When the Villains Unite - Chapter 11; Part 1

His golden eyes glowed as if they held the sun. The handsome man with swept-back, neat, black hair looked in front of him for a long time, as if he was staring at something he didn’t like. Kane watched as Damian fiddled with the crystal on the table in his office, oblivious to his work since the morning. He wondered if there was something urgent going on in his personal affairs by the way he restlessly fidgeted.

The only conversation he had heard that hinted at his personal affairs was with Sebastian, the Duke of Orca’s butler, and the matter was in regard to his sister, Rose von Orca. Kane grew annoyed when he unwittingly heard that the restlessness displayed by his personal knight was due to his desire to appease his sister.

“So, she skipped lunch and hasn’t left her room?”

Damian frowned, not caring about the Crown Prince’s annoyance, as he continued to talk to his butler. His normal appearance was that of an innocent, golden kitten, but when he was upset, he looked like a bobcat ready to bring out its claws.

Kane only knew the side of the Orca brothers that rarely showed such outward emotions.

Even when the Emperor made unreasonable demands, they didn’t bat an eye. If a nobleman spoke outrageously in the midst of an Imperial Council, they remained indifferent.

Damian would at least speak his thoughts out loud, so his words gave insight into his feelings. Conversely, Bellamy was like a stone wall that was impossible to penetrate, even though Kane thought of him as his best friend.

Even when the Zerglin Princess planned a surprise visit for Bellamy at the palace last week, Bellamy remained blank, then dismissed her unannounced visit.

The Orca brothers were now past the age of betrothal, yet had no intention of meeting a woman. The only place they could find a fiancee was at parties, but they would only show up to the mandatory New Year’s ball hosted by the Imperial Family. Even then, they didn’t spend enough time to meet with anyone other than a select few.

The only person of the opposite sex that the brothers are close to is their sister, and Kane couldn’t understand it.

He didn’t know what their lives were like at the Carmel estate after the ducal couple’s death, but they both had a strong attachment to their sister, Rose von Orca. He remembered their words at tea time with them last week.

“Ari tells me there are ongoing messages between Ashik and Princess Orca. Since you are not sanctioning him, are you going to plan a betrothal?”

Kane was taking a break from his duties and invited his friend, Bellamy, to his residence for tea. Naturally, his escort, Damian, was also present. Kane’s casual remarks about his conversation with Aria had set off bombs that he wasn’t aware were planted.

“What did you say just now?”

“I was asking why you ignored all the marriage proposals from noble lords, yet allowed only Ashik to be with the very sister you care so much about,” Kane answered, nonchalantly crossing his legs as he basked in Damian’s reaction.

He didn’t ask the question to appease his curiosity but rather to find out Damian’s intentions. This tea time was planned for the day after Rose visited the Euassis manor for a meeting with Aria.

Kane smirked at the Orca brothers, oblivious that he had touched a nerve. His smirk was short-lived as Bellamy smiled right back.

Bellamy’s smile was pleasant for anyone else to see, but Kane, who knew him well, instinctively realized the hidden meaning. He prided himself on courage, yet he felt a little- or rather, a lot of goosebumps break out all over his body.

“Kane.”

“Y-Yeah?”

For a moment, Kane forgot his position and stammered like an idiot. Then, he cleared his throat and looked at Bellamy again.

It was the first time in over ten years that his friend called him by his first name. Since returning from the distant Carmel estate, the Orca brothers had walled themselves off from everyone. Ashik and Kane, his oldest friend, had their moments of friendship, but unlike their carefree childhood, they had distanced themselves from each other with respect to their positions. Kane used to look at the Orca brothers and feel resentful for the way they treated him as if he was only their boss.

However, hearing Bellamy say his name again, he realized that a moderate distance might be healthier for both the mind and body. At the very least, a little distance was better than being completely hated by Ashik, the brother of his fiancee.

