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“What became of that boy that was always stuck with you?”
Eden’s body froze.
“...Adam?”
“Whatever his name was. I remember, the two of you always hiding like little mice around my territory... You remained under my surveillance for quite some time before you both disappeared out of the blue. I was expecting you to reappear with him...”
His eyes went to Dante, visibly curious.
“How strange.”
“...Adam was killed,” Eden muttered.
“He didn’t escape the Core with you, did he?”
“No, he was born in the Suburbs. He... found me after my mother and I were separated. He taught me how to survive in the Suburbs before he was... killed.”
“Killed?” The Dragon raised an eyebrow.
“The previous Tiger shot him,” Eden muttered.
A strange light appeared in the Dragon’s eyes, his sinister smile appearing.
“Ah... That wretched man did have a short temper after all. ...Murdering boys to create his perfect heir. What a monster...”
His eyes went to Dante this time, and Eden felt a shiver go down her spine.
“W-what did you say?”
“Did you ever retrieve that boy’s body?”
“N-no, they took it...”
“Well, I will tell you. They took it, and they made that.”
His index finger pointed right at Dante.
Eden’s whole body froze. In a split second, she felt very sick to her stomach, a wave of nausea that came and went violently. Her eyes went to Dante, and back to the Dragon.
“I d-don’t... I don’t understand,” she muttered.
The Dragon smiled, a smile with no teeth that was the creepiest she’d ever seen, including Loir’s. The Old Man squinted his eyes, reducing them to a thin line, like a scary mask. Eden couldn’t even tell if they were open anymore, but she could feel his stare on her regardless. Under the disguise of a simple old man, she could feel a scary monster.
“That ambitious Tiger... He always was obsessed with his own legacy. He failed to produce his own heir, so he tried to make one, quite literally. I remember him always hunting around. Hunting for promising young boys, and technology to perfect them... He was quite bent on making his perfect heir.”
“You’re not making any sense. ...Dante killed his father.”
Eden didn’t dare look in the Tiger’s direction, but she could feel the tension in his body, very clearly. He was leaning forward as if to step in between her and the Dragon. Dante already didn’t like the old Dragon, but now, he clearly liked what he was hearing even less, and his arm was holding her a bit tighter too. Eden tried to control her breathing the best she could, ready to confront the old Dragon. As much as she hated what she was hearing, she also wanted to know the truth about what had happened to Adam.
“So he did,” chuckled the cunning old man. “A perfect assassin... I guess the Tiger got exactly the heir he wanted, after all. Or maybe not completely.”
His eyes went back to Eden, clearly referencing their relationship. If it wasn’t for Dante holding her, she may have backed away from the old reptile out of reflex. Eden wasn’t sure how much she could trust his words. She was remembering Dante’s attitude toward her from the beginning, and his headaches... There were arguments for this to be the truth, but also for it to be a lie. Perhaps this was just another mind game between Zodiacs. Regardless of the previous Tiger, Dante did not look like Adam, the boy she had known wasn’t of mixed origins. The age didn’t match what both Dante and Adam had told her either, and she couldn’t see why they would have lied about their age. No matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn’t figure it out.
Worse, the more she thought about it, the more nauseating it was. What could the Tiger possibly have done to Adam, to create... Dante? How much of the boy she had known was actually involved? If Dante was Adam, why would the age not match, why wouldn’t he have recognized her? Eden was younger than Adam was back then, but she was confident she would have recognized him. But Dante never mentioned a single memory of her before their meeting, only his childhood as a boy trained to become the next Tiger, along with other boys. No mention of a lost, little girl in the Suburbs he had taught to survive in the streets...
“...Enough.”
While Eden was still lost in her thoughts, Dante suddenly pulled her, walking away from the Dragon without a second glance. She was still too confused to react and didn’t even really come back to her senses until they found themselves walking in a different area of the palace, a deserted corridor.
