Chapter 27: [25 – traitors; double trouble]

"You really attract bad luck, don't you, Damien?" said Raphael after silence seeped into the room, neither parties showing much of a reaction. He was now sitting in the bed, tapping his finger on his leg at a steady rhythm.

Soren enjoyed the conversation from under his covers, casually leaning against the headrest while surrounded by pillows. He very much embodied the aura of a scum prince, with his own magical touch.

Damien leaned against the wall with a blank stare. "Do you know of an organization that doesn't have any traitors?"

His point was fair, and Raphael already understood that much. No matter how loyal an organization was to its master, it was impossible to guarantee that none of the many would turn their backs once given the opportunity.

It was hard to trust somebody to stay by your side, but it was harder to not trust them.

As a leader, Damien had to draw the line between paranoia and naivety. Not trusting his members would mean he'd run a one man show, and such a show could only last so long. But to trust everybody fully would make him vulnerable once betrayed, and he wasn't the sort to put himself in that position. 

Soren shuffled in his spot. "Do you know the identity of the traitor?”

"What do you think, master?"

The prince didn't understand why the fox chose to keep his method of referring to him, but he dismissed the strangeness. There was no need for Damien to consult them with anything if he had an answer.

If Damien knew the traitor, they'd face a punishment worse than death for the crimes they dared to commit under his eyes.

However, while Soren understood the basic information from his words, Raphael read between the lines and said, "But you have an idea, right?"

Damien nodded.

"And you'd like us to help you with this." confirmed Raphael.

"It isn't necessary, but it's the best method." admitted Damien.

"You can't prosecute an innocent member,"

"So you have to uncover their crime." finished Soren, understanding what was happening after listening. The two nodded at his words and the room fell silent again. 

"So," said Raphael slowly, lifting his gaze to flicker between the others. "What's the plan?"

Damien blinked, then said calmly, "Can I leave this up to you?"

Raphael narrowed his eyes at his with suspicion, furrowing his brows. Based off his understanding, this teenager was not a character to rely on others to an excessive amount, and would choose to do most of the work. In a group project, everybody would slack off and he'd be the one to finish everything.

Yet, the same boy asked Raphael and Soren to deal with everything. The conclusion Raphael reached made his brows furrow in exasperation.

Damien... just wanted to see how the two of them would work together.

The protagonist was a little speechless once again."...right, so, what's the plan, little prince?"

Of course, any answer Soren would give wouldn't help Raphael's reoccurring headaches. It'd only worsen them, without a doubt. 

"No plan."

"What?"

"I'll force him to reveal everything."

Raphael sighed and said as if coaxing a child, "That's not how it works."

The tone made Soren annoyed, the corners of his lips pulling down further. "Your lacking abilities isn't my problem."

"...hahaha." Raphael rubbed his temples and didn't even bother look back at this nonsense speaking prince. "It's not a question of abilities, but the legitimacy of the method. Does force always work out?"

"Yes."

"Right, of course." Why did he bother? Reasoning with this prince was like reasoning with a tree. It just wouldn't budge.

Soren looked at Damien squarely. "There is somebody I suspect?"

Damien asked curiously, "The reason?"

"Intuition."

Although in his lifetime, Raphael had seen dozens who trusted their intuition during important cases, and was aware of how important instinct was, he couldn’t help but say, “Really?”

"Quiet, hippo."

"......"

Damien coughed a little reluctantly to interrupt them. Although he wanted to enjoy their bickering, he still had tasks to do. "Feel free to use any if my resources at your disposal."

Soren nodded, and slowly sunk back into the bed. Damien watched with awareness, while Raphael looked confused.

"What are you doing?"

"Sleeping." said Soren plainly.

Raphael frowned at him. "No, I mean, why are you going back to sleep?"

"You interrupted my cycle."

"That's not the point."

Soren squinted at him lazily from underneath the blanket. "It is."

At this point, Damien interrupted once again. "If possible, master, could you finish the task as soon as possible? I still have something to discuss with you."

A discussion with Damien didn't mean anything good, and Soren assumed he'd be drowned in questions to satisfy the young fox's curiosity. However, he also wanted to stop postponing his departure, and reluctantly pulled over the covers with a light yawn.

"Ok." He stood up, unbuttoning his top without a care while the other two respectfully turned around. They were all men, but they didn't have the habit of staring at somebody change either. 

He tossed on a new change of clothes loosely and walked out the door. 

Raphael stared after him with confusion. "Am I not part of this plan?"

"Do you think he'd want to include you?" responded Damien bluntly, as Raphael shook his head with shrug.

"Well, I think he'll need me soon."

As he spoke, the door swung open again, revealing a shameless, tired-looking prince. 

Raphael already predicted this outcome and grinned, raising a brow as he leaned back on the bed. "Need something, little prince?"

