Fifteen days went by in the blink of an eye. And the whole atmosphere of the Sumor Castle changed in those days. With the constant influx of money provided by Mikaila, Drac, and Henry were able to make sure that work on the castle picked up its pace. Henry was able to send around seventy skilled workers from the capital, along with necessary equipment and food within the span of five days.
With that equipment and the workers, Drac handled everything else. He made the workers work like slaves, doing 12 hours of shifts. Whenever a shift would end, another would start. Mistress Mikaila ordered him to make the workers work at least for 18 hours, but he didnt think that he could do that. He knew that if he were to do that, productivity and efficiency would decrease, and bad work would reflect badly on him.
He made sure the workers had proper accommodation in the form of tents in the destroyed part of the castle, and everything was going smoothly. Because of this, they were able to complete all the work of the alchemic lab in a record-breaking time of seven days. It was significant, as they were able to achieve success without any modern machinery and stuff.
Currently, they are working on the destroyed part of the castle. Drac had planned to convert that part into a garden, while the ballroom would be the special place where they would grow the magical herbs. From what he understood, Alchemy was a Mana Art in which one makes magical elixirs and pills with the use of mana and magical plants. So the the botanical garden was a very important part of the whole process.
During the past few days, Drac had been so occupied with the work, that he was not able to focus on anything else. But as he started working on the destroyed part of the castle, he started discovering some interesting things about the place, that he didnt notice at first.
As the workers took the debris from the place and transported it to a dump, he noticed the scorch marks on some of the remaining structures. While following the pattern of the scorch marks, he realized that the epicenter of the explosion was the ballroom itself. He didnt believe at first, considering that the wall and pillars around the ballroom area were still intact. There was no that those walls and pillars wouldn't be blown away by an explosion.
Which is why, for a test, he ordered some of the workers to bring down a part of the wall as well. To his surprise, the hammers and chisels of the workers were not able to leave even a single scratch on the walls and stones. In the absence of workers, he even tried to remove a part of the wall, only to realize that he was also powerless in front of it.
From this he theorized, The ceiling and some parts of the walls are missing, while what is left seems indestructible. The question now is, what could be so special about this room half of it was made from indestructible material. What was the original builder of the place trying to save here?
From this, he could only theorize, that there was really a secret hidden in this part of the castle. There was no logical explanation as to why, someone would only make a part of a structure indestructible. As the what this secret was, he had no idea.
In the fast-moving life, he didnt forget the biggest mystery of them all, Mikaila. There was something off about that woman, and how could he forget the black shadowy figure that he saw in her room? He was sure that these eyes were not playing with him. What was the mysterious figure was beyond him. But he didnt rule out of the possibility of it being a ghost.
As he was already living in the place, where magic exists. The presence of ghosts didnt faze him. If there was really a ghost, why had it not shown itself to anyone else? Why has it only shown itself to him?
***
That night Drac was in his room, sleeping, when he heard a rushed knocking on his door. "Drac! You there? Drac!" he heard a woman yelling from outside.
Sensing the urgency, he quickly got up and went for the door. He pulled out the door, only to see a scared Jina along with her son, standing at his doorstep. "What are you guys doing here?" he asked.
Jina didnt answer, just entered quickly inside, pushing him aside. As they were, Jina told him, "Drac, I am hearing the sounds of yells and shouts from the tent… I also heard blood-curdling screams. Drac, something bad is happening,"
Looking at how scared she was, he put his hands on her shoulder and said, "Let me check it out," he said. "Just dont leave this place, and dont open the door until someone you know isn't there," he then instructed them on how to barricade the door and be safe.
Leaving them behind, Drac went to the side of the castle that Jina had mentioned. He figured that the place was so noisy at night, as the workers might be having a party. At least that was what he thought.
As he reached the part of the castle that she was talking about, he encountered a certain smell with whom he was all too familiar with. He smelled blood.
