Reborn As A Useless Mage, But I'm Already The Angel Of Death

08

In the Dark Empire, the Five Great Houses held the rank of Archduke, answering only to the Empress herself. They governed vast territories through networks of lesser nobility while maintaining their primary residences in Ironhaven, the capital, where proximity to the throne and to each other ensured a constant, delicate balance of power and paranoia.

House Blackwood's seat at this table had always been secure. Four centuries of Necromancy mastery had made them indispensable to the empire's military apparatus, and their current patriarch, Archduke Gideon Blackwood, had done nothing to diminish that reputation.

Bianca reached the bottom of the staircase first, her face breaking into a smile so warm and genuine that it physically hurt Adrian to look at.

"My darling boy." She took his hands in hers, studying his face with the tender attention of a mother who had not seen her son in weeks rather than hours. "You look so handsome tonight. Both of you do."

Adrian held her hands and felt something crack behind his ribcage. The last time he had held these hands, they had been ice cold and slick with blood. He had screamed her name across a burning courtyard while her body slumped against a shattered wall, and nobody came because there was nobody left to come.

"Thank you, Mother." His voice came out steady. He did not know how.

Jenna had done this twice. She had stood in front of her own dead mother, resurrected by timeline magic, and smiled and said the right things and pretended her heart was not tearing itself apart. Twice. Adrian was barely surviving it once.

"And where is my daughter?" Bianca turned to find Lilly already approaching with her arms open, and the two embraced with the easy affection of women who had never been separated by war or death or the unbearable weight of knowing what was coming.

Heavy footsteps behind him. Adrian turned.

Archduke Gideon Blackwood stood three paces away, his expression as warm as a frozen lake in January. He wore authority the way other men wore cologne, and his blue eyes swept over his son with the same clinical detachment a butcher might use when evaluating livestock.

"You." Gideon's voice carried the temperature of winter. "Explain yourself."

"Good evening to you too, Father."

"Do not deflect. I received your letter this afternoon informing me that you intend to attend Ashgate Academy. An institution you have publicly ridiculed on no fewer than six separate occasions. An institution you once described as, and I am quoting your exact words, a glorified daycare for talentless children pretending to learn magic."

"I may have been somewhat dramatic in my youth."

"Your youth was last week." Gideon stepped closer, and the temperature around them seemed to drop by several degrees. "What are you planning? What scheme has that rat brain of yours cooked up now? Because the last time you had a bright idea, you burned down the entire east wing of our estate testing some idiotic spell that you had no business attempting."

"That spell worked, for the record."

"It incinerated four rooms and killed three of my best horses!"

"The horses were collateral damage. I sent a written apology."

"You sent a drawing of a horse with the word sorry underneath it. My stable master cried for a week."

Lilly covered her mouth with both hands, trying desperately not to laugh. Several nearby nobles developed sudden intense interest in their wine glasses.

"I am attending the academy because it is what you have always wanted me to do." Adrian met his father's glare without flinching. "You have spent the last five years telling me to stop hiding in my workshop, to engage with the world, to represent this family with dignity instead of embarrassing us at every opportunity. Well, here I am. Engaging. Representing. Dignifying."

"Do not use my own words against me, boy."

"I am not using them against you. I am fulfilling them. Is that not what a proper heir is supposed to do?"

Gideon stared at him. The silence stretched. Around them, every noble within earshot held their breath, fully expecting the Archduke to erupt in fury the way he always did when his son pushed back.

Instead, Gideon simply turned on his heel and walked toward the head table without another word.

The collective exhale from the surrounding crowd was almost audible.

Bianca stepped forward and addressed the assembled guests with practiced grace, her voice carrying across the hall with the authority of a woman who had hosted a thousand such events.

"My lords and ladies, thank you for joining us tonight to celebrate the sixteenth birthday of my children, Adrian and Lilly, and their formal transition into the responsibilities of adulthood. May the Dark Empire prosper with them, and may they honor the legacy of House Blackwood with the same strength and devotion that has defined our family for four centuries."

Applause filled the hall. The cake was wheeled out. Candles were lit, wishes were made, and the celebration resumed with renewed energy.

Adrian stood apart from the festivities, watching the clock above the main entrance. Thalia should be finishing her work at the Ravenshaw estate right about now. The underground laboratory would be preserved intact, the evidence of House Ravenshaw's demonic pacts left deliberately untouched for investigators to discover. Everything above ground would be ash and rubble.

The banquet hall doors crashed open.

Three royal knights in full ceremonial armor strode through the entrance with the rigid urgency of men carrying news they wished they did not have. The lead knight scanned the room, located Gideon at the head table, and marched directly toward him.

"Archduke Blackwood. By order of Her Imperial Majesty, you are summoned to the palace immediately. The matter is of the highest urgency and cannot wait."

Gideon rose from his chair. The lead knight leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Whatever he said drained the color from Gideon's face faster than Adrian had ever seen.

"Bianca." Gideon's voice had changed. The cold authority was still there, but something else had crept in underneath it. Something Adrian had never heard from his father before. Fear. "Take the children home. Now. Double the guard on the estate. Triple it. No one enters or leaves until I return."

"Gideon, what is happening?"

"Just do as I say."

He left without looking back, the three knights flanking him as they disappeared through the banquet hall doors. The room erupted into confused murmurs. Words like demons and war and Holy Empire floated through the crowd like sparks from a fire.

Bianca guided Lilly and Adrian into their carriage within minutes, her composure holding even as her hands trembled slightly while closing the carriage door. As they pulled away from the venue, Adrian turned in his seat and looked out the rear window.

Blue flames.

They rose into the night sky like a pillar of cold fire, painting the darkness with an otherworldly glow visible from miles away. The direction was unmistakable. The Ravenshaw estate.

"Mother..." Lilly pressed her face against the carriage window, her eyes wide. "Those flames. Is that not where Archduke Ravenshaw's estate is?"

"Do not look, Lilly. Just sit down."

The streets of Ironhaven were chaos. Guards poured from every barracks. Griffins circled overhead in tight formation, their riders scanning the rooftops with drawn weapons. The entire capital had been placed under emergency lockdown.

Bianca flagged down a passing knight through the carriage window. "What is happening? What are those flames?"

The knight hesitated, clearly reluctant, but Bianca's rank left him no room to refuse. "Your Grace, I have been instructed not to discuss details. But I can confirm that House Ravenshaw has... fallen."

"Fallen? What do you mean fallen?"

"Destroyed, Your Grace. Completely. There are no survivors."

Lilly gasped. Bianca's hand flew to her mouth. The carriage rocked over cobblestones as they sped through the locked down streets toward the Blackwood estate.

Adrian sat quietly in the corner of the carriage, watching his mother and sister process news that was already old to him. He waited for the guilt. For some flicker of remorse at having exterminated an entire noble family down to their servants and distant cousins.

It did not come.

In his previous life, his hesitation had cost Lilly her life. His reluctance to act, his desire to find a cleaner solution, his belief that there was always another way, all of it had done nothing but fill graves.

He looked at Lilly. Alive. Breathing. Horrified by a tragedy she would never know she had been spared from.

Adrian turned his gaze back toward the distant column of blue flame and let the cold satisfaction settle permanently into his bones. Eliminating the entire

Ravenshaw bloodline had been entirely worth the cost.