Chapter 9 - The Repercussion of Your Actions (II)

Achille couldn't help but notice the cold, cutting look he was receiving from his firstborn. Wiping his mouth with a white handkerchief, he brought a glass of wine to his lips and asked calmly as he enjoyed the taste of the purplish liquid.

"Is there a problem, Roxane?"

"Don't play the fool, dear father. It doesn't suit you."

Achille looked up and faced his daughter sitting across the table. He showed no reaction to hearing the animosity and venom contained in her words. It was what he had expected in the first place.

Placing his glass on the table, Achille spoke in a calm, indifferent tone. "Your insistence and obsession with allowing Alastor to live an innocent childhood... is simply irrational, Roxane."

"You've broken family law." Roxane retorted with a slightly murderous tone.

Gregory, who was standing behind Achille, just kept his eyes closed, waiting for any orders from his master. Completely ignoring the discussion between his master and his young Lady.

"Laws are dead things and humans are alive." Achille replied calmly, no matter what his daughter said, he was determined to have the second Amom Agrece reborn in his House after a thousand years.

And Alastor was the closest Agrece capable of fulfilling that long-lost dream.

A Grimm capable of killing an Outer God.

"That's stupid and you know it, he's only a child." Roxane gritted her teeth and looked at her father, almost unable to stop herself from wanting to strangle his neck. The image that Alastor would see the horrors of the world at the age of ten made fury bubble up in her chest, ready to erupt at any moment.

"Child?" Achille looked at his daughter, a cold smile playing on his lips. "House Agrece doesn't have children, we've been soldiers since the day we were born, your brother just joined the army early."

As his voice fell, the knife in Roxane's hands flew out of her hand and through the air, heading for Achille's eye. Sharp, deadly and cutting, it was intended to pierce his eye and perhaps something more.

The patriarch of House Agrece acted as if he hadn't seen the knife heading his way and cut off a piece of steak, putting it in his mouth with the help of his fork as he stared tediously at his daughter's immature attack.

Gregory opened his eyes and subtly moved his fingers. The knife, which was just a few centimeters from Achille's eyes, stopped abruptly in mid-air and, as if floating on its own, returned to Roxane's hand.

If you looked closely, what was holding the knife were threads so thin that they would be difficult to see with the naked eye.

Roxane looked coldly at Gregory and went back to eating while looking at her father with a murderous intent that was quite frightening for someone her age.

"Don't be immature, Roxane, you will be the future Matriarch of House Agrece. By then, you'll know that making difficult choices is something people should do with coolness." Wetting his throat with the wine, Achille looked at his daughter and commented calmly. His snake-like red eyes fixed on the small figure sitting on the other side of the table.

Honestly, Roxane was the perfect heir for him, if it weren't for her obsessive love for her brother, she would still be perfect. But his firstborn's coldness and indifference ceased to exist when it came to Alastor.

Roxane looked at him coldly, but didn't answer, although she hated to admit it, the man was right. In a world full of madness and terror, only cold rationality could make you survive longer.

That's how House Agrece stayed alive for so long, unlike the other Grimms Families.

"Of the twenty-five descendants of Cain who were blessed by God to help bring the world back into balance, only House Agrece still remains determined by our original intent. The others have either ceased to exist by marrying other humans and tainting our bloodline, or disappeared to die in some dark ditch."

Achille continued to teach Roxane, oblivious to the unpleasant look on her face.

The Grimms were originally descended from the twenty-five sons and daughters that Cain, the First Assassin, had with his countless wives throughout his immortal life.

But of the Twenty-Five Families, only House Agrece remained powerful and influential in the modern world today, the other Twenty-Four either failing to awaken the Assassin Eyes because of impure lineage or dying out over the years. Hunted and killed for the most diverse reasons.

At the end of thousands of years of existence, only Five Families of the original Twenty-Five still remain in the world. There are others, but the purity of their blood is so low that they can no longer be recognized as such.

As for helping these existing Houses, each patriarch or matriarch has never moved a muscle to help their distant relatives.

House Agrece believes that weakness is the original sin.

Abel died because he was weak, Cain killed because he could, and so he did. The strong are always right over anything else. It was a cruel and cold mentality, yes.

But the world has forced everyone to think the same way.

If you died because you were weak, blame yourself, not fate.

Roxane was indifferent to her father's words. She would marry her own brother like every other ancestor before her, that's how House Agrece remained strong, all its descendants intermarried practicing incest to the extreme. The purity of the bloodline was more important than anything else.

Only the purest blood could awaken the Killer Eyes, which in addition to granting extremely strong senses and an extraordinary physical body, gave the host a special Gift.

At the same time, a title was given to every Agrece, Grimm or Hunter as they wished to call themselves.

A gift given by God, something that no human or supernatural being could ever possess. Even the Holy Pope, the Supreme Pontiff of the Golden Church, didn't have God's love, but they, the House of Agrece, were bathed in God's Golden Grace.

Perhaps the pope tossed and turned all night in his soft bed thinking that they, the descendants of the original sinner, could earn God's love and he, the spiritual pillar of the whole world, could not.

As for marrying her brother, Roxane was more than happy for it to happen; in her eyes, they came into the world together and walked through it together. There was nothing more natural than that.

Anyone who tried to stop Alastor from being hers, she promised, would die in a painful and cruel way.

Noticing the frightening look on his ten-year-old daughter's face, Achille's face twitched slightly. He felt a little sorry for his son for marrying someone like Roxane.

"Rowena, your daughter is scary, she has the same mentality as our mother. Talk some sense into the scary thoughts that haunt her." Achille thought as he sighed wearily. Having a daughter like that was both a joy and a sorrow for him.

Gregory, with his eyes closed, had a small smile playing on his lips. Although this coexistence might seem strange in many people's eyes. It just reminded him how peculiar Agrece were.

"When Alastor arrives, he'll stay at home for a year." Roxane commented, eating a piece of steak while looking at her father with a deadly stare. There was no room for negotiation in her tone. Although it sounded like a request, it was more like an order.

An order that Achille didn't like one bit. "I still remember that I am the Patriarch of House Agrece, and as its patriarch, you still have to obey, Roxane." His red eyes were cold and fixed on his firstborn.

"Half a year." Seeing her father's eyes fall coldly on her, Roxane took a step back from the negotiations.

"A month." Achille answered back.

"Four months." Roxane gritted her teeth and took another step back.

"One month." Achille continued to negotiate, seemingly uncontested by her decision.

"Two months! Don't abuse your authority, old man." Roxane was practically spitting flames out of her eyes, staring at her father.

Achille looked at Roxane for a moment and nodded.

"So be it. Two months." A cunning smile played on his lips.

Seeing that smile, Roxane knew she had been tricked, but she said no more and ate. Each stab of the meat made a loud sound on the plate.

------------

P-atreon.com/TheRadiantPrince

(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)