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"I flew and carried them to the mountaintop where the vultures hang out. We had a feast."

Horror filled Ismael\'s eyes as he scrutinized Morro\'s expression. He said all that with a straight face as if it was something normal!

"What are you people...?" he blurted out once again as if he hadn\'t received a proper answer to this question.

Yes, they were monsters. However, just what sort of monsters?

There were myriads of questions in Ismael\'s head, but only that question succeeded in escaping his mouth. Until now, he could barely keep himself together, but every time he would hear something like this from them... it gave him goosebumps. This fear that he kept squashing down persistently crept up to his heart.

"I\'m a bird." Morro frowned. "I\'m not lying."

"Hah..." Ismael furrowed his brows when he heard Curtis snicker, turning his head only to see Curtis take a seat near the open entrance of the tent.

"Everyone in this empire thinks they are that great when they didn\'t even know that in this world... humans aren\'t the highest creatures in the food chain." Curtis kept his eyes outside, watching the rain pour, creating little pools on the muddy ground. "This is why you are not as influential as the crown prince. You are ignorant."

"What?"

Curtis cast Ismael a quick look. "Don\'t worry. You\'re not the only one who was unaware of their existence. They were many of us." He set his eyes back outside, studying the few unmoving knights under the pouring rain.

"Some countries chose to keep their existence a secret, while others recognized them. After all, there were those kingdoms... who are ruled by them," he added.

"Them?" asked Ismael, intrigued by this piece of information. "What do you mean by them?"

"Vampires." Curtis slowly set his eyes back to him. "Werewolves, bears, witches, faes, and many more... like him." He jerked his chin in Morro\'s direction.

"What..." Ismael\'s face crumpled as he tried to absorb this information. "Impossible... those are just..."

"Myths?" he nearly choked when Curtis continued his remarks. "I also thought the same before until... a witch put a curse on me. Thanks to the crown prince."

"Joaquin?"

Curtis pressed his lips into a thin line as he lowered his eyes. "Yes, that man and his affiliation with a witch. He cursed me and if I tried to break it, I will be in pain." He let out a quiet sigh as he recalled the pain he had to endure.

"On top of the tortures to break my spirit, he wasn\'t satisfied and wanted to make sure I will always become a nobody," he added under his breath, recalling the time Joaquin invited a witch after using him as a punching bag to release his anger towards Aries and Carlos — the time Carlos touched his doll, Aries.

Curtis wouldn\'t forget that time. He would never forget the wicked grin plastered on the crown prince\'s face and the words that came out of his mouth.

"What is so good about you that she used to look at you that way?"

Yes.

It was ridiculous for Curtis to realize the reason he was in that situation was that Joaquin was insecure. Curtis couldn\'t believe the sole reason he was being tortured was that he was Aries\'s friend. So, to make himself feel better, Joaquin asked the help of a witch to make sure Curtis would bark.

He had to live for years barking and treating Joaquin as a dogman.

"That\'s when I realized... there were even more creatures in this world," Curtis continued after a moment of silence, snapping his eyes outside. "But... the crown prince is by far the cruelest monster I had ever met. His soul deserves to be burned with eternal fire and be damned."

Ismael lowered his eyes as he let all this little information register in his head. His eyes narrowed a second later before his complexion grew pale.

"My father, the emperor..."

"He\'s dead." His breath hitched when Curtis replied without a second hesitation. "Not literally dead, because he\'s still breathing. But there\'s not much of a difference."

"What do you mean?"

"He means the emperor simply became a mindless monster." This time, Morro happily chimed in, as this wasn\'t a secret... at least, for them. "His Majesty had become your father\'s friend."

"What?" the third prince gasped in disbelief as he balled his hand into a fist. "What do you mean he became a mindless monster --"

"Not all monsters have intellect," Curtis explained. "Especially if they were originally humans and attempted to become a vampire."

Morro nodded as Curtis was quite informed about these things. "In other words, the emperor drank a vampire\'s blood but didn\'t morph successfully. I presume it is because the blood isn\'t compatible with the vampire\'s blood."

"So, he is kept in a cage to feed on human blood. I envy his lifestyle. He doesn\'t have to hunt for food and all he needs to do is growl," Morro added with a deep sigh.

Ismael\'s lips quivered as he hung his head low, processing the situation about his father. If they told him these things in a different situation, he would laugh it off or accuse them of jinxing his father, the emperor. But everything he had witnessed today was something beyond his comprehension.

He was, indeed, kept in the bliss of ignorance.

Not just these monsters clad in human skin and could blend with humans perfectly, but just the sheer thought Joaquin knew all this revealed the significant gap between the two.

"Joaquin…" came out a shaking voice as he raised his head, darting his eyes between Curtis and Morro. "… does he know about Father?"

Curtis snickered because the answer was obvious. "You know the answer to that, Your Highness." He shook his head mildly.

"If you want the answer, then why don\'t you recall the crown prince\'s expression when you used the emperor\'s name to avoid the trial?"

And that hit Ismael. 

His eyes slowly dilated as all the memory from that night in Modesto\'s residence until now replayed in his head. And everything… everything felt like puzzle pieces slowly coming to their rightful place, giving him a proper picture and a different understanding than the first time.

Joaquin knew… and he was definitely involved in the emperor\'s demise.

All to secure the throne.