"WE SHOULD find his grave, Adarmus. That's the only way that we can suppress him again. Now, tell me where did you bury him?" Mathilda gallantly lowered her eyes to Adarmus who was seated quietly on a stool. He'd like to deny having any connection to whom is she referring about but he knew it's a lost cause. "Don't look at me like that. Whatever you say, I won't buy it."

"How can you casually say that as if I murdered him?"


"But did you not, though?" She ran her fingers to the cuffs of her long sleeves before murmuring, "Joaquin didn't know about his existence. Isn't that basically murdering him? Which was well-deserved for him, by the way. Why are you so adamant about denying it?"

'Because that makes it sounds like I liked what happened. That I was fine that he was erased from history for almost thirty years. I don't. I am not.' If Adarmus was given another choice, he would not decide to kill him with his own hands.

Joachim was a great person to him.


"I appreciate your kindness, Mathilda. But I think there's no use on searching his grave—he was never buried in the first place." Adarmus decided to open up to her. Only Mathilda can help him with controlling Joachim's rage. "He can never die. He's an immortal, just like me. I can never suppress him."

"Unless..." Mathilda's expression grew sour. "Unless he agreed to be suppressed by his own will. What respecting devil could do that to himself?"


'It's all because of a promise that we both made but only he truly wished for it to become true.' Adarmus reached for his cup and smiled wanly. He remembered the first day that he met Joaquin's biological father.

The evil himself.

ADARMUS had always resented his pheromones. Who would have thought that the blessed blue wolf can be pregnant regardless of their gender? This was made possible to ensure that there would be enough life cycle for them as they were incredibly rare.

Adarmus was raised with competitiveness and stubbornness of an ox. During their time, those two qualities are considered great. But now that Adarmus had come to be what he is today, he thought that there were more important traits than that.

His pheromones was one of his insecurities in life. Adarmus felt that he is not mighty enough or strong enough because he can get pregnant. He viewed that part of him as a weakness—even a curse.

When he went to the kingdom of Lyre for the first time, the king personally scouted him as a general of a troop. Rourke was just a child back then but Adarmus had already in him the need to prove that he is the strongest among everyone.

He almost succeeded. He defeated countless of enemies. He sparred with the honoured battle masters but all of them yielded to him. They revere him as a promising man with a prominent family background.

Adarmus basked in this attention. He longed for it. In the first time of his life, he made a decision to act this way from now on.

If only one thief didn't distract him from his work.

Joachim was a known thief in the kingdom of Lyre. Where did he actually came from? No one knows but everyone seems to accept that the guy is an ultimate hoodlum. He would disguise himself and copy another person with the intention to rob them.

And Adarmus had one fatal chance of being his target.

双引Sir, sir. Thank you for choosing my corner. Would you mind if I roll your pants a bit?" A cheerful voice greeted Adarmus one day when he sat on a random shoe cleaner by the road. He mainly uses this free time to observe the common people and hear about the newest tip around the kingdom. "Wow, sir. You got a lovely skin, for a man."

Adarmus was taken a back from listening to his side. Two men were talking about the transportation being cut off again and goods not delivered in time. He lowered the newspaper to his lap and focused his attention to the most enchanting red eyes that he'd ever seen.

The pair of eyes looked at him with appraisal before proceeding to wink. "My lord seems to like the view more than my skills."

'Boy, is he not a pushover?' Adarmus snorted. The two men by his side already moved to another stall on the road. He had no business fake-reading a damn paper anymore. "What? So men can't have a healthy skin? And lastly, I'm not staring at you. I'm judging you."

Joachim then turned to polish Adarmus' shoes but he can actually see that he's doing nothing. Just gently playing with the end of his pants in his fingers. "Judging me? Why would you do that?"

"You don't look anything serious about this job. Can you honestly tell me if you're cleaning it or not?" Adarmus was unnerved with his eye color. It was captivating. The moment his gaze landed to him, it's like he cannot look away.

Joachim pursed his lips before looking askance. He was shy. But now that Adarmus was reminiscing this time, he realized that Joachim could be just acting 'shy' at the moment. "Fine, fine. I'm going to confess. I really don't know how to clean anything. I'm just so hungry and I couldn't just steal, right?"

Adarmus knew straightaway that nothing could be right about the man. When he stood, he realized that the guy was actually taller than him. His shoulders were broad but his face still got the innocence of a lamb.

"Do you think I'm dumb enough to believe your story? If you don't know how to clean then why do you have this tools?"

"I... don't... know," he mouthed. Joachim stared at him for a second before complimenting him with a brief, "You look divine, by the way."

Adarmus was shocked to hear his blatant disregard of his general status. He adjusted himself before asking, "Do you know who I am?"

A strange smile escaped the corner of the man's mouth. His eyes became even more playful as he shrugged. "No. If I happen to know your name, I would prefer calling you that without stopping."

Adarmus took his attitude as a challenge. He squared his back then smiled without mirth. "Yeah, it sure does look like you have no idea who I am. Didn't you say you were hungry? I know a more decent work for you."

"What?" Joachim looked curious.

"Be one of the soldiers under my name. You won't starve and you will be compensated nicely."

"Still, I don't know your name. May I know who you are?"

Adarmus nodded to him. "Call me Adarmus."

"Oh..." Joachim smiled cheekily before saying without a pause, "Call me Denev. That's my name."

Now that Adarmus was carefully unwrapping his past and showing it to Mathilda, he realized how similar was his character to Joachim's.

They were both liars.