His stay

Five days ago....

"Damn that hound! He sniffed me out of my guise..." He coughed up blood breathing heavily as he lay on the cold ground. He looked up at the sky where the clouds lazily floated carried by the cold wind. It hit against his face. He was back to his original form.

"Where is this place again?" He tried recalling while his golden eyes shifted at the dark grey structure of the fortress.

"Such a gloomy looking citadel." He noticed looking at the towers that loomed high as if they were almost reaching the sky from his perspective.

"I feel like my limbs are about to fall apart." He groaned. He looked at the loosed white strips over his arms.

-"Someone treated my wounds." He smelled it. The smelled like medicine.

"It reeks of those herbs. If only I could regain my strength."

He wondered if he could find a prey. He needed to devour a demon or a human of adequate power, just enough to get him back on his feet.

He was able to save a little amount of his vortex after battling with Erebus.

The vortex is the mass of life force that constantly moves like a whirlpool keeping the flow of energy in balance.

"I hear footsteps." He mumbled whilst hearing the footsteps.

He closed his eyes to play dead.

He could feel something coming closer to him. It couldn't have been a woman judging by the calm reaction he received.

"I should contact the others. No one must have known he died due to wounds and cold." He heard the man say.

Before he was able to retract he darted his hand into him piercing his abdomen.

-"He seems like a servant here." He noticed his clothes while the servant wrenched and shuddered trying to break free from him.

"I can't have you doe like this. I'll be sure to make complete use of you in the future." He wickedly grinned licking off the red blood that had spilled over his face as his eyes began to glow.

The man lay dead as he withdrew his bloodied hand from the body.

"I should cover it up." He grabbed the shovel that was lying on the ground and began to pile up snow over the dead body.

"What a pain..." He frowned after confirming that the body was well hidden beneath all the dirty snow.

He looked around and decided to retract the servant's footsteps leading to the stables.

"That damned hound might be here any moment. The nerve he had to attack a crowned prince. I should have summoned my shadows beforehand."

He entered the stables with the shovel where the stable keeper and the guard called him out.

"Hey Max! Took you long enough to clear the snow. You didn't force yourself into the soldiers training sessions did ya?"

He tried to keep a low profile and had to take the bitter sip to hold down his fury.

"I didn't, fortunately." He replied briefly and left the stables.

"The lad is strange today." The guard told the stable keeper.

"Else he'd be raging and fuming like any other day." He chuckled.

He paused to listen to their conversation.

"Honestly youngens these days. Reminds me when master was his age. He'd never listen or bother with us. Now he's become more responsible ever since he got married."

-"Married?This is news to me. That hound...how and when did he marry? That too behind my back."

"The lass he married I hear the maids that she's absolutely gorgeous. I wouldn't really have believed them but my wife insisted that she's otherworldly beauty." The stable keeper said.

"It's true that they say she's too captivating once you see her. Our master is the luckiest man. I wouldn't have believed the rumors about her if I hadn't saw her with my own eyes. She is the perfect example of a modest woman. I once saw her from afar. She always wears a veil or a cloak to hide herself from the servant's and soldiers. Even then she did her best to make the servants' lives more liveable and easy." He bragged for no reason.

The stable keeper agreed when Zavaikal went back to the stable to confirm their talk on Erebus's marriage.

"Hoh! Max boy you came back." They welcomed him back.

"Did the Ere- master really get married?" He asked without beating about the bush.

"What's gotten into ya lad? The talks about it everywhere. Oh now I see ya were hired a day after the master married. Hm hm~" he stroked his thick brown mustachio.

"A-ah! It is hard to believe that he actually got married." He replied back and went out of the stables again.

-"Margrave Erebus Stygian! You've had the nerve to do stuff behind my back."

After that day he began slowly encountering the maids learning that male servants were prohibited to attend Luciana. He received a greater shock learning that he had a son from her.

-"A child of three years!" He staggered.

"A child... three years old at that." He repeated his thoughts.

"What's with this brat?" He suddenly saw Mina glaring at him.

"YOU!" She called out to him.

"Aren't you from that night?" She recalled the time when she was taking Nemesis back to his room with Jafar escorting them.

"W-what? I don't think so." He denied her onspot.

"Was I mistaken?" She wondered trying to recall his face.

"I am a new servant here." He said.

"Hmm~? I don't recall master hiring any new servants recently." She looked at him suspiciously.

"W-well I need to go attend the chores." He cut her off and tried to leave.

"The dead man from that morning." She muttered.

He felt like someone hot him with a hammer of iron.

He flinched and hurried away from her.

-"What a strange girl." He had confirmed that the the news of him infiltrating the fortress had spread like wildfire within and out of the fortress.

"Escaping now is a rash decision. Knowing him he would take everything to scoop me out and kltry to kill me without hesitation." He knew of Erebus's nature. A wild beast cannot be tamed forever. His thirst for blood will keep growing.

He had been followed by Jafar ever since that night he barely escaped him.

The citadel was like a maze to him.

"You there..." He heard the familiar voice.

He turned back and saw Jafer coming after him.

"Wait right there. You're being taken for investigation." He announced making Zavaikal move faster to blend into the other servants.

"Stop!" He called out to him following after him.

He scurried as far as possible to shake him off his tail. However his luck grew worse when he tripped onto the stone slab. He grabbed the bulging stone on the wall to keep him standing. Before he realized, the stoned was pushed inside of the wall and the ground beneath him cracked open. He had fallen into the basement.

"Where am I?" He looked around as he fire torches slowly lit one after the other. He was shocked to find a place beneath the gloomy citadel.

He looked at the ancient weapons and other stuff that had been left untouched for so long.

"This isn't time to awe." He snapped back into reality. He looked around in search of an exit. He got out and began to walk taking every possible passage he came across. He was appalled that it was like a neverending maze. He did not have a tracking stone.

"Now what?" He sighed and finally decided to take the path downstairs.

As he descended the steps he paused for a moment.

-"I can hear voices."

"Leo... Let's go back now." He heard a soft voice.

"A woman's voice." He realized.

He descended carefully down the steps as he heard the shrill whining other than her speaking.

The wolf turned back at him as he approached and started to bear it's fangs at him.

-"What a wretched beast. A rare one at that." He remembered reading that beasts like Leo were extremely rare since they had been hunted because of the threat they posed.

His attention drove towards Luciana who demanded of his reason to approach them.

-"Ahh! I have never seen a heavenly beauty like her. She looks like she's illuminating the darkness. Big silver eyes like twin full moons. Hair white as freshly fallen snow. They look like threads of spidersilk. Her skin is white as milk."