Chapter 2 : Dream and threat.

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"pitter-patter"

Amelia raised her head.

"pitter pitter pitter"

As the drizzle turned into a downpour...Amelia found herself on a single piece of wood in the middle of the sea, surrounded by monsters in the water, some of them tainted with darkness, some with blood dripping from their fangs...Amelia didn't feel scared at all.

'So beautiful...' She thought.

Bathed by the raindrops falling on her face, she felt infinitely peaceful. She closed her eyes and wished that this moment would last forever.

But her wish seemed to be mocked by the gods. The peaceful rain stopped when she opened her eyes.

This time, Amelia found herself in front of a giant animal. It had a trunk-like appendage and huge ears. But it was wounded. Yes, there were no visible wounds, but Amelia could feel the sadness and pain coming from the animal.

After all, did the injury have to be only external?

He gently placed his hand on the animal lying on the ground. 

"Shh, it will pass, don't worry anymore," Amelia said. She closed her eyes and tried to feel the animal's pain. But when she opened her eyes again, she found herself on the city's outskirts.

It was a familiar place.

 'Ah... Old nostalgic memories.'

Across from where she opened her eyes, a man pushed her hands that were holding her, causing her to fall. When she fell, he kicked and kicked her with hatred. Until she didn't move. By the time the man realized what he had done, it was too late. He ran away, afraid that someone might see him. But what he didn't know was that someone had already witnessed it.

A child hiding behind the garbage at the end of the street where the man and woman had fought had also seen this.

She had seen her but hadn't helped or called for help. Amelia couldn't help herself and got angry in a way that didn't suit her.

"Pathetic," She said. He closed his eyes again, wishing this moment would end.

When she opened her eyes, this time, she found herself in the center of the city. But Amelia felt as if a knife had been stuck in her heart. She could barely walk and could hardly breathe. Was... she afraid? But what exactly was afraid of? Amelia felt as if something precious had been taken from her. She walked and walked. Finally, when her legs could walk no more, she fell to the ground. She tried to lift her head but felt like she had to look up and see, although she didn't know why.

When she looked up, she saw a strange sight. A woman was surrounded by thousands of corpses, but she did not seem to be affected by her surroundings. She seemed focused, absorbed in another thought. Although Amelia couldn't see it clearly, she could swear that the woman's lips were moving and she was talking to someone. When the woman's lips fell silent, the sound of rain could be heard again.

"Rain? No, it's not..." Yes, she was getting wet again, but this time it wasn't rain. It was blood. The blood that was raining on the city was slowly accumulating and flowing towards the woman in front of him. Finally, when the blood turned into a torrent, she couldn't escape and was swept away. Amelia was drowning.

"What about that woman?" It was absurd. Even though she was on his deathbed, she couldn't help wondering about the woman in front of him. As she drowned, her eyes searched for a strange woman. When she had given up hope, she finally saw her. Or rather, what was left of. Her body was torn apart, thousands of corpses surrounding her, moving as if normal in this flood of blood, tearing her body apart with hatred.

But the woman... She was happy...

Amelia couldn't understand why. Her body must be in indescribable pain right now. There was no one around to save her or to share her pain. It was even unclear whether she had achieved her goal. But despite the horrifying sight in front of her, When Amelia saw the woman happy...

She became happy, too.

A moment later, Amelia drowned and woke up at the same time. When she came, she realized she was in the mansion's room with the female servants. She was surrounded by servants who looked at her with fear.

'Did I do it again?'

As far as she could tell from the looks directed at her, she had started another day thinking crazy because of what she had said in her sleep. Well, it was in Amelia's best interest that they thought so. After all, she had a gift that could bring nothing but bad luck to the person who possessed it. Amelia was a seer or something like that...Thanks to her gift, she could dream in the form of revelations of events that would happen or have already happened. Usually, a person with such a gift would be taken under the wing of the church, but Amelia's gift was a little...corrupted.

Her accuracy was imprecise, and she could see things in a complicated order or vice versa, so her gift was uninterpretable and unreliable...If she had enough confidence and background, perhaps she could have developed her gift and purified it of its flaws, but for someone like him, coming from the street...the slightest revelation of this gift would have been synonymous with death.

