With all his affairs resolved, Apolo left the Minister of Magic's office to encounter the wizard he had bumped into a few minutes ago, wearing a particularly strange smile. The young man felt somewhat disturbed by the stranger's smile and decided to make his way past, but the wizard courteously moved aside, avoiding Apolo's push as he calmly said:
—Have a safe journey back.
*Boom*...Before Apolo could reply to the wizard, the man entered the minister's office, and the door closed forcefully behind him. This left the young nobleman gazing at the closed office door with consternation, muttering:
—With the bad luck I'm having today, I'm sure that nobody is going to end up becoming the emperor's illegitimate brother...
Quite concerned about the ironically friendly smile he had just received, Apolo left the castle and met Mateo, who had everything ready for the journey back and was waiting for him in the carriage parked beside the castle gate. With no energy left to explain all the misfortunes that had befallen him, Apolo climbed into his seat and waited for Mateo to start the journey.
—Did something happen? Your face suggests you've had a rough time...— Mateo commented as he set off on the journey back to the mansion.
—Everything happened, and to top it off, I think something worse is going to happen. My ancestors are angry with me, and the worst part is that I don't know why...— Apolo said with concern, clutching the bronze ring on his chest. The last thing he needed was to have lost it.
—Let's hope it's just your ancestors' displeasure and not the wrath of the dead in the dungeon...— Mateo replied, looking at the blue tiles on the road with concern, fearful of encountering a pothole that could damage the carriage's wheels.
Mateo had already seen with his own eyes that the first to die of the blue plague were those who stole from the corpses, followed by those who didn't handle the bodies with care. Those who spoke a few words to the deceased had symptoms but were still among the living.
To make matters worse, those who stole from the corpses tended to have accidents far too regularly not to raise suspicions in the astute servant. Initially, accidents like a servant having a piece of furniture fall on them or servants stumbling on old carpets and falling down the stairs weren't conspicuous to anyone, as the mansion itself was a massive trap for anyone who didn't pay attention to their steps. However, for someone like Mateo or Orrin, who pulled all the strings in the mansion, the issues in the house were far too evident: there probably wasn't another noble family that had to change its employees so frequently, and even more suspicious was the fact that those replaced first were the ones who stole things from the mansion or mocked the dead.
At this point in the circumstances, Mateo knew that his father had a theory that the mansion had been cursed with the hatred of the dead, and that's why accidents never stopped happening. While Apolo was completely unaware of this, the man knew that quite a few servants had disappeared in the mansion's corridors, never to be seen again. Fortunately for the young noble, the butler and Mateo knew that the servants weren't superstitious enough to notice the irregularities in the mansion.
—I hope so...— Apolo whispered, unable to get the wizard's smile out of his head. There were only 700 wizards in the ministry, and most of them were currently nobodies. How many chances were there really that he could run into someone he shouldn't annoy? Few, and yet, for Apolo, on this day, those chances seemed infinite.
The carriage continued on its way without incident until they reached the halfway point. It was then that Mateo snapped out of his meditative trance and said with great concern,
—Something's happening to Cholita and Martita.
—Who are they?— Apolo asked, not understanding.
—The horses, something's wrong with them: they're not responding to commands!— Mateo shouted, grabbing a whip from the driver's seat to try to get the seemingly asleep horses to react.
Before the driver could try his luck with the whip, Apolo grabbed Mateo and jumped out of the carriage, watching as the horses continued to move normally.
—What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you do that, sir?!— Mateo yelled angrily as he saw the carriage leaving without them. Despite the drivers having left, the horses didn't seem to have any intention of stopping.
—Years of experience tell me that that damn wizard did something to our carriage!— Apolo exclaimed angrily, watching as the carriage moved away. He was fully aware that "Have a safe journey back" was filled with hatred and resentment.
—Damn wizard? Years of experience? But you're only 24...— Mateo responded, unable to contain his desire to give Apolo a good scolding—Be realistic; an old, crusty wizard could never harm us. On the other hand, it will take us more than two days on foot: we need to catch up to the carriage and reason with the horses!
After saying that, Mateo tried to reach the carriage, which was about to turn, so it would be easy to catch up to it and overtake the horses. However, he stopped halfway when he noticed that the horses showed no signs of stopping and were about to collide with a tree.
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—Why don't they swerve?—Mateo asked, bewildered. Horses aren't machines, and like any intelligent animal, they wouldn't actively seek to collide with a tree. However, that's precisely what was happening right before his eyes. To make matters worse, the horses were moving at quite a slow pace, so it was easy to see that they were about to hit the tree.
—It's the magician's fault: he wanted us to kill ourselves by crashing the carriage into a tree!—Apolo shouted in a state of pure paranoia that hadn't surfaced in him for a long time.
—But look at the speed the carriage is going, lad!—Mateo shouted angrily. He didn't want to see his horses senselessly crashing into the tree at this speed—At this pace, you'd be lucky to scratch yourself on a branch. Besides, you wouldn't even have to endure the pain of that scratch; you could heal it immediately. So don't get hysterical: Go and stop the horses!
