The Extra of The Lunerra

The chirping of birds entered my ears.

The gentle autumn breeze caressed my hair.

The warm light of the sun shone directly on my face.

It was perhaps one of my favorite moments, one of the times when I would find myself most comfortable. And, normally, I would have put aside everything I was going to do, everything I was thinking, and just enjoyed the moment.

But I didn’t.

Or rather... I couldn’t.

Because there was always a thought in the back of my mind, eating away at my comfort and everything else.

"Since you were part of a terrorist attack... I have no choice but to apprehend you."

Those were Adrian’s last words before he knocked me out.

But when I woke up, I didn’t find myself in a police station, in a torture chamber, being interrogated, surrounded by people all many times more powerful than me.

On the contrary, I just... woke up on a gurney and was discharged quite quickly because I had no injuries.

I heard nothing from Adrian, nor from anyone in the kingdom, nor from anyone in Laute.

I was just... left to my own devices.

Like I didn’t exist at all.

"Haaaah..."

I closed my eyes. Knowing full well that I didn’t have much peaceful time, I was going to try to savor this moment somehow.

And I tried.

And... I did.

For minutes, all I did was... rest with my eyes closed in this peace.

~ding! ~dong!

But then... the shrill sound of the doorbell echoed through my room and all the peace I had was gone.

I stood up with a deep sigh, squinting at the door.

There is no one to come and visit me in my room. Unless the person who comes has something to do with me, at least.

And... the people who might have something to do with me are obvious.

Either someone from Laute came to take me away, Adrian finally told the academy who I was and the security guards were at my door, or anything like that.

Either way... I didn’t expect my peace to end so soon.

I took a deep breath, prepared myself for what I was about to encounter, and walked slowly to the door.

Under normal circumstances, I would have taken every precaution, checked who the person at the door was, and prepared accordingly. But this time... I didn’t even care. I simply pulled the door towards me and looked for the person who would destroy my peace forever.

And...

"Huh...?"

The person I found in front of me... was one of the people I did not expect to see at all.

He looked at me calmly, coldly with his gray eyes. Then, he took his gaze away from me, ignoring my presence, walked inside with his cane, and went behind me. He walked a little further, but stopped in the hallway without entering any of the rooms.

I turned slowly toward him, narrowing my eyes at the same time.

"What... are you doing here?"

But... he didn’t even answer. He turned his eyes indifferently to the door and said a single word in his cold, heavy voice.

"Close it."

Normally... I would have shooed him out of the room with a frown. Just like I did the few times he tried to approach me.

But... this time, I couldn’t.

His gaze was so sharp, his expression so cold, and... he seemed so calm that his mere presence made me completely hesitant.

I didn’t know what he was going to do, but compared to past... he seemed quite serious.

Did he know something?

Why... was he so different from who he had always been?

I swallowed involuntarily, closed the door gently, and leaned my back against it... as far away from Aiden as possible.

"What do you want...?"

He continued to stand where he was in silence. His gray eyes grew even emptier as he narrowed them. His flat lips parted so he could finally say something, but his tone...

"Alice, no... Alysia."

It was still the same, it still made me shiver.

So much so that... I couldn’t even focus on him saying my real name. I found myself unable to do anything but just, simply... look into his eyes.

I was locked in place.

"You hate the Laute family to the core, don’t you?"

And... that’s when I realized something.

He was... giving me the same look. The same look as the people at Laute Manor, my grandfather, Adrian...

Exactly the same look.

"You want to destroy the family and everything connected with it, you loathe them all... don’t you?"

His eyes narrowed even more as he raised his cane slightly, with a tiny, low sound, and touched it back to the ground.

And then again.

And again.

"I’m going to make you do this, Alysia. I will make you accomplish what you want."

With each word, I felt more and more locked in, unable to move. Everything else slowly became insignificant, almost non-existent.

"I will destroy the Laute Family."

The walls seemed to be closing in on me. I could hardly breathe, my vision was blurring and voices were blurring together.

And yet... what he said stuck in my mind, I could understand what he was saying.

And with the last thing he said... I was completely frozen in place.

