“Memil? Something wrong?” asked Rafale.

  I could do little more than stare at my feet, avoiding his imperious gaze. “No, Brother. It’s nothing.”

  I could feel the disgust Rafale felt for me in the sigh that left his lips. He turned away from me and back toward the red crystals, illuminated by the light of the lamps.

  “This…this is the Philosopher’s Stone,” he said. “Just as it was written in the legends! Amazing. Truly amazing. With this, I can take the next steps.”

  His voice echoed through the darkness, but as he put a hand to the Philosopher’s Stone, a change came over him.

  “Uhhh…” he gasped.

  Rafale crouched down, now touching the stone with both hands. Worried, I ran over to him immediately, but…

  “I don’t need your help!” he barked, shoving me away with tremendous force.

  I fell back, my head smashing into another Philosopher’s Stone. Blood trickled from my head and pooled at my feet. What he had done was just too cruel. As I looked up, I found him glaring down at me, beyond furious.

  “Why?! All it was supposed to take was a touch! Why does this always happen?! Why am I shunned and you, all of you are chosen?! Even though I am the head of the family, and even though it’s all supposed to start here…”

  “Brother…”

  “Grr… Why won’t this cursed Philosopher’s Stone accept me?! How can I stand against those monsters in the kingdom like this?! And even if I had a deathless body…what’s the point if I go insane?!”

  “Brother…wh-what are you talking about?”

  I couldn’t make sense of his words. As he glared down at me, a sinister thought clearly crossed his mind.

  “Ah, I see,” he said. “So, there are other options. If I am unacceptable, then I can borrow from the power of one who is. Memil, I need your help. Lend me your strength.”

  Rafale’s eyes flashed red, and with preternatural strength, he pinned me against the red crystal. I couldn’t get away. Then he opened his mouth, and something unbelievable happened…fangs grew from his mouth. Before I could react, Rafale plunged them into my neck.

  “Noooooo!” I screamed.

  However much I wailed and cried, help never came. The guide who had brought us down to the crystals was paralyzed with fear. As my consciousness faded into mist, I wondered how it had all come to this.

  From that day forward, I became little more than a tool for my brother. The Philosopher’s Stone gave him stats well beyond the level of any normal being, as well as an inhuman ability to regenerate from injury. However, he needed my blood on a regular basis to maintain his sanity.

  Time flowed on, defined by great pain and suffering. It must have been that way for months. I was locked in a white room, without any sense of the passage of time. I came to regard it as punishment for my self-centered attitude. I had only ever treated our servants with cruelty and was horrible to the people of the kingdom. Then I had plotted with the other holy knights to take their one sliver of hope—Roxy Hart of the Hart family—and send her to her doom in Galia, where the Divine Dragon roamed.

  The Divine Dragon had been dormant for thousands of years. Yet for reasons unknown, it had crossed the Galian border and attacked the kingdom’s army. Among those lost in the attack was none other than Roxy’s father. When we realized this, we plotted to send her after him in order to rid ourselves of the Hart family once and for all. We thought we would finally be rid of her whining, and the citizens would no longer have their trusted advocate. I had believed this all to be in service to the Vlerick family name.

  However, Roxy survived and returned to the Kingdom of Seifort. When I was finally freed from my confinement, I learned from Lord Aaron that Fate had killed the Divine Dragon himself to protect her. I couldn’t hide my surprise. A servant of the Vlerick family…someone we had treated as worse than trash… It was preposterous to believe that such a person was capable of such strength. But not only had he proven capable of defeating the Divine Dragon, he also slew the inhuman beast that my brother had become. Then he saved my life.

  After that, I became a maid, working under the command of Fate Barbatos. When he had been in the employ of the Vlerick family, I’d followed the example set by my brothers and treated him with great cruelty. I even took enjoyment in watching him writhe beneath our boots and developed a dreadful predilection for the act of torture itself. Fate had awakened it in me.

  He did as he was told, and he took his torture without complaint, but in his eyes, I always saw the fiery spirit of resistance and rebellion. Seeing that brought upon a frisson of excitement that I had never known before, and it pushed me to further depravity.

  In this way, Fate became someone of great interest to me. But because I knew that my brothers were always watching, I did not reveal these feelings. I went on treating Fate in the manner expected of me. It must have been unbearable for him, and it shames me to think of it now.

  Fate killed both of my brothers, yet I owed him my life. He saved me from Rafale. Fate killed Hado because he had been trafficking children from the orphanage and doing unspeakable things to them. Rafale had made sure that our brother’s corpse was found and subjected it to experiments involving the Philosopher’s Stone. By that time, Rafale no longer saw Hado as his younger brother. Hado—transformed into a nightwalker and fueled by a hatred for Fate, based on the last vestiges of his memory—attacked him in a battle that cost the lives of a great many soldiers and holy knights.

  When Fate cornered Rafale, my brother sought me out, thirsting for my blood. My consciousness briefly returned as Rafale drank from my throat. A deep sadness welled up within me in that moment. I had looked up to Rafale as a brother, only to be betrayed when he revealed his true, inhuman nature. Rafale had attempted to fight Fate, but was defeated. With defeat imminent, I felt the rumblings of the Philosopher’s Stone within my brother as he lost all control.