Sensing there might be a danger out in front, Drac moved cautiously. He was in the area of the castle, with the portraits and the other historical facts of the previous Sumore generation stored. There were antique swords and scabbards on the wall.
He quickly went and took a long sword from the wall. He pulled the sword off its scabbard, but it didnt move. He put some more strength, only for a handle to come off from the sword itself.
Fuck this. He thought and then looked around to see something else that could be more useful to him. He found a little hatchet, probably belonged to one of the workers. As well as he took the thousand-year-old cane off the wall as well. And cautiously, he started walking deeper to see what the fuss was all about.
He entered a room, to see a massacre had taken place there. He saw the bodies of workers and some of the soldiers of the household littered around the room. From a glance, he observed that it seemed something or someone had pulled the limbs of the poor chaps off their bodies. It was a very gruesome and bloody scene.
From what he saw, none of them were alive. So he moved further deeper, moving towards the destroyed part of the castle. With most of the debris out of the way, some of the workers had erected the camp there as it would be easier for them to start work from there when one shift ended.
As he got to the opening, he saw more piles of bodies.
Are all the workers dead? He thought, based on the number of bodies, it surely seems like it.
It was then a primal scream resonated throughout the castle, immediately he dashed towards the sound.
Outside the ballroom area, he saw Mikaila, with her back towards him. Beside her, he saw the shadowy ghost, clearly visible in the moonlight. Mikaila was screaming, but most of the sound was being muffled by something. While the shadowy figure was speaking to her, in a language that he had never heard of before.
"What the fuck is going on here?" he said it loud.
Mikaila turned, and he saw that her eyes were bloodshot. She was creating foam from her mouth, like a rabid dog. From the looks of it, she had a human hand in her mouth, and she was really bitting down at it. And from the looks of it, she looked rather pissed.
She growled at him, like a dog. Did she get bitten by a rabies-infected magical dog or something?
"Are you alright mistress?" he asked.
"She is," the shadowy figure spoke, in a weird accent. "She needs your help. Quickly get her, to her room."
Without showing an ounce of fear, he came closer to her, "She won't bite me, would she?"
"Just dont tempt her," the figure said, "Just dont try to touch the human hand in her mouth,"
He moved and went to her, and picked her up. She curled up in her arms in a fetal position, as he carried her to her room she kept making growling noises like a dog. As far as the shadowy figure was concerned, it started following him by floating beside him.
"So if you dont me asking, what the hell are you?" he asked.
The figure chuckled, "First you tell me what you are? As a mortal, not only do you walk past countless bodies, but you are carrying the perpetrator of the attack in your arms. Yet, you are not afraid. Your heartbeat is not showing any sort of fluctuations at all. Why are you not afraid?"
With a fake smile, he said, "There are some people in the world who are afraid of death. And then there are people like me, who know that death is a new beginning, after the end. So why be afraid of death?"
"Saying words fancy is one thing, but living by such words is another. I would love to meet a mortal like you. Hell, I would like you to work for me one day,"
Drac could only shake his head, If this fucker knew my chaotic nature, I am sure that he wouldn't let me within one foot of his people.
"Can you help us, cover all this up?" the shadowy figure asked, "No one can know about the true nature of Mikaila. No one,"
Without skipping a beat, "Sure. I am willing to help, for a price. But let me make myself very clear, my services are not cheap,"
"I will shower gold and mana stones on you if you help her."
Drac stared into the eyes of the shadowy figure, "Please sir, do not think for a moment that I am a kind of mortal that could be bought with money or mana stones. I only trade with the most costliest thing in the world,"
It was difficult to see the expression of the shadowy figure, but he seemed to be taken aback by his remark, "And what is exactly this costliest thing in this world,"
"Knowledge," he simply said, "That is all I need. No money, no mana stones. I can acquire all of that, on my own. I just crave knowledge."
It was then he heard steps from the nearby hallway. "Hide," he said, only to realize the shadowy figure was gone…