Soren scowled at his sarcastic tone but said calmly, "Make yourself useful."

"And what do you want me to do?"

"..." Clearly, Raphael should've been aware of what Soren needed, and Soren knew that he knew. 

"I can guess?" said Raphael, pretending to think about it before he said, "Are you lost again, maybe?"

Soren endured the annoying voice of this bothersome hippo and said, "Yes."

"You should learn to ask politely."

"And you should learn to be useful."

Raphael shrugged. "I'm not the one lost. Try asking nicely, little prince."

"...show me the way."

"Is that seriously your definition of asking politely?"

In reality, Soren could be polite at times, and would naturally say please. But he didn't want to with this person, yet quite reluctantly he said, "Please show me the way."

"Sure." said Raphael with an amused grin before he added, "But I don't know the way either. It's not my building, it's his." He nodded at Damien and Soren fell silent.

"Would you like me to show you the way, master?"

Soren blinked slowly and then nodded. "Please. Thanks."

Damien nodded, leaving the room without asking who Soren wanted to see. After all, the traitor they both had in mind were likely the same people — somebody who could easily blend in with everybody else.

As they walked, Soren gave a few reminders.

"Celine is useful if anything unforeseen comes up." started the prince calmly, at ease with somebody showing him the way.

"Vincent's fiance who I've forgotten the name of—"

"Alicia." reminded Damien as Soren continued.

"She will cause more trouble soon. Lock and Kat will be a useful hint to the mastermind behind everything. Deimos is weird, Erlen is annoying, and Atlas will be a useful ally."

"Brioc will likely remember you, but he's crazy so ignore him. And Lydia is the most useful." finished Soren leisurely.

Damien glanced back at him. "Why are you telling me this, master?"

"To clean up somebody's mess where I don't want to."

"Whose?"

Soren stopped. "You know."

Damien stopped too in the quiet hallway, void of life and colour. The other foxes knew better than to stay near while their leader spoke, so only the two remained.

Oh, Raphael was there too. Soren had almost forgotten.

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In fact, the protagonist even asked, "You can't be referring to me?"

Soren blinked. "You know that too."

"I intended to have this conversation later, but we'll have it now. Master," started Damien in the chilling air, his piercing gaze boring into Soren. All-knowing and aware was this sly leader of the fox tribe.

"From the day Raphael arrived, you stopped being only Soren Rosenbaum, am I correct?"

The words which revealed more than any should know didn't faze Soren. After all, the most suspicious people would be the only ones who were observant enough to know the previous Soren. In this lifetime of the pitiful dead prince, as much as Damien disliked him, he was also the one who understood the deceased fifth prince the most.

Damien's reaction was calm — a confirmation was all he sought when he already knew the answer.

Soren nodded. "Yes."

"And what are your intentions?"

"To leave."

"Is that all?" 

Soren looked him straight in the eye with a freezing cool. "That's all."

On the side, it was Raphael's turn to silently observe the performance. He couldn't fully trust this prince, not when there were too many secrets to hide, but Damien probed at the most essential question.

Would Ren Suzuki's existence become a salvation or destruction?

Damien gazed at him steadily and then nodded. "I understand."

"No more questions?"

"No more questions." affirmed Damien, making Soren frown. The curious teenager was not one to ask few questions. Raphael's reaction would be paranoia, and Damien's should've been curiosity. 

Raphael was the first to notice the abnormality, being sensitive to others' emotions. "Hey Damien, how much do you already know?"

His words seemed light, but also dangerous at the same time. 

Damien lifted his chin, his aura clashing with Raphael in flowing waves. "If I tell you, will you tell me what kind of person you are? I think that would be an interesting answer, isn't that so?"

The biggest threat to Damien wasn't Soren, whose intentions were clear as day even if his mysteries were still unknown. It was Raphael, whose existence was accepted and rejected as a whole by this world. 

Because if Ren Suzuki was still Soren, Raphael was just Raphael. 

"Haha, you're asking a dangerous question, kid." said Raphael slowly, tapping on his sword. It was a similar feeling to the time they first met, clashing as soon as Raphael stepped into the room.

What happened when you put two people of the same kind together in a room?

Chaos, that's what.

However, this time, there was a tired, shameless prince who wouldn't have any of it. He had a mission to complete, and he did not want to be postponed. Even if it had largely been due to his own words and actions that resulted in this conversation.

Soren stepped between them with a lazy air, his posture straight but his eyes half-opened as hair gently brushed over his shoulders. 

"Stop."

All it took was one word to calm the unruly pets— people down. Damien silently stared at Soren with his alert, furry ears and swaying tail while Raphael frowned.

Soren frowned too. "Don't bully my butler."

"...I would say it was mutual bullying, honestly." 

"No." said Soren solemnly. "You have no rights, he does."