Aiden... not only knows that I’m connected to the Laute Family and my real name... he thinks he can destroy it.

No... he doesn’t.

He’s sure he will.

I curled my lips upwards slightly, even a little trembling.

"How... do you think you’ll... do it?"

He could be a war hero, he could be noble, he could have a lot of connections.

But he still shouldn’t be too confident.

There’s a reason the Lautes haven’t been caught so far, after all.

Does he think he can just ask me for help and do whatever he wants...?

What makes him think I’d help him in the first place? Just because he knows who I am...?

As usual, he’s just naive... and overconfident.

"Alysia... you must have misunderstood something."

I paused for a moment.

The slight smile on my face quickly disappeared as my eyes gradually widened. My whole body trembled violently for a moment, and then I felt a tremendous pressure on me.

"I don’t want anything from you, I’m not saying I want you to help me."

My lungs refused to breathe into them.

My heart slowed down, as if afraid to beat.

I felt the drops of sweat forming all over my body, every single one.

"You will help me, because you have no choice."

As he kept his gray eyes on me... he slowly took a step toward me, the sound of his cane echoing first in the room and then in my ears.

I realized that I was shivering non-stop... and many other things.

"You will give me what I want, because that’s what you are."

That I couldn’t do anything, that how strong the person in front of me was.

"Someone who has to submit to anyone stronger than her, but can never be too strong."

How insignificant, how weak I was in front of him.

"Someone who won’t even survive unless she obeys orders."

And he knows that very well.

"Someone who has no choice but to cling like a parasite to the one who can give her what she needs."

He came right in front of me, stopped. My eyes were wide open as he took his cane in both hands. My body... was refusing to do so many things that I felt like fainting.

No... I was dying.

"You’re a bit smart, you know the way this world works, and... you’re talented. That’s how you’ve become someone even the Lautes could use, as opposed to them wiping you out. But... that’s it, Alysia. You are no more than that, but rather... lower than that."

I lowered my head weakly, trying not to look at his face. Anything would have happened, everything was okay...

But I didn’t want to look into his eyes.

"You’re weak, sick, even. As a half-elf, unlike Adrian, you are a flawed product. And you will remain so forever."

And yet, he reached for my head, pushed my chin up with his finger, and lifted my head. He made me look into his eyes. His terrifying eyes that seemed empty, seemingly devoid of any emotion.

"You will help me find them, whether you want to or not. And I will give you what you want in return, no matter what you decide. I will be your new host, Alysia, as you’re a parasite. And it doesn’t matter what you want to do about it. Do you understand me?"

He stepped back slightly, letting go of my chin as he tore his gaze from me.

But I... I just stood paralyzed where I was, unable to put my head back down, unable to even flinch.

"Do you understand, Alysia?"

I... couldn’t answer. I couldn’t even move my lips.

But Aiden... didn’t expect me to answer from the beginning.

"Good."

After that, he just turned around and walked out onto my balcony. And then... he just disappeared.

And... it was the only way I could finally breathe properly.

I got down on my knees, bent down, and started coughing, trying to force my heart to beat again as I sucked oxygen in and out of my lungs.

But it didn’t really matter at that moment. It was just...

"H- he knows..."

Everything from my true identity to being a half-elf... everything.

Did Adrian tell him what he saw instead of going to the kingdom?

No... he knows so much more. Adrian had no idea that I belonged to the Laute Family, he didn’t know my real name... he couldn’t have heard it from him.

Finally, when I stopped coughing and relaxed, I stopped kneeling and just let myself fall to the cold floor.

"Parasite..."

I am, really... right?

He didn’t say anything wrong.

"Someone who has to submit to anyone stronger than her, but can never be too strong."

"Tch..."

Damn it...

If he could really bring down Laute Manor... I would gladly help him. If he could actually make it happen, I wouldn’t care whose parasite I was or wasn’t as a result.

But... when I have a mana contract with them, when I would die the moment I betrayed them... what does he expect me to do?

How does he expect me to help when the only medicine that calms my disease is in their hands?

"Idiot..."

He will just... get me killed.

Just as I expected, even though I didn’t think it would be him coming to my room, he did nothing but disturb my peace...