The Duke's Passion

"Your wish is my command, Your Majesty."

Fabian watched Lilou's back as she jumped forward, luring the rebels away. Since her blood was pure, these undeads and abnormals would easily follow the scent of her blood. 

"She had decided," he muttered as his jaw tightened, thinking that no one would stop her anymore. "She never changes."

To Fabian, he understood Lilou's reasoning for wanting to fight the rebels all on her own. That was to carry the deaths of those innocents. He had already realized this when someone transformed into an undead. They were even more surprised than him as they slowly lose their control, agonizing at the pain of shifting. 

Fabian might not have the heart to sympathize, but Lilou was different. She didn't want these people — her people, from soiling their hands even more. She would rather carry the guilt of the deaths of the rebels, who were simply deceived by wicked individuals like Stefan and Zero. 

'I would keep that a secret, Your Majesty,' Fabian whispered in his mind. 'Your people won't know that they had to slew innocent people.'

He ordered everyone to run as fast as they could, helping others who were faced with undeads. Since she was luring them away, the enemies coming at them reduced significantly. Therefore, it was easy for him to detect the enemies around. Their retreat wasn't smooth, but it was a lot easier with little numbers of enemies coming at them.

Soon, they all reached their starting point. As others returned to the area, which gave a little more sense of security, they finally saw the enemies following Lilou. Only then did they realize how they all returned in one piece.

"Your Majesty..." Omar called with a shaking voice, seeing one woman running around with large groups of rebels wanting to kill her. She would consistently fight and down several rebels, but the numbers were still the same. Or rather, they were just too many to notice the reduction. 

"What is going on?" 

"Why are they only aiming at her? And what are those monsters? I already killed that person earlier, but... but he — he stood up."

The confused and worried voices slowly resonated in the air until Jaime spoke. Everyone turned their head to him, wide-eyed.

"Are you all stupid? You haven't noticed with the pungent smell of blood and death, but Her Majesty is a royalty; a pureblooded vampire. Among everyone in here, we can say she is the best dish to feast on!" Jaime paused as Glory grabbed him by the collar once again. 

"How dare you compare Her Majesty to a dish?!" he grumbled, eyes glinting as he also felt helpless. He wanted to help Lilou, to support her, to fight alongside her. But every time unexpected things happen in the middle of the battlefield, she would step in to protect them all.

"That is because that is the easiest way for you fools to understand Her Majesty's sacrifice!" Jaime argued while grinding his teeth. "She is luring those monsters so we can all retreat safely! I am clear that this... I am at fault. However, just like you and everyone else who is still inhaling this rotten smell, I want to live. I want Her Majesty to live! I don't care if I get punished after this or die so long as Her Majesty... my savior lives!" 

Jaime's voice pitched until it shook. He knew it was already too late for him to correct his past actions. He wasn't even hopeful of being forgiven. Jaime never thought he would ever change, but this situation would change anyone. Especially if the Empress, herself, never hesitated to use herself as a shield. 

For who?

For them. For sinners like them. 

"All my life... Minowa is neglected by the royals — by the king. All my life I believed that even if this place will burn to ashes, no one will come to rescue it," he confessed, as his breathing grew ragged. "For you and me, for all of us. I will not excuse myself or wash my hands by justifying my past actions because I am still selfish for I... I am sincerely thankful for this day... that I met Her Majesty."

Glory loosened his grip around Jaime's collar. The latter knew his sins were too unforgivable, as he already caused many people suffering. But still, by his selfish nature, instead of regret, he was genuinely happy to this day to meet a royal that was different from the rest. 

"That is a nice speech, Viscount." Just then, Fabian also arrived while wiping his hand with a bloodstained handkerchief. "Her Majesty said you all had to catch your breathing."

He slowly turned around, letting Maleficent rest for a short while. "Her Majesty is strong, so you don't have to worry about her."

"Butler, what are we supposed to do now that we only needed to fight a few monsters?" Omar inquired in a hurry, thinking that they couldn't just stay in the line once again. "We can help Her Majesty! We are all willing to help her!" 

"If you want to help her, then help those four people dragging those injured back in the estate." Fabian pointed his thumb to the side, making everyone turn their heads at those four individuals checking and carrying their already fallen comrades. 

"You already did enough," Fabian added, but this displeased Glory and Jaime.

"How was it enough?! Those rebels are still a lot and were attacking Her Majesty all at once!"

"This man is right!" Jaime backed up at Glory's barking. "How can we all say it is enough?" 

Fabian's expression remained the same, batting his eyes ever so slowly. "Less than half of the rebels are either dead or injured, unable to fight. If Her Majesty and I fought them all, we would exhaust ourselves. But... these numbers are enough to only graze her. She isn't someone foolish to ask us to retreat, only for her to die miserably. 

This time, Fabian slowly turned around to face everyone squarely. He traveled his eyes across these people. Although they all looked pathetic and dirty, the fire in their eyes didn't diminish at all. 

"Do you see that?" he erected his finger, pointing at the dark sky. "That is called a darkfield. To cast something as stable as that only means we are all cattle in the slaughterhouse. No matter what we do, we are trapped in it. Until that vanishes, we are still fighting for our lives."

Fabian paused as his eyes darkened, rubbing his skull ring. Their expression instantly turned white with this information, but he didn't want to keep this from them.

"For this thing to exist, that only means someone who is more capable and powerful than those rebels and those you saw earlier are in here. For example..." he trailed off as a dark shroud surrounded Fabian's shoulder down to his palm.

CLANG!

In a blink of an eye, everyone only saw Fabian thrusting his spear but was stopped with just fingers. Everyone's eyes landed on the man that suddenly entered the scene, clipping Maleficent's blade in between his index and middle finger with ease.

"... for example, this person." Fabian continued, with eyes glinting as he shoved his spear, making his new enemy jump back a little. "It's been a while, Your Majesty."

The corner of Zero's lips stretched into a polite smile, standing leisurely, as if unaffected by the entire situation. 

"It had been, Fabian." Just as Zero greeted back, three more figures appeared behind him. And that instant, Fabian was certain they all came to eliminate him first.

'Ru.... It was a long life.'