SGE His Darkened Heart (A Japaric Fanfiction)

CHAPTER 17 Unmerciful

A/N—To anyone who guessed A, B, or D in the question I put for the previous chapter was sadly wrong. It was C! ⚔️

"I've got too much blood on my hands I can never wash it off."
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—ARIC'S POV—

The day of the trial was upon them. It was the last few hours of training before the top ranked pairs in each school had to leave to enter the Blue Forest.

Aric watched his henchmen sharpen their axes in the armory, all the while laughing cruelly as they betted on how many weak girls they could kill in the Trial. Aric listened to their voices as he sharpened his own weapon, his trusted dagger, forever rusted with blood.

In just a few hours, him and his henchmen would arrive in the Blue Forest to wage a battle against the girls from Evelyn's school. Each student participating in the trial had flags that they could drop to safely transport them away from danger, but Aric had torn his flag up a while ago. He wouldn't allow himself to surrender to some lousy girls.

In the trial, Aric would be unmerciful. He wouldn't show any weakness against his enemies. And by killing any girl in sight instead of allowing them to surrender like cowards, he hoped he'd catch Lady Lesso's attention.

Besides, Aric and his mother were long overdue to finally meet again after almost nine and a half years. It was time for Lady Lesso to see what kind of monster her long lost son had become. It was time for Aric's mother to pay.

Aric only hoped Japeth would be proud that he was finally going to enact his revenge like Japeth had encouraged him to. But with that hope came a trace of fear. Aric feared he would have nothing left after he accomplished his mission. He feared that after killing his mother, he wouldn't have anything else to distract him from his pain, from Japeth. Aric feared he would never truly let Japeth go, that his mind would never be free from his blue eyed friend.

"Any girl who crosses us in the trial is going to die," Balleng's voice snapped Aric from his thoughts. "I bet by the end of it, Tedros and Fillip will have captured Sophie and Agatha...unless we get em first and split Tedros's treasure amongst us, right boys?"

Krushem and Armeq tittered in response and continued sharpening their weapons like giddy schoolgirls. Aric rolled his eyes in annoyance and watched his hands work faster on his dagger. He drew a steel file along the rusted blade of his dagger steadily to sharpen it and the friction of the metal against steel caused flecks of rust to fall to the floor.

Aric dropped the file and ran his thumb along the blade of his dagger until he brought the blade against the palm of his hand and steadily applied pressure. With his open cut dripping blood, Aric rubbed the palms of his hands together to coat his skin in crimson. Aric stared down at his once clean hands, recalling how much time he'd spent whipping the other boys in the School for Boys until their screams of agony filled the hole Japeth dug in his heart.

When the Trial began, there was no going back for him. Unlike Balleng and most of the other boys, Aric wasn't after Tedros's dumb reward. He didn't want endless riches to spend on whatever he so pleased.

While Aric's henchmen were fueled by greed, Aric was fueled by his vengeance to destroy his mother once and for all. Aric could see that Balleng, Armeq, and Krushem cared about each other, while Aric had no one to care about except for himself. Nobody had ever cared about Aric for so long until Japeth had stepped into his life and gifted him with friendship Aric had never asked for in the first place.

Without Japeth, Aric had nothing but longing in his darkened heart. But he couldn't allow himself to succumb to that feeling, for if he did, he would be weak. He would truly be broken, and he had to be strong in order to kill Lady Lesso.