Spring. Flowers. Gifts. IV

・• ● •・

 

“— beautiful…..”

With the foreign voice interrupting his recollections, Gabriel wascruelly snapped back to reality. Upset at the sudden halt of his train of thought, Gabriel slowly creaked his head towards the source of the noise. Because of his mood, his movements were awkward and almost forced, it was as if he were a proven puppet.

And the source of the voice that took him aback for a second.

It was a child, one that was accompanying his retainer. A person he couldn’t even give a iota of attention until this very moment. The child itself was only a small girl of the peri race— one that appeared much smaller than her peers. She looked to be the age of ten, with red brown hair that was nearly combed back that practically screamed that she was trying to appear older than she was.

Her large marron eyes stared up, anxiety bubbling up as she was confronted full force by the Duke's empty stare.

Practicals being bored through, she almost fell short of breath. For a child, such a gaze was rather intense. However, she was not the only one in discomfort— Gabriel himself had a terrible premeniton as he moved his head to his retainer.

“She means the flower in your hand is beautiful.” Soothed the retainer softly.

At her words, Gabriel moved his gaze to his hand once more. On his palm, there lay a blue tinted crystallized flower, one that was slightly bioluminescent. It was a strange looking flower with hairs on the edge of its petals— a preserved flower from a certain day eons ago.

It seems that while he was deep in thought, he had unknowingly taken it out. 

Giving a helpless exhale, Gabriel touched it, transforming it into a brooch. His fingers brushing across the black gem in the middle of it like a precious treasure, his long eyelashes couldn’t help to lower his eyelashes hiding whatever has formed in his pupils. Caressing it for a few more fleeting moments, Gabriel carefully pinned it to his necktie.

Nowadays, this brooch was one of the only things that could soothe him. Not by much though.

Closing his eyes, he was about to command the retainer to continue moving towards the stables before a child's nervous hiccup interrupted his intent. He really did not want to deal with her in the slightest, but now successfully taking his attention twice, he felt he had no choice but to confront her. “Who is this?” 

The retainer frowned as she heard the clear discontent in his flat words. After hesitating for a second, her wrinkled eyes shifted to the floor as she answered. “This…. This is my protogee my lord.”

Gabriel’s brows visibly lowered by a centimeter. Such a radical change made the Retainer cringe, she knew how unsettling these words were to the other. However, since she started this line of conversation, she gritted her teeth as she continued.

She patted the anxious child's back to calm her down, doing her best to make her words as soft as possible. “My lord, please put such an expression away, I am not worth such luxuries. This is inevitable, I’m not getting any younger nor are you getting any older, my lord. My time has come to be replaced like the many before me.”

Gabriel now frowned.

“My lord…” The servant forced a smile on her wrinkled lips, “I am aware that you are not fond of this, however you must learn to accept such things and let things go. Partings are painful, but for long lived beings like yourself it is a part of life. my lord, this is something you have to make peace with for the sake of your happiness.”

“Happiness…..” murmured Gabriel.

A moment later, he shifted slightly as he indicated he wanted to get out of the hold. Putting him down, the retainer bowed deeply as regret painted her face— she didn’t anticipate that her words would disturb her words to such an extent.

Gabriel didn’t say anything more, only looking at the small servant who would be his new retainer in the near future with a complicated gaze.

Sensing his intent, the retainer recovered as she pushed the little servant forward. She patted the child’s head in reassurance, ushering her to introduce herself.

Gulping loudly, the child bowed with vigor as her words jittered incoherently, “G-Greetings to m-my grand lord… this h-humble servant's name is D-D-D-Dahlia…. it’s the ultimate pleasure t-to be able to be in your p-presence my lord.”

The child glowed in admiration as she spoke, seemingly using all her willpower to maintain her eye contact with the duke— it was her little show of resolution. However, even as she did her best to display her awe through her cold sweat, she received the cold shoulder. 

Gabriel wordlessly turned around and started walking away, not caring that the child’s eyes dimmed as he did so.

He walked quickly through the halls, ‘Change… acceptance…’ 

‘I…. I will never bow to those things.’ Thought the duke as he bit his fingernails.

He thought of his current retainer, it is still fresh on his mind when it was her who was brought as a child to him, introducing herself as a protege. Endlessly, he had retainers serve him and die like files, it had always been a part of his life. A part of life that was sad, but it was always bearable.

However, now, one of the only person's presence who remained stagnant all these years— the most important one— was gone. Suddenly, he was faced full force with the cruelty of his long existence.

He hated it.

Just like this spring bringing change to the blossoms….. he absolutely hated it.

He just couldn’t understand— he couldn’t understand why things had to change.

