"You, you are dead!"
One of the two whose faces had kissed the floor shouted with vengeance, but this statement did not create the effect he expected.
"Wrong answer!"
Jashua stepped hard on the head of the man who had just spoken with his right foot; such a painful cry rose that his friend right beside him could not endure it any longer.
"We made a mistake, we apologize!"
Social circle, status, or the past did not matter; he seemed ready to do whatever was necessary to escape from under the feet of a man who had subdued them with sheer power.
"You will apologize to her, not to me!"
Since the consciousness of one of the duo had left him with the last blow, the other slipped away from the loosening pressure and bowed down in front of the girl who had hidden her face with her hair.
"We apologize, we didn't know our place. Please forgive us!"
There were certain rules within the Holy Blood Sect and everyone had to abide by them, but what benefit could you see from the person who did this to you getting punished after you were dead and gone?
"Okay, please leave here!"
The girl, accepting the apology with a trembling voice, stepped aside and opened space for the man lying on the ground and his friend on his knees to escape. The man grabbing the unconscious one knew what he had to do; without waiting for a moment, he took advantage of the formed gap and moved away from there.
"What kind of place is this; it's practically impossible not to kill someone every second!"
Jashua's anger showed no sign of passing; compared to him, Nafız was calmer. She was laughing under her breath at the Young Count's state.
"What's up, Prince Charming, you suddenly flared up?"
The hulking young boy's face slightly reddened; he bowed his head and answered with a frown.
"How can people develop here? Look, everyone is an enemy to each other; everyone wants the other to be worse!"
Nafız smiled slightly; this situation was nagging at her mind too, but for now, she couldn't reach any conclusion.
"Well, come on, show the way! Or wait, wait. We don't even know your name yet; should we introduce ourselves first?"
When the red-haired girl called out to the other, she remembered she had skipped an important thing; they didn't even know the name of the person whose room they were heading towards.
"Lareina, my name is Lareina!"
Embarrassed, the strange girl turned her back and started walking towards where the room was, towards the end of the corridor. Jashua and Nafız were right behind her; when the long corridor ended, they saw a wooden door with reliefs intertwined on it.
"What a familiar place!"
The red-haired girl spoke with a sigh; when Lareina heard her, she paused for a moment but immediately after, she pushed open the wings of the heavy door with both hands and entered.
The height of the dark brown mahogany door was taller than almost two people; as Lareina pushed its two wings open, it couldn't help but make a sorrowful creaking sound.
Although it was evident from its worn surface that years had tired it, its nobility and dignified stance hadn't diminished even a gram; like the rest of the room, it was resisting the passing time.
The walls were covered from end to end with wallpapers adorned with elegant patterns; the dark burgundy color of the thick and fluffy carpet on the floor seemed to appear and disappear on the walls as well.
There wasn't much furniture inside; the side of the room closer to the entrance, separated by an arched door in the middle, was designed as a study. A wide desk with two shelves in the same color as the door, a coffee table with various paints on it, and paintings scattered everywhere.
Accompanied by the crackling of the fireplace, three people settled into armchairs with wooden skeletons and upholstery almost the same color as the carpet.
The door, the furniture, and everything wooden looked as if they were made from the same tree, just like the dark burgundy color noticeable in every fabric.
"So you stay alone in this huge room, huh Lareina!"
"Yes, I had a visitor once when I settled in, but apart from that, no one came!"
The girl's words seemed to have attracted Nafız's interest; she wouldn't be comfortable without learning about the visitor.
"I wonder who this visitor was?"
"I don't know, I couldn't see him!"
Jashua, who continued examining the room, suddenly turned his head towards the strange girl.
"When you say you couldn't see him, can you normally see?"
The Young Count's words must have excited Lareina, as she started speaking while throwing her hands to her hair.
"No, I didn't mean that!"
After her first exclamation, she swallowed a few times and continued to explain.
"My eyes don't see, but the images of the environment and people can sometimes appear faint, sometimes clear in my mind. The Blood Arena and the Temple are very clear, so is the road between them, but people appear almost non-existent. Their shapes are not clear, as if formed by paint thrown randomly on a canvas.
I could feel neither the shape nor the presence of my only visitor; I could hear him, but it was as if he wasn't alive!"
"How was his voice; was it an old man's voice?"
"Yes, how did you know?"
Nafız didn't speak; Jashua just nodded as if he understood something. The atmosphere became stagnant and a bit heavy; Lareina must have sensed this, as she took the initiative and started the conversation.
"I was going to show you the pictures I drew, right? A few of them are here, in the study. I keep the rest in the chest of drawers in my bedroom!"
Nafız and Jashua stood up and set about examining the pictures leaning against each other on the wall at the other end of the room. There were dozens of drawings and paintings, large and small. Some were places inside the Holy Blood Sect, but neither Nafız nor Alyon had seen some of them before.
"Are all of these things you see in your mind?"
"Yes, whatever I see, I have to draw; otherwise, they don't leave me alone?"
The Blood God was getting increasingly curious. First, Mora, whose voice she heard after a very long time, and then the portrait of the Holy Lands, whose location only Orcs knew, were driving her to solve this mystery.
"Lareina, can you bring us the pictures in the drawers?"
Jashua didn't want to enter the young girl's bedroom, but Lareina answered very warmly.
"Please come, I don't have much to hide!"
Passing through the arched door, they entered the room with a bed large enough to easily fit at least three orcs. This place was as simple as the study. A chest of drawers next to the bed, a small coffee table with a pitcher on it, and a makeshift rack made for hanging clothes.
"Lareina, where is the closet where you hang your clothes?"
Even if just a part, the lips of the strange girl, the only visible place on her face, curled; in answer to the question, she pointed to the rack where she put her worn-out cloak.
"I don't have many clothes; together with the ones on me, there is one more set under the bed, that's all!"
Nafız's gaze fell on the rack again but didn't stay there long. She focused on the carpet hanging on the wide and high wall right behind it; her pupils had dilated enough to cover her entire eyeballs.
"Sir, what happened?"
"Nothing, just a very familiar feeling radiates from the thingy on the wall!"
While the duo was concentrated somewhere else, Lareina had opened all four drawers and made them ready for them to see what was inside.
"You can look at all of them; I haven't even seen some of them. I hope you can describe them to me!"
Her voice came out like birds flitting from branch to branch in spring; she was holding the skirts of her worn-out dress with a slightly sheepish expression.
The duo attacked the pictures like hungry wolves. While Jashua was looking for another drawing regarding his past life, Nafız locked onto the first picture she laid her hand on.
Before ten minutes passed, the Young Count searched all the drawers but couldn't find another drawing about him. Meanwhile, Nafız was still looking at the same picture, and tears had started to descend to the edges of her cheeks.
"Lareina, can you see this picture?"