“Sleep peacefully my Astarot”

The words are whispered in the wind, then the words fade off into the wind while echoing. These words probably suggest that Astarot and Axel are two different people, but how is that possible? Can an individual possess two souls? Did an accident occur with the sealing of Astarot? Did Raynar not say she sealed part of him? Well, only time will tell.

In the Radiant Kingdom, the king is looking at several documents with a hideous grin on his face. The king hears the sounds of a few shuffles and his gaze shifts to the sounds. The hideous grin plastered on his face disappears and what is left is a solemn expression. There in the king’s sight, is a servant carrying and a…well incapacitated head on a platter. You can tell that this particular sight is fresh due to the rosiness of its cheeks and the blood that is gradually being drained onto the platter. The thing about this incapacitated head is that it seems strangely familiar, especially with that annoying smile plastered on its face.

“Your majesty, I have brought the host of the Registrar that relayed the mirror message to us!”

“Em. Is all the loose ends tied up, I only see the host? In the report, did it not say he sent a member of his staff to relay the mirror message to us, so why is that head not located there also?”

“Your majesty, this was all I received from the intelligence agent! I apologize your majesty!”

“No need to apologize, this mistake is not your fault. You can give that head there to my son’s wolf and also tell intelligence to tie up the other loose end. You can leave.”

“Yes your majesty!”

The servant scampers out of the hall quickly to go do the tasks he was ordered to do so by his majesty. Once the servant leaves, the side of the king’s face falls into his hand, while his arm is leaning of the throne to support his face. He has an extreme annoyed look on his face and lips purse open to make the sound “tsk”.

The sun has barely risen and you could hear the wondrous sounds of nature outside of Mary’s window; however, outside the window and also below it, there you could see a strange sight.

Axel’s father Vance is shouldering several dark clothed bodies and carrying them to the pond. It seems Mary was not the only one that caught a fish, in fact it is far lacking compared to Vance. The smell of death lingers into the air and in the distance you could see some strange birds that were attracted by this alluring smell. A melodic whistle flows out of Vance’s lips…you already know how this scenario will go.

Throughout the castle grounds and in the castle, you could see servants scrubbing red substances and marks throughout the exteriors of the castle to clean it. One particular servant is picking up some entrails that seem to be intestines and throwing it in a bucket beside him. He is sweating profusely and his face is flushed red while his free hand is clutching his stomach. His cheeks swell and in the other bucket beside him, he vomits. This is a familiar sight for you can see it throughout the castle and its grounds where the servants are clutching themselves.

Astaroth overseeing these nauseating sights, shakes her head and her face displays a sympathetic expression. She cannot believe she actually consented to her husband ingraining this fear to our staff for they will not have even have the faintest idea of going against our family. Vance even had some of the kitchen staff and guards down on their knees scrubbing. Her gaze is cast upward, to look at all of the birds whom are circling overhead the castle. Sounds of vomiting again and again flows into her ears. She cannot take it anymore!

Under her breath she murmurs a few words while she raise her hands, then a blue tempest of water appears and flows throughout the castle grounds and into the castle. The servants still remain in the spots they were; however, the buckets and grotesque sights are gone. Astaroth makes a melodic whistle and dumps the blue tempest into the pond where a monstrosity is waiting with its mouth gaped open in delight.

Vance sees what Astaroth has done and shakes his head. All of the work and effort he did to make this a gracious experience for his staff has gone down the drain. His gaze falls on Astaroth and she is looking at him directly in his eyes like she is daring him to say something. He mockingly shakes his head at himself for marrying a wife like this, probably he should have chosen one of the suitors his parents suggested…

He walks over to Astaroth and the couple starts arguing back and forth, which is hilarious sight to everyone wo is watching, since the Duchess Astaroth is a little taller than the Duke; however, they do not dare to laugh due to the gruesome spectacles they endured this morning. All the staff hurry to their respective stations to get away from this “demonic” couple. Astaroth and Vance do not even notice for they are too immersed in their argument. All of sudden, Astaroth grabs Vance’s “second brain” and drags him to the castle where you could hear screams inside and someone shouting “Oh Lawdy!”