・• ● •・

Landing on the ground, Gabriel got off his white barn-owl griffon and petted it lightly on its head. After it cutely rubbed its fluff in his palm, Gabriel bid it goodbye as he solemnly turned on his heel and walked into a clearing in the forest they came to.

Once there, he snapped his fingers, making the air itself crack as if it were glass. The fissure that hung on knowhere expanded rapidly, growing to the size of Gabriel as it exposed scenery that was not supposed to be there. I’m the fracture, there was also a clearing, the only difference being the appearance of a temple in the middle of it.

The temple was introduced by half broken winged statues, and although it was not very big— this little building had a certain grandeur to it. You see, this was an old chapel he and Luciel found as kids and used as their hideout— their little safe haven they used torun away from the world and play.

However, now, it has merely become one of his cold laboratories.

He walked inside shortly, going down the seemingly endless flights of stairs deep into the found until meeting a huge door. 

Staring at the door for a minute, Gabriel finally put his palm on it. As soon as he did so, a magical circle appeared on the door as the grand gate moved on its own— as if it was pulled by invisible strings.

What was inside took Gabriel’s breath away as usual.

Inside was a humongous chamber with black floors so glossy that they resembled obsidian mirrors. Reflected in them see beige arches that held up the ceiling made of interwoven white roots, the bark lined with blue runes.

Strangely, the end of this chamber was a magnificent garden even while underneath kilometers of earth. It was a very unusual garden, however by far the most prominent thing there was a white barked tree with filled glowing blue flowers, one which’s trunk was laced with teal patterns that were almost vein like. 

From the flowers of this tree, small bioluminescent particles of pollen hung in the air, creating an even more mystifying atmosphere in the area.

Beside the tree there were also some other types of plants, the most regular being meter high bushes that were home to lots of black colored berries.

But none of these things gave Gabriel that crushing feeling of breathlessness.

Balling his hands into fists, Gabriel steeled himself and he forced himself forward. Each step created a hollow thunk on the marble below that echoed in the empty hall, reverberating in his soul as cold chills slowly spread through his body. This cold spread from his heart to his fingers, each sound making it harder to move as he felt his body go rigid.

As he reached the top of the stairway, Gabriel nearly collapsed— it took him way too much will power to climb these stairs.

And he felt cold. 

Absolutely freezing.

All semblance of head was drained from his body, it was as if he was drenched in water and left out in the blizzard.

And all this was because of the central piece of this garden, one that was placed at the very front of it to force whoever came inside here to stare at it in horror—

And all this was because of the central piece of this garden, one that was placed at the very front of it to force whoever came inside here to stare at it in horror—

A coffin.

This coffin was one that stood upright, with many wires protruding from the back and snaking through the garden like yarn. The coffin itself was made of translucent glass-like material with a matte patterned back, showing the thing inside in full view— a man.

He was floating in pearlike liquid, that white-haired man, and his pale skin now basically white. His expression was rather serene as he floated in the coffin, as if he was merely sleeping— the only thing that gave away the fact that this was a corpse was a gruesome hole at his heart. It was an extremely horrific wound, one that looked like it was caused by one's rough hand. The crudely warped skin around the wound alluded to that, as well as the rips that were broken unnaturally outwards. These rips showed off the black and crushed flesh inside— flesh that clearly did not contain a heart. 

This horridly injured man, no— this corpse... It was undoubtedly,

Luciel.

Doing his best to steady his shaking body, Gabriel dragged himself to the coffin, standing in front of it blankly as if he were a lost puppy.

He took a deep breath after stabilizing, walking to the side, and tapping a wall to open up a shelf hidden inside. This shelf was full of bottles, each one different from the next, all clearly something precious.

It was Luciel's collection, Luciel's favorite liquor.

Taking a bottle of vodka out of the collection, Gabriel turned back to the coffin in shaky steps. As his fingers quivered, Gabriel in frustration tried to open this bottle but failed again and again. It was his fifth try when the cap was finally forced off by him, and not a moment later this bottle ended up forcefully between his lips as he took a large swig to calm himself.

As the warming sensation of the alcohol spread through his frozen body, Gabriel poured the remainder of the vodka into the garden—  especially pouring it onto the berry bushes next to the coffin.

As the contents of the bottle were dripping out in droves, Gabriel ripped his gaze from the corpse and looked at the garden, “I have a surprise for you.”

Yes, a surprise—these berry bushes to be more specific, he was growing these for Luciel. These little mana berries were his favorite after all, the berry called Black Avarice. He still remembered when the two of them went out to gather them in the forests at night and used them to make a lot of good treats. They’ve made everything from wine to cakes, you name it…. Though their cooking never turned out anywhere near edible.

