"You accepted their suggestion, but why do you look like you regret it?"
"..."
Thomas stares out his large window, glancing at the rising sun every few seconds. His stance is stiff and it's quite obvious he's in stress. Devere has been observing him for quite a while now, even though he knows of Thomas' little habits since they were kids. His foot tapping, antsy hands, and a sweaty face. It's not the best thing to look at but there's no need to worry.
Thomas doesn't look like that if there are any other guests around.
"They're only surveying. In a month, you'll get the report." Devere says honestly, trying to assure Thomas. He grabs his long grey hair and starts to bite on it.
'It's getting quite bad..' Devere thinks, taking a mental note to cut his hair sometime in the future.
"Is it not the mission you're worried about?" Devere questions, moving towards Thomas and pulling his hair out of his mouth.
"..."
The man sighs, glancing at him." It's very unlike you to be quiet, and very unlike me to be speaking so much." He smiles. Grabbing Thomas by the shoulder to show assurance.
Devere could himself sweat at the contact, to which Thomas didn't refuse. Their height is almost the same, a jest that Thomas is only slightly taller than him.
"Will Rina be alright?"
His breathing died down at the gentle voice. He tightens his jaw, looking down at his old friend who gently rests his eyes.
Thomas has never slept last night, so this is expected.
'Always so worried over nothing.'
"Dear..." Anita's heavy voice drops the mood of her husband's study, making the man glance up at the sudden entrance of his wife.
"Raoul has been gone for quite a while now.." she fumbles with her dress.
Anita has done her own investigation. She's not the type to stand by and wait for something good to happen. In this case, she's placed eyes and ears around the royal palace using bribes. It's technically illegal, but no one could say no to a large amount of money.
In any case, she's not happy about the current situation at all, nor does she know how to break it to her husband who is desperately trying to use their daughter.
"Yes, it has been quite a while." Gideon replies non-chalantly. Anita hides her anger, looking away and not wanting to meet his gaze.
'How dare he..!' She grinds her teeth. She asked for a daughter since she was unable to birth another child. Her health is already quite weak and birthing another child could've had the chance of killing her. She believed that Gideon was treating their daughter well; now it's everything but that.
And it all started three years ago when Gideon attempted to suffocate Rina because she attempted to annul the engagement to Caesar. It was a shock, but now she truly sees what he's doing. She has never seen this side of her husband before.
When they met all those years ago, they were very in love. So much in fact that despite Anita's ranking as a daughter of a baron noble, he decided to marry her instead of finding a better candidate. She never regretted that choice until this very moment.
She stands in the room tense, the sound of Gideon's quill scratching on the parchment.
There, her husband stands uncaring about their son and daughter and the current situation.
What she's about to say next is going to break her heart.
"Gideon. I know what you've been doing."
The said man's head perks up at the sudden tone in his wife's voice. He gulps, her words repeating in his head.
'.. what?' He thinks, starting to panic. He shouldn't have underestimated his wife. That's his biggest mistake.
Now she knows all of the things that he's done?
Some things are just inevitable.
"Dear.." He starts slowly.
"You're... so seflish.." Anita gives a bitter laugh, covering half of her face with her fan as she glares at him." I never knew you could be like this.."
He slams his hands on his desk and stands up hastily. Anita flinches from the sudden act of aggression as Gideon makes his way to her. Attempting to leave, the man quickly closes the door behind her and traps her against the wall.
"You... won't tell anyone... will you?"
His gaze is like a predator looking at it's prey.
'He's insane...!'
Tears fill up in her eyes, feeling like she lost the love of her life. She attempts to push him away as he got extremely close. She doesn't understand.. why is she feeling uncomfortable?
She's loved this person for years but.. why does she not want to be touched my him right now?
"Anita.. you won't say anything, right?" He repeats. The said woman only shivers under his touch, unable to look at him directly in the eye.
"..." she stays silent, afraid of the fact that wherever may come out of her mouth will be the cause of violence.
"Anita." He calls her name again, making the lady shake in fear.
'N-no..! Please don't say my name anymore...'
He brings himself closer to her face, his lips grazing her cheek. She closes her eyes tightly, facing away and attempting to avoid his advances.
Gideon clicks his tongue in annoyance, grabbing Anita by the wrist and throwing her on the floor.
She falls with a loud yelp, her wrist red from the tight grip.
"H-HEL—MPH..!" Gideon covers her mouth, his large hands almost covering the entirety of her face.
"I'm doing this for our family! You can't betray me like this!" He shouts at her angrily, his hand tightening around her mouth. She struggles to take of his hand which also blocks her from breathing through her nose.
She could feel her consciousness slipping away, tears pouring from her eyes at the pathetic situation as she is unable to save herself.
'R-Raoul... Rina.." she thinks desperately.
BAM
The locked doors burst open to pieces. Gideon flinches from the sudden entrance and attempts to protect himself from the debris, thankfully, also letting go of Anita who is now unconscious.
Orson overlooks the situation, his eyes sharpening and giving a deathly glare at Gideon.
"My lord... what have you done?" He growls.
Gideon flinches at his tone of voice." How dare you?! How did you break through—!"
"That's not important." He interrupts, walking towards Anita who lays on the floor. He attempts to touch to check her pulse but a hand slaps it away.
"A servant like you has no business in our affairs!" The man yells, making Orson widen his eyes. He takes away his arm harshly, keeping his gaze on the man.
