They took their positions according to the act, the coordinator and square-faced sat on the ground 4 metres away while Mathew and Ravindra sat on chairs next to each other.
The three men entered the barn. One of them was the Viscount and his butler, and another was a random soldier from the garrison.
"Uh… Why did set up in the barn…I could have…" The Viscount shook his head in disappointment, "If you asked me I would have gotten you any room in the mansion…This place…is so bad for lords…"
"It's not so bad and also it was my decision…And I don't think it was a bad one…I chose this barn for a specific reason… If I will practise curses here then, I don't want the curse inside Rose to know that I am practising curses around her…" It wasn't true at all, curses don't have consciousness to figure out what someone is doing, they are like diseases.
The viscount didn't press the same topic again, he didn't want to make the arrogant Prodigy doctor angry, "What-What is condition of…Rose…Will she be alright?"
Mathew shrugged and let the prodigy doctor handle it, "It…looks like we can but…I am not sure…If we don't act fast, this other entity might take over permanently. She's on the edge of losing herself forever. She might already be too far gone"
"Whose the other entity…?" The colour of the face of the viscount was gone even the butler was shaking.
"The other entity inside of her is her mother… We tried to listen to her…She was saying something real fast. It was abnormal, different fragments of her are…acting at different times, and she doesn't like to talk or do anything, it's because she is embraced of her actions or she just fears reality much better explanation would be that she can't see any difference between the reality and her own world…of lies. She is like a…uh… pigeon trapped inside the cage, wants to get out but the curse doesn't let her." Ravindra stood up and walked up to the viscount and placed one of his hands on the shoulder of Samul, then, looked directly into the eyes of the butler standing behind the viscount, "You knew…at least had the idea but never told anyone, secrets…what are you going to do with them, when you lose Rose, your beloved daughter…" His voice was threatening and emotionless, with no sympathy for these two, the butler now looked much older than he was, he was shaking while the viscount was breathing heavily, they were feeling guilty, they knew what was going on but never told anyone and now could die… It makes their heart filled with regret.
"We will investigate the curse and the past, it is linked with her…" Mathew spoke now, his voice carried the confidence that he wasn't in the mood to back down.
"The past?… Why? Can't you just cure the curse" The butler tried his best to maintain his demeanour but his voice was breaking down.
"She might be living in past…Trapped in there, she might be living the life of being slave to her mother… If you don't tell me what is going on I can't proceed. I don't care why anything happened but you have to tell me everything you know…"
"How did- How did you know?" The viscount was breathing much more heavily and speaking more hysterically.
"Does that matter to you…and look at you…you are a liar, you can't do anything… You can just sit on your mansion and watch her die 'cause I am leaving."
"Wait…Wait…Wait…" The butler was now in defence mode, he was not in his typical character, "You can't leave her to die… That poor girl… She can't die… Please… I will tell you everything you need to know…"
'The butler is easy to break but most of the time stays firm while this Viscount doesn't move his mouth, he just regrets, still, Rose is his biggest weakness. We can make him stun like this a lot of times… He might not speak a single thing but he can be a lot useful' Mathew analyzed.
"I will tell you what I need to know and you…" Ravindra looked at the Viscount, "You will tell us everything you know as well…"
The head of the viscount was looking down at the abyss, he could almost cry, losing every single family member made him kind of mad. His clenched fists were holding him from falling down with a simple nod he agreed with Ravindra.
"You…" Mathew looked at square-faced, "Give both of them water…They look pale…" With a sigh he continued towards the Viscount, "Things are not so simple… and don't take his words to heart, it's just we were late… if it was years ago it could have been a lot easier on her, she is in a lot of pain and all that pain and trauma should be worth her freedom…"
The viscount drank a whole tumbler of water in a second while the butler took a sip and kept the glass in hand.
"Not right now… You both don't look good, we will talk later, you may leave now also don't disturb my practice unless it concerns Rose" Ravindra said as if he owned the barn and these people were his servants or something, in reality, he was showing his angry as a doctor.
The Viscount nodded and left.
"Your acting fire… This beyond what expectations could exceed…" The square-faced clapped lightly in appreciation.
"I am always the best… I am the best" Ravindra laughed.
"That was a face of the viscount…I don't think we will get to see much often, he was speechless, nice… He is in our hands but Rose is still the main problem…" The coordinator slightly smiled.
"I don't think it's so easy, that viscount gets emotional whenever we mention his late wife and that curse. What I mean to say is Viscount knows something, he is good at hiding things or doesn't lose…information so easily." Mathew shared his opinion.
They kept on with the discussion and planning for over 3 more hours, after that, Ravindra and Mathew left for the mansion which was almost 250 meters away.
