Fleshcrafting Technomancer 57 Don't Let Me Down

"Kilian, how can you be this heartless? After I went through so much trouble to clean up your madness-driven mess, you don't even give me a hug? How heartless!" Jezebel sobbed and wrapped her hands around Kilian's waist.

"As well as you should. Aren't you the one that gave me AIDS? I finally understand why the ancients warned us about cougars." With his eyes moving through the pages of a spellbook, Kilian ran one hand through Jezebel's hair and kept the other on her back—using his dra alone to keep the book in suspension.

After regaining his consciousness, Kilian naturally considered various methods to deal with the commotion. Although his psychopathic version took many precautions, one serious problem remained: habits.

Putting himself in his foes' shoes, Kilian inferred that unable to retrace their targets, the academy's leaders would seek potentially fehl-tainted students through erratic habits. After all, daemons and beasts aside, only the fehl-tainted could use Fehl Magic. However, those mutants skilled in the fehl craft were often p.r.o.ne to volatile behavior.

A thorough investigation would quickly reveal Kilian's excessive eating habits. And while he could s.h.i.+ft the blame on a disorder such as bulimia, with lack of better targets, the school might still keep an eye on him. That kind of attention, he didn't need. Having come to the same conclusion, Jezebel took the bull by the horns and gave the academy the ending they wanted—thereby shutting down the student investigation.

"This is what I get for delaying my recovery for you? I want a divorce."

"We're not married."

"Kilian, Kilian, one day I will turn heels and vanish—making you regret not coaxing me more often," Jezebel lifted her head and pouted at Kilian. The words pulled his gaze away from the book, and his eyes locked on Jezebel's.

"Like you've done with Niklas?" The casual words sapped all amus.e.m.e.nt from Jezebel's eyes, and letting go of Kilian's waist, she spun to avoid his gaze.

"You figured it out?"

"How could I not? Jezebel, we've been bonded for about six months now. Half a year pa.s.sed by in a flash, but I dare say we've learned a great deal about one another. Klaus aside, no one understands me as well as you do. But likewise, I'm confident that not many know you better than I do," Kilian replied, leaned forward, and lowered his face so that his forehead faced Jezebel's nose.

Again, their eyes intertwined, but this time, Jezebel didn't evade and let her lips curl into a smile.

"In the past, when I left the Fehl Plane to wander various worlds, I wanted to experience the full depth of sentient beings. Across the decades, though I've mapped most personas, there aren't many I find displeasing. At the same time, unless I'm making them scream in agony, I rarely find men and women worth my time.

There are only two things I deeply dislike: being seen as a pillow and being put in chains. I do what I do because I feel like it, not because x, y or z person expects it of me. Niklas failed to understand that," Jezebel stated, and as her thoughts drifted to the past, Kilian could sense her heart grow colder. Though Jezebel often behaved in a nonchalant manner, as the favorite child of one of the multiverse's most dreadful existences, and herself an ent.i.ty of unfathomable powers, she possessed great self-esteem.

How could she allow anyone to bind her wings?

"140 years ago, Arcadia was the first world I visited. I roamed across the many echelons of society before impersonating Viscellia von Rulweil. It was then that I met Niklas. In those days, though I never considered making him my bonded partner, his innocence triggered my curiosity and we grew increasingly closer. I must admit that at first, I liked him a lot.

Yet soon, several problems arose.

Niklas used to have a cat. But one day, his best friend, the now Grand Master of the Divine Glory, kicked it for scratching him. Incandescent with rage, Niklas beat the man half an inch into death, then wept at his comatose form for 72 hours. That's when I first realized he had issues." Sven von Skoll, the Grand Master of the Divine Glory, was not merely Niklas' most trusted cousin, but one of the imperial family's most respected Exarchs.

Who could think that he also carried such a past?

"On another occasion, his little brother Hanns borrowed one of his knife-staves without permission, thinking that it was no big deal. Niklas broke his hands, then tearfully rushed to find the state's top healers to fix them. It's a form of extreme case of Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Believing that when controlled, the condition could prove useful—despite knowing about it—Marcel did nothing to treat it.

Each time he victimized someone—Niklas would come back to cry on my lap—riddled with guilt. Perhaps because I humored him, he grew increasingly more reliant on me, forgetting his own growth. Things soon got weary," Eyes glued on Kilian, Jezebel pursued.

"Over time my feelings changed, going from like to indifference. I initially planned to leave without a word, but Niklas had the nerve to demand that Grand Duke Eckhard, my then father, sends me to permanently reside in his palace until the wedding. Needless to say, I didn't take that well, revealed my fehl form mid-court, and showed them true power. Marcel, Burkhart, so many of those that now lead the elder council received the tras.h.i.+ng of their lives. But I also wasted enough powers that I had to return to the Fehl Plane."

Although that battle saw the crus.h.i.+ng defeat of house von Skoll, Kilian didn't doubt that Jezebel must have expended a great deal of power. Naturally, she would rematerialize in the Fehl Plane.

"I suppose that in Niklas' mind, I tricked, played, humiliated and abandoned him. But in mine, he betrayed me as a man and failed my expectations. So Kilian—" rising alongside Kilian, Jezebel straightened her posture on the couch, turned 180, and straddled him.

"—I dare say that in my two centuries of life, I've never liked anyone the way I like you. I can't explain it, and feelings don't need reason. I can do a lot for you with neither second thought nor regret. But please don't misunderstand me, and don't ever betray me. I...don't want to lose this." Jezebel wrapped her hands around Kilian's neck and rubbed her temple against his.

"Likewise," keeping her tightly pressed against him, Kilian directly replied. For five minutes, they just lay there, rubbing against one another while the tension of their words still permeated the air.

Pulling her head back, Jezebel flashed Kilian an impish grin, and exclaimed: "Now that the vile exes are out of the way, let's plot world domination! What's the big plan, my Lothario?"