Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Chapter 187: Gracious Suspicion

Following Aurora's death, a ripple of headaches flooded the kingdom. For those who only knew her in passing it lasted but a few moments, however, for people who were much closer, the headache continued for them for a lot longer, and as for the king and the princesses it had turned into a mind-bending nightmare.

Screaming at the top of their lungs, the trio rolled in their beds from the utter agony of their mind purging the enchantress from their thoughts. Every attempt they tried to resist, made their suffering that much worse, and by the time it finally eased a little, their memories about their sister were scattered throughout broken memories.

'I've cleaned up the blood, and the princess should already have been consumed by the abominations.' Thinking she had no reason to worry, Avarice kept rubbing a pack of ice against her master's head.

She was hoping that it would ease the fever burning him up, but lost in her own thoughts, she didn't even realize that the ice in her hand had already melted and what she was holding now was but a pack of lukewarm water.

"A-Ava…T-the ice…" Panting from the fever, Zeil grabbed Avarice's hand.

Clicking her tongue at his words, she glared down at him with a foul expression.

'You cheated on me and still expect me to do everything for you?!' She wanted to scream those words into his face, hell–she wanted to carve words like cheater, whore, and an idiot on his forehead. However, pressing her lips tight together, she forced a smile on her lips.

"I'll change it, you just lay here, okay?" Getting from the bed, she took a swift exit with no intention to return to Zeil's room for the day. She wanted him to suffer through this strange disease alone, and just because she wanted him to suffer but to clean up any mess that she had inevitably created.

Before she could retrace her steps, however, walking by the princess's room she heard similar screaming to the ones she'd heard inside Zeil's. The entire family of orphans was in utter agony, from the sound of things, Grace was trying to help the princesses with the help of multiple other mono-doll maids.

'Why is this happening?' She wondered, slowly cracking open the room's door to sneakily watch what was going inside. To her surprise, the carving maiden was also brought to the room, although she simply stood to the side while Grace drew medicine through needles.

As soon as Grace injected it into the sisters, their voices quickly died down, although looking at things closely it seemed like the princess had lost consciousness as an effect of the medicine as well.

Moving her finger by Amelia's neck first, Grace checked if the princesses were still breathing. Once she was certain that they were, and their bodies were simply unconscious while the pain coursed through their heads, the head maid handed a pouch full of the same medicine to the other maids and ordered.

"They're not dead so it should work on the king as well, just make sure you don't overdose him, he's more important than these two idiots," nodding at her command, the maids began making their way toward the exit.

Quickly sneaking away from the room, Avarice slipped into a corner and tried to figure out what was happening.

'More important than those two idiots?' Those words uttered by Grace didn't make a whole lot of sense. After all, she was the one helping the sisters to get the king killed and then try to control Zeil so they could have the authoritative power over Elenaris. Then why? Why would she say something so contradicting? 'Fuck…I never thought about why she was helping them. What is she getting out of this?'

The sisters would have benefited directly from the king's death, but what was it that Grace got out of it? She knew the king from before any of the princesses must've even been born, so why wasn't she more loyal to him instead of the three sisters? Avarice's mind raced and raced, trying to land on an answer.

But realizing that she was missing something crucial, she decided to give up for now, and instead go back to Zeil's room to at least pretend like she cares while the other maids are treating him.

"I should get some ice first," whispering to herself, she headed straight for the kitchen.

To her further surprise, much like how the guards had retreated to the barracks, the kitchen was empty with none of the workers working inside. While the retreat from the guards may have worked in her favor, the disappearance of human maids who could actually taste what they were making, was bound to add more work to her schedule.

But that wasn't exactly what she was worried about, instead, wandering through the castle with a pack of ice, she couldn't help but feel like the importance of this place was slowly melting away.

Throughout the reign of the last king, the dark castle would bristle up with visitors every morning. Each hall had enough guards to ensure the king's safety throughout the day and night. But now, as empty as it was, she could hear her steps echoing through the halls. The emptiness inside, made her chest squeeze on itself–almost suffocatingly so, and at that very moment she heard now familiar words.

"Actuating protocol: Mo–NOO!" Fighting against her protocol, she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her body sparked from the internal conflict against her and brought her to her knees, the pack of ice crushed to bits within her fingers. "I-I said no!" read-more-on-MVLeMpYr

She had no idea what was happening, and yet she didn't want the protocol to go through. Lacking any knowledge about her own protocols, she'd allowed the other two to actuate, but the last–she knew she had to fight or else she might disappear forever.

However, unlike the loss of memory from the fight against Regalia, something inside her told her that there was no coming back once the last protocol ran through.

'First Grace and her strange behavior and now this…not to mention this disease the king and princess are suffering, what the fuck is going on?' Despite being as lost as she was, Avarice slowly regained her composure and decided to head back to Zeil's room before the maids thought she'd been neglecting the sick prince.

"I'll find out one way or the other," and with those words she began walking, hoping dearly that she wouldn't turn into someone else before she could even realize her dream of being the queen of Elenaris.

Conspiracy as well as mysteries were spiraling out of control inside the castle, and with so much chaos, the conclusion to this foul game of chess was about to finally come to an end. Just a few day's time, that's all that was left. After which, there would be no pawns, no knights, no bishops, just a pack of queens and a sole king left to capture.