002 Darkness Is Coming

On the entry of a huge castle settling in a modern style city, Erebus was stepping up the stairs in a slow motion.

With a hard contour, his face gave the vibe of a stone-cold killer; and the muscle shown subtilty under that thin shirt were crying the same conclusion.

But he didn't have a killer's step.

He took the stairs one at a time at a slow pace, but there was a faint curl and feebleness hidden in his posture somewhere.

The injury was taking a toll on him because of the trip here.

"Erebus!! Welcome, welcome. I didn't think you would show up." A voice came through as the gate of the castle opened at Erebus's approaching.

"..." Erebus didn't reply. It seemed as if he was paying all his attention to his steps up towards the gate.

"Looks like you are still not fully recovered? You poor thing." The owner of the voice came out with an evil grinning on his face, "Hope you still think it's worth saving those low life human."

"Thanks for your tip, they are safe now." Erebus let out a long breath at the top stairs and finally answered.

"You are welcome." The man laughed but he remained in the door, as if testing whether Erebus could go through him.

Erebus sighed and didn't move. He stood where he was as if he wanted to take a rest: "How did we end up here, brother?"

The man he called "brother" snorted at that title: "Who am I to be the 'brother' of the great Silver Lightening? I'm but a humble wolf at your service, 'Lord'."

"Since when did you think me that way?" Erebus didn't seem to be angry, as if he was just having a casual chat with an old friend.

"Since always! You are always the better one! When we were together, everyone was looking at you and talking about you and--" Perses suddenly burst out complaints that seemed to be in his mind for a while now.

"Yes, but we WERE together, remember?" Erebus cut him off.

"..." Perses fell into silence, but he soon shook his head as if trying to get rid of an invisible fly: "You cannot fool me again, Erebus. I WILL destroy you."

"Okay." Erebus sighed and started walking towards Perses as he said with a casual tone, "We are looking into where you got the tip though, I hope you would assist us in that, Perses?"

Erebus stopped by the door; his right hand held on the frame. With Erebus a bit taller than Perses, him standing close to Perses like that made Perses held up his head high if he wants to see Erebus's face.

Perses squinted at Erebus with an annoyed face and took a step back to avoid being in that embarrassing position: "The King is waiting for you inside."

"Thanks." Erebus blinked with a polite smile as he stepped inside.

Just as the gate closed behind Erebus, Perses suddenly walked up and hit Erebus on the stomach hard. Erebus gave a pressed groan and bent forward as pain washed over his body.

Perses pressed himself against Erebus to support him so Erebus won't fell to the ground: "I heard you took a bullet under your left ribs, is that right?"

That was where he hit Erebus.

"..." Erebus grabbed Perses's arm out of reflex and was panting at the pain burst out of his wound, but he didn't let out any sound.

He clenched his fists, trying to stop his body from shivering. The look in his eyes were stone firm, but the frowning showed the effect the sharp tearing pain from his abdomen.

Perses pushed Erebus on the chest to nail him on the gate and whispered to Erebus as his right hand pressed hard on Erebus right under his left ribs: "Even werewolves take a month to fully recover from a gunshot wound, how dare you come here just so it would make me look bad?"

Erebus frowned hard as he tried to control the pain. Sweat started coming off his face, but Erebus didn't even struggle: "I AM sorry."

Perses was obviously shocked at the apology that came out of nowhere. He certainly wasn't stupid enough to think Erebus was sorry that "he made Perses looked bad": "W-what are you saying?!"

"I'm sorry I let you fall so low." Erebus didn't do anything about Perses hand that was still pressed on his wound, "That's it."

"You baste--" Perses seemed pissed and he rose his fist, but a voice stopped him--

"What are you doing here? The King is waiting!" It was a girl in her twenties, same age as the two men.

"Yes, Princess Arya." Perses grinned at her and let go of Erebus as if nothing happened, "I'm here to escort our hero in."

Erebus sorted his suit and headed inside without another word, and Perses and Arya followed him.

"Erebus, what happened this time?" An old man curling in the worn-out throne said tiredly with his head on his hand as his elbow taking most of the weight.

"Yes, my King. Some werewolves went rogue in my city on a full moon. I'm still looking into it." Erebus bowed at the old man. Apparently, that movement took him a lot of efforts because of his wound, which now had blood oozing out of it due to the little interaction with Perses.

"Yes, yes... you did good..." The King mumbled, as if half asleep.

"My dear, isn't that funny how he let it happen under his nose?" The woman sat next to the King suddenly giggled and said, in a sexy, sweet way.

It was the Queen.

"You are right." The King said as if suddenly awoken, "Whose men are those werewolves?"

"I don't know yet, my King. That's what I'm looking into." Erebus said with his head bowed.

He lied. Those werewolves were Perses's men, who was now sweating on the side, gambling on that Erebus won't sell him out.

"Good, good..." The King seemed to be drifting out again.

"Oh, lord! How awful! How could you not know?" The woman sighed in a very exaggerated way, "We won't even be hearing this if it weren't for the fine man over there."

She was pointing at Perses, who now bowed in humble at the two people on the thrones.

Erebus remained silent.

"I think we should reward you. It's very noble of you to bring any disturbance in the Kingdom to our attention. Don't you think, my dear?" The Queen turned and leaned to the King in a seductive way as if she was a piece of silk thrown at the King.

"Yes, yes, of course! Reward him!" The King yelled, snapping out of his mind drifting.

Erebus stood up straight, looking at the King and Queen with a calm face as if it wasn't him who was just wrongly accused of a crime that didn't have much to do with him in the first place.

"What do you want, my noble knight?" The Queen asked Perses.

"Umm..." Perses glanced at Erebus and continued, "I don't think I'm entitled to any reward, my Queen. But I do worry about the people that were supposed to be protected by Erebus, so I think, maybe it would be better if I can relieve him of some of that responsibility?"

Humbled and genuine, as if he didn't just mock Erebus for saving some "low life human".

"That's so thoughtful of you." The Queen said, "Isn't that right, my dear?"

The King just simply nodded.

"Take up the map!" The Queen said to a man standing by the door.

The room fell into silence after the man turned for the map the Queen asked for. It was a very modern style-decorated room, with the people in there dressed up so normal that it almost made the "king" and "queen" and all the ancient shadow cast in there sounds weird.

No one else knows about this little court drama in play here.

"Your map, my Queen." The guard came back.

"Perses, you may choose any apanage under Erebus's protection. Make your choice." The Queen, not even waiting for the King to announce the order. And the King obviously didn't mind, his eyes weren't even focused on anything.

Erebus didn't even look at the map. His eyes were fixed on the man sitting on the throne, with sorrow written on his face. It pains him to watch the brave, brilliant King who he served was now losing his power.

"This village seems to be a fine choice." Perses pointed at a spot on the map.

The Queen smiled.