《The Retribution of the Ice Cold Maiden》38 - Why are you here?
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"Guuaaarrghhh....!!" The assassin screamed as Guard Rhys punched him in the stomach.
"Tell me who sent you...?!" he asked the assassin one more time after crunching his fists, seemingly ready to punch him again.
Everyone was currently in the main hall of the manor. The Assassin was on the floor convulsing in pain as Guard Rhys interrogated him while the other guards of the manor surrounded him. It was bad enough for the assassin to have his legs broken by the magical teleporting bed, but the constant punches by the trained expert were not doing him any favors either.
He looked around the Hall hoping to find a way to escape. The Main Hall was spacious but he was surrounded by the top guards of the manor. Not to mention, the monster of an old man who was beating him felt stronger than anyone present. He looked around for some hostages, but the only people worth taking hostage were the Old Man Finn Venbella and his terrifying grand-daughter, Selena.
Both were seated on the Sofa behind Guard Rhys. The Old man seemed to have energized a bit after seeing his grand-daughter. He had completely forgotten that he was almost assassinated half an hour ago as he was blissfully enjoying his lunch which was being spoon-fed by Selena.
"Grandfather, have you always been this skinny? You should eat more." Selena spoke in her usual cold voice which didn't even have a hint of warmth in it but somehow it managed to pull the heartstrings of the old man.
One should be aware that Selena was his only grand-daughter and he had never been doted over like this by his daughters. So, it was understandable that even an ice-cold natured grand-daughter like her managed to warm his heart.
"My Grand-daughter is so precious...!! Lennox...!! What are you standing here for?! Can't you see that my grand-daughter has come to visit me?! Bring out the red box from my treasury...!!" Old Man Finn Venbella reprimanded the unaware Butler Lennox.
"This... But that's... the late madam's..." Lennox tried to interject as the Red Box from the treasury contained the old man's wife's personal jewelry. One should know that he didn't even give even one of the pieces to his daughters. That's how much he treasured his late wife's belongings.
"Did I stutter...?" Finn lashed out. "Do you expect me to wear those jewels then? Besides..." he continued as he patted Selena's head.
"...I am pretty sure my wife and daughter will beat me in heaven if I didn't pass them over to my lovely grand-daughter before I depart."
"Grandfather... please don't speak this way." Selena said in a monotonic voice devoid of emotions as she fed him another spoonful of porridge but for the granddaughter dotting old man, it felt like an Angel was concerned for his well being. He had a big smile on his face, but his good mood was being disrupted by a voice.
"Arrghhh....!!" The Assassin screamed again after being punched by Guard Rhys for the fiftieth time.
"So loud...!!" Old Man Finn was annoyed. He jumped off from the Sofa and reprimanded the Assassin. One should also be made aware that his height was a foot less than of Selena. It simply wasn't noticeable before because he was lying on a bed.
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"Hey, you...!! How dare you attack me when my grand-daughter came to visit? Do you have a deathwish?"
The Assassin felt like crying, 'I am sorry, I will come back to murder you at a different time then. Is it acceptable to you?!' He looked at the Nurse who was standing quietly amongst the servants.
Nurse Ursula quickly and discreetly gave a nod to him hinting that everything will be okay. Of Course, this subtle nod was caught by Soul nonetheless. He notified Selena of it who simply acted as if nothing special was happening.
She turned to her Grandfather who was throwing profanities at the Assassin till his mouth ran dry.
"Grandfather, your health is still not good, please sit back on the Sofa."
"YOUR MOTHER HANDLES PITCHFORKS IN---- Of Course dear..." Old man Finn flipped a switch during his raving and became an obedient puppy who quickly sat back on the sofa and looked at Selena as if he wanted to be pampered by her more.
"If you don't mind me asking, Grandfather. Why is an assassin after you in the first place?" Selena dropped her first bomb, initiating her plan.
Old Man Finn suddenly realized it as well. He had pissed off some people in his life but no one that much to send a trained assassin after him. After thinking about it some more, he had a thought.
'Is this about my fortune?' He quickly turned to look at Selena.
The Assassin came at him as soon as Selena entered the room. There were two possibilities for this.
The First one was Selena hired the Assassin herself and "saved" him from to assassin to get noticed and gain the favor of the old man. However, that seemed to be redundant as with or without this incident, he was already favoring his long-estranged granddaughter. Besides, it was not easy to get an assassin inside the house without internal help and as far as he knew, the Bookers didn't have any connections with any of his servants. If they did, he will at least know about it since Lennox was capable of finding it out. But there was someone in the manor who did have a connection with someone outside which brought him to the second possibility.
The Second possibility was someone hired the Assassin to kill him in Selena's presence. Seeing as to how skilled the assassin was, it was possible the plan was for the assassin to escape before he was seen by someone which meant the people will suspect Selena for his murder. And the only ones who will benefit from his death and Selena's arrest... are the Wyatts. His body tensed up at the thought.
He was not stupid and was well aware that the Wyatts were after his fortune. However, it didn't bother him much as he always planned to split the inheritance between his daughter and granddaughter. He was a little apprehensive of them when they tried to adopt Selena, but could they have actually stooped so low as to try and assassinate him? They had both motive and opportunity to do so. The Nurse, Ursula, was hired by them to take care of him. She could have been the person who let the assassin inside.