  I knew then that the power surging through Rafale would blow everything away. In the haze of my fading consciousness, I felt someone pick me up and whisk me away from the explosion. I learned later that the person who saved me then was Fate. Why he would choose to save me after all the abuse I had heaped upon him, I did not know. The thought of it made my head reel.

  However, becoming an adopted member of the Barbatos family was the path to my survival. The Vlerick family had plotted to overthrow the kingdom, and I shared responsibility, having done nothing to stop it. For this reason, my execution was inevitable. However, through Aaron’s efforts, the charges against me were dropped on the condition that I leave the Vlerick family forever.

  Aaron didn’t stop at freeing me; he also welcomed me into his own family by adopting me. At first, I didn’t believe the words when he said them, but when I saw his warm smile, I began to realize that he spoke the truth. Even as an adopted child, however, I would have no power within the Barbatos family. Lord Aaron’s role as my guardian was to watch over me and my new life. For this reason, I was to work at the family manor as a maid.

  Aaron had one condition: that I throw away the person I once was.

  “You are no longer Memil Vlerick,” he said. “You live your life now as Memil Barbatos. Your work here as a maid will teach you to discard the pride and arrogance you once knew as a holy knight.”

  As a member of the Barbatos family, my duty would be to support Fate. I would work to atone for my crimes. With this second chance at life, I decided to perform my duties to the best of my abilities.

  When Aaron brought me to the manor for the first time, my stomach churned with anxiety and my heart raced. I still wasn’t used to my frilly new outfit, which probably intensified my nervousness. I wondered how I should act around Fate. When Aaron called me inside the manor, there he was, waiting for us.

  Fate seemed a little tense. As soon as I saw his expression, I realized we felt the same way. But how should I address him? I felt unsure now that I was in front of him. I grew light-headed as all those thoughts and worries flitted through my mind. Finally, I resolved that because I was an adopted member of the family, I should look to him as my new brother.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Brother,” I said with a smile.

  Fate cringed. I wondered if I had done something wrong. But a part of me knew…though we were officially siblings, it was far too early to call each other such. I was also a maid, which meant that it was perhaps more appropriate to refer to him with the respect that reflected our positions in the household. I decided then to call him my master—my lord—and endeavored to avoid such careless mistakes again. After all, our positions were now entirely reversed, compared to when he had been a gatekeeper for the Vlerick family.

  I stared at Fate in that moment, and for some reason…felt a powerful urge to bite his neck. There was no way I could get away with something like that, though.

  Fate replied courteously, and after telling us he had things to attend to, he returned to his room. But I couldn’t understand what had come over me. Why did I thirst so much for his blood? It was most concerning, though Laine had already warned me about my condition.

  Before being allowed to Barbatos Manor, I was subjected to a battery of tests in the Military District. It was there that Laine told me my body had changed into something no longer entirely human. Because of the Philosopher’s Stone, I had become something she described as quasi-immortal. That alone was surprising enough, but the real problem was that in order to continue living, I needed to ingest blood at regular intervals.

  The blood that was best for me came from those with powerful skills. As a result, I had instinctively reacted to Fate’s presence, and I could still feel that thirst pulsing through my body even though he was gone.

  Stay calm, don’t panic… I thought. Keep your mind on your new duties.

  “Is something wrong?” asked Aaron, seeing me shake my head to clear my stray thoughts.

  “No, I’m fine, thank you.”

  “In that case, let’s get you started. As you can see, this is the state of the manor at present.”

  I’d noticed the moment I entered. Perhaps this was a rude thing to think about those who had saved me, but their home was truly a pigsty.

  “This is going to take a considerable amount of work,” I said.

  “There’s one other maid. Her name is Sahara, and she’s nine. Fate saved her life a while back, actually. She wanted to repay him, so we hired her as a part-time maid. She’s off helping out at the orphanage at the moment, but I’ll introduce you when she returns.”

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  “Well, I’ll leave you to it. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call for me or Fate.”

  Aaron then headed to his own room to resume his duties. Now that one of the five esteemed families had been eliminated, the responsibilities of the Vlerick family fell upon Aaron’s shoulders.

  I went into the kitchen, deciding to make some tea for Aaron and Fate. “Even I can do this much,” I giggled as I boiled water and brewed the tea.

  But I understood that eventually, I would have to learn to cook. Until now, I had only ever needed to sit and wait for food to be brought to me. Aaron had mentioned he would be happy to sign me up for cooking classes, so all I had to do was learn the recipes. I felt confident that things would work out, and at least brewing tea wasn’t an issue.

  When I brought the tea to Aaron’s room, his eyes lit up with joy. It was so strange… It was a feeling I thought I had forgotten long ago.

  “It’s like being part of a family again…” I whispered as I left his room.

  I felt that perhaps the warmth I longed for with the Vlerick family was something I might find here, in the Barbatos family.

  “Well, on to the next room,” I said to myself.

  I had one more pot of tea, and it was for Fate. I hadn’t been the slightest bit nervous with Aaron, and yet I found my heart pounding as I stood before Fate’s door.

