Chapter 87

𝕾𝖔𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖔 𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖙𝖔: 𝕴 𝕶𝖓𝖔𝖜 𝕻𝖑𝖆𝖈𝖊𝖘 𝖇𝖞 𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝕾𝖜𝖎𝖋𝖙

***

My mouth felt like a deserted land, with the only ashes from the sands coming out, and when the cold breeze touched my skin, all my hairs rose, until the vision of the symbol from what Jer had been talking about appeared.

In the middle of the center of the forest, where we battled hundreds of beast monsters within, a greenish glow with the symbol of an ancient carving appeared.

Right at that moment, my gaze couldn't look anywhere, as if I was being drawn by the seal, I didn't even realize, that my hands and feet were trying to reach the place until I felt this burning sensation from my shoulders and the moment I blinked, I felt as if the wind pushed me away to a mighty wall.

"Careful, Lady Vestia, we may never know what's in store for us in there," Jer's warm breath felt like a fire through my ears as if the moment I dig in deeper to the seal, the more flames I will come in contact with.

Some say that hell might be a place to burn the soul, but what if it was a place to freeze the souls?

Shaking my head, and exuding this breath that had been caused by both the chilly breezes and Jer's warm hands, I looked at the young man's soul only to find my mirror in it.

"Lady Vestia, do you even remember the papers that Key gave you?" Jer asked and right now, in a snap of his fingers, we were already far away from the seal, or the light glow that appeared in the middle of the forest.

"Yes, why?" I asked

I heard him sigh and shake his head but his hands made their way to both of my shoulders.

"I think it involves the seal that we just saw"

"That's what I'm talking about earlier, I think I remember something but it——"

"Yes, Lady Vestia, the seal we just saw might be the seal that we can conclude about"

"Is that—"

"If you're thinking what I'm thinking then I guess it's yes..."

"Then how do we even acquire it when it was... no way, did you just..." As I was about to ask Jer about the current movement, the corners of his mouth formed into a wider grin that made my eyes widen so that I couldn't even blink.

"Yes, I did, that's why I made us be in this far away place, because the moment that I snapped my fingers, the pacifier was already accumulating the seal and turning it into a wooden seal"

"But then, how do we even—"

"Is that a thing that a Secron would ask?" Then I began to narrow my gazes, the hands I was tightly holding on his clothes loosened their way and now, I was already clenching them hard with gritted teeth.

"You know that killing a hundred monsters would result in their seals accumulating and making us pass through the Belfore East's experimentation area..."

"I've read that on Key's papers, but that conclusion is already decades ago, maybe perhaps, everything changed and —"

"If Master Lexus would be here, he would have known immediately that we could use——"

"So you're saying that I am not as near as a Secron in your eyes?"

I heard him sigh but then put his hands over his face and when they landed on mine, I could see them narrow. But then shaking his head was another result of that kind of action.

"What I'm trying to say is that we could use this to our advantage given that it already occurred"

Arguing with this man seemed to be impossible because he might have a point.

Mimicking his previous actions I heard him chuckle not from where I was but when I narrowed my gaze to him, he shut up, and yet his shoulders still trembled with his hand over his mouth as if he was covering something on his fluffy cheeks.

"For the time being after I have observed the seal, I would still need to put some delicate barrier into it, we don't know it—"

"Don't worry I have a plan for that, in the meantime, I will notify you once I am finished. Then about the scroll earlier..."

"Then please do so, the first experimentation we encountered earlier must have more relevance than the monsters who suddenly attacked us, Jer"

"I know that Lady Vestia. But just to be sure, we could make it out useful, right?"

Narrowing my gaze back, I didn't speak a word, but just uttered some breaths I'd been holding for the longest time since earlier.

With the snap of his fingers, a light appeared above his opened palm and a mighty scroll appeared. The one that must have been present earlier when I had fainted.

The moment I saw it, I just felt as if there was heaviness from my chest as if I had been breathing hard, as if something had been covering my air's passageway.

"Lady Vestia, are you all right?" Jer asked perhaps, seeing my current state and I just nodded,

"I feel fine, Jer, but could you state to me what had happened earlier again? When you acquire that scroll?"

