Chapter 128: The Number of the Beast

Claude's Music of the Night was so beautiful. I feel like drowning into darkness… which is his world… when he sang that song to me. But… when the lyrics asked me to leave my old life… I couldn't…

I feel so guilty. I often behave jealously whenever he gets close to other women because he's a handsome and popular man and many women more beautiful than me want him for themselves too. I feel so insecure… fearing that he will leave me… I'm glad that he stayed loyal to me even though he could've seduced Rose or Yukime and I wouldn't be able to do anything to stop him if he did.

But despite him proving time and time again that he loves me and me alone… my heart still clings to my first love. And his music reminded me of how unfaithful I've been to him.

Oh Claude… I'm so sorry. I still couldn't forget about Cid…!

I'm so sorry, Claude! I'm so sorry! I'll try…. I'll try to devote my body and soul to you more…!

I need you, Claude. Not just for my revenge… but to continue living…! So… please forgive my unfaithfulness and let me be more useful to you! Let me help you more!

"Good evening, Lady Acolyte! You look more determined than ever! Did something happen?" The mutt who haven't killed his sister as Claude ordered appeared, as annoying as ever. And he caught me without my mask on. I frowned when he showed himself unannounced.

"What do you want, Adra?"

"Nothing. Just greeting a colleague is all."

"You're awfully being familiar with me all of a sudden."

"Well, can't help it! You're so much cuter without the mask on."

"R-Really?" I'm… cute?

"Yeah, really! You shouldn't hide such a cute face!"

"Hm. Unfortunately I must hide my identity… and forsake my old identity for Lord Necromancer's sake. You would do well not to speak of this to any living soul." I gave him a warning as I put my mask back on.

"Gotcha, Lady Acolyte!"

"Now follow me. We have work to do."

"Ayayaye Captain!"

He seemed too enthusiastic for someone whose sister and mother's lives are held hostage. Well… whatever. As long as he continue being useful to Claude, I'll tolerate his foolish antics.

Not a day passed without death in Oriana, be it through execution and assassinations by my orders, or through the ongoing civil war. Despite losing so many of their leaders, the Perv faction is still actively fighting, mainly by turning into lawless bandits causing troubles wherever they go though.

The situation in my kingdom is so dire that if my father hadn't left me with so many warriors, I wouldn't be able to gain the upper hand in this fight, though many of them are of dubious background, not only the bloodthirsty formerly oppressed Oriana Spellswords but also the mercenaries, mainly from the Lawless City.

There is even that Black Knight fellow who scares even me despite his contributions to my father's cause. The army he led always achieved overwhelming victory on the battlefield no matter how disorganized they are. I wonder how I could control such a man. How did father find him and obtain his loyalty? Can I keep him on my side? What is his motive for joining my father's cause? Is he like the Phantom? What are the Black Knight and the Phantom's relation with my father? I have no idea. So many unanswered questions... If only my father is still here.

Ah. They're here. I knew this day would come.

"666." Lady Beta called me by my number as she sneaked into my office, her face veiled by the hood she always wears whenever I see her.

"No. I am Rose Oriana, Queen of Oriana. Please address me properly." I glared at her defiantly while asserting my rightful identity.

"Very well… Rose. I want to talk to you."

"I'm sorry but I'm not returning to Shadow Garden. Your murder of my father forced me to return to my duties as royalty of Oriana after all."

"I will not ask you that considering our side is the one at fault. Please forgive us." Lady Beta, instead of using her usual cold hearted tone and strict attitude, is now humbly bowing her head before me whilst asking for my forgiveness… How manipulative.

"Just as Midgar could never forgive my father for taking the life of their king, I… as well as all of Oriana, could not possibly forgive Shadow Garden for killing our king." I replied coldly, holding back my fury... and fear… as I know she is still stronger than me. If she moves against me, I may need to activate the Black Rose… but unleashing such a dangerous weapon in the castle so close to the capital city is not something I wanted to do.

"Of course. I will not ask you to rejoin Shadow Garden. All that I ask is for you to… be wary of the Phantom. He is-"

"Trying to undermine my ally in order to sow discord between us, huh? A pathetic attempt, Lady Beta."

"You must listen to me, 666- no… Rose!" Still calling me by my number… In the end, I'm still a number to you all, a mere pawn in your games.

"Save it. I don't want to hear it. If that is all you have to say, I advise you to leave. Thanks to you, I've got my hands full and I'm very extremely busy, so busy that I don't have time to waste on you."

"Rose…! Please listen to me!"

"Please leave… or I'll be forced to resort the extreme measures." I said as I stood and clutches my father's ring in my finger.

"Rose! You don't understand! The Phantom is-" She desperately pleaded… but her hand is reaching towards mine, most likely to steal my ring.

