Chapter Three: A Meeting with the Elite

"Before you say anything, I'm not sorry for killing your messenger," you drawled. "He was an idiot anyways."

Belphegor ushishishi'ed. "I'd be disappointed if you'd done anything else."

You rolled your eyes and smiled. "And, of course, I'd hate to disappoint you." There was actually a surprising note of truth in that, although you were reluctant to admit it – why would you care about what he thought? Yes, you wanted to become a part of the Varia, and not just as an expendable foot soldier, and to achieve that, you'd have to impress one of the captains. But that didn't mean that you'd play to his tune and follow his every command, do anything you could to gain his favour. You weren't desperate, after all.

He snickered again. "Of course you'd be. After all, everyone wants my favour. I am a prince, after all." It was almost as though he knew what I'd been thinking. Were your thoughts really that easy to see? You hoped not, although he was a Varia captain, so who knew?

"Of course," you repeated sarcastically. "But have you decided, Belphegor-san? About–"

You were cut off as something seemed to occur to him.

"Do you have the body?"

You blinked in confusion, before realizing what "body" Belphegor must have been referring to.

"Obviously not. Unlike you, I don't live in a secret HQ where people won't react if you kill people. I live in an apartment, and people would notice if you had a dead body. Besides, what do you want with it anyways? Or do I even want to know?"

A young teen with teal hair and a hat that looked like an apple laughed, and you realized that if it weren't for that, you wouldn't have noticed him at all.

In a monotone, he remarked, "Sempai, before you say anything, I don't think she wants to hear about your perverted ways with corpses."

Swish. Swish. Swish. Three knives embedded themselves in the boy's back.

"Sempai, that hurt," he complained in the same indifferent monotone.

"That Fran?" you asked. From what you'd heard, that was the newest addition to the main members of the Varia, and an illusionist-in-training, Viper's apprentice(*). He didn't seem like the particularly respectful type, though, so you wondered why he was calling Belphegor sempai.

The prince made a noise of affirmation, as if he couldn't be bothered with anything involving the boy, then waved a hand dismissively.

"Where did you hide the body, hm?"

"Nowhere a prince would care to look," you said simply. Even if you doubted it, he always could be trying to frame you and knock you out of the competition by making it seem like you'd screwed up in some way. If he couldn't find the body, he wouldn't be able to do that.

"I'm not against doing some dirty work if it involves blood," Belphegor smiled, licking his lips. For some reason, that small action excited you, causing a rather pleasant tingling in your stomach.

What is wrong with me? you demanded to yourself. So, it seemed that he had the same attraction to blood that you did, but that wasn't any reason to become excited, in any sense of the word.

Involuntarily, you rubbed the raw skin on your neck, which never quite healed because of the pendant of razor wire and a locket filled with arsenic that you always wore. As always, traces of blood came off onto your fingers, and you licked it off – an old habit.

"Ushishishi... What are you doing, (R/N)?" His eyes were glued to my neck, and a twisted smile graced his handsome face.

Wait... did you just call him handsome? (R/N.) What. Is. Wrong. With. You? you growled to yourself.

"And the prince, if he's the genius he says he is, would know."

"Your girlfriend does have a point, sempai," Fran pointed out.

"Girlfriend? I'm not his fucking girlfriend!" You fiddled with the clasp of the pendant, wondering if you should take it off and decapitate the apple-headed illusionist with it.

"I wouldn't date someone who would likely try to kill me. Unlike you, frog, I don't have a death wish."

"So then, what is letting yourself be bombed called, suicidal sempai?"

"A strategy that only a genius could employ." To himself, he added, "I am going to kill Viper when I see him...

"What was that?"

"Nothing you should care about. Now, the reason I actually spent time calling you here: the boss insisted on meeting you. After he was told, of course, that you might actually be a suitable candidate for the position."

This was moving along much, much faster than you'd expected. You suddenly felt anxious about the whole affair; what if Xanxus decided that you were a rival, one who would be better eliminated than recruited?

The thought that Belphegor would be with you, though, was strangely comforting.

Why strangely? It's better to keep your targets in sight, after all. And if they somehow figure out what I'm also trying to do, well, I can just cut him down and run.

Shaking those thoughts out of your mind, you smiled.

"When?"

He nodded subtly to Fran, and the shadows surrounding the area seemed to ripple in a hypnotic rhythm. They drew closer and closer, enveloping your body in their black nothingness. You knew it was an illusion, and yet it seemed so real, unlike anything you'd encountered before. Forcing down panic, you repeated to yourself that it wasn't actually happening, but in the end, you were still overwhelmed, suffocated by the strangely realistic illusion.

And as you were swallowed by the darkness, you wondered if you'd let yourself be tricked after all.

Ushishishishi...

The sound of the prince's laughter echoed in your ears as your unconscious mind vaguely wondered what he was planning.

(*)I'm pretty sure Fran isn't actually Viper's apprentice. But Reader OC isn't in the Varia, so she wouldn't know :P.