CW: Explicit language, violence, blood & gore, mild/accidental self-harm, mentions of abuse/enslavement, mentions of drugs/addiction.
Welcome to the next arc! ^_^
They storm the Rose Palace in the dead of night.
It’s disorienting. The scores of attackers don’t appear at first to be human, moreso demons, with their visage distorted and wrecked in ways that the eye cannot fathom. But the guards stand firm, drawing their swords as they meet the little demons attempting to penetrate the walls.
Their leader, slight in figure and obscured by a hood, stands in a higan cherry tree, affixed upon a branch with their ragged cloak whipping around their legs. From their palm, they cast a white light over the guards, ripping the protection of shade from their forms.
An archer aims an arrow at the light bringer, but a giant attacker barrels into them with a bone rattling roar. The arrow goes wide. Hits the trunk of the tree instead.
Rin yanks the arrow free and with a blast of light, sends it shooting towards the guard engaged with Dellard. It strikes her in the back and she crumples noiselessly.
Dellard raises his rusted sword at Rin, teeth flashing in the gloom, and surges into the fray.
The faceless demons brute force their way inside, swarming the walls and pushing through the main entrance. The guards of the Rose Palace were not trained for such an attack, and so they are whittled away as the aggressors carve through their floundering formation.
Rin watches on with grim satisfaction. It will be no time before they take the Palace.
He turns his attention to the main building, soaring into the sky like a giant lantern. He sees Madame Kahin, sitting behind her magnolia whitewood desk, pristine in her deadly beauty and calmly awaiting his arrival.
Red drenches the black of his eye as bloodthirst floods his psyche. He bares his teeth, grinds them in need. He can almost see her end.
One by one, the lights in the building flicker off. The grounds follow suit, lanterns snuffed by unknown means.
A signal.
Rin tugs his hood low over his face and makes to leap from his perch – but freezes when he sees the answering call.
A surging tide of blue emerges from the night, steel flashing, armour clanking. Scores of footsteps march in time, rising in volume as they draw ever near.
Silverswords.
The Rat flares, his clear path suddenly obstructed by an insurmountable foe.
The blue current merges with the green as Silverswords join the fray, and the defense strengthens twofold. The guards gain confidence as their number swells, and muscles down on their position. Emboldened, they attack with renewed vigour, striking down the demons in a burst of coordinated chaos.
Like all battles, the tide turns in but a second.
A trio of Silverswords descend upon Princess, slicing him from all directions in a dervish of steel. Rin growls and leaps from the tree, already blasting an argent arc before he lands.
He positions himself in front of the wounded giant, firing burst after burst of arcane offense, pushing back the encroaching tide.
“You said nothing about Silverswords!” Princess howls, falling heavily to his knees. He clutches a nasty slash in his side, blood leaking freely between his fingers. “We’re all gonna get killed out here!”
“Shut up!” Rin snarls, hands trembling as he stirs up the last reserves of his mana. “No-one’s getting killed!”
In the distance, he sees more Silverswords streaming towards them, their numbers unknown yet vast.
Face contorting in uncontrollable rage, Rin draws a dangerous amount of mana from his core and strikes the ground with both hands. There’s a silent explosion, blinding luminescence, that ripples through the defensive army, knocking every figure off their feet.
Seizing the sudden break in attack, Rin howls for retreat.
The demons need no second call, for they know this battle is already lost. As quickly as they ascended the Palace, they scurry back over the walls and into the night. Not a single one is left behind, wounded and unconscious carried between their brethren. If there’s one thing that Rin iterated to his Mischief, it’s that none shall be abandoned.
The Rat hauls Princess to his feet and shoves him towards a retreating comrade, barking at them to assist the wounded man.
He takes a moment to glare at the Palace, knowing that tonight, Kahin mocks him from her throne. With an immense amount of willpower, he turns and flees into the shadows, cursing himself for every step he takes away from his enemy.
***
Dawn paints the city in a diaphanous peach as the long fingers of Solaris caresses the patchwork sky.
