House of Paintings

Elric had to give it to Nicolas, the man moved fast. The house was empty, only larger pieces of furniture were left behind.

Elric was quite disappointed, he heard Nicolas was well versed in magic. He was sure a fight with him would have been slightly enjoyable. If nothing else it would soothe his tense nerves.

The man shook his head, he was not here for that... he was here to investigate.

He walked along the inside of the house, hoping to sense any residual mana that was left behind. It was impossible to completely erase his traces in one week when Nicolas had been living here for years.

Still, Elric found nothing. The study was empty and not so much as a slip of paper lay discarded in his hast.

Deciding to try his luck outside the knight combed the perimeter carefully. The land was not so big with a decent amount of plants along the edge.

Brushing his hands along the leaves of each large tree he past Elric thought. If he was a magic professor, he would most likely play to his strength and use his knowledge to hide something of value in plain site with his magic.

Feeling his foot sink into fresh dirt the knight paused and looked down. All the trees here had been planted a while ago yet the soil around this one was disturbed.

"Smart man."

Stepping back from the area Elric bent to his knees and began to dig. After what couldn't have been more than a foot deep he came across a door locked with a fairly simple mechanism.

Of course, as Nicolas was a magic professor he knew all the limitations of it. There was no magic in the world that could not be noticed. He decided to take a simpler approach and if it were anyone else, they might not have noticed.

The world is at the place where everything revolves around mana. If it can be done with magic, then magic will be used. Why waste time struggling when you could learn a spell or incantation?

Elric made quick work of the lock and opened the door that descended into steps carved from mud. He quickly summoned a small orb of light before going into the hidden space.

Despite being in an enclosed space the area was well ventilated, leading Elric to believe that Nicolas had been preparing for quite some time.

When the steps finally ended Elric raised his hand higher to illuminate more of the open space.

There was only one word to describe the place.

Creepy.

Hundreds upon hundreds of hand drawn pictures covered every surface of the dirt walls, all in various sizes and quality. Some were painstakingly painted with expensive colors while others were roughly sketched onto a random piece of paper.

They all seemed to be of one woman and the closer Elric looked the more he realized that no two pictures were the same. Her expression was always different even if one eyebrow was raised just a bit higher than the other.

He eventually tore his gaze away from them to look around more. The shelves and tables were empty of anything. The only other thing in the space was a large plain coffin.

Elric moved to open the lid, the entirety of it was well maintained and the wood covering fell off without much effort.

Empty.

- - -

Reed Residence, roughly nine days before the death of Diana Reed

Diana sat, fiddling with her embroidery project, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth in concentration. The small detailed butterflies were the hardest to sow together.

The bandages wrapped around her fingers were a testament to how little she knew about the art itself.

She ran her fingers over the poorly stitched cursive family name that was now her own. Diana Reed, she still wasn't used to it.

Diana never had a romanticized version of marriage in which she would fall in love with a man and he would sweep her off her feet into the sunset. No. She knew she would marry a man she knew next to nothing about all for the sake of her family's standing. It was her duty after all as the only female.

She was never saddened by this fact. All she hoped was that she would be wed to a good man who treated her with respect. Unfortunately, her small prayers went unanswered.

Nicolas had been unresponsive since their first meeting, which was only on their wedding day. Diana remembered being relieved when she first saw him, a rather well put together young man. She had been imagining the worst, some balding elder with a gut larger than her wedding skirts.

Now though, she wasn't so sure. Perhaps a balding elder would be easier to deal with.

Nicolas was either unresponsive or completely ruthless in his treatment of her. Some days he barely even noticed her presence, on other days he would spit such hateful venom that Diana had no other choice but to leave for fear of him getting physical.

At first she was confused. Sure neither of them had any say in the marriage, but she couldn't think of one thing she'd done to deserve such verbal abuse.

Now though, Diana knew what the root of it was. On one afternoon she managed to eavesdrop on one of the conversations he seemed to have with himself in the sanctuary of his study. The door was cracked open, allowing Diana to clearly hear each whispered word from the silent hallway.

"Can't believe this. I was close, so close. I would have gotten everything I've ever wanted. Just like that, it's gone. The Yelrine magical research team was going to accept me. She has ruined everything..."

Diana jerked away from the door, covering her mouth to keep from exclaiming in shock. Yelrine was the most prestigious school of magic within the county and even rivaled those beyond Alfonsi. Becoming a professor of such a place was no different.

Above being a professor was a researcher, delving into the mysteries of magic and mana. Such a position was highly coveted because if a significant discovery was made, the members would attain wealth and fame beyond their wildest dreams. As such the teams chose their members carefully, all of them being unwed; and without children. No distractions would be tolerated.

She cost him such a position. Diana had no idea. It hit her hard, not because it was their marriage that broke his dream. No. There was simply no way for her to fix it, going to the school and begging would get her nowhere. Her family name didn't have enough weight to move anyone within Yelrine.

So was that it? Was she doomed to remain in a relationship with a man who resented her? Till death did them part?

Attempting to shake off the negative emotions Diana decided to go for a walk around the house. By now it became obvious that Nicolas cared little for this place. She doubted he would even flinch if he walked in one day to find the entire interior had been painted pink.

As such she took it as an ok to decorate, it was therapeutic and one of her small joys that kept her from drowning in sadness that was both Nicolas' and her own.

The sunset was lovely from the front balcony, deciding to bask in its beauty Diana started towards the stairs. Halfway there she stopped, her surrounding became blurry as she struggled to remain plated on her feet.

Ah yes, then there was that.

She wasn't sure when it began exactly but at random moments she was overcome with dizziness and drowsiness so strong she often fell asleep and woke up hours later with no idea why.

Diana had done checkups, teas and strange medicines. Nothing seemed to help. While she knew it wasn't the best course of action to simply ignore such concerning symptoms she promised herself she would alert healers if it ever got worse; and luckily, it never has.

She waited for the moment to pass before going down the first step. Only for her vision to split into two. Diana gasped and quickly clutched the railing with both hands, effectively catching herself from slipping. She shakily sat on the top step breathing hard as she looked down the long flight of stairs.

"I really need to be more careful, that could have been a horrible accident."

---

"So you killed her?"

Nicolas's face reddened with anger as he gave Michael a scathing glare.

"No! I... When I heard one of my colleges speaking about a medicine he used to put his restless daughter to sleep I decided to try it. I know she didn't deserve the anger I subjected her to, but I just couldn't stand seeing her face. It reminded me of everything I failed to achieve."

"You could have gotten what you wanted, why bother bringing her back?"

"I... I miss her."

"Is that all?"

"Yes, that is all."