novelThe Red Banquet
| ← Ch.16 | Ch.18 → |
Suo Fei stood in a trance.
Did Vixanne lose her life because of the forbidden technique or because the Elves left no room for consideration? Suo Fei didn't know.
Wait. Suo Fei skimmed through the newspaper carefully, then he scanned the area. He found that there was no news about tracking down Sofey Evans. As if there were totally no survivors of the Evans Family.
Why?
He escaped so how could the Elves let him off? News circulated fast in the human territory due to its large stream of people, so it didn't make sense for them not to patrol here.
Moreover, they directly declared that there were no survivors. It was as if... as if they were protecting him.
It made Suo Fei feel, albeit naively, that the Elves had not killed Vixanne. After the whole incident, Grantlyn was nowhere to be found and Suo Fei had fled. Only Vixanne was left. Thus, no matter how one looked at it, the Elves should protect Vixanne. Even if they couldn't use Vixanne to threaten Grantlyn, they could use her to threaten him instead.
But if she was really alive, why did they conceal the truth?
Suo Fei thought, for a moment, that maybe she was really dead. Maybe she overused her blood Qi that even Elven Elders could not heal her.
He then remembered that he could determine whether Vixanne died using the forbidden technique. There was a bookshelf filled with books in the interspatial bag. Teleportation was a remarkable spell, therefore Vixanne will certainly place the spellbook inside together with the other books.
As long as he could find the spellbook, he would be able to judge whether using the forbidden technique would cause Vixanne's life.
However, there were a lot of books on the bookshelf. How could he find the spellbook in the least amount of time? After much thought, he looked at Samael and solemnly asked, "Can you help me with something?"
Samael observed him before nodding in assent.
"Come with me."
Suo Fei went to a nearby inn, casually threw a bag of gold coins and led Samael into the room.
Without waiting for Samael to ask, Suo Fei took the whole bookshelf out of the interspatial bag.
Samael's eyes flashed when he saw the large number of books.
Suo Fei pointed to the books and requested, "Help me find a book, " he paused before continuing, "a book about a forbidden technique... the Teleportation spellbook."
Suo Fei started to roll his sleeves to get working but Samael stood motionless.
Suo Fei shot a questioning glance at him.
Samael pulled out a book from the top shelf. He rubbed his slender fingers against the edge of the very thin book for a while, before he muttered, "What you're looking for."
Suo Fei was stunned. The book was only as thick as a finger, but it was still in good condition. The only design on its cover was a light blue pentagram.
This pattern looked familiar to Suo Fei. It took a while for him to recognise that it was what the teleportation array looked like. It really was this book! How could Samael find it so quickly?
Samael held the spellbook in his hand, with no intention of giving it to Suo Fei. He stared at Suo Fei, his purple eyes undecipherable. After a couple of minutes, he asked: "Would you do this with anyone?"
Suo Fei blinked, confounded. Then he realised what Samael meant. Was he implying that he's too careless?
"No." He wouldn't show these things in front of strangers.
"Then why me?"
He opened his mouth to speak but did not say anything. Even if his sociophobia did not start making trouble, he still could not say it. That he didn't treat Samael as a stranger, and that he also couldn't treat him like one.
Seeing that he would not answer, Samael stopped asking. He shifted his sight to the spellbook, and seemingly thoughtlessly, he revealed, "I was using you."
Suo Fei kept silent but in his heart, he thought dully to himself, 'Hero, what do you mean you were using me? You wanted to ruin me!'
"And you knew it."
Of course, I knew. If I didn't, I would have already died in your hands!
"But, you still saved me."
I was just being soft-hearted...
"So, " Samael turned and locked his gaze at Suo Fei. Word by word he asked, "Why is that?"
Suo Fei was silent as he tried to think of an answer.
Seeing that Suo Fei still refused to answer, Samael approached him and gently caressed the side of his face before the corner of his mouth drew up in a slight grin.
Samael inherited the unparalleled beauty of the primeval demons. He appeared somewhat cold when he was not smiling. He might even seem insensitive because of the lack of emotions in his purple eyes. But when he smiled, he would exude the temperament unique to the Demons — evil, overbearing, and intolerant of others.
"Tell me."
With Samael's face so close to him, Suo Fei's mind blanked out.
He knew this person's past. Whether it be from birth to childhood, or from adolescence to adulthood. However, his past was merely a 'playback' that showed through his computer screen.