Rin’s Vermin wash their faces clean in the fountain, stripping away the paint and dirt and makeshift masks that transformed their visage into something inhuman. They are in various states of woe, battered in both flesh and spirit. Their zeal for violence quashed along with their utter defeat.
The Rat pulls the covering from his mouth and nose, skin dewy from his breath. “We’ll rest here for the moment. At least until the heat dies down.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Rin can hardly breathe through the septic hate that moils in his chest. He stifles the powerful urge to turn the light on himself and kicks the corpse of a pig instead, draining over the blood catcher. Flesh concaves upon impact. Gore splatters the legs of his pants.
Lf rffatfr. Kffat mifcmtfv rb tjgv tlr wbijgr ulnf jc jevlyif mgjmx.
C nblmf ygfjxr atgbeut atf atlmx wlgf bo ibjatlcu. Faafgis rboa. Ujlcoeiis ogjulif.
“Look at me.”
Ueiilcu lc j rtjgq ygfjat, tf gjlrfr tlr tfjv, wffalcu atbrf ubivfc fsfr. Ujif klat mtegclcu fwbalbc.
Ktf batfgr tjnf fwfgufv ogbw atf reggbecvlcu yelivlcur: Ktf Lecafgr, atf fz-Ebrfr, atfs jii ujatfg lc atf mbegasjgv, ujhlcu eqbc atf mbcrfdefcmf bo Elc’r afwfglas.
And there’s Jun. His little lord. Standing not a foot away with a black expression and not a spark to be seen in his eyes.
Rin stares back, unflinching, unrepentant.
“You could have died,” Jun says, quietly.
“I didn’t,” Rin scoffs. “I’m not that stupid–”
“Evidently, you are,” Jun snaps, his bite as sudden as his anger. “You are stupid. And thoughtless. And selfish. Not only did you endanger yourself but you also endangered everyone here. Your allies and your friends. People who are loyal to you. Who trust you. You betrayed that trust and lead them on a suicide mission.”
“Not much of a suicide if we all came back alive.”
“Are you so blinded by your hatred that you would discard everything you care for?” Jun grabs Rin by the shoulder, unable to hide the shaking in his hand. “Are you so blinded that you would discard your promise to me?”
“Jun,” Iris calls over in a clipped tone as she tends to Princess. She doesn’t spare a glance at Rin, which doesn’t bode well. “You will assist me with healing the wounded. Hunters, help me bring them into the infirmary.”
The little lord wears a pained expression and reluctantly tears himself away from Rin. “Of course, Guildmaster. Right away.”
There’s a flurry of movement as the able bodied assist the wounded into the infirmary. Bucky sends a rending glare at Rin before disappearing inside, supporting a bloodied Dellard.
Rin drops down to his haunches, raking a hand through his tangled hair. Soon, the courtyard is deserted, his only company the frenzy of his thoughts and the nascent flames of regret, licking at the soles of his feet.
Eventually, he gathers enough strength to wash away the grime of battle in the fountain, the red paint rubbed into his face. It’s hard to tell what is blood as it seeps into the clear water, draining away into the gutter below. He concludes that it doesn’t matter. That he’s already so drenched in blood, a little bit more won’t make any difference.
He smiles then. A mirthless thing. An ugly thing.
***
Iris sets down her cup, cold anger rolling from her taut form like plumes of smoke. “I have sent the severely injured to the Clinic for further treatment.”
Rin glances at the other two sitting with them in the numaru. Bucky, who has not yet deigned to look him in the eye. And Jun, who is regarding him with such disappointment, it’s difficult to linger upon him.
Irritation spikes, prickling him all over like a flurry of bee stings. He folds his arms, holding himself tightly as if to shield himself from further reproach.
“I never forced them to fight with me,” he retorts. “I told them exactly what they were getting into.”
“You are their leader,” Iris clips, lips thinning. “You have a responsibility to keep them safe – not send them into peril.”
“They’re an army. What do you think an army does? Crochet and gossip over tea?”
“They are children who can barely lift their weapons.”
He shrugs and pops a peanut into his mouth, all nonchalance. “They’ve been in battle before. They fought all the other factions running in the Slums. Beat ‘em too.”
