Thanks to the airship, they reached the office within a few minutes. Once, inside the premises, Andrew left, and Arella walked straight to the cabin. Both Brian and Adrian were waiting for her patiently.
As soon as she arrived, Brian very politely and humbly bowed in front of her. She should have been startled, but this time, her mind was filled with the possibility of a different family.
She already had an inkling. She just wanted a shred of conclusive evidence to put a stamp on her thoughts.
She nodded and went to Adrian's side without uttering anything. Once Adrian held her hand, he gestured for Brian to speak.
"Sir, Madam, I successfully hypnotized Arthur Williams when he was in the military compound. Fortunately, I had upgraded a few days ago, and my powers had broken to another level…." Brian began to report when he was interrupted by Adrian in between.
"We are not here to listen to your bragging. Let us know the results." Adrian frowned as he spoke sternly. Though Arella looked unbothered on the surface, her hand was trembling.
Was she excited, terrified, or angry? He did not know. But he just wanted to get done with it soon. And Brian was stretching it unnecessarily.
Brian stopped midway and realized his mistake. He cursed inwardly for behaving like a praise hungry cub.
"Apologies. Arthur Williams has confessed that many years ago, a Lady had come to him with a young girl. She wanted to find a suitable home for the child. In exchange, she purified the energy of his daughter, Stella, and provided them with a lot of wealth." Brian composed himself and started sharing the findings.
No wonder Stella had the fortune to awaken as a B ranked tamer! Her energy was already sorted out during the beginning. If the impurities are removed, then, the beast core can easily process the spiritual energy, making it stronger.
A purified beast core can easily awaken with higher ranks. And can easily upgrade further. But even with such a big help, Stella could only awaken as B ranked. And she never upgraded. With the news of her psychological condition, it's more unlikely for her to upgrade any further.
A purified beast core was lost just like that! But that's not alarming. What's troublesome is that Lady who purified her!
Not everybody had the power to purify the energy. So far, only the Cat clan were known to do so on the planet. Then, who exactly was this Lady? And most importantly, the child, was it really Arella?
"Arthur Williams accepted the child. He spread the rumor of having a wife who died later, leaving behind a child. Arthur was always out on military expeditions, so people did not doubt it when he himself claimed this. He gave the child his name and Stella's fiance as a guarantee for a stable future." Brian added calmly.
So, Luke really was Stella's fiance. Arella wondered, trying to untangle the threads of her messy thoughts. But at this point, Luke did not matter to her. What mattered was…
"What happened to the Lady?" Arella asked feebly. She was already expecting that she wasn't the real child of the Williams, but it still made her feel a little uncomfortable. She did not want to agree, but she still had a flickering hope that Arthur was her father.
But now, when the hope shattered, she thought of herself as a clown. All her desperate attempts to improve, in order to get an appreciative glance from him, made her feel like a fool. All her life was lived under the veil of a lie. She needed time to process that.
"The Lady? She disappeared. Even Arthur himself does not know who that Lady was. But he said that she looked ethereal and had very strong aura around her." Brian wanted to inquire more of the Lady, but Arthur really did not know.
So, it was true. Adrian thought. Arella really was not the child of that man. She was adopted by him. Things started becoming clear in his head.
"Anything else?" Adrian asked as he pressed Arella's hand to provide some comfort to her.
"Yes Sir, when the Lady left, she transferred some spiritual energy to her baby. That made her weak. So, she had to recuperate for a month in the Williams mansion before leaving."
"Also, the Lady left behind a letter for her child," Brian uttered as he took out an envelope.
Adrian took the envelope and passed it to Arella without checking it. She opened it. The seal was already broken. Somebody might have tried to read it before.
Anger started bubbling inside Adrian. How dare Arthur tamper with Arella's things!
"Sir, he even stated that he was infatuated with the Lady's beauty and once had the urge to find her. So, he opened the letter and wanted to know more of her, but…" Brian hesitated before answering.
"Speak coherently!" Adrian spoke loudly. It was already irritating enough that the letter addressed to Arella was pried open by a third party. And now, Brian's pauses were putting him on an edge!
"Sir, when he opened the letter, he found nothing but a blank paper inside." Brian voiced softly.
By this time, Arella had taken out the letter from inside and true to Brian's words. It was just a blank paper. She touched it to find any marks or indentures but found nothing. It was just a plain paper.
"Is it still the same paper?" Arella asked quietly. She wanted to make sure that this was the same paper left behind by the Lady.
"Yes Madam, after finding that blank paper, Arthur put it away and never looked at it again. Even others do not know of its presence." Brian responded humbly.
He did not know the specifics, but he understood that the child must have been Madam. He felt sympathetic. Arthur was not a bad parent, but who does not know that because of Madam's aptitude, she was always ignored by her family.
They never took her along to gatherings and hardly introduced her to others. Every time there was a lavish feast at the Williams', Madam was never seen.
And even during the work, she was not given any perks and worked like a regular commoner. Now, knowing that Arthur was not her real father, Madam must have felt sad.
"Leave." Brian, who was lost in his thoughts, suddenly heard Sir's growling voice. When he looked up, he found Adrian's angry visage looking at him with hatred. Sir was surrounded by a murder instinct!
Brian reacted instinctively and took a few steps back. He looked at Madam to find that she was looking intently at the blank sheet of paper.
As he looked at her, Brian felt himself being surrounded by ice. It felt as if he was thrown into an ice cellar. He even started shivering! But Arella was unaware.
For a moment, he wanted to grab Madam and take her away, but before he could think anything else, the coldness started piercing his body like icy shards.
His survival instincts kicked in, and he ran away as soon as he sensed danger!