"STOP!"
At that moment, Diana stopped mere milimeters from stabbing herself in her heart. Once she stopped, everyone threw a sigh of relief, before one of the guards went to take the knife out of her hands and then have her sit down. Once she sat down, Soren decided to sit down and speak first.
"Alright pretty boy. Please explain what happened, because I doubt that she is so frail mentally, that she would commit suicide, just because I told her to kill herself."
"I will ignore that little comment of yours, now as for the situation itself, I would like to explain first, but I'll need to confirm something. Did you two use the bracelets during the game of Truth and Lie?" Dallius asked with a serious expression while staring at Soren.
"Yes, we did, since this was miss Diana's idea in the first place." Soren explained briefly.
"I see, now it makes a bit more sense, but holy star what have you done mother?" Dallius spoke to himself for a bit, while having his head down.
"Do you mind explaining mister...?"
"Dallius. As for the explanation, I should explain the game in a bit more detail first. First and foremost, there are two ways to play this game. The first way is the safe way. No bets, no stakes, nothing, just a safe game of bluffing. As for the second way, that's when things get dangerous. For starters, this type of game is always overseen by Metatron's Agents, so if you think about cheating and getting away with it, well you can just forget that thought. A few key differences are also the usage of holy wristbands, victory conditions and even the punishments. In mother's case, we will talk about the punishment for cheating, Metatron's obedience seal. That seal is applied to cheaters only and its effect is to force one command on the cheater. Of course, only the one who got cheated, is the one who can issue the command and that said command can be anything, regardless of how ridiculous or weird it can be, but the command can still be cancelled anytime, as long as it hasn't been completed and it still needs to be under their capabilities and during this entire time, that person is also aware of their actions." Dallius explained fully with a serious expression.
"So, that means that I still have my force order because I had stopped from killing herself, right?" Soren decided to ask for confirmation.
"Exactly."
"Then, how do I bring her back to normal, because having a blank-faced lady, is giving me the creeps." Soren said as he sat slightly farther away from the expressionless Diana.
"Just have her complete her command and she will be back to normal. That's all to it. Please refrain though from having her do something... immoral." Dallius spoke with a serious tone while looking at Diana.
"Hmmm..." At that moment, Soren closed his eyes and started to think about what he should have her do. He wanted her to do something quick, while also not causing anymore trouble as it is. After a couple of minutes, Soren opened his eyes and ordered:
"Diana, have a ballroom dance with your daughter and end that said dance with a romantic flair."
At that moment, she got up motionlessly and grabbed Kana from her hands the two of them started dancing a ballroom dance, albeit without the music.
"Hey, let me go. Soren, why did you have me involved in her order? I haven't done anything to you." Kana spoke with a flustered expression while trying to free herself from her mother's hands.
"In reality she could have done it with any of the available guards, but you were the closest one to her, so you just happened to pick the short straw, sorry." Soren then shrugged after he finished the explanation.
"Urghhh... I'm going to get you, once I free myself." Kana said angrily as she was doing a twirl around her mother's hand. After around 5 minutes of awkward ballroom dancing, Diana then ended the dance with her daughter being extremely close to her face, while showing a charming expression that made Kana's heart skip a beat.
"That image is definitely getting burned into ny retinas." Soren said happily while covering Lavenza's eyes with his hand, but Lavenza trying to peek from the side.
After that, Diana started to move freely after letting her Kana's hands, while Kana herself was stunned by Diana herself.
"Rise and shine Duchess. You missed the ballroom party. Hehehe..." Soren said jokingly, while also having a happy expression.
"Rise and shine my fin. Do not think that I will forget the things you have done to me, little boy." Diana spoke angrily while staring at Soren and while she was speaking, the star mark on her hand, started to disappear.
"It was the least I could, after bearly causing me to piss myself and extorting all of that information." Soren retorted with an angry voice and a smiling expression.
"Anyways, back to business. Now that you know a decent amount of my personal stuff, what will you do about it?" Soren asked with a serious expression on his face.
"Hmmm... I think I will just tell my husband, because he always knows when I try to hide something from him and that's about it really. I have no intention of telling anyone outside of this carriage, or even to some of my most trusted subordinates. I can do at least that much, after what I have caused you." Diana spoke in a much less menacing manner.
"At least, ehhh?" Soren spoke while looking away with a dejected expression.
"What, is that not enough for you Soren?" Diana asked slightly seriously.
"Considering the fact that you extorted information from me through gambling, violence and caused me a significant of mental trauma and the only thing I get in return is a word of silence, I would have to be an idiot to accept these kind of terms." Soren stared at Diana with a serious look.
"And here I thought you were naive enough to accept these terms without much trouble." Diana commented back without and changes in her expression. Soren gave her a serious stare before speaking:
"Anyways, I doubt that you would stoop to that-" *rumble* *crash*
At that moment, rumbling noises started to be heard and then suddenly the entire room started to turn around like a weird trick room and everyone started getting hit on the walls, like a whole bunch of rag dolls. After a few seconds of the room tumbling around and everyone started to regain their senses while still being in pain.
"Owww... Lavenza, are you ok?" Soren asked while looking for Lavenza around.
"Kyuuuuuu~..." Lavenza answered while getting out of a pile of books that had burried her.
"Is everyone alright? Can you answer?" Soren then decided to check on everyone in the room. Some of the guards seem to be unconcious while the only ones who could het up, were Diana, Kana who had just recovered from her shock, Dallius, albeit his arm has been bent in a weird way and around half a dozen guards.
"I have seen better- tsk- days." Diana spoke first although she was holding her head, while she was getting up.
"Ow... What happened? Last thing I remember was me dancing with mom and then poof, all of a sudden the carriage gets turned around." Kana spoke afterhaving unburied herself from the pile of books.
"It's... nothing much... for now..." Dallius spoke slowly while struggling to hold his arm and holding back his urge to scream from pain.
"Holy! Nothing much!? You arm is be-" Jist as Soren was gon to check on Dallius, he stopped him and said:
"This is nothing... for me... Worry about yourself..." Dallius struggled even at making normal sentences at this point.
"We have to get back to the mansion and fast. Guards, what is the situation outside?" Diana spoke seriously while formulating a plan.
"I count around 20 assilants surrounding us and judging by their equipment, they seem to be bandits, but I tell for sure." One of the guards spoke while looking outside from the window.
"Hmmm... We shall fight them outside, but stay close and don't give them a chance at breaking through. Get ready everyone." Diana spoke seriously, while swimming quickly towads one of the side rooms and entering in it. Soren also took out his sword and got ready for battle, although he would have to avoid close quarters combat, due to his injuries, he can still provide cover fire together with Lavenza. Kana decided to try and take care of Dallius, while he sat down on a nearby pile of books and rest.
After a couple of minutes, Diana came out of the sideroom she went in and she was wearing some sort of shiny steel armor and also had a couple of axes that were strapped on her hips.
"Ready Lavenza?" Soren said quietly to Lavenza.
"Kyuu~." She nodded with excitement before Soren also nodded as well.
"Stick together everyone. Never engage alone and stay vigilant during the entire battle, you never know when your opponent mighy pull any underhanded tricks." Diana spoke with pure vigor and aura.
"Now. Charge!!" Diana shouted before her, Soren, Lavenza and the rest of the guards came out of the broken door to the side.