Although it was late afternoon and the students of the Noble Academy had ended their lessons for the day in favor of their extracurricular activities, not all students lived by this schedule.
For example, in the Elysium Manor, the heir was in his pajamas and was currently lying in bed with a book on his lap.
“Master Julius.”
A servant walked into his bedroom with an envelope.
“There is a message for you from Young Master Odum.”
Julius’ eyes drew away from the book and landed on the letter in the servant’s hand.
A look of interest showed on his face as the servant placed the letter down in front of him and took a step back.
Julius saw the date on the letter. It was sent two months ago.
He became upset once he realized this, and glared at the servant, “Has father been keeping my letters from me?”
The servant bowed his head, “The Master wanted you to pay attention to your health before anything else.”
Julius scowled.
Nazareth was going to be pissed.
They weren’t necessarily close in the way friends and companions were, but they were allies.
Their group rarely got together—at most, once a month—but during the few meetings they had, it was usually to go over plans and negotiate certain terms.
Nazareth was always the most ambitious amongst them.
For whatever reason, Lester looked up to him as some type of brotherly figure—(may the gods have mercy on that kid for wanting a guy who’s hellbent on murdering his little brother to be his older brother)—while Elliot tried to emulate his ambitions with little success.
They had been making progress by leaps and bounds ever since they started working together toward their individual goals.
Nazareth had the plans, Elliot had the illegal connections, and Lester had the righteous associations and was knowledgeable of its loopholes.
Julius had the name and all the weight that came with it.
He was the oldest of the group, but it was clear Nazareth led them, either through his wit and merciless execution of any task they needed to complete, or his unyielding nature and genius in the art of poison.
Although Julius didn’t always approve of Nazareth’s methods, he never spoke out against them, either.
It was only due to the ties they’d made and the wealth of connections the four of them have built up that he continued to support Nazareth’s ways.
There was a certain quality in the way they worked when the four of them joined hands.
—So Julius grew apprehensive when he saw the letter.
For Nazareth to write him a formal letter and allow it to go through the proper procedures—this was an ominous sign.
Nazareth and the others knew letters would take the longest to reach him. It was why they developed other forms of communication… so why?
He opened the envelope.
The servant standing silently by his master’s bed felt an odd chill in the room.
Despite the brightly lit fireplace, this unusual coldness seeped into his bones and made him shiver.
He felt weak as the heavy pressure surrounded the room.
“Would Master Julius like to retaliate?” He asked, almost fearfully as his composure crumbled, wondering what that Odum bastard had written to cause such a reaction.
His master merely glanced at him with a frightening gaze.
The servant felt cold sweat forming on his face as those terrifying eyes stared unseeingly at him.
Master Julius slowly made his way out of bed, his bare feet hitting the cold ground heavily as if he was unused to standing for a long time.
He walked over to the kindling fire and stood in front of it.
With the letter in his hand, he tossed it into the flames, watching as it burned into ash.
“Contact the Dartmouths and the Moores. I would like to speak to my companions.”
“Yes, Master!”
Julius watched the servant flee expressionlessly.
Vermillion eyes flickered over to the hearth.
Nazareth...
He could taste blood at the back of his throat.
—
Elliot Levi Moores.
Neo recognized him immediately.
With neatly combed ash brown hair and eyes as black as night, Elliot was a rigid boy who desperately wanted to separate himself from the common class.
He was the textbook definition of a noble, but he tried too hard.
Elliot was the second son of the Moores Family, a seemingly simple Earl family under the Aristocratic Faction.
Envious of the attention his older brother was given since childhood, he worked hard to gain his mother’s approval, but it was all for naught.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy regarding this boy was his loyalty and devotion to his family. For the sake of the heirship title, he was used by his own mother to go against his own brother, just for a bit of love.
Neo felt a thousand stares searing into his back, onlookers who had just begun to mind their own business turning their attention back to him, the Scummy Troublemaker.
He approached Elliot carefully.
