Chapter 96: Chapter 83 (Mary)

The world as we know it doesn’t revolve around the weak. And I, Marie White, am weak. I know that much. Since I was a child, my parents never considered me good enough with magic to allow me to train it, never showed me how to defend myself because I am supposed to be a lady. They only showed me how to govern the land out of necessity, taught me how to mingle with high society and deal with the finances of the house.

They didn’t care that I disliked my given role and tried to break out of it more than once. Instead, they punished me as I made friends with a few commoners, learned to ride a horse from a guard who was later fired or when I climbed on trees.

I didn’t exactly grow up in solitude, but I was lonely nonetheless. I had to invite other noble girls my age rather regularly, but in all honestly, I found it hard to make friends with them. They all seemed so superficial, so ignorant that it was quite hard to keep acting friendly.  

With thirteen or so, they successfully pushed me into the role I absolutely hated by marrying me to an equally young boy. The only condition was that he was marrying into my family. My father finally found the person he deemed worthy of succeeding him and began training my husband. I was barely noticed by my father anymore and subconsciously, I must have already started blaming the young boy for it.

In his early days, Arthur wasn’t that bad. In fact, he was rather nice and friendly. We became friends after a week or so and chatted rather often in the afternoon. He didn’t seem superficial like the others, but rather … in all honestly; I don’t know what I saw in him. He was unfriendly to the servants, to the townspeople, but he was really friendly to my family. He was my only friend and as such, I chose to ignore his bad side for the most part. My father certainly didn’t help in that regard as he supported Arthur, no matter what he did.

During my eighteenth year, I distanced myself from him though. The acts he committed became too horrible for me and my mother to ignore, but even her support didn’t change anything. Arthur became a monster, supported by my father who didn’t mind raising a tyrant as long as the family grew stronger by it.

My mother and I could only look at the madness that was unfolding right in front of us, chained by the roles that were given to us. Arthur changed behaviour towards me drastically during that year as well. No more was the friendliness, replaced by the cruelty that he rarely showed to anyone else. He looked at me like I was a tool to be used.

I shouldn’t have accepted the passive role that was given to me from the very beginning. I was already married to him and held no influence over the land that belonged to my family, nor my servants. As I pleaded to my mother to help me, she told me that there is only one way out of this madness.

Three days later, she slit her wrists at the dining table and bled to death.

To summarize, my childhood was shit. It didn’t get better as my father passed away in mysterious circumstances, nor when the elves declared war on us to claim the lands my family was given by the king.

I shut myself in during all this time, only accompanied by books, the few noblewomen that visited me and my occasional conversations with a few citizens I met during my travels through the domain. And yet, I didn’t give up during all that time. Deep down, I hoped that a hero would appear to save me from my situation.

I was only allowed to live because I wasn’t a threat to Arthur and as such, I didn’t take any action until I had a slim chance of succeeding.

So long did I wait that I nearly missed how rapidly the situation was changing. It all began with a simple prophecy by the church.

“A being sent by the gods will appear in the sunken prison. Those who set her free will be rewarded with loyalty.”

Arthur immediately sent his best soldiers out to retrieve her. Two went on the journey, one of them came back. The being turned out to be a young teenager and I nearly lost all hope as they brought her inside the mansion. I just couldn’t see how she, looking around as if this world was completely new to her, would be able to help me at all, especially considering the prophecy which usually turns out to be true.

I soon found out that Markus was beaten by the teenager and Arthur was furious about something, just by spying on a few unsuspecting maids. With my hope restored, I risked my life by visiting her. Luckily, I wasn’t caught as nobody bothered to even guard her. Faith in the prophecy certainly helped me in that regard.

She turned out to be a vampire who didn’t show much interest in me at first. Just by looking at my family tree, she accurately predicted my current situation, although it wasn’t entirely clear how much she really knew. While we didn’t have a long conversation, it was certainly memorable and interesting. I never met anyone like her in all honestly. She didn’t talk about herself and I had the impression that she hid everything about her behind an impenetrable wall, but she certainly gave me the feeling that she knew how it is to be imprisoned somewhere.

And so, I gave her a warning that Arthur would fake an execution. Well … she turned it into real execution. At first, I was shocked that she killed an innocent maid just like that. Then, I regretted my actions. The maid had to die because of me. And yet, it felt strangely satisfying to see Arthur being pushed into a corner.

She didn’t explicitly contradict the prophecy, in fact, she fulfilled the wish he was stating. Lucinda enacted the maid´s punishment given by Arthur himself, this was a fact. Just by crying though, she pushed the blame to Arthur which made it even harder for him to punish Lucinda for her actions. All in all, it was the biggest middle finger Arthur ever received. And he still relied on her.

