Chapter 4

The anger Ciel felt for Sebastian didn't pass. In some ways, he wish that it had. Bard now cooked the dinners, which meant dealing with burnt and tasteless food. Mey-rin couldn't walk in a straight line to save her life, and she had broken half of the decent tea sets and dishes. Finny's strength had destroyed portions of the garden and different items he used were now either dented or broken altogether. Despite these hardships, however, Ciel refused to call Sebastian back.

Now, he solely relied on Tanaka. Whenever Bard ruined a meal, Tanaka would go off and make him something else to eat. The elderly steward would do his best to substitute plates and cups from other tea sets. As for the garden, he could only leave it to Finny to clean up the mess. At night, he'd prepare Ciel for bed. Even at 12 years old, the earl didn't know how to button the buttons of his own nightshirt. And they were once the old dress shirts Sebastian would use. Now that he thought about it, he should have watched to see exactly how his own daily routine was done.

The next morning, Tanaka woke him up with tea prepared and a breakfast menu ready.

"I must inquire about something," Tanaka spoke up after Ciel was dressed.

"What is it?"

"Where's Sebastian?"

Ciel went silent. He hadn't thought about what he was going to tell the other servants about Sebastian's leaving. They'd surely be upset, because it was him and Ciel himself that had taken them in and had given them jobs. Even now, he wasn't sure if he had exactly fired Sebastian. For now, all he knew was that he hadd ordered Sebastian to leave and that he couldn't stand to see the butler's face anymore. Who knows how he could've interpreted that?

"He left," was all the young earl could say.

"He left?" Tanaka inquired, "Do you mean to say he's quit, and without any prior notice?"

"Not exactly. We had a little bit of a disagreement yesterday and he left to let things cool down. What? He didn't tell you anything?"

"Not a thing," Tanaka confirmed, "None of us really saw him yesterday, except for in the morning when we when he gave us our duties for the day."

Ciel nodded, "I see. Well, give him a few days. It was a very heated argument. In the meantime, I'd like to do some cooling off, myself. I need to get away for a little while."

"So, you would like to go to the house in town, then?"

"No, I was thinking more along the lines of visiting an old friend. Alois Trancy is bound to be wondering what I've been doing all this time, and his butler Claude is a very competent man."

Tanaka tilted his head curiously, "Wouldn't it just be easier to make contact with Sebastian and sort things out?"

Ciel sighed, "I don't think any amount of contact will be able to settle things between us. It's better if we both take a few days away."

There was a truth he kept hidden. The truth was that he didn't expect Sebastian to return anytime soon; not unless he ordered him to do so otherwise. The reason he wanted to go to the Trancy mansion was because he had nowhere else to go that had competent servants. He only heard about Alois Trancy, and his butler was rumored to be just as brilliant as Sebastian. Rumored to be, that is.

Within a day, contact was made with the Trancys about Ciel's coming over, something Tanaka was surprised they didn't object to. Ciel's things were packed and loaded into a carriage. The servants met him outside the mansion to say their goodbyes and they waved to him as the carriage pulled away. The earl could still hear them even when they'd made it to the road.

"Goodbye, young master! We'll see you again soon!"

From the point Sebastian had walked out the door to Ciel study, he didn't stop walking. He walked several miles away from the Phantomhive Manor, through hundreds of miles of forest, through valleys and over mountains, across meadows, and he even swam across a few rivers and lakes; all just reach one destination. Hell.

Eventually, he did find it; a deep gorge in earth across a patch of black and white roses that was only 100 feet across, but several miles long. That gorge was the official entrance to his realm.

And even there, Sebastian still didn't stop walking. He stepped off the edge of the gorge without hesitation and landed on both of his feet.

As he traveled through Hell, many demons acknowledged his presence. Some dipped their heads in respect, some only gave him a brief glance, some glared at him, and some had to be held back to be kept from attacking him. That was the way demons treated each other. They were either respectful, hateful, or they just didn't care; behaviors he had also found within humans in the human realm.