Elliot was one of the three boys belonging to the families Nazareth made connections with. One of three who he had broken ties with by ghosting their letters after sending his own, notifying them of his intentions.
Looking at him now, so young and childish-looking, Neo felt a sense of loss, knowing how this boy would change into a desperate beast, ready to sin for a mother’s love.
All because he followed Nazareth’s teachings and became just as ruthless and cold.
“Let’s go.”
Elliot’s voice was quiet but audible amidst the seemingly silent schoolyard.
There was a tense silence, but eventually, it needed to die down for what was to come.
Neo gave a slow nod and turned.
He walked past his companions despite their protests.
“Wait for me,” he told them, “I’ll see you at rehearsal.”
They looked at Elliot with confusion, or in Tybalt’s case, with a knowing grin.
Neo headed toward the hidden area where all confrontations usually took place.
He turned a corner and disappeared behind the school, Elliot trailing after him with hunched shoulders and a frown.
In the past, Elliot’s family connected him to the underground. They were infamous and controlled a large section of the criminal underworld.
Neo couldn’t recall how far their reaches were, but he had gained several illegal connections through the Castas Family, who were Elliot’s maternal family.
Nazareth’s connections had led him into discovering the secrets of Elliot’s mother. Earl Moores was a shadow of the man he used to be and had hidden away from the eyes of society since Elliot’s mother married him.
The trails eventually brought Nazareth to the very center of the Moores Family Drama.
Astella Moores nee Castas was a woman of wit and intellect, vicious and powerful, someone who demanded respect and took what she wanted with her own two hands.
And from what little he was able to dig up, she had wanted Earl Moores for a marriage partner.
Earl Moores was already a married man when Astella set her eyes upon him.
He was married to a simple commoner.
Lydia Moores was a beautiful woman who served the young Earl Moores as a maid when they were young. Eventually, they fell in love with each other and were wedded once the Lesser Krieg War was over, as decorated war heroes of their generation.
Coincidentally enough, it was after a tragic carriage accident involving the late Earl and Countess of Moores, that the two young lovebirds were able to wed without any problems.
After all, there had to be a solution to the classism presented in their taboo relationship, and the Earl’s parents had always disapproved of Lydia, who was a lowly maid.
The marriage between Earl Moores and Lady Lydia was a happy one until illness struck the couple. It was said that after the birth of Leotine, Elliot’s older half-brother, Lady Lydia began to grow weak and frail.
Earl Moores was devastated, even more so when she eventually died not even three years later, leaving both him and his sickly son to grieve for the lovely woman.
Then, ten years later, Astella stepped into the Earl’s Manor with a child, proclaiming he belonged to the Earl.
One blood test later and a wedding was set, resulting in an uproar through the entirety of the aristocratic society.
The rumors mills spun through the aristocracy.
These strings of events were too good to be true, too coincidental, too fortuitous for Lady Astella.
And indeed they were.
But the investigation remained murky despite Nazareth’s network.
Why did Lady Astella make her move after ten years?
She had come out of nowhere to claim the Earl, but why wait for so long?
Nazareth found out the reason why.
Who knew that a few drops of poison and a bribed lowly maid could do so much for one’s life. The trusted old maid who nursed poor Lady Lydia as she slowly withered away, wept at the funeral, and retired from servitude forever.
At the time, the small underground connections he had whispered of an uprising.
The Castas Family was facing a power struggle.
The unfavored daughter of Lord Castas had returned to reclaim her place.
So in return, they chose to wreak havoc on the family of her child’s father.
Astella Castas was infamous for her cold-blooded heart. She had no qualm in killing those who stood in her way.
Perhaps her only regret was involving the Earl’s family.
Nazareth uncovered this information and sought out Elliot.
Because despite Lady Astella’s struggles, she was a monster, just like him.
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.
The evidence still didn’t align with the information he discovered.
She used the Earl as a stepping stone into aristocracy, but for what?
The Earl was convenient to have a child with, so she drugged the grieving man and had him for a night, but was it necessary to wait ten years?
