Within the grand, vacant corridors of the palace, the heavy thud of boots carved a distinct rhythm through the morning air.
Len's long fingers had not loosened their grasp around Eric's wrist; his hand remained anchored there like a measured, calculated restraint.
Together, they forged ahead past the majestic imperial chambers, where a divine, blue-and-white aura constantly emanated from the ancient sapphire stones embedded along the walls.
Due to that magical illumination, every single corner of the hallway appeared perfectly clear and distinct, mirroring the absolute clarity of daylight.
"Have you partaken of any nourishment for the morning?" Len inquired while maintaining his stride, his neck held perfectly straight. His tone drifted into the chilly air of the hallway with absolute casualness.
Feeling the firm pressure of Len's fingers upon his wrist, Eric kept his pace perfectly aligned with his companion. Looking straight ahead, he responded in a flat, even tone, "No, I have not tasted a single thing yet. I was heading directly toward you from my chamber."
Turning his crimson pupils a fraction, he weighted his next words with a deeper gravity, "Because the curiosity to discern the root of that stark, unyielding anger you harbored upon your return last night was paramount within me."
The moment Eric's query hung in the quiet air, Len's advancing boots came to a sudden, rigid halt upon the floor. Though the thickness of the plush carpet muted the sound, the velocity of his entire frame dropped to an immediate zero
With Len abruptly remaining stationary, Eric anchored his steps right beside him.
They had arrived precisely near the upper threshold of the grand imperial staircase, where the wide steps leading downward rested mere paces away.
The clear light of the sapphire stones lay stretched across the descent. Even now, Len's hand secured Eric's wrist with that same unbothered authority.
Len smoothly turned his neck backward. His gaze lingered between the vacant hallway behind them and Eric's stark features. At this exact moment, a peculiar shadow of deep perplexity and inner friction traced across Len's piercing countenance.
The lines of his visage shifted as though he were actively trying, and failing, to unlock a sealed door within his own mind.
"I do not know it myself..." Len replied in an incredibly low, hesitant murmur. The absolute blankness settling upon his features vividly betrayed that he was entirely detached and unaware of the true catalyst behind the tempest that had erupted within him the previous night.
"I truly possess no knowledge as to why that sudden friction and resentment overtook my frame yesterday."
Eric narrowed his crimson, analytical pupils a fraction. He dropped a brief glance toward the firm restraint Len maintained upon his wrist, before pinning his eyes straight back onto his companion's perplexed features, murmuring in an incredibly low tone,
"Yesterday evening... what exactly transpired, Len?"
The moment that query floated through the empty corridor, Len's gaze dissolved into the void. Within the sealed chambers of his mind, the hazy, heavy, and burning memories of the previous evening began to reconstruct themselves one by one.
He began to flip through those dark pages of his recollection.
"The exact moment my boots abandoned the boundaries of that mortal human realm and I crossed back into our domain..." Len commenced, his pitch turning incredibly low and weighted, mirroring a distant, suppressed echo. He rotated his wrist a fraction, as though he could still register the phantom sting.
"A bizarre, excruciating tension and a sharp agony began to erupt across my entire skull and form. My veins tautened to the verge of snapping, as though a boiling torrent of magma were surging inside.
I harbored not a single shred of understanding as to why my existence was suddenly flooded with such intense torment the instant I stepped away from the human world."
Len inhaled a deep, chilly breath, slipping further into the depths of that vision as he closed his lids.
"Trailed by that burning frame, the moment I breached the threshold of that massive, towering Black Gate at the estate's boundary... an unmoving silhouette stood anchored mere paces away from the dark panels. It was Astria's uncle."
The muscles along Len's jaw tightened slightly at the memory. "His presence colliding with my fractured state... I merely recall his rapid strides advancing until he stood directly within my space. His lips were moving continuously, hurling some sharp, demanding inquiries.
Yet, such a fierce tempest of pain was thrashing within my skull, and my pulse was racing so violently, that the words slipping from his mouth turned into mere hollow noise the moment they struck my ears. I could comprehend not a single syllable of his speech."
He unsealed his eyes, within which the reflection of the previous night's hazy tension was now vividly clear. "Right then... he extended his palm, securing my wrist within the iron grip of his fingers. He was addressing me, but the sound refused to penetrate my consciousness.
However, a strange, profound displeasure and friction clearly swirled within his eyes. His features were starkly taut, and he began to pull my agonizing frame toward him by my wrist with a heavy jerk."
As he uttered this, Len's fingers, currently resting upon Eric's wrist, inadvertently tightened a fraction more. The entire confrontation materialized before his eyes with absolute, vivid clarity.
"Amidst that immense physical torment, his unyielding restraint and that sudden pull awakened a dormant, primal instinct within me. I was overtaken by an abrupt, uncontrollable surge of wrath that I simply failed to contain.
And I... I clamped my own hand around the wrist of his arm with absolute ferocity." Len looked down at his own fingers, where his sharp, regal nails slightly extended at the vividness of the recollection.
"The restraint of my fingers was so brutally intense that my nails began to tear through his flesh, sinking deep inside his wrist. The sudden flash of agony and helplessness across his features remains vividly clear to me."
Len paused for a fragment of a second, the pristine illumination of the sapphire stones casting a sharp outline over the cold yet calm expression on his face. "Driven by that sharp sting of pain, he yanked his arm back with a violent shudder, severing his hold on my wrist.
My entire frame was still fracturing from that internal agony, so I refrained from lingering there for even a breath. I forged straight out through that massive, iron cage-like passage, leaving that entire sector behind to return here.
Bound to that excruciating bodily pain, fleeing that space immediately appeared as the only absolute recourse."