“Rin,” Bucky raises, finally locking eyes with the raven. Her visage holds a hardness. And a shadow of hurt. “We have as much right to this as you do. Yet, you tried to take justice away from us.”
“You wouldn’t have gone for it.”
“How easy for you to assume.”
“It is, Bucky. Especially since you’ve decided to become a poor imitation of Guildmaster Iris,” Rin jeers, spitting out the name in sheer derision. He seizes onto the hurt deepening upon Bucky’s face. Takes another jab. “It’s pathetic. You’re so desperate to replace the Kahin-sized hole in your life, that you’ve latched onto the first woman who’s shown the barest amount of interest–”
A resounding slap echoes through the numaru.
Rin clutches his sore cheek and stares wide-eyed at his little lord.
Jun lowers his hand, black storm clouds gathered upon his face. There is only an intense austerity that freezes Rin to the spot. The little lord, not so little anymore, but a presence larger than the Mother herself, inundating him, crushing him, until he can no longer breathe.
His heart trembles. Black lashes flutter in shock.
For the first time, he’s scared of Jun. Not because Jun could harm him – he never would, not outside of a well deserved slap. He’s scared of Jun because he sees him as the golden lion he will become.
The raven bows his head, curls into himself, trying to make himself as small as possible. But through the obscuration of untameable hair, there’s a sanguine glint. The shiver of his madness.
Jun curls his offensive hand into a tight fist, loathing himself for striking his lover, but knowing that it was well deserved. “I know how much you hate her,” he says, quietly. “What she did to you, what she did to your mother, to the Roses – she is undeserving of mercy. I myself wish to see justice delivered.” He pulses his jaw, unable to express his own rage. “But getting yourself killed is not going to change anything. She will remain in her Rose Palace, enslaving innocent people, free to continue her misdeeds unhindered. Right now, you are her biggest threat, and you endanger your own precarious position. This is a vital time, Rinnie. A time to be the most careful and calculating.”
“Hwan Jun is correct,” Iris says, narrowing her eyes at the Rat’s maddened expression. “Kahin knows what you are planning. Your takeover of the Slums has not gone unnoticed, Rat. The Madame has significantly strengthened her defences over the past week. The fact that she is using Silverswords for her personal protection means that the Governor is also aware of the situation and he is publicly lending his support.”
“It is a message,” Jun says, grimacing. “To keep you in line.”
“Good news is that she is getting nervous.” Bucky’s expression is as flat as her tone. “Kahin has isolated herself within the Palace. No-one has seen her leave the grounds in weeks.”
Iris rubs the rim of her ceramic cup, fine brows pinched in consternation. “There have also been reports of hooded figures who visit the Palace every night and leave at dawn. From what my Hunters have told me, Blossom is also receiving similarly mysterious visitors on a nightly basis in Taecho.”
“Hooded figures?” Jun shoots the Guildmaster a startled look. “Do you have a theory on their identity?”
“They’re most likely Nix,” Bucky offers, and Iris gives a curt nod in agreement. “Acting as agents of the Mother. Despite us disrupting their plans, I imagine that Kahin and Blossom are continuing with their work for the Empress – whatever that may be.”
“There are larger things at play here, Rat,” Iris says, austerely. “If you are to enact such a dangerous plan, then you will need to be more than prepared. At present, all you have is a group of street children who follow you out of desperation. If you want an army, then your ‘Mischief’ will need rigorous training and discipline. This will take far longer than a few days. Time and patience is required.”
“There’s no time,” Rin growls, gripping his knees until his knuckles turn white. “Everyday, her walls get stronger. Everyday, her plans progress. Every fucking day she gets to breathe–”
“Time and patience.” Iris’ words are razor sharp, unyielding. “Your plan to storm the Palace is rash enough without you running rampant. The best course of action would be to infiltrate, but none of your Vermin have the required skill set.” She waves her hand impatiently, expression stiff. “At present, you have nothing to use against her.”
Rin shoots to his feet. He glares down at those who defy him, heaving with breaths edged out through gritted teeth.
