Chapter 23: Vienna

Pulling himself up out of the hole's darkness, Arthur now stood shrouded in the blinding light that poured down the empty corridor, he was safe, or at least that's what he wanted to believe. That's what the rational side of his brain was telling him, yet he couldn't help but doubt his safety.

What if she was here, waiting behind the corner of the corridor for the boy to make his escape? What if she knew that he was aware of her horrific love for him and the sadistic torment she would inflict on those who dared get in her way? Would he ever be truly safe in this house again?

Yet even though such thoughts plagued Arthur's mind, the boy couldn't help but force himself to reign in his lingering dread. He had an appointment with Vienna that he still had to attend, an opportunity he wouldn't willingly miss for the world.

'Hey, system, do you know if I still have time to meet Vienna?' Arthur questioned. Throughout this entire escapade, he had been left in the dark about the passage of time. He had no clue how many minutes or hours had transpired without his consent, so he anxiously awaited the systems' response. He didn't want to miss out on this fantastic opportunity to seduce the mother of the Zepar household.

{Only 20 minutes have passed since the host left the training ground. Vienna Zepar does not expect your arrival until 30 minutes after Rono's usual dismissal time,}

The system replied, leaving the traumatised peasant star-struck. '20 minutes…only 20 minutes have passed…yet so much happened,' Arthur absentmindedly commented, his mind once again drawn to the image of the decimated figure of the attacker's brother, 'Will I eventually be able to do something like that without a second thought?' Arthur continued; however, though he asked such a question, he would have never wanted an answer. He didn't want confirmation from either the system or his psyche. No, Arthur wanted to remain naive. Naive to the answer that he would inevitably come to discover, and more importantly, remain clueless to the dark thoughts that stirred in his brain begging him to perform such an act on the still alive man.

'I suppose I should clean myself up before heading to Vienna,' Arthur commented, moving out of the stinking corridor and placing himself against one of the Zepar family's many emerald green walls. His hands were bloody, with small fingernail-length scars etched into his otherwise undamaged flesh. His clothes stank with the lingering stench of death. More importantly, his throat burned with the burnt remains of his digested regurgitate. He could do something about two of the three issues. However, Arthur had no idea how he'd get rid of the putrid smell that pestered his sinuses with no remorse, sure he could return to his room and hopefully grab a change of undamaged clothes, yet for some reason, Arthur wanted to remain as far away from Charlotte's nest as humanly possible, at least until he calmed his shaking heart.

'System purchase one low-rank healing potion and one low-rank mana potion,' Arthur commanded,

{-200 Affection points, the host has purchased: One low-rank healing potion, One low-rank mana potion}

Following the system's confirmation, two different coloured vials materialised in Arthur's outstretched hands, one a deep-sea blue, the other a beautiful scarlet.

{Low-rank mana potion grade: Low

Rarity: —}

{Low-rank healing potion grade: Low

Rarity: —}

Arthur momentarily marvelled at the result of the scan, his gaze drawn to the rarity section of the system's description. 'Why doesn't it have a rarity?' Arthur pondered, 'Is it because it's a creation of the system?'

{The host is correct}

The system immediately answered, leaving no room for speculation as to the rarity of its products, 'oh ok,' Arthur blandly replied, raising the two vials to his mouth and downing them in a quick swig. The taste was…bland, to say the least. Well, bland would be an understatement. They did have a taste. It was just that whatever it was didn't live up to Arthur's expectations. After all, the liquids were so bright and inviting, like a cocktail in his old life. However, unlike a cocktail, these potions merely tasted like flavoured water as opposed to their alcoholic counterparts.

Yet the taste wasn't what Arthur focused on. No, he was more preoccupied with the soothing sensation that assaulted his senses. The raging pain located in his oesophagus was soon replaced with a gentle warmth as though its former ailment was merely a figment of Arthur's imagination. At the same time, the scars that imprinted themselves upon Arthur's open palms began to fade into nothingness, leaving behind a scene of dried blood as a testament to their existence. Yet, even that would soon be washed away by the trickling water that immediately poured out of Arthur's palms. He had regained enough mana to clean himself.

However, even though Arthur had managed to remove the scars of his adventure, making himself presentable once again, he still couldn't do anything about the overwhelming stench that clutched onto his body like a living miasma.

