Chapter 64: New followers
After everything was over, Arthur pulled his hand back and wiped the blood off it. Calmly, he took out a low-grade healing potion and poured a bit of it on his wound. It was a very good disinfectant, and it would only take an hour or less to fully heal the injury.
"Well then, you’re now officially my subordinate. As I was saying earlier, forget everything that happened today. Arvan is still alive, and from today onward, you follow him."
Thorne was stunned when he heard that; he didn’t understand the meaning of it and awkwardly asked, "What do you mean, my lord?"
To make things clearer, Arthur took off the hood from his head, then removed his mask, and calmly said, "I am Arvan."
Thorne’s astonishment turned to shock. He quickly looked at Arvan’s real face and noticed some resemblance between them. He didn’t fully understand what was going on, but it didn’t take him long to realize what he had to do. Slowly, he knelt on one knee and politely said, "My lord Arvan, I offer you my loyalty."
He himself couldn’t believe what he was doing, but he was forced to go along with what was happening. These were his master’s orders, and he had to follow them.
Behind them, the real Arvan had stopped crying, and his body froze. The fear he had felt disappeared, and all that remained was a stupid look on his face. Everyone knew that black hair was rare and only the Ravenshade family possessed it. As for the rest of the people, they mostly had brown or golden hair and occasionally other colors like dark blue and muddy green.
His experience was very limited, so he didn’t even consider the possibility that what he was seeing was a magical illusion. The only thought that crossed his mind was: "Is he my brother? An illegitimate brother? That? That’s impossib—" He couldn’t complete the word "impossible," because he knew that it was possible.
High-ranking nobles weren’t exactly disciplined people, and some of them were quite indulgent, which resulted in mistakes like illegitimate children. But nobles always got rid of mistakes when they knew about them. Even so, some children slipped through, which sometimes caused problems in the future.
These possibilities rushed through Arvan’s mind, and due to his stupidity, he began to believe them even though he hated the idea. At the same time, he felt a kind of joy. Maybe his illegitimate brother would be merciful enough to let him live.
He started shouting, letting out a loud, humming noise.