The Bitter Truth

Four people were eating at a sumptuous table set in the Partheni household's dining room as night fell. While Niko hosted with his daughter, Fernandez accepted the invitation with his son.

"Dude, I know it was sudden, but thank you so much for trusting me!"

The gray-haired man put on an embarrassed expression as he looked at his deceased wife's brother.

"Uncle Niko, did you tell my father to send my mother and younger brother to my grandparents in haste?"

When Fernandez gave his son a stern look, the questioner interrupted.

"Yes, my smart nephew. I told your father to get them out of town!"

Raising the spoon to take a sip of his soup, Marcos dropped the spoon in response, and it was all food.

"I know you're drowning in a mess of questions right now, but you'll soon have all the answers!"

While the conversation at the dinner table was going on in a kind of mystery, Nafiz was getting her detailed report about the events in the tribe.

"Ma'am! As you warned, the Main Orc Tribe attacked our region with about a thousand warriors and two attack-type war machines. Meanwhile, they sent a delegation to the city of Nikonia!"

''Result?''

Nafız and Alyon had predicted what would happen; the division of duties and orders they made when they left was for preventive purposes.

"Our Chief Alyon's daughter responded to the harassment inflicted on our lands with a hundred warriors and four attack-type war machines she took with her. Before reaching the tribe, she ambushed the army she had met in a narrow passage and slew them without losing a single warrior!"

"What is the condition of the envoys to Nikonia?"

"The reports of our human warriors said that City Lord Godfrey had the entire party impaled and displayed on the city walls."

Nafiz, who was overjoyed at the last news she heard, then turned serious and gave a firm order to Brutal Wall.

"I don't want anyone to be around the stone house in the south gardens tonight. Coordinate your warriors to form a circle two hundred paces away!"

In the Partheni household, the atmosphere was tense before the great event, while in another mansion in the far part of the city, the angry man was banging his glass on the ground.

"What does this Astute think he's doing? It doesn't allow us to hire our bodyguards first, and when two murders happen, it leaves us defenseless like chickens waiting to be slaughtered!"

Due to Nafiz's foresight, the two noble families had hired their bodyguards beforehand, but the other noble family, the House of Augustus, was caught unprepared after the sudden event. There was no one in their house except a few gladiators they had brought from the gladiator school.

"Dad, I'm going to my room. I do not feel well at all!''

Epiphanes had not thrown two forks at the food before him when he suddenly got up from the table and went to his room on the upper floor.

"Quintus, honey, something has happened to this kid for a while. Do you have a problem?"

Waiting for the red wine the maid had poured into her glass to settle, Athena called out to her husband as she looked after her son.

"We get what he wants, and we do what he says. What more does he want?

The short fat man stood up and spoke as he looked out of the sizeable double-winged dining room window. The last thing he wanted to deal with right now was the whims of his spoiled son.

Many wealthy families in the city were dealing with the same troubles. When Niko finished his meal, he took his daughter with him and walked towards the stone house where he lived with his wife. The gray-haired man advancing in front of the group led the way, surrounded by about twenty orcs commanded by the Brutal Wall.

Eftelya clung tightly to her father's arm in fear; even Marcos, who always liked to show his courage, could not stop his hands from shaking. Two hundred paces from the abandoned building, the orc guards cut off their pursuit, leaving the group alone.

"Hurry up! One of the ingredients is about to fail!"

As a shrill voice rang in their ears, the group's eyes turned to the female orc at the door of the stone house. Marcos helped Eftelya's litter, which Niko and Fernandez had to carry, and the group increased its speed and came to the owner of the voice.

"What's going on with Nafiz? How could you enter the forbidden house?"

Why was Nafız allowed when his father refused him every time she wanted to see the house where she was born? Eftelya, in the face of the situation she could not understand, Nafız just smiled and opened the door wide for them to enter the house.

After carrying Eftelya's litter into the hall, the three men threw themselves aside to regain their breath. Nafız, who seized the opportunity, was in front of the beautiful girl.

"Little lady, after what you saw in the morning and what you will learn tonight, you will embark on a road of no return. I can cure your illness, but you are the only one who will make the final decision!"

Nafız was speaking while still looking at the young girl's face, but Marcos was overcome with excitement and shouted.

"I didn't hear wrong, did I? Did you say you could heal my cousin?"

Seeing the indecisive state of the young girl, Nafız continued her words by turning to father and son to give her some more time to think.

"What's in Eftelya's body is not a disease; it's a curse. An evil spell called the Soul Binding Technique!"

The news shook Marcos and his father, but when their gazes returned to the young girl, they saw that she was still thinking calmly.

"Fernandez, this spell is what caused your sister's death, and it was city lord Astute who did it!"

Marcos, whose father suddenly collapsed to the ground, jumped up in a panic. It was read to his amazement. Losing consciousness as his old pains surfaced, Fernandez was staring at the ceiling without a word when he regained consciousness. After a while, painful words would come out of the mouth of the man who had covered his face with his long hair.

"I missed you so much, sister. What I wouldn't give to see that beautiful face of yours once again!"

The young girl's weak voice rang in the ears as she hit the people's faces in the room like the sadness that collapsed in the middle.

"Uncle, my mother missed you too. Tonight you will be able to see each other for the last time!"

The words coming out of the young girl's mouth put the last point on the day when exciting events took place one after the other. While everyone except Nafız was looking at her in amazement, Eftelya continued to speak with her naive voice.

"Daddy, I have a secret I've been keeping inside for years, and I'm so sorry for that. It was not a coincidence that I brought Nafız to our house; it was my mother's wish. I have kept it in my soul for years as both my curse and my hope!"

Fernandez and his son froze in place. Niko couldn't make sense of what he was hearing, looking questioningly at the female orc who had gathered them here. Nafız filled her lungs with a deep breath after the young girl expressed herself.

"It is time to talk about the Soul Binding Technique."

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The worst of the days lost is the one that goes without laughing for once.

Chamfort