A few hours after the young miss was taken away, I had collected everything I needed and brought it to the place I would meet up with the knights that were getting out of here. It wasn’t much, just a chest with a few sets of clothes. Once that was done, I went back to my usual routine, minus the things I’d do with young miss.
Something that really annoyed me about this was the fact that everything felt…normal. Like the lord of the house didn’t just send his one and only daughter into solitude for a good portion of her life. This really nailed down just how little most of the people here cared for young miss. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t notice it before, but after spending almost two years of serving her every day, it didn’t feel right to me.
‘I’m feeling really uneasy about this. We might need to get out of here earlier than planned.’
I decided to follow my gut feeling and stopped what I was doing to go and find Sigurd. As I made my way to the place he was most likely to be, I saw the opportunity to dole out young miss’s retaliation. Lady Leticia was walking towards me from the other direction and at this pace we would meet right at the top of a staircase.
“Yes, milady?” (Emma)
“Where is the pest?” (Leticia)
“Pest milady?” (Emma)
“Ugh. The girl that ruined my life!” (Leticia)
“Ah. The young miss was sent into solitude at noon today, milady.” (Emma)
“…Keh. Kehe. Kekekekekahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha! That little pest doesn’t have a Soul Weapon!? This…this is hilarious! Serves her right. Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!” (Leticia)
I felt the anger inside me rise exponentially.
‘She is your daughter, why are you happy about this? I know what she’s had to do for your so called nobility training, but I honestly thought half of it was just because that was the way you were raised as a princess, not because you hold a grudge that deep.’
I took a step past her and started making my way down the stairs.
“Were do you think you are going, maid? I need you to do some things.” (Leticia)
She reached out and grabbed my arm. I stared at her with a cold, emotionless expression and pulled my arm back. She wasn’t expecting me to do that and lost her balance. She started to tumble down the stairs. She attempted to grab me, but I avoided her. When she reached the bottom, she was still alive, but just barely conscious. As I passed by her, I glared down at her and spoke.
“The young miss deserved better. You’ve spent years blaming her for things that were out of her control, and now you’re happy that she’s been sent off to solitude. I’m honestly surprised you’ve managed to live for so long without drawing the ire of a god or goddess.” (Emma)
Once my words were finished, she passed out and I walked away, still fuming. It didn’t take long after that for me to find Sigurd and a few of the other knights.
“We need to leave now.” (Emma)
“So, it’s not just us that are getting that bad feeling? Alright, lets get the stuff and go. I know a person in a town two weeks ride from here that will be able to set us up for a while. All we need to do is get there.” (Sigurd)
The other knights nodded and left, leaving me and Sigurd alone.
“Emma, what else happened?” (Sigurd)
“The lady of the house had an accidental stumble down some stairs. She’s alive, but seeing as she knows I was there and did nothing to help her, my head will be on the chopping block. Literally.” (Emma)
“Was that the retaliation the young miss wanted?” (Sigurd)
“Ok. Let’s go and get our stuff and go. That bad feeling is getting worse the longer we stand here.” (Sigurd)
We quickly went and retrieved our things and met up with the others at the small gondola dock at the back of the mansion. We placed our stuff in them and quietly sailed away.
I was sitting behind the desk in my office, a several bottles of alcohol, both full and empty, were strewn about. I was just looking out the window and ruminating on that disgrace that was born from me and Leticia. Remembering the status page I was given this morning, rage overtook me and I threw the glass I was drinking from through the window.
“Disgrace…How could a disgrace be born from the Fafnir family? So much waisted time raising that girl. If only Leticia could give birth again, or even one of my mistresses. But none of them, even after all these years...”
I picked up and opened another bottle.
“I guess it’s time I considered adopting a son.”
I continued to drink when I felt something was wrong. I walked over to the window and looked outside. The canals that surrounded the mansion were boiling and the heat coming from the sun felt concentrated on the mansion.
“It’s just like that pest never left.”
It was then that the old butler burst into the room.
“Lady Leticia! She’s been injured!”
I dropped the alcohol I was holding and ran out the room. The butler followed and told me she had been moved to the bedroom. I sprinted there to make sure she was fine. I didn’t want to have to explain to the king why one of his daughters was dead the same day I sent away the disgrace born from her. When I got there, I saw Leticia laying in the bed, her head, arm, and both legs wrapped in bandages. The one on her head had a small red stain as well.
“Milord, we have already called for healers.”
I walked over to the bed and knelt beside it. I sat there silently for a while when the healers came into the room. I was told to move aside so that they could start working. When I stood up, my vision swam and I started to cough. When I pulled my hand from my face, it was covered in blood. The butler tried to catch me as I was falling, but before he could he started to have a coughing fit as well. The healers looked completely shocked and were panicking. The lead healer then spoke up.
“Lock down the mansion and keep everyone inside. No one leaves until I say otherwise.”
“H-healer, what is going on?” (Lucius)
“You are under a curse. A very powerful one meant to make you suffer as much as possible while making sure you remain alive.”
“Wh-who would dare curse us!? *cough cough*” (Lucius)
“I don’t know, Lord Fafnir. Is there anyone that you have made an enemy of recently?”
“What about your daughter? Where is she, I need to make sure she isn’t affected, a curse will kill a child.”
“I have no daughter. That disgrace was sent to solitude.” (Lucius)
“That might have been a mistake.”
“You dare question my decisions?” (Lucius)
“No, but your daughter was strange at birth, yes? Larger than normal reserves of mana, body heat high enough to permanently injure her mother, eyes with black sclera. Do you really think she was normal?”
“Are you saying she is the cause of this?” (Lucius)
“It’s the only thing I can think of.”
After another fit of coughing, I started to think. There should be no possible way for that disgrace to curse me seeing as she didn’t reach the point in training where she learned to use magic yet. Then I realized it, there were only two people here that could possibly do this. The maid assigned to her and the one that was in charge of her training.
“Cough COUGH!* Healer…get my knight commander here. Now! *cough*” (Lucius)
The healer left the room and returned several minutes later with the knight commander behind him. The knight commander also looked horrible.
“Milord, several of the knights are missing. *cough* And we can’t get out to go chase them due to the canals boiling. If we try-*cough*-we’ll be cooked alive.” (KC)
“Then how did the healers get in here?” (Lucius)
“When we got here they weren’t like that…Did you trap us here knowing something would happen?” (H)
“No. *COUGH* This is their fault. I should have just sent that disgrace to the Dead Zone and the ones that were nice to her along with her. Knight-*cough cough cough cough* commander, figure out a way to get a message out to THOSE PEOPLE. Tell them to hunt down and force the disgrace to lift the curse before bringing me her head.” (Lucius)
The moment those words left my mouth, all those present except the healer fell unconscious. As my consciousness was leaving me, I saw the healer rush over to the closest person and try to heal them.
“H-heal..er.” (Lucius)
He looked at me and backed away, fear present in his eyes.
“Th-this is no ordinary curse…it’s Divine Retribution.” (H)
That was the last thing I heard before the black void and never-ending nightmare began.
Order: I can understand them getting sick is somehow related to her Life Authority, but the coma and nightmares? Where did that come from?
Her Magic Authority. Watching all of this made me angry too, so I allowed her to let loose with it a little bit when she is normally not be allowed to go that far.
Order: Well, it’s satisfying. How long is it going to last?
They’ll be kept alive until Keeno comes back here in the future. That’ll be when the fun truly begins. Oh, I can’t wait.
Order: I haven’t seen you have that smile in a long time.