Chapter 1 - Snow

A beautiful work of art of a crystal chandelier hung on top of a very spacious room, shining brightly over the gorgeous dining room where dozens of bodies lay scattered over the ground and in the center of the room.

All over, from the wall to the floor, tables, and chairs, gorgeous crimson blood splattered everywhere before the sobbing children, with the cries of men and women echoing from time to time.

In the center of the room, in front of the scattered bodies was a figure of a young man that had been sitting silently and serenely, ignoring the people around him.

Despite the average appearance of the young man, the oppressive aura he emitted was enough to deter any malicious ideas people had toward him.

Soon, the sound of footsteps could be heard echoing out when a middle-aged man in a black suit strode through the wide-open door before bowing his head respectfully towards the young man sitting in the center of the room.

"Master Snow, everything you have ordered has been handled." the middle-aged man respectfully said, before glancing at the remaining people around them with murderous eyes.

"Master do you want to completely silence the remaining people?"

The young man, named Snow, closed his stormy blue eyes while ignoring the noisy reactions of the people around him when they heard the middle-aged man's words.

Snow mentally sighed when he felt the slight sharp pain over his chest, near his heart, before opening his beautiful blue eyes and gazing calmly at the remaining people before him. He could see gazes of fear, hatred, disgust, and horror as they stared at him.

However, among the people in the room, Snow couldn't help but gaze a bit more to a familiar person with an expression of trepidation along with many complex emotions as his eyes look straightforwardly toward him causing Snow to quickly take away his sight because that familiar figure has been a very important person to him.

Completely ignoring the gloom and negative emotions shown around him, Snow shook his head slightly as he answered the middle-aged man with a soft attitude, something he only showed to his most loyal subordinate, especially because this man has been serving his entire family before he was even born.

"There is no need, those people that I wish dead are all gone."

He is someone who believed in paying an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.

Punishment in kind for the people who go against him and toward those who have been loyal, he has always been amiable in treating them. He has always believed in the action of equivalent exchanges, and so Snow has slowly stood up, causing the people around him to flinch in fear.

"Just take everyone away from this place all at once."

Ignoring the suspicions, doubt, hesitance, disbelief, and joy on the people's faces, Snow has slowly walked toward the door with the middle-aged man faithfully following him behind.

Soon a few more people wearing black suits have appeared and started escorting the people around them away, sometimes using force or threats when some of the people just refused to leave, wanting to bring the corpses of their loved ones along with them.

However, someone has suddenly dashed over and quickly rushing toward the disappearing back of the young man that had just walked away while miraculously remaining unobstructed the whole time.

And the people wearing black suits have just taken a casual glance at the chasing young man while all of them remained silent since they had already been ordered not to interfere with that person if he ever made a move.

Seeing the familiar figure still walking away in a rather calm, the young man couldn't help but open his mouth and shout the familiar name on his lips, the name that he uttered sounding so unfamiliar from his memories since it was entirely so different from what he had been so used on calling him during their past interactions.

Even though he could tell that something has changed, there was no way he will give up confronting this person since this man is very special to him.

"...Snow!"

Snow, who had already heard the running footsteps behind him has finally stopped walking when he heard the familiar voice calling his name.

Soon he turned around to face the young man who remained beautiful and handsome as he remembered him on his memories, while the middle-aged man has silently walked away and stood at a distance away while giving them some of the privacy they needed.

"Hey, Rei, what's up? Do you need any something?"

Rei watched in disbelief as a very amiable expression and a simple, ordinary sentence greeted him, just like how Snow usually did in his memories.

Snow was guilt-free and unemotional toward the ruthless moves that he had just done before him, causing Rei to blank out for a few moments before quickly opening his mouth after sensing a very bad feeling that he will absolutely lose something very important if he remained silent and didn't respond back.

"... Snow... are you... alright?"

Rei watched the person with an extremely concerned eye and only receiving a surprised expression on Snow who has an average appearance but having beautiful blue eyes.

Rei knew that the way he is acting is extremely weird and strange after all any normal person will not show a concern expression toward the person that has just killed so many people without showing a single ounce of mercy, especially when those people who have died happened to include his own father and stepmother.

However, this person had been his best friend since early childhood, the person Rei has grown up with, the person that he had been looking after, staying by his side for many years and the person who had given him the warmth feeling more so than his so-called father and step-mother.

Snow was far more important than his family; even though Rei respected and liked his father and step-mother but that was all that he felt toward them.

And Rei felt absolutely different when it came to Snow since he was more concerned about his best friend than his so-called parents who didn't have any time to even be with him when growing up, finding their businesses far more important than their children.