A seer could never receive revelations about himself, so she couldn't protect himself, nor could those around him rely on his revelations to protect him. Suppose she had not been killed and had purified his gift. She could have gone mad.

Because ironically, the fate waiting for seers like her was always the same. Either they were killed, or they got too strong to kill and went crazy by fate, maybe as a way for the gods to mock them.

After all, a powerful enough seer is usually destined for death or, worse, madness. As they say, sometimes it is more helpful not to know anything than to know it. Amelia was one of those who thought so. 

At that moment, a voice from across the room interrupted Amelia's thoughts.

"Amelia, put your clothes on and come here. How much longer do you plan to sleep?" the higher-ranking maid called out.

Quickly changing, Amelia came to the servant who had called her.

"I'm ready, sister Hilde. What is my duty today?" Amelia asked gently.

Hilde, the older and more senior servant, first looked Amelia up and down, envying her youth, and then, with a squeak, gave her her assignment.

"Today, it's your turn to take care of Dr. Lloyd. Remember, don't screw up this time. He's the lord's number one guest. Tsk... every job given to you comes back to us as three jobs, and if you screw up this one... This time, even Lady Helen can't protect you."

She had gotten herself into a lot of trouble during her tenure as a maid because of her clumsiness and wimpiness, and yes, it was like sister Hilde said—no one could protect her if she messed up this time, too. So, she focused on her task and left the room after nodding at maid Hilde.

"God, who would have thought to take someone like her as a maid in the first place? She's incompetent."

The words spoken behind her as she left the room were words Amelia was used to hearing, so she tried to ignore them. She tried, but she couldn't help wiping the tears from her face in the corner of the hallway.

'Hmph. Why am I so obsessed with these words today? They're words I hear every day. Maybe it's because of that strange dream.'

As she was wiping her face, Amelia heard footsteps echoing down the hallway where she stood. She turned around quickly and clumsily to try to stop the tears from flowing. She wished that whoever was coming wouldn't see her like this and would just pass by without paying any attention.

Footsteps at the head of the corridor were getting closer and closer, even seeming to speed towards him.

"plug"

"plug"

When the voices were right behind him, he stopped.

'Why did you stop! Just go.'

Eh. Of course, things didn't go Amelia's way again.

"Haha, you're crying again like a crybaby."

When she heard the voice mocking her from behind, she was frightened at first, but when she recognized who the voice belonged to, she turned to it with great excitement and shouted.

"ART! You're back."

Amelia quickly wiped away her tears. It was her little brother Arthur, whom she hadn't seen for months.

From a distance, the two looked like brothers, with innocent features, golden hair, and tall stature that made them look alike. Of course, Arthur was considerably more muscular than his sister, but this was not a rough mass of muscle but an aesthetic collection of muscles like that of a nobleman.

Amelia hugged his brother's neck and stayed like that for a while, then started asking questions.

"Where have you been all this time, Art? Why didn't you let me know you were coming? Are you hungry, though... we can't eat together right now. I have an important duty."

Arthur was perhaps one of the few reasons Amelia hadn't been fired yet. He was a strong, determined, and talented man who was loved by those around him. He was blessed with great fighting ability and was the complete opposite of himself—literally, the opposite in every sense of the word.

Arthur smiled a little when he saw that his sister hadn't changed and was still caring for him the way she used to.

"Okay, okay, calm down... I just stopped by the mansion for a little while. I don't have much time anyway... As for the news... I already told the servants in your room to wait for me when you woke up, and when you left without waiting for me, I wanted to scare you behind your back as punishment, haha."

It seemed the servants had been playing unpleasant tricks behind her back again. Amelia saw her brother briefly, and all her hatred was gone. That's the kind of person he was. Even though she heard that he was here briefly, she was still happy. After all, she had no other family except her brother, who made fun of her like that.

That's why she took a good look at him before she left. He looked tired, and his laughing and mockingly approaching her were probably an attempt to hide his tiredness. He really hadn't changed at all. He was still nothing but a brat pretending to be strong.

