Desolate Mage: A Legend Reborn! 106 Love/ Hate

"Mistress... Do you love me?"

"L-l-love...? B-Boa, w-what are you talki--"

"PATRICIA!"

For the first time in the 25 years she had known him, Boa shouted at her and called her by name, shocking her and causing her to bump her head against the wall behind her. She stumbled to her knees and clutched the back of her head as her mind reeled.

What was he asking?? Love?? Since when had that come into the picture?

"B-Boa, I... I... I lo--" She began to stutter out, hoping to placate the man by telling him what he wanted, but once more she was cut off by his roaring voice.

"DON'T TRY TO LIE! Don't you know that I can see right through every single one of the tricks and fibs you've told to others all these years? Don't you know that I'm the one who crafted almost all your deceptions and schemes? I've followed you for so many years, do you think that I don't know how your first instinct in a situation is to cheat and deceive your way out of it...?"

Patricia who was still on her hands and knees stared up at the completely average leader of "her" Celestial Shadows; only, now she felt like she was at the mercy of the boy she had raised from a pre-teen to adulthood to his current position of power.

And at this moment, the average height man seemed to tower over her menacingly, as if he were a looming giant ready to squish her between his fingers!

"Don't even try to lie! Don't you know that I already know your habits...? How your right calf muscle will tighten and your 4th lumbar bone in your spine will twist slightly to the right when you lie? Don't you know I've always, always, always been watching over you...?"

He paused momentarily - as if overcome by emotion and passions in his speech - before he continued: "Tell me the truth; NOW! DO YOU LOVE ME???" Boa spat out the words, bellowing in his anger. He was not afraid of any servants of people approaching - Patricia Trenel's private residences were sacred, not to be trespassed by anyone at all!

And this also meant that no one would be coming to her rescue!

"What...? My calf... My spine... What??" Despite her fear, Patricia's mind was also spinning in confusion. Did she really have these signs when she lied? And how in hell would the man know? Had he been stalking her, watching her at every moment like a stalker and pervert?

Only now did she realise just how dangerous of a man she had kept by her side, thinking that he would obediently bow his head under her all his life!

"Boa..." Patricia gulped, trying to swallow as her mouth was dry as sand right now. Then she took a deep breath to calm herself and resolved herself to speak the truth.

"I... See you only as a precious comrade... Someone who c-can... C-can work with me to achieve my ambitions!" She forced the words out through gritted teeth, not used to telling the truth after so many years of lying through those same teeth!

Boa remained quiet for a moment, the only sounds filling the oppressive and suffocating silence being Patricia's heavy and nervous breathing. Then he spoke a quiet line that sent chills up her spine once more and made her scalp numb.

"...Work with you... Or *FOR* you...?"

"With m--Ack...!"

Before she could complete the sentence

Patricia's consciousness shook as she saw stars swim across her vision. Her breaths became more and more shallow as a choking aura began to pervade the atmosphere and she could barely catch the next breath, each more strenuous than the last.

She gasped out her words with whatever strength she could.

"For me..."

Boa did not then release the killing intent nor the murderous aura. He intensified it as he asked the last question which did not need any answer.

"...Then... What Sharon said... All makes sense..."

He smiled behind the mask, the first expression he had made since that day 25 years ago when his bleeding and crippled body was "rescued" from a heap of rotting garbage and shards of glass. The first day when he had ever laid eyes on the angel and goddess of his entire life.

No, no longer an angel or a goddess.

Neither was she a demoness.

No, to Boa of the Stars... To Boa Cruz Bituin, the dead woman did not exist anymore.

"It makes sense why you would have paid and instigated the children to antagonise me..." His aura grew colder and colder, fiercer and fiercer as he spoke.

"I-I..." Patricia could not even choke out the words to defend herself any longer as she clutched her throat, trying desperately to suck in a last breath of air.