"Stay back!" I took a step back and unsheathed my sword from my hips and pointed it at her before her hand could reach mine. She seemed to have widened her eyes at my defiance.

"Rose! No! Please! Listen to me!" She still pleaded… and is that a drop of tear in her cheek? She even prepared crocodile tears to deceive me? Or… is that… genuine?

"I also advise you to leave the queen alone, elf." Said the Black Knight as he suddenly appeared behind Lady Beta. Since when did he…? With such heavy armor, how did he sneak past both me and Lady Beta!?

"Kuhh….! Black Knight!?" Lady Beta is now cornered, with both of our swords pointed at her from front and behind. She closed her eyes as she finally gave up.

"Very well… I've tried my best. I hope you'll still find salvation after this, Rose. And… I'm sorry." She said her last words in a sad and regretful tone before leaving through the window. Why did she… look so sad?

I heard clanking sound, which is the Black Knight's armor, as he walked towards the door to leave me.

"Wait!" I stopped him before he left.

"Tell me… What is your relation with my father…?"

"…" He does not answer. Just like the Phantom. They don't trust me with that knowledge yet.

"I see… I hope that I… can prove myself worthy of-"

"I am… simply someone who knows the burden of kingship." To my surprise, he replied.

"As a reigning monarch, you must rise above everyone else. Even if you couldn't, you mustn't let anyone think otherwise. Your performance today… has been satisfactory to me, as does your work so far. I look forward to seeing where your path will take you." He said as he left the room.

Hi s words gave me determination. I swear… that I will become stronger and I will protect Oriana from the entire world's evil, be it Shadow Garden, the Cult, the Necromancer… or the inherent evil of mankind.

I've failed. I thought I could at least talk to her. I was even about to reveal my other identity as Natsume to her so I could perhaps… use our friendship and her admiration of my works to convince her to at least listen to me… but the Black Knight's arrival thwarted that plan before it started.

I suppose… this is my punishment for manipulating her. The incident with John Smith taught us to trust our subordinates more. Lord Shadow taught us a valuable lesson… a lesson that I… neglected in favour of more cold hearted methods.

I told her that war could be prevented because we had allies in Midgar who does not wish for it to happen as long as we break her father's hypnosis, a simple lie that even I can hardly believe, in order to make sure she didn't behave rashly. Would everything be different had I trusted her more and told her of the truth? That in order to stop the war, we most likely need to kill her father, whether or not he broke out of hypnosis? Now she knows the truth and it is too late to repair my relationship with her. After all, who would trust a liar? I certainly wouldn't.

I played the scenarios in my head, the same way I thought about stories for my books, but I am unable to reach a satisfactory conclusion because real life is unlike fairy tales where everything could work out in the end as long as the writer chose to.

Lady Alpha favoured telling her the truth… that we may need to kill her father... but me and Zeta thought differently… and we're paying the price for it. Now we've lost Oriana to Necromancer. This increases the chances that even if we could prevent the Midgar side from starting the war, the Oriana side would be the one to do it. I know Rose is not the type to do such a thing but… she has been manipulated by the Pha—Necromancer. In time, she probably would be turned into a bloodthirsty tyrant like her father did when he was brainwashed by Necromancer.

I returned to the capital's Mitsugoshi headquarters where the Seven Shades have gathered to attend the emergency meeting. How rare it is for the Seven Shades to move out together like this. Even Eta moved out of bed without being forced to. It is also rare for me to be the last one to enter the meeting room when usually it's Eta who's late.

"I'm sorry for my delay." I said as I entered the meeting room and took my seat.

"How is she?" Lady Alpha asked without the scrutinizing gaze I expected her to have.

"She refused to listen to me." I reported with my head hung low, expecting some scolding.

"I see. Perhaps Lord Shadow has foreseen this… that's why he called her that according to Nu's report." What?

"What did… Lord Shadow said?" I asked.

"He referred to 666's number as the Number of the Beast. I suppose he knew that we couldn't control her for long." Lord Shadow said that…? Does that mean it is in her inherent nature to be defiant towards Shadow Garden and Lord Shadow's will? Or is Lord Shadow covering up for our mistakes?

I know what kind of girl Rose is… so I find it hard to believe that she is a beast… in fact, it's my fault that she has fallen so low.

"But still, I find it puzzling as to why 559 killed the king." Lady Alpha said, her gaze landing on Zeta. She already suspects something.

"I'm the one who ordered her to do that." Zeta answered with her eyes locked with Alpha defiantly.

"Why?" Lady Alpha asked. Her angry tone concealed but still present in that one word she uttered.

"Because that's the only way we could prevent the war from happening, by making sure Midgar lost their reason to go to war. You know this as well, Lady Alpha." Zeta replied.

"I know. But will your scheme succeed, I wonder? Executing 666's father right in front of her is bound to make her take his place." Please stop referring to her as 666. She doesn't like it.

