Meanwhile, inside the manor, Lord Khaleji led Thalida to his study.
The study was illuminated by glow stones. These stones produced a light similar to candlelight. This created a serene and contemplative atmosphere, ideal for work and study.
The study housed bookcases filled with rows upon rows of books, and a large, sturdy wooden table dominated the center of the room. Upon it, neatly stacked papers and documents lay, organized meticulously.
"You know I hate the smell of smoke, right? Please ventilate the room." Thalida complained.
The air in the room was thick with smoke, indicating that her dear husband had been smoking before he arrived to save that little bastard from her hand.
"Give me a moment."
Velvet curtains draped elegantly over the windows.
With a simple wave of his hand, Lord Khaleji commanded the curtains to part, and the window to open.
This allowed fresh air to flow in, ventilating the room perfectly and dispersing the smoke.
After that, Lord Khaleji took a seat behind his desk, while Thalida came to a stop before it.
She asked tentatively, "Lord husband, why did you bring me here?"
Lord Khaleji, with a stern tone, questioned back, "Do you not know? Must I spell it out for you?"
"I don't understand what you mean," Thalida feigned innocence, her voice laced with confusion. She looked as meek and harmless as a deer. It was a look she would only show in front of the man she not only loved but also respected and feared.
"I told you not to cause trouble these days, but you defied my orders and did the opposite. Do you still put me in your eyes?"
Lord Khaleji spoke in a voice that was devoid of anger but laden heavily with disappointment. Thalida's failure to adhere to his wishes had irked him, yet as she was his wife, and he was magnanimous with his own people, he chose to forgive her instead of treating her heavy-handedly for betraying his trust. Although he was unwilling to harm her, her willfulness had thoroughly disappointed him, and he had no intention of concealing his feelings, even if it meant hurting her.
'He's speaking to me like that because of that little bastard? Can there be anything more baffling than this?'
Thalida looked taken aback.
Her husband, Lord Khaleji, was known as a fearsome man throughout Serphendale. When she first married him out of necessity, she feared he would be harsh towards her too and that she was in for hellish days.
What necessity forced the proud daughter of a Great Wizard family to marry him? Well, in the Great Wizard War, the law of the Serph Kingdom enforced that all able-bodied wizards, except for pregnant women and housewives with children to raise, must join the war. Thalida came from great roots but she was a certified coward who wanted to avoid being conscripted into war, and thus when saw an opportunity she went for it. When the bride selection banquet of the newly appointed Lord Khaleji was held, she approached him in secret and promised on her arcane heart that she would bear as many children as he wanted, be obedient to him all her life, and never vie for the power of the House of Khaleji if he married her.
Lord Khaleji was searching for a woman exactly like her. A woman who wouldn't harbor ill intent towards his family, who wouldn't get into useless power struggles, who would be content with the authority he granted her, who wouldn't behave like a feminist and shy away from performing her marital duties, such was the kind of woman he was searching for all along, and he found it in Thalida.
Thus, he married her without much thought, and while their marriage had some difficulties, they were never excessive.
As a result, everything was contrary to her expectations. Lord Khaleji didn't eat her alive after marrying her. Instead, he had been kind to her, punishing her only when necessary to correct her ways and make her ever the more worthy of her position as the mistress of the House of Khaleji.
But today, for a mere outsider, he had not only thwarted her plans and humiliated her in front of their servants but also punished her handmaidens.
And now, for the exact same reason, he was openly expressing his disappointment in her, leaving her struggling to believe her ears.
The fact that he was doing all this over what she considered a minor issue involving an evil outsider who had stolen the place of the last gift her best friends had left behind was simply beyond her comprehension!
in a voice laced with a mix of confusion and a hint of indignation, Thalida responded, "You know I would never intentionally disobey you, and even this time I can't be said to be in the wrong. I mean, how can teaching a thief a lesson and putting him in his place be called causing trouble?
"It baffled me when you defended him back in the hall. And now I feel more confused than ever that you're arguing with me because of him. Have you forgotten that this same thief is linked to the tragedy that took two of the most important people of our lives twelve years ago?"
With that, Lord Khaleji's memory was jolted, triggering a painful recollection.
The past he remembered was intricately tied to the day Valerius's parents, Lyrius and Seraphina, died.