When he saw him in person, the illusory veil faded and became reality.
Samael had been robbed of his childhood. The Humans rashly attacked him, causing him to unconsciously destroy the entire village. The surviving villagers were terrified. Thus, they put on a false mask to hide their hatred and disgust and patiently coaxed him.
Samael who was still a child, could not understand that the momentary feelings of warmth and tenderness only served to make the betrayal more painful and unforgettable.
Since Samael could not be killed using ordinary methods, the villagers turned to their divine religion. They sincerely prayed and gave all their savings as offerings, just to put the monster to death.
They continued to tenderly appease Samael. Then, while celebrating his birthday, Samael was pierced to his chest by a sharp knife infused with the spiritual power of the Celestials.
The malevolent betrayal awakened the Devil and the whole banquet was stained red with blood.
By the time Samael had regained his consciousness, he was already surrounded by a pool of blood. Warm and sticky blood slowly dripped down his hands.
He looked at the only surviving human in the room; his beautiful gem-like purple eyes glazed with panic and helplessness. He falteringly walked towards the human but he was met with a fit of desolate fury.
The human's voice was filled with revulsion, "Devil! Devil! You're a Devil!"
Samael stopped dead in his tracks.
The human was so terrified that his face turned hideous. He screamed and shouted, blaming Samael for everything. His face was full of frenzied resentment and the pool of blood made him seem more hostile.
He had lost his sense of reason. He burst into a howl of madness as he once again thrust the knife towards Samael.
He was not yet close when he abruptly stopped. Then, he fell to the ground with his eyes bursting from their sockets.
The young Samael's vision fell on the beating heart in his hand, his bright eyes turning dark.
These memories passed in a flash, but the last image of Samael, standing alone in a pool of blood, made Suo Fei's heart tremble.
Looking at the youth before him, he felt mixed emotions. He was not an expressive person, so he could not comfort Samael with words. He might even seem unsympathetic since he had never felt sympathy or pity for the youth. These emotions would only serve as an insult to a demon.
In the end, Suo Fei expressionlessly spoke words that seemed like a promise, "I won't leave you." If you need me, I won't leave you as they did.
After saying those words, Suo Fei felt embarrassed. It's okay, he began comforting himself. He and Samael had already known each other for a while. Although they had a rough start, they soon bonded well. They had gone through life and death together so they were almost as close as brothers. He never had a brother before, but this should be the case. At the least, he was sincere to Samael. He would not hypocritically fawn over him then ruthlessly forsake him.
He lifted his gaze to Samael who calmly stared back at him. Staring straight at those purple eyes, his heart felt like it stopped.
Damn it. I admit it, alright! Everything I said was nothing but an excuse! Laozi is lustful! Laozi is a face-con! Laozi will chase guys even after death!
Samael smiled, obscure emotions hidden deep in his eyes. He let go of Suo Fei and passed the spellbook to him, "You wanted this."
Suo Fei quickly shifted his eyes away and faked a cough. He took the spellbook and flipped through it to calm himself down.
There were strange characters in the spellbook which should be Elvish. However, Sofey was a Pureblood elf hence Suo Fei was able to read it effortlessly. ƒ𝓇𝑒𝙚𝔀𝐞𝚋𝑛o𝘷el - 🅽🅽novel
Suo Fei was not interested in how to use the teleportation array. He knew his own capabilities. It was impossible for him to use it like Vixanne who is an archmage.
After hastily flipping through, Suo Fei was a lot more calmer.
The spell was certainly dangerous. The way to activate it was similar to the Asura Blade. The Asura Blade required the blood of its owner, whereas the teleportation array required the blood of the caster as a sacrifice.
Nevertheless, it would not use up all of the caster's blood. Although Vixanne had to pay a huge price for teleporting him, she would not die on the spot.
She might lose a lot of blood but the Evans Family had an impressive treasury. Vixanne, being the wife of the family head, had a valuable collection. It would not be difficult to find high-quality herbs that could enrich the blood.
He had trust in Vixanne. She must have made some preparations.
Even if she had not been prepared due to the unexpected situation, Manzy would still give his all to save her because of her sentence 'I will tell you what you want to know'.
As long as she did not die because of the forbidden technique, then there was a high chance that she was still alive.
Suo Fei felt relieved at the thought.
Now, it was his top priority to save Vixanne and so, he had to meet his first little shou——Aryan Mauer.
| ← Ch. 16 | Ch. 18 → |