Chapter 54

Before Madame Fitzgerald continued with her speaking she paused and shot a glance towards Cattleya, who glanced back at her with a calm expression.

"Dear, do you have the pastries I requested?"

She asked, cocking her head slightly. Cattleya nodded and took out the metal tin filled with sweets and opened it, letting the aroma fill the air, much to Fitzgerold'd delight.

"Well, aren't you a doll!"

She then turned to face her butler and whispered something in French.

"Pourriez-vous me chercher une pâtisserie aux fraises ?"

The butler nodded before approaching Cattleya, looking down at the pastry dish.

"Madame Fitzgerald would like a strawberry pastry."

He remarked, taking one from the tin before walking back to the woman and politely handing it to her, she smiled and thanked him before taking a bite.

"By the heavens, this is delightful!"

She exclaimed, covering her mouth with her handkerchief to prevent anyone from seeing the inside of her mouth, much to her husband's approval.

"Is this the usual recipe?"

Cattleya nodded, looking towards me and smiling softly.

"I'd say I had some help from this gentleman."

I couldn't help but blush a little, flushed from the sudden compliment. Madame Fitzgerald turned to look at me with her somewhat intimidating aura, even if she wasn't in a mad hood it always seemed to ring in the air.

"Well, I think you have a very good chef."

She smiled at me and nodded her head, an indication that she took me and Cattleya's pastries with much delight.

"Anyways, we weren't here to quibble about food, we were here to discuss the Nightshades."

Me and Shinso's eyes both collectively widened, we knew we were here to discuss somewhat important matters, but talk of the secret origination that Demetrius came from was quite the shock, and this could help us truly find Isaiah faster.

"Did you find anything else?"

Cattleya asked. These past few days, Cattleya's been taking private visits to Madame Fitzgerald's house, due to her status in the kingdom she had ties with a lot of organizations through her high shares of the Sample Society.

Madame Fitzgerald nodded, looking towards her husband as he pulled out a few folded up pieces of paper, before placing them on the table in front of her.

Upon unfolding them, the papers were various notes from various dates. The notes had different types of writing styles, handwriting, and different types of paper were used.

"These reports account everything that's happened in the last 2 months regarding the Nightshades and their current activity." 

Cattleya, now dumbfounded, spoke up in confusion. 

"Aren't they in hiding, then why would this much information be available in the past 2 months. Perhaps they were secret members of this organization that hop from place to place jotting down these notes like clues for us to find?"

Madame Fitzgerald spread out the notes on the table like a deck of cards and nodded, closely observing any minor details.

"One of the notes explain a strange suicide case, they say it happened following a conflict which led to crazy ravings of some kind, causing them to go mad and dying just like that."

Cattleya sighed softly and took the note, before reading it out loud and slowly, attempting to discern the almost intelligible and messy handwriting. 

"Maxwell stated earlier today that he's been hearing strange voices and whispers, that they dwell into and tell him his greatest fears. Our search for Isaiah Walls hasn't been off to a great start, because the last person we've sent to capture him ended up losing control and turning into an irrational flesh heap."

"A flesh heap?"

Shinso spoke up, leaning in closer to look at the note, which was stained in a tiny amount of blood around its edges.

"I surmise that the transformation was caused by Isaiah, and that he has abilities beyond our normal comprehension."

Cattleya continued to read the note, her tone growing more and more afraid as she spoke.

"Although the Nightshades have been working precariously in an attempt to help Maxwell, he's only been going further and further down the lane of losing control further, for he's already been showing inexplicable signs of outbursts and shouting."

Cattleya couldn't read anymore, as she put the note down on the table and looked at the grandfather clock near the fireplace with a concerned expression, biting her lip. Madame Fitzgerald picked up another note, and a pair of spectacles from her handbag, holding them up to her eyes.

"Isaiah Walls has been putting off his duties as a member of the Nightshades to work with his business partner in the carpenters department, and it's deeply troubling."

"Lately he's been struggling with anger and frantic outbursts, often going down a violent path of logic and reasoning."

Before Madame Fitzgerald spoke up any further, Cattleya poked back up.

"Violent reasoning? If he'd been experiencing that, maybe that would have led to him shooting Oboro, and Demetrius's eyewitness testimony told us that he could transform into a beast, an irrational monster."

Madame Fitzgerald nodded slowly, putting down the note before a look of consideration crossed her face, just then another person entered the room, a boy of about 16 years of age, with undercut, ink black hair. A pair of rounded glasses, and dawning a green and black vest and suit.

Madame Fitzgerald turned to look at him and sighed. 

