"Oh... So this is also my adopted niece." The sweet woman walked towards me with a radiant smile. It felt so bright, I could barely look at her anymore. Even a light bulb has the possibility to burst with the amount of rays she was giving out. Maybe even the sun would be jealous.
How can someone be this happy by meeting their 'adopted' niece?!
I could feel myself squinting my eyes at her radiance. Then, I stepped some physical steps away to keep my distance from the family. But before I planned on disspearing using my skills, I bowed to them and let off my greetings.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. However, I don't plan on being introduced any further." I added, rather harshly. Then, looked away for a bit to check if Elanor was going to come and rescue me. I was really in anticipation for her sudden appearance and take me away like a six-year-old kid.
"Why not? What if you meet us another time again?" The Viscount smiled while using a mocking tone. Like, what did he honestly feel like I owed him? A second punch to the gut after what happened at the banquet?!
"I don't think we will meet a second time though." I titled my head slightly.
"Why not? Is it because you hate us?"
"Not really. It's just that I am no longer associated to the Imperial family." I answered honestly. But I don't plan on saying my death this time. I would just push them to find their answers from somewhere else.
"Is it... Somehow because of us?" The woman asked while clasping her hands tightly to herself.
"Uhh... Nah... It's just... I ran away." I answered while turning away from their vision to stick my tongue out at the lie. Then, I flipped my gaze back at them. "I just think that since I am no longer related to the empress, I don't need to keep relationships with anyone else. And more than that, I kind of not remember faces of people I met once... So I think the next time you see me, I would just be a distant memory."
"Why did you run away? The family seemed to like you." The Viscount muttered while silently snickering about it.
"Yeah... An illusion for a family. I was a pawn the empress wielded to defend against the Mides family." My expression dropped to stern as I turned more serious about the conversation.
"But you weren't mistreated. So you must have been spoilt with the luxury. Now that you can't get anymore, you left in frustruation. Am I right?" The Viscount glared at me with a different sort of gaze. I could tell it was mocking because I was once in a while, his rival sister's daughter, who was taken in. And not to blame, I did have him suffer a bit painfully a long time ago. I guess this is his revenge.
"Yes. Of course. I was spoilt with the Empire's riches and they suddenly stopped giving me what I wanted. So I left." I answered in his expectations. Not dropping my usual expression. If the Viscountess wasn't dumb, she would understand very clearly whether I was telling the truth or being sarcastic about it.
"Oh my... Well it seems that my husband here knows too well how to judge a book by its cover." The woman looked at the Viscount in a rather hostile manner. "I am sorry for what he has said. But if you were truly spoilt, you won't have been going around with a sword. May we know your true reason for leaving the family?"
"I am afraid I can't disclose about it." I answered back while still not offering them a proper smile. "But I am just happy to know that you understand my situation. Stating that, I will now head back home." I offered a second bow to the noble family and turned half-side away.
"Do you live alone, my child? If you like, you can come stay with us. We have a lot of rooms and we can grow you like our own child."
That again, talk about being a child to someone. I didn't like it. I could have hidden my irritation on this topic, but I rather reject peacefully then just tell them about how I had been a pawn for the empress and nothing more. I know I could have told them about this, that I wasn't truely viewed as her daughter, and they would have understood it enough to leave me alone. But I just didn't want to go through all those explaining process and getting no results back through my hard work.
"I am sorry. However, I can survive two more years of being without a legal guardian. And I have earned enough for myself to live alone until then. Not only that, I leave a few friends of mine. I am completely alright, don't worry." I smiled at them while holding onto Spectrum at my side for support, both, mentally and physically.
"Are you sure? You are hurt." The woman looked at me with concern.
"Oh no. It's alright. I am fine." I spoke while wiping where a little bit of my blood had dried off. I think I had smeared it across my forehead since some people stopped to look at me and I turned away, less comfortable with the attention turning on me.
"Oh and, your eldest nephew was possessed inside that forest. Also, there is a patient who is unconscious there too. If you are alright with it, please inform the military about it. With that, I will be off." I looked away while walking towards the exit of the park not so far away.
"Wait." The Viscount sternly shouted behind me, as I frustruatingly turned to him one last time. "Do you expect me to believe that someone like you saved my child? Who is the real person who saved him?"
"Well isn't he a stereotype?" Puppet whispered beside me, completely invisible to him.
[Master, do you want me to cut off his tongue?]
Beside me, Spectrum muttered into my ears. With three things that are sharing my brain, including me myself, I could say that my brain wished to have belonged to a different human entirely. I sighed as I looked towards the kid&who was the talkative bunch—stay silent for quiet a while. And I could feel my rage increase because of it.
"Well maybe I didn't save him. But I did bring him back. That is all I can say for now."
"Oh really? So what were you carrying that sword for? You probably stole that from the palace before you left, and wanted to use it to threaten my family. Afterall, you may also be a hidden biological child to my sister." The Viscount looked at me with a glare.
"Huh–wait, what the heck?!" I felt myself turn more confused as I checked my own hair colour, them use Spectrum's blade to see my own eye colour. "I don't— Where did you get that logic?!"
"What if you are the child of a concubine? What if you got it from that concubine's appearance?!"
