(Mark Sable POV)
Mark was a man of few words. Not to say that he couldn't bullshit with the best of them if the situation called for it, but by nature, he treated his words as gold.
The only exception to that rule was when he taught his favorite nephew.
The boy liked to make things difficult for him at the best of times, but even so, Lyon was one of the hardest-working children Mark had ever seen.
Beyond his pride as an uncle, Mark was honestly excited to see what would become of the boy in the future.
Speaking of the future, Mark lazily scratched his chin while contemplating the rather huge dilemma before him. He had told Lyon that he would give him information about his parents' killers if he excelled at the Academy.
The truth was that Mark would most likely die long before Lyon finished his first year.
Or, at the very least, that had to be the official story.
Mark knew that the people who attacked their family had never given up on finishing what they had started. They were always waiting for any slip-up, patiently watching for the smallest mistake.
If Mark had slipped up even once with the security surrounding him and Lyon, he was sure he wouldn't even realize how he and his nephew had died.
In order to prevent the worst-case scenario, Mark had set up a dangerous yet necessary game. He pretended to be crushed by the loss of most of his direct family, a remarkably easy act to accomplish given the crushing pain it still brought him.
Nevertheless, he noticed that the sneaky eyes lurking in the darkness never disappeared, which eventually led him to launch his own investigation into the true identity of the killers.
The only thing he could discover was that these people were real professionals.
With his time in the Royal Army and the extensive contacts he had made while traveling the world, Mark hadn't expected to find himself completely unable to obtain information about the people who had placed a kill order on his family.
What he did manage to discover was the name of the organization that had accepted the hit.
They called themselves Shadow, and they were virtually unknown to everyone except the absolute highest levels of authority in the world. This was both good and bad.
On one hand, an organization with such prestige and mysteriousness had only a limited number of people throughout the entire world who even possessed the means to contact them.
On the other hand, every power capable of doing so either possessed the influence of at least one continent or was so overwhelmingly powerful that they could go to war with a continent entirely on their own.
All of this had placed Mark in a very embarrassing situation. He knew exactly who had killed his family, and he knew where all the possible suspects could be found, yet he couldn't do anything against them.
That was when he began to plan.
After all, his brother might have been the greatest genius of the clan, but Mark was firmly second. Just because he didn't like playing mind games and was often considered boorish didn't mean he was any worse than those politicians when it came to scheming and manipulating people.
If anything, his current and past image provided the perfect cover for him to gather information and quietly put his own pieces into place.
Now that Lyon was safely inside the Academy and would be protected for the foreseeable future, Mark could begin pushing more forcefully to uncover exactly what had happened that day.
There were too many variables that didn't add up, and Mark was determined to go over every single inconsistency until he finally reached the truth.
The first step of his plan had already been accomplished. Mark knew the next thing he did would inevitably mean voluntarily walking into a trap, but he had no other options if he ever wanted to continue his investigation and pick up the trail that had gone cold years ago.
And so, Mark continued packing his essential belongings while preparing for his meeting with the Emperor.
Hopefully, everything would go well, but Mark couldn't shake the feeling of unease that continued to plague him. The only times he had ever felt this way were on the day he first went to war and when that tragedy happened.
Mark really hoped that his imperial cousin wasn't involved in this situation. They were family, and blood should be thicker than water, right?
Mark sighed again and ran a hand through his messy hair.
I really hope you two know what you are doing, because at the current rate, you guys might return to find that the son you did this all for is already dead.
Mark shook his head to clear those dark thoughts, his murky eyes growing steady and cold.
Never mind that. If anyone dares to directly attack him now, they are simply asking for death. And in the case that doesn't work, I wouldn't mind starting another bloodbath and reminding them exactly why they called me an executioner.
Mark stood up and glanced around their family mansion before taking a deep breath. A door appeared behind his back for only a split second.
If anyone had been around to see it, they would have been terrified to discover that there were only two chains remaining on the image of the door behind him.
A shadow seemed to flicker out from one of the circular protrusions on the door, bringing with it an intense feeling of evil and malice. It fell to the floor and split into two equal shadows, each one seeming to intensify the feeling of dread hanging in the air.
Mark glanced down at the shadows by his feet. Although they were only one foot in height, Mark had personally witnessed the terror these little pets of his Kei Beast were capable of causing.
"Shadow One, you will go to Lyon and provide extra security. If he's not in mortal danger, you are not allowed to be discovered by anyone, not even Azera."
He ignored the feeling of reluctance coming from the shadow, which seemed to want nothing more than to play with his nephew and Innate Spirit.
Mark looked toward the second shadow. It had been sitting silently and completely still, almost as if it were nothing more than an ordinary shadow.
"Shadow Two, your job is to follow me and find any information on that day that the Imperial Court has hidden away. If possible, don't get caught.
But if you are caught, then you must deal with the other party quickly, brutally, and most importantly, quietly. I have a bad feeling that things won't be that simple today."
Mark watched Shadow Two nod before melting into the ground. A moment later, he felt the shadow attach itself to him.
For a second, it gave him the strange sensation of heavy pressure being added to his back, but he shook off the feeling with practiced ease.
He then turned toward the first shadow.
"Remember to report to Big Shadow if anything that will be tough to handle crops up. I don't want to find out that he was beaten and bullied by a bunch of old geezers with no ability other than their silver tongues."
Mark's expression hardened as he continued.
"Make sure you keep in mind that, regardless of our plan, we will never allow Lyon to truly face the world alone. The plan be damned."
After saying all he could to the two shadows, Mark simply turned around and walked forward. A portal seemed to appear from within the shadows and swallowed the man.
The house was left with an odd feeling of melancholy that would continue to linger long after the Royal City was shaken by the tumultuous events yet to come.