Shadows of the Darkened Veil

"Uh…What? What do you mean you know… You know about the curse?" Mathew became a little impatient.

"Her mother… It was her mother… The late lady of the house… She used to sleep beside her from the moment of birth… She always dreamed of a baby boy but when she got her… She wasn't sad but someone told her that her son had died that day… She was furious… So… She became rude to her own daughter… After that day… Many things changed… She started to spend more and more time with her daughter, all the other family members didn't like how she treated the young lady. They tried to stop her but soon all of the other family members started dying…"

"What?" Ravindra almost scremed… "So… That…Woman started to…"

"Yes… The two other wives of lord Viscount and their sons and daughter died one after another and one day… She was found dead… Nobody knows the cause… These things happened so fast that…no one could see it coming, lord Viscount now only has his daughter… All the others died one after another… Since the Lord owns the land and has the power over law in this area, Jarl Vondous V gave him the power."

"How can…How can anybody don't see it coming… How is this even possible…?" Mathew wasn't buying the absurd story, he thought it was all crap, like why in the hell nobody had any suspicion or any idea of who was killing, it all make no sense until we don't think about the Viscount who had the power of law in this land, he was the Lord Justice here, his words were the law… He could do something like that if he wanted… He might have everything suppressed, might be or might not be. Maybe he never thought about his wife being the murderer or it might be more entangled than it seems. The mysteries of this house were just beginning.

'We need to get back to this woman… This old lady knows a lot… Does…Viscount knows that she knows so much or maybe he is unaware… Whatever this is…it might be linked to that curse but how…?' Mathew still wasn't sure if he should trust the story or not but Ravindra was already trusting and it was visible by the shock on his face, "Uh… You said…You know something about the curse… What is it?"

"It's-It's that…uh…the late lady used to have a possession on her daughter…She almost used to control young lady Rose, three years ago… Almost as a puppet, she wouldn't move if she wasn't told by the late lady, she wouldn't sleep if she wasn't told, it was so horrifying…To see her like that, when the late lady died… On that night something happened… I was in the room of young lady Rose and I saw something… Some kind of black magic was surrounding her, it was revolving around her head… She was screaming and at the same time… The news that the lady of the house is dead came to my ears… She was engulfed by the magic magic… I believe…its…"

"I get it… That lady…made Rose her puppet, no-she made her an image… an image of herself… It might be possible through black magic… She was trying to make Rose a puppet… something she could control… How wicked?" Mathew quickly analysed the last story as it was making sense this time, unlike the story this old lady talked about earlier.

"It can be possible or it is the case… Maybe it's not like a puppet more like a…uh…personality… Like the way to talk or act… Maybe that is the case making a perfect replica of herself…That might be the case…" Ravindra stated his findings from the story which impressed Mathew a lot.

'For someone who lost his memories…he is not bad…actually, he is good… Better than many I know… Personality… That can be done…Right?' Knowing more and more secrets of the Viscount, Mathew was quite happy. If someone knows, a lot of your secrets it shows how much you trust them, considering you don't hate that. 'Now…we have to find a perfect moment where we can confront the Viscount and make sure he answers all of our questions… hmm…best way would be through extortion with the help of Rose… But this time it will be Ravindra taking charge… If I poke too much they would be pissed at that… It should be the arrogant prodigy doctor Praduman aka Ravindra…hehe…'

With a sigh, Mathew looked into the eyes of an almost breaking old lady and said, "We need to know more about this matter…uh…We will come here for another check-up really soon, break down the story and tell us more about…And don't worry the more we know about the curse the more we can help recover Rose… If she needs to live then, we need to know the curse, its cause, its nature and-"

"How it works…?" Ravindra added, after all, he was supposed to be the expert in black magic even though the old lady didn't know of it. "She needs all the help possible…even if it comes from you or us…We have everything we can"

'He is beyond impressive now… Manipulating her feelings to get information… Even though I was doing the same thing…anyways…Not only he is reliable but also a lot more helpful than I thought he would be, he is a good partner.' Mathew was amazed by the skills of Ravindra, here he missed the possibility that maybe Ravindra was an amazing actor or something.

"I will try to tell you everything from the start…" She rubbed her eyes with those trembling hands, almost crying.

They went to talk to the butler who was managing a delivery of seeds to the farm, he was ordering all the other workers where to unload seed boxes from the long caravan. Garrison was still all over, there were about 100 of them, which looked kinda amazing for a Viscount.