It was detrimental for Lucinda, that was for sure, and yet, she still did it. The next day, I visited her again, filled with uneasiness and a bit of fear. During my conversation with her, it became obvious that she didn’t kill the maid for my sake, but rather to keep every option she had. She didn’t anger Arthur enough, yet still showed me what she was capable of. Lucinda didn’t explicitly say that she was on my side but stated that this option did exist for her.

While we conversed with each other, something else entirely happened. When I was on my way to her, I already noticed that someone was trailing me. I tried to use this knowledge to force her into action, but it backfired nearly immediately. She must have noticed something because she bluntly and loudly refused my plea for help. What I said was quite bad for me, but she didn’t have to bear any responsibility just like last time. And yet, she gave me a way out of my situation by showing me a single line that was written on a piece of paper. She knew that I intended to visit her and already prepared everything in advance.

“Tell everyone that Arthur has turned into a vampire as soon as we set out for the battlefield. The cities around this mansion, the villages, everyone. Don’t let it be traced back to you.”

The contents were rather simple, and yet I didn’t understand them. The people at this mansion knew that Arthur was no vampire and it was easy to prove that he was human. In addition to that, he would certainly be suspicious of Lucinda after everything came to light, even when she pushed all the blame to me which wasn’t that hard in this case.

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It wasn’t a hero that came to rescue me. It was a devil in person and yet, she was the only hope I had. I knew she had something to do with the apparent vanishing of the army, otherwise, Arthur wouldn’t be alive. She killed so many in so little time on Solaris and hid everything behind her innocent smile. Casually, she revealed how she and Arthur had this strange relationship someone with her apparent age shouldn’t have.

Then, she just asked “And, how did it work out on your side?” without giving a damn about Arthur who was starting to wake up in pain. I was incredibly nervous, just like anyone else would be. Except for her new friend who looked at Arthurs wounds not with pity, but with an expression I couldn’t read. Desire? Greed? Glee?

Whatever it was, it was never a good sign when someone snipped against a broken bone, just to smile as Arthur woke up groaning.

Confused by this development, I noticed how Lucinda rolled her eyes and immediately knew she had absolutely no sympathy for Arthur. I couldn’t trust her, but neither could I defeat her. I already did everything she asked for, the townspeople suspected Arthur turned into a vampire and lead the whole army into doom. I barely had to do anything as all the rumours about the drained prostitutes, the murders and so on were already enough for them to suspect that something was up. I only had to throw the name Arthur White in a few times and it was already spreading like a wildfire.

Lucinda tilted her head and stared into my eyes. She awaited an answer and I frantically searched for one, but there was just absolutely nothing that wouldn’t ruin my subjects along with me. And I absolutely couldn’t risk putting them in danger.

“I did everything you desired. Now, it is time for you to fulfil your side of the deal as well.”

“And what is my side of the deal?” Lucinda walked around me slowly, encircling me like a shark who smelled his prey.

“You promised to make me a real duchess. In return, I will grant you freedom.” She laughed loudly behind me and made me flinch by placing one of her small hands on my shoulder.

“I can already do whatever I want. There is absolutely nobody capable of restricting my freedom.”

“But the prophecy … a being sent by the gods will appear in the sunken prison. Those who set her free will be rewarded with loyalty.” I said and started to doubt if she was going to follow the prophecy at all.

“There are so many loopholes in this prophecy … What is freedom? How long will I be loyal? Are we really talking about me, or maybe about a slug which will go wherever its master points and just coincidentally lived in this damn prison?”

This prophecy meant nothing to her from the very beginning. I didn’t doubt Arthur made the same assumptions as I and just one glance into his red, insane eyes were enough to convince me that this girl isn’t even stopping in front of the gods.

Should I resist her? Could I even resist without knowing what she wanted at all?

“Mary White, do you know why Arthur is still alive?” She asked me with this damn innocent smile on her lips.

“Because you need him.” I concluded. Did that mean she actually chose to control him, rather than me? Was she really on my side, or was she playing her own game all along?

“Precisely, and what for?”

“You want to control him and … no, you cannot use him like this. The king`s men will be here within a week and if he doesn’t even look remotely human, there is no way he can resume living as a duke if he even survives the accusations of sending an army into complete obliteration in the first place.” I concluded.

But why was she hinting me that? Why did she even let me think about such a thing and didn’t pressure me into accepting something I usually wouldn’t. In fact, she had exactly nothing to use to her advantage anymore. If things simply went on like this, the king would find out the truth and I would become duchess again. Lucinda would either get away without anyone noticing her, or she would be hunted down.

“You have nothing to offer anymore … this is exactly the unbalanced type of relationship you don’t believe in.” I paled as I realized the truth. She had nothing to gain from continuing on like this, but she also had nothing to lose, a very dangerous situation.

 

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