12 I offer tea, no mercy

I woke up in the middle of the night, the mansion was very noisy and I don't think I will be able to sleep again.

I went to a small table in my room where I poured myself a glass of water.

I sat down on a chair, and sighed heavily.

(Leonora) How annoying.

Ah right, I almost forgot to mention, the mansion is on fire.

My room was at the back of the mansion, and the fire had not yet reached here, but the smoke was flooding the air, making it difficult to breathe.

With mild nostalgia, I remembered the times I had died at the stake in past lives.

By the way, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, try to breathe in as much smoke as you can, the carbon dioxide will render you unconscious and you will die a less painful death, being burned alive is annoying to say the least.

At that moment someone tried to open the door to my room, it has a trick to be opened, where you have to push before pulling.

This is known only to the small group of servants closest to me, the same group that knows that I am the true head of the mansion, to everyone else, I am just the unwanted daughter of the dukes, and the fact that they are now in the capital for her majesty's birthday, and I have been left abandoned, fed that story.

The knocking intensified, unable to open the door they began to knock loudly, whoever it was, was obviously not from my inner circle, and considering that no one outside of it would risk their life, there was only one option left, the inquisition has finally come for me.

I opened the closet in my room, pulled out a thick quilt, soaked it with the water from the pitcher and opened the window.

I took a moment and looked at myself in the mirror, I only had on a light silk dress that I wore as pajamas, would I really go out with these facades?

I dressed in a more appropriate dress and matching shoes, I'd rather be dead than plain.

On their side they seemed to be trying to break down the door.

I wrapped the quilt around me and jumped out the window, I was only on the second floor and between the gardener's work I told him to put a hedge sculpture under my room, big enough to break my fall.

Between the leaves and the quilt I barely hurt myself when I fell, plus the kids are rubber, so at best I might only be sore tomorrow.

I hid behind the sculpture, and began to observe my room, after a short time it seems that they managed to break down the door, so I saw the figure of several men.

From this distance I could not recognize their faces, but the armor they wore was unmistakable, the eleventh order of the knights of the silver hand, the group that was commanded by that man.

I saw them leaning out of the window so they must have deduced that I jumped out, so they would shortly come for me.

Not really in a hurry, I walked through the courtyard using the shadows created by the hedge sculptures that crossed the garden.

I got as far as my destination, but from here I could see the front of the mansion, surrounded by his men and several of the poor servants of the mansion was that man.

Arthuruz Kalafh, the most annoying of my 3 enemies and the person who has killed me the most times.

Excluding the human reject and the trio of negligent maidservants of course.

I looked at him and smiled, you're late kid, I've had time to prepare.

The Croiss estate was huge, but due to mismanagement it was practically empty, so I always had a gigantic hedge maze built, measuring over a square kilometer.

The plan was always the same and I always hired the same gardener, so at this point I knew the maze like the back of my hand, and I could walk through it blindfolded, and to make it better, I always prepared a few games to entertain my guests.

I went into the labyrinth and set out to prepare the games, in specific places there were stakes with ropes tied to them, which contained the beasts I had bought from the circus.

Without the control of the magicians, they had returned to their wild state and since I only fed them once a day, they were especially irritated.

When I released them some of them saw me for a moment before they started to run, definitely the noise of the mansion has them stressed and they will probably attack whatever is in front of them.

Why don't they attack me? Simple, because I'm the witch.

While the protagonist of the game has an absurd list of abilities in addition to her ridiculous amount of magic, I as the witch only had 3, but I had learned to make the most of them.

The first of them was that the animals are neutral to me, it is not that they respect or fear me, the best definition is that they are neutral to me, if I did nothing to them, they did nothing to me either, apparently they do not relate their captivity with me, so they left me alone.

I continued moving forward and felt something climbing up my leg, when I looked I saw a snake, so I took it in my hands and caressed it.

The emerald dreams were beautiful, their scales were gorgeous and even at night they shone with the starlight, they were also terribly venomous and very territorial, sometimes when I collected their eggs I had the bad luck to find one still in its nest and their bites were quite painful, and it was always a shame to see them die after biting me.

I left the snake on the ground, and continued on my way, as I advanced I noticed how the walls of the labyrinth had been invaded by a vine from which purple flowers were growing.

