Chapter 47: A Safe Place

Aries could not jump out of the shadows when he arrived at the chamber of the future house leader. For a room with only enough space to move around, Princess Pieffer, Prince Sunrei, and Siorre were fighting five people at the same time. Lira was also in the room but she was too devastated to fight back. The three were protecting the future house leader whose back was leaning on the stone wall.

Aries understood why Lira was reacting that way. One of the five people attacking them was her mother. The remaining four were probably her relatives because Aries had seen them in the rooms on the second floor of the manor.

Because his comrades were doing well at defending themselves, Aries decided to check on the people outside that chamber. And as he had dreaded, the hallways were also in chaos.

Fortunately, the guards were doing an excellent job in protecting the people. They were doing surprisingly well that the group attacking them had called for backup. Aries saw one of the enemies broke a crystal that released a faint smoke. After a few seconds, corrupted souls came hovering from the vents and attacked the guards.

Aries finally stepped out of the shadows and called Vermillion in the form of a bow. He pulled a few transport bracelets from his pocket and tossed them at the guard nearest to him.

"I already told you how to use it," he reminded the guard and started shooting arrows. "Go and save yourselves. Quick!"

The guard distributed the transport bracelets among his comrades and escaped the hideout with the rest of the people they had rescued.

Aries kept on shooting at the hovering corrupted souls while dashing away from the enemies that were chasing him at ground level. For a moment, he felt like being hunted by zombies. He could not be hit by their sharp knives or he would be in deep trouble.

After a few minutes of relentless shooting and running, Aries managed to absorb all the hovering corrupted souls. Vermillion quickly transformed from bow to dual swords and Aries tried to render his ground enemies unconscious. But it was like fighting possessed people. Even though you hit them hard enough to knock the breath out of them, they would only be stunned for a few seconds.

'Kill them…'

Aries momentarily staggered as he heard that familiar whisper inside his head.

'Slit their throats…'

Aries shook his head and kept on trying to render his enemies unconscious but they annoyingly kept on rising up.

'Killing them will be easier. Your friends need you. Will you let them die?'

Aries felt his hands moved involuntarily that he quickly willed his dual blades to disappear. He could not kill those people because he had to keep his oath. He promised Lira that he will not kill anyone. Two guards at the quadrangle were enough.

He did his best to dodge the blades aimed at him and seize whoever it was that his hands could grab and snatch away from that place. Through the shadows, he brought the enemies to the House of Pitcher.

Quaria was walking around the fountain at the Central Island when Aries appeared from the shadows, dragging two strangers along with him.

"I need to lock up a lot of people," Aries breathed as the house leader approached him.

Even though his sudden arrival was too abrupt and surprising, Quaria had quickly gotten over it and correctly assessed the situation.

"Bring them to our dungeon for now," she instructed her guards and the strangers Aries had dragged in there were instantly disarmed and carried to the dungeon.

Aries brought nearly fifteen people to the House of Pitcher.

"Thank you," he was already catching his breath by that time. "I will return for them soon."

"Don't worry. I can take care of those people," Quaria reassured him.

Aries gratefully smiled before leaving through the shadows.

Now that he had cleared the hallways, he returned inside the chamber of Lira. The situation seemed to be progressing in an ugly way.

Tears filled the eyes of the future house leader as she unsheathed her dagger and pointed the tip of the blade at her mother.

"Forgive me," Lira cried as she attacked her mother. Her weak slashes were slowly gaining intensity and she was able to corner her mother on the wall.

"Forgive me…" she repeated as she raised her knife to land a fatal blow.

Her mother stopped resisting, dropped her dagger on the ground, and waited for the kill.

Aries had quickly maneuvered through the shadows until he could grab the mother by her shoulders and pulled her away from that place and towards the House of Pitcher.

"She is Lira's mother. Guard her well, please."

"Understood," Quaria promised and motioned for her guards to take her to a separate cell.

"I will be taking four more people in here."

"Okay."

"Thank you," Aries gratefully mentioned before disappearing into the shadows.

He pulled the four remaining enemies away from the chamber of Lira and into the House of Pitcher. He thanked the Pitcher House Leader once more and returned to the hideout. As soon as he stepped out of the shadows, his knees buckled and he slumped on the ground.

"I'm okay," he quickly said as his comrades stared anxiously at him. Except for Lira whose face was buried in the shoulder of Siorre.

"Let's not… kill them now," he went on speaking but his voice had lowered into a whisper and everything around him began to blur and spin. "I took them all… to the House of Pitcher…" he was starting to catch his breath. He did not realize his body was this tired until he stopped moving.

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"Take a rest," Pieffer knelt beside him and helped him up on the couch.

"Do you think you can save those people?"

