Chapter 12: Chapter-12: Meeting the Ulaspas family

When Adui heard the Click for the first time, he couldn't help but smile, it had been about an hour since he started solving the puzzle and as soon as he aligned the first face of the cube, he heard a clicking noise. He did know what it meant, but he understood that he was on the right path, after the first face is completed, he now only needs to align all the other faces, and this puzzle would be solved for good.

After working constantly on the cube for some hours, he made an observation, every face has a piece in the center that does not move. The opposite side of the fish center is always the leaf center and like that, every pattern has a partner. From this, he figured that every pattern has a designated face, and all the pieces of that pattern must gather on that designated face.  

That observation was a breakthrough, now he could form a mental image in his head of a fully aligned cube. He thought that after making such a breakthrough, he would come a tad bit closer to solving the cube as well, but he was wrong. After working on it overnight, he was able to make one face of the cube very easily, but after that, he got stuck.

After completing a face, when he moved on to make the adjacent face, he started facing some problems. With one face complete he had to move the sides of the cube in such a way that it doesn't disrupt the first face that he made. And that was becoming rather difficult. Without the freedom of using every side, it became very hard for him to move any piece around, thus he got stuck.

By the time morning arrived, he had dark circles under his eye, and his head was aching, but still, he was stuck…

He looked terrible after working on the cube overnight and not even a warm bath was able to make him look better. When he arrived to eat breakfast, he saw Ben there, quietly sipping his soup while being lost in thought. He made his way over there and sat down beside him.

“Good morning my dear friend.” he greeted him. But Ben only gave him a small smile and went back to eating his soup.  Seeing this attitude, he got a bit angry and decided to be direct. “Do you not wanna talk to me, Ben?” 

Surprised by his word, Ben looked up, astonished. “What brought this on?”

“I am not blind nor am I an idiot. I have noticed since yesterday’s incident you have been, awfully quiet. You are not on your usual behavior, and now the small smile that you gave me, you don't want to talk to me, do you?” 

Ben was uncomfortable with the question, he shifted his position on his chair a few times, as he didnt what to say. “Adui… I… It is not… Um… You see, I want to say… Dont, I mean… Uh” 

Seeing him saying gibberish, he immediately stopped him. “Stop.” He then continued. “Look, Ben. I don't know what is your problem, but what I did yesterday, it was to save both of us. We would have been in a very difficult position if it wasn't for me… I know, I was... I went a little overboard. And I fully accept its responsibility, but your behavior on the other hand I cannot accept.”

He continued. “If you have something to say to me, Ben, then say it to my face. We have been friends for more than a decade now, and you never had any problems bluntly sharing your thoughts with me in the past, so why have you taken the vow of silence now?”

Ben shifted in his seat. “Adui… I am sorry I acted this way. It is just that… I… I have seen many people in my lifetime, who were corrupted by the powers they received. And yesterday, after what happened, I felt like…” He stopped. He didn't have any words to say, Adui was also confused by his actions.

“Ben, what the fuck are you trying to say? You think that I acted that way yesterday because I was drunk on my power. I have been corrupted by it?” Ben awkwardly smiled, which was the answer that he was looking for.

“Ben, I had these powers for more than a decade, but have you ever seen me acting this way before.” Ben stayed silent, which was enough to answer Adui’s question. “No, I didn't. Yesterday I lost control because some things have been going on in my life, I cannot share them with you, but these things had messed my brain real good.”

“I am also a sorry man.” Ben apologized with the sincerest expression he could muster…

After seeing Ben’s sincere expression, he really thought that everything was fine now, but he was wrong. Ben really thought that he was being subtle about it, but in reality, he was not. Adui couldn't help but notice that their relationship wasn't the same as before, Ben acted like he was okay and everything was fine, but he could see through his acts.

He couldn't understand what the old man was afraid of, it was not like he was going to hurt him. He may have crossed lines that day, but those guys were bandits and a pretty notorious one at that, even if he killed some of them brutally, they all deserved it. So why was he acting this way?

He felt sad to see his only friend put up an act in front of him, he was acting friendly and all, but this facade hurt him deeply. He wanted to fix it somehow, but didn't how to, he knew talking won't do him any good, and he cannot change the past. He felt lost. Things only took a darker turn later on…

It was quite a night that day, the full moon was shining its grace on them and they were camping out in the wild. He was busy with the cube and the old man was cooking dinner. It has been two days since they set off from the inn, he was trying to solve the cube for the past two days, but was not having any luck in doing so. 

When the old man announced that the dinner was ready, he put the cube away and went to his water canteen to wash his hand. For the past two days, he had been careful not to wet his injured hand, he could risk getting infected out here, but due to this the bandages wrapped on his wounded hand have also become very dirty.

So he thought why not change them? And it was then he saw it, at the back of his wounded hand, a tattoo has appeared. The tattoo was of a Rose. He tried rubbing it and cleaning it with water, but the tattoo refuse to get erased, it was embedded in his skin.

***

After a journey of 12 days, Adui and Ben finally returned to Laverdale, as they returned, both of them said some pleasantries to each other, and then both went their separate ways. They did not want to hang out with each other anymore, especially Adui, he was pissed at his old friend and didn't want to see his face anymore.

