Chapter 83

Sep 05, 2023

The next day, there was a great commotion near the entrance to the Pedelian compound.

“What’s going on?” Cassis asked Isidore as he approached the scene.

“Orka Fipellion is insisting he be granted entry into the compound based on his supposed acquaintanceship with you, the Blue Heir, sir.”

Cassis scowled upon hearing the absurd explanation. “Send him away at once.”

“Yes, sir.”

Upon hearing his orders, Isidore turned on his heel and went to dutifully execute them.

A personal visit, given the current climate of the world, was beyond unheard of. There was no doubt that the Fipellion man had come to their territory with ulterior motives. That, or he was hopelessly clueless. It wasn’t that the two clans lacked any sort of significant ties, but they were most certainly not close enough for such a sudden and unprompted visit. Especially during such precarious times.

Despite having been rather unceremoniously turned away at the main entrance, Orka was spotted no less than an hour later flying over the fortress wall mounted atop a winged demon monster.

“Terribly sorry to infringe upon you all like this, but I trust you know I meant no harm.” Seemingly paying no mind to the fact that he had been hogtied, the White Demon Tamer spoke rather jovially with the Pedelian guards. With a silly grin on his face, Orka rambled on with his lame excuse. “I was so focused on trying to locate a nearby demon habitat that I honestly hadn’t realized the fortress wall below me.”

“Orka... You absolute lunatic!” Pandora ground her teeth as she had been captured alongside her thoughtless cousin.

When he had asked her to hand over Turobe’s reins, she never imagined he would use her beloved beast to engage in such a foolhardy endeavor. The word “bamboozled” continuously knocked around in her mind.

“You expect us to believe such nonsense?” Cassis’ voice boomed as he entered the detention room. His tone was as cool as an autumn frost as it fell on the ears of all those around him.

“Ah! Why if it isn’t the Blue Heir in the flesh!” Orka’s reaction to seeing Cassis appeared to be the only one that was visibly chipper. “My better half. My soulmate. My friend. Tell me, how long has it been? You know, I was a little disappointed that you refused my request to visit so abruptly, but I’m truly just happy getting to see you like this.”

“‘Soulmate’? Remind me just when the two of us were ever that close.” Cassis’ response was dripping with acid. He was all too familiar with Orka’s facetious act and claims of friendship whenever they met—so much so that he could almost dub the entire charade to be habitual.

In order to keep from getting tangled in the Fipellion’s web of lies, Cassis decided to use a more official tone. “Why don’t we start with you telling me what your real purpose is in coming here? I can decide on your punishment after that.”

“Ah, well... I was just in the area and wanted to say hi.” Orka added a brilliant, sunny smile to his blatant lie for good measure. The Blue Heir’s expression, on the other hand, became even cooler.

“That’s it. Really. There’s nothing more to explain. However, I admit that I did intrude on Blue clan territory, thus it’s only natural that you all will need to investigate further. I’m afraid I’ll be in your hair for a while.”

Seeing how unbothered Orka was about the turn of events, it was clear to Cassis that the blue-haired man had likely never intended to infiltrate the Pedelian compound undetected. He supposed that if the White Demon Tamer had indeed meant to enter their fortress unnoticed, he wouldn’t have flown in on a demon monster that anyone could see.

After glaring for a moment at the unwelcome visitor, the young Pedelian leader directed a question at Isidore. “What did you do with the demon monster they flew here on?”

“It’s in a cage, sir.”

Outraged that she had not only fallen captive to the Blue clan due to her idiot cousin, but that her beloved Turobe was being subjected to the cold confines of a cage, Pandora stared with murder in her eyes at Orka. Cassis ordered the seizure of the tools and accessories the Fipellions were famous for utilizing in order to communicate with their demon monsters.

With his hands temporarily freed, Orka merrily went to work taking off all the adornments and accessories on his person. An unwitting viewer might have mistaken the ease with which he did so for being his own idea. There was so much on him that the pile seemed to grow without end. Pandora, who was almost in tears, handed over her bracelet and necklace.

“Until we receive an official response from the White clan, you two will remain in the dungeons.”

“Of course! Rules are rules after all. My cousin and I can accept that. Isn’t that right, Pandora?” Orka smiled at his depressed older cousin then at the guards stepping forward to take him away appearing utterly unfazed by his predicament.

Not wishing to be detained any further by the intruders, Cassis took his leave.

“But I wonder... Is the food any good here?” the White Demon Tamer asked. “You see, after having lived mostly off of jerky and wild plants for the last few days, I’m quite peckish at the moment.”

The guards dragging him away and his cousin were in such disbelief at Orka’s obliviousness that they actually guffawed.

* * *

“Orka, you little...! Tell me what you’re up to this instant!” Pandora hissed under her breath as soon as she and Orka had been left alone in their cell. He had been openly ignoring her as he was preoccupied with attacking the food the Blue guards had provided them.

