Legacy of the Betelgeuse

I approach one of the maids that's cleaning the porcelain table. She looks at us and the bows while smiling.

"What can I help you, master Trevor?"

I look around and then look at her.

"Did you see Ernes? I need to ask him to open the wine room since I don't have the key."

The maid bows.

"I will look for him now, please wait in the living room, master Trevor."

I nod and both of us thank her.

We are sitting in the living room and I'm massaging my head while staring at the ceiling, and then Ernes comes with the old key in his hand. He approaches us.

"Master Trevor, Miss Ivonna. Please follow me."

We both then follow him to the basement and then he unlocks the wine room for us. Ernes then takes the key and then offers it to me.

"You can hold the key, master Trevor, so you can enter and leave the wine room whenever you want to. I still have the spare key in my room just in case the key went missing."

I take the key and look at him.

"Thank you, Ernes."

Ernes bows and smiles.

"If there is nothing else, then I have to go back and do my work. Please enjoy the evening, master Trevor, Miss Ivonna."

We both nod and then Ernes leaves the basement.

We enter the wine room and look at hundreds of wine bottles that are neatly arranged in the racks. We both are looking around and see the tags on the walls. There are wines from the year 1950s and up to the 2000s, and at this point, we have no idea which one we want to taste. In the end, we grab the wine that's 10 years old since we don't think of having the old wine for this kind of occasion.

We sit at the small table that is only for 2 people. Ivonna grabs two wine glasses and I pour the wine in the glasses. We smell the wine and it smells so good, then we take a sip of the wine and we both are immediately laughing with disbelief at how good the wine is. I have never tasted a high-quality wine before and I don't think I want to return to consuming cheap wine from now on.

I'm swirling my glass of wine and then Ivonna clears her throat.

"So, do you care to explain what happened back there?"

I stop swirling the glass and look at her while rising my eyebrows.

"I had to, it's just a quest as a disciple that I need to accomplish. My mentor is kind of demanding and she wants me to kill a few NPCs."

Ivonna is humming with understanding.

"So you already chose your mentor? Who is she?"

I smile and raise my eyebrows.

"Ezira."

Ivonna smiles and raises her eyebrows.

"Wow, that's surprising and not at the same time. When it comes to you, everything is hard to believe."

I chuckle and nod.

"What about you? Have you found the right mentor?"

Ivonna shakes her head while rubbing the rim of the wine glass.

"I haven't found the one I want. Well, there are a few of them that are interest me, but something tells me they're not the ones for me, you know? But I think I will go to the Land of Sigrid again tomorrow morning and think to choose one of those heroes to be my mentor."

I'm nodding with understanding, then Ivonna looks at me and nods up.

"Back to the topic. Who are those NPCs that Ezira wants you to kill?"

I start to explain from the very beginning. The time I see Jariel, the quest to retrieve 3 of Krestan's limbs, Avriel went missing from the Sarkh Village and is replaced by different tutorial NPCs, the truth about the Eluna Empire and the Moon Brotherhood, the reason why I retrieved Krestan's limbs, the item called [Alucard's Heart] and the Godly item of [Alucard's Wings], the [Subjects] that are lurking around the three sovereignties, Jariel's plan to revolt against the three sovereignties, and the Headless Cult where Aspen, Jake, and Jacob are a part of that member and the connection between Jariel and the Headless Cult, then lastly about Hacal's past and the death of his wife and daughters.

Ivonna is overwhelmed by the story and she's already on her fourth glass of wine. She's shaking her head while closing her eyes and smiling.

"That's unbelievable... I thought it was just something simple, but now you explained everything, it's so complicated and how they connected to each other."

Ivonna is nodding and looks at me.

"Now I understand everything, but the problem now is that you're hated by most of the players now. Are you okay with that?"

I nod.

"I'm fine with that since I'm ready for the consequences for what I'm doing. The problem is that it's you guys that got dragged into my mess and I don't think it's right, that's why I already told Emma to tell the others that I'm going on my own from now on since I feel guilty when I heard players were coming to the house and disturbing their playing time."

