Sinister Obsession: Macsen Massey (Emperor Series, #3) ✔️

Chapter 34

Chapter 34
TW: Mentions of tortures and other heavy explicit words.

"Macsen!" Maximus yelled when Macsen attacked him without a word. He dodged the attack easily, but Macsen chased after him. He looks so mad; he's in a daze; he's so lost; this is not the Macsen Massey they know. He's so messed up; the Macsen Vassily is the most composed Vassily member in the family.

"Fight me, Maximus! Fuck you all!" Macsen screamed highly as he attacked his brother. He's so mad at himself. It's his fault; he lost her because of his stupidity. He's the smartest Vassily according to the people, but he just lost her because of his stupidness.

"Get a hold of yourself, Macsen! Fuck, what are you doing? Look at you! Look at your empire!" Maximus tried to fight him back. He took his sword and defended himself.

Macsen swung hard, not realizing he's moving too fast, making Maximus lose his control and attack as well. They were starting to hurt each other, and the people in the palace are troubled. "I've lost everything. I've lost her! I've just realized it now. I'm so fucking dumb to believe you. I'm so stupid for allowing my father to control me. They say I'm the most manipulative Vassily, but look at me, I'm about to fall because I was fucking manipulated!"

Maximus tried to catch his brother. "Listen, Macsen! Get a grip, you fucking idiot! You do realize your empire needs you, right?"

But Macsen was too fast to be caught. "And I just fucking realized I need her too."

Maximus halted, making Macsen stop as well. He ran his fingers through his hair and stared at Macsen, who looked so lost. "Ha, fuck. The first time I saw her, I knew she was familiar. I saw her portrait in the book of the banned, and I was not wrong. I knew I had to do things my way before you fall hard, Macsen."

"Book of the Banned?" Macsen frowned. It's the book where the enemies of the Vassily family were written. The details are complete, and there are even pictures. Whenever they ban someone or a clan, it's immediately written in the book of the banned. Once someone is banned, he's haunted forever until he dies. Unless his name is removed from the book, which is impossible because that has never happened before and will never happen, the Vassilys will never remove a name from it.

"What do you mean?"

"I've read the book several times. I was tasked to memorize it. The family Aastha was written on it; there were pictures. I saw the face of the Duke and the Duchess; I even familiarized myself with a portrait. It was an image of a girl; she's wanted in the Empire. The palace has been looking for her ever since your abduction. Our family wants to take revenge by abducting the only daughter of the Duke. But up until now there's been no news of her. We've heard that even the Aastha family has been looking for her as well." He stopped and stared at Macsen, who looked confused.

"The Duke thinks that we have his daughter, and the Aastha clan concluded that we caught her. But that girl isn't in our hands either. That's what we thought, but we're wrong. She's literally in your palace all along disguised as a man; that's why we can't find her. I see now. That's why she was fucking disguised, because we were looking for the daughter. A girl. And all this time she was working in your palace as a man, so we can't find her. Would you look at that?" Maximus smirked in awe.

"Fuck."

Maximus glared daggers at Macsen. "I made that game to get rid of her; the prey, the predator, and the knight. I thought you were going to let her die in my hands just like what you always do, but you fucking saved her like an idiot. The Vassily family's worst enemy in their own land before is the family Aastha. They're not even on our level, but they have the audacity to fight against us."

Macsen sat on the ground in frustration. He's really depressed about everything that's going on. He's on the verge of choosing: is it taking vengeance for his family or chasing after the girl he truly wants?

"You were fucking abducted by the Aastha family, Macsen. You're the abducted Vassily. The people know there is a Vassily member who was abducted, but they didn't know it was you, and I'm sure you're aware of it," Maximus said. "You escaped from them. When you arrived home as if you've survived from a massacre, father began the attack. He looked for the Duke's daughter to take revenge, but he didn't find her. No one in our clan did. So he ordered to destroy the entire Aastha manor until his army finds her. But she was not found. And that's because her true identity was hidden."

Macsen sighed heavily as his memories flashed before his eyes like thunder. The image in his mind is so clear. Even his nightmare flashed back.

It was dark. He was walking back from the wilds after training when a group of soldiers approached him. He thought it was his family's army, but he was wrong when one of the soldiers tried to put him in a sack. He was quick to catch up with the moment. He immediately fought back, even though he was just a kid. He was so fucking small; who would try to shake someone as innocent as he? He was just a kid; he had no idea what was going on, yet he was chosen to be abducted.

He was abducted by the soldiers. He killed one of them, but the rest tortured him until he fell weak and unable to fight back. They put him in a sack and brought him to a dark dungeon. It's the same as the dark dungeon in the palace, the place for criminals. But this one's different. He's not a criminal; he's just a kid, but he was sent there for no reason. And the worst thing is... He's being tortured. What the fuck? Why are they hurting a kid? Why are they torturing him? What did he even do? And where the hell is his family? Why are they not saving him?

He believes it took him days before he finally escaped. He received a lot of heavy punches that made his stomach upset. He couldn't eat properly; all he did was vomit blood. He was all scarred and bruised. His injuries were fresh, and the blood scattered all over his body and his torn clothes were new. It was hard to escape, but he made it. With injured feet, he managed to run in the forest away from his abductors.

It was dark. He was still running for his life. In the midst of the woods, with severe injuries, he was just trying to catch his breath to keep himself from running. He was still eager to run away, but his body said no. He tripped and fell, and it was the moment where he lost his consciousness. He woke up when he heard some scratches. He immediately rose to defend himself, but all he saw when he opened his eyes was a little girl holding a basket full of fruits.

"You're awake?" The little girl asked, perhaps a few years younger than her. He was so shocked that he immediately kicked the girl's basket, and the fruits fell.

The little girl immediately backed down. "It's okay! I'm not a bad guy! I won't harm you! It's okay."

He saw apples in his basket. Then, all of a sudden, he felt hungry. He immediately took an apple and got up to leave. "You shouldn't be helping me, you know," he said while tearing his clothes to cover his injury.

"Why?" The girl asked as she stared at him in confusion. She didn't ask what happened to him; she just helped him when he was unconscious on the ground. He frowned as he looked at the letters weaved into her dress. She's probably a servant from that family.

"Your badge says you came from the family that's been opposing mine for a long time," he replied.

The girl shrugged. "We're not enemies. They are the problem."

"What's your name?" He asked.

The girl shrugged once again. "Is that important?"

"Yes, so tell me," he said as he took another apple.

The girl just smiled at him and gave him more apples. Before he could ask more, he heard horses not far from the hut where he fell asleep. He took the chance to escape, but he looked back at her one more time. She was still smiling. That was the last time he saw her, and that was the time he escaped. But her eyes remained in his memory like a vivid dream, as well as her long hair and sweet fragrance. Above all, he finally remembered the name embedded in her dress.

She's not a servant; she's the Duke's daughter. His mortal enemy.

"Aastha, Seraphine Bellona."