Some whispered how she wanted power within the aristocracy, unsatisfied by the powers of the criminal underworld, so she crawled her way up from that hellish place and planted herself where she was now.
So what if there was still that Leotine?
So what if she was merely a second wife?
A sickly boy like him would eventually die one day.
And that was the reason why she had come back.
Because while she might have felt regret for the Earl’s Family, she was aware of what little time his eldest son had.
She doted on this boy more than she doted on her own son, knowing that he would soon succumb to his sickly body.
She won, in the end. And she would continue winning once the boy died.
Except he won’t.
But that was a story for another day.
Neo pitied the unknowing pawn that was Elliot. Manipulated by his mother to commit foul deeds for the Castas and Moores.
Just as mad as he was, just as insane, slowly driven to that point amidst Nazareth’s own madness. The feeling of insanity was both contagious and addictive.
An unloved son who was born out of wedlock, with an indifferent mother and father who had shut himself away, and a brother who shined brighter than anything else despite his dimming lights.
They had much in common.
The result of the ploys he and Elliot hatched up came in the form of those underground terrorists, who broke into the academy through the opening they created in the special emergency barriers.
In the end, it left them with nothing but the accusatory glares sinking into their backs, and blood-stained hands haunting their visions.
That was all Neo remembered of Elliot. The boy was taken from the academy and escorted back to his family manor, his sentence still pending.
Neo was never told if the verdict was imprisonment or execution.
—
There was an uncomfortable silence between them.
It was a stalemate. The two of them stood in front of one another at a distance that showed both wariness and caution.
“You are aware of why I called you out.”
It was more of a statement than a question, but Nazareth at least had the decency to nod.
He had always been hard to read.
Elliot grunted. He crossed his arms and stared sharply at the other.
“Then I’m sure you can comprehend what it meant to break our ties.“
“En.”
It irritated him how little Nazareth cared.
“Do you?”
The flicker of emotion ran across Nazareth’s face.
Elliot wondered what expression he was making to cause that.
He had always prided himself on his control.
These last few months had been like hell.
Leotine was growing sicker, his mother was even more unfeeling than usual, and don’t even mention his father.
Elliot almost felt himself disappearing, fading from the world like a ghost.
Nazareth had often reminded him of his existence.
He knew he wanted him for his connections. He had freely given him everything, only because he wanted him and the others to stay and keep him grounded.
On that day, when Nazareth first approached him, Elliot realized he was the only one who had ever chosen him when no one besides his brother ever did.
For as long as he remembered, no one wanted or saw the lowborn bastard Elliot, with his thieving hands ready to snatch the heirship from his sickly older brother.
Just a year ago, they were going through with the contract, promising to back one another… sharing their deepest secrets to fully tie their bonds, and admitting their most selfish ambitions.
They were sharing secrets that could endanger all of them, but the ritual required these secrets to form these magical bonds.
They made a promise.
So… why?
A candle flickered to life in Elliot’s head as realization dawned on him.
Like a switch, Elliot started to feel the strain of his self-control snapping at its center.
“I did something wrong, didn’t I?”
Confusion set in on Nazareth’s face.
“What…”
He didn’t care. All he wanted was for everything to go back to normal.
“It’s either that, or you couldn’t take the secrets, or… or something…”
He was grasping at straws like an idiot because it didn’t make sense.
Why did Nazareth want to cut ties so badly?
“Just tell me how I can fix this,” Elliot pleaded.
“If you can just show me what I need to do, or give me some time to contact the Castas, I can get you what you need. I heard you were investigating about the Lover Cafe incident, and I know it’s been a few months since then, but I can still dig out the people who were responsible—”
There was a moment of clarity where he knew he had lost all sense of his tight composure. His focus wasn’t on his pride, but the person who was slipping away from him.
He didn’t want to go back to those days when no one would acknowledge his existence.
At least, when he was by Nazareth’s side, the other knew he was useful.
