The moment Ronin heard the Edge, he knew he must go and see. After all, it’s been so long since he saw the Abyssal realm….

The way it beckons to him was stronger than his own rationality. He needs to be there. As he saw Duke Taevas’ carriage moving…

He latched on at the back quickly and agilely like a cat!

“Brother! What are you doing!?” Belladonna called out to him.

He ignored her, his eyes burning with that excitement that started at the pit of his stomach upon hearing about the Edge. Duke Taevas was yelling at the coachman, which was no other than Mavretri himself, to move faster on the bumpy road.

“Make haste or I will kill you and your daughter if they managed to escape!” He threatened the poor butler. “Right after I kill that wretched son of mine!”

Ronin heard Duke Taevas’ thoughts while the wind was blowing his hair and clothes as he continued to hang on the back of the speeding carriage.

(He’s the next heir to Hous Zafeiri, what was he thinking!? Is he daft!? No good life would come out of him and that girl’s union! They would just suffer greatly in the end! Ah, children!)

(They don’t think of the consequences at all! Love??? What good is love when your children would be born unequally, some with Flame and some not, forever fighting each other for their differences along with the color of their skin!)

(They might even be born like those half-and-half freaks! They’ll be the laughingstock of Sephyrine! I thought Maellan was smart, but it turns out he was just an idiot like I was before!)_.

Before? Ronin’s curiosity was peaked by this and listened more.

But Duke Taveas did not think about this past anymore, like a defense mechanism for denying it. He doesn’t want to remember. He just continued to complain about Maellan’s stupidity and how nothing good will come out of a Noble and a Commoner getting together.

He actually seemed to be more mad with Maellan being ignorant and careless of his actions rather than the fact that he was called a ‘bastard’.

As the carriage stopped at the graveyard, Ronin slunk away to hide on the trees nearby to watch what may ensue. He had the urge to jump at the Edge as well, but….

That dream. He had to get to the Academy first.

And since Maellan was his only ticket there, what happens to Maellan now also matters to him.

If he decided to run away to Elementi or Mecha with his fiancee… or if Duek Taevas harmed them….

Then that also becomes his problem.

Maellan was standing with a determined look on his face in front of Duchess Akasa’s grave, and Cholie, who was still wearing a servant’s maid uniform, was scaredly clinging to him.

He turned to the grave, then to his Father.

(No more, Mother. I will not tolerate father’s insolence anymore, dragging you into this as well. This ends now.)

Ronin spectated like an audience at a fight club. (Will he kill his Father? Who will the other first?)

Duke Taevas drew his Mage Focus once more, his cerulean sword blessed by Vesuvius. “You are being unreasonable, Maellan. Stop this foolery at once!”

“I’m being unreasonable!?” Maellan’s usually soft and gentlemanly voice rose for the first time. “Father, you insulted me and my beloved. But I did not take any qualms with that, because I know that you have always had a foul mouth.”

“Yet you dare insult Mother as well, and that is going too far!”

“What will your Mother do about it?” Duke Taevas scoffed. “Roll from her grave and convince me with her scanting remarks to let you get hitched with a Commoner woman!?”

“No, she wouldn’t do that! I know Akasa, she will also try to make you see reason!”

“Commoners and Nobles do not mix! Why can you not understand that!? We are their masters, they are our servants. There’s a reason why that divide exists!”

Maellan also scoffed. “To make us feel superior for having Flames!?”

“No! To make us realize that the world is unfair, Maellan. It’s just how it is. Trying to change it or acting out like a whining little child will be as stupid as climbing a tree to reach the moon!”

The eldest Zafeiri was having none of it. “Why must I be unfair like the world, then? I’ll love who I love, no matter the status or Heartstone! I will fight for it until the end!”

Duke Taevas seemed to be triggered by these words somehow. There was a deeply hidden memory that almost resurfaced, but Ronin could not reach it yet to know what it is.

It was like Duke Taevas’ mind was a chaotic crucible of soup, and that ingredient, that memory…. was suppressed far, far below.

Duke Taevas instead swung his sword, yelling: “Fight for it, then! Fight for it to the death! The one who stays alive gets what he wants!”

Maellan’s quick reflexes managed to push him and Cholie to the side to dodge the attack. They had fallen and yet Duke Taevas was relentless, aiming to slice his own son in half!

This caused Maellan to summon the Spear of Levin, electricity flowing from the tip to aim for Duke Taevas’ eye—

But the father manages to knock the spear away, slicing the shaft in half!

Maellan’s eyes widened as the sword was about to cut through his shoulder—

“Please, stop!” Cholie had managed to stand up and flung herself over Duke Taevas’ right arm, trying desperately to stop him from lowering that sword.

But the enraged father that was more like a beast now than a human pushed her to the side with inhuman strength. “Get away, pest!”

The girl was indeed flung away like a small little bug high up in the air, about to fall down—

“Cholie!”

Maellan rushed out to reach for her hand, which he did manage to grab on time and plant his feet before they both fall over.

“Ahhhhhh!” The immense pain of the gravity dragging down Cholie almost felt like having her arm ripped out the more Maellan grabbed onto her.

“Cholie, don’t let go of my hand! Grah!”

Maellan tried to pull her up, but Cholie herself was not good at bringing herself up or was too panicked to try.

He attempted several times, but even with Maellan being mildly athletic, he still could never pull her back to the Edge. Cholie was now crying in pain. There was even a time when almost both of them slipped due to the momentum of Cholie’s deadweight dragging him down.

‘With movie physics, they could survive.’ Ronin thought. ‘But it seemed that Magecia is not working under movie physics or…’

‘It was really part of the script for Cholie to die.’

“Help me carry her, Father!” Maellan exclaimed.

But Duke Taevas was stunned in place like a statue. That memory he had kept under was resurfacing, making him petrified. Unable to move or say anything.

“Just let go, Maellan!” Cholie begged. “I can’t anymore— Ahhh!!!!!”

“Cholie!!!!!” He yelled as the love of his life…..

Fell down, down, down into the gaping Abyss.