“They need training, Rin,” Bucky says, coolly meeting that blazing red eye. “A lot of training. Even then, it’s uncertain if they would be able to surpass the Silverswords.”
“Train them,” the raven hisses at Iris. “You brought down a fucking titan bear. You know how to fight. So train them.”
“I did not escape the titan bear without scars,” Iris clips, raising her cup to her lips. “And as I have so often iterated, the Hunters Guild is unwilling to align with dissenters. We are unable to provide anything more than healing and food.”
“Not publicly. But you can train them in secret–”
“I will not risk my guild for your foolish endeavours. Find your whetstone elsewhere.”
“You fucking–”
“Sit down, Rinnie,” Jun’s sharp command cuts through the raven’s rage, wrenching him back like a taut leash.
Rin shoots a fiery glare at his little lord, but he acquiesces, slumping back onto the floor with a begrudging grumble. He’s mere putty under Jun’s steely austerity.
“And you will not recruit my children,” Iris continues, gently placing her cup down. “They will not come to harm. Of any kind.” She turns her gaze to the courtyard, where said children are conversing with Bellow and Daisy over a breakfast of Northern pastries. Small catches sight of Iris and he gives her an enthusiastic wave.
“They’ll only slow me down,” Rin retorts, shoving a hand through his matted hair. He rips his fingers through with bared teeth, relishing the pain lancing his skull. “Jun is the best fighter I know anyway, so he can train the Vermin. You ‘neutral party’ assholes can keep sitting on your hands.”
“I have spoken with Bellow,” Bucky says, coolly. “He and I will be joining the Mischief. There are several Roses who have also expressed their desire to lend their strength to the fight.”
Rin pauses, the heat of his anger slightly nullified. “…How many?”
“Five. So you can add seven more to your number. I may be able to gather a few more on the inside.”
“If we can attack from both sides, that would give us a significant advantage,” Jun muses, rubbing his jaw.
Rin pushes the heel of his palms into his eyes. One wooden, one flesh. Kahin had been so close and he’d been so certain. And now that certainty, all his confidence, has been sapped away.
“I can ask Mira to assist in the training,” Jun says, softening enough to bring his hand to Rin’s back. He rests his palm there, spreading his warmth. The raven visibly relaxes. That bloody glare dims to its usual sable fare.
“Are you sure she’s with you? Properly with you?” Rin asks, voice suddenly hoarse. He raises his head and sees his little lord’s smile. His quiet radiance that fills him with an endearing sense of security. “I don’t want her around if she’s gonna be feeding information to your old man.”
“Mira is loyal only to me,” Jun confirms. “She will not report our activities.”
“If she fucks us over–”
“She won’t.”
Rin stares at his little lord, reluctant to give in – but just one look at that calm smile has him bending at the knees before he’s even aware of doing so. The sway his love has over him is infuriating.
“Rin,” Bucky says, after a moment of hesitation. “What do you plan to do once we reach Kahin?”
The raven glances at the autumn dress of the nearby trees. A mesh of vibrant colours reminiscent of bloated flames.
“I’ll figure it out once I get there,” he says, detachedly. “For now, we just need the Roses freed from her influence. That’s our main goal.”
Bucky furrows her brows, unable to stifle the glimmer of doubt in her eyes.
In the short silence that follows, Rin knows that his true intent is obvious to the others. That he wants nothing more than to see Kahin burn in the fires of her own making. A true justice outside of the Mother’s court, where status and power cannot be used as a shield.
The Rat’s reproach is officially ended on that tersile note, and conversation swiftly turns to the more immediate issue at hand.
“The stores of Bliss have been destroyed,” Rin informs the Guildmaster, rather sourly. “At least the ones we know about. I still reckon we could have sold it somewhere and used the money–”
“And perpetuate the cycle of addiction?” Jun chides, lightly. “You did the right thing, Rinnie. There is no place for Bliss in Hanjuyang.”
“But the money, Jun.”
“The health of the Slummers take precedence.”
Rin sighs and drops his chin into his hand. “Hwan Sun may have a hand in it,” Rin continues, pointedly ignoring the lord. “That’s what Tiger said anyway.”