What was he if not a tool to be used?
Nazareth gave him a sense of direction.
If he told him to jump, Elliot was prepared to leap into the abyss, just to please the only other person who could see him.
“No, Elliot.”
Neither of those words brought comfort to Elliot’s rising distress.
“I didn’t cut you off because of that.”
But… But…!
They stood there in silence.
“I don’t believe you.”
How could Nazareth say that?
“There has to be something…!”
“I’m sorry.”
Elliot’s mind cleared from the fog of momentary anguish, and he was suddenly left with pure rationality swimming through his head.
If he couldn’t get Nazareth to admit what he had done wrong—what they had done wrong—then at the very least, he needed to know if he would regret it.
“You’ve already contacted the others. If you sent me a letter then Julius would have also gotten a letter. You know he can’t respond to letters right now. Do you even know what this would do to him? And Lester, what about Lester?!”
Elliot had been writing to Nazareth for weeks, begging him to respond. It was impossible to meet him at school with those three dogs nipping at his heel, and they’d all agreed to never be seen with each other in public.
“… I’m sorry.”
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
Useless apologies.
Elliot had heard it all.
From Leotine, from mother, and sometimes even from father.
Shame on him for thinking Nazareth was any different.
“Be sorry to Lester. He doesn’t even want to look at you right now.”
Elliot used Lester’s name because he didn’t want to admit how heartbreaking it was for him, too.
He didn’t want an apology, he wanted an explanation.
And if he couldn’t get either, he could only hurt the other by bringing up Lester, who was the most vulnerable member of their group.
Nazareth had always been inconsiderate.
Crazy, psycho Nazareth and his crazy ideas and all the poisons in the world at his disposal. He shined like a star while everyone else faded into the background like nothing. Elliot had looked up to him, believing he might as well have hung the stars.
The next words Nazareth spoke shattered what was left of Elliot’s trust in the person he thought was his friend.
“Send him my apologies. I don’t think we should have these ties anymore.”
What the hell…?
“I’m sorry, Elliot.”
That’s it?
“…”
THAT’S IT?!
“Are you serious?!”
Elliot exploded on the spot. An unbearable heat ignited in his chest as he saw flashes of red dotting his vision.
“And you expect me to think you were honest when we each shared a secret? Why are you suddenly like this?!”
Nazareth sighed.
“We’re young, Elliot. It was stupid for us to make ties in the first place. We shouldn’t have done it.”
For the first time, Elliot realized why Nazareth was considered scum by the entire student population.
He really was a piece of shit.
“That’s still not a reason for backing out all of a sudden. This is a magical bond, Nazareth,” Elliot said through gritted teach, “you have never regretted anything you’ve done until now. I want to know the real reason why you’re willing to risk the backlash.”
Nazareth blinked.
He stared at Elliot.
“My father wants me to break our ties.”
Elliot wanted to punch a wall and break his hand.
“Since when did you ever listen to your father?! Didn’t you want to kill your brother?! You wanted to destroy your own family—”
“Elliot.”
A sharp voice tore through his skin and sliced him up.
Though he did not bleed, he felt only dread in the core of his soul.
Elliot had only ever heard Nazareth sound like this against his enemies.
Never him.
He had never spoken to him like that.
He met those frigid vermillion eyes, narrowed with a wave of underlying anger beneath their icy appearance.
A sudden memory appeared in the back of his mind—
“When you scream to the world, you will only draw the ires of your enemies.”
“Then what should I do?”
—
Neo hadn’t meant for his tone to come out like that, but being in the presence of Elliot drew up so many raw memories.
The process of cutting ties with the three families he had made contact with wasn’t simple. The four of them believed that if they were to do evil deeds, then they might as well share their hellish fate forever.
He knew a simple letter wouldn’t actually do anything. The four of them had to be present, together, to break their bonds.
They would also need to find a fifth witness to watch over the tie-breaking.
Secrets in noble society were valuable, and secrets from the heart were like magic words.