"I know. Even if we prevented the Midgar side from starting the war, the Oriana side might do it now that she has fallen to his side. That's why we need to kill her too. And 559 would've done so had the Phantom—Necromancer not interfered." Zeta said callously.

"Why did you not discuss this with me?" Lady Alpha asked. Her furious draconic aura began to leak out. Delta in particular is visibly shaking.

"The sooner, the better, Lady Alpha. If we waited like you planned, there will be more damages done to both Oriana and Midgar which could ruin our plans. We need to kill her immediately so we can immediately solve the Oriana crisis and move back to Midgar." Zeta never broke eye contact despite being exposed to Lady Alpha's draconic aura.

"It's not that simple now. She is protected by the Black Knight." I reported.

"That… complicates things. But still… with all of us Seven-" Zeta said with a frown. She took my reports about my first encounter with the Black Knight seriously.

"Haaah… We have proven ourselves useless again. That's why he has made his move." Lady Alpha said with a sigh, dispersing her oppressive aura and allows us to breathe.

"Lord Shadow has made his move!?" Gamma exclaimed.

"Boss is here!?" Delta, whose mood has been soured ever since she smelled Necromancer's scent in Oriana castle that night, stood up excitedly.

"Hee hee… Things are getting interesting." Eta, the only one of us who's not worried the whole time, muttered with a slight smile. Sometimes I wish I could be as carefree as her.

"Yes… he has." Lady Alpha confirmed.

Normally it would be reassuring to have Lord Shadow move out… but this time it is to clean up our mess… not to mention the risk of him encountering Necromancer again… This news is not reassuring at all and all of the Seven Shades knows this. The ones who took this news the hardest is definitely me and Zeta, for it is our decisions that led to this.

"Where is Lord Shadow now?" Epsilon asked.

"We don't know. All we know is that he must be in Oriana right now." Lady Alpha replied.

Author's Note:

And so we take another glimpse at the crack within the Seven Shades. Are you guys surprised that Beta joined team Zeta? Originally I thought Epsilon should be the one to join team Zeta but I thought Beta joining would be more surprising.

And Cid's remarks about the Number of the Beast is now a source of misunderstanding. Classic Eminence in Shadow misunderstanding.

A-Yellow-Lizard: Claude coming home from manipulating the queen of an entire country and just getting chewed out by his gf lmao

DickWizard: I love the fight scenes, personally I don't think there's really a need to change the characters themselves. I feel like claude and cid are both big plot devices themselves, so while they are able to change, usually the other characters are the ones changing around them. Also, claude is pretty cool anyways, so I'd love to watch him do stuff, even if he isn't winning. Actually, I love him not winning, because it's really fun for character development and such. To get enjoyment from a scene, I don't think anyone has to *win*, per se.

Answer: Angry girlfriend is scary. But as you see in this chapter, even Sherry didn't have that much power over him considering she is originally introverted and actually has low self esteem.

Also, some people are saying Necromancer is losing while others say it is Shadow Garden that is losing. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

Receive The Wind Humbly: Really like what you've done with this. I'm ready for all this corruption and villany. I wonder what you've got in store for Iris. She currently is falling for the mc, and I just wonder how far she sink into the abyss...

Answer: I'm also thinking of how to use her character, hope to make her sink deeper than in canon.

borregodillon9: Another great chapter

Answer: Thanks for enjoying it as always.

TheVirtualPug: Ahhh Claude a bastard and an irredeemable villain but hey at least he's a loyal boyfriend (sort of)

So is Sherry the only one who knows definitively that the whole "slumbering legends" thing is utter crap? What does she think of Claude's "little" act as different personas. Will SG ever discover that the "slumbering legends" was crap too? Also surely Epsilon wouldn't doubt Alucard's "realness" bc as far as she knows she received his "memories" What does SG, the important characters, and the rest of the world believe Shadow and Necromancer's backstories are. If SG does discover that the slumbering legends thing was fake what would they think Shadow and Necromancer's backstories really are.

Answer: For now the slumbering legends is still valid in their minds because even Epsilon is considered one. If they discovered it was crap, of course they will think of how much they've been played by the Necromancer's schemes.

Generalliam0529: I shadow garden gling to beable to bounce back? I've read tbe comment response part and right now.:

necromancer:

-stronger leader (minus the faling magic control)

-more oltical inflence in all areas

-a leader who know his faction and its ebemys actually exist

-an active leader

shaow garden:

-bairly has economical dominance (mitsoshigi vs snowfox co.)

Answer: For now they're heading towards losing more but we shall see if they can bounce back. And Mitsugoshi's situation isn't as bad as you said. They survived all of Don Jon's schemes and still held strong as the Snow Fox Corp's rival.