Ginny cheered herself up, though things were hard, she believed that everything will be fine soon. Her optimistic nature was the only thing that was able to get her past these tough times, though she would get upset and a bit depressed often, she would cheer herself up soon enough. Just like now, even though she hardly had any money in her pocket, she was still optimistic about her future.
She picked up the oil bottle that she has securely placed in the broken kitchen cabinet and then took out a little cotton from the small pile that was lying in the corner of the cabinet, she rubbed the cotton with her hands and turned it into a thin wick, before dipping it in the bottle of oil and dripping it on the wheelchair that was sitting at the corner of the shack silently.
Her father didn't like using this wheelchair and as a matter of fact, she didn't like it either. Because this wheelchair was the only thing that the crown prince of the Edessa had given them. Even now she couldn't forget that superior smug look with which the Crown Prince had looked at her, in fact, what she couldn't forget even more was what that man tried to do a day before her father was exiled to this wasteland ——
Annoyance crept in her body and she shrugged it away, she wasn't going to ruin her mood because of a stupid jerk!
Dawn didn't seem to break over the wasteland today, in fact, the dark mist that used to lurk around the corners of the wasteland was now overpowering the sky making the already gloomy wasteland even more Cimmerian.
" The duke is upset today as well father," relayed Ginny as she pushed the wheelchair off the small hill carefully.
The Duke of Terranova was not just the duke of this wasteland but he was also an archmage, who just so happened to be born out of an affair between The Emperor and the Holy Saintess. A look around this cold and bleak wasteland was enough to tell just how much the Royal family hated the existence of the Duke of Terranova, even though he was given the title of the duke, everyone knew that it was no different from getting exiled from the Empire just like her father.
" Same..still..s..ame." mumbled her father as he clutched the armrest of his wheelchair, he must have meant to say that the Duke was still the same as ever.
Though she never met with the Duke of Terranova, she had heard many rumours about him.
The mages of the empire were faintly similar to ticking time bombs, they were powerful enough to destroy an entire Empire but —— they were bounded by the curse that the first emperor put on the mages of the Empire, no one knew why he did that but ever since that day the mages of the Empire started to suffer from a hysteria that was strong enough to kill them as well as the people around them.
And the Duke who was born out of an affair with the Holy Saintess suffered the worst backlash there was because of this curse. And every time, he would get upset as the territory of the Duke, the wasteland would fall into the gloom as well.
Ginny didn't know why the Duke was upset but she too was feeling faintly upset because of him, not because she sympathised with him but because she had to use the last bit of the oil that was left in the house to light a lamp. If not for him and his ever-changing mood, she could have saved this bit of oil for another emergency that would have been much more fruitful than this one.
But no matter how upset she was, there was nothing she could do about it except forking out another two gold coins and purchasing another bottle of oil. Really, she was trying to save money for her father's treatment yet fate was playing cruel jokes on her one after another.
As Ginny arrived at the market place she took out an old pair of earmuffs and put it around her father's ear. Immediately, her father jerked in fear but Ginny soothed him by patting his shoulder, her father relaxed slightly but not completely—- but that soon changed when she tapped on the earmuff. And a low melody flowed in the ears of her father, these earmuffs might be old but this was something that she made in her spare time when she could still sing and use her magic as a siren freely.
The earmuffs had a powerful magic spell, that blocked all the noises from the outside world and only played the calming melody that she has recorded in them.
As for the reason why she did that——
" Look, she is here again, jeez why don't she just stay at home and stop disrupting our lives."
" Quick cover your nose, look how that old man is breathing through his mouth, I am afraid that we will catch something from him."
" Damn it, there goes my good day I just wanted to have a good business today but thanks to this bi*ch and her father, my customers are going to run away soon."
" She should just stay at home and even if she has to come out to buy something then at least let leave her father at home, right?"
" Humph, they are truly father and daughter. One is cursed and the other is mute, remember not to get any closer or you will catch something from her."
Ginny's fingers that were holding the wheelchair clenched. Her father served people like these, he almost gave up his life for people like them and this was how they were treating him, now that he was down, cursed and sick —— they were throwing stones at him.
She wished she could have responded to these people and cursed back at them, She wanted to tell them that she wasn't mute and her father's curse wasn't contagious!
But she couldn't because this was the curse of a siren.