"…I found you~"
A shadow formed out of the hooded person's shadow. The shadow then separated into a gooey mass. It loudly squelched as it wriggled into an adult man's height. A heeled shoe first came through the shadow before a whole person was walking out of the shadow joining the hooded person.
A dress with layers of flounce peeked out the purple cloak. A pair of delicate hands reached up to pull the hood down. Curly light pink hair styled in drills fell down like a pink cascade. Sharp icy blue eyes peeked out from straight bangs. Her fair face had angry lines that resembled scratches.
"I found you~ I finally found you!" she said in a sickeningly sweet tone.
"duChess it'S tHe wEirD HumAn!"
"Is she?" Claudina quirked her brow. "And you are?"
Somehow that triggered her. "Don't you dare pretend not to recognize me, bitch!! You also took one of my demons too I see!!"
She laughed. "My, my! What an astounding lady you must be to curse so shamelessly!"
It only worsened her mood swings for this made the girl sob down to the ground. Claudina was even more amused by it. 'It's like watching Mother when things don't go her way!'
"Shut up, you vixen! It's all your fault! It's your fault he left me!"
"Oh? Do tell whom have I seduced to garner such false accusations?" 'I don't recall seducing anyone with a lover with such distinctive features. At least not in this timeline…'
"Saintess." Behind her Anatole warned her. "Now is not the time…"
"Sorry~ So!" She put her hand on her hip. "Do I know you? Or is it only a one sided acquaintance?"
The girl looked up from her hands gashing her teeth in anger. "How dare a chit of a girl feign ignorance by pretending not to know me?"
"Young lady," she signed shaking her head. "You keep on saying I know you but I am saying I don't. How about you have yet to tell me who you are?"
The girl huffed as she stood back up. "I am Rosalinda Carlos! The ex-crown princess of Halieas and I am here to get revenge upon you for killing my beloved!"
"Beloved?" Claudina blinked. "I heard you didn't love the late crown prince. If you wanted revenge why did you wait until now?"
"I could care less about that skirt chasing dog!" she screamed in disgust. "You! You killed my Lucas!"
"Claudina you killed that punk already?" Shulia asked, surprised. "I thought I was going to kill the brat later on. When did you?"
"Mhm…yes. A few days ago Anatole and I went on killing spree date when I found out he followed me here."
Two pair of accusing eyes fell on Anatole. He looked the other way to avoid Sylvester and Oriane's steely gaze. 'That wench…'
"…Although it's two people the one who seduced him was the bitch…" Rosalinda staggered as she fumbled to grab something out of her cloak. "Because you took Lucas away from me I had to ask for help from the cult. They were more than glad to help me of course as they sent me the person who introduced me to the Arbitrary Abstractions. They just had to! After all I did released my demons in the Halieas kingdom for them to escape."
"So you are the herbalist we keep hearing about?" Sylvester asked the other person. "You were the one who mentioned Blakeley Anderson to summon demons."
They bowed. "I am honored to be seen as a person of interest by the noble saints. I too along with my group have heard about your investigation and the quick demise of our loyal supporter Prince Aidan."
He glared. "Since you are so honored I suppose you won't mind to tell us who you are."
"All in due time, Sir Saint, all in due time~" they chuckled. Instead of a rough voice, it was now a silky tone of a temptress.
Sylvester got goose bumps from hearing it. "…Crawl back to whatever hole spat you out."
"Enough chit-chat!"
Rosalinda was holding a book. A book that was engulfed in a sinister aura like the Forbidden Grimoire secured around her back.
It was rich reddish black with an expensive leather cover. On the cover was a lark splendidly dressed in cords of ribbons with glittering rubies on it's eyes and wings. Ribbons of various sizes were sticking out from different pages. A similar silver latch like Claudina's Forbidden Grimoire kept it locked.
"Hey you bitch."
Claudina tore her eyes away from the Grimoire.
Rosalinda twisted the lark's head and the latch opened like a jigsaw puzzle. Her eyes were dead as tears profusely fell down. "You stole the other Grimoire from the palace at the night of ball didn't you?" Glossy gold pages with shimmering black writing flipped open.
Instinctively her hand reached for the Grimoire on her back. "Do you have any proof I did steal it?"
'…I thought I was the only one with a Forbidden Grimoire. I didn't know there were two of them!'
"Doesn't matter. It's with you isn't it?"
Claudina nodded.
