Marrying For Twisted Love In a Fantasy Novel

Chapter 18

The big golden gates were opened, and we trotted in on the stallion. The horse came to a slow stop as Nathan tugged on its reins. He got down first from the horse then extended his hand out for me. I wasn't particularly good with horses, so I gracefully took his hand and leapt down.

Unlike the scene I had imagined — that of an abandoned building which reeked of bad news, we were beholding the sight of a beautiful mansion.

"This place, it looks...very different" I said as I surveyed our surroundings. A few years ago, I had been here with Nathan. The renovation job was really good. It looked nothing like it's old state.

"Yeah. Doesn't exactly look like a place for corpses right?" He chuckled to himself, as if he found his words funny.

Guiding me forward, we entered the mansion. The interior was similar to the outward appearance which was a display of opulence in white and gold furnishings.

Although the design of the mansion was such a sight, I wasn't one to really appreciate things of beauty at every turn. Rather, I was eager to receive the 'gift' Nathan had told me all about on our way here.

At first sight, the mansion seemed empty and void of any signs of life, but the deeper we went, I began to notice servants who had expressions of stoicism and bowed like programmed robots. The way how they carried themselves piqued my interests.

"How did you get this many people to work in this slaughterhouse?" I asked as soon as we sat down on chairs

"I just did what you taught me. 'Make sure they're desperate, then loyalty comes next' you had said" He said, with a lopsided grin.

"What a good student you are, putting your teacher's lessons into practice"

He just smiled at my words and continued leading me, to a staircase which we descended and found ourselves in front of what appeared to be multiple prison cells.

This was what I had expected. An eerie place which reeked the smell of blood. The delicate outer exterior was just a cover, shielding the image of this place.

There were people, probably servants, sitting in front of each cell. Just like the ones upstairs, their eyes looked dead and emotionless and they rose to Nathan in greetings, and briskly sat down at his gesture.

Keenly, I observed each cell. The first prison cells were almost empty. We walked deeper into the area, and I realized that people were kept in the ending cells.

The professionalism of this place seemed top notch. The workers I guessed, had to be sworn to secrecy. It was here that Nathan carried out his most evil of practices. Loyalty of the underlings was very important.

Nathan stopped in front of a particular cell and I too halted. There was a moment of shock as I took in the gruesome sight in the cell before me.

Seven, no, eight people lay on the dirty cell floor, groaning in pain. Stab wounds were evident on their neck and slashes, maybe from a whip, were all over their faces. However, their injured state wasn't what made me shocked. Rather, the actions they performer alarmed me. They were all...eating each other.

I turned to Nathan for an explanation. As I stared into his silver eyes I realized a shocking truth; I was shaken. Only for a mere second though. Still, I wasn't supposed to be. I was the villainess. I was supposed to be invisible. This wasn't supposed to bother me as I had done much worse.

So I shook off the feeling and put on an expression, worthy of this situation. A smirk playing on my lips, the image of the villainess satisfied at the progress of her wicked plans.

"This sight is rather interesting. But I'm more interested with the dead guy's body"

"Of course" Nathan replied and gestured towards the cell behind us. Without receiving the instruction to, a nearby servant came over with the cell key and opened it. The efficiency of the servant had to be praised. But first, I had to receive my gift appropriately.

I waltzed into the cell, towards the dead body to examine it. It was hard to tell due to the body's ashen state, but I could notice that it was the corpse of a tall brooding man. The corpse had been stripped of it's shirt, revealing a solid chest.

"From what I've found out, he works at some guild of magic" Nathan said behind me.

A guild of magic? Henry had mentioned one earlier today. Was it a coincidence, or could something be related here? If so, was the guild authentic?

"Why did you kill him?" I asked.

"He had attacked me. At first, I had thought it was a spy from the neighboring Empire...."

Listening, I tapped the chest of the corpse. A tingling feeling went down my fingers. I could feel it, the traces of magic. Even though the person was dead, their strong magic could easily be perceived.

Excitement was the only word that could perfectly describe how I felt.

'After all these years, finally, I had found an actual magic user...'

My celebration was cut short, by Nathan's words.

"That's why I was surprised to find out he was sent by the Belv Duchy"
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Another late chapter. Sorry guys. My fever had suddenly come back. So I couldn't update. But now I'm better! Although school's been keeping me really busy. I had been away for almost a month, so I had to catch up on a lot of lessons.

The story has gotten up to 13k+ reads! Yay! I'm really grateful for those who have picked up this book within the three months of its release.

I think Adrianna's character has been getting a lot more colorful. I was going through the story and realized that. It wasn't intended. But I think I'll go along with it.

I don't know why it's sometimes hard to find the right words to express my ideas in a story 😭😭😭. Btw, the story is probably going to end at Chapter 40-50 so I've been working around some things.

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