'*gag* what am I meant to do about this?' Arthur coughed, ripping off the silk shirt that had been acting as a barricade from his nose and becoming vulnerable once again to the stench that had a grasp over his mind.

'Vienna will definitely be able to smell this shit', Arthur gagged, 'System, do you have any idea of what I can do to get the smell out of these clothes?' He continued, using his almighty system as another form of google.

{The host can simply discard his shirt. As for the blazer, I doubt Vienna will notice it,}

The system replied, and without a second thought, Arthur obeyed. Walking through the halls of the mansion, Arthur quickly made his way towards the washing quarters, where he promptly placed his disgusting shirt in the pile of used servants' clothes for a maid to clean later before quickly washing his blazer through the gentle use of water magic, soaking the emerald material and changing its colour into a deep forest green. 'Sigh, I wouldn't have had to go through the effort of washing this if I had some clothes in the wash already,' Arthur sighed, slinging the forest green fabric across his exposed chest and shoulders before giving himself a once over in the nearest mirror.

His appearance was…horrific, to say the least. It seems that no matter how hard Arthur tried to conceal the culmination of his experience, his body couldn't hide just how scared he was. His figure was gaunt, with deep sunken eyes shrouded by thick, dark bags as if he had been awake for weeks. His skin still hadn't returned from its pale devoid of life texture, and if one were to strain their eyes, they would see his body softly vibrating in repressed fear. Arthur was clearly in no state to visit Vienna, yet the boy wouldn't let the opportunity go. He needed this, this opportunity to get close to the marquis and worm his way into her heart, to find out more about the strange connection that was their bloodline attraction and the primal urge that came with it. Having a bloodline attraction wasn't something just any bloodline could go through. No, only the more animalistic, more primal bloodlines would be attracted to one another, a fact that filled Arthur with mixed feelings.

'I look terrible,' Arthur sighed in lament upon witnessing his horrific figure. In truth, Arthur had begun to second guess whether he should just reschedule his lessons with the mother. He wanted to rest and forget that this day had ever happened; however, Arthur knew that no matter how much he wished to forget, he would be cursed to always remember what had happened on this fateful day, the torment Arthur had witnessed, and the anguish he had felt had already carved themselves deep within his conscious.

Soon the sound of gentle footsteps could be heard echoing throughout the desolate corridors of the Zepar estate, with no signs of life aside from the boy to be found. Something that Arthur found rather….unnerving, normally he would have stumbled upon at least one or two maids going about their daily chores, dusting the walls, cleaning the carpets and such, yet he found no one. Arthur didn't know if he was truly alone: still, he felt it. He felt isolated, as if the world was ostracising him from his peers. Was this just a coincidence, or was this one of Charlotte's ploys to distance him from the rest of the world, to make him feel truly alone so that she could take advantage of his depression to claim him for herself…or was this all just Arthur's imagination. 'I'm just being paranoid, there's no way Charlotte knows, and even if she did, there's no way she would have been able to arrange all of this in such a short span of time' Arthur sighed, raising his cold, shaking palm to his head and massaging his still damp scalp.

The rest of Arthur's journey was uneventful. Though the lack of human contact remained, it didn't phase the young boy who had already forced himself to believe the event was nothing more than a coincidence, an unfortunate one given his current circumstances but a coincidence nonetheless. In front of the boy stood an ornately carved dark wood door, the symbol of the Zepar family engraved in the dead centre of the object and cast in brilliant gold, 'Deep breaths, Arthur, deep breaths,' Arthur began to ritualistically chant, 'remember your character and you should be fine, no one has to know what you've been through apart from you,' He continued, his pale skin faintly regaining some of it's lost colour.

*Creak* The hinges of the ornate door creaked as a sign of greeting towards the young boy, welcoming him into its domain. Vienna's room was spacious. Well, calling it a room was an understatement. It might as well have been its own self-contained house with all the off-shooting rooms that Arthur could spy with a mere glance around the candlelit space. However, the other rooms were presently a side thought to the boy, who was enthralled by the sheer spectacle of interior design before him. If the kitchen was a ten out of ten in appearance, then Vienna's entrance room would be a twelve. Dyed in the deep orange candlelight, the room simply oozed maturity with its mixture of dark colours with golden linings, ranging from a midnight black sofa sewn with the most prized golden threads to the dark wood fireplace that shimmered in a miraculous dawn colour.

