Conquering His Cold Heart

286 Playing With Fire

[Half an hour earlier]

“Cillian! Eyes on your enemy!” Slayer shouted at his young disciple when he saw him getting distracted.

“Yes, sir!” Cillian quickly looked away from the lady who he kept on seeing around in the manor. He looked at the wooden statue in front of him and then aimed his sword at that statue’s neck.

Slayer came and stood beside his disciple. And he scolded Cillian for not giving his full attention in the practice session. “Why do you keep on looking behind you? Is that lady more interesting to you than learning to fight? If that’s so, then I will gladly take you back to the place I found you and leave you there.”

Cillian hung his head low and then apologized to his master. “Please forgive me, sir. I was simply wondering who that lady was since I keep on seeing her.”

Slayer turned his head to look at that lady who disappeared from his sight in no time. He then looked back at Cillian with a deep frown between his brows. And he slapped his disciple on the back of his head.

“Don’t ask the things that you don’t need to know. Else you will find yourself in deep trouble.” He raised his voice further and asked, “Do you understand me?”

Cillian tightened his grip on his sword and then replied in a firm and loud voice, “Yes, sir!”

Cillian then began swinging his sword at that wooden enemy while Slayer watched Cillian’s hand movements and the clean cuts on that statue.

.....

While the two of them were busy, Romulus saw them in the practice field and made his way toward them. He wanted to see the progress of his beta’s student. And if he wasn’t performing well, he wanted to tease Slayer for his disciple’s failure.

He went and quietly stood next to his beta.

Cillian was so focused on his target that he didn’t even realize that the alpha was watching him with great interest. He simply kept on chipping the wood of the statue with every strike he made.

Romulus then asked Slayer in a soft whisper, “Why are you teaching him to graze the skin of the victim? Or is he capable of only doing that?”

Cillian’s ears caught that comment from the alpha. And his mind automatically directed him to put some more force into his strikes.

Slam!

Instead of cutting the neck of that statue clean, his sword got stuck and he struggled to pull it out.

Romulus laughed while looking at that struggling skinny boy. And he poked Slayer with his elbow and taunted him, “His body doesn’t have enough muscle to put the force required to cut through that thick neck. Why don’t you fatten him up first?”

Slayer furrowed his brows and then bluntly asked the alpha, “I guess you have a lot of free time in your hand, huh? Should I find some work for you so that you can get out of my face?”

“Tch!” Romulus gave a corner-eyed glance to his beta and then looked at the boy again. “You don’t even come to see me unless you have something to report or unless I call you. I was so bored without your presence.”

Romulus sighed as if he was deeply hurt and then said in a dramatic way, “But I guess you don’t feel the same way. You seem occupied with your new toy.”

Cillian was still struggling to pull his sword out. But when he heard the alpha, it took him a great effort not to laugh out loud. And he struggled even more. He couldn’t exert any effort into pulling the sword as he was using all his might to keep his mouth shut.

Sensing his student holding the laugh, Slayer went and swiftly pulled that sword. But instead of handing it over to Cillian, he pointed that sword at his alpha and asked, “If you are that bored then I challenge you to a sword duel. And no cheating allowed.”

Romulus smiled ear to ear and then looked at one of the servants who was around. “Bring me my sword,” he ordered.

While waiting for his sword to arrive though, a guard came and informed him, “Alpha, someone from the distillery is here. He is saying that there’s been an emergency in the distillery.”

“Emergency? What happened?” Romulus asked while knitting his brows together.

Before that guard could answer, that man came running towards the alpha while being followed by a few guards who were trying to stop him from approaching the alpha.

Romulus raised his hand and then dismissed the guards. He walked towards that man and then asked immediately, “What’s wrong? Did you all start a fire or something?”

That man shook his head and then rested his hands on his knees. He then answered the alpha while huffing and puffing, “Milord, the King… He…”

“King?” Romulus furrowed and asked the first thing that came into his head, “Did he die or something?”

That man shook his head again and then replied while pointing in the direction of the distillery, “He came to our distillery without even notifying us.”

Romulus instantly clutched his fists when he heard that Everard was there in his facility. “What the hell does he want?” he asked that man with a growl.

That man had no idea why the King was there. “I have no clue, Milord. But he wasn’t there to taste and buy the alcohol.”

Romulus then correctly guessed that it had something to do with the taxes. ‘Is that fool trying to bring me down because I tried to kill his fake friend right in front of him? Or did he find out that I almost killed his real friend and also his love interest?’

Instead of hastily running towards the distillery to face the uninvited guest, Romulus closed his eyes and thought for a while. He was thinking about the best course of action that he could take if the King was there to investigate his tax fraud.

After a while, he opened his eyes and then looked behind him. Slayer was standing a few feet away from him. So, he gave an order to his beta, “Slayer, I want you to fetch that frozen heart for me. After that, send our men to the other distilleries and ask them to hide all the important files.”

Romulus looked ahead of him and then mumbled, “You chose the wrong person to play with, Everard. I am the fire that has the power to burn you down.”