After reaching the mansion they went to inside the room of Rose and what they saw stunned only Mathew as Ravindra didn't understand.
'There are signs of struggle… The bed sheet wasn't like this, the servants looked a little dim. They are hiding something' Then, Mathew looked at the old woman, 'She looks scared…wait is that? Blood?'
Mathew looked at blood marks on the floor a few of them on the corners of the bed. Ravindra was going forward to see Rose and then, he stopped in the middle and grabbed one of the servant's hand, who was almost the same age as Rose. She was frightened.
"Is that…Scratches from nails? What happened here?" Ravindra looked into her eyes and she wanted to get out of his grip, she looked at the old lady who stepped forward in a second, and Mathew arrived right at his side Ravindra.
"Hey, look at this, what is this?" Answer and question in a single sentence.
"Who did this?" Mathew grabbed her hand now, she was anxious, "Or should I ask when?"
"Uh…Lord, she is new here…uh… why don't you let me apply some medicine on her hand" The Old lady was trying to steal her.
"I want to hear from her…" Mathew was direct and still, didn't leave the hand of that girl.
"It was nothing…cat…at my home." The girl answered nervously.
The more times they visit Rose the more mysties fall upon them.
"Rose did it… Don't joke around here, one of her nails is broken and probably this lady applied the bandage" Ravindra stared down that old lady. "Tell me if I am wrong"
They were just speechless or they didn't want to confess their lies.
"Now tell me everything that happened." Mathew let go of her hand.
"Eh… It was normal but this time, the young lady…tried to say something but she" The old lady pointed at the girl standing beside Ravindra, "didn't listen to that and Rose became a little violent"
"You mean she literally attacked someone with her nails and got one of them broken…Right?" Ravindra was not happy or at least he was acting angry. "I want to know every single incident that happened."
"She tried to say something…What does she say all the time? Tell us everything" Mathew was a little cool but Ravindra was just shouting at their faces scaring their souls.
"How many of her attendees changed…? I want to know everything…Right now…I am not joking" Ravindra stepped forward up to the face of the old lady and stared into her eyes while the old lady was looking down.
"It all started a few weeks after her mother died-"
"No, sit down on that chair we will listen…all of you sit down on the chair. This is not going to be a small talk." Looking at all of them, Mathew was calculating their expressions, two of them were looking down and the other two were just scared of Ravindra.
The only problem was there were only 5 chairs and 6 people were supposed to sit down so Ravindra stood up to intermediate the 4 attendees.
"Start speaking from the start" Ravindar made it look like a CBI interrogation, moving around their chairs and scaring them, going to see Rose and then, coming back to give some random dialogue.
"It all started when her mother died…a-as I told you, some…"
"What happens after that" Mathew interrupted like a chilled person, calm and sweet not like Ravindra.
"She was sad that everyone was dying and sh-she thought that she would die as well so… having a knife with her all the time, sitting next to her father's office on the sixth floor. She was just scared and-and af-after a-a few weeks she was…different."
"Different?" Ravindra said while sitting on the bed of Rose right next to her.
"She wasn't her usual self, more like when her mother was…alive, drinking water slowly…not running in the hallway, eating slowly and not making sound. She started to do her studies just as someone instructed her, cleaning her room the same way she did as a punishment."
"Punishment by her mother?" Mathew wanted to leave no loose ends, making sure if someone else also instructed her or not.
"Yes, he mother always punished her for…small things, even though I was supposed to be taking care of her, her mother always came and she always kept giving me holidays or making her lady in waiting."
"Back to where Rose was…umm…doing her work and studying…what after that?" Mathew cut her short again.
"ah…Yes. As I said, she was different, even talking differently more mature not like a 15-year-old. With much more respect for old people and even for younger ones. This thing continued for more than a month. Af-after that, she was normal again. A few months passed by, I thought she missed her mother even though I knew she didn't but then, suddenly she started being aggressive…"
"Aggressive?" Ravindra halted again, this time he was behind her.
"She was angry at little things, saying things like her mother did when she was angry, lord viscount laughed at her behaviour but I knew how much she hated her mother, she would never be like that woman"
"How did you know she was speaking like her mother?" Mathew asked.
"Her mother spoke fast when she was angry almost impossible for someone to understand what she was saying, her face always tightened up…"
"Hmm…Continue" Even though she would continue anyway, Ravindra had to make some contribution to the interrogation while he was looking at the portraits around the room.
"That time, she almost injured one of her friends who lost her leg that day, and she cried in her room after that… she is such a sweet girl why would she ever hurt her friend"
Mathew made a hand gesture suggesting to the old lady to stop, "This incident, give me more details and also the friends… where are they and I want to meet them"