At least, not with her own hands.

Back when she still had her eyes, she obeyed Noah, the young king who had ascended. By this time, Noah was getting distant and was changing; he wasn't the prince Sheila had known back when they were children. His eyes were different, his smiles weren't sincere anymore—and above all, he acted for his own benefit.

No matter who he needed to overcome, he trampled.

Sheila observed from a considerable distance. Her father, Julian Ortfalcon, was the High Mage of the palace at this point in time and Sheila was just months away from the exam of the most prominent magic school in Earthland—Magierstadt. Often times she visited the palace to learn from her father, and to visit her childhood friend Noah as well.

But Noah wasn't like any other n.o.ble—he was the king who now ascended the throne. He was always resupplied with medicines, magical hexes, and whatnots to sustain his body. Apparently, the forsaken warlock, Jonathan, awoken Noah's magical powers and the souls residing in his body. The young Noah wasn't able to keep up with this, resulting in his body to have its cells deteriorate faster.

Sheila had seen her father studying about Nightmare in the study back home almost every day. He would bury himself into a book in pursuit of understanding the disease better. 

And Julian lets Sheila study with him.

"Why is it that Noah had his body deteriorate faster if he's meant to have his abilities manifest in just a few years?"

Sheila wondered why that the young king looked a lot like those portraits of the Opus users a long time ago—and this was the explanation. Noah was another incarnation of the first king's flesh like the other seven users whose souls are different. 

All these users had to sustain their lives as well to avoid cell deterioration and all the complications when their abilities manifest at the age of 18—where the clock seal appears on the left side of their chest. Julian Ortfalcon, her father, told her that. 

"It's because Noah's abilities were forcibly awoken when he was just seven," Julian said. "His body was still unfit to hold so many souls inside."

"I get that part, Father," Sheila said; both hers and her father's golden eyes looking at each other. "But what I don't understand is that Noah is growing now, but the Nightmare's repercussions are going extreme instead of getting better. Won't his body be able to handle the curse better now that he's growing up?" Sheila asked.

"Sheila," Julian exclaimed, lifting his gaze away from the book. "Nightmare doesn't work like that."

Sheila tilted her head, wis.h.i.+ng to be enlightened.

Julian Ortfalcon smiled at his daughter, knowing this gesture very well. Sheila often did this as if to say 'please elaborate,' or something like that. She got it from him—and Julian took delight upon seeing his daughter manifest one of his quirks. 

"You see, for many years, out of all the nine kings in Feuersturm that were granted the ability to use the Opus and get cursed by Nightmare—Noah is the only one who awakened the souls living inside of him at such an early age," Julian explained tentatively. "All of the users after Octavius—from Julius, the second Opus user to Roderich—Noah's grandfather—had all manifested their abilities at the age of eighteen. They were all adults when the clock seal appeared on their chest. That time, the high mages, our predecessors were the ones sustaining their lives. They were the ones who held the formula the first king bestowed to the first Ortfalcon, and thus were the ones who are in charge of keeping the kings alive to have the Feuerkrieger line thrive to the next generation to another,"

"So . . . the Ortfalcons were in charge of making sure there's going to be heirs or kings that'll produce heirs to have the bloodline continue?" Sheila asked.

"That's right," Julian said. "For a thousand years, it has been like that. There are so many kings that ascended the throne and only seven of them were granted the ability to use the Opus. The blood of the Feuerkriegers is getting thinner and thinner, so there is a chance that the percentage of having another Opus user being born going down at less than one percent."

Sheila tilted her head. "It's fine, right? I mean, the kingdom's just prospering enough."

"No, Sheila." Julian answered. "It is not fine to have the blood of the royal family go thinner. If that happens, then an Opus user being born would be a miracle once in a blue moon,"

Sheila tilted her head, still confused. Her father was going in circles; he wasn't even answering her question about Noah. 

"Nightmare is a curse and a blessing in one," Julian said. "Right now, we are facing a new problem the high magicians before I never faced in the entirety of their lives; it is the Opus and the kings awakening in an unprepared child's body. We do not know why Nightmare's effect multiplied tenfold to Noah—whether it was because he was a child when it got forcibly awakened, or because the forsaken did something to his body that we couldn't trace . . ."

Sheila narrowed her golden eyes. So even her father doesn't have the answer to all the questions . . .