The butler was standing in the middle of every single one of them, all of the garrisons paid respect to the two doctors and it was kind of not normal for every single one of them to know about these two. They were telling the workers to move out of the way for the two new doctors.

They reached the butler who paid his respect to them and asked for a little time if it wasn't something too important.

After waiting for over 10 minutes the butler came to them, they were still on the farm, sitting on a tree bench which was circular around it. Even though this kingdom has a lower temperature than the others but this part of the kingdom was much hotter and hence suitable for farming wheat.

"I am so sorry for the delay and wastage of time for the two doctors…" Butler was really respectful as always, his long face with white hair and beard didn't look tired rather it was filled with the essence of energy.

"That's alright… Uh… We were…uh… thinking about Rose's condition… No one's around here right…? It was that curse… I think I know what it is…and I know how to remove it but still, there is a lot I don't understand…"

"Well, that a progress…." The butler smiled, "So, what can I help the two Lords"

Ravindra chucked a little, "Look..uh…it's not so simple, the curse… it's a personality disorder of herself… A creation of herself within her, its like she is two different people inside of one…And we want to know about that "other" person inside her… You know what I am talking about"

The butler's expression was now solemn, he wasn't smiling at all or happy at all. It hit him harder than he could think almost irresponsive for a second. "Let me guess… It's the late lady of the house…"

"Yes…and we want an explanation that why would her mother…do something like that…You know she is suffering every single second with her mother inside of her… Removing the curse is only one thing… The mental torture might become permanent… You need to get an idea of the gravity of this condition… It's not simple, the real she might die…And that's not a warning or something…"

It was enough to shake the butler from the inside, the reason was simple they suspected the same but refused to believe it and when someone else told them that it hurt them. His face was no longer filled with energy but with regret, he was sad, almost trembling. "I-I… Uh… What can I help you with?"

"Good…" Mathew said, "Tell us about your late lady, she…like where is her stuff, I mean you didn't throw it out did you… Where are her things…Belonging, her jewellery and her clothes or even her severance… lady in waiting…where are they…? We need to know about her before dealing with her…"

"You know the more I look at the curse the more I find it difficult… That curse is not a simple curse it's been living inside of Rose for a lot of years and also I want to know everything that could help me in any way… Even if it was not relevant to Rose… If it's something going on around her…I need to know…about her past… This might be the only way to stop the curse from eating her brain." Ravindra gave a final puss of terror into the brain of the butler, making things more and more desperate. More and more likely for their plan to succeed.

"I will tell Lord Viscount about all of this and try my best in my power to help…"

"Thanks… Also, we need like a place like an empty warehouse where I can practice curses… And a few people who can help us with the experiment…"

"Experiment?" Butler looked puzzled.

"What? Do you think I deal with curses all the time…NO… I have only seen three curses so far and two of them were good curses and then there is this personality curse on Rose… To remove it I will need to know how to remove a curse…and so far the only way I can think of is- using my own curse…And I need to practice that…"

"Understood… I will give one of our finest workers…"

"No… I will select them… I need specific and skilled people…" Ravindra made a face suggesting he was bored.

"All of them are right there…please take any you want…" Butler was very respectful and helpful as he was the highest authority in the house after the Viscount.

This was a plan in order to get a safe location and make sure location and get the whole team back, the coordinator and the square-faced guy from the plan, were disguised as workers on the farm.

The butler collected all of them, stopped their work and made them stand in an arc so that all of them would be visible to Ravindra and Mathew.

"Lord…Please choose any of them…" Butler acted sincerely.

"Someone old…Someone you can trust…" Mathew was direct with the first one.

The butler selected a middle-aged man from the arc by calling his name.

"Uh… How many of them can use enchantment arts…" Ravindra didn't specify anyone, "We need someone…with those skills."

"How many of you can use enchantment arts…" The butler said calmly yet it sounded loud, "Hands up if you can" Seeing every single one of them confused, "I asked something…"

Five hands were up of which one was the coordinator, "This one…The bodybuilder, he can be useful…And some who can do the barn stuff…"

"How can those useless people be useful to the lord…" The butler whispered.

"Haha… It's because they can craft dolls…temporary dolls…you know I will need them for…that thing…" Quite a few hands were up, "How many of you can cook also…?"

Now only two hands were up, "I'll take this guy with a square face…" Ravindra said unpleasantly.

"Everything will be set for the Lords…"