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Selena looked at her Grandfather who was visibly distressed and tensed, thinking about something. She smiled inwardly as she managed to sprout doubt in the old man's mind about the Wyatts and the nurse.
"H-Hey...!! It's happening...!! Quick, it's time for the next scene." Soul suddenly shouted out after sensing something. Selena nodded affirmatively and then turned to her Grandfather.
"Sniff... Sniff..." she began sniffing something in the air, quite loudly at that. All the key figures of the scene looked at Selena sniffing like a dog who was slowly approaching her grandfather's face. She then jolted back with a visible face of disgust.
"Ew... Grandfather, when did you take a bath last time?"
The Old man shattered like Glass after hearing his granddaughter's harsh words. He quickly got up and almost ran toward the bathroom with tears in his eyes.
"Quick...!! Set up a bath for me...!! I want you all the scrub every last bit of dirt from my body or so help me god...!!" he shouted to a bunch of servants who quickly followed him out of the Main Hall.
"Nurse Ursula, right?" Selena asked the nurse who almost jumped at the abrupt mention of her name.
"Y-Yes...?"
"Please follow my Grandfather and see if he needs anything. I feel better if a trained medical professional is by his side in case something goes wrong." Selena skillfully showed overflowing concern for her grandfather.
"O-Of course..." Nurse Ursula accepted it as Selena made a valid point and denying her would only increase suspicion. She looked at the assassin one last time before heading inside.
"Butler Lennox, we are fine here. Please attend to my Grandfather along with the Nurse."
"E-Eh?" Butler Lennox was confused.
"We don't know if there are other assassins around. Please take a few guards along with you and protect him. I think you are the only one here who I feel I can trust the most." Selena explained with her eyes slightly lowered.
"O-Of Course...!!" Butler Lennox felt prideful that Lady Selena felt trustworthy to him. But he would never tell the old man that as he may just fire Lennox out of jealousy.
After they left, Selena turned to the remainder of the crowd and commanded.
"Rhys, take the assassin to a room and interrogate him. Have the remainder of the guards here make sure that they surround him and do not let him escape..." Selena said as she passed a small note to him discreetly and then continued talking to the rest of the servants present sharply. "...What are you people standing around for? Don't you have work to do?"
The cold voice of Selena made the servants shiver as they ran away like mice.
Soon, the vast main hall was currently occupied by Selena and her three maids only.
"Did you bring me the drink I wanted?" Selena asked Maid Gwen.
"Yes..." Maid Gwen replied as she handed Selena a dark red juice in a glass.
"Good..." Selena replied and to everyone's shock... poured the drink... on herself.
"M-My Lady...!!" The two maids and the combat expert disguised as a maid cried out in panic.
"Ah... My hand slipped." Selena casually replied as she kept away the glass.
The maids "..."
Suddenly, Selena sprinted towards the sofa and sat down on it facing away from the door.
The maids were puzzled by her weird actions and it seemed that she had been acting odd all day. The maids were contemplating on whether to call an exorcist when Selena's voice sounded out. However, it was not her usual cold tone, there was fright and uneasiness in her voice as she said, "H-Hand me a towel. I want to clean this off my body before anyone notices."
"M-My Lady what..." but before Maid Petra could ask, a heavy and haughty voice came from the door.
"What exactly are you trying to clean, Lady Selena?"
Selena and the maids turned to look towards the source of the voice.
It was an old man with a haughty demeanor and rich clothing. He was accompanied by several soldiers behind him from the Royal Army which was led by a serious-looking middle-aged Captain. Alongside the old man was a youth of 20 years old. He had a good looking face but it was ruined by his prideful look.
"W-Who are you...?!" Selena stood up with a terrified look on her face and her body shivered, seemingly in fright.
'Who are they? Who the hell are you?' The maids screamed internally at the abrupt transformation of their ice-cold master. The woman before them was no longer confident or looked as if she could eat a tiger alive, but instead looked meek and weak as a rabbit. But they kept quiet as Selena had trained them not to speak out of turn.
"He He..." The old man smirked as he saw the trembling Selena and the blood-like stains on her dress.
"How rude of me... Let me introduce myself." The old man approached Selena.
"My name is Wilfred Wyatt... I am the brother of Marquis Hendrix Wyatt, and the Granduncle of your cousin Zane Wyatt here." he replied as he pointed towards the youth beside him.
Selena looked shocked at the revelation and took a step backward.
"Y-You are... my aunt's...?"
"Yes, we are..." Wilfred chuckled as he seemed confident in his victory.
On the other hand, Zane Wyatt had a smitten look on his face. The delicate features of Selena combined with her rabbit-like demeanor strung a chord in his heart. He was already planning on how to use this trap to get his hands on her.
"W-Why are you here?" Selena asked, seemingly evasive of their gazes.
"Well, you see... I was just hanging around the neighborhood with my good friend, Captain Hamett here, and we decided to pay old man Finn Venbella a visit since his health seems to be bad." Wilfred Wyatt replied with a cruel smile and continued.
"Can we meet him, Lady Selena Booker?" Wilfred asked with a meaningful and cruel smile on his face.
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