Apolo reacted to his servant's shouts and reminded himself that he was a practically indestructible muscled giant, so nothing would really happen to him. Now more aware of the situation, the young nobleman rushed to try to stop the horses. However, the servant and the nobleman wasted too much time arguing, and the horses were about to collide with the tree.
Apolo ran with all his strength, but he only managed to reach the back of the carriage when the horse bumped its head against the tree rather foolishly.
*Puff*...Apolo heard the sound of the horse's collision and knew he hadn't reacted in time. But the young man didn't have time to regret as he heard another deafening noise.
*Boom*...The horses exploded like a barrel of gunpowder, destroying the carriage and sending Apolo flying through the air. The explosion was so massive that the dust cloud it generated caused Mateo, who was standing half a block away from the carriage, to stumble.
—Sir!—Mateo yelled as he got up from the ground in a hurry, then ran towards the site of the explosion in search of Apolo.
Upon arrival, the man found the giant turned into a meat paste, with half of his brain detached from his wide-open head, both his eyes ground into two white pastes, and his two arms had disappeared, as if he had used them to shield himself, but his defense was not enough, and they had ended up detached. Moreover, the young nobleman's stomach was a complete mess, with broken bones and organs protruding from his body, making anyone who saw it feel disgusted.
—No!!—Mateo shouted desperately: His lord had died because of him!
Trying to make amends, Mateo tried to drag the giant's body towards a tree, but then he realized that just by touching Apolo's minced flesh, he felt weaker. So, the man immediately stopped his plans.
Intrigued by the sensation he had just experienced, Mateo took the time to appreciate Apolo's corpse and noticed a strange cord on the young nobleman's neck. The cord, made of flesh and skin, extended to a nearby tree that was beginning to wither. As this happened, Apolo's organs began to move as if they had a life of their own, returning to their original positions.
The situation was so bizarre that even Mateo could see a couple of arms in the distance approaching Apolo's "corpse".
—Impressive...—Mateo muttered as he watched Apolo open his eyes again, looking dazed.
—Do you know how many wizards in our empire are considered battle wizards?—Apolo asked from the ground as his brain slid back into his head.
—No idea...
—Just one, only one remains, the rest died miserably years ago!—Apolo shouted in anger—How the hell did I cross paths with the only battle mage in the entire empire just when I was entering the Minister of Magic's office? How? Or do you expect me to believe that all those useless mages can do this to me!
—Listen, Apolo, we've offended too many dead; maybe too many...—Mateo said, also concerned. He knew that mages were not exactly strong, and there was a reason they weren't used in wars. However, the man was aware of the fact that there were some lunatics who specialized in training their magic to go to war. They were few, very few, and in general, their lives were too short to be remembered. Naturally, the vast majority of mages simply focused on creating marketable military artifacts, not on developing their spells to go to war with their own bodies. However, the few mages who broke this rule were the "famous" battle mages, capable of casting complex spells just to kill their enemies.
—Crap, crap, an more crap! I completely underestimated the amount of hatred we've been accumulating from the deceased!—Apolo yelled angrily, while noticing how his arm was reattaching itself to his body—Do you know of any solution?
—Seek the protection of your own ancestors; there's no other way...—Mateo commented, while asking for help from his own ancestors in his head. If it weren't for them, he would have never attempted to increase his speed a little before having to take a turn. However, it was at that moment when the man saw that the horses were not following his signals, so he deduced that something was wrong. If it weren't for that stroke of luck, Mateo would have died!
Apolo waited a little longer until he finished healing and managed to get up. Then he ripped the cord on his neck with his hands and approached where the horses had exploded to look at the giant crater in the ground. Dazed, the young nobleman stared at it, unable to believe how unlucky he was on this day.
—Sir, you dropped your pendant—Mateo said, picking up a chain from the ground with a simple, rusty ring attached to it.
—Oh, thank you, Mateo! It seems I still have some luck left! It would have been a tragedy if I had lost it—Apolo replied, only now realizing the absence of his faithful companion. The young man took the pendant and placed it around his neck. Then he checked the pockets of his practically destroyed pants, and to his surprise, both the coin and the token were still inside—It seems my ancestors took care to protect the important things.
—Shall we ask for help from a neighboring house?—Mateo asked, going toward a fence, trying to enter the property of an unknown person to request a carriage.
—No, stop, fool!—Apolo shouted as if his life depended on it—I'm sure these estates belong to lunatics who eat people asking for help or something even worse. With the bad luck I'm having, it's dangerous to approach any unknown person.
—Then are we going to walk?—Mateo asked incredulously. It was more than two days' journey.
—It's the only way: either we arrive on foot, or we never arrive at all!—Apolo replied with so much confidence that he even scared Mateo.
After saying that, Apolo began to walk briskly to move away from the crater, while Mateo continued to look at the neighboring houses with wide-open eyes, afraid that a horde of angry servants with torches might come out at any moment to kill him for ruining the path.