20. History Repeating Itself

20. History Repeating Itself
Ashton's POV

That sneaky bastard.
“There is suspected black magic at the east border and…” I zoned out.
This was how it started 13 years ago.
The sudden announcement.
The virus. The war. The illness that never went away. And then, the deaths.
We didn’t know the cause and had fought with the witches who denied it till the very end, further causing our relationships to deteriorate.
“We sent a new set of soldiers to the borders just earlier this week. Why haven’t I heard anything?”
“Because my aide just returned from the border to confirm that there is no one at the border—or rather, there is no one guarding the border post.”
“What’s going on?”
“Did the witches start their attacks again?”
“We are under attack!”
Panic engulfed the room, and I felt irritation rise from underneath my skin.
These centuries-old elders acting like children vexed me more than the sound of my brother’s voice in my ears.
“Silence!” I shot out with more pressure, and the room chilled a few degrees lower.
“What you mean to say now, Councilman Kylanor, is that the Eastern border stays unguarded because we were under a sudden attack?” I asked calmly, trying my best to flatten my hand on the throne instead of clenching it.
“Empty, Alpha Ashton!” Kylanor paused, letting those words sink in.
“The borders are empty. Deserted. Did they think this job is a joke?”
“They returned, but everyone is acting strangely.”
“The Alpha has caught the virus.”
“We need to make a decision. Someone has to do it.”
“Alpha Kylanor, we need to make a decision. Someone has to go oversee the border.”
Somehow, I’d zoned out with those memories flooding my mind. I returned back to the present to see everyone staring at me and waiting for my command.
Definitely, they’ve had a meeting before now if this one is about to conclude so quickly.
But even though I barely heard what they were saying, I definitely got the gist.
History was repeating itself, and they needed a scapegoat.
No one speaks out of turn. The respect is evident.
And another thing that is obvious is that the respect is born out of fear.
However, the look they are giving Kylanor while he remains standing, waiting for my decision, is different.
They might have been bribed, but there is a sincerity I could never fight for in their eyes.
I turn back to look at my mother. The one who knew the whole truth, yet she looked away.
Unable to look into the eyes of her husband’s murderer—even though she knew the truth.
The whole truth about how I had to do it.
About why I did it—for him and the whole clan.
It was what he wanted. Scratch that. What needed to be done, and I was the only one rational enough to do it.
The only one strong enough to. Yet, this was the look she was giving me.
Avoiding my gaze after so long. No traces of her wanting to see me.
She went into seclusion as soon as the last of them were taken down by the pandemic.
There was no cure, even until now—when it seems like that death trap has opened again. But she still won’t look me in the eye.
Her claiming to have forgiven me was clearly a lie.
A blatant lie she could no longer be bothered to hide.
“Let’s send out a search team first, then wait for their reviews before making any drastic decision. Overthinking won’t get us anywhere.”
I said as I took my gaze away from my family and directed it to the council elders.
“Overthinking?” Someone scoffed from the side.
Elder Alfred, the head of security in the whole clan, said with his fist held above his head to take permission to speak.
Ironically, he’d started talking even before he raised his hand.
I scoffed internally and let him continue.
“More than twenty of our guards have gone missing. This is no common occurrence, and regardless of how small that number is in respect to the whole clan’s army, things like this don’t go unnoticed. The people will notice and—”
“Go straight to the point, Elder Alfred.”
Basically, his title was Minister.
But what use was calling him that when he was doing his very best to avoid responsibility right now?
“Hmm, hmm.” He cleared his throat and got up to his feet.
“I mean to say, it’s better to have a powerful representative go there than another set of guards.”
“Are you saying that even the palace-trained guards are incapable of keeping the people safe? Then what use is having them around?”
I said without pausing in between.
The elders shifted in their seats, clearing their throats.
Having been caught unaware, I noticed Kylanor stepped forward even before he said anything.
“I don’t think Minister Alfred meant that.”
“Oh?” I cocked my head to the side. “And since when was it your turn to speak?”
Silence.
Kylanor’s smirk, on the other hand, didn’t for once falter. Instead, it only seemed to broaden when she spoke from behind me.
“When will you stop fighting your brother? His only offense is being your brother, but he hasn’t done anything else wrong. Please stop it, Alpha Ashton.”
My mother pleaded from behind me.
It was one thing to choose favorites, but actually making it so obvious—siding with one and dismissing the other, yet claiming to want peace for both of us—was straight-up diabolical.
“No, Mother. He didn’t mean to harm me. Don’t worry.”
He said persuasively, and I heard my mother let out a sad sigh.
“What the Minister meant is that we managed to conceal this whole thing from spreading and agitating people in the past. They were suspicious then, and those guards we lost in the past had families. If more people keep missing…”
He let the end of the sentence to everyone’s wild imaginations to fill in.
This manipulative bastard, making use of those weak-ass emotions to stir my own council. How brazen of him!