Chapter 26: Compensation
Isabella smiled and nodded gently. "Good. That is the reply I was hoping to receive."
She exhaled, and her smile slowly disappeared. Turning slightly away from him, she spoke in a far more serious tone. "By the way, do you want us to go out for a drink at The Serpent & Lily?"
"...?" At first, Dante arched a brow questioningly.
The Serpent & Lily was one of the clubs for the wealthy located in the Grand Opera District, the cultural hub of Ravena. Dante had found out that Isabella was a major financial backer and one of the silent co-owners of that establishment.
’We can drink all we want at the Villa. Mother wouldn’t suggest we go out there to drink without a reason.’
Somehow, he found the offer questionable, but after a moment of silence, he nodded. "Sure. Let’s go."
Isabella exhaled. "If you want to take a quick bath, I’ll wait for you at the main carriage entrance."
Dante nodded. "I won’t take long."
***
After a quick bath, Dante dressed in a tailored midnight-charcoal suit layered over a high-collared white shirt, and pulled on a pair of fitted black leather gloves. Then he walked over to a mahogany display box and opened it to reveal a few stiletto daggers in their leather sheaths.
After taking one out, he slipped it into his inner coat pocket and headed out of the Villa.
Since it was night, the green night fog that usually came out every evening had begun to blanket the paved grounds. Though because there was no labyrinth nearby, the night fog was not that thick.
Ignoring the mist that had begun to creep forward and pool around his ankles, Dante made his way toward the carriage where his mother was already waiting.
After stepping inside the warm interior, he settled into the plush seat opposite her. "I thought you didn’t like moving around when the fog is out."
His mother chuckled. "Yes. But that doesn’t mean I can’t move around just fine."
The carriage lurched forward with its wheels rattling evenly against the damp cobblestones.
...Some time later, the duo stepped out in front of a grand gas-lit establishment in the heart of the Grand Opera District. Above the mahogany doors hung a sign featuring the carved silhouette of a snake wrapped around a blooming lily.
There was a liveried doorman in an emerald coat outside the door. When he saw the duo approaching, he stepped forward to open the door, tipping his hat in deference as both of them silently walked past him.
The moment Dante stepped in, he was hit with the rich scents of aged brandy, tobacco, and faint floral perfume that hung in the warm air. This was the time when the club was in peak business, and a small string ensemble sat in the corner playing a melancholic waltz.
Not long after the mother and son duo walked in, a beautiful dark-skinned woman in her early twenties walked up to them. She was dressed in a sweeping emerald-green silk gown with an intricate lace overlay, a low-cut square neckline, and a dark velvet choker hugging her neck.
Dante had been here a few times before and knew that this woman was the Madame of the establishment. Her name was... if he remembered correctly, Bianca.
She offered a poised, graceful bow. "Welcome back, Signora Isabella." She turned to Dante. "And to you as well, young signore."
Returning her gaze to Isabella, she asked, "Would you like anything first, or do you want to see your guests right away?"
Isabella replied while casting a quick glance at Dante. "Take us to them first. Young Dante here would like to have a chat with them."
Hearing that, Dante’s confusion deepened and he almost pointed at himself. ’What? Me?’
He looked at his mother questioningly, but she only smiled and said nothing else.
"Very well. Follow me," Bianca said softly. She turned and began walking, leading them through the crowded main lounge, past the velvet-draped alcoves and the oak doors leading to the private back rooms.
"Who exactly am I meeting?" Dante finally leaned over and asked in a low voice, after failing to get an idea.
Isabella smiled. "I thought you wanted to see the four people who robbed you and killed your friend."
"Huh?" Dante was stunned. "You caught them all already?"
He had already known that his mother had a vast network of connections and a dozen different ways of pulling information from the shadows. Still, he was surprised.
But then, his heart began to race in a bit of excitement.
’Ah... It seems that I would be able to get compensation for you sooner than I expected, Thalia.’
Bianca led them toward a secluded hallway at the far end of the venue. Finally stopping before an iron-reinforced door obscured by a velvet curtain, she drew a brass key from her side and unlocked it.
Beyond the door, a steep set of stone stairs spiraled down into the cool, damp subterranean levels beneath the club.
At the bottom of the staircase, the passage opened into a dimly lit tunnel corridor lined with a few wooden doors.
’Woah... I had always known that the underground catacombs network ran through and connected most of Ravena. Although, I didn’t know that the tunnels reached all the way to districts in this part of the city,’ Dante thought, scanning the damp brick walls in surprise.
Bianca walked over to one of the doors, where two broad-shouldered men in dark coats stood guard. She turned back to Isabella and Dante, gesturing toward the entrance.
"They are inside, Signora," she said smoothly, handing the key over to Isabella.
Isabella nodded as she retrieved it.
