The Kind of Evil

‎The Black Hands came out of their hiding when they knew they wouldn't be able to survive when the wyverns came. They looked at the damage that the wyverns did, flattening the whole capital city, leaving only debris.

‎"My Lord, we kept our promise, nobody dies, but a few of us are heavily injured..." Herman said as he went down to one knee. "We have to treat the wounded first, if My Lord allows us," he lowered his head.

‎Rasmus turned around to look at all the Black Hands behind him, kneeling. Some of them could barely kneel properly because of the wounds on their bodies.

‎"Take your time..." Rasmus said as he looked at the smoke and flames all over the capital city. "Bring them inside the palace and there should be a lot of medicine in there," he looked at Herman, Erdinand, and Joshua.

‎"Yes, My Lord!" Herman bowed his head and immediately told the others to enter the palace.

‎"Viscount Heward, what about him?" Rasmus asked.

‎Herman looked at Erdinand and Joshua, wondering if they knew about Heward's whereabouts. However, Erdinand shook his head as he looked at Rasmus, and Rasmus hummed with understanding.

‎"I gave him what he deserved for helping me. As long as he didn't die by my hand, that's not my fault he died now," Rasmus muttered, and nodded his head.

‎All the Black Hands went into the palace to treat the wounded. Rasmus, Aris, the Jester, and Yur were the only ones that stayed outside the palace. Aris was still shocked by what had just happened, and for the first time, she felt paranoid about her well-being.

‎"There's a chamber inside the palace that belongs to the Princess. There's a spacious and private frigidarium you can use to clean yourself. Yur can accompany you there, maybe Yur can help you find if there's something wrong with your body," Rasmus said, staring at Aris's discomfort.

‎"Let's go there, Lady Aris... Let's go there..." Yur turned into a child form and held Aris's hand.

‎Aris stared down at Yur with a cold gaze, but immediately softened when Yur squeezed her hands adorably. She nodded and carefully held Yur in her arms like a plush toy before she looked at Rasmus.

‎"Take your time..." Rasmus said before Aris could say a word.

‎Aris nodded and went inside the palace, leaving Rasmus alone with the Jester. She glanced at Rullein's orb that was in Rasmus's hand, but she knew that she didn't want to bring Rullein with her in that condition.

‎"Everything is destroyed..." The Jester said as he looked at the city. "You must be thrilled to find these people who condemned you finally died to what they deserve," he looked at Rasmus with a grin on his face.

‎"No, I don't really care if they're dead or alive. Their disgust and hatred were justified since they must have lost someone important during my father's rebellion," Rasmus answered as he looked down at Rullein's orb that slowly oozed dark energy. "What about you, Nameless Man? Are you happy that you finally avenged your wife's death?" He asked as he slowly put the orb down and took a few steps away from it.

‎"I'm so satisfied... I'm thrilled and I want to display their heads in a place where everyone can see it. I want everyone to see the fear in their eyes..." The Jester answered as he giggled and turned into a manic laughter.

Rasmus kept his eyes on Rullein's orb that seemed to grow in size and the smoke around her grew more aggresively.

"Are you?" Rasmus asked, glancing at the Jester's manic giggle as he scratched his head like a madman.

The question hung in the air longer than it should have when the Jester heard it. The Jester slowly lifted his head and stared into Rasmus's unreadable gaze that was pointed at him.

"Yes! I am!" The Jester shouted and giggled once again, his pupils almost rolling back completely as he scratched his face with his nail, scratching off the skin on his face.

Ramsus stared at him without showing any expression and could see the madness in the Jester's eyes. He watched how the Jester peeled off the skin from his face, but was surprised by what was revealed. He saw another skin underneath the Jester's face, but wrinkly and damaged skin as if it was burned. He found out that the Jester had been using someone's face and skin to hide his real identity.

"Her name was Celline..." The Jester muttered and stopped peeling off his face. Half of the face was hanging down from his face, his eyes were blank and empty. "I wasn't lying about her, Count Blackheart. She was a Black Hand..." He continued.

Rasmus's eyes stayed on the Jester's face, still cold and unreadable.

"I wasn't a Jester or a clown..." The Jester raised his brows, the movement of his face naturally peeled the fake skin off his face. "But I was, to her... I was the reason she could laugh and smile. I was her personal Jester, the man who could bring light to her dark life..." He continued, smiling softly, but his gaze was still empty and distant.

