Frowns constructed on Savannah's forehead, Mr. Hendrickson was trying to bargain with her. For what? For mere words.

She decided to play along with him and tested: "Maybe I will lend him to you, temporally."

It was astonishing for her to uphold the hope, lighting Nicolai's dark eyes when he inquired with eagerness: "Really?"

Right now, Savannah was one hundred percent convinced that Nicolai considered himself in a dire situation, and he was in extreme need to have someone whom he could depend on after he lost Bi-an.

Savannah wasn't the kind of person who found joy in bullying the weak. However, for someone like Nicolai that has fallen from the grace of power, playing with his pride a little was exceedingly tempting. What a rare sight to uphold someone in Mr. Hendrickson's status at his lowest.

Both her sadistic side as well as her benevolent heart fought against each other to win the battle to determine which desire is going to get fulfilled.

"It depends on to what extent you will be honest with our talk, moreover, I will be the judge who will rule the extent of your sincerity." Those conditions she had set were quite partial. She didn't aim for him to accept, she just wanted to rule the degree of his despair.

A sigh coming from him ripped her thoughts. A second of silence followed. She was certain when he opened his mouth that he was going to protest against those unfair conditions.

"He thought I was going to kill myself." Those were Nicolai's words, he added, clarifying: "The first time we met."

With the sound of shattered glass, Savannah listened to Nicolai's unexpected answer as her heart broke. It brought back her memory of that day. Her feeling was the same when she received the painting of her portrait. The moment she lifted its white cover. The moment she saw herself depicted in that damn painting. On her knees, her face of the soil, hidden by her untidy short hair. Eyes drowned in shadow. Beside her was a big scythe, the symbol of soul eaters. Remains and bones of living beings scattered around her in what it seemed a dark forest with leafless trees. Ash sheathed the air. It was like there was a big fire but without the flames.

The drawing in the painting depicted her holding a long sword with a glimmering blade, she was piercing her own chest with it, till the blade came out from her back, red blood issued from the wound and tainted the glimmering of the blade that emerged from her back. Despite her face being hidden, her blood-stained hands pulled the handle of the sword in what it seemed like agony.

Savannah said, rectifying her distraction: "Excuse me...!" This isn't enjoyable as she hoped.

"He thought that I am going to kill myself, and everything started from that moment." Nicolai repeated before he continued: "That's why I started to observe him, then I planned to meet him again, making it looks like a coincidence."

Nicolai waited for Savannah to interfere with scornful remarks and when she didn't he continued: "He is very smart, his ability to learn and connect the events with a logical pattern is impressive. But what I couldn't understand why Lady Akila programmed him on a false reality, to believe that he was some kind of mongrel?"

Savannah wasn't actually listening to the rest of Mr. Hendrickson's words. Her ears stopped receiving the sound at the two words "Killing myself". She was imprisoned at the moment when she lifted the cover on that portrait that she received.

She observed Nicolai's sorry state and wanted to participate in the conversation, so she could eliminate that cursed painting from her present memory: "Were you going to kill yourself?", she aimed to infuse her words with taunt as much as she could. However, she didn't expect that her question was like throwing a stone in a stagnant pond, and she didn't expect that the stone had touched something at the bottom of the pond. Only when Nicolai's reply was late did she understand that her stone has shaken the stagnant pond from its depth?

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"I don't know..." Nicolai said.

To the hell to this honest answer, Savannah cursed in her heart. And that painting, with all the emotion that it stirred, resurfaced from the ocean of her memories, before she attempted to flee from it, a second time: "How did you convince him to help you?"

"I simply told him the truth." After giving this answer, Mr. Hendrickson closely observed Savannah's reaction. Using his high perception, he caught the discontent that appeared on her face for a split of a second.

She repeated behind: "You told him the truth?" thinking about her sister's earlier talk.

"Of course, only that part of the truth that serves my interests."

It seems that Savannah's eeriness and doubts about Mr. Hendrickson were spoiling her and her sister's hard labor were in place, thus she worked her mind quickly for a mid-settlement that will fulfill her desire before her mother could get wind of her plans. At the same time, she must keep Mr. Hendrickson from interfering or getting the full picture of the situation, so he won't use it to his advantage and blackmail her like every other time.

***

On the other hand, Kanari had just finished writing four copies of a testimony that allow its holder a special permit to pass through the Crocotta territory for a fixed time. Before she put the pen in the inkwell, she numerated in a low voice: "A permit for the Count as it was agreed upon. A permit for Savannah to give it to Rokah."

She looked at the two other permits that her sister demanded to write for her and wondered, for whom she was going to give to?

Once she pondered on the matter, she deduced that maybe the third permit was for the Amarok, to get him safely out of the Crocotta territory.

In Kanari's understanding, she thought that the fact that he was illegally trespassing the Crocotta clan territory was enough to justify his death was enough, forgetting all about the control committee and investigation team.

After much effort from Savannah, Kanari finally was persuaded by her sister's logic.

It was better to get that Amarok killed outside their territory, so when someone will discover his body, it won't cause the internal pressure on her mother to become more suffocating.

It's true that this Amarok is nobody, he didn't belong to any clan or alliance, there will be no one who will investigate his death or reclaim his blood. Though, if his dead body will be discovered in the Crocotta territory, a dozen hypocrites and enemies will open their filthy mouths to cause trouble for her mother. Kanari will not give them this kind of opportunity.

Even so, the question about the fourth permit and to whom Savannah is going to give it is still standing without explanation. No matter how much Kanari squeezed out her brain for an answer, she didn't come up with a name.

The fire of doubts began to flare inside Kanari. She sensed that Savannah must be hiding something from her. Kanari didn't forget her sister's scornful reply when she asked her about the reason that made her late when they have entered the farm.

Did Savannah meet someone during her quick scouting tour? If she was planning to give him a permit, does that mean that she has some kind of agreement with him?

If her suspicions were true, then who is it? Why she didn't tell her? Aren't they supposed to be a team?

Kanari hurried to extinguish the flames that roared inside her before the doubt eat up all her trust. She decided to face her sister and ask her directly about this matter when the time will allow.

She took the necklace around her neck and removed the cover from the isotoxal octagram seal, the official Crocotta seal. She apologized before she used it: "Sorry mother, you have interested the seal to me and here I am wasting your trust. But please, believe me, it's all for the sake of correcting Savannah's mistake... Stupid mistake."

When she finished, she put one of the permits inside a locker and saved the other three in her personal briefcase.

Acting like someone with a clear conscience, she found her path to the staircase to get to the main hall, where she thought she would find her mother, admiring the ceramic works and the decoration.

The corridors were calm. Occasionally, a sleeping Chimera appeared on her way. She tactfully passed through them, careful not to touch them or the spell won't hold for long. At the same time, feeling a huge recognition for Lord Shiva's high precaution. She secretly admitted that Shiva's plan of linking the sleeping spell with the name register was clever. Because of it, they have avoided a lot of problems that could arise if the Chimeras are still awake. Perhaps, if it wasn't for this spell, the Count had used them to cause a few problems like the chaos that has not been a while ago.

Recalling Lord Shiva, his image popped into her head, precisely when he was undressed, trying to cover his nakedness with his big wings. Her face turned blood-red, she even used her hands to cover her eyes while repeating in a murmur: "I didn't see anything on purpose, I didn't see anything on purpose."

Once she got near the main hall, she stopped walking when she heard the echoes of two people chattering. Focusing on the emitted voices, she identified that one of the speakers was her mother and the other one belongs to...

Again, Kanari's face turned blood-red.