Out of nowhere, a woman in a dark violet dress appeared in the room. She was wearing a bracelet on her right wrist and its pendant glowed in harmony with the bracelet Lira was wearing.

The future house leader was not wearing a bracelet before they went to the manor. It must have been given by her mother.

"You can only save them once you are dead."

The woman in dark violet dress had black eyes that were glinting with killing intent. Her pitch-black hair was hanging loosely down to the back of her waist. Aries could see a corrupted soul possessing that body.

"We will save them," Lira lifted her head from the shoulder of Siorre and turned to face their newly arrived enemy. Her eyes were filled with rage. "We will give justice to the people you killed," she removed the glowing bracelet from her wrist and shattered it with her clenched fist. "We will stop you from using people as your tools."

"I am wondering when would that time comes," the woman laughed mockingly. "I mean you can defeat us but only for a short while. You will die and be reborn then all of this will happen again. More people will die and become corrupted souls. Our army will only grow bigger while you will keep on grieving."

"We will end it," Aries had a few minutes of rest. It was enough to recover some of his strength. He pulled a transport bracelet from his pocket as he firmly stated, "This time will be different."

He got up on his feet and stood with his comrades. He felt their grip on his arms and shoulders.

"Wait for it," he tightly closed his fist around the pendant of the bracelet until it shattered and a blinding light had swallowed them.

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Aries brought his comrades to where the Book of Balance was hidden. It was a good thing that he remembered to give a transport gem to the father of Lira.

"Father…" the future house leader muttered with disbelief. "What did you do to my mother?!"

She unsheathed her knife and attacked the old man but Aries quickly stepped in front of the present house leader.

"Hear him out first."

Lira halted, took a few deep breaths, closed her eyes, and finally put down her weapon hand.

"I tried to talk to you plenty of times," her hand trembled around the hilt of her blade. "But you kept your mouth shut."

Siorre stood right next to Lira and took the sharp weapon from the hand of her special friend.

"And you will talk now?!" the future house leader screamed her frustration. "Why only now?!"

"I don't want you to hate your mother," her father looked straight into her eyes. "You can discern if I am telling a lie or not. I wanted to protect you and your mother. That's why I lied. I kept telling myself lies because I had this hope that things will return to how it was if I just believed on it. But that didn't happen. One mistake led to another until everything went out of hand. I should have made you the house leader that day I decided to lie. But in the end, I still chose to protect my family."

"Protect us from the corrupted souls?" Lira was furious and confused. "And what did mother do? Why will I hate her?"

"She had an affair with an outsider," her father cried and Lira held on to the arm of Siorre with shock on her face. "Not just any ordinary outsider but someone who was possessed. I discovered their relationship all too late. Our barriers had weakened and corrupted souls entered our House. I became obsessed with righteousness because of your mother. She was telling me things that I did not bother to investigate because I trusted her with my life. I feared that you will be devastated. You are the only hope of this House. I don't want you to be filled with rage."

"But I did," Lira breathed. "I hated you for a long time. And because I trusted mother, I endangered my companions and I lost my hideout."

"Can you punish your mother?" the old man seriously asked after wiping the tears in his eyes.

"I love her but if she is in the wrong, she should be punished," Lira said despite the pain in her eyes. "Look at what happened to all of us because you tried to protect two people. Did mother change? She had only worsened."

"Maybe you should also hear your mother out," Aries suggested. "Maybe she still had something to say."

"I can listen to her," Lira gazed seriously at Aries. "But that will not change the fact that she had sinned, brought our entire House on the brink of destruction, and caused death to a lot of innocent people. That cannot be easily forgiven. She should be heavily punished for it."

"I understand," her father sincerely agreed. "A house leader should always be fair. You are ready for that position. You should touch that book."

Lira nodded then glanced at Aries, Princess Pieffer, and Siorre.

"The book will give me a trial that will last for twenty-four hours. As I said before, this House will become lawless. You are free to do what you wanted to do without any consequences. Please, protect the House of Scale and its people."

"You don't have to plead," Siorre smiled. "We will do it even if you didn't ask. It is our duty."

"Thank you," Lira smiled with relief.

"But…" Siorre lowered her voice as she asked, "How can you trust his words? You hated him for a long time. What makes you so sure that he is telling the truth?"

"I missed my mother so much that I forgot to check if her words are genuine. My carelessness nearly cost lives," Lira bitterly smiled. "I am examining my father ever since he had opened his mouth. My eyes can see it. He is not lying."

"Okay then," Siorre tapped Lira lightly on the shoulder. "Go ahead and become the new house leader of this House."

Lira nodded and approached the Book of Balance that was floating in the middle of the chamber. She looked at it for a minute as if contemplating. Then she finally raised her hand and touched the leatherbound book.

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