 Yes… he remembered it very well. 

 Painfully well.

“...” Gabriel forced his gaze back, “I have a gift, but it’s not for free….. As payment... you have to wake up.”

Of course, there was no response to his words.

“I’m waiting for you…. So please….”

The man’s brows raised as his expression became torn, “please wake up.”

“I’m sorry…” squeezed out Gabriel as he placed his hand over the glass— right over the place Luciel’s heart was missing, “you are probably still mad at me, but please wake up.”

The hand then tightened as Gabriel put more force into it, “I…. I beg you. Luciel… the goddess… please… anyone…. please make him wake up…..”

As the last words left his mouth, Gabriel’s knees finally gave out as he collapsed onto the floor.

Holding the base of the coffin, he went eerily quiet. He didn’t sob. He didn’t shout. He didn’t even weep. He just lifelessly remained in the same position on the ground, as if he was a puppet with cut strings, bringing the long emptied bottle to his lips as he tried to squeeze any drops out of it.

The only sound that came from this man now was a small laugh, followed by minuscule raspy words, “Luciel— I…. I’m so…. lonely….. what should I do?”

It was a hollow type of chuckle, one that sounded unnatural for a person like him who usually won’t go past having a shallow exhale through his nose as a laugh. 

In his stupor, Gabriel reached out and touched his neck as if to remind himself of something. But to his horror, even that was not like he remembered— it was no longer unblemished like many years ago. No…. it was now lined with that thick and ugly scar.

It was different— Yes, it changed.

He changed as well.

It all had changed.

Gabriel’s laugh increased in volume slightly. Although he would never bow down to change, such a will was utterly useless in the grand scheme of things. Regardless of what he wanted, time will still go on— in the end, no matter how he struggled, the goddess will make him bend at his knees and force him to prostrate before change.

As he prostrated before the goddess’s will, he had to watch as this change took away all that was precious to him, all that mattered to him.

His servants, his friends, his happiness…

—His love.

“.....”

After that outburst, Gabriel calmly got up like nothing ever happened, his expression returning back into a frozen lanquidity. There was only one thing that could be noted as a difference— his eyes which were hollow and dull were now sharpened like blades with the light of determination.

It was a type of desperate determination, one that bordered on insanity.

He walked unphased away from the coffin, as if the shaking man from before was an entirely different being. His unhesitating steps took him through the garden to a room that lay in an obscure corner of the chamber. It was his lab— one filled with numerous magical technologies and diagrams that were stabled on every wall. Giant tubes were also scattered around the lab, each containing a corpse of a creature he was testing his magic on.

Gabriel took a lab coat from the side as well as a notepad, getting ready to work.

“Yes….” murmured Gabriel as he lowered his eyes and adjusted his glasses. “Dear goddess, you have it all wrong. I don’t have to bow, I don’t have to beg nor do I need to weep— no....... I will never do those things. Never. You see, there is no reason for me to accept any of this.”

“I have no need for you. Because— I will make him wake up myself.”

And get it all back to how it used to be.

Spring. Flowers. Gifts. [End]

・•・•・•・•・

Ps. in the end, Gabriel mega lost that game of poker.

 

#Sword losing incident number 83#

Maki: so…. where did you hide my favorite sword this time you little fucks?

Gabi and Luci who are playing cards: *shrug*

Maki putting hand on sword: Now, you little shits better tell me where  it is. If you do so now I’ll only beat you half dead.

Luci: I haven’t seen it. 

Gabi:  Me too.

Maki growing angrier: I’m not fucking joking.

Luci: Maki, look. Now you’re unreasonably pointing fingers at the innocent.

Gabi: We didn’t do anything v.v

Maki rubbing temples: .....

Maki: Fine, you shitty sleepy brat, since you’re the more reasonable one I will give you an ultimatum.

Gabi: ?

Maki: Info about my sword or you lab will be fucking burned down to the ground.

Gabi: !!! 

Luci covering Gabi's ears: Maki, that’s going too far! You will permanently scar out little duke with these threats!

Maki ignoring Luciel: So? What’s your choice? Your comradery or your lab?

Luci: How many times do I have to say it, were—

Gabi: He ate it.

Luci: !!!

Luciel:.... *laughs nervously* Look you’ve scared him into insanity, now he’s even sprouting such—

Gabi: He did it, it had lots of mana so he decided to have a nice treat. You know how he likes stuff with mana.

Luci:.....

Maki: I see thank you for your honesty.

Maki: Now for you little psycho, decapitation or impalement, choose one.

Luci: W-wait a second, I can explain—

Gabi putting his hands together in prayer: Good luck v.v