The Duke's Passion

"... that is only possible now."

"I understand, Klaus, but this case is different." Samael shook his head, fully aware of where was Klaus was coming from. 

The La Crox siblings were used to showing their affection for each other through violence. They see each other competitively. Their bonding was to infuriate each other, but not to the point they wanted to kill each other.

A love and hate relationship.

That sort of relationship lasted for a long time until the present time, where only hate remains. 

"I always know Alphonse is someone dangerous," Samael explained while knocking his knuckles against the surface of the table lightly. "Dyrroth also feels the same. That why he... he made a way to banish Alphonse in the past."

"I thought what Dyrroth did is enough, but I was wrong." Samael continued as he gazed down to recall something in the past. "Back when I was a traveler, I stumble upon this small country flourishing. Its situation is eerily similar to ours. I didn't care at that time since, well, why would I?"

Even though Samael hadn't finished his story, they had guessed what would be the end of this story. Still, they listened while holding their breaths.

"So, I moved on and continue to travel. A year or two later, I came back to this land and..." Samael paused as he gazed up at them. "It's barely a kingdom."

"What?" Ramin gasped in disbelief. He couldn't help but clench his fist.

"Out of curiosity about how a flourishing small kingdom can be destroyed in a year or two, I investigate. Not that I planned to save it, but just to feed my curiosity. What came to me as a surprise was, the parasite who sucked the kingdom dry and orchestrated for its downfall is none other than Alphonse." Samael shrugged and rolled his eyes as telling this part of his journey to everyone felt anti-climatic.

"To make the story short, I met Alphonse and we fight. Before you think I did it for that country, I didn't. My gut feeling just told me he would do the same in here, which he admitted. So I killed him." 

"But here he is, alive and supporting Stefan?" Silvia murmured in horror, blinking twice as she failed to do so while listening.

"Exactly." Samael nodded. "Moving on, I tried to experiment on how he did it while dealing with those fucking undeads."

"The result is the puppeteer? But that is not Alphonse's ability." Yul spoke this time with curiosity in his voice.

"Well, as I've said, Alphonse is a crafty guy. We don't know if he purposely hid his actual abilities and only showed us what he thought we should know."

"Does that mean that body walking around freely in the palace is not his actual body?"

"That's a stupid question, Charlie." Ramin spat out the obvious. "What you should say is, killing the Alphonse in the palace wouldn't solve the problem."

"So bright, Ramin!" Samael nodded in satisfaction while Charlotte glared daggers at her colleague. "We should still be aware of Alphonse, who is in the palace, but our actual goal is to find his original body."

There was a moment of silence that ensued once again, but deep in their heart, they all agreed with that. To stop Alphonse madness, they had to kill his original body, or else he would come back to haunt them.

******

That was how our discussion about our first subject concluded. I could barely remember everything, but the memories Sam erased were steadily coming back to me. How they returned surely had to do with the Will coming back to me.

"So you two had conspired, huh?" Alphonse chuckled without a care at the sword pointing at his nape. "Oh, goodness... how can I not see this coming?"

"Because you are busy fucking me?" Beatrice chortled as well. "It was fun, though. I had always enjoyed my time with you, darling."

I blinked weakly, fighting off the demons in my head. My body felt so heavy as if they placed a gigantic rock on me.

"Well, I take that as a compliment, Beatrice. Thank you." His smirk remained while gazing down at me. "You are truly astonishing, Your Grace. It feels new that someone had finally deceived me."

A light scoff escaped my dry lips. If only he knew Sam was the first who deceived him, he wouldn't give me this credit.

"Duchess." Alphonse let out a sigh, wiping the blood off the floor and guided it to his mouth. He nodded in understanding while smacking his lips.

"So he is alive, after all." The corner of his lips curled up into an amused smirk. "I knew his death came off too easy. I shouldn't have let Stefan handle it, and did it myself."

So he was trying to trace my memories by tasting my blood. I tried to lift my arms, but it was impossible. It felt as though I was paralyzed. 

"No need for regret, Alphonse. You will die by your beloved bedmate." Beatrice humored. I couldn't see what she was doing right now, but it didn't faze him even the slightest.

Instead, Alphonse just stared at me in silence. He tilted his head to one side and then to the other. His gaze sent a chill down my gut as if he could see through my soul.

"Take my advice, Duchess. Kill Yul or you will die," he advised with genuine concern in his voice. "You don't want to die, do you?"

"That's not for you to worry about." I breathed my words out and winced at the sudden pain in my abdomen.

"Apparently, it is my problem as well now." My brow rose upon his remarks. "I can't wait a few more years and redo all this."

What was he talking about? I wondered.

"You don't even have a day more, Alphonse." Beatrice scoffed. "Thank you for everything, Alphonse. I will surely remember all those fun times."

"If you do not accept the core, you will pass it to your child. Congratula --" He couldn't finish his sentence as blood spurted on me, making me shut my eyes in instinct.

I weakly opened my eye, only to see the tip of the sword plunged into his throat.

Beatrice held Alphonse's shoulder so his body wouldn't land on me. She pulled it away and tossed his lifeless body beside me. 

"Goodness, my Queen. What a terrible state you are!" she exclaimed as she squatted beside me. I didn't know if she was being sarcastic, but she still held my arm to assist me up.

"Thanks," I said as I looked at her, resting my arms across her shoulder.

"This is girl power. Women domination." The side of her lips stretched into a smirk as she winked at me. I could not help but chuckle weakly.

"What he said..."

"That guy will say anything that messes with people's heads. Don't mind him." Beatrice shrugged my worries off. I glanced at her once again and nodded. 

I couldn't trust any word Alphonse said.

While Beatrice dragged me away from the throne hall, a sudden sense of dread crawled up my spine. Beatrice also stopped. Behind us was something dark and powerful.

"Crap…" she cursed under her breath and turned her head at me. "… it looks like he is still a step ahead of us."

Beatrice turned around with great difficulty while carrying my weight. My eyes instantly fell on the corpse that was now standing while looking back at us.

"As I was saying, congratulations on your pregnancy, Your Grace," Alphonse smirked and raised his brows briefly. "But alas..."

We couldn't react on time as he suddenly appeared in front of us. 

"My Queen —!" Alphonse sent her flying, and she crashed on the wall. 

"Bea." I choked as I felt something pierce through my chest. I slowly moved my head to him, then gazed down to see his hand plunged into my chest.

'Sam, I'm... dead.'