2nd Lifetime: The Cardon Faction

Cornelia and Mai returned back to the hallway, but when they arrived, Jaquine was gone.

Abruptly, Cornelia whirled to face Mai. "You see! Why did you have to guide that Cardon scum!"

Mai looked at Cornelia strangely. "It was dictated by the head priestess."

Cornelia's face turned green once more. Mai could clearly see that she was holding onto her anger. Cornelia faced Mai for three more seconds in barely-controlled anger before she whirled around again and walked with purposeful steps down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Mai called out, genuinely curious.

Shooting a look of pure despise, Cornelia didn't even bother to answer Mai, and she instead threw a sentence filled with a purely obligatory tone. "Just follow me."

Mai obediently followed, but at the same time, thoughts whirred through her mind at a dizzying pace.

Where could Jaquine be?

Was she alright?

Could she perhaps have gotten into trouble?

Shaking her head to get rid of all of her unnecessary thoughts, Mai hurriedly followed after Cornelia. They turned multiple corners around until Mai had gotten lost- she had no idea whether they were still in the castle or in a different location altogether.

"Where are we?" she whispered to Cornelia.

Cornelia didn't bother to answer, her face devoid of any emotions.

Mai noticed this and continued to follow after the girl. They were probably in "enemy territory".

Which answered another question that she had; the girls of each faction had their own specific areas that they were supposed to stick to.

Now she only had thousands of other questions to ask.

Mai sighed and watched as Cornelia duck to hide behind a pillar. Surprised, Mai followed her and was just in time to hear the voices of Andrea and Ophelia.

So this really was the territory of those from the Cardon faction.

Cornelia waited until Ophelia and Andrea left in the hallway, before she indicated with a tilt of her head for Mai to follow her. Mai nodded, despite Cornelia having turned around already. She followed the older girl with light and quick steps.

They once again weaved through the castle, until they stopped before a wooden door much like the one that closed Mai's room.

"This is it," Cornelia whispered, and then she rapped on the door with two short knocks before knocking at it once with both her fists. It was completely silent for a few seconds before a small head filled with fiery-red hair peeked through the doorway. Her voice had a slight accent, however Mai had no idea where the girl was from.

"Blue or red?"

"White." Cornelia's voice was filled with impatience, and she didn't even wait for the girl to open the door herself before she shoved her way past it.

Mai nodded her head in consolation to the shocked girl. She remembered that girl from her work at the kitchens. If she remembered it correctly, then her name was Decima, and she was also a servant girl. However, why was it that Cornelia knew where her bedroom was... and even had a special knock to let her know it's her?

"Where is she?" Cornelia was already sitting on the bed, her arms crossed in front of her.

Decima quickly ducked her head in deference, her already pale face turning a shade whiter. "Who?"

"You know who." Cornelia's foot was tapping on the floor, but as she finished her sentence, she tapped the floor at an even faster pace.

Decima gulped, and she didn't dare to look at Cornelia in the eyes. Instead, she rested her gaze upon Mai. "Who is she?"

Mai furrowed her eyebrows. Decima should have known who she was.

"Don't play that joke with me, Decima. We both know that you aren't the oracle of the Goddess Vestia."

Decima deflated like a balloon. "Fine," her voice was more like a whine as she plodded her way to sit next to Cornelia, "That girl that Minucia has been helping was taken to the Cardon faction's initiation ritual."

"This soon?" Cornelia's face had a rare emotion other than her perpetual anger and agitation: surprise.

Nodding in confirmation, Decima blew a piece of her red hair away from her face. "Ophelia didn't want you to keep having the upper hand."

"That b*tch," Cornelia muttered before she suddenly turned her blazing eyes towards Mai. "You're sure that she was alone in the hallway before we left?"

Mai nodded, "I even told her to stay right there."

"She's obviously not an obedient dog, then!" Cornelia sarcastically lifted her arms above her head before she brought them in front of her face, rubbing her temples with her middle fingers. "This can't possibly be worse."

"Yes, it can be." Decima's voice sounded like a sigh.

"How?"

"He's coming."

