“I have… a younger brother?”

The little four year old boy with eyes as dark as the night and hair the same color asked, astounded. He blinked in confusion, looking up at his father, waiting for him to confirm or deny what he just said.

Daniel de la Rosa just kept looking at the documents, reading one and signing it just to go for another the next instant. He took a long while to answer his son.

“More accurately, he’s your half-brother. Some wench just came yesterday night and threw him at me claiming he was her deceased sister’s child, my child. She said she couldn’t take care of him anymore” he stopped a moment just to scoff. “Truly a despicable woman. As if an illegitimate child isn’t enough trouble.”

“Illegitimate?” the boy asked, tilting his head. He was a smart child, but this word was one he had never heard.

Daniel simply shook his head. “No need for you to know of that yet. As I was saying, this boy that came yesterday night is your new little brother, so make sure to treat him well” he put down his pen, before resting his elbows on his desk and intertwining his fingers. “I swear, if the boy wasn’t a carbon copy of me, I would have had that woman killed along with the child for the simple fact of making me lose my time with something as trivial as this.”

Mathias simply nodded, already accustomed to his father’s way of speaking. He glanced at the floor momentarily, before realizing something important.

“Father, if my little brother had another mother, then…”

“Ah, yes, regarding that, I expect you to calm your mother about this matter. She will not be happy, but as long as she isn’t immeasurably hostile towards the boy she can behave however she wants.”

“I understand, father” Mathias answered even though he truly didn’t understand. His father nodded and dismissed him, and he left, looking for the new little brother he was supposed to treat well.

“Mother hates me.”

Mathias turned to look at Lucas. The four year old boy had grown quite a lot in the last three years. Mathias could still remember when he would stumble about the house, barely able to say a few sentences without mistakes. He was an energetic boy, optimistic to a fault, and Mathias liked that a lot.

But he was becoming too perceptive for his own good.

“Of course not, why do you think that?” he asked, turning back to his book, behaving like it wasn’t a big deal. They were in the garden, in front of the family’s mausoleum, sitting on a bench. Mathias wanted a change of scenery, tired of the stale air of his bedroom. He didn’t count with Lucas loitering around.

He could see he was a boy too starved for love. It made him sad.

“Because… she doesn’t look at me at all. When I try to talk to her she looks the other way and pretends she doesn’t see me. It’s like I’m a bother to her.”

Mathias sighed, closing his book, already knowing he wouldn’t be able to study at all. It’s not that it was a secret that Lucas was an illegitimate child, it was just… no one ever saw the need to inform him of that fact. Mathias included. And he didn’t want to tell him either. Although he didn’t know well when he was still little, now that he was seven years old he could understand how sad it would make him to know the truth of his birth. The stigma of being a bastard was hard to bear.

Not that the current situation wasn’t making him sad, but Mathias, at the very least, didn’t want to be the one to tell him the truth. It wasn’t his role either way.

“That doesn’t mean she hates you. Mother is like that. She’s just not very affectionate.”

“But she doesn’t treat you like that. She always smiles at you. She loves you.”

She doesn’t love me. She uses me just like father.

“And father too. Even though he’s not as affectionate towards you like mother, he still passes so much time with you. It makes me think there’s something wrong with me.”

At the very least he doesn’t conceal his real intentions towards me.

“It’s not what you think Lucas. They don’t pay attention to me because they love me more. It’s because I’m the older one, and the heir, so they keep an eye on me at all times” he patted his head, smiling reassuringly at him. “You don’t need to be so concerned about it. You have me, no? Even if the whole world seems to hate you, I’ll always be here by your side.”

“Do you promise, brother?”

“I promise.”

“Your tutor tells me you’ve been lagging behind with your lessons lately, Mathias.”

Again, he was on his father’s office, sitting on a chair facing him like one of his subordinates. Often times, it truly felt like he was one.

“It’s not that I’ve been lagging behind, it’s just the tutor asked me something we haven’t learned yet, father” he answered while looking away. His father raised an eyebrow.

“That was never a problem before. You used to be two to three lessons ahead every time. What has changed?”

It was a rhetorical question, because both of them knew exactly what had changed. Mathias refused to speak, so his father could only sigh.

“I told you to treat your younger brother well, but if taking care of him is affecting your studies, it would be better to separate you two for the time being.”

“No!” Mathias yelled without thinking. He covered his mouth with his hands as soon as he saw his father’s eyes narrowing and his gaze darkening. “I mean, it’s not Lucas who’s making me distracted, it’s just… I-I think I might have reached my limit with my studies.”

“Shall I lock you in the mirror room again so you will break that limit?”

Mathias trembled, his body shrinking in fear. His eyes snapped up to his father’s, where he could only see bottomless indifference and coldness. He shook his head.

“Then mind your words from now on. You know very well there’s only one reason you were born, and if you can’t fulfill that role then you’re just better off dead. Now leave my sight before I change my mind and truly order to get you dragged back to the mirror room.”

Without another word, Mathias ran from the office. In no time at all he was back in his own bedroom. Despite his heart protesting against it, he knew he would have to spend less time with Lucas from now on if he didn’t want to suffer the consequences.