It was public knowledge that they were among the many causalities of war, but that wasn't true. It was merely a cover-up for the true cause of their deaths, which was known only to a handful of people.
It all happened 12 years ago.
Valerius was lured out of the manor and kidnapped.
The kidnappers didn't do a good job at hiding their trail, and soon, Lyrius and Seraphina were hot on their pursuit.
When they tracked them down, they were ambushed by devil worshippers. They managed to defeat their assailants and rescue their son but at the cost of their own lives.
By the time Lord Khaleji arrived at the scene, he was met with a gruesome sight that caused his heart to sink and his chest to feel stuffed.
What he saw was a field strewn with the corpses. Most of these corpses belonged to devil worshippers. One among them belonged to his sister-in-law, Seraphina.
Not to mention, in the middle of this carnage, a little child sobbed uncontrollably while embraced by Lyrius, who had a fatal gaping wound where his heart should be.
With his dying breath, Lyrius wiped the little boy's tears and muttered an apology to him before glancing towards his brother and asking him to look after Valerius. Then he passed away.
Lord Khaleji was saddened by his brother's passing, but he was also certainly confused by his dying wish.
Both Lyrius and he were pure-blood Khalejis with the unique ability to see souls, thanks to their privilege of soaking their eyes in the Elder Dragon's blood.
The soul in the body of his nephew wasn't Valerius's; it belonged to someone else, while Valerius's own soul seemed to have vanished. This change should have taken place after the kidnapping. Even he could see that. It meant his brother should also be aware of that.
So why then had Lyrius's last words been a plea to care for this child who wasn't related to them by any means and was just a thief who was possessing the body of one of their own?
At that time, he had no answer to that.
He decided to honor his brother's final wish and adopted the orphaned boy into the main family. He brought him home to observe him as he believed he was the key to discovering the truth of what had happened to Valerius's soul.
His observation led to the following conclusions.
A: The boy wasn't connected to the devil worshippers nor was he a devil worshipper himself for he didn't carry the mark of the devil and devil worshippers had never tried to establish a connection with him
B: He wasn't under the influence of force beyond comprehension. The fact that he behaved ordinarily was enough to prove that.
C: His soul was not like that of a ghost or devil. It was similar to the soul of mortals.
D: He wasn't a reincarnated monster or a master in the art of soul. The soul inhabiting Valerius's body was only four years old, ruling out the possibility of it being a reincarnated entity with malevolent intentions.
E: There was only one odd thing about him. He believed he was Valerius J. Khaleji and behaved exactly like him.
The boy outwardly behaved like Valerius and had all his memories. If not for his ability to see souls, Lord Khaleji would have been none the wiser, just like the rest of the family.
Lord Khaleji speculated that Lyrius might have altered the boy's memory somehow for some reason.
That was the end of his observation.
Initially, Lord Khaleji kept the truth to himself. Later, he confided in two people: one who could assist in studying the boy and possibly help locate his nephew's soul, if it wasn't already beyond their reach, and the other was his wife, Thalida. He revealed this secret to her during a moment of weakness when he was heavily inebriated by the grief of losing his brother, sister-in-law, and nephew.
Since learning the truth, Thalida had viewed the boy as a monster, targeting him at every opportunity, despite Lord Khaleji's strict instructions against such behavior.
"You're the forgetful one, my dear. Yes, he is tangentially linked to that event but he is by no means the perpetrator. This was proven years ago when we inspected his body and soul and discovered they were free from the devil's mark and any other anomaly.
"Moreover, we have watched him grow from a mere child into the young man he is today. Throughout these years, he has shown nothing but normalcy and ordinary behavior. For all we know, he might be just another innocent soul, unwittingly entangled in someone else's devious plots. There is no justifiable reason to suspect him, let alone consider him guilty and punish him for a crime he didn't commit.
"I told you this in the very first year we brought him into our house to observe him. Why have you still not ceased targeting him, even after all these years? Why are you intent on tormenting an innocent soul? Does it make you feel better?" Lord Khaleji questioned her calmly.
He wasn't making baseless accusations.
Work kept Lord Khaleji occupied most of the time, and his remaining hours were consumed by investigations into his brother's and sister-in-law's deaths, along with efforts to locate his nephew's soul. Despite his busy schedule, he was not oblivious to the happenings within his household.
He was well aware that Thalida, his wife, acted inappropriately whenever Valerius was involved.