"Good," she smiled closing her eyes. "We are going to have a battle to the death with our Grimoires. You can't refuse. Because if you do my friend here will kill all the saints."
"Oh my! How scary~" Though she said it in a teasing manner her demeanor had changed. "A fight to the death eh? How thrilling! Even as a saint's apprentice I rarely get to have any part of the fun." She glanced back at the saints. "Don't interrupt this fight. Deal with the herbalist instead."
The herbalist listening, flinched. "…I don't agree to it."
"Did I make it sound like you have choice?" Claudina scoffed. "No. I didn't."
The herbalist stumbled back while the saints moved forward. With each step the herbalist took they also took a few more steps until finally the herbalist starts running for the other end of the park. The saints followed them whooshing past both Claudina and Rosalinda.
"Baron, go with them as support. Sylvester and Oriane won't let anything happen if you say I sent you there."
Baron agreed with some hesitation and scampered off after them.
As soon as they left Claudina threw away her cloak.
She was dressed in a sleeveless shirt with an archer's corset, leather pants and ballet flats. Harness belts around her chest secured the Forbidden Grimoire on her back. The Stars' Blessing on her hip provided a sense of comfort. Flexing her fingers under fingerless gloves, her green eyes were permanently fixated on Rosalinda.
She heard Rosalinda was endlessly clever.
After her husband's secret came out, she refused to sleep in the same room as him because he couldn't have a child. Taking multiple concubines yielded the same result and the entire kingdom started to talk about how Aidan was incapable of impregnating a woman.
Finally as a last resort she had seduced the second prince to her bed and had a child with him. The people of Halieas, known to find affairs disgusting, praised her for taking another man since it meant the royal blood line could continue. When the baby was ten Aidan had committed suicide from drinking too much. After an autopsy they found a large amount of cyanide in his body. As for the newly appointed king, his mother Rosalinda took control of the government. Under her rule Halieas was flourishing and the young king almost like an impressionable puppy was reared to be an obedient wolf. Even after the new king came to power she still wielded a considerable amount of power.
She all did this is because she wanted to rule the kingdom and to be know far and wide, that with just one look people can recognize who she is and what she did. And during this entire time she not once revealed a bit of her plans until the letter she left for her child to find when she suddenly died.
'So why is such a woman in the deepest throes of despair today? All because she was in love and with the worst of men?' Claudina stared at the shell of the woman she had once admired in her younger years. Pulling out the Forbidden Grimoire she twisted the owl's head and the latch opened.
"Love is…the worst curse," she said.
"…It's not."
Claudina looked up.
Rosalinda was smiling at the sky, her eyes having a dreamy gaze. "It's the most beautiful thing that can ever happen to someone. Once you are in love, you start to see everything in brighter colors. Everything seems so…beautiful. So magical. Like nothing is wrong in the world."
She signed and hugged herself. "You have a feeling of being whole when they hold you close. When they kiss you, you want that moment to burn in your head. You feel like a firework is lit inside you when you see them. You replay every memory with them until they are all you can think of. Every waking hour is spent thinking of them. You want to be with them all the time."
"You feel an intense rage if someone else craves them too but at the same time you are so happy because someone else can also appreciate them the same as you do. You would do anything for them to be happy. You want them to only look at you, love you and ultimately love you as much as you do."
Claudina stared at her in bewilderment.
She couldn't understand why someone like Rosalinda would throw away her future like this. All for the sake of a man who only wanted to bed her once and move to the next.
Of course, she loved her friend. She was the main reason why Claudina was so determined on her goal to get enough power to protect those she cared for. Though she couldn't see herself being so...obsessed with her love.
But here was Rosalinda, mooning about what love is to her. She was practically obsessed as if drunk on love potion.
Perhaps Lucas had said something sweet to her and she naively believed he love her. Or maybe it was all a ploy seeing the intimate letters they exchanged, Lucas must have been charging her for information about the Arbitrary Abstractions in exchange for going on a few dates with her.
Lucas had sucked her dry for once she ran out of usefulness, her letters became more desperate sounding. As if pleading him to take her back.
And he did so in a cruel, twisted way.
He would send all the women he had to befriend and kill as mission jobs to Rosalinda and she would end up disposing them. She readily did it. All for a sweet word from him directed at her.
Unfortunately this love story was already a tragedy before it could even begin.
"But you!" Rosalinda was crying again. "But you just had to go and ruin it!"
