NOVPUBChapter 481: Chapter 421: Fingerprints
After Xu Shuo staged his mysterious disappearance, he conveniently threatened the still hesitant archaeologists.
Then he watched contentedly as they began to advance towards the Tall Tower.
Aha!
It was right that they came!
Xu Shuo withdrew his gaze from that direction and slowly walked toward the Tall Tower, and as he pushed open the massive palace doors, a scene unfolded before his eyes.
Dressed in an elegant tailcoat, Steward Armand Ray stood beside Cerys’s body, his face wearing a gentle, polite smile.
However, the moment he saw the girl come in, his eyes blazed with an incredibly fervent adoration!
...
“My master!”
Xu Shuo glanced at him indifferently and stepped forward to the rose bushes, looking at the petrified body lying quietly within.
Within this pale, lime-colored body, only the heart was a striking red.
Ordinary weapons were ineffective against a Witch, and if her heart were not destroyed, she would not truly die.
Therefore, the rose growing at the location of her heart was particularly eye-catching.
It should have been incomparably beautiful, but at present, a dense inkiness marred the blood-red petals.
Just as a lotus pod is spotted with dense droplets, the rose petals too bore unevenly sized black spots.
The rich blackness completely covered the bright red.
Because of this alteration, the rose’s petals drooped, seemingly affected by some vile corruption, and had become listless and wilted. 𝓷ℴ𝓋𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝒸𝓸𝓶
Xu Shuo touched the rose and asked calmly, “What happened?”
“Master, it was the intruders!”
Steward Armand Ray’s expression turned extremely angry as he spoke sternly, “Those intruders carry with them the filth of the outside world.
It is their sordidness that has contaminated the master’s castle!”
Xu Shuo flicked a petal aside and looked at the gentlemanly graceful butler with a half-smile.
“So, what do you suggest I do?” he seemed to be inquiring.
“Master, they are not worthy to remain in Prague Castle, let alone merge with the master’s power!
“Their souls and bodies are utterly filthy!
“They deserve to be executed!”
Xu Shuo nodded thoughtfully, then furrowed his brows, “But I thought it might be time to change butlers at my castle.
Armand, you’ve worked for me for so long, it’s time you had a rest.”
Armand Ray’s eyes, burning with zeal, fixed on the girl in front of him, madness and admiration flashing within, “No!
I can stay by the master’s side forever!”
“Your loyalty touches me,” Xu Shuo said warmly with a smile, “But you should not have betrayed me.”
“Master!” Armand Ray’s gaze faltered.
“How could you forget that the one thing I detest the most is betrayal?
Armand, I have given you the utmost freedom, but this one thing is unforgivable.”
“No!
I have not betrayed you!”
“You hid that hunter from me.”
“Master! I!”
“You tried to destroy my prey.”
“…”
Xu Shuo stepped forward, the smile that had always clung to his lips now exceptionally chilling.
He suddenly reached out and clasped Armand Ray’s throat, his voice low like a demon’s whisper, “To defy me is to betray.”
The fingers tightening around his throat gradually drew closer, Armand Ray struggled to breathe, but made no move to resist.
He seemed to want to say something, yet struggled voicelessly.
One by one, blood-red lines began to spread beneath his skin, branching out like veins but delicate as silk, eerily coursing over his pale flesh.
In the end, Armand Ray’s entire body turned a deep red, his eyes swollen with congested blood, as though they would burst at any moment!
Xu Shuo narrowed his eyes slightly, his fingers suddenly tightening!
Boom——!
Armand Ray’s body abruptly exploded, blood-red liquid splattering all around, but then, the blood that had flown out instantaneously congealed into Blood Vines that entwined towards Xu Shuo!
The next moment, the blood red gradually transformed into pitch black.
At the same time, Xu Shuo also felt the contract link with Armand Ray had been severed.
The black vines surged crazily toward him, eagerly binding the girl standing beside the rose bushes until she was enwrapped into a cocoon.
And the just-exploded Armand Ray coalesced again, but this time not in bright red, but in a mad and deep darkness!
Drip-drop, drip-drop…
Viscous dark matter dripped from his body.
Armand Ray still wore his tailcoat and stood with the same gentlemanly elegance.
He suddenly let out a deep sigh, “Master, look how filthy this is.”
Armand Ray walked toward the girl bound by the black vines, his fingers devoutly caressing her cheek, his eyes still burning with mad fervor as they gazed upon her.
“How could I bear to see you sullied by this filth?”
He said softly.
Then a streak of dark matter was left upon Xu Shuo’s face.
Immediately, Armand Ray pinched up his sleeve and carefully wiped it off with the soft lace of his satin clothing, treating him with the care one would accord a rare treasure.
“You should not possess such power, Armand.”
Xu Shuo spoke indifferently, maintaining the composure befitting a powerful Witch, with only a hint of doubt showing in his eyes.
Armand Ray smiled, “Yes, I indeed lack such power, but while dealing with the ‘insects’ for my master, I found that he possessed that kind of power.”
“The hunter?
I had thought you were accomplices, since you deceived me for his sake.”
“No, no, no, master, I have not betrayed you!”
Armand Ray emphasized once more, but in the current situation, these words had an air of irony and eeriness.
He controlled the blood vines to tightly shackle the girl to the armchair.
Then, he knelt devotedly at his master’s feet like a diligent servant, with piety and reverence:
“All this is for you.
I won’t allow anything that could harm you to exist, and to do that, I must have the strength to protect you, must I not?”
“So you attacked the hunter and took his power?” Xu Shuo’s gaze flickered subtly.
“He deserved to die, he brought corruption into Prague Castle, such a man is detrimental to you,” Armand Ray’s face grew stern.
“But now aren’t you doing the same thing?” Xu Shuo scoffed coldly.
“It’s not the same!”
Armand Ray was a hypocrite, he picked up the girl’s right hand, his gaze obsessed and fervent as he looked at her: “I do all this, just to be with you forever!”
“But, I’m already sick of you.”
Xu Shuo looked at him indifferently, his merciless words pronouncing his death sentence: “Armand, you fill me with utter disgust.”
As his words fell, Armand Ray’s face darkened abruptly, somber as a still pond.
The darkness that pervaded him instantly spread out, enveloping the entire Tower Palace in a viscous malice, and the rose bushes around Cerys’s body withered quickly, dyed a silent black.
The only red left was the rose at the heart of Cerys’s body.
Yet even that rose had its petals tainted by darkness.
The crimson moon in the sky also dimmed at that moment, and the whole castle was placed into an oppressively dark atmosphere, as if sinking to the bottom of the Abyss.
“My master, please wait here, I will make you need me.”
Watching the girl who seemed visibly to have grown weaker, Armand Ray smiled with gentle elegance, then stood up and walked out.
Cerys needed someone to take care of the castle for her.
So he didn’t mind making the choice for her, to leave only himself behind.
!
