Chapter 10: Father of the Year

Inside Duke Arbor's study...

"Your grace, it is already past midnight. I suggest you retire to your bedroom and rest. I worry about your health."

"No need, We have a bit less than 6 years of peace before we go to war and I want all of this paperwork done as possible. I don't know who, but someone on our side leaked the investigation results to the Clauders."

Peter could hear how irritated his master was just from his voice. What was supposed to be only a 1-year wait turned into 6 because of a spy.

"And that sly old bastard used the royal medallion their family earned to have the king publicly announce that they will be temporarily be protecting the Clauders, buying them another 5 years."

"But what about your family Your Grace? Her Grace Aina is the only one that's been checking on the young children while you have yet to visit any of them for a week now. If this goes on your family will fa-"

Raising his hand to stop Peter from talking any further, Arbor then motioned with his hand for him to leave.

Since he is a butler, Peter could only follow his orders but leave a few more words before leaving.

"Your family needs you, your Grace." With those words, Peter quietly closed the door on his way out.

Arbor could only sigh from Peter's words and continue with his work.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Peter I told you to leave, please."

Despite Arbor's words, the knocking continued.

*Knock* *Knock*

"This isn't Peter, who the hell is it at this time of the night?!" Arbor slightly raised his voice as he stood up and stomped towards the door.

Upon opening the door he saw no one outside. He was starting to get pissed thinking someone dared to play a joke on him until he looked down.

"Good evening father." It was just John, who was being controlled by Dweller, that was at his door.

"Sigh... John, it's way past your bedtime, go back to sleep."

"But father I'm scared! It's all dark and I'm alone. I want to stay here with you!" Dweller gave his best attempt to look cute, but will Arbor fall for it?

"Mmm... Fine, but don't disturb me because I'm very busy." After saying that, Arbor stopped blocking the doorway to let John in and went back to his desk after.

You're probably wondering how Dweller got here, but really he just noticed some faint lights down a hallway and walked towards it.

When he did, he heard John's father and Peter arguing and as soon as he heard Peter leaving, he quickly masked his presence and hid behind one of the 2 large potted plants beside the door.

"Father, who do you think did it?"

"I told you to be quiet and that I'm busy John."

"Busy? When you haven't moved your pen at all for a while now?"

Arbor couldn't help but squint at his son because of his words.

'John has never talked back in such a way...'

This got Arbor to be suspicious of his son's behaviour, he thought something was off.

"Are you okay Son? I've never heard you talk like that before."

Without missing a beat, Dweller replied with a snarky attitude.

"And I've never seen you look so pathetic."

"What!?" Such disrespect was spoken from John's mouth. The same little boy that would be asking him stories of his life is now currently mocking him.

"What? I'm saying the truth aren't I?"

"John, even if it's you I will not tolerate such disrespect."

Although he was confused and shocked from his son was acting unusually, Arbor started to speak in an intimidating tone thinking it would remind John who he was talking to.

But sadly, and unknown to him, it wasn't John that he was talking to.

"So a few honest words from a little boy is enough to get you all riled up but sending some pervert to fuck your daughter isn't?"

*SLAP!*

Moved by his feelings, Arbor slapped John on his cheek, causing a loud sharp sound.

"Do you think I don't want to have revenge?! If they didn't use that damned medallion then I would be preparing for war by now!"

"So because of that, you plan to ruin your family too? I may not have been much of a family man since I killed them, but even I could tell that you're being stupid."

' What? What's John talking about? Who's them? '

John's words and manner of speech kept confusing Duke Arbor every time they exchanged words, it was like... He was talking to another person.

"You... Who are you and where is my son?" The atmosphere in the room turned cold and the pressure increased.

Dweller couldn't help but get on one knee but still managed to keep his head up.

"John Dweller, sound familiar?" He felt like his body was being crushed under the immense pressure Arbor was giving off, despite that he still kept a cocky smile.

"No, now undo the spell you cast on my son you bastard and pray that I don't find you."

"No spell or any voodoo crap is going on here Arbor, this is all-natural hehehe."

"Again, undo the spell and get out of my son."

"Or what? you'll kill him right here? Go ahead! I'll make sure you get a "Father of the Year" award."

Dweller wanted to keep talking but he felt himself about to lose it soon, so he sped up what he wanted to say.

"Hey dipsh*t, have your son practice the sword, even if he doesn't want to, force it. If he stays this weak, there's only so much I can do to help him."

"What?" Arbor was confused, the man that he thought was keeping his son hostage is now giving him advice?

Sadly for Arbor, before he could receive a reply, John fell to the ground, knocked out by the pressure he was exerting.

"John?" When Arbor crouched down to check on John, he found that he just fell asleep.

"Zzzz..."

{ Goodluck in the morning kid, I did all I could for you. }

======

Early morning in the dining room...

It was only Duke Arbor and Duchess Aina that were present so the only noise that could be heard was their eating utensils clinking as they ate.

"...."

"...."

They ate in silence as they didn't want to talk to each other ever since Aina blamed Arbor for what happened to Chelsy.

But because she was worried about her son, Aina broke the silence.

"I want to look for another doctor."

