Vows and Bullets
Chapter 152 - 1st week of September (Part 6)

Chapter 152: 1st week of September (Part 6)

Please DON’T READ this Chapter yet. I will update this first week of September!

Good news! My hands have healed now and I’m catching up on writing my missed Chapters. My apologies for all the delays. I will replace this Chapter with the real one soon, don’t worry, and upload a new one for the next day. I really apologize once again.

In the meantime, please enjoy the continuation of the story below titled "The King’s Beloved". This is the revised version I am planning to submit for paperback publication. Hopefully, I get a chance someday.

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(Part 15 - Continuation...)

Azalea sighed, seeing her like that. Walking towards her, she took a glass and pitcher of water from the bedside table and brought them to her.

"Have you eaten breakfast? If you don’t have much appetite, I brought some cookies, and they’re really delicious! Genus taught us how to bake using their tools, and his cookies tasted awesome, so he gave a pack to each of us."

Rania glanced at the cookies on the basket. The huge pack was there, unopened.

"... I don’t like it."

"That’s too bad. It’s really delicious! You should at least try one."

Finally opening the pack, Azalea handed it over to Rania.

"Here, have some."

"No, thank you," she refused, shaking her head. Trying to change the topic, she asked, "And who is Genus?"

"Oh, he’s... uhm, our House Leader. But he’s really kind! He’s not like the others—"

"Hah!" an immediate scoff came out of Rania. "Magi? Kind? You’re making me laugh." Hatred filled her eyes along with resentment and bloodlust.

Truly, if there was anything that Rania ever did while trying to survive despite her unwillingness to, it was hating the whole Magi race. Deep in her mind, she had already thought of countless ways to get revenge. Especially to that wicked Nefastus she loathed so much to the point she even wrote about her plans of killing her in a notebook. And also the reason why she always kept a small knife hidden beneath her dress. Unfortunately, she hadn’t had the chance to see her again after the night they were captured.

"Rania, I told you, don’t group all of them into one definition. Each Magi is to their own," Azalea tried to convince her. "Just as each human is different, they are different, too. Not all of them are bad, and not all of them are good."

"Ha-ha! It seems you’ve been brain-washed by them already," Rania mocked her. "But I’m not like you. I won’t be fooled. They are monsters! Monsters that only know how to kill. And my anger and hatred towards them will never ever go away. They killed the people I love. They should suffer the same!"

Azalea shivered, hearing such things come out of her mouth. She always believed Rania was a kind person deep inside. But this... a sudden annoyance rose up within her.

"Wait—Are you still writing that thing in your notebook? Rania, I told you to stop that! What if they see that? Who knows what they’ll do to you?! I-I thought we agreed on this?"

"No, we didn’t."

"But you promised not to put yourself in danger anymore!"

"The notebook is not a danger. I’m the one who’s dangerous. If I ever see that evil Nefastus again, I’m gonna kill her. I really will. And I’m gonna make sure she suffers a hundred times. No, not just a hundred, a thousand times," Rania murmured like a psycho fixated on killing someone. It seemed that her losses were too much for her to bear.

Azalea couldn’t believe the things she was hearing. She only knew Rania during the night of their capture but seeing her behave like that was simply heartbreaking for her. And what’s worse, no matter what she did, no matter the efforts she put in, she still stayed the same, or to be more accurate, even worse than before. How she wished there was more she could do. She could only sigh and cry in worry.

"Hatred will only hurt you more than the person you’re hating. So please, don’t live in hatred. Don’t waste your life like this."

"I’m not wasting it away. Can’t you see? I have such great plans," Rania smirked like a madwoman. "Don’t worry, Azalea. Once I’m done with her, I’ll go to the king next. I’ll kill him, too, for ordering the massacre of our race. That way, I’ll avenge you, too. Isn’t that great? We will all have our revenge."

"No, no, no. Rania, please, stop this."

But Rania shook her head. "No, I’m not stopping. Especially when I just learned something amazing yesterday."

Azalea furrowed, confused by what she meant.

"W-what do you mean? What did you learn?"

Rania smirked and replied, "Malum said, if a Magi and a human sleep together, there is a high chance for the human to gain a spiritual core. And that core is what controls their powers. That’s why they said humans are perfect vessels for an offspring. Since we don’t have spiritual cores like them, they could easily pour out their spiritual energy on us without getting rejected by another core which happens if two Magi sleep together. That’s why they were looking for young virgins like us! To produce even more powerful Magi!"

"D-don’t tell me you’re planning to—"

But Azalea was unable to finish her words. Cold shivers touched her skin. Rania’s devilish smirk confirmed it all. She was dead serious about getting her revenge. And she’s gonna do it, no matter the cost.

***

Chapter 6 THE FATHER’S LOVE

A few days had passed since then. Eager to execute her revenge, Rania she decided to do some research. After all, one way of winning a battle was to know your enemy.

One night when she couldn’t sleep again, she finally decided to go to the library located on the ground floor of Pémptos Palace. Despite being there since the first day they transferred from the Grand Palace to the House Palaces, it was the first time she had visited the place. It was mainly because she didn’t care much about the lessons taught to them—unless there was some useful information being discussed—so she didn’t bother to do her research on assignments Malum gave them. Good thing he wasn’t very diligent himself. Rather, he found Rania’s resistance quite amusing.