Sebastian kept walking until he came to a very large castle. Dark and dreary in appearance, the castle looked as if it could have been haunted. However, the inhabitants of this castle were living. This was the home of Satan Lucifer himself. Demons were free to come and go from the building without much need for notice, because, for the moment, Hell's ruler was incredibly bored.

Sebastian had been in this castle many times before, so he knew the layout of it well. It was easy for him to find his way to the throne room; a large room that was located at the heart of the castle.

And on his throne he sat, a majestic immortal cloaked in black silks and furs. His only crown were the pair of curling horns, similar to those of a ram, sprouting from a full head of thick black hair. He sat with his head resting on the knuckles of his left hand. His soulless black eyes could freeze fires and melt glaciers and gouge the truth out of the most well-trained liars. A god to the damned and the forgotten, this was Satan.

Sebastian approached the elder demon without hesitation or fear. He stopped before the pedestal holding up the ruler's throne and proceeded to bow before him, folding his body in until his head rested against the rugs on the floor with his hands pushed out in front of him. It was an amount of respect he'd never show to Ciel in a million years.

"Rise," Satan ordered.

Sebastian obeyed and stood.

"Well, well, well," the elder demon chided, "To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you here? I thought you were caught up in a contract, Michaelis."

"I have been dismissed."

"Uh-huh, but why come here to me? Oh! Have you come to torture the prisoners?"

"No, your Majesty."

"Then . . . perhaps gossip?"

"No."

Satan shot him a pondering look, "You're a lot more laconic than usual. Has something happened?"

"It is as I told you, your Majesty; I have been dismissed."

Satan raised a curious brow, "Eh?"

"My master has ordered me out of his sights. I do quote, 'go crawl into a hole and die for all I care. I can't stand to see your face anymore. Leave! That's an order!'."

"I see. I see. But which part of that order do you need my help with?"

"The 'go crawl into a hole and die' part of it."

Satan rubbed at his chin in thought, "I never thought of that as an order."

"Neither did Ciel, but the way I see it, telling me to do something translates into an order."

Satan nodded, "But is that truly what you want? To die?"

"In all honesty, yes. If I keep serving under that brat, I'm going to die, one way or the other, just based on what I do for his sake on a daily basis. Besides, he overreacted this time. He isn't deserving of me, and I'd like to escape him however I can."

"Alright, Raven, alright. But in what way should this be carried out?"

Sebastian sought. His death could be simple; a beheading, or perhaps stabbedthrough the heart with a demon sword. His death could be brutal; drawn and quartered, or he could have each of his limbs tied to a Hellhound and ripped apart. But none of those options seemed to be fulfilling enough.

"I've lived along and idle life as a demon," he finally said, "And with that long and idle life came the taking of life. As I die, I'd like that life to be given back to the earth. All the years that I have lived and could have lived."

"A life-force drain, then?"

"Yes."

"Under what conditions?"

"Under the condition that I'm given time to find a secluded place to die; a place where I can remain undisturbed by anyone, especially Ciel. A place that's dying and in need of new life."

Satan was silent for sometime before he spoke.

"It will be done, then. But I have some conditions of my own."

Sebastian frowned, "Name them."

"None of this seems at all fair on your master. Taking your services away from him without giving him a chance is a selfish act, if you ask me. The sort of enchantment that will be draining your life source should be reversible somehow. Name the one thing to reverse the enchantment, Michaelis, and I will send you on your way."

"And if I refuse? I don't wish for it to be reversible."

"If you refuse, I will simply have you beheaded, your own wish as to how you die will not be taken into consideration."

Sebastian snorted in annoyance, "Fine! To reverse the enchantment then . . . " He thought hard and a light came on in his head, " To reverse the enchantment, Ciel must weep for me."

Satan seemed confused, "It shall be done then. But might I ask why the boy must shed tears to reverse the enchantment? It seems like something simple a 12-year-old boy could do in the face of a death."

Sebastian smiled deviously.

"I chose something so simple because it's something Ciel is incapable of doing."