Lewis may have been maddened to a state where recovering him was going to be hard. So there wasn't anything that could be done to keep him at bay from causing a murder.
Aefia stood up while clenching her side where the knife had contacted her skin. And this in return triggered an alert at Lewis, who immediately dropped the knife and grabbed onto her shoulder. "What are you doing?! Stay down! You are causing yourself to bleed even more!"
"At least the bleeding is going to be less of a risk then you killing someone in this hall. A human who barks back at a dog is also a dog!" Aefia shouted back at him, and her voice seemed to drop an octave due to the pressure. I have already used up the healing energy the previous time... I can't even access it now.
"Fine! I won't kill!"
At this point, his face had calmed any signs of possible killing intent and left behind only a mask of concern. She knew that she had turned the situation the way she could control it from here on, and decided to the finish off whatever had started.
She first took the bouquet and hid it into her inventory, because she didn't quite like it if she had to sacrifice herself to do a certain things and it doesn't end up well. The dyed bouquet was a price for her, equivalent to a trophy.
The next thing, she faced Stephany with a strange, unnerving smile of a ghost.
"What is it really? That you want from me?" She asked while clasping her hands behind her in an attempt to seem like she didn't just suffer a lot due to the stab wound at her side.
"What does it look like to you..." With her face shadowed, Stephany asked back.
This was an answer enough for her to grasp the entirety of the situation. "You are quite jealous of me... Aren't you? Because if you ever saw someone like you in me... You would have acted a bit different. And our lives quite does not match. So what is it that makes you jealous?"
"You are smart like I am not!" Stephany shouted back. "You don't have to be a pretty little porcelain doll to fulfil your parents' wishes for them!"
Both, Aefia and Lewis exchanged a wordless conversation of a stare. He may be the one who had wanted to use his voice first, but Aefia had other plans. "And how are you quite so sure? That I am suffering more than you?"
"Given that how you have protective siblings... Aren't you living quite the life by yourself? Admit it!"
"..."
"Speechless are we?! You haven't quite even got the taste of what it is like to be in a place of the family where people just see you for what your family value is... Not for what you can truely do!"
Aefia had multiple thoughts inside her mind, but none of them were something as heartbreaking as Stephany was trying to make it seem specifically in front of Lewis. She just smiled at the girl with much annoyed expression. I am seriously dying here and she is just trying to grab people's attentions... Speak about being a pick me... I really wish I could smack out her stupidity out of her mind.
"How do you know what she goes through the entire day if you haven't even noticed until now that she was my little sister?" Lewis asked while pointing a finger at Stephany. Aefia held a fist in front of her mouth and silently smiled at the situation.
"Well... The unseen truth was... She was trying to get to you. She already probably knew I was somehow related to the Imperial family and decided to lure you here by putting me in danger." She added after a short moment.
"What... Her? Oh hell naw!" He laughed along with his little sister. "Seriously though... What makes her think that a person like you who hasn't even made her debut into high society... Would be seen for family value and not what you truely are for... We all see you for your intelligence and because you are our sister."
Shit... Stephany gritted her teeth until her jaws groaned. Just how smart is this girl truly?
She thought about picking up the knife and stabbing both of the siblings dead and then fleeing the continent if she could. But there was a voice right in front of her that jolted her thoughts to the side without force.
"Maybe smarter than most of your family lineage."
But within a second glance, Aefia was already grabbing her by the chin and the entirety of her vision to be filled with only the face of a victim she just tried to kill.
Since when did she learn to read minds?!
Stephany gulped in fear as she kicked the knife and flung it towards where Lewis was standing. But the next second, the knife was back at her hand with multiple red, glowing strings tying it to her own palm.
"Did she just really try to kill me right now?" Lewis asked while stepping forward.
"Seems so... The blood inside her veins are raging with the need of two regicides."
Aefia stepped back to allow for some space. The smile on her pale face dropped instantly, leaving behind only a thin of blood flowing from the side of her mouth. She pointed her finger to touch it, and then rub it between the tips of two fingers.
It clumped up and instantly dried up, leaving signs of her blood having been reacted with a certain type of poison that could do such a thing. She let out a sigh and lifted her face at Stephany, who was now grinning as if she had succeeded.
"I poisoned the blade before I dove it inside of you. How does it feel to die?" The arrogant girl asked while hiding the hand with the dagger pressed to her palm. "I don't like leaving much witnesses... I am simply doing what my father would have done if he were lurking around. He would have caused the Imperial family's downfall."
"I suspected that much already." Aefia replied while crossing her arms. "Afterall... Your calculation and lack of your understanding about me has led you to defeat yet again."
"What could that possibly mean? It was a lethal dose."
"It was..." Aefia added as she could feel the temperature at her forehead rising almost instantly. "But the problem is that I am immune to it."
"What?!"
"Lewis was aware of it too..."
Stephany's gaze travelled to where Lewis was standing. She didn't have a single word to say, but she knew what to expect from his mouth long before he even spoke.
"It is true... Afterall... I was the one who had suggested that she gained resistance against that specific poison. Your family harbours quiet a lot and I knew that since you have some past histories of killing other students... You were someday going to kill Aefia. I fear my sister's death more than I fear my reputation going under." He responded while clenching his fist at the sides.
"Really... So you all are many steps ahead... If you really love your sister than why are you not rushing her to the nurse's room? You would have been too scared yourself to even confront me while watching your sister bleed away right in front of your two eye." Stephany added with a hint of bitterness at her voice.
Lewis was immediately drawn back to reality as he looked to the side where Aefia was already dizzy and trying her best to keep herself standing and not fall to the side of to the floor. He extended an hand at her, but she was the first one to grab his arm as she plummeted towards the floor as soon as her knees gave out.
His eyes widened as he watched her staring at her own hand where she just happened to cough out crimsom liquid. Her hands were trembling and after another second, she let go of her grasp against his arms.
But unknown to him around that time, she was already communicating Puppet and struggling to keep herself alive. Within split seconds, Puppet took over her body and she was shifted to the illusionary realm which it had created not so long ago.
"This place is a hell of a mess..." Aefia's body suddenly broke character and stood up as if nothing happened. Since her elemental animal couldn't feel pain and the poison had no sort of affect on him, she seemed completely alright.
Lewis stared with shock as if witnessing a rare event that had no chance of happening again in another two hundred years.
"What? I can't even act in front of you? Nice! Don't look at me as if I had never done it back at the palace a dozen times before!" She shouted while folding her arms.
Then, Puppet used a share of its own magic to clean up the entire place and leave Stephany in shock. "How the heck did you just do that?!"
"Do what? Don't tell me you don't have magic yourself... Or right... You don't have my kidn of magic... Even Lewis has it." Aefia spoke while shrugging. "But I also think that this type of skills were invented for cleaning up crime scenes... So even your element wasn't expecting you for it's owner."
Both of the two people were left dumbfolded and struggled to believe whatever just happened was actually Aefia. So they started to grow suspicious within the next second. But Puppet was here for other reasons in specific.
Aefia had left it to prepare an escape route for her own self, and the instructions were simple. Clear up the scene and repair everything firstly. That was done for now.
Then, Puppet had to turn Aefia's body into invisible and then create an instant illusion, who would appear behind Stephany to spook her. Because that way, it would be obvious that Aefia was using magic to manipulate the situation to a destination where Stephany would have no other choice but to run away, and then the illusion Aefia would continue the rest of her day.
Just in case the illusion was not working the way it was supposed to be, Puppet will be safe guarding it. Then, as a final thing, Aefia's main body would be teleported to another land.
As soon as the real Aefia had stepped down onto solid ground of the castle in the land she had just come to take control over, she was standing right in front of the door of a particular room out of the rest in the entire palace.
Blood coated her steps as she walked towards the door and pushed it open. The poison was continuing it's effects throughout her body. It was a matter of time before she fell unconcious again.
***
"Alright... Now is not the time to be goofing around. You better go back to sleep and not wake up until I come back tomorrow." Helio strictly told the three kids as he folded his arms and checked the time at his watch. Shoot... Its a little too late to be walking around for one last inspection around the castle before I have to return.
He signed to himself while walking towards the door. But then, a kid stopped him and grabbed onto his wrist. "Didn't you say you would take us out for a small adventure around the newly grown gardens today?"
"Well it is a little too late right now." He spoke while lifting the kid up and then walking over to sat him on the bed. "I don't really have the time today of all days. We have a special program that I really have to attend back at the real world."
The kids all then climbed onto the bed and covered themselves with the blanket with anger. But he had no choice, since obeying the rules of the Competition was a much more important tasks now.
He turned to walk towards the door when he sensed something was off directly outside. He took a precautious step back before the door jolted open without his command. But what really surprised him was that it opened a far too slow for the situation that was really followed by that.
Aefia couldn't even take more then two steps forward before she stumbled and hit her knees. He was quick to catch her before her head collided with the ground, his first instinct was to grab her by the shoulders and question about what really happened. But she was too far gone to even afford a speech.
"Aefia for the sake of god!"
The kids sat up due to the commotion and looked forward where there was a new figure craddled at Helio's laps who was covered in blood and a distinctly visible stab wound at her side.
"Wait! Its that girl!" One shouted while scammering to the floor to sit right next to the two person.
"Don't just stare! Go get a bowl of water and a bowl of ice! Quickly!" Helio shouted while lifting her up. The kids ran out of the door with panic, sensing the situation and not even hesitating.
"I guess the competition will have to wait. How does someone like her even get stabbed... So precariously."
***
It's want long until her consciousness flickered back, and she sat up on the bed the instant her eyes fell on the unfamiliar but still familiar environment. The sudden movement caused her head to swing from side to side until she couldn't quite look straight enough.
"You seem to be awake." A voice at her side spoke while holding a soaked fabric.
"Thanks for the treatment..." Aefia replied while looking to the side. "Although... I wasn't actually planning on being a bother."
"It wasn't a bother... But it did cause me to stay back from the competition for a bit." He added while standing up, then placing the farbic back on her forehead. Because it was still wet, it stuck to her forehead even as she stayed sitting.
"But in return... I might want an answer." He added a short while after.
"What kind of answer?" Aefia asked back while placing her own palm on the fabric to avoid it from slipping.
"How does someone like you get stabbed that badly? You have never sustained an injury like that before."