“Hwan Sun?” Iris’ demeanour prickles with anger at the mention of the name. “…This does not surprise me.”
“What I want to know is why. He’s been stocking up on Bliss for months – so why move now? And what reason?”
“I suspect it may have something to do with the increase in rebel activity,” Iris muses, a certain coldness to her tone. “A tactic to nullify the Slummers, perhaps. Keep them addicted and sick, so that they cannot become a true threat. It is a preventative measure that’s been used before with liquor. The situation must be dire if they have turned to an outlawed substance like Bliss.”
“Did you talk to your old man yet?” Rin asks Jun, but he can glean the answer by the latter’s glum expression.
“As expected, he denies such claims,” the lord says, voice edged with frustration. “And now, outside of my regular duties, he will not speak with me. Not even look me in the eyes. We have become strangers.”
“Shit. So he is behind it after all.”
“His behaviour is concerning.”
Iris sighs and pushes her fingers between her eyes, as if a headache were growing there. “I recommend that you remain as strangers. Do not confront Hwan Sun anymore than you already have.”
Rin raises a brow. “What happened to being neutral?”
“This concerns my city,” Iris says, giving Rin an icy look. He scoffs, completely undeterred. “I will send a Hunter to track down this Tiger. We will uncover the route for the Bliss and stop further shipments.”
“What about Kahin?” Rin challenges, dropping a palm over Iris’ cup before she can pick it up. “Whatever she has planned with Blossom is connected, right? Or do you just pick and choose what to care about?”
The Guildmaster grips the cup, eyes narrowed at the obstinate youth. “Do you plan on bringing Kahin into your custody instead of executing her? If this were not about vengeance, then you would preserve her life.”
“I’ll do what I gotta do,” Rins seethes, tightening his hold on the cup.
“As will I,” Iris says, bluntly. “I will do right by this city, and not simply to disguise a self-serving bloodthirst.”
“Kinda hard to right by anyone when you refuse to pick a fucking side–”
“And you?” Iris says curtly, fingers digging into the ceramic to the point of pain. “What side do you pick, Rat? The Empire? The People?”
“Oh, that’s boring. The Mother. The rebels. They’re just the loudest in a crowd of millions.”
“Millions, but only one means anything to you,” Iris smiles coldly as she regards the youth as nothing more than a surly child. “There is only you in this world. You drag everyone into your tantrums and force them to endure your pain. Your mother was killed. You were enslaved by Kahin. Hwan Sun hurt your feelings. So this justifies your irrational behaviour, even at the cost of those around you. Whatever others have suffered is irrelevant. Less than irrelevant. It does not even come into your consideration. In other words, anyone that isn’t the Rat can go to hell.”
There’s an explosion of ceramic shards. The Guildmaster reels her hand back, anger bellowed by the violent display.
Rin releases a careening giggle, though the sound is mirthless and cutting. “You judge my motives when you’re desperately trying to hide yours? Be straight with me or keep your fucking mouth shut.”
Iris glares at the youth and finds him unflinching, determined. As rigid as she. How familiar he appears, even with his marred appearance. That hard glint in his remaining eye that dares her to challenge him. How very familiar.
The Guildmaster huffs through her nose and wraps a long sleeve around her wounded palm. “The ring you wear. If your fight extends beyond your own desires, then keep it close. Otherwise, discard it, for you are unworthy of its weight.”
Before Rin can respond, she rises to her feet and sweeps out of the numaru, disappearing inside. Bucky quickly follows, throwing a perplexed look at Rin over her shoulder. It’s a look that reflects well how he feels. A visceral anticipation. Like the first rumbles of a distant thunderstorm. Or the humid taste of rain to come.
sits and watches in anticipation
Thank you for the chapter!! <3
pats you and gives you a cupcake
O3O Thank you for reading!! <33
My babyyyyy 😭😭😭 i just wanna hug him
Ehhh he’ll be juuust fiiiiiiiine ^3^ Thank you for reading! <33
Oh wow. Rinnie…
;u; He’s…trying his best…? XDD Thank you for reading!! <33
I can understand and appreciate that! Keep writing and I will definitely be your eager reader!