An Aide /Kamisato Ayato/

17~ Two Vials

"..."

The sound of the tea cup placed against the wooden table had always been soothing for Ayato, sound of the water poured and crashed against its own ripple would lull him to a serene state. If it hadn't been for the woman sitting in front of him, with that smile he'd grown familiar but not enough to surpass a loathing.

Shu arrived at his home once more, for whatever reasons he didn't know. Perhaps it's to reap what he sowed, to take the deal he dealt on with her, or to just bring terror to his home. Either way, the woman sitting in front of him, relaxing and making herself at home as if the resident was hers from the very start. The arrogant air she upheld, with her chin raised and eyes peered down at him—perhaps in her eyes, he's still a child.

"Takes me back..." her fingers, a little bit wrinkled due to age, tapped against the wooden table in a steady pace. Ayato glanced at his untouched tea. He sensed his own heartbeat to send an agitated beating, rippling across the tea calm surface. Even so, he'd trained himself to mask it with a calm smile on his face.

"Back then, when my younger brother passed away, we met like this. With your late mother and my niece," Shu's voice trailed off. It was her beauty that managed to captivate someone, blinding them the truth and danger hidden within her arrogance. "I was in grief of course, but I couldn't deny it when your family offered to compensate us."

He remembered it well, as clear as day what happened that time. How he, a child who was supposed to be in joy for he's able to see his friend again, only to find out that moment was when he's meant to cut off his friendship. It'd only severed more when he noticed that offering compensation to straight to the mourning (Name) was a great insult taken.

"She'd been too young to understand the importance of the compensation."

"If you're here to ask for that compensation you weren't able to get then—" Ayato's words were cut off short, as he noticed the look of her obsidian eyes showing the glint of greed—anticipating some kind of situation out of him. "I'm not that interested in it anymore. She burned all your compensation!"

Her echoes of laughter continued to haunt the quiet room—provocative, yet sweet and alluring like one of the witches luring her prey. "You know, I was about to tell you that our deal ends now."

"?!"

Ayato's eyes widened—for the first time, he broke the face of a politician. The calm demeanor was shred by its surface a little, as he gazed at the woman. "Might I ask you to elaborate?"

"I've decided what I want to do with her. You get your compensation, fret not about your losses, Milord." Her finger traced a path, one resembled a snake drawn on the table with the water tipped on her fingertips. The wooden table absorbed the thin layer of water—a shape of snake displaying its teeth towards where Ayato sat.

His lips froze to a thin line, feeling the wave of the riptide stopped its crashing against the shore—like the world had long stopped moving for a second. With confusion held within his lilac eyes, he couldn't bring himself to look more into Shu's, knowing if he's in such a state of confusion he'd be easily tormented with her bewitches. "You told me you wanted to know the truth of whether or not, your late father killed my late brother, no?"

She tapped on the wooden table twice, this time much faster in a way to command. A man entered the room—Ayato didn't need to turn and look who it was to know who, he knew she sent someone here to keep an eye on his moves. The papers settled on the desk, drifting his attention on the missive writing.