"Ah... really, Rei is always the best." Snow smiled happily his bright blue eyes lighting up with appreciation as he gazed deeply at Rei, causing the young man to suddenly unable to remove his eyes as he stared at the person's beautiful and moving blue eyes.

Rei couldn't understand why, but he always liked it when Snow stared at him directly with those beautiful blue eyes of his, just like what's happening now. He knew that Snow's blue eyes will never lie to him, that whatever emotions contained in those blue pupils has always been the truth.

Suddenly, Rei felt hot, shy, and dizzy while confusing emotions running amok inside, making him extremely uncomfortable and somehow bothered.

While Snow couldn't help but glance up and down at the beautiful young man before him in appreciative expression, especially since he could recognize the fact that the caring, kind, and gentle Rei has certain emotion toward him.

Rei was undoubtedly a loyal person, which added to his charm, along with that innocent expression while being ignorant about the certain type of emotions that he felt inside, easily causing Snow's usually calm blue eyes to stirred up while the young man remains confused, helpless, and oblivious upon those beautiful brown eyes.

Rei is far too young after all, Snow sighed silently inside. The young man before him might not know what he was currently feeling, but Snow has already long known about what kind of emotions and ideas that Rei already has toward himself.

Snow might only be two years older than Rei age, but he was far more mature mentally than his physical age after witnessing the moment his entire family died in that non- accidental death when he was 5 years old.

His big brother, the eldest and heir to their family had been the most gifted in their current generation. That was what everyone had known, but hidden in the dark, Snow was the most promising and gifted in the generation and the youngest one in the histories of their family.

Aside from Snow's grandfather, father, and older brother, no one else knew about it.

Snow was born with an incredibly high IQ along with a slightly high EQ that causes even his family to fear him. Even still, unbeknownst to them, he has a very special and far more terrifying ability that his family had never gotten the chance to know about, as all of them had died too early in his life.

He was born in a very prosperous but dangerous family with enemies all around them trying hard to pull them down, and because of that, there has always been a last line of defense that their family hid in the dark to retaliate towards their future enemies. In this generation, Snow himself had been that last defense.

He was the last chance for their family to fight back just in case nothing else worked against their enemies.

The ancestor of their family had always been known for having great vision and had long known that the family he created could not always remain prosperous in the long run. Knowing that his decision might have been fighting against fate or destiny in his own stupid or smart way, their ancestor decided to at least give his family's future generation a safety line, or a way to at least be able to exist longer in the tides of history and time.

It was a decision to leave someone to carry on their bloodline, it was the last line of defense against future enemies that would cause the family's downfall. Snow was made the hidden ace in their current generation; he was the last line of defense for a chance to fight back against their enemies.

However, due to circumstances, Snow had known that he could no longer rebuild the way his family had been in the past since he was the only remaining member alive.

So all Snow could do was to get back at the enemies that caused his entire family to die and that destroyed their long history. The moment that his entire family died- his grandfather, parents, and siblings, Snow's chance to live his life as a carefree child was destroyed.

In this lifetime, he has decided that he won't be able to live normally anymore and decided to fulfill his responsibility as the last defense of their family.

Suddenly, a sharp and fierce pain shot through his chest causing him to completely regain his mind back from all those fleeting thoughts, while the expression on his face remained calm despite the pain he was feeling.

Glancing at the beautiful youth before him once more, he couldn't help but inwardly sigh in regret- it was too bad that he doesn't have enough time- before closing his burning blue eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them again, they have already become unmovable calm eyes.

Snow tilts his head towards the middle-aged man, and the man silently bowed back, showing that he knew what to do next.

So with a peaceful smile on his average face, Snow spoke to the still confused beautiful young man before him, calling his name gently, "...Rei."

"... Yes?" Rei quickly replied in confusion as he stares dazedly at Snow's expression, feeling happy inside, yet simultaneously feeling uneasy.

"Thank you for being a great friend Rei... you have to live a happy life even if I'm no longer there with you, alright?"

Rei's face immediately turned pale as soon as he heard Snow's words. He quickly opened his mouth to ask what Snow meant while he raising both of his shaky hands toward him. His vision suddenly blurred and he barely registered the sharp pain on his nape a second later.

A very warm chest with thin but strong arms wrapped around his entire body, and the familiar soft and gentle voice uttered a few words to his ears before he fully lost consciousness.

"It's a promise alright Rei?"

That was the last time that Rei saw Snow in his entire life.

Calm blue eyes silently stared at the unconscious beautiful young man in his arms before Snow lowered his head, his cold lips gently touching the soft red lips of the young man for a few seconds before he quickly raised his head with a rather calm expression on his face.

