The moment Adriana regained her consciousness she did not panic and looked around. The back of her head was aching which she massaged while getting up.
It was her old bedroom. For as long as she could remember she spent her life in this place during her childhood. If not for Elphina she would not have gotten a better room.
The walls of her room were painted black. But because of the old paint, it looked like an abandoned basement. There was only one candle lit and placed in the middle of the room.
At least they were kind enough not to let Adriana freeze to death.
Adriana stood up and walked to the door. She twisted the knob only for it to get stuck. She kept her face expressionless and sat back down on the bed. There was no escape route from this room. And the only way she could get out was through that wooden door.
Adriana thought of breaking down the door but getting out without a plan would meet her end fast. This left her no choice but to wait.
"Yashiro," summoned Adriana and the spirit appeared in front of her. He frowned, smelling a foul scent then looked at Adriana.
"This…where is this place?" Yashiro asked Adriana.
"My old bedroom."
"Old bedroom?"Yashiro sneered, seeing the condition of the room. "How can those people let you live in this place? Is this because of the old woman? Or the other old woman who looks like you?"
"The second one," Adriana answered.
"You called me so you can relay a message to Astell? Why did you summon me and not Faris?" Questioned Yashiro since usually this kind of task was given to her.
"She's busy. I asked her to track Issac."
"Hey, don't call Faris out for so long. Your body will not handle it," Yashiro said in a worried tone. Since he knew about her condition. And summoning one high spirit and one medium spirit at the same time can take a toll on her energy.
"I'm fine. This is urgent. Help me find a way out here." Adriana added while pointing toward the wooden door
"The wooden door?" Yashiro glanced at the door and then back at her.
"It won't work. I can bust it down but where will I go next?" Adriana questioned Yashiro who understood that she needed an escape route. And as much as possible it was a route that will not hurt her. "Also, Madam Jocelyn might have placed some traps beware."Adriana warned him at the end.
Yashiro nodded and disappeared into thin dust. A few minutes later he returned with a frown on his lips. He shook his head.
"You were right," agreed Yashiro, who shrank his body. "There are too many traps. Madam Jocelyn you say? Did she make those?". 'She is a woman, one should be wary of', he thought inside his head.
"Yes, even though she doesn't possess any mana inside her. Drawing and creating a magic circle is something that anyone can do. However, what makes her a cautious person is that her work is different, the magic circles she draws are much more advanced than what average people use and can draw," explained Adriana who picked a broken stick from the ground and drew a circle.
"Perhaps she's a witch? This might make sense if that's the case," Yashiro pondered and mumbled out, seeing the corner of her lips grow.
"Do you want to know why Madam Jocelyn hates me?"
"Don't tell me…"
"Yes, what you are thinking is correct," Adriana laughed softly.
"You saw her real appearance?" His eyes widened.
"To be exact, on the day I was born I saw her true form."
When Adriana was born Jocelyn could not keep up with the pain she was feeling. Unexpectedly, her true form was shown to the servants who were later on killed by her.
They say it is extremely rare for a baby to remember things which are why Jocelyn did not mind if Adriana had seen her true appearance.
But Adriana has a clear picture of her real appearance that is confined in her mind. Her hair was gray, her face covered with scars, and her body wasn't as gorgeous as they say. Everything from head to toe was something she made herself. A concealing potion.
A concealing potion is mostly used by witches. Well, witches desire to stay young and beautiful till the end of their lives. This makes sense since throughout the years Jocelyn did not grow a single gray hair.
The society has also at a point wondered how she kept her young appearance that they suspected she was a witch. But she denied them and even proved them wrong.
The one thing that made Adriana want to laugh was that no one knew she was a witch. Well, the only time Adriana knew about it was when Jocelyn became so defensive about it.
The curious Adriana made her way to Jocelyn's bedroom and found that it was true. She is a witch and was concealing her true form from everyone wickedly, making everyone believe that she is not.
Nonetheless, there are ways to remove the concealing potion. One way is through purification or light magic. The other way is if the witch is going through extreme pain.
That day while Jocelyn was in labor, she did not prepare in advance or maybe she didn't know about it, which left her to make a mistake, as a result, the effect of the potion wore out and Adriana saw her true appearance.
During the stage of rebellion, when Adriana was in an argument with Jocelyn, she spilled out to him that she saw her true face. Of course, Jocelyn was surprised which gave her no choice but to silence her.
Jocelyn used many painful ways to silence Adriana and because of that, it did build some sort of trauma in her. If Adriana was thrown back in this old bedroom in the past she would have shivered and poured tears out of her eyes.
Luckily, that was not the case now. Seeing this old bedroom made her nauseous. Simply because of the odor. It was the odor of mold, dirty water, and other more indescribable things.
"Then is this the reason she tried avoiding you as much as possible?" inquired Yashiro.
"Aside from that, she thought I had fallen for her trap and drank that tea in which she had dropped something," Adriana gave a humorless laugh as she rested her head on the wall and concluded. "She tried erasing my memories."
Adriana shifted her head and coldly gazed at Yashiro. Her lips were smiling but her eyes had a spark of blood lust. To make it worse it felt like he was going to be devoured by her.
"To think that I made her angry by knowing her secret which led her to do many things with me. But, my father seemed to have his own opinion and disagreed with her."
"The family head has been silent recently," Yashiro mentioned the point while listening tentatively to her speech.
"Well, of course, he is. I've had a feeling…Since the moment I stepped into the mansion," Adriana stared into cold space. "I have a feeling that my father is no longer alive."