What they all told during the forming of their alliance could possibly make or break them if what was said that day ever made it into the open.
Despite Gareth’s simple orders to break his ties with the families of those “beneath him”—another term used for bad influences that would get him killed someday—the four of them had long sealed their fate with a bond more permanent than a simple contract.
The act of cutting the tie was betrayal at its finest.
And a very painful experience.
He wasn’t kidding when he said they were stupid teenagers.
Playing with magical ties was like giving a name to a fae or a demon.
They shouldn’t have done it, but they did.
Like a bunch of teenage dumbasses.
Now, besides researching the Slave Emblem, Neo also needed to find a way to safely get rid of it, or else he really will have to share the consequences of his actions with those three kids.
His father might not have realized this, but Nazareth was the bad influence.
Not the other way around.
Look, he even named their group The Shady Nobles.
Like a shadow, or a secret society, or something…
Neo couldn’t remember why he thought it was a good name.
It sounded cool and edgy at the time.
… At least it wasn’t Four Shades of Grey.
—
Elliot stared at Nazareth, his eyes wide with shock.
The air grew somber and quiet, the pressure thick enough to choke.
Again, Nazareth sighed.
“I don’t want to do that anymore.”
There was only silence between them that drew on and on.
Elliot didn’t know if he should congratulate him for overcoming his problems or be resentful for being used and thrown away like trash the second those plans don’t involve him anymore.
He was used to this feeling, but it still hurt.
Nazareth didn’t want to kill his brother anymore, destroy his family, or topple the aristocracy.
He didn’t want to be associated with the likes of Elliot, who was filthy with the blood of Castas in his veins.
Elliot, who should stay in the shadows and only reappear when it’s convenient.
“We… I’m not good enough for you anymore, am I?”
Nazareth’s eyes widened.
Elliot smiled bitterly.
For once, Nazareth was speechless.
His silence was enough to answer Elliot’s question.
Nazareth saw him and their group as an obstacle.
In order to mend his ways, he would have to erase his black history.
“You cut your hair and stand there, and you’re suddenly a whole new person. Is that all it took?”
“Elliot…”
Elliot couldn’t help but ridicule him.
“Did you think we were easy?” He demanded.
“When you approached us, convinced us to tell our secrets, were you playing with us? When you approached me, did you see me, or did you see a simple tool? The almost bastard son of Earl Moores, envious and evil, nothing compared to his holy messiah of an older brother, tricked into telling his deepest secrets… You were so determined to take down that brother of yours just a few months ago, and now that you have gained our trust, you’re going back on it.”
The last part was more of a statement than a question.
Elliot knew with certainty Nazareth will find a way to break their ties.
Those vermillion eyes flickered with hurt, the emotion passing through like a ghost.
But no.
He shouldn’t be the one standing there, all sad and hurt because Elliot didn’t let him get away with the consequences of his false promises and cowardly actions.
Elliot’s lips curled, forming a tight-lipped crescent, hiding away the deep anguish in his heart while exposing his intent to hurt by the narrow of his eyes.
To think he would wear this expression for the same person who taught it to him.
“Everyone hated you, feared you, scorned you. At the very least, you weren’t hated into obscurity… No one will ever see me as anything besides a replaceable tool. But you already knew that, don’t you, Naz?”
They shared their secrets and made sure to know one another deeply through the contract they signed.
Elliot had willingly exposed himself, opened up his heart and mind, and tied himself to them.
The secret he had shared…
“I need validation. I want to be useful, but I’m always being replaced or abandoned when I can’t help anymore. It… hurts. If we’re going to do this, you can use me, but please, don’t throw me away.”
At the time, when they were at their most vulnerable…
The deepest secret Elliot shared with him was the fear of being forsaken at the snap of a finger.
In a family where no one truly saw him, he was desperate for attention, whether it be good or bad.
With his mother pressuring him to be obedient, and his father indifferent to his existence, the poor boy lived a life where he kept giving and giving for just a look of approval, a touch of affection, or even a hint of acknowledgment, the greatest proof that he was real.
