𝕯𝖎𝖆𝖇𝖔𝖑𝖎𝖐 𝕷𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖘: 𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝕱𝖆𝖙𝖊

Chapter 10

"Of courf, popfy," Ayato struggled, maintaining his devil-may-care attitude. "I'f bin great, all fhankf to your niglibenf." What he meant was I've been great, all thanks to your negligence, but fortunately for Ayato, his father barely understood him.

"I'm glad." Karlheinz said, looking at his son like he had discovered a long lost treasure. "Well, aren't you a mess of emotions here. The last time I saw you, you had you leg cut off."

With his senses fading, Ayato didn't understand him as well. "Yeah, abfolootly. Fee fucked dem ol." Ayato obviously thought his father was talking about his mother and her previous lovers, but again, luck was on his side as his father couldn't understand him a bit.

"You could use a little healing," his father casually said, waving his hand as Ayato levitated in air, his feet barely touching the ground. Then began the most painful five seconds of his life.

His arm popped back into his socket. He screamed. His muscles stitched themselves together. He screamed. His spine straightened, snapping pieces of bone back into place. He screamed. His fallen organs fell back into their cavities, as his ribs, ligaments, tendons and diaphragm, all reassembled. He screamed.

Karlheinz smiled slyly, dropping Ayato's healed body on the ground, as he heard a yapping at him. Shin, still in his wolf form, chased Laito, as the latter grabbed his right arm, almost ground into mush by the Founder's sharp canines. Karlheinz flicked a finger at the wolf, and it went flying across the meadow facing the left side of the mansion.

Ayato felt his swollen tongue fall back into his mouth, with ease as the inflammation eased out. He looked at his father, as he expected at least a rap at the back for being irresponsible with his prey. Instead, he felt his father's gloved hand over his head. "Too much work watching over the sacrificial bride, huh?"

Ayato focused his stare at the ground, memorising the cracks and crevices in the concrete pavement rather than answering his father's question. Yui was way more high maintenance than other girls sent to them, but those others barely managed to stay alive for more than two months. Whereas Yui... She had that weird self preservation skill that Ayato never understood. Her caring for the very people who preyed upon her was the most commendable attitude she had. While in a traditional setting, it would be pathetic and weak, amongst the brothers, however, it lent her an advantage. If she had never cared for them, the egotistical Reiji would not have concocted a potion to ensure her survival, when his bitch mother took control of her. If it wasn't for her selflessness, Ayato would have left her to die with the Mukamis.

Yui's selflessness was her only weapon, and look where it had landed her into.

"Ah, tragic," Karlheinz said, as if reading Ayato's thoughts. "Perhaps we should return her back to the church."

Ayato crossed his brows, looking up. Karlheinz withdrew his hand, and tilted his head, slitting his shockingly bright magenta eyes. "If it's such a burden to have, why not give it away?" His father said, nonchalantly, "It's lived with you for long enough, surely it's time for a change. We'd arrange for a new bride..."

"Stop, father." Ayato said, brushing the top of his head, as if to dust off his own father's touch from his body. "Yui's a person. Stop blabbing about her like she's some furniture you're giving to charity." He dug his nails into the palm of his hand. "She's a hell of a responsibility. But I'm not giving up on her. If that's not what you like, then behead me and be done with it." He paused, looking at his father's reaction. "But don't think that my brothers would just let me go like that."

His father looked at him, his eyes slit. Ayato felt a weight drop off his shoulders as he'd admitted that Yui meant more than a blood bag to him. He looked at the mansion, his eyebrows crossed, when his father sighed. "All right," Karlheinz said, sounding a bit upset and bored. Ayato couldn't put him at fault, a few months before he'd have had the same reaction if one of his brothers refused to switch up a bride. "If it is your wish."