  Come on, Memil. You can do this…

  Gathering my courage, I knocked on the door. I heard Fate’s voice and entered his room. “Pardon me,” I said. “I brought you some tea.”

  “Oh, thanks. Just put it here.”

  My master was sitting on his bed, cleaning his sword. I had heard that the sword had a consciousness residing within it, and that if Fate didn’t clean it every day, he would be buried in complaints and insults.

  “Your sword… It has a soul?” I asked.

  “Yeah, and it just so happens it’s both arrogant and greedy. I can’t catch a break.” Fate laughed wryly, but he seemed genuinely happy too. There was something of an awkward expression on his face as he changed the subject. “Hey, about earlier… I know you called me ‘Brother,’ but…I’d prefer it if you called me by my name. It’s not that I hate it or anything, it’s just…I’m still not used to hearing it from you, you know?”

  It was just as I had suspected. That was why he’d blanched, his nose wrinkling in distaste. I had treated him horribly in the past, and it was still difficult for him to have someone like me call him “Brother.” I had made him uncomfortable.

  “My apologies. Once I had uttered the words myself, I realized their gravity. I will refer to you as ‘my lord,’ if you find that acceptable.”

  “Thank you. When I’ve worked hard enough to earn your respect, I think then you can call me your brother.”

  “I understand, my lord.”

  I had delivered his tea, and I didn’t wish to disturb him any longer. As I headed for the door, Fate spoke once more.

  “I’m, uh…I’m heading to see Laine in the Military District. Would you like to come with me?”

  My eyes widened. I had never imagined he would advance such an invitation.

  “Laine asked me to bring you along,” said Fate, explaining himself. “She wants to analyze the effects of Rafale’s experiments. Also, she wants to look into this Gluttony skill of mine, and I haven’t been to see her in a while.”

  “Understood. It would be my pleasure.”

  I realized then that it had been quite some time since I last visited Laine. My days had been so hectic since the announcement of my adoption into the Barbatos family. Still, it would be a good chance to ask Laine about what was happening to me. Even just looking at Fate made me want to pounce on his neck at that very instant. I realized that, if I wasn’t careful, I just might. I tried desperately to push the urges down as Fate looked at me, his head tilted in curiosity.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “You’re trembling…”

  He probably assumed that he was intimidating me, but it wasn’t that at all. It was his delicious neck. I wanted to sink my teeth into his tender, juicy neck. I couldn’t stand it!

  “You’re standing too close to me!” I yelped.

  “Oh. I…I’m sorry.” Fate took a step back from me. I had hurt his feelings, and he looked so sullen and dejected.

  “I apologize,” I said. “Please don’t take this the wrong way.”

  I had so wanted us to get off on the right foot, but my thirst for his delectable blood was making that most difficult! Fate had gone to the effort of trying to mend our relationship, and with a few harsh words, I had put even more distance between us.

  The walk to the Military District was quite awkward. Laine’s laboratory looked like the usual disaster area. The floor was covered in reports and research material, with barely any room for us to stand. The ever sleep-deprived Laine appeared as if out of nowhere, and in my surprise, I grabbed hold of my master.

  “Uh…Memil?” he said.

  “Sorry.”

  I let go of him, disappointed in myself for my reaction. Ever since I was little, I’d hated being startled.

  Laine gave a great yawn and apologized. “My bad. Sleepless nights, you know? I remember walking through here last night, but I guess I must have fallen asleep while standing.”

  “Seriously? Unbelievable…” muttered my master.

  With his face the portrait of disbelief, Fate began cleaning up Laine’s laboratory. I couldn’t stand to watch him do it alone, so I helped where I could. As he whisked about, putting things back in their rightful places, I could tell this was something he was very used to doing.

  “Thank you,” Laine said as she watched. “And…thanks in advance for next time too.”

  “It shouldn’t be so hard to clean up after yourself.”

  “As you can see, I’m trying my best.”

  “This is your best?!”

  Laine laughed. “Impressive, no?”

  My lord sighed. He was powerless. Despite his complaints, he continued to clean up. That was just who he was as a person, I supposed. As I helped to carry some of the research materials, I suddenly felt a wave of light-headedness, followed by an unquenchable thirst. It was like I had been abandoned in the scorching heat of a desert, deprived of water for days.

  Laine noticed the change in me right away and called out. She couldn’t keep a room tidy to save her life, but when it came to her work, she never missed a beat.

  “These look like signs that you need to refuel. To feed. Still, based on my earlier estimates, I wasn’t expecting to see this for at least another week…”

  “I can explain…” I whispered.

  I had meant to tell her about this anyway. I made sure that my master was out of earshot as I explained the situation to Laine. When I did, she put all the pieces together in an instant.

  “I see. So, because of Fate’s Gluttony, there’s likely no better blood for your urges. Beyond that, the sheer number of skills he carries must make your thirst unbearable.” Inspiration flashed within Laine’s eyes as she called out to Fate. “Would you come here for a moment?”

  “Is it something urgent?” he replied. “I’m still not done tidying over here.”

  “Yes, it’s urgent! Memil is in serious danger.”