Chapter 34
"What?" Sebastian couldn't believe this.
"Know that my loyalty always lies with you," Lau said, going down on one knee.
"Are you telling me the truth?" Sebastian asked. He could not help it: He felt ridiculed.
"I am," Lau said.
Sebastian sighed. Could he actually believe Lau? When they had been children, Lau had told him nothing but the truth. But as Ciel had said, people changed. Lau may or may not have lied when they met again. He may or may not be lying right now. It was hard to tell, really.
However, even if Lau had betrayed him, he was here, informing Sebastian of what he had done. This alone didn't make sense. Was he looking for forgiveness? Or had it all been part of a greater scheme?
"Is this a test?" Sebastian asked. "Are you lying about the betrayal? Or are you lying about the loyalty? Or are you lying about Ash?" Although he couldn't really say that it was fr-fetched to accuse Ash of such a thing.
"I'm not lying at all." Lau frowned. "I wouldn't have come back if I had decided to completely betray you."
"Explain yourself," Sebastian finally said. He couldn't get angry, which surprised him, considering what Lau had just said. He should be angry on Ciel's behalf at least. But he wasn't.
"My men and I are acquainted with both Aleister Chambers and Ash Landers." Lau smirked. "Separately."
Sebastian nodded. "Go on."
"There seems to be a vicious fight between those two parties. Aleister sometimes sells his songbirds, girls who weren't mute until he adopted them, and Ash sometimes buys them. You rarely hear anything about them afterwards.
"However, this is not the main point of why they dislike each other. According to our information, it has to do two people: Edgar Redmond and Ciel Phantomhive.
"We don't know too much, but both want… well, both of them for their own reasons. Each of them tried to put up my men against the other. You have employed us as well, and as everyone's intentions antagonise the others', I thought it was about time to choose a side."
"Which one did you choose?" Sebastian asked.
"Take a look around you. Where am I?" Lau grinned when Sebastian rolled his eyes. "I wasn't done. We needed to find out who Ciel's kidnapper was, as you told us to. However, we could never do that without getting busted. We had already suspected Aleister, but when Ash told us to get the boy for himself, he became a suspect, too. We decided to let him do what he planned to, and let him take Ciel."
"You let him take Ciel." Sebastian wondered if he could aim well enough to shoot Lau in the leg.
"Yes, we let him. We told Aleister that Ash had had men with him to help him. Those were mine, of course, but Aleister doesn't have to know. As Ash had already bought Maurice from Aleister, we let him take that kid, too, and made sure not to get busted, so we didn't let Edgar escape. We really did delete the footage, though, sorry about that. It was necessary."
Well, what was done was done. Sebastian still wondered how good his aim was. He was incredibly tempted to test it. Lau had let Ash take Ciel because he'd wanted to see if Ash was the cultist?
"Ash told me later that he was glad to have Ciel back." Lau shrugged. "He said he could continue where he'd been forced to stop. To me, that's enough to assume that he indeed is the cultist. Also, his hands stink of blood. I don't know why, but they do. AND he wears a ridiculous cloak and covers his face and doesn't speak when he goes to see Ciel and Maurice.
"We have just brought Edgar to Ash. Ash wished for him, so we delivered. However, I'm sure you'll see what we did there."
"You brought most of the victims to one and the same place," Sebastian said. "We could rescue them."
"That we could."
"What about Alois?"
"He's still with Aleister. Though when Aleister calls, pretty soon, I want you to be there and hear what I will tell him."
Sebastian nodded, twirling the pistol in his hand. He knew he wouldn't shoot at Lau. He didn't even know how to unlock it. But he could still hit the criminal with it. He really could. "You let Ash take Ciel."
"I believe we've established that by now, yes." Lau sighed. "Would it changed anything if I said sorry? No?... But at least we know for certain who the cultist is. And we have everything under control."
"What is Ash planning to do?" Sebastian asked.
"He's going to kill them," Lau said. "On new moon, I think."
"When's that?" Sebastian asked. As if he knew the moon calendar.
Lau pursed his lips, looking decidedly uncomfortable. "In… four days?"
"What?" Sebastian hissed.
Lau's phone went off.
The man immediately got up and answered it. "Yes?"
Sebastian wasn't sure what to say. He didn't even know what to think. From the way that Lau had told him, the criminal was on his side. But it was still very ambiguous. Lau could have told Aleister and Ash similar things. Everybody was against everybody, but how many of them knew it? Aleister must know that Lau had gone against Sebastian. Ash hadn't shown any indication that he knew of Lau's elaborate (and, admittedly, confusing) game. Sebastian had received a lot of information. But how true was it, and how could he know that Lau wouldn't go against him again?
"No, no, don't do that," Lau suddenly said. Sebastian looked up but realised that Lau was still on his phone, talking to Aleister. He hoped he hadn't missed too much. This was important. "Try to bargain. Gather all your girls together and go there. You will have some of my men look after you…" Aleister said something in return, and Lau nodded while pacing. "The boy," he finally said. "The Faustus boy…. Use him. Take him with you, too. He is young, blond and pretty. It'll work. Trust me."
Trust me.
Sebastian almost snorted.
Trusting Lau had cost him Ciel's safety. Lau had promised not to harm Ciel in any way, and there he was allowing Ash to keep Ciel and possibly kill him if they didn't interfere soon.
That two-faced little bastard.
When Lau hung up, having convinced Aleister to take Alois with him and his songbirds to Ash, Sebastian casually walked over to the Chinese man and punched him. Hard.
Lau, not having expected it, stumbled backwards, immediately bringing a hand to his cheek, touching it gingerly. "You have a stronger punch than I would have thought." He pressed a tender spot and winced. "I think I deserved that one."
"You deserve many more," Sebastian said. "Where does your loyalty really lie?"
"Right here." Lau said. "This betrayal was a necessity. I hope you will forgive me for my actions. It was the fastest way to learn more without anyone else getting in danger."
"Bring Ciel back, as well as the other boys. We'll talk about your loyalty then."
Lau hesitated, the smile slipping from his face, but then he nodded. "I will prove my worth to you… But for now, we have a coup to plan."