Back in the mansion, everything was quiet. Nora had disappeared into her room, so had everyone else with everything returning to normal. The maids were all continuing their duties since it was still, pretty early in the day. What an odd event.
Every day I lived in this world, the more I understood that there was a vast infrastructure behind this country, politics, history, religion all of which seemed to be important and all of which I may have to study to get a better grasp on everything.
Sylvia.
Sylvia was an interesting person with her goals remaining unknown and her attitude rather spiteful. It was clear each and every family member had their own goals and it was even more ridiculous to hear that there were eighteen members of this twisted family.
Moreover, the city seemed to be moving and I couldn't plan anything yet, unless I knew what Nora’s next moves were. Once again, I had to go and seek her for information.
I paced down the hallways, searching for her office. I barged into it and no one was there, so she had to be in her room possibly since we wouldn’t be eating lunch for a little while.
I wasn’t that much of a rude person to barge into the princesses room, so I stood outside of it and politely knocked.
“Who is it?” A voice, rather emotionless, replied.
“Axure.”
“Oh.”
What do you mean Oh?
“You can come in.”
I slowly opened the door, searching for her with my eyes only to see her beautifully sitting in the window, looking out to the sky, with a face impossible to read. After that entire event, who knew what this woman was thinking? What was going on in her mind?
For the first time, I grew more interested in her ghastly existence.
How far would she go for her goal?
Because if this was earth, I would tell her to her face. Nora, you are a politician, another person in pursuit of power. How much will you sacrifice to get to the top?
She turned her head toward me with her hands resting on her lap. The light rays beamed through the arched window, darkening her whole body, with only her gleaming eyes showing a tiny sign of life.
“It is unusual for you to seek me,” she said.
“That it is, but Nora I would like to ask you a few questions.”
“And they are?”
“Nora, what is the devil to you?”
“The devil is humanity itself. Humans are just so weak that they look for someone to blame for evil. And they can never point fingers at themselves. The devil is the product of ignorance to accountability.”
“What about the Shadow Queen?”
“Just a dead and powerful woman from hundreds of years ago. Nothing more…nothing less…”
She tilted her head back with her hair covering her ears and continued with a deep sigh, “If Valleria decided to wreak havoc on the world, I wonder, would this world proclaim him as the devil?”
“But the Aylanists worship the Shadow Queen right?” I asked.
“Yes they do. For how long their religion has been around, I do not know.”
“So technically they’re devil worshippers.”
“Right you are Axure, right you are.”
So when I was called a Devils messenger, does that equate to me not being the actual messenger of the Shadow Queen herself, but being a part of the Aylanists?
“They say before the Queen’s arrival, the world was a utopia of peace. But I wonder, how true was that?” She asked herself aloud.
“Well, since you’re Sylvia’s competitor, do you know what her campaign is? What are her goals? How is she going to get them?”
“I do not know, but she is not a foolish woman. None of my siblings are and they surely have built vast connections with powers all over the country to achieve their goals.”
“So? Are we going anywhere else today? Are we doing anything tomorrow?”
“Over the next few days, yes. Today we are done but from here on, we must go to different parts of the city doing the same as we did today. I believe I had gotten a headstart on everyone else.”
“But, it doesn’t seem to be exactly in your favour,” I replied, remembering the crowds of screams.
“You said it yourself. You saw some.”
“Perhaps.”
Not that I care. I have gotten my answer, for the next few days, it seems we shall still stay within Ballaad, but move around within. Which means I have a window, I just don’t have much time. Preparation has to begin from here on out. Today is too hasty, tomorrow would be a good time.
“So what, same time tomorrow?”
“Most likely, yes. My people have the stage setup in certain areas and have spread the word throughout the nearby districts. And whoever is interested, shall make their appearance.”
Great, so not an exact time but roughly the same as today.
“Oh, fair enough. How do you even know where you want to do your speech?”