"I guess things aren't going so well," Amelia asked worriedly. 

Arthur realized he had been caught, so he told the truth without any more pretense. "Yes...the darkness has been spreading out of the forest for some time now in ways we can't figure out, not to mention the monsters that come with it. That's actually why I came back here. I won't be back for a long time, so the commanders have ordered anyone with family to go back and tell them while we still have time. And...that's it."

There was a sad silence between the two. What was Amelia's reason for seeing her brother, whom she hadn't seen for months because of her work and because she couldn't see him anymore? Those stupid commanders. If they were as strong as their orders, they could have prevented such a situation. Amelia was angry. Her rare mood was noticed by her brother.

"Hey, it's okay, don't get so upset, sis. Whatever the reason, I assure you it's nothing we can't handle. Big incidents like this happen every few years, but we handle them all. Don't worry."

After speaking, without waiting for her sister's answer, he took out the watch in his pocket and looked at it.

"Sis, I'm leaving now. In fact, I'm already late... Do you have anything to say before I go?"

Damn that kid... Didn't he miss his brother at all? Comes and goes in a flash. What can she say? Be careful? Take it easy? His brother wasn't stupid. He knew all this.

"Come earlier next time, stupid." Amelia said her second-best option.

Arthur was surprised by his sister's answer, but he also remembered that he missed sincere answers like that. After all, he didn't have many moments like this when he was a soldier.

"Well, I was early anyway. You know, sis... It's good to go to bed early." That's why Arthur annoyed his sister one last time before he sees her again.

 Then Arthur left Amelia alone in the hallway once again. Catching a glimpse of her brother, even tho he had been teasing her the whole time and then hurriedly left, That simple event cured Amelia's lousy mood that she had all morning.

Amelia was like that. She was one thing to her family and another to the outside world. After a light slap to his face, she regained her composure and continued toward Dr. Lloyd's room.

On the way, she wondered what weird requests Dr. Lloyd would make of her this time.

The previous time, Dr. Lloyd had asked her for many strange supplies that had nothing to do with medicine. She still remembered the looks of the vendors as she collected the list of items. Most of them had questioned him with strange expressions on their faces because the materials she had asked for were either available on the black market or had to be imported from outside the city. Ahh, the memories... she had been interrogated by the police because of the list the Doctor had prepared. But when it was confirmed that she was one of the Lord's servants and the cops saw her face all the time, they didn't interfere anymore. But when it was Amelia's turn to collect the strange materials, it was always Amelia's turn. It was probably a trick of the other servants who didn't like her. Anyway, Amelia wasn't going to be down today. After all, she had met her beloved brother today. She should be happy.

As she crossed the corridors and came to the door of the room that had been set up as today's Doctor's room (yesterday's room was no longer available for obvious reasons), Amelia heard the Doctor talking to someone inside, a rare occurrence, the Doctor was famous for not letting anyone into his room except the maid on duty, so who was it this time? Amelia got curious, looked around, and saw no one near the room. She decided to put her ear to the door and eavesdrop a little... just a little...

The voice was familiar, but the thick door made it hard to hear clearly. Finally, she managed to hear some of the people inside having a discussion.

"...Isn't that so? Yes, it's unfair in the beginning, and then the circumstances may be different depending on your experience, but that's what makes it special, right? What makes it worth enduring, worth trying and striving for? What makes you equal to others... like death at some point. Ah? What..."

The voice was making a statement in a really melancholic-sounding tone. The sound of footsteps approaching her from inside disturbed the situation in which she had almost merged with the door she was listening to hear a little more clearly. Amelia did not hear wrong; someone was getting closer and closer to the door she was listening to.

Amelia, alarmed, said, 'Oh no, they... didn't notice me, did they?' and walked away from the door, but it was too late.

'squeak'

The door opened, and a young man in a white coat and glasses stood there. He immediately tried to straighten his awkward posture. The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Amelia spoke awkwardly.

"I was...uhm...err...I was assigned to take care of you today, Master Lloyd...that's why I was here!"

Amelia's stammered words were followed by her awkward smile, while her lie didn't seem to buy Dr. Lloyd.

