Tilly didnt know what was happening. At one moment she was sleeping in her room, when suddenly out of nowhere she was woken up when someone grabbed her from her bed. Before seeing or understanding what was happening, she found her head covered with black cloth. Her arms and legs were tied, and she was being dragged through the castle.
She struggled, screamed, and yelled for help, but no one came to her aid. She didnt know where her assailant was taking her, she could just feel the cold floor of the castle rubbing against her legs and butts.
She soon found herself tied to a pole of some sort. She constantly yelled for help but heard no answer.
When she had been tied for some time, and was praying to Lord Itab for her and her mother's safety she started hearing yells.
"Let me go!" she heard the familiar voice of her mother, "Let me go!"
"Mother!" she yelled, "Mother!"
"Tilly!" her mother screamed, "Where are you, my child?"
"Help me, mother, I can't see… They have tied me to a pole!"
"LET ME GO YOU BASTARD!" she heard her mother scream, and then her struggling. Her mother's voice settled not too far away from her. And then she heard, "Sweety… I have been tied as well,"
"Can you see mother? Do you know where are we?" she asked.
"Dont know dear," her mother confessed.
Tears started streaming down Tilly's face, "What is going to happen to us, mother? Are we going to die,"
"Dont say that dear. Everything is going to be fine. I am sure… Drac would help us. I am sure,"
She didnt know whether she truly believed that the aloof and cold face butler of the house would be able to do anything to the demons that had occupied the castle. And hearing her mother's words, she was beyond irritated. She knew what the mother had been doing behind her back, she knew what had been going on between her and that the so-called savior of hers.
And she didnt like it, at all.
Tilly knew that her father was a selfish jerk, who didnt deserve her mother. And Drac would probably keep her happy. A part of her didnt trust the man, it was something about him that gave her the creeps…
The situation only got worse from there. Soon they heard yells and screams from the other people left alive in the castle. They were all there, but for some reason, she didnt hear Drac's voice.
Her tears had stopped, along with her yells, but she was still afraid. And not being able to see anything only made her more nervous.
"Remove their covers," she heard a rather familiar voice, and the mask from her face was removed.
Tilly saw that she was a the basement of the castle. The cold eerie place was now transformed into an even creepier place, with red torches hanging everywhere. She saw that she and the others were tied to four poles on a red circle, equidistant from each other. In the middle of the circle was the pentagram of the devil himself, with different glowing symbols etched all around the pentagram.
"M… m… ma.. Mother," she whimpered and saw that her mother on the pole opposite to her was as scared and shocked as she was.
"Shall we begin master?" she heard a voice, she glanced back and was able to make up two figures behind her. One of them was the tall demoness, while the other one was the butler of the castle, she recognized him because of his uniform.
"Drac!" she heard her mother yell, "What.. Is ha… what are you doing?" she then started hyperventilating.
"I am going to sleep," the traitor said, "Make sure when killing them that you have gagged them. I dont want my sleep to be disturbed by noises…"
"DRAC!!" her mother yelled at the top of her lungs, "WHERE ARE YOU GOING, YOU BASTARD. YOU STOP RIGHT THERE! YOU TRAITOR!" With the betrayal, her mother became mad. She started yelling profanities until the seductress came and gagged all their mouths.
Tilly on the other hand didnt know what to do, she could only cry in silence. She knew that the man was shady, but never in a million years she would have ever thought that the man would betray all of them like that.
"AHHH!!!" she heard Bufert's muffled yell. She looked up to see the poor man floating in the air, while he yelled in pain. She then saw that man's limbs tilt in weird directions. A bone tore through his leg and the blood started pouring in the pentagram, while some of it was sprayed on her as well.
Bufert's folded some more until he became what could only be recognized as the ball of flesh and bones. Even then the torture didnt stop, the demoness didnt stop playing with the ball until all the blood in the poor man's body was not squeezed out.
"HAIL SATAN!" the demoness yelled, and with her power, she threw what was left of Bufert aside.