However, even these pieces of eye candy failed to distract Arthur from the beauty that tied them all together, Vienna. Sitting front and centre on her sofa of unknown origin, her visage was…stunning, to say the least, draped in a seductive dark emerald dress that failed to conceal her otherworldly proportions. On her right ear hung a brilliant gold earring, while on her left hand, Arthur could keenly spot the absence of a ring.

'Woah,' Arthur gasped, his cheeks flushed with a deep scarlet hue. In this moment, all thoughts of his previous entanglements throughout the day were blown away by simply being in the woman's presence. His mind was overwhelmed with thoughts of love and lust, his body no longer stank, at least to him, as his nose was too preoccupied with the woman's scent that seemed to helplessly excrete out of her body like pheromones in an attempt to attract the dazed boy.

"Hello Arthur~" Vienna hummed, her face glowing in a gentle repressed pink, 'This feeling, why do I always feel like this when he's around?' Vienna absentmindedly remarked, her heart skipping a beat.

"H-hello," Arthur slovenly remarked, his lips moving before his brain processed the mother's greeting. 'This is bad. Why the hell did I agree to come here in the first place when I knew this would be the outcome? I can barely look her in the eyes without losing my mind!' Arthur fumed, his gaze turning stern in a foolish attempt to suppress the underlying attraction that flowed through his mind with no remorse for his conscious self. The sensation was intoxicating, like he wasn't truly in control of his actions and was merely a drunken spectator in his own body, helpless to the wiles and will of the woman before him.

With his answer, Vienna took a momentary…pause, for what reason Arthur didn't know. Sure he knew that they shared a bloodline connection, but the effect he had on the woman was something even the boy was unaware of, simply for the fact that he had never heard of such a situation before. Usually, when one shared a bloodline attraction, the amount of lust and/or loved one felt for their partner was like a scale dictated by the strength of the other. If one was older or stronger than their partner, then they would experience less lust towards them, whereas the other would experience more attraction, and in this relationship, Arthur believed himself to be the weakest, so to think that this temptress before him was currently experiencing an equal if not greater attraction to the poor boy…well Arthur wouldn't know what to do with this information.

'Should I just speak?' Arthur begrudgingly mumbled upon seeing the still silent figure of Vienna, her left hand raised to her irregularly beating heart, her thoughts unknown. He didn't like this odd silence that permeated the room with seemingly no end in sight, as whenever Vienna apparently cooled her mind enough to speak to the child, she would immediately tear her gaze away from the boy once again, her cheeks an even deeper shade of red, to anyone but Arthur she would have looked like a little girl experiencing her first love yet to the boy she couldn't appear to be anything further than that, to Arthur she was like a sensual succubus, her every action a deliberate attempt to seduce him.

"S-so, what are we going to be doing today?" Arthur faintly mumbled a question, his finicky voice taking even himself by surprise. 'I don't like this,' Arthur inwardly grumbled though no matter how much the boy complained, he couldn't or rather wouldn't even dream of doing anything to oppose his current situation, with his gaze permanently fixed upon the blushing beauty before him Arthur couldn't help but notice the contrast between this present Vienna and the teasing mother that one would meet in the game, they were like two completely different people.

"Huh," Vienna dazedly groaned, her mind snapping out of whatever delusion she was currently experiencing and turning all her focus towards the childish figure of Arthur, who stood by the entrance to her abode. She hadn't noticed it until now, but the boy seemed somewhat dishevelled, with damp hair and an overall gaunt-looking appearance. Arthur looked exactly like he did on the day Vienna had first met the boy. He was unconscious then and a lot more skeletal, yet he still wore that same exhausted expression. Thinking about it back then, Vienna didn't really feel anything towards the unconscious child besides sympathy for his circumstances.