Claudina was truly apologetic. 'Maybe my coming back to the past and heavily altering some core moments has led to this. Maybe Rosalinda was never supposed to be in love with Lucas but my meddling caused her to have feelings for him' "Lady Carlos, it was never my intention."
"Shut up! Shut up!! SHUT UP!!!" She stomped her foot in rage. "I don't want to hear your excuses! I came here for a fight! Let's see which one of us has the true potential for being a Forbidden Grimoire user more."
Rosalinda suspended the Forbidden Grimoire on the air the ribbons curling on her arm. Claudina kept on holding the Grimoire on her hands the chains dangling uselessly.
Rosalinda sneered. "What sort of potential did Aidan see in you to make you a user of Forbidden magic? You can't even hold it right!"
She blinked and tried to mimic what Rosalinda was doing. After a few tries it stayed up in the air and the chains were gently wrapped on her hand resembling a metal snake.
"What did he see in you? The only thing remarkable about you is your unnaturally huge reserve of Holy magic and Forbidden magic cohabitating together."
Claudina smirked. "My beauty maybe? Since he gave me the Grimoire as a wedding gift." 'So the Forbidden magic has increased the same as my Holy magic?' She frowned. '…My mother's curse seems to follow me everywhere.'
"The skirt chasing dog will sell his kingdom for a night with the most popular courtesan in the brothel. Giving away one of the only two Forbidden Grimoires to a girl he met doesn't surprise me in the least."
"But Lady Carlos that wouldn't never happened if he wasn't given a love potion. Wasn't it you who gave him the potion in the first place?"
Rosalinda stared at her with her head held high. "So what of it? It was so I could annul our engagement. Though the dog lacked things below, at the very least he could use his upper head. After every courtesan visited his chambers, he would kill them to avoid exposing the truth."
She flipped her hair. "So I sent one of my trusted maids at the ball. He would fall in love with her due to the potion's effects and she would bring evidence about his disposition. I could have threatened him with the information in exchange of my annulment." She closed her eyes. "Though him falling in love with you was completely out of my plans..."
Claudina nodded. "A clever plan indeed. I am sure you had people ready to expose the truth should he try to kill you."
"Exactly!" she said in satisfaction. "The only good thing about the man was that he was easy to manipulate!" She suddenly stopped. "Wait. You infuriating worm! Trying to stall are you?"
She laughed behind her hand. "Oh dear! Was it that obvious?"
Rosalinda rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. A cage made of reflective glass appeared around them. "There! Now we can go all out!"
For a minute they silently stood without moving before Rosalinda asked in annoyance, "You never fought with Grimoires now did you?"
Claudina shrugged her shoulders. "Grimoires are mainly used by mages, wizards and witches. I did learn the basic functions to use them but I never had a fight using a Grimoire."
"Foolish girl. You should have learned everything about it," she snapped at her. "But then again…the concept of using the Forbidden Grimoires has a heaven and earth difference compared to the regular ones. Tsk! To think I have to teach my enemy on how to use her things, what has the world come to?"
"I did use one or two spells from here, mostly to heal and injure demons…"
"Yes but you didn't use them on a fight so shut your trap." Rosalinda reached in her cloak again to draw out a thin dagger. She threw it in the air and Claudina caught it.
"Cut your finger and say your full name out loud. Hold your finger out and let a few drops of blood fall on the Grimoire. You will become the owner of it until you pass it down to your lineage. As for the knowledge on how to use the spells it will all fill inside your head after the Grimoire accepts your blood.."
"Don't worry. I didn't poison it. I want your death to be as brutal as Lucas' so I am not going to kill you just yet. "
Claudina stared at the knife skeptically but did as she was told. She made a clean cut on the side of her index finger. Blood flowed out immediately and formed a rain drop. She glanced up at Rosalind before she said her name.
"Claudina Annabelle Von Crowley."
Rosalind only raised her eye brows in mild surprise but said nothing.
The pages of the Grimoire wildly flipped side to side until it stopped in a blank page. There was nothing written here, just the glossy black paper. As instructed she shook her finger and dropped a few drops of blood.
The blood started to smoke and then using the blood as ink outlines of a drawing appeared. On the next page words written using the blood ink and disappeared just as fast as they were written.
Suddenly a sharp pain shot up on the back of her head.
Alien knowledge filled up her head so quickly she was not able to withstand the pain.
Biting her lip she used Holy magic to alleviate the pain. Slowly it was becoming bearable and she could breathe easy.
In a few minutes she was standing back up, facing Rosalinda with new found determination.