The Placeholder (World Hopping)

1.12 - Wet Behind the Ears

I want to live.

I don't want to die.

How many creatures that walked the earth had that thought in their last moments?

The boy croaked, "... he..lp." He had not avenged his family. He had not accomplished his mission. He had not killed those bloodsuckers!

Räsl above, let me live!

Then an angel—he believed the humans called them so—fell from the skies to acknowledge his call. Her pale hair became one with the moonlight in his hazy vision and her eyes lacked warmth. In the myths of humans, did angels come for dying souls? He didn't want to go but he couldn't muster the fight in him.

"The wind carried your plea."

Even the angel's voice was beautiful. Monotonous but euphonic, a lower inflection garlanding the end of her sentences. He wanted to hear more. But the end was coming for him.

And she knew it too, for she said: "Child. Die as a human or... live as a monster."

The angel's fans of lashes lowered. His vision was clouded but he didn't need sight to sense her profound sadness. It felt like she was shedding tearless grief for him and it made him gratified but sorry. If he wasn't injured, he could hug her, the same his parents did when he had a bad day. So his answer was obvious.

"Li... ive."

It was when the angel bent down that he realised a large portion of the bloody smell choking his nostrils came from her. Then two piercing stings struck his neck and all went black.

By the time he opened his eyes, he had joined the ranks of a species he vowed to eradicate.

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"For Pete's sake, can it!"

"Who's Pete? And don't use crude language with my Liege's mouth and voice."

"Oh mother of dogs. I should have killed him." Regret ate at her insides. She loathed the fact that she practically signed herself for hours of nagging to no end when she made him an ally. The bear of a man was noisier than every bargain hunter in the wet market put together. Ruxin clutched her hair, despairing.

Was it so bad that she didn't want to do paperwork that was going to benefit everyone but herself? Augusta, relying on the advantage of her species, worked days and nights without sleep on end. Managing operations, making decisions, overseeing finances, supervising the staff. Put it another way, work-life balance didn't exist for that control freak.

Really, what were those chiefs and managers paid for? Ruxin found it utterly unsustainable. A fool she would be should she follow Augusta's ways.

So instructions were passed onto Durante. He'd been lightening Augusta's workload behind her back so he was the best option. First, he was to redistribute the work to the staff. Anything outside of major decisions should never escalate to her level. And if they had complaints or were incompetent, Durante's second job was to gift them a polite 'YOU'RE FIRED!' letter and train replacements. Third, in the name of organisation restructuring, they would pull suspicious individuals away from key positions and have trustworthy staff take over.

In other words, Ruxin (Durante: Excuse me?) was purging the ranks and prepping the conglomerate for the heir apparent. And when her time was up, she'd take all the resentment with her, paving the way for the new head.

"The things I do for someone else's child..."

"No slouching!" To Ruxin's chagrin, the faithful butler persisted in correcting her mannerisms.

Her spine straightened under his watchful gaze. Ruxin admitted to needing help in her impersonation but it was creepy like nobody's business how much he observed... stalked? the original Augusta. Sure, even a woman like Ruxin found Augusta attractive and with her cold eyes and queenly demeanour, she was popular among a... special.... group of people. Ruxin patted the whip on her waist. It wasn't easy to be a beauty such as herself!

But thinking of Durante's pointers brought a new train of thought to Ruxin, who was under the impression that her imitation was a pass and minor flaws could be attributed to Augusta's poor health conditions. If it was obvious enough that the pervert Durante caught on, did Ebony, Augusta's oldest attendant, not catch on?

"Hahh," Ruxin emptied the wine glass.

"My liege doesn't sigh!"

"HAAHHHH," Ruxin deliberately sighed again.

How was he so full of energy after all the work she gave him? Hn, she refused to be the only one so drained! Ruxin pulled Durante's silk tie so the hefty man was eye-to-eye with her.

"........ News flash, your liege sweats, farts—" Durante gasped, at the language or the revelation she didn't know. "—burps and uses the loo. You," Ruxin thought of the expectant eyes of Augusta's subjects. "Keep your unrealistic expectations to yourself." Because they forced an orphaned girl to lead a clan and to her death afterwards. Even following death, her wish was nothing but the well-being of this godforsaken clan.

Seething at the inane, selfless woman whose body she now occupied, Ruxin failed to notice their proximity. Durante was blushing heavily and close to fainting because he had no immunity to his liege. The inside was imitation but the outside was real!

It was this scene that Nouha walked into. "Mistress! The Duke and his s—"

Ruxin looked at the newcomer with hair of midnight blue and loosened her hold on Durante's tie. The soft fabric slipped off her fingers at the same time that chaos slipped into Nouha's cool expression. The attendant's eyes zipped from Ruxin, to her hand and to Durante.

"You, you!"

"..." Why did Ruxin feel like a husband caught in adultery?

"MISTRESSSS!" Nouha's side ponytail bounced as the girl cannon balled at Ruxin...'s hand, wiping it gently and painstakingly with her apron, wetted with an antiseptic spray. Her glare at the muddled Durante seemed to scream that he had cooties.

The keen eyesight of a pureblood was the only reason Ruxin caught Nouha's pout—if you could call the minuscule puffing of her cheeks that.

"Ebony will add a tie to the maids' uniform so don't touch his!!"

Ruxin was suddenly grateful for Augusta's paralysed face muscles or she wouldn't know how OOC her face would look. She sighed inwardly. It really wasn't easy to be a beauty!

The frisky, overgrown mutt (Durante) was left to deal with the aftermath (Nouha) and Ruxin made her way to the sitting room with a lighter step.

The old walls were wrapped in royal purple wallpaper, its expanse broken by gold-lined tapestries and candleholders. Minimal lighting brightened the interior, perfect for the sensitive eyes of moonpeople.

They moved to this property half a year ago to avoid prying eyes. Some people appear ageless but it was unnerving when an entire household appeared like they never aged a day since you made acquaintance. And they weren't exactly low profile... It'd have been a feat to not stand out with arresting looks like Augusta's and her son's.

Gliding down the stairs in unhurried steps, Ruxin settled into Augusta's persona. She sent a summons to Augusta's uncle and his son 2 days ago and they finally showed up.

That brat Lucero was a pain in the butt and she wasn't keen on raising white-eyed wolves. Bloodline and ability? Lucero wasn't the only one of his kind and the coming meeting would determine the heir. Should her cousin disappoint, he could at least be a good whetstone for Lucero. Ruxin's blood red eyes gleamed coldly.