Youth

#53 - No Choice

Watching the fight... it'd been traumatic, to say the least.

Even Mitzu, who occasionally glanced down the dark staircase and pretended not to care that much, looked deeply disturbed.  A bead of sweat ran down the man's forehead. The room in itself had been a shock to [Y/n], but Nyais' fighting style outmatched her first surprise by a country mile. Half the time, he was too fast for [Y/n] to even see him move. She had no idea how the boys had beat him before.

Kori was in a heap, bloody all over, with Nyais standing back a few paces, hardly a scratch on him.  A tiny tear on his left sleeve, but that was it.  He'd called every single bluff.  He'd predicted every single move and dodged accordingly.  Kori... he'd had a feeling when they'd first gone downstairs that he'd be outclassed, but now he didn't quite know what to do.  Was Nyais going to kill him?  He stared up at the man with fear in his gaze.

"I admit, there are many elites who would've lost to you," Nyais muttered, "but, at your level, challenging a King Regent would certainly not be the best idea."

Kori froze.

How come no one had made him aware that Nyais was King Regent?  Didn't that make him... the second strongest in this whole place?  What was he doing running a program for kids and humans if he's King Regent?  Was he being punished for something?  Just what had he done?

Nyais took a few steps towards him.  "I'm going to cut off your arms now.  It'll be much easier to keep you detained that way," he shrugged.

Kori's eyes widened as he watched Nyais emotionlessly raise his blade, pointing it to Kori's shoulder, ready to bring it down.

"Wait!"

Kori and Nyais snapped their gazes to [Y/n], who now raced down the stairs and pushed Nyais' swords to the side.  "You don't have to do that..." she whispered. The air felt so thick that she could suffocate. The gravity of Nyais' gaze made her knees weak. She never thought she'd be on the receiving end of it - or at least, she never thought she'd be on the receiving end of it again. She liked to pretend the incident back when the boys were growing up never happened, though.

"[Y/n], what are you doing?  Kori was ready to kill me - you and I both know this."  He looked down at Kori with a distasteful glare.  "Losing his arms is the least he deserves for all he's done."

"Nyais, he's only been around for a couple of months... he's had a bad start but he can learn to be better.  You taught him a lesson - look, he's hardly conscious!" she said.  "You don't need to stoop to their levels... please," [Y/n] whispered.  With great hesitation, Nyais pulled his swords back and allowed [Y/n] to pull the boy to his feet, though he could see that she also didn't seem to want to all that much.

"[Y/n], you should be careful," Kori hissed under his breath, "he's a monster."

"Well that monster just spared your future, so show some respect," [Y/n] muttered back.  Kori let out a light, pained laugh as she helped him upstairs.  He turned back to get another glance at Nyais, who watched this all play out, highly guarded.

"I wonder what he did..." Kori hummed, flicking his gaze over to Mitzu, who was humming to himself as though nothing had happened.  "He certainly doesn't have the privileges of King Regent.  He doesn't even live in the right place," he muttered, shaking his head.

"King Regent?" [Y/n] questioned, looking back at Nyais.  He was obviously listening, but he didn't seem to have anything to say on the matter.  Kori nodded his head.

"Yup.  It means if King Olli dies under unknown circumstances or retires early, Nyais becomes king." [Y/n]'s eyes widened a little.  "So I'm assuming that makes him the second strongest vampire.  But I thought Jay held that title," he shrugged.