Eden looked at the youngest.
She was a woman of silence like a storm contained within a human shell. But as she looked down at his pale and blood soaked body, the mental fortress she had spent years building began to show fractures.
"You're… late, sister."
Those three words haunted her more than the dying screams of a thousand monsters and humans she had ended.
Looking at the wooden sword not that far from his body, and the signs of a hard earned battle of survival, she knew one thing:
That is, the youngest held his position and waited for a savior he was certain would come.
'I don't know him,' she thought, her eyes narrowing as she stepped over the frozen carcass of a greater imp. 'I know his name. I know he is labeled as the 'failure' of the Hart. I know that father considers him a blemish on our name. But I don't know... anything else.'
She thought that if her little brother had died today, she would not have known what to put in his casket.
What was his favorite color?
Was it the deep crimson of the blood currently staining his shirt, or perhaps the pale blue of the mountain sky he seemed to stare at so often?
What kind of food did he like?
Did he prefer the salted meats or did he have a hidden sweet tooth for the honey cakes like her?
His birthday ceremony was even coming up in two weeks.
Eden was so engrossed with her thoughts, and that she had completely forgotten about the youngest's injuries and wounds.
Step, step.
Stepping forward, her face contorted. She was a swordsman walking the path of the sword and not magic, thus the most she could do was to remove the hemlock piercing his chest.
However, by doing so would bleed him out and his life might even be in great danger.
If she was not mistaken, the youngest's attendant should be a healer, but the travel to the manor alone could endanger his already fading life force.
With no remaining choice…
"Foile," Eden muttered.
A figure appeared behind him, the same one Iria had handed the letter back then. The only difference was, the heavy linen hood of the cloak was now pulled back, revealing his identity:
An old man around in his sixties.
This old man Foile was Eden Hart's personal attendant. He looked at the youngest's mangled form with a detached gaze that only comes from serving a house of monsters for fifty years.
He seemed to understand the reason he was summoned, even without a word.
"Milady," Foile bowed, his voice like dry parchment rubbing together. "You summon me for a task that will surely invite the Archduke's wrath. To use such a mythical treasure for a… non-essential—
Foile didn't finish his sentence, or more accurately, he couldn't.
If he had added even just one more syllable, his head would have been rolling across the snow before the words could leave his lips.
"As you command," Foile whispered, his gaze dropping to the snowy ground. "I shall return within the minute."
In that instant, Foile vanished.
Step, step.
Eden crouched beside the youngest with a tenderness that would have shocked the world: a supposed to be a sociopath is now acting like a doting, overprotective tiger mom all of a sudden.
Gently, she brushed aside a strand of his dark brown hair, revealing a face masked in black filth. She scooped up a handful of snow, melting it into warm water with her zi and slowly began to wipe his skin clean.
"Look at you," Eden murmured, smiling. "You really look a lot like Mother…"
Then, Eden sat down and pulled her little brother's head onto her lap.
"Sleep now, little star… the night will pass you by…"
She began to sing a haunting lullaby as she placed her palm firmly over his torso.
Channeling her zi into a focused vacuum, she slowly drew the hemlock branch out of his chest— the wound began to bleed, but she disregarded it.
"By the time morning comes, I'll be here, so don't you—"
"Milady," a voice echoed as the shadow coalesced. Foile had returned, holding the iron-bound case. "I have brought the treasure."
Foile then offered the case to Eden.
Inside was a vial that contained a dark and viscous liquid like squid ink as faint lights swirled within it like stars in the deep sea— the Leviathan's Blood.
Cracka, cracka!
The moment the vial was opened, the blood reacted violently to the air as it crystallized into jagged, sapphire shards.
"Sorry, my cute little brother… just bear with it."
With two fingers, she pressed lightly at the hinges of his jaw, using her zi to numb the nerves and ease his mouth open without force.
A thin stream of her zi also flowed from her touch and coated his throat in a protective layer of rime.
Cracka!
Eden tilted the vial.
The jagged shards of Leviathan's Blood slipped past his lips like crushed diamonds when she closed his mouth gently and lifted his chin.
"Foile."
"Yes, milady," Foile stepped forward and cut a shallow wound on Eden's thumb.
Thing is, Eden had also made the youngest swallow her blood along with the substance.
Placing her palm over his throat, she guided the lethal flow downward with her zi acting as a conduit, melting the shards back into a liquid state the moment they hit his esophagus.
Cracka, cracka!
As the essence took hold, a visible ripple of blue light surged through the youngest's body.
The jagged wound in his chest wriggled as the flesh knit itself back together with unnatural speed. The bleeding stopped instantly, and his erratic, shallow gasps smoothed out into a rhythmic breath.
If the youngest was conscious, then he would've been screaming his lungs out by now from the intense pain behind the procedure.
The substance was, after all, supposed to be diluted with three different herbs and seven drops of blood coming from a powerful figure!
But… Eden is just pouring it in using only her blood.
After a while, Eden sang again.
"Sleep now, little star…"