In Mary’s room, Mary seemingly upset throws her comforter and covers off of her. She looks up to the ceiling and makes an exasperated yell, while she slams her hands down on the bed.

I cannot believe I have to wake up to this bullshit every day! Did she have to marry a hollerer. Ugh! I was having good dream about the young master too!

Mary gets out of her bed grumpily, then her grumpy demeanor immediately disappears and a devious smile appears on her face. She skips over to Axel’s crib to wake him up for his usual torture, but he is already awake. His charming unique eyes look at her as if they can see through her soul. Mary shudders.

Something about the young master seems different…it is like he is entirely a different baby. He did not even cry or give his usual yelps when he saw me. I am probably overthinking things…

Axel’s gaze falls off of Mary as if he has lost interest in her and it lingers to and fro across the room as if Axel is curiously discovering new things because his face seems to light up and there is a twinkle in his eyes. A hand appears in his vision and leaves him kind of confused, since he does not what it is.

Mary picks up Axel and places him on the floor as usual; however, Axel just lays there on the ground not doing anything. Mary is confused. She is worried that something might have happened to him when she left out of the room last night. That should be impossible though, since she was only gone for a short time.

Axel seemingly gets tired of laying on his back on the floor, he rocks himself side to side, then lands on his stomach. He seems struggling to do something…

“Oh my goddess, he is trying to crawl…no! He is crawling! He is only three days old!”

Mary is mesmerized by this sight! It should be impossible! Little did she know that Astarot, the previous owner, frivolously cultivated wrong when he was trying to mature his body to be more optimal for the use of essence. Instead of doing what he set out to so, the idiot Astarot actually helped his body develop muscles and strengthened his skeletal system, which was all good news for Axel. The curious little fellow was crawling all over Mary’s room taking the new sights and adding them into his memory.

Mary was just staring at him dumbfoundedly, she could not believe the sight her eyes were displaying! Her eyes followed Axel as he crawled around the room and she almost fainted! She gripped the bed because this sight caused her to feel a bit weak!

Mary finally pulled herself together while her hands slapped her cheeks as she told herself to get it together.

He really has got to be an omen! I have got to mirror message the patriarch! I will do it after I bring him to Astaroth for he can get some nourishment in his little belly. Hmm…I am surprised he is not either whining or crying to let me know he is hungry. That is kind of strange…

Mary picks up the little explorer Axel and carries him on the long journey through the castle to his parents, the Duke and Duchess room. On the way the Duke and Duchess room, they passed by several pale faced servants and guards who were either leaning on the wall for support or clutching their mouths and stomach. This is actually kind of demeaning to the duke, since he has guards with weak stomachs.

Anyway, when Axel and Mary finally arrived at the Duke and Duchess room, Mary knocked for once. She mumbled under her breath about not wanting to see something and waited a few seconds after she knocked to step into the room. Mary crinkles her nose at the pungent smell that was waiting for her in the room. She had to already deal with smell that was wafting in the hallway, yet this is the source. After all the time she has been living with her cousin Astaroth, Mary still has not gotten use to Astaroth and her husband indecency.

“I apologize for interrupting your fun…ehm! Not really! Anyway you all’s shenanigans woke me and young master Axel up this morning! Axel is hungry, but I doubt it is safe to be in this room with its polluted air! I cannot even fathom letting him be in that infested bed! Plus you all need to bathe! You all stink! Your scent is wafting down the hallways. You should be setting a noble example for everyone! Remember your lineages and station for pities sake! Young master Axel and I had a surprise for you, however this room…we will be in the garden waiting.”

Mary gives Astaroth and Vance a condescending look and storms out of the room with Axel in one arm and uses the other free hand to shield his eyes from his immoral parents, so his parents will not rub off on him. You can hear Mary’s angry footsteps as they fade down the hall.

In the Duke and Duchess bed, they are siting up gawking at Mary’s back. They could not believe Mary actually spoke like that to them. Astaroth and Vance squabble with each other for a bit until they get the usual tension, yet Astaroth actually stops Vance hands that are massaging and gliding over her thighs. She gazes into Vance’s eyes and shakes her head, then she turns to the door to yell…

“Dashun!”

