CHAPTER THREE ‘A month’

“Wake up you fuvking parasites!” 

The entire inn heard Poison cuss as early as six am in the morning, those who were disturbed cussed at him and he cussed back, smashing and breaking things in the process. The inn workers had to come out to address the pandemonium.

“Sir, what is the noise about?”

“Me?” Poison laughed, “I'm making noise?”

“With all due respect sir, if you're not going to eat or sleep here. Leave or I'll have security escort you out” One of the waiter's said.

Poison clenched his fists, “You scoundrels! How dare you—”

“—Dad,” a soft voice interrupted, bringing the heated conversation into a halt. Violet stepped towards Poison, wrapping her small slender fingers around his clenched fists.

Poison gasped, taking aback by the sudden change of events.

The waiter who took Violet's order the previous night pointed at Poison in surprise, “You're this girl's father? What kind of father are you leaving your daughter in the hands of grown up men!”

Before Poison could react, Violet butted in, “You don't have to be harsh mister although I appreciate your kind gesture,” Violet smiled at the waiter before taking a glance at poison who looked horrible with his blonde hair sticking everywhere around his face, she forced back a cringe.

“My dad was just worried about me that's why he barged in to ask his men about me.  Everything's alright now, daddy. I'm alright” Violet squeezed hard on Poison clenched fist, and glared hard at him.

Poison sighed, loosening his fist, “That's right, I was looking for my daughter who I don't know and I've never seen—”

“—Daddy! What are you talking about?” Violet tightened her grip around Poison's wrist, which did little against him. After sensing it was a losing battle, she chuckled nervously, “My dad and I will talk in the room first before leaving, please excuse us.” Violet cut in before dragging Poison along with her.

“We'll have a talk with the boss first, then we'll leave. Excuse us.” Phillip, the blonde said.

“You have to leave as soon as we get a customer, okay?” one of the waiters said as they others dispersed.

“Sure sure,” Piggy waved the waiter off casually.

“You tiny wreched witch, what was that about? How dare you lie that I'm your father huh?” With a hand, Violet was casually pulled up into the air by her neck.

“I-i-i,” Violet's eyes welled up as Poison tightened his grip around her neck.

She let out an high pitched scream, alerting the others who were outside. 

Piggy barged into the room first with the others following behind him. “Poison!” Piggy said after seeing what Poison was doing to Violet, “Let go off her.”

Poison chuckled darkly, “If I want to kill her, who dares stop me?!”

“Why didn't you kill Azarael then, when she killed your son?” Piggy said. “You're just an hypocrite who seeks vengeance on weaker people.”

Poison froze, his black pitch eyes filled with rage and anger, “Yes, you're right. Why didn't I kill her?!” he tossed Violet out of his sight but Piggy was quick to catch her before she hit the ground.

“That bitch!” 

“M-master Poison, there's nothing you or a-anyone else can do to Mistress Azarael so why don't we.. just get going instead of making a big deal out of this” Phillip suggested.

“Everyone— That woman you saw me with yesterday, was a spy.” Poison told.

“What?” The group chorused.

“Azarael is keeping an eye on all of us, even though I'm here she doesn't fully trust me.. or any of us. Well..” Poison regained his posture, “Since she has made her fear of me so obvious, it's time I start what she fears me doing.”

Violet chuckled and walked towards Poison, “You think so highly of yourself sir, even though you're a level ten killer, you're just a dog Azarael keeps by her fake throne.”

Poison eyes darkened, “Watch your mouth girl. You have no idea what you're talking about.”

“Who cares? All I know is you're no match for Azarael. It pains you so much, that's why you pick on level one killers like me and Piggy—”

“—If I'm a dog to Azarael then aren't you all lower than dogs?” Poison glared.

“Enough, guys. The reason we're all here is because our loved ones is taken hostage by Azarael. If not, most of us wouldn't be doing Keitan's dirty job. It doesn't matter whether or not Azarael sent someone to kill you, Master Poison. Just take it as it is, you never know..It might even be a test for the Mistress to know whether you're still as powerful as before or.. maybe you've become useless with age.”

Poison clenched his fists in annoyance, “You youngsters really know nothing!” he turned to the side and sighed, “Every one that is taken hostage by Keitan secret killer association, dies. Wouldn't it be best to just give up and escape this lousy—?”

A knock on the door interrupted Poison so he stopped talking as the door opened, revealing one of the waiters from earlier.

“Could you please leave our inn? There's a customer who needs this room.”

“We should at least eat before leaving.” Piggy told, dragging Violet with him as he left the room.

The group ate and had Poison pay for it. That was it. Afterwards, Poison bought himself a horse and let the others pay for theirs. He was too sensitive to listen to their complaints so everyone kept their opinions to themselves.

