Journey of the Son of Ares

In the midst of all the chaos in his mind and rigidness in his body, Amadeus was consumed with a single question.

'Does he... remember me?'

Orpheus' eyes reflected a careless disdain as he peered at everything below him, but did he know he was looking at a boy whose parents he had murdered only some years past?

Orpheus moved his gaze over Amadeus quickly as if he was just there to be passed by. "Michaela, I need you to do something for me," he said to the blonde woman.

Amadeus slowly gathered himself in a non-suspicious manner. Then his mind began to race with ideas of success. He had the information. All he had to do was to get out, tell Aurelius Orpheus would visit the King of Arkryk on the 12th, and justice would be done at long last.

Still, he had to wait to be dismissed, so he stood there, looking down at his feet impatiently. Orpheus and Angelica were discussing some political matters. Orpheus might have been a stinking pile of dogshit in the shape of a human, but he still had enough intelligence and self-preservation instinct to be aware of the relevant matters in his life.

Amadeus glanced to the side as nervousness started to creep up his spine. The bodyguards were there. Three men with black masks behind Uzbec. He shouldn't have looked, but he did, and in that brief moment, his eyes locked with Uzbec. It was only for an instant, but every cell in his body screamed at him for it. He looked away quickly, but Uzbec kept staring at him like Amadeus suspected he had been doing for the entire time.

Under his gaze, Amadeus did all he could to keep himself from breaking out in a sweat. He could feel as his senses became more acute. That's when he noticed Uzbec was breathing only through his mouth. The scent of the blonde woman's perfume caressed his nostrils, but the last thing he needed was to be set at ease.

Under Uzbec's gaze and beside Orpheus he found himself wondering why such beings were allowed to exist. Orpheus had massacred his family by the time he was 20 just so he could inherit the entire family fortune and Uzbec's trail of bodies was multiple times longer than that of the liveD which had already become notorious across the entire nation.

They were like some kind of lizards that had clothes themselves in human skin and prowled around, wreaking misery, pain, and impurity because it was all they knew.

"Great, please send him my regards, Michaela," Orpheus finished and turned to leave, passing by Amadeus without a glance.

Then they were gone... almost.

Right at the door, Uzbec stopped and turned. "Excuse me, servant, what exactly were you doing in this office?"

Amadeus raised his head, turning to face Uzbec. Even after the surprise, he retained the good sense to look at Uzbec's feet instead of his eyes. "I was requesting an opportunity, Sir," he said bowing his head.

"What opportunity?" Uzbec asked, making himself sound curious.

Amadeus paused and tried forming an answer that he hoped would not raise any suspicions. Orpheus was observing dubiously, looking like he would rather be in his quarters.

Then Michaela answered from behind so as to not waste any time, "he wanted a position as a decoy."

"Hmm, quite the odd request," Uzbec mused with a hand on his chin. His tone sounded so genuinely normal that Amadeus raised his gaze almost out of curiosity for one who could master the art of pretend so profoundly. And once again he met Uzbec's eyes and discovered that he truly was a different beast entirely. Somehow, within his eyes, there was not a bit of light. No kindness, no remorse, no sympathy, no sociality, no agreeableness. Not even a hint of anything human.

One's tone of voice was the hardest thing to fake. Amadeus knew it very well. But even though Uzbec was very adept at faking, such as gaze simply couldn't be faked.

"I thought I might be of more use that way," Amadeus answered hurriedly, putting his head back down.

Uzbec stepped forward. "You don't like your job?"

"Gah, what are you doing?" Orpheus scowled and grabbed Uzbec's arms from behind.

Uzbec slapped him off without looking back and walked up to Amadeus, looked down at him, and asked again "Do you not like your job."

"Yes, I do, Sir. Of course, I do. My maste—" Amadeus said, acting like he was trying to stay courageous. Then he realized he wasn't acting. He was shaking.

"Who are you?"

"321, Sir."

"Not your number. Your name."

"I don't understand, Sir. What did I do wr—"

"Your name!"

Amadeus took a glance at Orpheus who was right behind Uzbec shaking his head in annoyance. This was nothing to them. Amadeus didn't even know why it was happening, but to them, all of it was a game.

"Ulrich," Amadeus said the name of the real servant, looking down and putting a little sob in his voice.

Suddenly Uzbec calmed down. Then it was like Amadeus could feel the room temperature lower.

"You're from Duran, aren't you?" Uzbec said. "Like me."

Amadeus glanced up nervously. His heart was slowing but in an eerie way. Like it would slow all the way down to a stop.

Uzbec was smiling, his eyes squinted.

The panic settled in. It was a question he had to answer and do so quickly. He intuited the time he had before his answer would seem suspicious. Certainly, he had some leeway due to his earlier nervousness.

But that didn't mean the question was easy. It was simple, the depth it had seemed endless as Amadeus rushed through it.

It was possible that Uzbec had gone through the servants' records. He was after the liveD, and though he had gotten on Aurelius' trail, there had been a period when he was introduced to the job. Of course, the assumption was that the liveD was an organization of people which meant that they could have men on the inside.

If that was the case, which it probably was, Uzbec would indeed have gone through the files, and even if he hadn't memorized everybody's numbers and information, he would likely have remembered someone who was from his hometown. The possibility that he had noted that a servant named Ulrich happened to share part of his origins was real enough.

On the other hand, it was possible that he hadn't read the files. Even if he had it was more likely that he didn't remember any individuals. Hell, he could've remembered wrong. The chances of Ulrich being from any other town than Duran were marginally higher. But still, the possibility did exist.

Uzbec was a true sadist to the core.

He asked the one question, he could've been aware of and knew an infiltrator knew he could know. It was a question to be answered quickly. And most of all it was something an infiltrator would never ask the subject of his impersonation.

Amadeus cursed in his mind, his thoughts having been tied to a knot in the three seconds he just stood there.

Yes or no.

Did Uzbec read the files? Did he remember? What were the chances Ulrich was from Duran?

Amadeus wanted to check Orpheus' face for clues. However, he most certainly wore an expression of displeasure and confusion which could've indicated both Uzbec having read or not having read the files.

Amadeus made a face, and then cautiously moved his lips apart, the answer unclear until it slipped out of his mouth. "No."

"What?" Uzbec leaned in with an inquisitive look. "Really?" In the middle of that word, his tone shifted back from friendly to grim. He turned back to Orpheus. "It seems I remembered wrongly."

Amadeus glanced up and noticed the sweat caught on his brows. Then he saw Orpheus' half-grin. Something was wrong.

'Oh, no,' Amadeus thought slowly, one part of him in shock, the other already reckoning.

His instincts screamed at him to do something, but it was too late when Uzbec turned with a deeper darkness in his eyes and grabbed Amadeus' head with a steel grip. Amadeus didn't know what was happening. Only that it was the end of something bad and the beginning of something much, much worse.

Then his legs went out from under him and he felt his head be slammed on Michaela's desk. It repeated until he was numb and slumped.

***

When he woke up, he was naked in a dim, stained chamber and was tied to a cold metal chair with a tilted footrest. A terrible pain slowly sunk in, but it wasn't from the side of his head. He strained himself to look down with drowsy eyes and a scream escaped his mouth.

In place of his leg, there was a bloody stump.