Snow remained still as he silently and quietly hugged the person in his arms for a few more minutes.

In this life, if he were to choose a person to become his other half, Snow definitely would have chosen Rei, because what he wanted in a partner was loyalty.

At the same time, that certain person has to be someone that he chooses to love since even if that person has deep love, borderline madness, it won't ever work if it was someone that Snow was against being with.

Still, Snow preferred for that person to have a very deep love for him since he could ensure that they will mostly be unable to betray him and will forever remain loyal to him. However, if that person forgot to give him the respect that he deserved as a person, then in Snow's opinion, sorry- but he will let go of her or him without hesitation.

It didn't matter to Snow his future lover's gender, since no matter what happens, once Snow decided on that person, he would love him or her.

Snow can give all his emotions easily when he wanted to because he has that terrifying ability to easily take just as much of it back.

Be it trust, love, like, or hate, whatever emotion it was, once he decided, Snow was able to feel those emotions and easily take it away and erase it. He hadn't been afraid of being affected by certain emotions for a long time because those emotions were something that he could easily destroy.

Yes, somehow, no matter what emotion it was, Snow was able to ignore or remove it once he decided that it was not something that he needed. No matter how emotional he feels and becomes, and no matter the strength of the emotions, his mind will always remain calm.

Snow first figured out this terrifying ability when he calmly watched his entire family die before him, alongside the unrelated people around them. No matter how much sadness, hatred, anger, and horror he has felt that day, he was able to think calmly and logically.

That day, once he figured out he was completely unable to completely help any single one of his family members to survive without threatening his own life, Snow was able to quickly create a merciless plan to let himself survive alone.

He was able to calmly choose a child that with the same figure and size of his body during those chaotic times while leaving an item for that child to wear to identify the child as 'Snow' before mercilessly pushing the child without any hesitation in a fire pit hide the child's real identity. He then remained for a few minutes to watch with calm blue eyes as the child burned and screamed in pain just to make sure that the child's body would be hard to distinguish.

A child to substitute his death, to completely fool the hidden one that wanted to eradicate his family. Snow knew that it was a cruel plan for a child of his age to make while remaining indifferent to his actions. He could still remember the fear on his grandfather, father, and older brother's eyes that day when they looked at him silently, along with the proud and vindictive emotions that had flashed in their eyes as they thought about the outcome of the people that have planned their demise once Snow survived.

In their mind, the Snow that they were facing from that moment on was the currently hidden ace of their family; it was no longer the innocent and happy child that they had known and had been living with.

On that very day, everyone knew that Snow would live on to carry the responsibilities and avenge the death of their entire family. The young Snow back then had died along with his family, and at the same time, the Snow that would only know to avenge them was born.

That is the reason why as his thin finger slowly traced Rei's soft cheeks, Snow couldn't help but sigh again because this person is very loyal toward himself, so very kind and gentle, and treated him nicely. Even Snow knew how rare a person Rei is. He straightened his back as a very serene smile crossed his average face.

He then stared at the middle-aged man before him while gently handing over the young man in his arm.

"I'll leave the rest to you then Uncle John."

The once indifferent eyes of the middle-aged man started to moisten before a hint of sadness and heartache appeared on his face as he watched the thin young man before him, knowing fully well that this would be the last time that he will be seeing this person before him.

John felt proud but saddened at the same time because this child is the Ceil family pride, the person that has avenged and attained the Ceil family the justice that they deserved, but all of it came with a heavy price.

It was the price of the life of the person before him. To succeed and to truly and completely fulfill the long-cherished dream, the Young Master had to drink poison knowing fully well that he wouldn't be able to make it, as he wouldn't be able to get the antidote to cure himself since the person that created the poison and gave it to his Young Master was also in the list of people that had to die.

No matter how high his Master's IQ was, creating the antidote for that poison was something that even he was unable to do as the creator of the poison was also a genius in his own right, and antidote making was also a subject his Master wasn't good at.

Even if his master is talented and skillful, there are always those things that he just isn't meant to be able to do- antidote making was one of the abilities that his Young Master wasn't meant to have the skill for. Thus, John felt proud yet sad for the child he watched grow up, the child he had inwardly treated as his son.

So all he could do from this moment on was to treat the very best he could the remaining people that his Young Master cherished, so John bowed his head low toward the young man respectfully.

"As you command Young Master Snow. I pledge to fulfill your request for the rest of my entire life."

Snow smiled peacefully, beautiful calm blue eyes flashing as he stared at the two people he cherished in this life before turning around and walking away.

With the last wave of his hand, his entire figure completely disappeared and would never appear again in their lifetime.