The air around the door pulsates to shimmer for a second, then the butler Dashun appears as if he teleported.

“Yes Madam.”

“Dashun I want you to be honest with us, you understand me. Do we stink and are we immoral parents?”

Vance glances at his wife and is shocked for moment for he cannot believe she asked those questions, then he casts his gaze to Dashun to wait for his response.

Bold Dashun did not hesitate even for a second for him to open up his mouth to speak.

“Stinking and smelling bad is an understatement, I am afraid to tell you this, but you all are repulsive. The maids do not even clean you all’s linens anymore due to the smell and the filth that is on the linens. Even if I threaten to fire them, they will not do it because they are too sickened by it. The maids and servants in fact will not step foot in this room, the bath, the duke’s office, and the official hall due to the activities you all have there. Therefore I have to clean these places and bring you all food when you are at any of these places. The nobles in their inner circles call the duchess the flying fish and the duke the fisherman. Kids throughout the dukedom play games depicting your vulgar behavior. Also most of the factions in the dukedom do not already respect you due to you all’s vulgarity and heritage. When the Queen was here, her butler told me that they call you all the shame of the Noble Families at the capital…”

Vance’s mouth is gaping so hard that his jaw locked and saliva is running down his chin, while Astaroth is just blinking incessantly.

“We cannot be that bad! I am sure we do not even smell when we go out! We bathe ourselves every day!” murmurs Astaroth.

“Your right Madam, it was another understatement. If you are already filthy and just wade around in the bath, then you commit the same vulgar actions into the pool, do you really inspect to be clean. The bath has been tainted by you all so much that it cannot even be purified anymore, so almost for the past few years this has been your dukedom, you all have been bathing in filthy water. They have saying in the Coral Dukedom that says if they ever run out of seafood, all they have to do is tell the Duchess of the Starlight Dukedom to lift her skirt and they will have a bountiful harvest.”

Dashun said all of this with a straight face because to him and the citizens the Graceland Kingdom, it is common knowledge. This also shows you how loyal this butler is, for he has almost been cleaning the Duke and Duchess filth by himself since they received this dukedom.

Both Astaroth and Vance are just sitting on their bed gawking at Dashun! They cannot believe their ears! They are lightheaded because of the information they just received!

“Oh. By the way, Mary had some builders tear down two of the guest rooms and build a bath for everyone for washing their clothes and themselves in the castle and also for everyone will not develop you all’s scent. She also commanded me that you all cannot use it and if you try, to go get her immediately for she can kick you all in the cesspool where you all belong. Anyway, is the only questions you all had?”

Dashun voice is totally monotone, but inside he is pleading with the duke and duchess to dismiss him from their room. Vance looks as if he is going to cry from this shock and he is upset with himself because he knows these actions that he and his wife made will bring great stress to his son Axel in the future if not already now. Astaroth has a depreciating solemn expression on her face, then eyebrows raise up because she thought of something.

“You can go after you answer these two more questions. You and Mary are the only ones that will go in my husband and I room correct? If yes, who were the servants who helped deliver my baby?”

Astaroth smiles because she feels Dashun is going to say no, therefore it would mean this is all a lie and she and her husband is not that bad. Vance’s heart starts beating at an accelerated rate because his instincts are telling him he is not going to like this answer.

“Yes Mary and I are the only people in the castle that will go in your room. The Queen herself will not even step in your room. In fact she used the manor for the servants after she kicked all the servants out and had the servants clean it…”

“Then who were the women servants that helped deliver Axel?” murmured Vance.

“Those gals were just some prostitutes the guards brought here the other day to relieve the guards of their sexual stress. Do not worry though, Mary had the gals cleaned and gave them some fresh maid uniforms before they helped deliver the young master. I am sure in their line of work they have delivered several babies. I shall take my leave now Madam Duchess and Master.”

Dashun walks out of the room nonchalantly and goes down the hall to stairs where he hurriedly scampers off as if he is running from death.

In the Duke And Duchess room, the duchess is huffing and puffing exasperatedly, while the duke is staring at his wife like a deer in headlights. Her knuckles skin color lighten from clutching the comforter so hard and she yells out

“HOARS FUCKING DELIVERED MY BABY!!!”