"Because that is the part of the story that can still ruin us."
The words hung in the room long enough to stain the air.
Alfons kept his eyes on Roderic, even as every instinct told him to lower them. His father had handed out the task, the targets, the threat, and the punishment waiting at the end. And the center of it was missing.
Esmond.
A man kept beneath House Vaelion for almost a century. A renowned alchemist. Someone who had opened their bloodline on a table and lived long enough for it to turn useful instead of unforgivable.
And Roderic expected him to walk back to the Academy and watch Selara and Trafalgar without knowing the one thing that could destroy them all.
"Then I should know it," Alfons said.
Aurelia's eyes moved to him at once. Elysette's hand paused over the edge of her glove. Lucard, for once, did not look entertained.
Roderic gave him nothing but that stare.
