Chapter 17: An Interrogation (2)
Freeing Zaira from his grip, Bazel leaned back down in his seat with crossed arms and signaled her to go ahead with his chin.
Rubbing her own chin with teary eyes, wincing as she touched the bruise that had formed, she began talking, "My house is one of pure lineage, as is required to be one of the main noble houses. Over several generations the bloodline gets diluted and the best way to fix that is to bring in new blood from outside. That is where branch families come in, as they take in commoners like yo- Like Captain Neto, and give them the gift of our own bloodline to increase our number. When we need new blood we usually take it from these branch families, and only the best one of them are allowed to breed with a pure maiden from the main family. Understand so far?"
Bazel tapped the metal desk as he was bombarded by all these new terms and unfamiliar phrases he had never heard be used in such a way before.
"There is something unique in your 'blood' then? And without a fresh source from the outside it will eventually degenerate, so the structure of the branch families and 'commoner' organizations they control is set up to solve this problem" said Bazel slowly, trying his best to wrap his head around things.
Zaira nodded happily, like a teacher who finally got through to a slow student. Before she could continue Bazel asked another question, "And why did you not refer to be as a commoner just now and instead used Neto?"
"Ahah, I knew it!" exclaimed Zaira, "You actually do not know that you are different, how fascinating. I have heard the story about rogues but I never thought they actually existed..."
Hearing another unfamiliar term get thrown out Bazel decided to drop the question and instead focus on the main point, "Okay forget that, get back on track with my original question. How does this bloodline continuation crap have to do with Lily?"
"Because she is what we would consider the lowest of the low, someone who has received a pure bloodline but did not exhibit any kind of change whatsoever. These people are regarded largely as trash, wasting away the precious pure lineage that they were given. Everyone from my world knows that these guys are no good, always the scummiest individuals. There have been many cases of mud bloods doing sick things like killing their brethren out of spite or aiding a rival family out of anger."
Sadness and anger was shown on her face as she explained this last part, prompting Bazel to ask, "Which is something that happened to your family?"
Zaira nodded and explained, "I cannot tell you much as it is not something for your ears, even if you are a rogue, but yes it did. At first I did not believe the tales about how evil mud bloods were, I thought that it was just some kind of unfortunate accident or bad luck. I even was kind to the one in my family and tried to help him find other work that he could do. We knew each other since we were kids so I knew he was not a bad guy, or so I had thought..."
Tears began to form in her eyes once more, this time not out of pain but out of a deep sorrow, "but... they took all the kindness and understanding that was given to them and threw it out the window, instead deciding to cooperate with our most hated of enemies to lead some of the top members of my family into an ambush. We suffered many losses that day but among them was...was...my mom.."
Zaira was unable to speak anymore as her tears went from welling up to fully unleashing, her sobs echoing throughout the empty room.
"So that is the reason then...she took her anger and sorrow and projected it onto Lily just because she was afflicted by the same problem as someone from Zaira's past. This problem, perhaps a genetic one, is something that is demonized in her 'world'. No matter the reason though, everyone must pay their dues," thought Bazel.
He reached over the table once more, his hand reaching out as if he were going to grab a cup, over to the neck of the crying Zaira. Bazel's eyes were slowly turning from their usual light brown to a murky black and his hair's silver highlights were increasing slowly. By the time his hand was just in front of Zaira's neck his eyes were completely black and his hair half silver and half black.
His pocket watch was vibrating intensely, but it was completely ignored.
Today, only death would absolve Zaira McGrath of her sins.
The sound of something snapping rang out throughout the metal room, followed by silence.
"I think that is far enough" said a magnetic and regal voice.
Looking at his hand that never reached its destination, Bazel instead gently wrapped his hand around the throat of Zaira and stood up. Walking over to her to stand behind, he looked over at the person who had snapped the lock of the room clean off.
Amazing brown hair that would make any women cry in jealousy, deep brown eyes, and a face that looked like it was sculpted by the god of beauty personally. The mysterious noble brother of Zaira stood in the doorway, still wearing his over the top fur coat and white gloves.
Zaira, who had her neck still grasped by Bazel, heard her brother speak and with glee she said, "Noble brother, you finally came to get me. I have been so bored down here in the commoner's world, even answering the questions of this rather rude rogue just for entertainment. Hurry and take me back home!"
The man in the doorway laughed a bright laugh and said, "Of course I will, you have spent long enough down here so I think you should be humbled enough by now. Although you did cause a bit of trouble apparently, seeing the situation you found yourself in..."
He then stepped in fully through the doorway, making the entire room feel smaller with his muscular frame, and looked at Bazel carefully.
With a respectful tone but one that was still full of regality he said, "Rogue, whatever my younger sister has done I hope that we can work things out like mature adults. While she is a bit of an idiot at times, she means no harm even if she went too far with a prank or said something that seemed hurtful. I sent her here to the commoner world to hopefully get her to iron out some of her bad habits, but seeing that she was taken away and transported here so quickly and suddenly...it seems such habits did not fully die off."
Hearing the torment that Lily went through be described a "prank" that meant no harm caused Bazel's already low mood to plummet even further. He almost unconsciously tore off Zaira's head but a bit of his rationality still remained, she was a valuable hostage against a strong enemy.
"Prank...?" began Bazel in a tone that showed the depth of his fury, "Does getting my little sister beaten up by several men constitute a prank? Dumping water on her head every day for almost half a year, destroying her clothes, spitting on her, getting all the students and teachers to openly call her a whore and slut, have the teachers secretly give her poor grades, and then to top it all of getting her fucking KIDNAPPED and held for ransom after giving her a fake job?!?"
The kind smile on the smile of the older brother of Zaira faded as he heard such words, a look of shock appeared on his face as he looked at Zaira with a questioning look.
Under the gaze of her beloved older brother, even Zaira who felt little guilt about her actions began to start to question herself,
"I...I did not do all of that. Also I never wanted any harm to come to her, I just wanted to scare her a bit and vent some of my anger..." said Zaira weakly.
"I Tiernan McGrath am deeply sorry for the actions of my younger sister, I am prepared to do whatever is required to atone so long as you spare her life, first you must let her go however" said the older brother with a deep bow, whose name was now revealed to be Tiernan.
Bazel chuckled darkly in response, looking at Tiernan with hate and anger, and spoke but two words, "Make me."
"Very well rogue, but I will make it up to you even so" said Tiernan with grace as he walked towards Bazel.
With each step he took it appeared to Bazel that Tiernan was filling up with power, his every step becoming heavier and his aura turning beast like. By the time Tiernan was directly in front of Bazel he felt like he was being stared at by an enormous yet majestic beast of myth.
His body entered fight or flight at once, but instead of choosing his body's normal flight response a power from within demanded to fight.
Almost on reflex the hand that was not holding onto Zaira flew out and formed a fist, a completely untrained jab that barely constituted a proper punch.
Tiernan was more than content to just let his powerful body take the pathetic hit, and perhaps use the time to remove the hand that was on Zaira's neck, but right before it made contact with his chest all of his natural instincts screamed danger.
Jumping backwards with such force that he left an indent on the ground, Tiernan looked at the fist that he had narrowly dodged in shock. He felt a cool liquid pour down his forehead and raised his hand to feel it, learning that he had broken out in a cold sweat.
A slow rolling laughter started, raising in volume as it came from deep in Tiernan's chest and out his mouth, sounding like the roar of a lion.
"How surprising rogue, you are not so simple after all. It seems I must get a little serious in order to ensure my sister is not harmed."
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