For example, when he first brought the orphaned boy from the funeral house, he had instructed his family to treat him as one of their own.
Initially, his children got along well with their new adopted brother, but this didn't sit right with Thalida.
She couldn't stand seeing the foreign soul, whom she viewed as a thief usurping her nephew's place, laughing and playing with her children.
This created a nagging discomfort in her heart.
Thalida instinctively felt that as long as Valerius was happy, she would be distressed. Multiple times, she wanted to confront him and tell him the truth so that even if he was innocent he would feel guilty but restrained herself to avoid jeopardizing her husband's plans.
Instead, she devised a new strategy: she showered Valerius with excessive love while neglecting her own children entirely, treating them like thin air.
For months, it seemed as if she only had eyes for her adopted son.
Then, her plan unfolded as expected.
The three children accused Valerius of stealing their mother. Valerius vehemently denied their accusations. He was not a bastard. He had parents, but they died in the war. At the funeral house, everyone was busy dividing up what his parents had left behind. They didn't spare him a glance. They didn't want to add an extra burden to their family.
He was totally ignored until his uncle came and extended a hand to him. Although at that time Lord Khaleji hadn't said a word, the young boy knew what he meant. He was like a ray of light that won't appear in the bleak mid-winter again. Thus, he grabbed his hand. That was it. Then he was brought to the main house. He swore he didn't have any intention of stealing someone's mom!
Unfortunately, the kids who had lost their mother's love and attention entirely were too aggrieved to believe him or give him the time to explain himself.
They thought he was calling them a liar after stealing their mom and pouring salt into their wounds. As a result, they ganged up on him.
What started off as a verbal argument quickly turned into a physical brawl.
It was 3 against 1 but Valerius fought back bravely. In the end, everyone was injured.
That very next day, a nasty rumor spread in the estate. A stray kid from outside with no place to call home who was generously accepted into the main house by their masters had hurt their lovely young masters and young miss. The ways the servant looked at Valerius changed. They no longer treated him with pity or love, keeping everything professional when it came to him.
Lord Khaleji was naturally aware of these developments, but he chose to do nothing but observe.
He wanted to see how Valerius would react when faced with injustice.
Devils and their worshippers often acted recklessly in daily life, and this defect in their souls was more pronounced when they believed they were wronged.
If Valerius were to show any devilish behavior after being wronged, it would indicate he was a devil quote adept at concealing his true nature who was masquerading as an innocent child all along. If that were to be proven true, Lord Khaleji would stop observing him and start brutally torturing him to extract the truth.
However, Valerius's response to these challenges was humane and quite childish, extremely appropriate for his physical and soul age. It cleared him of any suspicion.
After confirming the innocence of the soul inhabiting his nephew's body, Lord Khaleji warned Thalida to cease her antagonism and considered the matter closed. He didn't seek justice for Valerius, as he was indifferent towards those he didn't consider his own.
Thalida, however, continued to defy her husband's warnings, concocting more schemes to tarnish Valerius's reputation. The servants grew to despise him, he became alienated by his adoptive siblings and cousins, and the few fake friends he had left him when he was found to be an unawakened wizard at 13.
The ensuing loneliness led to depression, turning Valerius into a recluse.
Then, as if finally satisfied, Thalida stopped targeting him.
Only recently he got better, but she was back to ruining him.
This time things have changed.
Thus, Lord Khaleji could no longer sit back and watch her ruin the young and talented boy.
"A thief who has stolen our nephew's body, how can you call him innocent? He has you fooled. All the more reason why I can't let him be!" Thalida said through gritted teeth as she stood straight with her fists clenched.
"Enough, Thalida. Don't defy me again or you'll regret it," Lord Khaleji said sternly as he glared at her. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes, followed by a burst of power radiating from him, directed solely at Thalida.
Thalida felt an overwhelming pressure bearing down on her. Before she knew it, she was brought to her knees. If her arcane heart hadn't reacted instinctively and released a vast majority of her soul power to fight off Lord Khaleji's soul radiation, she would've fared much worse.
Forced to kneel by her husband, Thalida gritted her teeth. He had gone so far. It was clear he was determined to protect that thief. Because he had made his determination obvious, in the future, it would be impossible for her to deal with him.
She had vowed on her arcane heart not to disobey her husband. Each time she violated this promise, she would suffer a punishment. The punishment for breaking her promise to him varied depending on how harshly she defied him.
