Crimson Chains
Introduction
Lucien Vortega (29)
Relationship to MC: Adoptive cousin (not blood related) / Mafia heir / obsessive guardian
Personality: Cold, composed, charming in public — obsessive, manipulative, and dangerously possessive in private
Power: Mind Domination — can control thoughts and subtly alter memories
Love Life: Engaged to Celeste for a mafia alliance but emotionally fixated on Adrian. Never admits feelings, but spoils him lavishly, controls his life like a cage, and secretly spends nights in his bed without him knowing (or so he thinks).
Twisted Side: Stalks MC everywhere, even in disguise. Anyone who gets too close to Adrian either “disappears” or is punished brutally. He keeps files on MC's every expression, text, and habit
Adrian Vale (20)
Relationship to ML: Adoptive younger cousin / college student
Personality: Sassy, bold, cocky, fearless with words; stubbornly independent but easily tempted by danger; loves teasing Lucien
Power: Illusion Creation — can trick senses into seeing, hearing, or feeling something that isn’t there (often used to tease Lucien)
Love Life: Secretly has an obsessive crush on Lucien. Craves his attention, acts clingy when alone, but keeps an innocent façade around others. Later tries to date Ethan, only for Lucien to destroy it.
Twisted Side: Draws inappropriate sketches of Lucien, hides them in secret art books; enjoys provoking his jealousy just to feel special.
Celeste Armitage (27)
Relationship: Lucien’s fiancée (political arrangement)
Personality: Elegant, cold, manipulative to enemies but calculating in politics; seethes with jealousy toward MC
Power: Emotional Manipulation — can amplify a person’s emotions to extremes (anger, lust, sorrow)
Love Life: Loves Lucien genuinely but is insecure about his obsession with Adrian. Sometimes tries to seduce Lucien in front of MC just to hurt him
.
Twisted Side: Interrogates MC in subtle emotional ways, planting insecurities; at times helps Lucien keep MC trapped, other times undermines him.
Don Raphael Vortega (55)
Relationship: Lucien & Damien’s father / Mafia Don
Personality: Strategist, brutal, old-school; obsessed with preserving the family's reputation and empire
Power: Precognition — sees fragments of future events
Love Life: Widowed; rumored affairs with dangerous women in the underworld
Twisted Side: Has seen visions of MC’s presence leading to the empire’s fall — obsessed with keeping them apart, even considering killing MC.
Damien Vortega (25)
Relationship: Lucien’s younger brother
Personality: Playful psychopath; switches from charming to terrifying in seconds; teases Lucien and MC endlessly
Power: Shadow Travel — can walk through shadows to teleport anywhere
Love Life: Serial flirt; dates assassins, spies, and underground fighters just for the thrill
Twisted Side: Knows all of Lucien's secrets and uses them to manipulate events; sometimes helps MC escape just to watch Lucien lose control.
Rin (22)
Relationship: Adrian’s best friend since school
Personality: Sharp-tongued, sarcastic, cunning, and loyal — until betrayed.
Power: Teleportation
Love Life: Former fling with Damien (which ended explosively); may still have lingering feelings
Twisted Side: Vanishes early on after a failed mission; later returns darker, with alliances to Lucien's enemies, targeting Adrian just to hurt Lucien.
Ethan Hart (21)
Relationship: Adrian’s classmate / initial love interest
Personality: Kind, artistic, shy; a pure soul in toxic surroundings
Power: None — completely human (makes him more vulnerable)
Love Life: Genuinely in love with Adrian and plans a future together; tragically killed by Lucien in front of him
Twisted Side: The only one without darkness — which makes his violent death emotionally shattering.
Isabella Vortega (24)
Relationship: Lucien & Damien’s younger half-sister (different mother)
Personality: Sweet-looking but dangerously manipulative; plays the “princess” but is a master of psychological warfare
Power: Illusionary Pain — can make someone feel unbearable pain without touching them
Love Life: Engaged to the heir of a rival mafia family, but secretly in love with Damien (her own half-brother — taboo and hidden)
Twisted Side: Enjoys watching her brothers fight over Adrian; tries to push events to cause the empire’s downfall.
Vincent Moretti (31)
Relationship: Underboss to Don Raphael; childhood friend of Lucien
Personality: Calm, cold enforcer with a dry sense of humor; hides emotions under strict professionalism
Power: Kinetic Manipulation — can control the movement of objects and people
Love Life: Hopelessly in love with Isabella, but knows she will ruin him; still follows orders
Twisted Side: Sometimes protects Adrian secretly without Lucien knowing, just to see Lucien’s reaction.
Marcellus Kane (33)
Relationship: Leader of an assassin guild allied with the Vortegas
Personality: Sadistic, theatrical, unpredictable in fights; flirts with danger and death constantly
Power: Blood Manipulation — can control his own and others’ blood as a weapon
Love Life: Has short, intense affairs with equally dangerous men and women; rumored to have once been obsessed with Don Raphael
Twisted Side: Treats murder like an art form; obsessed with recruiting MC after seeing his illusions.
Seraphine Vale (47)
Relationship: MC’s biological mother (hidden truth revealed later)
Personality: Enigmatic, graceful, dangerous; operates from the shadows
Power: Memory Alteration — can erase or rewrite memories
Love Life: Unknown; rumored to have once loved Don Raphael
Twisted Side: Has been manipulating the events from behind the scenes for decades; her return changes everything
Cassian Dusk (26)
Relationship: Mysterious mercenary with connection to Rin
Personality: Sarcastic, clever, morally grey; trusts no one completely
Power: Electrokinesis — control over electricity and technology
Love Life: Complicated on-off romance with Rin; they alternately betray and save each other
Twisted Side: Looking for a way to profit from the chaos between Lucien and Adrian.