When Adui reached home, he saw that most of his rooms were filled with different varieties of herbs. They were the plants from his herb garden that Gizelle had ordered to demolish, he had totally forgot about them. 

The herbs were in good condition, George had been taking good care of them. He went to each plant and inspected all of them for worms, after an hour of crafting and grafting, he finally made his way to his bed for to have a good sleep. For the past few days he had been traveling on road and sleeping out in wild, because of which his back was killing him, that is why the comfort of a familiar bed made him very relaxed.

While lying done, he looked at his tattoo once again. He had tried everything to clean that tattoo for the past few days, but it didn't even budge. The worst part was that he did not know what that tattoo meant. 

He knew for sure that the tattoo appeared on the night he got the cube, which meant that they were connected somehow. The bothersome part was that if Ulaspas family found out about this, then he would be dead before he knows it. Gloria tortured him mercilessly when he went inheritance hunting on their land, but if they found out about this, he could only imagine what they will do to him. 

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What is this cube? He couldn't help but ask himself, at first he believed that this cube was some sort of toy, left behind by some kid from Ulaspas family, but after seeing the tattoo he had started to wonder whether this really was a toy. It could be inheritance. 

The thought of that cube being an inheritance was exciting as well as scary, if it is indeed what he thought it is, then he had to hide it from everyone else. Otherwise, he might as well forfeit his life. 

KNOCK KNOCK

AARRGGH, he groaned. He was tired and wanted to rest a little bit, he was in no mood to entertain anyone right now. 

KNOCK KNOCK

“I am coming!” he then lazily got up and went to the door. By the time he reached it, the person on the other side had knocked twice, which pissed him off. Who is this mother fucker who wants to die today?

All of his anger vanished as he opened the door, behind which was a man, like a mountain he stood there, wearing brown armor, and his brown lifeless eyes stared at him as if judging him for his small stature. Seeing the familiar knight standing on his doorstep almost gave him a heart attack, while the knight of the Ulaspas family stood there, without uttering a single word.

This is it. This is how I will die. He started having thoughts that they found out about the cube and they have send him to kill him. But instead of swinging his sword or beating him up, the giant simply handed him a letter, and then went away. 

The letter was a pretty simple invitation, inviting for an evening tea session in the Gizelle’s manor…

After tightly wrapping his hand with bandages and wearing something nice, Adui made his way to Gizelle’s manor. He didn't want to meet them, but he had no choice but to go.

As he reached the manor, he was surprised to see changes that had occurred there. Unlike before, this time the manor didn't give him chills all over his body, the coldness that he felt the last time was now gone, the mana around the manor was still very concentrated, but it was still bearable.

When he got to the gate of the manor, the brown knight let him go inside without any problems, the main door of the mansion was opened so he let himself in. The distinct smell of blood was still in the air, but it had lessened since the last time, there were some changes in the decoration of the manor, which was great considering he felt like he had entered a haunted house the last time he visited the place.

As it was considered rude to go inside someone’s house without permission, he stood there for a minute thinking a maid would come and show him inside. But no one came, which was very surprising, the maids of the manor were all well-trained women, and they don't mistake like this. It was then he remembered during his last visit as well, he called out to head maid Martha, but she never came to see what the fuss was about. Did Gizelle fire all her staff as well? 

It was then he felt a mana fluctuation towards his left, he turned, to see Sara standing, staring at him expressionlessly. Unlike before, she was wearing a leather combat suit and looked quite muscular than before. “You must be Adui Hampshire.” 

“Yes milady. We have met before.”

“You met my sister Sara. My name is Patrica” In a blink of an eye, she appeared beside him. “Everyone is waiting for you, let's go,” she said while gently pushing him.

She led him to the sitting area which now looked like a courtroom. On a big platform was a big throne-like seat on which Kaisel was sitting, one step below him was the queen’s chair which was empty for some reason, one more step below there were chairs that were occupied by Sara, Patrica and Gizelle. He on other hand sat on a stool facing them all.

Kaisel was the one to speak first. “I was very impressed by your feats, young mage,” 

“Thank you, milord.” He then slammed his hand on the handrest. “And then you tried to betray my trust.”

He continued. “There I was thinking about a reward that will be suitable for your work, and let me tell you, I found something that would have been a perfect reward for you. But then I heard that you snuck into my land to look for the inheritance of my family… Do you have something to say for yourself?”

Adui gulped some saliva and shifted uncomfortably on his stool “I am extremely sorry for what I did, milord. And I have been severly punished by Lady Gloria as well for committing this unthinkable act.”

“So we have heard,” Gizelle spoke with a smug smile, she seemed to be liking every single moment of this session.

“So what should we do with you now Adui? Should we reward you? Or kill you for your insolence?” Kaisel asked. Adui was at a loss for words, he didn't know what to say.

“Ladies, what do you think?” Kaisel asked.

“I say, we should give him to Andreas. He would know how to deal with him.” Sara suggested. “Or you could give him to me. I can handle him.” Patrica chimed in. 

“We could feed him some Lunia worms. They would start eating from inside eventually making their way outside. He would die very slowly and would suffer as well. I think that would be a good punishment for him” Gizelle said.

It was at moment, that Adui swore to kill Gizelle the first chance that he would get.

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