Chapter 80 - 81. Thief!
It did not take long for the screaming to finally stop, and it went quiet again. My eyes did not move from the prison hole, afraid that they might show up from the hole and attack us, or the Manji's, who also did not come back.
I walked closer to the mouth of the prison hole, peeking at what was under there. The Manji stood on the cage, one of them carrying a sword, the other was holding a bow and was about to shoot her arrow. But I could not see clearly what was in there. I just felt they were ready for something.
I turned to my father, who was getting scared, walked toward him with the dagger pointed straight to his face. "What exactly are you after?" I said firmly. He did not reply to me.
"Why are you doing all of this? Do you want to get rid of me?" I urged him. "If today you don't want me, then you should have never brought me to this world. Twenty seven years of my life was a real pain for me. A little happiness I had, you just snatched it!" I said angrily. I was so much sick of him.
"Your grandfather was just an ordinary man. It was stupid of my mother to marry such a man who had no power at all. I was brought to the world but I was unable to continue her leadership due to no magic power at all." He said angrily. He glared at me trying to intimidate me. "If I couldn't do it, then no one of my descendants would be able to.
I just stared at him blankly when he pointed at me, "Then you appeared. You did not have the slightest power just like your grandfather but an astrologer said that you would be able to kill the strongest wizard. So I was working with Antonie and Mr. Yon to eliminate you, no matter what it took," he spoke in rage.
I was so shocked to hear that, that my father was so ambitious, "And, you did it?" I was half-mocking after I could manage to overcome the shock, "I am too strong for you to kill" I said arrogantly.
"I can't kill you physically but I did it mentally," he replied proudly, "Never forget the fact that you had undergone healing therapy for two years and even today, you still believe that Zie died horribly in front of you." Father smiled slyly knowing I was just silent. He was right. I was not physically dead but mentally I was.
Something was creeping up, diverting the tension created between us. The black sand grains slowly formed figures of two old women, one of them carrying the head of Antonie and Mr Yon's on her both hands. Her expression was stiff as she threw the heads in front of my father. "Thief!" they said in unison. Then their body faded, becoming grains of sand and was lost with the wind.
Kerberos took both heads and prepared to leave. "I am going to take their heads far enough from here, so that they can't be reunited with the bodies," He said, and then he flew off.
My father looked much angry knowing two people he had worked with died at the hands of The Manji's. Miss Azalea knew it and she immediately called her bodyguards to secure her father.
'Is it over now?' My mind was tired. My legs felt so weak and I slid down on the floor.
As the father was taken away by some soldiers, some other soldiers lifted the bodies of Naar and Yoru. I could see that they were severely injured. I got up quickly and walked over to Azalea. "Can I come along?" I asked quickly.
As Azalea gave permission to me, hastily I chased after those soldiers. I did not know where they would take Yoru and Naar's bodies. I could not predict what their current condition looked like. "Where are you going to take them? Are they alright?' I could not hide my worries any longer.
A guard asked me to wait outside when they arrived in front of a room with a black wooden door. Honestly, I had never been to that place before. "They will be alright. Aren't they?" I asked again to convince myself. One of the guards asked me not to follow them inside.
I sat alone by the door. Tiredness and pain in my body suddenly evaporated, replaced by fear and anxiety of what could happen to them. A lot of negative ideas came to my mind. I did not know what would be like if something bad happened to them. All the memories with them flashed of a sudden. 'Why has everything turned so messed up?!
"Miss, you'd better have some rest now," one of the guards asked me to go back to my room.
I could not say no because I really needed to rest to recover myself. My father said that it was not my physics that was devastated, but my mental was.
I got up and was about to go to my room, just then I saw that tubby. He was walking toward me. "Tha, have you known everything?" He asked.
I was just quiet, ignored him, and walked past him to my room, walking through the hallways which were filled with those sticky white threads, I saw some corpses were still not removed. And bloodstains were still scattered in every part, like a painting the painter inscribed deliberately.
When I entered my room, a trail of blood from my shoes created a pattern on the floor. I walked to the bathroom, cleaned all the wounds I got. Bumps and bruises on the waist, not coming the cut wounds all stung when cold water washed them.
I fell asleep soon after my body touched the bed. Tiredness made me sleep faster than usual.
…
I woke up when one of the maids woke me up. She asked me to eat the food she brought. I took it and noticed that her expression was both scared and sad at the same time. "Where is Hana?" I asked before I put a spoonful of brown rice and stir-fried meat cuts. I knew everything was getting bland, but I had to force myself to swallow. I needed energy, too. Aku.
The maid just kept her head down. I knew it was not a good thing. "Okay, I understand," I said slowly, continuing to eat my food even though it felt like I could hide my tears.
After eating, I immediately went to that place. The smell of iron from the remnant of blood still stung even though they had removed all the bodies scattered there. Several maids who crossed paths chose to stay away as if I was something to be avoided.
"Can we talk for a minute?' Azalea suddenly appeared to my front when I was on my way to Yoru and Naar's room.
"Okay," I had no choice but to agree with her.
Azalea took me to her room. She asked me to sit down, and she spread several sheets of paper. I chose to remain silent and waited for her to explain everything to me.
"This is all the reports of Anty's investigations," Said Azalea. "Sooner or later I have to send you back home. When you are back, some things will remain the same and some will be completely different from when Antonie was still alive. Because he was the illusion creator in the world you live so far," She explained.
I remained silent for a moment after listening to Azalea's explanation. More or less I knew about it so I just needed to prepare myself before going back home. "What about that marionette? Will Zie disappear and not return to the spirit of the realm, after the seal limit ends?"
"When Antonie was killed, the seal might automatically disappear, some magic had that effect," Azalea replied. She looked at me, reassuring.
I cried, but I was not even aware of it. "Has he been in the spirit realm?" I asked, hoarsely. "I don't have the sweetest childhood memory other than with Zie. He is the best thing I have ever had so far."
"as I know Antonie was not a cruel man." Azalea said. "You know already that he might be a little difficult to handle, fussy and rebellious. But believe me, he would not be able to kill anyone." Her words confused me about who had killed Zie or whether he was not real.
"If Zie was real, it means someone else killed him, but Antonie wanted you to remember that he was not the one who committed the murder," Azalea explained, "He gave you passwords, that he saw the killer, not saw him commit that crime. Murderer." I remained silent, gathering the fragments of my conversations with Antonie.
"But if Zie was an illusion that was created to kill you mentally, then his death never existed and everything you saw was just a hoax," I tried to digest all her words carefully. "You can conclude that the marionette is also part of the illusion so that when Antonie dies, the doll should also disappear. Even if it turns out that he is still there.. So what possibly happened is the first possibility.