Dr. Lloyd looked at him for a while longer with pity in his eyes as if he were looking at an example of failure.

'Hey! Don't look at me like that,' Amelia spoke from inside, feeling humiliated.

Then Lloyd continued with a deep sigh.

"Amelia," he said in a loud voice.

Amelia, frightened by the noise, waited a little at first but continued.

"Yes, Master Lloyd."

"Listening at the door is not a tolerant behavior, is it, Amelia?"

"Yes, Master Lloyd."

"Then we're not eavesdropping, are we, Amelia?"

"Yes, Master Lloyd."

"You're not going to do any more of this nonsense, are you, Amelia?"

"Yes, Master Lloyd."

Each question was different, but unfortunately, Amelia could only give one answer.

'Ahh, what a nuisance. Lucky girl, things would have turned out differently if it had been another maid.'

Lloyd looked at Amelia, though it was one-sided. The maid before him had obviously realized her mistake and couldn't even look herself in the eye out of shame and fear.'Well, she's learned her lesson,' Lloyd thought, and then he told her to come in, and the poor maid could do nothing but follow him.

"How long are you going to stand like that? At least look at me when I give you your assignments," Lloyd called out to Amelia.

Obviously, Dr. Lloyd didn't want to pursue the matter any further, and Amelia understood this. She finally lifted her eyes from the floor and looked at the Lord and his room, but something was strange.

Taking a quick glance around the room, Amelia saw that there was no one else in the room but Dr. Lloyd and herself. She couldn't help thinking, 'Am I...going crazy? NO, I heard someone, I'm sure of it.' Although she consoled herself, it was a fact that there were only two people in the room at the moment. Lloyd's voice interrupted her speculations about what was going on.

"I'm not going to ask you to gather materials today; there's no point anyway. Your only task today is to invite Lord Roland to join me for a cup of tea and a bite to eat. Well, don't let me sugarcoat it; what we have to talk about is important." He added the last thing he forgot to say as he was about to finish: "Oh, and I was forgetting. It better be quick. We don't have much time left."

Amelia nodded as if she understood what Dr. Lloyd was saying.

"Other than that, you really don't have any other tasks to do! What do you think, Amelia? Can you do this?"

The Doctor looked at the young maid with no small amount of suspicion in his heart, and Amelia, who couldn't help feeling humiliated again, spoke up.

"Of course! You can trust me, Master Lloyd, to carry out my duties without the slightest mistake and come back," he said confidently.

'Come on, Master Lloyd! Even an idiot can complete this task without any trouble. You really underestimate me.'

Not trusting the notoriously clumsy maid, Lloyd had no choice but to tell Amelia that she could come out now.

 

When Amelia made her way to the Lord's room, Lloyd was left alone again, as he had been at the beginning.

Lloyd first poured himself a cup of tea, then approached the window behind the living room set and placed his cup on the window sill to look out.

Small city... He had only been here a few months, but his progress was visible. He had to admit it. Lord had done an outstanding job. Lord? Right, he was going to be here soon, and he was going to give him a few speeches that he didn't think he would like very much...

 

Looking at the smooth surface of the teacup he held, he thought about what would happen.

 

"Today is the big day!" he said aloud as if expecting a response around him. When he didn't get the reaction or response he expected, he added his sly smile and continued mockingly. "Come on, I know you're curious too! Let's see if what awaits you at the end of the day will be sweet lies or bitter truths...? Ah, of course, I'm curious too, but what I'm really curious about is... you... Which would you want?"

Lloyd said as he gazed out of the window at the city outside. Although he was alone in the room, he stood at the large window with room for one other person to stand beside him and look out. Just then, the voice that seemed to come from the space next to Lloyd, finally responded to the words of him.

"Does it matter? I already know the answer, you twisted Doctor. You know it too, so don't ask pointless questions," She replied in a voice full of determination. The Doctor did not even bother to reply, still with that treacherous smile on his face. After all, he also - knew that his words were meaningless. It was just a little game to stir things up.

He took another sip from the cup of tea he had brought and continued inwardly, in a tone contrary to the 'fun' personality he projected outwardly, while his gaze was lost in the landscape of the small city.