This time he had made his stance clear. If she went against him and targeted Valerius again, she would face severe punishment. The punishment could be of any type. She could survive it if it was the one she knew. But if it was the type of punishment that was deadly and she had no knowledge of, she might even lose her life.
In her eyes, it simply wasn't worth the risk. So she decided then and there to treat the thief like he was dead. She would never bother herself with him. For all she cared, he could go to hell.
'For now, I should focus on getting out of this predicament,' Thalida thought.
"Lord husband… p-please forgive me," Thalida begged pitifully, knowing full well that her husband wouldn't be able to keep up his harsh attitude when she displayed weakness and acted meek in front of him, and as she expected, Lord Khaleji snorted and retracted his soul radiation, relieving her from the suffocating pressure.
"T-thank you for showing mercy," Thalida was wronged, but she couldn't show it, and she also had to be thankful towards her tormentor.
It made her rot inside, but what could she do? She had entered such an unfair relationship herself.
Her cowardice was to blame.
"I have turned a blind eye to your shenanigans in the past, thinking you would improve, but you've only been a disappointment so far. So I have decided to bound you to rules so that you won't act out of your limits," Lord Khaleji said as he helped her back to her feet with a wave of his hand. "Vow on your arcane heart that you'll stay out of his business right now."
"But!"
"There's no room for argument," Lord Khaleji said sternly.
Thalida bit her lips. She knew he was a man of his words. Since he wanted her to make a vow on her arcane heart, he would make her do it no matter what.
She didn't want to face his anger again. Thus, she said what he wanted to hear.
Now, she could no longer target Valerius. If she did, she would not only be severely punished for breaking the promise she made on her arcane heart, but she would also have to answer to him.
And she knew what kind of man he was. He was ruthless to his enemies, ruthless to himself, and also ruthless to his family.
The war had changed him, and the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law had deepened this transformation.
From being a man who loved and treasured his children he became a man who was indifferent to everything around him and was focused solely on the growth of the House of Khaleji.
Of course, he was doing other things behind her back. It's just that she didn't know. Behind the scenes, Lord Khaleji was involved in many other activities, but Thalida was oblivious to these activities as he didn't bother telling her any of these things. He was already regretting opening up to her about Valerius's matter.
"I-it won't happen again, lord husband," she said meekly.
"You can drop the act," Lord Khaleji said before signaling her to come near.
Thalida shakily approached him. He pulled her closer and gently wiped the sweat caused by perspiration off her face using his personal silver napkin. He then tucked the loose strands of her hair behind her ears and caressed her face gently. His gentleness moved her heart, making her feel at ease.
When her looks returned to normal, he nodded approvingly.
"Alright, you can go," he said, stopping the caress, pulling back his hand, and signaling her to leave.
Thalida stepped back, bowed to him, and left graciously.
After she left, the door to the study was locked.
Then a weird change took place.
In the study, all the things started to lose their shadows one by one. It was as if they were stripped of their right to retain their own shadows.
These shadows gathered into a single spot and combined into one, creating the body of a man that was 3 feet tall, with a horn on its head, eyes as black as the night sky, and jagged teeth.
Lord Khaleji wasn't startled by its appearance, as if encountering such beings was an ordinary occurrence for him.
The humanoid shadow stared at Khaleji and said, "She is not the type of woman to give up that easily."
From behind the table, he looked up at it and replied, "There is no need to worry. She will not target him again. She is bound by the sacred vow."
The sacred vow, made on the arcane heart, was permanent, and breaking it resulted in punishment. It was a type of vow exclusive to wizards.
The humanoid shadow said, "There are ways to get around it. If she is dead set on making his life hell, it wouldn't be hard for her to find a way. It would've been better if you had come clean to her. Why didn't you tell her the truth?"
"Do you think of your master as the type of guy who creates riddles just to mess with people?" Lord Khaleji questioned.
The shadow of the humanoid man shook its head.
A flash of realization hit its face. "You mean—"
"Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. He must have his reasons for what he did. It might be related to a big conspiracy, and as long as we're uncertain about this matter, we need to keep it a secret. And the best-kept secrets are those never shared, especially to those who are loose-lipped and easily emotional," Lord Khaleji said.
The shadow seemed to understand something and stopped questioning his decision.