His obsession with making something of himself—of trying to be something—was his greatest downfall, because, ironically enough, the person he hated most was the only one who saw him.
Leotine.
But Leotine’s time was limited, and he couldn’t stay with him forever.
There was a sharp intake of breath.
“Elliot…”
Nazareth’s voice had softened.
“I’m sorry. I truly am.”
Again with the apologies.
“I’ve come to realize everything we’ve done would eventually lead to our downfall. It’s too late to take back what we did, but there is still time to fix everything. Don’t you want to live for yourself?”
Was Nazareth telling him to change?
Elliot had lived like the shadow he was raised to be, behind Leotine, behind his mother, and behind Nazareth.
He had never once thought for himself, but the demands of others.
He needed to be led by the hand, to be given orders, to properly function.
Nazareth, who only ever lived for himself, selfishly dragging everyone into the chaos, could never understand the shackles of obligation chaining him down.
Elliot didn’t answer Nazareth.
He blinked rapidly and looked away.
Tears had welled up in his eyes.
After a moment—
He turned and walked away, his footsteps careful and measured as he made his exit, concealing every emotion he had felt during this encounter.
“The impact is better if you’re quiet.”
“Are you sure?”
The other smirked.
“If you want to make it more ominous, try it.”
…
“Naz, you’re a genius!”
“Flattery doesn’t suit you.”
“Well… thanks, anyway… for the advice.”
“…”
“Naz?”
“… You’re welcome.”
—
Neo watched as Elliot left.
He had done something wrong.
But as the other boy’s back slowly disappeared, he found he couldn’t move.
His feet were firmly planted to the ground.
It was strange.
He had wanted to break their ties cleanly, but this wretched feeling in the back of his throat overwhelmed him even more.
He could hear something shatter within himself, and wondered briefly if it was the tie that marked their contract or the brief friendship they had shared.
But you see, Neo knew he had hurt Elliot severely.
For someone of Elliot’s character, if he didn’t want to drag him down, he could only push him away.
Because Nazareth was the bad influence.
If Nazareth had not died alone that day by the cliff, swimming in a pool of blood with the gaping wound inflicted by his brother’s sword opened wide and aching, he might have joined Elliot in a cell and awaited execution.
He regretted it.
If he was going to be a piece of shit, he should have done it alone.
No one seemed to realize this, but Elliot was the most vulnerable in their group.
He had the blood of the Castas.
Despite being the Earl’s son, no one would ever forget his mother’s background.
His ties to the criminal underworld and everything he did for Nazareth would have led to public execution, anyway.
Without realizing it, Neo was suddenly spiraling into his thoughts as Elliot slapped him with the reality of their lives.
Just like Elliot, he also had his way of coping.
While the other surrendered himself as a tool to be used, Nazareth chose violence and chaos.
He tethered his life to his brother’s, made trouble, and caused mayhem everywhere he went.
He decided the best way to live was as a villain, a despised and hated villain with a brother and sister who everyone preferred because they were the lesser evil to that abomination.
Nazareth was pathetic. Couldn’t kill his brother, yet he still willed himself to be the unwanted enemy.
Two brothers, a bastard and an heir. One ascended into glory while the other fell into hell. That lifetime was blazing with fire and his madness spread like the flames he sparked in his wake.
He slowly recalled in that moment of clarity, when he had seen that child back then with sapphire blue eyes, his obsession and the feeling of inferiority gave him the will to live.
He had a goal in life, no matter how terrible of a goal it was.
He got to experience a relatively exciting lifetime when in the end, all he wanted was to seek death and join his beloved Mummy.
Neo was eternally grateful for Aurelion because, without him, he would have never lived to that point.
That child saved Nazareth, even if Nazareth hadn’t known this fact at the time.
It wasn’t Aurelion’s fault that the older brother he was supposed to have didn’t protect him properly.
The fault laid in the boy who chose the path of violence.
