Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin

Fedora observed Adam for a few seconds, trying to find an argument. In the end, though, she was forced to surrender.

"Kuh~"

Fedora groaned. She wished to complain but she had to admit that even with her high standards, Adam was definitely above the norm.

"Never thought my sister was a face-loving girl."

"My face transcends all barriers. There is no straight woman in this world that I cannot seduce."

"Ohhh."

Fedora clapped her hands while Adam swept his hair with an arrogant and exaggerated look on his face.

He kept the pose for a while before the two started to puff out in laughter.

Fedora laughed so much that, in the end, she could only sweep a few tears away due to laughing too hard,

"Thanks. You are more funny than I thought."

"I live to serve, my lady."

Fedora grinned and this time, even as Adam ruffled her hair slightly, she did not protest a single bit.

"So, where do we go this time?"

"You still wanna continue?"

Fedora seemed surprised at first but soon… she jumped excitedly while clapping her hands.

"Then let's go!"

Adam followed behind the excited young girl.

A smile hung on his lips.

He had not expected much from this day but he had to admit— this was definitely a relaxing moment for him. One that he really needed these days.

He was just about to continue when he realized that something was wrong. His alarms started to ring.

'Seriously?'

Adam looked speechlessly at Fedora which caused her to look at him with wonder,

"Anything the matter?"

"Hum…Nah. Nothing. I was just wondering if you and your sister were sort of Jinx."

"Hey."

He laughed while stopping her from advancing by placing his hands on the top of her crown.

"Anyways. Shall we go?"

"Humph… This princess shall forgive your insolence this time. Though there will be no second chances."

"Heh. At your order. Let's go."

He played along while following. Inwardly though…Adam started to wonder if he should only have indoor meetings in the future if he were to meet anyone from Natasha's family.

His smile never left his lips all day long, no matter what Fedora asked or how she sometimes acted. He would either mock her, smack her on the head or outright refuse.

Weirdly though, the more he did this, the more Fedora seemed attached to him. When he asked her why, she blushed and scratched her cheek a little,

"I guess you do act a little like what I had in mind when thinking of a brother."

"Oh?"

They were currently walking in a rather empty street, in his hands were a large amount of bags and other equipment they paid for.

Fedora seemed to be a fashion fan and rather than buying clothes outright, she seemed happier in creating them.

"Well. You know. I really like my big brothers, you know? We are all family after all. But…We didn't really spend much time when we were kids."

Her voice was a little bitter and helpless.

"Natasha was a natural-born alpha. There was a high chance she would indoctrinate us when we were kids. So we had to be separated."

'Indoctrination?'

"Indoctrination is a process during which a Beta swears allegiance, be it consciously or unconsciously to an Alpha. Once this is done, a Beta will not be influenced by the Call of any other Alpha until the day the Alpha dies. It isn't eternal loyalty but eternal compelling."

"Well…I guess. This is indeed pretty bad."

"Yeah. Now that we are adults. We can make our own choice. But our parents didn't want that choice to be robbed from us."

She shrugged, "Outside of that, my Eldest brother was always busy because he is the heir, you know? My big sis is like the shadow of the eldest. Never leaving. She was also trained as a prospective heir just in case the eldest died."

She cringed a little when she said this like this but there was no other way to explain.

"Finally. There is my second brother and me. No one expects anything from us."

She lifted her hand, a small claw appearing, "I am relatively strong thanks to my blood but honestly I am barely above average. Same for my second brother."

"So you were ignored?"

This seemed a pretty standard story. The useless siblings were treated like they didn't exist.

"No, we were pampered."

"Huh…"

She gave a sad laugh, "Because we are weak we were pampered. Because we are useless, we were spoiled. When the other three trained, we played. I might sound stupid. But you know…My parents may have done this out of love. Even then, this was the most painful love for us. This was the way to tell us that they expected absolutely nothing from us."

Fedora shook her head. She had never lacked anything in her life. Be it love or money she knew that her worries were, when taken in the grand scheme of things, nothing but petty worries with no bearing.

"Anyway. The way you scold me is fun and you will become Natasha's mate so aren't you like my big bro already?"

She knew a little about Adam and knew that her own worries might seem like rich girls' problems so she didn't want to dwell too much on this. This was why she was surprised when Adam simply patted her head,

"You know. Don't compare your pain with others. There is nothing wrong with whining about your own life, you know."

He chuckled, "Also, don't hesitate to call me next time you want to get out."

"Really!? I wasn't bothering you!?"

"Nah. It was fun."

Fedora gave him a sunny smile that could light hundreds of candles and she gave him a light hug before separating.

"Thanks."

She looked around and finally saw the car and the driver back to take her back home.

"I guess it's time for me to go. Will you come with us?"

"Nah. I will just walk."

"Okay."

She started skipping away while waving her hand at Adam, "Thanks for the outing! See you later!"

Adam smiled and waved his hand with a smile until Fedora entered the car and left amidst the busy traffic.

It was only then that the smile slowly started leaving his face and he placed his hands in his pocket to fish out his phone.

"Hello…"

This time, Natasha was the one to answer,

[Hello Adam. Sorry, I…]

"Yeah forget that. No need to apologize. I am calling you for something else."

[...What?]

Adam had an impassive face as he asked, "Do you think someone wants to kill your sister?"

He sighed.

"Anyways. I am out. Send your guards or whatever. I left the coordinates."

This day was a fun day and he had no intention to be bathed in blood today.

(AN: As always some relaxing time before we eat the meat of the volume. Since Vol 7 is about to enter a crescendo, I would be happy to receive feedback about Vol 7 as a whole. Vol 7 is nearly 100 chapters currently and has many small different arcs. I would like to know what you liked and disliked and what you think of the flow of Book 2: Vol 7 compared to the Vol in Book 1. Also, who is your favorite character in Vol 7 and what do you think of Adam's growth? I know I ask this question regularly but the answers are honestly always very useful.)