“Did you say…”

“…”

“I don’t recall the Duke of Euassis having a firstborn?”

‘What do you mean… Why isn’t Ashik living, or… does he mean he’s going to cease to exist?’

Before he could ask, Kane lowered his head to watch Bellamy’s rhythmic tapping fingertips. It didn’t matter how long he was holding his finger up; the fireball that quickly formed above was not just a simple fire, but the size of a planet.

“[Meteor.]”

Bellamy felt as if he was ready to hurl that large rock on his finger into the Duke of Euassis’s office at any moment. It was good that Ashik had left work early and gone home; his life was safe because he wasn’t in the palace right now.

“All right, Bellamy, why don’t you calm down and put that abomination away?”

Kane demanded, shrinking back from the growing fireball. The object bounced up and down, heat emanating from its form.

At Kane’s command to put Meteor away, Bellamy wiped the insidious smile off his face and just looked at his friend.

Hearing Damian and Bellamy, it was clear they had no intention of giving Ashik their sister’s hand in marriage. What’s more, they didn’t seem pleased that they were meeting at all. Even though, rationally, Ashik was the only man in the Empire eligible for marriage with the Princess Orca.

“It’s better to get rid of the culprit than to go back and forth with useless gossip.”

“I agree, brother.”

‘Does that mean they’re going to keep their sister for the rest of her life?’

In fact, Kane wasn’t even sure they considered her family. The way their expressions softened only when they looked at her at the New Year’s celebration… it seemed she was more than that to them.

Kane suddenly felt a pang of pity for Princess Orca, stuck between two such beasts.

“Hah… the Imperial Sword is now trying to threaten the next Emperor. Do you realize that this is treason?”

“I don’t care.”

“Why should it matter if you, the Little Sun of the Empire, are going to die?”

Even though the attempted murder of the Crown Prince didn’t work, Kane still spent the next few days trying to placate the Orca brothers. He vowed to never speak of Princess Orca and Ashik in the same breath in front of them ever again.

“Onward, then, to the Rose Garden.”

“My Lord, it’s on fire from earlier today…”

“Sebastion, you’re not trying to tell me it’s impossible now, are you? I’m a little disappointed.”

“I’ll get the wizards.”

While Kane was lost in his memories, Damian was informed that Rose was awake and eating. She must have been firmly upset by the early morning events because she slipped into her room without even unwrapping Bellamy’s gift to her.

“I know my sister best.”

Damian, who initially scoffed at Bellamy’s confident remark, sent a dessert from Renesha Street Bakery, waiting patiently for her reaction. When he learned she ignored it, and that Bellamy robbed a jewelry store to send to her, he felt a strange sense of competition with his brother. The competition was accompanied by an uneasy sense that Rose will not easily forgive them.

That was the beginning of the Orca brothers’ competition of sending gifts to Rose, making her even angrier.

It was escalating, but Rose remained unmoved.

In fact, this was the first time the Orca brothers had ever experienced her silent treatment. They weren’t sure what to do to defuse her anger.

Looking at Damian, Kane, who had been in a relationship for two years, could see what he was thinking. He briefly clicked his tongue, then opened his mouth.

“If you’re going to keep doing stupid shit, why don’t you just do your job?”

“I am.”

Damian suddenly shifted from a slouching, sitting position to a standing position while holding the crystal ball in front of him. No matter what else was going on, Damian was already a Swordmaster and was quite confident in his abilities to escort the Crown Prince. Kane, well aware of that, just kept quiet.

Right now though, Damian’s behavior reminded Kane of his after he fought with Aria.

“A woman’s heart can’t be fixed with material things.”

Kane snapped the cap off his pen and pushed himself out of his seat, taking a seat across from Damian instead. He didn’t forget to ask the servant to bring tea.

Kane’s words made Damian stare at him. He never listened to anyone but his brother, but when Damian looked at him with a twinkle in his eyes, Kane smirked.

 Kofi