3 hours later
"My lord. No one else is around."
Duke Lucas Benjamen Rothley frowned at his subordinate word.
"But?" he asked.
"But we found traces of someone climbing on the cliff. Whoever it was must have used some type of magic or have a trained body."
Lucas lifted an eyebrow. Then he looked at the spot where the woman was sitting the other night. He was certain she was there and that he had talked to her, but he could no longer find any traces of her when he woke up.
Almost immediately, he thought it was a hallucination, a part of the sinister weapon that his enemies used to hurt him. Then he realized that his wound healed completely. A cursed weapon like the one used to injure him would never kill him. However, the scars on his body were proof that a cursed weapon's mark would stay with him forever.
But the wound that he received the other day vanished. It was as if it had never been there in the first place.
Was it the girl?
She would have told him to call her lady instead of a girl. She looked like a small girl with black hair and light brown eyes. He thought she was just an innocent native of the empire. It seems that he was wrong.
The woman might not be as innocent as he originally thought.
His eyes narrowed.
A woman that could heal a cursed weapon is someone who received a Blessing, or someone who has received a curse.
Just like him.
"Have you heard if any of the great seven families have a place nearby?" he asked. The seven great families received the Blessing of the Goddess and can purify a wound from a cursed weapon.
However, each generation only has one person who could inherit the Blessing. Right now, there are less than twenty people who have the Blessing. Meeting one especially in a place like this would be close to impossible.
"There is a small cabin owned by the Lux Family not too far away from this cliff."
"Lux… Light," Lucas muttered to himself. What are the odds that the woman he saved was someone from the Lux family? But wasn't it known that each of the Blessed families had a different hair color to represent their Blessings?
For instance, someone who received the Blessing of fire has reddish hair. The family with the Blessing of the rock would have brown. Water was blue, Ice was skyblue, thunder was purple, Air was gray and Light was blond.
This trait was common to all members of the same family and was not limited to the one who received the Blessing.
Now that he thought about it, the woman late night had midnight black hair, nor was sheusing anything to hide her hair color. He would have sensed any magic or Blessing from her. But he didn't.
He frowned.
"Let's depart," he said. "Ah… roast some snake. I want to have some."
His subordinate nodded. "What about the assassins?"
"We shall bring them to the empire. I am almost certain the current King would love to see them." The Duke answered, a sinister glint flashing in his eyes.
"All of them?"
Lucas's lips lifted into a smirk.
"All of their heads."
"I understand," his subordinate smiled before he left. Lucas stared at the fire that he created last night. Then he turned and followed his subordinate.
.....
Rosalind was in an extremely good mood as she picked up another colorful plant from the bushes. Then she started munching on it, treating it as if it was a delicious snack. She had been walking for hours, enjoying the views that the mountain has to offer — all that was actually a nice way of saying that she was lost.
She couldn't find her way home! She didn't realize how problematic the snow was when it came to hiding a pathway. If she had known this, then maybe she should have tried to make more of an effort to remember the way. In her defense, she was in a panic. After all, the men wearing black could easily find her and kill her.
She had spent hours trying to find the way out of this forest and her body was getting exhausted. Luckily, she had met no monsters or humans. Right now, she was actually more worried about Milith. The poor woman must be very sad right now.
It took her a couple more hours before she finally found the right way and therefore reached her destination.
The cabin!
However, instead of relief, she froze when she saw the carriage with the Lux family's crest. The two knights standing next to the carriage were also wearing the white and red Lux family uniform with the embroidered family crest on their chest. . She counted the days and knew that Dorothy wasn't supposed to come today. It should be about another week!
Did something happen?
She frowned and eyed her tattered clothes. If they would see her wearing something like this, they would probably kill Milith just to save their faces. A sigh escaped her lips.
She could already smell the trouble that was coming her way.
....
"Where is she?" Victoria Foster-Lux drew her eyebrows closer as she stared at the maid kneeling not far away from her. She started pacing as she bit her lower lip. Despite her insistence not to summon the second daughter of the Lux Family, the patriarch had specifically told her to bring Rosalind back to the capital.
As the current mistress of the Lux Family, it was her duty to follow her husband's orders. Even if that order was something that made her uncomfortable.
"Why isn't she here yet?" she demanded again. She had sent two knights to find Rosalind and they had left a couple of hours ago. They should be back by now. She might have disliked Rosalind since she was born from another woman, but that didn't mean she would wish death for the girl.
Obviously, this was because Victoria didn't want to ruin her good name in the capital. The rumors in the past about their bullying of the young Rosalind had long been forgotten abut Victoria was certain that those rumors would once again appear if Rosalind died under some mysterious circumstances.
"How dare a maid leave their master?" she hissed under her breath. According to the small maid named Milith, Rosalind and her got separated because of a bear. As Rosalind's maid, Milith tried to attract the attention of the bear while letting Rosalind run the other way.
Sadly, Rosalind didn't come back. Milith looked distraught, and she said she had been looking for her master the whole night.
"If the Patriarch hears you abandoned your master…." Victoria continued. "He will have your head in no time!"
"Ha! A bear! How could a bear suddenly appear in this part of the— how could you even bring your master into the forest?" Victoria said. "This— " She sat down on the wooden stool. "I cannot believe this!"
"Miss Victoria?"
Victoria's face immediately lit up when she heard a familiar voice. She looked at the woman who walked into the cabin. Black hair and brown eyes. Rosalind.
The cursed child.
However, she pushed her thoughts out of her head as she gave Rosalind a worried look.
"Where have you been!?" she asked. "You made your mother worry!"
...
1 chapter for now. It will increase once I sign a contract. Thanks!