She had believed that her city had managed to reduce the number of peasants present to almost zero thanks to their expansive red-light district, allowing even the lowest class of society to have somewhere to work and earn money. Yet, still, people like Arthur existed. At the time, she wondered if such a situation was brought about by lack of family or simply because they refused to work, a question she still hadn't asked or gotten an answer to. However, this sympathy was nowhere near strong enough to influence her to take in the child as a member of her household. No, her "Husband" William brought about such a decision upon discovering the miraculous talent this boy held. It would have been a lie to say that Vienna wasn't a little bit starstruck upon Charlotte's reveal of the boy's power. She even wondered if more prospective peasants were wandering about her city, their talent undiscovered and wasted simply because they were born in the wrong social class. It was at that time that Vienna had vowed to nurture this boy. If William wanted to raise him as a soldier, she would raise him as a human, yet now for some reason, her mind began to twist, and she subconsciously began to doubt whether she'd be able to accomplish such a feat.

She didn't know why this child of all people managed to make her heart race like never before, why her face would heat up upon a mere glance of his figure, nor why she just felt so…safe being in his presence, all these emotions were something foreign to the relatively young Marquis. Were these the forbidden feelings Vienna was never meant to experience? Such turbulent thought's plagued the mind of the mother. These emotions were wrong. She should be devoted to her horrible husband, so then why did she find herself attracted to this…child. Everything just felt so right, so natural when she was in the company of Arthur, as if this is how it was always meant to be.

Yet alas, Vienna's fate was already decided upon her twentieth birthday, the deadline her parents had given her to awaken her bloodline, something all her siblings had managed to accomplish before even their sixteenth, so why? Why couldn't she have been like them? They weren't forced into an unwanted marriage simply because they lacked their founding bloodline.

Wasn't she the eldest child, the most valuable asset to the clan? She had always been told as such by her parents. They had always praised her talents that surpassed her peers even with the addition of their bloodlines, so then why did their view of the girl flip the moment she failed to awaken her bloodline? Didn't she still carry more than enough value with her talent alone?

Shouldn't she have had the same privilege to love freely that they all had, or at the very least, shouldn't she have possessed the right to choose her husband. Still, to her family, none of that mattered.

They wouldn't have cared even if Vienna possessed enough talent to distort and crush the heavens themselves. No, amongst the upper class of the Abraham empire, the only thing that mattered was your bloodline; talent was only a secondary thought, whether weak or strong. As long as your bloodline wasn't a mutation like Arthur's, it carried value.

Heritage and family meant everything amongst the royals, so to have a daughter that failed to awaken her innate power like Vienna stand proudly as the head of the Zepar family…well, it was a disgrace to the very nature of the clan, at first her parents had pondered killing their child. Yet, after a few failed assassination attempts, that idea quickly fled to the back of their minds. Instead, they decided upon the most common method a failing clan uses to keep their position of power, marriage. It didn't matter to who. As long as they possessed a title and an awakened bloodline, Vienna would be forced to marry them, and that's just what happened. There was no love in Vienna's marriage, and both sides knew that.

William had only used the girl to earn himself a greater power, and Vienna had used William in kind to rule over her failing city. He wanted connections, and she wanted the betterment of her people, so with the consummation of their marriage and the minimum amount of Children given birth to, the two severed their relationship…kind of, they were still married in name and name only, Vienna would never willingly spend time with the snide William and William feared Vienna, leading to an awkward tension that permeated throughout the house.

That was until Arthur arrived. His presence in the house seemed to attract all of Vienna's somewhat estranged family into gathering around him. Whether it be reluctantly in the case of William and formerly Iris, or proactively with Charlotte, the boy seemed to possess some unknown charm that just attracted people to gather around him (or at least those he wished to attract) and, of course, Vienna was one of those who fell victim to the childish glee that Arthur radiated in abundance. At first, Vienna was merely interested in the powerful peasant, curious about his circumstances. Yet, after a while, her attention shifted from his strength to other things, like his smile, yes, that smile, one that could cut through even the darkest of nights with its blinding radiance. At the time, Vienna could only helplessly ponder one simple question after being exposed to such a sight: ' How can he smile like that?' A rather dumb question to many but to Vienna, it carried meaning. You see, by this point, Vienna had begun to find similarities between herself and Arthur, from the way that their lives had been dictated by others or, in Arthur's case, the entire cast system, to how they both seemingly grew up ostracised from the rest of the world, shouldn't he have been the same as her, someone so fed up with the world around them that they simply shut themselves off to it, shouldn't his heart have rotted away becoming nothing more than an empty void of self-loathing, hatred and despair for the system that cursed him to live such a life.