“Today, we were at the centre of District one and four. We typically do these in the middle of two districts. Tomorrow shall be between E8 and SE7.”
I didn’t want to ask more questions and leave threads leading to my next move, so I decided it was my time to leave, and commit to my original plan again. Scouting.
“Thanks for letting me know in advance this time. I shall take my leave then,” I said as I pulled open the door from behind. The woman looked back out to the window, giving no reply back and so I shut the door and left her behind.
I searched through the whole mansion, making sure people like Rumena, Zidane and even Laura were out of the way. It was great that I had this little side route for me to escape, because now I knew that Zidane didn’t have a perfect grasp on me.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
There was a specific reason I could not just escape now. That being, if I did, then I was afraid of Nora’s power, with her possibly igniting a national manhunt which meant that my life would become twenty times harder. I mean, it was not ridiculous to say that this world had bounties. Today was the day I would construct the final plan, the final plan to escape these hellish walls and reclaim my freedom.
One day, I will go home.
I swear it.
One day, I will find my way home.
If the royal family doesn’t know the secrets, I shall traverse the world on my own, till I find my way back.
I didn’t leave the mansion however, for there was a man out there that possibly had be- no not possibly, he had me as a target in his mind so walking outside with my face visible was a foolish option.
That blonde haired man who killed me.
He might still be looking for me.
Looking for Laura, I found her in the washing room, thoroughly scrubbing down clothes and so I asked, “Laura, are there any other clothes for me to wear?”
“Mmmmmmm, I mean these are all the ones I’m washing right now. I can take you to the dried ones.”
“Perfect.”
We walked together, going out to the garden.
“Why are you looking for new clothes?” She asked.
“Well, because I have been wearing these for a while. Especially this jacket.”
“Ohhh, do you want me to wash it for you?”
“No, it’s fine I still need this.”
I couldn’t give her my coat because in all honesty, it had everything I needed inside it for defence. All these small pockets I had sewed on, hidden compartments with sticks of dynamite, I couldn’t just take the rags of this world and throw away my chance of fighting.
“Here they are!”
She pointed at a washing line, with clothes hanging down from the windows of the mansion and so I inspected it, seeing closely if there was anything I could take.
“Wait, aren’t these other people’s clothes?” I asked when I came to the realization.“Some are, some aren’t. I organise them properly. You see that line is for all the guards that stay here,” she pointed to one hung at the far end, “And that middle one, is for all the maids like me, and then this one, is clothes that are left in the cupboards of the rooms.”
“Oh, how come?”
“Because many times, guests come to stay at this mansion so we provide clothes for them to wear.”
“The royal family really have their way of doing things.”
I scanned around the line, spotting the perfect guise: a cloak.
Perfect!
I pointed out to it with Laura fitting it on for me, wearing it over my dark red. I pulled it in, covering my whole body and wrapping myself inside. Laura slipped before me and did up all my buttons, making sure it looked presentable. The only issue was that it was slightly too presentable, because I did want to slip by as a regular commoner but this cloak was a dark blue with gold linings around it. It wasn't too bad, lucky there weren’t any ridiculous patterns and it was a dark colour. But still, something like a ripped brown cloak would have passed me off as a nobody.
I kept the hood down, so Laura didn’t realise I was sneaking out of the mansion and obviously hiding myself from whoever.
“It looks good on you,” she stepped back with a smile.
“Finally, something new.”
She chuckled, “It’s nice to see you looking different for once.”
I pretended to go back to my room, only to instantly slip back out and go to my savored spot. Since this was technically “the calm after the storm”, it didn’t seem like anything else would be going on today and I had to keep in mind, I needed to return within two hours.
Nora always made us eat together at 2:00PM, and the time right now was…
“Avante, time.”
“12:04 sir.”
Two hours. That’s enough.
I climbed the gates as I had done numerous times before, and flung my hood over my head. I casually walked toward the canal, still walking in a completely different direction. I knew I was covered in completely new clothes, but Zidane seemed to notice the details and could have seen this robe before. If he saw me like this, then I doubt that foolish man would even let me live.