"It makes sense why you would have murdered my parents..." Boa took 1 step closer as Patricia's forehead hit the ground; she no longer even had the strength to keep her body upright as she kneeled on the floor.

"...And it makes sense why you would even encourage the caretakers to sexually abuse me and dump me in the disposal heap! Along with all the other dead bodies and corpses of your victims!"

"It all makes sense - if I'm just a hired hand, a tool meant to further your ruthless objectives! Hahahahaha! It was only me who was too blind to see any of this!! No, not blind... I was too unwilling to see! Too unwilling to believe that my goddess would turn out to be the devil in disguise!"

By now, Boa stood over Patricia and slowly bent over the asphyxiating woman, raising her chin up to force her dying, fading eyes to gaze deep into his.

His eyes that were blazing with fury, hell-bent on revenge against her and the entire Trenel household.

He slowly took off his mask and tossed it aside, letting it clatter to the floor as he pulled Patricia's face closer and closer to his.

He was so close that, if she could still suck in any air at all, she would have been able to smell the Estreya family's Seabreeze Cologne - the scent she had once absent-mindedly said was her favourite.

And the only thing that was in her mind and heart now was regret...

Not repentance of the sins she had committed. Only regret that she had been caught.

Until the end of her life, she could not recognise that she was the root cause of all her own woes and sufferings.

Boa kissed Patricia passionately on her lips, his fiery hot skin searing the woman's cold, bloodless face as she breathed her last and heard him whisper a final epithet to their 25 years as mistress and subordinate.

He shed a single tear from his eyes that had turned red from resentment and anger.

"Today... I mourn the death of goddess Patricia Trenel... May she always live in my memories as a perfect woman, mother and wife..."

Then he seemed to calm down as he closed his eyes and spoke one last time.

"Goodbye, the one I used to love... My goddess, Patricia..."

* * * * *

That day, Patricia Trenel was found lying on her bed, lifeless but without a single wound.

The first to discover her were the regular cleaners who were in charge of tidying up her room. To their horror, they found her corpse cleaned, pristine and looking just as alive as she had always been - only still and cold, motionless - dead.

When Mallard Trenel found out, he had cried for a whole hour, before he grunted for the head steward to take care of things, then mindlessly and wordlessly returned to his training; wishing to forget the hurt and sorrow that he could not bear to handle.

The physician's diagnosis was that she had died of a broken heart and suffocated from that as there were no signs of foul play nor any trace of visitors in the entire vicinity.

The only telltale signs of her death from being overcome by sorrows was the wooden child's toy, a whistle held in her hands that were laid across her chest - perhaps a keepsake from her son Gaius or grandson Leocadius who she had lost to the devils!

To some, alcohol, drugs, debauchery or gluttony were their avenues of fleeing reality.

Perhaps to the aged Mallard Trenel, the pursuit of power was the only way he could escape the nightmare of losing his son, grandson and wife in the span of a few short days.

As there were no instruction from the patriarch of who to inform or what to do, no one was told officially, but within minutes and the hour, the news of the Empress of House Trenel's death in her sleep became the talk of the town.

It was said that she could not bear the heartbreak of losing her only heir and grandchild. Matilda Jamal blamed herself sorely as she felt that it was her delivery of the bad news that morning that triggered her dear friend's death!

The servants made sure to bury her body beside that of her son. They mourned the loss of such a virtuous, kind, gracious and beautiful model mother and wife. They also mourned the fact that, with her passing, there would be no doubt countless jobs lost, people fired and entire functions downsized.

But to their surprise, nothing of the like happened in the coming days. And without anyone to give further instructions, the house mechanically returned to its usual routine, like a ship without a captain merely sailing off into the distance with no one to steer or guide the vessel.

And the next day, the household continued like usual, as if the woman Patricia Trenel had never existed.

...At least until the golden-haired hero, rescuer of the enslaved and broken arrived to settle his accounts with the Trenel family and uproot the entire slave trade, along with his new follower Boa Cruz Bituin.

Chapter end