Chapitre 79: Chapter 35: Zack’s Role
[Fiore's castle, One of the guest rooms]
"Are you feeling better?" Damian asked as he looked over to Emily, whose eyes were swollen and red after crying too much.
"Yeah." She nodded as she sniffed.
Damian had already told Emily everything that happened in the past few days that she had no knowledge of. The two sat on the bed in silence as they had no idea how to react to each other after all that had happened.
After a few more seconds of awkwardness, the two coincidently apologised at the same time.
Damian let out a chuckle, "What are you sorry for? You did nothing wrong."
Hearing that did nothing, but to make her feel more guilty. "I did. This is all my fault. If I'm not born with this title, you wouldn't have joined phantom and... The three of you wouldn't have gotten hurt."
She then bit her lower lip in anger before dropping her head into her hands, "...It's all my fault."
"You're joking, right? If you're not born with this title, I wouldn't have met you, you know that? You wouldn't have met those other people, who were willing to put their lives on the line to protect you." Damian argued back with a scowl.
"Besides, all three of us were injured not because of you. Even though you're related in first incident... BUT, the one that happened last night was none of you business. Erik was looking for me, not you. Not only that, all three of us did something based on our own wills, which got nothing to do with you. You hear me? So, stop blaming yourself for it."
Just as he finished, he gave Emily a flick on her forehead, wanting to wake her up from her delusion. "Don't worry about all these little things. You're the Fiore's princess, in the future, you're going to see far worse."
She rubbed her forehead gingerly and looked up to meet with Damian's serious expression, which was a rare sight.
"Emily Patterson, are you listening?" He called out as he raised his voice a little. She said nothing, but she did give him a hesitant nod as a response to his question.
Seeing that nod of hers, his expression finally softened, "That's good."
He then fell back onto the soft bed exhaustingly. However, once his body met with the king-sized mattress, he flinched momentarily.
Concerned, Emily immediately went closer to him to check on him, "Damian, are you okay?!"
With that reaction of his, guilt just stabbed her heart painfully, especially knowing that she could not do anything to help him.
"Man, I've almost forgotten about these. Gah, she's looking at me like that again..." He thought as he forced a smile. "I'm fine, Emily."
However, him clutching onto his stomach proved otherwise.
Seeing that she was staring, he immediately removed his hand even though his wounds protested. "I'm kidding, did I scare you? I just wanted to lighten up the mood. Ahahaha... Bad joke, huh."
"Hey, you really don't have to act around me." Emily said as she shifted her gaze onto the ground, "Since we are already in this situation, we might as well just be more honest with each other—"
Suddenly, she thought of something from Damian's story.
"...the one that happened last night was none of you business. Erik was looking for me, not you..."
As Damian's words repeated in her mind, she tried her best to process what Damian said.
The word 'Erik' stood out suddenly.
"Erik... Isn't that the name of Zack's cousin? If I'm not wrong, he is in phantom. Is this a coincidence? Or is this 'Erik' actually Zack's cousin?" Emily thought as she stared at the ground, "...Does Damian know any of this?"
Damian noticed that Emily looked a little unsettled, so he asked if she was alright. The first time he called out to her, she did not respond. But, the second time he called with the help of a gentle shook on her shoulder, his words finally got through her.
She looked up at him with a perplexed look on her face.
"Man, you're always too engaged with your thoughts, huh. Are you okay? What were you think about?" Damian asked as he shook his head disapprovingly.
"Damian, is the 'Erik' guy who attacked you related to the Jackson clan in some way?" She asked, disregarding whatever he just said.
"...Hey, you haven't even answered my answer yet." Damian said as he threw her a droll look. "Ah, oh well. I'm not sure about that. I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not in good terms with that guy. Other than knowing that his name is Erik and that the element he possessed is shadow, I know nothing of the guy. But, why did you ask such a random question?"
She looked away and answered, "It's not a random question... I just suddenly remembered about Zack telling me that he had a cousin that is named 'Erik' and that he is in phantom for some reason... Anyways, do you know where is he now?"
Damian raised both of his eyebrows in shock. It was quite a lot to take in, but he did. "I'm not sure myself, but I'm sure that he will be tortured, at some torture chamber, to squeeze out as many information as they can from him"
"Tortured...?" The word echoed throughout her mind. "Does Fiore do these stuff?" She asked quietly as if she was talking herself. However, Damian's sharp ears caught her question.
"Well, I'm not sure. But, you shouldn't be surprised. There are many families, clans and organisations that use this method to get information out. Even we are using it. This place is crazier than Earth, trust me."
Tapping his chin, he suggested, "If it's not that, then he probably is executed or going to be. Someone like Erik will definitely not give out any information about phantom. He is also immune to truth serum. So, doing anything to him will be pointless, honestly."
Without warning, Emily shot up to her feet. "We can't let him be executed!" She announced as she felt a surge of determination.
Hearing that, he raised a brow, baffled, "Emily? Why are you saying that? He isn't the good guy, you know?"
