Emperor's Shadow (3)

***

Ryuk's perspective:

In the midst of all the chaos that Ray had created, two purple eyes which had never left the Ceremony Hall kept watch on the curious child who tried to gather evidence from the explosion site.

I could see why his majesty asked me to make sure these two were in safe hands; Samuel was explainable as he comes from an ordinary family, but Ray... He shares a lot more in common with his father than I thought. Nolan thought. I will have to ask Thomas to keep an eye on him later on.

After Thomas arrived at the scene, Nolan wanted to walk away from the scene and let him handle the rest when he felt a strange unexplanable sensation in his heart as he turned around to see a white orb rising towards the sky through the Ceremony Hall.

"... My liege... Is this truly your will?" Nolan asked as the orb vanished before his eyes.

Unable to bear the sight in front of him, Nolan closed his eyes and vanished into nothingness.

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Allen Family Manor

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Living room

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After the incident had occurred, Ray and Thomas had left the Ceremony Hall almost immediately after getting a call from Alfred who informed them that an unexpected guest was waiting for them. It was a code word to tell them that Grey was waiting for them.

Ray did show a bit of dissatisfaction at the news when he heard that he couldn't visit the forensic lab to get a closer view of the dead bodies but he kept quiet about it throughout the journey.

Although this was a stage play to him, he never showed any signs of anger towards his uncle or Alfred. That emotion was foreign to him even after he experienced it many times because of Moriarty. He thought of it as a sign of weakness because Grey taught him that anger never solves any problems; it only elevates its difficulty.

During this period he thought it would be better to find a good way to convince his father that he wasn't at the centre of this ordeal.

However, he didn't need to worry about it as Grey had diverted his attention to a different direction.

"It's that ominous number three again!" Grey shouted in anger while scratching his head in front of the whiteboard that he brought from his laboratory.

"What's wrong with the number three?" Ray asked confused by the fact that his father had gone completely off the topic.

"Triangles! I hate triangles! Bermuda triangle! Bennington triangle! Taured triangle! All of these had some mysterious disappearance cases, murder cases and supernatural cases attached to them!" Grey answered.

"He tried to investigate all those cases and almost lost his mind in the process," Alfred explained with a sigh.

"Dad... You tried to investigate cases dating back to 28034 years ago? Are you insane?" Moriarty asked, genuinely questioning his rationality.

"I ran out of cases to solve..." Grey replied, drawing a triangle on the board grumpily.

"Are all of you just going to ignore the fact that we are here to discuss how to maintain Ray's curiosity? He just in a pit of fire to investigate the bodies! For the Emperor's sake... Are you all going to purposefully ignore that?" Thomas complained with a groan.

"Oh right... Great job, son! That is exactly how you should act at a crime scene that is about to be destroyed!" Grey stated with a thumbs-up towards me which left the three of us speechless.

"The things that I witness in this family..." Alfred mumbled with a sigh.

Sometimes I wonder if he is like us... Moriarty thought.

Or it may be that Uncle and Dad both have serious and childish sides to them; they are twins, after all. Ray replied.

Thomas, who still didn't speak a word until now, looked like he was enraged by his older brother's words.

"Why don't we change the topic and focus on something actually interesting?" Grey tried to calm his brother down while looking away from him. "The question right now is who could kill those two Syndicate members near the Ceremony Hall and get away with it without leaving a trace?"

"At first, I thought Lyrien had started to cause trouble within the Syndicate, but he hadn't made any reports yet, nor will he try to blow them up near the Ceremony Hall where both of you were. So, I will leave him out of the suspicion box," Grey drew a small box at the corner of the board and started to write the surnames of the major families including the Allens, the League of Hunters and those of the Extraterrestrial Alliance.

His main policy while investigating a case was to start from the big leagues, the people who no one else would try to suspect and it included his own family members as well since he believed that emotional attachments are a liability in problems like this.

"Silverhearts have a parasitic relationship with the Syndicate where they cover for each other's crimes with the Silverhearts manipulating the evidence and in exchange, the Syndicate kills their enemies for a lower price," Grey explained, walking back and forth.

"But to put a bomb there without any of you noticing is nearly impossible... It's as if the murderer was present in the Ceremony Hall and planted the bombs when the waiter was about to get out... However, that person would have to be an extremely skilled wizard or witch to do that, or..." Grey stopped in his tracks and looked at the ceiling for a second before closing his eyes. "Sigh... It's going to take me a while to solve this. Alfred, can you please bring me some pie? I can't think about this with an empty stomach."

"As you wish, Master Grey, I will be back in a few minutes," Alfred replied, walking out of the door.

"I have to take care of some paperwork, so I will take my leave as well," Thomas stated before leaving with Alfred.

After a few minutes had passed, Grey made sure that their footsteps had completely gone silent before looking in Ray's direction.

"Why did you do it?" Grey asked calmly. "If a wizard or witch at the level of Thomas had tried to use magic in the Ceremony Hall, they would easily be detected by the danger sense developed by them through years of experience. However, if someone at your level sends invisible nanobots to follow the waiter and kill him afterwards... No one would be able to sense it. For kids, they haven't even developed their danger senses and for people at the level of Thomas, those are like bugs that mean no harm to him."

I am done for... He knows... Ray thought.

"Did they try to assassinate you again?" Grey asked desperately. "Please tell me it was self-defence."

"After I passed the trial from Mother, she gave me an additional gift. She helped me develop my danger sense, and today, something triggered it; I tried to search for the person who seemed to have a nervous expression and found the waiter who was coming towards me with a plate full of deserts. When I mentioned the word poison, he backed off. I sent a few invisible nanobots after him, and then Wally, who had registered the type of attires the Assassin's Syndicate wore, warned me of the impending danger, and I exploded them. I didn't want to kill the waiter... He was forced to do this but... His eyes told me that he had to protect something, and that's why I killed the three of them, hoping that whoever he was trying to protect was safe," Ray explained.

"You..." Grey tried to say something but calmed himself down before looking away at the board and pressing his temple.

"I am sorry... I am sorry for not being there to protect you." Grey gritted his teeth in anger. "You did a good job, don't blame yourself too much for it. Leave the Syndicate to me, I will take care of it."