"The heck?! Just because I carry a sword?!" I asked in astonishment. I immediately pulled up my left sleeve. "Then what about this?! What if I got granted a sword?!"
"What if it is fake?"
"What if you lost your mind?! You are saying that just because I am a girl and I just so happen to know how to fight and wield a sword and not cry that I am some... Spy and that?! What next?! Are you going to call me a witch?!"
"Might as well! Give back that sword!"
"..."
"What are you silent for?!"
"Sorry but... Bye."
I replied while walking away and waving using the back of my hand. I didn't even want to look back or listen to how they chose to stop me and ask me even more questions. No wonder, the entire family is crazy and out of their minds. And I can tell just why Lewis was so mad in the mind when I first met him. He has the biology of his uncle. And I could tell why the kid was so talkative. I am never returning to that family. And whether I want to save it... This situation flips my plans upside-down.
I immediately turned invisible using my skills and moved towards the exit without any more interruptions. My mind finally finding peace with those extra step I was talking by walking. Afterall, sometimes a new location and a calm mind was all that was needed to forget about the bad things that just happened. For me, it was meeting that person who still had trust issues with me, but I couldn't blame him for it. Since I too had major trust issues with him.
Actually, I think I had forgotten him as a person and that I even met him all in whole!
***
"So you are saying, you had a rough day?" Cedric spoke while hovering over my head and trying to locate the wound area. "Well I was pretty concerned for you when I heard the Countess returned without you and she didn't know where you were running off to all of a sudden. I also contemplated between trying to go out and find you myself."
"Isn't that what all friends do? Concern is supposed to be a irrational thing though, because you don't know what sort of thing you are worrying about. Maybe a terrifying shadow in the dark may have been a small bee at some point." I answered back while smiling.
"Well I guess. However, you did say you met my brother. That doesn't seem like a small bee to me." He added while picking up a cotton with alcohol to clean the wound area. "Sheesh... This looks very bad." He whispered to himself, even when he knew I was just below him and could definitely hear him.
"He wished you regards. I don't know for what." I spoke while hugging my knees on the sofa. "And I met this stereotype who was my foster uncle if I were still associated to the Imperial family."
"What did that stereotype say?"
"I rescued his son, a talkative kid who was of no help in the fight, and he kept saying that I stole the sword from the palace and I was too spoilt so I ran away. You know the worst part? He even accused me of having murder intent for his family. Do I really seem like that kind of a person?" I asked while turning to face him.
"Well he is a stereotype. He is just jealous that he can't wield the sword the way you can. Or how you had something that he didn't. Like a skill or... Just anything." He answered while turning my head back again, so he could work on the wound a little bit more precisely. "I guess he is jealous you had once in a lifetime got the throne that he never got. But then you gave it away, so maybe some of his plans got disrupted. You know what I mean?"
"Of course I know. I was actually thinking about it as a possibility, but I didn't want to judge non-sensically." I answered while leaning back, the thoughts about the devil and the dark magic theory that Puppet had told me while we were at the forest.
"By the way... Your brother maybe a devil." I finally spoke while zoning out.
"Yeah, I know. He is my main problem."
"No, I mean, a real devil. He wields dark magic and granted it to George." I clarified. He stopped dead from all his work and moved to the side to look at my face.
"Seriously?"
"Yes. I was actually shocked when I saw it too. Not only that, he heard my name and I think he plans on causing me some problems in the future."
"Then this is a serious problem. Didn't he say anything else about me or the family?"
"No. Nothing. He just whispered at my ears and went, 'So your name is Aefia. Send Cedric my regards'. Then vanished in thin air. After that, I found that rampaged man running behind the kid. He was poisoned with dimenthylmercury, and he was a patient." I answered in detail.
"Well. Just how was his interaction with you?"
"I don't know. He only whispered, and maybe moved my hair a little bit over my ear. That was all." I looked at him with confusion, as I let my legs hang from the edge of the sofa. His expression turned horrified for a second, then worried about something.
"Is everything alright?" I asked while arching one of my eyebrows upwards. I watched as he came to sit beside me on the sofa.
"Well the fact is, my elder brother had a habit of beating up his servants from a very young age. I left the palace when he was fifteen, and during that time, he had killed two servants in total. All of them were female. He used to beat up some of mine and sometimes our parents'."
"So he was a child who was an abuser? Damn... That flips everything around." I asked while leaning forward.
"Yes, and I have no doubt that he is still doing that. And since he has taken a little liking to you, I think he would be trying to kill you next." He said that with a little bit of fear.
"Nah! What is the worse that can happen?" I asked while leaning back again, then folding my arms in front of me. "If he wants to kill me, I can just pull out my sword and slice it through his neck. You aren't going to protest, are you?"
He finally smiled.
"Yes, you can kill him. However, my sister will be next on your killing list then." He responded while narrowing his eyes down to a calm state. "But you still have to be concerned about something."
"What can that be? Being caught and then executed? Then I would just run away and burn the palace down into ashes." I laughed while standing up to soak a handkerchief into a bowl of water and wiping the sides of my forehead.
He titled his head to the side, while letting his smile drop for a more concerned face again. "As your friend, I would warn you to stay as far away from his reach. He is practically a torturer and a womanizer by now."