Breakfast in a Golden Cage
Vortega Mansion — sunlit glass breakfast room, marble table, gold cutlery, fresh roses, expensive suits.
[8:12 AM – Vortega Mansion]
Adrian Vale(MC)
(sliding into a velvet chair in silk pajamas) Morning. Your chef still overcooks eggs.
Lucien Vortega(ML)
(smirks over coffee) Maybe you should learn to cook for yourself.
Adrian Vale(MC)
Maybe you should stop rearranging my schedule without asking.
Lucien Vortega(ML)
You have art class at ten, lunch with your professor at one—cancelled.
Adrian Vale(MC)
You— what?
Lucien Vortega(ML)
He’s… untrustworthy.
Adrian Vale(MC)
Translation: he smiled at me in the hallway.
Lucien Vortega(ML)
(low voice) Too much.
Damien Vortega(ML's Younger Brother)
(appears from nowhere, shadow flickers) Morning, sunshine. You’re glowing.
Adrian Vale(MC)
You say that like I’m pregnant.
Damien Vortega(ML's Younger Brother)
Relax, big brother. I’m just saying, pajama boy looks better than your fiancée this morning.
Lucien Vortega(ML)
Damien—
Damien Vortega(ML's Younger Brother)
What? Celeste isn’t here.
Celeste Armitage (ML's fiancée)
(walks in, heels sharp on marble) I heard my name
Adrian Vale(MC)
(smiling innocently) We were talking about eggs.
Celeste Armitage (ML's fiancée)
Pity. I thought maybe you’d finally talk about something you’re good at.
Adrian Vale(MC)
I am good at making Lucien’s blood pressure rise.
(Lucien’s coffee cup pauses midair.)
Adrian Vale(MC)
Which part? The talking, the looking, or the breathing?
Lucien Vortega(ML)
All of it.
Don Raphael Vortega(ML MC Father)
(enters in tailored black, gaze like ice) Lucien. Private words.
Don Raphael Vortega(ML MC Father)
Now
Adrian Vale(MC)
(mutters) Someone’s in trouble.
Don Raphael Vortega(ML MC Father)
(to Adrian) You are the trouble.
Lucien Vortega(ML)
Father—
Don Raphael Vortega(ML MC Father)
Your attachment will ruin everything. (leaves without waiting)
Lucien Vortega(ML)
Protected
Lucien Vortega(ML)
(meets his eyes, calm but dangerous) For now.
(Silence, the sound of silver on porcelain echoing in the golden room.)
Diamonds & Daggers
The Grand Royal Hotel — top floor ballroom, crystal chandeliers, black marble, champagne fountains. Mafia royalty and supernatural elites mingle under chandeliers worth more than small countries.
Adrian Vale(MC)
(fixing cufflinks, eyeing Lucien) You always drag me to places full of criminals?
Lucien Vortega(ML)
You’re under my wing. Better they know.
Adrian Vale(MC)
Or better you keep me in your pocket where no one sees me?
Damien Vortega(ML's Younger Brother)
(appearing from shadow beside them) You two look like a wedding waiting to happen.
Adrian Vale(MC)
And you look like trouble wrapped in overpriced silk.
Damien Vortega(ML's Younger Brother)
(winks)Compliment accepted.
Celeste Armitage (ML's fiancée)
(joining, dressed in gold, glass in hand) Lucien, you didn’t tell me your… cousin… was coming.
Adrian Vale(MC)
You didn’t tell me your dress was auditioning to blind people.
Celeste Armitage (ML's fiancée)
Still more tasteful than your attitude.
Lucien Vortega(ML)
Enough. Both.
(Room hushes slightly — Don Raphael enters, hand on his cane, eyes scanning like a knife.)
Don Raphael Vortega(ML MC Father)
Smile, Lucien. You’re representing the family
Lucien Vortega(ML)
I’m smiling
Don Raphael Vortega(ML MC Father)
You’re thinking about the boy again. I can tell.
Adrian Vale(MC)
("the boy") — I’m right here, you know.
Don Raphael Vortega(ML MC Father)
Exactly my point.
(Rival mafia heir approaches — tall, smug, power radiating in air like warm electricity.)
Rival Heir
This must be the famous Adrian Vale.
Adrian Vale(MC)
Famous? First I’ve heard.
Rival Heir
Your illusions… are talked about. I’d like to see them sometime — somewhere private.
(Lucien’s glass cracks in his hand without touching it.)
Rival Heir
Wasn’t talking to you.
Lucien Vortega(ML)
And yet I answered.
Damien Vortega(ML's Younger Brother)
(grinning) Ah, here we go. Who’s making the first scene?
Celeste Armitage (ML's fiancée)
Hopefully the police.
Lucien Vortega(ML)
(leans toward Adrian) Stay with me tonight. Don’t leave my side.
Adrian Vale(MC)
Possessive much?
(Across the room, a shimmer — Adrian sees Rin for a split second through the crowd, before they vanish in a flicker of teleportation.)
Adrian Vale(MC)
…Did you see that?
Lucien Vortega(ML)
(low) I saw.
Adrian Vale(MC)
You’re not going after them?
Lucien Vortega(ML)
Not tonight. Tonight, you stay in my sightline.
(Music swells, chandeliers glitter — and every smile in the room hides teeth.)
Download NovelToon APP on App Store and Google Play
