[Few Days Back]
"I just plan to kill someone."
The words fell into the room like a blade striking stone.
The old hut seemed to shrink around them. Firelight flickered weakly against warped wooden walls, shadows crawling along the ceiling beams as if trying to escape what had just been said.
Aldric stiffened.
His fingers, wrapped around a chipped clay cup, went rigid. The tea inside rippled, a few drops spilling over the rim onto the table.
"Kill…?" he repeated quietly.
The word tasted foreign in his mouth. Heavy. Final.
Luca met his gaze.
There was no rage in his eyes. No bloodlust. Only a calm so deep it was unsettling.
"To fulfill a promise," Luca said softly.
Silence followed.
Not the peaceful kind—but the suffocating kind, the sort that pressed against the ears until even breathing felt loud. Outside, the wind brushed against the hut's walls, making the old wood creak faintly, as though the structure itself was uneasy.
Aldric opened his mouth.
Closed it.