"One day..." The Jester slowly moved his gaze toward Rasmus. "One day she came home, wounded... just like those Black Hands earlier. She came home with blood all over her body, trying her best to stop the bleeding," he continued as he began to clench his fists.

"As a loving husband, I left the house and went to buy some herbs and medicine for my wife. But..." The Jester's hand began to peel off the skin on his face. "When I came back, the people surrounded our house, burning the house down as they screamed. Witch! Witch! Witch!" He continued as he glared at Rasmus and raised his hand as he held a spear that he grabbed from the ground, reenacting the event.

"Witch... witch..." The Jester's voice was low as he glared at Rasmus and pointed the spearhead at him.

Rasmus's eyes followed where the Jester's eyes were, not moving a muscle as he listened to the Jester's story.

"But they weren't wrong... they were right..." The Jester thrust the spear toward Rasmus, but stopped before the tip of the spear could stab Rasmus's throat. "My wife was a witch... someone who learned dark magic. I knew that, but she learned that to help the Blackheart family. I accepted her for who she was, fully..." He muttered as he dropped the spear.

"What did I do? I forced my way back, but as I entered the house, I couldn't find her..." The Jester collapsed to his knees as he peeled more of the skin from his face, his scalp and neck. His expression was as confused as he was at that event. "But then I heard laughter and shout from the backyard of our house, realizing there were more people at the back of our house..." he said as he slowly stood up and pretended to walk away as if he was leaving the house.

The Jester turned around, walking at a fast pace until he suddenly collapsed with tears in his eyes. The Jester's eyes were wide and red, tears falling to his chin like waterfalls.

"I watched my wife nailed to the tree, her limbs were cut off and displayed like pieces of meat! They hunt and tied her limbs on the branches of the tree!" The Jester screamed his lungs out, his voice filled with rage. "They mutilated her alive! They made her see her own limbs hanging next to her! They made her watch!" He dug his nails into the cobblestone road, peeling off his nails as his fingers began to bleed.

Rasmus watched and listened to the Jester's story, and still, he didn't show any expression. He stood there, watching the Jester reenact the event of his wife's death.

"Even after all that... she was still alive when they nailed her shoulders, her abdomen onto the tree. She was too weak to scream, too weak to do anything but watched those stacked woods under the tree... I was powerless..." The Jester slammed his head onto the ground. " They began to burn her... they burned her alive while I was petrified by what I had just saw..." His voice trembled, unable to contain his emotion anymore.

"Then my vision blurred when I saw and heard her scream her lungs out. Her eyes were wide and red, her mouth bleed and vomited blood, limbless and bleeding. That was when anger took me, the demon inside me went to the surface..." The Jester slowly got up and grabbed the spear.

The Jester reenacted how he thrust and swung the spear, killing everyone that was around him. Rasmus stayed put as the Jester swung his spear impossibly close to his neck and face. Suddenly, the Jester dropped the spear and looked up as if he was staring at his wife who was hanging on the tree and was being devoured by the flame.

"I climbed the burning woods and embraced the flame as I climbed the tree to grab her limbless body. But she was already dead, burned to a crisp. Her beautiful eyes had melted. There was no sign of her anymore..." The Jester hugged the air as he looked down with tears in his eyes, threatening to fall to his burned and disfigured face.

"Celline... my love..." The Jester muttered as he slowly closed his eyes and tears fell to his chin.

Rasmus closed his eyes after he listened to the Jester's story until suddenly a soft hand pressed against his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder and saw Rullein awoken from her slumber.

"What a painful emotion..." Rullein muttered, staring down at the Jester, feeling and tasting his emotion. "Would you like to see it firsthand? How they killed his wife?" She glanced at Rasmus with a frown on her face.

"No, I don't want to," Rasmus shook his head, noticing Rullein's eyes had gotten darker compared to before. "His story-telling is already more than enough..." He muttered as he looked down at the Jester.

After a complete silence for a few seconds, Rasmus decided to open his mouth.

"You found out that the royal family did this to your wife?" Rasmus asked.

"Yes..." The Jester nodded as he slowly stood up. "I found that out..." He stared into Rasmus's eyes with an empty and cold gaze.

"So yes... I'm thrilled and satisfied that I managed to decapitate the royal family. I want the world to see their heads hanging just like how my wife hung on the tree like a piece of meat!" The Jester answered with his face right in front of Rasmus.

"Then let the world know, that we killed everyone here," Rasmus responded, staring into the Jester's eyes.