he could not bring himself to refute her sincere wish for everyone"s happiness. Truth is cruel and ugly, which is why a pretty lie is preferable…