Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

"No, look, we are sorry, just… ack!"

Snow watched carefully from the side as Lucius casually lifted a woman up by her neck. This had been the second time in the past few days that would-be bandits had attacked their carriage. Each time, their attempted hijacking had gone poorly.

During the first attempt, the group had been made up of normal bandits with little in the way of weaponry, armor, or even skill. Thanks to the lack of those traits, Snow and Desmond wiped them out quickly. The second group, which was the one being finished off by Lucius, seemed to have been supplemented with a handful of deserters from the Southern Front.

Lucius claimed not to be a fan of traitors and requested that he be allowed to handle the incident personally. Though the attackers numbered nearly a dozen, Lucius was able to handle them without much effort. Most of the bandits were unranked common folk who turned to crime. Only a couple were even ranked, with the highest being an Intermediate Ranker.

The woman, who was dangling from Lucius's hands, acted as the leader of the second group and happened to be the Intermediate Ranker. Her eyes glistened with tears as she glanced between the bodies of her former allies and Lucius's plain expression. The lack of emotion showing on his face was more terrifying than if he were furious.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

It simply appeared as if the woman's life did not matter, that her existence was less than the effort it took to kill her. "Where did you come from?" Lucius asked.

"A small village outside of…"

"Give me your identification card. You're military. Let me see it."

The woman shakily reached into a pocket on her side and pulled out a metal tab. Lucius took it from her before tossing it toward Snow and asking who the lord was and which side they served. Snow was easily able to determine the woman to be a former service woman of a noble loyal to Princess Lethaya.

Knowing that the woman was a traitor to their own forces and not the enemy, seemed to ignite a deeper hatred inside of Lucius. What was formerly an indifferent expression had changed to one of disgust and disdain. Snow watched as the runes on his new gloves began to glow.

The body of the former elven warrior began to shake and she screamed out in pain for a few seconds before her voice was taken from her. Foam poured out of her mouth and the skin along her body began to smoke. After a few seconds, the twitching became less exaggerated and more mechanical and regular. Lucius deactivated his gloves and squeezed his hands until a loud crack sounded from the woman's neck. Experience more content on empire

He tossed her corpse to the side before wiping his gauntlets clean and tossing the rag aside. Without any further words, he stepped into the carriage and gestured for the group to continue moving. Before Snow could say anything, a wave of mana washed over her and several bolts of lightning fell from the sky, striking each of the corpses and setting them alight.

"Let's go. The bodies are burning." Lucius said simply.

"Right." Snow answered before joining everyone in the carriage.

She continued to monitor his behaviors during the trip and found Lucius to be a rather strange individual. He was quiet, indifferent, and relaxed overall, until the moment that he was not. The triggers for his change in behavior seemed to have a common denominator of him minding his business until someone bothered him.

It was as if the world around him did not matter, save for the people within the carriage. He had been shown to be rather attentive to Kalliope, Jade, and even Desmond. For him to converse with Corva, Yue, or Snow, he required prompting. However, he regularly initiated his own conversations with the others without them having to take the lead.

He was also content to ignore signs of other bandits and highwaymen. Whenever they passed a potential problem, so long as the problem stayed away from them, he was fine to let them be. The only conflict that arose was when someone had been stupid enough to attack them.

"Do you simply not care?" Snow finally asked. Lucius looked at her with an inquisitive gaze, so she continued, "You act aloof toward almost everyone and everything. It is as if the world itself bores you. Even back in the palace, though you had an interest in Lady Tenia, you seemed like you would have also been fine to have just ignored her."

Lucius sat for a moment, mulling the question over in his mind before he finally answered. "The only thing that matters to me in this world are my friends and family. Anything outside of that is simply not my concern."

"What about our war?" Snow nearly shouted.

"What about it?" Lucius answered. "I'm only involved because I have to be. The sooner I find a resolution, the sooner I can return to my pregnant wife." Lucius paused for a moment and looked to Kalliope's ear where she had a beautiful black cuff accented with gorgeous orange-yellow stones. "Well, my other wife."

Snow sat for a moment. She could not fault him for believing this way or feeling this way. In fact, if she had thought about it, she would probably have felt the same way had Corva decided to remain unbiased. She likely would have only reacted to things that directly concerned Corva's and Yue's safety.

In the end, Snow figured she understood a little more about the person known as Lucius. Though she would never go so far as to say she trusted him, she definitely had a better understanding of his motivations.

One of his biggest motivators seemed to be the women in his life. His whole reason for involving himself in this fight for succession and subsequent civil war was on behalf of a woman. The reason he left a new landmark on Aedrider's landscape was for a second woman. Even more still, Snow could clearly see the affection and admiration in the other young woman's eyes.

Jade could hardly rip her gaze away from the black-haired man from the moment Snow first laid eyes on them. She seemed to be holding herself back and might even not be fully aware of them herself. On the other hand, Desmond was keenly aware of his sister's affections.

Ever since they had met, she found herself mildly intrigued by the human man accompanying Lord Kane. Unlike the man himself, Desmond was… ordinary. He was charming and kind. Not to mention, he was decent-looking…

Snow shook her head clear of any of the thoughts she had previously been entertaining. There was too much going on in her life to entertain a cute boy. For starters, she had to continue serving Princess Corva. Snow also had to figure out why her mark was so affected by Lucius.

Lately, it had been calm, but just being near Lucius normally threw her mark haywire. The urges that typically only plagued her at night, reared their ugly heads in the plain light of day. Those same urges seemed to have taken hold of a majority of her senses during the Seteste incident.

She could only remember bits and pieces of what she did and how she got through the caves. One of the main parts she could not forget was the scene of two large figures, made of shadows, standing in the middle of the empty battlefield. The larger of the two had stared at her with glowing golden eyes. Something felt familiar about those eyes, but the sensation vanished as soon as she focused on it.

"Sister?" Yue gently tugged on her sleeve. "Everything okay? You're looking more pale than usual."

"I'm fine," She answered. "I promise. Just trying to recall what happened at Seteste. Much of it is still a blur."

Yue gently consoled her by stroking the back of her head gently. Snow smiled and decided to take a rest so that she would have the energy to stay up through the night again. Though Yue was there to calm her down, she did not want to rely on her sister throughout the night if she could avoid it.

Besides, it was the final night of the trip. Shortly after the sun rose tomorrow, they would be at the camp. They could have made it faster, but the carriage they rode in was large and weighed a lot.

Snow found herself exceptionally curious regarding Lucius's plans. Would they really be able to change the tide of the battle? Could the legendary Titan of Eroa truly break the stalemate?

If he could not do so, then Lethaya would not have requested him. She likely knew that this was the direction things would head sooner than later. Knowing that he was a great asset on the field of battle was likely why she asked for him directly. Not only was he stronger than most gave him credit for, but he was also exceptionally talented at war.

In addition to that, he was not afraid to come up with plans that most other generals and strategists could never dream of.

His penchant for winning at all costs prevented him from worrying about public backlash or trying to remain honorable. He was practical like that. A win was a win, no matter how it happened.