Then, she stepped forward and unlocked the door, opening it to reveal a small, windowless chamber lit by a few flickering lanterns hanging by the walls.
In the center of the room were three men, and a woman, who were bound to wooden chairs. At the sound of the iron lock turning, all four snapped their heads toward the open doorway, and their eyes widened in sudden panic as Isabella stepped into the light.
They all had gags pulled over their mouths and they immediately began thrashing against their restraints, while their muffled "mmphs" echoed in the room.
However, just then, their horror intensified when Isabella stepped aside, revealing Dante standing right behind her, alive and whole.
At this point, they could not believe their eyes.
’It’s them. It’s really them.’ Dante subconsciously clenched his right fist as the memory of what happened to him back in Sylveria flashed through his mind.
He had almost died, and his story would have come to an end had he not been fortunate enough to receive the Divine Skill that stepped in to save his life back then.
At this moment, Dante was not thinking about the material things that he had lost.
He was thinking about the friend they took from him.
He was thinking about the fact that they had almost taken his life, too.
Whatever their reasons for doing that might have been, he had no intention of forgiving them.
Meanwhile, Isabella studied Dante from the side. She couldn’t read him.
For the longest time, he had always been like a brick wall to her. His emotions barely surfaced like normal people, and his facial expressions only changed slightly at times to reflect mild interest or amusement. However, she suspected that his outward expression was always vastly different from his true thoughts beneath.
She was curious... curious to see just how he would claim compensation as he had said he would.
Looking at the four people staring at them — or more specifically at Dante, with terrified eyes — she smiled and walked over. She then pulled the cloth gag from the mouth of the woman, who was the last of the four she had captured.
Just then, the woman gasped for air, coughing violently as her chest heaved.
"Y-you... how?" Her voice trembled as she gasped out the question the four of them were all wondering. "How are you alive? We killed you! I know we killed you — we... w-we even chopped off your head!"
Upon hearing that, Isabella frowned, and her gentle demeanor instantly evaporated. "You did what?"
"I shot an arrow right through your head!" the woman screamed, her pale green eyes wide with unhinged panic. "We watched you bleed out! How is this even possible? What kind of monster are you?!"
Isabella snapped her gaze to Dante, but he did not say anything and just calmly unbuttoned and removed his right glove. Then he put it into his pocket, before dipping his hand into his inner coat pocket to take out the stiletto dagger.
Meanwhile, the woman, Vivia, broke down in hysterical sobs. "But... but if you’re alive... then why?" She raised her bloodshot eyes to Isabella. "Why did you make me kill Claire?! How evil can you be?! She had nothing to do with this! If you wanted revenge for what we did to him, you could have just taken me instead!"
’So mother forced her to kill someone close to her?’ Dante arched an eyebrow as he silently digested the revelation.
At that moment, wisps of crimson smoke began to flow out his body, drifting across the cold stone floor toward the hysterical woman. The smoke condensed, and Edward materialized right beside her, pressing a finger gently over his own lips.
"Shhh," he scowled. "You are far too loud, woman. It’s pissing me off."
This was the first time Edward didn’t have his usual grin on his face, and he seemed genuinely upset.
The woman instinctively leaned back, completely caught off guard by the boy leaning so close to her.
Meanwhile, Dante raised his dagger and drew a line across his left palm. As the blood began to pool and drip down onto the cold floor, he muttered softly, "Evil?"
Just then, Edward vanished back into thin air, leaving the woman with a clear view of Dante and the blood dripping from his hand to the stone floor.
Dante turned to his mother, who was watching him quietly, and said, "Could you leave us for a moment?"
Isabella frowned as her gaze lingered on him. After a moment of hesitation, however, she exhaled, nodded, and calmly walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.
Now alone with the four of them, Dante turned back to the woman.
"I don’t understand," he said in a flat voice devoid of emotion. "You took the life of someone close to me. But when the same is done to you, we are labeled evil?"
The woman swallowed hard, and her chest heaved as she stared at the boy in front of her.
Dante exhaled.
"There are three kinds of people in this world. Those who cling to goodness, those who embrace evil, and those who recognize neither, seeing only what must be done to survive.
"I have no quarrel with the life you lead or the choices you made. Men steal to survive, and men kill to endure. To condemn you for that would make me a hypocrite... because truth be told, I might have done the exact same thing in your position.
"Yet the world works in strange ways. If our places were reversed and you stood where I am standing, you would do precisely what we have done, and what I am about to do. Maybe even worse.
"Because in the end, everyone justifies their own cruelty... right up until the blade turns on them."
Vivia bit her trembling lip, torn between spite, fear, and anger.
Eventually, she spat, "What are you going to do to us?!"
Dante remained silent.
Just then, Edward’s voice echoed in his head.
’Let me eat her...’ his voice grew sinister. ’...alive.’--