Ivonna is humming with understanding.

"Yeah, that's a problem. I think I need to make the community calm down a bit by giving them some reasonable explanation that we are not a part of your plan. It will take a while to convince them, but at least I'm confident as time goes by, they will stop caring about it."

I laugh nervously.

"Well, the problem is, my plan isn't going to stop there. I might do something worse than what I did back there. It will be like back then when I brought chaos to the players during my quest to retrieve Krestan's limbs."

Ivonna is looking at me with disbelief and scoffs.

"Well, I don't think I can say no since I already know the truth behind your action and if I were you, I might want to do the same, but I don't think I can do it on my own, but you, you're different and I guess you alone and the only one who can achieve it. What I'm trying to say is, go for it and we might be facing each other again and this time it won't be easy for you and it won't be easy for us to stop you either."

We both laugh and I can agree with that, but suddenly my vision is getting blurry for a straight 10 seconds and then I keep blinking my eyes. Ivonna's smile disappears and she looks at me with her mouth opens.

"Trev, your nose."

The moment she says that I can feel something warm coming down from my nose, and when I put my fingers under my nose, I see blood all over my fingers. I guess this is a bad idea to drink wine while my body is exhausted after playing for hours. I lift my head and pressing my nose so the nosebleed is going to stop. I start to feel and taste the thickness of the blood coming down my throat.

Ivonna jolts from the chair and approaches me.

"Don't lift your head like that! It's dangerous!"

Ivonna grabs a tissue and then she's holding the back of my head and pushes my head forward.

"Removes your hand, let me clog your nose with a tissue first."

I remove my hand and she's putting the tissue in my nose, then she pinches my nose above my nostrils. She looks so concerned and worried that she looks at me so closely and makes sure she's pinching the right part of my nose even though it's just a nosebleed, then I can see her scar on her forehead after that incident with her ex-boyfriend. I lift my hand and try to touch the scar, but then Ivonna looks at me with confusion while leaning her head back a bit.

"What's wrong?"

I look at her forehead.

"That scar."

Ivonna is panicking and immediately covers her forehead with her right hand. I'm trying to grab her right hand but I stop and shake my head.

"Can I see it?"

The tissues are already covered with blood and she has to change the tissues again, and so she removes her hand from her forehead to grabs another tissue to clog my nose. She looks uncomfortable because her scar is showing, but at the same time, she has to take care of my nosebleed.

I keep looking at her face.

"You know, Ivonna. You're beautiful even with that scar on your forehead. I think you don't have to try to hide it. I can barely see it even though I look at it this close."

Ivonna is looking at me without showing any expression and slightly smile.

"What are you saying, Trev, this isn't like you."

I scoff unintentionally and the blood squirts out my nose because of that. Ivonna is panicking and starts to pinching my nose harder and tighter.

"Don't do that!"

I'm smiling and laughing quietly.

"I'm sorry, I think I'm drunk because the wine starts to kicking in since I'm so tired."

Ivonna is chuckling softly while shaking her head. I look at her and raise my eyebrows.

"Can I touch it, Ivonna?"

Ivonna sighs and nods weakly. I lift my hand and try to touch her forehead but her hair is blocking her forehead so I tuck her hair behind her ear gently and then I can see the scar so clearly now. I slowly and gently touching her scar and she's flinching a bit but as soon as my finger is touching her forehead she's not moving her head away.

I can feel the scar and then I look at her eyes.

"Does it hurt?"

Ivonna shakes her head.

"No, but the pain I felt is still memorized in my head."

I'm humming with understanding.

"I'm sorry, that must be painful."

Ivonna slightly smiles and nods.

"Yeah, it's quite painful."

I start moving my finger down to her cheek and then tuck her hair again. I can tell that she's no longer uncomfortable with my finger on her face anymore. I start to touch her hair and then put my left hand on her right cheek to feel her smooth and pale skin, but after I realize that I'm being a creep, I remove my hand off of her face. Ivonna looks at me and smiles.

I nod and look her in her eyes.

"Yeah, you're very beautiful."