Nazareth had wanted everyone to feel the pain he cultivated deeply inside his heart, and perhaps, it was because he had been so broken that he felt a common ground with Elliot.
Only to realize they had ruined their lives forever.
He had wanted to take what should have never been his, fought for something that he knew he was undeserving of, and died miserably with black water splashed across his name. He was born a scum, a bastard, a whoreson—a criminal.
And he died the same way he lived.
A desperate sinner, more wretched than the rats crawling in the pits of the underground.
Nothing changed despite his rise in status. He was still filthy with the stench of blood in his last moments, his shirt torn through by Aurelion’s sword.
Karma spun its magic wheel and he had to pay back tenfold for his vices.
It always came to reap, whether in death or following closely in the footsteps of a villain.
Neo took a breath.
He pulled out one of his knives and threw it harshly against a tree.
The blade went flying before landing heavily with a Thunk!
The tree elicited a terrified scream.
Neo took a step back.
His eyes darted around and landed on a large bush not far from the tree.
He frowned.
“How much did you hear?”
He patiently stood there.
A minute went by.
A boy nervously popped out from behind the bush, a look of terror clear on his face.
“S-sorry…”
Neo tilted his head.
Shouldn’t this kid be with Aurelion right now?
—
Step 27: Oh, dear boy. Ties aren’t something you can mess with. What? Did you think we meant it as something flimsy? To all of you out there, beware. Ties are bonds. They link you from the heart to soul, the cruelest, yet most purest display of loyalty to those you call your allies. They were only children, yet no one realized what they really did to show their sincerity.
The author has something to say:
I made a Character Sheet on the Wattpad version of this story. There are reference pictures for most of the characters and they are organized by which chapter they are introduced in and a short summary of who they are. Please check it out in case you get lost on who is who.
Thank you for the fanart video edit, locksonebelina!
And thank you, roseyposie, raevie, LittleRain, chxrming, Ash_galaxy, and ~RubyInkWell~ for the beautiful fanarts!
By roseyposie
By raevie
By LittleRain
By chxrming
By Ash_galaxy
By ~RubyInkWell~
sad
Will he be alright?
bad feeling. I need a ML to make Neo feel better. I also need a solution to this because Elliot is just too pitiful and relatable, and his situation makes me wanna cry…
Thanks for the chapter ❤️ the feels are real 😭
thanks for the chapter ♡
Thank you for the chapter
I was waiting for the “I want to break this magical contract so we can just be friends” but it never showed up. T-T
Thank you for the chapter!!!
Same ~.~
Yea
Thanks for the chapter 🥰🥰
Looking forward to more
AT LEAST IT WASNT FOUR SHADES OF GREY…😭😭😭
Weepsss I hope everything works out in the end :((
Thank you for the chapterr
Thanks for the chapter! Poor lost souls…
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
😔
Thank you for the chapter!
Thank you for the chapter!!!
Neo I understand the wanting to change, but that was pretty trashy of you😭
Thank you for the lovely chapter
Yup, it’s totally Neo’s fault there. Imo, instead of facing w.e he had done, he ran away in avoidance.
I’m a bad influence, I’m doing it for their own goods; it’s such a cheap excuse.
My father told me to; even worst excuse.
Elliot reminds me so much of MengYao, Neo’s the worse Lan XiChen, the one that know something went wrong in his friend’s life and yet did nothing.
My blood boils thinking of them!
thanks for the chapter <3
Neo is acting like he is still a bad influence, you a good influence now; get your head outta the gutter!!
Thank you for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter! 💕
His intention isn’t bad, but dang, that still hurts
Thank you for the chapter
Oh Elliot, he’s gonna start down his evil path or take his life. That’s how fragile this teenager is and Neo just threw him away knowing that’s Elliott’s greatest fear/torment.
Poot Elliot. Why don’t just be friends altogether…
Kinda sad (｡•́︿•̀｡)
Mc is wildly irresponsible and needs to do better