Chapter 75

"Renne, are you alright?" Katarina who enter with the basin of water ask as she saw her daughter have wake up.

"...I think I'm alright after having a good rest." Renneshia said to not make her mother worried.

Actually, her head was throbbing as if being hit continuously by something hard. But the first thing that comes to her mind was Shia's last words.

'She said that she could not change her fate even when she is much stronger than me in using the fragment's power. Then what about someone like me?' Renneshia questions herself.

As she was lost in her thought, a wet towel wipes her face. It was her mother who wipes her face and she realized that her body was drenched by her sweat. Her body feels sluggish and she couldn't think about anything except for Shia's last words that keep repeating in her mind.

That words make her feel sad as she thought that she won't be able to change her fate. Renneshia raises her head and looks at her mother's worried face.

'Is it possible to at least safe my mother's life?' Renneshia thought as she look at her face.

"Did you feel hurt somewhere?" Katarina asks as she feels Renneshia hide something from her.

"I just have a strange dream." Renneshia answered and took the towel to wipe herself.

"Is it related to your fate? Then I won't ask you to talk about it. As long as you not knowing your exact future, you can still try to change your fate." Katarina said with a gentle expression.

Renneshia strangely feels a bit of relief hearing her mother's words. But she seems to realize something from her mother's words.

'But what my mother means by the exact future?' Renneshia suddenly realized the strange part of her mother's sentences.

It was similar to what Shia thought before when she peek at her memories. The word 'exact' give her some hope because she never knows everything about her future. Feeling that she have some hope, she decided to change her mood and look outside the window. She was surprised because it was already morning.

"Did you take care of me for the whole night, Mom?" Renneshia asked while carefully looking at her mother's face and realising her tired face.

"Because you suddenly groaned and sweated so much last night when I come back from my work. You also have a fever. So how could I leave you alone?" Katarina said as she cares her head.

"Thank you, Mom. I will do anything to make you happy." Renneshia said with a determined face.

"This child...you only have to grow up happily and healthy to make me feel happy. That's why you need to have a good rest for today. You don't need to worry about anything because everyone you know will help you. Please have some faith in us." Katarina said with a gentle voice.

"Alright, I will listen to everything you told me." Renneshia nodded her head and changes her drenched clothes.

When her mother leave her to do her work, Renneshia took out a small mirror from her spatial ring. She looks at her reflection in the mirror. An androgynous-looking child with red hair and brown eyes could be seen but suddenly the reflection make a bright smile.

'Hello! Did you hide your identity and change your appearance? Hmm, wow! I never thought you are also cross-dressing as a boy.' Shia's voice could be heard in his mind.

"What?! Why are you here?" Renneshia was surprised by Shia's voice.

'I use a bit of my power to warn you to be careful because this city where you are staying right now will be attacked by similar things to what you saw happened to me. Oh right, The next time we meet might be our last meeting. I hope your wish will be come true.' Shia as the reflection in the mirror winked and wave her hand.

"Wait! Tell me more about it!" Renneshia grab the mirror and ask but the reflection on had already returned to normal and show her expressionless face.

She did not need to meet with anyone today so she didn't need to put her fake face like usual as 'Ludger'. Ludger's face is more expressive than Renneshia's because she was using her light magic like wearing a mask on her face. It was a magic to bend the light and create an illusion of what she wanted other people saw from her face.

As she looks at her current appearance, she is able to see how pale her face is in the mirror. Her face looks tired and she could also see her bloodshot eyes. Then she could hear someone getting closer to the room and she quickly act as if she was sleeping.

"I brought you some food. You can eat it when you can eat." Katarina said and put the food on the table near the bed.

"I understand. You don't need to worry about me. You also need to take care of yourself, Mom." Ludger answered with a worried look.

"If you need something, you can call me," Katarina add and went out of the room.

Renneshia try to see the mirror again but nothing happened even after she look for a few minutes. She decided to eat something to help her to think about what Shia told her. She eats the salad and drinks the bitter beverage that seems to be some kind of medicine. Then she took a glass of water to clean her palate.

As she finished filling her stomach, Renneshia started to think about Shia's warning. Shia could only give her warning and then disappear as if it was just an illusion. But Renneshia believes that Shia really warned her.

Then Renneshia try to remember about what she saw when she was in Shia's body. The temple where she was living is being attacked by hordes of undead. The undead seems to be controlled by the black-robed person. And that person died from the demon race attack around a month before Shia met with Pendragon's group.

'If she said something similar will be happening in this city, how can I know where they will start the attack and when it will happen? And how should I warn the others so they are able to prepare for the attack?' Renneshia shorting the information that she got from Shia.

That day she spent her time thinking about what she needed to do to protect the people to whom she starts to feel attached to. Besides she still needs to wait at least for two years because she promises them before she left the East. It was quite a peaceful day when she was able to sleep earlier than usual but she suddenly woke up to a disturbing feeling that she felt before.

The pressure she could feel on her body is less than what she feels in Shia's body. Like something still missing or it might be not as horrible as what happened in the past.

'Did someone really try to make similar things happen in this city?' Renneshia thought as she was panting from the pressure.

"Renne! What happened? Did you feel hurt somewhere? Can you hear me?" Katarina become panicked when she saw her daughter wake up and seems to be suffocated or hurt.

Renneshia want to tell her mother that she was alright but the pressure got worsened and prevent her say anything. In her pain, she remembered how Shia use the pressure and look for the one who controls it. She tries to copy what Shia doing and closes her eyes to focus on the pressure that currently seems to crush her body.

As she focuses on her sense, she found out that the direction of the source was close to the adventurer guild. When Renneshia try to pinpoint the exact position, she could feel nausea and vomit because of the disgusting feeling from it.

Katarina become panicked as she saw her daughter's condition getting worse. She took care of her daughter carefully with a worried and sad face. She also give her some medicine to lessen her pain but it was useless.

At that time, no one knows about what currently happens at the source of the mysterious pressure that Renneshia feel.

***

Two people wearing a long black robes standing in front of a tomb. They are doing something inside the cemetery and stabbing a stake into the soil near the tombstone.

"How many times do I have to do this again? And we have to do this for a few more days." One of the black robes people grumble.

"We need to do this to find the person that our Lord want to find. We only need to do it without being known by the patrolling guard. We need to prevent the Duke from hearing about what we are doing because he will become our greatest enemy in the future. And he will be able to easily kill us if he found out about our identity." Another person in black robes said.

"Do you think if we are able to complete what we are doing right now, we will be able to kill the Duke too?" The person stop grumbling and said with a cruel smile on his face.

"I don't know. But I hear he will be leaving this city and going to the capital city because the Emperor suddenly call him to the capital because of something important to this country." The other person said as he look at the next spot.

They quickly move to the next spot. From the place where they stabbed the stake before, a black mist started to appear and a bone hand raised from under the soil.