"Raymond, shouldn't you be studying in your room?"

Raymond signed abruptly, running his fingers through his hair. His eyes then shot open and glanced towards me and Shinso, before he narrowed them.

"Who are they?"

He asked, looking back towards Madame Fitzgerald. She chuckled a little, making a hand gesture towards them.

"These are Cattleya's friends, they're visiting with her this time."

Suddenly a glint of curiosity shot through Raymond's eyes as he looked back at us, before speaking towards his parents.

"Mother, father. May I show them around please?"

Upon hearing Raymond ask that question, Madame Fitzgerald and Mr. Fitzgerald looked towards Cattleya, who nodded with a little uncertainty.

"I assume they can, after all I think they need a break from this murder investigation."

Raymond smiled towards the both of us, his eyes reflecting a tiny yet sinister feeling beyond his glasses, before he beckoned us with his finger.

"Come on, I'll show you around."

Me and Shinso both exchanged glances towards each other, but ended up following the boy through the house. 

"Our house is pretty big, because my parents own a shit ton of land, you hear?"

His voice rung with an aura of pride, and he walked with his hands behind his back like a butler, signifying his rich status among the kingdom.

"I see, it's like a maze."

Shinso rolled his eyes and chuckled, a little sarcasm in his voice, making Raymond shoot a glance back at us.

"I'll show you guys my room, come."

Raymond said as he turned a corner and walked up a flight of stairs towards his room, which was one of many doors.

"But don't touch anything, you idiots might break something worth thousands."

He chuckled rudely. He opened the door and we stepped inside his room, which was filled with research documents, artifacts and other memorabilia.

"Damn, I thought you'd have a clean room."

Shinso chuckled as he stepped in and looked around at the mess along Raymond's floor, but Raymond gave him a half narrowed glance, before speaking.

"My parents don't really enter my room to begin with, I'm in here studying the previous epoch most of my day, besides piano lessons with my butler."

"You study the previous epoch? How much do you know?"

Raymond's green eyes suddenly lit up with enthusiasm as he grabbed a pile of research books and journals from his desk, before plopping them down on his bed.

"You can take a look, but be gentle."

He warned, leaning against the wall as I slowly opened the research, which were littered with notes and accounts from the past era, some I didn't even know existed.

"I've taken years to collect this all, it's my best work so far."

Shinso stepped away from the bed while I continued to look through his journals and accounts. Shinso on the other hand looked through the other artifacts littered in Raymond's room.

"I didn't know you would have this much stuff, imagine you sold all of this."

Shinso told Raymond as he traced his hand along the burgundy table which had a lot of artifacts around it, including a shiny, silver dagger. It was similar to the one that Aaron used to take my blood sample.

"Damn."

Shinso's expression lit up and he gave a cheeky smile as he picked up the dagger, holding it in his hands gently, but it wasn't long before Raymond swiped it away from him.

"I told you hands off!"

His voice had a biting edge as he put the dagger into a drawer under the table, before closing it and looking back to Shinso.

"Are you a forgettable idiot or something?"

I immediately closed the book and walked towards Raymond, speaking from behind him.

"I don't want you talking to him like that, you hear me?"

Raymond turned around and gave me a weird smile, one that a villain would make.

"I'm sorry I hurt your friends feelings, I hope you forgive me."

His voice was exaggeratingly sad, and he faked the motion of wiping a tear away and crying, before walking towards the door.

"Now, let's get out before you guys touch anything else."

He announced, putting his hand on my back as he guided us out. Raymond was about 5 feet 8 inches in height, while I was about 5 feet 6 inches, so it wasn't too big of a height difference, but it still was kind of intimidating feeling a pair of bigger hands guiding me that weren't ones I knew exactly.

He then walked back to the staircase and proceeded down, before turning left and heading back to the common area where Cattleya, Madame Fitzgerald and his husband and butler were situated.

"I suppose you showed the boys around?"

Madame Fitzgerald asked, folding her hands as she put the set of notes down onto the desk and glancing towards her son.

Raymond nodded, pushing his glasses up and smiling innocently, which was a complete contrast of his previous attitude.

"Yes, they seemed to be quite intrigued by my room and my studies."

Madame Fitzgerald, who didn't know much about what his son did most of the time besides annual piano lessons just nodded awkwardly.

"That's great."

Cattleya turned to look at us before standing up

and heading towards the door.

"I suppose we'll be going back now, good evening Madam."

She nodded at Cattleya before giving a polite wave as they headed out the door and back into the yard, but I could feel Raymon's predatory aura locked in the back of my head, burning into me.