CAPITAL CITY ATLANTIS.Central commoner district.
"We are here." Jack looked in the northwestern direction. He seemed more nervous than excited.
"Knight Jack let's give her a surprise." Cecile smiled gently.
He nodded smiling in agreement. He got off his horse and helped the maiden down.
Looking around he saw familiar faces feeling proud to be back as a successful person. But to his surprise, they were rather weird in behavior. Once again he looked around where the shopkeepers stood stealing glances at him while some looked at him pitifully.
-"Why do they keep avoiding me?"He grew restless.
He spotted a familiar woman with a child.
"Mrs. Cain! It's nice meeting you. Did something happen while I was away?"
"...Oh, Jack!"
"What's the matter, Jack?" Cecile came running.
"Who is she?"
"She is my neighbor's daughter," Jack replied looking at the woman.
"Oh... Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Cecile I work at the same place where Jack does." She shook hands with the woman.
"Aaahh~Nice meeting you as well Miss Cecile."
"Mrs. Cain. Why are you so flustered? Did something happen while I away?"Jack grew more restless.
" Jack listen to me. Please don't panic. I will tell you."She crouched down putting her hands on the boy's shoulders as she looked up at the two of them.
"..."
"Your mother is..."
"My mother!? What happened to her?"
The women looked at him pitifully then looked away.
"No!" He shook away her hands and ran in the opposite direction to where they were.
"Jack!" Cecile ran after him through the streets and slums.
She breathed heavily standing in front of an old house that looked like it would fall any instant. Thrashed roof and old red bricks. The door was not oiled for many months.
She heard a scream from inside of the house.
Hurriedly as she entered the house that had one room and a kitchen she saw him lifelessly staring at the body of a woman in white clothes with flowers around her in the bed.
Nothing was said at that moment. He collapsed near the bed as tears trickled down his eyes.
"Mother!" He tried to wake up the lifeless body.
"It can't be! You are not playing any tricks, are you? Please stop it! Look I'm back home."
-"Mother?!"Cecile looked tearfully at the mother and the child.
"Mother!" He shrieked bursting in tears.
Creak*
"Who's there?!" She turned around and found an elderly man and the woman they met a while ago grieving at the entrance.
"She was his last hope that kept him going. He did everything he could do to keep her safe and healthy. Such a young boy to be left alone in this cruel world..." The man stopped midway shocked to see young Cecile crying.
She went and stood beside the mourning boy.
She had the same black hair and resembling face features. She was his mother no doubt about it.
Hic*Hic*
He wailed burying his head in his arms that rest on the flower bed.
"We need to proceed with the burial before the body decays." The man said.
Cecile looked back a lot of people were standing in and out of the house mourning her death.
They presently seemed to be from the neighborhood of this boy.
"Please let him stay some time with her." Cecile pleaded on the boy's behalf.
"But madam...-"
"Please! I will stay with him in the meantime the burial preparations are completed."
"...Sigh*very well. As long as the boy is with you."
He stopped the men in midway asking them to leave the two of them alone.
Cecile came out of the house following others.
"Is there any other relative of the boy?" She looked at the old man determined.
"I am afraid so no my child. His parents and grandparents were all that were there. There are no other relatives." He replied in a sad and helpless tone.
Night fell as they finally buried her in the cemetery next to the rest of the family.
Their names were written on the gravestones.
"Nora Jeremy, Richard Jeremy...and the grandparents." She stared at them sadly.
-"Why did you leave your child in such a harsh world?"She inquired tearfully.
Cold winds started to blow. The weather was very cold at night.
He sat in front of the graves hanging his head without a word.
Cecile wrapped up her shawl more tightly bearing with the cold.
He finally stood up leaving wild daisies on his mother's grave. She loved daisies especially those that grew near the river flowing near the city.
"Let's go, shall we?" She asked hugging him while he clutched her shawl nodding obediently.
They visited his house one last time and rode to her house which was a big villa enough for the baron's status and an average size garden.
"Miss, you are home early?" A maid came running to the door.
"And this boy?"
Cecile's father was a rich trader and a businessman. So, therefore, was able to earn the title of Baron. This allowed him to expand his business overseas.
"Please prepare a room for our guest and other requirements."
"Yes right away." The maid hurried off.
"Ah! It started raining. How unexpected."
———————
Bridget Fort...Bridget Prison.
Whip*Crack*!!
"Aaahhh!Huff*Huff*"
"Did he spill it out?"
"No my Lord. He won't spit it out."
The soldier replied.
"Prepare tools for pulling his nails out," Sebastian ordered the man.
"If he still doesn't speak up. Go for his teeth."
"As you wish." The soldier went out of the torture cell.
"You bastards will never feel our pain." He cursed in a hoarse voice.
-"Tristan was it? It appears that he was from a small village on the Nethi-Atlantan borders. The now extinct settlement burned down during the last war. Hmm... that makes sense."
"Trying to take advantage of an innocent girl. Trash like you don't have any awareness of humanity in you. Better spill everything out before I go for third-degree torture on you."
The man came back with tools and held his hands tightly against the arms of the chair.
He pulled out a fingernail with full force.
"AAAA!!"Tears filled his eyes.
" Are you going to speak up now?"Sebastian walked near him.
"I was...told to do this." He breathed heavily trying to bear the intense pain.
"By whom?"
"...I won't tell."
PULL*