"Well, first of all, there are some things that Zack wanted to ask Erik. If he dies, Zack wouldn't be able to find the answers, and what if the reason for his joining wasn't something as evil as we perceive to be?" She explained, "I mean besides all these 'phantom' labels, a life is still a life. We can't just take it away like that."
He was shocked by how she felt at first. To him, that was something idiotic. A bad guy is a bad guy and he should be punished for his deeds. But, then again, how far should the punishment go?
Was he that bad of a criminal was he?
Is execution going to be too much for him?
After all, it's true that a life is a life and it shouldn't be taken away that easily.
But, despite the way he initially thought, he still got Emily's point, "I think I get it. The reason for me to join phantom was to gain power to protect Patricia and you. Mine wasn't something evil to began with. I just wanted to protect people who I'm close to. But, somehow in the process, phantom turned me into 'something evil'. So, there's a chance that Erik had something similar, huh?"
"Now that I think about it, the order to not kill me was only given last night. This means that he could have easily killed me all those other times, but somehow, he didn't. I don't know if this is just a coincidence that he happen to not want to kill me or that killing me had slipped out off his mind, but I guess either way is not something you can call evil, right?" He added on, agreeing to Emily's point.
"See?" She nodded in response and made her way to the door. "...I'll need to talk to the others about this. Also, please, get some rest and don't walk around so often. I need you to get well soon, 'kay? Well, I'll see you later."
"Yes, madam." He grinned and gave her a playful salute as she walked out the door.
*****
[Fiore's castle, Garden]
"Your majesty, the princess is with Damian now. She wasn't in the best emotional state, but she seem to be alright with Damian." Jai reported as he suddenly appeared behind the king.
"Good job. Have you heard anything from Garrett about the phantom member?" The king asked as he gently wiped his mouth with a napkin.
"No, not yet. Until now, Garrett still couldn't get any information from him." Jai answered.
"Well, if this conti--"
The king's words were interrupted by Ben, "Oh yeah, I just remembered. For some reason, this Erik guy seemed to fight the same way as the Jackson clan members."
The king then looked over to him, wanting him to explain more.
"How should put this? There's this point in time when he injected his own energy in his punches and kicks." Ben explained as he laid back onto his seat. "Which, honestly, isn't something a normal ability user can easily do. No?"
"Maybe he is one of the lost clan members, who is still alive?" Mary suggested as she rubbed her chin.
"Hmm, I doubt. There were only four members' bodies whom we couldn't recover, Zack, Kate, the clan leader and his wife. All of the other members are found dead and their bodies were found sequentially. Moreover, there wasn't any official members who goes but the name Erik." Jai debunked.
"Erik...?" Beck thought as he found some familiarity in the name, "Strange... I feel like I've heard Zack talking about once... Didn't Zack said that it was his cousin?"
"I remembered!" Beck suddenly shouted, which was something rare. He quickly apologised for raising his voice and continued, "Zack has a cousin whose name is Erik."
"How did you know that?" Yukiko questioned, wanting some assurance.
"Zack told me about once. It was vague, but if I'm not wrong, that was what he said." Beck replied. "However, I don't know if this Erik is actually the Erik that Zack was talking about."
The queen let out a charming giggle and said, "We can't know for sure, can we? The only people who knows the answer are Zack and Kate, right?"
Hearing what his wife said, the king needed to make his second order. He looked at Jai from the corner of his eye and instructed him once more, "If that's the case, then I want you to bring Zack to the torture chamber where the man is. If he can vouch that Erik is indeed somewhat related to the clan and has learnt some of the clan's techniques, then keep him alive. We need to keep every user we can, if we don't want the whole clan to completely vanish."
He then picked up his teacup for a sip, just before speaking once more, "However, if he is completely unrelated to the clan, we will execute him."
"Wait, isn't that too much?" Mary asked nervously, "Forgive me, your majesty, but are we seriously allowing Zack to determine that phantom's life? I don't think that's something a twelve years old boy could handle. I mean, what if something goes wrong and he regretted his decision? That scar will follow him for the rest of his life."
The king looked at her directly before taking a deep breath to answer. Even though she just made eye contact with the prestigious figure for a second, she could not help but to fear.
That man had a stare that could easily kill.
"As of now, he will be the natural heir to the clan, so he will have the responsibility to make decisions like this. Sooner or later, he'll need to do these things. It will be better if he starts doing it now, so he could handle it better in the future."
After hearing his explanation, Mary had no choice but to accept, "Yes... I got it, your majesty."
The king was right, Zack being the oldest member, would naturally be the rightful heir to the Jackson clan. So, he will be making many difficult decisions in the future, and making him do that now would be a way for him to train his resilience.
However, Mary still could not help but to feel sorry for him. Only twelve years old and he needed to carry the burden of the title of clan leader.
...Not only that, at his young age, he will already be introduced to the nightmarish reality of their world.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone