As Aefia walked on, she kept feeling like a certain something is up with this entire family. Luckily Cedric was lured out of his family at such a young age, but if it wasn't for that, Aefia didn't suspect that he too would have ended up so mentally chaotic. Every direction she walked, something about the empire or the Imperial family, was binded to the Mides family.
Her fingers immediately flew up to pinch her temple, her eyes squinting as she tried to forget whatever she had just heard and learnt about. The statue she died upon, the spirit and the fact that the Mides family had been the one to present it as a gift to the... Former Emperor.
Which, if he was still alive, would have been Aefia's adoptive father.
Just how dumb was he? I can tell he was very... Humble.
She frowned and continued to walk forward. Her two weeks at the forest has taught her enough. Right now, she needed to use her remaining energy to survive day and night for the next two days, on the hunt to find more clues. And even if it seemed like she was overworking herself, it was actually for all good reasons that she used up all of her energy before it caused her any more problems.
My adoptive father was quite the strange person. For a man, he was outplayed by his wife, which was understandable since she is the person who played me out too. Not only that, he was killed, his throne was ceased, he was given such absurd things by the Mides family and didn't even notice. Or did he notice and get threatened for it.
See—there must be a reason why the empress was desperate to protect her Empire from the hands of the Mides family. She was aware of it all, at least from the start. She must have noticed how the Mides family wanted to become the conquerers of an Empire. Their greed is explainable. I haven't met the King or the Queen, however, I did meet the eldest prince.
Given how I had seen and understood George and Lewis—they were also not this greedy. Even when George was slightly enraged with the fact that he was outcasted from the throne. He never formally opposed it. But he must have had his reasons. Afterall, he is being used—and using a devil.
Besides all that, all I can say about the Mides family is... I will have to be the one chest piece who also controls the board. Since I was taken in as the proxy who would cast aside the Mides kingdom from their enemy list, I will have to continue that way.
However. Before that really happens, I need to play two parts. One part, was as the person who would stand for the Mides family and the other part who would stand for the Smod family.
The first part is due to the fact that, Cedric is my friend, and I can't betray him until he sits on the throne. Then I can easily cut my way out of the 'betrayal', because I will keep it as an alliance. I do plan on returning to the palace... But not sooner that is. I will have to neutralize everything related to the empire before that really happens.
The second part, is standing by the empress' side and preparing the empire in case of a surprise attack or a sudden immediate war. It was a likely chance since the Mides family is greedy. It doesn't take time for people's greed to increase.
Hah! This is getting... More and more complicated.
With that in mind, she buried her face into her hands. The fact was, her life felt too thoroughly fucked up to even consider a permanent solution to fix just anything.
Even when she came to a world she didn't belong, she was forced to face such a reality that—even if she repeated two lives back to back—she won't be able to mend it. Right now, she had too many long-term plans on her plate to even think about returning home. She did believe everything that was long and complicated, all have a reason that can be found if she had enough patience... But she didn't have enough time to think about being patient.
It was like an eagle telling a swallowtail to slow down, but the swallowtail has an emergency that matters more than the eagle's advice. Even if it meant the speed of decent would take the swallowtail's skin due to burn, the swallowtail just has other more important matters to attend to before properly looking at itself to inspect the damage.
Which definitely fit Aefia's current situation.
When she needs to take a break, she chooses to sacrifice it to fit another incompleted task. And during that task, she just somehow ends up injured for know one knows what reasons. That in return automatically gives her a week of mandatory rest. Which later, she feels too guilty to return back to resting. That is also why—no wonder—anywhere she stays for a very long term, she needs a hospital and a medical team around.
When she finally lifted her head, she found herself staring at the very ghost who had been embedded to the 'Dead Mother' statue. The woman's cold black silhouette could simply cause Aefia to tremble during regular times. However, after hearing about it, she had found herself better than before. She let out a sigh and straightened up on the log.
"You are very silent for a ghost."
That was the only sentence she could mutter. For a second, the traumatizing last moments of her death was bothering her, and she buried her face back into her hands. This was one reason she didn't want to go back to the palace. If she went there, she will constantly be reminded of it. After coming to this world, there was only one death that could truly dismantle her mind.
The agonizing pain after she fell, the feeling of the chill taking over and the feeling of being trapped in a body that you couldn't move. It was claustrophic. It was panicking. It was... Terrifying.
But she couldn't do a single thing to fight it.
Not moving a single finger. Let alone twitch it.
The memory sent shivers down her spine as she covered her ears and the back of her head. Her breathing came out ragged. Until she decided to stand up and just blow it out. But still, she had to bite her trembling bottom lip to steady herself.
Though she didn't believe it before, death really had a pain. And luckily they don't last long enough to suffer or remember it unless they reincarnate with the memory of the moment they were dying.
Suddenly, a hand moved to stroke her hair.
She looked up in surprise, only to find that ghost rubbing her head the way that usually calmed her. It could be because Aefia died onto her hands when she was a statue, but there was absolutely no way that ghost knew just anything about Aefia. It was like, maybe Aefia had a chance in this world if this particular ghost came to her quite the long time ago. But again, any mother figure to her would suffer a terrifying death.
She continued staring in horror as the ghost retracted her hand.
"Hello, child. You seem to have a lot in your mind." The ghost spoke.
Huh... The voice was soothing. It repeatedly played inside her mind as she balled her hands into a fist at either sides of her. Then, the illusion in front of her snapped and Aefia took a step back. Wiping away the unshed tears in her eyes before she finally looked up and snapped her stoic mask back on.
"I want to know your story." She told the ghost. Her voice trembled a bit. Maybe because it reminded her of her death or just maybe Aefia felt like dumping her emotions once in a while was worth it.
The ghost smiled. Although her silhouette couldn't portray her true features such as eyes and hair—she slightly bore resemblance to Cedric, now that she took a closer look.
"I am, your friend's grandmother. You must have known by now since he happens to look like me... Well since you asked for my story, it might be a bit embarrasing to listen to the tell-tales of a woman who still looks young—"
"I don't mind. I just want to know." She snapped at the woman while sitting back down on the log. Her voice void of any emotion she carried a few seconds back.
"Very well. I was the reigning queen after the former king passed away in a sudden war. My son was somewhat still young, around twelve to thirteen. His father wasn't hesitant anytime there was a war, and he was extremely greedy. As an only child, I thought I would want to grow him into a proper human. However, he was already growing greedy over the time. It was a sudden change, his father died and he changed into his small copy. I tried to concile him. But he rejected my help. As a mother, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't beat him. I couldn't scold him or... I just felt too guilty." The woman furrowed her brows.
Well you are a type then... Aefia frowned slightly.
"Soon enough, he turned fifteen and killed me—his mother—to cease the throne. He fabricated my death as an assassination who stole my body away. But the real thing was, he spend the next fifteen years crafting my body into a statue to give it to the reigning Emperor as a peace treaty. Even I didn't know what he was doing—utting even my spirit body into the statue. I didn't even know it was possible. As if he wanted to get rid of me in full. It also wasn't until I was killed and my spirit was attached to the statue that I realized, he was really strong. In terms of magic mostly.
"Besides that, it was a very long time before I met you, about a decade later. You fell onto my hands, and it seemed that our introductions started from there. That is all I can tell you." The ghost let out a sigh before looking back up at Aefia again.
"So I wanted to ask... Why did you die? Your brother looked very upset too. If I am not mistaken, you were an adopted child to the Imperial family."
"Yes. Apparently I was. Not anymore." She whispered while burying her face into her hands again. "The reason for my death is... Well. I don't know either. Its been so long, I don't want to remember it."
"Then you can at least say what happened the previous night. It would explain a lot."
Aefia let out a deep breathe after hearing it.
The previous night...
She was giving out indirect farewells, a text with Nada, trying to enjoy something at least once. Recalling good memories... Putting up a fake smile.
"Yeah, uh... Nothing really. Nothing that really puts me to the brink of death." She sat up straight all of a sudden. "I had been suffering mentally for a few months. I was a borderline drug addict. And I decided all of a sudden... Life wasn't going to be better so why not just die. That's all. You know? Teenage mindset."
The ghost looked at Aefia with a suspicion. She stared at her, for an awkward amount of time. Something about this girl sitting on a log with a sword at her side, felt like she had a much bigger story to tell. And if course she did. Maybe that she was adopted and then her life just got worse and worse. But what went worse exactly?
With a hesitant step forward, the ghost muttered a long string of shocking words to Aefia.
"I have a skill that I can still use from my time alive. It is that I can read someone's binded memory. The memory someone chose to forget."
Aefia jolted up on her feet.
"Yeah no! You are not going to access my memories!"
"I only have one question to ask. Will you cooperate? Then I will think about letting go of your mind."
"But—Ugh!" Aefia clamped her fingers into her scalp and turned around.
"I know what you want to say. If I access your memories, you will get a replay of it in your own mind. You are afraid of it... However, just trust me. I will not do you any harm."
"No, don't! I said no and I mean it!"
Aefia's fingers clamped tightly into her hair as she fell to her knees. "I don't... Want to get reminded of a single thing..." In her mind was... How did a simple conversation get here? Is it... The butterfly effect? I can't tell.
"Then you have to at least say it. Or..."
Aefia turned around to look at the ghost approaching her. Then, her hand dropped limply to her sides and her eyes turned hollow. Her chin tilted up in the air to look at the towering silhouette of the ghost. Her mind was in a sudden stand-by.
"You are... Hard to deal with..." Aefia muttered while falling onto the ground, unconscious.
The ghost stared at Aefia for a few seconds before crouching right in front of her. Two slender fingers tapped her temples. Immediately with contact, the world turned silenced. The woman found herself standing in a luxurious room.
But it was a mess.
Pillows thrown around and a pair of shoes scattered on the ground. The door to the bathroom was half open, the light from inside flowing out in a stretched triangle on the floor. From inside was the sound of someone silently sobbing. The ghost walked inside, out of curiosity and to find an answer to her own question.
She walked through the door, meeting Aefia. Who was clenching the vanity counter tightly until the sharp edges dug into her palm, causing long red marks. However, her face was turned towards the mirror, staring as she bit her lips while touching the bruise at her neck.
At the side of the sink was a bottle of foundation, a concealer, and a sponge. Her phone had the alarm going. It vibrated, and stayed ignored on the counter. Then, she shifted and stood upright. Using her fingers to wipe her eyes before reaching out to the bottles.
She used more concealer then a burnt victim, just to cover up any signs of abuse.
The alarm stopped beside her. Automatically going into snooze.
Her brothers thought she woke up one hour early to get ready for the day. Meanwhile, Aefia was up three hours earlier to hide the marks she got from a person who wasn't even her true mother.