The dining room of the Ruohan estate was filled with the scent of expensive tea and suffocating tradition.
Aunt Mei rushed in, her face pale, her voice trembling as she spilled the secrets of the bedroom and the bathhouse.
"I am worried," she stammered. " Karas... I fear he is indeed a homosexual. The way he looks at Zaliyah, the way he touches him..."
SLAP.!!!
The sound echoed off the high ceilings. Lord Caius's parents glared at Mei as if she were the one who had committed the sin.
"Do not bring a curse upon this family with your foul tongue!" his mother hissed.
They turned their venom toward Caius. "You are weak, Caius! You let your wife control this house, and you let her bring that abomination into our bloodline. He is a demon who has tainted our sweet grandson!"
Caius stood frozen, the memories flooding back. He remembered the day Riosuka brought home a shivering, blue-lipped baby found at the base of the Bottomless Waterfall.
A massive thunderstorm had raged that day, floods threatening to swallow the town.
Back then, the Ruohans had nothing, Caius was a struggling man and Riosuka a humble washerwoman.
But when Zaliyah entered the house, the storm broke. The next day was the sunniest the town had ever seen.
Harvests became legendary. Everything Caius touched turned to gold, and Riosuka traded her washbasin for the robes of a Madam.
Caius slammed his hands onto the table, the tea sloshing over the porcelain.
"Enough!" he roared, silencing his parents. "The lavish life you live, the silk on your backs ,it is all due to the 'demon' my wife brought home. I will tolerate no disrespect to her name. But mark my words, I will be the first person to kick Zaliyah out if he does anything inappropriate."
The silence that followed was hollow as he turned and walked out.
"No," Karas said firmly.
"Karas, please....Not the library" Zaliyah argued, his voice bordering on a whine. He couldn't go back there. He feared the librarian would mention his morning rendezvous with the "tanned bum," and he wasn't ready to explain Malachi to Karas.
"Let's go to the market instead."
"The market is dangerous," Karas countered. "You meet lunatics there."
But Zaliyah knew exactly how to pull at Karas's heartstrings. After a few more minutes of stubborn persuasion, Karas finally gave in. But there was a condition. Karas placed a wide straw hat on Zaliyah's head, adjusting the long, sheer veil that draped down to hide his face.
But It was a futile effort. Everyone in the village knew that where you saw the Young Lord Karas, the "Ghost of Ruohan" was never far behind.
Karas walked beside him like a personal servant, his eyes scanning the crowd with a protective intensity.
They stopped at a literature bookshop. Thinking they were safe in the quiet corner, Zaliyah lifted his veil to read the cover of a rare manuscript.
In that moment, he looked breathtaking, his long lashes casting delicate shadows against the pale skin of his face.
Karas stood in a daze, simply admiring the beauty he was tasked to guard.
Suddenly, a woman with deep bronze skin and wide, doe eyes collided with Karas.
Ailla stumbled, and Karas instinctively reached out to help her to her feet.
Zaliyah immediately dropped his veil, hiding himself once more, and moved close to Karas's side.
"What happened here?" Zaliyah's voice came from behind the silk, sharp and suspicious.
"I helped the lady up," Karas explained.
"Huh? Are you sure we are not being targeted?" Zaliyah sneered. "Days ago I bumped into a lunatic, today you're bumping into one. Interesting."
"Don't talk like that," Karas whispered.
"Karas, I'm telling you," Zaliyah insisted, his voice loud enough for the strangers to hear. "It's either they're pickpockets or she's targeting us."
Karas reached over and adjusted Zaliyah's hat, ensuring the veil was thick enough to block Ailla's prying eyes.
He noticed the woman was staring intently at the veiled figure.
Beside her, her chamberlain, Shakdam, stood in a state of absolute shock. In the Demon Realm, they were feared nobles but here, a human "brute" was calling them common thieves.
Shakdam bowed slightly, offering an apology. "I am sorry for the collision. Please, let us offer you tea as a gesture of goodwill."
Zaliyah glared at Ailla through the veil. "Why doesn't the tanned girl apologize?"
Ailla's eyes flashed with a dangerous, sarcastic light. "Why should the 'tanned girl' apologize?"
"For not keeping your servant in check," Zaliyah snapped. "What does it say about the mistress when the help speaks without orders? We don't want your tea"
Shakdam could practically feel the heat radiating off Ailla's body. She was seconds away from incinerating the shop.
Sensing the danger, Shakdam apologized even more profusely, but Zaliyah simply grabbed Karas's arm and dragged him away.
He hated the way "thirsty" pickpockets looked at his Karas.
As they disappeared into the crowd, Shakdam let out a shaky breath. "Skin pale like..."
"Is that all you saw?" Ailla hissed.
Shakdam giggled nervously.
"Honestly, yes. I can't even tell if it's a woman or a man."
Ailla watched the spot where Zaliyah had been standing, her jealousy curdling into a dark obsession. "So this is Malachi's new obsession? What does he see in that... thing?"
"Don't think too much about it, my Lady," Shakdam whispered, her eyes turning toward the Ruohan estate in the distance. "We will investigate further tonight."