“Aw, come on, cousin,” Orka said. “Would you quit giving me that death glare already? Why not try enjoying yourself? Pretend you’re on a vacation with your favorite cousin. The food’s not bad here either.”

“Vacation, my ass! What about all the trouble you’ve gotten the White clan into?!”

“And I’m telling you there’s no need to worry about that. If our clan’s honor depended solely on one person—and on me of all people—it wouldn’t have lasted until now.”

Pandora was flabbergasted. She couldn’t tell if the issue was that her cousin was too immature or too shameless to appreciate the gravity of their situation. Then she supposed that it may just be that he was simply not in his right mind. I explicitly told him what just happened between the Agreces and the Pedelians, yet he still chose to do something so brash and so soon after!

The Fipellion clan had yet to take an official position on the matter, yet there the White Heir was breaking into the Blue compound a mere days later. There was no doubt the incident would throw the White Master into a whirlwind of anxiety.

“Hey... Were you just using me to get in here?”

It was evident by her question that the reality of her situation had only just dawned on her. She suddenly couldn’t shake the feeling that he might even ditch her and pass all the blame on to her. After all, she had no way of knowing if using her demon to breach the fortress wall had been his plan all along. As one realization after another seemed to figuratively bonk her on the head, Pandora bit down on her lip to keep from unleashing a tirade of curses at her younger cousin.

Orka’s response, however, only served to fuel her outrage beyond the point of no return. “Huh? Oh, yeah. I was definitely using you. But you did agree to it, so what’s all the fuss about?”

“You little shi—!”

“But, Pandora, don’t you see? I don’t have a flying demon of my own, but you do, so I had to borrow it in order to maintain sight of those poison butterflies. Honestly, if you don’t call that fate, I don’t know what is. For now though, all we need to do is enjoy the Blue clan’s hospitality and make use of this chance to nab those gorgeous fluttering beasts.” Orka seemed to be lost in his own world and continued as if he was simply muttering to himself. “What’s fascinating is they didn’t appear to be wild ones, which means there may be a demon tamer among the Pedelian ranks. I wonder if it’s that mysterious sister of Cassis’.”

Upon hearing her cousin’s explanation, Pandora’s anger subsided slightly. At the very least, it was apparent that he had no intention of using her as his shield.

“But if that’s the case, then there’s no way I can just kill her and take them… Honestly, I’m not even sure if one can tame those creatures from scratch once they’ve been severed from their former host.” The White Demon Tamer already had a great many exotic demon monsters in his menagerie, but for some reason he had always had the worst of luck when it came to collecting the airborne ones. That was the very reason Pandora suspected that Orka had in all likelihood just used Turobe to fly over the Pedelian fortress wall on impulse. “By the way, cousin, aren’t you hungry? If that’s the case, I’ll eat it your food, no prob—”

“Oh, do shut up,” Pandora snapped.

Regardless of how much or little she understood about what was going on in her cousin’s head, there was no way she could forgive the little weasel for putting her in such an awkward position. And on top of that, he had prattled on about his obsessive endeavor as if their current situation were of no importance at all.

She viciously swatted his hand away as it slinked toward her tray, then promptly began to shovel all the food before her into her mouth. Orka, who was still fairly hungry, watched on with a crestfallen expression, but Pandora couldn’t care less.

* * *

“I noticed you have guests. It seemed a bit noisy outside today.”

Cassis glanced up at Roxana as she stated what to be an empty comment about the day’s events. He figured that she must have sensed something from the way he was daydreaming about the matters pertaining to Orka Fipellion’s intrusion.

“‘Guests’? No. More like gate crashers.” Cassis’ tone had taken on a rather indifferent inflection.

“Then they won’t be staying in this annex?” Roxana asked.

“As I said, they aren’t guests.”

His overly stern countenance as he responded almost made Roxana laugh. It was clear he was being awfully ungracious to the so-called gate crashers.

“Still, they are Fipellions,” she said. “Are you sure it’s okay for you to treat them so roughly?”

Cassis’ hand stopped before it reached the glass of water he was in the process of reaching for on the table. He stared at Roxana trying to discern how she could have possibly known which clan the invaders were from. Then the answer seemed to wash over him, only to cause him to sigh heavily in frustration.

Roxana pretended not to notice anything, but it was apparent that she had learned about the White clan visitors through her butterflies. Even she wasn’t sure if the term “visitor” was acceptable given the circumstances, but other than that, she had no opinions one way or the other.

“Well, it’s of no importance to me.” She concluded the matter before returning her attention to her meal.

Cassis also had no intention of elaborating further. Not only had Roxana ceased her line of questioning, but he also just didn’t want to talk about Orka Fipellion with her. He wasn’t entirely certain of why that was himself.

No... If I’m honest with myself, I’m not entirely ignorant of what this feeling is. Upon acknowledging that he was lying to himself about his feelings, he frowned down at the plate in front of him as his appetite escaped him.