Agh what a pisstake.
I dropped a coin to the man in the boat, and set sail to go inward to the slums. My main focus today wasn’t too difficult. I needed to memorise the routes of the poorer districts, and use it to my advantage. If I had a map, this would have made it far easier, so for now, I had to construct a mental map. I needed to avoid E8 and SE7, since that would be where Nora would be tomorrow. It made no use staying where guards and people would be in heavy numbers. And it would be stupid to slip away under their noses anyway.
For me to escape, I had to plan the perfect death. I needed my death to become apparent to Nora just like I had done before.
Lorenzo’s workshop was situated in W15 and he had built his little escape route in NW16, so I believed it would be best to make a mental map of those two districts first.
The naming of the districts were rather simple and easy to understand and in a sense and sort of reminded me of Britain. You see, the city of Ballaad was built in circular fashion, and was split into eight slices, with another circle in the centre, splitting it up into sixteen. Now, in each quarter, there were around four districts, and so the way postcodes in this country were devised for mailing purposes, they had attached the label, N,E,S,W, which is simple for north,east, south and west.
Well, get Ballaad’s name, get the first and last letter, put them together and attach the number of the district at the end. Now just add on the location, something like North West, and you have NWBD16.
Thank god, even this empire knew how to simplify things. No wonder Nora could deliver and receive mail so quickly. And just to put in perspective, Nora’s mansion was in WBD13, at the central area of the city, and in the same quarter as Lorenzo’s workshop.
So yes, it made sense scouting this quarter of the map first, memorising it and going again, after lunch to devise my murder.
One hour later…
“Avante, time.”
“1:10 sir.”
“I have to get going then,” I muttered. I still had relatively a good amount of time, so there was no need for me to take a boat, I could just walk all the way there. And so I did, with me being able to see Nora’s mansion in the distance, not too far below.
The way this city was built had the centre at the bottom, with all these stacking houses, raised like hills and towers of spiralling houses darted everywhere.
Just ahead of me, I saw a tavern with bustling people, laughing men and women, slightly reminding me of Sylvie back when I met her. Knowing I had time, I decided it wasn’t too bad of a time to grab a drink, not an alcoholic one but just a juice maybe.
I pushed through the tiny doors as they swung behind me, and walked over to the till. The vibe was dark, built with wood all around and tiny lamps hanging low with fire lit within them. Vines of green crawled all over the taverns insides, holding candles and even holding peoples drinks. I smiled. It was ridiculous. But it was nonetheless.
A cabinet of bottle drinks lay behind a woman in white, wearing an apron and a bandana wrapped around her hair. She cleaned the table with a towel as men sat before her on high chairs, drinking and laughing. I kept my hood on, still wary about a certain individual possibly lurking.
I took my seat down at the corner, searching for what to get. There didn’t seem to be some sort of menu, I just had to know and since I wasn’t a local, that proved quite hard.
Just as I was about to raise my hand to call the woman over-
“Found you.”
I heard a rattling voice claw into my ears, sending a breath of panic down my back. I stayed calm.
The voice, it was dark, it was deep. And more importantly, I recognised it.
It was him.
I could never forget. Those blackened eyes, those red pupils, that calm demeanour.
He had come.
He held an empty glass with ice blocks melting inside as he shook them around for me to hear the quiet jingle. I stayed calm, I stayed quiet. Composure was something I could not lose.
“You’re not on the commandments…”
I could practically hear the grin. I gulped. I stayed quiet.
“How did you know we were coming?” He spoke again, “the night we came to attack the princess.”
I still remained silent. I needed him to talk.
Talk more. Feed me information. I need more information. More, more.
“You… are you the Devil’s messenger?”
Huh?
Devil’s messenger? What? I thought the devil was your God?
“And what if I am?” I asked.
“Then you are an enemy of the Queen.”
“Then I am not what you speak of,” I replied.