Then the bonds of Hubert were undone, and he started floating in the air. Realizing that the same faith would be coming for her and her mother, Tilly started struggling. She gave it all to undo the bonds. She had to try her best, in order to save her mother and save herself. With tears streaming down her face, she struggled, while staring lifeless body of Hubert squeezed out of blood…
***
Eating corn, Drac stared at the unconscious body of Tilly. Then he looked at the balls of flesh, the remains of the residents of this castle. He nodded and turned to Sara, "Looks good. Let's move on,"
Annoyed, she asked, "I dont get it. Why the hell do we have to kill all the servants? I could have just filled wrong memories in her head, then that would have been it,"
"Details," he simply said, "Details matter Mistress. She would be able to relay the important parts to her father easily with this. False memories are unreliable and are bound to have holes in them. Now, we could let her know the truth about the quest, now could we?"
"But why her? We could have chosen any of the soldiers to be the bait, right? Then at least I would not have to babysit a weak flower like her,"
"She lost her mother, in front of her eyes. Saw her being brutally murdered… Believe me, when I say this, she would surely be more effective than any of the soldiers. Because she now has motivation,"
"Whatever you say…" Sara said and then moved to Tilly's body to add some false memories in her brain.
Drac's plan to bait the prince out of the capital and palace was pretty straightforward. Just give him proof that someone there was something really wrong with the butler of the Sumor Castle. And he was doing heinous things there. If what he heard about the crown prince was right, then he was kind of a boy scout. And he would surely come running to hunt him down.
The first hurdle that they faced to implement the plan was the source of the information. Someone had to go to the prince and deliver the message to him. And who better to do that, than Tilly? He first thought that he could send Samantha, but realized that her daughter might be a good option instead. One of the major roles in this plan would be played by Henry, the influential butler of the Sumor Manor in the capital. He had Henry treating Samantha as trash, but that man always had a soft side for her daughter. Which is why, it made sense to send Tilly.
He staged everything in the basement. While burning a particular alchemic ingredient, one could create red fire. He also made the pentagram to add more details to the story.
From Tilly's point of view, everything would be plain simple. All the people from the castle were offered to the Great Devil Satan by him. She would think that on his orders, Sara killed everyone brutally. And he was the one responsible for her mother's death as well.
But she was being sacrificed, Sara was tackled by none other than Harold, the knight that the demon trio had taken as a prisoner.
Harold was dead, but the residents didnt know that. Harold would then rescue her, and bravely took her away from the castle. She would drift in and out of consciousness, but in between she would hear Harold say that they need to inform the crown prince about this. More specifically she would hear, My master needs to know about this. The crown prince needs to know.
Everything with Harold in it would be a falsified memory, but he made Sara add this particular information so that the crown prince could truly believe the credibility of the story. As far as Harold was concerned, during the running part, the weird dogs of these women would attack them. And Harold would order her to run, while he would bravely sacrifice himself to save her.
And this way, they would send out the bait for the crown prince.
He stared at Sara and noticed how she was waving her hand like she was conducting an orchestra. He could see very very fine strings of mana connected to Tilly's brain, connected with Sara's hands.
It is like she is rewiring the brain of the woman. He was very fascinated by this because from what he could see, clearly some people of this world had truly understood all the functions of the brain. In his previous world, most of the functions of different parts of the brain were undiscovered, as human experimentation was banned all around. But it seems this world doesn't uphold such laws.
I wonder whether the people in this world have figured out everything there is to know about the brain. Or they had just learned this trick to add false memories into someone.
His pocket vibrated, so he left the room to let Sara work in peace.
"Master Kaisel, everything is done," he said, as soon as he picked up the tablet.
"That is good to hear," Kaiser said, "You know, when I first heard about your plan, I was very intrigued. I wanted to understand how exactly a youngster like you could come up with such a plan. It is very devious, especially for someone so young,"
"I may be young master, but I have a lot of experience in such matters,"
"Well color me intrigued…" Kaisel said, "By the way Drac, have you ever thought of working for me full-time? I would surely love a subordinate like under my wing,"
"Although your offer is very intriguing… But I have my own battles to fight, and a world to see. Which is why, I had decided that this is going to be the last job…"
"People like you are hard to come by. If I had any weakness of you in my hands, I would have never let you go… But as you have already made up your mind, I will not hold you back," Kaisel said. Drac then felt the mana formation around his heart, break, "You have already gotten the other reward that you ask for,"
"Yes, milord,"
"If you ever feel like coming to work me, come find the Ulaspas Family in Hograve Continent," Kaisel said, and the connection was cut off…