***
One week later.
Calden Castle.
Lanercoast.
"Lord Quentin and Lady Arabelle's procession has arrived," shouted the soldiers guarding the castle gates.
The guards enthusiastically welcomed the arrival of their leader. There were not many soldiers in the procession; almost half of the soldiers were assigned to Sideriver to oversee the bridge's construction.
Quentin was not in the carriage. Instead, he rode at the front as if he was leading the procession. The servants walked out of the palace; one of them was Lily.
Quentin's eyes briefly met with Lily, the servant he had assigned to worsen Lord Edgar's health.
Everyone came to welcome Quentin and Arabelle, but only one person did not welcome them, Sir Colton.
Lady Arabelle's carriage stopped as soon as Quentin stopped his horse. The man dressed in a fancy shirt with a red coat appeared to dismount, walking up to Sir Dorren.
"Welcome to Calden Castle, My Lord," Sir Dorren replied.
The man only bowed his head due to age, and his legs had less strength to bend, but the other servants knelt obediently while bowing their heads, including the soldiers around the castle.
"Thank you for welcoming me, Sir Dorren," Quentin said, shaking Dorren's hand.
The carriage door opened, Lady Arabelle came out of it, followed by Princess Mary and Lady Marcella. During the journey, Lady Marcella remained seriously treated so that she could recover when she arrived at Calden Castle.
"Woah! I think I want to soak myself in the milky pool for as long as possible," revealed Marcella, yawning slightly as she struggled to sleep.
Princess Mary returned to her chamber to rest fully, unlike Arabelle, who was seen walking towards Quentin.
"Where is Sir Colton?" asked Lady Arabelle, curious about the whereabouts of Edgar Helferich's main advisor.
"Something has happened here since you left for Sideriver. Can we talk about it in my chambers?" asked Dorren.
Quentin squinted, as did Arabelle. They both looked at each other for a moment, then nodded their heads in agreement to Sir Dorren's request.
"Very well. You should wipe your body of sweat. I will be waiting," Dorren pleaded.
Sir Dorren stepped off the front yard of Calden Castle. The departure of Sir Dorren, Marcella, and Mary sent the servants inside as well.
Now, all that remained in the front yard were Quentin and Arabelle standing tall, facing each other.
"Did you think what I was afraid of?" asked Arabelle, speaking in a half-whisper.
Quentin cleared his throat softly, his head tilted up to look at the row of windows on the fourth floor, where the families of House Helferich lived.
The man in front of Arabelle sighed, then let out a long exhale, "Lord Edgar."
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!" someone shouted from inside the palace.
Arabelle and Quentin widened both eyes. The shrill voice sounded familiar to both of them, Lady Marcella's voice.
With her heart pounding from the fear haunting her heart, Arabelle walked inside with quick steps. She ran so fast that the dress she wore was torn at the bottom.
Quentin shook his head, stepping quickly into the castle to find out what had made Lady Marcella scream at such a high pitch that it could be heard outside the castle.
Marcella fell limply, both hands appearing to cover her gaping mouth. Marcella's eyes crossed violently with a pale white face.
Mary also walked over to Edgar's chamber with the door open. She looked inside and saw something that shocked her. She had the same horrified expression with a pale face.
Arabelle arrived on the fourth floor, seeing her sister and cousin looking into Edgar's chamber with an unusual expression, an expression of fear.
Quentin arrived at the fourth-floor corridor, seeing the same thing, but the servants seemed to be crowding the place out of curiosity.
"Call the guards! I don't want anything in Edgar's chamber to become a public show!" shouted Quentin.
One of the servants carried out Quentin's order. He walked downstairs, summoning some soldiers to stand guard outside Lord Edgar's room.
Quentin resumed his steps. He was shocked to see Lord Edgar's poor condition.
"What the—"
"FATHER!" cried Arabelle, walking inside quickly to embrace Edgar Helferich's body.
From what Quentin could see, Edgar appeared to have risen from the bed and was dancing around naked. His face was paled, both eyes were red as if covered in blood, and to Quentin's surprise, his body seemed to be oozing green pus.
"Mary!" called Quentin.