The widow's kisses are practically a plague that the kingdom uselessly tries to exterminate, they do not need much to grow, they are very resistant to fire, and to being cut, so when you see them in the forest you should stay away from them and warn someone to come and exterminate them.

I wanted to take a flower, but I remembered that I would meet with Irma so I desisted, the flowers of the "widows kisses" are the second most poisonous thing in this world, and when the vine is stressed, the flowers release their poison in the form of gas, not to mention that even without releasing the gas, just by touching the flower people usually die of poisoning, and if I take one I am afraid that the poison stays on my clothes and can poison Irma.

As for me, the poison of "emerald dreams" and "widow's kisses" is of no concern to me, since I am the most poisonous thing in this world.

In the game the murder victims died of poison, but the poison did not match any known in this world, so it was one of the mysteries surrounding the game.

In the true ending it is revealed that Leonora's blood is a deadly poison.

Therefore despite being related to each other, my other 2 abilities are that my blood is the most poisonous thing known in this world, and I am immune to any other type of poison.

So you can rule out eaten by wild animals and poisoned from the list of my deaths.

It is well known by the common servants of the mansion, that I usually "play" in the labyrinth, although the dukes have flatly forbidden to all to approach it, so when asked about my possible whereabouts, the labyrinth is the most obvious choice.

In the center of it, there is a small hut built, there I have stored an emergency kit that would allow me to survive for a week, if it were the case of not having prepared anything better, but I had had enough time and my escape route was ready.

I went to the hut, and took out a backpack that had some money and clothes in it, slung it over my shoulder, and set out to leave the labyrinth through the secret exit.

In the distance I could hear the screams of the idiots who had dared to enter my domain.

Unhurriedly I went through the labyrinth while listening to the screams of horror and panic as they discovered one by one the surprises I had prepared for them.

Without really looking for it, I noticed that at the end of the corridor where I was, Arthuruz was at the end of it.

He was kneeling in front of what at one time must have been one of his men, but a beast had jumped on him and now he was little more than a bundle of flesh.

From a distance I could see him struggling to keep his composure.

oh my heart is breaking.

Arthuruz, he was a character in the game, appeared almost in the middle of all the routes to blame Leonora for all the crimes, although in perspective he was right, the arguments at that time were not very good.

Arthuruz was a person obsessed with the idea of hunting monsters, but since he took the position of inquisitor, the church had only entrusted him with jobs where he had to do things that did not go with his romantic idea of the work of an inquisitor.

All this created a serious crisis for him, so he decided to declare Leonora as the one responsible for everything bad in the world, in a pathetic attempt to justify his pitiful life.

I stared at him for a while until he looked up and our eyes met, and I could see the fear in his eyes.

Before me I only saw a terrified and pathetic man making me feel disgusted with myself for the time I had been afraid of him.

I turned around and left, even though I would like to finish him once and for all, I am very small and I couldn't kill him before I could regain a bit of composure.

When I saw him again, I remembered that he was in the crowd of people, the last time I was executed, and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that he was one of those responsible for ruining my previous life.

Although Arthuruz was not very smart, he was a hunting dog and never let a prey escape, so it was really a bad idea to underestimate him, but letting him live a little with his failure was a very tempting idea, and I was already starting to plan our next meeting.

I continued through the labyrinth until I reached the exit that led to a road at the back of the territory, there was Irma with a very old carriage that could pass as that of a traveling merchant.

How she escaped from the mansion, and from the inquisitor's men, while preparing luggage and a carriage, being perfectly combed and groomed, without any stain or smell of smoke on her uniform, was many of the mysteries surrounding that woman.

(Irma) everything you ordered is ready Miss Croiss.

She bit her tongue slightly and replied.

(Irma) please excuse me, you will no longer use that name, I will not make a mistake again.

I didn't give it importance and I told Irma to help me to get into the carriage, this was inside, much more comfortable than it seemed on the outside.

She stood in front of the reins, and we set off in the middle of the night.

In the distance I could see the mansion, although I never really considered it my home, it always left a bitter taste to have to leave it, and even more when I was already carrying everything from the shadows.

I lay down on the soft seats, and prepared to go back to sleep.

It was always annoying to be woken up for these things.