"We already hired 3, why do you need more of them?"

"It's for John, When he woke up he was acting weird. He was speaking differently and was even using curse words."

When he heard those words, Arbor could not help but stand up in shock. Aina's experience was very similar to Arbor's from last night.

Seeing how Arbor reacted scared Aina, she thought that her words somehow angered her husband.

"I'll look for a psychologist for him."

Contrary to what she thought, Arbor, in her eyes, was actually concerned and even took the initiative to look for a psychologist.

As they were talking, the main subject of their conversation finally came in to eat breakfast.

"Goodmorning Mom and dad, I tried to check up on Chelsy but she wouldn't let me in her room."

"Goodmorning dear." Aina greeted John with a smile.

"...." Arbor on the other hand turned quiet as he looked at his son.

' Just last night he was insulting me and even cursing at me, but now he sounds like the normal John I know. Just what in the world is going on? '

"Dad?"

"Huh? oh, yeah good morning."

Not minding his father's lack of enthusiasm, John went ahead and took a seat right beside his mother, Aina, as he waits for his food.

The room went silent again but that didn't last long as John started to talk.... with no one...

"Ehh? But my dad's strong."

"Hmm?" Arbor looked at his son that started talking to no one.

"Keep my voice down? If I did that then you won't hear me."

Hearing her son talking to no one greatly worried her, she was wondering if maybe her son suffered some brain damage that the doctor missed.

"John? who are you talking to dear?"

Aina asked her son in a worried tone.

"Huh? Oh! He's my friend, he helped me back then to save Chelsy from that evil man."

Before Aina could ask another question, Arbor just barged in to their conversation to ask his own question.

"What's his name, son? Tell me, NOW." Arbor made sure to emphasize the "Now" part.

"Oh, his name is-- Eh? Why not?! But he's my papa we can trust him. Ahhhhh I'm ignoring you now. His name is Dweller."

"What? Who's that honey?"

Hearing how her son kept talking to no one made her sure of it, there was something wrong with his head.

Unlike Aina, Arbor had a more... physical reaction.

The instant John said that name, Duke Arbor ran to him and quickly pulled him up to the air by his collar.

"Arbor! Put him down! What are you doing?!"

"Papa?! You're scaring me! And it hurts!"

Arbor kept his grip on John's collar tight and ignored their voices.

"You bastard! Get out of my son or I'll find you and kill you!"

"Papa! Wahhh!~~" John was scared to see his father this angry at him.

"Arbor! Stop this now! Let him go you're hurting him!" Aina tried to release Arbor's grip from her son's collar, but she could barely even budge him an inch.

"Peter Help!" Seeing how useless she was, Aina decided to call for Peter.

"Get out of my son!" The longer Arbor went on, the tighter his grip turned.

"Waahh!~~~ Kkh-kekc Papa-Hekc" As Arbor's grip tightened, John's neck was slowly being pushed in and choking him.

*BANG*

Coming through the door was Peter, as of now there was a lot of noise coming from the room causing it to attract the servant's attention.

What both Peter and the servants saw shocked them.

"Your Grace!? Stop that! Put him down! He's your son for god's sake!" Peter stepped in and tried to pry open his hands with great effort.

Arbor's grip around John's collar tightened to the point that John couldn't even make say any words anymore.

Tears were falling and his mouth was agape, trying to gasp for any breath of oxygen he could. John's little hands were scrambling around his dad's grip while his legs went stiff and shook in struggle with his toes pointing straight down.

"A---HH------KA---"

"Get the hell out of my son you bastard!"

"He can't breath! Please dear stop, he can't breathe!" Aina was on her knees as she pulled on the Duke's suit while begging him to stop.

"Arbor! Your son cannot breathe! Arbor?!" Peter broke character in hopes to shout some sense into his master.

"AH--A-----...."

After a long time of struggling, John finally went limp, his eyes fully white and saliva flowing down his lips.

When Arbor noticed that John stopped moving, he finally loosened his grip and dropped John to the ground.

*Thud*

"John!" Aina crawled to where John fell and took him in her embrace. "John?! Oh no no no please wake up dear! My baby god no please wake up!"

Aina kept slapping John on the cheek gently trying to wake him up. When she got no response, she placed her ear on his chest and listened.

*badump.....badump*

A heartbeat, it sounded so weak that it might just go quiet all of a sudden. Hearing how weak it was made Aina burst into tears thinking about her little boy was in pain.

Now that he was looking at his son and wife, Arbor couldn't believe of what he had just done. He was blinded by all the stress and anger that he almost killed his own son.

"I-- I'm sor-"

"Don't touch him!"

When she noticed Arbor slowly approaching, Aina quickly but gently pulled John and placed her body in front to cover him from Arbor.

"Your grace... Please, go and rest in your room... I'll...I'll stay here and help young master."

Peter was conflicted, he is a butler that was trained to be fully obedient to their master, but he could not help but stop his master from getting any closer to John.

Noticing the stares he was getting, Arbor quickly exited the room while keeping his head down not wanting to look at their faces, while the servants stared him down with looks of fear, disdain and anger for what he did to John.

{ You really are father-of-the-year Arbor... }