So then why? Why could he still produce such a blinding display of happiness? Why was his smile the only thing she could think of?

Vienna's first answer upon reaching such a question was that the boy may have simply been an idiot. Perhaps he wasn't aware of the injustice he had suffered at the hands of the society Vienna played such a crucial part in; however, after observing the boy for a prolonged period, she could only redact such an answer. Arthur wasn't dumb. He knew or rather played the act of a boy who had seen the worst of the world so perfectly that Vienna couldn't help but believe that he had been wise to all the pain forced upon him, 'Then why can he still smile?' Once again, such a question resurfaced in the back of Vienna's mind: were they not the same? As privileged as she was, Vienna could never bring herself to smile like the brilliant Arthur; to Vienna, it was an impossibility. Sure her face rested in a permanent grin; however, that was simply a mask to hide her cold and broken heart. By this point, her curiosity surrounding the boy had seemingly reached its peak. She just had to know what was really up with him, so on this fateful day, she called a family meeting.

Her original intent for such a meeting was to question the boy on his family history and life before being brought into the Zepar household. However, the moment their eyes finally met, something different….something extraordinary happened. Her mind that had previously been focused solely on extracting information from the peasant boy quickly became overrun with thoughts only about him, his smile, his eyes, everything. All of Arthur promptly became her target of interest. Vienna's blood boiled not in a fury but because of something else. While her instincts screamed out in approval of the child, she didn't know why but she wanted him. No, she craved him. Was this the feeling called love that she had only heard about? Vienna had no clue, and even if it was, she refused to admit to falling for this child. It was ridiculous of her to think that she, the great leader of the Zepar family, the head that managed to reclaim some of the household's former valour, would fall so deeply for a child of all people.

Still, even though Vienna inwardly carried such thoughts, her mind, her lips spoke words she had no control of. As if fate had taken the wheel for the first time in her solemn life Vienna invited this child into her room for a lesson she had no clue how to conduct. It was hasty. It was foolish. Still, Vienna couldn't help but hyperventilate at the thought of having Arthur in her space, and for the first time in the cool heads life, she became anxious, not because of business or the troubles of her people but because she had no clue what to do.

Vienna began to fret over the smallest of details, from the way her room was arranged to the ambient orange light that poured profusely out of her gorgeous fireplace and finally to her clothes. Even now, she still selfishly wished for praise on her attire. Why? She didn't know. It wasn't like this was a date or a special occasion or anything.

"Umm," Vienna took a brief pause. She hadn't really thought of what she would teach the boy today. She had been too preoccupied with herself to even think of a lesson plan or anything of the sort, so what now? She needed to keep him here, or rather she wanted to keep him here for as long as possible. Vienna didn't wish to send the boy away empty-minded after she made such a big deal out of the announcement this morning, or at least that's the reason she told herself.

Vienna's mind remained lost in a pool of turbulent thoughts for what seemed to be hours to the young mother but, in all actuality, was only a couple of seconds. She needed an idea, something that she could realistically teach the boy without the need for outside resources such as clothes for cleaning or utensils for cooking. With this premise, her cravings from earlier made their desires known once again. Her blood craved affection from the fidgeting boy. She longed for his touch, for his embrace, his warmth, she wanted to feel him, and in turn, she wanted him to feel her.

{+5 Love (Vienna Zepar)}

{+1000 Affection points}

"Massage!" Vienna childishly blurted the answer her instincts led her to, "*Cough* I-I'm going to teach you how to give a massage today," She embarrassingly coughed, her face now a deep scarlet. At the same time, her eyes refused to make contact with the inquisitive boy. Why had she been so excited to simply give the child an answer? 'T-that was embarrassing. Why did I have to blurt out an answer like that,' Vienna inwardly berated; she had been too rash. What would Arthur think of her now? Would his opinion of her lower after suggesting such a lascivious act, Vienna couldn't help but panic, though this worry would dissipate almost instantly after Vienna's embarrassed glance caught sight of the seemingly star-struck boy, a broad childish grin plastered onto his otherwise harrowed face.