Time Medicine

Count Arthur sighed heavily upon the portrait of the victims that were drawn so explicitly on the newspapers. He didn't particularly have any ties relating him to the slums and nor does he know anyone from the slums, however due to their deaths now his long lost daughter had locked herself for a week. Estelle barely eats, she barely sleep and speak. She didn't even step out from her room and most of the time, the servants told him of how they would hear the sound of soft cries from her room even to the latest of midnight when everyone was mostly asleep.

He folded the newspaper neatly and pushed it aside on his study desk. The concerned housekeeper raised her strictly drawn eyebrows. At the same time, Count Arthur spoke, "Madam Val, is Elle still in her room?"

"Yes, sir," replied Madam Val. Her hair had been made into a bun and covered in a white silk cap. She saw the concerned look on her master's face and spoke out of worry, "Should I call her?"

"No, she is still mourning. The last thing I want is to force her to be cheerful when she is suffering so deeply from the loss of her.. family," Count Arthur exhaled and shut his eyes. "I didn't know this would happen. Wouldn't it be terrible for me to be slightly happy to the fact she will stay in this house?"

Madam Val couldn't say anything. She understood Count Arthur's extreme sorrow upon finding out that he had a secret daughter who he had never seen before. He missed Elle's birth and missed the opportunity of being her father. As a man who thought of his family as more important than his own life, he was deeply saddened by the loss of time he could share with his daughter and searched for her day by day for the next twenty years.

Upon finding Elle's existence, Count Arthur became delighted to his soul. But the happiness was cut short as Elle had to go back to the slums. Thus when he heard that the slums was burned to ashes, he felt slightly happy to know that Elle will come back to him. Yet upon seeing her eyes red and her face pallid stricken from nursing the loss of her family, he found out how terrible of a person he was.

Madam Val who understood this all sighed and replied, "I'm sure Miss Elle will soon recover. Loss can only be healed by time, you know that too, sir."

"True," Count Arthur responded, remembering the time he had lost Elle's mother and the pain he carried until the next two decades.

"I will try to see how she is faring," responded Madam Val. As a woman, she thought if she tries to speak to Elle, she could somewhat offer words of comfort even if it wasn't too sincere.

The woman then left Count Arthur's study room, walking over to check Elle's room only to be surprised as she saw the door was left wide open and Elle was no where to be found. The shocked housekeeper made her way toward the other servants, ordering them to find the girl for the fear she would try to pull something worse on herself.

But much to everyone's worries, Elle had spend her time away from her room, walking all over the manor without a destination. She allowed her feet to bring her away, wishing that by walking away from her lump of sadness, she could start to look at the bright side of life.

She wondered how terrible of a death her younger siblings must have suffered. She wondered why she wasn't present during their sufferings. She blamed herself for not suffering with them and for not being with them during all those time they cried for help.

The moment she thought again of their bubbly voices, tears started to well up from the rim of her eyes and she clenched her hands into a fist, rubbing her eyes to wipe away her tears.

As she stare at the rocky pavement, her longing to be with her family became stronger and her thoughts grew darker. The guilt for leaving them, surviving alone, and to not be there for them made it even difficult for her to breathe. She questioned if there was anymore reason for her to be breathing..

"The damn slum finally perished, tsk," said a voice that broke her daze at once.

She didn't recognize the voice but by its gruffness, she was certain the voice didn't belong to a servant. Her hazy golden eyes moved away to see the silver glint that appeared from the corner of the hallway she had walked.

She didn't realize how she had arrived to the servant wing of the manor, the places for the servants and most of the knights that protected the Vernon Manor. Although Count Arthur is currently known for his business trading, the Vernon was used to be known for their triumph against supernatural centuries ago and most of their knights are still the proudest members of fighters in all Rainville.

There was a saying in Rainville that the stronger a knight is, the more prideful they are. The sayings were the truest in Vernon House as the knights gathered in the manor are those strongest of the strongest. They all had their pride high up that even put Mikail's pride look like a sweet endearing annoyance when compared to the rest of the knight in the Manor.

They insisted that their pride was to protect the weak but what Elle had heard made something in the back of her head to snap.

She walked slowly, her footsteps sounding like nothing at all due to her years of stealing. After making a turn, she saw the knights gathered around, some with the simple black shirt and brown trousers that matched the rest of the folks while one of them wore the shiny silver armor that glint under the sunlight.

The four young knights seemed to have gathered together as though they were holding a tea party. None of them looked like Mikail who was rough in demeanor, they instead looked like the children of young nobles— the basic definition of pompous, prideful, and bratty children of the wealthy.

"Those slums people had been an eyesore in Rainville, I am also grateful they are finally out of the picture," the same man who had spoken earlier added again. His hair was strikingly blonde while his eyes were brownish red that brought him to stand out like a sore thumb. His hair was combed so neatly around his head, leaving a slight sparkle as though it was damp. He grinned as he had spoken, stabbing thorn to Elle's heart as she hadn't gotten over her misery yet and there was someone partying over the death of her family.

"My dad has been saying that they were an eyesore. Most of them are petty thieves or criminals who were running away from the torture house. Seeing how those criminals are finally paying for their sins in Hell, I have to say that I am very deligh—" The vampire's words were cut short as the next second he felt his body sway and a hand had slapped across his cheeks, turning his face to the opposite left side and his eyes widening in extreme shock.

No one had ever struck him and his eyes demanded for an answer as to who had slapped his precious face. He was even more startled upon seeing a human girl standing with her hands raised, her eyes were filled with so much anger that burned as if she wanted to rip the man in front of her for the words he had dared to utter…