In a rare moment of silence, Mai could feel the temperature of the room plummet. 'He' must be a dangerous guy.

Cornelia glanced at Mai before she spoke, "You don't know him, Municia. He comes every nine months, or at least he's supposed to. This time he's early-"

"Four months early," chimed in Decima.

"And he usually takes two or three of us for 'missions'," Cornelia continued, her entire face taut and frigid. "That bast*rd usually likes to have a bit of 'fun' before he lets us go, so be careful."

"What types of missions?" Mai kept her voice light, as if she didn't care about 'him'.

Cornelia leaned back in the bed, stretching her back. "It's usually to bless this land or kiss this baby or something like that. Small things. They aren't hard. The only thing that's hard is to keep the other factions from accusing you of losing your purity. There have been many a girl who has 'lost' her purity to that bast*rd."

"Did they really?" Mai's eyes burned in anger. She hated r*pe with a fiery passion.

"No," Decima shook her head in slow motion, her green eyes staring right at Mai's brown ones, "It's usually just an accusation. But if it's said before the head priestess, and there is no other girl who is willing to stand up for you, then... well, you're gone."

Cornelia nodded in agreement. "But that's not what we need to worry about now. Right now, we need to find that Jaquine girl."

Mai took this rare chance to ask another question, hoping that she could get even more answers. "Why?"

"There are a maximum amount of priestess servants for each faction. After a priestess is inducted into the faction, then they are recognized as a part of that faction and are then counted as being a part of the priestess servants. Right now, the Cardon faction already has the maximum amount of priestess servants that they can have. If they induct Jaquine right now, then-"

"Then there would be an additional Cardon faction's priestess in the Vestigal court," Decima continued, grimly.

Cornelia shot her a look for her interruption, and Decima raised her hands up in a gesture of 'Okay, I got it'. Shaking her head, Cornelia continued with her dialogue, looking at Mai square in the face, "If there's another Cardon faction priestess, then that means we don't hold the upper hand anymore, which means that things get a heck of a lot harder for us."

Mai nodded her head before her eyes strayed to Decima's side. "And her?"

"Decima?" Cornelia scoffed, "She's a spy that we planted. But she's a pretty useless one-"

"Hey!" Decima stood up from her sitting position right next to Cornelia before she whirled around and placed her hands on her hips. "What do you mean, useless!?!"

"You are. You were accepted on the basis that you're an oracle, yet you've gotten the weather wrong ten times-"

"Hey, even Goddesses make mistakes sometimes!"

"And you've been late to more than fifteen prayers-"

"That wasn't my fault! Vestia called for me!"

"And you choked twenty times when it was your turn to sing for Vestia."

Decima shut her mouth then. Her face turned red before she took a deep breath to calm herself. "It's better for me to be useless. Otherwise I'll be helping the Cardon faction, right?"

"But you don't have to push the boundaries. If you keep this up, then you'll be killed."

"Awwww! Is wittle, grumpy Corny worried for wittle, ol' me?"

"Nevermind," Cornelia stood up from the bed abruptly, scaring Decima into backing away. "Come on, Municia. We're leaving this nutcase."

They left carefully as Decima waved at them goodbye. Cornelia's strides were the same as before- fast, furious, and wide.

"Where do you think she is?" Mai was out of breath. She had to jog to catch up to Cornelia's strides.

"Where every Cardon faction priestess goes to get inducted: the Cemetery."

Mai stopped in her tracks for a few seconds before she continued to jog behind Cornelia.

In her first life, she had never seen a dead human body before. In fact, she was supposed to be the dead body.

In her second life, she had caused people's deaths, but she was never there personally.

Now, she wasn't sure if she wanted to enter a cemetery. Remembering about the pain that follows the death of a loved one, remembering about the pain and anguish she felt at Ava's death, Mai felt a crushing guilt as she remembered the blood on her hands.

She was to blame for Ava's death.

She was also the one to blame for many of the accidental deaths of the nobles and commoners- the documents and proof that she released cause more rebellions to occur.

Mai placed all the blame on herself. She needed to be smarter. She needed to be stronger. She needed to be... better.

So she will be.