Many days passed until the group reached the target. Star town, that was located at the East. When they reached the Star town, they stayed low at a tavern and met in Poison's room the next day to discuss the latest development.

“Master.”

“I already surveyed Star rock—”

“—Where the Chief of star clan live?”

“Not only the Chief of star clan. The leader of Star Clan also live there.”

“What did you find out?” Poison asked.

“Star rock is bigger than I originally thought and there are two separate residents. The first one on sight is the leader's resident, it has many workers and tight security. You can get near the second resident without a pass, which means..”

“The chief of the Star clan has the real authority?”

“What?” Violet said.

“The leader of Star clan is just a figurehead. Back in the days, Star clan was called another name.. I think it was Phoenix clan? No.. I'm not sure, but, back then the person ruling the clan was called a chief. The last person who ruled the Phoenix clan as chief.. was horrible. So, a leader was elected to keep the Chief in check, in case of misuse of authority. Afterwards, the clan was renamed as Star clan.” Poison explained.

“But instead of creating a title as, Leader of Star Clan? Why not Assistant Chief, it's more appropriate and they can still keep the Clan's chief in line if he does anything inappropriate.” Said Piggy.

Poison forced back a grin, “I guess the person who brought about the title wanted to usurp the Chief's power. But obviously it failed, most of the ancient books and treasures are kept by the Chief of star clan and his descendants.”

“Master, do you know why Mistress Azarael wants us to kill the Chief of Star Clan. I mean we have nothing to do with them, those people have nothing special about them anyways.”

“Are you kidding!” Fatty yelled, “There's so many beautiful women and drop dead sexy men here! Their hair and eyes is the most amazing about them. If it weren't for my crush, I'd get myself a man and a woman. All to myself.”

Violet cringed, “You're so disgusting, Fatty..” She couldn't bring herself to say more.

“Gentlemen and..” Poison glanced at Violet briefly, “A freak.” Before Violet could complain, he said, “This is the last opportunity I'll give you all to leave. The mission is too dangerous, neither of you can take it.”

“Even so, we must try. Mistress Azarael will only free my brother if I work for her.” Phillip said and the others agreed.

“Yeah my cousin got kidnapped too, she'll only be set free if I work well for Mistress. I have to do this for her even If I'd lose my life.”

Poison sighed, “If you insist. Just know, your deaths won't be pretty.”

“So how do we take care of the Chief of Star Clan? We don't even know how good he and his people are at magic spells and martial arts” Piggy said.

“Magic spells? Do the Star Clan practice magic?” Violet asked with widened eyes.

 Her aunt had told her that after mortals learnt magic, the world was in upheaval. Even deities couldn't interfere with mankind because with secret heavenly scrolls in mankind's heart, they were unstoppable.

So the only way for the world to be at peace was to cut off magic. And it was possible, the righteous sects spread fake magic scrolls and ruined magic in human's body. Ever since, magic had been buried.

“What are you talking about? Every clans practice magic, it's just been top secret these years to avoid powerful clans invasion.” Phillip said.

Violet thought, ‘That couldn't have been it. My aunt clearly said there was no such thing as magic, if there was, my mother wouldn't be kidnapped by such a lowly..’

“As expected, some of you are very naive. You have no idea what you're up against, you don't even know such a thing as magic exists!”

Violet laughed at Poison as his eyes darkened, “There's no such thing as magic!”

Poison made eye contact with Violet and she was suddenly lifted from the ground.

Everyone gasped except for Poison who stared deep into Violet's eyes as though staring into her soul. 

“You say there's no magic, what is this then?” Poison said as Violet hung in the air like a mannequin and flew wherever he directed her to.

Violet glared hard at Poison, “A sort of mental oppression.” Then she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath untill she felt the pressure in her head disappearing and finally, she was free from the grasp she felt somewhere in her soul.

And when she opened her eyes, she was falling down. It happened in a split moment that when she landed, she was expecting the wooden hard surface on her skin but instead it was a plumpy and hard—

“Ouch!” she cried, and blinked when she saw that she fell on Piggy. Hurriedly, she got up from Piggy and dusted off her clothes as though she got dirt on it.

“Breaking out of my control spell is nothing to be proud of. In a real battle, your opponent will do everything they can to keep you tied in their control. Whether or not you believe in magic, that won't matter when you're ripped into tiny pieces.” Poison concluded, before turning to the others, “If we barge into Star rock like this, it will obviously be a losing battle.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Next month, Lagsu will send Lady Musa, the beloved Saintess of Lagsu district to Star town for a marriage proposal.” Poison said.

A yawn escaped Violet's lips, “How do you know that? When we passed by Lagsu we didn't hear such things.”

Poison turned to face Violet and smirked, “I have a source. Unlike you losers.”

Violet groaned which made Poison smirk grow deeper, “Let us wait a month, then I'll show you my plan.”