Sheila smiled at her father as she walked towards him, eyeing the book laid out on his desk. "Ooh, so you're studying foreign texts to learn more about the curse, Father?"

Julian nodded; "Although the late king already told me beforehand about Noah's similarity to his father, Roderich, and already suspected his child would be an Opus user too someday—I only studied what our ancestors left in our library and did not seek any outside knowledge. It was an error to my part, really."

Sheila tilted her head, looking at the magical hex and a firefly insignia on the book.

"Magierstadt? What does Magierstadt have to do with Nightmare, Father?"

Julian Ortfalcon stroked his daughter's hair.

"You'll know soon."

**

Sheila was remembering her suppressed memories now. Her father, how she lost her eye, and how she became who she was now. She had just finished her business with the first king, who, before falling back to his slumber as the clock hand reverted back to Noah, gave Sheila an irrefutable task.

A task that Sheila couldn't leave unfulfilled.

"News came to me about how that Albino knight broke into a fight for his life when that young Axkell Feuerfalke tried to capture him for a crime he committed in the archives." The first king said. "What a disgrace it is to have your servants get caught, Sheilalev."

"I deeply apologize, My King."

Sheila couldn't see the king's expressions, but she knows he wasn't pleased.

The first king wanted all the records of Nebel to be gone. And Sheila fulfilled that task. It should have been easy—if it weren't for the vice-captain suddenly appearing out of nowhere! Besides, even if Sheila wanted to ask the king why NOW? He could have destroyed all the shreds of evidence about Nebel when he was at Roderich's or any other king's body. 

This is why Sheila was led to a conclusion that perhaps, it had something to do to Faustina.

"Tch," Sheila muttered in her mind.

Although she doesn't want to acknowledge that weak-willed girl, her guts were telling her the first king was wary of her. 

"Pardon my insolence, Your Majesty," Sheila exclaimed. "But does this have something to do with Faustina?"

The king was silent for a second. 

"Faustina. What a name," the king said in an almost endearing manner, which shocked Sheila greatly. 

"Do you know what Faustina means in Old Mystisch, Sheila?" The king asked, but he certainly didn't need an answer. "It was derived from the name of a certain man named Faustus, a doctor-turned-necromancer, who made a pact with the devil in order to obtain knowledge and power."

Sheila blinked. She had never heard of anything like that before. 

"Faustus is a real person, who indeed sold his soul to a devil to gain control of the demon Mephistopheles." The king exclaimed. "And Faustina is his name's female counterpart,"

"Faustina and Faustus both mean 'fortunate'," the king chuckled darkly. "Yet Faustus got dragged to the depths of h.e.l.l after twenty-four years, as per the contract."

"I wonder how time will fare with his re-embodiment." The king exclaimed. "Faustina Heilen."

**

Sheila opened the chamber door where Abe slept that one, late night. It was raining harshly; the entirety of the s.p.a.ce was scattered thunderstorms resounding at the fortress. An arched window viewed the outsides, but there was barely anything to be seen outside. Sheila walked inside the room, covering the arched windows with a curtain.

Even with this rain, she couldn't afford any witness.

One is enough as it already is.

Sheila stood beside Abe's bed, looking down at the vice-captain who was sleeping soundly. Memories—memories she had suppressed came back to her all at once—the time she spent on the castle, how Abe was found by Noah, and how she witnessed Abe rising as the vice-captain, all came to her.

Sheila drew the knife from the cloth around her thigh. 

"Why did you have to be in there, Vice-captain?" Sheila gritted her teeth. "Why did you . . . out of all people . . .?"

Sheila closed her eyes, and then propelled her hand down—straight to Abe's chest—

"We wouldn't want that,"

Sheila's eyes fluttered open. Although she couldn't see anything, she felt her knife stuck mid-air. 

Sheila backed away, searching for the mana of the person who stopped her. But she couldn't—how?

"Don't tell me . . ."

"That's right," the voice gradually sounded familiar. "You thought I wasn't that affectionate enough to even guard the vice – captain's quarters, huh? Aren't you underestimating me, Priestess? I'm hurt!"

Sheila gritted her teeth. How can she have this misstep?

"You, who hold no regard to anyone, is now guarding the most pa.s.sive person in this entire castle?" Sheila spat.

"My~ you're not hiding it at all, aren't you?"

Sheila held her staff firmly.

"Why are you guarding the one you hated the most," Sheila exclaimed, "Lorenz Schmidt!"

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