'Perhaps the truth is intertwined with sweet lies or lost in bitter truths,' he said.

Lloyd, his eyes still looking into the distance of the city, reverted back to his playful persona.

'But no matter what happens, there is one fact that never changes, This endless curiosity and greed of humanity...'

He ended his speech with a little smirk on his face.

....

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.......

 On the ramparts of the small city, two soldiers were quietly chatting among themselves, their eyes far away from the city limits, immersed in the sea.

"Isn't this silence unnerving?" the young soldier asked the other, his binoculars trained on the choppy seas.

"Of course. But silence can sometimes be our best friend," said the old soldier, puffing on a smoking pipe.

The two had long been tasked with guarding the fortress walls of this peaceful city, so they often chatted.After all...there wasn't much else to do.

The young soldier nodded, then continued with a knowing tone in his voice.

"Yes, maybe so, but it seems that soon this silence will end..." he said.

"What do you mean?" The old soldier didn't quite understand.

"Oh, didn't you hear?" he said, focusing his binoculars on a dolphin he saw in the sea.

"There have been strange happenings around the West Gate lately. Some people say they hear strange voices in the dark. Others swear to God that they see monsters, let alone hear voices."

The old man was disappointed. "Well, so what? Don't tell me you believe such unfounded rumors...I've been here for over 15 years...I've always had people show up saying things like that, but do you know what they all had in common? Like I just said, they were all unfounded...Those weirdos would go silent after they couldn't come up with anything to prove what they were saying."

The young soldier continued defensively, "Come on old man, of course, I'm not just buying into unfounded rumors. Let's take this place as an example. When was the last time someone passed through our gate? Yes, you can call it luck, but when the empire tells anyone in the know that they will close the area leading to the small city, including the part we hold, something is going on for security reasons. I say the empire. If their name is mentioned in a case, there is no way it can be small!"

"I think this silence has hit you in the head," the old man said as he waved the pipe carelessly in his hand.

"If you're that bored, tell me, and I'll get permission from the commander for you. Hehe, how about we go and have some fun at the brothel?"

But he did not receive a response.

"Hey, I don't make this offer to everyone, asshole. If you don't like it, at least answer to someone who does." The old man got angry.

But the young soldier seemed to have other problems.

"M-monster..." The young soldier said in a whispered tone.

"HUH?"

Surprised, the old soldier came to his senses after a while and immediately put his pipe aside. Then he got up and took the binoculars from the young soldier.

"Where did you see it?" he said sharply.

"A-at the sea."

Old soldier turned his binoculars towards the sea and started searching without losing second.

'Where, where...' He wanted to confirm what the young soldier said as fast as he could. After all, if there really was a monster, every second counted.

Continuing to search with binoculars, he finally found the monster that the young soldier had spoken of in fear.

 

Under the water, the beast was silently rising to the surface. It glided through the water like a shadow, unbecoming of its large, bulky body. The scales on its back shimmered and glistened under the water, and its long tail curled as it moved forward. Its deep, brilliant green eyes were observing its surroundings, carefully scrutinizing every detail.

The beast's face was full of powerful jaws and sharp teeth. Its eyes held a wisdom and peace hidden in the depths. Its every movement was full of power and grace. It seemed to dominate underwater.

The young soldier froze for a moment at the sight. His heart raced, his eyes meticulously following the image of the monster so as not to miss any detail.

As the old soldier continued to examine the beast, he noticed an unusual detail.

'What's that?'

A man was sitting cross-legged on the beast's back. Realizing that the old soldier was looking at him, the man opened his closed eyes and looked at him.

'Did he...notice me? After all this distance?" The experienced old soldier, whose concern had now turned to fear, immediately called out to the younger one.

"QUICK!!! GO RING THE BELLS... NOW"

The young soldier staggered up from the ground and ran to ring the bells.

Seeing the young one go to report the news, the soldier finally heaved a sigh of relief.The man then picked up the binoculars again and decided to take one last look at the man on top of the monster.

This time, however, the astonishment of what he saw surpassed the first time.

Because the man on the beast was greeting him like a child with his raised hands.

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Chapter end