"You fainted that's why you didn't see the glow from the ashes of the human experiment that we encountered earlier. But to tell you the full details, it just appeared, as if a light glowed and handed me this scroll..."

"You didn't feel anything?" I asked with knitted eyebrows because I could eventually see my mirror in his soul at this point, and I could even feel his warm breath on mine.

"Lady Vestia, I think you're forgetting something," Jer spoke in a low tone, and after leaning forward, after making his eyes level mine, I could see the wider smirk on his face.

"....what——"

"Us Phantoms could detect dangers at any point in time, but we couldn't feel anything at all when it comes to emotions, Lady Vestia. Didn't Key tell you this? That our real bodies were kept elsewhere and only Master Oratio knew it?"

I felt as if my mouth felt dry again and when I tried to open my mouth to speak, my head suddenly ached and I backed a few steps before feeling Jer's hands on both of my shoulders.

"Lady Vestia, did you perhaps...." Jer wasn't able to finish his words, because the moment that I put my hands in front of him, I could see his eyes narrowed as his mouth shut while still, I remained in this kind of position where I was in this place but my vision and mind was elsewhere...

I tried to shout and scream because of feeling disconnected but then, I saw these two visions playing in my mind, one was from the Vellitas household, and one was from the imperial household.

"Lady Vestia, you know the consequences you just did before we went to this place, right?"

"I know but that was just because I obtained a new magic since leveling up my current status, Jer...." I could barely say with my gritted teeth and all I could just fathom right at the moment was Jer moving aside from me and snapping his fingers.

"I guess you're not alone in this, let me check from your visions," the moment he said those words, my sight that was from elsewhere, came in front of me as if a vision that was moving within the spaces of the air that we were breathing but the ache was still there.

"Master Oratio should have taught you to control your power and maneuver it before coming in here, Lady Vestia"

"...." I wasn't able to speak, but I could feel my hands tightly gripping the air between us.

I knew how to disconnect myself from the clones I'd created, but because of the happening earlier, and right now, I felt like my mana was becoming weaker and Jer just helped me replenish some by his actions.

Being a Secron means that I have to use everything to my knowledge to explore my magic, and one of those was this, combining the power of the Renaze and Theron.

However, something just didn't feel right at everything even until now, I felt as if someone from the shadows was continuing to watch over us.

I could feel it, from the suspicious breezes of the cold wind to the hot deserted land, someone from the trees, might have eyed our movements but even I and Jer couldn't predict it at first as we were preoccupied by those beast monsters earlier.

"Lady Vestia, I think you should see this..." the moment he said those words, my vision was already captured from the scenario where my cloned magic dolls were pretending to be like me, and that was when I saw him, from the imperial household.

"So Vestia, how was your day?" I saw Caliere drink from his tea, we were surrounded by the roses in the garden but this wasn't the place where we first met, where the Ivy tree was lying.

"It had always been a good thing, Caliere," my cloned said, and I designed the doll to specify everything about myself so that no one could even imagine or suspect that something was wrong with me.

As I tried to look at the vision nothing seemed to be wrong but why did some images suddenly appear right in front of me? And to top it all, these two that had no other impending dangers?

Or was it for me to be warned of the upcoming dangers instead?

I also have one with the clinic but that didn't appear that's why I was confident that everything was going by what I had planned.

Yet these two made it more unpredictable...

"But why do I feel like I am talking to an empty shell right now, Vestia?"

My eyes suddenly widened and I gulped the dry saliva within my mouth.

I looked at Jer and he only seemed to narrow his eyes when looking at the crown prince.

"Your eyes seemed a little different today, perhaps, you're just tired. By the way, where is your necklace that I gave to you?" His voice was becoming gentler and softer but there was some hint of coldness in it, I could feel it in one tone and it was all because of Oratio's teaching.

Like he must have suspected me of something, I could also tell the difference when I caressed the wooden necklace he gave me, because I couldn't even copy this to my cloned doll...

"As I expected, Lady Vestia, Your Fiance is a very dangerous being"

"Why did you say that, Jer?"