Honkai Impact: Scion Of A Thorn

Chapter 8 Threat

To say that the Apocalypse family accounted for a majority of the recent injustices within the city would be an understatement. Not only were the people suffering but the three houses were having their own issues as well. Of course Risa sought out to make deals with members of her family but those deals would be very few and of those she made them with only one would remain standing by the end of her plans.

When she ensured that her and Otto's crimes would be pinned on their father it wasn't intended for him to see out the punishment. Her plan to poison him had been set in place long before Otto and Kallen's capturing but despite that it wasn't her plan that was being followed and it wasn't her who offered her father a slow death.

Time was at a standstill when he reached his father's quarters. He knocked on the door but expected no answer. Yes, he could enter and leave as he pleased but Will still held a last shred of respect for his father if any at all. It didn't allow him to intrude on his father's space like Risa often did. She still had the sense to knock but all decency would always falter soon after that.

The door slowly swung open and a deafening silence stretched throughout the room. There his father lay in the confines of his bed still unwilling to acknowledge the new presence. It was like this every day, three times a day in fact. It wasn't that he could no longer sense any presence. It was that he simply refused to and that fact made Will's efforts all the more thankless.

Three times a day he would prepare his father's meals and attempt to converse with him as they ate together and every time his father would respond with only the slightest nod he could muster. Thankless as it was these moments could never hold a candle to how thankless working with Risa was. It was work that rewarded him with dark circles under his eyes and even more thankless work and now that she was seemingly gone, just the thought of taking over for her was causing him a headache.

Will made his way to the wooden chair by the bedside and carefully rested his father's meal on the edge of the sheets. Perhaps he could rest and eat later. Right now all he wanted was to voice his thoughts to his father even as it would be the usual onesided conversation.

"Lord Overseer." He acknowledged.

Will was just beside his father as he examined the space. A space that could once intimidate any person with its luxury was now reduced to a plain resting place. It was almost a pitiful sight to rest eyes on the unfinished letters and reports that occupied the desk.

His gaze lingered on a vase across the room. It held a pair of wilted lillies that had been brought not too long ago. His flowers never lasted more than a few days but the single one that Risa chose remained looking as lively as ever.

Perhaps it was because her's was picked with more love in her heart than he'd bothered to spare their father. The flower swayed only slightly as if to confirm his thoughts.

Will and Nikolas were never particularly close. There were no sweet memories to solidify their relationship as anything more than child and adult. Neither were sure that the titles of father and son were earned by either. However no matter how little of a relationship they had it never dwindled away at the little respect they still held for each other.

Memories of his children's achievements filled Nikolas' mind. They were all geniuses in their own ways, they achieved more than he could have hoped. Those children were all that were left of his beloved. Risa and Otto inherited token traits of their mother, they were both mirror images of her. Will however was a direct mimicry of his father, almost laughably so.

"-so I can only assume that they left together. I've already sent a team to investigate so it won't look suspicious but still I must say that your children have a knack for causing trouble."