His mother was crying. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence in the household, to find the viscountess crawled up in a corner emptying her heart in devastated sobs. Although Mathias wanted nothing more than to turn away and pretend he didn’t see anything, he knew if his father heard the cries it would be him to pay.

After all, it was his duty to keep his mother under control.

“Mother, don’t cry” he said softly, going to kneel at her side. He placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder, feeling it trembling with every new intake of air.

“I can’t stand it anymore! Every time I look at him, the only thing I can remember is how much he hurt me! And that child… that child he brought here… why does he have to look so much like him?”

She threw herself at her child and cried while hugging him. Mathias patted her head awkwardly. He felt so bad for his mother, despite not trusting her. He hated his father so much. And yet, there was nothing he could really do. It had been like this ever since he could remember.

Suddenly, his mother lifted her head and looked at him, grabbing his shoulders with force enough to make him wince. When Mathias saw the crazed look in her eyes, he knew what was coming.

“You’re mama’s only hope. I’m so glad I had you. No doubt, with you by my side my future will be secure. You’re always going to be with mama, right? You’re never going to abandon me, right?”

Mathias gulped, gently enfolding her wrists with his hands, uselessly trying to get her to release him.

“Of course mother. I will take care of you.”

It was a little over after his fifteenth birthday when it happened.

Mathias trembled, his eyes round and his face pale. His hands were covered with blood, as well as his clothes. In front of him, his mother’s corpse lay still warm, the red fluid staining the floor just to be washed away immediately after by the pouring rain.

It had been raining for weeks. Storms so strong comparable to the magnitude of a natural disaster. It was barely the break of dawn, the colors of the morning gone, hidden behind dense clouds that covered the entirety of the sky and gave the illusion of an everlasting night.

He didn’t know how much time he stood there, frozen in place watching the still figure of her mother, her eyes so often stained with tears now cold and unfeeling.

He was found soon after by the guards patrolling, but Mathias had no idea what they said, what they did. He only awoke to consciousness when his father came to the scene, seeing him still holding the small, stained dagger in one hand. There was no concealing the truth.

“Father, I killed mother.”

“You never cared for mother while she was alive.”

“You had no right to kill her.”

Mathias knew he deserved it when the tired woman with hair the color of honey slammed the door on his face. After all, he had just asked to sell him her only daughter. How terrible and depraved he must look in her eyes. It was lucky the girl wasn’t there, nor the father, otherwise he might have received much more than just a door to the face.

It would be better to just turn around and leave. He didn’t want to do this. His father didn’t love his mother, so there was no reason for him to want to revive her.

And yet he had threatened him.

“Lucas will become the sacrifice.”

“They didn’t accept, father” he announced when he came back to the mansion. His father was just as indifferent to his presence as always, revising one document just to go over to the other the next second. It looked like he wasn’t listening to him at all. But he was. He always did, whether Mathias wanted him to or not.

“Kill the entire family and bring over the girl” he ordered in the same way one would talk about the weather. Dispassionately.

“Father, with all due respect, I think we can solve this without more deaths…”

“You talk too grand for someone who killed his own mother.”

Mathias bit his tongue. As if he was one to talk, offering his own son as a sacrifice without a second thought. “I can find another way. There must be another way. Using a little girl… using anyone as a sacrifice for someone else it’s just…”

The dry sound of the pen slamming against wood stopped him. He clenched his fists and fearfully looked up at his father. As expected, his appearance was equal to that of a demon. A visage so common on him that Mathias couldn’t remember the first time he saw it on his father’s face. Whenever he looked at him like that, he could only gulp and tense, waiting for the inevitable lashing that came right after. Verbal or physical.

“What may tell, it’s your solution?” Mathias didn’t answer, too afraid. “You have none. Listen here brat, there are only two options on the table. It’s Lucas or it’s that farm’s girl. It’s your decision, as I’m fine either way.”

He went back to his documents, the terrifying mask he wore before disappearing as if it never existed. Mathias thought that was all he had to say, but before he could leave the office, his voice stopped him once again.

“If the idea of killing strangers horrifies you more than killing your own mother, then I’ll give you a year. Whatever you do in that year, I don’t care. You can kill them, threaten them, starve them. You can burn an entire town if you need to, but if there is no suitable sacrifice before the year is up, it will be your brother, understand?”

“…Yes, father.”

Mathias left, walking towards his bedroom, looking for a place to hide like every time he left that cursed office. His mother’s death was supposed to be the end, the final sacrifice and proof of love left to him by her. To think his father was willing to revive the dead just to achieve his objectives…

“Her blood is the key. And you, my son, are the sacrifice that will make everything come together. You were born specifically for that role.”

If someone knew the hopelessness of being destined to be nothing more than a simple sacrifice, it was him.

A.P.R.L.

I wanna clear up something. This chapter it's not supposed to be a justification for Mathias' actions. As you can see, I barely included Mathias' own feelings or thoughts and just more action so you can all draw your own conclusions from this chapter. It's also, as you can probably guess, not the entire story, but let's give time to time, everything will be cleared up... someday.