The prince wasn't biased but... his eyes wandered to the swaying fluff behind Damien, then to the peaks of fluff on top of his raven hair... Soren had a weakness. A weakness for cute animals, that was.

Damien and Raphael both caught Soren's obvious gaze, and while the teenager showed no reaction, the protagonist wanted to hit his head into a wall.

'Seriously?'

In all his lifetimes, he wouldn't have imagined to be treated so crudely because of all the thinks he could lack, he was lacking a pair of ears and a tail?

Soren cared little and turned around to gesture for Damien to keep walking.

Raphael was left in the dust to cry alone.

When they arrived in the door, Damien pushed it open with a wide swipe of his hands, strolling in with a domineering air that made goosebumps run along the others' arms.

Sage and Hazel sat in the room, calmly playing a game of chess. Upon Damien's arrival, they immediately stood up and lowered their head in greeting, their ears tilting politely.

"Do you need something, Leader?" asked Hazel curiously, as if she'd run across the world if he so much as needed candy.

"What do you think?"

Hazel seemed to understand Damien's useless answers well and turned to Soren with gleaming eyes. "Oh, do you need something then, Leader's guest?"

"Address them properly." said Sage with a sigh. "What can we do for you, your highness?"

Soren studied them, but it was useless. He could read expressions based off logic, but it was impossible to understand deeper meanings. 

"I want to see the boy."

"The boy?" repeated Sage with confusion in his eyes.

Hazel turned defensive and frowned. "Why?"

Soren almost hit her with his customary 'none of your business' but it wasn't the right time for that. Even Soren had some delicacy — though few would agree.

"Because," said Soren calmly. "Children are the most vulnerable."

"What?"

"That boy, he didn't survive based off willpower alone." His words were cold and chilling, striking at where it hurt the most. Immediately, the air in the room froze over.

Raphael furrowed his brows as well. "You saw his condition."

"I did."

"Do you believe it was false?" asked Damien.

"I don't."

"Then I don't get it!" exclaimed Hazel with a scowl, swiping her hand through the air in frustration. "Even if you're Leader's guest, that boy is one of us!"

Soren didn't reply. He had understood two things about the Third Religion, based off his knowledge from reading and his own experience. They preyed on the weakest, the most vulnerable. The simplest to manipulate.

The man who tried to kill him when he first arrived was mentally weak, Lock was desperate and the many others in the story had similar situations.

In this novel, Tonio's misdeeds eventually lead to ties with the Third Religion, however faint. That was one of the reasons Damien joined Raphael, for the sake of vengeance. No matter what, a child could not physically bear the starvation and the abuse. It was a different case if they were trained, but fox tribe children were not harshly trained until a certain age.

To stay awake on his last strand of consciousness, Lock had done something similar.

Not to mention a key point — who could snatch away other children without any adults knowing, despite them being members of the fox tribe?

The most unexpected — a missing child themselves.

Soren could only assume this much based off his instinct, and his awareness of the Third Religion nobody else had. In fact, Damien had also vaguely considered it, having been by Soren's side for all encounters with the Third Religion members. For that reason, his reaction was more mild.

The prince didn't react aggressively to the reactions and said, "It's simple to find out."

"No, how can you even accuse a child to begin with?"

"It's that thinking," said Soren slowly, looking into her eyes as she stiffened. "That allows people to use children in that manner."

Raphael calmed down — he had experienced similar situations in the past, and understood Soren's thinking. However, "What do you plan to do if the child is part of the crime?"

"Nothing." Soren shifted to Damien. "He'll decide."

To say the child was part of the crime, it was highly likely. But to say that he did it with his complete free will, that was another story. Thus, Soren left it to Damien to resolve it.

"Alright. Let's go then?"

Soren shook his head. "One person to not scare him."

"Who? You can't mean yourself, can you?" Raphael didn't think somebody like Soren could exactly succeed in 'not scaring' a traumatized child successfully, especially when he still looked irritated from being woken in the morning.

Everybody looked around — there was no such person. Each had honed their own sort of killing instinct that naturally seeped into the surroundings even as they breathed. Not to mention, there were two people who would only stare and question the child without a smile, another who Soren classified as a hippo and deemed unworthy, and another who was hot-blooded and wouldn't ask the necessary questions.

That left one person.

Damien moved his ears, tail swaying with the same quiet arrogance as his owner. "Sage."

Sage immediately stood up straight. "Yes, Leader?"

"Aren't you going?"

"Yes." He nodded and hurried out of the room with passion and determination. Soren thought at that moment, they were all quite loyal and a little silly.

He dragged his view back to everybody and slumped into a chair, crossing one leg. With a raise of his chin, a faint smile seemed to flicker over his pale lips.

"Now let's discuss how we should punish him, ok?"