Orson smiles, his lips curling into a wide grin. He has, one what you would call, a crazed smile.
"Ah, but she was attempting to yell for help, no?" He asks, his deep voice echoing throughout the room.
His eyes break into slits, knowing how this situation will affect his Master. The last thing he needs is for his master to worry about family affairs when she's already working so hard to protect the kingdom. He breathes in deeply, controlling his anger.
"And you stopped her from doing that, yes?" He continues, walking closer to Gideon who backs away, remembering this isn't some normal servant his daughter had brought in.
Orson stays silent as he turns around and bends down to pick up Anita. Slightly feeling her weak breath, he could tell she's alive...
Barely.
He clicks his tongue in annoyance while slamming the door shut.
Gideon collapses on the floor, the situation now completely dawning in him.
'How did she know?' He clenches his fist and grinds his teeth, looking in the lush rug he sits upon. Slamming his fists into the hard floor, he gives a deep breath.
"HOW DID SHE KNOW?!"
"We have to find out why they're turning out like this. We can't just leave this place in a cursed state..!" She reasons.
Another day in the cursed town, as they started calling it. They slept in the house of one of the passed residences since there's a lack of other living areas in the place.
"There's not much we can do, Dame Vanderwood. We don't know how to conduct a search if we have no clues."
"Sir Tindall.."
The knight shakes his head, disapproving again. Rina bites her lip, obviously upset.
"We've been ordered by the emperor to survey the kingdom. At least give us a leeway to help you all fix it." She says calmly. Lucian grabs her shoulder gently, finding understanding in her reason.
"Yes, at least let us help so the reports can be less of a burden to his imperial highness." He adds, making Rina glance at him.
'Less of a burden? She looks down at her gloves hands and look back at the emperor's design on the back of it.
'I never thought he'd be the type to agree with that... I'm just being reckless at this point.' She reflects.
'But his burden is nothing compared to mine.' She scoffs and shakes off Lucian's hand, suddenly feeling upset and walking out of the room. She can't help but feel stress, the situation growing larger and affecting towns and villages as well. This wouldn't have happened if she had followed the original plot of the novel.
Everything is escalating in front of her, how would she not feel burdened?
She walks out of the building with heavy steps, the afternoon seeming to be warmer than previous days. It's getting closer to the rumored "hottest day in years" according to the people from the imperial capital, and Rina isn't looking forward to that. She'd rather die than drown in sweat in humid heat all day.
She unbuttons her top, leaving her with her thin white undershirt and a feeling of relief and coolness. She guesses as an earth element, she's naturally weak against fire or heat, which sucks. And as she recalls, Nathaniel is a fire element.
'Typical male lead.' She scoffs. She flaps her shirt a few times, walking down the empty street and overlooking the many business which are now closed or have very little customers in them.
She thinks back to the transformation, unsure of what could've caused it. Since they have no lead, she'd have to ask around.
So she started with a small tavern, aware of the fact the types of people that can be in this place.
She enters and quietly walks up to the bar, where a gruff looking man cleans the wooden tankards while overlooking the small crowd of customers. His eyes lands on her, her appearance standing out quite a lot with her silver locks from most of the dark haired crowd, unbeknownst to her.
"You new 'round here?" He grumbles, making the mysterious lady nod." I'll take some beer."
He raises a brow. She seems to be well off; a noble? He doubts she'll be able to stay sober for long, but goes to a barrel anyway and gets her her drink. It's still quite early in the afternoon for a beer, but money is money.
He slides it over with ease as soon as it's filled and she grabs it. She takes large gulps, the large tankard reaching half of the amount in one breath.
The man sweats at her weird and surprising behavior.
'What the hell? How can a noble lady drink so much?' He rolls his eyes, going back to cleaning the other tankards. She turns to him, observing his behavior. The man turns around, feeling uncomfortable from her stare.
"..."
"..."
...
He puts the tankard down and slams his hand in front of her." What the hell d'ya want?" He growls. Rina's expression stays indifferent, watching his face turn red from embarrassment.
"Tell me about these people turning into beasts."
The man freezes at her shocking demand.' She must be drunk.' He thinks reasonably. He decides to ignore it, turning back around and picking up another wet tankard to dry off.
"You look like you know something." She says behind him cooly, making him purse his lips." You look like you want money." She says with a small chuckle, making him glance at her. She smiles to herself.
'People really are just that predictable, it's not surprising.' She looks around the tavern, taking in the state of the building. Broken and cracked windows, squeaky door, old furniture, and the wooden floors and walls look like they could do some replacing.
'In this situation, I'd probably do the same.' She sighs, taking a gulp and eyes the man is talking to another customer.
'I have to get some sort of lead..' she thinks determined.
She feels a tap on her shoulder, causing her to jump at the contact. She snaps her head to see a masked man, his dark blue eyes staring into her two souls. His black hair seems to be messy but aside from the mask, he looks to be observing, his eyes calmly looking at her.
"Is there anything you want..?" She asks him confused.
He sits next to her, making himself comfortable." I overheard your conversation with the bartender, and I'd like to help." He offers, his tone a bit serious.
'A conversation? More like me trying to pry information out of him.' She doubts.' And he seems to be a serious man..' In any case, he could be one of those shapeshifters again, so it's a good reason to be cautious, but he could also be of some help.
"Why?" She asks wryly, unknown of his intentions. He sighs. Rina's brows creases at the reaction, feeling slightly thrown off at the expression under his mask.
"Because you have nowhere else to go."