Atticus [BL]
Chapter 26 Imp

Chapter 26: 26 Imp

"Elwin? Hey... What happened to you?"

Nerys waved his hand in front of Elwin upon noticing his silence, unable to help feeling worried.

With no other choice, he cupped Elwin’s face and pressed his cheeks together like a sandwich, snapping him out of his reverie.

"Elwin, are you alright? You suddenly turned silent, you had me worried."

"I...I’m showwyy..."

Nerys let go of him and intently gazed at him, "Is it because your girl friend died?"

Elwin felt a pang of sadness to remember that Leslie was dead, "Leslie is not my girlfriend..." he muttered and pressed the bonnet that he was still holding closer to him.

"But she is a girl, and she is your friend," Nerys stated, his face contorted in confusion when Elwin said otherwise.

"That’s... never mind, there’s no use explaining it to you. It doesn’t matter now."

Nerys watched as Elwin slumped his shoulders and how he stared at the bonnet. He wanted to comfort him.

"When one of our kind feels sad, it’s natural that we comfort them," he said and scooted closer to Elwin.

He didn’t wait for Elwin to speak as he pulled him into a hug and planted a kiss on his fluffy, ginger hair.

"Eh...? W-what are you—"

"Mmm...it’ll be alright, the memory of it will soon be void of pain...Mmm...hush now, I am here..."

Nerys began to hum and sing a soft melody while he slowly swayed their body.

Elwin was caught off guard.

"...Nerys?"

Nerys hugged him tighter and rested his chin on his head as he closed his eyes. His voice was undeniably enchanting, anyone who could hear it would certainly fall in love with his voice.

"W-wait, Nerys...!"

However, Elwin had grown up in an abusive household. He had not known physical affection and the kind of gentleness that Nerys had shown him. Forget about being enchanted by his voice, all Elwin could feel was discomfort.

He pushed Nerys away and broke free from their hug.

"Why? Do you not like it?" Nerys asked, his voice laced with dejection.

"What? No! No! N—"

Suddenly, something fell between them. The two gazed down and saw a red-colored mouse. But the mouse had horns and the tip of its tail was pointy.

"What’s that? A mouse... no, a hamster with horns?" Elwin asked in confusion.

Nerys picked up the thing and put it in his hand, "No, it’s an imp."

Elwin certainly knew what an Imp was. He and Nolan had tried many times to summon a perfect one, but most of the Imps they summoned were defective. Sometimes, they could only conjure a head, a hand, or a pair of feet. They had never successfully summoned a physically perfect Imp and eventually gave up on it.

Elwin leaned closer to Nerys and examined the imp on his hand, "Why’s there an imp here? Why is it like that, is it dead?"

Nerys poked the imp in his hand, "It is the weakest and the lowest rank among types of Imp in the underworld. It must have been Sir Nolan who summoned this one."

Elwin leaned back and pouted, "Hmph. Nolan had been summoning creatures without me..."

"Squeakkk...squeak...!"

The Imp on Nerys’s hand suddenly moved and made noise.

"It’s not dead...?"

Nerys shook his head, "No, it was just pretending to be dead."

While their attention was focused on the Imp, Deacon Frantz and Rebus came out of the manor, following behind them were Nolan and Atticus.

Deacon paused by the doorstep before he bowed a little to Nolan, "We’ll be on our way now, Lord Nolan. Thank you so much for your time."

"Take care on your way. You can still consider my offer, Deacon Frantz. My butler will be here if you need to speak to me." Nolan said, his voice calm and confident.

The two visitors didn’t linger further, and after saying one last goodbye, they finally headed on their way.

Nolan watched them from the doorstep, his face serious and contemplative.

"You must be hungry, Young Master. Your breakfast should be ready by now."

Nolan’s eyes darted towards Elwin and Nerys at the bench.

"Atticus, I need you to take care of the matter here. I’m going to visit my brother after breakfast."

*

When Deacon Frantz arrived at the Chapel, Owen was already waiting outside his office.

"Where’s Easton?" he asked and opened his office and entered, Owen followed him inside.

"In the bathroom," he replied, "You’re alone, where’s that guy...?"

"Bathroom," merely replied Frantz as he sat on his chair.

Owen stood in front of the Deacon’s desk. He pulled out something from his pocket and placed it on the table.

It was a necklace.

"It was good enough that the fire didn’t spread. We gathered nothing but found this on the burned house."

The Deacon stared at the black cord chain necklace. Unlike what he had found at the crime scene, the necklace has a simple metal pendant of a phallic symbol.

Owen watched as the Deacon inserted his hand inside the sleeve of his cassock and pulled the necklace left at the scene of the crime. He pushed it on the table to show to Owen.

"A resident is dead. I found this lying on the ground. Either it was accidentally left behind or they purposely left this on the scene for a reason. The crime was certainly done by heretics."

"Do you have any idea of what group might have done it?" Owen asked.

Frantz sighed and leaned on his seat.

"The way how the girl was murdered was the same tactics that the Black Market is using. It must have been a ritual, or they just want to mock us."

Suddenly, the door opened and the Rebus entered. The two stopped their conversation. Deacon Frantz signaled Owen to leave them alone.

When Owen left them, Rebus sat at the chair in front of the Deacon’s seat. His face was adorned with a smirk as he gazed at Frantz.

"Sigh... Look at you, did you even sleep last night?" muttered Rebus, leaning forward on the table.

"Where have you been last night?"

Rebus’s smile widened, "Visited a relative,"

Deacon Frantz, his tired eyes, gazed back at the smirking man’s red eyes.

"What are you?"

"What am I..." muttered the white-haired man, his playful smile not wavering, "I thought you know what I am,"

His red scarlet eyes flickered down when Frantz pushed the two necklaces in front of him.

"What do you know about this?" Frantz asked, following the man’s eyes.

Rebus shrugged, "Must be from another ’occult’ group aside from those who worship Atticus," he airily said.

Frantz deadly stared at him before he looked away and stood up, "Stay here and read these papers to give you an insight," he pushed the stack of papers to the center of his table.

"Why? Where are you going?"

"I need to send a report to the Imperial Cathedral,"