"What?" asked Mary, shocked.
"Take Marcella back to her chambers, then call Sir Dorren here!" demanded Quentin, acting frantic.
"O-Okay."
"No need to call me. I'm here," Sir Dorren explained, coming bursting out of the crowd of servants and past the guard of soldiers.
Arabelle, Quentin, and Sir Dorren entered the chamber. Quentin locked the room and opened the window, letting out the stench that had originally accumulated in this room.
Despite Edgar's disgusting and deteriorating condition, Arabelle was still willing to hug Edgar's body tightly, persuading the middle-aged man to stop dancing the traditional Helferich dance and rest.
While opening the chamber window, Quentin wondered about Edgar's condition, "What happened to him?!"
"From the disease history we have. Lord Edgar has Illusion Sores," Sir Dorren explained, speaking softly and not so loudly.
Although he spoke softly, Quentin and Arabelle could hear Sir Dorren's words. Arabelle was still trying to calm Edgar down, unlike Quentin, who was standing by the wooden nightstand next to Edgar's bed, which looked wet with translucent green ooze.
"Illusion Sores?" asked Quentin.
"A disease that causes a person to hallucinate certain things, like dancing, talking to themselves, or something else. Another characteristic of someone with this disease is that both eyes are covered in blood, and green mucus oozes from all body parts," Sir Dorren replied.
"W-What exactly is the cause of this disease? How did he get that way?" asked Quentin.
Sir Dorren was silent. He picked up a Lasage that was kept on a nightstand near Quentin. Dorren's right hand opened the lid of the Lasage and revealed something inside.
He showed the contents of the Lasage, which appeared to be ashes, but there were small white stones among the ashes. Quentin pretended he didn't know what it was, even though he already knew.
"What are those little white stones?" asked Quentin.
"It's Ether," Dorren explained.
Hearing the name Ether mentioned by Dorren made Arabelle gasp. Everyone knew Ether was a forbidden substance throughout Athalaris, banned because it was considered dangerous to human health if you didn't know the dosage.
"How is Ether there? Did Colton put it there on purpose?!" groaned Arabelle, annoyed as she tried to calm her father, who was still dancing non-stop.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you two about. Colton deliberately put Ether in the Lasage and let Lord Edgar breathe it all day long with no open windows," Sir Dorren replied.
"Why didn't you forbid it? Don't you know more about Ether in this place?!" Arabelle scolded.
Quentin walked over, standing right in the middle between Arabelle and Dorren while stretching out a hand towards Arabelle, "Calm down. Dorren surely has an explanation for why he didn't stop Colton."
"Because it was too late, My Lord. I neglected to check the contents of the Lasage and only found out after symptoms of green mucus appeared on Lord Edgar's body," Dorren replied.
Dorren knelt down with his head bowed despite the pain in his legs. He truly apologized for his negligence in preventing Colton.
"Then where the fucking Colton?!" yelled Arabelle, giving Dorren a sharp look.
"He's been held in the dungeon, My Lady," revealed Dorren.
"Take me to him!" commanded Arabelle to Dorren.
Sir Dorren nodded. Quentin helped the old man up from his kneeling position. Now, he stepped together with Arabelle to leave Edgar's room.
They walked away from Edgar's chamber, leaving Quentin alone in the place. Quentin chose not to soothe Edgar, preferring to let Edgar die a miserable death.
"How poor you are, Uncle. I didn't expect the impact to be this severe," Quentin lamented.
Edgar did not respond to anything, still in his dancing mode, a traditional dance typical of the Lanercoast. Every time he stomped his feet, sticky, smelly green mucus spilled over the chamber floor.
"I can't stay here for long," Quentin replied, unable to stand the stench of Edgar's green ooze.
Quentin opened the door to Edgar's chamber, stepping out of the room to see several servants gathered there.
"I want this place sterile from the servants. I'll gouge out their eyeballs for anyone who feels curious about what's going on here!" Quentin said.
The other frightened servants began to walk away, leaving only the two soldiers assigned to stand guard in front of Edgar's chamber. Now, Quentin's attention was drawn to one of the soldiers.
"Don't let anyone come inside other than Helferich family members!"