When the places of Basarisk was busy in celebrating the yearly Lantern Festival, Richalwolf Land was having their own festival today. They celebrated their happiness by camping outside. Each land had its own tradition and ancient rules. When the other places in Richalwolf Land was immersed in celebrating the day of their festival, something terrible was happening in the courtyard of Vallodisan's Castle.
Silas was performing trail against a man who had been suspected to leak the confidential news to the rogue wolves. Rogue wolves were consisted in a pack of few members who had the ability to shift as human. But their intention was always been to rule the kingdom as their own way which never succeeded due to Silas & his father. It was more specifically Silas who was more fierce, more cruel than his father. Rogues were threatening for Richalwolf Land and helping them was same like going against your own kingdom.
Silas wore a dark red long coat over his black attire. It was part of their festival and he hated it so much than anything else. His mother forced him to wear that and honestly he found it boring more likely a woman's cloth. Salmon along with few guards were present with him in the courtyard. Three of them kept holding the man down who didn't stop cursing Silas for a second,
" You think, you can stop them? They will come after you!"
" You are just an useless Duke! You don't deserve to be our King!"
" You are just a mad Duke!"
" You...You are inhuman to us.."
Silas only chuckled between his puffs. Putting aside the cigarette for a while, he replied through his light chuckle,
" At least you have spouted one truth of me at least. I am not human after all."
Silas shuffled his feet together while asking to the man lazily,
" Now shift and let me see where your partners are!"
The man groaned before clenching his teeth together and denied with disgust,
" I won't shift.. ever.."
Silas gave him a malicious grin. Putting back the cigarette between his lips, he replied lazily,
" Trust me, it won't feel good if I make you shift on yourself."
The man was truly arrogant. Despite the warning that Silas gave him, he refused to reveal the information rather stayed adamant to the intention that he wouldn't shift at any cost. Silas had the power to see through wolf's eyes and find out what had he seen in the past few days. He wouldn't give Silas that chance.
Silas's feature hardened after he refused his order. His eyes shifted on Salmon who received his order through eye contact and quickly dissapared behind his back into the darkeness.
Between this time, no one talked and expected eagerly to see that what was in the fate of this man. Salmon appeared with a bowl of hot water which was still unleashing the smoke. It only clarified that the water had been just boiled and it was hot, burning.
The man rose up his eyes suspiciously when Salmon placed them right in front of him. Panic crossed through his mind when he saw it. Silas had a devilish smile hanging on his face. His cold voice penetrated through the haze of darkeness,
" Salmon.. Please Help Mr.Barner is washing his face."
The man who had been there captive, Mr.Barner yelled switching his eyes between the bowl and Silas,
" What do you mean? I won't.."
"Aaaaahhhhh!", his shrill scream echoed throughout the castle when Salmon forced his face into the boiling water. The water burnt his face, leaving various scratches to look him horrible. The guards around them shrieked in fear and pulled their eyes away from the scene.
Salmon kept pressing his face into the water until the man muttered through his pain,
" I will say.. Please..let me..go..I will..tell.. everything.."
Silas gave another signal to Salmon who pulled Mr.Barner's head out of boiling water. When his head was out of water, everyone stumbled one step back after watching such horrible sight of his face. It was burnt horribly.
Silas smiled at the man maliciously. His features had no sign of regret instead he felt the joy of punishing this morons who took a pride of their action thinking that they could win against him. Silas was going to ask him to continue when his eyes fell on the rooftop and his smile froze.
It was Isabella who came to see the sky which had thousand lanterns today. The queen had suggested her that it was a beautiful sight and she shouldn't miss it at any cost. But she didn't expect to see such horrible act in the backyard.
The memory from that night was blank inside her head. Whenever she asked Silas about what happened between them on the day of her smoking, Silas simply told her that she was fast asleep by his side. Having no memory of that night, she could only believe on his words. This days were going pretty well. The king and Queen adored her but she noticed that they didn't like her around Silas. Hence the day onwards, she stayed far away from him and didn't even give him the chance of talking to her alone anymore.
Their eyes met and she could feel that he had turned to a completely different person after he noticed his presence. Much to her surprise, Silas ordered to stop the trail within few words and looked back to meet her eyes.
Her heart raced as if it would pop out from its place anytime soon. She wondered why she behaved like a thief whenever she met him. To subtle the awkwardness, she quickly turned away, ready to leave the rooftop before he finds her to chat again.
Isabella only took few steps away from the railing to reach the stairs when she vaguely heard the sound of wing's flipping. She speeded up her pace but it wasn't fast enough to ignore the domineering voice that came from her back,
" Fate isn't something that you can run away from, Princess Isabella."