Chapter 167

Feb 08, 2024

Badrisha stared at Jeremy as if he were a grotesque demon monster. Luzark remained frozen in disbelief and shock at his mother’s side. He had yet to fully recover from learning of his clan’s dark truth when the young leader’s latest revelation hit his ears like a mallet.

“We intend to walk a different path than that of our father.”

The young man’s expression appeared to be genuine, and there was undeniable sincerity to his words. The Red Master could see and feel both things as her purple gaze studied him, which resulted in her continued loss for words.

“Since we were the cause of the mess you Castros have found yourselves in, it is our responsibility to make matters right.”

The weight of the younger leader’s presence was suddenly even more apparent. This new Black Master whose sable hair and complexion made him an almost spitting image of her despised foe Lante Agrece except for his sharp, blue eyes. Unlike his father, Jeremy’s eyes seemed to hold a ray of light.

“That is why I came here today to offer you a proposition.” Such words would never have come out of the former Agrece leader’s mouth even under torture. “We would like to provide you with the cure for those narcotics.”

At that moment, Badrisha felt as though her heart had quite literally stopped as she stared straight into his eyes. “There’s... a cure?”

Although the Red Heir knew exposing his emotions during such a critical meeting could spell disaster for his reputation, he couldn’t stifle the question from escaping his lips. His mother had silently acknowledged that if he hadn’t spoken up, she would have posed the same question to the blue-eyed Agrece.

“This is strictly confidential information that we generally don’t share with outsiders, but every drug our clan produces has a corresponding counteragent. We develop then test each substance simultaneously in the event we need to negate the effects of the drug immediately.” A faint smile then spread over Jeremy’s face. “I do apologize for the ambiguous behavior I displayed last time. Ever since the incident at our compound last winter, I trust you can imagine the sort of chaotic mess our internal affairs have become. In fact, we only recently managed to collect the surviving seedlings of the herbs and plants we grew in order to move them to a new location for cultivation. Then we needed to ensure that we could obtain all the components necessary to reproduce the counteragent.”

By then, Badrisha had already long forgotten about his rude attitude from their last encounter.

“Based on the last report I received from Agrece, I can finally offer you a definitive answer.”

Their conversation had taken a turn neither the Red Master nor Red Heir had anticipated in their dizziest daydreams. It had unfolded in such a way that felt utterly unreal.

The Castro leader had been silently combatting the overwhelming feelings of humiliation and disgrace right up until taking her seat at the negotiation table. The fact that the Black clan was the ones to produce the inhumane drugs plaguing her people did not outweigh the fact that her own husband had been the one to smuggle it into their land.

Alas, although Badrisha despised the Agreces, she did not find fault with them alone. And now a faint ember ignited in her heart, then began to drive out the negativity and hopelessness that had taken root deep within her. The mere thought of a potential new solution was more than enough to make her feel as if something inexplicable was about to overflow from her very core.

“But why...? Why would you make us such an offer?”

Regardless of how light her heart had begun to feel, her innermost thoughts remained hidden from the Black Master as she held his gaze with her own eyes appearing unaffected. Can we really trust him? What if this is all just another trick to further humiliate the Castro name? Or what if he has something else up his sleeve? Yes, this could just be another trap. However, despite her cynicism, the younger leader continued to speak in a solemn and more adamant tone.

“The man sitting before you is not Lante Agrece, Red Master.” No amount of flattery could have fueled the ember that had ignited in her heart more than those unassuming words Jeremy said in his calm, low voice. “The current Agrece territory also isn’t the same as when my father ruled over it.”

He was making a point to re-emphasize everything he had already assured her of. If he were in any way lying, it wouldn’t take long to expose him. But his crystal-like blue eyes seemed to reaffirm that he was only speaking the truth.

Then... is it possible... they really didn’t conceal the drug vials left out before the fire for malicious purposes? Badrisha couldn’t help continuing to stare across the table at the young master while trying to sift through the inexplicable, new feelings she was at war with. All she knew for certain was that she still couldn’t trust him fully. Even so, if there was so much as a one-in-a-million chance that the young clan leader was indeed telling her the truth, she was more than willing to chance the gamble for the sake of her people.

How long have I just been sitting here staring at him? She had been keeping still without making a sound for quite some time and finally realized that she needed to move forward with the negotiation. “What would Agrece expect from Castro in return?”

Though she had asked a similar question already, the words held a fundamentally different meaning this time. She found herself posing the inquiry with far more sincerity and a willingness to agree to just about any terms he might set if the exchange would ensure a cure for those accursed narcotics. But Jeremy seemed resolute on keeping her in a state of stunned silence.

“We do not wish to receive anything in return, Red Master. All we ask...” He paused briefly to stare into each pair of purple eyes watching him. As it appeared that both the Red clan leader and her son were hanging on his every word, he allowed the magnanimous smile Roxana had taught him to spread across his face before continuing. “...is for a chance to see if the Red and Black clans can develop a new relationship going forward.”

* * *

Roxana stared down at the bowl of ripe fruits set out on her table. A servant had supposedly come across them in the castle’s main kitchen that morning, and upon noticing that they were rare fruits, they thought it best to place them in her room.

I wonder how Jeremy’s doing. She briefly considered checking in on him via one of her butterflies, but almost immediately shook the thin sheet of doubt from her mind. I bet he’s doing just fine. In fact, I’m sure of it.

She began to roll one of the blood-red-colored fruits around under her thin, outstretched fingers. It occurred to her that what she was trying to accomplish at the gathering was in many ways similar to picking fruit. For one thing, there was no point in impatiently picking unripened fruit. It goes without saying that such sour fruits would get thrown away after just one bite. That was why she had determined that day to be the best for meeting with the Castro leader.

She also knew that both the master and heir would have assumed the worst of Jeremy by then. But the thought of how shocked and flustered they would be upon hearing the unexpected, yet perfect solution he placed right under their noses tickled her. She imagined they would see it as a final strand of hope that could redeem their clan from its impending doom suddenly dangling down from the heavens.

Of course, their relief would likely invoke a sort of amnesia as to who was responsible for their current plight in the first place. Even though Roxana had no intention of making the Red clan indebted to Agrece, the olive branch she and her brother had decided to extend to them was not as altruistic as it seemed.

Badrisha and Luzark Castro were not the sort of people to ever leave a debt unpaid, which meant it would prove better for the Black clan to hold out on receiving any sort of compensation for their favor until the Red clan could offer them something greater later on. For the sake of securing Black Agrece’s future, there was no better clan than Red Castro for them to form a new alliance with.

The Gold clan had obviously been wiped off the list due to Nix, and the Fipellions were not worth the trouble when they seemed to harbor countless malicious intentions against any and every Agrece. Thus, aside from Blue Pedelian, the Red clan members were perfect candidates. Not to mention that both the Red Master and her son were so pure that they often refused to even look in Lante Agrece’s direction when he was alive. Thus, based on everything Roxana had observed until then, she was confident that her clan would be able to maintain a stable relationship with the Castros even once Luzark took up the mantle of clan master from his mother.

Though she hadn’t divulged this sentiment to Jeremy, she found it regrettable that the Red clan had fallen prey to such a tragedy as mass drug addiction so unexpectedly. But as the fruit stopped moving under her fingertips, she knew that circumstances had ripened the opportunity to pick their clan perfectly.